OBJECTIVE
To analyze the outcome of childhood aplastic anemia received allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and immunosuppressive therapy (IST).

METHODS
The clinical data of 125 consecutive children with aplastic anemia (AA) in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS
According to the clinical manifestations, the 125 AA children were divided into two groups: SAA (n = 79) and NSAA (n = 46). There was no significant difference between the two groups in sex, age and follow-up duration (P > 0.05). The median follow-up was 25 (6 - 89) months. 103 cases received IST and 22 received allogenic HSCT. In SAA group, the response rate was better in patients received allogenic HSCT (n = 21) than in those received IST (n = 58) (85.7% vs 53.4%, P < 0.01). SAA patients received IST were further divided into two groups: 47 received antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporine-A (CsA) combined therapy, 11 received CsA alone. There was no significant difference in total response rates (55.3% vs 45.5%, P = 0.555) and cure rates (42.6% vs 27.3%, P = 0.499) between the two groups. In NSAA group, 45 patients received IST and 1 received allogenic HSCT. In the IST treated NSAA patients, there was also no statistic significance in cure rates (36.4% vs 32.4%, P = 0.806) and total effective rates (63.6% vs 64.7%, P = 0.949) between ATG and CsA combined therapy (n = 11) and CsA alone therapy (n = 34).

CONCLUSION
The outcome of children with AA received allogenic HSCT was obviously better than those received IST. IST is still the choice for patients without suitable donors for HSCT.


Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines are widely utilized in large wind farm. Research of the dynamic behaviors of DFIG wind turbine is of great importance. Impact of large scale wind farm integration on power systems transient stability is studied in this paper. Then the dynamic model of wind turbines based on DFIG is used to study the impact of wind power integration on the transient stability of the grid. In the paper, the 8th and 5th order dynamic models of DFIG wind turbine are discussed respectively. The simulations by MATLAB and PSS/E verify the theoretical analysis. It is concluded in the paper that the performance of DFIG for integration is better than that of synchronous generation units at a same point in the power systems as far as transient stability is concerned. Also with the voltage control, the transient stability of power system is enhanced as the fault happens.


Practice sustainability is a necessity for the viability of the mixed animal veterinary practice industry. To keep mixed animal practices thriving, a plan is needed to transition practices from 1 generation to another. Buying into a mixed animal practice is often promised to a new associate doctor but not fulfilled. The process often lacks communication and a good plan. Drs. Wenger and Middleton will share their experiences on how their practice has transitioned from 1 generation to another. They continue to focus on transition as new-generation partners are joining the practice. They will touch on how to value a mixed animal practice. Purchasing a practice is a return on investment for the owner that is selling and a huge investment for the new owner that is buying shares of the practice. Much has been written about valuing, buying, and selling small animal practices, but there is little information on how this to relates to mixed animal practices. Large student loan debts complicate the process and often stop the discussion because no solution is presented. Current student loan income-based repayment plans may create challenges to young veterinary practice owners due to an increase in income, thereby increasing student loan payments and creating cash flow dilemmas. Drs. Wenger and Middleton conclude that it is possible to become an owner with student loan debt and complicated loan repayment schedules, and will share their experience as to how to make it happen.


In 1612, a Spanish fleet captured a French ship whose stolen cargo included the entire manuscript collection of the Sultan of Morocco, Muley Zidan. Soon, the collection made its way to the royal library, El Escorial, transforming the library into an important repository of Arabic books, which, since then, Arabists from across Europe sought to visit. By focusing on the social life of the collection, from the moment of its capture up through the process of its incorporation into the Escorial, this article examines three related issues: the first regards the social trajectories of books and the elasticity of their meaning and function, which radically altered in nature. The second part of the article examines the circulation of the Moroccan manuscripts in relation to a complex economy of restrictions over the reading and possession of Arabic manuscripts in early modern Spain. Finally, the third part focuses on the political and legal debates that ensued the library's capture, when the collection became the locus of international negotiations between Spain, Morocco, France and the Dutch United Provinces over Maritime law, captives, and banned knowledge. By placing and analyzing the journey of Zidan's manuscripts within the context of Mediterranean history, the paper explains (1) why Spain established one of the largest collections of Arabic manuscripts exactly when it was cleansing its territories of Moriscos (Spanish forcibly converted Muslims), and (2) why the Moroccan collection was kept behind locked doors at the Escorial.


We discuss some properties of higher derivative (HD) bulk gravity without Riemann tensor square term. Such a kind of gravity admits Schwarzschild Anti de Sitter (SAdS) black hole as exact solution. It is shown that induced brane geometry on such background is Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) radiation dominated Universe. We show that HD terms contributions appear in the Hawking temperature, entropy and Hubble parameter via the redefinition of 5-dimensional gravitational constant and AdS scale parameter. These HD terms do not destroy the AdS-dual description of radiation represented by strongly-coupled CFT. So-called Cardy-Verlinde formula which expresses cosmological entropy as square root from other parameters and entropies is also derived in R-gravity. This talk is based on works with Shin'ichi Nojiri and Sergei D. Odintsov.


Biosynthesis of the carbon chain backbone of the R1128 substances is believed to involve the activity of a ketosynthase/chain length factor (ZhuB/ZhuA), an additional ketosynthase (ZhuH), an acyl transferase (ZhuC), and two acyl carrier proteins (ACPs; ZhuG and ZhuN). A subset of these proteins initiate chain synthesis via decarboxylative condensation between an acetyl-, propionyl-, isobutyryl-, or butyryl-CoA derived primer unit and a malonyl-CoA derived extender unit to yield an acetoacetyl-, beta-ketopentanoyl-, 3-oxo-4-methylpentanoyl-, or beta-ketohexanoyl-ACP product, respectively. To investigate the precise roles of ZhuH, ZhuC, ZhuG, and ZhuN, each protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Although earlier reports had proposed that ZhuC and its homologues played a role in primer unit selection, direct in vitro analysis of ZhuC showed that it was in fact a malonyl-CoA:ACP malonyltransferase (MAT). The enzyme could catalyze malonyl transfer but not acetyl- or propionyl-transfer onto R1128 ACPs or onto ACPs from other biosynthetic pathways, suggesting that ZhuC has broad substrate specificity with respect to the holo-ACP substrate but is specific for malonyl-CoA. Thus, ZhuC supplies extender units to both the initiating and elongating ketosynthases from this pathway. To interrogate the primer unit specificity of ZhuH, the kinetics of beta-ketoacyl-ACP formation in the presence of various acyl-CoAs and malonyl-ZhuG were measured. Propionyl-CoA and isobutyryl-CoA were the two most preferred substrates of ZhuH, although acetyl-CoA and butyryl-CoA could also be accepted and elongated. This specificity is not only consistent with earlier reports demonstrating that R1128B and R1128C are the major products of the R1128 pathway in vivo, but is also in good agreement with the properties of the ZhuH substrate binding pocket, as deduced from a recently solved crystal structure of the enzyme. Finally, to investigate the molecular logic for the occurrence of not one but two ACP genes within the R1128 gene cluster, the inhibition of ZhuH-catalyzed formation of beta-ketopentanoyl-ACP was quantified in the presence of apo-ZhuG or apo-ZhuN. Both apo-proteins were comparable inhibitors of the ZhuH catalyzed reaction, suggesting that the corresponding apo-proteins can be used interchangeably during chain initiation. Together, these results provide direct biochemical insights into the mechanism of chain initiation of an unusual bacterial aromatic PKS.


The research was aimed to find out the optimum dose of feeding regime             to ensure the maximum growth of carp-seeds, Cyprinus carpio, reared in backyard pond with recirculation system. The experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Design with 3 different dose of feeding regimes as treatments, which were 3%, 4% and 5% of the total body weight per day.  Each treatment was triplicate and each repetition functioned as group of fish with different weight.  There were 3 groups which were, fish weighing 1.5–2.4 gram (Group-1), fish weighing 2.5 – 3.4 gram (Group-2) and fish weighing 3.5 – 4.8 gram (Group-3).  Each experimental unit was composed of 8 tested fish, placed in a netting-cage bag measuring 60×30×60 cm (l×w×h) with a mesh-size of 4 mm. Each group was composed of 24 tested fish, hence there were 72 tested fish in total.  Fish were fed twice a day at 07:00 and 17:00.  Tested fish were weighed every week, and the fish weight data were converted into FCR, absolute, relative and daily growth rate. Data were statistically analyzed using JMP statistic-program.  The results showed that, there was no significant difference in absolute, relative and daily growth rate among fish fed 3%, 4% and 5% of total body weight per day.   The best FCR was performed by fish fed 3% of total body weight per day.   Hence, this experiment result suggests that, carp reared in backyard pond with recirculation system should be fed with a dose of 3% of the total body weight each day, as fish might grow well and at the same time the amount of uneaten food, feces and metabolic wastes is minimized at this dose of feeding.


Bowel obstructions can be caused by internal hernias which are protrusions of the bowel into openings within the abdominal cavity. There are various types of internal hernias including sigmoid hernias which involve the sigmoid mesentery.Sigmoid hernias are very difficult to diagnose clinically, even with the aid of radiologic imaging. Computed tomography (CT) scan findings often reveal small bowel obstructions; however, they are not sensitive to intersigmoid hernias. Most of these rare herniations are repaired by open abdominal surgery followed by the closure of the mesenteric defect to prevent a recurrence. We present the case of a 57-year-old man who presented to the emergency department with a small bowel obstruction that was caused by an intersigmoid hernia and was successfully repaired through a minimally invasive laparoscopic approach. This case demonstrates an intra-operative diagnosis of an intersigmoid hernia and reviews the benefits of a laparoscopic approach for the reduction of the sigmoid mesentery.


