Responses in task-oriented dialogue systems often realize multiple propositions whose ultimate form depends on the use of sentence planning and discourse structuring operations. For example a recommendation may consist of an explicitly evaluative utterance e.g. Chanpen Thai is the best option, along with content related by the justification discourse relation, e.g. It has great food and service, that combines multiple propositions into a single phrase. While neural generation methods integrate sentence planning and surface realization in one end-to-end learning framework, previous work has not shown that neural generators can: (1) perform common sentence planning and discourse structuring operations; (2) make decisions as to whether to realize content in a single sentence or over multiple sentences; (3) generalize sentence planning and discourse relation operations beyond what was seen in training. We systematically create large training corpora that exhibit particular sentence planning operations and then test neural models to see what they learn. We compare models without explicit latent variables for sentence planning with ones that provide explicit supervision during training. We show that only the models with additional supervision can reproduce sentence planning and discourse operations and generalize to situations unseen in training.


Purpose: Information has an impact on the attitudes, behavior and actions of its recipients, and given its important role in public life, it should be subject to appropriate protection to ensure its security. It therefore becomes important to create appropriate administrative and legal conditions for the protection of information security, which is currently a priority both in Poland and in the European Union. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research was conducted using the methods of problem analysis and synthesis, with the main objective being to optimize the research field with a view to future studies. Findings: The research analysis has found the significant impact of administrative and legal conditions, in particular the need to create normative solutions to ensure information security. Due to the category of threats to information security, the desired solutions concern both Poland in particular and the European Union as a whole. Practical Implications: The problems addressed in the paper may help raise awareness of the rapid spread of information security and generate interest for different bodies in the category of related threats.. Originality: The paper tackles problems that are particularly important nowadays from the standpoint of both individual citizens as well as different entities which use information, regardless of their function in society.


Future space telescopes now in the concept and design stage aim to observe reflected light spectra of extrasolar planets. Assessing whether given notional mission and instrument design parameters will provide data suitable for constraining quantities of interest typically requires time consuming retrieval studies in which tens to hundreds of thousands of models are compared to data with a given assumed signal to noise ratio, thereby limiting the rapidity of design iterations. Here we present a novel machine learning approach employing five Multilayer Perceptron's (MLP) trained on model albedo spectra of extrasolar giant planets to estimate a planet's atmospheric metallicity, gravity, effective temperature, and cloud properties given simulated observed spectra. The stand-alone C++ code we have developed can train new MLP's on new training sets, within minutes to hours, depending upon the dimensions of input spectra and desired output. After the MLP is trained, it can classify new input spectra within a second, potentially helping speed observation and mission design planning. Four of the MLP's were tuned to work with various levels of spectral noise. The fifth MLP was developed for cases where the user is uncertain about the noise level. The MLP's were trained using a grid of model spectra that varied in metallicity, gravity, temperature, and cloud properties. We tested the MLP on noisy models and observed spectra of both Jupiter and Saturn. The root mean squared error when applied to noisy models were on the order of the model grid intervals. The results show that a trained MLP is a robust means for reliable in-situ estimations, providing an elegant artificial intelligence that is simple to customize and quick to use.


The development of globalization has brought about obvious differences in the resilience of different regions against economic crises. Regional economic resilience refers to the ability of a region's economy to resist shocks when faced with external disturbances or to break away from its existing growth model in favor of a better path, Resilience represents the region's adaptability, innovation, and sustainability. This paper describes an empirical analysis on the 60 designated industrial park developments under the Industrial Development Bureau in Taiwan. Over a period of short-term disturbances, the industrial parks are analyzed from four aspects: industrial structure, regional development foundation, enterprise competitiveness and labor conditions, and government governance and policy systems. Through discriminant analysis, we analyze the characteristics of factors that mainly affect the economic resilience of 60 industrial parks faced with shocks such as the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, the five-day work week in 2016, and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019. We found that industrial structure, specifically diversified industrial structure, is the major factor behind enhanced regional economic resilience. If the scale of specialized industries is large enough, they can form sufficient capacity to resist external changes and also be economically resilient. Under the negative impact, the amount of innovation can be an important part of post-disaster recovery, and stable innovation input will become a main factor for the sustainable development of industrial parks. The pressure of the uncertainty of global economic development and the transformation and upgrading of the domestic economy underscore that enterprises urgently need automation and digital transformation to enhance their competitiveness. In order to enhance economic resilience to adapt to changes in the overall environment, the industrial parks need to adjust adaptively, improve their industrial structure, and promote innovation, hoping that the regional economy will move towards a more stable and sustainable development path.


Sonicated platelet extract, obtained after high-speed centrifugation, was fractionated by phosphocellulose chromatography, and assayed for phosphodiesteric cleavage of phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PIP) and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate (PIP2) using (i) single bilayer vesicles from total platelet membrane lipids and (ii) single bilayer vesicles from individual pure lipids. When total platelet lipids were used as the substrate, two clear-cut, but incompletely resolved, peaks of phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) were detected; one of these activities hydrolysed PIP alone, whereas the second peak hydrolysed all three phosphoinositides. When pure phosphoinositides were used as the substrate, three distinct peaks of PI-PLC were observed; two of these peak activities correspond to the peaks when assays were conducted with total platelet membrane lipids. The third peak of activity hydrolysed PIP2 and PIP, but not PI. These results clearly show that there exist PIP/PIP2-specific PLC enzymes that do not act on PI, and escaped detection thus far because of the general practice of using PI as the substrate to monitor PI-PLC activities. I propose that these PIP/PIP2-specific PLC enzymes are the real candidates that respond to agonist occupation of receptors on the cell surface to generate the two putative second messengers inositol triphosphate and diacylglycerol.


Sandstone is generally understood to consist of quartz grains—popularly called sand—bound or cemented together into a more or less compact mass, the cementing material consisting of such substances as the carbonates of iron, lime or magnesia, clay, and silica. It is not my intention at present to enter into the origin of sand, but rather to draw attention to the nature of the cementing and colouring materials of some sandstones of the Carboniferous and Old Red formations, and more particularly those found in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. On the Nature of the Cementing Material.—Sandstone may have been cemented together by the decomposition or re-arrangement of some of the constituents previously in the sand, or by the addition of such substances as carbonate of lime, and oxide of iron, deposited from springs. Professor Church, in some interesting notes on the recent formation of some rocks, observes, "that at Bude Haven, Cornwall, and elsewhere, coarse grained sand is in many cases being cemented together by the action of the water of land springs containing carbonic acid, which, percolating through the sand and dissolving the fragments of shells contained therein, the carbonate of lime is subsequently at some other point slowly deposited as the carbonic acid escapes, thus forming a cementing material for the sand." In cases where the quantity of carbonate of lime is large, it may probably have been derived from adjacent limestone rocks. When we place a few fragments of a sandstone in hydrochloric acid and apply heat, we are This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract


A robust error concealment scheme using data hiding which aims at achieving high perceptual quality of images and video at the end-user despite channel losses is proposed. The scheme involves embedding a low-resolution version of each image or video frame into itself using spread-spectrum watermarking, extracting the embedded watermark from the received video frame, and using it as a reference for reconstruction of the parent image or frame, thus detecting and concealing the transmission errors. Dithering techniques have been used to obtain a binary watermark from the low-resolution version of the image/video frame. Multiple copies of the dithered watermark are embedded in frequencies in a specific range to make it more robust to channel errors. It is shown experimentally that, based on the frequency selection and scaling factor variation, a high-quality watermark can be extracted from a low-quality lossy received image/video frame. Furthermore, the proposed technique is compared to its two-part variant where the low-resolution version is encoded and transmitted as side information instead of embedding it. Simulation results show that the proposed concealment technique using data hiding outperforms existing approaches in improving the perceptual quality, especially in the case of higher loss probabilities.


Concentration of 12 trace elements (TEs) Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, B, Al, Pb, Cd, As and Sr, was determined in drinking water of local and national factories and wells in Turabah Province (KSA) by using Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) technique after pre-concentration and acid digestion. The results show that the concentrations of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Al, Pb, Cd and As in the samples of the local factories in Turabah Province and national factories (KSA) are below the maximum level that recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) and Saudi Arabia Standards Organization (SASO).While, the concentrations of B are above the maximum level recommended by SASO. The results of the wells samples show that the concentrations of Fe, Zn, Al, Pb, Cd and As are below the maximum level that recommended by WHO and SASO while the concentrations of Na, K, Ca, Mg and B are above and below the maximum level recommended by SASO according to the source of sample. The recovery percent was found to be 97.5 99.5%.The method was validated in terms of accuracy, precision, limit of detection (LOQ) and limit of quantification (LOD) and confirmation reliability.


PURPOSE
The use of dried blood spots (DBS) for HIV-1 viral load determination could greatly enhance the management of HIV infected individuals in resource-limited countries.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the HIV-1 viral load values obtained between parallel collected plasma and DBS.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
DBS and plasma samples were collected from 62 HIV-1 infected individuals and were used for determination of HIV-1 RNA concentrations using the Abbot real-time HIV-1 PCR.

RESULT
Mean of the log difference of viral load values between plasma and DBS was -0.41 log. DBS viral load values significantly correlated with plasma viral load (r = 0.9818, P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that DBS samples can be used as an alternative to plasma for the estimation of HIV-1 viral load if samples are appropriately stored.


