Many aspects of software development use varieties of distributed computing techniques. We focus on a specific phase known generally as testing but more appropriately as iterative test and integration. Traditional software development is mandated by methodologies. These methodologies follow from the waterfall model of software development, and provide automation support via software tools for coding, documentation analysis and evaluation. Quality and productivity have become the driving forces and this in turn emphasized modularity, reusability and use of formal methods where possible. The traditional waterfall model of software development partitions the processing sequence into phases of requirements, specification, design, implementation, and testing and validation. While this is still the basic conceptual model used in most of the development methodologies, this does not explicitly include the feedback and revisions between phases due to errors, problems, omissions and changes. Also it does not include the process of integration that takes place at every step and most importantly in the later stages namely, iterative testing and integration. We discuss our approach to the system integration problems which are outlined. The system integration process mainly depends on (a) a formal methodology that leads to an efficient integration testing plan, and (b) a consistency checking mechanism that validates the module subsystem interfaces and intermodule interactions during all the changes of the integration testing process. The integration plan that is produced should be good in the sense that the scheduling and partitioning of a collection of modules to be integrated should be done to reduce the interactions and dependencies between program units as modifications are made at the different phases of the development and assist in localizing errors during integration testing. We investigate issues in the generic integration lifecycle including properties that individual software modules should possess for efficient integration and guidelines for designing modules.


Recent advances in information technology and telecommunications have made significant improvement in the delivery of education in pathology using a digital format. Digital pathology (DP) images are captured as static images by various scanning, imaging or mobile devices. Whole slide imaging/virtual microscopy (WSI/VM) can be obtained by robotic microscopy on an entire histological glass slide. Anonymized DP images may be stored in remote and/or cloud servers to be used in E‐Learning and digital education. Since 1986, clinical services using telepathology (TP) technologies for the transfer of pathology images between distant locations have benefited many patients worldwide, including the University of Alberta. WSI by Real‐time telepathology systems provides for a faster diagnosis in intraoperative frozen section and tele‐consultations, as well as interactive components in digital education and continuing medical education (CME) for purposes of specialist re‐certification or re‐validation for the Royal College of Pathologists of Canada and College of American Pathologists. At present, the use of WSI by real‐time TP system in DP education seems to be limited due to high bandwidth requirement and high expense, but electronic platforms and their connection to stable operating systems are improving enormously. Social media and mobile devices are increasingly being used in DP education and may provide future platforms for the delivery of DP education. However, full‐scale implementations of technologies in DP education may be limited, due to limited resources and infrastructural support, and the lack of integration into the existing laboratory information systems (LIS) or Provincial Health Networks (PHN).


Heavy metal pollution in the effluent water due to industrial waste product of various economic activities is not adequately regulated in Colombia, this is because the agencies do little control track discharge and easily granting environmental licenses. As a result of this little regulation currently they do not have updated figures that provide real information on the amount of waste that ends up in the resort, causing health effects of living beings. In the tanning industry, in particular, there cadmium residual concentration higher than the maximum allowed by the Ministry of the environment. This work considers the use of a geopolymeric material based on pumice stone, to capture cadmium ions present in wastewater and thus reduce its concentration in the water resource in order to reduce the population's exposure to diseases that are associated with accumulation of cadmium in the body. The synthesis of geopolymer began from the alkaline activation of pumice stone with commercial sodium silicate, the use of sand:pumice stone in a 1:1 ratio and 31 hours of reaction, these proportions were defined in a previously work by the authors. The morphological and crystallographic characterization of the sorbent geopolymeric material was performed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. To assess the sorption process, a study of the geopolymer's contact time with a known solution of cadmium was performed. Cadmium concentration was determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy and the geopolymer was characterized after removal.


Growth hormone (GH) gene expression in mammals is regulated by the interaction of the transcription factor Pit-1 with two binding sites within the proximal promoter. Four sequences, homologous to the mammalian Pit-1 motif occur in the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) GHII (rtGH) gene promoter, two of which partly overlap. The three regions containing these putative Pit-1 binding sequences were protected from deoxyribonuclease I digestion by nuclear extracts of GC cells, a rat pituitary tumor cell line producing Pit-1. In gel shift assays, nuclear proteins from GC cells and from trout pituitaries were found to interact specifically with one of these protected sites. Transfection experiments showed that the rtGH promoter is transcriptionally active in GC cells, the response being strongly enhanced in the presence of a cAMP analogue. The results demonstrate that rat Pit-1 binds to and activates the rtGH promoter, indicating that the basic mechanisms regulating GH gene transcription have been conserved between fish and mammals.


The kinetics and parameters of thermal and acidic degradation of poly-1,3-dioxolane were investigated in order to elucidate the mechanism of degradation and to obtain information on the nature of active centers. Both homolytic and heterolytic breaking of a macromolecule were shown to be random and occur at the acetal bond. Thermal degradation was found to proceed in two stages, depending on temperature and involving active centers of a different nature, i.e., macroions and macroradicals. The rate-determining step of thermal degradation appears to be one involving the radical component, similarly to thermal degradation of olefin polyoxides. Acidic degradation occurs solely by the depolymerization mechanism, as in the case of polyaldehydes. It was concluded that the degradation mechanism depends not only on the chain structure and the thermodynamic properties of the system, but also on the nature of active centers.


