Obituaries are a tractable source of metaphorical depictions of death, which in turn offer unique insights into
 the near-universality versus culture and context-specificity of metaphors. In multicultural settings, they can shed further light
 on the underexplored question of how metaphor use interacts with linguistic and religious identities. This paper is a case study
 of newspaper obituaries (N = 337) in the multicultural and multilingual context of Singapore. It uses a
 mixed-methods approach to uncover the types of death-related metaphors across languages and religions, their near-universal and
 culture-specific aspects, and significant associations between religion and metaphor use/non-use (χ² (2,
 N = 337) = 84.54, p < 0.001, Cramer's V = 0.501, Log
 (BF10) = 47.14), language and metaphor use/non-use (χ² (1, N = 337) = 71.2,
 p < 0.001, Cramer's V = 0.46, Log (BF10) = 42.25), and religion and language
 of the deceased (χ² (2, N = 337) = 48.11, p < 0.001, Cramer's
 V = 0.378, Log (BF10) = 19.7). The findings extend prevailing discussion from the substantive
 contents of metaphors to the intra-societal pragmatics of their use, connecting metaphor explicitly with the construction of
 religious and linguistic identities.


The insertion of expressions mixing arithmetic operators and bitwise boolean operators is a widespread protection of sensitive data in source programs. This recent advanced obfuscation technique is one of the less studied among program obfuscations even if it is commonly found in binary code. In this paper, we formally verify in Coq this data obfuscation. It operates over a generic notion of mixed boolean-arithmetic expressions and on properties of bitwise operators operating over machine integers. Our obfuscation performs two kinds of program transformations: rewriting of expressions and insertion of modular inverses. To facilitate its proof of correctness, we define boolean semantic tables, a data structure inspired from truth tables. Our obfuscation is integrated into the CompCert formally verified compiler where it operates over Clight programs. The automatic extraction of our program obfuscator into OCaml yields a program with competitive results.


The genomic organization, structure and polymorphism of attacin gene within the mulberrysilkworm Bombyx mori strains have been analyzed. Genomic contig (AADK01007556) of B. mori attacin gene contains locus with two transcribed basic attacin genes, which were designated as attacin I and attacin II. Survey of the naturally occurring genetic variation in different strains of silkworm B. mori at the promoter and coding regions of two attacin genes revealed high levels of silent nucleotide variations (1- 4 % per nucleotide heterozygosity) without polymorphism at the amino acid level (nonSynonymous substitution). We also investigated variations in gene expression of attacin I and attacin II in silkworm B. mori infected with nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV). Two B. mori strains, Sarupat, CSR-2 which were resistant and susceptible to BmNPV infection respectively were used in this study. Expression profiles of B. mori genes were analyzed using microarray technique and results revealed that the immune response genes including attacin were selectively up regulated in virus invaded midguts of both races. Microarray data and real-time qPCR results revealed that attacin I gene was significantly up-regulated in the midgut of Sarupat following BmNPV infection, indicating its specific role in the anti-viral response. Our results imply that these up-regulated attacin genes were not only involved in anti-bacterial mechanism, but are also involved in B. mori immune response against BmNPV infection.


We propose a technique for interpretation of atomic-force microscope images in the structural analysis of nanocrystals formed by precipitation from solution. This technique includes comparison with a simple model describing the random distribution of nanocrystals on a surface. The results obtained are compared to experimental data for purposes of determining the surface density of nanocrystals, both in the case where the nanocrystals are distributed in multiple layers to determine how the surface structure is organized and in the case where isolated nanocrystals are randomly distributed over the surface.


All multimedia devices now incorporate video CODECs that comply with international video coding standards such as H.264 / MPEG4-AVC and the new High Efficiency Video Coding Standard (HEVC) otherwise known as H.265. Although the standard CODECs have been designed to include algorithms with optimal efficiency, large number of coding parameters that can be used to fine tune their operation, within known constraints of for e.g., available computational power, bandwidth, energy consumption, etc. With large number of such parameters involved, determining which parameters will play a significant role in providing optimal quality of service within given constraints is a further challenge that needs to be met. We propose a framework that uses machine learning algorithms to model the performance of a video CODEC based on the significant coding parameters. We define objective functions that can be used to model the video quality, CPU time utilisation and bit-rate. We show that these objective functions can be practically utilised in video Encoder designs, in particular in their performance optimisation within given constraints. A Multi-objective Optimisation framework based on Genetic Algorithms is thus proposed to optimise the performance of a video codec. The framework is designed to jointly minimize the complexity, Bit-rate and to maximize the quality of the compressed video stream.


The exact location of the sinus node was determined in 25 infant hearts using reconstructive techniques. The sinus node was found to lie on the lateral aspect of the superior cavo-atrial junction in the great majority (22 hearts). In only 3 hearts was it found to straddle the summit of the crest of the right atrial appendage where it is popularly believed to be located. In the majority of instances a single artery supplied the node (in 11 hearts the artery approached posteriorly, and in 10 the artery approached anteriorly), though there was considerable variation in the exact anatomy of the arterial supply. Connections between the sinus node and atrial myocardium were diffuse and abundant but in no instances were tracts of specialised cells observed leaving the node and traversing any distance through the atrial wall. These findings are relevant to the sinus node dysfunction that may follow cardiac surgical procedures.


The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is an interesting alternative for an electric motor drive system in automotive applications, due to to the high efficiency requirement; as only a limited amount of energy can be stored in the relatively expensive battery. Another advantage is the high torque and power density a PMSM can achieve since it is very important to save especially space but also weight in vehicle applications. As the battery technology develops, pure electric cars are expected to become a more and more interesting alternative. It is then natural that the requirement of reliability on the electric drive system becomes an aspect of utmost importance as the electric drive is the only driving force.

In this thesis, a fault-tolerant fractional slot PMSM is designed and its capability to operate even after a fault occurs is investigated. The faults investigated are phase open circuit and phase short circuit, and it is shown that the thesis machine design can be operated during both circumstances. The fault-tolerant thesis machine design is compared with two reference machines; one existing PMSM design of the same size and a smaller prototyped PMSM, also including measurements for the later. All three machines are evaluated both during normal and during phase open circuit operation, using amethod where the remaining two phase currents are rearranged in order to get constant currents in the rotating dq reference frame. It is found that themaximum torque is reduced to approximately 58% and the maximum speed to roughly 1/2, in relation to what is achievable for each machine during normal operation. The thermal limits are investigated and shown to follow the electrical limits for the thesis design and for the prototyped IPM machine. However, when this method is used, it is noticed that the torque quality might be reduced significantly.

A semi-analytical machine modeling approach is introduced and used to model the individual saturation levels of the phases. The same model is used to calculate new current wave forms in order to reduce the torque ripple during the unbalanced conditions associated with the operation during fault. Consequently, for the thesis design with reduced torque ripple, the maximum torque is reduced to approximately 50% and the maximum speed is reduced to roughly 1/3 or 1/4 of the maximum speed in case of a phase open circuit fault or a phase short circuit fault respectively.


Most of the existing literature focuses on the measurement, causes and economic consequences of overcapacity, with little attention paid to how to cut capacity and its effects. Using the DID research method, this paper explores the impact of negative list for market access on overcapacity from the supply side of the real economy reform. The results show that: (1)Compared with companies which are not affected by the negative list system pilot, companies affected by the negative list system pilot have significantly lower excess capacity, and the conclusion is still robust after the balance trend test, PSM test, independent variable replacement test, falsification test etc.(2)Channel testing shows that the implementation of the negative list for market access mainly reduces the overcapacity of companies by optimizing the allocation of production factors and the business environment, streamlining administration, delegating power, and giving the market a bigger role play in allocating resources and promoting competition.(3)Further analysis shows that the effect of the negative list system on companies' excess capacity is mainly reflected in low total factor productivity, high degree of excess capacity, pollution industry and large-scale groups.This paper may have the following contributions: (1)It enriches the empirical research in the field of capacity. The existing literature pays more attention to the measurement of overcapacity from the demand side(Han, et al., 2011; Zhang and Jiang, 2017; Yu, et al., 2018), and causes and economic consequences(Lin, et al., 2010; Jiang, et al., 2012; Yu and Lu, 2015). There is still a lack of literature on how to eliminate capacity and whether the relevant policies achieve the effect of eliminating capacity from supply-side reform. From the perspective of the supply-side reform of the real economy, this paper for the first time discusses the impact of market access deregulation on excess capacity.(2)As for the measurement of excess capacity, the existing literature commonly uses the peak method, production function method, cost function method and data envelopment analysis method to measure the capacity utilization rate(Klein and Summers, 1966; Garofalo and Malhotra, 1997; Shen, 1999; Sun, et al., 2009). However, some variables and data are difficult to obtain for listed companies using those methods. This paper uses the stochastic frontier model to estimate the stock level of excess capacity(Aretz and Pope, 2018), which can solve the above problems better.(3)To the current knowledge of us, this paper fills the gap in the research field of the negative list system and excess capacity of listed companies, which enriches the relevant literature on the implementation effect of the market negative list system from the perspective of supply side.