The article presents the analysis of inspection results of the military personnel who passed a medical examination at the initial military registration, with the call to military service and recognized as health fit for military service. The aim of the research was to study the dynamics of changes in the components of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant defense system of the soldiers during the primary adaptation to military service. Materials and methods: 34 young men (recruits), called up for military service, and 18 military personnel who have served 6 months. As material for biochemical research we used blood plasma and hemolysate. Modern spectrophotometric, fluorometric and statistical methods have been used. Results. In recruits, we noted increased activity of lipids oxidation, low level of blood antioxidant activity and reduced glutathione. In 6 months of the military service we found decreased contents of TBA-active products and improving of the overall antioxidant activity of the blood. Conclusions. Analysis of the data shows significant changes in the indices of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant defense system. The ratio of the activity of oxidation and antioxidant components not only reflects, but also largely determines the rate of metabolism and adaptive capabilities of the organism. The study found that young people, who were recognized as fit for military service due to health criteria for military medical commissions by military commissioners and were called up for military service, have low adaptive capacity and reach the stage of "satisfactory adaptation" only after 6 months of service.


Structural transformations of illite-smectite samples of hydrothermal genesis with increasing contents of illite layers were studied by X-ray powder diffraction. The samples were K-saturated and subjected to wetting and drying cycles to increase three-dimensional structural ordering. Diffraction profiles were analyzed with the help of a specially devised computer program based on the approximation of individual diffraction reflections by "bell-shaped" functions, with minimization of the differences between experimental and simulated profiles. The data indicate that the transformations of these illite-smectite samples were accompanied not only by variations in the proportion of illite and smectite layers and in the pattern of their alternation, but also by a change in structure within 2:1 layers.


We discuss a many-body Hamiltonian with two- and three-body interactions in two dimensions introduced recently by Murthy, Bhaduri and Sen. Apart from an analysis of some exact solutions in the many-body system, we analyse in detail the two-body problem which is completely solvable. We show that the solution of the two-body problem reduces to solving a known differential equation due to Heun. We show that the two-body spectrum becomes remarkably simple for large interaction strengths and the level structure resembles that of the Landau levels. We also clarify the 'ultraviolet' regularization which is needed to define an inverse-square potential properly and discuss its implications for our model.


We study one-parameter deformations of Calabi-Yau type Fermat polynomial singularities along degree-one directions. We show that twisted sectors in the vanishing cohomology are components of automorphic forms for certain triangular groups. We prove consequentially that genus zero Gromov-Witten generating series of the corresponding Fermat Calabi-Yau varieties are components of automorphic forms. The main tools we use are mixed Hodge structures for quasi-homogeneous polynomial singularities, Riemann-Hilbert correspondence, and genus zero mirror symmetry.


Developing efficacious treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has proven difficult. The insidious nature of the disease necessitates a deep understanding of its underlying biology as well as innovative approaches to ameliorate ethanol-related pathophysiology. Excessive ethanol seeking and relapse are generated by long-term changes to membrane properties, synaptic physiology, and plasticity throughout the limbic system and associated brain structures. Each of these factors can be modulated by metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors, a diverse set of G protein-coupled receptors highly expressed throughout the central nervous system. Here, we discuss how different components of the mGlu receptor family modulate neurotransmission in the limbic system and other brain regions involved in AUD etiology. We then describe how these processes are dysregulated following ethanol exposure and speculate about how mGlu receptor modulation might restore such pathophysiological changes. To that end, we detail the current understanding of the behavioral pharmacology of mGlu receptor-directed drug-like molecules in animal models of AUD. Together, this review highlights the prominent position of the mGlu receptor system in the pathophysiology of AUD and provides encouragement that several classes of mGlu receptor modulators may be translated as viable treatment options.


Understanding the dynamics of the growth of nanowires by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process is essential in order to relate the properties of the wire to their processing conditions. A theory for VLS growth is developed that incorporates the surface energy of the solid-liquid, liquid-vapor, and solid-vapor interfaces, allows for supersaturation of growth material in the droplet, and employs contact-line conditions. We predict the profile of catalyst concentration in the droplet, the degree of supersaturation, and the modification to the shape of the solid-liquid interface due to growth, as functions of the material properties and process parameters. Under typical experimental conditions the interface deflection due to growth is predicted to be practically zero. We also find that the growth rate of the wire inherits the same dependence on diameter as the flux of growth material at the liquid-vapor interface; thus, if we assume that the flux is independent of radius, we obtain a growth rate that is also independent of radius. To make a prediction about the actual variation with diameter requires a detailed knowledge of the decomposition kinetics at the liquid-vapor interface.


Tapetoretinal degenerations are a common cause for vision problems, but have until recently not been amenable to rational treatment. With rapidly increasing insights into basic neurobiology and pathobiology this has now begun to change. From having been a relatively small group of largely unknown yet fairly prevalent disorders, they are rapidly forming a large set of well defined diseases, and it is easy to predict that our knowledge about them will continue to increase for many years to come. Vitamin A (15,000 IU daily) is currently the only rational treatment available. However, in experimental animals, therapy strategies are now actively being developed along several different lines. Apoptotic photoreceptor cell death can be delayed with different drugs, and at least one of them, diltiazem, is approved for human use in cardiovascular diseases. It remains to be seen if it has any clinically significant effect in human tapetoretinal degenerations. Other strategies aim at counteracting the production of harmful protein variants, acting either on DNA or mRNA levels. Transgenes can also be used to induce the production of important but missing metabolic components. Finally, cells or retina sheets can be transplanted, either to replace failing cells or as a source for missing trophic factors. Neither of these strategies has yet been transferred to humans, but trials are under way. With the high increase in the flow of new information on tapetoretinal disorders, much more precise diagnoses and much improved treatments are soon to be expected, augmenting considerably the possibilities for ophthalmologists to help patients with such diseases. It is not likely that there will be a single treatment for all the many varieties. Instead, we are most likely going to see pharmacological treatments for some of them, DNA transfers for some, and transplantations for others.


The epiphyseal cartilage is composed of the distinct zones of resting, proliferative and hypertrophic chondrocytes. The intercolumnar cartilage matrix of the hypertrophic zone is subjected to mineralization whereas the transverse partitions of the cartilage column are poorly mineralized. Therefore, mineralized cartilage matrices are formed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the epiphyseal cartilage. Vascular endothelial cells invade the cartilage by penetrating the poorly mineralized transverse partition at the chondro-osseous junction, resulting in the exposure of mineralized intercolumnar matrix to bony tissue. The exposed mineralized cartilage matrices appear to serve as scaffolds for osteoblastic attachment. These osteoblasts deposit bone matrices onto the cartilage cores, forming primary trabecular bones. Vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF, is a strong angiogenic factor, and play a pivotal role in vascular invasion into cartilage. The invading endothelial cells possess the receptor for VEGF, and secret matrix metallo protatenase to digest the cartilage matrices of the unmineralized transverse partition of the column.


One very important triad is this: it has been found that there are three kinds of signs which are all indispensable in all reasoning; the first is the diagrammatic sign or icon, which exhibits a similarity or analogy to the subject of discourse; the second is the index, which like a pronoun demonstrative or relative, forces the attention to the particular object intended without describing it; the third is the general name or description which signifies its object by means of an association of ideas or habitual connection between the name and the character signified.


Abstract. From July to November 2018, 10 Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) juveniles were tracked using GPS-GSM satellite transmitters to study their migration routes and stopover sites in Yanchiwan Nature Reserve, Gansu Province, China. By the end of the autumn migration in November 2018, more than 25,000 GPS locations had been obtained during tracking. Migration routes, migration distances and stopover sites were determined, and the stopover home range was estimated for each individual. Individuals moved away from Yanchiwan during 2-25 October 2018 and migrated through Da Qaidam, Golmud City, Qumarleb County, Zadoi County, Zhidoi County, and Nagqu City. In mid-November 2018, the birds arrived in Linzhou County, Tibet, China to winter. The migration routes of all individuals were the same, and the average migration distance was 1,500 ± 120 km. Da Qaidam Salt Lake was an important stopover site, with an average stopover duration of 27.11 ± 8.43 d, and the average stopover range of the Black-necked Cranes at Da Qaidam was 27.4 ± 6.92 km2. Through field monitoring and satellite maps, the main habitats were determined to be grasslands and wetlands.


Objective:This study was performed to determine the safety and efficacy of belotecan, a new camptothecin analogue and potent topoisomerase I inhibitor, with and without platinum in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. Methods:Fifty-three patients with recurrent or persistent ovarian cancer were enrolled between March 2005 and March 2008. Eligible patients received 0.5 mg/m2 of intravenous (IV) belotecan on days 1 to 5, every 3 weeks belotecan monotherapy (B) or 50 mg/m2 of IV cisplatin on day 1 plus 0.3 mg/m2 of IV belotecan on days 1 to 5, every 3 weeks (belotecan plus cisplatin combination therapy [BP]). Results:Of the 53 treated patients, 34 received BP and 19 received B. Thirty-four patients had platinum-sensitive (PS) disease and 19 had platinum-resistant disease. The overall response of the 53 patients was 37.7% (20/53). According to regimen, the response rate in the BP group was 47.1% (16/34) and that of the B group was 21.1% (4/19). BP had better response (66.7%, 14/21) than B (15.4%, 2/13) for PS disease (P = 0.004), but it was not superior in terms of progression-free survival (BP, 6 month; B, 7 months). Grade 3 or 4 toxicity was less common in B than in BP. Conclusion:Both BP and B seems to be effective and safe regimens for patients with PS or platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer. These results warrant further prospective randomized trials. Both BP and B seems to be effective and safe regimens for patients with PS or platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer.


