The right visual field superiority in word recognition has been attributed to an attentional advantage by the left brain hemisphere. We investigated whether such advantage involves lateralised covert attention, in the absence of overt fixations on prime words. In a lexical decision task target words were preceded by an identical or an unrelated prime word. Eye movements were monitored. In Experiment 1 lateralised (to the left or right of fixation) prime words were parafoveally visible but foveally masked, thus allowing for covert attention but preventing overt attention. In Experiment 2 prime words were presented at fixation, thus allowing for both overt and covert attention. Results revealed positive priming in the absence of fixations on the primes when these were presented in the right visual field. The effects of covertly attended primes were nevertheless significantly reduced in comparison with those of overtly attended primes. It is concluded that word identification can be accomplished to a significant extent by lateralised covert attention alone, with right visual field advantage.


A simplified trisection is a trisection map on a 4-manifold such that, in its critical value set, there is no double point and cusps only appear in triples on innermost fold circles. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a 3-tuple of systems of simple closed curves in a surface to be a diagram of a simplified trisection in terms of mapping class groups. As an application of this criterion, we show that trisections of spun 4-manifolds due to Meier are diffeomorphic (as trisections) to simplified ones. Baykur and Saeki recently gave an algorithmic construction of a simplified trisection from a directed broken Lefschetz fibration. We also give an algorithm to obtain a diagram of a simplified trisection derived from their construction.


The parasitological examination of fecal samples from 98 patients from an Ambulatory Health Center of Soledad, Anzoategui, Venezuela revealed a rather high proportion of results positive for Blastocystis hominis (46.9%).


Two new genera of cheirurinid trilobites are described from the lower Whittaker Formation (?Rocklandian to Edenian; late Middle and early Late Ordovician) of the southern Mackenzie Mountains. The monotypic genus, Whittakerites n. gen., is a probable descendant of Ceraurus and is presently known only from northern Canada. Borealaspis n. gen. is established for two species from northern Canada, one of which possibly occurs in northern Greenland, and includes B. numitor (Billings) from Anticosti Island. New species described are Whittakerites planatus, Borealaspis whittakerensis, and B. biformis.


In this paper a combined microradiography and SEM study is presented on human enamel after a caries attack in vivo for a 4-wk period. The initial enamel caries is induced under a specially designed orthodontic band; plaque accumulation takes place under a niche in the band. The microradiography and SEM were done on the same sections. A special manipulation and breaking technique of the thin sections makes it possible to observe with the SEM, demineralized enamel areas with a mineral content known from microradiography. The results show that with a mineral content of about 50 vol. %, the observable porosity is noticeable at the prism level (interprismatically) but barely noticeable at the cyrstallite level. The surface morphology of the demineralized enamel is at low magnifications not very different from sound enamel. At high magnifications, however, the surface porosity becomes visible. The results indicate that the mineral in vivo losses in enamel after an initial caries attack can be explained mainly by mineral losses from interprismatic areas and from the prism peripheries.


In Japan, influenza like epidemics were described many times since Heian era. However, Spanish flu as the modern medicine invaded Japan in 1918, thus almost infected 390,000 patients died with associated pneumonia. After the discovery of influenza virus in 1933, Japan experienced pandemic influenza--Asian flu(H2N2) in 1957. After about 10 years, Hong Kong flu (H3N2) came to Japan at 1968. However, we had many reliable antibiotics but had not any antiviral drug at the early time. After year 2000, we fortunately obtained reliable three antiviral drugs such as amantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. Moreover, very useful rapid test kits for influenza A and B viruses were developed and used in Japan. 2009 H1N1 influenza epidemic occured in Japan after the great epidemic in Mexico and North America but elderly patient was few. With together, host conditions regarding with high risk are changing. Lessons from past several pandemic influenza are those that many issues for changing high risk conditions, viral genetic changes, developing antiviral agents, developing new useful vaccins and determinating bacterial secondary pathogens are important.


The new Ku-band scatterometer (HSCAT-B) onboard the HY-2B satellite was launched on October 25, 2018, and soon after the C-band scatterometer (Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT)-C) onboard the MetOp-C satellite was launched on November 6, 2018. This article aims to validate the new sea surface wind products from them, and also to summarize the common issues in current scatterometer wind products. Thus, other scatterometer data are also used for comparisons, including the C-band MetOp-B/ASCAT, and Ku-band SCATSAT-1/OSCAT2 and HY-2A/SCAT winds. In this study, the C-band and Ku-band scatterometer wind products were each reproduced using the same procedures, in terms of backscatter calibration, wind retrieval, and quality control. The scatterometer winds are compared to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 winds or buoy winds, and the results show that the quality of ASCAT-C winds is almost the same as the well-known ASCAT-B; the HSCAT-B winds show quite good quality and similar validating statistics as ASCAT winds. Noticeable wind-speed-dependent biases are found in all Ku-band scatterometer winds, which suggests that refinements are needed for the NSCAT-4 geophysical model function, especially in terms of wind speed dependence for all incidence angles.


Abstract A synthetic progestin altrenogest (ALT) is used to synchronize the estrus cycle of swine for fixed-time artificial insemination (AI) and has been shown to improve follicular development and reproductive performances in post-weaning sows. However, the effects of ALT treatment on reproductive tracts, including the ovaries, oviducts and uterus have not been yet clarified. In this study, we examined the expression of genes involved in endometrial responses in ALT-treated sows. ALT did not significantly alter luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and estradiol profiles in blood compared to untreated control. Quantitative RT-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that the expression of genes encoding galectin-3 (LGALS3) and fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) was upregulated in the reproductive tracts of ALT-treated sows, including the ovaries, oviducts and uteri. Moreover, ALT treatment induced the expression of FGF9 and galectin-3 proteins, and promoted their localization to the luminal epithelium of the oviducts and uterus. Our findings suggest that the enhancement of reproductive performance shown by ALT-treated sows is associated with the upregulation of galectin-3 and FGF9, which are essential for endometrial receptivity, successful implantation, and pregnancy.


ABSTRACT Spirituality is generally regarded as a protective factor against the initiation of substance use and may be effective in enhancing recovery and promoting abstinence. Preliminary studies on the effects of mindfulness practices on relapse prevention for substance use and behavioral addictions have shown promise. This study sought to determine whether elevated levels of mindfulness were linked to increased spirituality and subsequently decreased the warning signs of relapse among individuals in substance use treatment. Path analysis with bootstrapping methods indicated that there was a direct negative effect between mindfulness and warning signs of relapse, which supported the utility of mindfulness in relapse reduction. Mindfulness also enhanced spirituality, but there was an unexpected positive effect between spirituality and warning signs of relapse. These results provide evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness to increase spirituality and add to our knowledge of the relationship between mindfulness, spirituality, and relapse. Recognizing that there is increased interest regarding the integration of a spiritual domain within behavioral treatment modalities, it is critical that implementation happen in an informed manner. The findings of this study should be considered in clinical settings as well as in the development of future research on mindfulness and spirituality in substance use recovery.


We study the existence of group strategy-proof stable rules in many-to-many matching markets under responsiveness of agents' preferences. We show that when firms have acyclical preferences over workers the set of stable matchings is a singleton, and the worker-optimal stable mechanism is a stable and group strategy-proof rule for firms and workers. Furthermore, acyclicity is the minimal condition guaranteeing the existence of stable and strategy-proof mechanisms in many-to-many matching markets.


Because of their widespread diffusion and impact on human health, early identification of pathogens responsible for urinary tract infections (UTI) is one of the main challenges of clinical microbiology. Currently, bacteria culturing on Chromogenic plates is widely adopted for UTI detection for its readily interpretable visual outcomes. However, the search of alternate solutions can be highly attractive, especially in the rapidly developing context of bacteriology laboratory automation and digitization, as long as they can improve cost-effectiveness or allow early discrimination. In this work, we consider and develop hyperspectral image acquisition and analysis solutions to verify the feasibility of a "virtual chromogenic agar" approach, based on the acquisition of spectral signatures from bacterial colonies growing on blood agar plates, and their interpretation by means of machine learning solutions. We implemented and tested two classification approaches (PCA+SVM and RSIMCA) that evidenced good capability to discriminate among five selected UTI bacteria. For its better performance, robustness and attitude to work with an expanding set of pathogens, we conclude that the RSIMCA-based approach is worth to be further investigated in a clinical usage perspective.


Audrey M. Cameron, 72, died on March 22 in Columbus, Ohio. "Audrey moved to Columbus, Ohio, and worked at Chemical Abstracts since 1971. Audrey loved the outdoors, reading, gardening, and sports. Among her favorite sports were curling, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, hiking, backpacking, and tennis. Audrey loved to travel. She skied all over the West and Canada. She visited many countries on many continents. She was proud of everything Canadian, even after becoming a citizen of the U.S."—Harry C. Hershey, partner Most recent title: senior editor, CAS, , a division of the American Chemical Society Education: B.S., organic chemistry, University of Saskatchewan, 1966; Ph.D., organic chemistry, McMaster University, 1972 Survivors: sister, Erma; partner, Harry C. Hershey To recognize your late loved one or colleague, submit obituary information at cenm.ag/obits.


Parameters of bone mass in the upper end of the femur--the thickness of the calcar femorale and the pattern of the trabeculae--were evaluated in preoperative films of patients who had undergone total hip replacement. Patients with primary coxarthrosis rarely showed signs of osteoporosis; on the contrary, one of the parameters of bone mass was above average in the coxarthrosis cases. However, there was no difference, in the preoperative films, between hips that later went on to show signs of mechanical loosening of the stem prosthesis and hips that remained intact in this respect.