In order to protect confidential information such as personal and organizational information written as text, document masking techniques are becoming important. Such document masking methods extract humans, places, and organization names automatically and remove them, so they make documents harmless and allow sharing them safely within an organization, and contribute to improving productivity. However, existing automatic document masking techniques are not reliable enough since they may fail to mask out-of-vocabulary proper nouns. In this paper we propose a novel technique for document masking, the Unmasking Method, in which all of the words are hidden initially and a human specifies the non-confidential words to be unmasked. The proposed method is a high-safety document masking method since it unmasks only words that a human has manually recognized as safe. Our experimental results show its safety and effectiveness.


World water supplies are limited and water-saving irrigation practices, such as partial rootzone drying (PRD), should be explored. We studied the effects of PRD, applied through furrow and drip irrigation, on plant water relations, yield, and the fruit quality of processing tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. 'Petopride'). There were four treatments. The first two were: full irrigation by hand on both sides of the root system which mimicked furrow irrigation (FuI), and half of irrigation water in FuI given alternately only to one side of the root system with each irrigation (PRD FuI). The next two treatments were: full drip irrigation (DrI) to both sides of the root system, and half of irrigation water in DrI given alternately only to one side of the root system with each irrigation (PRD DrI ). Leaf water potential was the same among the treatments except for the PRD FuI plants, which had the lowest midday values only in one sampling out of four. Photosynthetic rate was the same among the treatments except for the drip-irrigated plants having the lowest value in one sampling out of four. Number of fruit, mean fruit mass of fruit, total fresh and dry mass of fruit, and harvest index were the same among treatments, but PRD plants had increased irrigation use efficiency compared to fully irrigated plants. There was no incidence of blossom-end rot in any of the treatments. PRD DrI fruit had redder colour and higher total soluble solids concentration. Advancement in fruit maturity and enhancement of quality could be achieved without detrimental effect on fresh and dry mass of fruit by application of PRD. Independent of the irrigation method, PRD treatments improved irrigation use efficiency by ca. 70%. PRD has the potential for use in processing tomato especially in environments with limited water. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Objective To investigate the application value of the combined detection of DCE-MRI and serum tumor markers (HE4, Ki67, and HK10) in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Methods The clinical data of 40 patients with advanced ovarian cancer (AOC) confirmed by surgery and pathology in our hospital from February 2019 to February 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received DCE-MRI, the detection of serum tumor markers HE4, Ki67, and HK10, and the combined detection of DCE-MRI and the serum tumor markers (HE4, Ki67, and HK10). The application value of the three detection methods was analyzed. Results The number of true positives in the single detection (DCE-MRI detection and the detection of serum HE4, Ki67, and HK10) was notably lower than that in the combined detection. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the single detection were notably lower compared with the combined detection. The area under the curve in the ROC of the combined detection was notably larger than that of the single detection. The results of the combined detection were better than those of the single detection (P < 0.05), with the highest sensitivity of the combined detection. Conclusion The combined detection of DCE-MRI and the serum tumor markers (HE4, Ki67, and HK10) can effectively improve the diagnostic accuracy of AOC patients, with high sensitivity and specificity, which has an important diagnostic value in clinic.


Recent research has documented the failure of market beta to capture the cross-section of expected returns within the context of a two-pass estimation methodology. However, the two-pass methodology suffers from the errors-in-variables (EIV) problem that could attenuate the apparent significance of market beta. This article provides a new correction for the EIV problem that is robust to conditional heteroscedasticity. After the correction, I find more support for the role of market beta and less support for the role of firm size in explaining the cross-section of expected returns. While the EIV correction leads to a diminished role of firm size, the size variable remains a significant force in explaining the cross-section of expected returns. Copyright 1995 by American Finance Association.


I. INTRODUCTION The adenoviruses are widespread in nature. So far, 31 serotypes have been isolated from humans. They are not important human pathogens. In fact, several adenovirus gene functions suggest they have evolved mechanisms to maintain long-term, inapparent infections of their human hosts. The adenoviruses contain a 36,000-bp DNA chromosome. Six transcription units are expressed during the early phase of infection, and three late units are activated at the onset of viral DNA replication. Each transcription unit gives rise to a variety of differentially spliced mRNAs. Two of the early units, E1A and E1B, comprise the adenovirus oncogenes (for recent reviews, see Berk 1986; Stillman 1986; Moran and Mathews 1987). All human adenoviruses tested are able to transform cultured rodent fibroblasts, and some serotypes can induce tumors in newborn hamsters and rats. Like many other DNA tumor virus oncogenes, the adenovirus oncogenes function during normal virus growth. Thus, one of the strengths of the human adenoviruses as an experimental system is that the biochemical functions of their oncogenes can be studied both during viral replication in human cells and within transformed rodent cells. II. ONCOGENIC POTENTIAL OF ADENOVIRUSES Human adenoviruses have been divided into five groups, termed A through E, on the basis of DNA homology (Green et al. 1979). These groupings fit well with categorizations based on oncogenicity. Group A adenoviruses (e.g., Ad12, Ad18) are highly oncogenic, inducing tumors in most animals within 4 months; group B members (e.g., Ad3, Ad7) are weakly oncogenic, producing tumors within 4–18...


BACKGROUND
Plasma or circulating miRNAs (cir miRNAs) have potential diagnostic value as biomarkers for a range of diseases. Based on observations that ethanol (EtOH) altered intracellular miRNAs during development, we tested the hypothesis that plasma miRNAs were biomarkers for maternal alcohol exposure, and for past in utero exposure, in the neonate.

METHODS
Pregnant sheep were exposed to a binge model of EtOH consumption resulting in an average peak blood alcohol content of 243 mg/dl, for a third-trimester-equivalent period from gestational day 4 (GD4) to GD132. MiRNA profiles were assessed by quantitative PCR analysis in plasma, erythrocyte, and leukocytes obtained from nonpregnant ewes, and plasma from pregnant ewes 24 hours following the last binge EtOH episode, and from newborn lambs, at birth on ~GD147.

RESULTS
Pregnant ewe and newborn lamb cir miRNA profiles were similar to each other and different from nonpregnant female plasma, erythrocyte, or leukocyte miRNAs. Significant changes in cir miRNA profiles were observed in the EtOH-exposed ewe and, at birth, in the in utero, EtOH-exposed lamb. Cir miRNAs including miR-9, -15b, -19b, and -20a were sensitive and specific measures of EtOH exposure in both pregnant ewe and newborn lamb. Additionally, EtOH exposure altered guide-to-passenger strand cir miRNA ratios in the pregnant ewe, but not in the lamb.

CONCLUSIONS
Shared profiles between pregnant dam and neonate suggest possible maternal-fetal miRNA transfer. Cir miRNAs are biomarkers for alcohol exposure during pregnancy, in both mother and neonate, and may constitute an important shared endocrine biomarker that is vulnerable to the maternal environment.


An efficient chemoselective practical route to fully substituted thiazoles and 2,3-dihydrothiazoles has been devised by [4 + 1] heterocyclization of α-(N-hydroxy/aryl)imino-β-oxodithioesters with in situ generated Cu-carbenoids of diazocarbonyls. The α-(N-hydroxy/aryl)imino-β-oxodithioesters are readily accessible by the reaction of β-oxodithioesters with nitrous acid/nitrosoarenes. The overall transformation involves sequential N-O/C-N bonds cleavage followed by cascade C-N/C-S bonds formation in one-pot. This new strategy allows full control over the introduction of various sensitive functional groups at different positions of the thiazole ring, broadening the arsenal of synthetic methods to obtain such scaffolds.


Several recent studies have shown that while iris images captured at near infrared are viable biometrics for verification and identification, similar to other biometrics, its performance drops when comparing images from imperfect sources (e.g. subject blinking), under imperfect conditions (e.g. out of focus) or non-ideal capture device. The immediate question to ask is what factors and to what degree are most influential on iris recognition performance. Motivated by this need, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated Iris Quality Evaluation and Calibration (IQCE). IQCE aims to define and quantify iris image properties that are influential on performance of iris recognition. This paper gives an overview of the IQCE.


Biological collectives, like honeybee colonies, can make intelligent decisions and robustly adapt to changing conditions via intricate systems of excitatory and inhibitory signals. In this study, we explore the role of behavioural plasticity and its relationship to network size by manipulating honeybee colony exposure to an artificial inhibitory signal. As predicted, inhibition was strongest in large colonies and weakest in small colonies. This is ecologically relevant for honeybees, for which reduced inhibitory effects may increase robustness in small colonies that must maintain a minimum level of foraging and food stores. We discuss evidence for size-dependent plasticity in other types of biological networks.


The article analyzes the specific requirements of the Russian Federation legislation of to the registration of intellectual property, containing Olympic symbols. The paper formulates the specific features of the right to the Olympic symbol, allowing distinguish it from a real right of ownership and the right to intellectual property. These symptoms are manifested in the features of the subject of rights to the Olympic symbols, objects and content rights law. The content of the rights to the Olympic symbols are owned by the IOC to use the powers of the Olympic symbols, including commercial and advertising purposes. The author examines the characteristics of these powers in terms of their duality: on the one hand, they appear in the possibility of the IOC to use the Olympic symbol in its sole discretion, on the other hand, the possibility of banning or permitting third parties to use it. Analysis of these powers has allowed the author to specific practical examples illustrate ways of obtaining the rights to use the Olympic symbols and avoid the denial of its registration.


