Properties of material play crux role in process optimization design strategies for the development of equipments for handling, conveying, processing and storage. The improperly developed machinery if applied in any process line results in undesirable effect. Low recovery of quality milled white rice from paddy may thus also be influenced by the process of hulling and milling. The effect of shelling and milling on physical and optical properties of promising Indian long paddy varieties PUSA 1121, Muchhal, Sugandha, Shabnam and Usha were evaluated. The initial level of moisture content of selected paddy varieties was in the range of 11.6 to 13.2% (dry basis). Computer vision as a rapid, consistent and objective evaluation method has been successfully applied in the verification of dimensional properties. Dimensional comparison showed that PUSA 1121 kernel was longest and Usha as shortest rice variety. The result shows significant difference in milling characteristics and PUSA 1121 was found most affected paddy cultivars being longest grain rice variety.


Abstract The aim of the study is to examine the impact of public expenditure on economic growth of Kosovo. Time series data span for the period of time 2002-2015. The structure of the econometric model is built on Keynesian theories and endogenous growth model. The model estimation is performed only after implementing the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) Unit Root test to estimate if time series are stationary. Several tests have been implemented to determine model validity. The model has met all the assumptions of statistical tests: error term residuals have a normal distribution (Jarque-Bera test), there is no auto-correlation between variables (Breusch-Godfrey Serial test), and error variances are constant, known as the principle of homoscedasticity (Breusch-Pagan-Godfrey test). Gross domestic product is used as a dependent variable in the model, while public expenditure (G), foreign direct investment (FDI), export (EXP) and total budget revenue (TrTax) are used as the endogenous variables. The study results have revealed that there is a positive and statistically significant effect of public expenditures and exports on economic growth. Total budget revenue has a positive impact on economic growth but this has not been proved to be statistically significant. The authors of the research have also found out that FDI is negative and statistically insignificant.


We present the first comprehensive study of mutual fund voting in proxy contests. Among contests where voting takes place, passive funds are 10 percentage points less likely than active funds to vote for dissidents. The gap shrinks significantly when accounting for votes withheld from management nominees, settled contests, and votes by non- "Big-Three" fund families. Passive and active funds are equally informed about firm fundamentals, although passive funds view contest-related SEC filings more often than active funds during contests, in absolute levels and incrementally relative to noncontest periods. We conclude that passive funds are engaged shareholders in high-stakes voting events.


Patent assertion entities, sometimes known as 'patent trolls,' do not manufacture goods themselves but profit from licensing agreements that they often enforce via the threat of litigation. This paper explores empirically how litigation by one such patent troll affected the sales of medical imaging technology. It finds evidence that relative to similar products, made by the same firm, but not covered by the patent, imaging software sales declined by one-third. This was not due to a suppression in demand by hospitals but instead is linked to a lack of incremental product innovation during the period of litigation.

http://ebusiness.mit.edu/research/papers/2011.12_Tucker_Patent trolls and Techonology Diffusion_305.pdf


UK drink-drive countermeasures have been grounded in deterrence theory and more specifically through per se legislation. Education and information campaigns to stimulate inhibitory behavioural systems have emphasized the legal limit in terms of "driving safeness". This study examined the relationship between subjective perceptions of safe driving and legal driving consumption limits and other factors important in the decision to drive after drinking. Responses from over 900 drivers established that those who perceived safe consumption levels to be greater than that required to break the law indicated reduced moral commitment to present and possible future countermeasures. These drivers also had previous experience of being breath tested (but not charged with a drink-driving offence), reported comparatively lower estimates of their chances of apprehension and accident involvement when over the legal limit, showed higher consumption levels on a driving trip and greater self-reported driving while impaired by alcohol. The implications of the findings for the development and delivery of measures to counter drink-driving are discussed.


The circadian clock is a biological system that allows organisms to adapt to temporal constraints of the environment. It governs all body functions. The circadian clock has an endogenous period and entrains to the external day by the means of timing cues, also called "zeitgebers". A discrepancy between internal and external day or internal day and certain body functions results in circadian desynchrony, most prominently represented in jet lag. Circadian desynchrony may be a factor in many diseases. This review presents literature in which the impact of circadian desynchrony on disease development - with a special focus on critical illness - has been addressed. The treatment options that have so far been investigated are also presented.


For 15 to 20 years, electron microscopy studies have shown that some hereditary renal diseases are characterized by various abnormalities of the basement membranes. In the nail-patella syndrome, in Alport's syndrome and variants, and in benign familial hematuria, the changes involve the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). In nephronophthisis, the tubular basement membrane (TBM) is affected. These histopathologic features are not uniform. The progress afforded by biochemistry, immunology, and molecular biology allows us to compare these various lesions, to analyze their biochemical characteristics and their antigenicity, and to hypothesize as to the mechanisms involved.


Mankind has managed to develop the resources available to it to harness it in its service and
achieve comfort and luxury, as technology has entered into all aspects of human life; It became a general and
important phenomenon present in the home, the street, and work, and this technology has facilitated the life of
man and enabled him to do his work better, faster, and more accurate. The Noble Qur'an is a valid and
comprehensive book for all aspects of life, as it is the book that God Almighty pleases for all mankind. Never,
ever, and this book has included everything that humanity needs - even those who are not believers in it - what
will benefit them in this world and the hereafter if they understand, read and contemplate what is in it with a
successful mind far from fanaticism and passion, and the Qur'an has included many systems that are compatible
with the nature He built the human being that he desperately needs, as the legislator has the best knowledge of
what is compatible with the nature of this person. So what God Almighty has legislated, i.e. legislation that is
harmful to the people of man ever, so everything that comes from God is good for man if he adheres to it as it
came from God Almighty, and this research aims to prove the importance of Islamic systems in contemporary
reality using modern technologies, there is neither life nor The survival of any society, whoever was without
experiencing the characteristics of the systems, as it is from the Lord of all human beings, as well as proving that
Islam, with its laws that guarantee a decent life for all Muslims and non-Muslims living on its land, did not find
that non-Muslims find their comfort and the practice of their rites except in light of religion Islam, and history is
the greatest evidence of that, then clarifying and clarifying what distinguished the Islamic systems from
positivist systems by being clear-cut, objective and method that is consistent with the innate nature of man. This
research has limitations: it revolves with only two characteristics of Islamic systems, which are - in my view - of
the utmost importance in our lives, due to the intellectual cracks, acidic ideas, and people whose purpose of life
is the dependency of demolition rather than a building tool, and that Under the pretext that the Islamic systems
are not valid for our time and time in which we now live. The research also aims to establish who distinguished
Islamic systems from positional technical systems in terms of their suitability for every time and place, their
compatibility with the nature of man, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, and to clarify the extent of human need to
it and not others.


OBJECTIVE
To study the risk factors for neonatal ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and the changes of isolated pathogens in the last eight years.

METHODS
The clinical data of 230 neonates who were admitted into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and received mechanical ventilation for equal to or longer than 48 hrs in 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. The isolated pathogens were compared with those of eight years ago.

RESULTS
The incidence of VAP (25.2%) in the year 2008 was lower than that of eight years ago (36.1%; P<0.05). The development of VAP was negatively correlated with the gestational age and the birth weight, but positively correlated with the duration of mechanical ventilation, intubation times, duration of hospitalization, presence of gastrointestinal bleeding and need for blood products transfusion. The main isolated pathogens were opportunistic antibiotics resistant bacteria, and the majority was gram negative bacilli (77%). The most frequently detected gram negative bacilli were Klebsiella (20%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (18%) and Acinetobacter (13%). Streptococcus mitis was the most frequently detected gram positive bacilli (14%). The distribution pattern of pathogens isolated in the same NICU eight years ago was somewhat different: Klebsiella (23%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17%), Acinetobacter (16%), Streptococcus mitis (11%), Fungi (1%) and Candida albicans (1%).

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of VAP is correlated with gestational age, birth weight, duration of mechanical ventilation and hospitalization, intubation times, presence of gastrointestinal bleeding and need for blood products transfusion. The main isolated pathogens are usually antibiotic resistant opportunistic bacteria. The detection rate of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia increased and that of Pseudomonas aeruginosa decreased when compared with eight years ago.


The term "Modern Actinobacteria" (MOD-ACTINO) was coined by a Malaysian Scientist Dr. Lee Learn-Han, who has great expertise and experience in the field of actinobacteria research. MOD-ACTINO is defined as a group of actinobacteria capable of producing compounds that can be explored for modern applications such as development of new drugs and cosmeceutics. MOD-ACTINO members consist of already identified or novel actinobacteria isolated from special environments: mangrove, desert, lake, hot spring, cave, mountain, Arctic and Antarctic regions. These actinobacteria are valuable sources for various industries which can contribute directly/indirectly towards the improvement in many aspects of our lives.


Recently, during the experimental testing of some basic assumptions in physics which are assumed to be trivial, it became apparent that ULF voltage signals in coaxial cables with a length of only a few hundred meters exhibit very anomalous behavior. In particular, they seem to propagate significantly faster than light. The basic idea of the experiment described in this article was to determine with a dualchannel oscilloscope the phase shift that occurs when the first input is connected to a signal source via a short coaxial cable and the second input to the same signal source via a long coaxial cable. It was observed that the phase shift between the two channels does not only decrease as expected with decreasing cable length, but that when falling below a certain frequency the phase shift becomes so small that the associated phase velocity exceeds the speed of light. It is also remarkable that even band-limited signals such as music tracks can be transmitted several times faster as with the speed of light without noticeable loss of quality. Should the observations described here be confirmed, this would be proof that information can be transmitted faster than light.