The serine proteases constitute a group of endopeptidases whose members owe their catalytic activity to the presence of a catalytic triad of amino acids consisting of a serine, a histidine and an aspartate. The pKa values for this histidine have been determined for several cases in which there is a negative charge installed at the serine to mimic the oxyanionic intermediate and related transition state for the catalytic pathway. Instances from this laboratory include (1) replacement of the serine by a cysteine in subtilisin to create a thiolate; (2) formation of monoisopropylphosphoryl‐Ser 195 monoanionic phosphodiesters (in trypsin and chymotrypsin, Ser 221 in subtilisins); and (3) tetrahedral boronates formed with peptide boronic acids. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals pertinent to this histidine, or signals indirectly reflecting the state of ionization of this histidine, have been used effectively to monitor changes in the active center ionization state. In every case studied, there is elevation of the pKa at the histidine when the negative charge is installed at the serine position. Herein is reported the first NMR measurement of the active center His 63 pKa in thiolsubtilisin Carlsberg; it is elevated by 3 units compared with the parent enzyme. Using a numerical solution (finite difference) of the Poisson‐Boltzmann equation, a protein dielectric constant of 4 provides a good estimate of the experimentally observed pKa elevations. Very significantly, a very low protein dielectric constant (εp = 3–5) is required in all of the comparisons, and for all three enzymes used (chymotrypsin, trypsin, and subtilisin). Finally, we discuss why the electrostatic perturbation sensed at His of the active center is more amplified by a negative charge on the Ser side than the same charge on the Asp side. A plausible explanation is that the positive charge on the imidazolium ring of the His is localized, with the Nδ1 carrying a smaller fraction, the Nε2 carrying the bulk of the positive charge.


We have developed a fabrication process for incorporating a gate electrode into suspended singlewalled carbon nanotube structures for scanning tunneling spectroscopy studies. The nanotubes are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition directly on a metal surface. The high temperature (800 ◦C) involved in the growth process poses challenging issues such as surface roughness and integrity of the structure which are addressed in this work. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the gate on the freestanding part of the nanotubes by performing tunneling spectroscopy that reveals Coulomb blockade diamonds. Our approach enables combined scanning tunneling microscopy and gated electron transport investigations of carbon nanotubes.


Introduction: Compared to healthy controls (HCs), individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) show aberrant brain activation patterns during performance of certain tasks. Such patterns of activity have been interpreted as restructuring of functional connections, i.e. the brain's ability to change neural networks in response to pathology. However, the relationship between neural damage related to MS and abnormal brain activation is not well understood. Here, we utilized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy 1H-MRS, a technique sensitive to underlying pathological substrates, to examine neurometabolite levels in the brain of MS individuals in conjunction with fMRI in order to better understand the relationship between neuropathology and brain activity in MS.
Methods: Neurometabolite levels in pre-selected regions were correlated with brain activity measured with fMRI during a processing speed task in a small sample of 8 individuals with MS and 9 HCs.
Results: A positive correlation between brain activity and the N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and choline (Cho) levels was noted in specific regions, indicative of neuronal injury and increased membrane turnover, respectively.
Conclusions: Combining fMRI and MRS might be a useful approach for predicting brain pathology and its associated effects on functional brain activation in individuals with MS.


A considerable literature is devoted to the introduction and analysis of variants of the SI epidemiology models. Similar models are also proposed to describe the spread of riots and, more generally, of collective behaviors in various social contexts. The use of epidemiology models to describe such social phenomena is based on the analogy between the mechanisms of contagion and social imitation. In turn, this analogy also points to the social nature of epidemics. This paper is concerned with a family of Reaction-Diffusion systems introduced in [17] that aims at unifying, generalizing, and enlarging the fields of application for epidemiology and collective behavior models. In this paper, we propose a modeling approach on these apparently various phenomena through the example of the dynamics of social unrest. The model involves two quantities, the level of social unrest, or, more general, activity u, and a field of social tension v, which play asymmetric roles: u is thought of as the actual observed or explicit quantity while v is an ambiant, sometimes implicit field of susceptibility that modulates the growth of u. In this article, we explore this class of model and prove several theoretical results based on the framework developed in [?], of which the present work is a companion paper. Here we place the emphasis on two subclasses of systems defined in [?]: tension inhibiting and tension enhancing. These are characterized by the fact that the unrest has respectively a negative or positive feedback on the social tension (though no monotonicity condition is assumed). In [?] we derive a threshold phenomenon in terms of the initial level of social tension: below a critical value, a small triggering event is quickly followed by a resumption of calm, while, above this value, it generates an eruption of social unrest spreading through space with an asymptotically constant speed. The new results we derive in the present paper concern the behavior of the solution far from the propagating edge, that is, we give a description of the new regime of the system following the initial surge of activity. We show in particular that the model can give rise to many diverse qualitative dynamics: ephemeral or limited-duration social movements-referred to as "riots"-in the tension inhibiting case, and persisting social movements-lasting upheavals-in the tension enhancing case, as well as other more complex behaviors in some mixed cases. We also investigate this model by numerical simulations that highlight the richness of this framework. We finally propose and study extensions of the model, such as spatially heterogeneous systems.


This study aims to obtain empirical evidence of earnings management after changes in corporate bond ratings. The modified Jones model is used to identify companies that practice earnings management. The population in this study is all bonds of nonfinancial companies that issue bonds and those that experience upgrades or downgrades of bond ratings in the period 2010-2016. The method of determining the sample in this study used purposive sampling to obtain 30 samples of companies that experienced upgrades or downgrades. Hypothesis testing uses the One Sample T Test. The conclusion of this study is that the bond issuing company carries out earnings management that increases profits after the bond rating has undergone an upgrade or a downgrade.Keywords: Earnings Management, Bond Ratings, Discretionary Accruals


The need for micromechanical inertial sensors is increasing in future electronic stability control (ESC) and other positioning, navigation and guidance systems. Due to the rising density of sensors in automotive and consumer devices the goal is not only to get high performance, robustness and smaller package sizes, but also to optimize the energy management of the overall sensor system. This paper presents an evaluation concept for a surface micromachined yaw rate sensor. Within this evaluation concept an energy-efficient operation of the drive mode of the yaw rate sensor is enabled. The presented system concept can be realized within a power management subsystem. Keywords—inertial sensors, micromachined gyros, gyro sensing concepts, power management, FPGA


Water hyacinth is a huge source of biomass in tropical countries. That can be used for biogas production. The aim of this conversion process is to improve the quality, specific energy content, transportability, etc. of the raw biomass source or to capture gases which are naturally produced as biomass is micro biologically degraded. An experimental study on catalytic biomethanation of Water Hyacinth has been carried out in a semi batch digester at different substrate concentration using cow urine as an organic catalyst under controlled pH with in the range of 6.9 to 7.2. The rate of bio gas production varies with different conditions and parameters like temperature, stirring speed, feed concentration, catalyst concentration, etc. It has been found that the catalyst mainly increases the production rate of biogas from water hyacinth. Mathematical analysis of the experimental data on catalytic biomethanation has been done in the present study. Mathematical equations relating maximum specific growth rate and kinetic parameter at different substrate and catalyst concentration have been developed. Copyright © 2013 International Energy and Environment Foundation All rights reserved.


Isoniazid and its metabolites acetylisoniazid, hydrazine and monoacetylhydrazine were investigated for generation of oxygen free radicals during incubation with rat liver slices. Lipid peroxidation was assessed by the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances test using malonaldehyde as the external standard, while hepatotoxicity was assessed by histopathology studies. Malonaldehyde formed in liver slices after 10 hours of incubation with the drugs was 1.28 +/- 0.24 nmol/mg for isoniazid (control 1.12 +/- 0.17 nmol/mg); 0.88 +/- 0.45 nmol/mg for acetylisoniazid (control 0.84 +/- 0.42 nmol/mg); 1.43 +/- 0.14 nmol/mg for monoacetylhydrazine (control 1.10 +/- 0.12 nmol/mg) and 1.36 +/- 0.02 nmol/mg for hydrazine (control 1.13 +/- 0.04 nmol/mg). Histologically, all slices exhibited hepatic necrosis by 4 hours. However, hydrazine-induced hepatotoxicity was characterized by nuclear hyperchromatsia, karyolysis and karyohexis while monoacetylhydrazine exhibited hydropic karyomegaly only. Isoniazid and acetylisoniazid cytotoxicity exhibited a mixture of the above features such that it could be attributed to the two metabolites, hydrazine and monoacetylhydrazine. In conclusion, there was no evidence implicating oxygen free radicals in isoniazid-induced hepatotoxicity; however, the histopathology findings indicate a need for a review of our knowledge on pathognomonic features of isoniazid hepatotoxicity.


The article presents a detailed description of the money markets in the U.S. In recent years, new markets such as bankers' acceptances, commercial paper, Negotiable Certificates of Deposit and the external extension of the New York market into Euro-dollars have have been established. Despite the growth in some of these markets, however, the main markets in the U.S. remain those in Government securities and Federal funds. It is through these markets that idle money in the U.S. is mobilised and distributed across the country as a whole. In this context, full use is made of correspondent relationships and both the banks and the dealers attempt to tap every possible source of funds. The intensity of this search for new sources of money has had the effect of binding together much more closely the various parts of the financial mechanism and has made it much more sensitive to Federal Reserve action.