Online reconfiguration provides a way to extend and replace active operating system components. This provides administrators, developers, applications, and the system itself with a way to update code, adapt to changing workloads, pinpoint performance problems, and perform a variety of other tasks while the system is running. With generic support for interposition and hot-swapping, a system allows active components to be wrapped with additional functionality or replaced with different implementations that have the same interfaces. This paper describes support for online reconfiguration in the K42 operating system and our initial experiences using it. It describes four base capabilities that are combined to implement generic support for interposition and hot-swapping. As examples of its utility, the paper describes some performance enhancements that have been achieved with K42's online reconfiguration mechanisms including adaptive algorithms, common case optimizations, and workload specific specializations.


ABSTRACT Influenza virus is a prominent cause of respiratory illness in humans. Current influenza vaccines offer strain-specific immunity, while provide limited protection against drifted strains. Broad-spectrum influenza vaccines can induce broad and long-term immunity, and thus are regarded as a future direction for the development of next-generation influenza vaccines. In this study, we have conceptualized a novel mRNA-based multi-antigen influenza vaccine consisting of three conserved antigens of influenza A virus, including the ectodomain of the M2 ion channel (M2e), the long alpha helix of haemagglutinin stalk region (LAH), and nucleoprotein (NP). The vaccine design aims to enhance its potency and promote the development of a future broad-spectrum influenza vaccine. Our mRNA-based vaccine demonstrated potent humoral and cellular responses throughout the time points of the murine model, inducing viral neutralizing antibodies, antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity effect mediating antibodies and cross-reactive CD8+ T cell immune responses. The vaccine conferred broad protection against H1N1, H3N2, and H9N2 viruses. Moreover, the single-cell transcriptional profiling of T cells in the spleens of vaccinated mice revealed that the mRNA-based vaccine significantly promoted CD8+ T cells and memory T cells by prime-boost immunization. Our results suggest that the mRNA-based influenza vaccine encoding conserved proteins is a promising approach for eliciting broadly protective humoral and cellular immunity against various influenza viruses.


This book is subtitled as An Introduction to Programming Tools for Life Scientists and this describes well its intent and content. It assumes background knowledge of basic principles in molecular biology and cell biology and access to a computer running a Unix operating system with Perl installed. The first three substantive chapters deal with some of the basic tools of molecular biology: restriction enzymes, RNAi and PCR. A distinctive feature of the book is the way in which discussion of these concepts is interspersed with practical examples of the use of Perl in addressing relevant problems. Three chapters look at different aspects of human disease while introducing bioinformatic techniques such as BLAST analysis. Examples from evolutionary studies are used to introduce sequencing alignments, molecular phylogeny and bootstrapping. Subsequently, gene function is approached from a consideration of metagenomics and protein domains. An important chapter deals with information resources, including those of the National Centre for Biotechnology Information and European Bioinformatics Institute. Subsequent chapters describe finding genes, with a strong focus on the 'RNA world' and finally 'personal genomes', single nucleotide polymorphisms and the study of human variation. Each chapter ends with a small number of exercises and there are four very useful appendices on UNIX, sequence analysis software, Perl and an introduction to R. The author's stated aim is to convince us that relatively simple programming skills can be used to tackle many common biological problems. He succeeds in this, and both the detail of the book and the attitude it conveys are to be welcomed.


ABSTRACT The aim of this population-based cross-sectional study was to assess the prevalence of healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated factors among the Sámi population in Sweden. Data from the "Sámi Health on Equal Terms" (SámiHET) survey conducted in 2021 were used. Overall, 3,658 individuals constituted the analytical sample. Analysis was framed using the social determinants of health framework. The association between healthcare avoidance and several sociodemographic, material, and cultural factors was explored through log-binomial regression analyses. Sampling weights were applied in all analyses. Thirty percent of the Sámi in Sweden avoided healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sámi women (PR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.36–1.70), young adults (PR: 1.22, 95% CI:1.05–1.47), Sámi living outside Sápmi (PR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.03–1.34), and those having low income (PR: 1.42, 95% CI:1.19–1.68) and experiencing economic stress (PR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.31–1.67) had a higher prevalence of healthcare avoidance. The pattern shown in this study can be useful for planning future pandemic responses, which should address healthcare avoidance, particularly among the identified vulnerable groups, including the active participation of the Sámi themselves.


Over the last two decades, mobile telephony has wrought a tremendous impact on interpersonal communication over the world. In Ghana, however, the communicative significance of this new media as a means of promoting the culture of self-expression, particularly on the radio, is relatively unknown. In this paper, I examine the uses and gratifications of approximately 500 SMS texts, arguably the commonest new media, on the panel discussions of two major radio networks, drawing on Katz et al.'s (1974) uses and gratifications theory. Key findings showed that posting messages on radio panel discussions (RPDs) is motivated by six major gratifications, prominent among which are ideological formations and expressions of dissatisfaction about personal, social and national issues. These findings not only characterise RPDs as a unique discourse type, but quintessentially reveal the nature of participatory democracy on RPDs in Ghana. The findings bear theoretical implications as well as raise concerns for media practice.

 Key words: Mobile communication, SMS, self-expression, gratification, radio panel discussion


Amino acid substitution models are a key component in phylogenetic analyses of protein sequences. All amino acid models available to date are time-reversible, an assumption designed for computational convenience but not for biological reality. Another significant downside to time-reversible models is that they do not allow inference of rooted trees without outgroups. In this paper, we introduce a maximum likelihood approach nQMaker, an extension of the recently published QMaker method, that allows the estimation of time non-reversible amino acid substitution models and rooted phylogenetic trees from a set of protein sequence alignments. We show that the non-reversible models estimated with nQMaker are a much better fit to empirical alignments than pre-existing reversible models, across a wide range of datasets including mammals, birds, plants, fungi, and other taxa, and that the improvements in model fit scale with the size of the dataset. Notably, for the recently published plant and bird trees, these non-reversible models correctly recovered the commonly known root placements with very high statistical support without the need to use an outgroup. We provide nQMaker as an easy-to-use feature in the IQ-TREE software (http://www.iqtree.org), allowing users to estimate non-reversible models and rooted phylogenies from their own protein datasets.


BACKGROUND
The conventional method of induction of labour is with intravenous oxytocin. More recently, induction with prostaglandins, followed by an infusion of oxytocin if necessary, has been used.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this review was to assess the effects of induction of labour with prostaglandins versus oxytocin for prelabour rupture of membranes at term.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group trials register.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised and quasi-randomised trials of early stimulation of uterine contractions with prostaglandins (with or without oxytocin) versus with oxytocin alone (not combined with prostaglandins) in women with spontaneous rupture of membranes at term (37 weeks or more gestation).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers assessed trial quality and extracted data.

MAIN RESULTS
Eight trials were included. Based on three trials, prostaglandins compared to oxytocin were associated with increased chorioamnionitis (odds ratio of 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 2.12) and neonatal infections (odds ratio 1.63, 95% confidence interval 1.00 to 2.66). Based on four trials, prostaglandins were associated with a decrease in epidural analgesia (odds ratio of 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.73 to 1.00) and internal fetal heart rate monitoring (based on one trial). Caesarean section, endometritis and perinatal mortality were not significantly different between the groups.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Women with prelabour rupture of membranes at term having their labour induced with prostaglandins appear to have a lower risk of epidural analgesia and fetal heart rate monitoring. However there appears to be an increased risk of chorioamnionitis and neonatal infections after prostaglandin induction compared to oxytocin.[This abstract has been prepared centrally.].


The photolysis of MCp′(CO)4 (Cp′ = Cp or indenyl; M = Nb or Ta) in polyethylene (PE) matrices at low temperature under a high pressure of reactant gas led to formation of a wide range of photoproducts. Under an inert atmosphere (helium), NbCp′(CO)3 and NbCp′(CO)2 are observed following irradiation of the parent tetracarbonyl. However, only TaCp′(CO)3 is observed for the analogous reactions of the corresponding tantalum compounds. Similarly, NbCp′(CO)3(N2) and NbCp′(CO)2(N2)2 are seen following irradiation of NbCp′(CO)4 under a high pressure of N2, whereas only TaCp′(CO)3(N2) was observed following irradiation of TaCp′(CO)4. Under hydrogen, the classical dihydride TaCp′(CO)3H2 is formed following irradiation of TaCp′(CO)4. The non-classical dihydrogen complex Nb(C9H7)(CO)3(η2-H2) is formed following irradiation of Nb(C9H7)(CO)4. NbCp(CO)4 forms both the classical hydride and non-classical dihydrogen complex. Using a high pressure-low temperature cell, the thermal reaction of TaCp′(CO)3(N2) with hydrogen to form TaCp′(CO)3H2 was observed. Preliminary room temperature studies suggest that Ta(C9H7)(CO)3H2 is ca. 50 times more reactive than TaCp(CO)3H2 in PE.


