Image registration algorithms can be generally categorized into two groups: non-rigid and rigid. Recently, many deep learning-based algorithms employ a neural net to characterize non-rigid image registration function. However, do they always perform better? In this study, we compare the state-of-art deep learning-based non-rigid registration approach with rigid registration approach. The data is generated from Kaggle Dog vs Cat Competition \url{this https URL} and we test the algorithms' performance on rigid transformation including translation, rotation, scaling, shearing and pixelwise non-rigid transformation. The Voxelmorph is trained on rigidset and nonrigidset separately for comparison and we also add a gaussian blur layer to its original architecture to improve registration performance. The best quantitative results in both root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) metrics for rigid registration are produced by SimpleElastix and non-rigid registration by Voxelmorph. We select representative samples for visual assessment.


About 70% of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have NAFLD which is a risk factor for cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Many factors may be associated with more severe disease (i.e., insulin resistance, obesity). However, the metabolic profile of T2DM patients spared from having NAFLD and liver fibrosis is unclear. To this end, we recruited 266 patients with a history of T2DM without a known history of NAFLD (age: 59 ± 10 years; female 58.3 %; BMI: 33.0 ± 6.3 kg/m2, A1c: 7.0 ± 1.4 %) attending the outpatient university clinics. We performed a medical history, physical exam and measured routine/metabolic laboratories, liver fat (by CAP score ≥ 274 dB/m) and fibrosis (by liver stiffness measurement or LSM ≥7.0 kPa or F≥1) by elastography. A total of 32% patients did not have NAFLD, but when compared to NAFLD patients there were no differences in terms of age, gender, or race. Those without NAFLD had a lower mean BMI ± SD (29.6 ± 5.2 vs. 34.6 ± 6.2 kg/m2) and better glycemic control (mean A1c: 6.7 ± 1.3% vs. 7.2 ± 1.4%, both p<0.05). Patients without NAFLD had lower plasma ALT levels (mean 21 ± 12 vs. 28 ± 19 U/L; p<0.05). Patients with NAFLD had more severe (hepatic) insulin resistance (IR) (HOMA-IR: 3.0 ± 2.3 vs. 4.9 ± 3.2, p<0.05), with more people having a HOMA-IR ≥3.0 (35% vs. 72%, p<0.05). In multiple regression analysis, with a 95% CI, obesity (OR 4.0, 2.3-7.1), HOMA-IR (OR 3.1, 1.0-5.7), and worse glycemic control (A1c) (OR 1.7, 1.1-2.9) accounted for most of the difference between subjects with vs. without NAFLD. In NAFLD patients, comparing those with vs. without fibrosis, obesity (OR 2.8, 1.6-4.9) and elevated aminotransferases (OR 2.1, 1.3-3.2) accounted for most of the difference among patient. Conclusion: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus without NAFLD are usually more insulin sensitive and have a more favorable cardiometabolic profile than those with NAFLD. This highlights the role of insulin resistance and lipotoxicity in the development of NAFLD in this population.

 E.Valdez saenz: None. D.Barb: None. M.J.Gurka: None. A.Sharma: None. K.Cusi: Consultant; Poxel SA, Altimmune, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AstraZeneca, 89bio, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Lilly, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Medscape, Myovant, Novo Nordisk, ProSciento, Quest Diagnostics, Sagimet, Sonic Incytes, Terns, Research Support; Echosens, Inventiva, LabCorp, Zydus. E.Godinez leiva: None. R.Lomonaco: None. S.A.Marangi: None. S.Kalavalapalli: None. M.A.Gonzalez: None. X.Chi: None. A.Ortiz rocha: None. Y.Mohseni: None.

 National Institutes of Health (R01120331-01A1)


Virus isolated from the lung, liver, kidney, and small intestine of a 3-month-old Holstein heifer with a clinical history of pneumonia and lesions in multiple organs was identified as an adenovirus on the basis of morphological and physicochemical characteristics. The adenovirus was determined to be a serotype 10 bovine adenovirus and represents the first reported isolation of this serotype in the United States. Inoculation of calves with this isolate resulted in mild to moderate clinical response consisting of fever, inappetence, increased respiratory rate, cough, and listlessness. Gross lesions were minimal in the respiratory tract and consisted of fibrin in the airways and small areas of consolidation in the cranial lobes of the lung. Mucofibrinous foci were present on the mucosa of the upper small intestine.


Cytochrome c from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been purified. Its chromatographic and spectral properties are reported and compared to those of iso-1-cytochrome c from baker's yeast; the amino-acid composition is described. Schiz. pombe cytochrome c has a much lower affinity for Amberlite IRP64 than Sacch. cerevisiae iso-1-cytochrome c. Its alpha absorption band splits into three maxima (calpha1, calpha2, and calpha3) at -190 degrees C; this is unusual in yeasts, as shown by the low-temperature whole-cell absorption spectra which were examined in various yeast genera, species, and strains. A minor component can be separated by Amberlite chromatography. It exhibits the same low-temperature splitting of the alpha absorption band as the main fraction and it has a similar amino-acid composition with a notable exception: it is an unmethylated form of the cytochrome.


The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Seventh Circuit have taken the position that Title VII's bar to employment discrimination "because of * * * sex" applies to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. This interpretation follows from the ordinary meaning of the statute, read as a whole and in light of its purpose. If an employer fires a woman because she is married to another woman, rather than a man, the employer has, literally, acted "because of" her sex (if she had been a man, marriage to a woman would have been fine) and because of the sex of her partner. It is hard to deny that "sex" is not at least one "motivating factor" in the employment decision, which is all that the current version of Title VII requires for liability. Moreover, this reading of Title VII accords with its purpose, which is to entrench a merit-based workplace where specified traits or status-based criteria (race, color, national origin, religion, and sex) are supposed to be irrelevant to a person's job opportunities.
Treatment of anti-gay discrimination as a form of sex discrimination is not a new idea, but for several decades most federal judges have rejected it, and most Members of Congress have ignored it. This is an idea that has ripened over time, however. New circumstances have rendered the argument not only plausible but compelling. The biggest new development has been social facts and assumptions about sex minorities: In 1964, employees thought to be "homosexuals" were outside the scope of the merit-based workplace, because Americans believed them to be mentally ill, psychopathic, and predatory. Today, those views have been discredited, and this connects with a second new circumstance, a radically different constitutional baseline. As late as 2003, "homosexuals" could constitutionally be considered presumptive criminals, but the Supreme Court has for twenty years been developing a constitutional norm that gay people cannot be excluded from the law because of who they are. Indeed, the Court has ruled that the constitutional right to marry applies to same-sex (i.e., "homosexual") couples. It is constitutionally jarring to know that, in most states, a lesbian couple can get married on Saturday and be fired from their jobs on Monday, without legal redress.
A third new development has been the formal evolution of Title VII itself. Judges as well as commentators have largely ignored the "statutory history" of Title VII — its formal evolution through a process of amendment by Congress and authoritative interpretation by the Supreme Court. The Trump Administration and other skeptics of a broad reading of sex discrimination maintain that Title VII divides the world into males and females and does nothing more than require employers to apply the same rules to both sexes; anti-homosexual workplace exclusions or harassment operates equally on both sexes (i.e., both lesbians and gay men are harmed). But the Supreme Court has authoritatively interpreted Title VII to bar gender stereotyping, which also operates to protect both male and female employees alike. Congress ratified and expanded upon that interpretation in its 1991 Amendments to Title VII, which also reaffirmed its statutory mission to ensure a merit-based workplace free from sex-based decision making, even when sex is but one "motivating factor" in the discrimination. Because LGBT persons are gender minorities and because anti-LGBT discrimination is rooted in rigid gender roles, Title VII today bars discrimination because of the sex of the employee's partner/spouse, just as it bars discrimination because of the race or religion of his or her partner/spouse.


We reanalyze the constraints in neutrino masses and MNS lepton mixing parameters using the new data from the terrestrial (KamLAND) and astro-physical (WMAP) observations together with the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW double beta decay experiment. It leads us to the almost degenerate or inverse hierarchy neutrino mass scenario. We discuss the possibility of getting the bound for the Majorana CP violating phase.


Background
The human rectum flora consists of a huge variety of bacteria and the association between individuals and their rectum bacterial community begins presently after birth and continues the whole lifetime. Once the body dies, the inherent microbes begin to break down from the inside and play a key role thereafter.
Results
The aim of this study was to investigate the probable shift of the rectum flora at different time intervals up to 15 days after death and to characterize the contribution for of this shift to estimate the time of death. The rectum of rats was wiped with a sterile cotton swab and the samples were proceeded for DNA extraction, PCR amplification of the 16S rRNA gene with the V3+V4 variable regions, and high throughput sequencing carried out on IonS5TMXL platform. The results were analyzed for intra-group and inter-group diversity, similarity and difference at different time points. At phylum level, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes showed major shifts, checked at 11 different intervals and emerged in the most of postmortem intervals. At the genus level, Enterococcus appeared in all groups except alive samples, Lactobacillus and Proteus appeared in most time points, and the latter showed an increasing trend after 3 days postmortem samples. At the species level, Enterococcus_faecalis and Proteus_mirabilis existed in most postmortem intervals, and the former had a downward trend after day 5 postmortem, while the latter had an upward trend. Corynebacterium_amycolatum , Entero_isolate_group_2 , Bacteroides_uniformis , Enterococcus_faecalis , Streptococcus_gallolyticus_subsp_macedonics , Clostridium_sporogenes were more abundant in 0-hour, day 1, 3, 5, 7, 13 postmortem intervals, respectively, while Proteus_mirabilis and Vagococcus_lutrae were abundant in day 15 postmortem. In addition, functional capacity analysis of Membrane_Transport, Amino_Acid_Metabolism, Nucleotide_Metabolism and Energy_Metabolism showed significant differences between alive and almost all other time points after death ( P <0.05).
Conclusions
All in all, bacteria at different levels (phylum, genera, species) showed different characteristic during the process of decomposition and possessed entirely different relative abundance and the structure of bacterial community in each time point shifted obviously, which suggested that the specific bacteria might imply the specific postmortem interval during decomposition.


