Tanjungpinang local government issued Tanjungpinang Mayor Decree Number  37 Year 2010 about the Official Uniform for Civil Servants and Non Civil Servants at Tanjungpinang Government Circle.  That decree stated that Batik Gonggong was one of the official uniforms that must be used. With the decree which caused the economical rights, all the entrepreneurs should get the opportunity to compete without any discrimination.
It was concluded that public participation was needed to conduct a study in determining a batik motive as the special characteristic of a place before it was determined as a law of the local government. It could be socialization or an open competition for the society or the related  entrepreneurs, because that activity could cause an economical consequence for the public. Tanjungpinang local government should give a transparency guarantee and the same rights of access about business information for every micro, small and middle entrepreneur.


In this paper, a preview theory-based steering control approach considering vehicle dynamic constraints is presented. The constrained variables are predicted by an error states system and utilized to adjust the control law once the established dynamic constraints are violated. The simulated annealing optimization algorithm for preview length is conducted to improve the adaptability of the controller to varying velocities and road adhesion coefficients. The theoretical stability of a closed-loop system is guaranteed using Lyapunov theory, and further analysis of the system response in time domain and frequency domain is discussed. The results of simulations implemented on Carsim–Simulink demonstrate the favorable performance of the proposed control in tracking accuracy and system stability under extreme conditions.


Mental Health in a Changing World is the first of three volumes that constitute the report of the international study group on mental health, 1961, convened by the World Federation for Mental Health. The volume purports to be an account of major developments in the field of mental health transnationally since the publication of the report of the International Preparatory Commission for the Third International Congress on Mental Health, 1948. The justification for three volumes instead of one is that each volume is alleged to address a special audience. Volume I is addressed to those whose main interest is in the promotion of mental health work. The book is the result of the editors' attempt to boil down the tape recordings taken during a 12-day meeting plus some working papers into a summary of the proceedings. The book is divided into three sections. The first section (30 pages) is devoted


Background The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate the incidence of pneumonia during hospitalization in elderly hip fracture patients, 2) to evaluate the effect of pneumonia on 30 day to 1 year mortality and 3) to analyze the impact of age and gender on the mortality rate in the pneumonia patients using a nationwide cohort of Korea. Methods The Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database included approximately 5.5 million Korean enrollees > 60 years of age. A total of 588,147 participants were randomly selected for senior cohort using 10% simple random sampling. We identified senile (> 65 years old) patients who underwent hip fracture surgery from January 2005 to December 2014 and those who developed pneumonia during hospitalization from the NHIS-Senior cohort. The index date of hip fracture occurrence was defined as the date of admission to the acute care hospital. The last date of follow-up was defined as the date of death or 31 December 2015, whichever came first. A multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model was used to investigate the effects of pneumonia on all-cause mortality. Results During the enrollment period, a total of 14,736 patients, who were older than 65 years, underwent hip fracture surgeries. Among them, 1,629 patients (11.05%) developed pneumonia during the hospitalization. The pneumonia incidence was 16.39% (601/3,666) in men patients and 9.29% (1,028/10,042) in women patients. Compared to 13,107 non-pneumonia patients, adjusted relative risk (aRR) of death in pneumonia patients was 2.69 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.14–3.38; P < 0.001) within postoperative 30-day, 3.40 (95% CI, 3.01–3.83; P < 0.001) within postoperative 90-day, 2.86 (95% CI, 2.61–3.15; P < 0.001) within postoperative 180-day and 2.31 (95% CI, 2.14–2.50; P < 0.001) within postoperative 1-year. According to patient's age, the aRR of death in pneumonia patients was 5.75 (95% CI, 2.89–11.43) in adults aged < 70 years, 5.14 (95% CI, 4.08–6.46) in those aged 70–79 years, 3.29 (95% CI, 2.81–3.86) in those aged 80–89 years and 2.02 (95% CI, 1.52–2.69) in those aged ≥ 90 years. The aRR was 3.63 (95% CI, 3.01–4.38) in men pneumonia patients, and 3.27 (95% CI, 2.80–3.83) in women pneumonia patients. Conclusion The prevalence of pneumonia in elderly hip fracture patients was 11.05%. Men had higher incidence (16.39%) than women (9.29%). Compared to non-pneumonia patients, the pneumonia patients had higher 30-day to 1-year mortalities with aRR of 2.31 to 3.40. They had increased mortality in all age groups older than 65 years with aRR of 1.52 to 4.08. Both genders of pneumonia patients had higher risk of mortality (aRR, 3.63 in men and 3.27 in women) compared to non-pneumonia patients.


Background: Converging neuropsychological evidence suggests that in migraine executive functions (EF) may be affected during interictal periods. Objective: To evaluate the functional connectivity of the fronto-parietal networks (FPN) known to be associated with EF, in migraine without aura (MwoA) patients, in the interictal period, in comparison to healthy controls (HC). Methods: Using resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI), we compared functional connectivity within the FPN in 14 patients with MwoA versus 14 sex- and age-matched HC, and assessed the correlation between functional connectivity within FPN, clinical features of MwoA patients, and EF. We used voxel-based morphometry to assess whether between-group differences in functional connectivity were dependent on structural differences. Results: Neuropsychological data revealed no significant executive dysfunction in MwoA patients. RS-fMRI showed that MwoA patients, compared to HC, had significant functional connectivity reduction within the right FPN and specifically in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, we found that MFG reduced connectivity was negatively correlated with the pain intensity of migraine attacks. There were no structural differences between the two groups. Conclusions: Our data suggest that, even in the absence of clinically evident EF deficits, MwoA is associated with reduced FPN functional connectivity. This study provides further insights into the complex scenario of migraine mechanisms.


Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly since 2019. Approximately 15% of the patients will develop severe complications such as multiple organ disease syndrome related to cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) can remove inflammatory cytokines through filtration or adsorption. We evaluated the effectiveness of CRRT in COVID-19 patients with CRS. Methods: This retrospective, multicenter, descriptive study included 83 patients with CRS from three hospitals in Wuhan. Results: In COVID-19 patients with CRS, the fatality rate was even higher in CRRT group (P=0.005). However, inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, neutrophil counts, and D-dimer decreased after CRRT (P<0.05). Results of Lasso model showed that tracheotomy (β -1.31) and convalescent plasma (β -1.41) were the protective factors. In contrast, CRRT (β 1.07), respiratory failure (β 1.61), consolidation on lung CT (β 0.48), acute kidney injury (AKI) (β 0.47), and elevated neutrophil count (β 0.02) were the risk factors for death. Conclusions: Our results showed that although CRRT significantly reduced the inflammation, it did not decrease the fatality rate of patients with CRS. Therefore, the choice of CRRT indication, dialysis time and dialysis mode should be more careful and accurate in COVID-19 patients with CRS.


In South Africa, substance rehabilitation centers found alcohol as the primary substance abuse in eight out of the nine provinces. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of alcohol use and associated risk factors among University of Limpopo students with mean age of 21.5 years. This was a cross-sectional study and constituted a total of 500 female students and 417 male students from the University of Limpopo. Logistic regression was used to calculate the association between alcohol consumption and its predictors. Information about their alcohol consumption, the type of alcohol and the practice related to alcohol consumption was collected using a validated questionnaire. Tobacco and marijuana product use were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with alcohol use among University of Limpopo students for unadjusted (OR ranges 4.31 95%CI 2.71 6.87 to 4.92 95%CI 3.16 7.70) and after adjusting for age gender and amount of money deposited into the student account by the bursary scheme (OR ranges from 4.14 95%CI 2.59 6.62 to 4.50 95%CI 2.87 7.06). Tobacco product use, marijuana use and enhancing interpersonal relationships are major risk factors associated to current alcohol use. Future studies are required to investigate the development of lifestyle and cardiovascular disease over time among University of Limpopo students.


Abstract Modern Spain has remained largely absent from the debates and narratives of global history. In sharp contrast to the early modern period, the case of Spain in the nineteenth century has been overwhelmingly studied from regional and national perspectives. Fortunately, valuable efforts to integrate this country into wider frames of analysis have emerged in the last decade. Building on these writings, this article will argue that connections and entanglements represent two valuable perspectives, which allow the insertion of the Spanish experience into contemporary narratives of global history. The article has two aims. First, it seeks to 'decentre' modern Spain, by moving beyond its territorial borders within the Iberian Peninsula, and by examining its global dimensions, through connections with territories, colonies, and nations on several continents. Second, it aims to reveal valuable insights for current debates on global history, which arise from a focus on a country that is usually considered to have been both marginal and peripheral.


The paper proposes a methodology for optimal coordination of motions in robotic systems with multiple redundant actuators. In contrast to our previous results dealing with a single redundant axis, the extended technique is proposed allowing the robot, positioner and linear track to be actuated simultaneously in order to reduce the total processing time. The developed technique transforms the original continuous problem into a discrete one where the desired time-optimal motions are presented as a shortest path on the task graph satisfying the problem-specific acceleration and velocity constraints imposed on the joint coordinates. The desired time optimal motions are generated using enhanced dynamic programming algorithm that considers both of these constraints. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate efficiency of the approach and evaluate benefits of simultaneous actuation of all robotic system axes.


In this work, a T2-T1 switchable superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoprobe with a pH/H2O2 dual response was obtained using a microemulsion method. This novel method for the controllable assembly of small iron clusters followed by their independent modification was reported, which could not be prepared by common synthetic methods. The size of the assembled nanoprobe was uniform and controllable, with a stable T2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal under a single condition. When the nanoprobe was exposed to the tumor environment, the higher H+ and H2O2 concentrations at the tumor site could dissociate the nanoprobe and redisperse into small iron clusters. When this occurred, the T2 MRI signal was converted into a T1 MRI signal, achieving specific detection of tumors by a pH/H2O2 dual-response T2-T1 MRI.