A diagnosis of depression is frequently considered in the evaluation of patients after cerebrovascular accident (CVA); however, the usual clinical signs of depression may be either masked in depressed patients or mimicked in nondepressed patients. The dexamethasone suppression test (DST), first used to screen patients with a suspected diagnosis of Cushing's disease, has been shown in the psychiatric population to be abnormal in about 50% of patients with primary or endogenous depression. This study employed the DST to assess its diagnostic value in a population of 20 CVA patients admitted to a rehabilitation hospital. The test was found to have an 83% specificity. Results suggest that the low incidence of primary depression in this setting greatly limits the utility of the DST in such usage.


For the original article see ibid., vol.36, no.4, p.789-91 (1988). The commenters point out similar previous works to that presented in the above named article by R.J. Baeten et al., and take issue with several points. In replying, the original authors note the oversight regarding the citation of these previous works but maintain the correctness of the points at issue. >


In this work, we search for possible approaches to large-scale data mining analytics. We perform an exploration about the existing MapReduce and other MapReduce-like frameworks for distributed data processing and the distributed file systems for distributed data storage. We study in detail about Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and Hadoop MapReduce software framework. We analyse the benefits of newer version of Hadoop software framework which provides better scalability solution by segregating the cluster resource management task from MapReduce framework. This version is called YARN and is very flexible in supporting various kinds of distributed data processing other than batchmode processing of MapReduce. We also looked into various implementations of data mining algorithms based on MapReduce to derive a comprehensive concept about developing such algorithms. We also looked for various tools that provided MapRedcue based scalable data mining algorithms. We could only find Mahout as a tool specially based on Hadoop MapReduce. But the tool developer team decided to stop using Hadoop MapReduce and to use instead Apache Spark as the underlying execution engine. WEKA also has a very small subset of data mining algorithms implemented using MapReduce which is not properly maintained and supported by the developer team. Subsequently, we found out that Apache Spark, apart from providing an optimised and a faster execution engine for distributed processing also provided an accompanying library for machine learning algorithms. This library is called Machine Learning library (MLlib). Apache Spark claimed that it is much faster than Hadoop MapReduce as it exploits the advantages of in-memory computations which is particularly more beneficial for iterative workloads in case of data mining. Spark is designed to work on variety of clusters: YARN being one of them. It is designed to process the Hadoop data. We selected to perform a particular data mining task: decision tree learning based classification and regression data mining. We stored properly labelled training data for predictive mining tasks in HDFS. We set up a YARN cluster and run Spark's MLlib applications on this cluster. These applications use the cluster managing capabilities of YARN and the distributed execution framework of Spark core services. We performed several experiments to measure the performance gains, speed-up and scaleup of implementations of decision tree learning algorithms in Spark's MLlib. We found out much better than expected results for our experiments. We achieved a much higher than ideal speed-up when we increased the number of nodes. The scale-up is also very excellent. There is a significant decrease in run-time for training decision tree models by increasing the number of nodes. This demonstrates that Spark's MLlib decision tree learning algorithms for classification and regression analysis are highly scalable.


Pre-trained multilingual language models have become an important building block in multilingual Natural Language Processing. In the present paper, we investigate a range of such models to find out how well they transfer discourse-level knowledge across languages. This is done with a systematic evaluation on a broader set of discourse-level tasks than has been previously been assembled. We find that the XLM-RoBERTa family of models consistently show the best performance, by simultaneously being good monolingual models and degrading relatively little in a zero-shot setting. Our results also indicate that model distillation may hurt the ability of cross-lingual transfer of sentence representations, while language dissimilarity at most has a modest effect. We hope that our test suite, covering 5 tasks with a total of 22 languages in 10 distinct families, will serve as a useful evaluation platform for multilingual performance at and beyond the sentence level.


Objective Cancer cells with stemness and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) features display enhanced malignant and metastatic potential. This study aimed to introduce a new methodology developed in order to investigate the co-expression of a stemness (OCT4) and EMT markers on single circulating tumor cells (CTCs) of patients with localized urinary bladder cancer and their potential prognostic prediction value. Methods and Materials Between April 2015 and July 2015, blood samples of 51 consecutive patients diagnosed with high risk bladder cancer (cT1-3N0M0) were prospectively investigated for CTCs. Peripheral blood (5 mL) was drawn before primary transurethral resection. Detection of CTCs was performed using the CanPatrolTM system. Nucleic acid probes were used to identify CTCs, and expression levels of epithelial and mesenchymal genes in CTCs were examined by situ hybridization assay. Results All patients received radical cystectomy with pelvic lymph nodes dissection. CTCs were detected in 44 of 51 (86.3%) patients, respectively. The overall mean number of CTCs was 6.1 (range: 0~29; median: 4). A total of 311 CTCs were detected in PB. High OCT4 expression (OCT4high) was detected more frequently in Epi−Mes+ cells (p=0.001). Patients with pathological confirmed muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) had higher Epi−Mes+ CTCs positive rates (p=0.001) and OCT4high CTCs positive rates (p=0.019) than pathological confirmed non muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Regarding co-expression of these markers, Epi−Mes+/OCT4high CTCs were more frequently evident in the MIBC setting (30.4% vs 3.6% of patients, p = 0.016). Conclusion A differential expression pattern for these markers was observed both in NMIBC and MIBC disease. A subgroup of CTCs showed a CTCs expressing high OCT4, along with Mes were more frequently detected in patients with MIBC, suggesting that these cells may prevail during tumor muscle invasion and disease progression.