Reduced Ordered Binary Decision Diagram (ROBDD) traditionally gives a compact and canonical representation of useful logic functions for a given order of variables that have been utilized in logic synthesis and verification. However, for multiplication functions, BDD grows exponentially with the number of inputs. The experimental result shows that BDDs can be built up to 18 – bits integer multipliers, as the number of nodes in BDD becomes too large to manipulate. The previous study shows, instead of building BDDs of a multiplier circuit using original input variables, by using all partial products as variables for BDD, the size of the BDD is limited to 4th- degree polynomial of the number of the inputs. Integer multipliers can be partitioned into two phases: partial product generation and its summation. In this paper, targeting multipliers using simple partial products, we explored and studied a novel approach to construct BDDs mostly for the summation phase. This dramatically reduces the final BDD size, and we were able to build BDDs for the primary outputs of the multipliers with the size of 3rd- degree polynomial. Further, we proposed and studied a new algorithm for equivalence checking between two multiplier circuits of different architectures using our BDD construction method. The experimental results show that our proposed method can verify wide verities of multipliers up to 32 – bits even after optimization.


Eighteen under-utilized marine fish and shell fish species were studied for their gel forming ability and surimi was prepared from all of the fish species. Difference in proximate composition and muscle pH of raw fish and the surimi products were also studied. Four species, namely, T. thalassinus. S. sihama, L. savala and C. macrolepidotus were found with extremely elastic gel forming ability (AA) and among others eight species were with moderately elastic gel (A). Two species, C. guttatum and M. cordyla were found with very poor gelling quality. Relation between muscle pH and water retention with the gelling quality of the fish has also studied.


We have developed a method to equip homodyne interferometers with the capability to operate with constant high sensitivity over many fringes for continuous real-time tracking. The method can be considered as an extension of the "J1 . . .J4" methods, and its enhancement to deliver very sensitive angular measurements through Differential Wavefront Sensing is straightforward. Beam generation requires a sinusoidal phase modulation of several radians in one interferometer arm. On a stable optical bench, we have demonstrated a long-term sensitivity over thousands of seconds of 0.1 mrad/√Hz that correspond to 20 pm/ √Hz in length, and 10 nrad/ √Hz in angle at millihertz frequencies.


A dynamic medium access control (MAC) protocol for a finite-user slotted channel with multipacket reception (MPR) capability is proposed. By adaptively changing the size of the contention class (defined as a subset of users who can access the channel at the same time) according to the traffic load and the channel MPR capability, the proposed dynamic queue protocol provides superior channel efficiency at high traffic load and minimum delay at low traffic load. It is shown that considerable throughput gain over purely random access schemes such as slotted ALOHA at heavy traffic load and significant delay improvement over scheduled multiaccess strategies such as TDMA at light traffic load are achieved by the proposed protocol.


The band structures of several zincblende semiconductor alloys are calculated in the virtual crystal approximation using the empirical pseudopotential method (EPM). The authors propose an interpolation scheme for the pseudopotential form factors that applies universally well to various zincblende semiconductor alloys. The calculated results are in good agreement with experiments, where the lattice mismatch is large. For the case of small lattice mismatch, it appears necessary to include the disorder effect.


Paclitaxel is a tubulin-targeting agent used in the treatment of many cancers, including breast, lung, head and neck, and ovarian. Peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of many chemotherapeutic agents, including paclitaxel, and limits their efficacy in patients. The overall goal of our work is to identify patients at risk for peripheral neuropathy using whole genome preclinical and clinical studies. Epstein-Barr virus transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) have emerged as a promising preclinical model system in the study of the genetics of drug toxicity because the cells provide a cost-effective testing system in which environmental factors such as concomitant medications can be controlled. Most importantly, publicly available genotype and sequencing data is available, to allow for genome-wide association studies between HapMap/1000 Genomes variants and pharmacologic phenotypes measured in the LCLs after drug treatment such as paclitaxel induced growth inhibition and apoptosis. The overall genetic architecture of paclitaxel-induced neuropathy is well captured by the cell-based models as evidenced by significant enrichment of paclitaxel-induced toxicity SNPs from the preclinical model in clinical genome-wide association studies of peripheral neuropathy. We utilized iCell Neurons, which are commercially available cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, to study the effects of gene modulation on paclitaxel-induced cell growth inhibition using Cell Titer Glo and on neurite parameters of outgrowth, processes and branching using the ImageXpress Micro system. Through transient knockdown in iCell Neurons of RFX2, a gene identified through clinical and preclinical studies to be associated with paclitaxel neuropathy, sensitivity to paclitaxel increased as measured by a decrease of neurite outgrowth, processes and branching. The ability to identify cancer patients at risk of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy could influence treatment choice, outcome and quality of life for breast, lung, head and neck, and ovarian cancer patients. This work was supported in part by NIH/NIGMS UO1GM61393. Citation Format: Heather E. Wheeler, Cristina Rodriguez-Antona, Claudia Wing, Masaaki Komatsu, M. Eileen Dolan. Integration of preclinical and clinical studies to identify pharmacogenetic markers associated with paclitaxel-induced neuropathy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2210. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2210


Cholesteatoma is characterized by the accumulation of a desquamating epithelium within the middle ear. Its development and spreading are favoured by chronic inflammatory and suppurative processes. The main clinical manifestations are persistent or episodic, frequently fetid purulent discharge, hearing impairment, vertigo and rarely complications (mastoiditis, labyrinthitis or meningitis). Therapy is preventive: careful management and follow-up of children with recurrent or chronic otitis media with effusion. Surgical treatment is mandatory once cholesteatoma is constituted.


Recently, as the scale of construction projects has increases, more ground excavation for foundations is carried out than ever before. Consequently, damage to underground ducts (gas, water/sewage or oil pipelines, communication cables or power cable ducts) or superannuated pipelines frequently cause serious accidents resulting in damage to life and property. (In Korea, the total length of city water pipelines was approximately 2,000 km as of the end of 2009.) In addition, large amounts of damage caused by fractures, water and gas leakage caused by superannuation or damage to underground ducts in construction has been reported. Therefore, a system is required to precisely detect defects and deterioration in underground pipelines and the locations of such defects, for timely and accurate maintenance or replacement of the ducts. In this study, a system was developed which can locate underground structures (gas and water pipelines, power cable ducts, etc.) in 3D-coordinates and monitor the degree and position of defects using an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensing technique. The system can prevent damage to underground ducts and superannuated pipelines during construction, and provide reliable data for maintenance. The utility of the IMU sensing technique used in aircraft and ships in civil applications was verified. Keywords—IMU, Pipelines, 3D-Coordinate, monitor. I. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS ARGE scale accidents causing bodily injury and/or property damage in multi-purpose structure maintenance/repair work have occurred with great frequency in recent years. Gas explosions in underground pipelines (gas city/sewer water, communication cables, oil, etc.) or fractures of superannuated pipelines are some examples. The occurrence of such accidents requires precision information concerning the location of old pipelines. (The total length of city water and sewer pipelines in Korea was about 2,000 km as of the end of 2009.) The economic losses incurred by fractured pipelines are serious, and water and gas leakage due to accidents during construction or repair are major concerns. To this end, a system is necessary which can detect defects and deterioration in pipelines, and their location to identify those in need of repair or replacement. This study proposes new maintenance system providing precise pipeline defect detection and location information. Ki-Tae Park is with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, South Korea,(phone: 82-31-910-0134; fax: 82-31-910-0121; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). Young-Joon Yu is with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, South Korea,(firstname.lastname@example.com) Chin-Hyung Lee is with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, South Korea,(email@example.com) Woosang Lee Lee is with the Smart C&S, South Korea,(email@example.com) II. UNDERGROUND PIPELINE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT


Wanchai, situated east of the Central Business District of Hong Kong, Asia's World City, is a highly accessible and mixed community with old and new buildings constructed over the years through successive waves of reclamation. The less well-off population in the District was hard hit by the Asian Financial crisis in the late 1990s, followed by another wave of redevelopment as the economy recovered. This paper examines how the local stakeholders have worked together to resist wholesale redevelopment ('enclosure') as well as the interrelated practices of 'recommoning'. With the help of a local charity, St James Settlement (set up in 1949 modelled after the Settlement Movement in UK), local residents have succeeded in saving a heritage building cluster, the Blue House, and are using it as a hub to further develop their community and rebuild the socio-economic network within a rapidly gentrifying area.


Antibiotic production is a natural phenomenon employed by microorganisms to control their environment in stress situations. Thus, antibiotic resistance has evolved in parallel to counteract naturally produced antibiotics. On the other hand, excessive use of antibiotics by humans, either for protecting human or animal health, may induce unnaturally high antibiotic stresses leading to enhanced antibiotic resistance, the so-called acquired resistance.
This study is the first to report an initial exploration into the distribution and quantification of antibiotic resistance genes, i.e. resistome, in a mixed-use watershed in Western Newfoundland, along the Humber river. The river was sampled along a gradient of increased human impact, mainly associated with the discharge of municipal wastewaters. The goals of my thesis were to (1) understand the relationship between human impact in the Humber river and the occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment, and (2) understand the role of the river in mitigating the abundance of these resistance genes, if any role is present.
Total DNA was extracted from the river water samples, sequenced by shotgun sequencing on an Illumina Hiseq platform with sequencing data quality controlled and cleaned at the sequencing facility via a QIIME pipeline, followed by identification and quantification of antibiotic resistance markers through a computational pipeline carried out in ShortBRED against a curated Antibiotic Resistance Genes Database (ARDB). About 400 antibiotic resistance genes, of variable abundance, were identified, distributed across the tested systems, an indication of the wide distribution of antibiotic resistance in the environment. This analysis revealed the distribution and abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) within the microbial population in the Humber River.
Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to quantify absolute (copies L⁻¹) and relative abundances (copies /16S rRNA) for TetO, TetM and AdeC genes. Relative abundance of ARGs (copies / 16S rRNA) was higher in the upstream locations versus downstream locations.
The results showed evidence that anthropogenic impacts, especially associated with the use of antibiotics, led to an increase in the diversity and total abundance of antibiotic resistance markers in the Humber River.