The effect of sulphate doping of titania in promoting activity and selectivity of MoOx/TiO2 catalysts for the cyclohexane photooxidative dehydrogenation has been investigated in a gas-solid fluidized bed reactor. Sulphate and/or molybdate-modified titania catalysts were prepared by incipient wet impregnation of nanosized (5–10 nm crystallite size) samples. At 60% of titania surface coverage by MoOx, sulphate surface density was obtained up to 19 μmol/m2 without formation of MoO3. The catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption at −196◦C, micro-Raman and UV-visible reflectance spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectroscopy (TG-MS), and mass titration. Unsulphated and sulphated titania are both active in cyclohexane total oxidation, but sulphate doping of titania has a detrimental effect on the reaction rate. On Mo-based catalysts, polymolybdate species enabled sulphated titania to convert cyclohexane to benzene (99% selectivity) and cyclohexene, reducing at zero the formation of CO2. Cyclohexane conversion to benzene is almost linearly dependent on sulphate surface density, resulting in enhanced yield to benzene. The enhanced photooxidative dehydrogenation activity and benzene yield by sulphate doping could be attributed to the increase of surface acidity and, as a consequence, of cyclohexane adsorption.


Infective endocarditis is an infection of the lining of the heart, particularly the cusps of valves characterized by fever and heart murmur, with or without malaise and fatigue. Clinical features can be divided into early manifestations of infection, embolic events, and late complications of sepsis and inflammation. It was reported that 60 years old man was brought to Kariadi hospital with prolong febris as his chief complaint. Patient has history of high grade fever and accompanied by weight loss, 3 kilograms for about 2 months. From physical examination result, in internal ward, we found he looked moderate ill. Heart systolic bruit at triscupidal valve and lungs were within normal limit. The result of blood culture from 3 different sites and throat swab culture were possitive, lead to the performance Streptococcus b haemolyticus's colonies. From the result of the ASTO, Echocardiography and physical examination show infective endocarditis's sign. The theraphy was Ceftriaxone 2 gram daily. Having obtained the results of negative cultures, and show an improvement of symptoms, finally the patient was getting improvement clinically and then treat as an outpatient. Patient was programmed to get Ceftriaxone 2 gram daily for 4 weeks. The decision of treatment not only from clinical manifestation but also from microbiology examination on the first admission in emergency unit. Blood culture with 3 bottles, interval 30 minutes is important for infective endocarditis. Furthermore, swab of throat area were taken to confirm for endocarditis cultures too. Finally there is no growth in culture until eighth day hospitalizasition. Spesific method on blood culture sampling is important to confirm the diagnostic of infective endocarditis and very useful for the clinicians to do the right clinical management for it. Subsequently, the role of clinical microbiologist in this case not only to support the clinical diagnostic but also the treatment in term of selecting of right antibiotic.


This bibliography has been compiled for use by researchers, students, and other groups who need a reference source of published literature related to surface coal mining and reclamation in the Interior Coal Province. This bibliography contains more than 1300 references, including government reports, journal articles, symposium proceedings, industrial reports, workshop proceedings, theses, and bibliographies. A simple format was used to categorize citations.


These editing tips contain helpful suggestions to assist writers who are writing, editing, and publishing technical publications in the JNWPS. The suggestions clarify some of the most common writing problems and requirements of two publications used in the JNWPS: ''DOE-DTRA TP 1-1, Joint Nuclear Weapons Publications System Operating Procedures, Specifications, and Standards, and United States Government Printing Office Style Manual''. Topics include requirements for abbreviations, formats for drafts, layouts of illustrations and tables, appropriate wording for interim changes, guidance for creating a list of effective pages, how to insert and delete pages and paragraphs, referencing other technical publications, use of revision bars, requirements for safety precautions, use of hyphens, and how to place warnings, cautions, and notes. Also included are a writer's checklist, samples of draft title pages, and a section of helpful tips for the writers who use the department's desktop publishing software program, Adobe{reg_sign} FrameMaker{reg_sign}.


In this paper Phil Smith examines the proposal of Simon Persighetti of Wrights & Sites for actors to behave 'as signposts'. It describes the circumstances from which the proposal arose, a particular moment in the work of site-specific artists/performers Wrights & Sites, and argues for the wider application of the proposal to the making of site-based theatre and performance. The paper describes four main features of the proposal for 'actors as signposts' – pointing to specificity, movement from anti-character to collective subject, performance as trajectory, and the restoration of corporeality – illustrating these with reference to the work of Punchdrunk, Francis Alÿs, and geographer Michael Zinganel, among others. Phil Smith is a Senior Research Associate at the School of Art and Media, University of Plymouth and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Exeter and Dartington College of Arts. Author and co-deviser of over a hundred plays or performances for companies including St Petersburg State Comedy Theatre, Tams Theater (Munich), and New Perspectives (Nottingham), he is company dramaturg for TNT (Munich) and a core member of Wrights & Sites. His solo walking-based performances include The Crab Walks and Crab Steps Aside (texts published by Intellect, 2009).


BACKGROUND
The correlation between body mass index (BMI) and patient and tumor characteristics related to prognosis has not been well explored and may help to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the carcinogenesis. Because of the equivocal, inconsistent and uncertain research results as well as racial and ethnic differences, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of high BMI in Turkish women with operable breast carcinoma.

METHODS
Two hundred and sixty-six patients who had operable invasive breast carcinoma diagnosed from 2000 through 2004 in a single institution were evaluated for their demographic features, BMI, histopathological/immunohistochemical examinations and treatments. Quetelet BMI [weight (kg)/height (m)2] categories were selected according to the World Health Organization definition. Disease free survival (DSF) as well as distant disease free survival (DDSF) analyses were performed to identify independent prognostic factors.

RESULTS
Post-menopausal patients were significantly in the higher quartile of BMI than pre-menopausal patients (P = 0.003). While post-menopausal obese patients had worse DSF and DDFS (P = 0.001), vascular invasion was the independent prognostic factor for both survival indices (P = 0.031).

CONCLUSIONS
Post-menopausal obese Turkish women are at increased risk of developing breast tumors with aggressive phenotype and obesity is a strong predictor of poor DSF and DDFS. Preventive strategies to reduce not only the prevalence of obesity and breast cancer but also the mortality must be recognized as the cost-effective public-health policy for Turkey.


In this paper, a new data mining algorithm is proposed to enhance the capability of exploring interesting knowledge from databases with continuous values. The algorithm integrates Fuzzy Set Theory and ldquoGenetic Network Programming (GNP)rdquo to find interesting fuzzy association rules from given transaction data. GNP is a novel evolutionary optimization technique, which uses directed graph structures as gene instead of strings (Genetic Algorithms) or trees (Genetic Programming), contributing to creating quite compact programs and implicitly memorizing past action sequences. We adopt the Fuzzy Set Theory to mine associate rules that can be expressed in linguistic terms, which are more natural and understandable for human beings. The proposed method can measure the significance of the extracted association rules using support, confidence and chi2 test, and obtains a sufficient number of important association rules in a short time. Experiments conducted on real world databases are also made to verify the performances of the proposed method.


A dual-gate TSMC 0.18 mum gate-length n-MOS has been measured and characterized. The modified dual-gate large-signal model consists of two intrinsic, single-gate conventional BSIM3v3 nonlinear models and the passive network is proposed representing the device parasitic effects. This large-signal rf model includes the required passive components to fit the device dc and rf characteristics. The extrinsic elements of capacitance and inductance are calculated from the three-port S-parameters. Good agreement has been obtained between the simulation results of the equivalent circuit model and the measured data up to 15 GHz. In order to verify this modified model, a 2.4 GHz dual-gate low noise amplifier was designed based on this modified model. The LNA measurement results are consistent with the simulations, which demonstrate that the cascode-type dual-gate CMOS model can be applied for microwave circuit design


To understand the structures and processes of identity, to define and understand the world in its many variants geographical and historical, to appropriate the identity affirming values, and in order to learn about humanity and the earth as wholes, are made necessary by and new teaching tools including the use of poetry. It is clear that without a scientific, or civic, nor history, nor geography in both sciences, could assert its epistemological foundation, nor claim that humanity strategies required to know, understand and advance human knowledge and system as a whole. We are interested in this job recovering the educational value of poetry, while from it you can magnify the historical fact as such. The poem is a vehicle that gives the hero metaphorical content while hyperbolize accomplished facts. So then, a transverse axis of this work is synthesized in this way: "to each item, a poem."


A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a more environmentally friendly alternative to deliver electric power in various applications, including in the transportation industry. As PEMFC performance characteristics are inherently nonlinear and involved, the prediction of the performance in a given application for different operating conditions is important in order to optimize the efficiency of the system. Thus, modelling using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict its performance can significantly improve the capabilities of handling the multi-variable nonlinear performance of the PEMFC. However, further investigation is needed to develop a dynamic model using ANNs to predict the transient behavior of a PEMFC. This paper predicts the dynamic electrical and thermal performance of a PEMFC stack under various operating conditions. The input variables of the PEMFC stack for the analysis consist of the cathode inlet temperature, anode inlet pressure, anode and cathode inlet flow rates, and stack current. The performances of the ANN models using three different learning algorithms are determined based on the stack voltage and temperature, which have been shown to be consistently predicted by most of these models. Almost all models with varying hidden neurons have coefficients of determination of 0.9 or higher and mean squared errors of less than 5. Thus, the results show promise for dynamic modelling approaches using ANNs for the development of optimal operation of a PEMFC in various system applications.