GaN radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers offer many benefits including high power density, reduced device footprint, high operating voltage, and excellent gain and power-added efficiency. Accordingly, these parts are enabling next-generation technologies such as fifth-generation (5G) base transceiver stations and defense/aerospace applications such as high-performance radar and communication systems. However, these benefits can be overshadowed by device overheating that compromises the performance and reliability. In response to this, researchers have focused on GaN-on-diamond integration during the past decade. However, manufacturability, scalability, and long-term reliability remain as critical challenges toward the commercialization of the novel device platform. In this work, a diamond-incorporated flip-chip integration scheme is proposed that takes advantage of existing semiconductor device processing and growth techniques. Using an experimentally validated GaN-on-SiC multifinger device model, the theoretical limit of the cooling effectiveness of the device-level thermal management solution has been evaluated. Simulation results show that by employing a $\sim 2-\mu \text{m}$ diamond passivation overlayer, gold thermal bumps, and a commercial polycrystalline carrier wafer, the power amplifier's dissipated heat can be effectively routed toward the package, which leads to a junction-to-package thermal resistance lower than GaN-on-diamond high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Furthermore, simulation results show that this approach is even more promising for lowering the device thermal resistance of emerging ultra-wide bandgap devices based on $\beta $ -Ga2O3 and AlGaN, below that for today's state-of-the-art GaN-on-diamond HEMTs.


The binding properties of quercetin toward chloride anions were investigated by means of 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) measurements, as well as computational calculations. The results indicate that quercetin behaves primarily as a ditopic receptor with the binding site of the B ring that exhibits stronger chloride affinity compared to the A ring. However, these sites are stronger receptors than those of catechol and resorcinol because of their conjugation with the carbonyl group located on the C ring. The 1:1 and 1:2 complexation of this flavonoid with Cl− was also supported by ESI mass spectrometry.


This paper presents the implementation of an incremental A/D converter designed as part of the signal-conditioning circuitry of a pressure sensor interface. For technological compatibility, the switched-current technique was chosen, since it does not need double polysilicon CMOS process. The low precision of the SI technique have been partially overcome by using a offset cancellation algorithm and circuit enhancements. Resolutions of up to 10 bits are achieved for a 1 MHz clock frequency through electrical simulations. A 1 /spl mu/m CMOS prototype is being tested and some experimental results are given.


The deployment of third-generation (3G) mobile systems is accelerating due to the explosion of high-speed wireless multimedia communications and mobile Internet services. 3G services in Japan are entering their fourth year of commercial service and therefore are reaching the stage of maturity. ROF (Radio over fiber) technology enables the transmission of radio signals directly over optical fiber with low propagation loss and long-reach feeding instead of a coaxial cable, and allows mobile service providers to deploy base stations with more freedom and fewer restrictions at lower cost in 3G systems. The ROF approach makes it possible to centralize large base station facilities, and easier to add new cell sites, upgrade technology and accommodate multi-service signals within a single system for outdoor applications. In addition to conventional indoor applications for an instance gap filler system, a mobile Centrex service has consistently driven the demand for interconnecting and distributing radio signals from base station to remote antenna units. In this presentation, we review the recent demonstrations and applications in the mobile communication system relevant ROF technologies. We also discuss the system design issues caused by system deployments and optical fiber characteristics, and present research and development topics and challenges for future radio signal transport systems in mobile networks.


This thesis consists of three relevant yet independent empirical studies investigating different questions regarding the determinants of post-compulsory educational aspirations and choices of an English cohort born between 1989-1990 using very detailed survey and administrative data records. The first study investigates whether the importance of socio-economic background and ability in determining the post-compulsory educational aspirations and choices of young people changed over time by comparing the analytical cohort with an older cohort born in 1970. Educational aspirations and choices are defined as the selection between academic, vocational and no-post compulsory education. The study identifies a decreasing socio-economic effect over time on both aspirations and choices for academic and no post-compulsory education providing evidence that the expansion of academic education has proportionately benefited individuals from all social backgrounds. Further, the study identifies a decreased participation in vocational education which did not arise from falling aspirations but because of rising aspirations and actual participation in post-compulsory
academic education. The second study investigates whether the educational aspirations of secondary school students are influenced by their school peers. Peer effects on individuals' intentions to stay in education are found to be significant for boys but not for girls. Conditional on their plans to remain in post-compulsory education, peers' ability and aspirations to follow an academic rather than a vocational education pathway, have a positive and significant effect on individuals' aspirations to follow an academic route. The study also finds evidence that the provision of information, advice and guidance by schools or external agencies can serve
to mitigate peer effects. Finally, individuals with higher ability peers are less likely to have changed their educational aspirations between Year 9 and Year 11 of school. The third study uses detailed administrative records for the whole population of the analytical cohort to investigate the impact of students' socio-economic background on their academic match in 16-19 post compulsory education. Academic match would occur when students are matched to post-compulsory qualifications studied by similarly attaining peers. Disadvantaged students are found to be more likely to be exposed to academic undermatch compared to their more advantaged peers. The phenomenon is apparent even between students within the same school. The study also identifies that undermatched students are more likely to be found in disadvantaged schools with lower proportions of high achieving students and higher proportions of ethnic minority and disadvantaged students. In addition, the results indicate that significant masses of undermatched students are more likely to be found in rural districts with higher rates of youth unemployment and higher proportions of poorly educated residents. Finally, the study demonstrates that academic assortative matching has a positive relationship with labour market income returns, at least at early ages. Overall, the findings of this thesis establish that educational aspirations and choices are influenced by background factors in addition to individual ability and that they are, to a large extent, socially graded. The implications drawn from this research should be important for every policy maker, social scientist, teacher and parent interested in social mobility and equality of opportunity.