The aim of this commentary is to discuss from a rehabilitation perspective the published Cochrane Review 'Constraintinduced movement therapy in children with unilateral cerebral palsy' by Hoare et al., under the direct supervision of Cochrane Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems Group. This Cochrane Corner is produced in agreement with Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology by Cochrane Rehabilitation.


The article presents data from many years of research that confirms the fact that the system of teaching younger students based on the method of learning activity creates conditions for successful cognitive, social and personal development of children in primary school. Students aged 10—11 show a higher level of mastery of key competencies than their peers who study on the basis of traditional methods and techniques of organizing educational work. It is reliably established that the" developing educational environment" allows children to form higher results on such important indicators of learning ability as the ability to separate the known from the unknown and ask questions about the unknown. The indicators of development of the basics of theoretical thinking (content analysis, depth of planning, reflection) in children who study on the basis of the method of learning activity are higher than in children who study in a traditional school. The "developing educational environment", in contrast to traditional schools, contributes more to the effective development of children's social competencies - the ability to interact, overcome cognitive conflict, and exercise mutual control and evaluation of actions performed.


Summary Cardiovascular disorders like hypertension, cerebral stroke, heart failure and thromboembolism account for a high degree of morbidity and mortality all over the World. As the regulation of the cardiovascular system is complex, the study of cardiovascular disorders has been limited to whole-organism models. The last decade has witnessed an upsurge in transgenic and gene knockout technologies, which have played a major role in the discovery of a particular gene, or its product, implicated in various cardiovascular disorders. Knockout and transgenic animals are likely to become important tools in drug development to determine the physiological sites of action for newly developed pharmacological agents. The present review will briefly discuss the methods and types of genetically engineered rodents (transgenic and gene knockout models) with alterations in second messenger systems involved in cardiovascular disorders.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the safety and efficacy of patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure with Left-disk-coated PFO occluder.

METHODS
The device was implanted in patients with PFO under the guidance of fluoroscopy and transthoracal echocardiography using a 10-12 French delivery sheath via femoral vein approach. Aspirin (100 mg/d for 6 months) was administered post procedure. Patients were followed clinically and echocardiographically at 24 hours, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after device implantation and yearly thereafter.

RESULTS
Permanent device implantation failed in one patient (4%) and succeed in the remaining 24 patients (96%). There were no major in-hospital-adverse events or complications (thromboembolism, occluder dislodgement, infection or myocardial infarction). Seven patients developed transient atrial premature beats or atrial tachycardia during implantation and stopped without medication post procedure. Follow-up [(25 + or - 12) months] results showed that all occluders were in position and there were no residual shunt, arrhythmia and cerebral vessel events post procedure.

CONCLUSION
Left-disk-coated PFO occluder is safe and effective for PFO closure.


The planning, design and operation of HVDC transmission systems requires the detailed study of various options and prediction of the system performance. HVDC transmission systems described by nonlinear models are not tractable for analytical approaches. Here, the tableau approach is the method that is used for the analysis of HVDC transmission systems. A computer program developed for this purpose, as well as the results from it, are presented by the authors.<<ETX>>


This guide provides accurate and reliable resources for nurses and health care professionals to use when encountering situations with non-English speaking patients and how to expand that communication barrier.


Hybridization can result in offspring with transgressive traits when compared to the parents. These hybrid traits may have had an important role in plant evolution, they impact ecological fitness, and they have been exploited extensively in agricultural systems. Gene expression levels and patterns of small RNA expression as well as epigenetic modifications can be affected by hybridization. Alternative splicing (AS) is an important form of gene regulation, where multiple final transcript types are created from a single gene. AS is found in a large number of plant genes and has various functional consequences. Here changes in AS regulation upon hybridization have been assayed on a genome-wide scale using RNA-seq data from rice hybrids. AS was quantified in both parental genotypes and their reciprocal hybrids based on read coverage across genes as well as junction spanning reads. Of the over 24,000 AS events investigated, ~8% happen at different frequencies between the different subspecies. The majority of events in the hybrids occur at additive levels compared to their parents, although a large number of events (~9%) are at non-additive levels. Many nonadditive events in the hybrids are at levels equal to one parent. Several hundred AS events happen at higher or lower levels in at least one of the hybrids then in either parent, indicating transgressive AS. Some of these events, 48 in total, could be unique to the hybrids. The transgressively spliced events could contribute to the phenotype of the hybrids by altering the proteome through introducing different proteins, or via regulation of protein levels through nonsense-mediated decay. These data may also be useful in understanding the evolution of the regulation of AS.


In the last decade, there have been devastating tsunamis that have caused a substantial amount of death and economic losses. Even though Puerto Rico has not had a tsunami since 1918, its geographical location makes it extremely vulnerable to the onslaught of a tsunami. For such reason, it is essential to have metrics, at a national level, that allow simplifying the planning and mitigation efforts for all the potential losses associated with a tsunami. This work intends to present a conceptual model of an analytical tool that can quantify the vulnerability to tsunamis of all Puerto Rican coastal communities; that is, rank the 46 cities with territories within tsunami evacuation zones (TEZ) based on their exposure to tsunamis. Overall, the analytical tool will serve three aims: (1) identify the characteristics of the coastal communities that increase their vulnerability to tsunamis in terms of: economy, population, facilities, and land use; (2) support disaster management professionals in post-tsunami resource allocation, and (3) assist urban developers when determining the safety requirements for all structures erected in TEZ.


This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant activity of oven-dried (60 o C) tomato powder (TP) as affected by water solubility and to evaluate the effects of TP on the physico-chemical properties, and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of emulsified pork sausages with two levels of TP (1% and 2 %). After fresh tomatoes were homogenized and dried at 60 o C oven, they were extracted by stirring with water. Then, the aqueous solution was filtered, and water soluble and insoluble tomato powders were obtained with freeze drying. In experiment I, total phenolic contents in oven-dried tomato powder, water soluble and insoluble powder were more than 2 g/100 g. The radical scavenging activity and iron-chelation ability of the water-insoluble extracts were higher than those of dried TP and water-soluble extracts. In experiment II, pH values and Hunter L values of pork sausages formulated with TP were reduced. However, hunter a and b values were higher than those of the control, and those effects were increased with increased levels of TP. 2-Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance values of pork sausages containing TP were lower than that of the control during refrigerated storage, regardless of the TP level. These results indicated that TP could be used as a natural color agent and antioxidant in meat products without defects.


This paper analyses the flow of credit in the UK economy in the years before and after the 2008 financial and economic crisis, with particular emphasis on the corporate sector and the SME segment. It carries out a comparative flow-of-funds analysis highlighting the parallelisms and differences between the sterling and euro currency areas. It also reviews the characteristics of UK funding markets and, based on an analysis of available surveys and other evidence, discusses the extent to which credit supply and demand factors have been at play in driving the marked retrenchment in credit observed in the post-crisis period. The conclusions are complemented by econometric evidence from an estimated SVAR model identifying a long period of negative credit supply and demand shocks from 2008 to 2012. The paper also discusses how competition in the UK banking industry was impaired in the post-crisis period and how to harness the current UK institutional framework for kick-starting an SME securitisation market. Finally, a review is made of the main initiatives taken by the UK authorities to improve access to finance. Overall, the paper details the supporting evidence underlying the 2011, 2012 and 2013 country-specific recommendations addressed to the UK by the Council of the European Union to the effect that the UK authorities continue to take steps to foster access to finance.


The effects of peak performance nutrient (PPN) in combination with different fertilizer doses on soil properties and nutrient uptake by rice were investigated in a field experiment from seedling to maturity during the period of July to November 2014 in T. aman season. The experiment comprised of twelve treatments laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were: T1: Control (no fertilizer and no PPN), T2: 100 % recommended dose of NPK, T3: 100 % NPK + PPN, T4:0 % RD +PPN only, T5: 75 % N + 100 % PK+PPN, T6: 50 % N + 100 % PK+PPN, T7: 75 % P+100 % NK + PPN, T8: 50 %P + 100 % NK + PPN, T9: 75 % K+ 100 % NP + PPN, T10: 50 % K + 100 % NP + PPN, T11:75 % NPK+ PPN, T12: 50% NPK+PPN. Experimental results reveal that the highest nutrient uptake (N and K) uptake by rice grain and straw was recorded in the treatment T7. However, P uptake by rice grain and straw were higher in treatment T3 that was statistically similar with treatment T7. Initial and postharvest soil sample analysis indicated that most of the studied soil properties including soil pH and organic matter contents were increased in T7. Therefore, the treatment combination PPN along with 75 % P+100 % NK (T7) was found to be more suitable compared to other treatment combinations for improving soil quality as well as enhancing nutrient uptake by rice. Thus peak performance nutrient (PPN) showed a positive response both on improvement of soil health as well as nutrient uptake by the crop.


