OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of cilazapril on endothelial cell function and fibrinolysis system in the canine atrial fibrillation (AF) models.

METHODS
All canines were divided into three groups: (1) Control group, without atrial pacing; (2) Atrial pacing group, in which atrial fibrillation was established by rapid atrial pacing at 400 bpm for 6 weeks; (3) Atrial pacing together with cilazapril group, in which cilazapril was given before and after atrial pacing. Nitric oxide (NO) of atrial endocardium was measured with NO-specific microelectrode. The expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) protein in atrium was determined by Western Blot analysis and immunohistochemical staining. Plasma levels of von Willebrand Factor (vWF), PAI-1 and tPA were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay.

RESULTS
NO production from atrial endocardium was significantly increased in atrial pacing together with cilazapril group than atrial pacing group [(42.6 +/- 9.9) nmol/L vs (23.4 +/- 5.8) nmol/L, P < 0.05], whereas the plasma levels of vWF were decreased [(75.4 +/- 12.8)% vs (125.9 +/- 20.6)%, P < 0.05]. Compared to controls, the expression of atrium tPA protein in atrial pacing together with cilazapril group was significantly upregulated (4052 +/- 857 vs 1936 +/- 421, P < 0.05) and PAI-1 protein was downregulated (2487 +/- 542 vs 3164 +/- 827, P < 0.05). Cilazapril also significantly increased tPA antigen and decreased PAI-1 antigen in plasma.

CONCLUSION
Cilazapril can favorably improve endothelial function and resume the balance of fibrinolysis system in AF, which might be of beneficial to hypercoagulated state in AF.


The social system in Arabian Peninsula in pre Islamic era remained tribalclan with no particular form of integrated social unity in this region. It was more affected by multitude population, dominated traditions and illiteracy in terms of education and civilization. Influencing the type of the administration system over the various parts of peninsula, it rather determined the type of supremacy over the region either compatible or incompatible with social system developments. Consequently, while the tribe itself made the only social unit in some parts of the land, some developed areas experienced a great consolidation within the sort of integrated tribal form as a large social unit. This influenced the trend of administration system as well as making diversity in ruling system according to the particular social units in the region. Investigating on the types of supremacy in three major parts of Arabian Peninsula in pre Islamic era, this study accomplished by manipulating Weber's Traditional Supremacy Typology. According to the findings, there has to be three types of supremacy over the peninsula at that time: Senior supremacy, paternal supremacy and patriarchy.


A new type of chaotic generator is studied by constructing a three_segment piec ewise_linear odd function with variable breakpoint α. The characteristic of the chaotic generator presented is that when the breakpoint α varies in th e range of 0<α≤1, there is a route to chaos through period_doubling bifurcations, and the doubl e_ layer single spiral, single_layer single spiral, double_layer double spiral and single_layer double spiral chaotic attractors can be generated. In particular, the double-layer single spiral and double-layer double spiral are found in our circuit experiment for the first time so far as we know. The b ifurca tion diagram, Lyap unov exponents λ_1,λ_2,λ_3, maximal Lyapunov exponent λ_maxand the spectrum of the single_layer double spiral and double-layer double spiral are also investigated. The associated electronic circuit is designed and the experimental result is given, which is ver ified by computer simulation and circuit experiment.


The path integral Monte Carlo simulated quantum annealing algorithm is applied to the optimization of a large hard instance of the random satisfiability problem (N = 10,000). The dynamical behavior of the quantum and the classical annealing are compared, showing important qualitative differences in the way of exploring the complex energy landscape of the combinatorial optimization problem. At variance with the results obtained for the Ising spin glass and for the traveling salesman problem, in the present case the linear-schedule quantum annealing performance is definitely worse than classical annealing. Nevertheless, a quantum cooling protocol based on field-cycling and able to outperform standard classical simulated annealing over short time scales is introduced.


The 2017 Warrior Games were held this past summer in Chicago, Illinois. Approximately 265 wounded, ill and injured service personnel and veterans represented all the braches of service. Competitors from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) participated in the games. Also joining the competition were athletes from the United Kingdom Armed Forces and the Australian Defense Force. Subscribe to PALAESTRA


This chapter explores the difference that minority government makes when compared to coalition government, focusing primarily on the relationship between the Scottish Parliament and Government. Chapter 1 demonstrates that the Parliament does not have the resources to do much more than perform a traditional parliamentary role, monitoring government departments and scrutinising legislation proposed by the Scottish Government. Chapter 2 identifies the continued importance of political parties and the government-versus-opposition culture inherited from Westminster. This chapter builds on these insights to show that the image of a 'consensus democracy' (Lijphart, 1999) is often misleading in Scotland. The first eight years of devolution were marked by a form of majoritarian (coalition) government that would not seem out of place in the UK. Labour and the Liberal Democrats formed a governing majority able, through a strong party whip, to command a majority in plenary and all committees. They used that power to pursue a demanding legislative programme, demonstrating that the government produces the vast majority of legislation and that the Parliament struggles to do more than scrutinise policy in these circumstances. The only significant 'brake' to that process was the negotiation required between the coalition parties within government. However, even then, the production of successive 'partnership


Increasingly, finance for water supplies is being disbursed by inviting private businesses and NGOs to tender a bid for the contract. This new situation raises all kinds of questions, including: will the competition between NGOs and private businesses be fair? Do NGOs and local businesses know what is involved in bidding for a contract? What expertise does local government need to supervise this process?


This research provides an empirical overview of articles and authors referring to research on wine tourism, analyzed from 2000 to 2021, and what they contribute to deepening the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 8. The articles were examined through a bibliometric approach based on data from 199 records stored in the Web of Science (JCR), applying traditional bibliometric laws, and using VOSviewer for data processing and metadata. The results highlight an exponential increase in scientific production without interruptions between 2005 and 2020, with a concentration in only 35 highly cited authors, where the hegemony is held by Australia, among the co-authorship networks of worldwide relevance. The main topics observed in the literature are local development through wine tourism, sustainability and nature conservation, and strategies for sustainable development. Finally, there are six articles with great worldwide influence in wine tourism studies that maintain in their entirety the contribution made by researchers affiliated with Australian universities.


Fluid geochemistry is a useful method to analyse lateral and vertical processes and trends in a geothermalsystem, just like a blood and urine analysis to determine the functions of internal organs in human body. Fluidsgeochemistry study in Kendalisodo Geothermal Prospect has conducted to get information about type andcharacteristics of fluids, to predict reservoir temperature, and sub surface hidrogeochemical cycle model.From fluids geochemistry analysis, the most significant constituent is HCO3, and thus all fluids classified intobicarbonate water. Based on gethermometry analysis, the average reservoir temperature calculated is about175oC and classified into medium enthalpy system.


This study evaluated the mechanical properties and microstructure, in various metallurgical conditions, of an alloy meeting the requirements of the ASTM Specification for Cast Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum Alloy for SurgicalImplant Applications (F 75-82). Standard mechanical property analyses such as tensile and yield strength, percentage of elongation, and rotating-beam fatigue tests were performed. The materials were tested in the as-cast, as-cast plus solution-annealed, as-cast plus hot-isostatic-pressed (HIP) plus solution-annealed, and as-cast plus HIP plus sintered conditions. Chemical analyses of the test specimens were reviewed to determine the extent of the correlation between mechanical properties and certain elements within the alloy, as has been suggested by other authors. No effect on ultimate tensile strength was observed with a reduction of carbon content from 0.30 to 0.24%, but a reduction of the yield strength and a corresponding increase in ductility were observed. The as-sintered surface appeared to reduce the fatigue properties of the test specimens. A direct correlation between the fatigue properties, static mechanical properties, and microstructure was not established.


The "Introduction" sets out the origin of the issue, its themes, and its strategy of pairing American and British scholars. It introduces the themes of the essays on literature, performance—particularly in New Orleans—and heritage and tourism. Suggesting that these essays take seriously Paul Gilroy's "The Black Atlantic," we also argue that we are extending his argument to look at new themes and forms of cultural production.


AIM
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the diabetes outpatient intensive management programme (DOIMP) on glycaemic control over a 12 week follow-up period for type 2 diabetic patients in Korea.

BACKGROUND
Diabetic complications can be prevented if the glycaemic status of diabetes patients is maintained within a nearly normal range. Patient education is critical in controlling blood glucose levels of patients with diabetes within the optimal range.

METHODS
DOIMP was composed of multidisciplinary education, complication monitoring and telephone counselling. Twenty-five patients in the intervention group participated in the DOIMP and 24 patients in the control group were briefed on the conventional description of diabetes mellitus by diabetes education nurses.

RESULTS
Patients in the intervention group had a mean decrease of 2.3%, which those in the control group having a mean decrease 0.4% in glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA(1)c). There was no difference between the two groups in the change in fasting blood glucose (FBG) and two-hour postprandial blood glucose (2-h PBG). The proportion of the patients with HbA(1)c <7% was higher in the intervention group than in the control group at the post-test compare with the pretest.

CONCLUSION
DOIMP can reduce HbA(1)c in type 2 diabetes patients.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
These findings indicated that DOIMP could be effective in glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes patients.


To reuse the enormous amounts of biomedical data available on the Web, there is an urgent need for good quality metadata. This is extremely important to ensure that data is maximally Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) allow users to specify metadata in the form of textual key: value pairs (e.g. sex: female). However, since there is no structured vocabulary or format available, the 44,000,000+ key: value pairs suffer from numerous quality issues. Using domain experts for the curation is not only time consuming but also unscalable. Thus, in our approach, MetaCrowd, we apply crowdsourcing as a means for GEO metadata quality assessment. Our results show crowdsourcing is a reliable and feasible way to identify similar as well as erroneous metadata in GEO. This is extremely useful for data consumers and producers for curating and providing good quality metadata.