An optical nonlinearity due to virtual charge polarization in a quantum-well structure biased by a DC electric field is proposed and discussed. The switching time of the nonlinearity is expected to be extremely short, on the order of 100 fs. An effective degenerative four-wave chi /sup 3/ parameter is estimated to be 1.0*10/sup -9/ (esu) for a graded gap AlGaAs quantum well and a detuning energy of pump light, 35 meV. The nonlinearity is observable and quite useful for designing an all-optical and ultrafast optical gate. >


The minimum inhibitory concentrations of 6 broad-spectrum beta-lactam antimicrobial agents were determined by use of the Etest versus a total of 569 bacteria in 7 Puerto Rican hospital laboratories. These included 342 recent clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, 63 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 54 Acinetobacter species, and 110 oxacillin-susceptible staphylococci. Extended spectrum beta-lactamase production was noted among 11% of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Hyperproduction of Amp C cephalosporinase was observed with > 20% of isolates of Enterobacter spp., Serratia spp., and Citrobacter freundii. The overall rank order of activity of the six beta-lactams examined in this study versus all clinical isolates was imipenem (95.8% susceptible) > cefepime (91.1%) > piperacillin/ tazobactam (82.3%) > cefotaxime (77.6%) > piperacillin (72.5%) > ceftazidime (67.0%).


type="main" xml:id="twec12077-abs-0001"> Trade in genetically modified products is a longstanding and contentious issue in agricultural trade. One issue has not, as yet, received much attention. This is the mingling of unapproved GM products with conventional products. This issue is likely to gain more prominence in the future as new GM product development accelerates. Until recently, problems with mingling were largely one-off events. Recently, however, an ongoing case of mingling has arisen – the case of Canadian GM flax in the EU. The case led to an embargo of imports from Canada and subsequently the bilateral negotiation of a protocol to allow exports to resume. The case raises a number of important issues pertaining to the objective of zero tolerance policies for GM products, the operationalisation of zero tolerance, the role of the testing industry, the design of testing regimes and the risks associated with the absence of transparency and/or international standardisation. It is concluded that mingling is a topic that is deserving of multilateral attention.


We have measured the distributions of the jet energies in e+e− → qqg events, and of the three orientation angles of the event plane, using hadronic Z0 decays collected in the SLD experiment at SLAC. We find that the data are well described by perturbative QCD incorporating vector gluons. We have also compared our data with models of scalar and tensor gluon production, and discuss limits on the relative contributions of these particles to three-jet production in e+e− annihilation.


Methane (CH4) emission estimates from top-down studies over oil and gas basins have revealed systematic underestimation of CH4 emissions in current national inventories. Sparse but extremely large amounts of CH4 from oil and gas production activities have been detected across the globe, resulting in a significant increase of the overall oil and gas contribution. However, attribution to specific facilities remains a major challenge unless high-spatial-resolution images provide sufficient granularity within the oil and gas basin. In this paper, we monitor known oil and gas infrastructures across the globe using recurrent Sentinel-2 imagery to detect and quantify more than 1200 CH4 emissions. In combination with emission estimates from airborne and Sentinel-5P measurements, we demonstrate the robustness of the fit to a power law from 0.1 tCH4/h to 600 tCH4/h. We conclude here that the prevalence of ultraemitters (>25tCH4/h) detected globally by Sentinel-5P directly relates to emission occurrences below its detection threshold in the range >2tCH4/h, which correspond to large emitters covered by Sentinel-2. We also verified that this relation is also valid at a more local scale for two specific countries, namely, Algeria and Turkmenistan, and the Permian basin in the United States.


This Essay examines the debate over how the WTO and the public interact. Since the mass public is cacophonous, the debate centers on what role NGOs should play in the WTO. NGOs are voluntary organizations of individuals who come together to achieve common purposes. As used here, NGOs include business and labor groups. This Essay contains five parts. Part I provides background for readers just joining the debate. Part II gives an overview of the major developments over the past three years (1998-2000). Parts III and IV offer a synthesis of the key issues. Part III presents the Statist perspective for why the WTO should deny deeper participation to NGOs. Part IV counters with the Individualist perspective for why the WTO should broaden its participation beyond governments to include NGOs. (Part IV reflects the author's own views.) Part V provides specific recommendations for how the WTO should increase opportunities for NGOs. OPENING THE WTO TO NONGOVERNMENTAL INTERESTS


Cities and local governments have become both important sites for international development as well as actors which aspire to shape the practice in this field. This paper retraces the emergence of cities and local governments as having this dual character, in order to provide the ground for a more forward-looking deliberation on some of the emerging themes on the role of cities in and for international law and development today. We see in particular a friction between two seemingly competing and broader understandings of global development, in both of which cities play a prominent role: the SDGs as adopted in 2015, and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The SDGs are the most important multilateral articulation of ideas of development today. To this extent, they are considerably shaped by the long shadow of the post-Cold War era and the shifting priorities of influential actors like the United States, the European Union, but also increasingly vocal states from the 'Global South'. The BRI follows a different idea of international development, built around the notions of non-interference and 'win-win cooperation.' What unites these two blueprints for global development is that international law, as traditionally understood, does not seem to take center stage. Or rather, we wish to expound, it may be a new type of international law which emerges from these global constellations of international development which comes not only, but also from below.


Assuming Rusbridge's (1977, 1982) tangled discharge picture of the reversed field pinch, a simple parallel transport model describing energy confinement is obtained.


We describe here the development and validation of the Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA) rubric, an instrument that was designed to provide more equity in mentoring, transparency in hiring, and accountability in training of aspiring faculty in the life sciences. We report here the results of interviews with faculty at 20 U.S. institutions which resulted in the identification of 14 qualifications and levels of achievement required for obtaining a faculty position at three groups of institutions: research-intensive (R), teaching-only (T), and research and teaching-focused (RT). T institutions hire candidates on teaching experience and pedagogical practices, and on their ability to serve diverse student populations. RT institutions hire faculty on both research and teaching-related qualifications, as well as on the ability to support students in the laboratory. R institutions hire candidates mainly on their research achievements and potential, which may limit the diversification of the life science academic pathway.


The Incidence of Syphilis has increased in developed countries over recent years. This potentially could lead to a rise in the number of cases presenting in obstetrics and a resurgence of congenital syphilis. Syphilis is a treatable condition, screening in pregnancy is both cost effective and cost beneficial. We describe a rare presentation of syphilis in a young woman in early pregnancy. The patient presented with a stroke, at which time her partner was diagnosed with early latent syphilis. Her findings were thought to be consistent with meningovascular syphilis and treatment lead to resolution of her symptoms. Antenatal screening for syphilis is offered to all women in the UK. Changing migration patterns and high‐risk behavior however, may cause cases to go undetected. Vigilant screening for syphilis is needed in pregnancy as prompt diagnosis and management will aim to cure the mother whilst preventing the adverse effects associated with congenital syphilis.


Bone sialoprotein (BSP) is a highly modified, anionic phosphoprotein that is expressed almost exclusively in mineralizing connective tissues and has been shown to be a potent nucleator of hydroxyapatite (HA). Two polyglutamic acid (poly[E]) regions, predicted to be in an α-helical conformation and located in the amino-terminal half of the molecule, are believed to be responsible for this activity. Using a prokaryotic expression system, full-length rat BSP was expressed and tested for HA nucleating activity in a steady-state agarose gel system. The unmodified protein is less potent than native bone BSP, indicating a role for the post-translational modifications in HA nucleation. Site-directed mutagenesis of the poly[E] regions in full-length BSP was performed, replacing the poly[E] with either polyaspartic acid (poly[D]) or polyalanine (poly[A]) to examine role of charge and conformation, respectively, in HA nucleation. Replacement of single domains with either poly[A] or poly[D] did not alter nucleating activity nor did replacement of both domains with poly[D]. Replacement of both domains with poly[A], however, significantly decreased nucleating activity. In addition, two recombinant peptides, each encompassing one of the two poly[E] domains, were expressed and tested for nucleating activity. Whereas the peptide encompassing the second poly[E] domain was capable of nucleating HA, the first domain peptide showed no activity. The conformation of the wild-type and mutated proteins and peptides were studied by circular dichroism and small angle x-ray scattering, and no secondary structure was evident. These results demonstrate that a sequence of at least eight contiguous glutamic acid residues is required for the nucleation of HA by BSP and that this nucleating "site" is not α-helical in conformation.


In the current milieu of monumental change in medicine and the health sciences, effective leadership is needed from within the health care profession to address various challenges. A leader needs to be visionary, and must possess the ability to share this vision with others through effective communication. The leader should be fair, trustworthy, sincere, truthful, honest, courageous, and compassionate. He or she should be strong and resolute and be able to lead through persuasion rather than coercion. The leader should possess the attributes and skills to mold organizational change in the desired direction and to deal with reactions of individuals going through the change process. The democratic style of leadership appears to be the most effective, although the autocratic style may be needed occasionally to accomplish a specific task. The noncentered, laissez-faire style of leadership is generally not effective and results in significant frustration among subordinates. The most desirable type of power a leader can exercise over subordinates results from deep trust and effective communication, which make people follow the leader willingly. The health care profession needs to solicit the help of experienced members who have shown leadership to help guide various activities and to serve as mentors for the less experienced individuals. Special courses should be designed and implemented to develop specific leadership skills, which are applicable to various health care disciplines. Practical teaching models, including individuals from various disciplines working together in teams, with opportunities for leadership, should be implemented. Also, an appropriate culture that recognizes and rewards effective leadership in academe needs to be established within academic institutions.