Results of kinetic experiments and quantum chemical computations on a series of platinum-promoted polycyclization reactions are described. Analyses of these results reveal a reactivity model that reaches beyond the energetics of the cascade itself, incorporating an ensemble of pre-cyclization conformations of the platinum-alkene reactant complex, only a subset of which are productive for bi- (or larger) cyclization and lead to products. Similarities and differences between this scenario, including reaction coordinates for polycyclization, for platinum- and enzyme-promoted polycyclization reactions are highlighted.


BACKGROUND
Although self-expressive creativity is related to cyberbullying, it can also reinforce strengths that contribute to positive adolescent development. Our study concentrated on the relationships between personality traits and self-expressive creativity in the digital domain in an adolescent population. For this, we analyzed the effect of self-esteem and emotional intelligence as assets for positive development related to personality traits and self-expressive creativity.

METHODS
The study population included a total of 742 adolescents that were high-school students in the province of Almería, Spain. The following instruments were used: Big Five Inventory (BFI) to evaluate the five broad personality factors, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), Expression, Management, and Emotion Recognition Evaluation Scale (TMMS-24), and the Creative Behavior Questionnaire: Digital (CBQD).

RESULTS
The cluster analysis revealed the existence of two profiles of adolescents based on their personality traits. The analysis showed that the group with the highest levels of extraversion and openness to experience and lowest levels of neuroticism were those who showed the highest scores in self-esteem, clarity, and emotional repair, as well as in self-expressive creativity. Higher scores in neuroticism and lower scores in extraversion and openness to experience showed a direct negative effect on self-expressive creativity and indirect effect through self-esteem and emotional attention, which acted as mediators in series.

CONCLUSIONS
To counteract certain characteristics that increase adolescents' vulnerability to social network bullying, a plan must be developed for adequate positive use of the Internet from a creative model that enables digital self-expression for acquiring identity and self-efficacy through the positive influence of peers, which promotes feelings of empowerment and self-affirmation through constructive tasks that reinforce self-esteem and emotional intelligence.


In this paper, the last sample in the cyclic prefix of an OFDM block is used to develop a method for the residue carrier frequency offset estimation. The method outperforms the well-known MUSIC method for medium to low SNRs. A condition for this method to work is that the channel length is no larger than the length of the cyclic prefix.


The vast shifting map of local agencies makes it impossible to treat local government as a single organisation. The externalization of many services, the centralization of others, make local government is only one actor among a network of agencies in a modern-network society. Partnership between local government and private entities is seen as positive, even essential. In Surakarta Municipality this kind of partnership is the result of a focus on outcomes. Partnership is seen as a vehicle to create mutual trust as well as learning. Although the partnership In Surakarta municipality is still in it's early stage, there have been many progress in innovation of development program, corporate focus, investment in training and leadership development as well as cultural change. However, while progress is being made, the obstacle are still formidable. Key words: Governance, modern-network society, and Public-Private Partnership


E-mail's growing popularity and unmonitored use is putting employers at risk. E-mail messages are not the personal property of the employee who generates them, and therefore, workers have no right to privacy regarding them. The National Institute of Business Management recommends that employers monitor employees' e-mail messages for evidence of discriminatory material.


To overcome the global and national challenges, that arose beyond Ukraine in view of the modern technologies level increase in the world as well as due to the activation of European integration processes in the country, the accelerated economic breakthrough is required and the innovation has a high profile in securing thereof. Creation of breakthrough innovations with further effective use and dissemination is rather relevant for the industry since the latter is a key element of the strategy for economic development of Ukraine. Therefore the domestic industrial enterprises need research of new ways for increasing the innovative activity. One of such ways is expansion of applying the new marketing principles and technologies which are laid in the basis of marketing of innovations concept. The purpose and task of the research is to specify the essence and the content of terms "innovation" and "marketing of innovations", research and analyze the level of innovative activity of industrial enterprises of Ukraine as well as highlihting the problems for which the marketing of innovations may be a solution. To reach the goals determined in the article the system-structural analysis (for studying and generalization of approaches to determining the innovations and marketing of innovations), economic and mathematic statistics (for processing and analysing of output data, revealing the tendencies and consistent patterns of the effectiveness of studied indexes) are used. The modern approaches to innovations marketing interpretation are analysed in the article. It is established that the industry is the generator of scientific and technological progress and innovations. The condition of industrial enterprises innovative activity is researched. The important role of applying the innovations marketing in industry of Ukraine is proved. Analysis and systematization of approaches for determining the definition "marketing of innovations" conducted in the article provided the possibility to deepen the understanding of the essence and content thereof as well as to separate the complex of tasks resolving which may guarantee the way of innovative development for the industrial enterprises of Ukraine and correspondingly the increase of competitiveness, strengthening of market positions and securing the future.


We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for data sets composed of state-contingent prices and consumption to be consistent with two prominent models of decision making under ambiguity: variational preferences and smooth ambiguity. The revealed preference conditions for the maxmin expected utility and subjective expected utility models are characterized as special cases.


In this study, a more general directional spreading function is developed that allows for asymmetric directional distributions. For multidirectional random waves that approach the shore obliquely over a planar slope, we demonstrate that directional asymmetry is generated due to wave refraction. The asymmetry created by refraction increases with the offshore peak wave direction. The present spreading function is compared to a preexisting symmetric spreading function and is shown to better capture changes in the directional distribution that occur in a refracting, random wave field. Finally, the new asymmetric spreading function is compared to a long time series of wave directional spectra measured at a nearshore field site. The results demonstrate that refraction-induced asymmetry is common in the nearshore and the asymmetric spreading function gives an improved analytic representation of the overall directional distribution as compared to the symmetric function. DOI: 10.1061/ASCEWW.1943-5460.0000006 CE Database subject headings: Asymmetry; Wave refraction; Random waves. Author keywords: Directional asymmetry; Refraction; Numerical experiment; Multidirectional random waves.


Fallon, M. L. (1949). Renal venous thrombosis in the newborn. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 24, 125. Gilbert, E. F., Khoury, G. H., Hogan, G. R., and Jones, B. (1970). Hemorrhagic renal necrosis in infancy: relationship to radiopaque compounds. Journal of Pediatrics, 76, 49. Johnston, J. H. (1968). Renal and adrenal vascular disorders. In Paediatric Urology, p. 48. Ed. by D. I. Williams. Butterworth, London. Lowry, M. F., Mann, J. R., Abrams, L. D., and Chance, G. W. (1970). Thrombectomy for renal venous thrombosis in infant of diabetic mother. British Medical Journal, 3, 687. Lugo, G., Ceballos, R., Brown, W., Polhill, R., and Cassady, G. (1969). Acute renal failure in the neonate managed by peritoneal dialysis. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 118, 655. Mauer, S. M., Fraley, E. E., Fish, A. J., and Najarian, J. S. (1971). Bilateral renal vein thrombosis in infancy: report of a survivor following surgical intervention. Journal of Pediatrics, 78, 509. Verhagen, A. D., Hamilton, J. P., and Genel, M. (1965). Renal vein thrombosis in infants. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 40,214.


The evidenced-based movement has influenced medical research to the point that the agendas and methods of qualitative inquiry are often excluded from resources of medical granting agencies. Yet, its narrow definition of what constitutes evidence and its myopic vision about health must be challenged. In this article, the author argues that qualitative research does contribute to a reduction in morbidity and mortality without the cost in dollars and lives that are necessarily incurred in evidence-based inquiry. She asserts that we must reframe our definition of evidence to meet this new ethic of inquiry—which she calls the ultimate ethic—as a way of conducting research.


Abstract A gradient descent-based nonlinear observer for surface-mount permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) with remarkable stability properties was recently proposed in [7]. A key assumption for the derivation of the observer is the absence of rotor saliency, which is the case in surface-mount PMSMs. A question of great practical interest is to assess the performance of the observer in the presence of saliency. This is the topic of study of the present paper. It is shown that the robustness of the observer is fully determined by the sinusoidal steady-state values of the currents, providing some guidelines for the selection of their reference values to ensure good position estimation.


Learning video concept detectors from social media sources, such as Flickr images and YouTube videos, has the potential to address a wide variety of concept queries for video search. While the potential has been recognized by many, and progress on the topic has been impressive, we argue that two key questions, i.e., What visual tagging source is most suited for selecting positive training examples to learn video concepts? and What strategy should be used for selecting positive examples from tagged sources?, remain open. As an initial attempt to answer the two questions, we conduct an experimental study using a video search engine which is capable of learning concept detectors from social media, be it socially tagged videos or socially tagged images. Within the video search engine we investigate six strategies of positive examples selection. The performance is evaluated on the challenging TRECVID benchmark 2011 with 400 hours of Internet videos. The new experiments lead to novel and nontrivial findings: (1) tagged images are a better source for learning video concepts from the web, (2) selecting tag relevant examples as positives for learning video concepts is always beneficial and it can be done automatically and (3) the best source and strategy compare favorably against several present-day methods.