Bank executives will stay within the course of caution for 2003. The potent mix of war threat, slow economy, and a malingering hangover of corporate scandals will each do its part to keep free-spending IT visionaries on the sidelines. Yet while the down market limits upgrade cycles in areas like personal computers for the office, other kinds of applications or infrastructure components with clear return on investment will get purchased. Data from Gartner, Inc., Stamford, Conn., based on a poll of 800 CIO level executives, indicates that in hard dollars, the increase in capital expense will be offset by a very slight decline in operating expense. In terms of what soft indicators say, however, 2003 may be the pivot upon which IT spending, and by extension, the economy turns around. "A quick gauge that we do called spending attention' scans indicate a renewed interest in development for the first time in two years." Barbara Gomolski, research director business management of IT, from Gartner's Fallbrook, Calif., office. Describing clients as more psychologically inclined to embrace some development if not exactly ready to sign their checkbooks. Gomolsky notes: "Our IT Spending and Demand survey indicated they are four times more likely to put some small percentage of the budget to development by late in 2003 as compared to a year ago. Rational infrastructure Many write-ups about budgets for 2003 have pointed to the schizophrenic nature of the budgetary outlook. And there's some truth to that observation. Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., for instance, has said (based on polls taken in June) that financial services companies would spend more on IT than firms of comparable scope in other segments throughout 2002 into 2003. The researcher says, as an example, that banks, brokerages, and insurance companies will spend more aggressively than non-financial counterparts on network storage (32% vs. 17%) as well as laying out more on server hardware (84% vs. 74%). At the same time, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, New York City, caught the attention of the trade pubs this fall when it proclaimed that for the first time in a decade, a "significant number of the world's financial services organizations have projected zero growth or even negative compound annual growth rates for IT expenditures." Perhaps, though, the truth about IT budgets is a little more complicated than a mere mixed bag--or ink-blot test. An underlying thread of a trend here has to do with a gradual move to make capital expenditures to improve efficiencies. That is, money will be spent if it can be shown to rationalize the architecture: make it more uniform, or at least less complex, more automated so that fewer administrators can manage more devices and applications. One indicator of this resides in that Cap Gemini report, which noted that over the past year, cost savings, efficiency, availability and market share, and meeting customer requirements were all the chief motivators behind any e-commerce related decisions that did become a line item on a given bank's budget. Eric Berg, managing director of IT research reports at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Culver City, Calif., notes that his group doesn't assess end-user demand directly in the way that Meridien IDC or DataMonitor might. Still, conversations with vendors indicate some pockets of demand in line with the rationalizing thesis. "Grid technology will be well received in some sectors because it offers the potential to reduce infrastructure costs and make infrastructure easier to manage," Berg explains. (For more on grid, see ABA Banking Journal, Dec. p.43). Berg also sees interest in a newer approach embraced by technology firms like IBM, which is pre-installed excess capacity. …


Abstract. A new module has been implemented in the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) Model that simulates cloud related processes on a much smaller grid. This so called superparametrisation acts as a replacement for the convection parametrisation and large-scale cloud scheme. The concept of embedding an ensemble of cloud resolving models (CRMs) inside of each grid box of a general circulation model leads to an explicit representation of cloud dynamics. The new model component is evaluated against observations and the conventional usage of EMAC using a convection parametrisation. In particular, effects of applying different configurations of the superparametrisation are analyzed in a systematical way. Consequences of changing the CRMs orientation, cell size and number of cells range from regional differences in cloud amount up to global impacts on precipitation distribution and its variability. For some edge case setups the analysed climate state of superparametrised simulations even deteriorates from the mean observed energy budget. In the current model configuration different climate regimes can be formed that are mainly driven by some of the parameters of the CRM. Presently, the simulated cloud cover is at the lower edge of the CMIP5 model ensemble indicating that the hydrological overturning is too efficient. However, certain "tuning" of the current model configuration could improve the currently underestimated cloud cover, which will result in a shift of the climate. The simulation results show that especially tropical precipitation is better represented with the superparamerisation in the EMAC model configuration. Furthermore, the diurnal cycle of precipitation is heavily affected by the choice of the CRM parameters. However, despite an improvement of the representation of the continental diurnal cycle in some configurations, other parameter choices result in a deterioration compared to the reference simulation using a conventional convection parameterisation. The ability of the superparametrisation to represent latent and sensible heat flux climatology is dependent on the chosen CRM setup. Further interactions of the planetary boundary layer and the free troposphere can significantly influence cloud development on the large-scale. Therefore a careful selection of the CRM setup is recommended to compensate for computational expenses.


Two solutions for UHF RFID tags for soil moisture sensing were designed and are described in this paper. In the first, two conventional tags (standard transponders) are employed: one, placed close to the soil surface, is the sensor tag, while the other, separated from the soil, is the reference for system calibration. By transmission power ramps, the tag's turn-on power levels are measured and correlated with soil condition (dry or wet). In the second solution, the SL900A chip, which supports up to two external sensors and an internal temperature sensor, is used. An interdigital capacitive sensor was connected to the transponder chip and used for soil moisture measurement. In a novel design for an UHF RFID tag the sensor is placed below the soil surface, while the transponder and antenna are above the soil to improve communication. Both solutions are evaluated practically and results show the presence of water in soil can be remotely detected allowing for their application in landslide monitoring.


The author reviews the use of public domain TCAD tools (SUPREM and PISCES) for advanced bipolar process development. The simulators are utilized for device design and optimization, sensitivity analysis, and AC and DC parameter extraction. The various bipolar parameters that can be obtained from simulation are discussed. PISCES has been enhanced to model Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x/ heterojunction bipolar device structures. Some preliminary simulations of SiGe structures are presented.<<ETX>>


This in vivo study presents the preliminary results of the use of a novel piezoelectric actuator for orthopedic application. The innovative use of the converse piezoelectric effect to mechanically stimulate bone was achieved with polyvinylidene fluoride actuators implanted in osteotomy cuts in sheep femur and tibia. The biological response around the osteotomies was assessed through histology and histomorphometry in nondecalcified sections and histochemistry and immunohistochemistry in decalcified sections, namely, through Masson's trichrome, and labeling of osteopontin, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase. After one-month implantation, total bone area and new bone area were significantly higher around actuators when compared to static controls. Bone deposition rate was also significantly higher in the mechanically stimulated areas. In these areas, osteopontin increased expression was observed. The present in vivo study suggests that piezoelectric materials and the converse piezoelectric effect may be used to effectively stimulate bone growth.


[Co/Ni] N and [Co/Pt] N multilayers are ideal perpendicular magnetic anisotropy materials due to their high spin polarization. There are strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy(PMA) energy between Co and Ni or Pt layer, and if the energy is strong enough to overcome the demagnetizing effect the easy magnetization axis can be perpendicular to the film[1-3]. Perpendicularly magnetized spin valve structure can be prepared by these properties and it has significant implication in high density magnetoresistive random access memory(MRAM) and other aspects[4]. In this work, a perpendicularly magnetized spin valve structure was developed, consisted the ferromagnetic [Co/ Ni] and [Co/Pt] multilayers and separated by a Au spacer. The magnetoresistance(MR) of the samples with the thickness of Au and the layer repetition number of N was studied.


Characterizing the resistances to O2 transport from the erythrocyte to the mitochondrion is important in understanding potential transport limitations. A steady-state model of this process was developed to predict the minimum (critical) end-capillary PO2 required to prevent hypoxia at maximal O2 consumption (VO2max) in a circular region of tissue surrounding the venular end of a capillary. Capillary density was used as a measure of O2 delivery, and mitochondrial density was used as a measure of O2 consumption. The effects of oxyhemoglobin dissociation kinetics and diffusion facilitation by hemoglobin in the erythrocytes and facilitation by myoglobin in the tissue were taken into account. Calculations made for selected skeletal muscles, diaphragm, and myocardium in three adaptive animal pairs (dog and goat, horse and cow, and pony and calf) yielded values of end-capillary PO2 that were consistent with measured values of mixed venous PO2 in maximally working animals. Values of end-capillary PO2 were found to be uncorrelated with values of VO2max in different muscles. No significant difference in end-capillary PO2 was found between similar muscles of athletic versus nonathletic animals. Predicted intracapillary O2 transport resistance ranged from 18 to 54% of the total transport resistance in the O2 pathway. Further investigation is required to explore the extent to which spatial and temporal heterogeneities in O2 delivery and consumption play a role in O2 transport.


tainment of a form normal in relation to the dominant head region. In connection with this inhibitory effect a tissue mass which occupies an abnormal space relation to the dominant head region may undergo a regulatory reduction or "adsorption." The degree of effectiveness, at any given region, of the head-localized formative agencies depends in some way upon the space relations existing between that region and the head. Experimental data strengthening and extending these conclusions will be reported in further papers. 1 Rand, Herbert W., 1900. "The Regulation of Graft Abnormalities in Hydra," Arch. Entwickelungsmech., 9, 161-214, pl. 5-7. 2 Rand, Herbert W., 191 1. "The Problem of Form in Hydra," Science, N. S., 33, p. 391. 3 Browne, E. N., 1909. "The Production of New Hydranths in Hydra by the Insertion of Small Grafts," J. Exper. Zool., 7, 1-24, 66 figs. 4 Peebles, Florence, 1897. "Experimental Studies on Hydra," Arch. Entwickelungsmech., 5, 794-819, 34 figs.