Cloud computing has attracted much interest recently from both industry and academic. More and more Internet applications are moving to the cloud environment. However, fault detection technique in cloud application is a crucial issue. This issue is especially difficult since cloud computing relies by nature on a highly dynamic environment. In this paper, we propose a model based Byzantine fault detection technique for cloud computing. A cloud computing fault net (CFN) is used to precisely model the different components of cloud computing, such as service resources, cloud module, the detection and failure process, etc, the basic properties of the constructed model are analyzed. Based on this, the fault detection strategy is proposed, which can dynamically detect the fault of cloud application in the execution process. The operational semantics and related theories of Petri nets help prove its effectiveness and correctness. An example is used to simulate the modeling and analyzing process, and a series of experiments are done to explain the effectiveness of proposed method.


A new method is presented for performing first-principles molecular-dynamics simulations of systems with variable occupancies. We adopt a matrix representation for the one-particle statistical operator to introduce a ''projected'' free energy functional G that depends on the Kohn-Sham orbitals only and that is invariant under their unitary transformations. The Liouville equation [ , (H) over cap] = 0 is always satisfied, guaranteeing a very efficient and robust variational minimization algorithm, that can also be extended to nonconventional entropic formulations.


High resolution modeling and dynamical simulation of large and flexible 3D surfaces can be achieved by using particle based solutions. Simulating such a model requires a huge number of linked particles that are not supported efficiently by just one graphical processing unit or computational machine. Even if the visualization could be achieved through graphics clusters the simulation is still a difficult case mainly for model distribution and communication among processors. This paper experiments and evaluates the cluster based solution for simulating high resolution and large flexible textile surfaces and highlights the issues of the software technologies.


Wireless bioelectronics communication systems will greatly improve the quality of life. The successful realization of these systems depends on the integration of small low-power sensor nodes with integrated compact, cost-effective radio and antenna. In this paper we report on the realization of a low-power sensor node smaller than one cubic cm for use in ad-hoc body area networks (BAN). The first 3-D-stack prototype comprises a commercial low-power 8 million instruction per second microcontroller and a 2.4 GHz wireless transceiver, crystals and other necessary passives, as well as a custom-designed matched dipole antenna. The 3D stacked module with integrated antenna was successfully demonstrated with a line-of-sight range up to 50 meter using only 15mW while transmitting at a data rate of 1Mbps.


A practical noncryogenic process for the Aggarwal stereospecific boronate rearrangement with chiral secondary benzylic carbamates has been developed. The use of LDA instead of sec-BuLi combined with an in situ trapping of the unstable lithiated carbamate was critical to success. Furthermore, this new process increased the substrate scope to include the versatile aryl iodide and bromide substrates. The methodology was applied to a diverse array of substrates and was demonstrated on multikilogram scale.


This paper presents a novel LDA algorithm named 2DHLDA (2-Dimensional Heteroscedastic Linear Discriminant Analysis). The proposed algorithms are applied on age-group classification using facial images under various lighting conditions. 2DHLDA significantly overcomes the singularity problem, so-called 'Small Sample Size' problem (S3 problem), and the original feature space is split into useful dimensions and nuisance dimensions to reduce the influence of different lighting conditions. A two-phased dimensional reduction step, namely 2DHLDA+LDA, is used in our experiment. Our experimental results show that the new 2DHLDA-based approach improves classification accuracy more than the conventional 1D and 2D-based approaches.


Conditions of the coal seams bedding at the mines of Kuzbass and Vorkutskoye deposits, their natural methane content and coal grades are studied in the article. Performance of shearers and the natural degassing effect of the second working on the change in the methane content of the massif in the coal mining zone are evaluated. Dependence is established concerning the coefficient of coal seams natural degassing on the thickness of the mined seam. The influence of natural and mining-technical factors on the efficiency of second working and degassing parameters were studied. The relationship is revealed between the natural methane content of coal seams with the yield index of the volatile substances contained in the coals of various grades. The relationship is defined related to the intensity of the initial methane release from the coal mass to the reservoir degassing wells depending on the natural methane content of the reservoir with the outgoing air flow. Comparison of the data obtained during geological exploration works, and the predicted values calculated based on the identified dependencies showed their good convergence. The dependences were revealed concerning the zones of intense methane release in the degassing wells on the thickness of the inter-layer of the unloaded adjacent layers in the roof and soil of the working layer in the process of moving the working face. This information allows to select the optimal mode of wells functioning for extracting methane-air mixtures suitable for utilization in the unexplored mine fields. Recommended coefficients of degassing of the methane emission sources were determined for ensuring the planned productivity of the working face with the view to ensure its safety on the gas factor.


In current clinical practice, functional limitations due to chronic musculoskeletal diseases are still being assessed subjectively, e.g., using questionnaires and function scores. Performance-based methods, on the other hand, offer objective insights. Hence, they recently attracted more interest as an additional source of information. This work offers a step towards the shift to performance-based methods by recognizing standardized activities from continuous readings using a single accelerometer mounted on a patient's arm. The proposed procedure consists of two steps. Firstly, activities are segmented, including rejection of non-informative segments. Secondly, the segments are associated to predefined activities using a multiway pattern matching approach based on higher order discriminant analysis (HODA). The two steps are combined into a multi-layered framework. Experiments on data recorded from 39 patients with spondyloarthritis show results with a classification accuracy of 94.34% when perfect segmentation is assumed. Automatic segmentation has 89.32% overlap with this ideal scenario. However, combining both drops performance to 62.34% due to several badly-recognized subjects. Still, these results are shown to significantly outperform a more traditional pattern matching approach. Overall, the work indicates promising viability of the technique to automate recognition and, through future work, assessment, of functional capacity.


The electromagnetic Slingram method can provide three types of information simultaneously: (1) the apparent resistivity of the ground; (2) its apparent susceptibility; and (3) the characteristic signatures of buried metallic objects. To build an apparatus with these three measurement capabilities requires an appropriate choice of parameters, including frequency, coil separation, and coil orientation as well as calculations which take into account the electrical resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility of the ground. The value of the Slingram method for archaeological applications is shown by two examples: (1) a Gallo‐Roman pottery workshop investigated with measurements of the apparent susceptibility using a reduced sampling wide mesh grid technique; and (2) the study of a Bronze hoard site located in a marsh. Capabilities of the Slingram method may be improved by further study of an apparatus using several receivers which would increase the depth of investigation. Use of several frequencies would over...


In four-sided CAVE-like VR systems, the absence of the rear wall has been shown to decrease the level of immersion and can introduce breaks in presence. In this paper it is investigated to which extent user's attention can be driven by visual and auditory stimuli in a four-sided CAVE-like system. An experiment was conducted in order to analyze how user attention is diverted while physically walking in a virtual environment, when audio and/or visual attractors are present. The foursided CAVE used in the experiment allowed to walk up to 9m in straight line. An additional key feature in the experiment is the fact that auditory feedback was delivered through binaural audio rendering techniques via non-personalized head related transfer functions (HRTFs). The audio rendering was dependent on the user's head position and orientation, enabling localized sound rendering. The experiment analyzed how different "attractors" (audio and/or visual, static or dynamic) modify the user's attention. The results of the conducted experiment show that audio-visual attractors are the most efficient attractors in order to keep the user's attention toward the inside of the CAVE. The knowledge gathered in the experiment can provide guidelines to the design of virtual attractors in order to keep the attention of the user and avoid the "missing wall".


Abstract Habitat alterations have resulted in significant declines in the populations of prairie grouse (Centrocercus minimus, C. urophasianus, Tympanuchus cupido, T. pallidicinctus, T. phasianellus) throughout the last century. Landscape-level habitat restoration through federal conservation programs may be the only option available to prevent several of these species from declining to dangerously low levels. I examined 7 federal conservation programs available through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and 5 programs through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to determine how they might be used to restore and protect habitat for prairie grouse on private land. The USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has restored ≥15 million ha of grassland with cost-share agreements and 10-year contracts. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) has the potential to restore habitat for prairie grouse because it is well funded and primarily focused on improving livestock operations on grasslands, much of which occurs on native prairies. Other USDA conservation programs provide the necessary funding and incentives to landowners to protect and restore prairie grouse habitat, but competition among states for available funds and authorized practices may reduce their effectiveness at restoring habitat over large landscapes. The USFWS Grassland Easement Program, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, and Private Stewardship Grants Program collectively have restored and protected ≥300,000 ha of grassland and native prairie with perpetual easements, cost-share agreements, technical assistance, and term contracts. Much of the vegetation provided by these programs should be of significant value for prairie grouse habitat. The USFWS State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program and the Landowner Incentive Program should enable the states to develop their own programs to restore and protect prairie grouse habitat on private land.


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of the vertebral artery for cerebral blood flow studies. In eight dogs a small catheter was introduced into an unligated a. vertebralis sin. Radioactive microspheres (141Cerium) were injected and detected with a gamma camera. The microspheres were distributed to all parts of the brain. The concentrations were highest in the cerebellum, pons and medulla oblongata, while the total activity was greatest in the cerebrum because of its higher weight. The activity in the extracerebral tissues in the head was found to be less than 5% of the brain activity.