The efficient catalytic dehydrogenation of alkanes to olefins is one of the most investigated reactions in organic synthesis. In the coming years, an increased supply of shorter-chain alkanes from natural and shale gas will offer new opportunities for inexpensive carbon feedstock through such dehydrogenation processes. Existing methods for alkane dehydrogenation using heterogeneous catalysts require harsh reaction conditions and have a lack of selectivity, whereas homogeneous catalysis methods result in significant waste generation. A strong need exists for atom-efficient alkane dehydrogenations on a useful scale. Herein, we have developed improved acceptorless catalytic systems under optimal light transmittance conditions using trans-[Rh(PMe3)2(CO)Cl] as the catalyst with different additives. Unprecedented catalyst turnover numbers are obtained for the dehydrogenation of cyclic and linear (from C4) alkanes and liquid organic hydrogen carriers. These reactions proceed with unique conversion, thereby providing a basis for practical alkane dehydrogenations.


Digital implementations for both the recoding and the addition steps for the signed-digit numbers require four or more logic levels (AND-OR) or (OR-AND) and at least 23 logic gates for each output bit. In this paper, a much simpler nonrecoding signed-digit adder is presented. Its hardware implementation requires much fewer logic gates and inputs lines than that for the recoded signed-digit one for the same number of logic levels.


ChinaGrid provides the nationwide grid computing platform and services for education and research purpose among 100 key universities in China. University digital museum grid (UDMGrid) is one of the most important applications of ChinaGrid which aims at offering one-stop information services about kinds of digital specimens from several university digital museums in the form of grid services. During last 3 years, many versions of UDMGrid have been developed. This paper describes the progress of UDMGrid and presents key technologies of the current version such as ontology, Grid-DAI and grid monitoring. Finally, the workflow of UDMGrid is given


Using the gaseous disk model and the condition for emission based on a stimulated origin of thermal radio emission (Prigara 2003), we received the wavelength dependence of polarization for radio emission from active galactic nuclei consistent with available observational data. The strength of magnetic field required to produce an observable degree of polarization in active galactic nuclei is discussed.


Screen recordings of mobile applications are easy to capture and include a wealth of information, making them a popular mechanism for users to inform developers of the problems encountered in the bug reports. However, watching the bug recordings and efficiently understanding the semantics of user actions can be time-consuming and tedious for developers. Inspired by the conception of the video subtitle in movie industry, we present a lightweight approach CAPdroid to caption bug recordings automatically. CAPdroid is a purely image-based and non-intrusive approach by using image processing and convolutional deep learning models to segment bug recordings, infer user action attributes, and generate subtitle descriptions. The automated experiments demonstrate the good performance of CAPdroid in inferring user actions from the recordings, and a user study confirms the usefulness of our generated step descriptions in assisting developers with bug replay.


A Gram-negative, coccobacillus-shaped, aerobic bacterium, designated strain UST040201-002T, was isolated in February 2004 from seawater at the outlet of a sandfilter in Port Shelter, Hong Kong SAR, China. This strain possessed ubiquinone-8; its 16S rRNA gene sequence shared only 91% similarity with the sequence from Caedibacter taeniospiralis and 89-90% similarity with sequences from Francisella tularensis, Francisella novicida, Francisella philomiragia and Wolbachia persica. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the strain formed a distinct clade with C. taeniospiralis. This subcluster formed a tight coherent group with members of the family Francisellaceae and W. persica. Combined phylogenetic and physiological data suggest that strain UST040201-002T represents a novel genus and species within the order Tauhiotrichales. The name Fangia hongkongensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is UST040201-002T (=JCM 14605T=NRRL B-41860T).


The population of Cabo Verde was founded in the fifteenth century (1462), on the basis of slaves brought from the West African coast and a few Europeans, mainly from Portugal. The polymorphism of six red cell enzymes (ADA, AK1, ALAD, ESD, GLO1, and PGD) and ten plasma proteins (AHSG, BF, F13A, F13B, GC, HP, ORM, PLG, TBG, and TF) was studied in a sample of 268 individuals from Cabo Verde (West Africa). There is no statistical evidence of genetic heterogeneity between the two groups of islands which constitute the archipelago, Barlavento and Sotavento. The gene frequency distribution observed in Cabo Verde differs, in many markers, from that of West African populations, suggesting an important European influence. The proportion of Caucasian genes in the population of Cabo Verde has been calculated to be M = 0.3634 +/- 0.0510, and the considerable dispersion of the locus-specific admixture estimates seems to indicate random drift has also played a role in the evolution of the allele frequencies in the archipelago. Partition of the variance of the mean estimate in evolutionary and sampling variance shows the evolutionary variance is more than ten times higher than the sampling variance. When dendrograms are constructed on the basis of different genetic distances, the population of Cabo Verde clusters with Afro-Americans, forming a different group from the populations of the African continent. This is interpreted as a consequence of the importance of Caucasian admixture both in Afro-Americans and in the population of Cabo Verde.


Background:Novel variants of rice (Oryza sativa L.) can be obtained from induced mutations. The objective of the present study is to induce mutations in the background of Samba Mahsuri (BPT-5204), a popular and mega rice variety of India for creating novel variants for morphological, physiological and biotic stresses through using Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS).Results: A population derived from 10, 500 M1 plants and their descendants was phenotyped for a wide range of traits leading to the identification of 124 mutants having variations in key agro-morphological traits, and 106 mutants exhibited variation for physiological traits. Higher yield is the ultimate goal of crop improvement and we identified 574 mutants having higher yield compared to wild type by having better yield attributing traits. Further, a total of fifty mutants showed better panicle exsertion phenotypes as compared to Samba Mahsuri leading to enhancement of yield. Upon rigorous screening for three major biotic stresses, nine mutants showed enhanced tolerance for yellow stem borer, and thirteen different mutants each showed enhanced tolerance for sheath blight and bacterial leaf blight, respectively. On the whole, 1406 desired mutant lines identified at M2 were forwarded to an advanced generation (M5). Whole genome re-sequencing and analyses of 15 stable mutants revealed high level of similarities (99.91 to 99.99%) with the Samba Mahsuri. Conclusions:The lines showing enhanced tolerance to important biotic stresses (YSB, ShB and BLB) as well as several economically important traits are unique genetic resources which can be utilized for the identification of novel genes/alleles for different traits. The lines which have better agronomic features can be used as pre-breeding lines. The entire mutagenic population is maintained as a national resource for genetic improvement of the rice crop.


We are about to enter a new era of the Internet. To access information over the Internet from my Windows NT desktop in today's era of the visible Internet, for instance, I use a generic application such as AltaVista Discovery. However, as we move toward the era of an invisible Internet, all applications and hardware devices will transparently access the Internet, without requiring us to authorize a Web connection to retrieve information. This evolution from stand-alone desktop applications to network-aware applications is not just about downloading and viewing files. It raises interesting questions about future technological models and their competing pricing models.


As the Luddite protests in the 19th Century and resistance in the 20th Century to building nuclear power plants illustrate, technological change often generates powerful public opposition. In some instances, however, scientific strategies, joined with sustained pressure from well-placed supporters, can be used to ameliorate the worst effects of technological change - as the case described below illustrates. When Pan Am tried to introduce jet planes for travel in the US and across the Atlantic, it generated a battle that lasted more than two years. The public agency that operated all three major airports in the New York region - the Port Authority - had been designed to encourage its officials to emphasize scientifically based analysis in setting policy; and the agency's leader, Austin Tobin, had developed a strong reputation for political independence and integrity. He also had previous encounters with the airlines, described below, leading him to be suspicious of their assertion that jet planes were not unduly noisy. Therefore, to test jet noise, he recruited the nation's premier acoustical engineer, Leo Beranek, and when Beranek concluded that jets were perceived to be much louder than expected, the aircraft industry fought back, challenging the findings, appealing to federal officials, and alleging that Tobin might be corrupt. After two years of conflict, the airplane industry capitulated, and in a few years the standards developed for the New York airports were embraced by airport managers across the United States and Europe.
This paper summarises the battle that ensued between the Port Authority and the airlines, leading to the development of noise limits for operations at the New York airports during the early days of jet travel.


The characterization of stormwater runoff on urbanized surfaces by means of comparison between experimental data and simulations is a strict requirement for a sustainable management of urban sewer systems. A monitoring campaign was carried out within a residential area in Puglia (Southern Italy) in order to collect and evaluate quantity and quality data. A strong correlation was observed between COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and TSS (Total Suspended Solid) concentrations, whose values exceed water quality standards. TSS was used for calibration of Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) which was then validated with reference to the pollutograph's shape and the peak-time. The first flush phenomenon occurrence was also investigated by looking at the distribution of pollutant mass vs. volume in stormwater discharges, using the so-called "M(V) curves". Results show that on average the first 30% of that washed off carries 60% of TSS and provides important information for the design of efficient systems for first flush treatment.


The study of large dataset with velocity, variety and volume which is also known as Big data. When the dataset has limited number of clusters, low dimensions and small number of data points the existing traditional clustering algorithms can be used.. As we know this is the internet age, the data is growing very fast and existing clustering algorithms are not giving the acceptable results in terms of time complexity and spatial complexity. So there is a need to develop a new approach of applying clustering of large volume of data processing with low time and spatial complexity through MapReduce and Hadoop frame work applying to different clustering algorithms, kmeans, Canopy clustering and proposed algorithm .The analysis shows that the large volume of data processing will take low time and spatial complexity when compared to small volume of data.