A thin-film resistor out of Ni(80%)Cr(20%) for integration in a standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process with a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) below 10 ppm/K was realized by applying a thin Ti layer underneath. The Ti-layer thickness and the temperature and duration of furnace annealing after deposition were optimized in different experiments. The combination of 5-nm Ti + 10-nm NiCr and a 30-min heat treatment at 350degC in a forming gas ambient was found to yield a sheet resistance of about 140 Omega/sq and a TCR of below 10 ppm/K. The long-term drift of the sheet resistance after 1000 h at 200degC was about 0.3%. A transmission electron microscopy analysis was conducted to investigate the structure of the film and a possible change during annealing. An Auger analysis was conducted for film surface analysis.


In 2015 the world experienced the largest refugee crises of modern history. This thesis aims to study Angela Merkel's approach to it 2015-2017 according to four themes: a) division of refugees within the European Union; b) security for German citizens and refugees; c) combat of reasons for refugees to escape; d) economical dimensions. These themes are studied by using idea, argument and comparative analysis.
Merkel's approach has simultaneously been both altered and unchanged during the three years. She stresses the importance of cooperation and equal contribution of the Member States concerning the division of refugees. She shows a strong belief in the constitutional state protecting Germans and refugees. Merkel's stance changes from wanting a humane reception of refugees in 2015, safe roads to Europe in 2016, and reasonable lives for immigrants near their home countries in 2017. Merkel enunciates that there needs to be an international cooperation in the fight against escape causes. She makes clear that Germany has a strong economy and phrases in 2015 that the workforce is needed, in 2016, however, the migration flow must be reduced, and in 2017 she states that Germany must support the countries receiving huge amounts of immigrants, by supporting their economical development.


The development of highly efficient technologies in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, as well as new technologies in agriculture has led to an "information explosion" in plant biology and crop production, including potato production. Only a small part of the information reaches formalized databases (for example, Uniprot, NCBI Gene, BioGRID, IntAct, etc.). One of the main sources of reliable biological data is the scientific literature. The well-known PubMed database contains more than 18 thousand abstracts of articles on potato. The effective use of knowledge presented in such a number of non-formalized documents in natural language requires the use of modern intellectual methods of analysis. However, in the literature, there is no evidence of a widespread use of intelligent methods for automatically extracting knowledge from scientific publications on cultures such as potatoes. Earlier we developed the SOLANUM TUBEROSUM knowledge base (http://www-bionet.sysbio.cytogen. ru/and/plant/). Integrated into the knowledge base information about the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying the selection of significant traits helps to accelerate the identification of candidate genes for the breeding characteristics of potatoes and the development of diagnostic markers for breeding. The article searches for new potential participants of the molecular genetic mechanisms of resistance to adverse factors in plants. Prioritizing candidate genes has shown that the PHYA, GF14, CNIH1, RCI1A, ABI5, CPK1, RGS1, NHL3, GRF8, and CYP21-4 genes are the most promising for further testing of their relationships with resistance to adverse factors. As a result of the analysis, it was shown that the molecular genetic relationships responsible for the formation of significant agricultural traits are complex and include many direct and indirect interactions. The construction of associative gene networks and their analysis using the SOLANUM TUBEROSUM knowledge base is the basis for searching for target genes for targeted mutagenesis and marker-oriented selection of potato varieties with valuable agricultural characteristics.


We present two spatial-shaping approaches - phase and amplitude - for creating two-dimensional optical dipole potentials for ultracold neutral atoms. When combined with an attractive or repulsive Gaussian sheet formed by an astigmatically focused beam, atoms are trapped in three dimensions resulting in planar confinement with an arbitrary network of potentials - a free-space atom chip. The first approach utilizes an adaptation of the generalized phase-contrast technique to convert a phase structure embedded in a beam after traversing a phase mask, to an identical intensity profile in the image plane. Phase masks, and a requisite phase-contrast filter, can be chemically etched into optical material (e.g., fused silica) or implemented with spatial light modulators; etching provides the highest quality while spatial light modulators enable prototyping and realtime structure modification. This approach was demonstrated on an ensemble of thermal atoms. Amplitude shaping is possible when the potential structure is made as an opaque mask in the path of a dipole trap beam, followed by imaging the shadow onto the plane of the atoms. While much more lossy, this very simple and inexpensive approach can produce dipole potentials suitable for containing degenerate gases. High-quality amplitude masks can be produced with standard photolithography techniques. Amplitude shaping was demonstrated on a Bose-Einstein condensate.


The use of immortalized and primary cell cultures to study the proximal tubule (PT) has significantly enhanced our understanding of how this nephron segment functions under normal and diseased conditions. The recent publication in JASN of a transcriptomic comparison of 14 available PT cell models from six species provides a great opportunity to have a thoughtful discussion about best practices in model selection, experimental design, and interpretation of studies involving cell lines. In their letter to the editor, Devuyst and colleagues compare primary mouse PT cultures (mPTCs) to commonly used human, porcine, and opossum cell lines (HK-2, LLCPK1, and OK cells, respectively). On the basis of their assessment of endocytic protein abundance, albumin uptake, and proliferation index, they conclude that "compared with mPTCs, immortalized cell lines displayed considerably lower levels of endosomal/lysosomal... and PT differentiation markers, contrasting with increased levels of regulatory proteins involved in proliferation and cell cycle" and suggest "a set of biologic features, addressing the interplay between proliferation and differentiation, may help identifying physiologically relevant PT cell systems." We agree completely that a more comprehensive checklist of how well individual PT cell models recapitulate cell function is warranted. However, we have concerns about the interpretation of the data provided to support the pre-eminence of mPTCs over immortalized cell lines as more differentiated and endocytically active. The authors' implication that immortalizedPT cells uniformly fail to elaborate a functional apical endocytic machinery is both contrary to what is generally appreciated in the field and to the conclusions of Khundmiri et al. on the basis of their transcriptional profiling. The authors use immunoblotting to quantitatively compare protein levels from cell lines of different species (mouse, human, pig, opossum), using antibodies that were not validated to target conserved regions within the proteins examinedwith equivalent affinity. As one example, Lamp1 antibodies are notoriously species selective, and it is no surprise that anti-mouse Lamp1 antibody does not recognize Lamp1 in the other cell lines. Moreover, the expression of Rab proteins does not generally correlate with endocytic activity. For example, we find only a small difference in Rab11a protein and mRNA expression between partially and fully differentiated OK cells, despite a dramatic elaboration of apical endocytic compartments and a five-fold enhancement in endocytic uptake in the latter. In the absence of antibodies that recognize all species identically, we have found that droplet digital PCRprovides a straightforwardway to quantitatively compare transcript levels of proteins in different species, and demonstrate that megalin and cubilin transcripts in OK cells are expressed at levels comparable to those in mouse kidney cortex. AlthoughmRNAdata do not necessarily translate to protein levels, the ratios of megalin to cubilin mRNA and protein expression in microdissected rat nephron PT segments correlate quite well. A second concern is the apparent absence of albumin uptake in LLC-PK1 and OK cells, which have been used for decades to study PT endocytic function. The lack of surface-bound and intracellular albumin likely reflects the experimental design, in which albumin was prebound to the cell surface on ice, then removed, and the cells warmed for 20minutes. This approach significantly underestimates endocytic capacity in well-differentiated cells, where, as in native PT, a large fraction of majority of megalin and cubilin receptors are localized intracellularly at a steady state. Moreover, albumin dissociates rapidly from the cell surface after infinite dilution, further limiting the efficiency of endocytosis. In our study, OK cells internalize over 100-foldmore albumin during a 15 minute incubation at 37 C than binds on ice. In the mPTCs depicted, surface-bound albumin is not apparently distributed to the apical domain, and thus receptors other than megalin and cubilin may also contribute to the robust binding uptake observed in these cells. Finally, the bromodeoxyuridine staining used to argue that the proliferation/differentiation balance in mPTCs is more tilted toward differentiation than the other lines appears to have be made using cells at different confluencies. Although HK-2 cells are difficult to culture to confluency, OK and LLC-PK1 cells readily form differentiated confluent monolayers that exhibit contact inhibition. Just as rodent animal models fail to fully recapitulate human kidney physiology, there is no single PT cell line that perfectly replicates in vivo function. In addition to the transcriptomic analysis already available, a comprehensive comparison of PT cell models should be expanded to includemorphologic specializations, ion transport function, endocytic capacity, and metabolic considerations. We and others have also observed that specific culture conditions can contribute significantly to these outcomes. For example, megalin and cubilin expression and albumin uptake by many PT cell lines is increased by culture on permeable supports and by exposure Published online ahead of print. Publication date available at www.jasn.org.