Objective: Development of chronic total occlusion (CTO) consists of
multiple histological stages, with each stage containing different
histopathological features. The monocyte to high-density lipoprotein
ratio (MHR) is a useful marker of the degree of inflammatory response.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MHR
and long-term survival and mortality in CTO patients. Methods: The study
included 493 CTO patients that were followed over a period of 73 months
between January 2011 and December 2019. MHR was calculated from the
venous blood samples taken from each patient immediately before routine
coronary angiography. Results: The study included 493 patients
comprising 353 (71.6%) men and 140 (28.4%) women with a mean age of
63.03±10.88 years. Median follow-up period was 48 (interquartile range
[IQR]: 26-73) months. Patients were divided into two groups: (I) MHR
<17.68 (n=278) and (II) MHR ≥17.68 (n=215). Long-term
mortality was significantly higher in group II than in group I (n=70,
32.6% vs. n=43, 15.5%; p<0,001). On multivariate logistic
regression analysis, MHR was found to be an independent predictor of
long-term mortality (Odds Ratio [OR]: 1.089, 95% Confidence
Interval [CI]: 1.055-1.124, p<0,001). The Kaplan-Meier
analysis showed lower survival rates in group II (MHR ≥17.68) than in
group I (MHR <17.68) (75.223±2.670 vs. 89.220±2.102,
p<0,001). Conclusion: MHR could be used as a practical
universal biomarker of mortality and survival in CTO patients.


This report describes self-harming behavior in males in a juvenile incarceration center. Three groups of adolescents were examined: self-harmers, those referred for a psychiatric examination, and the incarcerated general population. Compared to the general population, the youth in the two mental health groups were younger, had greater family needs, had more educational problems, were more likely to have escaped from a previous placement, and committed more rule violations. The self-harming group, when compared with the psychiatrically referred group, had a greater number of prior offenses, were more disruptive in school, performed worse on a problem-solving task, and committed more rule violations. Issues of psychopathology and treatment are discussed.


Successful treatment of diseases that sicken food-producing animals requires the use of antimicrobials. However, these drugs could result in serious consequences for human, animal, and environmental health. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance requires better communication with consumers to inform them about the risks associated with the use of these drugs, as well as the benefits gained from their rational use. This work studied consumer perceptions about the use of antimicrobials in the production of animal origin foods by questioning 72 consumers in nine focus groups. The participants were all inhabitants of the Metropolitan Region, Chile, and were assigned to focus groups of 5 to 12 individuals each, according to their age: age groups I, II, and III spanned age ranges of 25 to 35, 36 to 50, and older than 50 years, respectively. Consumers regarded the use of antimicrobials in farm animals as a relevant and necessary practice, as long as it was done adequately by veterinarians to ensure productivity and to guarantee food quality and safety. Even though most consumers identified antimicrobial use as a potential risk to their health, only a few recognized that antimicrobial resistance could be transferred from animals to humans via food consumption. Also, consumers complained that they did not have access to enough information about foods of animal origin. Consequently, they stated that food industry and regulatory entities should ensure transparency of production processes and also educate the population on this topic. Consumer perceptions about responsible and judicious use of antimicrobials may become an ally in the effort to reduce and improve the use of these drugs in animal production systems.


Limited availability of labeled-data makes any supervised learning problem challenging. Alternative learning settings like semi-supervised and universum learning alleviate the dependency on labeled data, but still require a large amount of unlabeled data, which may be unavailable or expensive to acquire. GAN-based synthetic data generation methods have recently shown promise by generating synthetic samples to improve task at hand. However, these samples cannot be used for other purposes. In this paper, we propose a GAN game which provides improved discriminator accuracy under limited data settings, while generating realistic synthetic data. This provides the added advantage that now the generated data can be used for other similar tasks. We provide the theoretical guarantees and empirical results in support of our approach.


In this article I argue that the concept of secondary rules provides a useful tool for analysing the interplay of politics and law in the evolution of the 'responsibility not to veto', which represents an attempt to subject the Security Council to the rule of law. Secondary rules help to maintain the law's overall coherence, thereby bolstering its legitimacy and hence its ability to effectively govern human conduct. Most accounts of secondary rule-making overstate the role of power while underestimating the need for powerful states to argue within the parameters set by the law itself. This contribution, by contrast, explores the interaction of power and law, and the role of secondary rules therein. It shows that the international legal order currently lacks coherence as there is no consensus on overarching principles. Hence, the legitimacy crisis of the Security Council is at the same time a legitimacy crisis of international law.


The objective of this work was to identify flies of medical and veterinary importance and their natural enemies, located around the city of Itumbiara, GO, Brazil. Five thousand eight hundred and twenty-five muscoid dipterous insects and parasitoids were collected from a Brazilian savanna (cerrado) area of Itumbiara. Substrates for obtaining flies were liver. The most frequent fly and parasitoid species found were: Fannia pusio (29.2%) and Atherigona orientalis (26.8%) (flies), Nasonia vitripennis (56.0%) and Brachymeria sp. (26.6%) (parasitoids). Musca domestica was the dipterous species of greatest sanitary importance collected. This is the first report of the species Brachymeria sp. and Hememcyrtus sp. in the State of Goias. Data contribute to the knowledge of dipterous and parasitoids fauna in the state of Goias.


Ginger is grown majorly in the derived savannah of Nigeria for its potential health benefits, this health related usefulness of ginger have also stimulated farmers concern for the growing of the plant having realized its efficacy in life changing ailments as a result of this the availability of the propagule for planting became so scarce and not within the reach of farmers. Its cultivation has recently been introduced to the South western Nigeria. A field trial was carried out at the National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan (Nigeria) to study the influence of propagule size and organic manure on the vegetative growth and rhizome yield of ginger in the rainy season of 2008. Propagule size had significant effect on plant height and number of tillers. 10g propagule size of 28.2 was highest while the organic manure control was the least for all the vegetative parameters considered. As the rate of organic manure increases, there was an increase in all the vegetative parameters reaching its peak at 15t/ha and decreased again at 20t/ha. The interaction between the propagule size and organic manure was significant for the number of rhizomes, number of tillers and the yield. 10g propagule size and 15t/ha organic manure produced optimum growth and yield of ginger.


Vegetables are major source of vitamins and fibers but presence of pathogens in salad vegetables can cause outbreak of diseases. Several studies have been conducted on commonly consumed vegetables so far to detect the level of microbial contamination. However, few of them compare the microbial quality of local and super shop vegetables. The present study was conducted for microbiological assessment and comparing four types of vegetables collected from two different market conditions. In this study, Green chili (Capsicum frutescens L.), Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) and Lady's finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) were analyzed to determine Total Viable Bacterial (TVB) Counts, Total Fungal (TF) Counts, Total Coliform Counts (TCC), Total Fecal Coliform (TFC) Counts and occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas spp., Listeria spp., Bacillus spp., Salmonella spp., and Vibrio spp. Among these microorganisms, Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were significantly present in coriander of both local market and super shop. All pathogenic bacteria and fungi were found in huge amounts in the vegetable samples of the local market. Although some pathogenic bacteria and fungi were also found in the same samples of the super shop, relatively lower than the local market's vegetables. In conclusion, contamination in collected vegetable samples were not acceptable but comparatively higher load in local market samples indicated that the hygienic condition in these markets is not sufficiently maintained.
Stamford Journal of Microbiology, Vol.11 (1) 2021: 24-27


Abstract.  This paper deals with the issue of performing a default Bayesian analysis on the shape parameter of the skew‐normal distribution. Our approach is based on a suitable pseudo‐likelihood function and a matching prior distribution for this parameter, when location (or regression) and scale parameters are unknown. This approach is important for both theoretical and practical reasons. From a theoretical perspective, it is shown that the proposed matching prior is proper thus inducing a proper posterior distribution for the shape parameter, also when the likelihood is monotone. From the practical perspective, the proposed approach has the advantages of avoiding the elicitation on the nuisance parameters and the computation of multidimensional integrals.


The objective of this study was to determine seizure control in women with epilepsy (WWE) undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART). Through retrospective chart review, WWE undergoing ART were identified. Demographics and details regarding epilepsy type, seizure control, and ART procedures were extracted. Seizure frequency prior to and during ART were compared. We identified 12 WWE, who underwent 29 embryo transfers, resulting in 16 pregnancies and 10 live births. Nine women were seizure‐free at least 2 years before fertility treatment, including three with resolved epilepsy. Seven were on antiseizure medications throughout fertility treatment and pregnancy, with only one on polytherapy. Eleven (all with controlled epilepsy or epilepsy in remission) remained seizure‐free throughout fertility treatment. One woman with drug‐resistant epilepsy continued to have seizures throughout fertility treatment and pregnancy without an exacerbation of seizure frequency. There was no increased seizure frequency associated with fertility treatment and subsequent pregnancy in this small series of WWE. Although this study was statistically underpowered, our results provide some preliminary evidence that ART might not pose a threat to seizure control, but larger, confirmatory studies are necessary.


The prolactin (PRL)-releasing activity (PRA) in the bovine hypothalamic extract (BHE) was compared to that of known substances with PRA and further characterized by gel filtration and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Crude BHE produced marked dose-dependent stimulation of PRL secretion from the cultured rat adenohypophysial cells. Among the synthetic substances examined, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and beta-endorphin (END) showed significant PRA. However, the flatter dose-response slope for TRH compared with BHE or the small amounts of VIP and END in BHE suggested that these peptides could not account for the major active elements of BHE. Oxytocin and interleukin-1beta were also tested, but they exhibited no PRA in our assay system. Gel filtration of BHE on the Sephadex G-100 column yielded two peaks of PRA distinct from TRH, VIP and END. One eluted in the void and the other in more retarded fractions. The latter fractions were pooled and subjected to the two-step RP-HPLC. The PRA was separated into three peaks designated peaks I, II and III in the first RP-HPLC experiment. Furthermore, the second RP-HPLCs with finer resolution revealed that peak II as well as peak III consisted of three peaks, while peak I eluted as a single peak. Most of these seven PRA peaks exhibited different RP-HPLC profiles from those of the newly characterized PRL-releasing peptides. These findings again provide confirmatory evidence that BHE contained unique factors different from the above known substances.