The direct injection diesel engine is one of the most efficient thermal engines. For this reason DI diesel engines are widely used for heavy-duty applications. But the world is faced with very serious problems related to the air pollution due to the exhaust emissions of diesel engine. So, that is air pollution related to exhaust gas resulted from explosive combustion should be improved. Exhaust Gas Recirculation(EGR) is a proven method to reduce NOx emissions. In this study, the experiments were performed at various engine loads while the EGR rates were set from 0% to 30%. The emissions trade-off and combustion of diesel engine are investigated. The brake specific fuel consumption rate is very slightly fluctuated with EGR in the range of experimental conditions. The ignition delay increased with increasing EGR rate. The maximum value of premixed combustion for the rate of heat release is increased with increasing EGR rate. NOx emissions are decreased with increasing EGR rate at high load and high speed. It was found that the exhaust emissions with the EGR system resulted in a very large reduction in oxides of nitrogen at the expense of higher smoke emissions.


More than 29 million people in the United States have diabetes mellitus, including both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The CDC also estimates that upward of 86 million people can be classified as prediabetic, with as many as 30% of these people transitioning into diabetes within the next 5 years. Individuals with type 1 diabetes account for roughly 5% of those patients. Dating back to 2008 and 2009, roughly 18 000 youth were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year. The prevalence of diabetes is well known; most of the studies that are completed today relate to the progression and/or treatment of those with type 2 diabetes. Yet most physicians will have to take care of a type 1 diabetic patient who will want to be active. Having a fundamental knowledge of how exercise affects insulin and blood glucose and how to manage these patients is important. Time must be taken to modify each treatment regimen for each individual. One cannot stress enough the importance of providing patient education, ensuring adequate hydration, recognizing signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia/hyperglycemia, and how to treat and prevent these serious complications. All patients must have a care plan and access to supplies during exercise. It is known that poorly controlled blood glucose can have detrimental consequences in the long term. The question is if type I diabetic athletes who are allowed to have higher blood glucose during exercise are at the same risk for these potential complications.


Built-in self-test (BIST) techniques modify functional hardware to give a data path the capability to test itself. The modification of data path registers into registers (BIST resources) that can generate pseudo-random test patterns and/or compress test responses, incurs an area overhead penalty. We show how scheduling and module assignment in high-level synthesis affect BIST resource requirements of a data path. A scheduling and module assignment procedure is presented that produces schedules which, when used to synthesize data paths, result in a significant reduction in BIST area overhead and hence total area.


For secure transmissions, we consider direct sequence/spread spectrum (DS/SS) systems where pseudo-random (PN) sequences are used for spreading. To generate PN sequences, linear feedback shift registers (LFSRs) are employed, which are also used to generate keystreams in stream ciphers. For steam ciphers that use LFSRs, there are known attacks including correlation attacks that can regenerate keystreams. Since those attacks can also be used to regenerate spreading sequences, in this paper, in order to mitigate this problem, we consider induced random (chip) flipping of spreading sequences. While perturbed spreading sequences make correlation attacks infeasible, a legitimate receiver also suffers from random flipping. To take advantage of known spreading sequences for good performances, the maximum likelihood (ML) detection can be used, which is, however, computationally prohibitive as the complexity grows exponentially with the processing gain. To avoid this difficulty, we derive an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to perform the ML detection with low computational complexity in this paper.


Objectives There is a lack of knowledge of the emergency department (ED) population in Norway; hence, the aim of this study was to describe the ED patient population at a Norwegian University Hospital. Materials and methods Prospective data of all ED patients admitted to the main ED over a period of 2 months were collected. The patients' presenting complaint was registered using the International Classification of Primary Care-2 (ICPC-2). Results A total of 3163 patients arrived in the ED during the study period. The majority (71%) of patients presented with a complaint that was defined as a symptom in ICPC-2. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain (13%), chest pain (13%), and dyspnea (9%). The complaints of the remaining patients (29%) were primarily traumas, infections, and other diagnoses. Conclusion ED patients have a diverse spectrum of presenting complaints and the majority of patients present with symptoms rather than a defined medical diagnosis.


Evolution of uremic half-time in 27 infants with hypertonic dehydration is studied. Authors establish three groups in accordance with duration of uremic half-time: 1st: less than 24 hours: 5 infants. 2nd: More than 24 hours without renal or uremic pathology: 12 infants. 3rd: More than 24 hours with renal or uremic pathology: 10 infants. Utility of this parameter is discussed, as well as its physiologic bases. The existence of 2nd group makes the value of this control as an organic of functional renal index uncertain.


Previous assessments of health risks from soil-adsorbed chemical exposures relied on extrapolations from data derived with pure compounds. However, interactions between chemical and soil can alter the rate, amount, and form of chemical that enters the body, resulting in effects that are different from those that occur after exposures to chemical alone. In this study, male rats were treated dermally with [14C]toluene alone or adsorbed to either a sandy or a clay soil. Both soils produced a higher plasma concentration compared to pure toluene, with a statistical decrease in half-life of absorption observed after sandy soil-adsorbed treatment. The time to reach peak plasma concentration, half-life of elimination, and area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) were similar for all groups. Skin and fat contained the highest concentration of radioactivity 48 h after all treatments. Pure and soil-adsorbed toluene were primarily metabolized and excreted via the kidney rather than exhaled. Furthermore, soil treatment did not alter the percentages of the metabolic products.


We consider a heterogeneous SIR epidemic model, calibrated to the current COVID- 19 pandemic characteristics. We study the equilibrium of the voluntary social distancing decisions across a network of individuals subject to the epidemic risk. We quantify the absolute and relative utility gaps across age cohorts. We further introduce life insurance in the model, which serves to mitigate the loss in the severe individual outcomes. We find that in most cases, insurance decreases the risk of contagion in the network because more individuals can be incentivized to self-isolate. On the other hand, in the case when the insurer does not have sufficient information on the self-isolation strategy of the individual, insurance can introduce a moral hazard. We find that when premiums cannot be sufficiently differentiated, individuals may choose not to socially distance. This illustrates the importance of disclosing self-isolation strategies to the insurer, or inferring these strategies for the various types.


Internet mediated health education and support offers several advantages. The convenience and ease of access to information is mesmerizing the healthcare sector setting the trend for e-Health. This was in an attempt to convey the promises, principles, excitement around e-commerce to the health arena, and give an account of the new possibilities the Internet is opening up to the area of health care virtually collaborating everything related to computers and medicine. The healthcare environment is generally 'information rich' but 'knowledge poor'. There is a wealth of data available within the healthcare systems but they lack effective analysis tools to discover hidden relationships and trends in data. Valuable knowledge can be discovered with the application of sequential mining technique to equip patients with knowledge for managing health for disease specific better care and understanding through e-Health.


The WCDMA based 3G cellular standards have a great flexibility and a variety of logical and transport channels defined for different types of traffic classes. In this paper performance of the dedicated channel for WWW traffic has been investigated. The UMTS standard specifies the use of dedicated channels (DCH) for the actual traffic, through access requests placed on the random access channel (RACH). Performance of the UMTS MAC on dedicated channel for Web traffic has been studied through simulation models in terms of throughput, transfer delay, collision probability and blocking probability as a function of network load. Also the effect of other parameters like number of users and number of resources on the performance has been analyzed for UTRA- FDD.


High‐abundant plasma proteins pose a challenge in a large number of proteomics‐based technologies. Depletion of these high‐abundant proteins has proven to be a fruitful strategy to circumvent masking of lower‐abundant proteins that could serve as valuable biomarker candidates. However, current strategies often do not meet the throughput requirements of large‐scale proteomic studies. In the present paper, a flexible and parallelized method for the depletion of high‐abundant proteins is described, allowing the removal of the two most abundant proteins from 48 blood‐derived samples in less than 15 min using Affibody molecules as affinity ligands. A sample‐processing platform like this should be suitable for a number of proteomics technologies; its flexibility in buffer composition allows for different types of downstream applications.


Recent literature on the management of critically ill patients has altered the beliefs and clinical behaviours, questioning many dogmas that were practised without much evidence. The critical care in a severely burn-injured patient requires special attention in resuscitation, haemodynamic monitoring, management of complications, organ support and determinants of outcome. The goal of resuscitation is to maintain intravascular volume and tone while correcting the reversible changes in altered physiology, aided by early debridement of burned tissue and elimination of the source of physiological derangement. Practitioners should target resuscitation based on goal-directed therapy using non-invasive markers of cardiac output. The management requires the input of a multi-disciplinary team to achieve critical care and early surgical intervention and management of complications and organ support.