The optical properties of trivalent-chromium-doped fluorophosphate glass (21.74 Al(PO3)3-57.8 BaF2-19.96 AlF3 (wt.%)) have been investigated in the 4.2-300 K temperature range using steady state and time-resolved laser spectroscopy. The luminescence of Cr3+ shows a strong thermal quenching which can be analysed in terms of the quantum mechanical single-configurational coordinate model. In order to establish a correlation between the glass matrix composition and the spectral and temperature behaviour of the Cr3+ photoluminescence, detailed time-resolved measurements have been performed. When compared with fluoride glasses, the results attained for the emission wavelength dependence of the lifetimes and excitation spectra show an enhancement of the site-dependent effects.


This paper studies how real wages and wage returns to human capital in Kenya manufacturing firms changed, using cross-section data sets from a survey conducted in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 2000. A quantile regression technique is used to examine how the impact of human capital varies across the conditional wage distribution. The study found that between 1993 and 2000, the real wage, standardized for observable human capital characteristics increased, while returns to education appear to have been stable. Returns to education are highest for workers educated to advanced levels of education at all quartiles. Moreover, workers at the extreme top of the wage distribution have the highest returns to education while workers at the extreme bottom of the wage distribution have the lowest returns to education. This suggests that at each level of education, unmeasured factors compliment schooling in wage determination. Other dimensions of human capital such as tenure in current firm and worker's age are also significantly correlated with wages.


With the development of network technology, a huge fictional network society has formed. It has changed consumers' buying habits deeply. Most people begin to use and gradually reliance on online shopping. This paper has constructed Fujian province fresh supermarket logistics delivery information system, to explore the online supermarket business model. It is not only conducive to improve our traditional supermarket competitiveness, but also extend electronic commerce industry chain.


Stroke is the third leading cause of death and leading cause of adult long-term disability in western industrialized countries. In stroke units providing special expertise, stroke patients receive highly efficacious care (Pollack et al., 2007). However, stroke units cannot be implemented in particular in sparsely populated rural areas because of a shortage of experienced neurologists (Audebert & Schwamm, 2009). As compensatory measures, telemedical solutions are increasingly applied within "telestroke" networks to provide neurological expertise from "hubs" to small primary care hospitals ("spokes") (Audebert 2006; Müller et al., 2006). Due to various environmental factors and personal preferences, different types of telestroke networks have emerged especially in Europe and the United States within the last ten years (Schwamm et al., 2009a; Günzel et al., 2010). In these networks, various pilot studies have demonstrated that valid decisions on thrombolytic therapy, the most important and time-critical therapy for the majority of acute stroke patients, and on a variety of further special interventions can be made accurately with the aid of telemedical expert support (Audebert et al., 2006; Audebert et al., 2009). Since telemedicine has proven to be a valid supplemental procedure in the treatment of acute stroke patients, primary care hospitals, especially in less populated regions, increasingly show interest in complementing their range of care by teleconsultations (Ickenstein et al., 2010). Those primary care hospitals may have totally different characteristics, some are e.g. small and located far away from the next certified stroke unit, while others are mediumsized and have neurology experts available on weekdays, but need support for night shifts and weekends. From a health economic point of view, these and many other different types of hospitals could benefit from telestroke care. However, current telemedicine networks focus in their approaches mostly on one specific group of primary care hospitals, thereby excluding others and thus withholding specialized stroke care from a large number of stroke patients. The situation may even worsen when national reimbursement regulations for telestroke care within the DRG system will be introduced. Those regulations will most likely be tied to current practice of the dominant telestroke network design in the respective country, thereby raising an entry barrier for all other primary care hospitals. To address these important issues for the first time, comparative health economic research into optimizing health care provision by both local stroke units and combinations of established telestroke network concepts is needed – and it must specifically take into account different regional environments. In this study, we first attempt to systematically characterize telestroke network structures and identify parameters describing different


Cache memories were invented to decouple fast processors from slow memories. However, this decoupling is only partial, and many researchers have attempted to improve cache use by program optimization. Potential benefits are significant since both energy dissipation and performance highly depend on the traffic between memory levels. But modeling the traffic is difficult; this observation has led to the use of heuristic methods for steering program transformations. In this paper, we propose another approach: we simplify the cache model and we organize the target program in such a way that an asymptotic evaluation of the memory traffic is possible. This information is used by our optimization algorithm in order to find the best reordering of the program operations, at least in an asymptotic sense. Our method optimizes both temporal and spatial locality. It can be applied to any static control program with arbitrary dependences. The optimizer has been partially implemented and applied to non-trivial programs. We present experimental evidence that the amount of cache misses is drastically reduced with corresponding performance improvements.


The objective of this study is to assess the clinical outcomes of patients with maxillofacial fractures treated with rigid and non-rigid osteosynthesis and to compare the outcomes of both treatment protocols. The study design is descriptive and retrospective. The method involved the retrieval and assessment of all cases of 'pure' maxillofacial fractures treated with plates (rigid) and wires (non-rigid) protocols for a two and a half year period between  (January 2009 and June 2011).Information of interest includes demographics, types of fracture, treatment done and outcome of treatment. Retrieved data showed that 462 specific diagnoses of maxillofacial fractures were made in 207 patients. 105 of patients treated with rigid osteosynthesis and 102 treated with non-rigid osteosynthesis. 43 unsuccessful outcome measures were identified in the post-operative review period, made up of 5 in patients  treated with rigid osteosynthesis, 38 in patients treated with non-rigid osteosynthesis. This was statistically  significant (P<0.05) and odds ratio (OR) of 11.9 was calculated. This audit reveals a better clinical outcome of treatment of maxillofacial fractures, using rigid osteosynthesis compared with the traditional method of non-rigid protocol. It could be concluded that risk for unsuccessful outcome was about 12 times in patients receiving  treatment with non-rigid protocol and suggests an appropriately designed comparative study for a wholesome evaluation of the outcomes of maxillofacial fractures, using both treatment protocols.


Hi-C and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) have been combined to identify long-range chromatin interactions genome-wide at reduced cost and enhanced resolution, but extracting the information from the resulting datasets has been challenging. Here we describe a computational method, MAPS, Model-based Analysis of PLAC-seq and HiChIP, to process the data from such experiments and identify long-range chromatin interactions. MAPS adopts a zero-truncated Poisson regression framework to explicitly remove systematic biases in the PLAC-seq and HiChIP datasets, and then uses the normalized chromatin contact frequencies to identify significant chromatin interactions anchored at genomic regions bound by the protein of interest. MAPS shows superior performance over existing software tools in analysis of chromatin interactions centered on cohesin, CTCF and H3K4me3 associated regions in multiple cell types. MAPS is freely available at https://github.com/ijuric/MAPS.


A procedure of quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction was developed for detection and quantitation of a genetically modified strain of Trichoderma virens (GvT6) in the soil environment. A 1.0-kb coding region of the opd (organophosphate degrading) gene on GvT6 genomic DNA was co-amplified with a standard DNA. The standard DNA was a 1.5-kb fragment of the gpd (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) gene of T. virens containing opd -primer-binding sites on the ends. Soil samples containing various types of propagules of GvT6 were treated with a combined procedure of SDS-heating and bead-beating and the released nucleic acids were extracted and purified. Relative efficiency of T. virens DNA recovery from soil samples was about 85^95% compared with DNA yield from spore suspensions. Following the PCR, the product ratio between the target and the standard was plotted against a dilution series of the standard which was added into the amplification reaction. Then, the concentration of the opd gene and the GvT6 in the soil sample were estimated. Despite the differences in size and nucleotide sequences between the target and the standard, they were amplified with similar efficiency. The detection limit of the PCR was 10^1000 times lower compared to traditional dilution plating. The quantitative competitive PCR technique will enhance our ability to understand the ecology of soilborne fungi in the soil environment. z 1998 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.


BACKGROUND The 1918 influenza epidemic was an event of great social and health resonance, which caused high morbidity and mortality in the population. The rapidity in the development of symptoms, the extension to very large groups of the population and the lack of knowledge of the causative agent, were the factors that, added together, made the flu a major public health problem. The objective of this study was to review, through the Spanish written press, of the public health measures adopted as a consequence of the influenza epidemic of 1918. METHODS A selection of the Spanish press was carried out through the Digital Newspaper Library of the National Library (HDBN) of Spain, from January 1, 1918 to December 31, 1920; and the concept "flu" was searched, selecting those units of analysis that made reference to the public health measures adopted during the flu epidemic of 1918. RESULTS The newspapers analyzed reported the public health measures adopted by the health authorities of the different countries in order to reduce the spread of the epidemic, such as the closure of schools and the postponement of the opening of the academic year, disinfection of premises, quarantines, isolation, suspension, popular celebrations, disinfection and hygiene, border control, suspension of communications by train, as well as the creation and use of different vaccines and serums to immunize the population. CONCLUSIONS The poor management of the epidemic could be one of the causes of the great impact of influenza in the first half of October 1918, as the decisions of the administration to promote public health measures were adopted with some delay.


The paper discusses the evolution of the genre of poems in the Adyghe literature of the 1960s – 1990s. The authors disclose the typological features of the genre forms of the poem focused on modern, military and historical subjects and related to the folklore. The work examines such common features as strengthening the art problematical character, a lyrics making, the movement to the concentrated lyric and epic forms and use of a drama element. It is established that the poem, using the synthesized genre opportunities, has developed such art means which considerably enriched national literature.