Using chiral hydrogenesterification reaction as the key step, the stereoselective synthesis of (+)-nuciferal 1, (+)-(E)-nuciferol 2 and (+)-α-curcumene 3 has been achieved.


The heterogeneity of traffic is a significant if not dominant factor in accurately modeling freeway traffic flow operations. For example, high truck percentages may induce congestion at much lower volumes, and hence different network traffic conditions may result than with low truck percentages. This implies that traffic models for real-time decision support systems in traffic management centers should provide the means to account for traffic heterogeneity. A new, multiclass, first-order traffic model is presented that provides these means and is implemented in the decision-support system BOSS-Offline, operational in all five highway traffic management centers in the Netherlands. FASTLANE differs from earlier multiclass first-order macroscopic traffic models in that it calculates the dynamics in terms of state-dependent (instead of constant) passenger-car equivalents, which is in line with both theory and empirical microscopic data. The model is numerically solved by an efficient and stable Godunov-based solver while maintaining a dynamic and realistic representation of class-specific flows and densities throughout the network. In two synthetic test cases and one based on real data, the workings of FASTLANE under different truck percentages and different conditions are demonstrated.


A novel paradigm in tumor biology suggests that cancer growth is driven by stem-like cells within a tumor, called tumor-initiating cells (TICs). We have previously identified a TIC population from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that is marked by a CD133 surface phenotype and bears features that include the abilities to self-renew, differentiate, initiate tumors in vivo and resist standard chemotherapy through AKT pathway dysregulation (Ma et al., Gastroenterology 2007; Oncogene 2008 and Cell Stem Cell in press). Our present study aims to investigate the underlying molecular mechanism by which CD133 + liver TICs mediate tumor growth and maintenance. cDNA microarray approach was employed to compare gene expression profiles between sorted CD133 subpopulations in HCC cell lines Huh7 and PLC8024. A dysregulated interleukin-8 (IL-8) signaling functional network was preferentially identified in CD133 + liver TICs. IL-8 was found to be overexpressed at both genomic and proteomic (endogenous and secretory) levels in CD133 + cells isolated from HCC cell lines and clinical samples; while its expression also correlated positively with CD133 expression in a panel of liver cell lines. Functional studies on sorted CD133 HCC cells found enhanced IL-8 secretion in CD133 + liver TICs to possess a greater ability to self-renew and induce tumor angiogenesis and growth in vitro and in vivo. These observations were further validated when silencing of IL-8 in CD133 + liver TICs by knockdown or neutralizing antibody approach led to abolishment of these effects. Subsequent studies in the IL-8 functional network also found neurotensin (NTS) and chemokine ligand 1 (CXCL1) to be preferentially expressed in CD133 + liver TICs. Their expression also correlated with that of CD133 and IL-8 across a panel of liver cell lines. Upon addition of exogenous NTS, both expression of IL-8 and CXCL1 was dramatically up-regulated, with concomitant activation of phospho-ERK1/2, a key player of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Interestingly, enhanced IL-8 secretion in CD133 + liver TICs can in turn activate an IL-8 positive feedback loop through MAPK signaling. Lastly, we also provide evidence to show that the transmembrane protein, CD133, apart from serving as a liver TIC marker, also plays a critical functional role in conferring TIC properties. Stable repression of CD133 in CD133 + liver TICs by lentiviral based approach resulted in inactivation of the NTS / IL-8 / CXCL1 / MAPK signaling cascade and attenuation of TIC self-renewal and tumorigenic properties. Taken together, these results suggest that CD133 + liver TICs promote tumor growth, angiogenesis and self-renewal through activation of NTS / IL-8 signaling cascade. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2451. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2451


The structure of the tympanic region of the skull of Ptilocercus lowii was studied in an embryo of 30 mm crown-rump length and in 5 osteocrania. As in Tupaia, the anterior wall of the bulla of Ptilocercus is not completed by a tympanic process of the alisphenoid, contrary to earlier reports. Ptilocercus resembles Tupaia in the following derived characters. The ventral wall of the tympanic cavity is formed by a rostral entotympanic and by a caudal tympanic process of the petrosal. The entotympanic develops in primary connection with the tubal cartilage. The tympanic aperture of the auditory tube is bordered by the entotympanic. The ring-shaped tympanicum is covered by the entotympanicum and is aphaneric. The musculus tensor tympani is lacking. Among mammals, these characters can be regarded as synapomorphic for the Tupaiidae, that is, to have been present in the common ancestor of the two subfamilies. From the evidence of the tympanic region, the Tupaiidae, therefore, form a monophyletic group. Besides these synapomorphies, there are remarkable differences between Ptilocercus and Tupaia in the structure of the bulla. In Ptilocercus the bulla is smaller and less pneumatized than in Tupaia. An anterior intrabullar septum, present in Tupaia, is lacking in Ptilocercus. The epitympanic wing of the alisphenoid is smaller in Ptilocercus than in Tupaia. A lateral prefacial commissure of the tegmen tympani is present in Ptilocercus, but absent in Tupaia. The caudal tympanic process of the petrosal is larger in Ptilocercus than in Tupaia. These characters are autapomorphic for the Ptilocercinae and for the Tupaiinae, respectively. They demonstrate that the auditory bulla of Ptilocercus and that of Tupaia have evolved independently to a considerable extent. An early phylogenetic separation of their respective ancestors seems likely. The tympanic region of the skull provides no evidence for close relationships of the tree shrews to the primates or to any other eutherians. The classification of the Tupaiidae in a separate order, Scandentia, is supported.


The article examines different experiences of recovery and institutional handling of the wounds of the Colombian war. Its objective is to identify how in various joints of the national history, it creates "study commissions of violence" allowing the one hand, the historical reconstruction of the causes, course and consequences of armed conflict, and secondly, bleeding production and narrative memories against forgetting. Throughout the text, we highlight several of these experiences, which take place between 1958 and 2006 in the midst of a "war without transition". Then, we identify the core domains that are involved in the recovery of historical memory in the process of Justice and Peace, in particular the work of the Area Historical Memory.


Chromosomal rearrangements leading to fusion transcripts represent a class of oncogenic aberrations that are of high interest for understanding cancer biology, treating cancer patients, and as targets for the development of new therapies. Transcriptome sequencing via RNA-Seq coupled with downstream bioinformatics software applications offers an effective method for identifying candidate fusion transcripts, and is more targeted and cost-effective than whole genome sequencing. Although many such fusion detection software tools have recently been made available, they often differ greatly in prediction accuracy, execution times, computational requirements, installation complexity, and in not being readily accessible to non-bioinformatician cancer researchers. Here we present the Trinity Cancer Transcriptome Analysis Toolkit (CTAT), a newly developed suite of RNA-Seq targeted fusion detection tools leveraging a combination of reference genome read-mapping and de novo transcriptome assembly, coupled to in silico fusion transcript validation, annotation, and visualization. We show that components of our Trinity CTAT fusion detection toolkit, including STAR-Fusion and FusionInspector, yield improved accuracy and run times as compared to alternative leading tools. As a demonstration of the utility of Trinity CTAT, we explore fusion transcript discovery in a large cohort of ∼300 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patient samples. We identify several novel recurrent fusions that may represent drivers of CLL etiology and provide new avenues to therapies. In addition to fusion transcript identification, Trinity CTAT aims to provide cancer researchers with easy access to methods for analyzing cancer RNA-Seq, including transcript reconstruction, identification of mutations, expression analysis, and tumor heterogeneity. Trinity CTAT is freely available open source software and readily accessible to all cancer researchers via our public Galaxy web portal: https://galaxy.ncgas-trinity.indiana.edu/. Citation Format: Brian Haas, Timothy Tickle, Nathalie Pochet, Jing Sun, Peggy Hsu, Chip Stewart, Carrie Ganote, Ben Fulton, Catherine Wu, Aviv Regev. Fast and accurate fusion transcript detection using the Trinity Cancer Transcriptome Analysis Toolkit. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 5266.


This study was carried out to examine the diversity of 34 isolates collected from 11 species of leguminous trees growing in South Korea. Phylogenetic relationships between these 34 isolates and reference strains of the Azorhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium and Ensifer/Sinorhizobium were analysed by using 16S rRNA gene sequences. Twenty‐one isolates were related to Mesorhizobium, four isolates to Rhizobium, and nine isolates to Bradyrhizobium. But none of isolates were related to Sinorhizobium/Ensifer and Azorhizobium. Robinia pseudoacacia and Amorpha fruticosa were nodulated by various genotypes of rhizobia out of them, most of the isolates belonged to the genus Mesorhizobium. The isolates from Lespedeza bicolar belonged to diverse genera of Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium, and Bradyrhizobium. The isolates from Maackia amurensis and Lespedeza maximowiezii var. tomentella were phylogenetically related to the genera of Bradyrhizobium. PCR‐based RAPD method and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA results revealed a high phylogenetic diversity of rhizobial strains nodulating leguminous trees in South Korea. Also, the relationships between host and bacterial phylogenies showed that only Robinia pseudoacacia, and Wisteria floribunda have significantly unique branch length than expected by chance based on phylogenetic tree.


Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been regarded as promising alternative absorbents for CO2 capture recently. In this work, a series of novel superbase/acylamido-based DESs with low viscosity were synthesized and used for CO2 capture. 1,5-Diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene (DBN)/2-imidazolidone (EU) (2:1) exhibited fairly high absorption capacity up to 23.02 wt % (1.75 mol CO2 per mol DES) at 45 °C and 1 bar. Furthermore, the absorbent showed high desorption efficiency and excellent recycling performance during five absorption–desorption cycles. Fourier transform infrared, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR spectra analyses and quantum chemical calculations were used to investigate the interaction mechanism between the DES and CO2. The enhanced CO2 absorption capacity can be ascribed to the strong multiple-site interaction between the N atom of EU and CO2. This work supplies a new strategy to design and optimize high-efficiency superbase/acylamido-based DESs for CO2 capture.