Volume I presents the speeches delivered at the Congress, the list of lectures, and short summaries of the achievements of the prize winners as well as papers by plenary and parallel speakers. The second volume collects articles by prize winners and speakers of the mini-symposia. This two-volume set thus gives an overview of the state of the art in many fields of mathematics and is therefore of interest to every professional mathematician. Contributors: R. Ahlswede, V. Bach, V. Baladi, J. Bruna, N. Burq, X. Cabre, P.J. Cameron, Z. Chatzidakis, C. Ciliberto, G. Dal Maso, J. Denef, R. Dijkgraaf, B. Fantechi, H. Follmer, A.B. Goncharov, A. Grigor'yan, M. Harris, R. Iturriaga, K. Johansson, K. Khanin, P. Koskela, H.W. Lenstra, Jr., F. Loeser, Y.I. Manin, N.S. Manton, Y. Meyer, I. Moerdijk, E.M. Opdam, T. Peternell, B.M.A.G. Piette, A. Reznikov, H. Schlichtkrull, B. Schmidt, K. Schmidt, C. Simo, B. Toth, E. van den Ban, M.-F. Vigneras, O. Viro


The Robbins-Monro procedure (1951) for stochastic root-finding is a nonparametric approach. Wu (1985, 1986) has shown that the convergence of the sequential procedure can be greatly improved if we know the distribution of the response. Wu's approach assumes a parametric model and therefore its convergence rate slows down when the assumed model is different from the true model. This article proposes a new approach that is robust to the model assumptions. The approach gives more importance to observations closer to the root, which improves the fit to the true model around the root and makes the convergence faster. Simulation study shows that the new approach gives a superior performance over the existing methods.


Purpose: To improve the current knowledge of factors influencing the success and the clinical outcome of meniscal repair, focusing on patients' lifestyle and on the surgical techniques applied. Methods: Sixty-six meniscal sutures were carried out in the period between January 2012 and July 2017 at the Santa Maria Hospital of Borgo Val di Taro, 14 of which were isolated and 52 associated with the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament. Competitive and non-competitive sportsmen as well as smoker and non-smoker groups were formed retrospectively. For each patient, VAS and functional scores (Tegner Lysholm and Modified Cincinnati) were collected before the surgery and during the follow-up. Results: Isolated meniscal sutures registered a 21% failure rate while for those associated with Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction; the failure rate was only of 4%. Smoking and the absence of competitive sport activity before surgery were associated with lower clinical results. Different surgical techniques did not show any statistically significant difference. Conclusion: Data collected in our study shows that lifestyle-related factors may have a significant effect on the clinical outcome of the operated knee. Smoking is associated with lower clinical results. Sport activity level has an impact on the outcome of meniscal repair surgeries. Similar clinical improvement trend, assessed through scores, was demonstrated both in the competitive and noncompetitive groups, but higher average values were observed in the first group, preoperatively as well as postoperatively.


In the wake of corporate failures following economic crisis starting in 1997, the role of
audit committees as corporate governance mechanism has became more important to
regulators, the accounting profession and the business community.
A research was conducted by Carcello and Neal (2000) examining the relation between
the composition of financially distressed firm's audit committees and the likelihood of
receiving going-concern report for the year 1994. Hence, this study is conducted to
examine the same relation in Malaysian context by examining published information for
the year 1998.
While previous study found an inverse relationship between percentage of affiliated
directors on audit committee and the likelihood of receiving modified going concern
report, this study finds insignificant positive relationship between the variables. The
result of the study therefore does not support many parties such as the shareholders and
Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's concern about financial-reporting quality and the
recent calls for more independent audit committee. The study document evidences that
the likelihood of receiving a going concern report for financially distressed firms is not
significantly affected by the audit committee composition.


Objective: We conducted a comprehensive review of the most current data available on the antihypertensive effects of 29 different nutraceuticals.Design: In this review, we collected evidence from clinical trials and meta-analyses of clinical trials with human subjects that are representative of the general adult population; studies of infants, children, and pregnant women were excluded. Observational studies were included in some cases as supplementary evidence, and in vitro or animal studies were included only for the purpose of explaining hypotensive mechanisms. PubMed served as the primary search engine.Outcome measures: The efficacy of each nutrient and botanical was demonstrated by a treatment that resulted in a reduction of either systolic or diastolic blood pressure in humans.Results: All of the reviewed botanical and nutrient supplements, with the exception of French maritime pine bark extract and maitake (Grifola frondosa), have been demonstrated to effectively lower blood pressure in humans with good tolerability.Conclusions: Current data supporting the use of nutrients and botanicals in the treatment of blood pressure are encouraging.


Four experiments used an autoshaping procedure with pigeons to investigate the basis of configural discriminations. The elements of both a negative patterning (A+, B+, AB-) and a conditional discrimination (AC+, BD+, AD-, BC-) were paired, in a second-order procedure with two new key lights, X and Y. Responding was then tested to X and Y presented in compound with each other and with A and B. The pattern of responding to compounds containing X and Y was like the pattern of responding to compounds containing their associates, A and B. This suggests that A and B can be replaced by their associates without disrupting responding to their compounds. Because X and Y are physically different from A and B, this in turn suggests that any unique cue controlling responding to their compounds does not depend on the physical presence of the component stimuli. Instead the unique stimulus appears to arise from the joint activation of memory representations.


We present the first use of the Gemini North laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) system and an integral field unit (IFU) to measure the stellar velocity dispersion of the host of a luminous quasar. The quasar PG 1426+015 (z = 0.086) was observed with the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) on the 8 m Gemini North telescope in the H band as part of the Science Verification phase of the new ALTAIR LGS AO system. The NIFS IFU and LGS AO are well suited for host studies of luminous quasars because one can achieve a large ratio of host to quasar light. We have measured the stellar velocity dispersion of PG 1426+015 from 0.1″ to 1″ (0.16 to 1.6 kpc) to be 217 ± 15 km s−1 based on high signal-to-noise ratio measurements of Si I, Mg I, and several CO band heads. This new measurement is a factor of 4 more precise than a previous measurement obtained with long-slit spectroscopy and good, natural seeing, yet was obtained with a shorter net integration time. We find that PG 1426+015 has a velocity dispersion that places it significantly above the MBH-σ* relation of quiescent galaxies and lower luminosity active galactic nuclei with black hole masses estimated from reverberation mapping. We discuss several possible explanations for this discrepancy that could be addressed with similar observations of a larger sample of luminous quasars.


Two new species of Leporinusare described from coastal rivers of southern Bahia, Brazil. One of the new species has a bright red blotch immediately dorsal to the pectoral-fin origin in life, three dark blotches along the lateral line that distinctly increase in size posteriorly, and dark longitudinal lines between scale rows on the side of body. The second new species possesses a single broad dark midlateral stripe, encompassing one or two scale rows of depth on the body and centered on the scale row below the lateral line, a dark adipose fin, and a conspicuous dark blotch on the caudal peduncle. The first new species is known only from the rio de Contas and the second from the rio das Almas and rio Jiquirica. In addition,Leporinus melanopleura is redescribed based on a designated lectotype and additional specimens collected in the rio Una. Leporinus melanopleurahas a single broad dark midlateral stripe, encompassing one or two scale rows of depth on the body, centered on the scale row below lateral line, a hyaline adipose fin (red in life), and an inconspicuous dark blotch on the caudal peduncle.


Child, youth and family health: Strengthening communities examines cornerstone issues affecting the health and wellness of infants, children, young people and their families in Australian and New Zealand. Pivotal to the text is the role of health care professionals, specifically but not exclusively nurses and midwives, in maintaining and strengthening individual and community health across a range of contexts and life stages. Ever topical issues such as Indigenous health, mental health, becoming a family, acute and chronic illness, and loss and grief are explored in depth, and professional challenges such as developing programs, communication strategies and practice integrity are addressed in discrete chapters. Cultural safety, diversity and difference, and historical, economical and social factors are reinforced throughout the text. The ample use of case studies, practice tips, critical questions and reflective activities serves to highlight the application of theory and further engage the reader. [Book Abstract]


This paper addresses an issue of the efficiency of calculation of the reliability measures for a large electric power system. It contains a definition of a computing system and analysis of some of its properties. The analysis includes examination of the functional reliability and efficiency measures of a computing system. One of the main reasons such a system is introduced is to show that a bulk electric system reliability platform used for the analysis of the effects of changes in the maintenance policies of system components is more computationally efficient than the alternative approaches


Cyclic Solvent Process (CSP) is a non-thermal solvent-based heavy oil recovery technology that was invented and developed by Imperial Oil Resources Limited through a multi-year integrated research program. The commercial viability of potential development concepts and their associated uncertainties are also an active area of investigation. A key input to an economic model is the global (or development level) flow stream. The conventional approach of developing the global flow stream involves the determination of well schedule through a well prioritization algorithm that adheres to a set of flow stream capacity constraints. The resulting flow streams can then be passed to an economic tool to evaluate a set of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in an uncoupled manner. One of the main challenges encountered in this approach is that it is difficult to optimize the overall economic performance due to (1) the absence of well-defined objective function, (2) the decoupling of the flow stream generation and the economic calculations, (3) the pre-defined characteristics of the well prioritization algorithm.
 The main objective of this study is to develop a mathematical optimization model for CSP commercial projects. A two-stage optimization framework, which integrates Genetic Algorithm (GA) as master optimizer and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) as sub-optimizer, is described. A conceptual commercial scenario is simulated as a case study and economic uplift is demonstrated.


Abstract Fourfold coordination of trivalent metal ions by chlorines in molecular dimers changes from tetrahedral in Al2 Cl6 and Fe2Cl6 to planar in Au2Cl6. Within an ionic model we interpret this transition in the stable molecular shape as due to the quadrupolar polarizability of the gold(III) ion. We also demonstrate within the same model that a mixed tetrahedral-planar coordination is stable in AUAlCl6 and AuFeCl6 clusters. Quantitative comparisons are presented for the calculated molecular structures and vibrational frequencies against the available experimental data from crystalline diffraction and from Raman spectra of the crystal and of vapours.