The spatiotemporal propagation patterns of recent infectious diseases, originated as localized epidemic outbreaks and eventually becoming global pandemics, are highly influenced by human mobility. Case exportation from endemic areas to the rest of the countries has become unavoidable because of the striking growth of the global mobility network, helping to overcome the physical distance existing between faraway regions. In this context, understanding the features driving contagions upon the arrival of an index case in local environments constitutes an essential task to devise policies aimed at avoiding the community transmission of these diseases and the subsequent case exportation to other unaffected areas. In this review, an overview of the different models addressing this topic is given, focusing on the movement–interaction–return model and different subsequent frameworks introduced to explain the complex interplay between the recurrent movements and contagion dynamics.


Biomaterial-associated infection results in increased morbidity and mortality, and may occur because of nonproductive premature activation of neutrophils resulting in impaired phagocyte function at the biomaterial surface in the event of bacterial challenge. To further explore the effects of this premature activation, we evaluated the supernatants of biomaterial associated neutrophils to determine whether soluble mediators were released, and the likely role of these mediators. We show that these supernatants contain a chemoattractant and thereby induce chemotaxis by fresh neutrophils. No evidence of enhanced oxidative free radical production by either unstimulated neutrophils or a primed response to other mediators occurs when neutrophils were incubated with these supernatants. We also examined the effect of adding fresh neutrophils to a biomaterial surface containing a previous inoculum of neutrophils, and observed that the fresh cells did not become stimulated to release reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and also exhibited impaired killing of staphylococci. These studies suggest that not only does the biomaterial surface activate the initial wave of neutrophils but that subsequent waves of neutrophils exhibit an impaired host-defense function. These results are consistent with the known impairment of host defense in the presence of biomaterials, and provide evidence for a long-term down-regulation of neutrophil function at biomaterial surfaces.


Busulfan is commonly used in preparative conditioning regimens prior to haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in children and young adults for malignant and non-malignant dis- orders. For many years busulfan was only available in oral form, resulting in large inter- and intra-patients variability in plasma exposure, associated with higher graft failure rate as well as higher toxicity such as veno-occlusive disease. With the development of an intravenous formulation of busulfan, a more accurate control of both the inter- and intra-patient variabil- ity has been provided. The goal of this study was to evaluate the use and efficacy of intra - venous busulfan in comparison with the oral formulation in children undergoing an autolo- gous transplantation after conditioning with busulfan. Despite the small number of patients, this study confirmed the apparent benefit of intravenous busulfan in children undergoing an autologous HSCT. The use of a five-level dose schedule defined by body weight resulted in an efficient engraftment with marked reduction in the incidence of veno-occlusive disease compared with oral busulfan. In terms of disease-free outcome, survival and event-free sur- vival, similar results have been obtained in both groups. The choice of this formulation of busulfan should therefore be considered. (Belg J Hematol 2012;3:34-40)


This relatively slim 876-page book with more than 800 articles by 365 contributors can serve a unique function for the busy physician. The articles are not written for the biochemical specialist but for scientists in other disciplines who want to keep up to date with modern biochemistry. The entries, many by eminent biochemists, do not presuppose previous biochemical knowledge. Many portions are two or three pages in length, contain cross references, and are succeeded by a bibliography. The book is not intended to present detailed reviews as in a handbook but to contain more general articles to give the average reader a broad sweep of information on a particular subject. Typical entries are as follows: chromosomes (biochemical aspects), enzyme classification and nomenclature, messenger ribonucleic acids, myelin, pentoses in metabolism, potassium and sodium (in biological systems), phosphorylation, oxidation, methylation, and ultracentrifugation in metabolism. By referring to this text and reading many


Kernel moisture content at the harvest stage (KMC) is an important trait that affects the mechanical harvesting of maize grain, and the identification of genetic loci for KMC is beneficial for maize molecular breeding. In this study, we performed a multi-locus genome-wide association study (ML-GWAS) to identify quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) for KMC using an association mapping panel of 251 maize inbred lines that were genotyped with an Affymetrix CGMB56K SNP Array and phenotypically evaluated in three environments. Ninety-eight QTNs for KMC were detected using six ML-GWAS models (mrMLM, FASTmrMLM, FASTmrEMMA, PLARmEB, PKWmEB, and ISIS EM-BLASSO). Eleven of these QTNs were considered to be stable, as they were detected by at least four ML-GWAS models under a uniformed environment or in at least two environments and BLUP using the same ML-GWAS model. With qKMC5.6 removed, the remaining 10 stable QTNs explained <10% of the phenotypic variation, suggesting that KMC is mainly controlled by multiple minor-effect genetic loci. A total of 63 candidate genes were predicted from the 11 stable QTNs, and 10 candidate genes were highly expressed in the kernel at different time points after pollination. High prediction accuracy was achieved when the KMC-associated QTNs were included as fixed effects in genomic selection, and the best strategy was to integrate all KMC QTNs identified by all six ML-GWAS models. These results further our understanding of the genetic architecture of KMC and highlight the potential of genomic selection for KMC in maize breeding.


Although IL-4 signals through two receptors, IL-4Rα/common γ-chain (γc) and IL-4Rα/IL-13Rα1, and only the latter is also activated by IL-13, IL-13 contributes more than IL-4 to goblet cell hyperplasia and airway hyperresponsiveness in murine asthma. To determine whether unique gene induction by IL-13 might contribute to its greater proasthmatic effects, mice were inoculated intratracheally with IL-4 or IL-13, and pulmonary gene induction was compared by gene microarray and real-time PCR. Only the collagen α2 type VI (Ca2T6) gene and three small proline-rich protein (SPRR) genes were reproducibly induced >4-fold more by IL-13 than by IL-4. Preferential IL-13 gene induction was not attributable to B cells, T cells, or differences in cytokine potency. IL-4 signaling through IL-4Rα/γc suppresses Ca2T6 and SPRR gene expression in normal mice and induces these genes in RAG2/γc-deficient mice. Although IL-4, but not IL-13, induces IL-12 and IFN-γ, which suppress many effects of IL-4, IL-12 suppresses only the Ca2T6 gene, and IL-4-induced IFN-γ production does not suppress the Ca2T6 or SPRR genes. Thus, IL-4 induces genes in addition to IL-12 that suppress STAT6-mediated SPRR gene induction. These results provide a potential explanation for the dominant role of IL-13 in induction of goblet cell hyperplasia and airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma.


Deep Neural Networks (DNN) have been successfully used to perform classification and regression tasks, particularly in computer vision based applications. Recently, owing to the widespread deployment of Internet of Things (IoT), we identify that the classification tasks for time series data, specifically from different sensors are of utmost importance. In this paper, we present SRDCNN: Strongly Regularized Deep Convolution Neural Network (DCNN) based deep architecture to perform time series classification tasks. The novelty of the proposed approach is that the network weights are regularized by both L1 and L2 norm penalties. Both of the regularization approaches jointly address the practical issues of smaller number of training instances, requirement of quicker training process, avoiding overfitting problem by incorporating sparsification of weight vectors as well as through controlling of weight values. We compare the proposed method (SRDCNN) with relevant state-of-the-art algorithms including different DNNs using publicly available time series classification benchmark (the UCR/UEA archive) time series datasets and demonstrate that the proposed method provides superior performance. We feel that SRDCNN warrants better generalization capability to the deep architecture by profoundly controlling the network parameters to combat the training instance insufficiency problem of real-life time series sensor signals.


We report a new approach for the synthesis of symmetrical oligothiophenes based on a highly efficient palladium-catalyzed Ullmann coupling reaction. This synthetic route enables the simple preparation of substituted oligothiophenes with a wider range of functionalities and in higher yield compared to previously reported syntheses. We demonstrate our procedure by preparing a novel, highly soluble α,ω-substituted sexithiophene, dibutylphosphonate-α-sexithiophene (DBP-α-6T). We present spectroscopic characterization of this compound in solution and solution cast thin films. Thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated using solution cast thin films of DBP-α-6T as the p-type semiconducting channel have high on/off ratios, demonstrating the utility of this synthetic approach in the preparation of highly pure materials for solution-deposited organic electronic devices.


The status and relevance of repetitive nucleotide sequences or microsatellite alterations in sporadic cutaneous melanoma has not been fully clarified. In this study we evaluated the presence of microsatellite alterations in a series of sporadic primary and metastatic melanomas in order to discover which genetic events may have a pathogenetic role in the development of this disease. Tumour samples were obtained from 21 patients with sporadic cutaneous melanoma, and from eight corresponding positive sentinel lymph nodes and one corresponding in-transit metastasis. In each specimen, selected neoplastic cells were procured by laser-assisted microdissection. Polymerase chain reaction-based microsatellite analysis was performed using a panel of 11 microsatellite markers, located at chromosome 2p, 4q, 9p, 16q, 17p and 21q. Overall, we found microsatellite alterations in five (23.8%) melanomas. Of these, one case showed alteration at marker D2S2182 and one at marker D17S261, whereas in another case alterations at three loci, D2S2182, D2S2291 and D9S171, were found. The fourth patient demonstrated an alteration at locus D9S171 both in the primary tumour and in the histologically positive sentinel lymph node. The fifth case was characterized by alterations at D2S2182 and at D17S250, whereas the corresponding in-transit metastasis showed the same alterations as the primary tumour and an additional alteration at IFNα. In conclusion, our study confirms previous observations that cutaneous melanomas demonstrate microsatellite alterations, although such instability occurs at a lower frequency than specific mismatch repair defects. Genetic analysis of metastatic lesions revealed that the same microsatellite alterations as in the primary tumour are seen, but additional genetic changes may develop during disease progression.