This final thesis aim to create a support that can decrease the uncertainty when planning the cable drum flanges lines that produces cable drums in the interval 100 to 320cm in diameter at Vida Packaging in Hestra. The purpose attains through finding an optimal batch size that minimizes the total storage cost and order prime cost, without degenerate delivery capacity to the customer.

Through survey the sale and stock balance development during 2005 and 2006 for cable drums in Hestra and give alternative suggestions how to plan the production after installing a new cable drum flanges line. The study also explores different ways of working during product change in existing nailing line, to minimize the order prime cost.

Vida Packaging in Hestra is a part of the Vida group, which is Sweden's largest privately owned sawmill group with seven sawmills placed all around southern Sweden. Apart from the plant in Hestra includes Hong Kong, Ryd, Vetlanda, Vimmerby and Osterlovsta in Vida's packaging division. The plant in Hestra produces among others cable drums.

The study shows a steady increase in sales volumes under 2005 and 2006. Sales are affected both by seasonal patterns and trend. The stock balance increases during wintertime and the great number off deliveries are made during summertime. To maintain a high delivery capacity during the whole year is it important to base the planning on quantified forecasts. Instead of the way they now base the production plan on subjective estimations. With Wilson's formula every article has been given an calculated optimal batch size to support the planning work. With subjective estimations there is a risk that wrong products are being produced during wintertime which leads to worse delivery capacity during summertime.

To minimize the order prime cost requires standardized ways of working by the operators during product changes and not like today where different shifts uses different techniques. By implementation of standardization tools the order prime cost can be reduced and more effective product changes can be done.


Political science has always pondered questions of civic engagement. Socrates described and defended his intimate engagement with Athens in the Apology and Aristotle argued in the Politics that it was only through engagement with the polis that humans could set forth and discuss notions of justice. Stephen Leonard (1999) and Hindy Schachter (1998) pointed out in earlier volumes of this journal that at the end of the nineteenth century the "founding fathers" of modern academic political science were motivated by ideas of improving citizens through civic education. And this has continued to be a focus for the American Political Science Association (APSA) through collaborative efforts such as the 1996 Task Force on Civic Education for the Next Century or, more recently, tracks during the association's Teaching and Learning Conference.


This paper details a study that was conducted to determine the effect physical
context of use, e.g. daily lighting levels and contrast, has on perception. The study
was undertaken to further develop inclusive design analytical tools that assess the
characteristics of a product against the capabilities of users. A total of four lighting
levels were tested (equivalent to street lighting, in-house lighting, optimum and
daylight), and four contrast levels (90%, 50%, 25% and 10% contrast). A random
proportionate sample of adults aged 65 years and older was drawn from the
population (N = 38, age range 65-87 years, mean age 74). The experiment revealed
daily lighting levels to have a noticeable affect on visual acuity. Results showed that
by increasing the lighting level from street lighting to optimum, there was an increase
of up to 44% in the number of participants able to correctly read particular rows of
letters. In 73% of cases the number of people able to correctly read each letter size
decreased when its contrast was reduced. With certain letter sizes up to 50% more
people were able to read letters at 90% compared to 10% contrast. Future work is
being planned to see how these results relate to the general population and everyday
products.


Abstract:The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is one of very few Philippine historical documents dating from the precolonial period and the only one bearing information on the social life of the Manila region before the arrival of the Spanish. Building on previous studies which discussed the significance of the inscription in the context of Luzon and the Philippines, this article proposes a reading of the inscription in the larger context of maritime Southeast Asia. We focus on how this document complicates the current understanding of the historical roles of the Malay language. On this basis, we call for a revision of the notion of a "Malay World."


We present the analysis and interpretation of an observation of the flare star AD Leo (dM3e) with the Low Energy Transmission Grating of Chandra. The high-resolution X-ray spectrum—dominated by emission lines from O VII-VIII, Ne IX-X, and Fe XVII-Fe XIX—allowed us to infer the plasma emission measure distribution (EMD) versus temperature, as well as the abundances of individual elements in the corona of this magnetically active star, during a typical state characterized by significant variability but no evident flaring event. We have also measured plasma densities at various temperatures using spectroscopic diagnostics provided by He-like triplets and Fe XXI lines. We show that the present EMD is similar, in terms of overall shape and temperature of the peak, to those previously obtained from Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) spectra during quiescent and flaring states confirming the long-term stability of the corona of AD Leo. At variance with the case of other active stars, the EMD of AD Leo is characterized by a significantly shallower slope, compatible with that predicted by static models of isobaric loops with constant cross section and uniform heating. We discuss such coronal modeling to infer the average properties of the corona in terms of loop populations, including estimates of the surface filling factor derived by comparison between the model and the observed EMD. We also show that the EMD is compatible with the model of a corona continuously heated by flares, which predicts an EMD slope slightly steeper than observed, but that can be accommodated by observational uncertainties. The coronal composition is such that the element abundances, relative to solar values, tend to increase with the first ionization potential, with few exceptions. The line-to-continuum ratios suggest a nearly solar metallicity, a result difficult to reconcile with previous determinations based on global fitting of X-ray spectra.


Background: PI3Kδ inhibitors have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of B-cell malignancies, but off-target toxicity and/or the inability to achieve near-complete inhibition of the PI3Kδ pathway may affect the depth and duration of response. INCB050465 is a novel, potent, and selective PI3Kδ inhibitor (Shin et al. AACR 2015. Abstract 2671), with a differentiated profile for potency (whole blood IC50 = 10 nM), dose ( 10-fold). An open-label phase 1 study was initiated to evaluate INCB050465 alone or in combination with other agents in patients with previously treated B-cell malignancies; preliminary results of the dose escalation of INCB050465 monotherapy are reported. Methods: Adult patients with B-cell malignancies who were refractory to or for whom available treatments had failed were eligible. Dose escalation was conducted with a 3 + 3 design after an initial single patient cohort. Patients were observed for 21 days before enrollment of the next cohort. Results: As of the data cutoff, 15 patients were enrolled and treated with INCB050465 at doses ranging from 5 to 30 mg once daily. The median age was 64 years and 47% were men. Patients received a median of 2 prior treatment regimens and the median time since initial diagnosis was 4.9 years. Disease subtypes included DLBCL (n = 6), CLL (n = 3), FL (n = 2), MZL (n = 2), MCL (n = 1), and HL (n = 1). Median exposure to INCB050465 was 15.4 weeks (range, 6.9 to 36.4+ weeks) and no patients required dose reduction. INCB050465 was well tolerated with no DLTs observed. Five patients discontinued treatment, 4 due to disease progression and 1 due to an adverse event (grade 2 exfoliative dermatitis). Ten grade 3 or greater treatment-emergent adverse events were seen in 6 patients: anemia (n = 2), bacteremia, Escherichia infection, hypotension, neutropenia, pneumonia, sepsis, syncope, and WBC count decreased (n = 1 each). To date, only grade 1 transaminase elevations have been observed. Responses were observed in DLBCL (3/6 patients), CLL (1/3), FL (2/2), MZL (2/2), and MCL (1/1). Clinical benefit was observed early in the course of treatment, and the longest duration of response was 27+ weeks. Terminal half-life and suppression of PI3Kδ signaling at trough support once daily dosing. Conclusions: INCB050465 monotherapy was generally well tolerated at all doses tested. Robust and durable signaling pathway inhibition was achieved at all doses and INCB050465 showed promising efficacy in FL, DLBCL, and other lymphomas, with a potentially favorable toxicity profile vs other PI3Kδ inhibitors. Enrollment in dose-escalation, combination therapy, and disease-specific cohorts is ongoing. Citation Format: Andres Forero-Torres, Michael S. Wertheim, Tycel J. Phillips, Martin E. Gutierrez, William J. Edenfield, Swamy Yeleswaram, Maureen Bleam, Li Zhou, Jennifer H. Pulini, Thea Faivre, Harry Miao, Matt Spear, Rod Ramchandren. Preliminary safety, efficacy, and pharmacodynamics of a highly selective PI3Kδ inhibitor, INCB050465, in patients with previously treated B-cell malignancies. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr CT056.


This study sought to determine whether there was a difference in subject matter knowledge as measured by a pretest and posttest, a difference in final course grade as a numeric score, and a difference in attitudes toward computers between students in a competency-based ("hands-on") computer applications course taught in an electronically-expanded classroom compared to students taught in a traditional classroom setting. In addition, students taught in the electronically-expanded classroom completed a questionnaire assessing attitudes toward the presentation method.
Another purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of applying distance education techniques to teach what was, in essence, an on-campus course. The vehicle for this investigation was an electronically-expanded classroom. The electronically-expanded classroom utilized distance education technology (video, audio, and computer networking) to connect two classrooms in the one building. Students in these two classrooms were the treatment group. Students taking the course in a traditional setting functioned as the comparison group. A total of 109 participants completed the study.
Results of the study revealed no significant difference in scores on the subject matter posttest, the final course grade as a numeric score, and attitudes towards computers posttest between students taught the course in an electronically -expanded classroom and students taught the course in the traditional classroom.
Results of the survey to measure satisfaction with the presentation method revealed that students in the receive room were slightly more satisfied than students in the send room with the presentation method, but the difference was not significant. The survey indicated that participants in the study were sensitive to technical problems, especially audio-related difficulties. While participants noted some dissatisfaction with audio quality, it had no apparent affect on learning outcomes and attitudes for this study.
The study concluded that students taking a course in an electronically-expanded classroom have learning outcomes and attitudes toward computers comparable to those students taking the course in a traditional classroom.