Asked to define the meaning of linguistics, a large number of linguists will presumably qualify their discipline as "the scientific study of language," thereby following Crystal's (1985: 9) definition. This can be explained by the relatively strong focus on quantitative empirical research which has shaped most of the discipline in the past few decades (cf. e.g. Meyer 2009b, 212; Gries 2015, 725). However, this has not always been the case – as is reflected in Leisi's (1981) distinction between what he calls "traditional" and "modern" linguistics, with the former using qualitative philological methods and understanding itself as part of the humanities, whereas the latter is regarded as closer to the natural sciences, with a preference for quantification. Crystal (1985, 143) goes even so far as to postulate a great "psychological gap between linguistics and philology" and assumes that members of one of the two disciplines "would get very emotional" if they were mistakenly referred to as members of the other. This split characterisation of the discipline of linguistics can be explained by the fact that linguistics does not fit neatly into the distinction between the natural sciences and the humanities: while e.g. the physiological organisms which form the basis for language production can be studied with scientific methods, the communicative function of language concerns social aspects (Bartsch and Vennemann 1973, 1516), which may profitably be analysed using other types of approach. What most of the currently used approaches in linguistics have in common is the observation of real-world data in order to describe actual language use: since "the predominance of generative linguistics, with its stance that experimental or observational evidence for one's judgments is not really required, has waned" (Gries 2015, 725), most current research in linguistics is based on observable empirical evidence (Meyer 2009b, 212), no matter whether it is of the quantitative or the qualitative type. This suggests at least a certain degree of closeness in line of thought. What distinguishes the two approaches, therefore, are their aims on the next level of specificity as well as their methods. The discussion of the dichotomy QUANTITATIVE vs. QUALITATIVE has a long tradition and can be traced back to Aristotle (Neuenschwander 2003, 3-4). Interestingly, there is an asymmetry in the associations that the two dichotomous concepts evoke: while the adjective quantitative neutrally expresses "relatedness to the measurement of amount, size etc.," which is countered by one of the meanings of the word qualitative (as a neutral way of designating the possession of a particular feature), the adjective qualitative also has another, markedly positive meaning, namely "excellence of standard or level" (www.oxforddictionaries.com). This explains why quality is usually associated with the ideas 'warm,' 'humane,' 'holistic' and 'concrete,' whereas quantity or quantification rather evoke 'cold,' 'technocratic,' 'isolating,' 'reductionist' and


[Purpose]Toe pressure strength when standing was measured, and the reliability and validity of this value were examined. [Subjects and Methods] Measurement was performed in 78 care-dependent elderly people (age:82±7) using outpatient rehabilitation services. In addition to their toe pressure strength when standing, various body functions were measured. [Results]The pressure strengths of toes on left and right feet when standing were ICC=0.78 (95% CI:0.67 to 0.85) and 0.85 (0.77 to 0.90), respectively. The validity of these values were confirmed by calculating correlation coefficients. In both cases, there were significant correlations with the hand grip strength, knee extensor strength, ankle plantar flexor strength, ankle dorsiflexor strength, and skeletal muscle mass. The total toe pressure strength when standing was also significantly correlated with these parameters. [Conclusions]The toe pressure strength when standing was sufficiently reliable on both sides. The results also support its applicability as a muscle strength index for the caredependent elderly.


A case is described of rarely observed hemolytic microangiopathic anaemia associated with gastric and renal cancer. It is stressed that the diagnosis of this anaemia should be for the doctor an indication for searching for the cause of primary disease in which damage to the small blood vessels develops.


Critical discussion of Anna Maria Ortese's controversial 1953 book on Naples, focused especially on the first story Un paio di occhiali and Ortese's parodoxical poetics of myopia. The article looks at the book in the context of the Neapolitan modern narrative tradition, seeking to explain its ambivalent reception by Neapolitan intellectuals, and why Italo Calvino was instead one of Ortese's earliest supporters and admirers.


Low cost, reliable and durable solutions are required in all industries. In automotive industry, BLDC (Brushless Direct Current) motors are widely used due to its advantages over brushed DC motors, which also brings more complex commutation schemes and increased development cost.Despite the fact, BLDC motors require low maintenance and provide reliable results in compare with brushed DC motors, the cost of development of control stage and required hardware topology has been a competence area. The requirements of the application tailor the required hardware topology and control strategy. In this thesis, BLDC motor commutation control hardware topologies to implement a BLDC motor based air throttle control circuit, power dissipation and EMC considerations are addressed.BLDC motor control of a throttle were chosen as a test case due to Scania requirements. An air throttle adjusts the air intake going to a combustion engine, thus directly e ecting the performance. The better controlling the throttle means, providing reliable results with lower consumption of energy. The throttle chosen is an intelligent self positioning unit being bought from a sub-supplier and Scania steers the control by means of an angle position reference sent via CAN (Controller Area Network) bus. The sub-supplier solution results in lack of exibility in software and hardware implementation and lacking possible customization improvements.A customized hardware solution was implemented to question whether a custom hardware implementation and a control strategy planned by Scania can resolve in less power consumption. In addition, what is required to make the throttle unit better should be reected. For this purpose,a customized commutation control circuit was built and a benchmarking in compare with the original sub-supplier solution were done to enable comparison and discussion on possible improvements.One unit of sub-supplier and one unit of customized hardware were benchmarked with respect to heat dissipation, current consumption at the time angle is settled and EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). The results showed that the given Scania control strategy may yield in decreased current consumption, thus reduced heat dissipation.Despite the fact the results are prospective, from a scientic point of view, a comprehensive long term benchmarking should be done with multiple units. The outcomes of this project are a hardware platform which can be used as a development platform to further enable comparison and development, partially proven Scania control strategy to reduce dissipation and enabling cumulative future work in form of diagnostics.


From the foundation of the American Republic, presidents have had to deal with both internal and external national security threats. From President Washington and his policy of neutrality during the wars between Great Britain and France in the eighteenth century, to President Lincoln and the war to save the union, to President Wilson during the war to end all wars, to President Roosevelt and war of the Greatest Generation, to President Truman and his steel during the forgotten war, and most recently to President Bush and the War on Terror, presidents have had to use their power as commander-in-chief to meet the challenges of national crisis and war. The judiciary, specifically the Supreme Court, has also played an integral part in the historical development and defining of the commander-in-chief power in times of war and national crisis from the earliest days of the republic. How these powers have grown is a consequence of how the presidents have viewed the office of the presidency and how the judiciary has interpreted the commander-in-chief and executive power clauses of the U.S. Constitution over time.Supreme Court Jurisprudence in Times of National Crisis, Terrorism, and War provides a chronological review of the major national security and war events in American history. This book reviews the great debates between Hamilton and Madison and Chief Justice Roger Taney and Attorney General Edward Bates on presidential executive power and how subsequent presidents have adopted the Hamiltonian view of the presidency. This book also examines how Article III courts, specifically the Supreme Court, have defined, expanded, and established boundaries on the commander-in-chief power. With this historical backdrop, this book reveals how, for over two centuries, the judiciary has defended the rule of law and maintained the principle that under the U.S. Constitution neither the guns of war nor threats to safety have silenced the rule of law.


Abstract The paper describes avian tuberculosis in a captive bred cassowary. A two-and-a-half-year-old bird was obtained by a Polish zoo in 2010 from the Netherlands under conditions compliant with the recommendations of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Despite being of small size for the age, the bird appeared healthy and showed no signs of the disease until the day when it was found recumbent in its pen. Later on it was euthanised due to lack of treatment possibilities. Pathological changes typical of avian tuberculosis were found in the liver and spleen. Mycobacterium avium ssp. avium was cultured from both organs.


Recycling of acid from aqueous waste streams is crucial not only from the environmental point of view but also for maturing the feasible method (diffusion dialysis). Anion exchange membrane (AEM)–based diffusion dialysis process is one of the beneficial ways to recover acid from aqueous waste streams. In this article, the synthesis of a series of brominated poly (2, 6–dimethyl-1, 4–phenylene oxide) (BPPO)-based anion exchange membranes (AEMs) through quaternization with triphenylphosphine (TPP) were reported for acid recovery via diffusion dialysis process. The successful synthesis of the prepared membranes was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The as-synthesized anion exchange membranes represented water uptake (WR) of 44 to 66%, ion exchange capacity of (IEC) of 1.22 to 1.86 mmol/g, and linear swelling ratio (LSR) of 8 to 20%. They exhibited excellent thermal, mechanical, and acid stability. They showed homogeneous morphology. The acid recovery performance of the synthesized AEMs was investigated in a two compartment stack using simulated mixture of HCl and FeCl2 as feed solution at room temperature. For the synthesized anion exchange membranes TPP–43 to TPP–100, the diffusion dialysis coefficient of acid (UH+) was in the range of 6.7 to 26.3 (10−3 m/h) whereas separation factor (S) was in the range of 27 to 49 at 25 °C. Obtained results revealed that diffusion dialysis performance of the synthesized AEMs was higher than the commercial membrane DF–120B (UH+ = 0.004 m/h, S = 24.3) at room temperature. It showed that the prepared AEMs here could be excellent candidates for the diffusion dialysis process.


Anaplastic small cell (oat cell) carcinoma is a neoplasm commonly arising in the lungs. However, it may also occur, though rarely, in the larynx. A series of 43 cases is presented (ten cases from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, eight from the Department of Otolaryngology of the Padua University, and 25 from the literature). The tumor often presents in the sixth and seventh decades of life and appears to be highly aggressive, and metastases develop early. The most common presenting symptom is hoarseness. As in pulmonary small cell carcinoma, prognosis is poor and does not seem to depend upon therapeutic modalities, tumor location or the extent of initial local disease. The tumor seems to derive from the Kulchitsky cell present not only in the bronchial mucosa but also in the laryngeal lining. Like pulmonary anaplastic small cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma of the larynx should be treated with systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The association of small cell carcinoma with squamous carcinoma of the larynx is also reported and problems connected with the histogenesis of this mixed tumor are discussed.