Background: preeclampsia (PE) is defined as the presence of high blood pressure (BP > 140/90 mmHg) after 20 weeks gestation, in a previously normotensive non-proteinuric patient with one or more of the following: significant protienuria (> 0.3 g/24 h), maternal organ dysfunction or utero- placental dysfunction. Aim of the Work: screening of preeclampsia using serum β-HCG titre at 11-14 weeks of gestation and uterine artery Doppler study at 11-14 weeks and 22-24 weeks of gestation. Patients and Methods: the study was a prospective. It was conducted at the outpatient clinics of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Al-Zahraa University Hospital, Al-Azhar University during the period from February 2017 to April 2018. Results: the uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) and resistance index (RI) of both uterine artery were significantly high in those patients who developed PE. In the uterine artery Doppler study at 11-14 weeks of gestation, the mean PI and RI of both right and left uterine arteries were significantly different between the two groups, PI and RI were higher in PE group, the mean of right uterine artery PI in PE group was 2.39 ± 0.38 VS 1.69 ± 0.34 in non PE group. It was statistically highly significant (P value was 0.004). The maternal serum β-HCG titre was insignificantly different in those who developed preeclampsia and others. Conclusion: the maternal uterine artery PI and RI in early pregnancy (11-14 weeks of gestation) and in mid pregnancy (22-24 weeks of gestation) were increased and associated with occurrence of preeclampsia


With wafer residency time constraint of cluster tools in semiconductor manufacturing, activity time variation can make an originally feasible schedule infeasible. Thus, it is difficult to schedule them and schedulability is a vitally important issue. With bounded activity time variation considered, this paper addresses their real-time scheduling issues and conducts their schedulability analysis. A Petri net (PN) model and a control policy are presented. Based on them, this paper derives closed-form schedulability conditions. If schedulable, an algorithm is developed to obtain an offline periodic schedule. This schedule together with the control policy forms a real-time schedule. It is optimal in terms of cycle time and can be analytically computed, which represents significant advance in this area.


Annual cost of pneumonia could be nearly $459 million. Doing swallow test could reduce likelihood of pneumonia by 50%. Despite benefits, best practice use is at discouragingly low levels.


Sandalwood and agarwood essential oils are rare natural oils comprising fragrant terpenoids that have been used in perfumes and incense for millennia. Increasing demand for these terpenoids, coupled with difficulties in isolating them from natural sources, have led to an interest in finding alternative production platforms. Here, we engineered the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce fragrant terpenoids from sandalwood and agarwood. Specifically, we constructed strain FPPY005_39850, which overexpresses all eight genes in the mevalonate pathway. Using this engineered strain as the background strain, we screened seven distinct terpene synthases from agarwood, sandalwood, and related plant species for their activities in the context of yeast. Five terpene synthases led to the production of fragrant terpenoids, including α-santalene, α-humulene, δ-guaiene, α-guaiene, and β-eudesmol. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of β-eudesmol production in yeast. We further improved the production titers by downregulating ERG9, a key enzyme from a competing pathway, as well as employing enzyme fusions. Our final engineered strains produced fragrant terpenoids at up to 101.7 ± 6.9 mg/L. We envision our work will pave the way for a scalable route to these fragrant terpenoids and further establish S. cerevisiae as a versatile production platform for high-value chemicals.


The computation time of classical wavelet transform which based on frequent field is too long to meet the demand of real-time control for roller eccentricity. A novel wavelet based on lifting scheme is proposed for decomposing and dealing with eccentricity signal at the different resolution . The eccentricity factor is identified from disturbance and noise with lifting and dual lifting scheme theory by analyzing the rolling force and thickness deviation. Moreover, parameter Self-adaptive control is used for on line control of roller eccentricity. The comparative studies with traditional wavelet transform are carried out in this paper and the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The execution speed of the proposed algorithm is increased at least twice as conventional wavelet transform method.


Despite the efforts of the World Health Organization, blood transfusions and delivery are still the crucial challenges in blood supply chain management, especially when there is a high demand and not enough blood inventory. Consequently, reducing uncertainty in blood demand, waste, and shortages has become a primary goal. In this paper, we propose a smart platform-oriented approach that will create a robust blood demand and supply chain able to achieve the goals of reducing uncertainty in blood demand by forecasting blood collection/demand, and reducing blood wastage and shortage by balancing blood collection and distribution based on an effective blood inventory management. We use machine learning and time series forecasting models to develop an AI/ML decision support system. It is an effective tool with three main modules that directly and indirectly impact all phases of the blood supply chain: (i) the blood demand forecasting module is designed to forecast blood demand; (ii) blood donor classification helps predict daily unbooked donors thereby enhancing the ability to control the volume of blood collected based on the results of blood demand forecasting; and (iii) scheduling blood donation appointments according to the expected number and type of blood donations, thus improving the quantity of blood by reducing the number of canceled appointments, and indirectly improving the quality and quantity of blood supply by decreasing the number of unqualified donors, thereby reducing the amount of invalid blood after and before preparation. As a result of the system's improvements, blood shortages and waste can be reduced. The proposed solution provides robust and accurate predictions and identifies important clinical predictors for blood demand forecasting. Compared with the past year's historical data, our integrated proposed system increased collected blood volume by 11%, decreased inventory wastage by 20%, and had a low incidence of shortages.


Deep tissue injuries (DTI) are serious lesions which may develop in deep tissue layers as a result of sustained tissue loading or ischemic injury. These lesions may not become visible on the skin surface until the injury reaches an advanced stage making their early detection a challenging task. Early diagnosis leading to early treatment mitigates the progression of lesion and remains one of the priorities in management. The aim of this study is to examine skin surface temperature distributions of damaged tissue and develop criteria for the detection of incipient DTI. A multilayer quantitative heat transfer model of the skin tissue was developed using finite element based software COMSOL Multiphysics. Thermal response of the skin surface was computed during deep tissue inflammation and deep tissue ischemia and then compared with that of healthy tissue. In the presence of a DTI, an increase of about 0.5°C in skin surface temperatures was noticed during initial phase of deep tissue inflammation, which was followed by a surface temperature decrease of about 0.2°C corresponding to persistent deep tissue ischemia. These temperature differences are large enough to be detected by thermographic imaging. This study, therefore, also enhances the understanding of the previously detected thermographic quantitative changes associated with DTI.


Blood transfusion has developed and progressed in step with military conflicts. Blood groups and cross-matching rules discovery led to identifying "universal donors". Whole blood fractionation and the differentiated storage of its components improved transfusion safety and conservation of the different blood products.
While the majority of preventable trauma deaths are related to massive bleeding, recent military engagements highlighted the importance of early transfusion and targeted resuscitation against coagulopathy. In the acute phase, red blood cells, coagulation factors and platelets are administered according to a transfusion ratio strategy. However, this strategy faces logistical difficulties related to the different storage conditions of blood products, their availability delay, and the workload that their transfusion imposes in emergency context.
In austere environments, fresh whole blood collection and transfusion have remained an alternative technique that has shown clinical and logistical value. Civilian and military teams subsequently demonstrated the feasibility of low hemolysin titer group O whole blood 4°C storage then transfusion, in order to obtain a universal transfusion product available without delay.


This article examines the intersection of service-learning with complex systems theory. It is based on a research project we undertook to explore whether complex systems theory might be useful for better understanding the dynamics of service-learning practice and thus for assisting in the design, running, and evaluation of service-learning projects. Additionally, we were interested to find out whether the specifics of our service-learning experience and knowledge, what we refer to as "critical service-learning," might have something of value to contribute to the interdisciplinary and ever-broadening paradigm of complexity studies. Our findings respond to these two tasks in the affirmative: We conclude complex systems theory can be of benefit to service-learning practice in a conceptual, operational, and strategic capacity. In instances where critical service-learning practice initially appears to be incongruent with complex systems theory, conversely these instances instead highlight precisely how service-learning could advance the analysis of systems in complexity studies.


Purpose: This study was conducted in order to compare the efficacy of osseointegration of three different calcium metaphosphate (CMP) coated implants in the rabbit`s femur. Materials and Methods: Twenty four rabbits and three different type of CMP coated implants and RBM implants were used in this study. The animals were divided into 4 groups on the basis of implant surface characteristics. Two implants were installed into the condyle of femur of each rabbits. The animals were sacrificed at 2 and 4 weeks after installation. The undecalcified specimens were prepared for histological, radiological examination and histomorphometric analysis of implant-bone contact ratios (BIC) and bone area ratio (BA). Results: Two implants were failed to osseointegrate and implant success rate was 95.2%. There were not any significant inflammatory response in all groups. Fluorescent image at 4 weeks shows that remodeling is slower in RBM group than CMP group. CMP III showed more active remodeling than CMP I. II. In histomorphologic analysis, BIC ratio at 2 weeks was lower than 4 weeks. Conclusion: The results suggest that the ratios of CMP coated implants were higher than that of RBM control group but there is no significantly difference between RBM group and CMP group. In conclusion, CMP coated implant had more clinical availability than RBM implants.


A case of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the femur observed in an 11-year-old boy is reported, which simulated an osteosarcoma clinically and radiographically. To our knowledge, this is a second documented case of rhabdomyosarcoma of the long bone.


A MIMO system with finite-bit feedback based on fixed constellations is considered. For this system, an optimal operating system with maximum-likehood (ML)-decoding is demonstrated, and furthermore, to reduce encoding complexity, an asymptotic optimal operating system is also proposed. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that our encoding method has much less complexity than existing encoding methods.