Hypertension epidemic in all developed countries is stipulated by incidence of primary hypertension. All prophylactic measures and pharmacotherapy are designed just for prevention and therapy of this hypertension form making up the majority of easy cases and unfavorable hypertension cases. The experience of western countries demonstrates the efficiency of purposeful population strategy in prophylaxis of hypertension and prevention of its complications in patients and in high risk groups with successful prevention of chronic hypodynamia, restriction of dietary salt, refusal of smoking and abuse of alcohol. Some patients also need treatment of dislipidemia and prophylaxis of thromboses with antiaggregant agents.


We report a thermoelectric study of graphene in both zero and applied magnetic fields. As a direct consequence of the linear dispersion of massless particles, we find that the Seebeck coefficient Sxx diverges with 1/sqrt[|n_{2D}|], where n_{2D} is the carrier density. We observe a very large Nernst signal S_{xy} ( approximately 50 microV/K at 8 T) at the Dirac point, and an oscillatory dependence of both Sxx and S_{xy} on n_{2D} at low temperatures. Our results underscore the anomalous thermoelectric transport in graphene, which may be used as a highly sensitive probe for impurity bands near the Dirac point.


This paper examines the macroeconomic and bank-specific variables that affect non-performing loans (NPLs) in Italy. Considering different hypotheses, I find that macroeconomic variables have a limited effect on NPLs even during a period of extreme macroeconomic and financial conditions. Quality and risk attitude of management are more relevant factors. I also find evidence in favor of the presence of a too-big-too-fail problem, which increases moral hazard attitude. Conversely, banks small-enough-to-fail are more inclined to follow procyclical lending policy in the long-run. For both small and large institutions, the relationship between banks and borrowers helps in reducing NPLs. Finally, I find that cooperative banks seem to take fewer risks.


Small traditional handicraft enterprises contribute a significantly to develop society, economics, and culture of the local through creating jobs for rural labors, increasing local budget, as well as maintaining and developing the traditional cultural values. There are interactionsamong the firms due to near locations. The aim of this paper is to describe characteristics of the cooperationcompetition among small traditional handicraft enterprises located adjacent to Hanoi capital city. Moreover, the paper also points out the relationship between cooperationproximity, and competition-proximity. It finds that the cooperation-competition relationship always exists among the enterprises and in the proximity condition. This paper gives recommendations on the strengthening cooperation between firms and improving local industry based on the cooperation – competition relationships.The methodology of research applied isa qualitative analysis, an exploratory analysis in the grounded theory.


To investigate the haemodynamic changes after physical training in patients with left ventricular aneurysm, 60 uncomplicated patients, mean age 51 +/- 10 years, underwent a maximal ergometric test in the supine position with haemodynamic monitoring (Swan-Ganz catheter) 37 +/- 10 days from acute myocardial infarction and after a 4-week period of supervised physical training. The size of aneurysmatic dilatation (aneurysm area-total end-diastolic area ratio %) and resting left ventricular ejection fraction (Dodge's method) were obtained from a two-dimensional echocardiogram (apical approach) performed on the same day of the pre-training ergometric test. On average, left ventricular ejection fraction was reduced (39 +/- 11%), with values below 35% in 25 patients. Resting pulmonary wedge pressure was greater than 12 mm Hg in 42 patients and greater than 20 mm Hg at peak exercise in 48 subjects. The entity of aneurysmatic dilatation was significantly related to left ventricular ejection fraction (r = 0.60, less than 0.001), but not to the values of pulmonary wedge pressure at rest (r = 0.22) or at peak exercise (r = 0.11). No complication during the physical training period was observed. After training, maximal work capacity increased (77 +/- 29 vs 94 +/- 35 W, P less than 0.001) as well as cardiac output and stroke volume with a slight change in pulmonary wedge pressure (24 +/- 7 vs 28 +/- 7 mm Hg, P less than 0.05). At matched submaximal exercise, heart rate decreased (P less than 0.05), stroke volume and arterio-venous oxygen difference increased (P less than 0.05) without significant changes in cardiac output and left ventricular filling pressure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This study aims to investigate the representations that Indian students have of Hispanic cultures and, on the other hand, to assess the degree to which native Spanish teachers give importance to the intercultural competence in teaching an L2. This research has been carried out by means of questionnaires and interviews with teachers and students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL).The data, gathered through the questionnaires and interviews, show a clash between the Indian students´ self-stereotypes and their other-stereotypes regarding the Hispanics. The results also show a contradiction between the will and determination of the SFL teachers to incorporate "intercultural" elements in their teaching practice and the feeble extent to which they manage to do so.


Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs), which relate the longitudinal momentum fraction of quarks and gluons to their transverse position, enable 3D tomographic imaging of the nucleon and can provide information on its spin composition and distribution of pressure. The golden channel for accessing GPDs experimentally is the exclusive process of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS), in which a high energy electron scatters from a parton within a nucleon and a high energy photon is produced as a result. We present DVCS highlights from Jefferson Lab in the 6 GeV era and an overview of the 12 GeV programme.


Four general hospitals in Cyprus evaluated the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains in positive cultures of staphylococci among inpatients from September 1999 to March 2000. One hundred and ninety three (193) strains were isolated from cultures of respiratory secretions, skin and mucous membrane lesions, blood and urine. Of the S. aureus strains studied, 80 (41.45%) were MRSA and 113 (58.55%) were methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). More than 78.75% of the MRSA were resistant to erythromycin and 18.75% to gentamicin. Of the MSSA, 17.69% were resistant to erythromycin and 7.08% to gentamicin. None of the MRSA and MSSA strains showed reduced sensitivity to vancomycin.


Objective: The purpose of this review is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of colchicine after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Data Sources: English-language searches were made of MEDLINE and EMBASE from database inception through mid-June 2020. Study Selection and Data Extraction: Randomized trials characterizing the effects of colchicine in ACS were considered. Of 627 title and abstracts identified, nine trials were included. Two reviewers extracted data and rated study quality. Data Synthesis: Four studies showed colchicine did not attenuate C-reactive protein production. Colchicine did modulate the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 inflammasome in 3 studies and reduced production of chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), CCL5, and C-X3-C motif chemokine ligand 1 in 1 study. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were not significantly different at 30 days in 3 studies, administered as 1.8 mg preprocedurally or scheduled 1 mg daily. One study found a significant reduction in MACE with colchicine 0.5 mg daily over median 22.6 months (hazard ratio = 0.77; 95% CI = 0.61-0.96). Colchicine is associated with increased gastrointestinal adverse events but was generally well tolerated. Relevance to Patient Care and Clinical Practice: Colchicine is likely to reduce MACE in an ACS population if administered for greater than 30 days but does not improve MACE when administered only preprocedurally. Conclusions: Adjunctive colchicine 0.5 mg daily for greater than 30 days is reasonable for an ACS population on guideline-directed medical therapy treated with PCI. Additional studies are needed to validate and determine the durability of these benefits.


The circuit described in this paper uses a "verta-color" stacked two-diode structure to measure relative long and short wavelength spectral content. The p-type source-drain to nwell forms the top diode and the nwell-psubstrate diode forms the bottom diode. The circuit output is a digital PWM signal whose frequency encodes absolute intensity and whose duty cycle encodes the relative photodiode current. This signal is formed by a self-timed circuit that alternately discharges the top and bottom photodiodes. This circuit was fabricated in a standard 3M 2P 0.5 mum CMOS process. Monochromatic stimulation shows that the duty cycle varies between 50% and 7% as the photon wavelength is varied between 400 nm to 750 nm. The output frequency is 150 Hz at incident irradiance of 1.7 W/m2. Chip-to-chip variation of PWM duty cycle and frequency is about 1% measured over 5 chips. Power consumption is 20 muW. A modified version of this circuit could form the basis for simple color vision sensors built in widely-available vanilla CMOS.


Alcohol use appears to be equally prevalent among rural and urban teenagers, but teenage drinking and driving may be more widespread in rural areas. An analysis of casualty collisions involving teenage drivers who had been drinking provides support for this hypothesis, revealing higher rates of such accidents in rural than in urban areas of the Canadian province of Alberta. A case study of rural teenagers in a single Alberta county replicates previous findings of more widespread drinking and driving among older youth and among males. These survey data also show that rural youth who spend more time 'driving around' with friends and those with more disposable income are more likely to drink and drive. Those with greater educational ambition and with more respect for authority figures are less likely to do so, as are those who more often attend a place of worship. An explanatory framework making reference to 'routine activities' and 'social bonds' is used to interpret these relationships, and to suggest policy implications.


Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are used as a bridge during the transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and to make energy consumption more efficient. The main problem in improving the efficiency of HEV energy consumption is torque management. In this study, a novel approach based on a nonlinear model predictive controller to solve the reference tracking and torque distribution problem is proposed. That is to say, in order to increase the efficiency of torque distribution, the weights of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) are trained with a Deep Q Network (DQN), and an event-triggered mechanism is designed with DQN to reduce the computational cost of MPC. The considered torque distribution problem varies according to the type and structure of the HEV. In this study, a parallel type 2 hybrid electric vehicle (P2 HEV) is considered and modeled via publicly shared passenger vehicle data of the engine, motor, high-voltage battery, transmission, clutch, differential, and wheel characteristics. NMPC is formulated so that the torque values remain within the physical limits of the engine, and the battery also operates at its physical limits. Namely, it is guaranteed that the battery works according to a certain state of charge (SOC) window and current limits. The state of health (SOH) of the battery is also considered in the optimization. The motor and engine efficiencies increase by 3.61% and 2.86%, respectively, with the proposed control structure, while the computational cost is reduced by 52.01% when utilizing the proposed event-triggering mechanism in the NMPC controller.


Abstract How do people learn from disasters? Do they constantly develop and accumulate new knowledge that enables them to address recurrent disaster risks? This paper investigates whether social learning and, in particular, the development of earthquake-mitigating technologies reduces earthquake-induced fatalities. Combining patent data with a global cross-section of 894 earthquakes that occurred between 1980 and 2010, we find that countries with more disaster-mitigating innovations and more earthquake exposure in the past suffer fewer fatalities. This study is the first to empirically examine the role of technological change and social learning in disaster mitigation. It sheds light on knowledge as a key element of adaptive capacity, and suggests the importance of incorporating technology development into a long-term hazard mitigation and adaptation policy. The paper also contributes to the empirical disaster literature as the first to address the problem of missing data on disaster losses.


The rate of sediment pickup for suspension by breaking waves is shown to be proportional to the dissipation rate of wave energy flux within the surf zone. A database of mean concentration of suspended sediment has been compiled by collecting various data of field measurements and large-scale laboratory tests and by calculating the depth-averaged mean concentration. The wave energy flux dissipation rate is computed with the PEGBIS model for random wave breaking on beaches of arbitrary profile. By comparing the mean sediment concentration and the energy flux dissipation rate, a sediment pickup coefficient is assessed at a value of 0.0045 on the average. Use of this coefficient makes it possible to estimate the cross-shore variation of mean sediment concentration. Peak values of mean sediment concentration within measured cross-shore profiles agree well with the prediction based on the wave energy flux dissipation rate.


Parser is a process of classifying sentence structures of a language. Parser receives a sentence and breaks it up into correct phrases. The purpose of this research is to develop a Malay single sentence parser that can help primary school students to learn Malay language according to the correct phrases. This is because research in Malay sentence parsing has not gotten enough attention from researchers to the extent of building parser prototypes. This research used top-down parsing technique, and grammar chosen was context-free grammar (CFG) for Malay language. However, to parse a sentence with correct phrase was a difficult task due to lack of resources for obtaining Malay lexicon. Malay lexicon is a database that stores thousands of words with their correct phrases. Therefore, this research developed a Malay lexicon based on an article from Dewan Masyarakat magazine. In conclusion, this research can provide help to the primary school students to organize correct Malay single sentences.


The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a significant growth in government surveillance techniques globally, primarily through the use of cell phone applications. However, although these applications can have actionable effects on public health efforts to control pandemics, the participatory or voluntary nature of these measures is obscuring the relationship between health information and traditional government surveillance techniques, potentially preventing effective oversight. Public health measures have traditionally been resistant to the integration of government-led intelligence techniques, such as signals intelligence (SIGINT), because of ethical and legal issues arising from the nature of surveillance techniques.We explore this rise of participatory SIGINT and its nature as an extension of biosurveillance through 3 drivers: the rise of surveillance capitalism, the exploitation of a public health crisis to obscure state of exception politics with a moral imperative, and the historically enduring nature of emergency-implemented surveillance measures.We conclude that although mobile applications may indeed be useful in containing pandemics, they should be subject to similar oversight and regulation as other government intelligence collection techniques. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print October 15, 2020: e1-e6. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305912).


Recent work has considered power control for wireless data networks from the framework of microeconomics. The user preferences have been mapped to utility functions measured in useful bits transmitted per unit of battery energy. We consider utility maximizing distributed power control in the presence of pricing and study the existence and efficiency of equilibria achieved. Specifically, we investigate the Pareto efficiency of a pricing policy that punishes asocial behavior in terms of the transmit power used by each user and hence the interference caused by it. The Nash equilibria achieved under pricing are characterized by using supermodularity. We propose a simple implementation of the pricing scheme where the base station broadcasts a pricing parameter that users use in their distributed power control algorithm. With the appropriate choice of the pricing parameter, all users increase their utilities significantly as compared to the case where there is no pricing. We also discuss the implication of pricing with regard to achieving a socially optimum operating point.


The photo-fragmentation of ammonia molecular clusters ionized with soft x-rays is studied for photon energies near the N-1s threshold. The fragmentation is studied with a 3D momentum mass spectrometer to access the energy and angular correlations between fragments. By choosing the cluster sizes below or above the critical size of stable dication, we investigate the coulomb explosion dynamics and the interplay between charge delocalization and mobility of molecules in the clusters.


Healthcare CFOs commonly demand hard data to prove that an investment in computerized physician order entry (CPOE) will be worthwhile. However, a balanced analysis of cost and quality of the CPOE system has advantages over traditional return-on-investment appraisals. Montefiore Medical Center (MMC), Bronx, New York, assessed the value of its CPOE system by quantifying cost and quality measures rather than relying solely on dollar returns. MMC collected process times for medication ordering before and after the CPOE system was introduced and demonstrated that the use of CPOE increased medication ordering efficiency by 92 percent. MMC calculated additional process times for ward clerks, nurses, and pharmacists before and after CPOE implementation and determined the time saved per employee. From that number, the dollars potentially saved per employee and total potential dollar value of time savings per year were calculated.


The intended purpose of hernia societies is being lost. Originally, they
were meant to be a venue for the dissemination of basic science, knowledge and
sharing of acquired research, experiences by surgeons with the ultimate aim of
improving a patient's lot. Instead, they have become venues and brokerage
houses where the plastics industry may advertise and sell products which have
barely been tested or about which the truth was never entirely revealed. An FDA
approval, sadly, is not assurance that all is well. We are discovering these
facts through the courts and the lay press. We, as surgeons, are not told the
whole truth to impart to patients who expect nothing less! Have any of us been
complicit, knowingly or not?


This study aims to explore the effect of the Rubus extract on the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway in alcoholic liver fibrosis rats. The alcoholic liver rat model was established by continuous ethanol gavage administration. Rats were divided randomly into six groups (i.e., blank control, model, 0.05g/kg Rubus extract, 0.125g/kg Rubus extract, 0.259 g/kg Rubus extract and positive control groups). Liver tissue and blood were collected after treatment for four weeks. The pathological changes in the liver were observed by HE and Masson staining methods. The hyaluronic acid (HA), TNF-α and IL-6 levels were determined by ELISA kits. The TLR4 and p-p65 protein expression levels in liver were detected by Western blot. The liver lesion degree was significantly decreased in the Rubus extract group, and a high concentration of the Rubus extract indicated a significant improvement. The TNF-α, HA and IL-6 levels in the Rubus extract and positive control groups were significantly lower than those of the model group (P<0.05). The TLR4 and p-p65 protein expression levels were also significantly decreased in the Rubus extract and positive control groups (P< 0.05) with a concentration dependence of Rubus extract. The Rubus extract could delay the development of alcoholic liver fibrosis through inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB pathway activity.


Abstract Background Sequential nephron blockade using intravenous chlorothiazide is often used to enhance urine output in patients with inadequate response to loop diuretics. A few data exist to support this practice in critically ill infants. Methods We included 100 consecutive patients <1 year of age who were administered intravenous chlorothiazide while receiving furosemide therapy in the cardiac ICU in our study. The primary end point was change in urine output 24 hours after chlorothiazide administration, and patients were considered to be responders if an increase in urine output of 0.5 ml/kg/hour was documented. Data on demographic, clinical, fluid intake/output, and furosemide and chlorothiazide dosing were collected. Multivariable regression analyses were performed to determine variables significant for increase in urine output after chlorothiazide administration. Results The study population was 48% male, with a mean weight of 4.9±1.8 kg, and 69% had undergone previous cardiovascular surgery. Intravenous chlorothiazide was initiated at 89 days (interquartile range 20–127 days) of life at a dose of 4.6±2.7 mg/kg/day (maximum 12 mg/kg/day). Baseline estimated creatinine clearance was 83±42 ml/minute/1.73 m2. Furosemide dose before chlorothiazide administration was 2.8±1.4 mg/kg/day and 3.3±1.5 mg/kg/day after administration. A total of 43% of patients were categorised as responders, and increase in furosemide dose was the only variable significant for increase in urine output on multivariable analysis (p<0.05). No graphical trends were noted for change in urine output and dose of chlorothiazide. Conclusions Sequential nephron blockade with intravenous chlorothiazide was not consistently associated with improved urine output in critically ill infants.


The work investigates the integration between tools for analysis and simulation of cooling systems at Volvo Group Trucks Technology. At the same time it is a consequent step in evaluating GT-SUITE for the purposes of analysis and simulation of such systems.

The focus is on 1D simulation tools, which are generally preferred in the context of transient simulations of engine and power train installation systems. The Cooling Analysis and Simulations group at Volvo Group Trucks Technology use a variety of 1D simulation tools for analysis of cooling performance. Volvo Power Train, on the other hand, use among others GT-SUITE for engine simulations. It is expected to improve the quality of the simulation, (i.e the accuracy of the results) and improve system integration by using one tool for both areas of simulation.