Swiss citizens will decide whether to adopt or reject a partial revision of the Constitution of Switzerland that aims to introduce a provision on responsible business. According to the proposal, companies that are based in Switzerland are required to carry out appropriate human rights and environmental due diligence in Switzerland and abroad. The proposal also entails a provision for companies that makes them liable for the harm caused by companies under their control unless they can prove that they took all due care to avoid the harm. This contribution presents and assesses the content of the Swiss Popular Initiative on Responsible Business in light of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It also compares the Swiss popular initiative with the recently adopted French loi relative au devoir de vigilance and other recent legislative developments. It identifies a trend towards more precise liability provisions for corporate human rights abuses in international operations.


Background VX-509 is an oral selective JAK3 inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This was a 24-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 2 study of four dosing regimens of VX-509, administered to patients with RA with inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX). Objectives To assess the efficacy and safety of four dosing regimens of VX-509 administered to patients with RA on stable background methotrexate therapy. Methods Patients with active RA (C-reactive protein (CRP)>ULN, ≥6 swollen joints (of 66), and ≥6 tender joints (of 68)) taking stable doses of MTX were randomized 1:1:1:1:1 to receive placebo or one of four dosing regimens of VX-509 (100 mg QD, 150 mg QD, 200 mg QD, or 100 mg BID) for a duration of 24 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoints at Week 12 were met and have previously been reported; 24-week efficacy and safety results are reported here. Results A total of 358 patients were randomized and received ≥1 dose of study drug; 81% of patients were female, with a mean age of 53 years. At baseline, the mean tender joint count was 23.8, the mean swollen joint count was 16.1, and the average disease duration was 7.3 years. After 24 weeks of treatment the proportion of patients achieving ACR20, ACR50, ACR70, DAS28 (CRP) <2.6 and DAS28 (ESR) <2.6 and the decrease from baseline in DAS28 (CRP) were statistically significantly greater in each of the VX-509 dose groups than in the placebo group (Table). Over 24 weeks, the percentage of patients with any adverse event (AE) was higher in the VX-509 group (all VX-509 dose groups combined) (59.9%) relative to placebo (42.3%) and led to study discontinuation in 9.1% and 8.5% of patients in the VX-509 and placebo groups, respectively. The most common AEs in the VX-509 group were headache (8.7%), hypercholesterolemia (5.2%), and diarrhea (4.5%). Serious AEs occurred in similar proportions of patients receiving VX-509 (7.3%) or placebo (5.6%), but there were more serious infections in the VX-509 group (3.5%) compared with placebo (1.4%). Through 24 weeks there were two SAEs that resulted in death; one was cardiac failure in the VX-509 100 mg BID group (previously reported) and one was pancytopenia in a patient with pneumonia in the VX-509 200 mg QD group. Elevations in transaminase levels and decreases in median neutrophil and lymphocyte counts were observed in the VX-509 groups and were generally mild. Safety profiles were comparable across groups receiving VX-509. Conclusions All tested doses of VX-509 significantly improved signs and symptoms of RA versus placebo when administered in combination with stable background MTX therapy for 24 weeks. VX-509 was associated with small increases in AE rates, serious infections, and mostly minor laboratory abnormalities. These results support and provide guidance for the further development of VX-509. Disclosure of Interest R. van Vollenhoven Grant/research support: AbbVie, BMS, GSK, Pfizer, Roche, and UCB, Consultant for: bbVie, Biotest, BMS, GSK, Merck, Pfizer, Roche, UCB, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, M. Genovese Grant/research support: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Consultant for: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Y. Zhang Employee of: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, N. Kinnman Employee of: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2487


The Semantic Web aims to extend the existing Web with conceptual metadata that are more accessible to machines and thereby more effectively communicate the proposed meaning of Web resources .We need efficient ways to access and extract knowledge from Web documents in order to make  the Semantic Web to life and provide advanced knowledge services .Specialized knowledge services therefore require tools that can search and extract specific knowledge directly from unstructured text on the Web, guided by an ontology that details what type of knowledge to harvest. This paper links acknowledge-extraction tool   with ontology to achieve continuous knowledge support and guide information extraction. The extraction tool is applied onto web documents and extracts knowledge that matches the given Web Query. Knowledge extraction is further enhanced using a lexicon-based term expansion mechanism that provides extended ontology terminology. It provides this knowledge in an XML format that will be automatically maintained in knowledge base(KB).This knowledge base can be used for further inferences(i.e.)to produce a narrative generation. The user interface is designed in such a manner that it receives the relevant interests of the user and the ontology aware query.


This second edition includes material on some three dozen new writers as well as "additional nature writers, historians, and ch ildren's authors." Two categories— "The Environm ent and Western L iterature" and "W omen, Families, an d W estern Litera tu re"— have been added. The second edition has almost fifteen hun dred m ore items than the first. The most obvious difference from the first edition (1982) is tha t the double-column form at has been replaced by a much more readable single column. However, the editors have om itted whole categories—masters theses, introductions, brief items— that were listed in the first edition. For example, in 1982, twelve items were listed und er Edward Abbey. Six o f these were no t included in the twenty-three listed in the revision. But the editors have done more than trim. Fourteen o f the anthologies listed in 1982 did no t survive into the second edition, but two additional items published before 1981 are listed for the first time. And there are, inevitably, errors and omissions. T he real problem with the book is in the conception. Both editions index only authors or editors o f material listed. A subject index would have inform ed users that, in addition to m aterial listed under work on individual authors, the books in "General W orks" and "Popular Western L iterature" should be consulted. For exam ple, Jane Tom pkins's West of Everything contains material on Wister, Zane Grey, and a num ber of o ther writers and films. An index o f topics like Custer or Billy the Kid would have been m ore difficult to compile but would also have been useful, indeed, essential for students o f western literature. Even the listings under individual authors have limited value. They are no t in tended to be comprehensive, but the principle of selection is not m ade clear. Scholars will have to replicate the com pilers' work to fill the gaps. Etulain and Howard have obviously done a great deal o f work. H ad they considered how others could derive the greatest benefit from their work, the bibliography m ight have been definitive rather than merely useful.


Key-words: Portuguese atlantic margin - Early Cretaceous - Biostratigraphy - Sedimentology - Paleogeography

This paper gives a short description of main stratigraphic umttes from the early Cretaceous in Estremadura and Algarve, with their lithological, sedimentological and paleontological characteristics. The distribution of facies enable to propose a paleogeographic frame including eroded high areas and sedimentary low areas roughly parallel to the present coast.
The early Cretaceous from Estremadura is splited up into three megasequences each one with regressive then transgressive tendencies; this fact must be connected with the leading action of distensive, slow or sudden, movements. Beyond the hercynian fault of Messejana, Algarve presents a different sedimentary evolution during the early Cretaceous.


The existence of a Conformal Vector Field (CVF) is studied in the important class of warped manifolds of arbitrary dimension generalizing in this way the corresponding results of the four dimensional geometries. As a concrete example we apply the geometric results in the case of brane-world scenarios when the bulk geometry admits a hypersurface orthogonal Killing Vector Field (KVF) and is filled with a perfect fluid matter content.


Advanced fabric reinforced polymer composites find extensive applications in aerospace and structural fields due to their high mechanical properties. A novel stamp forming technique finds extensive use in the hemispherical forming of thermoplastic composites. This study investigates the influence of stamp forming parameters on the formability of thermoplastic composite using Taguchi's robust design and grey relational analysis. Taguchi's orthogonal array was used for designing the forming experiments. Responses such as forming ratio and logarithmic thickness strain were considered for the assessment of sheet formability through single and multi-response optimization. Analysis of variance was used for the determination of the contribution of each parameter on formability and it was identified that the die temperature acts as a prominent factor, followed by blank holder force and blank temperature. The confirmation test was conducted at optimum parameter levels and the obtained experimental grade was seen within the confidence interval of the predicted value.


This paper summarizes the outcomes from the ISCSLP 2022 Intelligent Cockpit Speech Recognition Challenge (ICSRC). We first address the necessity of the challenge and then introduce the associated dataset collected from a new-energy vehicle (NEV) covering a variety of cockpit acoustic conditions and linguistic contents. We then describe the track arrangement and the baseline system. Specifically, we set up two tracks in terms of allowed model/system size to investigate resource-constrained and -unconstrained setups, targeting to vehicle embedded as well as cloud ASR systems respectively. Finally we summarize the challenge results and provide the major observations from the submitted systems.


Until very recently, one almost never heard mention of international issues among labor and employment law practitioners in the United States. Conventional wisdom considers this practice area quintessentially local. Identifying a trend that unseats this taken-for-granted notion, the article details the birth of a new employment law sub-specialty: international labor and employment law. Some U.S. management attorneys, working with transnational legal teams comprised of lawyers from foreign firms, are beginning to coordinate multinational clients' employment law projects across multiple national jurisdictions. While the world's legal regimes that regulate labor markets are remarkably culturally specific, the formation of transnational networks of employment practitioners creates the opportunity for the transfer across borders of ideas about how workplace law and legal practice should operate. That possibility is explored by describing the results of an ethnographic study of how one U.S. law firm is building its international employment law practice, and how the foreign lawyers it encounters react to the firm's distinctly American style of employment lawyering. The study of 23 lawyers practicing in 14 different countries reveals that our understanding of employment law and lawyering as firmly rooted to its domestic borders is in subtle but significant ways beginning to change. In fact, an incipient form of global practice already appears to exist. If commonalities in lawyering style, and perhaps a few substantive areas like employment discrimination law, ultimately emerge, the intriguing and obviously as yet unanswerable question is whether and how those changes may in turn affect the functioning and efficacy of employment law regimes outside U.S. borders.