Global energy demand is increasing; thus, emerging renewable energy sources, such as organic solar cells (OSCs), are fundamental to mitigate the negative effects of fuel consumption. Within OSC's advancements, the development of efficient and stable interface materials is essential to achieve high performance, long-term stability, low costs, and broader applicability. Inorganic and nanocarbon-based materials show a suitable work function, tunable optical/electronic properties, stability to the presence of moisture, and facile solution processing, while organic conducting polymers and small molecules have some advantages such as fast and low-cost production, solution process, low energy payback time, light weight, and less adverse environmental impact, making them attractive as hole transporting layers (HTLs) for OSCs. This review looked at the recent progress in metal oxides, metal sulfides, nanocarbon materials, conducting polymers, and small organic molecules as HTLs in OSCs over the past five years. The endeavors in research and technology have optimized the preparation and deposition methods of HTLs. Strategies of doping, composite/hybrid formation, and modifications have also tuned the optical/electrical properties of these materials as HTLs to obtain efficient and stable OSCs. We highlighted the impact of structure, composition, and processing conditions of inorganic and organic materials as HTLs in conventional and inverted OSCs.


This paper proposes the first ever empirical specification of a trigonometric demand system. The new model is potentially useful because of some attractive features. It is flexible, amenable to exact aggregation over consumers, possessed of trigonometric Engel curves, which can oscillate, and able to have an unusually large regular region. With comparisons between the new model and two other popular models, an illustra- tion is given for Japanese demand for non-durables and services. The new model shows relatively gentle Engel curves with an inflection point on each of them, which seem reasonable, given that aggregate expenditure is used in parameter estimation. JEL classification: C51, D12


Nail products are part of the color cosmetics segment within the personal care and beauty market. The global color cosmetics industry had a market size estimated to be £34.51 billion in 2013. With revenue of £253.1 million, the nail products segment was 15% of the total color cosmetics revenue of £1.66 billion. As the fastest growing product segment with 4.8% CAGR between 2009-2014 compared to 1.1% for lip products, 2% for facial make-up, 2.2% for eye make-up.
According to this study, the color cosmetics industry is a mature market with low digit annual growth with high product developmental costs and high market concentration that is dominated by large major corporations. The color cosmetics industry has a high entry barrier, very large market size and high purchasing power. The industry's current revenue is heavily spent on product research and development toward product innovation, economies of scales, and marketing and advertising to build up the brand value and equity. Nail products new innovations, trending popularization of nail art, and social media's influence have become an entry point into the color cosmetics industry.
This thesis aims to understand the color cosmetics industry, in particular focusing on the United Kingdom market, and study the feasibility of entering the market. With the information from this thesis, the author will use it to expand her and her partner's current business in London, United Kingdom. The thesis will assess the market and the author's current capability to run a salon business. This includes the thorough evaluation of available financial support and human resources accessibility, as well as the analysis of the current trend of the industry in order to better understand the right course of action. Finally, it will make a forecast on Wrapped Nail Salon's performance with a plan of specific milestones and what to do for each objective achieved.


Heart failure is a global health and medical problem that increases burden of cardiovascular (CV) disease. By now, there is not completely recognition regarding the reasons of various phenotypes of HF development, distinguish in CV risk, clinical outcomes and prognosis. It has suggested that epigenetic modification of several cell components of endogenous repair system might determine phenotypical response of the failing heart and contributes to nature evolution of HF. Moreover, epigenetically modified endothelial progenitor cells playing a central role in the tissue reparation and angiogenesis may link aging, genetic predisposition, co-morbidities, traditional CV risk factor and HF progression. The editorial comment devotes the consideration of the role of epigenetic in manifestation of progenitor endothelial cell dysfunction and perspectives to restore its reparative ability in HF individuals.


Iron-modified pumice (Fe-P) was prepared by the ion-exchange method using natural pumice from Kayseri, Turkey at room temperature without calcination. SEM, FTIR, XRD, and S BET measurement were used to investigate the copper removal mechanism. The results show that the S BET of the pumice increased from 11.88 m 2 /g to 21.01 m 2 /g after iron modification. The effects of pH, contact time, initial copper concentration, temperature, and various cations (Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Al 3+ ) at various pH were investigated in batch experiments. More than 92% of Cu(II) was removed after 180 min. Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin–Radushkevich and Temkin isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data at 298, 308 and 318 K. The maximum adsorption capacity at 298, 308 and 318 K was found to be 21.52, 19.48, and 19.67 mg/g, respectively. The kinetics of copper on Fe-P was best described by the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The negative values of free energy change and enthalpy change indicated that the adsorption process was feasible, spontaneous and exothermic.


Memory impairment is a frequent complaint in insomniacs; however, it is not consistently demonstrated. It is unknown whether memory impairment in insomniacs involves neuroendocrine dysfunction. The participants in this study were selected from the clinical setting and included 21 patients with chronic insomnia disorder (CID), 25 patients with insomnia and comorbid depressive disorder (CDD), and 20 control participants without insomnia. We evaluated spatial working and reference memory, object working and reference memory, and object recognition memory using the Nine Box Maze Test. We also evaluated serum neuroendocrine hormone levels. Compared to the controls, the CID patients made significantly more errors in spatial working and object recognition memory (p < .05), whereas the CDD patients performed poorly in all the assessed memory types (p < .05). In addition, the CID patients had higher levels (mean difference [95% CI]) of corticotrophin-releasing hormone, cortisol (31.98 [23.97, 39.98] μg/l), total triiodothyronine (667.58 [505.71, 829.45] μg/l), and total thyroxine (41.49 [33.23, 49.74] μg/l) (p < .05), and lower levels of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (-35.93 [-38.83, -33.02] ng/l), gonadotropin-releasing hormone (-4.50 [-5.02, -3.98] ng/l) (p < .05), and adrenocorticotropic hormone compared to the CDD patients. After controlling for confounding variables, the partial correlation analysis revealed that the levels of cortisol positively correlated with the errors in object working memory (r = .534, p = .033) and negatively correlated with the errors in object recognition memory (r = -.659, p = .006) in the CID patients. The results suggest that the CID patients had selective memory impairment, which may be mediated by increased cortisol levels.


Lipoxygenase activity with linoleic acid as substrate and the immunologically detectable amount of lipoxygenase protein were estimated in the course of in vitro maturation of rabbit reticulocytes withdrawn at the sixth day of an experimental bleeding anaemia. With unseparated cell mixture there was a significant increase in the lipoxygenase activity of 67 +/- 15% after a maturation period of 4 h followed by a decrease up to the initial level. The maturational changes were more pronounced when the fraction of youngest reticulocytes after buoyant density separation in a serum albumin gradient was used, whereas the cells of medium density failed to show the intermittent increase. The lipoxygenase activity was largely paralleled by the amount of lipoxygenase protein. The increase of lipoxygenase was prevented by either anaerobiosis or addition of oligomycin. The protein synthesis was greatly decreased after 4 h of incubation. The decline of the amount of lipoxygenase between 4 and 24 h incubation is probably largely caused by proteolysis. The results support former interpretations as to the synthesis and biological dynamics of lipoxygenase in reticulocytes.


Recently at Los Alamos National Laboratory, sophisticated prediction algorithms have been considered for the use of calorimetry for treaty verification. These algorithms aim to predict the equilibrium temperature based on early data and therefore be able to shorten the measurement time while maintaining good accuracy. The algorithms have been implemented in MATLAB and applied on existing equilibrium measurements from a spent nuclear fuel calorimeter located at the Swedish nuclear fuel interim storage facility. The results show significant improvements in measurement time in the order of 15 to 50 compared to equilibrium measurements, but cannot predict the heat accurately in less time than the currently used temperature increase method can. This Is both due to uncertainties in the calibration of the method as well as identified design features of the calorimeter that limits the usefulness of equilibrium type measurements. The conclusions of these findings are discussed, and suggestions of both improvements of the current calorimeter as well as what to keep in mind in a new design are given.


Glycine-rich RNA-binding proteins (GRPs) are involved in the modulation of the post-transcriptional processing of transcripts and participate as an output signal of the circadian clock. However, neither GRPs nor the circadian rhythmic have been studied in detail in fleshy fruits as yet. In the present work, the GRP1 gene family was analysed in Micro-Tom tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruit. Three highly homologous LeGRP1 genes (LeGRP1a-c) were identified. For each gene, three products were found, corresponding to the unspliced precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA), the mature mRNA and the alternatively spliced mRNA (preLeGRP1a-c, mLeGRP1a-c and asLeGRP1a-c, respectively). Tomato GRPs (LeGRPs) show the classic RNA recognition motif and glycine-rich region, and were found in the nucleus and in the cytosol of tomato fruit. By using different Escherichia coli mutants, it was found that LeGRP1s contained in vivo RNA-melting abilities and were able to complement the cold-sensitive phenotype of BX04 cells. Particular circadian profiles of expression, dependent on the fruits' developmental stage, were found for each LeGRP1 form. During ripening off the vine of fruits harvested at the mature green stage, the levels of all LeGRP1a-c forms drastically increased; however, incubation at 4°C prevented such increases. Analysis of the expression of all LeGRP1a-c forms suggests a positive regulation of expression in tomato fruit. Overall, the results obtained in this work reveal a complex pattern of expression of GRPs in tomato fruit, suggesting they might be involved in post-transcriptional modulation of circadian processes of this fleshy fruit.


The minimization of chlorinated organic compounds in the effluents of the chlorination unit of a pulp mill is proposed by the use of a control structure for the chlorination unit. Bleached pulp properties are related to the unbleached pulp properties: lignin content, brightness, and viscosity, as well as the amount of chlorinated organics in the bleachery effluent. The best feasible control pairings are studied by RGA and SVD methods. Kappa number of the bleached pulp (a measure of lignin content) and percent consistency of the pulp to be bleached; residual chlorine (which affects the amount of chlorinated organics discharged) and percent chlorine/pulp ratio adapted in the chlorination stage; and exit pulp viscosity (which directly affects strength and tear resistance of the paper) and residence time in the chlorinator are chosen to be the best pairings.