Reliable wireless communications systems are removing the physical and economical barriers that previously made it diffi cult or impossible to access many types of information in chemical plants. In fact, wireless automation technology addresses many management priorities, including continuous process improvement, safety, and protection of the environment, with such dramatic ease and clear benefi ts that it is changing work practices throughout the industry. The technology of transmitting never-before-available information from processes and equipment can be put to use right now, regardless of the vintage of the plant's control system.


Government research institution, which are under Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(MEST), its buildings and facilities' extent of decrepit is different depending on the year of foundation. However, most of buildings that built on for more than 15 years have become superannuated genearally. Environment improvement project is absolutely necessary to complement and improve safety of buildings in respect of the buildings managed by the research institutions through comprehensive and multilateral performance diagnoses. It allows research productivity to be improved, and enhance of national economic power is highly expected by performance improvement of related research field.


We report 2 cases (a 59-year-old man and a 61-year-old man) of quadricuspid aortic valve that had aortic regurgitation. Preoperative transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography was useful for diagnosing definitely and deciding treatment plan. Their aortic valves were type F in each according to the Hurwitz-Roberts classification. They underwent aortic valve replacement and had good postoperative courses.


A 30-week premature male infant is presented with dolichocephaly, frontal bossing, down-slanting palpebral fissures, hypertelorism, long philtrum, micrognathia, cleft palate, and imperforate anus. He is the fifth patient to be presented with FG syndrome and sensorineural deafness. The patient's syndromic manifestations became more obvious during an inpatient observation period of 3 months.


Since the second half of the XIX century, Social Pedagogy has not been free from diverse discussions and methodological perspectives which have been proposed so as to better understand the raison d'etre of this science. I shall try to indicate what, from my point of view, is the most appropriate method which should be taken into account in developing this science. Then I shall describe the different existing paradigms in research in education and offer a comparative analysis of them. The proposal which is made here is centered on the idea that, together with the analytical method -which is suitable for the paradigms described- the synthetic method illuminates the data gathered through analysis.


Background: The multiple cutaneous and uterine leiomyomatosis syndrome (MCUL) is a rare autosomal dominant condition characterized by cutaneous leiomyomatosis in both sexes and uterine leiomyomas in women. This syndrome overlaps with hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) syndrome. Methods: We report an Italian family in which the finding of multiple cutaneous leiomyomas in the proband, a 46-year-old woman, led to the diagnosis of Reed's syndrome and to a general and genetic screening. Results: DNA sequencing in the proband disclosed a missense mutation designated p.Asp341Tyr that has not been reported previously. Interestingly, the patient's mother had a clear-cell-type renal cancer removed at the age of 57 years. Conclusion: Cutaneous leyomiomas are the clinical and histological clue leading to the diagnosis of MCUL or HLRCC. Dermatologists should be aware that a correct evaluation of a patient with cutaneous leiomyomas involves a complete medical and family history, physical examination and a genetic counseling.


News recommendation can help users find interested news and alleviate information overload. Precisely modeling news and users is critical for news recommendation, and capturing the contexts of words and news is important to learn news and user representations. In this paper, we propose a neural news recommendation approach with multi-head self-attention (NRMS). The core of our approach is a news encoder and a user encoder. In the news encoder, we use multi-head self-attentions to learn news representations from news titles by modeling the interactions between words. In the user encoder, we learn representations of users from their browsed news and use multi-head self-attention to capture the relatedness between the news. Besides, we apply additive attention to learn more informative news and user representations by selecting important words and news. Experiments on a real-world dataset validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.


AbstractThe piano key weir is a cost-effective solution for rehabilitation as well as for new dam projects with a high level of constraints (e.g., limited space, high specific flood discharge, small reservoir level variation). Although the higher efficiency of the piano key weir compared with standard linear weirs has already been demonstrated, its optimal geometry is still poorly defined. To improve the design of the complex geometry of this structure, the use of parapet walls has been tested. They consist of vertical extensions placed over the weir crest. Following a former study of the influence of the weir height on its discharge capacity, this paper presents the results of an experimental campaign dedicated to investigating the effect of parapet walls to increase weir height while reducing bottom slopes and keeping the weir height constant. These results indicate the relative influences of the alveoli bottom slopes and of the weir height on the piano key weir release capacity. Comparisons with former...


A novel solid-state electrochemiluminescence (ECL) quenching sensor was constructed for determination of brilliant blue FCF (BB FCF). Under a simple electropolymerization step, poly(sulfosalicylic acid) (PSSA) film attached luminophore Ru(bpy)_3^2+ was successfully formed on the surface of a glass carbon electrode [Ru(bpy)_3^2+–PSSA/GCE], which exhibited excellent ECL behavior. A high quenching effect on the ECL signal of the Ru(bpy)_3^2+–PSSA/GCE was obtained with the presence of low concentration of BB FCF. Moreover, the quenched ECL intensity showed a linear relation within the BB FCF concentration range of 0.5–7 and 7–10 μmol/L, with a detection limit of 57 nmol/L ( S/N = 3). Besides, Ru(bpy)_3^2+–PSSA/GCE exhibited good reproducibility and was successfully applied in the practical detection of BB FCF in peppermint candy samples.


Psychoneuroimmunology research suggests the possibility of self-regulated immune system improvement. Psychological treatments utilising relaxation can increase levels of salivary immunoglobulin A (slgA), high levels of which are known to protect against cold and flu infection. No previous study has investigated the ability of children who suffer recurrent colds and flu to increase slgA with such psychological techniques. Furthermore, no previous research has been conducted on the clinical efficacy of increasing levels of baseline slgA.

The present thesis investigated both 'healthy children (those with two or less colds in the previous 12 months) and 'sick' children (those with ten or more colds in the previous 12 months). Their psychological profiles; levels of baseline slgA; and their immune system response to a natural cold infection were compared. In addition, the influence of both relaxation and acute stress on slgA was also investigated. Two treatment studies investigated whether psychological therapy reduces days of cold and flu illness, breaks the illness cycle and improves the emotional status of children with recurrent cold and flu problems.

'Sick' children differed both immunologically and psychologically from 'healthy' children. They had lower slgA, experienced more life event stress and had higher levels of depression, anxiety, introversion and neuroticism and lower levels of assertiveness.

SlgA increased during relaxation, relaxation with the suggestion to increase immune system proteins, and imagery visualising an increase in immune system proteins in the mouth, nose and ears. Furthermore, the level of relaxation predicted increases in slgA. Increases in slgA during the psychological techniques were similar in 'healthy' and 'sick' children. The acute stress of a mathematics test decreased levels of slgA in both 'healthy' and 'sick' children.

Two psychological treatments (Immune Enhancement therapy which increased slgA daily and Stress Management therapy which taught relaxation, problem solving and coping skills) were equally effective in reducing the days of cold and flu illness in 'sick' children in comparison to a waiting control group and their own pre-treatment baseline.

The psychological treatments increased baseline levels of slgA; improved the mucosal immune response to a natural cold infection; and improved the emotional status of children with a history of recurrent colds. Twelve month follow-up indicated that days of illness were reduced in the period of the next winter equivalent to the pre-treatment baseline; furthermore, gains to emotional status (depression, anxiety and assertiveness) were maintained at 12 month follow-up. The only improvement not maintained at twelve month follow-up was family satisfaction.

The studies in this thesis clearly demonstrate that psychosocial factors influence cold and flu infection. Psychological treatment reduces such infection and breaks the illness cycle in children who have recurrent upper respiratory tract infections. During treatment, baseline levels of slgA increased and the immune system showed a stronger response to such infection following therapy. This demonstrates self-regulated immune system enhancement. Furthermore, improvements in emotional status occurred during both treatment studies. Psychological improvements such as lower levels of depression are likely to result in less suppression of immune function, with consequent improvements in overall health and in the immune response to infection.