From their discovery anti-Sm autoantibodies (Ab) have been associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), while anti-U1-RNP Ab detected alone are predominant in patients with mixed connective disease (MCTD). However, the identification of anti-Sm/U1-RNP Ab in a patient may be challenging, and usually requiring a two-step process including a screening step performed by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on HEp-2 cells showing a coarse speckled nuclear staining at an elevated level, followed by a confirmatory assay using specific antigens. The recent development of novel assays and the characterization of the target epitopes have been beneficial to improve the sensitivity for anti-Sm/U1-RNP Ab detection, but, in some cases, the necessity to use a different assay remains mandatory. Another recent and unexpected observation is related to the suspected role played by environmental and epigenetic factors in the induction of anti-Sm/U1-RNP Abs. Altogether, better knowledge regarding anti-Sm/U1- RNP Ab will undoubtedly provide improvements for the management and treatment of these patients.


Installation of new production facilities in a shipyard can trigger product manufacturing error, causing rework as well as decreased manufacturing speed and increased cost. Features of the shipyard and the workers' skill levels combine to impact the manufacturing error. In this study, a method to evaluate installation effect of production facilities in the shipbuilding process considering both the shipyard's features and the worker's skill is proposed. This method evaluates the production process defined by integrated product, workflow and organization models using a simulation with rework including manufacturing error of the target product. In the case study on a production process of curved blocks, it is quantitatively clarified that installation of an accuracy evaluation system for curved shell plates by laser scanner to heat bending process can reduce the duration and cost of the process. Under the condition where production space is limited in a shipyard, the proposed system installation leads to greater effectiveness than under the condition where the space is readily available. Furthermore, it is suggested that the proposed system is more effective if the skill level of the workers is low.


Background: During maximal hypoxic exercise a reduction in cerebral oxygen delivery may constitute a signal to terminate exercise.

Aim: To investigate whether the rate of increase in cerebral cortex oxygen delivery is limited in hypoxic compared to normoxic exercise.

Methods: We assessed frontal cerebral cortex blood flow using near infrared spectroscopy and the light-absorbing tracer indocyanine green dye, as well as frontal cortex oxygen saturation (StO2%) in 11 cyclists during incremental exercise to the limit of tolerance (WRmax) in normoxia and acute hypoxia (FIO2:0.12).

Results: In normoxia, cerebral cortex blood flow and oxygen delivery increased (p<0.05) from baseline to sub-maximal exercise reaching peak values at near-maximal exercise (80%WRmax: 287±9W; 81±23% and 75±22% increase relative to baseline, respectively), both leveling off thereafter up to WRmax (382±10W). Cerebral cortex StO2% did not change from baseline (66±3%) throughout graded exercise. During hypoxic exercise, cerebral cortex blood flow increased from baseline to sub-maximal exercise peaking at 80%WRmax (213±6W; 60±15% relative increase) before declining towards baseline at WRmax (289±5W). Despite this, cerebral cortex oxygen delivery remained unchanged from baseline throughout graded exercise, being at WRmax lower than at comparable loads (287±9W) in normoxia (by 58±12%). Cerebral cortex StO2% fell from baseline (58±2%) on moderate exercise in parallel with arterial oxygen saturation, but then remained unchanged to exhaustion (47±1%).

Conclusion: Cerebral cortex oxygen delivery is limited in hypoxia compared to normoxia, thus potentialy compromising maximal exercise capacity in hypoxia.


Recently there has been growing interest in fuzzy option pricing. Carlsson and Fuller [1] were the first to study the fuzzy real options and Thavaneswaran et al. [2] demonstrated the superiority of the fuzzy forecasts and then derived the membership function for the European call price by fuzzifying the interest rate, volatility and the initial value of the stock price. In this paper, we discuss recent developments in fuzzy option pricing based on Black-Scholes models. Fuzzy coefficient Black-Scholes partial differential equations (PDE) are derived. Membership function of the call price is given. The asset-or-nothing option by fuzzifying the maturity value of the stock price using adaptive fuzzy numbers is also discussed in some detail.


Photovoltaic module reliability studies are essential in understanding both the technical and commercial design lives of various photovoltaic modules. The fundamental parameters affecting photovoltaic module stability are typically not measured for baseline analysis. This study examines these questions in context of fundamental parameters, in an attempt to gain insight at a more elemental level than possible using power measurements. One of the fundamental parameters in PV module reliability is the adhesion of the encapsulant EVA to various module surfaces. The analysis of surface adhesion, both in its initial state, and as it changes with various exposures is studied, primarily focusing on adhesion of EVA to glass, cell surfaces and the interconnect ribbon. Of particular interest is the affect of manufacturing processes and surface cleanliness on this bond strength. Siemens Solar Industries, with Springborn Laboratories have begun analyzing adhesion of EVA using a systematic and statistical method of sample coupons measured at multiple points, and through numerous exposures. Specifically, several EVA types were compared for adhesion characteristics. Measurements of EVA adhesion and how it is affected by surface contamination due to residual solder flux have also been specifically quantified. The summary analysis looked at EVA bonds as a function of environmental exposures. The results of this analysis shows that initial strength of EVA bonds are quite high, these are diminished by both surface contamination effects and environmental exposures.


Migration implies a radical experience of uncertainty, and the passage from one way of naming and speaking to another. This discontinuity is greater if, when moving from one country to another, the language changes. But it also occurs when moving to another society that speaks the same language, but with different modulations. It is necessary to pay attention to what is lost and gained in these symbolic transfers, abandonments and recreations of meaning. This text proposes that it can be useful to examine the aesthetics of migrants as operations analogous to those that philosophy of language classifies as metaphors. In many societies, the visual arts remains the source of what is left of the nationalist imagination; artworks still constitute the stages for the consecration and communication of signs of local identity. The aesthetic event erupts when, instead of affirming a meaning, uncertainty and strangeness are allowed to emerge.We know that the word metaphor means transport in Greek. It has, therefore, a "natural" association with travel, migration, and other modes of displacement. This text stems from the following question: how much can be said about migration through scientific discourse—formed with univocal concepts, figures, and hard facts; and how much can be conveyed by artistic languages, whose polysemy is plotted with metaphors?


The authors make a review of the epidemiologic, etiopathogenic, clinical, laboratory and therapeutic aspects of ashy dermatosis, described in 1957 by Ramírez in El Salvador, of which more than 150 cases have been described up to now in different continents. The disease is exclusively cutaneous, presents peculiar clinical features with a lichenoid tissue reaction, and has no specific treatment or known etiology. The authors report a case in a Brasilian man, followed up for three years. The treatment of a T. trichiura infestation did not change the cutaneous features, as opposed to what has been reported.


Three new metal complexes have been obtained from the reaction of a new polyamine (L) with Ni(II), Cu(II), and Co(II) ions. The X-ray structural analysis of the Cu(II) complex shows that the copper atom is in a very distorted square pyramidal environment, coordinated by five of the six nitrogen donor atoms of the potentially hexadentate ligand. To evaluate the biological potential of the ligand and the synthesized metal complexes, their binding behavior with DNA was studied by molecular modeling methods. The Molecular docking studies showed that the free ligand and its complexes were bound to the major groove of DNA. The antioxidant activities of the ligand and its metal complexes were also assessed, in vitro, using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. The synthesized compounds were tested for activity against lung carcinoma epithelial cells (A549) using the MTT cell viability assay. A comparative study of the IC50 values indicated that the Cu(II) complex exhibited the highest activity, while the Co(II) and Ni(II) complexes showed more potent antiproliferative activity than the ligand. The antibacterial activities of the synthesized complexes were evaluated using micro-broth dilution and disk diffusion methods. The complexes showed greater antibacterial activity than the free ligand.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.


The big challenge in the world of education during the Covid 19 pandemic is overcoming the difficulties of implementing online learning, and what is equally important is building and increasing student motivation during the Covid 19 pandemic. Having good motivation in learning will show good results so that in expect an increase in the quality of learning as mandated by the National Education System Law Number 20 of 2003 national education which aims to educate the nation's life and improve the quality of learning
This type of research is descriptive quantitative research. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling. The population in this study were students of Unisla management study program. Data collection techniques used a questionnaire using a Likert scale. The analysis tools used were validity and reliability analysis to determine the reliability of a questionnaire used in the study. In this study also used correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, t test and F test assisted by the IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 software for windows. The results showed that the learning independence variable partially had a positive and significant effect on the learning motivation variable. The lecturer competence variable partially has a positive and significant effect on the learning motivation variable. The variables of independent learning and lecturer competence simultaneously have a significant influence on student learning motivation variables. The percentage of the influence of the independent learning variable and lecturer competence on student learning motivation shows a value of 72.2% and the remaining 27.8% is influenced by variables other than variables X1 and X2.


Based on a calculation of neural decoherence rates, we argue that the degrees of freedom of the human brain that relate to cognitive processes should be thought of as a classical rather than quantum system, i.e., that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the current classical approach to neural network simulations. We find that the decoherence time scales ( approximately 10(-13)-10(-20) s) are typically much shorter than the relevant dynamical time scales ( approximately 10(-3)-10(-1) s), both for regular neuron firing and for kinklike polarization excitations in microtubules. This conclusion disagrees with suggestions by Penrose and others that the brain acts as a quantum computer, and that quantum coherence is related to consciousness in a fundamental way.