One of the main challenges in the parametrization of geological models is the ability to capture complex geological structures often observed in the subsurface. In recent years, generative adversarial networks (GAN) were proposed as an efficient method for the generation and parametrization of complex data, showing state-of-the-art performances in challenging computer vision tasks such as reproducing natural images (handwritten digits, human faces, etc.). In this work, we study the application of Wasserstein GAN for the parametrization of geological models. The effectiveness of the method is assessed for uncertainty propagation tasks using several test cases involving different permeability patterns and subsurface flow problems. Results show that GANs are able to generate samples that preserve the multipoint statistical features of the geological models both visually and quantitatively. The generated samples reproduce both the geological structures and the flow statistics of the reference geology.


The central nervous system (CNS) of Teleostei is a complex system of self-governance and its morphology is reflected in the physiological and reproductive behaviors. The Indo-Pacific seahorse, Hippocampus barbouri Jordan & Richardson, 1908, is a new candidate species for aquaculture in Thailand. In this study, we investigated the brain morphology of H. barbouri across various developmental windows. Light microscopic observations of adult brains revealed a large optic tectum in the mesencephalon, whereas the cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum are of medium size. The detailed brain structures were generally similar to those of other teleosts; however, only five distinct layers were present in the optic tectum, including the stratum marginale, stratum opticum, stratum album central, stratum griseum central, and stratum periventriculae, versus six layers observed in other fish. One day after birth (1 DAB) the brain was a packed structure without any clear sub-structures. The number of capillaries in the optic tectum began to increase at 6 DAB, and at 14 DAB several features, including small blood vessels in the optic tectum and Purkinje cells, became noticeable. By 35 DAB, the optic tectum became highly vascularized and included five layers. Additionally, large Purkinje cells were developed in the cerebellum. Based on the brain development pattern, we speculate that the predatory ability of this fish starts to develop from 6 to 14 days after birth.


The paper discusses the issue of motion estimation by image assimilation in numerical models, based on Navier-Stokes equations. In such context, models' reduction is an attractive approach that is used to decrease cost in memory and computation time. A reduced model is obtained from a Galerkin projection on a subspace, defined by its orthogonal basis. Long temporal image sequences may then be processed by a sliding-window method. On the first sub-window, a fixed basis is considered to define the reduced model. On the next ones, a Principal Order Decomposition is applied, in order to define a basis that is simultaneously small-size and adapted to the studied image data. Results are given on synthetic data and quantified according to state-of-the-art methods. Application to satellite images demonstrates the potential of the approach.


We evaluated the ability of metabolic and volumetric parameters measured by pretreatment 18F-FDG PET/CT to predict the survival of patients with osteosarcoma of the extremities. Methods: The records of 83 patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage II extremity osteosarcoma treated with surgery and chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Imaging parameters (maximum standardized uptake value, metabolic tumor volume [MTV], total lesion glycolysis, and tumor volume based on MR images) were measured before treatment, and histologic responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy were assessed by examination of postsurgical specimens. Receiver-operating-characteristic curve analyses and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze whether imaging and clinicopathologic parameters could predict metastasis-free survival. Results: Of the imaging parameters, MTV at the fixed standardized uptake value threshold of 2.0 (MTV(2.0)) most accurately predicted metastasis by receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis (area under the curve = 0.679, P = 0.011). By multivariate analysis, MTV(2.0) > 105 mL (relative risk, 3.93; 95% confidence interval, 1.55–9.92) and poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (relative risk, 4.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.64–14.21) independently shortened metastasis-free survival (P = 0.004 for both parameters). The stratification of patients by the combined criteria of MTV(2.0) and histologic response predicted outcome in more detail. Conclusion: MTV is an independent predictor of metastasis in patients with osteosarcoma of the extremities. The combination of MTV and histologic response predicts survival more accurately than the chemotherapeutic response alone.


This paper summarizes the conceptual and methodological work carried out by a team of FAO staff and consultants in a continuing effort to introduce nutritional considerations into the planning and execution of agricultural programmes and projects. Guidelines were prepared on the basis of experience acquired to various case-studies and are currently being applied in field projects.


Structural titanium alloys are coming in for increased use because they are light, ductile and have good fatigue and corrosion-resistance properties As a result; more manufacturing engineers are learning that machining these alloys can be a tricky job due to their unique physical and chemical properties. The problems are worsened when machining with the lowrigidity part which makes the precision difficult to master. This paper consist of two parts, a new CAD/CAE/CAM integrated methodology for predicting the surface errors when machining a thin-wall low rigidity component and secondly, the statistical analysis to determine the correlation between a criterion variable (form errors) and a combination of a predictor (cutting parameters and component attributes). The proposed model would be an efficient means for analysing the root cause of errors induced during machining of thin-wall parts and provide an input for downstream decision making on error compensation. A set of machining tests have been done in order to validate the accuracy of the model and the results between simulation and experiment were found in a good agreement


A one-step self-sustained carbonization of coconut shell biomass, carried out in a brick reactor at a relatively low temperature of 300–500°C, successfully produced a biochar-derived adsorbent with 308 m2/g surface area, 2 nm pore diameter, and 0.15 cm3/g total pore volume. The coconut shell biochar qualifies as a nano-adsorbent, supported by scanning electron microscope images, which showed well-developed nano-pores on the surface of the biochar structure, even though there was no separate activation process. This is the first report whereby coconut shell can be converted to biochar-derived nano-adsorbent at a low carbonization temperature, without the need of the activation process. This is superior to previous reports on biochar produced from oil palm empty fruit bunch.


BACKGROUND
Women with BRCA1 gene mutation have 85% risk of breast cancer; the risk for BRCA2 carriers is 45%. The aim of the study was to verify if prophylactic mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction can prevent breast cancer in BRCA positive patients.

MATERIAL
There were 100 BRCA positive women in which prophylactic mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, 75 dieps, 25 with implants, performed in period 2000-2011. Group A was composed of healthy, non-affected 41 patients, group B of 59 patients in remission after breast cancer treatment. These groups were compared to group C that consisted of 219 healthy carriers of BRCA1/2, non-operated, from registry of genetic department of the Masaryk Memorial Cancer in Brno, from 2000-2011.

METHOD
Follow-up for oncology status was done in September 2011 for all 3 groups.

RESULTS
Average follow-up of 21 months revealed that in group A there was no breast cancer, in group B 4 patients died and 2 had treatment for metastases. In group C, there were 16 new cases of breast cancer.

CONCLUSION
Bilateral prophylactic mastectomy with immediate reconstruction can be an effective way in breast cancer prevention in healthy carriers of BRCA1/2 mutation. In BRCA positive patients treated for breast cancer, the effect of prophylactic mastectomy is unclear. Their survival is more influenced by their previous disease than by a new tumor in the breast.


This project aims to develop quality assurance processes by involving academic staff in a cycle of reflection upon their teaching practices in the laboratory program. A tool, the 'Educational Template', has been provided which supports this reflection with respect to individual experiments. By using this tool to articulate the intended learning outcomes and methods of achieving them, the quality of these experiments can be improved. More importantly, staff are able to identify the themes common over the whole laboratory program. Awareness of the issues associated with quality assurance in the laboratory program is raised through workshops, one-on-one discussions and working through the pedagogical analysis of the experiments. Departmental policy is formulated on the basis of the individual reflection and group discourse, ensuring that the staff develop a sense of ownership of the process.


Good health behavior safeguards the health of adolescent females by reducing their vulnerability to reproductive tract infections. Objective: Assess the adolescent female students' knowledge and practice regarding prevention of genital tract infection, and assess the effectiveness of the program on students' knowledge and practice regarding prevention of genital tract infection. Setting: This study conducted in randomly three secondary schools that represent the different districts of Assiut city in Egypt. Subjects: A total of 124 secondary female's students were selected. Tools: A structured interview schedule was designed to assess socio-demographic data and students' health knowledge and practices at pre- and post-intervention. Results: The mean age of participants' students was 16.7±1.2 years. The study revealed an improvement of knowledge regarding personal health practice toward genital tract hygiene among adolescents. Also the students reported significant improvements in the perineal hygiene practices. There was a positive correlation between students' knowledge and their practices. Conclusion: The post-intervention assessment revealed an obvious improvement of knowledge and practice among the studied students. Recommendations: Appropriate educational strategies as simple illustration, brochures and booklets should be available for students to increase their awareness about the healthy practices regarding genital tract and use reproductive health service.


This study develops an analysis method that designers can use to undertake a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on multiple building designs to inform design decisions and trials this on Medium Density Housing (MDH).  Measuring the environmental impact of a building is a time and resource-intensive process requiring multiple analysis tools, numerous inputs and quality assurance steps. Together with a lack of knowledge from designers, this makes it an unattractive task. Therefore, a method was needed to remove these barriers so that an LCA could be integrated into a designer's workflow to inform design decisions. To simulate issues designers would face in the early design stages when undertaking an LCA, an LCA was performed on three MDH houses using selected designers' Building Information Modelling (BIM) models in a warm and cool climate (Auckland and Christchurch). The LCA impact of changes to the insulation levels above the New Zealand Building Code minimum was examined to test the utility of the process.  Unique in the literature, this study includes multiple LCA indices: material impacts, resultant operational energy use, change in materials, multiple environmental indicators, the rationale behind the selected buildings, quality assurance of the results, presentation of model inputs and all results in sufficient detail for the methodology to be tested and replicated.  The case study research methodology developed three MDH houses that were representative of a broad range of MDH houses currently for sale in New Zealand. The goal was to evaluate whether the research method can identify differences between buildings that might inform design choices.  In theory, a single BIM model eliminates the need to have three building models: the designer's construction model; the LCA analysis model; and the energy performance model saving time and complexity for the designer. This methodology identified that it was not possible to have a single BIM model in Revit and use this for both an energy simulation and LCA using LCAQuick. Each house was recreated in OpenStudio for simulation in EnergyPlus to generate the energy performance of each house.  A database of inputs for the energy models was created, which was quality assured for use by designers. A visual assessment diagram was created to allow designers to interpret the output to help inform design decisions.  The case study analysis determined that the design of the houses had a more significant effect on reducing environmental impact compared to increasing insulation levels above the minimum required by the building code. Changes to the buildings' insulation levels resulted in an average change in environmental impact across the seven environmental indicators ranging from -1 to 7% in Auckland and -2 to 2% in Christchurch, whereas differences in the design resulted in a change in environmental impact of 21 to 22% in Auckland and 22 to 23% in Christchurch.   The research has demonstrated that LCA can be integrated into a designer's workflow. Designers can assess the environmental impact of multiple houses and construction changes in different climates and with multiple construction changes to each. However, the process requires further refinement. There is still a need to develop the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) modelling methods and their integration with the analytical tools.