The genre of poetry, much like fiction, is a creative outlet in which authors explore varied ideas, images, and issues that audiences may then analyze, critique, and appreciate. What happens when poetry and technology, or poetry and science fiction collide? Generally, the incorporation of notions of the future, science, technology, and African American identity has been a space for fiction, film, art, and music. Those who study Affofuturism (AF), a framework for interpreting the intersections of race and technology or science fiction, often concentrate on novels by Octavia Butler, the musical stylings of Parliament-Funkadelic, and films such as I Am Legend (2007) and The Book of Eli (2010). Indeed, there is a growing collection of works in various genres that lend themselves to Afrofuturist interpretations, yet scholars rarely place poetry in the conversations. Consequently, poets Tracie Morris and Tracy K. Smith incorporate elements of science fiction, technology, and African American histories and experiences in select poems; thus, their works offer important opportunities for reading poetry utilizing an Afrofuturist frame- work.What, though, is Afrofuturism? As a term, Afrofuturism began formally in Mark Dery's 1993 contribution to South Atlantic Quarterly (also edited by Dery), where he utilizes the term. In 1994, Dery edited the text Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture in which he re-released the article. Dery created the term "Afro-Futurism" to "describe AfricanAmerican culture's appropriation of technology and [science fiction] imagery" ("Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0," 6). While Dery is credited with the phrase, much is owed to Alondra Nelson, who founded an Afrofuturism listserv in 1998; this was an online community where members discussed issues related to technology, racial identity, diaspora, activism, the future, and various other topics. Within this digital space and through its members, Afrofuturism developed as a theoretical perspective for identifying and analyzing the relationships between Black identities, technologies from before and beyond, and imaginings of the future and its possibilities.Encouraging the continued development of Afrofuturism, Nelson edited a 2002 issue of the journal Social Text in which numerous scholars and authors detailed in articles, interviews, and poems, the significance and uses of AF. Tracie Morris contributed poems to that special issue of Social Text that are distinctively Affofuturist, for they address concepts of dystopic futures, technologies, and Black identity. As Nelson notes in the introduction to the issue, Morris's poems reveal that she is "less than sanguine about technoscience-each poem conjures the affect of loss and deception-linking it not to the promise of bright new futures but to biological abominations, genocidal campaigns, and environmental catastrophe" (11). In opposition to Tracy K. Smith's poem "Sci-Fi," dis- cussed below, where she envisions a future with opportunities, Morris foresees the disastrous affects of continued US racism, ostensible advancements in technology, and ecological devastation.The use of an Afrofuturist lens to analyze the poems by Morris and Smith suggests that the genre of poetry allows a creative space for poets to address and challenge the real and imagined lives of African Americans in the past, present, and future (consider, for example, Octavia Butler's novel Kindred, published in 1979, in which the contemporary Black female protagonist travels back in time and, due to events in that past, creates a different future for herself). Science fiction authors have historically utilized the literary genre to address relevant societal, environmental, and global issues; Black science fiction authors such as Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, and Nalo Hopkinson tackle the intersections of identities, including race, gender, class, and technology in their novels and short stories. Morris and Smith do similar work in poetic form. …


The book contains a collection of essays by scholars and artists from a range of different fields including art, art history, architectural theory and philosophy. The essays are based on papers given at a symposium in Copenhagen in June 2008 and refer to the following considerations: When spectators confront and designers invent works of art and architecture, vital questions regarding their appearance arise. These are not simply questions about what appears, also what does not, i.e. what withdraws when works are experienced and created. How do we cope with this withdrawal, with latencies that escape concretization? What are the productive paradoxes associated hereto and how do they influence the processes of making? Based on multiple discourses on these subjects, contemporary positions in art, architecture and philosophy draw up new challenges, especially with regard to the creative practices. Within and between these positions emerge potentials for modes of thinking and doing with a new sensitivity.

With contributions by Michael Asgaard Andersen and Henrik Oxvig, Renaud Barbaras, Andrew Benjamin, Olafur Eliasson, Sanford Kwinter, David Leatherbarrow, Martin Seel, David Summers, and Sven-Olov Wallenstein.


Summary: With the wide application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques, fast tools for protein similarity search that scale well to large query datasets and large databases are highly desirable. In a previous work, we developed RAPSearch, an algorithm that achieved a ∼20–90-fold speedup relative to BLAST while still achieving similar levels of sensitivity for short protein fragments derived from NGS data. RAPSearch, however, requires a substantial memory footprint to identify alignment seeds, due to its use of a suffix array data structure. Here we present RAPSearch2, a new memory-efficient implementation of the RAPSearch algorithm that uses a collision-free hash table to index a similarity search database. The utilization of an optimized data structure further speeds up the similarity search—another 2–3 times. We also implemented multi-threading in RAPSearch2, and the multi-thread modes achieve significant acceleration (e.g. 3.5X for 4-thread mode). RAPSearch2 requires up to 2G memory when running in single thread mode, or up to 3.5G memory when running in 4-thread mode. Availability and implementation: Implemented in C++, the source code is freely available for download at the RAPSearch2 website: http://omics.informatics.indiana.edu/mg/RAPSearch2/. Contact: email@example.com Supplementary information: Available at the RAPSearch2 website. Received on August 10, 2011; revised on September 29, 2011; accepted on October 23, 2011


The EC's noise policy is primarily aimed at enhancing the free movement of goods. Noise pollution is tackled by combating pollution at source. Technical harmonisation is the most wickly used route. The Fifth Environmental Action Programme sets out an ambitious EC noise policy, completing the internal market objectives with a true environmental aim. The 1996 Commission Green Paper on Future Noise Policy sets out concrete measures which are to be realised in the near future. The ambition to implement a full-scale noise policy might have to be rethought in the light of the principle of subsidiarity.


INTRODUCTION There are limited data on the impact of ischemic etiology on the clinical status and long‑term prognosis of patients with acute severe heart failure (HF) not associated with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the clinical characteristics, treatment, and 12‑month mortality of patients with acute severe HF not associated with ACS, according to the etiology of HF.  PATIENTS AND METHODS Data from 112 patients with acute severe HF not associated with ACS were analyzed: 61 patients with ischemic HF and 51 patients with nonischemic HF. Acute severe HF was defined as acute HF on admission with at least one of the following characteristics: pulmonary congestion, cardiogenic shock, catecholamine or intraaortic balloon pump support, ultrafiltration, mechanical ventilation, prolonged use of intravenous diuretics, fluid in the body cavities requiring decompression, or multiorgan failure. RESULTS Patients with ischemic HF were older (62 vs 54 years, P = 0.001), predominately male (84% vs 65%, P = 0.02), had more comorbidities, and had lower left ventricular ejection fraction (21% vs 27%, P = 0.02). There were no significant differences in treatment modalities (ie, mechanical ventilation, hemodiafiltration, intraaortic balloon pump, left ventricular assist device, heart transplantation), except for 14 percutaneous coronary interventions in the ischemic group. In‑hospital adverse events were similar between the groups. Among 83 discharged patients with available follow‑up, death was reported for 15 patients with ischemic and 11 patients with nonischemic HF (34% vs 28%, P = 0.42).  CONCLUSIONS Ischemic HF, accounting for approximately half of the cases of acute severe HF not related to ACS, was not associated with a significantly worse prognosis than nonischemic HF.


In this article we analyze a fully discrete numerical approximation to a time dependent fractional order diffusion equation which contains a nonlocal quadratic nonlinearity. The analysis is performed for a general fractional order diffusion operator. The nonlinear term studied is a product of the unknown function and a convolution operator of order 0. Convergence of the approximation and a priori error estimates are given. Numerical computations are included, which confirm the theoretical predictions.


The sorption of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) by calcium alginate beads (CAB) from aqueous solutions in batch systems was investigated. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters, as well as the sorption capacities of CAB in each system at different temperatures, were evaluated. The rate of sorption for both metals was rapid in the first 10 minutes and reached a maximum in 50 minutes. Sorption kinetic data were fitted to Lagergren, pseudo-second-order and Elovich models and it was found that the second-order kinetic model describes these data for the two metals; comparing kinetic parameters for Cd and Pb sorption a higher kinetic rate (K 2) for Pb was observed, indicating that the interaction between lead cations and alginate beads was faster than for cadmium. Similarly, isotherm data were fitted to different models reported in literature and it was found that the Langmuir-Freundlich (L-F) and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) models describe the isotherms in all cases. CAB sorption capacity for cadmium was 27.4 mg/g and 150.4 mg/g for lead, at 25°C. Sorption capacities of Cd and Pb increase as temperature rises. According to the thermodynamic parameters, the cadmium and lead adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. It was also found that pH has an important effect on the adsorption of these metals by CAB, as more were removed at pH values between 6 and 7.


Vector linear prediction (VLP) is frequently used in speech and image coding. This paper addresses a technique of reducing the complexity of VLP, named the sparse VLP (sVLP), by decreasing the number of nonzero elements of prediction matrices used for prediction. The pattern of zero and nonzero elements in a matrix, i.e. the matrix structure, is not restricted in the design procedure but is a result of the correlation properties of the input vector process. Mathematical formulations of several criteria for obtaining near-optimal matrix structures are given. The consequent decrease of the sVLP performance compared to the full predictor case can be kept as low as possible by re-optimizing the values of matrix non-zero elements for a resulting sparse structure. Effectiveness of the sVLP is illustrated on vector prediction of the line spectrum frequencies (LSF) vectors and compared to the full predictor VLP.