Background: Hospitalized patients who are receiving antihyperglycemic agents are at increased risk for hypoglycemia. Inpatient hypoglycemia may lead to increased risk for morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization, and readmission within 30 days of discharge, which in turn may lead to increased costs. Hospital-wide initiatives targeting hypoglycemia are known to be beneficial; however, their impact on patient care and economic measures in community nonteaching hospitals are unknown. Methods: This retrospective quality improvement study examined the effects of hospital-wide hypoglycemia initiatives on the rates of insulin-induced hypoglycemia in a community hospital setting from January 1, 2016, until September 30, 2019. The potential cost of care savings has been calculated. Results: Among 49 315 total patient days, 2682 days had an instance of hypoglycemia (5.4%). Mean ± SD hypoglycemic patient days/month was 59.6 ± 16.0. The frequency of hypoglycemia significantly decreased from 7.5% in January 2016 to 3.9% in September 2019 (P = .001). Patients with type 2 diabetes demonstrated a significant decrease in the frequency of hypoglycemia (7.4%-3.8%; P < .0001), while among patients with type 1 diabetes the frequency trended downwards but did not reach statistical significance (18.5%-18.0%; P = 0.08). Based on the reduction of hypoglycemia rates, the hospital had an estimated cost of care savings of $98 635 during the study period. Conclusions: In a community hospital setting, implementation of hospital-wide initiatives targeting hypoglycemia resulted in a significant and sustainable decrease in the rate of insulin-induced hypoglycemia. These high-leverage risk reduction strategies may be translated into considerable cost savings and could be implemented at other community hospitals.


Lattice images of dislocations, growth boundaries and surface structure, of the n-paraffin series have been obtained by high resolution electron microscopy. The crystals were grown so that the chain axes of the paraffin molecules were normal to the incident beam enabling distortion created by chain end interactions to be resolved. Solid solutions of paraffins within four carbon units in length, crystallized without eutectic segregation, irrespective of the even or odd numbers of carbon in the chains. However, for paraffins separated by only one or two carbon units there was lattice exfoliation at the crystal boundaries, which we have interpreted as evidence for an interblock structure with segregation of the minor component to the crystal boundaries.


The operational meaning of coherence measure lies at the very heart of the coherence theory. In this paper, we provide an operational interpretation for geometric coherence, by proving that the geometric coherence of a quantum state is equal to the minimum error probability to discriminate a set of pure states with von Neumann measurement. On the other hand, we also show that a task to ambiguously discriminate a set of linearly independent pure states can be regarded as a problem of calculating geometric coherence. That is, we reveal an equivalence relation between ambiguous quantum state discrimination and geometric coherence. Based on this equivalence, moreover, we improve the upper bound for geometric coherence and give the explicit expression of geometric coherence for a class of states. Besides, we establish a complementarity relation of geometric coherence and path distinguishability, with which the relationship between l1-norm of coherence and geometric coherence is obtained. Finally, with geometric coherence, we study multiple copies of quantum state discrimination and give an example to show how to discriminate two pure states.


Telemedicine is having a great impact in the monitoring of patients located in remote nonclinical environments, e.g. [ 1 ]& [ 2 ]. Due to the development and widespread use of the mobile phones, it is becoming possible and feasible to apply this technology to be an integral part of telemedicine systems. This paper discusses the design, implementation and testing of the ECG transmission system over GSM network. Using this transmission system, ECG signals are transmitted in real time from the patients' location in a remote clinical or nonclinical environment to the specialists in hospitals or clinics using the capabilities of the GSM network. This system is intended to be used primarily for diagnosis purposes, thus eliminating or reducing the trouble taken by many patients to travel vast distances to be seen by the cardiologists. The transmission system design is implemented using a combination of hardware and software components. The transmitter implemented in this study can interface with existing ECG machines or may acquire analogue signals directly from lower end ECG probes. The signal at the receiving end could be displayed on an oscilloscope or on a PC. The prototype system built during the course of this study has successfully transmitted a representative ECG signal over the GSM system and a replica signal was also successfully recovered at the receiving side. The transmitter and receiver hardware is intended to be low cost and light in weight so that it may also be implemented as a portable device usable in home care facilities.


We propose an interface approach with commercial network to construct heterogeneous access network to experiment mobility control mechanism. The approach newly introduces PoA proxy to emulate MIH protocol and includes information flow for location and handover management.


Orchidectomy caused a non-specific increase of immunological reactivity in mice evidenced by accelerated rejection of skin allografts, increased response to oxazolone and sheep erythrocytes. These changes were associated with an increase of thymic size. The response to pneumococcal polysaccharide, which depends upon B-cells, was not increased. Orchidectomised mice showed protection against induced methylcholanthrene sarcomas and transplantable tumours; tumours which are not obviously hormone dependent.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Dyslipidaemia is a major modifiable risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in type 2 diabetes. We provide an in-context overview of recent trials of lipid-lowering pharmacotherapies and of recommendations from international guidelines for managing dyslipidaemia in patients with diabetes.