We develop a new residual generator design which decouples the faults and disturbances in a linear time-invariant system. The decoupling is achieved using feedback to endow the residual generator with additional robustness to modeling errors and disturbances. We provide feasibility conditions for feedback decoupling. We illustrate the new approach using a design example.


More than 50% of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) present a lesion affecting parotid gland, lymph nodes, paranasal sinuses, pharyngo-larynx or temporal bone. In about 20% out of cases affected patients present different head and neck lesions at the time of evaluation. Most often, clinical examination and endoscopy are sufficient to perform diagnosis and to manage the disease. Imaging studies (CT or MRI) are indicated when the nature of the disease is unknown or when a map of the process is mandatory for therapeutic approach. Some imaging features are strongly suggestive of HIV infection: parotid cysts associated with hyperplasia of the nasopharynx and cervical lymph nodes enlargement; labyrinthitis and multinevritis; and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas in non alcoolo-tobacco addicted patients. Such diseases suggest the need for knowledge of the patient's seropositivity status.


Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus type 1 is an autoimmune disease of pancreatic beta-cells with a certain genetic predisposition that is not yet clear. In spite of the confirmed association of diabetes mellitus type 1 with several HLA haplotypes it is considered that other loci must be involved for total genetic susceptibility to the disease. The relationship of insulin deficiency and decreased pancreatic amylase activity suggests that insulin itself is a direct activator of amylase gene expression. Endocrine pancreatic function was monitored by the indirect non-invasive method of urinary pancreatic amylase activity determination (expressed in percentage of total amylase activity) in diabetic children, their parents, healthy sisters and brothers, and in a separate group of women with diabetes type 1 of over 20 years duration. The incidence of hereditary amylase polymorphism variants in these subjects was also ascertained. Decreased pancreatic amylase activity in urine (under 58%) was found to be a characteristic trait in diabetics, and a susceptibility trait in asymptomatic family members. Normal pancreatic amylase activity (66.7 +/- 5.4%) is rare in diabetic patients type 1, but may be seen as a favourable prognostic trait, representing resistance to diabetic complications. The results support the suggestion that hereditary predisposition to the disease is inherited from the father rather than the mother, and that heterozygous amylase polymorphism variants protect their carriers against diabetes mellitus type 1.


To bridge the gap between computer-aided process planning and computer-aided fixture design, an automated setup planning and tolerance decomposition method is developed in this research. Directed graph is extended to represent feature/ dimension/tolerance relationships (FTG) and datum/machining feature relationships (DMG). According to different production schemes and manufacturing resource capabilities, setup planning principles and algorithms are explored to automatically extract DMG from FTG. Under the true positioning frame (ANSI Y14.5), tolerance decomposition models are concluded to partition a tolerance into interoperable machining errors, such as locating error, tool alignment error, random process error. The setup plan with allowable locating tolerance specifications is the basis for fixture design. The proposed method is verified in a genuine manufacturing enterprise.


Recently, the grid codes require taking into account the reactive power of the wind farm in order to contribute to the network stability, thus operating the wind farm as active compensator devices. This paper presents a comparative study of stabilizing a wind farm using (Doubly Fed Induction Generators) DFIGs or using a (Static Synchronous Compensator) STATCOM during wind speed change and grid fault. Simulation results show that the wind farm could be effectively stabilized with both systems, but at a reduced cost with the DFIGs system because it can provide reactive power through its frequency converters without an external reactive power compensation unit like the STATCOM system significant.


Tissue samples were obtained from the vastus lateralis muscle of elite olympic weight and power lifters (OL/PL, n = 6), bodybuilders (BB, n = 7), and sedentary men (n = 7). Enzyme activities of citrate synthase (CS), lactate dehydrogenase (LD), 3-OH-acyl-CoA-dehydrogenase (HAD), and myokinase (MK) were assayed on freeze-dried dissected pools of slow-twitch (ST) and fast-twitch (FT) fiber fragments by fluorometric means. Histochemical analyses were carried out to assess fiber type composition and fiber area. CS and HAD activities were lower (P less than 0.05), and LD and MK were higher (P less than 0.05) in FT than ST fibers in the entire subject pool (n = 20). CS of FT fibers and HAD of ST fibers were lower in athletes (P less than 0.05-0.01) compared with nonathletes, whereas LD of both fiber types was higher (P less than 0.05-0.001) in athletes. CS activity of ST fibers and MK activity of FT fibers were higher (P less than 0.05) in BB compared with OL/PL. FT and ST fiber area was greater (P less than 0.05) in athletes than in nonathletes. BB displayed greater (P less than 0.05) fiber size than OL/PL. FT/ST area was greater (P less than 0.05) in OL/PL than BB. It is suggested that long-term heavy-resistance training results in specific metabolic adaptations of FT and ST fiber types. These changes appear to be influenced by the type of resistance training.


Background Diversifying food sources by including edible wild plants or weeds as food resources can help to combat the issues of simplified diets and food security in the modern world. The present study investigated the case of Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. (gooseweed or wedgewort), an edible wild plant with traces of historical consumption in Indonesia. Because previous studies have failed to clarify its significance for consumption by society, the present study aimed to clarify the significance of S. zeylanica as a food resource in the 21st century.Methods Data were collected in Bali Province (Denpasar City and Timpag Village, Tabanan Regency) through interviews with a farmer, direct field visits to wet markets and supermarkets, and an online questionnaire. Supply distribution was analyzed using geographical information system mapping to visualize point data density, while statistical significance of consumption data was analyzed using the R software.Results The results showed that S. zeylanica was cultivated as a vegetable crop by local farmers in Timpag Village from 2014. Fresh S. zeylanica could be found mainly sold in wet markets within Denpasar City, while prepared or cooked versions of the plant were noted to be sold in several food and beverage establishments. The selling price of S. zeylanica was also found to be high among other similar vegetables. A majority of the study's survey respondents have consumed S. zeylanica at least once in the past, with most of them tended to be older and were more often female. However, it was identified that factors such as low production, unequal distribution, and high market pricing were probable causes in limiting its use and consumption. Conclusions It was concluded that S. zeylanica has limited significance in 21st century urban Bali, Indonesia, despite high awareness of the plant as a food resource. However, commercialization and preservation of cultural plant knowledge surrounding S. zeylanica were thought to be potentially important actions for maintaining its use as a future food resource. Consequently, further research is necessary on potential marketing methods and strategies to generate greater interest or demand towards S. zeylanica as a vegetable crop.


Abstract Background Few studies have reported real-life data on socio-economic functioning in patients with bipolar disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives. Methods We used Danish nation-wide population-based longitudinal register linkage to investigate socio-economic functioning in 19 955 patients with bipolar disorder, their 13 923 siblings and 20 sex, age and calendar-matched control individuals from the general population. Follow-up was from 1995 to 2017. Results Patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder had lower odds of having achieved the highest educational level [OR 0.75 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73–0.77)], being employed [OR 0.16 (95% CI 0.159–0.168)], having achieved the 80% highest quartile of income [OR 0.33 (95% CI 0.32–0.35)], cohabitating [OR 0.44 (95% CI 0.43–0.46)] and being married [OR 0.54 (95% CI 0.52–0.55)] at first contact to hospital psychiatry as inpatient or outpatient compared with control individuals from the general population. Similarly, siblings to patients with bipolar disorder had a lower functioning within all five socio-economic areas than control individuals. Furthermore, patients and partly siblings showed substantially decreased ability to enhance their socio-economic functioning during the 23 years follow-up compared to controls. Conclusions Socio-economic functioning is substantially decreased in patients with bipolar disorder and their siblings and does not improve during long-term follow-up after the initial hospital contact, highlighting a severe and overlooked treatment gap.


Presence of \textit{``persistent"}, \textit{``directional-current"} in a superconducting states is a direct \textit{``threat"} to the $2^{nd}$ law of thermodynamics. In this paper we will show that there will never be a \textit{directional, (either clockwise, or anti-clockwise)} \textit{``persistent-current"} for \textit{``infinite-time"} in any superconductor (or in any material at any pressure or temperature), otherwise $2^{nd}$ law of thermodynamics will break down! We will show that the presence of very small, \textit{non-zero}, finite, electrical resistance below the critical temperature and critical magnetic field in a superconductor is the clear \textit{``signature"} of finite life-time of circulating-current, and thus, direct experimental \textit{``validation"} of $2^{nd}$ law of thermodynamics at quantum-mechanical level.