A comb-like liquid crystal polymer is stretched and quenched after a certain time in the nematic phase. The conformation of the deformed chain is determined using small angle neutron scattering (SANS) as a function of the temperature of stretching, the stretching ratio and the duration of the relaxation. The scattering data are well fitted to junction affine and phantom network models. Some data are even well fitted by a totally affine model that we call «pseudo affine» because the only parameter, the stretching ratio, is found to be well below the macroscopic stretching ratio. The latter result, never encountered with amorphous polymers, is attributed to the cooperative effects of the nematic phase. We also note that the form factors of the chain in the underformed sample remain similar in the isotropic, nematic and glassy state; they correspond to a Gaussian chain. The same samples were studied by wide angle X-ray scattering. On one hand, the orientation of the mesogenic groups is found to be parallel or perpendicular to the stretching direction depending on the stretching temperature. This result is discussed as a function of the presence of smectic fluctuations. On the other hand, longer relaxations at constant elongation ratio do not lead to a disorganization of the mesogenic group orientation whereas the polymer chains are partly relaxed


Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are being discharged into the environment and to agricultural fields, with unknown impacts on crop species. In this paper, we review the literature on ENMs uptake, translocation/distribution, and generational transmission in various crop species, as well as potential material trophic transfer. Previous studies reveal that ENM-exposed crops exhibit adaptive processes in response to stress, including endocytosis/endosome activities, production of antioxidant enzymes, regulation of genes related to cell division/extension and membrane transport. Some agronomic traits of crops are compromised during the adaption response, including photosynthesis, fruit yields, nutritional quality and nitrogen fixation. Cultivation of crops in ENMs-contaminated environments has unknown implications for food safety and quality. Notably, mechanisms underlying ENMs phytotoxicity and bioavailability are unclear. Additional investigations focused on developing novel techniques for in vivo identification/characterization of ENMs are critically needed. Given the abundance of uncertainty in the literature, it is clear that more research is urgently needed in the area of ENMs-crop interactions; only then can one accurately assess exposure, risk, and overall implications for food safety and also enable guidance development for the sustainable implementation of nanotechnology in agriculture and food production/manufacturing.概要研究目的通过综述作物对纳米材料的吸收途径和积累, 以及纳米材料对农作物生长和营养的影响, 为纳米污染在农业中的风险提供理论分析和启示。创新要点归纳了纳米材料被作物吸收的路径和对作物生理、 遗传、 营养各水平上产生的胁迫。重要结论当前纳米与作物的研究应集中在食品安全相关的问题上, 考虑农业实际情况和环境因素, 分析纳米材料通过食物链富集和传递的可能性, 探讨纳米材料与其他土壤有机污染物可能产生的复合污染。


This paper concerns dictionary learning, i.e., sparse coding, a fundamental representation learning problem. We show that a subgradient descent algorithm, with random initialization, can provably recover orthogonal dictionaries on a natural nonsmooth, nonconvex $\ell_1$ minimization formulation of the problem, under mild statistical assumptions on the data. This is in contrast to previous provable methods that require either expensive computation or delicate initialization schemes. Our analysis develops several tools for characterizing landscapes of nonsmooth functions, which might be of independent interest for provable training of deep networks with nonsmooth activations (e.g., ReLU), among numerous other applications. Preliminary experiments corroborate our analysis and show that our algorithm works well empirically in recovering orthogonal dictionaries.


Recent studies of hydrothermal fluid chemistry at the Axial Seamount Hydrothermal Emissions Study (ASHES) vent field of Axial Volcano indicate separation of liquid and vapor phases during the migration of fluids to the seafloor. The brine phase liquid emanates from discrete sulfide chimneys, while fluid which has been through vapor phase separation flows diffusely from fissures in the surrounding basalt. One possible mechanism to explain this spatial segregation of the fluid phases is based on the relative permeability terms in the equations of two-phase flow. A qualitative model for the distribution of fluids observed at ASHES is postulated in which brine phase fluids are confined within flow conduits by a surrounding relative permeability barrier, while vapor phase fluids flow diffusely into the surrounding host rock.


ABSTRACT Changes in land use and land cover are important in global climate change, but the many uncertainties in historical estimates seriously hamper climate modelling. We collected new data on estimated per capita land use over the last two millennia, using new data sources from the Humanities. In general, and in agreement with literature, we found that per capita land use indeed has not been constant in the past, but differ per region and over time. Land use in the distant past was mostly less than 1 ha/cap. However, the recently colonised regions show much higher values and have experienced a much higher per capita land use for the recent past. Most known trajectories follow a concave or bell-shaped curve towards the present.


We present direct numerical simulation results for both isothermal and density‐stratified turbulent flow in an open channel into and around a 120° bend with a bulk Reynolds number of 7500 and Prandtl number of 1.5. The bend is sharp with a radius‐to‐channel breadth ratio of 1.5. The bulk Richardson number for the stratified flow is 2.4 based on overall channel depth. The gradient Richardson number (Rig) varies between 10 and 20 at the entrance to θ ≈ 60°, where θ is the angular location. Above θ ≈ 60 − 120, Rig≈ 1. In isothermal flow, the well‐known helical flow structure is observed. In stratified conditions, the vertical variation in relative strength of the outward‐directed baroclinic pressure gradient and the centrifugal acceleration leads to a more complex circulation structure. In the near bed region and immediately above the interface, the centrifugal acceleration is greater, driving flow radially inward, while just below the density interface the baroclinic pressure gradient is greater, leading to outward‐directed flow. This produces a four layer circulation structure with potentially significant implications for sediment erosion and transport. Additionally, this produces a complex dynamic at the density interface where the shear orientation varies through approximately 200° over the mixing layer depth.


For domestic aircraft industry, not mass production of components is limited, small production scale of the order is made by part because many kinds of hundreds of thousands of kinds of small quantity batch production system are taking. But the high reliability and stability are required during the processing because they require high precision parts are required. It is found that when C-axis rotation speed was increased, the diameter of the cutting tool decreased with increasing surface roughness, while the turn-mail feed rate was increased with increasing the surface roughness.


In this paper, channel allocation scheme is studied for overlay wireless networks to optimize connection-level QoS. The contributions of our work are threefold. First, channel allocation scheme using both horizontal channel borrowing and vertical channel borrowing is presented and analyzed. Channel borrowing is restricted within handoff requests, and only predefined channels can be lent. When all the channels in a given cell are used, handoff requests can borrow channels from adjacent homogeneous cells. In case that the horizontal borrowing requests fail, handoff requests may also borrow channels from heterogeneous cells, if possible. Second, to further improve the system performance, other priority strategies such as channel reservation are introduced. And third, to meet the high QoS requirements of some services and increase the utilization of radio resources, certain services can be transformed between real-time services and non-real-time services as necessary. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed schemes can improve system performance.


Increasing the temperature in power electronic applications usually causes a decreasing lifetime and reliability. This study shows that packaging materials and technologies, such as silver-sintering or gold germanium solders combined with silicon-carbide devices, can easily deal with temperatures above 200 °C/392 °F. Furthermore, lifetime tests (active power cycling) with 300 devices offered more cycles to failure at 120 °C/248 °F heat sink temperature than at 40 °C/104 °F (same ΔT) for silver-sintered samples and gold-germanium solders. SAC305 and tin-lead solders were also tested for comparison but could not withstand the harsh conditions. The samples were silicon carbide diodes attached to copper-ceramic-substrates (DBCs). For testing, the devices were heated up by current to achieve a 130 K temperature swing at different coolant temperatures (250 °C/482 °F maximum temperature). The reason behind the higher lifetime at elevated temperatures is the increasing ductility over temperature. The materials capability against thermo-mechanical stress is better at higher temperatures, while creep effects are not dominating. This effect can be used especially for high temperature application with extraordinary requirements on lifetime and reliability. Analytical models based on stress strain calculations can explain this material behavior. Together with an in-situ measurement of the thermal impedance the models can predict the lifetime consumption of the application and thereby upcoming maintenance.


Accumulate evidence has implicated dopamine D2 receptor gene polymorphisms in the etiology of schizophrenia. A single nucleotide polymorphism, −141C insertion/deletion (Ins/Del) (rs1799732), in the promoter region of the dopamine D2 receptor gene has been linked to schizophrenia; however, the data are inconclusive. This study investigated whether the −141C polymorphism is associated with the risk of schizophrenia in different ethnic groups by performing a meta‐analysis. A total of 24 case–control studies examining the association between −141C Ins/Del polymorphism and schizophrenia were identified according to established inclusion criteria. Significant association was revealed between −141C Ins/Del polymorphism and schizophrenia risk in dominant genetic model (Ins/Ins + Ins/Del versus Del/Del) (odds ratio = 0.33, 95% confidence interval = 0.14–0.81, z = 2.41, P = 0.02) in Chinese Han but not in Caucasian, Japanese or India populations. Our results indicate that −141C Ins/Del polymorphism might be a susceptibility factor for schizophrenia in Chinese Han population.


Tobacco use is a major public health problem in our society. Tobacco addiction begins in adolescence and majority of smokers start using tobacco in the age group between 11-13 years. There are a number of tobacco prevention strategies targeted towards the youth such as school-based educational interventions, community-based interventions, advertising restrictions on tobacco use, youth access restrictions and public health education. The purpose of this article is to review smoking prevention educational interventions in adolescents conducted either in the school or community setting. In order to collect the materials for the study, a search of CINAHL, MEDLINE and ERIC databases was conducted for the time period 1985-2006. A total of 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. Eight out of the 15 interventions were targeted towards students in grades 6-7 which makes sense as majority of the adolescents start using tobacco in the age group 11-13 years. Nine out of 15 interventions reviewed did not use any behavioral theory. The six articles that used theory used social learning theory, community organizing theory, transactional and systems theory of environmental change and some constructs from transtheoretical model. There is need to explicitly reify behavioral theories by tobacco prevention interventions. Characteristics of the length of the intervention, personnel conducting the intervention, types of activities included in the interventions, and process evaluation results are discussed in the article. Recommendations for developing future educational interventions for preventing tobacco use in adolescents are discussed.


We report narrow-linewidth 1180-nm GaInNAs/GaAs distributed Bragg reflector lasers reaching up to ~500-mW continuous-wave output power at room temperature. The lasers employ surface gratings, which avoided the problematic regrowth and enabled a high side-mode suppression ratio over a relatively large mode-hop-free tuning range. The wavelength tuning rates of 0.1 nm/°C and 1 pm/mA were obtained by changing the mount temperature and the drive current, respectively. The lasers exhibit a narrow emission linewidth (<;250 kHz) even at high output power levels. The side-mode suppression ratio is relatively independent of the power level and remains higher than 50 dB even in the vicinity of the roll-off point. An outstanding temperature stability is provided by good carrier confinement in the GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well. A 2000 h burn-in with constant 1.5 A bias at 20 °C improved the output characteristics slightly and did not reveal any failure among the tested components.