In the last few years, wall shear stress (WSS) has arisen as a new diagnostic indicator in patients with arterial disease. There is a substantial evidence that the WSS plays a significant role, together with hemodynamic indicators, in initiation and progression of the vascular diseases. Estimation of WSS values, therefore, may be of clinical significance and the methods employed for its measurement are crucial for clinical community. Recently, four-dimensional (4D) flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been widely used in a number of applications for visualization and quantification of blood flow, and although the sensitivity to blood flow measurement has increased, it is not yet able to provide an accurate three-dimensional (3D) WSS distribution. The aim of this work is to evaluate the aortic blood flow features and the associated WSS by the combination of 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (4D CMR) and computational fluid dynamics technique. In particular, in this work, we used the 4D CMR to obtain the spatial domain and the boundary conditions needed to estimate the WSS within the entire thoracic aorta using computational fluid dynamics. Similar WSS distributions were found for cases simulated. A sensitivity analysis was done to check the accuracy of the method. 4D CMR begins to be a reliable tool to estimate the WSS within the entire thoracic aorta using computational fluid dynamics. The combination of both techniques may provide the ideal tool to help tackle these and other problems related to wall shear estimation.


Abstract Multi-energy systems (MES) provide various types of energy services by coupling different energy sectors. Such coupling increases the efficiency and flexibility of the entire energy system, and at the same time, however, increases the dependencies of the load carrying capability among different types of load demand. In the MES planning stage, we always want to assess and compare the load carrying capability among different planning schemes, considering the N-1 or N-M contingencies and the mutual effect of different energy sectors. While in the MES operation stage, we always want to know if the load of MES can be securely supplied considering potential contingencies and how far the current operation status is from the security boundary. This paper proposes a new concept named the energy hub (EH) security region and applying the concept to depict the load carrying capability of the district MES. The concept defines a region in a hyperspace where the MES can be safely operated under steady-state operational and security constraints. We first model the district MES using the EH approach and propose the mathematical form of the EH steady-state security region systematically. Then, a vertex-based algorithm is proposed to precisely calculate the security region using a space projection technique. We further propose indices to evaluate the load carrying capability of a district MES and identify critical components. Numerical case studies are conducted on two test systems to verify the validity of the proposed method. The results show the proposed EH security region concept and calculation method provide quantitive indicators on how to compare MES planning schemes and improve the load carrying capability.


Sandhoff disease (SD) is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation of the &bgr;-subunit gene &bgr;-hexosaminidase B (HexB) in humans, which results in the massive accumulation of the ganglioside GM2 and related glycosphingolipids in the nervous system. SD causes progressive neurodegeneration and changes in white matter in human infants. An animal model of SD has been established, Hexb-deficient (Hexb−/−) mice, which shows abnormalities resembling the severe phenotype found in human infants. Previously, we reported that the activation state of microglia caused astrogliosis in the early stage of Hexb−/− mouse development. To study how the symptoms of SD develop, we explored the difference in gene expression between 4-week-old Hexb+/− and Hexb−/− mouse cerebral cortices by microarray analysis. The data indicated not only the upregulation of immune system-related genes but also the downregulation of myelin-related genes in the 4-week-old Hexb−/− mouse cerebral cortices. To test the correlation between inflammation and dysmyelination, we generated double-knockout mice of Hexb−/− and the Fc receptor &ggr; gene (Fcr&ggr;−/−), which is a regulator of autoimmune responses. Dysmyelination recovered in these double-knockout mice. The number of oligodendrocyte progenitors, which expressed platelet-derived growth factor receptor-&agr;, did not change in the 2-week-old mouse brain. These results indicate that microglial activation plays an important role in the myelination process, without influencing the number of oligodendrocyte progenitors, in the development of Hexb−/− mice.


This paper deals with asymptotic output tracking algorithm using the adaptive sliding mode control. The integral sliding mode is used to nullifies the matched uncertainties and nonlinearities and also to avoid the reaching phase, so that the manifold in reached at the first time. The output feedback and feedforward adaptive mode is used to enforce the outputs of the uncertain control system to track the outputs of the reference model. The output error between the uncertain system and the reference model vanishes asymptotically despite uncertainties and modeling error. Simulations examples are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm and a perturbation is added to show the robustness of the command.


Abstract We consider high-order strongly nonlinear long wave models expanded in a single small parameter measuring the ratio of the water depth to the characteristic wavelength. By examining its dispersion relation, the high-order system for the bottom velocity is found stable to all disturbances at any order of approximation. On the other hand, systems for other velocities can be unstable and even ill-posed, as signified by the unbounded maximum growth. Under the steady assumption, a new third-order solitary wave solution of the Euler equations is obtained using the high-order strongly nonlinear system and is expanded in an amplitude parameter, which is different from that used in weakly nonlinear theory. The third-order solution is shown to well describe various physical quantities induced by a finite-amplitude solitary wave, including the wave profile, horizontal velocity profile, particle velocity at the crest and bottom pressure. For numerical computations, the first- and second-order strongly nonlinear systems for the bottom velocity are considered. It is shown that finite difference schemes are unstable due to truncation errors introduced in approximating high-order spatial derivatives and, therefore, a more accurate spatial discretization scheme is necessary. Using a pseudo-spectral method based on finite Fourier series combined with an iterative scheme for the inversion of a non-local operator, the strongly nonlinear systems are solved numerically for the propagation of a single solitary wave and the head-on collision of two counter-propagating solitary waves of finite amplitudes, and the results are compared with previous laboratory measurements.


A 29-year-old woman with tenderness in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen with no guarding or rebound tenderness was admitted to the hospital. Her pelvic examination revealed a tender, semi-mobile and semi-solid mass, 6 cm in diameter, just palpable adjacent to the left fornix. Her medical history was otherwise normal except that she had had laparoscopic tubal ligation by bipolar cauterization two months earlier. After 48 hours of medical treatment, laparoscopy was performed. The uterus and both ovaries appeared normal. The distal portion of the left tube remnant was twisted three times on its mesosalpinx and appeared gangrenous and necrotic. A left partial salpingectomy was done laparoscopically. The woman was discharged after 8 hours from the hospital. The pathology confirmed the diagnosis of torsion of a previously dilated tube.


The approach for the description of the DNA conformational transformations on the mesoscopic scales in the frame of the double helix is presented. Due to consideration of the joint motions of DNA structural elements along the conformational pathways the models for different transformations may be constructed in the unifying two-component form. One component of the model is the degree of freedom of the elastic rod and another component -- the effective coordinate of the conformational transformation. The internal and external model components are interrelated, as it is characteristic for the DNA structure organization. It is shown that the kinetic energy of the conformational transformation of heterogeneous DNA may be put in homogeneous form. In the frame of the developed approach the static excitations of the DNA structure under the transitions between the stable states are found for internal and external components. The comparison of the data obtained with the experiment on intrinsic DNA deformability shows good qualitative agreement. The conclusion is made that the found excitations in the DNA structure may be classificated as the static conformational solitons.


PurposeTo provide better services to customers, especially immediate responses and 24/7 availability, businesses are implementing text-based automated conversational agents, i.e. chatbots on their social platforms and websites. Chatbots are required to not only provide customers with necessary consultancy and guidance but also communicate friendly and socially. Based on the cognitive fit theory, this study attempts to examine the role of chatbot as a decision aid and how the match between information presentation in forms of decisional guidance and communication style and the shopping task influences consumers' perceived cognitive fit and decision performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approachA 2 x 2 x 2 between subject online experiment was conducted to identify which kind of decisional guidance (suggestive and informative guidance) and communication style (task-oriented vs social-oriented style) are the most appropriate for each type of shopping task (searching vs browsing task).FindingsThe findings show that when customers interact with chatbots, they will perceive higher cognitive fit if the chatbots provide them with suggestive guidance and communicate in a friendly style especially when they perform a searching task.Originality/valueThis study is the first attempt to understand the role of chatbots as a decision aid to customers using the communicative language. This study also tries to explore the cognitive fit theory in a novel way, and we propose the information presentation in forms of communicative language rather than matrices, tables and graphs.


A low energy consumption clustering algorism based on LEACH is researched. Firstly, A method for obtaining the number of clusters k is given, then using the K-Means algorism to divide all the sensor nodes in WSN to the k clusters, in the whole network life cycle the cluster will not changed, and when the energy of cluster head is lower than some threshold, it will be changed. The data transmission between cluster heads to sink node use mixed model, namely, the cluster near the sink node using the single hop and the one far from it using the multiple hops. The experiment shows our method has the longer life cycle and more received information. It is an effective clustering protocol.


: Since it's difficult to authenticate the topological relation in the 2-dimensional engineering CAD drawing, a topological integrity authentication algorithm is proposed based on Hashing in this paper. Firstly, the algorithm extracts the topological relations of the drawings to generate the topology graph. Secondly, the components in the engineering CAD drawing are encoded, and the local topological quantization pattern (LTQP) is proposed to quantize the topological features of each component. Then, the components are divided into five categories according to their coding, and a Hash sequence is generated by discrete cosine transform based on the LTQP values. Finally, the Hash sequence of each category is combined to obtain the complete Hash sequence of the drawing. The experimental results show that the algorithmis robust to rotation, scaling and translation in engineering CAD drawings, and is vulnerable to the change of topological connection. By classifying the components to generate a Hash sequence, the algorithm can locate the type of components which is subjected to the topology attack.


: This article is an abridgement of a background paper for the Working Group on the Health Consequences of Contraceptive Use and Controlled Fertility of the US National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population. The possible biomedical mechanisms connecting young maternal age and primarity with infant mortality are reviewed. Most of the data concerning causes of death comes from small clinical studies or special purpose population studies. Low birth weight is associated with a higher risk of mortality, morbidity, and developmental problems in infants. Infants born to young mothers in the US are at risk of low birth weight, prematurity, and perinatal death. In 5 Latin American sites, infants born to mothers who were less than 20 years old were between 1.3 and 1.9 times as likely to die as newborn infants as were those born to mothers 20 to 24 years old. The risk was about as large for postneonatal deaths, too. Primiparity and young maternal age could be associated with low birth weight and infant deaths for many reasons. These include: 1) mother-fetus competition for macronutrients; 2) micronutrient deficiencies; 3) infections; 4) pregnancy-induced hypertension; 5) malaria; and 6) delivery complications. The mechanisms that most affect infant health and for which there is the strongest evidence are pregnancy-induced hypertension, intrauterine growth retardation, and placental malaria. There appears to be a connection between age and primiparity.