Assume that information is transmitted in parallel among many lines in such a way that an electrical transition represents a 1 and an absence of a transition represents a 0. The propagation delay in the wires varies and results in asynchronous reception. The challenge is to find an efficient communication scheme that will be delay-insensitive. One of the common solutions to this problem is to use a handshake mechanism. Namely, the transmitter sends the next vector only after getting an acknowledgment that the current vector was received. A natural question is: how does the receiver know that reception of the current vector is complete? This problem was solved by Verhoeff (1988) by using the so-called unordered codes. However, in practice, it is common that the communication lines are arranged in pairs (double-rail) such that the propagation delay on the lines within a pair is identical. In general, the lines can be arranged in groups (of size larger than 1) where transmission within a group is synchronized. The authors have created a few delay-insensitive schemes that take advantage of partial synchronization within groups. To achieve that, they have generalized to arbitrary alphabets the following known results: Sperner's theorem on unordered sets, Henry-Knuth's (Henry, 1982; Knuth, 1986) construction of balanced codes, and Berger's (1961) construction of unordered codes. Finally, they have focused on practice, and constructed a code that uses double-rail channels but has the advantage that it is a rate 3/4 code as opposed to the rate 1/2 double-rail code (that is the common code being used in real systems). >


In this paper, a method for the direct determination of refractory elements B, Cr, Ti and Mo in botanical samples with slurry sampling and fluorination electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma spectrometry has been developed using polytetrafluorethylene as a fluorination agent. A study of the effect of particle size indicated that when the slurry particles were less than 170 µm, intensities were identical to those obtained with aqueous solutions. As a consequence, the latter can be used as calibration standards for the determination of the trace elements in botanical samples. RSDs were generally less than 5% at a concentration of 0.2 µg ml–1(n= 9), and the results obtained were in good agreement with certified values of reference samples. The results indicate that particle size effects can be reduced by high temperature in situ fluorination in the graphite furnace.


This photographic record illustrates the various aspects of the culture of the area comprising the seven states of India's northeast territories stretching from Tibet in the north to Myanmar (Burma) in the South, among them Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam. It is a region rarely visited by foreigners where people scarcely known to the western world continue a way of life steeped in ancient ritual which was last examined some 50 years ago. It focuses on the different aspects of life, religious belief and ritual. The geography of this region of contrasts, the origin of its people, their houses, the cult of the sun and the moon, ancestor worship, weaving, dance, beliefs connected to headhunting and matriachal structures are among those aspects given special attention.


This article is taken from DONGFANG ZAZHI (Eastern Magazine), Beijing, vol. xxiv, no. 5, Novem ber 1932, pp. 39-46. The author is Professor Emeritus of Vishwa-Bharati. The translation has been made by MRS. SHEELA MURTHY who, after completing her M.A. in Chinese Language. and Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, has recently joined its teaching staff in Chinese Language and Literature Department.— EDITOR


Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity both in developed and developing countries. Percutaneous recanalization of occluded coronary artery is one of the treatment options and reinfarction and restenosis negatively affect the outcome following procedure. Although various factors including fibrinogen are suspected as risk factors for this but its role in adverse outcome after stent implantation is controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the impact & relation of periprocedural fibrinogen level on outcome after coronary stent implantation. This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology, University Cardiac Centre, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Hospital, Dhaka over a period of one year between July 2016 to June 2017. Total 53 patients of chronic stable angina (CSA) undergoing elective PTCA followed by stenting were included in this study as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. Plasma fibrinogen level was measured by collecting venous blood samples at three timed points in relation to stenting – 24 h before, 24 h after and 72 h after stenting. Recurrence of angina, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization (either PCI or Cardiac surgery), and death were considered as adverse outcome during follow up at 1, 3 and 6 months after intervention. During the 6 months follow up period 1 (one) patient developed UA (at 1 month), 2 developed MI (1 at 3 month and 1 at 6 month) and 2 died (1 at 3 month and 1 at 6 month). Patients were grouped on the basis of four outcomes: favorable outcome (those who did not develop any of the four outcomes) and unfavorable or adverse outcome (those who developed any of the four outcomes). The mean age of study population was 53.92 years and 39 (73.6%) were male. Regarding cardiovascular risk factors, 43.4% patients had diabetes mellitus, 88.6% had dyslipidaemia, 56.6% were non-smokers. Baseline plasma fibrinogen level were significantly higher in patients who developed complications following PCI than those who did not develop the complications (394.4 ± 16.0 Vs 271.5 ± 21.8 mg/dl) & remained high after 24 hours and 72 hours following PCI (p < 0.001). Angiographic profiles of the study population reveals 84.9% LAD, 16.9% RCA & 15% LCX involvement but there was no association of post-PCI adverse outcomes with vessels involved, number of stents deployed and types of stents used (p > 0.05). Study showed that the risk of developing unfavorable outcome following PCI in patients with pre-PCI & post-PCI high serum fibrinogen was estimated to be 5.7 times & 12 times higher than those who have had serum fibrinogen lower than 350 mg/ dl respectively (p = 0.023 & 0.025 respectively). High serum fibrinogen can therefore be used as a marker for predicting adverse outcome following PCI.


An integrated model, the Pesticide Runoff Model (PeRM), has been developed to predict pesticide losses due to runoff by considering the emission, degradation, adsorption and desorption of pesticides, as well as their movement in dissolved and adsorbed phases. The developed modeling system has been used to calculate the losses of atrazine from agricultural lands in the Kintore Creek Watershed, Ontario, Canada between 1988 and 1992. The modeling outputs have been verified against actual monitoring data, which were obtained from a water quality monitoring project carried out in the same watershed over the same period of time.


Accumulated evidence suggested that effective cancer immunotherapies were associated with neoantigen-reactive T cells, and adoptive transfer of neoantigen-reactive tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) could result in tumor regressions. To improve the efficacy of adoptive T-cell therapy targeting tumor-specific mutations, we have proposed a new therapeutic approach, which involves the genetic modification of autologous T cells with neoantigen-specific TCRs and the transfer of these T cells back to cancer patients. However, the current techniques to isolate neoantigen-specific TCRs are labor-intensive, time-consuming and technically challenging, not suitable for clinical applications. To facilitate this process, a new approach was developed, which included the co-culture of TILs with tandem minigene (TMG)-pulsed antigen-presenting cells, single-cell RNA-seq analysis of T cells and the identification of paired TCR sequences associated with cells expressing high levels of IFN-γ and IL-2 mRNA. In this study, TIL fragment cultures were grown from tumors resected from three patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancers, and then were screened against TMG libraries encoding tumor-specific mutations identified by whole-exome sequencing. Following this new approach, three TCRs were identified, synthesized and cloned into a retroviral vector. These TCRs were then transduced into donor T cells, and these transduced T cells were shown to specifically recognize the following neoantigens encoded by the TMGs: USP8 (R667H), KRAS (G12D) and NBAS (C144S). In conclusion, this approach provides a rapid procedure to isolate neoantigen-specific TCRs for basic and translational research, as well as clinical applications.


Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is known to bind CD4 receptor and subsequently to CXCR4 or CCR5 coreceptors and further transmits the infection. However sperm and vaginal epithelial cells which are known to be responsible for sexual transmission of HIV are devoid of conventional CD4 receptor. HIV has been demonstrated to bind human Mannose Receptor (hMR) and enter into sperm to transmit the virus into distal cells. Subsequent studies by immunofluorescent and Real time PCR techniques demonstrated specific binding of HIV to hMR on Vaginal epithelial cells also. Further peri-ovulatory expression of hMR on vaginal epithelial cells was found to be higher as compared to that during pre and post ovulatory period. HIV binding to hMR on vaginal epithelial cells leads to increase production of Matrix Metallo-Proteinases 9 (MMP9) which may be responsible for viral entry into the cells by inducing the cellular permeability. It was observed that less than 11% of the vaginal epithelial cells of the HIV negative females having unprotected sex with their infected sexual partners showed the presence of hMR. While 90 to 95% of vaginal epithelial cells HIV negative women from general population showed the presence of hMR. This suggests that the expression of hMR in lower number of vaginal epithelial cells protected these females from sexual transmission of HIV from their HIV infected partners. The study suggests the association of hMR in sexual transmission of HIV.


The Philippines has extensive national laws that aim to address the five major risk factors for safer road users. However, the lack of effective policies and strict enforcement at the local level hinders road safety efforts. Many cities and municipalities are not aware that they are empowered to adopt road safety policies on the strength of its local autonomy to adopt general welfare measures, such as the enactment of comprehensive road safety ordinances. The experience of Quezon City in adopting its Road Safety Code is the first of its kind in the Philippines. Quezon City has the biggest land mass among cities in Metro Manila and covers almost one-fourth of its total population, thus contributing to the majority of road crashes in the area. From 2010 to 2016, Quezon City has had the highest number of crashes and crash-related fatalities and injuries in Metro Manila, accounting for 33 717 out of 1 09 322 incidents. These alarming figures compelled the City to act urgently to enact a Road Safety Code. Upon the initiative and assistance of ImagineLaw, a public interest law organization, the City commenced the development of the Code through (i) a policy assessment of the City's existing road safety ordinances and programs, (ii) multi-sectoral technical drafting sessions among relevant departments within the local government, and (iii) public hearings and consultations with public transport associations, car owners, biker and motorcyclist groups, homeowners associations, barangays (smallest administrative unit) and other stakeholders. Within four months from an initial briefing and workshop, Quezon City was able to adopt a comprehensive ordinance based on the five pillars in the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety and international best practices. Motivated by Quezon City's success, cities of Ormoc and Tuguegarao have been working on similar road safety ordinances in their localities.