This work delivers two transient models of FH 13L cooling system integrated with a predictive model of the engine and a detailed model of the main coolant circuit.

Average coefficient of determination (indicator of the consistency between test and simulation) achieved by the models is R^2 >0.8, which for most of the parameters is higher than the results given by the currently available internal program for transient simulations. The rate of execution of the model is successfully increased to 1 × Real Time.

The work has proven the feasibility and the integrability of an engine model and a model of a cooling system in GT-SUITE for the purposes of transient analysis.


Secondary metastatic tumours of the uterine cervix are rare. There have been no reports of duodenal cancer metastasizing to the uterine cervix. Here we present a rare case of an extra-ampullary duodenal adenocarcinoma that has metastasized to the uterine cervix. The patient was a 71-year-old woman who had surgery for an extra-ampullary duodenal adenocarcinoma five years previously. Follow-up examination revealed a suspicious right ovarian mass and nodules in the cervix and posterior fornix of the vagina. Biopsies suggested squamous cell carcinoma in the cervix and adenocarcinoma in the fornix. Intraoperatively, the right ovary was enlarged and peritoneal disseminations were found in the pouch of Douglas and the sigmoid colon mesentery. Histopathology of the subsequent hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy specimen revealed a cervical squamous cell carcinoma categorized as pT1b1. Adenocarcinoma infiltration into the ovaries, uterine cervix and vagina, with vascular involvement was detected. Immunohistochemistry revealed the tumour in the cervix and ovaries to be positive for CK7, MUC5AC and MUC6, and immunonegative for CK20, CDX2, Pax8, ER, MUC2 and CD10, similar to the original duodenal adenocarcinoma. This case illustrates the difficulty in making a preoperative diagnosis of metastatic adenocarcinoma in the uterine cervix with a coexisting primary cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The absence of atypia in cervical glandular cells and immunohistochemical profiling of the adenocarcinoma clusters helped to reach a final diagnosis. This is the first report of an extra-ampullary duodenal adenocarcinoma metastasis to the uterine cervix.


Blood flow through arterial stenosis can play a crucial role at the post stenotic flow regions. This produces a disturbance in the normal flow path. The intensity of the flow disturbance (i.e. laminar, transitional and turbulent flow characteristics) depends not only on the severity of the stenosis but also on the pattern of the geometrical model. In that case, the turbulence model plays vital role to measure these flow disturbances. However, it is very important to choose a proper flow simulation model that can predict the flow behavior of fluid accurately and efficiently with less computational cost and time. Thus, this study aims to analyze the results of two turbulence models i.e. k-ω and k-ε for blood flow simulation to compare their performance for the prediction of the flow behavior. Simulations have been performed with 75% area reductions in the arteries. The results of simulation show that, the flow parameters obtained from the k-ε model exhibits lack of fits with the experimental data. On the other hand, k-ω model can capture large scale gradient in the different parameters of blood flow and has a good agreement with the experimental data. This study suggests that, k-ω model has the better performance comparing to k-ε model to predict the behavior of blood flow in stenosed artery.
GANIT J. Bangladesh Math. Soc. 40.2 (2020) 111-125


This account of Koreans in the former Soviet Union describes important discoveries concerning a key hidden story of the Korean people and identity. The paper describes important aspects of Korean life in Central Asia that have been relatively undermined by many scholars in international relations and anthropology. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the history and meaning of the settlement of Korean people in Russia and Central Asia from a multitude of perspectives. Despite the size of the Korean population and its significant contributions to the building of Soviet society, very little has been written about Koreans in the former Soviet Union. In fact, the ethnic Korean group has been one of the largest minority groups in the former Soviet Union, representing an important element of both Soviet and post-Soviet political, social, ethnic, and economic history. This study revealed, once again, the tragic story of Stalin's deportation of Kan people in Russia and explored an intriguing analysis of the re-encounter of Korean and Turkish people after a millennium and their long, intimate cultural bond. In particular, this study demonstrated that the historical and cultural affinities between Koreans and Central Asians existed long before Stalin's deportation. Political, economic, social, and linguistic exchanges between Korean people and Turkic people are deeply rooted in the same mythology of Dangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom of Gojoseon. This reflects the dynamics of success of the Korean people in the former Soviet Union as well as their mutual interest in enhancing relations between Korea and the Turkic states and Siberian region.


The diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in children is surrounded by controversy. Some authors emphasize the risks of giving early diagnoses, while others consider it essential for guiding treatment. An intermediate position involves identifying clinical indicators of the possibility of BPD developing in adulthood. These include the use of immature defense mechanisms. Children who have experienced traumatic events in their relationships with their parents, like those taken in by child protective services, are at an increased risk of developing BPD in adulthood. The present study explores the links between traits of borderline personality disorder and defense mechanisms among school-age children who have experienced traumatic events. The results show that certain borderline personality traits are linked to immature defense mechanisms, and inversely associated with mature defense mechanisms.


Trigeneration or combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) systems fueled by raw biogas can be an interesting alternative for supplying electricity and thermal services in remote rural areas where biogas can be produced without requiring sophisticated equipment. In this sense, this study considers a performance analysis of a novel small-scale CCHP system where a biogas-fired, 5 kWel externally fired microturbine (EFMT), an absorption refrigeration system (ARS) and heat exchangers are integrated for supplying electricity, refrigeration and hot water demanded by Bolivian small dairy farms. The CCHP solution presents two cases, current and nominal states, in which experimental and design data of the EFMT performance were considered, respectively. The primary energy/exergy rate was used as a performance indicator. The proposed cases show better energy performances than those of reference fossil fuel-based energy solutions (where energy services are produced separately) allowing savings in primary energy utilization of up to 31%. Furthermore, improvements in electric efficiency of the EFMT and coefficient of performance (COP) of the ARS, identified as key variables of the system, allow primary energy savings of up to 37%. However, to achieve these values in real conditions, more research and development of the technologies involved is required, especially for the EFMT.


Mutations in the gene encoding the gap‐junction protein connexin 26 (GJB2) on chromosome 13q11 (DFNB1 locus) have been shown as a major contributor to prelingual, non‐syndromic, autosomal recessive deafness in Caucasian populations. One specific mutation, 35delG, has accounted for the majority of the mutations detected in the GJB2 gene and is one of the most frequent disease mutations identified to date. We have previously reported a carrier frequency of 35delG of 3.5% in the Greek population, and the 35delG mutation has been detected in one‐third of the alleles in Greek patients with sensorineural, prelingual, non‐syndromic deafness. The description of this common mutation has opened the way to prenatal diagnosis of prelingual deafness, and we here describe our experience with 29 couples requesting counseling, carrier testing and prenatal diagnosis of DFNB1 deafness. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We present an algorithm for unsupervised induction of labeled parse trees. The algorithm has three stages: bracketing, initial labeling, and label clustering. Bracketing is done from raw text using an unsupervised incremental parser. Initial labeling is done using a merging model that aims at minimizing the grammar description length. Finally, labels are clustered to a desired number of labels using syntactic features extracted from the initially labeled trees. The algorithm obtains 59% labeled f-score on the WSJ10 corpus, as compared to 35% in previous work, and substantial error reduction over a random baseline. We report results for English, German and Chinese corpora, using two label mapping methods and two label set sizes.


Objectives To investigate risk perception relating to living kidney donation, to compare the risk donors would accept with current practice and identify influential factors. Design An observational study consisting of questionnaires completed by previous living donors and the general public. Participants selected the risk they would accept from a list of options, in various scenarios. Risk communication was investigated by randomly dividing the sample and presenting risk differently. Setting Primary care (two centres) and secondary care (one centre), London. Participants 175 questionnaires were sent to patients who had previously undergone living-donor nephrectomy and to members of the public consulting a general practitioner. The living-donor sample comprised 77 consecutive donors at Guy's Hospital from May 2003 to January 2005. The general-public sample was recruited from two London healthcare centres. Of the eventual 151 participants, 61 were living donors and 90 were from the general public. Main outcome measure The amount of risk a participant would accept to donate a kidney. Results 74% of participants were willing to accept a risk of death higher than 1/3000. The most commonly accepted risk was 1/2 (29%). Those presented with a 'chance of survival' accepted higher risks than those presented with a 'risk of death' (p<0.01). Greater risks were accepted when the recipient was closely related and, for some, when the recipient's prognosis was worse. No difference was observed between the living-donor and general-public groups. Conclusions Kidney donors will accept a higher risk of death than is currently quoted, especially if risks are presented in terms of chance of survival.


Stereoselective synthesis of naturally occurring α,β-unsaturated lactones desacetylumuravumbolide and umuravumbolide is described. Commercially available propargyl alcohol was used as the starting material. The key steps of this synthesis were alkynylation, a Noyori asymmetric reduction and Still–Gennari olefination. Additionally, the biological activity of umuravumbolides was evaluated on HeLa, MDA-MB-231, MCF7 and A549 cancer cell lines. Umuravumbolide (2) showed potent anticancer activity.


The conceptualization of factors responsible for the etiology of patellofemoral pain are changing. In the recent past, chondromalacia and malalignment were believed to be most important factors relative to the genesis of anterior knee pain symptoms. However, new evidence from Europe and North America indicates other factors may be more important, such as overuse of anatomically normal patellofemoral structures, leading to the possible loss of both osseous and soft tissue homeostasis. The range of painless loading compatible with tissue homeostasis of a joint without causing structural or physiologic injury is termed the "envelope of function." Restoration of the envelope of function as safely and predictably as possible is viewed as the primary underlying principle of treatment for patients with patellofemoral pain.