Field experiment on the influence of growth regulators, micronutrients and their interaction on growth components and seed yield in African Tall fodder maize was conducted during the kharif season of 1996. There were two growth regulators viz., mepiquat chloride at 150 ppm and cycocel at 1500 ppm sprayed 45 days after sowing and two micronutrients zinc and boron applied at sowing at the rate of 10 kg per ha along with combination of growth regulators and micronutrients. Among the growth regulators mepiquat chloride spraying was found to be superior to cycocel spraying. Application of zinc sulphate 10 kg per ha to soil at sowing resulted in increased stem diameter, more number of seed rows per cob and higher shelling percentage resulted in increased seed yield in African Tall fodder maize.


The aim of this study was to evaluate bactericidal capacity of platelets in patients suffering from gastric cancer. Number of platelets and their bactericidal activity were measured in 32 cancer patients (divided into 2 groups: I--resectable cancer, II--non-resectable one) and 32 normal donors. In group I the number of platelets was 259.136+/-84.459 x 103/microl. It was increased comparing to the normal donors 193.219+/-55.493 x 103/microl. After the surgery increase in platelet number was observed (472.05+/-111.772 x 103/microl). In group II an increased number of platelets was observed (265.1+/-81.813 x 103/microl) and it was maintained in a post-operative period: 234.2+/-54.141 x 103/microl. In group I bactericidal capacity of platelets was 2.25+/-7.33%, whereas it increased significantly after the surgery--4.7+/-7.46%. In group II, it was 8.6+/-17.61% before and 4.72+/-4.76% after the surgery. In normal donors this ability was 21.66+/-16.66. In gastric cancer patients increased platelet number was observed. Significant increase in platelets number occurred after a radical tumor removal. Decreased bactericidal activity of platelets was noticed in gastric cancer patients. After surgical removal of the tumor, platelets partly reclaimed bactericidal capacity. In patients presenting disseminated gastric cancer, bactericidal capacity of platelets could be permanently impaired.


The linear-muffin-tin-orbital method within the local density approximation is used to calculate the total-energies, partial occupation numbers and density of states for aluminum as a function of reduced atomic volume. It is concluded that p›d electron transfer constitutes the driving force for the fcc›hcp transition in Al.


Background: Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) has not been described in children, however some previous studies of children from families with BEN have revealed abnormalities of the urinary tract including an increased urinary protein excretion. Methods: In the present study, urinary excretion of total protein was studied in 703 healthy children, aged 9–13, from endemic and non-endemic settlements around the South Morava River. Since BEN is an environmentally induced disease, with possible seasonal variation of toxin(s), children were studied three times a year: in spring, autumn and winter, during a 3-year period. After a water load of 15 ml/kg body weight, a 3-hour urine sample was collected, from 7 to 10 a.m. Results: Protein excretion in urine was highest in children from families with BEN compared with the excretion in children from the city, non-endemic villages, and those from non-endemic families living in the same settlements. This was the case during all three periods investigated in the second year of the study. In the autumn term of all three years of the study, protein excretion was significantly higher in children from families with BEN than in children from the city and from non- endemic families living in the same settlements. If the upper limit of protein excretion is set at 34 mg/mmol creatinine, then increased protein excretion in autumn was found in the first year of study in 9/229 children from endemic settlements and in only 4/474 children from non-endemic areas (p = 0.004); in the second year in 5/229 and 3/474 children (p = 0.069), and in the third year in 10/229 and 4/474 children (p = 0.002), respectively. Conclusions: We have presented evidence that children from families with BEN and endemic villages consistently excreted significantly more protein in the autumn, and in three seasons (spring, autumn, winter) in 1 year of our study. These results are consistent with seasonal variations in exposure to an environmental toxin(s).


This paper applies Bayesian methodologies to characterize the legislative behavior of the Colombian Senate during the period 2010–2014. The analysis is carried out through the plenary roll call votes of this legislative chamber. In addition, parliamentary electoral behavior is operationalized by implementing the onedimensional standard Bayesian ideal point estimator via the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. The results contribute mainly to two points: political space dimensionality and the identification of pivot legislators. The pattern revealed by the estimated ideal points suggests a latent non–ideological trait (opposition non–opposition) underlying the vote of deputies in the Senate. Thus, in addition to providing empirical evidence for a better understanding of legislative policy in Colombia during the period under analysis, this work also offers methodological and theoretical tools to guide the analysis of roll call vote data in contexts of unbalanced parliaments (as opposed to the U.S. parliament), taking the particular case of the Colombian Senate as a reference.


Background The X-linked agammaglobulinemia is a primary immunodeficiency featured by hypogammaglobulinemia, recurrent infections and low levels of circulating B Lymphocytes, caused by a mutation of the tyrosine kinase of Bruton (Btk). The aim of this work is to present clinical and laboratory evidence of 4 patients with high suspect to bear a Bruton's agammaglobulinemia. Methods We review medical records of 4 patients bearing a humoral immunodeficiency probably Bruton's agammaglobulinemia. Results Patient 1: 20 years old with IgG of 197 mg/dL, IgM 14.6 mg/dL, IgA 10 mg/dL, IgE 0 UI/mL and B cells 0.02%. He has a brother with hypogammaglobulinemia, 2 maternal uncles died with history of recurrent infections. Patient 2: 13 years old, with IgG 33.3 mg/dL, IgM 6.07 mg/dL, IgA 6.07 mg/dL, IgE 0.5 UI/mL and B cells 0.03%. Six maternal uncles and 2 aunts have died at early age. Patient 3: 6 years old, IgG, IgM, IgA and IgE not detectable and B cells 0.4%. One brother died as newborn. Patient 4: 6 years old, with IgG 33 mg/dL, IgM 98.7 mg/dL, IgA 6.67 mg/dL and B cells 2%. The IgM maintained elevated until the age of 4 years old, afterwards was undetectable. He had 2 maternal uncles that had died at early age. All of our patients have presented infections before 6 months of age such as otitis, pansinusitis, septic arthritis, mastoiditis, pneumonia. Two of them with pleural efusion and patient 4 with bronchiectasis and atelectasis. Conclusions Because of the clinical findings of our 4 patients, immunoglobulin levels, the low percentage of B cells, the early death of family members and all of them arer males, we consider that the molecular defect in our patients could be at Btk gene and the diagnosis most probable would be Bruton's agammaglobulinemia.


Morphine and tramadol which have analgesic effects can be administered acutely or chronically. This study tried to investigate the effect of these drugs at various times by using different methods of administration (intraperitoneal, oral, acute and chronic). Sixty adult female rats were divided into six groups. They received saline, morphine or tramadol (20 to 125 mg/Kg) daily for 15 days. A hot plate test was performed for the rats at the 1st, 8th and 15th days. After drug withdrawal, the hot plate test was repeated at the 17th, 19th, and 22nd days. There was a significant correlation between the day, drug, group, and their interaction (P<0.001). At 1st day (d1), both morphine, and tramadol caused an increase in the hot plate time comparing to the saline groups (P<0.001), while there was no correlation between drug administration methods of morphine and/or tramadol. At the 8th day (d8), morphine and tramadol led to the most powerful analgesic effect comparing to the other experimental days (P<0.001). At the 15th day (d15), their effects diminished comparing to the d8. After drug withdrawal, analgesic effect of morphine, and tramadol disappeared. It can be concluded that the analgesic effect of morphine and tramadol increases with the repeated use of them. Thereafter, it may gradually decrease and reach to a level compatible to d1. The present data also indicated that although the analgesic effect of morphine and tramadol is dose-and-time dependent, but chronic exposure to them may not lead to altered nociceptive responses later in life.


Crankshaft is one of the critical components for the effective and precise working of the internal combustion engine. In this paper a static simulation is conducted on a crankshaft from a single cylinder 4stroke diesel engine. A three dimension model of diesel engine crankshaft is created using Pro-E software. Finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to obtain the variation of stress magnitude at critical locations of crankshaft. Simulation inputs are taken from the engine specification chart. The static analysis is done using FEA Software ANSYS which resulted in the load spectrum ap lied to crank pin bearing. This load is applied to the FE model in ANSYS, and boundary conditions are applied according to the engine mounting conditions. The analysis is done for finding critical location in crankshaft. Stress variation over the engine cycle and the effect of torsion and bending load in the analysis are investigated. Von-mises stress is calculated using theoretical y and FEA software ANSYS. The relationship between n the frequency and the vibration modal is explained by the modal and harmonic analysis of crankshaft using FEA software ANSYS


Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems are very vital tools in today's world competitive business environment. This research study presents the importance of the operational benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) in food processing and manufacturing companies in Jordan. A review of recent research studies on ERP systems in the relevant literature was carried out. The researcher tried to identify the main benefits of ERP systems implementation in cost reduction, production cycling, continuous improvement, data quality improvement and customers' service improvement. A questionnaire was designed and developed with the help of recent research studies related to ERP implementation, the questionnaires was distributed to officials who occupy managerial positions in those processing and manufacturing companies. The study result revealed that the implementation of ERP helped food-manufacturing companies mostly in reducing the communication cost, meeting cost, delivery cost and traveling cost. It also improves the production process, as well as the stock procurement process, so it reduces production cycling. In addition, ERP leads to restructuring of job functions, reducing of order cancellation, increasing of employee satisfaction, benefiting from continuous improvement, reducing risk of price miscalculation, Improving of data accuracy, thereby improving data quality and improving customer satisfaction by enhancing customer services. The result revealed that many manufacturing companies have enjoyed numerous benefits from the systems having been brought to them, while some others have faced challenges in the implementation of ERP as benefits were not noticed immediately, but can be noticed in the future. The researcher noticed that implementation of ERP is not only successful when designed for large organizations. Smalland mediumsized organization can also have the same benefits from ERP implementation.