RECENT FINDINGS
Clinical trials have demonstrated that patients with diabetes derive greater benefits from ezetimibe and proprotein convertase subtilisin-kexin type 9 inhibitors owing to the higher absolute ASCVD risk compared with patients without diabetes. Pure eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester therapy should be considered in high risk patients with diabetes and hypertriglyceridaemia who have well controlled low-density lipoprotein cholesterol on statin therapy. International guidelines from USA, Canada and Europe have been updated to support a more intensive approach to treating dyslipidaemia in diabetes.

SUMMARY
Dyslipidaemia should be identified and treated intensively as part of overall diabetes management to reduce ASCVD risk. Although lifestyle modifications and statin therapy remain the cornerstone of management, add-on therapies should be strongly considered depending on the absolute risk of ASCVD and the degree of dyslipidaemia.


As Poverty has become a global challenge for all the nations around the world, from the past many years, different strategies have been used to reduce it. However, since 1980s Microfinance has become a powerful tool to alleviate poverty and it's not adopted even in the developing countries but also developed nations have been practicing it. Many of the past studies used the economic indicators to measure the impact of microfinance on poverty reduction, and few have concentrated on the social indicators. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of microfinance as a poverty reduction in terms of social indicators in the rural areas of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The objective of this research is to check whether the established NGOs in the concern areas have been successful in bringing social change in the life of the beneficiaries. For the purpose of analysis, the structural equation model is applied to a sample of 440 collected through a structured questionnaire. Results show that microfinance had a negative impact on the health and education of the beneficiaries. This research indicates that more funds and priority should be given to the education and health sector because they have equal importance as compared to the other economic indicators.


A survey of small-scale subsurface variability within the synoptic observational field of an ocean surface current radar (OSCR) using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is described. The survey involved observation of a developing upper mixed layer in a littoral zone off southeast Florida, on the edge of a strong Florida current during the summer of 1999. Complimentary in situ observations from a bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), conductivity-temperature (CT) chain arrays, atmospheric measurements from a surface buoy, and CTD and ADCP observations from a surface ship provided the background to the survey. The AUV, the Ocean Explorer, equipped with a CTD, downward and upward looking ADCPs, and a small-scale turbulence package, was used to conduct a continuous 12-h survey of small-to-fine-scale variability within a few grid cells of the surface current radar field. The vehicle repeatedly sampled the same grid in a set pattern at a fixed mid-water depth. Maps of developing spatial distribution of current, salinity, temperature, and rate of dissipation have been developed using the AUV-based observations. The observed features in the current field compare well with the OSCR and the bottom-mounted ADCP measurements.


This article on an early modern pamphlet which can be found in the John Rylands Library Special Collections asserts the importance of John Goodwin's analysis of Zechariah 13:3 in A Post-Script or Appendix to […] Hagiomastix (1647). I argue that this pamphlet's significance is not only its emphasis on toleration, but also that it is a striking example of Judaeo-centric millenarian thought in which Zechariah 12–14 is understood as prophesying a future time in which the Jews will be restored to the Land of Israel. I also analyse the pamphlet's relationship to supersessionism and compare Goodwin's interpretation with those of Samuel Rutherford, William Prynne, John Owen and, in particular, Jean Calvin. I explain that Goodwin's use of the analogy of Scripture hermeneutic helps to explain his belief in Judaeo-centric eschatology. I then show how one of Goodwin's followers, Daniel Taylor, used Judaeo-centric biblical exegesis to petition Oliver Cromwell for Jewish readmission to England.


In order to understand the effects of the automatic milk replacer feeding system on calf health, we examined the effect of frequent milk feeding on curd formation in the abomasum using ultrasonographic imaging. Eight male Holstein calves were divided into a milk-replacer group and a fresh milk group. Calves were fed twice a day to 12 days after birth (Period A). From 13 days, calves were fed six times a day (Period B). The abomasal fluid was taken by paracentesis. In both periods A and B, the fresh milk group formed bigger curds faster than the milk replacer group. The curd score of the milk replacer group in period B at 2 h was significant lower than those of both groups in period A. The pH in the abomasum was lower in period B than in period A. We could not identify the location of the abomasum in the milk replacer group during period B at almost time points. Our experiment suggests the possibility that frequent feeding of milk replacer causes incomplete hydrolysis of kappa-casein as well as curd formation, thus reducing the digestibility compared to the feeding of the milk replacer twice per day or frequent feeding of fresh milk.


We investigated the local atomic and electronic structures of two related systematic sets of ternary uranium oxides, NaUO3–KUO3–RbUO3 and BaUO3–Ba2U2O7–BaUO4, by measuring the X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). The results are compared with calculations based on a self-consistent real space full multiple scattering analysis. We found a very good agreement between measured and calculated spectra, which indicates that the uranium ions are in a pure U oxidation state in these compounds. The low energy shoulder observed in the U L3 edge XANES is an intrinsic feature of the uranium unoccupied 6d electronic states of the U ions within the studied materials. Specific double shoulder features in the higher energy range of the U L3 edge XANES can be interpreted as indicative of the pure cubic perovskite structure. r 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


As developed by Immanuel Wallerstein and various co-thinkers, world-systems analysis is essentially an approach to economic history and historical sociology that has been largely indifferent to literary studies. This indifference is perhaps surprising given that the Annales school, which clearly influenced Wallerstein's work, produced a foundational account of the emergence of modern western literature in Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin's L'apparition du livre (1958). More recently, literary scholars have attempted to apply this kind of analysis directly to their own field. The best-known instances are probably Pascale Casanova's La republique mondiale des lettres (1999), Franco Moretti's Distant Reading (2013) and the Warwick Research Collective's Combined and Uneven Development (2015). More recently still, Andrew Milner in Australia and Jerry Määttä in Sweden have sought to apply "distant reading" more specifically to the genre of science fiction. Milner's model of the "global SF field" identifies an original Anglo-French core, supplemented by more recent American and Japanese cores, longstanding Russian, German, Polish and Czech semi-peripheries, an emergent Chinese semi-periphery, and a periphery comprising the rest of the world. This essay attempts to apply that model to what Adam Trexler has termed "Anthropocene fictions" and Daniel Bloom "cli-fi", which we treat here as a significant sub-genre of contemporary science fiction.