Motion tracking for head motion compensation in MRI has been a research topic for several years. However, literature is not giving much attention to the calibration of such setups. We present a method to calibrate the coordinate systems of a stereo-optical camera setup mounted to the MRI head coil. Though using a simple setup and visible instead of infrared light for tracking, it is possible to achieve a sub-millimeter tracking precision. Blue water-filled spheres are positioned throughout the whole MRI imaging volume and detected in images of the tracking cameras as well as MRI scans. In order to register the coordinate systems of both camera system and MRI scanner, a heuristic-enhanced brute-force approach is used to match detected spheres in the different images. Then, a rigid transformation is calculated and applied to the cameras' external parameters to align the coordinate systems. The precision of our setup was evaluated using leave-one-out cross validation both for the camera calibration and the scanner coordinate system registration. We found that the cameras' locations and orientations are correct within 0:03mm and 0:03°, using a number of 45 spheres. Evaluation of the MRI coordinate system registration showed an average reprojection error of 1:1 mm. Influence of a feature point jitter of 0:5 px is 0:03mm for a point close to the cameras and 0:3mm for a point close to the back of the patient's head. Tracked poses are correct within 0:17mm and 0:001.°


Data gathered from dense sensor networks is often highly correlated across collocated sensors. For example, in video surveillance networks, multiple cameras can observe the same object from multiple angles. Despite the spatial and temporal dependencies between video frames from different cameras, the deep learning algorithms used in today's video analytics problems treat all frames as independent inputs to image classifiers and object detectors. The outputs of these classifiers and detectors on multiple frames are then fused to extract information about the underlying sensor region. We present a cooperative learning framework that allows sensors to train deep learning systems on their own local data and compressed insights from neighboring sensors' input data. This system fuses sensor data before classification to allow learning agents to more naturally handle correlated inputs and cooperate with neighboring sensors with minimal communication costs.


OBJECTIVE
Evidence suggests that the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry plays an important role in schizophrenia pathophysiology. Cerebellar contribution from deep cerebellar nuclei to the circuitry has not yet been examined. The authors investigated resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of cerebellar output nuclei with striatal-thalamic-cortical regions in relation to white-matter integrity and regional gray-matter volumes in first-episode psychosis (FEP). Methods: Forty FEP patients and 40 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects (HCs) participated. RSFC between cerebellar nuclei and striatal-thalamic-cortical regions was examined. Diffusion tensor imaging and volumetric scans were examined for possible structural constraints on RSFC. The authors also examined relationships between neuroimaging variables and cognitive and clinical measures. Results: FEP patients, compared with HCs, exhibited decreased RSFC between the left fastigial nucleus and right putamen, which was associated with poor letter fluency performance and lower global assessment of functioning scores. By contrast, patients showed widespread increased accumbens network connectivity in the left nucleus. The authors further observed both hypo- and hyper-RSFC between the cerebellar nuclei and fronto-parietal areas in patients, independent of striatal activity. Finally, the authors found impaired integrity of the left superior cerebellar peduncle and decreased bilateral putamen volume in patients, whereas structural-functional relationships found in HCs were absent in patients. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of disordered RSFC of cerebellar output nuclei to the striatum and neocortex at the early stage of schizophrenia. Furthermore, dysfunctional cerebellar influences on fronto-parietal areas that are independent of striatal dysfunction in patients with FEP were observed. The results suggest that cortico-striatal abnormalities in patients with FEP are produced by abnormal cerebellar influences.


The administration of benzodiazepines at sleeping doses can be followed by an increased rate of upper airways obstruction episodes, especially in patients with an obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). However, the effects of benzodiazepines at premedication doses have not yet been assessed. Therefore, fourteen patients were studied after administration of midazolam 0.08 mg.kg-1 i.m.: seven with an OSAS diagnosed previously (baseline recording) (= OSAS group) and seven without risk factors for OSAS (= Control group). The recordings were undertaken in the sleep laboratory. The airflows were assessed by nasal and oral thermistors and chest and abdominal movements by strain gauges. The electromyogram of the chin muscles was recorded, the electroencephalogram and the electro-oculogram electrodes were placed as described by RECHTSCHAFFEN and KALES. The arterial saturation in oxygen (Spo2) was monitored by pulse oximetry. All the signals were digitized and fed into a computer. The apnea was defined as a cessation of airflows for a least 10 s. The hypopnea was defined as a 10 s decrease in airflow with a drop in Spo2 of 4% or more. The respiratory event (apnea or hypopnea) was qualified as obstructive if the thoraco-abdominal movements persisted. The rate and the duration of respiratory events per sleep hour (mean +/- SEM) in OSAS group after midazolam (respectively 29.6 +/- 10 and 11.2 +/- 3.5 min) were not different from those of the baseline recording (respectively 38.4 +/- 11.6 and 12 +/- 3.5 min) and were significantly higher than in the control group (respectively 38.2 +/- 2 and 1.8 +/- 1.3 12 +/- 3.5 min) and were significantly higher than in the control group (respectively 3.8 +/- 2 and 1.8 +/- 1.3 min; p < 0.05). In the OSAS group, the percentage of sleeping time spent with a Spo2 < 90% was 1.5 +/- 1.4% during the baseline recording and 4.7 +/- 1.9% after midazolam (difference n.s.). However, a dramatic increase was observed in two patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This study examined the outcome of extended counselling sessions at a community counselling centre. Participants were 38 female and 7 male clients who were categorized as dealing with one of the following issues: trauma, multiple acute issues, complicated grief, or support while waiting for referral. Results showed a signifi cant lessening of symptoms and increase in coping skills between sessions 12 and 24 for all clients. Having previous counselling was signifi cantly related to magnitude of change on the Target Complaint change score. Through qualitative analyses, trauma and nontrauma clients described similar types of change from counselling: gaining insight, experiencing feelings, counselling relationship, self-growth, and new ways of being. However, some differences were apparent in the way that these categories were discussed by the trauma and nontrauma clients.


The kinematic evolution of axisymmetric magnetic fields in rotating magnetospheres of relativistic compact objects is analytically studied, based on relativistic Ohm's law in stationary axisymmetric geometry. By neglecting the poloidal flows of plasma in simplified magnetospheric models, we discuss self-excited dynamos due to the frame-dragging effect (originally pointed out by Khanna & Camenzind), and we propose alternative processes to generate axisymmetric magnetic fields against ohmic dissipation. The first process (which may be called induced excitation) is caused by the help of a background uniform magnetic field in addition to the dragging of inertial frames. It is shown that excited multipolar components of poloidal and azimuthal fields are sustained as stationary modes, and outgoing Poynting flux converges toward the rotation axis. The second one is self-excited dynamo through azimuthal convection current, which is found to be effective if plasma rotation becomes highly relativistic with a sharp gradient in the angular velocity. In this case no frame-dragging effect is needed, and the coupling between charge separation and plasma rotation becomes important. We discuss briefly the results in relation to active phenomena in the relativistic magnetospheres. Subject headings: black hole physics — magnetic fields — MHD — relativity


Previous studies have demonstrated that Medicare risk-adjusted capitation models do not adequately compensate programs serving primarily disabled or frail populations. Using the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, we demonstrate that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-Hierarchical Condition Categories (CMS-HCC) model calculates Medicare capitation payments for Parkinson's patients more accurately than for the general population. The discrepancies between the predicted and actual expenditures estimated at various disability levels were smaller for Parkinson's patients than for other beneficiaries. If the CMS-HCC payment model were to apply to programs that draw a significant percentage of their participants from the Parkinson's disease community, these programs likely would be compensated fairly.


Objective: Evaluate the efficacy of a new single-dose bacterin against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae under field conditions. Materials and methods: Three separate farms were selected based on their history of enzootic pneumonia. On each farm, vaccinated pigs (n = 20; 10 male and 10 female) were administered a single dose of the M hyopneumoniae bacterin at 21 days of age while unvaccinated pigs (n = 20; 10 male and 10 female) were administered a single dose of phosphate buffered saline at the same age. Results: Vaccination against M hyopneumoniae reduces the severity of lung lesions and clinical signs such as coughing, which leads to improved growth performance of the pig. Vaccinated pigs had a significantly higher (P = .02 for farm A, P = .02 for farm B, and P = .02 for farm C) average daily weight gain between 21 to 175 days old (0 to 154 days post vaccination) and elicited cell-mediated immunity, as measured by M hyopneumoniae-specific interferon-γ secreting cells, when compared with unvaccinated pigs located at all 3 farms. Implications: The data presented in this field study demonstrated that the M hyopneumoniae bacterin improved growth performance effectively in 3 farms suffering from enzootic pneumonia.


BACKGROUND
The sealing of implant screw access chambers can influence prosthesis success, peri-implant health and patient comfort. The aim of this study was to compare the microleakage of single implant crown screw access chambers sealed with and without a composite resin adhesive.

METHODS
Twenty milled lithium disilicate crowns were luted to titanium-base abutments, attached to implants and randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group had the screw access chamber sealed with polytetrafluoroethylene tape, a 10-methacryloyloxydecyl dihydrogen phosphate containing adhesive, and composite resin. The second group used the same procedure but without an adhesive. All samples were sealed at the implant-abutment interface and subjected to thermocycling then immersed in a ferrous sulphate contrast media for 48 hours. Infiltration and microleakage was measured using a microcomputed tomography scanner.

RESULTS
All samples demonstrated high resistance to microleakage with no significant contrast media diffusion in either of the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Within the limitations of this in vitro study, the use of a composite resin adhesive for sealing the screw access chamber for single implant crowns provided no additional sealing capacity compared with composite resin alone. Composite resin restorations placed in the traditional manner without sealing provided excellent resistance to microleakage.


This study demonstrates germination-induced ultrastructural changes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv Arthur) aleurone cells. Seeds imbibed for 4 hours in water contained endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or ER-like membranes as vesicles or as short segments of membrane associated with the spherosomes on the periphery of aleurone grains. Aleurone cells incubated between 8 and 10 hours contained abundant ER membranes mainly associated with the nuclear envelope and, to a lesser extent, with the spherosomes surrounding the aleurone grain. The membranes located on the periphery of the nucleus occurred as regions of stacked cisternae. When aleurone cells were analyzed by morphometry, the increase in ER during incubation was found to be greater than 2-fold. During the same incubation period, other organelles did not change significantly. The early increase in ER was not affected by gibberellin incubation. Thus, the rapid proliferation of ER observed during the early stages of germination in aleurone cells of wheat is not likely to be controlled directly by gibberellin.