In ubiquitous environments, the content adaptable services can be dynamically provided to adapt the frequent changes of contexts. These services have common things that the kinds of context factors are limited to ubiquitous environment, though the contexts are flexible. To reuse service architecture can be reasonable for effective adaptable service. In this paper, we propose a reusable architecture with product line techniques for content adaptable applications in ubiquitous environment. It can describe reusable points for service and optimization policies. Description of reusable points is to define variation points and their variants and to find out the dependencies between them. Optimization policies are to build the variant selection strategies. These can accomplish to define the decision model based on content adaptable service, and to help the reuse more effective.


Choline deprivation is a recognized experimental approach to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, while thioacetamide (TAA)‐induced liver fibrosis resembles alcoholic liver fibrogenesis. In order to elucidate the effect of TAA on liver extracellular matrix composition under choline deprivation due to choline‐deficient diet (CDD) administration, we evaluated the transcriptional and immunohistochemical (IHC) pattern of major hepatic matrix metalloproteinases (namely, MMP‐2, ‐9) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMP‐1, ‐2) in adult male albino Wistar rats at 30, 60 and 90 days. In the CDD+TAA group, IHC showed an early progressive increase in MMP‐2 expression, while MMP‐9 initially exhibited a significant increase followed by a gradual decrease; TIMP‐1 and TIMP‐2 IHC expressions showed gradual increase throughout the experiment. The MMPs‐TIMPs regulation at the transcriptional level was found to be increased in all groups throughout the experiment. The increased MMP‐2/TIMP‐2 and suppressed MMP‐9/TIMP‐1 ratios in IHC and in real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) seemed to correlate with the degree of liver fibrosis. These results support the important role of MMPs and TIMPs in controlling the hepatic pathogenesis and shed more light on the recently described experimental approach to liver disease (steatohepatitis) under the impact of two insults (TAA and CDD).


The aim of this work is the identification of software project quality performance measures that would enable valid comparison and ranking of the completed projects. Sof tware projects can be characterized by a set of influence factors. A subset of the influence factors is relevant for sof tware project quality. In order to predict and determine the ranking of software projects by their success, and thus p re ent a valid software project quality performance measure, we employ Grey system theory. Grey relational anal ysis is a kind of method which enables determination of the relational degree of every factor in the system. The me thod can be used for systems that are incompletely described with relatively few data available, and for which standard statistical assumptions are not satisfied. Relational degree between seven relevant software project quality influence factors is calculated for a set of ten software projects. The results demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of the Grey system theory in software project quality assessment.


The author presents the results of a sandfly survey carried out in the zoonotic focus of Arrábida for search of kala-azar vectors. The total of 195 dissected females belonged to the species Sergentomyia (S.) minuta. Phlebotomus (L.) ariasi and Phlebotomus (L.) perniciosus. Only the last two species were found parasitized by Leishmania promastigotes: 2 females of P. ariasi (4.88%) and 3 females of P. perniciosus (2.01%). This is the first finding of natural infection of P. ariasi in Portugal.


Tissue injury has been linked to neutrophil associated hydroxyl radical (.OH) generation, a process that requires an exogenous transition metal catalyst such as iron. In vivo most iron is bound in a noncatalytic form. To obtain iron required for growth, many bacteria secrete iron chelators (siderophores). Since Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are associated with considerable tissue destruction, we examined whether iron bound to the Pseudomonas siderophores pyochelin (PCH) and pyoverdin (PVD) could act as .OH catalysts. Purified PCH and PVD were iron loaded (Fe-PCH, Fe-PVD) and added to a hypoxanthine/xanthine oxidase superoxide- (.O2-) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-generating system. Evidence for .OH generation was then sought using two different spin-trapping agents (5.5 dimethyl-pyrroline-1-oxide or N-t-butyl-alpha-phenylnitrone), as well as the deoxyribose oxidation assay. Regardless of methodology, .OH generation was detected in the presence of Fe-PCH but not Fe-PVD. Inhibition of the process by catalase and/or SOD suggested .OH formation with Fe-PCH occurred via the Haber-Weiss reaction. Similar results were obtained when stimulated neutrophils were used as the source of .O2- and H2O2. Addition of Fe-PCH but not Fe-PVD to stimulated neutrophils yielded .OH as detected by the above assay systems. Since PCH and PVD bind ferric (Fe3+) but not ferrous (Fe2+) iron, .OH catalysis with Fe-PCH would likely involve .O2(-)-mediated reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+ with subsequent release of "free" Fe2+. This was confirmed by measuring formation of the Fe2(+)-ferrozine complex after exposure of Fe-PCH, but not Fe-PVD, to enzymatically generated .O2-. These data show that Fe-PCH, but not Fe-PVD, is capable of catalyzing generation of .OH. Such a process could represent as yet another mechanism of tissue injury at sites of infection with P. aeruginosa.


I. Introduction. In this paper I propose to study the material of which the Plateau Drift consists in the Oxford District, and to discuss the inferences arising therefrom. For the sake of brevity, and to avoid restating a host of facts already published, it will be assumed that the reader has access to the latest Memoir of the Geological Survey which deals with the district, wherein he will find a detailed account and a full bibliography. In that Memoir certain problems of the erratic material which abounds in the local superficial deposits had to be left sub judice. Research was in progress, aided by the grant from the Daniel-Pidgeon Fund awarded to me in 1924, and I now present the results of the work, expressing gratitude to the Council of the Geological Society for the assistance thus afforded. I have collected material from the Plateau Drift over a wide area for rather more than eight years, and Prof. W. J. Sollas put at my disposal his important collection, mainly derived from two localities close to Oxford:—Pickett's Heath (on Boars Hill) and Chawley Brickworks, on the flank of Cumnor Hill (Cumnor Hurst). The considerable mass of material thus available has been reduced to about fifty rocks of essential importance from a petrological point of view, that is, to rocks of character so marked that they can be recognized without fear of grave error. In the work of recognition, after initial research on my own account, I submitted the material to Mr.


Prior to evidence-based practice, policies and procedures were reviewed annually or even triennially to ensure that they reflected current practice and demonstrated adherence to regulatory standards. With the publication of the Institute of Medicine report, a shift to operationalization of best evidence practices, formal statements, and frameworks for care has gained increased importance. Processes for policy and protocol development and revision are now based on the inclusion of best evidence, clinician expertise, and patient values or preference. Policies and protocols are now updated when new evidence justifies a revision and are designed to share the most recent evidence and facilitate staff adherence to new practices. This article describes the essential practices for policy and protocol development, including leadership support, team commitment, identification of current resources, recognition of current practices, development of the policy and protocol to logically flow with nursing practices, effective dissemination methods, and evaluation and sustainability practices. J Contin Nurs Educ. 2017;48(2):87-92.


Because of their promises to combine the high yielding quality of the Asian rice with the local adaptability of the African rice, the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) rice varieties, which have won its creator Monty Jones the 2004 World Food Prize, are raising hopes for increased rice productivity in Africa. We use data from a sample of 1,500 farmers to consistently estimate the NERICA actual and potential adoption rates and determinants in Cote d'Ivoire. The NERICA actual adoption rate in 2000 is estimated to be 4%, although its potential adoption rate is estimated at 27%. The estimated 23% population "adoption gap" (difference between the 27% potential adoption rate and the 4% actual adoption rate) in 2000, which is because of solely to the limited diffusion of the NERICA in the population in 2000, suggests a large potential adoption impact that could be realized by a successful NERICA dissemination project.


Poultry production faces increasing environmental challenges, in the United States and globally. Although the environmental impact of poultry production has been decreased, regulatory and social pressures mandate that further improvements be made to decrease the pollution potential even more. Concerns over air and water quality to date have been related primarily to nutrient issues, specifically N and P. Air emission concerns include N and sulfur emissions. More recently, states have addressed emissions of volatile organic compounds. Although no regulations have been developed that are targeted at food production, greenhouse gas emissions are receiving a great deal of attention in the United States. Nutrient-related water quality concerns have focused on N and P contributions to ground and surface waters, respectively. To address nutrient-related air and water quality concerns, nutritional strategies have focused on reducing nutrient excretions. These strategies have been very successful. However, strategies beyond just reducing nutrient excesses will be needed to meet future challenges that are not nutrient-related. Challenges such as pathogens, antimicrobials, and endocrine-disrupting compounds have received considerable attention recently. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the findings from nutrition research with respect to reducing environmental impact and to identify areas that merit attention in the near future, recognizing that many of the emerging environmental issues are not nutrient-related.


Abstract Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a 41 -amino acid neuropeptide, which is recognized as a critical mediator of complimentary, stress-related endocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses in mammalian species. CRF belongs to a family of structurally related peptides including frogskin sauvagine and fish urotensin I. The effects of CRF and related peptides are mediated by two distinct receptors, which differ in their anatomical distribution, as well as in their pharmacological characteristics. In addition, CRF is bound with high affinity by a CRF binding protein (CRF-BP), which is a putative inhibitor of CRF action. CRF is probably not the sole endogenous ligand for CRF receptors or the CRF-BP, since a second mammalian member of the CRF family, urocortin, has recently been identified. This article describes recent findings with respect to CRF, its receptors, binding protein, and CRF-related peptides, which provide further insights into the role and mechanisms of CRF action in stress responses.