Objectives: To analyze the evolution of patients subjected to renal replacement therapy (RRT), andto determine risk factors associated with mortality and the recovery of renal function. Design: A prospective, observational study of critically ill patients. Setting: Clinical-surgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Sabadell Hospital (Spain). Patients: Inclusion of all patients treated in our Unit due to acute renal failure (ARF) requiring RRT. Primary variables of interest: We recorded epidemiological data, severity using the APACHE II score, days of the technique, ICU mortality, and renal function recovery. The study period was divided into 2 parts: part 1 (2000-2004) and part 2 (2005-2009). The 2 periods were compared using the Student t-test for continuous variables and the chi-squared test for categorical variables. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the risk factors for mortality and recovery of renal function. Results: A total of 304 patients were treated. Sepsis was the main etiology of ARF (61%), involving principally respiratory and abdominal foci. In the second period the convective technique and community-acquired ARF were far more prevalent than in the first period. There were fewer days of therapy in the second period (19.7 versus 12.3 days; P=.015). Total ICU mortality was 52.3%, with a decrease in the last period (61.9% to 45.5%: P=.003). The risk factors associated to mortality were creatinine upon admission (odds ratio [OR] 0.77; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.61-0.97) and treatment with IHD alone (OR 0.37, 95%CI 0.160.87). Survivors had normal renal function at ICU discharge in 56.7% of the cases in the second period, vs in 72.9% in the first period, with more patients subjected to IHD in the second period (10.4% versus 26.8%). The factors related to the recovery of renal function were creatinine upon admission (OR 1.98, 95%CI 1.12-3.48), acute renal failure (OR 0.11, 95%CI 0.04-0.34) and treatment with continuous techniques (OR 0.18, 95%CI 0.03-0.85). Conclusions: Mortality among critically ill patients subjected to RRT has improved in recent


This paper introduces ENGLAWI, a large, versatile, XML-encoded machine-readable dictionary extracted from Wiktionary. ENGLAWI contains 752,769 articles encoding the full body of information included in Wiktionary: simple words, compounds and multiword expressions, lemmas and inflectional paradigms, etymologies, phonemic transcriptions in IPA, definition glosses and usage examples, translations, semantic and morphological relations, spelling variants, etc. It is fully documented, released under a free license and supplied with G-PeTo, a series of scripts allowing easy information extraction from ENGLAWI. Additional resources extracted from ENGLAWI, such as an inflectional lexicon, a lexicon of diatopic variants and the inclusion dates of headwords in Wiktionary's nomenclature are also provided. The paper describes the content of the resource and illustrates how it can be - and has been - used in previous studies. We finally introduce an ongoing work that computes lexicographic word embeddings from ENGLAWI's definitions.


In this talk I will describe a new carrier system for delivery of hydrophobic drugs. It is based on polymeric inclusion complexes formed by interaction of polymeric-drug conjugates (Poly-Drug) with polymeric cyclodextrins (Poly-CD). We have formed polymer-drug conjugates of Paclitaxel (PTX) with maleic anhydride copolymers. The PTX is linked to the backbone by a degradable ester bond. We also synthesized a maleic anhydride copolymer conjugated with betacyclodextrins (Poly-CD) where the CDs are also linked by degradable ester bonds to the backbone polymer. We then interacted the polymer-PTX with the polymer-CD to form an inclusion complex "nanogel". PTX drug was efficiently released from this nanogel over many hours in in vitro tests. In this talk I will describe the synthesis and performance of this new drug delivery system.


Both judgements of the German Federal Supreme Court concern the effects of final judgements on later proceedings. A decisive factor is whether the issues arising in the later proceedings are to characterised as new facts which are therefore not affected by the earlier judgement.
The judgement of the Supreme Court of 14.7.1995 had the following facts: The owners of a piece of land sued in the first proceedings for a declaration that the owners for the time being of that piece of land had an easement in the form, inter alia, of a right to come and go on part of a road over neighbouring property, and as a subsidiary claim they sought a right of a way as a necessity. The claim as to the right of way was dismissed by means of a binding judgement, because the stretch of road was held to be part of the public one. But this decision was quashed, and after the first proceedings had ended, it was established in a binding judgement of an administrative court, that the road was not a public highway. The same plaintiffs therefore brought new proceedings against the same defendant seeking to ensure that their right to come and go over the disputed stretch of road was not impeded, and as a subsidiary claim that a right of way of necessity should be recognised.
According to the Supreme Court, the earlier judgement did not stand in the way of a judgement in these later proceedings. The headnote to the case states: 'If an action for a declaration concerning the existence of a traditional right of way is in part dismissed because there is a public highway there anyway, and if later the administrative authorities and courts deny the existence of a public highway, the res judicata effect of the earlier judgement does not hinder a new action based on the existence of the easement.'
The judgement of the Supreme Court of 16.10.1995 had the following facts: A concluded a contract in 1988 under which he bought shares in B for 9360, DM payable in 124 monthly installments. The contract was only partly performed by A. By a final judgement of 4.11.1992, A was required to pay a total of 8256,DM. In a solicitor's letter of 29.3.1993, A exercised his purported right to withdraw his agreement to the contract in reliance on the Law on the rescission of doorstep sales, arguing that the employee of V-GmbH which B had entrusted with the sale of its shares, and in whose home A had given his agreement to the contract, had not given him the required information about his right of rescission, but had kept it to himself with tortious intent. The withdrawal of his agreement formed the basis of an action by A to prevent execution of the agreement formed the basis of an action by A to prevent execution of the judgement of 4.11.1992 (Vollstreckungsgegenklage). In the earlier proceedings, A had not disputed B's claim that information about his right of rescission had been given to A, and that he had confirmed this by by his signature. A took the view that enforcement of the earlier final judgement was impermissable because he had now withdrawn his agreement to the contract which formed the basis of that judgement. In addition he argued that he had a claim based on damage caused by action contrary to bonos mores, because B was vicariously liable for the fraudulent actions of V-GmbH. The landgericht dismissed the Vollstreckungsgegenklage. A's appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court were unsuccessful.
In this case, in the opinion of the Supreme Court, the res judicata effect of the earlier judgement hindered a judgement in favour of A in later proceedings. The withdrawal of agreement to a contract under the Law on the rescission of doorstep and other similar transactions (HWiG) was not a new fact within the meaning of 767(2)ZPO; it was not to be characterised as an event creating or transforming rights, but rather as a defence to a claim.


Introduction In April 2010, our obstetric department introduced daily departmental meetings for the purposes of performance review and education, with the objective of improving patient safety on the delivery suite. Objective To identify key areas of good and poor practice in the multidisciplinary intrapartum management of our unit. Setting Tertiary hospital delivering 5800 neonates/year. Participants Midwifery and Medical staff. Methods Semi-structured discussions of 107 cases were undertaken by a multi-disciplinary group and key positive and negative practice points identified. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the data obtained. Results Analysis of the key outcomes in 107 cases, indicated that the department predominantly managed complex cases successfully, that a multi-disciplinary approach was often sought and that senior involvement occurred frequently. On the other hand, areas highlighted for improvement included documentation, communication between health professionals and a delay in interventions. Conclusions Discussion of complex obstetric cases in a multi-disciplinary setting provides an arena for frank discussion and identification of positive and negative practice points for the benefit of individual and departmental performance review. This tool would be suitable for use in other obstetric and medical units.


Objective To report the management of strabismus fixus associated with high myopia. Methods Surgical procedures for 10 eyes of 7 patients with esohypotropia and high axial myopia were retrospectively studied. Extremely large medial rectus recessions were performed in all patients. Half-tendon transpositions of the lateral rectus muscle to the insertion of the superior rectus muscle,coupled with resection of the transposed halves in 9 eyes. Half-tendon transpositions of the superior rectus muscle to the insertion of the lateral rectus muscle in one case. Resection of the transposed halves varied from 9~12 mm. Results Pre-operative deviations of the affected eye were esotropia of 90△~120△,hypotropia of 30△~50△ After 3~26 months of post-operative follow- up,8 eyes were aligned within 15 delta of orthotropia. Ductions were also improved. Conclusion A greater amount of medial rectus recession combined with superior transposition of the half-ten-don of the lateral rectus or temporal transposition of the half-tendon of the superior rectus is ideally suited for strabismus fixus associated with high myopia.

Key words:
high myopic;  strabismus


The study examined the effect of multiple taxations on smes growth in akwa ibom state. In order to carry out this study,specified research objectives were drawn from which null hypotheses were formulated and used for the study. The research designfor this study is a survey design. The population of the study consisted of all SMEs operators in Uyo urban. Simple randomsampling technique was used to select 398 respondents out of the population. The instrument used for data collection wasquestionnaire. Data from completed questionnaires was subjected to independent t-test analysis. The findings showed that effect of multiple taxations on the performance of SMEs in Uyo Urban. From all literatures reviewed, the researchers deduced that the development and operation of SMEs has economic impact on the nation.The study recommended that all SMEs should endeavor to pay their taxes as at when due. This should be done by Government providing enabling environment for them to operate and see it as one of the benefit accrued to such payment of taxes to the Government. Also Government should adequately createawareness on the need for SMEs to pay their taxes appropriately. Government should consider increasing tax incentives andexemptions as this will not only attract investors who are potential tax payers, it will encourage voluntary compliance andultimately leads to expansion of existing business interests of the SMEs in Akwa Ibom State as well as Nigeria as a whole. If theseare done all SMEs will willingly pay their taxes as at when due.