Since diethylstilbestrol (DES)-exposed offspring are mostly asymptomatic the 1st problem is finding these patients. Maternity charts have been examined to determine if DES was taken when the patient was pregnant. New patients in the range of possible DES mothers are questioned regarding DES history. Referring physicians are sent a history of any DES exposure. Where a doubt exists colposcopic examination is made. At the 1st visit Papanicolaou (Pap) smears are taken from the cervix and vaginal walls and colposcopy is done to rule out carcinoma. Intensive colposcopy is done after admission to the hospital. General anesthesia is then used. Areas for excisional biopsies are determined and 8 or 10 excisional biopsies may be taken. Biopsy wounds may be sutured. or Monsels solution applied to stop bleeding of lesser lesions. Schillers iodine is applied to determine the extent of cauterization. All abnormal areas are cauterized. After intensive colposcopy a dilatation and curettage may be done. A 2-inch pack is placed in the vagina after application of Sultrin cream. Each piece of removed tissue is put in a separate jar and a sketch is drawn to inform the pathologist of its original site. Glandular tissue from the vagina means adenosis but from the cervix it may be a common finding. The next morning the vaginal pack is removed and the patient is discharged. 2-4 weeks later a colposcopic examination is made to ensure healing. A repeat Pap smear is made after 6 months. After 12 months the patient is reevaluated Vaginal tampons are advised at menstruation to prevent vaginal adhesions. If a carcinoma is found colposcopy is needed to determine the extent of indicated surgery or irradiation therapy. Others report doing colposcopy at shorter intervals with no therapy until changes are found. This method is advised only when follow-up is complete.


Our understanding of the dynamics of complex networked systems has increased significantly in the last two decades. However, most of our knowledge is built upon assuming pairwise relations among the system's components. This is often an oversimplification, for instance, in social interactions that occur frequently within groups. To overcome this limitation, here we study the dynamics of social contagion on hypergraphs. We develop an analytical framework and provide numerical results for arbitrary hypergraphs, which we also support with Monte Carlo simulations. Our analyses show that the model has a vast parameter space, with first- and second-order transitions, bistability, and hysteresis. Phenomenologically, we also extend the concept of latent heat to social contexts, which might help understanding oscillatory social behaviors. Our work unfolds the research line of higher-order models and the analytical treatment of hypergraphs, posing new questions and paving the way for modeling dynamical processes on higher-order structures.


Evidence-based management (EBM) has been developed as a management framework for improving the quality of decisions. To use that, we need to identify the sources of evidence and to assess the utilisation of evidence in EBM. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the utilisation of evidences and to identify predominantly used sources in EBM among nursing managers in Tabriz, north-west Iran. A facility-based descriptive cross-sectional study design was used in Tabriz hospitals. Out of 276 nursing managers eligible for the study from the Tabriz hospitals (n = 20), 205 nursing managers completed and returned the self-administered questionnaire, which indicated a response rate of 74.27 per cent. The questionnaire components included scientific and research evidence (four sources), facts and information from the hospitals (four sources), political-social development plans (three sources), the managers' professional expertise (three sources), ethical-moral evidence (three sources), and values and expectations of all stakeholders (three sources). The results showed that the average use of scientific and research evidence (58.41 ± 13.23) was less than other sources of evidence. The average use of values and expectations of all stakeholders' political-social development plans was (67.15 ± 14.78), managers' professional expertise (70.47 ± 12.49), and ethical-moral evidence (68.91 ± 11.62). In addition, hospital ownership and the participants' gender influence the use of facts and information of hospital and managers' professional expertise. The findings showed that nursing managers were more customer- and expertise-oriented in the decision-making process. From the study findings we recommend utilisation of all the sources of evidence for decision-making in a full evidence-based nursing management process.


Product Development is complex as it is time dependent and many agents participate during the development process. When comparing the efficiency of development processes - measured e.g. in development time, cost and user satisfaction – the internal factors that should be considered are management principles, physical environment, tools & methods, financial resources, organisation & work, and the people doing the work. To deepen the knowledge of product development mechanical field, two software development cases (web portals) have been studied. Case 1 was performed in 2003 in Gothenburg, Sweden according to Stage-Gate™ principles. Case 2 was also performed in Gothenburg during January and February of 2004 according to dynamic product development (DPD) principles. Both cases solved the same problem. Case 2 had more functionality than Case 1. For Case 1 Time to Sales was 30 weeks compared to 3 weeks for Case 2. For Case 1 Time to Ready Products was 30 weeks while for Case 2 it was 10 weeks. The programming time was 400 - 500 hours in the first case while it was 250 hours in the second case. Thus DPD showed to be as advantageous for software development as it has been shown to be for the development of mechanical products, mecatronic products, and assistive products e.g. for disabled people. A side conclusion from the investigations is that the traditional outsider researcher position using interviews gave only rough information of Case 1 while IAR gave detailed information and understanding of Case 2.


Cancer remains the primary cause of death worldwide. To develop less toxic anti-cancer drugs to relieve the suffering and improve the survival of cancer patients is the major focus in the anti-cancer field. To this end, marine creatures are being extensively studied for their anti-cancer effects, since extracts from at least 10% of the marine organisms have been shown to possess anti-tumor activities. As a classic Chinese traditional medicine, sea cucumbers and compounds extracted from the sea cucumbers, such as polysaccharides and saponins, have recently been shown to exhibit anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant effects. Holothuria leucospilota (H. leucospilota) is a tropical edible sea cucumber species that has been successfully cultivated and farmed in large scales, providing a readily available source of raw materials to support the development of novel marine anti-cancer drugs. However, very few studies have so far been performed on the biological activities of H. leucospilota. In this study, we first investigated the anti-cancer effect of H. leucospilota protein on three cancer cell lines (i.e., HepG2, A549, Panc02) and three normal cell lines (NIH-3T3, HaCaT, 16HBE). Our data showed that H. leucospilota protein decreased the cell viabilities of HepG2, A549, HaCaT, 16HBE in a concentration-dependent manner, while Panc02 and NIH-3T3 in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. We also found that the inhibitory effect of H. leucospilota protein (≥10 μg/mL) on cell viability is near or even superior to EPI, a clinical chemotherapeutic agent. In addition, our data also demonstrated that H. leucospilota protein significantly affected the cell cycle and induced apoptosis in the three cancer cell lines investigated; in comparison, it showed no effects on the normal cell lines (i.e., NIH-3T3, HaCaT and 16HBE). Finally, our results also showed that H. leucospilota protein exhibited the excellent performance in inhibiting cell immigrations. In conclusion, H. leucospilota protein targeted the cancer cell cycles and induced cancer cell apoptosis; its superiority to inhibit cancer cell migration compared with EPI, shows the potential as a promising anti-cancer drug.


This study investigated the appropriate model to predict 30 days ahead of Unilever Indonesia stock price and Telekomunikasi Indonesia stock price using time series analysis and machine learning in R, time series forecasting is a fun and interesting way to learn data science. The data is format Close Price. The goal of this project is to predict the future stock price of unilever indonesia and telekomunikasi indonesia using various predictive forecasting models and then analyze the various models. The dataset for unilever stocks is obtained from yahoo finance using Quantmod package in R. The final results that have been compared show that using the arima and neural network methods produces good accuracy values. Research and analysis of stock prices will help investors carry out investment is more accurate, investors can determine what steps will be taken, either buying a share or selling acquired shares the right step in taking an action. The data model used to predict close stock prices in this study unilever Indonesia using arima has an accuracy of 98.87%. and using neural network model has an of 98.92%. Telekomunikasi Indonesia using arima has an accuracy of 98.74%. and using neural network Model has an accuracy of 98.77% there are suggestions that can be given for further research and development. Trying to add to the existing historical data to be more complete so as to improve the accuracy of forecasting.


Penang municipal solid waste generation is increasing as population and urbanization increased. The current landfill to accommodate Penang municipal solid waste is expected to reach its maximum capacity. Due to limited land available, Penang should consider implementing an alternative method in managing municipal solid waste. Therefore, this paper aims to study the applicability of Waste-to-Energy technology implemented by Japan in Penang context. Waste-to-Energy technology has proved its capability in reducing waste disposal into landfill and at the same time able to recover energy for various purposes. Current Waste-toEnergy technology also is able to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts. The proposed Waste-to-Energy technology can guide Penang local authorities to consider for next municipal solid waste disposal method.


An analytical method for the determination of histamine using metals and alizarin red S (ARS) reagents by UV-Visible spectrophotometry was developed. Cu(II), Co(II) and ARS were used to form colored complex with histamine. The developed method was used to detect qualitatively and quantitatively the presence of histamine. Absorbance of Cu(II) and Co(II) complex were measured at a maximum wavelength of 505.5 and 567 nm, respectively. Optimization of analytical parameters such as concentration of metals, concentration of ARS, sample solution pH, and optimum time for complex formation were performed. Experimental results showed that the optimum concentration of Cu(II) was 50 ppm, 75 ppm ARS, sample solution pH 6, and 15 minutes optimum time, while the optimum concentration of Co(II) was 125 ppm, ARS was 75 and 50 ppm, sample solution pH 5 and 10 minutes optimum time. Method validation indicated that the coefficient of variation, limit of detection (LOD) (S/N =3), and limit of quantitation (LOQ = 10S/N) of Cu(II) were 0.65%, 8.94 ppm, and 29.82 ppm respectively with a sensitivity of 0.0054 ppm and linearity of 0.9959. Accuracy of histamine determination through Cu-ARS-histamine complex at a concentration of 50, 100, and 150 ppm were 105.7% (RSD = 0.777%, n = 3), 105.06% (RSD = 0.606%, n = 3), and 94.12% (RSD = 0.767%, n = 3), respectively. Meanwhile, the CV, LOD, and LOQ of Co(II) were 0.28%; 2.58 ppm; and 8.6 ppm respectively with a sensitivity of 0.0006 ppm and linearity of 0.9965. Accuracy of histamine determination through Co-ARS-histamine complex at a concentration of 50, 75, and 125 ppm were 98.33%, 95.83%, 93.88%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of histamine in a fish sample with quantitative recovery; for Cu(II) complex (99.23%) and Co(II) complex (102.62%).