The second introductory report, delivered on the 14th Congress of the Czechoslovak geographers in Levice, is printed here in the Czech language in the full form. The author evaluates here the development of the geography jn the world and compares it with the development of the geography namely in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In the conclusion he engages himself in the perspectives of this line for the course of the nearest three years. He emphasizes the necessity of solving theoretical problems, geographical prognoses in the frame of the situation in ČSSR concerning the reorganization of the geographic instructions at schools of all grades.


India is a land of rivers having prevalently a farming-based economy. Agriculture is the fundamental supporter of most of the general population in India and water is the most significant contribution to crop generation. The accomplishment of agriculture relies on the sufficiency and timely event of precipitation. Yet, the precipitation in India is frequently meagre, uneven and there is indeed, even all out disappointment in certain districts and during certain periods. Downpour is bound to a couple of months in a year and it shifts from year to year and district to-area which makes enormous pieces of the nation defenceless against drought. In this manner, natural distribution of water is lacking both spatially and transiently. Aside from the distinction in money saving advantage of good irrigation in various mouzas and diverse irrigation systems, the spatial example is likewise uneven at small scale level for example one irrigation framework to another irrigation framework. The Z-Score an incentive if there should be an occurrence of Co-employable RLI (+1.80) scored most astounding which shows the greatest net benefit for boro development. The most minimal score which is seen in the STW (leased) (- 1.42) poor inundated zone shows minimal benefit for boor development.


Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was used as a pilot study that focused on young female adults in the age group of 18-22 years. Sample size of this study was 40 female college students. Out of which 20 were in experimental group and the other 20 as control group. Screening of the subjects was done using Demographic Questionnaire. The study will measure the effect of MBSR intervention of 8-weeks on individual to be more mindful and its effect on its attention and perception of stress using the task stroop, change detection and KIMS and perceived stress scale.


Over the next few decades, significant wealth will transfer from one generation to the next, with men and women making these critical decisions. Understanding the unique preferences, attitudes, behaviors, and practices around wealth provides a clearer understanding of the alignment between men and women when it comes to their wealth. Affluent men and women (N = 1236) were invited to take an online survey addressing their interest, knowledge, attitudes, and involvement with their families' wealth management. The study garnered an 18% response rate. At its conclusion, participants were invited to a phone interview and/or an online focus group to inform women's and men's experience of handling wealth from their gender's unique perspective. In total, 218 men and women participated, of which 8 men and 12 women were interviewed. Two focus groups were held, with 6 women in one focus group and 11 men in another focus group. The triangulation of the mixed methodology provided rich and interesting insights to the alignment between men and women as it relates to their wealth.


Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and other epithelial tumors overexpress cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) differentiating them from normal cells. COX-2 metabolizes arachidonic acid (AA) to H-series prostaglandins (PGs) which are further metabolized by different synthases to E-, F-, and D-series PGs. D-series PGs (PGD 2 ) are then converted to J-series PGs (PGJ 2 ) and these bioactive lipids induce apoptosis by different mechanisms including endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Arachidonoyl-ethanolamide (AEA) is a cannabinoid that causes apoptotic cell death in diverse tumor types. The antiproliferative activity of these lipids is mediated by the G-protein coupled receptors, CB1 and CB2. However, recent studies have demonstrated that receptor-independent effects may also account for its activity. Several studies have attributed the receptor-independent cytotoxicity of AEA to COX-2. COX-2 metabolizes AEA to E-, F-, and D-series PG-ethanolamides (PG-EAs). Our previous data showed that AEA is also converted to a novel metabolite, 15 deoxy Δ 12,14 prostaglandin J 2 -ethanolamide (15dPGJ 2 -EA). J-series PGs that are derived from AA are potent inducers of ER stress-mediated apoptosis. Therefore, the current study examines the role of 15dPGJ 2 -EA in the activation of the apoptotic ER stress pathway. To determine if AEA is selectively toxic to tumorigenic keratinocytes, tumorigenic (JWF2) and non-tumorigenic (HaCaT) keratinocytes were used. A significant reduction in cell viability was observed in JWF2 but not in HaCaT cells treated with AEA. Interestingly, COX-2 was overexpressed in JWF2 cells suggesting that the selective toxicity of AEA might be attributed to COX-2 overexpression and the production of 15dPGJ 2 -EA. In tumorigenic JWF2 keratinocytes, AEA induced apoptosis and increased the expression of apoptotic ER stress proteins, C/EBP homologous protein-10 (CHOP10) and caspase-12. In addition, the use of ER stress inhibitors salubrinal and 4-phenylbutyric acid (PBA) inhibited the cytotoxic effect of AEA. To evaluate the role of 15dPGJ 2 -EA in AEA-induced ER stress-apoptosis, the selective PGD synthase inhibitor, selinium tetrachloride (SeCl 4 ), was used. SeCL 4 reduced AEA-mediated synthesis of PGD 2 , 15dPGJ 2 , and CHOP10 as well as the initiation of apoptosis. We also confirmed that PGD 2 -EA was metabolized to 15dPGJ 2 -EA and increased CHOP expression and caspase-3 cleavage, similar to AEA. Furthermore, we verified that the effect of AEA on ER stress-apoptosis was cannabinoid receptor-independent. These findings implicate 15dPGJ 2 -EA in AEA-induced ER stress-apoptosis. Since this metabolite is formed in presence of COX-2, AEA may be an ideal topical treatment for NMSC that will be selectively cytotoxic to cancer cells but not detrimental to normal, healthy surrounding cells. Citation Format: Eman Soliman, Rukiyah Van Dross, Allison Danell. A novel J-series prostamide mediates anandamide-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress-apoptosis in tumorigenic keratinocytes. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2919. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2919


Abstract Objectives The consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in western populations, particularly for breast cancer (BC). Although the consumption of UPF is increasing rapidly in Latin American (LA) populations too, there has been no evaluation of its association with BC among LA women, where 20% of the BC cases present at ages younger than 45 years. We therefore evaluated the role of UPF intake on BC risk in young women participating in the Latin American PRECAMA study. Methods The PRECAMA study is an ongoing study coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and involves scientific teams in four LA countries (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico); 406 incident BC cases and population based controls aged 20–45 years are recruited. Trained nurses administered a lifestyle and food frequency questionnaires (FFQ), conducted anthropometric measurements and collected biological samples. Tumour receptor status are determined in a centralized laboratory. UPF consumption was estimated by applying the NOVA classification to the dietary consumption data obtained via the FFQs. The association of the consumption of UPF and BC was determined using conditional logistic regression analysis adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results The median age at recruitment was 40 years. The median percentage of calories from UPF was 24% (10th to 90th percentile: 9 to 43%). UPF intake was positively associated with BC risk (OR for tertiles 2 and 3 in comparison with tertile 1 were 1.84 (95% CI 1.21 -2.81) and 1.69 (95% CI 0.99 -2.89) respectively). Among the UPF most strongly associated with BC, we identified the intake of industrial bread, packaged sweet and savoury snacks, breakfast cereals, cakes and desserts, and ready-eat/fast food. Comparing the 3rd with the 1st tertile of energy intake from the UPF group "fast food" the OR for BC risk was 1.93 (95% CI 1.23–3.04). Discussion Our results show positive associations between the consumption of UPF and BC risk in young women in LA. Therefore, global actions to decrease UPF intakes are urgently needed to address the cancer burden. In addition, further studies are needed to disentangle mechanisms relating UPF intake and carcinogenic processes in the breast. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, a large-scale cohort including ~500,000 participants and 18,814 BC cases will be used to unravel the mechanistic pathways underlying these positive associations between the consumption of UPF and BC risk.


Abstract Multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders are characterized by production of a large number of plasma cells in the bone marrow. On the other hand, plasmacytoma results from proliferation of abnormal plasma cells in the soft tissue or skeletal system. Neurological complications are frequently observed in these diseases. The most commonly known complications among those complications are spine fractures, spinal cord compressions, and peripheral neuropathies. Although neurological involvements are common in plasmacytomas, extramedullary spinal epidural localizations have been reported very rarely. In this case report, we aimed to present a plasmacytoma case that presented with acute onset of upper extremity monoparesis. A 40-year-old woman was admitted to our clinic with complaints of sudden weakness and numbness in her left arm following neck and left arm pain. Emergency cervical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an epidural mass and the patient underwent emergency surgery. The patient showed improvement post-operatively and the pathology was reported as plasmacytoma. Following hematology consultation, systemic chemotherapy was initiated and radiotherapy was planned after wound healing.


Abstract This study focuses on how voters and politicians rationally select a preferred policy-making venue (Politician or Agency), and its implications for the principal-agent relationship between voters and politicians in a representative democracy. This study allows for incomplete information, as well as solving for the comparative static conditions pertaining to the extent that a politician's policy-making venue choices mirror those preferred by a representative voter. The comparative static results highlight when a politician (1) chooses the representative voter's preferred policy-making venue (Active or Passive Political Responsiveness); (2) is able to choose freely either policy-making venue without committing agency loss (Political Discretion); and (3) willing to deviate from the representative voter's preferred policy-making venue (Political Shirking). In contrast to the study by Spence, this study analytically demonstrates that one cannot infer that the benefits accrued from agency policy-making will necessarily exceed those from electoral institutions.