Criminal actsofdomestic violence include any act of physicalviolence, psychic violence, sexual violence or neglect of households conducted by, within and against persons within the household. Violence that occurs in a household does not always arise immediately, but occurs through a certain process. In general, the process of occurrence is as follows: (a) problems arise that strain, (b) followed by a rough verbal expression to the spouse or children, (c) harsh words followed by torture, (d) in this position of resistance will only increase the emotional outburst, (e) after satisfying emotions, the tension decreases, and the regret of the perpetrator follows. To improve the capacity of RPK personnel in the investigation and handling of cases of violence against women is done through education, so that will increase the knowledge of RPK personnel about the investigation in general. Organizing seminars / workshops aimed at providing information on the provisions / regulations relating to the issue of legal protection against domestic violence, as well as how to prevent and deal with violators. Efforts to combat domestic violence are urgently needed the role of law enforcement officers, especially the police as the spearhead of the criminal justice system. Keywords: Investigators, Crime, Domestic Violence


Universities in Malaysia currently face tremendous challenges from both internal and external sources. To ensure business sustainability, there is an urgent need for higher education institutions to find a business model that will transform the way they operate and enhance student graduate capabilities, while contributing to the community. The study investigated how service learning impacts on the reflective learning abilities of the
undergraduates and the social impact it has on the community being served. The study also explored the mediating role played by the social impact on the relationship between service learning and reflective learning. The theoretical framework of the study was based on the educational theories of constructivism and social learning. The study
utilised a specially designed questionnaire to elicit information pertaining to how integrating service learning into the business curriculum enhanced students' reflective learning capabilities. Data from 256 valid questionnaires was analyzed using the variance-based Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method. The results revealed that the four aspects of service learning, namely curriculum connections, community needs, behaviorial intent, and student development, were found to have a significant positive influence on reflective learning and on social impact. However, social impact was not found to be a significant moderator in the service
learning-reflective learning relationship. The results clearly showed the positive and
transformative impact that the team-based service learning-in-curriculum strategy had on the students' learning experience, making service learning an excellent business model for higher education institutions. Integrating service learning as part of the business curriculum was indeed perceived as an innovative and effective tool in a student-centered learning environment that enriched students' educational experiences,
increasing the relevance of the subject matter and encouraging students to collaborate effectively with their peers, faculty and the community. The findings offer some interesting implications for educators, researchers and policy- makers.


Evidence that gamma/delta T cells play a broad, immunoregulatory role has been accumulating steadily. We show here that myeloid cells are disregulated after peritoneal infection with Listeria monocytogenes in mice lacking gamma/delta T cells. Inflammatory populations of neutrophils and monocytes recruited to the site of infection remained longer. Intracellular cytokine analysis showed that frequencies of myeloid cells producing interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor alpha were higher and remained elevated longer after infection in mice genetically deficient in gamma/delta T cells. In vivo dye-tracking studies indicated that the majority of inflammatory monocytes differentiated into resident tissue macrophages in situ. In vitro experiments confirmed that monocytes harvested from mice lacking gamma/delta T cells were defective in their maturation process. This evidence suggests that gamma/delta T cells promote differentiation in the monocyte/macrophage lineage. These cells are important for bactericidal activity, inflammatory cytokine production, clearance of inflammatory neutrophils, and ultimately, antigen presentation to T cells. Regulation of monocyte/macrophage differentiation may underlie a broad segment of the phenotypic alterations that have been reported in mice lacking gamma/delta T cells.


This work presents the results of research made within the framework of the Solar Decathlon LAC 2019 international competition, which aimed at designing and building a prototype of a TUHOUSE (Technically Unique House Using Solar Energy) affordable dwelling, at a 1:1 scale, a house that is capable of incorporating sustainable and bioclimatic strategies for the tropical region. The methodology consisted of a design workshop with interdisciplinary work from the different architecture and engineering areas in programs at the Universities of San Buenaventura and Autonoma de Occidente (Cali, Colombia). The main contribution of the methodology was to achieve interdisciplinary work from the initial stages, alongside students and teachers participating in the construction of the prototype, before finally checking its performance using the contest's tests. Among the results that stand out from of this experience, are an urban proposal with high habitability and density, the testing of passive design strategies focused on a prototype envelope that can be replicated in similar conditions, but also the importance of the question about the validity of the thermal comfort model proposed for tropical regions.