The major reason to employ electrokinetic geosynthetics is to take advantage of its ability to densify very low permeability materials in shorter time periods than ordinary seepage consolidation. A number of laboratory scale experiments was carried out with acrylic column using natural clayey soil. The testing results indicate that (1) the electrically induced settlement was faster than the gravitational one, (2) the higher the voltage, the faster the dewatering but the less final settlement, and (3) the pH extended as low as 3 in the anode section and as high as 11 near the cathode.


Molecular imprinting for the detection of protein has gained great interest in recent years. For this purpose, we prepared magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the recognition of bovine hemoglobin (BHb) through the surface imprinting technique with two-stage core–sell sol–gel polymerization on the surface of silica modified Fe3O4 nanospheres. 3-Aminopropyltriethoxylsilane and octyltrimethoxysilane were chosen as monomers to construct the MIP layer. The morphology and structure property of prepared nanoparticles were characterized by TEM, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, and the vibrating sample magnetometer. The obtained magnetic MIPs with high saturation magnetization (60 emu g−1) made it easy to separate the target protein from solution by an external magnetic field. The adsorption and recognition performance of this magnetic MIPs was discussed through adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherms, special selectivity, reusability and reproducibility tests. It turned out that the magnetic MIPs showed a relatively high adsorption capacity of 124.86 mg g−1 and excellent selectivity towards BHb with a separation factor of 1.99. Moreover, the adsorption capacity of magnetic MIPs was not significantly reduced after three continuous adsorption and elution processes, which indicated their good reusability for at least three repeated cycles.


The present paper is devoted to studying on the sequence space λ(A,Xk, r, f, s) defined by a modulus function f and an infinite matrix A and constructed its  FK-structure under some conditions. Finally, we exposed some inclusion relations among the variations of the space. The vector-valued sequence space λ(A,Xk, r, f, s) as a paranormed space which is a most general form of the space investigated in [1].


This article presents my experience as industrial doctorate and intends to understand what positive aspects can be derived from the new law, beyond the utilitarian, business or economic aspects. The PhD in Human Capital Formation and the Labour Relations allows me to explore issues and topics of interest, increase my skills and knowledge and apply what I have learned on the job; at the same time, my work allows me to have professional experiences in which I can make decisions, share choices and actions, and feel moods and emotions that involve me. Therefore, all these aspects lead me to implement behaviors that require commitment, logos, intentionality and responsibility, and are related not only to my role, but especially to me as a person.


The ecological equilibrium of water reservoirs may differ from that of natural lakes. We questioned this difference by analysing the sediments of a small oligotrophic Alpine lake, whose management was modified for hydroelectric production since 1976. Corne Lake is formed by a shallow depression connected to a deep depression. The hydropower management induced water level fluctuations (+2 m in summer; −8 m in winter) that emptied the shallow depression during the winter months and promoted the erosion of littoral soils and tributary channel sediment and the sedimentation in the deep depression. The sediment of the original lake was a low-density organic mud. The sediment composition varied according to 3 phases, which chronology is debated. During a first phase we measured an increase in the ratio of Diatom/Chrysophycea and bioavailable P, as well as a decrease in the C/N ratio and bulk radiocarbon age of the sediment, suggesting a trophic surge. A second phase was characterised by a high rate of mineral sedimentation, an increase of benthic diatom genera in the deep depression of the lake and acidophilic diatoms in the shallow depression. In the third phase covering the last upper cm of the cores, the sediment tended to return to its initial composition, but the algae community differed from its initial state. We suggest that the management of Alpine lakes as reservoirs induce long-term ecological changes in relation to water level fluctuations and littoral habitats degradation.


Recent needs of nuclear data are found not only in the fields related to nuclear power plants but also in the other fields: medical applications, transmutation of nuclear waste, space development, non-destructive test, analysis, wide-range dosimetry, etc. To meet such wide needs, nuclear data are required for various types of incident particles and target nuclei in the wide energy range. Under these circumstances, "Research Committee on Neutron Optical Potentials" had been organized in the period from April, 1992 to March, 1994, and had investigated and discussed various problems related to neutron optical potentials which are indispensable for nuclear data evaluation. Their final report, "Present Status of Neutron Potential" was published in May, 1997. In the present report, we overview the results given in the committee.


I present a model of phonological representation which represents morphemes in terms of constraint violations rather than strings of segments or root nodes. The formalism allows representation to be uniform throughout the phonology, mandates permanent underspecification of unmarked structure, derives the linear order of segments within a morpheme, and allows representation and evaluation to be conflated. Marked types of morphology (infixes, circumfixes, zero affixes; subtractive, reduplicative and templatic morphology) are represented in exactly the same way as roots. The markedness of such morphology is argued to follow from the high ranking of the violated constraints in question. *


This research addresses the lack of psychometrically some research instruments. Analysis of content validity was conducted by using descriptive method for some research measures. Descriptive analysis of median was conducted on the ratings from the expert panel members. Expert panel of four judges specialized in psychometrics, English language, and industry were asked to rate the relevancy of items to their domains in order to obtain evidence of content validity. No items were deleted from this study. This research aims to bring more attention to the importance of psychometric properties in some research measures. It is also hoped to shed some lights on which content validity analysis would best be used under certain circumstances. Limitations of study were also discussed.


Brownie Wise, the first woman to appear on the cover of "Business Week", was the driving force behind making Tupperware a household name. Fired under mysterious circumstances, she was written out of Tupperware history and died in obscurity.A trailblazing businesswoman decades ahead of her time, Wise created the Tupperware "home party" phenomenon in the 1950s. Her drive and creativity fueled sales and profits for the once sleepy plastic containers company. Tupper anointed Wise as the company figurehead and marketing guru. Long before Disney, her lavish national headquarters drew tourists from near and far to the outskirts of Orlando, Florida, where she held court with the press, politicians, and movie stars.Wise's idea to market Tupperware exclusively through in-home sales sparked a cultural revolution in post World War II America. For the first time, minimally educated and economically invisible housewives had opportunities for careers. She became a cult like, charismatic leader for the Tupperware faithful, so popular that "Tupperware Ladies" would vie to win the clothes right off her back. Behind the scenes, few knew Wise was stalked by her alcoholic and abusive ex-husband and feared him appearing out of nowhere to cause shame, embarrassment, or worse.The adoration from a legion of Tupperware dealers made her sudden fall from grace even more shocking and dramatic. At the height of her national celebrity, Tupper unceremoniously released her from the company. Journalist Bob Kealing has interviewed pioneering executives who helped build the company alongside Wise, reviewed hundreds of primary source documents written by Tupper and Wise, and obtained access to a wealth of previously unknown information, including sealed court depositions regarding a series of boat accidents successfully kept out of the press by the company, and details of secret recordings made by Tupperware Home Parties management seeking to prevent their distributors from unionizing.Wise's rise and fall, and her relationship with the eccentric Tupper, is the stuff of legend; a story told finally, and fully, in "Tupperware Unsealed".


Objective: To assess the impact of airways reflux on clinical severity and airway inflammation in bronchiectasis.

Method: Patients with bronchiectasis completed the Hull airways reflux questionnaire (HARQ,which has been validated for use in assessing airways refux as a cause of cough). The minimum score was 0 and maximum 70. A score of >13 was indicative of reflux. Patients were followed-up with longditudinal spirometry, sputum culture and Leicester cough questionnaire (LCQ) as a measure of cough severity (3-severe and 21-no cough). Myeloperoxidase (MPO), neutrophil elastase (NE), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were measured from spontaneous sputum samples. Multivariable linear regression was used to determine independent factors associated with cough severity (LCQ).

Result: 187 completed the study. 58.2% were female. Median age was 65 years.

77.5% had reflux using HCQ.

Reflux+ve patients had more severe cough symptoms as per LCQ (15.2 (3.5) vs.19.4 (1.9)), p<0.001. Sputum levels of MPO, NE, IL-8, TNF-α and IL-1β were significantly higher in reflux+ve group (p<0.0001 for all comparisons).

![Figure][1]

After adjusting for age, gender, co-morbidities, disease severity and chronic colonisation, reflux was independently associated with cough severity (-3.27 standard error 0.81, p=0.0002).

Conclusion: The presence of airways reflux is associated with more severe cough and increased airway inflammation in bronchiectasis.

 [1]: pending:yes


Planar electromagnetic lenses like the Rotman lens are attractive candidates for beambeam forming networks forming networks because of their high bandwidth of operation and their capability to form multiple beams at lower cost as comparable electronic phase shifting networks. The principles of Rotman lenses have been studied for several decades and examples have been successfully built using different technologies, including parallel plate cavities fed by rectangular waveguides or microstrip lines on dielectric substrate. Due to the true time delay nature of Rotman lenses they theoretically exhibit extremely large bandwidth. However, lenses with rectangular waveguides as ports suffer from propagation of higher order modes inside the waveguide which limits the bandwidth to less than one octave in practical applications. Higher order waveguides, e.g. single or double ridged waveguides, allow for the propagation of a transversal electromagnetic (EM) mode and thus incorporate a larger bandwidth. But the symmetric nature of the TEM mode and the presence of the ridge complicate integration in the lens. The proposed paper outlines the design of a novel feed network based on higher order waveguides suited for multi- octave operation in Radar or Electronic Support Measures (ESM) applications. Each port includes coaxial feeding, a step transformer and a tapered section leading into the parallel plate section of the lens. An overview over the system will be given and numerical as well as experimental results on matching, insertion loss, mutual coupling and expected bandwidth obtained for a laboratory sample will be shown.


PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the advantages of MRguided injections of corticosteroids into the sacroiliac joints (SIJ) in patients suffering from refractory sacroiliitis despite appropriate oral therapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
At a lowfield open MR, we performed twentyfour infiltrations in 12 patients suffering from persistent buttock pain. Clinical followup and laboratory findings were evaluated every 4 up to 6 weeks. A subjective rating using a dolorimetry scale (0= no pain, up to=10 for most severe pain) was assessed prior to intervention and at three months followup. Morphological changes of the SIJ were examined on a 1.5 Tesla imager before and three months after steroid injections.

RESULTS
Adequate positioning of the needle was obtained in all but one case due to a software defect. Clinical improvement was observed in 10 patients with a mean painfree period of 9.6 months. Dolorimetry index decreased from 7.6 +/- 1.5 to 2.9 +/- 1.5. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs could be discontinued in 4 patients and reduced in 4 others.

CONCLUSION
We therefore conclude that MRguided injection of the SIJ is feasible and could be preferred to more conventional methods when technical equipment is available.


Historical parchments in the form of documents, manuscripts, books, or letters, make up a large portion of cultural heritage collections. Their priceless historical value is associated with not only their content, but also the information hidden in the DNA deposited on them. Analyses of ancient DNA (aDNA) retrieved from parchments can be used in various investigations, including, but not limited to, studying their authentication, tracing the development of the culture, diplomacy, and technology, as well as obtaining information on the usage and domestication of animals. This article proposes and verifies a procedure for aDNA recovery from historical parchments and its appropriate preparation for further analyses. This study involved experimental selection of an aDNA extraction method with the highest efficiency and quality of extracted genetic material, from among the multi-stage phenol-chloroform extraction methods, and the modern, column-based techniques that use selective DNA-binding membranes. Moreover, current techniques to amplify entire genetic material were questioned, and the possibility of using mitochondrial DNA for species identification was analyzed. The usefulness of the proposed procedure was successfully confirmed in identification tests of historical parchments dating back to the 13-16th century AD.


A case of haemorrhagic cystitis caused by adenovirus type 11, which occurred in a female patient 13 weeks after renal transplanta‐tion is described. The patient lacked neutralising antibody to adenovirus type 11 before transplantation, but this antibody was present in the serum of the kidney donor. The patient developed antibody to adenovirus type 11, and this virus was isolated from her throat and urine. The data suggest that the infection was transmitted by the kidney graft.


The interest in hybrid polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) fuelled by hydrogen in shipping has seen an unprecedented growth in the last years, as it could allow zero-emission navigation. However, technical, safety, and regulatory barriers in PEMFC ship design and operation are hampering the use of such systems on a large scale. While several studies analyse these aspects, a comprehensive and up-to-date overview on hydrogen PEMFCs for shipping is missing. Starting from the survey of past/ongoing projects on FCs in shipping, this paper presents an extensive review on maritime hydrogen PEMFCs, outlining the state of the art and future trends for hydrogen storage and bunkering, powertrain, and regulations. In addition to the need for a clear regulatory framework, future studies should investigate the development of an efficient fuel supply chain and bunkering facilities ashore. As for the onboard power system, health-conscious energy management, low-temperature heat recovery, and advancements in fuel processing have emerged as hot research topics.


Summary Neospora caninum was organism described as parasite of domestic dog. The tissues cysts seen in neural tissues. The disease can be transmitted by vertical and horizontal. Trans-placental infected pubis: the typical presentation is a flaccid and hind limb paresis Neospora abortion tends to peaks at mid gestation. Serological positive calves will ultimately give birth to calves that are infective and seronegative. Seropositive cow produce less milk than seronegative cows. Neosparn caninum was shown to use cattle as intermediate host and dog as definitive hosts. The most recommendation for prevention is try to prevent fecal contamination of feed and water on the dairy. Trichomonas fetus found in the vagina, uterus, macerated fetus, prepuce, epididymis and vasdeferense. Bovine trichomoniasis is venereal disease manifest in the cow and heifers by infertility, abortion up to 5 ts month after breading pyometra, and fetal mummification. Therefore, some of the common causes of abortion on cattle are discussed in detail in this review.


Despite the low occurrence of tropical cyclones at the archipelago of San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina (Colombia), Hurricane Iota in 2020 made evident the area vulnerability to tropical cyclones as major hazards by obliterating 56.4 % of housing, partially destroying the remaining houses in Providencia. We investigated the hurricane storm surge inundation in the archipelago by forcing hydrodynamic models with synthetic tropical cyclones and hypothetical hurricanes. The storm surge from synthetic events allowed identifying the strongest surges using the probability distribution, enabling the generation of hurricane storm surge flood maps for 100 and 500 year return periods. This analysis suggested that the east of San Andres and Providencia are the more likely areas to be flooded from hurricanes storm surges. The hypothetical events were used to force the hydrodynamic model to create worst-case flood scenario maps, useful for contingency and development planning. Additionally, Hurricane Iota flood levels were calculated using 2D and 1D models. The 2D model included storm surge (SS), SS with astronomical tides (AT), and SS with AT and wave setup (WS), resulting in a total flooded area (percentage related to Providencia's total area) of 67.05 ha (3.25 %), 65.23 ha (3.16 %), and 76.68 ha (3.68%), respectively. While Hurricane Iota occurred during low tide, the WS contributed 14.93 % (11.45 ha) of the total flooded area in Providencia. The 1D approximation showed that during the storm peak in the eastern of the island, the contribution of AT, SS, and wave runup to the maximum sea water level was −3.01%, 46.36%, and 56.55 %, respectively. This finding provides evidence of the water level underestimation in insular environments when modeling SS without wave contributions. The maximum SS derived from Iota was 1.25 m at the east of Providencia, which according to this study has an associated return period of 3,234 years. The methodology proposed in this study can be applied to other coastal zones and may include the effect of climate change on hurricane storm surges and sea-level rise. Results from this study are useful for emergency managers, government, coastal communities, and policymakers as civil protection measures.


PurposeThe front-end phase plays an important role in achieving project success, and establishment of performance measurement systems considering project challenges or pitfalls is a way of keeping track of this phase. Early warning signs, a type of proactive performance indicators, may serve as means for improving decision-making and project processes aiming for short- and long-term project success. In this paper, the authors present findings from a study on early warning signs (EWS) in hospital projects' front-end. A preliminary systematisation of identified signs as a contribution to front-end improvement is provided.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a mixed methods approach, using a sequential, exploratory research design comprising document studies, interviews and a survey.FindingsThe authors identified 62 challenges for hospital projects' front-end performance and further established four categories of EWS as follows: (1) structure and tools, (2) context and frame factors, (3) management and (4) relational factors and properties. This mirrors the presence of hard and soft issues from previous studies. There is need for clarifying terminology and raising consciousness on EWS. Processual approaches to identify EWS are considered more useful than subsequent established indicators.Originality/valueThe findings from this paper provide insight into EWS in hospital projects' front-end phase. This adds to the general understanding of EWS and contributes to more knowledge on the front-end phase in general.


The traditional system of growing tall rice ( Oryza sativa L.) varieties during the monsoon season and prawn culture (prawn filtration) during summer season, locally known as pokkali , is a sustainable system of production harmoniously blended with natural processes like sea water inundation in the low-lying coastal zones of Kerala. A two year field study at Vyttila, Kerala, India evaluated spatial and temporal integration of high yielding pokkali rice genotypes with varying morphological characters (VTL3, culture-1026, and 'Chettivirippu' mutant) with fish [etroplus ( Etroplus suratensis Bloch), rohu ( Labeo rohita F. Hamilton) and tilapia ( Oreochromis mosambicus Peters)] and tiger prawn ( Peneaus monodon Fabricus) grown in succession. Culture-1026 showed better growth and yield (4391 kg ha–1) over VTL3 (2434 kg ha–1) and 'Chettivirippu' mutant (3950 kg ha–1). Among the fishes tried, all male population of tilapia outperformed etroplus and rohu in terms of survival (37.6, 0.0, and 16% respectively) and yield (216.7, 0.0, and 12.7 kg ha–1 respectively) when grown simultaneously with rice. Inclusion of tiger prawn as a rotational component during summer enhanced profitability (prawn yield 425 kg ha–1) and benefit-cost ratio (2.03). Although no direct effect of the components on pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon content, available phosphorus, available potassium, and available sodium of the soil were noted, seasonal variations in water quality and consequent changes in soil properties were evident. Compatibility of the components, stable yields, favourable soil physico-chemical and hydrological parameters, and economic returns contribute to the sustainability of this production system.


In 2012, the American College of Trial Lawyers ("ACTL") Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice, the ACTL Judiciary Committee, ACTL Jury Committee, ACTL Special Problems in the Administration of Justice Committee, and IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, undertook a study on practices and methods for pretrial management of civil cases that might reduce cost and delays for litigants while saving judicial time and resources. This report is based on personal interviews with approximately 30 state and federal trial court judges, from diverse jurisdictions across the country, who were identified as being outstanding case managers and whose civil case management experience can serve as a model for others.

Five general themes emerged from the interviews, with numerous specific practices and techniques discussed further in the report.