Storing water at home has become a common practice in many areas with water delivery systems in developing countries. However, little is known about which factors motivate households to expend on water storage devices. Instrumental variable Tobit models are estimated to investigate the relationship between perceptions of water supply reliability and household expenditures on water storage devices in León, Nicaragua. Findings indicate that almost 80% of households use at least one storage device on which they expend an average of 0.87% of their income. Results show that reliability perceptions are the main factor driving household expenditures on storage devices, followed by home ownership and household income. Findings also indicate that reliability perceptions are associated with service performance and assessment of service hours relative to peers.


Although protein receptors on the plasma membrane involved in the initial steps of productive HIV-1 infection have been well characterized, little is known about interactions between cellular carbohydrate receptors and HIV-1. Here, we report the involvement of a carbohydrate receptor, the macrophage mannose receptor (MR), and its role in supporting HIV-1 binding and entry. HIV-1 can enter the cytoplasm of human macrophages and microglia as well as murine macrophages by MR, although no subsequent viral replication was observed. Correspondingly, HIV-1 entry into Cos-7 cells after induction of expression of MR by transfection with MR-cDNA did not demonstrate viral replication. Our studies suggest that whereas MR may serve as a binding and an entry site, the MR-mediated pathway does not lead to productive HIV-1 infection. In addition, we report that recombinant HIV-1 gp120 blocks MR-mediated phagocytosis in human and murine alveolar macrophages and microglial cells. Therefore, characterization of the HIV-1 noninfectious MR-mediated phagocytic pathway may foster advances in HIV-1 vaccine design and an improved understanding of HIV-1/AIDS pathogenesis and host defenses.


In this paper, I analyze how corruption in one country may be affected by its neighbors' corruption. It seeks to explain why corruption is perpetuating in large geographical areas populated by developing countries despite anticorruption efforts made in the single country. In our empirical approach, we capture the spatial dependency by regional corruption. Three main techniques are used: spatial autocorrelation tests, GMM and three stage least squares. Our results show that, a lower regional corruption (as measured by the average of the level of corruption in one country's neighbors) is associated with a lower level of national corruption. Among the potential mechanisms explaining this correlation, the level of economic development (GDP per capita) seems to be the most important. Foreign aid and trade openness show less clear results. Noneconomic mechanisms such as cross-country contagion processes of voice expressions and demands on accountability are other possible transmission mechanisms.


Background The End of Life Care Strategy (2008) states: 'high quality services should be available in all locations, including prisons,' and recommends collaborative working across the prisons, coronial, healthcare and specialist palliative care services. Aims and Methods The aim of the study was to explore experiences of physicians working in specialist palliative care, in caring for prisoners and their views about facilitators and barriers, to providing high quality care. An online questionnaire was distributed to members of the Association of Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland. Results Two hundred and thirty-six completed questionnaires (23.3% response rate). One hundred and thirty-seven (58.1%) respondents had experience of caring for prisoners. The most common reasons for review included pain control (23.6%), symptom control (27.6%) and end of life care (20.5%). The interface between services in prisons was identified as complex by 173 (73.3%) of respondents–impacting on delivery of care, requiring a comprehensive interface between staff inside and specialist palliative care services outside the prison. Ninety-six (39.4%) respondents were willing to be involved in the delivery of an education programme and 128 (54.2%) were keen to learn about prison structures and healthcare. Ninety respondents were unsure if end of life care tools could be implemented within prisons. Conclusions There are consistent perceptions regarding factors that enhance palliative and end of life care in prisons. These include the need to develop working relationships, and enhance communication, within the prison as well as between the prison and outside agencies. The development of education and research, management of public perceptions and the review of policies, procedures and legal issues were highlighted. There is willingness by physicians to engage with the prison service to develop and support palliative and end of life care. Strategic development at local and national level is important due to the unique characteristics of each prison.


High-heeled shoes of excessive height can severely injure shoe users. Such shoes may cause various injuries, including musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, and hallux valgus. A physician can estimate an appropriate heel height limitation for an individual wearer by touching calcaneus to estimate deformation of the calcaneal varus. It would typically be impractical for a woman to seek the professional assistance of her physician when buying high-heeled shoes. A novel system was developed in this study for evaluating the maximum safe height of high-heeled shoes for female wearers. In this study, images of Achilles tendons, medial longitudinal arches, lateral longitudinal arches, and plantar pressure distributions served as the inputs in the proposed system. After the system had been trained with those images, the system could output the maximum height of high-heeled shoes for each individual wearer. In this study, two crucial methods were used for performing the evaluating system. First, Basic CNN, VGG16, and MobileNetV2 were used to evaluate images of feet. Through the experiments, the proposed artificial intelligence (AI) model achieved an accuracy of 0.88. Next, a statistics algorithm was used to modify the results obtained from the AI model. Subsequently, the error of the system declined. The mean absolute error of the proposed system which was used for evaluating the maximum height of high-heeled shoes was 1.21 cm, which is less than the typical increment for commercially available high-heeled shoes.


This article studies the importance of international theoretical and empirical analyses and the extent to which they can be applied to explain residential segregation of foreign immigrants in one of the most multi-ethnic areas of Spain, the province of Almeria. To find out the processes leading to segregation, we have analysed urban growth and the context of reception as the key elements in designing immigrant incorporation. The results show that the main cause of segregation is ethno-discrimination based on native residential preferences for the endogroup.


Brief REM latencies, i.e. abnormally short intervals between sleep onset and the occurrence of the first REM period in polygraphic recordings of night sleep, have been proposed in recent years to be of diagnostic value for primary and endogenous depressions. It was also postulated that therapeutic success of antidepressant drugs can be predicted from this characteristic. Analysis of recent studies shows, however, that none of these claims can be maintained: although brief REM latencies do occur more frequently in middle-aged and elderly depressed patients than in healthy controls, this--strongly age-dependent-feature is neither sensitive to nor specific of depressions and therefore unlikely to facilitate their diagnosis. Similarly, there are no valid indications that brief REM latencies might predict success or failure of antidepressant drug treatment. Heterogeneous results of the studies reviewed are probably due to inhomogeneous selection of patient and control groups, variable periods of withdrawal of previous medication and other procedural differences.


mixed with one drop of the albumin-diluted incomplete antiD on a glass slide. The tests are incubated in a moist chamber to prevent drying at 370 C. for 30 minutes and read with the naked eye by tilting the slide. The moist chambers which we use are flat "perspex" boxes 12 by 7 by 1 in. (30 by 18 by 2.5 cm.) with loose-fitting lids, and each contains a piece of wet blotting-paper. These boxes accommodate ten 7-in. (18-cm.) slides each carrying ten tests. Some form of moist chamber is essential for the jest. The positive results are discernible in a very few minutes, but are left for 30 minutes to develop complete agglutination. I regret that space does not permit of a full description of the technique, but, should your correspondents be interested, I will 'be happy to lend them a colour film describing the method in detail.-I am, etc.,


Abstract Background: Cardiac fibroblasts differentiation plays a critical role in cardiac remodeling and failure, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are still poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) had been identified as important regulators during cell differentiation. The aim of the present study was to screen the miRNAs involved in regulation of cardiac fibroblasts differentiation. Methods: The differentiation of rat cardiac fibroblasts into myofibroblasts was induced by transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). Small RNA sequencing was then applied to detect the differentially expressed miRNAs. Results: A total of 450 known miRNAs were detected, and 127 putative novel miRNAs were predicted by miRDeep2 analysis. DEGseq analysis and qRT-PCR confirmed that 24 known miRNAs were differentially expressed in TGF-β1-induced cardiac fibroblasts, including three up-regulated miRNAs and 21 down-regulated miRNAs. After miRNAs target genes prediction by miRanda algorithm, pathway analysis showed that these potential target genes were involved in Calcium signaling pathway, Type II diabetes mellitus, and Glutamatergic synapse pathway, etc. Meanwhile, seven putative miRNAs were also detected differentially expressed during TGF-β1-induced cardiac fibroblasts differentiation. Conclusions: These differentially expressed miRNAs might play critical roles in cardiac fibroblasts differentiation. Altered expression of miRNAs may yield new insights into the underlying mechanisms of cardiac fibrosis and provide novel mechanism-based therapeutic strategies for cardiac fibrosis.


US retailers are increasingly interested in entering the consumer market in Mexico. Demographic and purchasing trends are highly favorable. However, there is relatively little information available on post-purchase satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behavior among Mexican consumers. The present study presented four purchasing scenarios to a stratified sample of adults in the centrally-located Mexican state of Queretaro. The four scenarios described an unsatisfactory experience with a convenience good, a shopping good, a durable good, and a service. Respondents were asked to indicate which of six consumer complaining behavior (CCB) responses they were likely to pursue on a five point scale. Results indicated that complaining to friends and family was the most likely result with very little attention given to responses involving third parties. Even complaining to the local store or seller was not a common response. US retailers must teach Mexican consumers that complaining is a useful endeavor. Otherwise, US retailers will not be able to capture information from dissatisfied consumers. Such information is critical in generating customer loyalty; particularly from firms that have a different cultural orientation.