Rhinofacial zygomycosis is a rare soft tissue fungal infection of the nasal and paranasal submucosa, and subcutaneous tissue of the face. It commonly affects immunocompetent adult male and may lead to facial disfigurement if left untreated. Diagnosis of rhinofacial zygomycosis is based on histopathological findings of the dense eosinophilic granular infiltrates with surrounding hyphal elements (Splendore-Hoeppli phenomenon), and/or positive culture of the causative organism – Conidiobolus coronatus or Conidiobolus incongruus. This case report is to highlight the rare entity of this disease and to illustrate the unusual presentation of chronic nasal congestion with painful inflamed rhinofacial swelling. To reach the diagnosis, a high index of suspicion with early tissue biopsy from the submucosa and subcutaneous region for histopathological and mycological examination if the patient does not response to the usual medical treatment. Prolonged systemic antifungal therapy with Amphotericin B, Itraconazole or Saturated solution of potassium iodide (SSKI) is the treatment of choice and the result is encouraging. However there is still no agreed consensus on the duration of the antifungal treatment. Future studies should be performed to determine the optimum antifungal treatment duration.


Abstract. A new moisture tagging
tool, usually known as water vapor tracer (WVT) method or online Eulerian
method, has been implemented into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)
regional meteorological model, enabling it for precise studies on atmospheric
moisture sources and pathways. We present here the method and its
formulation, along with details of the implementation into WRF. We perform an
in-depth validation with a 1-month long simulation over North America at
20 km resolution, tagging all possible moisture sources: lateral boundaries,
continental, maritime or lake surfaces and initial atmospheric conditions. We
estimate errors as the moisture or precipitation amounts that cannot be
traced back to any source. Validation results indicate that the method
exhibits high precision, with errors considerably lower than 1 % during
the entire simulation period, for both precipitation and total precipitable
water. We apply the method to the Great Lake-effect snowstorm of
November 2014, aiming at quantifying the contribution of lake evaporation to
the large snow accumulations observed in the event. We perform simulations in
a nested domain at 5 km resolution with the tagging technique, demonstrating
that about 30–50 % of precipitation in the regions immediately downwind,
originated from evaporated moisture in the Great Lakes. This contribution
increases to between 50 and 60 % of the snow water equivalent in the most
severely affected areas, which suggests that evaporative fluxes from the
lakes have a fundamental role in producing the most extreme accumulations in
these episodes, resulting in the highest socioeconomic impacts.


Objective: To describe the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of young adults regarding advance care planning (ACP). Methods: A cross-sectional sample of young adults (N = 310) from a single metropolitan university during September to November 2016 completed an online survey about their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding ACP. Descriptive statistics and correlation tests were conducted. Results: Young adults lacked familiarity and knowledge regarding ACP. Those who were most familiar with ACP terminology were more likely to be older, female, enrolled in a graduate program, and employed full time. Although the majority of respondents had positive attitudes and beliefs about ACP, only one-third had talked with their family/loved ones about their wishes for end-of-life care. Discussion: Our study findings suggest a strong need to inform and engage young adults in ACP and end-of-life care discussions. As young adults are likely to become a caregiver for an aging family member, they can have an important role in initiating and facilitating conversations with loved ones and be instrumental in ACP for older adults.


The problem of knowledge sharing is eminent in the P2P area. In this paper, we propose a general framework, called HELIOS (Helios Evolving Interaction-based Ontology knowledge Sharing), conceived for supporting dynamic ontology-based knowledge sharing and evolution in P2P systems. The knowledge sharing and evolution processes in HELIOS are based on peer ontologies, describing the knowledge of each peer, and on interactions among peers, allowing information search and knowledge acquisition/ extension, according to pre-defined query models and semantic techniques for ontology matching.


ABSTRACT A real-time quantitative PCR method was developed for the detection and enumeration of Mycobacterium spp. from environmental samples and was compared to two other methods already described. The results showed that our method, targeting 16S rRNA, was more specific than the two previously published real-time quantitative PCR methods targeting another 16S rRNA locus and the hsp65 gene (100% versus 44% and 91%, respectively).