Key features: Online access to more than 30 videos demonstrating the latest procedures and techniques New chapters on African rhinoplasty, facial paralysis treatment, evidence-based facial plastic surgery, tissue engineering, costal rib utilization techniques, and face transplants Clinical insights from luminaries in the field of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery More than 2,000 full-color images and illustrations demonstrate main concepts


An overwhelming majority of the global burden of morbidity and mortality caused by sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV is borne by the world's poorest countries (fig 1). In a world increasingly "shrunk" by modern communications, what are the common issues preoccupying the international community of researchers in our field? In planning this themed issue, published on World AIDS Day 2007, we sought papers on all topics of global relevance: migration, international travel, the extent and impact of antiretroviral rollout programmes, and wide-reaching strategies for the prevention of STI and HIV transmission. We took the opportunity to seek out international diversity in STI and HIV research. Despite our intention to travel far afield, we have found ourselves closer to home than we had hoped, in respect of the authorship, and ownership of the diversity of studies relating to the populations of the world's poorer countries. Our 13 original articles include 9 studies conducted in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa,1–6 south and south east Asia,7,8 Latin America,9 and 4 in Europe.10–13 The provenance of the articles, however, does not reflect their scope (fig 2); the e-mail addresses of corresponding authors of seven of these papers are in the United Kingdom,1,5,8,10,12,13 and another five are in the United States, Canada and Australia.2,4,6,7,9 on exploring this further, we found that the pattern of the published content was not the …


Abstract The anti-greenhouse gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) is mainly emitted by algae and accounts for more than half of the total natural flux of gaseous sulfur to the atmosphere, strongly reducing the solar radiation and thereby the temperature on Earth. However, the relationship between phytoplankton biomass and DMS emissions is debated and inconclusive. Our study presents field observations from 100 freshwater lakes, in concert with data of global ocean DMS emissions, showing that DMS and algal biomass show a hump-shaped relationship, i.e. DMS emissions to the atmosphere increase up to a pH of about 8.1 but, at higher pH, DMS concentrations decline, likely mainly due to decomposition. Our findings from lake and ocean ecosystems worldwide were corroborated in experimental studies. This novel finding allows assessments of more accurate global patterns of DMS emissions and advances our knowledge on the negative feedback regulation of phytoplankton-driven DMS emissions on climate.


The UNC-112 protein is required during initial muscle assembly in C. elegans to form dense bodies and M-lines. Loss of this protein results in arrest at the twofold stage of embryogenesis. In contrast, a missense mutation in unc-112 results in viable animals that have disorganized bodywall muscle and are paralyzed as adults. Loss or reduction of dim-1 gene function can suppress the severe muscle disruption and paralysis exhibited by these mutant hermaphrodites. The overall muscle structure in hermaphrodites lacking a functional dim-1 gene is slightly disorganized, and the myofilament lattice is not as strongly anchored to the muscle cell membrane as it is in wild-type muscle. The dim-1 gene encodes two polypeptides that contain three Ig-like repeats. The short DIM-1 protein isoform consists entirely of three Ig repeats and is sufficient for wild-type bodywall muscle structure and stability. DIM-1(S) localizes to the region of the muscle cell membrane around and between the dense bodies, which are the structures that anchor the actin filaments and may play a role in stabilizing the thin rather than the thick filament components of the sarcomere.


The inclusion compounds of lisinopril with β-cyclodextrin, prepared by different methods: kneading, co-precipitation and freeze-drying were investigated by XRD, FTIR, DSC and solid-state NMR techniques. It was established by these methods that the complexation process was successfully. The degree of crystallinity for the product obtained by kneading was also determined. The kneaded product has a certain crystallinity degree, so it is possible that the inclusion process is less effective in this case. In the case of freeze-dried and co-precipitated products only amorphous phase exists, i.e. the complexation was produced with a higher efficiency.


Digital image processing has many applications in different fields such as medicine, forensic, robotics, industrial automatic inspection systems, navigation, ..., etc. This field has attracted attentions of researchers and scholars to develop and/or to improve algorithms for different applications. Traditionally, the subject of digital image processing has been taught at the graduate level. A challenging question is can we make use of the available computational tools and advanced technology to teach the fundamentals of digital image processing at the undergraduate levels. Introducing students to the field of image processing at the undergraduate level will enable them to perform research at their early stage of college education and hence opening new application for digital image processing. In this paper, a proposal for a modular approach to teach digital image processing at the undergraduate level is presented. This course is an E-learning class and students can complete it at their own pace.


Energy is one of the most important and scarce resources in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). WSN nodes work with the embedded operating system called TinyOS, which addresses the constrains of the WSN nodes such as limited processing power, memory, energy, etc and it uses the collection Tree Protocol (CTP) to collect the data from the sensor nodes. It uses either the four-bit link estimation or Link Estimation Exchange Protocol (LEEP) to predict the bi directional quality of the wireless link between the nodes and the next hop candidate is based on the estimated link quality. The residual energy of the node is an important key factor, which plays a vital role in the lifetime of the network and hence this has to taken as one of the metric in the parent selection. In this work, we consider the remaining energy of the node as one of the metric to decide the parent in addition to the link quality metrics. The proposed protocol was compared with CTP protocol in terms of number of packets forwarded by each node and packet reception ratio (PRR) of the network. This work was simulated in TOSSIM simulator and the same was tested in Crossbow IRIS radio test bed. The results show that our algorithm performs better than CTP in terms of load distribution and hence the increased lifetime


In this paper, a planning method is developed using convex optimization for concurrent station keeping and momentum unloading maneuvers of geostationary satellites equipped with on-off electric thrusters. Prediction models for coupled orbital and attitude dynamics are used for generating concurrent maneuver plans. Since the satellite's attitude dynamics is fast compared to the orbital dynamics, a dual-rate model is proposed for addressing time scale differences of the two coupled systems. Based on such a model, a convex optimization problem is formulated and solved in a receding horizon form, which minimizes the fuel consumption and the number of required maneuvers. The proposed algorithm is verified using numerical simulations, taking into account major perturbations in the geostationary environment. The performance of the proposed method is analyzed in terms of fuel consumption and constraint enforcement.


This study investigates the grafting of poly-sodium styrene sulfonate (pNaSS) from trichlorosilane/10-undecen-1-yl 2-bromo-2-methylpropionate functionalized Si and Ti substrates by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The composition, molecular structure, thickness, and topography of the grafted pNaSS films were characterized with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. XPS and ToF-SIMS results were consistent with the successful grafting of a thick and uniform pNaSS film on both substrates. VASE and AFM scratch tests showed the films were between 25 and 49 nm thick on Si, and between 13 and 35 nm thick on Ti. AFM determined root-mean-square roughness values were ∼2 nm on both Si and Ti substrates. Therefore, ATRP grafting is capable of producing relatively smooth, thick, and chemically homogeneous pNaSS films on Si and Ti substrates. These films will be used in subsequent studies to test the hypothesis that pNaSS-grafted Ti implants preferentially adsorb certain plasma proteins in an orientation and conformation that modulates the foreign body response and promotes formation of new bone.


AIM:To isolate mouse CCR5 cDNA (muCCR5) and study its expression in vivo.METHODS: Marathon PCR was used to isolate muCCR5 cDNA and two animal models were designed to investigate the gene expression in vivo, one was mouse fulminant hepatitis induced by Propionibacterium acnes (P.acnes) and the other was that with delayed type hypersensitivity reaction (DTH). A specific GST-NH2-terminus of muCCR5 fusion protein antibody F(ab')(2) was prepared and clarified. RT-PCR and immunohistochemical analysis were used to observe the expression level of CCR5 gene in mice.RESULTS: A positive reaction of mouse macrophage was found in DTH but not expressed in P.acnes induced fulminant hepatitis by RT-PCR and immunohistochemical analysis.CONCLUSION: This muCCR5 expression may be involved in an allergic processmediated by cellular immunity but not acute inflammatory reaction induced by P.acnes.