This research is conducted as a mean to know the respon of leaf fertilizer dosage and composition media plant to growth plant acacia (A. mangium Wild). The research is conducted in UMM forest farm (garden attempt of permanent semi seedbed of forestry laboratory) faculty of agriculture of Muhammadiyah University of Malang, This research is started at April until June 2008. Attempt device the used is random device of compiled group from two factor are First factor is giving of dose fertilize consist of 3 levels: (P1) 500 ppm (P2) 1000 ppm (P3) 1500 ppm. Second factor is media composition plant to consist of 4 level are (Q0) land (100 %), (Q1) land, cage fertilizer, and sand (2 : 1 : 1), (Q2) land, cage fertilizer, and sand (1 : 1 : 2), (Q3) land, cage fertilizer, and sand (1 : 2 : 1). The research is started by prepare acacia seedling, prepare media plant, giving the treatment, plant and care. The analyse start when the acacia seedling at 7 days after plant and the alyse done for 8 times with interval once a week. The parameter of analyse is the diameter, the tall, number of leaf, tall of root, wet weight, and dry weight. To know respon each treatment, it must be analyzed by using manner analysis, and in the event of a marked difference, I has to be continued with Test of Duncan at level 5% to know difference of influence between treatment. The result of this research show that the treatment of fertilizer dose 1500 ppm with media plant land, cage fertilizer, and sand (Q2 = 1 : 1 : 2) give the best of growth result because at that combintion the height of the plant is highest on 16 cm. Based of this research it can be suggest to give the treatment combination of fertilizer dose 1500 ppm with media plant land, cage fertilizer, and sand (1 : 1 : 2) to get the optimal grwoth result. Keyword : Akasia, respon pertumbuhan, pupuk daun dan komposisi media Jurnal Terkait :   http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/312/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-agungprase-15555-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


We report measurements and analysis of the initial magnetic susceptibility and specific heat in polycrystalline Dy3Ni and of magnetization processes in Dy3Ni single crystals. The measured magnetic ordering temperature is TN = 38 K and the spin-reorientation-transition and spin-freezing temperatures are Tt ∼ 23–26 K and Tsf = 53 K, respectively. The field-induced magnetic transitions occur at 5.9, 8.3 and 6.4 T along the a, b and c axes, respectively, and strong magnetic anisotropy persists up to 13 T. The energy scales of the exchange interaction and field-induced magnetic structural deformation are comparable.


A boring was put down under my direction near the village of Oswaldkirk, in 1912–13, in the expectation that the " Kellaways Rock " would be found beneath a cover of Oxford Clay and that, as its outcrop near Wass and Kilburn is at high level, water would be obtained under an artesian pressure.

The site chosen was on the north side of the high road from Ampleforth to Oswaldkirk, at the foot of a lofty escarpment of Corallian rocks, and within a few yards of the northern fault of the Coxwold-Gilling trough. The ground falls somewhat steeply from the site to the little Syke Beck, which gives good exposures of Kimmeridge Clay. At Oswaldkirk Hall there, is a well 35 ft. deep which, by the description given in the Geol. Survey Memoirs, may be in Kimmeridge Clay ; another at the opposite end of the village is 50 ft. deep.

The section (Plate XXXI.), drawn roughly to scale, shows the succession of strata encountered. Down to a depth of 178 feet a good deal of water was met with at intervals, but all ran away into the numerous fissures—some a foot wide—that were found to exist in the rocks. The base of the Corallian was at 180 feet, and until the boring had reached 178 feet, water had to be provided for the lubrication of the boring tool. It is a very remarkable, circumstance that all this water, as well as that yielded by the strata ...


Lymphedema is a disease that is a common side effect of breast cancer, affecting up to 70% of breast cancer patients. Currently there is no known curative treatment; management of the disease is based on symptomatic therapy such as Complete Decongestive Therapy (CDT). Current devices and compression garments used in CDT are often heavy and cause discomfort and bacterial infections due to poor skin care. Along with the longterm physical problems, it also causes serious psychological and social problems for patients, affecting their quality of life significantly. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches for the treatment of lymphedema. In this paper we propose a novel solution in the form of a light portable pneumatic device "Lymphmotion", along with a complimentary compression garment designed to reduce bacterial infection to address this problem.


The purpose of this study is to correlate the many varieties of cutaneous tumors which occur in association with leukemia and lymphoma. The material consists of 167 cases taken from a random survey of the literature and 22 cases observed at the Huntington Memorial, the New England Deaconess and the Pondville Hospital. In all these cases the diagnosis was clearly established according to clinical and pathologic criteria, the latter based on histologic study of the tumors in the skin and in the majority of cases on study of the lymph nodes as well. The classification given by the authors cited has been kept throughout. The general statements, unless otherwise noted, are drawn from these 189 cases, which are analyzed in the table. Since there is no universally accepted classification of tumors of the lymph nodes and of the circulating cells, I have used a purely arbitrary terminology, which, it is


The performance of all failure detection, isolation, and accommodation (DIA) algorithms is influenced by the presence of model uncertainty. The authors present a unique framework to incorporate a knowledge of modeling error in the analysis and design of failure detection systems. A concept is introduced called the threshold selector, which is a nonlinear inequality whose solution defines the set of detectable sensor failure signals. It identifies the optimal threshold to be used in innovations-based DIA algorithms. The optimal threshold is shown to be a function of the bound on modeling errors, the noise properties, the speed of DIA filters and the classes of reference and failure signals. The size of the smallest detectable failure is also determined. The results are applied to a multivariable turbofan jet engine example, which demonstrates improvements compared to previous studies. >


Elastomer Blends have been widely used in the rubber industry with the purpose of reaching specific properties without the need of synthesizing new polymers. Polybutadiene rubber (BR) presents poor stress and tear strengths, which is the main reason why BR is usually blended with NR and SBR. These blends are extensively used in the manufacture of tyres. In this work natural rubber (NR) was mixed to polybutadiene rubber (BR) in a 50:50 w/w ratio. The compositions were prepared in a two-roll mill employing four different modes of introducing the additives. After vulcanization, the mixtures were studied with evaluation of their mechanical (stress and tear strengths and hardness) properties and morphology. The results show that the properties varied even using the same NR/BR formulations due to the different preparation techniques.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the susceptibility of these three commonly used corrosion resistance fasteners in seawater. For a more practical scenario, a local Atlantic coastal seawater as received was used.

Design/methodology/approach
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) was fabricated with T700 carbon fiber (Toray Inc.) and VE8084 vinyl ester resin (Ashland) to make a unidirectional composite panel of thickness 1.8 mm. A conductive paint was applied to one of the sample edges that was perpendicular to the fiber direction, providing an electrical contact with carbon fibers to connect a copper wire. This external electric connection was used for potential measurements of both the open circuit potential (OCP) of the CFRP sample, and the mixed potential of the fastened set: consisting of the CFRP and the metallic fastener fastened to it. Three common fastener alloys were selected: 316SS, Monel and Titanium. For this purpose, a high impedance voltmeter was used in conjunction with a saturated calomel reference electrode. Measurements were taken daily. For longer time measurements, a four-channel high impedance analog data logger was used with 30 min sampling rate.

Findings
For both 316SS and Monel fastened sets, crevice corrosion occurred inside the occluded regions of the set, when immersed in coastal seawater. The attack was more severe for 316 stainless steel set. An isolated island attack of faceted surfaces morphology was seen for 316SS set. While, a circular ring of preferential grain boundary attack appeared for Monel set, indicating an IR (voltage) drop mechanism is more likely operating. Titanium-fastened sets showed high resistance to crevice corrosion when simmered in seawater. However, for long-time exposure, the sets became more susceptible to crevice corrosion attack supported by CFRP attachment (oxygen reduction reaction taking place at the carbon fibers).

Originality/value
Evidently, titanium, stainless steels and Monel are good candidates for galvanic corrosion resistance. However, their susceptibility to crevice corrosion when coupled with CFRP is a new challenging topic that needs further investigation. This is very important today because the vast application witnessed for CFRP material. This work involves developing an original methodology for this kind of investigation and was done at advanced laboratories of SeaTech at Florida Atlantic University by the Atlantic coastline.


In their study "Impact of the Surgical Approach to Thymectomy Upon Complete Stable Remission Rates in Myasthenia Gravis: A Meta-analysis,"1 Dr. Solis-Pazmino and colleagues tried to answer what sounds like a simple question: what type of surgery is best for myasthenia gravis (MG)? Most would agree that the "best" surgery is the one that has the most effect with the fewest complications. Another way of saying this is that the best surgery has the lowest risk with the highest benefit. Nowadays, there are many different types of surgery for MG. As technology has advanced, so have surgical approaches. Modern approaches often use minimally invasive techniques, sometimes with the aid of robots. These delicate surgeries can achieve goals that previously could only be accomplished with more invasive methods. The question asked by Dr. Solis-Pazmino et al. seems simple at first, but the path to finding the answer turns out to be complicated.


Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can cause serious infections in the newborn. While audit may show that a neonatal unit's main cause of infective morbidity is the coagulase negative staphylococcus, health authorities and politicians fear the implications of MRSA and its impact on the general public. MRSA causes mortality and morbidity in other areas of hospitals in the UK and in many other countries and there is an uneasy acceptance that this is now the established norm. However, MRSA in the neonatal unit carries sensitivities which have a huge impact on the reactions of health authorities, politicians and the press.


This work describes a 10-b multibit-per-stage pipelined CMOS analog-to-digital converter (ADC) incorporating the merged-capacitor switching (MCS) technique. The proposed MCS technique improves the signal processing speed and resolution of the ADC by reducing the required number of unit capacitors by half in comparison to a conventional ADC. The ADC resolution based on the proposed MCS technique can be extended further by employing a commutated feedback-capacitor switching (CFCS) technique. The prototype ADC achieves better than 53-dB signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) at 120 MSample/s and 54-dB SNDR and 68-dB spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) for input frequencies up to Nyquist at 100 MSample/s. The measured differential and integral nonlinearities of the prototype are within /spl plusmn/0.40 LSB and /spl plusmn/0.48 LSB, respectively. The ADC fabricated in a 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS occupies 3.6 mm/sup 2/ of active die area and consumes 208 mW under a 2.5-V power supply.