As silicone polymer implants are used more widely for arthroplasty of the wrist, hand, and foot, the complication of silicone-induced erosive arthritis in these areas is being recognized with increasing frequency. Pathologically, there is a chronic foreign-body type of inflammation with both intra- and extracellular silicone particulate debris. We report seven cases with this complication in various locations, showing distinctive radiographic findings. These include well-defined marginal articular erosions and subchondral cysts with marginal sclerosis; normal mineralization; and deformity, dislocation, or decrease in the size of the silicone implant. Prompt recognition of this complication is important, because surgical removal of the silicone implant terminates the progressive and destructive process.


Background: The hypothalamus is a key brain region in the control of energy metabolism, sleep and circadian rhythms, stress and anxiety, food intake, sexual and reproductive behaviors. Orexin-A (hypocretin-1) is a neuropeptide, synthesized in the hypothalamus extensively linked to sleep/ wake states, particularly excessive daytime sleepiness. Chronic migraine is comorbid with several conditions but little is known about its mechanisms. We aimed to study the role of orexin-A in the mechanism of chronic migraine and comorbid conditions. Methods: We studied orexin-A levels in the CSF of 60 chronic migraine patients, comparing with age and sex matched controls, and comorbidity with anxiety, depression and excessive daytime sleepiness, using appropriate scales. Results:Orexin-A levels were inversively correlated with anxiety levels (r=-308, p=0,03), but not depression and excessive daytime sleepiness. Orexin levels in CM patients were not different than controls. Discussion/Conclusion: Discussion/Conclusion: Discussion/Conclusion: Discussion/Conclusion: Discussion/Conclusion: Anxiety in CM may be due to a decrease in orexin-A or may be the cause of its depletion. The orexinergic system may be implicated in anxiety comorbid with migraine.


A type of resonant coil cavity is analyzed as a launcher for ICRF. This approach offers the advantages of: (1) convenient and flexible sizing, (2) ease of operation and maintenance, and (3) high power handling capability. We present results for resonance conditions, mode structures, power handling capabilities, and sensitivity to variation in plasma parameters.


HIV and tuberculosis (TB) remain the two most common infectious causes of death worldwide. During the recent decade antiretroviral treatment (ART) has become available for millions of people living with HIV (PLHIV) globally; yet more than half of PLHIV have not yet initiated ART. In order to achieve universal access, further decentralization of care is needed. This is a major challenge to health systems, since access to expertise and adapted diagnostic methods to diagnose and monitor patients on treatment in these areas are lacking. Most notably, two issues face clinicians treating PLHIV in high TB endemic areas; is this HIV-patient also infected with TB? and when should ART be started in patients with both HIV and TB? In two papers we developed clinical scoring algorithms to help answer these questions in areas with restricted access to laboratory facilities. In paper I, a clinical screening algorithm could increase the number of patients with low risk of TB, thereby limiting those in need of further investigations for TB as compared to only using the existing WHO-TB symptom screening algorithm. In paper II, a similar scoring algorithm was developed to assess the level of immunosuppression in patients with HIV and TB coinfection. For more than one third of these patients, severe immunosuppression could be excluded. According to current recommendations, this subset would therefore not be in need of immediate ART initiation during TB treatment providing time to prepare patients for life-long ART.
In a second part of the thesis, we evaluated the impact of TB on the immune system, both on peripheral CD4 cells and neopterin as a marker of immune activation. In paper III, we found that 25% of HIV negative patients with TB had low CD4 cell count (below 500 cells/mm3). These levels increased until end of TB treatment but not to levels found in healthy controls, suggesting a sustained impact of TB on CD4 cell homeostasis. CD4 cell levels were associated with signs of severe TB (positive sputum smear microscopy, low mid upper arm circumference and bedridden status). In paper IV, neopterin levels were increased in TB patients (23.2 nmol/l) compared to controls (3.8nmol/l), particularly in HIV/TB coinfected patients (54nmol/l). Neopterin correlated to low CD4 cell count, and high neopterin levels were associated with increasing CD4 cell levels during treatment for TB. Yet, neopterin was not suitable as surrogate markers for CD4 cell count. In conclusion, this thesis shows that clinical evaluation of patients should be an integral part in the building of health care for HIV and TB in low-income settings, and that clinically based instruments may be helpful for triage and clinical decisions. Furthermore, we found that TB has an impact on both CD4 cell levels and immune activation. This further emphasizes the need to detect and treat TB in PLHIV.


This paper highlights new developments in fibers, yarns and fabrics from the ITMA 2019 show, which took place in Barcelona, Spain. Fiber and yarn chapter was launched in 2011 in response to industry demands for a comprehensive, one-stop sourcing platform for textile and garment manufacturers and since then this chapter has been growing. For ITMA 2015, this chapter included another subchapter on recycled fibers and yarns to support textile and garment industries commitment to sustainability. In the 2019 show, this chapter was expanded to include an innovative fabrics section as part of the yarns and fibers chapter. The fiber, yarn and fabric chapter offered innovative and eco-friendly raw material solutions to support these industries with a large focus towards recycling, waste reduction, and production efficiency. This paper highlights the sustainability initiatives exhibited by various companies in this chapter at ITMA 2019.


Traditional studies of multi-source, multi-terminal interference channels typically allow a vanishing probability of error in communication. Motivated by the study of network coding, this work addresses the task of quantifying the loss in rate when insisting on zero error communication in the context of interference channels.


Solder joint fatigue life in thermal cycling has been studied for decades using the finite element method. A great variety of modeling methodologies such as global/local modeling (sub-modeling) and sub-structure modeling (superelement) has been developed. Many different types of constitutive equations for solder alloys, various loading assumptions, and several definitions of damage parameters have been used. However, the accuracy of these different modeling approaches has not been completely evaluated in literature. There has been some long-standing confusion regarding the modeling assumptions and their effect on the accuracy of models, such as the initial stress-free temperature setting, selection of damage parameters, and choice of element type. This paper presents a comprehensive study of finite element modeling techniques for solder joint fatigue life prediction. Several guidelines are recommended to obtain consistent and accurate finite element results


The right to disconnect refers to a worker's right to be able to disconnect from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communication, like emails and other messages, during non-work hours and holidays. The Latvian Labor Law does not directly determine the right to disconnect from digital devices, however, such rights arise from certain legal norms. Examples of the provisions of the Labor Law relate to the general rules on rest periods and breaks in work. The recent research results of remote work during Covid-19 pandemic conducted by the author show that for 69.3% of respondents working remotely possibility to disconnect from digital devices outside working hours (when the assigned work tasks have been completed) is extremely crucial. If the rights to disconnect are not explicitly regulated, the risk of disbalance between work and private life is at stake. The increase in workload during the emergency caused by COVID-19 was indicated by 42.7% of respondents in Latvia. That shows that another problem of lack of regulation of rights to disconnect could be unpaid overtime. The research shows that 14.7% of respondents were not paid for overtime work when working from home. The practice shows a critical need for sustainable and predictable changes in the legal system to protect employees' rights and thus ensure stable employment in general in Latvia. It was also recently decided by Employment Committee MEPs that EU countries must ensure that workers are able to exercise the right to disconnect effectively. Some of the member states in the European Union have recently implemented the right into their legal system (Portugal, Spain, France), but each member state takes a different approach. That means that discussion is no longer if there is a need to implement the "right to disconnect" in national legal acts, but how to implement the right efficiently not only at a national level but at the EU level as well.The goal of the research is to provide an in-depth analysis of the legal status of the "right to disconnect" in the legal system of the European Union and Latvia. In order to reach the goal, the author is using various scientific research methods. The paper is based on a quantitative research method and analytical, comparative, case law analysis method to provide valid conclusions on the current role of the "right to disconnect" in Latvia and the European Union. The author also offers recommendations on how to implement the "right to disconnect" efficiently to avoid violation of employees' rights and ensure a sustainable work environment.In the result, the author has concluded that the biggest impediment of the employee's right to disconnect is the lack of clear legislative preconditions that would encourage businesses to preserve employees' freedom to disconnect, resulting in a more sustainable working environment - both in the office and remotely.Finally, the author concludes that there is a need to adjust regulation in Latvia to meet the needs of widespread use of remote work. The author also concludes that a significant role to protect employees' right to disconnect is for governmental authorities to explain the right to disconnect to employees and employers.


Sulfonated polyaniline (SPAN) was synthesized by sulfonation of polyaniline (PANI) base with fuming sulfuric acid. Thin films were cast from polymer solutions in basic media. The polymer films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry. XPS in combination with FTIR showed that the preparation procedure led to ca. 47% sulfonation of an otherwise unchanged polyaniline backbone. The NIR spectra of SPAN films showed a polaron band at higher energies than with polyaniline. This is in agreement with the lower conductivity of SPAN as compared with polyaniline. SEM micrographs of the SPAN films showed a compact globular morphology. Electrodes modified with thin SPAN films exhibited two redox steps, both in aqueous and in non-aqueous electrolytes. The specific charge stored in SPAN films was found to be ca. 37 A h kg–1 in aqueous solution (only the first redox step) and ca. 68 A h kg–1 in non-aqueous media (both redox steps). A practical SPAN–Li battery could have 50% more specific energy than a PANI–Li battery. The optical spectra of SPAN films exhibited bands at 310, 450 and 750 nm, the intensities of which changed during the redox process. The absorption coefficients of SPAN (emeraldine base state) solutions had values of a= 410 at 313 nm and a= 239 at 563 nm. The suitability of SPAN for use as a cation-insertion material for battery and electrochromic applications is discussed.