The increasing concerns over emerging infectious diseases and potential pandemics led to the formation of One Health, a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to address the risks from human–animal–ecosystem interactions. This multi-sectoral approach is specifically important in Australia, a biodiverse country with unique flora, fauna, and many infectious diseases, including leptospirosis. Leptospirosis is a relatively rare but potentially fatal zoonosis, with an attributed mortality of around 60,000 deaths per year worldwide. In recent years, sporadic cases and alarming outbreaks of leptospirosis have been notified in many states and territories of Australia, noteworthily in 2018 and 2019. The sudden outbreaks in these two years have raised a question about the possibility of a more severe menace or a potential threat to both humans and animals. Amid the fight against leptospirosis, One Health has been shown to be an excellent and ideal framework, especially in Australia, the country that has taken the lead in zoonosis control using this approach. In this review, the focus will be put on the effectiveness and ethics of One Health in leptospirosis control under the Australian setting to further advocate the implementation of this framework for many other infectious diseases.


Microorganisms are the most abundant organisms on Earth, and microbial abundance records preserved in ice cores have been connected to records of environmental change. As an alternative to high resolution abundance records, which can be difficult to recover, we used culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to examine bacteria in glacier ice from the Tibetan Plateau (TP). We recovered a total of 887 bacterial isolates from ice cores of up to 164 m in depth retrieved from seven glaciers, located across the TP. These isolates were related to 53 genera in theActinobacteria,Firmicutes,Bacteroidetes, andProteobacteria, with 13 major genera accounting for 78% of isolates. Most of the genera were common across the geographic region covered by our sampling, but there were differences in the genera recovered from different depths in the ice, with the deepest portions of the ice cores dominated by a single genus (Sporosarcina). Because microorganisms deposited on glaciers must survive atmospheric transport under a range of temperatures, temperature tolerance should be an important survival mechanism. We tested isolate growth across a range of temperatures (0–35 °C), and found psychrotolerance to be common. Together, our results show that ice depth, and by extension age, are characterized by different types of microorganisms, providing new information about microbial records in ice.


ABSTRACT This study attempts to explore factors influencing the choice of locally grown or imported fruits among young Malaysians. It investigates how consumer preference, socioeconomics, and demographic profiles can affect their choice of which fruit category they pick. Five hundred respondents were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire to collect information related to their fruit preferences and choices. The millennium generation in Malaysia, especially the Malay living in Johor, were surveyed as a representation of future consumers of fruit and their subsequent choices and demand. Factor analysis was carried out on statements regarding consumer preferences on choices of local or imported fruit. Five factors were identified as the outstanding consumer preferences for fruits. Demographic profiles of the respondents such as family size, and dimension of fruit preferences, including country of origin, perceived quality, and environmental concerns, were important factors that affect consumers' purchasing behavior in choosing locally grown or imported fruits. Logit regression indicated that family size, country of origin product quality, perceived quality, and variety of fruits will likely influence the preferences for fruit among the younger generation.


ABSTRACT This article explores the influence of chronotopes on pre-service teachers' professional becoming in a school–university partnership model. It draws upon dialogue from professional conversations which included multiple stakeholders in the partnership. The results illustrate the complex process of becoming for pre-service teachers as they navigate voices across time and space. They provide an illustration of chronotopes interacting productively, providing support for pre-service growth, and chronotopes in tension, leading to the silencing of pre-service teacher voice. It is hoped this article encourages educators to reflect on the impact chronotopes can have on pre-service teachers' professional growth, the kinds of conditions that support growth and increased agency, and the ways chronoptic interactions can impact the development of transformative hybrid models of Initial Teacher Education.


Four-dimensional flow MRI (4D flow MRI) plays a significant role in cardiovascular imaging, which provides new insights into the pathophysiology of disease. In this study, 4D flow with echo-planar imaging was introduced to evaluate the hemodynamic parameters of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm, including velocity, flow and wall shear stress. We propose that 4D EPI flow can find differences of the above parameters between abdominal aortic aneurysm and normal abdominal aorta and has potential to be used for hemodynamics assessment in AAA patients.


A three-dimensional reconstruction method using shadowgraphy for complex shaped bubbly flows is proposed. Bubble distribution is represented by a metaball object. Metaballs have the capability of representing smooth but complex surfaces. The fundamental strategy is searching the optimal metaball object equivalent to the original bubble distribution. The method does not assume that every bubble has a certain size or shape, therefore, intensive image processing on shadow images is not required. This method has applied to both synthetic bubble shadow images and those obtained from a real experiment, and the results indicate the potential ability of bubble reconstruction.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


Objectives To evaluate the prevalence, subtypes and features of borderline ovarian tumors accordingly to the 2014 World Health Classification in the Oncology Institute of the State of São Paulo - São Paulo Faculty of Medicine. Methods A retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed with borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) included in the database of the institute. From January 2006 to June 2017 a total of 209 patients were included in the database. All diagnosis were reviewed and confirmed by the pathology department. All patients were submitted to preoperative workup and multidisciplinary evaluation. Patients submitted to surgery elsewhere were evaluated and submitted to complimentary surgery if needed. Accordingly to their age and pregnancy desire, they were submitted to a radical or fertility sparing approach if feasable. Stage at presentation, borderline subtype, size of tumors, tumor markers, route of surgery, complete or fertility sparing approach were analyzed. Results From 2006 to 2017, 209 patients presented with Borderline ovarian tumors. Stage I represented 94% of all cases, Stage II and III appeared with 5% and 11% respectively. Subtipes were serous in 55%, 37% mucinous and 6% seromucinous. Micropapillary variant was found in 13% of cases. Fertility sparing approach was performed in 12% of all patients. Mean follow up was 111weeks. Conclusions Borderline ovarian tumors represent an isolated entity among ovarian tumors. The majority of patients present at early stage thus permitting a minimally invasive approach. Behavior and recurrence depends on the characteristics of each tumor and should be considered when planning a conservative or radical approach.


Objectives To assess the outcomes of cavoatrial tumor thrombus removal using the liver transplantation technique for thrombectomy, a retrospective study was conducted. Materials and Methods Five patients with atrial tumor thrombi who underwent piggy-back mobilization of the liver, surgical access to the right atrium from the abdominal cavity, and external manual repositioning of the thrombus apex below the diaphragm (milking maneuver) were included into the study. Extracorporeal circulation was used in none of the cases. The average length of the atrial component of the tumor was 20.0 ± 11.7 mm (10 to 35 mm), and the width was 14.8 ± 8.5 mm (10 to 30 mm). In this work, the features of patients and surgical interventions as well as perioperative complications and mortality were analyzed. Results External manual repositioning of the tumor thrombus apex below the diaphragm was successfully performed in all patients. Tumor thrombi with the length of the atrial part up to 1.5 cm were removed through the extrapericardial approach. For evacuation of the thrombi with the large atrial part (3.0 cm or more), a transpericardial surgical approach was required. Specific complications associated with the access to the right atrium from the abdominal cavity (paresis of the right phrenic nerve, pneumothorax, and mediastinitis) were not detected in any case. The average clamping time of the supradiaphragmatic inferior vena cava (IVC) was 6.3 ± 4.6 min. The volume of intraoperative blood loss varied from 2500 to 5600 ml (an average of 3675 ± 1398.5 ml). Conclusion Our work represents the initial experience in the liver transplantation technique for thrombectomy in distinct and well-selected patients with atrial tumor thrombi. The effectiveness of this approach needs further study. The video presentation of our research took place in March 2019 at the 34th Annual EAU Congress in Barcelona.


Background Historical data suggest that patients with multi-vessel coronary disease involving the left main stem or proximal left anterior descending artery may gain prognostic benefit from coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Whether percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) achieves similar outcomes remains unclear. Methods We performed a retrospective linkage study to determine outcomes in all patients undergoing coronary revascularisation for multi-vessel disease involving the left main stem or proximal left anterior descending coronary artery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh over a 12-month period (2009–2010). The primary endpoint was a composite of death, myocardial infarction, stroke or readmission with heart failure at 12 months. Results Of 303 patients, 168 (55%) underwent CABG and 135 (45%) PCI. Patients undergoing PCI were older (68 ± 12 yrs vs 65 ± 10 yrs, p < 0.05), had less left main disease (30(22%) vs 75(45%), p < 0.001) and a greater updated Euroscore II (2.3 ± 2.3 vs 1.2 ± 1.1, p < 0.05), but similar Syntax scores (27 ± 12 vs 27 ± 10, p = ns) compared to patients undergoing CABG. Patients undergoing PCI received 2.4 ± 1.1 stents (65% drug-eluting) to treat 2.3 ± 0.8 vessels. Patients undergoing CABG received 2.1 ± 0.6 grafts (97% received an internal mammary graft). At 12 month follow-up, there was no difference in the primary endpoint, but mortality was lower in the PCI group (1(1%) vs 8(5%), p < 0.05). Following multivariate regression analysis, the presence of left main stem disease and a greater Euroscore II, but not mode of revascularisation, were predictive of the primary endpoint. Conclusions In this study of real-world practice, our findings suggest that PCI may be an acceptable alternative strategy to CABG in selected patients with high-risk coronary anatomy. Abstract 85 Table 1 CABG (n = 168) PCI (n = 135) P Death 8 (5%) 1 (1%) <0.05 Myocardial Infarction 1 (1%) 4 (3%) not significant Cerebrovascular Accident 4 (3%) 0 (0%) not significant Readmission for Heart Failure 5 (3%) 7 (5%) not significant Primary Composite Endpoint 16 (10%) 10 (7%) not significant


Label distribution learning (LDL) differs from multi-label learning which aims at representing the polysemy of in-stances by transforming single-label values into descriptive degrees. Unfortunately, the feature space of the label distribution dataset is affected by human factors and the inductive bias of the feature extractor causing uncertainty in the feature space. Especially, for datasets with small-scale feature spaces (the feature space dimension ≈ the label space), the existing LDL algorithms do not perform well. To address this issue, we seek to model the uncertainty augmentation of the feature space to alleviate the problem in LDL tasks. Specifically, we start with augmenting each feature value in the feature vector of a sample into a vector (sampling on a Gaussian distribution function). Which, the variance parameter of the Gaussian distribution function is learned by using a sub-network, and the mean parameter is filled by this feature value. Then, each feature vector is augmented to a matrix which is fed into a mixer with local attention ( TabMixer ) to extract the latent feature. Finally, the latent feature is squeezed to yield an accurate label distribution via a squeezed network. Extensive experiments verify that our proposed algorithm can be competitive compared to other LDL algorithms on several benchmarks.