Assess a case and its challenges at the outset. Use active and continuing judicial involvement when warranted to keep the parties and the case on track. There was strong consensus among the judges interviewed that becoming involved at the earliest stage of a case is critical. Some judges review cases as soon as they are assigned. Others hold off until the time of the initial case management or Rule 16 conference. Virtually all interviewed judges, however, agreed that a small expenditure of time at the very beginning of a case saves significantly more time as the case progresses.

Convene an initial case management conference early in the life of the case. Discuss with the parties anticipated problems and issues, as well as deadlines for major case events. Initial conferences provide a valuable opportunity for judges to get a feel for the relative complexity of the case and the relationships among the parties and their counsel. By spending time in advance familiarizing themselves with the pleadings, judges can establish priorities for discovery. By obtaining input from counsel about the realistic timing for trial and for various pretrial events — such as amendment of pleadings, joinder of additional parties, discovery cutoffs, and expert disclosures — judges can establish a firm trial date and work backwards to set necessary pretrial deadlines that will assist in moving the case forward expeditiously. By limiting continuances to serious and unanticipated circumstances, judges can work toward meaningful and timely resolution in processing the case.

Reduce and streamline motions practice to the extent appropriate and possible. Rule quickly on motions. The judges emphasized that motions practice drives cost and delay in the civil pretrial process. Many judges aim to resolve motions, especially discovery disputes, informally. This obviates the need for written submissions and focuses on oral presentations. The judges interviewed also overwhelmingly believe that prompt rulings on motions, including those announced from the bench, can dramatically expedite progress in cases, reduce litigants' expenses, save judicial time and resources, and enhance ultimate resolution.

Create a culture of collegiality and professionalism by being explicit and up front with lawyers about the court's expectations, and then holding the participants to them. Interviewed judges universally recognized the importance of collegiality and professionalism among counsel. Most judges interviewed make their expectations of civility explicit during the initial discussions with counsel in the pretrial process.

Explore settlement with the parties at an early stage and periodically throughout the pretrial process, where such conversations might benefit the parties and move the case toward resolution. Keeping the subject of settlement on the table expedites resolution, and periodically opening the topic for discussion may give lawyers the cover needed, with clients and opposing counsel, to avoid the appearance of negotiating from a position of weakness.

The collective experience of these judges suggests several techniques that — used individually or together — can expedite resolution of cases with lower cost to litigants and courts. The ACTL and IAALS offer this report to share successful practices, and hope the report will spark further use of these and other practices to better serve litigants, lawyers, and the court.

This report is primarily designed to provide civil trial court judges with proven techniques used by outstanding judges for more efficient pretrial case management. Nonetheless, trial lawyers may also choose to encourage adoption of these recommendations for use in cases they are handling, in order to decrease the delays and costs of today's litigation.


Sulfur accurate determination plays a vital role in the evaluation of coal quality. In this work, double-pulse laser-induced breakdown (DP-LIBS) in a helium atmosphere was presented and applied in the sulfur concentration quantification of coal. The ablation plasma generated from the sample surface by the first laser (Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm, 50 mJ per pulse) was re-excited orthogonally by the second laser pulse (Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm, 120 mJ per pulse). The intensity of sulfur spectral lines has been enhanced with DP-LIBS and the interference from O I 926.6 has been weakened in the helium atmosphere. The calibration curves of S I 921.3 nm, S I 922.8 nm and S I 923.8 nm have been established for 10 coal samples with S concentration ranging from 0.28 wt% to 4.01 wt%. The best result was achieved with R2 = 0.992, LoD = 0.038 wt%, and RMSECV = 0.143 wt%. The overall results adequately demonstrate that DP-LIBS combined with a helium atmosphere has excellent analytical performance for sulfur determination in coal and enormous potential for on-line detection in the coal industry.


Seed production from weeds that are missed by herbicide application can affect future weed populations and management decisions. It may be possible to expand the utility of computerized weed management decision aids to include an estimate of weed seed production resulting from selected treatments based on crop yield potential. Field studies were conducted in soybean near Columbia, MO, to determine whether weed control recommendations based on crop yield potential from a computerized weed management decision aid influence weed seed production in two soybean row spacings. At approximately 28 d after planting, weed densities and heights were entered into WeedSOFT® to generate a list of treatments ranked by predicted crop yields. Treatments included: (1) highest predicted crop yield in a glyphosate-resistant system, (2) highest predicted crop yield in a nonglyphosate-resistant system, (3) a 10% yield reduction, (4) a 20% yield reduction, and (5) an untreated control. These treatments were applied to soybean grown in 38- and 76-cm rows. Treatments that provided 90% or higher control of an individual species at 22 d after treatment usually produced less seed than untreated checks. Weed seed production based on early-season herbicide efficacy showed a linear relationship and was relatively predictable (r2 ≥ 0.52) for the predominant weed species. For less dominant weed species, weed seed production was not strongly correlated (r2 ≤ 0.27) to early-season herbicide efficacy but apparently influenced by control of other weed species. Narrow row spacing reduced giant foxtail biomass both years but did not reduce common ragweed and ivyleaf morningglory biomass. Narrow rows did not decrease giant foxtail, common ragweed, and ivyleaf morningglory seed production. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia (L.) #3 AMBEL; giant foxtail, Setaria faberi (L.) Herrm. # SETFA; ivyleaf morningglory, Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq. # IPOHE; soybean, Glycine max. Additional index words: Decision support system, herbicide decision aid. Abbreviations: AP, at planting; DAT, days after treatment; HPMY-G, highest percent maximum yield that used glyphosate-resistant soybean; HPMY-NG, highest percent maximum yield that did not use glyphosate.


Objectives:Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used, but have potentially serious adverse effects. We investigated the knowledge of patients with inflammatory arthritis with regards to risks associated with the combination of prescribed and over-the-counter (OTC) NSAIDs, of differences in side effects between acetaminophen and NSAIDs, and from which sources patients received information about side effects. Methods:Data from 170 questionnaires provided to consecutive patients with inflammatory arthritis at a rheumatologic outpatient clinic were collected through questionnaires (response rate 75%). Results:Eighty-seven percent of patients had taken prescribed NSAIDs or OTC analgesics during the previous 2 weeks, 36% being NSAIDs, and 36% used analgesics regularly. Fifty-four percent would increase the dose of drugs in a bad period, and they were more likely to over-use the OTC drugs than the prescribed drugs (P = 0.002, Mann-Whitney). Factors recognized to increase the risk of side effects were: higher dose (81% of patients), long-term treatment (68%), previous side effects (57%), combination of NSAIDs (49%), and old age (31%). Twenty-three percent assumed that acetaminophen increased the risk of side effects. Information was obtained from package inserts (84%), the rheumatologist (80%), and the general practitioner (50%). They had greatest confidence in the rheumatologist, package leaflets, and the general practitioner. Conclusion:Incomplete knowledge and misconceptions of some patients suggests that more information on risk factors and side effects to NSAID treatment is needed to improve patient safety. This is especially true about the combination of prescribed and OTC drugs.


The gill is the primary site of ionoregulation and gas exchange in adult teleost fishes. However, those characteristics that benefit diffusive gas exchange (large, thin gills) may also enhance the passive equilibration of ions and water that threaten osmotic homeostasis. Our literature review revealed that gill surface area and thickness were similar in freshwater (FW) and seawater (SW) species; however, the diffusive oxygen (O2) conductance (Gd) of the gill was lower in FW species. While a lower Gd may reduce ion losses, it also limits O2 uptake capacity and possibly aerobic performance in situations of high O2 demand (e.g. exercise) or low O2 availability (e.g. environmental hypoxia). We also found that FW fishes had significantly higher haemoglobin (Hb)-O2 binding affinities than SW species, which will increase the O2 diffusion gradient across the gills. Therefore, we hypothesized that the higher Hb-O2 affinity of FW fishes compensates, in part, for their lower Gd. Using a combined literature review and modelling approach, our results show that a higher Hb-O2 affinity in FW fishes increases the flux of O2 across their low-Gd gills. In addition, FW and SW teleosts can achieve similar maximal rates of O2 consumption (ṀO2,max) and hypoxia tolerance (Pcrit) through different combinations of Hb-O2 affinity and Gd. Our combined data identified novel patterns in gill and Hb characteristics between FW and SW fishes and our modelling approach provides mechanistic insight into the relationship between aerobic performance and species distribution ranges, generating novel hypotheses at the intersection of cardiorespiratory and ionoregulatory fish physiology.


Polymyositis (PM) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation in skeletal muscle. Mean platelet volume (MPV), a marker in the assessment of systemic inflammation, is easily measured by automatic blood count equipment. However, to our knowledge, there are no data in the literature with respect to MPV levels in PM patients. Therefore, in this study we aimed to investigate MPV levels in patients with PM. This study included 92 newly diagnosed PM patients and 100 healthy individuals. MPV levels were found to be significantly lower compared with healthy controls (10.3±1.23 vs 11.5±0.74 fL, P<0.001). Interestingly, MPV was found to be positively correlated with manual muscle test (MMT) score and negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in patients with PM (r=0.239, P=0.022; r=−0.268, P=0.010, respectively). In addition, MPV was significantly lower in active PM patients compared with inactive PM patients (9.9±1.39 vs 10.6±0.92 fL, P=0.010). MPV was independently associated with PM in multivariate regression analyses, when controlling for hemoglobin and ESR (OR=0.312, P=0.031, 95%CI=0.108 to 0.899). The ROC curve analysis for MPV in estimating PM patients resulted in an area under the curve of 0.800, with sensitivity of 75.0% and specificity of 67.4%. Our results suggest that MPV is inversely correlated with disease activity in patients with PM. MPV might be a useful tool for rapid assessment of disease severity in PM patients.