For implementation of the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture and storage, during CO 2 injection process, overpressure within targeted reservoirs might occur because of changes in stress related to the CO 2 pressure, which could lead to deformation of the surrounding rocks, including caprocks which are geological formations with low permeability overlying a CO 2 storage reser-voir. The understanding for impact of effective pressure (i.e., the difference between confining pressure and pore pressure) on hydraulic parameters (i.e., threshold pressure and permeability) of such caprocks has a critical role in the safe implementation of CO 2 geological sequestration. The purpose of this study was to examine the hydraulic properties of mudstones, which were taken from Otadai (OTD), Ohara (OHR), and Namihana (NMH) formations of Kazusa group, depending on effective pressure at 40 ⁰ C and effective pressures of the range from 1-20 MPa. Change in porosity as a function of effective pressure was also investigated in order to infer the critical pressure, which provided an insight into the relationship between threshold pressure and permeability. Our results demonstrated that with increasing effective pressure, OHR mudstone exhibited a steeply decreasing trend in permeability at around 5 MPa, whereas OTD and NMH mudstones exhibited a monotonous decrease. All data of threshold pressure as a function of effective pressure exhibited linear correlation with permeability data on a log-log scale, except for the OTD and OHR mudstones at below the inferred critical pressure. It was suggested that the relationship between threshold pressure and permeability depends strongly on changes in pore structures as a function of effective pressure for each mudstone tested. The present results pointed out that the presence of microfractures could be critical in characterizing the hydraulic parameters of mudstones, and mudstones with crack-like pores and/or microfractures such as the OTD and OHR mudstones might be significantly more susceptible to decreasing threshold pressure compared with fracture-less structures under below the critical pressure condition. However, considering CO 2 injection process which means that CO 2 is injected into the targeted reservoirs within normal stress states, all the obtained data above the critical pressure could be explained fully by the linear correlation between threshold pressure and permeability, even if the mudstones incorporated micofractures.


Lifetime risk (LTR) provides an absolute risk assessment during the remainder of one's life. Few studies have focused on the LTRs of stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD), categorized by fine blood pressure in Asian populations. We aimed to assess it using a large database of a meta-analysis with the individual participant data. The present meta-analysis included 107 737 Japanese (42.4% men; mean age, 55.1 years) from 13 cohorts. During the mean follow-up of 15.2±5.3 years (1 559 136 person-years), 1922 died from stroke and 913 from CHD. We estimated risks after adjusting for competing risk of death other than the outcome of interest. The 10-year risk of stroke and CHD deaths at index age of 35 years was ⩽1.9% and ⩽0.3%, respectively. The LTRs of stroke death at the index age of 35 years (men/women) were 6.1%/4.8% for optimal, 5.7%/6.3% for normal, and 6.6%/6.0% for high-normal blood pressure groups, and 9.1%/7.9% for grade 1, 14.5%/10.3% for grade 2, and 14.6%/14.3% for grade 3 hypertension groups. The LTRs of CHD death similarly elevated with an increase in blood pressure but were lower (⩽7.2%) than those of stroke death. In conclusion, blood pressure was clearly associated with an elevated LTR of stroke or CHD death, although the LTR of CHD death was one-half of that of stroke death in an Asian population. These results would help young people with hypertension to adopt a healthy lifestyle or start antihypertensive therapy early.


Pentachlorophenol (CASRN 87-86-5) is a wide spectrum biocide that has been used extensively, primarily as a fungicidal wood preservative, in the United States and elsewhere since the mid1930s. In 1987 the U.S. EPA restricted the use of pentachlorophenol to non-residential use, primarily to the treatment and preservation of utility poles and cross arms, railroad ties, wharf pilings, and laminated beams and fence posts.


Purpose Family history of breast cancer is associated with an increased risk of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) even in the absence of mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1/2. We compared quality-adjusted survival outcomes after contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) with surveillance only (no CPM) among women with breast cancer in relation to degree of family history. Methods We created a microsimulation model for women with a first-degree, second-degree and no family history treated for a stage I, II, or III estrogen receptor (ER)-positive or -negative breast cancer at the ages of 40, 50, 60, and 70 years. The model incorporated a 10-year post-treatment period for risk of developing CBC and/or dying of the primary cancer or CBC. For each patient profile, we used 100,000 microsimulation trials to estimate the quality-adjusted life expectancy for two clinical strategies: CPM and no CPM. Results CPM had a minimal improvement on quality-adjusted life expectancy among women age 50 to 60 with no or a unilateral first or second-degree family history (range -.06 to 0.31) and was unfavorable for the majority of women age 70 with stage III breast cancer regardless of degree of family history (range -.08 to -.02). Sensitivity analysis showed the highest predicted benefit of CPM with 95% risk reduction was 0.57 QALY for a 40-year-old woman with stage I breast cancer who had a first-degree relative with bilateral breast cancer. Conclusion Women age 40 years with stage I breast cancer and a first-degree relative with bilateral breast cancer have a QALY benefit from CPM similar to that reported for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. For the majority of women, having a family history does not improve the minimal effect of CPM on quality-adjusted life expectancy. Citation Format: Kalatu R. Davies, Abenaa Brewster, Isabelle Bedrosian, Patricia Parker, Melissa A. Crosby, Susan K. Peterson, Yu Shen, Robert Volk, Scott B. Cantor. Outcomes of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in relation to familial history: a decision analysis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2574.


Aluminium matrix composite was prepared by using an innovative approach of using graphene indent on copper particles as inforcement material. The reinforcement was mixed and ball milled for 30 and 60 min respectively to get proper sight of copper fracture where graphene (GNP) can be embedded. The reinforcement was also milled for 30 minutes to get uniform distribution of reinforcement in powder state. Casting technique was used with argon gas environment and mechanical stirrer to get final composite material. The morphological analysis has shown proper indent of graphene with Al-Cu and Cu-GNP interface. The composite so formed has micro hardness of 87 HV with an increment of 36.78% whereas yield strength and ultimate tensile strength have increased by 36.67% and 37.162% respectively. Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.


The removal of cationic methylene blue (MB) and anionic acid red 1 (AR1) dyes from aqueous solution was studied using cellulose-g-p(AA-co-AM) bio-adsorbent (CP bio-adsorbent). The CP bio-adsorbent with surface multiple functional groups and macroporous network structure was synthesized via grafting the acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AM) onto cellulose molecules. The adsorption behavior of the bio-adsorbent to dyes in the aqueous solution was studied. The effects of solution pH, temperature, initial dye concentration, and contact time on the adsorption capacity of the bio-adsorbent were investigated. Due to the abundant functional groups and macroporous network structure, the CP bio-adsorbent exhibited remarkable adsorption performance for the removal of type dyes with an equilibrium adsorption capacity of 998 mg·g-1 for MB and 523 mg·g-1 for AR1. The kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption of dyes was exactly described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Comparison with other bio-adsorbents confirmed that the eco-friendly CP bio-adsorbent possessed excellent potential for water purification.


When fabricating cellular material using the material extrusion process, manufacturing errors arise due to approximation of geometries during slicing and tool-path generation, as well as the finite filament size. Moreover, since a cellular material generally consists of a large number of structural elements such as struts and plates, it has large bounding surfaces to be approximated during the AM process, which can increase manufacturing error. The errors degrade the mechanical properties of a fabricated cellular material. In this paper, an as-fabricated voxel modeling approach is proposed to quantify mechanical property degradation. An additively manufactured strut is modeled using voxels based on material extrusion and its effective structural characteristics such as a cross-sectional area and the second moment of area are evaluated. The property degradation is assessed by comparing mechanical properties from tensile tests and performing discrete homogenization with obtained structural characteristics


In an advisory opinion delivered in April 2017, the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union held that direct effect may result from the provisions of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union governing competition. The Court's reasoning was based on the fact that under this Treaty, competition is a common policy that envisages the application of unified legal regulations by the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union. The case note aims at underlining how this kind of approach differs from the general trend in the field, especially considering the European Court of Justice's holding in Van Gend en Loos. Additionally, some thoughts are devoted to the nature of the Eurasian Economic Union, in order to understand whether it could be considered a supranational organization.


A study of the temperature dispersion during current-annealing of amorphous ribbons has been done. The local temperature has been obtained by measuring the local intensity of the infrared emission of the sample with a CCS nitrogen liquid cooled camera. The results exhibit a dispersion in the local temperature in spite of the small dimension of the sample. This study shows that the crystallization processes can be detected in situ through the mean square deviation of the infrared emission. >


Triploidy due to meiotic nondisjunction is a rare event in Diptera. Cytogenetic analyses performed in a population of fruit flies Anastrepha obliqua from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeast of Brazil, identified the occurrence of one triployd individual. This is the first case of triploidy described in the Anastrepha genus.  Samples of A. obliqua larvae were obtained from Spondias purpurea (red mombin) fruits.  A. obliqua presents a diploid value of 2n=12 observed in 29 specimens, whereas a triploid individual presented 3n=18. The triploid specimen showed three AgNOR sites and a variation from one to three nucleoli in interphase nuclei, in contrast to the two sites in the diploids. In  Anastrepha , natural triploidy is proving to be a rare event and apparently holds no evolutionary significance to the species A. obliqua . Keywords: Tephritidae; insect cytogenetics; polyploidy; northeastern Brazil.


The surface of 3D shell structure is created by using NURBS and nodes for generating finite element mesh on the surface are created by using external node offset method. In so doing the shortest distance between nodes on the top and bottom surface is searched and then the coordinates of nodes are determined by calculating the mid point of them in the middle of top and bottom surface. Triangular elements are formed on mid surface, and the average aspect ratio of the generated triangular elements are over 0.9.


The cerebellum receives inputs from spinal cord, cerebrum, brainstem, and sensory systems of the body and controls the motor system of the body. The Cerebellum harmonizes the voluntary motor activities such as maintenance of posture and equilibrium, and coordination of voluntary muscular activity including learning of the motor behaviours. Cerebellum occupies posterior cranial fossa, and it is relatively a small part of the brain. It weighs about one tenth of the total brain. Cerebellar lesions do not cause motor or cognitive impairment. However, they cause slowing of movements, tremors, lack of equilibrium/balance. Complex motor action becomes shaky and faltering.


In the beginning of dam problems,problems are small and simple,but after a period of successive changing,they are amplified and the consequences become serious.Then the dam fails to work properly and even collapses.That is so-called chaos state.However chaos state is different from common turmoil state,because after a long time and complete analysis,some rules can be found out.This paper tried chaos theory in the analyzing and discussing of dam failure.