This paper presents a family of fast biorthogonal block transforms called binDCT that can be implemented using only shift and add operations. The transform is based on a VLSI-friendly lattice structure that robustly enforces both linear phase and perfect reconstruction properties. The lattice coefficients are parameterized as a series of dyadic lifting steps providing fast, efficient, in place computation of the transform coefficients as well as the ability to map integers to integers. The new 8/spl times/8 transforms all approximate the popular 8/spl times/8 DCT closely, attaining a coding gain range of 8.77-8.82 dB, despite requiring as low as 14 shifts and 31 additions per eight input samples. Application of the binDCT in both lossy and lossless image coding yields very competitive results compared to the performance of the original floating-point DCT.


Abstract North American Classical Pentecostals have frequently described Spirit baptism as an experience that usually occurs subsequent to the reception of the Spirit at the point of conversion. When placed within a wider context of understanding the various ways in which the Spirit is present, it becomes apparent that this Pentecostal understanding of subsequence is only one instance of a subsequential experience of Spirit-filling. Given that we live in a Spirit-filled world, subsequent experiences of Spirit-filling can be seen in all believers, in the life of Jesus Christ, and in the life of the church. All of these experiences of being filled by the Spirit (and Spirit baptism in particular) may be expressed with the metaphor of the intensity of the Spirit.


This paper presents a comprehensive overview on the current status of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) energy systems technology with a deep insight into the techno-energy performance. In recent years, SOFCs have received growing attention in the scientific landscape of high efficiency energy technologies. They are fuel flexible, highly efficient, and environmentally sustainable. The high working temperature makes it possible to work in cogeneration, and drive downstream bottomed cycles such as Brayton and Hirn/Rankine ones, thus configuring the hybrid system of a SOFC/turbine with very high electric efficiency. Fuel flexibility makes SOFCs independent from pure hydrogen feeding, since hydrocarbons can be fed directly to the SOFC and then converted to a hydrogen rich stream by the internal thermochemical processes. SOFC is also able to convert carbon monoxide electrochemically, thus contributing to energy production together with hydrogen. SOFCs are much considered for being supplied with biofuels, especially biogas and syngas, so that biomass gasifiers/SOFC integrated systems contribute to the "waste to energy" chain with a significant reduction in pollution. The paper also deals with the analysis of techno-energy performance by means of ad hoc developed numerical modeling, in relation to the main operating parameters. Ample prominence is given to the aspect of fueling, emphasizing fuel processing with a deep discussion on the impurities and undesired phenomena that SOFCs suffer. Constituent materials, geometry, and design methods for the balance of plant were studied. A wide analysis was dedicated to the hybrid system of the SOFC/turbine and to the integrated system of the biomass gasifier/SOFC. Finally, an overview of SOFC system manufacturing companies on SOFC research and development worldwide and on the European roadmap was made to reflect the interest in this technology, which is an important signal of how communities are sensitive toward clean, low carbon, and efficient technologies, and therefore to provide a decisive and firm impulse to the now outlined energy transition.


It was recently suggested that emissions of some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are decreasing in former use regions due to emission reductions combined with uncontrolled export, at the expense of regions receiving these substances as obsolete products and wastes. Aliaga industrial region in Izmir, Turkey is one of the regions receiving POPs in the form of scrap iron and old ships to be scrapped. Ambient air samples were collected by passive sampling during four seasons in 2009 and 2010 (winter, spring, summer, and fall) at forty different sites in Aliaga to determine the spatial and seasonal variations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Soil samples were also collected at the air sampling sites during the summer period. Phenanthrene was the most abundant PAH at all sites, and all samples were dominated by low to medium molecular weight PAHs, i.e., fluorene, fluoranthene and pyrene. The spatial distribution of ambient PAH concentrations indicated that the major PAH sources in the region were iron–steel plants, petroleum refinery, and ship dismantling plants. At residential sites, PAH concentrations were higher in winter indicating that wintertime concentrations were mainly affected by residential heating emissions. However, highest atmospheric PCBs concentrations were observed in summer, probably due to increased volatilization from their sources at higher temperatures. Low to medium molecular weight PCBs (tri–, tetra–, penta–CBs) were the most abundant compounds in air for all seasons. Results also indicated that iron–steel plants and ship dismantling facilities were the major PCB emitters in the region. A similar spatial variation was observed for soil PAH and PCB concentrations. Air and soil PAH and PCB concentrations were correlated significantly indicating the interaction of these compartments. Results of the fugacity ratio calculations indicated that local soils generally act as a sink throughout the year for medium to low volatility atmospheric PAHs and PCBs. However, during summer soil becomes a source, especially for volatile PAHs and PCBs.


Digital communications have a minimum synchronization requirement: the end user of a telecommunication system has to lock into the right bit rhythm sent by the other connection partner. Nevertheless, synchronization in the telecommunication context turns out to be broader than two connection partners locally linked: the suitable feed of a standard time, within many telecommunication domains, has vital importance for many applications to properly handle the demanded network functionalities. The time feed in multidomain scenarios makes a time path, which becomes a nested built-in network. Generally, the data distribution follows the time path in many telecommunication systems. However, the data path may not follow the time path for all scenarios and could partially follow some network branches, usually at the network border. To ensure efficient and controllable synchronization, we focus on the study of time paths. This article provides a first insight into a tailored cosimulated testbed, implemented to determine the time path behavior in terms of jitter and to supervise the drift from the primary reference clock (PRC) with more than 20 cascaded nodes, the maximum achievable cascaded depth within the current G.8262 standard. This cascading must meet the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) standards G.8262/G.8261 in terms of long-term jitter (wander) and short-term jitter (jitter) to ensure a tolerable drift compared with the central clock. In particular, for Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), the standard does not provide possible limits for the jitter beyond 20 synchronized nodes. The numerical results, with the extended number of nodes, show that this scenario remains feasible, the parameters being below the masks proposed by the standards.


Diabetic patients with associated dyslipidemia are easy targets for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Glycated hemoglobin predicts the risk for the development of diabetic complications. This study was an attempt to determine lipid abnormalities associated with Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus and association between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and serum lipid profile to assess the importance of HbA1c as an indicator of dyslipidemia and future risk of cardiovascular disease in Bhola District, Barisal. In this cross-sectional study, 200 known patients of Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus within 35-85 years of age were randomly selected. They were investigated for HbA1c and lipid profile. The data were evaluated by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.0 version software. Independent samples t-test (2-tailed) was used to compare means of anthropometric, clinical and laboratory parameters and the effect of the glycemic control on their lipid profile was determined using correlation coefficient. Amongst the study group, 65% patients showed poor glycemic control, 35% with good glycemic control and 59.60% patient's haddyslipidemia.HbA1c was found to have significant positive correlation with total cholesterol (TCHO), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) and significant negative correlation with high density lipoprotein (HDL-C). The mean value of TC, LDL-C and TG was found to be lower in patients with good glycemic control than those with poor glycemic control. These differences were significant at the level of P<0.05. These findings conclude that the glycemic control of the patient has got a strong impact on the serum lipid level and dyslipidemia is frequently encountered in those who have got poor glycemic control.Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.5(2): 185-192, August 2018


We present a detailed and complete calculation of the loop corrections to the mass difference ∆m B 0 d /m B 0 d. We include charginos and scalar up quarks as well as gluinos and scalar down quarks on the relevant loop diagrams. We include the mixings of the charginos and of the scalar partners of the left and right handed quarks. We find that the gluino contribution to this quantity is important with respect to the chargino contribution only in a small part of phase space: mainly when the gluino mass is small (∼ 100 GeV) and the symmetry-breaking parameter m S is below 300 GeV. This contribution is also important for very large values of tan β (∼ 50) irrespective of the other parameters. Otherwise, the chargino contribution dominates vastly and can be roughly as large as that of the Standard Model. We also present the contribution of the charged Higgs to the mass difference ∆m B 0 d /m B 0 d in the case m b tan β ≪ m t cot β. This last contribution can be larger than the Standard Model contribution for small values of the Higgs mass and small values of tan β.


The performance of LDPC codes decoded by iterative algorithm depends on the structural properties of their underlying Tanner graphs. For discrete memoryless channels, error patterns dominating the frame error rate (FER) in the error floor region are termed trapping set. We have shown approximate examinations of small trapping sets of LDPC codes using the probabilistic algorithm. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for the detailed evaluation of the FER of LDPC codes in the error floor region. The accuracy of the FER lies on the failure probability of the number of trapping sets determined by our probabilistic algorithm and the FER estimated by the importance sampling.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate changes of endocrine hormones during 7 d head down bed rest (HDBR).

METHOD
Six healthy male volunteers served as the subjects and experienced 7 d -6 degrees HDBR. Urine was collected from 6:00-22:00 and from 22:00-6:00. Serum was collected 48 h before HDBR, 48 h and 120 h during HDBR. Then the endocrine indices in urine and serum were determined.

RESULT
1) The levels of serum CORT and ALD increased at 48 h during HDBR, while serum T3, T4, TP, UN decreased but they all recovered to normal at 120 h during HDBR. 2) The level of urine CORT, ALD and NE reached its peak in 24-48 h, and then gradually decreased to normal level.

CONCLUSION
The endocrine indices in serum and urine changed in the early period but returned to normal level gradually with the proceeding of HDBR.