This paper introduces the Chemical Environment Modeling Theory (CEMT), a novel, generalized framework designed to overcome the limitations inherent in traditional atom-centered Machine Learning Force Field (MLFF) models, widely used in atomistic simulations of chemical systems. CEMT demonstrated enhanced flexibility and adaptability by allowing reference points to exist anywhere within the modeled domain and thus, enabling the study of various model architectures. Utilizing Gaussian Multipole (GMP) featurization functions, several models with different reference point sets, including finite difference grid-centered and bond-centered models, were tested to analyze the variance in capabilities intrinsic to models built on distinct reference points. The results underscore the potential of non-atom-centered reference points in force training, revealing variations in prediction accuracy, inference speed and learning efficiency. Finally, a unique connection between CEMT and real-space orbital-free finite element Density Functional Theory (FE-DFT) is established, and the implications include the enhancement of data efficiency and robustness. It allows the leveraging of spatially-resolved energy densities and charge densities from FE-DFT calculations, as well as serving as a pivotal step towards integrating known quantum-mechanical laws into the architecture of ML models.


Excessive use of technology has a negative impact and causes a moral crisis. Educational institutions are a forum for students in handling these cases. SMP Sunan Kalijogo 2 Jabung has a new breakthrough by holding the Madrosatul Qur'an. The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of the Madrosatul Qur'an program, the supporting and inhibiting factors, the results of internalizing the Nabawiyah through the Madrosatul Qur'an. This research is a mixed methods with explaratory sequential design. The results showed; 1) The Madrosatul Qur'an at SMP Sunan Kalijogo 2 is a Qur'an reading program which is carried out every day before learning, 2) the supporting factors are trained teachers and the pesantren environment. the inhibiting factor is that students are less religious and less time allocated, 3) The results of internalizing Nabawiyah through this program Students have consistent honesty, responsibility, good reasoning, and being open to others


Pyridoxal phosphate influences several properties of steroid hormone receptors in vitro, but its role in vivo has not been clearly established. In an effort to address this issue, we have investigated the in vivo effects of vitamin B6 on the physical properties and biological function of the human glucocorticoid receptor. We demonstrate that vitamin B6 treatment of whole cells in culture produces an alteration in the isoelectric point of the receptor, as well as changes in the steroid and DNA binding capacities. Furthermore, glucocorticoid dependent transcriptional activation properties of the receptor are also altered by modulation of the vitamin B6 status. High concentrations of vitamin B6 suppress activation of transcription, while vitamin deficiency enhances responsiveness to steroid hormone. Together, these studies imply a physiological role for vitamin B6 in glucocorticoid hormone action.


A Dieulafoy lesion of the rectum is a very rare entity that can cause massive lower gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhage. Identifying the bleeding point is sometimes difficult because these lesions are very small. We herein describe an 82-year-old man with active hemorrhage due to a rectal Dieulafoy lesion. He was referred to our hospital because of persistent hematochezia from the morning of that day. He had a history of atrial fibrillation, chronic heart failure, diabetes mellitus, and hyperuricemia. Prompt multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) enabled us to detect active bleeding from the lower rectum. Subsequently, colonoscopy revealed an exposed vessel in the lower rectum without surrounding ulceration, and hemostasis was successfully achieved using a hemostatic forceps with soft coagulation. After hemostasis had been achieved, the patient recovered and was discharged without complications and rebleeding. He is doing well 6 months after discharge from the hospital. Sequential examination by MDCT and colonoscopy is considered an efficient treatment strategy for patients with active lower GI bleeding.


One of the most enigmatic of all ancient Jewish religious customs was the use of ashes of a red heifer to purify people and objects defiled by a corpse. The ashes were combined with spring water and other ingredients in a vessel to produce a mixture called "water of lustration", which was sprinkled on the impure objects or people. We discuss four questions concerning the use of the ashes of the red heifer: (I) Why a cow? (II) Why red? (III) Why ashes? (IV) Was it an original Jewish innovation, or like various other aspects of the Jewish religion, the modification of an earlier pagan rite? We propose that this Jewish rite resembles an ancient Egyptian rite in which red-haired men or cattle were scarified and burnt and their ashes scattered with winnowing fans. We argue that the Jewish red heifer ash ritual may have originated in surrounding pagan cultures reflecting the transition from pantheism to monotheism.


One of the most important aspects of crisis communication is that of reaching the target population in a severe and often chaotic situation. Therefore, crisis communication has to be customized not only to the situation but also to the population. The aim of this study is hence to investigate the preparedness of Swedish municipalities to communicate with people who have foreign backgrounds at times of crisis. A sample of 55% (n=160) of all Swedish municipalities were questioned regarding whether their crisis communication plans are adapted to this population segment and whether any preparedness measures have been taken. The results show that Swedish municipalities do not consider people with foreign backgrounds in their crisis communication to any great extent. However, the studied municipalities can be categorized as Active, Intermediary or Passive, and one important difference between the three groups is whether they have previous experience of crises where people with foreign backgrounds have been involved.


This article presents some aspects of two theories of psychological development created from the viewpoint of the dialectical materialism: those of Henri Wallon and of Lev Vygotsky. The work argues that the fact that both these authors developed their theories from the same philosophical roots inspires important approximations between them. Among the aspects shared by these theories the text highlights: the refusal to frame the psychological development within rigid schemes following a linear logic; the idea that human psyche has been and continues to be historically produced by men themselves inside relations they establish with each other and with nature; the defense they promote of the constitutive, and therefore positive, nature of conflicts and oscillation between critical and stable periods that characterize psychological development; and, particularly, the fact that both authors emphasize that an adequate understanding of development requires the analysis of this process in its internal essence, that is, an analysis of the conditionings of the external symptoms of psychological development. Regarding the Wallonian theory, the article draws attention to the idea that development is characterized by the alternation between cognition and affection, reason and emotion; as to the Vygotskyan conception, the text emphasizes that the investigation of psychological development must start from the analysis of a child's activities inside the concrete conditions of his/her life.


Although nursing practice is responsive to research findings, the practice site in which a nurse works has an impact on the ability to incorporate research changes into practice in a timely fashion. This review of the evidence base for nursing management of labor care focuses on care that typically falls within the nurses' domain and highlights the evidence in five areas in which there is research on patient preferences. These include management of admission and of progression during the first stage of labor, fetal monitoring, care and comfort practices during labor, and the management of second-stage labor. Directions for achieving progress toward practice change are highlighted.


The role of education's quality in determining international students' choice of study destination was discussed by several studies. However, it only seems to have gained a huge prominence recently by constituting a theme in the quality management field involving empirical studies.In spite of such prominence the theme does not seems to provide sufficient empirical evidence forging a nexus between quality assurance practices, training needs and international student's mobility.This research work therefore attempts to fill this gap by examining how the search for quality education and training needs satisfaction play role in international student's mobility. Six dimensions of quality assurance in education were identified through extensive literature reviewed, three dimensions of training needs were equally revealed by the literature. Nine hypotheses were thus developed using these dimensions with the view to explain the relationship among the variables involved. The primary data for this study was obtained through a cross-sectional survey of International students in University Utara Malaysia with the aid of questionnaires, where a total of 150 respondents were selected randomly.Partial Least Squares (PLS) method was adopted in analysing the collected data with smartPLS 2.0 to determine the relationship involved.The result supported the relationship between organizational needs, Tangibility of facilities, Nature of service delivery and international student's mobility, while the other six relationships were not supported.


Nanocomposites consisting of ultrafine, cobalt carbonate nanoneedles and 3D porous graphene aerogel (CoCO3/GA) are in situ synthesized based on a one-step hydrothermal route followed by freeze-drying. A further heat treatment produces cobalt oxide nanoparticles embedded in the conductive GA matrix (Co(3)O(4)/GA). Both the composite anodes deliver excellent specific capacities depending on current density employed: the CoCO(3)/GA anode outperforms the Co(3)O(4)/GA anode at low current densities, and vice versa at current densities higher than 500 mA g(-1). Their electrochemical performances are considered among the best of similar composite anodes consisting of CoCO(3) or Co(3)O(4) active particles embedded in a graphene substrate. The stable multistep electrochemical reactions of the carbonate compound with a unique nanoneedle structure contribute to the excellent cyclic stability of the CoCO(3)/GA electrode, whereas the highly conductive networks along with low charge transfer resistance are responsible for the high rate performance of the Co(3)O(4)/GA electrode.


We investigate charge fractionalizations in artificial Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLLs) composed of two capacitively coupled quantum Hall edge channels (ECs) in graphene. The interaction strength of the artificial TLLs can be controlled through distance W between the ECs. We show that the fractionalization ratio r and the TLL mode velocity v vary with W. The experimentally obtained relation between v and r follows a unique function predicted by the TLL theory. We also show that charged wavepackets are reflected back and forth multiple times at both ends of the TLL region.


This paper investigates two-way relaying with direct link transmission. We propose to combine incremental relaying (IR) with the time division broadcast protocol (TDBC) to form a new scheme, termed TDBC-IR, to increase the spectral efficiency of TDBC. Assuming half-duplex decode-and-forward relaying, the performance of three protocols, TDBC, TDBC-IR, and physical-layer network coding (PNC), are studied and compared, in terms of outage probability, expected rate (ER), and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT). It is found that 1)TDBC-IR has the same outage performance as that of TDBC and better than PNC; 2) the ER of TDBC-IR is greater than TDBC and PNC in the whole signal-to-noise ratio region, i.e., TDBC-IR has improved spectral efficiency performance; 3) the maximum achievable diversity order of TDBC-IR and TDBC are both two whereas that of PNC is one; 4) the maximum achievable multiplexing gain of TDBC-IR is one, which is better than TDBC (its maximum achievable is 2/3) and achieves the maximum of PNC (its maximum achievable is one). Since multiplexing gain reflects spectral efficiency, the DMT analysis confirms the spectral efficiency advantage of TDBC-IR over TDBC.