Having "strong macroeconomic fundamentals", as the Philippines supposedly did pre-COVID-19, matters much less (if at all), in and of itself, to economic outcomes in the context of a physical shock. Using a model for 21 countries in ASEAN + 3, developing East Asia and South Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand to explain the difference in actual 2019 and forecasted 2020 GDP growth, we find that, ceteris paribus, stronger national capacities to detect and respond to emerging outbreaks, in particular, laboratory capacity, are associated with better short term economic outcomes. For the Philippines, up to 3.6 percentage points in lost GDP growth forecasted in 2020 could have been saved. Our results suggest that a dearth in health system capacity should be prioritized over and above any other type of spending, including traditional stimulus (e.g. large-scale infrastructure) spending. Our results also underscore the need to rethink what is necessary for the stability and resilience of an economy – what are the "economic fundamentals" - in an era of global physical shocks, including those brought about by climate hazards. Given physical shocks, efficient and prepared government institutions matter. A macro economy is not resilient if these are not.


Based on ~1H-NMR metabonomics technique and Western blot assay, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Crepis crocea was discussed. In this study, male SD rats were treated with water extract(2.5 g·kg~(-1)) and dexamethasone acetate(6.25×10~(-4) g·kg~(-1)) for one week, and the inflammation model was induced by lipopolysaccharide(LPS). Then the counts of inflammatory cells white blood ceel(WBC), eosinophil(EO), lymphocyte(LY), basophils(BA) and neutrophils(NE) in whole blood of rats were observed. The levels of serum inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), interleukin-1β(IL-1β), IL-6 and the expression of nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB) signaling pathway p65 and p-IκBα proteins in lung tissues were detected, and the change rules of serum endogenous metabolites were analyzed by ~1H-NMR metabonomics technique. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and NF-κB signaling pathway p65 and p-IκBα proteins were combined with ~1H-NMR metabonomics to study the anti-inflammatory mechanism of C. crocea. The results showed that the water extract of C. crocea significantly decreased the number of WBC, NE, EO, increased the number of BA and LY, decreased the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and the expression of p65 and p-IκBα protein in NF-κB signaling pathway, and effectively alleviated the inflammatory symptoms. In the correlation analysis of differential metabolites regulated of C. crocea, four significant metabolites were obtained, including glycine, creatine, methionine and succinic acid. The anti-inflammatory mechanism of C. crocea may be related to the decrease of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 levels and the protein expression of NF-κB signaling pathway, as well as the regulation of glycine, creatine, methionine and succinic acid metabolism.


The development of information technology and the formation of various social networks is proceeding very rapidly, increasing the creation of many forms of selforganization – including civil society, unions, and associations. It therefore becomes urgent to create an effective system of communication between public authorities and society. This article provides a brief analysis of the study of network societies in service-type states. It is emphasized that the use of a service state in Ukraine in the process of development is a very important factor that ensures the interconnection and interplay of such subjects of the public administration system as: public authorities, business structures, and NGOs. The prospects of the realization of the project "State in a Smartphone" as a concept of digital transformation in Ukraine in the direction of its functioning as a service are analyzed. The current state of the implementation of e-democracy tools in Ukraine in the context of digital transformation in the development of a service state is investigated. Ukraine significantly contributes to improving the efficiency of public administration and ensuring sustainable socio-economic development during change management processes. This positive effect is achieved through the active involvement of the population and public structures in the process of developing, making, and implementing political and administrative decisions regarding the creation and dissemination of public goods, and in meeting public interests and needs. Thus, interaction between the authorities and public organizations and the optimization of their cooperation with the use of modern communication technologies should contribute to the democratization of society, and should facilitate improvements in the quality of life of the population. Therefore, the issue of the development and implementation of new communication technologies in the activities of different levels of government in the context of building interaction with civil society institutions is of particular importance in contemporary Ukraine.


In a recent paper Day and Duffy proposed a strategy for designing a randomized trial of different breast cancer screening schedules. Their strategy was based on the use of predictors of mortality determined by patients' factors at diagnosis as surrogates for true mortality. On the basis of the Prentice criterion for validity of a surrogate end point, and data from earlier studies of breast cancer case survival, they showed that, not only would the trial require a much shorter follow‐up, but also that the information (i.e. inverse variance) for evaluating a treatment effect on mortality would be greater by a factor of nearly 3 if the predictors of mortality were used, compared with a trial in which mortality was actually observed. Although these results are technically correct, we believe that the conceptual strategy on which they are based is flawed, and that the fundamental problem is the Prentice criterion itself. In this paper the technical issues are discussed in detail, and an alternative structure for evaluating the validity of surrogate end points is proposed.


Aim
Non-native invasive insects have major impacts on ecosystem function, agricultural production and human health. To predict the geographical distributions of these species, correlative ecological niche models (ENMs) are typically used. Such methods rely on assumptions of niche conservatism, although there is increasing evidence that many species undergo niche shifts during invasions. The magnitude and direction of niche shifts, however, is likely to vary within and between taxonomic groups, highlighting that an assessment of potential niche shifts in such insects is required.

Location
Global.

Time period
Current.

Major taxa studied
Insects.

Methods
We compile a novel database of 22 globally invasive, non-native insect species and test for niche expansion and unfilling across this group. We examine if factors such as the native range size, poleward shifts and human influence may be associated with observed niche changes. Finally, we construct ENMs and examine the reliability of their predictions in light of our niche shift results.

Results
Niche expansion was apparent in 12 of the 22 species, suggesting that altered species–climate relationships during invasion is common for this group. Likewise, niche unfilling occurred in 15 of the species. Increasing human disturbance (combining human population, transport networks and land use) explained 40% of observed niche expansions and 54% of incidents of niche unfilling. Niche metrics and ENM performance were sensitive to the choice of background extents.

Main conclusions
Many non-native insects expand into new climates in their invasive ranges. The prevalence of niche unfilling across this group suggests climate disequilibrium and the potential for further range expansion. Non-native invasive insects tend to invade areas with similar human disturbance to their native range, and habitat accessibility appears important for these species to achieve their full invasion range potential. Ideally, ENMs should not be used in isolation for this group, but should be coupled with other methods or experiments to test for potential niche change.


We report three cases of stone formation at the prostatic urethra after 80 W potassium-titanyl-phosphate laser ablation of the prostate for benign prostatic hyperplasia. These complications occurred several months after the procedure. The diagnosis was made by ultrasonography, plain radiography of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder, and cystoscopy in patients who were being evaluated after presenting with irritative voiding symptoms. The patients were treated by cystolithotripsy and resection of the calcified prostatic tissue.


Background The total incidence of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Europe has been declining in recent years; however, a rising incidence due to serogroup W (MenW), predominantly sequence type 11 (ST-11), clonal complex 11 (cc11), was reported in some European countries. Aim The aim of this study was to compile the most recent laboratory surveillance data on MenW IMD from several European countries to assess recent trends in Europe. Methods In this observational, retrospective study, IMD surveillance data collected from 2013–17 by national reference laboratories and surveillance units from 13 European countries were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results The overall incidence of IMD has been stable during the study period. Incidence of MenW IMD per 100,000 population (2013: 0.03; 2014: 0.05; 2015: 0.08; 2016: 0.11; 2017: 0.11) and the proportion of this serogroup among all invasive cases (2013: 5% (116/2,216); 2014: 9% (161/1,761); 2015: 13% (271/2,074); 2016: 17% (388/2,222); 2017: 19% (393/2,112)) continuously increased. The most affected countries were England, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. MenW was more frequent in older age groups (≥ 45 years), while the proportion in children (< 15 years) was lower than in other age groups. Of the culture-confirmed MenW IMD cases, 80% (615/767) were caused by hypervirulent cc11. Conclusion During the years 2013–17, an increase in MenW IMD, mainly caused by MenW cc11, was observed in the majority of European countries. Given the unpredictable nature of meningococcal spread and the epidemiological potential of cc11, European countries may consider preventive strategies adapted to their contexts.


Background Mobile health applications (apps) can help individuals with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis (OA) learn about, monitor, and manage their condition. These apps have not been formally evaluated. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the publicly available mobile health apps for individuals with knee and/or hip OA using a systematic review. Methods We searched the Apple App Store, Android Google Play, and Amazon Appstore using the terms "arthritis," "osteoarthritis," "hip OA," "knee OA," "hip," "knee," "rehabilitation," "rehab," and "physical therapy" in December of 2021. Applications that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were reviewed using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS; 29 items across 6 sections, each rated at 1–5). Results Among 1104 identified apps, 94 met the inclusion/exclusion criteria for MARS appraisal. Fourteen apps met the predetermined score thresholds for final summary. Of the 14 apps appraised, the total overall mean app score on the MARS ranged from 3.12 to 4.20 (mean, 3.51 ± 0.37). Although app features varied, common features were symptom tracking, exercise recommendations, education, goal setting, and improving well-being. Many apps allowed for sharing with health care providers and included some measures to protect privacy. Jointfully Osteoarthritis was the top-rated app in both the Apple App Store and Android Google Play. Conclusions The majority of the apps we identified for knee and/or hip OA did not meet predetermined score thresholds for final summary. Many failed to provide comprehensive education and deliver management plans and lacked scientific testing. Future research should focus on apps that fit the needs of health care providers and patients including quality information, structured exercise programs tailored to individual needs, secure communication methods, and health information protection.