IT IS NOT so long ago that individuals with handicapping conditions were tucked into the backstreams of our society and relegated to roles which only occasionally fit their basic capabilities. In the so-called good old days, paraplegics traditionally sold pencils on street corners; the blind could always beg; defective children had their family closets; and the emotionally disordered of any severity found their way eventually to some type of custodial existence. For those with lesser disability, greater determination, and less visible evidence of difference, job opportunities hung on the status of the labor market and gave birth to the well-known cliche of employment circles: "Last to be hired; first to be fired." Since the turn of the century, however, there has been a slow growth of concern in this country to achieve the goal of offering a genuine opportunity for each member to make the most


Reintroduction is the release of animals into an area where they were extir- pated or have significantly declined. Little is known about the factors that determine the success or failure of ungulate reintroduction. We studied the dynamics of a reintroduced Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus) population for 10 yr (1983-1993) following the first successful release into the wild. A total of 14 adult females and 14 adult males were released into a nature reserve in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. Over this 10-yr span the female population has grown to only 16 adults. Reproductive success of reintroduced females was low in the first 5 yr following release (0.0-0.8 foals.female-l yr-'), but increased to 0.5- 1.0 foals-female-1'yr-' in the last 5 yr. Reproductive success of wild-born females -3 yr old was higher than that of reintroduced females of similar ages, and ranged from 0.5-1.0 foals female'-lyr-1. Our study and data from the E. hem.ionus studbook suggest that young nonprimiparous females produced primarily males, while primiparous and old females produced primarily females. We attribute the low reproductive success following reintro- duction to the stress caused by capture, transport, and release procedures; we consider the age-dependent progeny sex ratio within the framework of Trivers and Willard's (1973) maternal allocation hypothesis. We conclude that the slow growth of the female population was due to: (a) low reproductive success of females in the early years following reintro- duction, and (b) a male-skewed progeny sex ratio among prime-aged reintroduced females. A simple stochastic Leslie matrix model suggests that high survival and improved repro- ductive success of reintroduced females at later stages of the study, and the reproductive success of wild-born females, make the population relatively unsusceptible to extinction from random demographic processes. In-depth knowledge of the dynamics of reintroduced populations is vital for the correct assessment of their viability. We offer suggestions for increasing the efficacy of future wild ass reintroductions.


Nuclear reprogramming is characterized by functional modification(s) of the transferred nucleus that allows it to direct normal embryo development with the potential to grow to term. The aim of our study was to investigate the process of nuclear changes in reconstructed and activated embryos as well as their developmental competence. All chemicals used were from Sigma Chemicals (St. Louis, MO, USA). Cumulus-oocyte complexes were aspirated from slaughterhouse ovaries of prepurbetal gilts and matured for 42 h in vitro. The cumulus cells were removed by adding in 1 mg mL −1 hyaluronidase in TLP-HEPES. For the NT experiment, oocytes with first polar body were cultured in 0.4 μg mL−1 demecolcine for 1 h. A protruding membrane was removed by micromanipulator and a single donor nucleus from fetal fibroblast was injected subzonally. Fusion was conducted immediately after transfer in 0.3 M mannitol, 0.5 mM HEPES, 0.1% PVA, and 0.1 mM MgCl2 in a fusion chamber with parallel electrodes set 1 mm apart using a singe DC pulse of 125 V mm−1 for 80 s. Activation was done 2–4 h after fusion in the same medium as fusion but with 0.1 mM CaCl2 added; embryos were cultured in 5 μg mL−1 cytochalasin B and 10 μg mL−1 cyclohexamide for 6 h. The embryos were cultured in glucose-free NCSU-37 containing 4 mg mL−1 BSA as basic medium supplemented with 0.17 mM sodium pyruvate and 2.73 mM sodium lactate from Days 0 to 2, and then in basic medium with 5.55 mM D-glucose from Days 2–6 (Kikuchi K et al. 2002 Biol. Reprod. 66, 1033–1041). Non-manipulated oocytes (PA) were electrically activated as stated above. For observing the changes of donor cells, some reconstructed oocytes were fixed 2 h after fusion, prior to activation, and some 12 h after activation in acetic acid:ethanol (1:3) and stained in 1% orcein. The activated oocytes were fixed at 12 h and stained as stated above. There were 47.5% (38/80) of reconstructed oocytes with premature chromosome condensation (PCC), and 23.7% (19/80) with nuclear swelling two hours after fusion. Pronuclear like formation 12 h after activation was 45% (27/60) and 83.3% (50/60) in NT and PA, respectively. The blastocyst rate was 8.3% (5/60) and 46% (69/150) for NT and PA, respectively. The results suggest that porcine oocyte cytoplasm can successfully reprogram somatic cell nuclei and support the development of NT embryos to the blastocyst stage.


In the first section of this paper I draw, on a purely conceptual level, a distinction between two kinds of reasons: content-related and attitude-related reasons. The established view is that, in the case of the attitude of believing something, there are no attitude-related reasons. I look at some arguments intended to establish this claim in the second section with an eye to whether these argument could be generalized to cover the case of preferences as well. In the third section I argue against such generalizations and present a case in favour of accepting attitude-related reasons for preferences. In the fourth section I present an objection to which I react in the fifth section where I try to strengthen my case for attitude-related reasons for preferences. Finally, I discuss and reject criticisms raised by two opponents of the view defended here.


Background: Data regarding the incidence and mortality of necrotizing enterocolitis trends are scarce in the literature. Recently, some preventive strategies have been confirmed (probiotics) or increased (breastfeeding rate). This study aims to describe the trends of necrotizing enterocolitis incidence, treatment, and mortality over the last decade in Spain. Methods: Multicenter cohort study with data from the Spanish Neonatal Network–SEN1500 database. The study period comprised from January 2005 to December 2017. Preterm infants <32 weeks of gestational age at birth without major congenital malformations were included for analysis. The main study outcomes were necrotizing enterocolitis incidence, co-morbidity (bronchopulmonary dysplasia, late-onset sepsis, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, retinopathy of prematurity, acute kidney injury), mortality, and surgical/non-surgical treatment. Results: Among the 25,821 included infants, NEC incidence was 8.8% during the whole study period and remained stable when comparing 4-year subperiods. However, more cases were surgically treated (from 48.8% in 2005–2008 to 70.2% in 2015–2017, p < 0.001). Mortality improved from 36.7% in the 2005–2008 to 26.6% in 2015–2017 (p < 0.001). Breastfeeding rates improved over the studied years (24.3% to 40.5%, p < 0.001), while gestational age remained invariable (28.5 weeks, p = 0.20). Prophylactic probiotics were implemented during the study period in some units, reaching 18.6% of the patients in 2015–2017. Conclusions: The incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis remained stable despite the improvement regarding protective factors frequency. Surgical treatment became more frequent over the study period, whereas mortality decreased.


This study reports the development of metacognition inventory for Internet search for middle school students. In this study, analysis and results of both exploratory and confirmatory factors are reported. Firstly, 37-items were generated considering literature review and metacognitive challenges faced during the search process, and pilot exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Secondly, the final version of the scale was distributed to 273 seventh grade students, and the existing constructs were extracted through exploratory factor analysis. Thirdly, 321 seventh graders completed the inventory, and then the data were used for confirmatory factor analysis. As a follow-up, test-retest reliability was tested with 101 sixth graders. Based on the findings, the sub-scales of the inventory included (1) reflection and regulation, (2) monitoring, (3) planning, (4) control of attention, and (5) strategy generation.


Obesity is one of the most profound public health problems today, and simplistic explanations based on excessive nutritional consumption or lack of physical activity are inadequate to account for this dramatic and literal growth in our world population. Recent reports have suggested that disruptions in sleep patterns, often linked to our '24‐h' lifestyle, are associated with increased body fat and altered metabolism, although the cause–effect relationship for these associations has yet to be elucidated. Abnormal sleep/wake patterns likely alter intracellular circadian clocks, which are molecular mechanisms that enable the cell/tissue/organism to anticipate diurnal variations in its environment. The environment may include circulating levels of nutrients (e.g. glucose, fatty acids and triglycerides) and various hormones (e.g. insulin, glucocorticoids). As such, alterations in this molecular mechanism, in particular within the adipocyte, likely induce metabolic changes that may potentiate disrupted metabolism, adipose accumulation and/or obesity. Although diurnal variations in adipokines and adipose tissue metabolism have been observed, little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms that influence these events.


Ceramic precursor compositions and chemically bonded ceramic (CBC) materials, especially Ca-based, and a composite biomaterial suitable for orthopaedic applications. The CBC-system includes a binding phase (chemical cement) and additional phases with specified chemistry imparting to the biomaterial the ability of initial strength followed by interaction with the body tissue including body liquid, to form a resorbable or partly resorbable biomaterial. The ceramic precursor composition includes at least one silicate with Ca as the main cation with a resorption rate less or equal to that of the bone in-growth rate. The silicate will form the binding phase of the cured material. Implants and surface coated devices are also disclosed. The cured material exhibits a compressive strength exceeding 100 MPa.


Previous studies into sporting mouthguards have been mainly attitudinal or epidemiological. The aim of the present study was to build an impact rig to measure the impact absorbed by mouthguard materials of various thicknesses. The acceleration of the pendulum of the rig was measured and used to calculate the force transmitted to the materials. Impact tests were also performed on three commercially available mouthguard materials. Tests showed that the force transmitted through mouthguard materials was inversely related to the material thickness. Mouthguard construction techniques with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) plastics should be monitored to avoid occlusal thinning especially on the incisal edges. Thinning results in reduction in the protection offered by the mouthguard.