The incubation of isolated factor F1 with the di-aldehyde derivative of ADP (oxADP) which is formed as a result of ADP treatment by periodate, causes the covalent binding of 0.9--1 molecules of the oxADP with a molecule of the enzyme. This modification of factor F1 is not accompanied by any changes in the ATPase activity of the enzyme. The modification of factor F1 is preceded by the reversible binding of oxADP with the enzyme with a Kd of 80 micro M. ADP partly prevents factor F1 from modification by oxADP. The electrophoresis of modified factor F1 in polyacrylamide gel in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate showed that oxADP binds with the alpha-subunit(s) of factor F1. When submitochondrial particles are incubated with [3H]oxADP, the main part of the radioactive label may be discovered in the polypeptide with a molecular weight of some 30 000 which is probably the adenine nucleotides' translocase. The isolation of factor F1 from particles preincubated with [3H]oxADP showed that the membrane-bound factor F1 covalently binds 0.2--0.3 mol of oxADP per mol of enzyme. Here again, all the oxADP is bound with the alpha subunit(s) of factor F1. The modification of membrane-bound factor F1 by oxADP is accompanied by the partial inhibition of the particles' ATPase activity. The results obtained testify to the fact that the non-catalytic site of mitochondrial ATP ase located on the alpha-subunit(s) of factor F1 may participate in the mechanism of ATP hydrolysis by membrane-bound ATPase.


Mucositis occurs in almost all radiotherapy‐treated head and neck cancer patients, in approximately 75% of patients receiving hematopoietic marrow transplantation, and in approximately 40% of all patients who receive chemotherapy. Mucositis is painful, may affect all oral functions, and is a dose‐ and rate‐limiting toxicity of therapy for cancer. Radiation‐associated mucositis (onset, intensity, and duration) has been shown in recent clinical trials to be modified by the use of antibacterial/antifungal lozenges.


BACKGROUND
It is well known that endotoxin causes acute lung injury, resulting in adult respiratory distress syndrome. Lidocaine pretreatment has recently been shown to attenuate endotoxin-induced lung injury in rabbits. The aim of the current study was to determine whether early postinjury treatment with intravenous lidocaine could attenuate acute lung injury induced by endotoxin in rabbits.

METHODS
Thirty-two male anesthetized rabbits were randomly assigned to receive one of four treatments (n = 8 for each group): infusion of saline (group S-S), infusion of saline with lidocaine treatment (group S-L), infusion of Escherichia coli endotoxin (100 micrograms.kg-1 over a 60-min period) without lidocaine treatment (group E-S), or infusion of endotoxin with lidocaine treatment (group E-L). Ten minutes after the end of infusion of endotoxin (groups E-L and E-S) or saline (groups S-S and S-L), the animals received a bolus injection followed by continuous infusion of lidocaine (2 mg.kg-1 + 2 mg.kg-1.h-1 in groups S-L and E-L) or saline (groups S-S and E-S). The rabbits' lungs were ventilated with 40% O2. Hemodynamics, peripheral leukocyte and platelet counts, and arterial O2 tension (PaO2) were recorded during the ventilation period (6 h). After the observation, lung mechanics; the cell fraction of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF); and concentrations of activated complement components C3a and C5a, cytokines, and arachidonic acid metabolites in BALF were measured and analyzed. The ratio of lung wet weight to dry weight (W/D weight ratio) and albumin concentrations in BALF were analyzed as indexes of pulmonary edema. The Cypridina luciferin analogue-dependent chemiluminescence (representing O2 production) by neutrophils isolated from the pulmonary artery and light-microscopic findings of the lung were compared among the four groups.

RESULTS
Endotoxin caused decreases in peripheral leukocyte and platelet counts, lung compliance, and PaO2. It caused increases in lung W/D weight ratio; polymorphonuclear cell counts in BALF; and albumin, C3a, C5a, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, and thromboxane B2 concentrations in BALF. Lidocaine attenuated the changes in W/D weight ratio and morphologic lung damage. The change in compliance, decrease in PaO2, and albumin concentrations in BALF were slightly but significantly less in rabbits receiving lidocaine after injury. The Cypridina luciferin analogue-dependent chemiluminescence by neutrophils was greater in rabbits receiving endotoxin without lidocaine than in those receiving endotoxin with lidocaine.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that early treatment with lidocaine attenuates endotoxin-induced lung edema in rabbits without affecting chemical mediators in BALF. However, the improvement is slight and likely to be of little clinical significance.


In general, specifying systems using global properties should be desirable. LOTOS specifications can be derived from global properties of communication systems, described in a temporal logic, using this method. Those specifications have a structured style, so that meanings of specifications can be understood easily. This method, hence, can be effective to specify protocols.


Metabolomics provides rich datasets for systems biology. Mass spectrometric (MS) techniques are rapidly gaining in importance for untargeted metabolic profiling. In this review, we survey the various techniques for sample preparation and analysis relating to the various MS techniques and illustrate the potential of these techniques for both observing complete metabolomes and detecting changes in the metabolism resulting from genetic mutation of other perturbations. The use of some of these techniques in the study of model organisms including rodent and various invertebrate models is described. The invertebrate systems are of particular interest since such organisms have valuable mutant resources, such as RNAi panels directed against nearly all the genes in the genome. The demonstration that they are readily compatible with metabolomic approaches is particularly important for systems approaches to metabolic pathways.


We demonstrate the online deployment of Geollery, a mixed reality social media platform. We introduce an interactive pipeline to reconstruct a mirrored world at two levels of detail - the street level and the bird's-eye view. Instead of using offline 3D reconstruction approaches, our system streams and renders a mirrored world in real time, while depicting geotagged social media as billboards, balloons, framed photos, and virtual gifts. Geollery allows multiple users to see, chat, and collaboratively sketch with spatial context in this mirrored world. We demonstrate a wide range of use cases including crowdsourced tourism, interactive audio guide with immersive spatial context, and meeting remote friends in mixed reality. We envision Geollery will be inspiring and useful as a standalone social media platform for those looking to explore new areas or looking to share their experiences. Please refer to https://geollery.com for the paper and live demos.


As a path vector protocol, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) messages contain an entire Autonomous System (AS) path to each destination for breaking arbitrary long AS path loops. However, after observing the global routing data from RouteViews, we find that BGP AS Path Looping (BAPL) behavior does occur and in fact can lead to multi-AS forwarding loops in both IPv4 and IPv6. The number and ratio of BAPLs in IPv4 and IPv6 on a daily basis from August 1, 2011 to August 31, 2015 are analyzed. Moreover, the distribution of BAPLs among duration and loop length in IPv4 and IPv6 are also studied. Several possible explanations for BAPL are discussed in this paper. Private AS Number Leaking (PANL) has contributed to 0.20% of BAPLs in IPv4, and at least 1.76% of BAPLs in IPv4 were attributed to faulty configurations and malicious attacks. Valid explanations, including networks of multinational companies, preventing particular AS from accepting routes, also can lead to BAPLs. Motivated by the large number of PANLs that contribute to BAPLs, we also study the number and the ratio of PANLs per day in the 1492 days. The distribution of the private AS numbers in all of the PANLs is concentrated, and most of them are located in the source of the AS paths. The majority of BAPLs resulted from PANLs endure less than one day, and the number of BAPLs which are caused by two or more leaked private ASes are much larger than that of BAPLs which are caused by one leaked private AS. We explain for this phenomenon and give some advices for the operators of ASes.


The ranking of the reservoirs in Pakistan is an important decision and it has a vital impact on the sustainability of the region and the economic operation of the reservoir. The reservoirs ranking is a vital problem which involves multi-criteria decision-making. The framework proposed in this paper involves the fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS method for the ranking of reservoirs in Pakistan. Potential feasible locations are identified from the Water and Power Development Authority, Pakistan. Weight calculation for the criteria is done by the fuzzy AHP method, which is a multi-criteria decision-making method. In order to model the fuzziness, equivocacy, incomplete knowledge and ambiguity, the fuzzy AHP is used. Furthermore, in order to rank the selected reservoirs based on their performance, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is applied, which is a multicriteria decision making method. We demonstrate the application of the above-mentioned methods to the case study of the Indus Reservoir system in Pakistan. A decision support tool is provided for the decision makers in this paper to manage, evaluate and rank the planned reservoirs in the Indus River.


Artificial neural networks are widely used as predictor systems for the pollutants time series. In recent years, the dynamic system theory has also been exploited to find the optimal sampling time interval and the minimum embedding dimension of environmental time series in order to get helpful information and to implement appropriately the forecasting networks. In this paper, we present a novel approach to predict the concentration level of air pollutants in the area of the Messina Strait, whose harbor represents the unique link to reach Sicily Island from Europe by cars and trucks. By coupling feedforward neural networks with Cao's method, we predict the level of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from one to ten hours ahead with an accuracy of more than 90%.


Cigarette smoking-induced oxidative stress has harmful effects on bone metabolism. Maqui berry extract (MBE) and ginseng extract (GE) are two naturally occurring antioxidants that have been shown to reduce oxidative stress. By using an osteoblast and osteoclast three-dimensional co-culture system, we investigated the effects of MBE and GE on bone cells exposed to cigarette smoke extract (CSE). The cell viability and function of the co-culture system were measured on day 14. Markers of bone cell differentiation and oxidative stress were evaluated at gene and protein levels on day 7. The results showed that exposure to CSE induced osteoporotic-like alterations in the co-culture system, while 1.5 µg/mL MBE and 50 µg/mL GE improved CSE-impaired osteoblast function and decreased CSE-induced osteoclast function. The molecular mechanism of MBE and GE in preventing CSE-induced bone cell damage is linked with the inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway and the activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway. Therefore, MBE and GE can reduce CSE-induced detrimental effects on bone cells and, thus, prevent smoking-induced alterations in bone cell homeostasis. These two antioxidants are thus suitable supplements to support bone regeneration in smokers.


The optical properties of symmetric split-ring/ring dimer (SRRD) nanostructures composed of a small nanoring surrounded by an Ag splitting nanoring with a larger diameter are calculated theoretically. The apparent asymmetric Fano line shape in the spectra is related to fast switching of the bonding modes between the split-ring plasmon and ring dipole. The influence of the dimensions of the SRRD nanostructures on the spectral positions and intensity of Fano resonance is studied, and the asymmetric Fano line shape can be flexibly adjusted by varying the geometric parameters. In addition, relatively simple SRRD nanostructures have the same overall sensing figures of merit as conventional nanoparticles, thus rendering them suitable for high-performance optical sensors.


Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify novel plasma biomarkers for distinguishing nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients from healthy individuals who have positive Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) viral capsid antigen (VCA-IgA). Materials and Methods One hundred seventy-four plasma cytokines were analyzed by a Cytokine Array in eight healthy individuals with positive EBV VCA-IgA and eight patients with NPC. Real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and immunohistochemistry were employed to detect the expression levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and CC chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3) in NPC cell lines and tumor tissues. Plasma MIF and CCL3 were measured by ELISA in 138 NPC patients, 127 EBV VCA-IgA negative (VN) and 100 EBV VCA-IgA positive healthy donors (VP). Plasma EBV VCA-IgA was determined by immunoenzymatic techniques. Results Thirty-four of the 174 cytokines varied significantly between the VP and NPC group. Plasma MIF and CCL3 were significantly elevated in NPC patients compared with VN and VP. Combination of MIF and CCL3 could be used for the differential diagnosis of NPC from VN cohort (area under the curve [AUC], 0.913; sensitivity, 90.00%; specificity, 80.30%), and combination of MIF, CCL3, and VCA-IgA could be used for the differential diagnosis of NPC from VP cohort (AUC, 0.920; sensitivity, 90.00%; specificity, 84.00%), from (VN+VP) cohort (AUC, 0.961; sensitivity, 90.00%; specificity, 92.00%). Overexpressions of MIF and CCL3 were observed in NPC plasma, NPC cell lines and NPC tissues. Conclusion Plasma MIF, CCL3, and VCA-IgA combination significantly improves the diagnostic specificity of NPC in high-risk individuals.


High precision pneumatic planters have been developed for many varieties of crops, for a wide range of seed sizes, resulting to uniform seeds distribution along the travel path, in predefined spacing. The objective of the present work was to develop a high-resolution optical system for evaluation of performance parameters of pneumatic planters. This paper describes the design, construction and evaluation of the optical system. The hardware setup along with the image processing and statistical analysis algorithms are presented. The developed system includes a line scan camera, connected to a frame grabber, installed in personal computer. The lines acquired by the camera were processed on-line. Seeds' location, as well as seeds' spacing, on a virtual belt running underneath the planter were computed. Furthermore, seeds' distribution parameters were calculated and displayed on-line, while they exit from the planter. Comparison of the developed optical system with a conventional grease belt, showed that the seeds' location as calculated by the optical system coincided with the seeds location as measured on a grease belt. The developed system provided reliable statistical parameters of the seeds' distribution, as defined by ISO standards, for regular shape seeds like cotton, as well as for irregular shape seeds like sunflower. [keywords] planter performance, seed spacing, grease belt, line scan, machine vision, on-line


Following the French Revolution, many communities were organised around "nation-state" framework with the effect of nationalism. Turkish Societies established in 1912 played significant roles in manifestation of Turkish Nationalism in the late period of Ottoman Empire and in nation-state formation of Turkish Republic. Because of this, Turkis Societies reformed themselves after the National Struggle Period and opened branches all over the country. In this study, the third General Assembly by Turkish Societies on April, 23rd 1926 and the issues discussed in this assembly are investigated. Apart from this, it has been aimed to reveal the function of Turkish Societies in the early years of Turkish Republic by examining the operations of branches of Turkish Societies country-wide; such as conferences, shows, concerts and operations in the areas of peasantisim, sports, health and aid. Considering this aspect, Turkish Communities maintained their existence up until today guiding the development of nationalism notion. With this study focusing on activities of Turkish Communities in 1926, it hass been aimed to micro-analyze the mentioned period. In the conclusion of the study, conclusions were drawn in the light of the gathered data and their interpretations were represented. In the study; newspapers, journals and archives as well as primary and secondary sources were


OBJECTIVE
To study the feasibility of applying autogenous pulmonary tissue flap with alloy stent to correct the defects of trachea and esophagus.

METHODS
Twenty-four dogs were divided into tracheal and esophageal groups. Bronchus was ligated to prepare a pulmonary flap. And a defect of 3 - 4 cm long and 1/2 - 2/3 perimeter was made in tracheal or esophageal wall. Pulmonary arteries and veins were protected. Then the pulmonary gas was emitted to create a pulmonary tissue flap. The defect was repaired with a pulmonary flap with a self-expanded stent inside. The gross appearance, histological appearance, CT and barium X-ray films were observed at Weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8 post-operation.

RESULTS
Eighteen experimental dogs survived over 2 weeks. Anastomotic leak was the main cause of death. Two dogs died of perforation of ulcer in esophageal group. Reliable cicatrisation was observed between the pulmonary tissue flap and damage area. A quick growth of new tracheal and esophageal epithelium was observed from periphery area to central area. During the first 2 weeks, a little epithelization was observed at free edge of anastomosis equivalent to 1 - 2 layers of new epithelial cells. At weeks 4 - 6 post-operation, the internal surface of defect was covered with 3 - 5 layers of epithelial cells. At Weeks 8 - 10 post-operation, the luminal surface was covered with 6 - 8 layers of stratified epithelial cells. More ulcers could be observed on the surface of pulmonary tissue flap in esophageal group. In pulmonary flap, massive fibrous tissue proliferated and fibroblasts were active, but no necrosis occurred. CT and barium X-ray showed no obstruction in anastomotic stoma.

CONCLUSION
With an excellent compatibility with epithelial cells of trachea and esophagus, the autogenous pulmonary tissue flap can support the mucosal crawl in the defect of trachea and esophagus. When combined with alloy stent, it may be a choice procedure for reconstructing the defect of trachea and esophagus.


Chitosan-based, defect-free nanofibers with average diameters ranging from 62 +/- 9 nm to 129 +/- 16 nm were fabricated via electrospinning blended solutions of chitosan and polyethylene oxide (PEO). Several solution parameters such as acetic acid concentration, polymer concentration, and polymer molecular weight were investigated to optimize fiber consistency and diameter. These parameters were evaluated using the rheological properties of the solutions as well as images produced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the electrospun nanofibers. Generally, SEM imaging demonstrated that as total polymer concentration (chitosan + PEO) increased, the number of beads decreased, and as chitosan concentration increased, fiber diameter decreased. Chitosan-PEO solutions phase separate over time; as a result, blended solutions were able to be electrospun with the weakest electric field and the least amount of complications when solutions were electrospun within 24 h of initially being blended. The addition of NaCl stabilized these solutions and increased the time the blended solutions could be stored before electrospinning. Pure chitosan nanofibers with high degrees of deacetylation (about 80%) were unable to be produced. When attempting to electrospin highly deacetylated chitosan from aqueous acetic acid at concentrations above the entanglement concentration, the electric field was insufficient to overcome the combined effect of the surface tension and viscosity of the solution. Therefore, the degree of deacetylation is an extremely important parameter to consider when attempting to electrospin chitosan.


Expanding nebulae are produced bymass loss from stars, especially during late stages of evolution.Multi-dimensional simulation of these nebulae requires high resolution near the star and permits resolution that decreaseswith distance from the star, ideallywith adaptive timesteps. We report the implementation and testing of static mesh-refinement in the radiation-magnetohydrodynamics code pion, and document its performance for 2D and 3D calculations. The bow shock produced by a hot, magnetized, slowly rotating star as it moves through the magnetized ISM is simulated in 3D, highlighting differences compared with 2D calculations. Latitude-dependent, time-varying magnetized winds are modelled and compared with simulations of ring nebulae around blue supergiants from the literature. A 3D simulation of the expansion of a fast wind from a Wolf-Rayet star into the slow wind from a previous red supergiant phase of evolution is presented, with results compared with results in the literature and analytic theory. Finally the wind-wind collision from a binary star system is modelled with 3D MHD, and the results compared with previous 2D hydrodynamic calculations. A python library is provided for reading and plotting simulation snapshots, and the generation of synthetic infrared emission maps using torus is also demonstrated. It is shown that state-of-the-art 3D MHD simulations of wind-driven nebulae can be performed using pion with reasonable computational resources. The source code and user documentation is made available for the community under a BSD3 licence.