INTRODUCTION The huge amount of data emerging from Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) projects is bringing a revolution in cancer medicine, leading to the discovery of a large number of new somatic alterations that are associated with the onset and/or progression of cancer. However, researchers are facing a formidable challenge in identifying oncogenic driver genes among the variants generated by NGS experiments. METHODS To overcome these limitations, we developed OncoScore, a bioinformatics text-mining tool capable of automatically scanning the biomedical literature by means of dynamically updatable web queries and measuring gene-specific cancer association in terms of gene citations (submitted). OncoScore is distributed as a R Bioconductor package (https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/OncoScore.html) and as a web tool (http://www.galseq.com/oncoscore.html). To assess the ability of OncoScore to discriminate between cancer and non-cancer genes we generated the OncoScore estimation for the whole Cancer Genes Census (CGC; 507 genes) dataset and for a manually curated list of genes not associated to cancer (nCan; 302 genes). The distribution of OncoScore values differed significantly between the two groups (mean: 48.8 and 14.8 for CGC and nCan, respectively; p-value = 2.2e-16). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) metrics confirmed the excellent capability of OncoScore in discriminating the true positive from the true negative cancer genes at different cut-off values (OncoScore cut-off threshold = 21.09; AUC1 = 90.3%, 95% CI: 88.1-92.5). RESULTS To test OncoScore, we generated whole-exome sequencing data on 33 Chronic Myeloid Leukemia patients, 23 in Chronic Phase (CP) and 10 in Blast Crisis (BC). In order to selectively identify somatic mutations, CP samples were filtered against the germline exome data, while BC was filtered against the corresponding CP exome (thus filtering out all passenger mutations present at diagnosis). A total of 107 and 34 nonsynonymous somatic variants were identified in CP and BC, respectively. The mean OncoScore value of the BC samples was higher than that of CP ones (mean OncoScore = 35.6 ± 4.91 SEM vs. 19.2 ± 2.07 SEM; p=0.0007). Manual inspection of the 10 BC genes with the highest OncoScore values highlighted the presence of at least 5 genes (ABL1, NRAS, ASXL1, RUNX1, IKZF1) that were demonstrated to be functionally associated with CML progression, suggesting that OncoScore was able to correctly prioritize biologically relevant cancer genes relevant to CML progression. The 107 non-synonymous variants (range 0-11 per patient) identified in CP-CML patients at diagnosis were further analyzed. A positive correlation was observed between number of mutations and patient age (r=0.4638; p=0.0258), indicating that several events were passenger mutations being expanded by neoplastic transformation. However, when using OncoScore to weigh the oncogenic potential of each mutation, a significant correlation was observed between the Sokal score and OncoScore (r=0.6815, p=0.0003) suggesting that the identified mutations may have clinical impact.. On long term follow-up (>2 years), 17 CML patients remained on standard imatinib therapy while 6 were shifted to 2nd/3rdline therapy because of resistance to imatinib. According to OncoScore, the 6 imatinib-resistant patients had significantly higher scores at diagnosis than the 17 long-term imatinib responders (measured as the sum of all mutations with Oncoscore values >21: 120±16 SEM vs. 50±15; p=0.0098). No significant differences were instead observed in the Sokal score among the two groups (1.15±0.3 vs. 0.9±0.1, p=0.244). Among the identified genes with high OncoScore values, only ASXL1 was associated with hematological malignancies. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that OncoScore is a useful prioritization tool for the annotation of somatic mutations in human cancer. Genes mutated selectively in BC samples had higher OncoScore values than genes mutated in CP at diagnosis (which contain also many passenger mutations). In addition, OncoScore can identify some genes mutated in CML patients at diagnosis which could be relevant for response to treatment, although not usually linked to hematological malignancies. Disclosures Gambacorti-Passerini:Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy.


This paper provides a practical guideline for the assurance and (re-)usage of clinical data. It proposes a process which aims to provide a systematic data quality assurance even without involving a medical domain expert. Especially when (re-)using clinical data, data quality is an important topic because clinical data are not purposely collected. Therefore, data driven conclusions might be false, because a given dataset is not representative. These false data driven conclusions could even harm the life of patients. Thus, all researchers should adhere to some basic principles that can prevent false conclusions. Twelve empirical experiments were conducted in order to prove that my process is able to assure data quality with respect to the descriptive and predictive analysis. Descriptive results obtained by applying stratified sampling are conflicting in four out of nine population inputs. Sampling is carried based on the top ranked feature drawn by the Contextual Data Quality Assurance (CDQA). Between datasets these features are confirmed by the Mutual Data Quality Assurance (MDQA). Stratified sampled inputs improve predictive results compared to raw data. Both Area Under the Curve (AUC) scores and accuracy scores increase by three percent. Keywords-data quality; decision quality; healthcare; clinical data; EHRs; data quality assurance; stratified sampling; bias


The deuteron spectrum in n+p -> d+pi+pi at k_n = 1.88 GeV/c and theta_d = 0 deg is explained by considering a Delta-Delta excitation as the reaction mechanism for the 2pi production. We study the influence of intermediate Delta-Delta and Delta-Nucleon interactions on the spectrum. The angular distribution of the pions is predicted.


A large number of individuals who have experienced a traumatic brain injury are women; unfortunately, there is a lack of literature focusing on their treatment preferences. Electronic memory aids have the potential to offer tremendous assistance to increase the independence of individuals with memory impairment; however, the use of electronic memory aids with this female population has not been explored. The objective of this study was to investigate the perceptions and use of electronic memory aids in women with memory impairment as a result of a traumatic brain injury to further their use of this technology to enable their independence. Two focus groups were conducted, each with five women who self-reported a moderate to severe head injury. The primary theme that emerged was the willingness and interest of this sample to use this technology when provided with an appropriate introduction and learning environment. The results reaffirm current literature supporting the use of electronic memory aids with a population with a head injury. Individuals not currently using this technology were motivated to employ electronic memory aids in their daily lives. Further research must be conducted to develop strategies to enable this population's use of electronic memory aids.


Weathering has etched and deeply-denticulated the constituent orthopyroxenes, and chlorite has been transformed to vermiculite in the upper 3 m of an aeolian, periglacial sand dune formed in northeastern Indiana about 13,000 b.p. Pyroxene weathering begins with the development of cleavage-parallel etch pits on {010} and {100} surfaces. These pits coalesce and eventually crop out on basal surfaces as denticulations. The mean denticulation size increases logarithmically toward the surface, and the denticulation size of the orthopyroxenes is a quantifiable feature of the weathering process. Ferruginous pendants, microboxworks of iron oxides, and other indications of iron redeposition within the ortho-pyroxene microenvironments were not observed.Chlorite in the dune has been weathered to vermiculite. The parent chlorite is a high-Fe variety, and the transformation to vermiculate does not involve the development of a chlorite/vermiculite intermediary phase. Fe2+ is oxidized as part of the transformation process and this iron is retained in the sediment as discrete goethite and as crystalline and noncrystalline coatings on the dune grains. The vermiculite from depths shallower than 64 cm is only partly expandable and is completely collapsed by K-saturation or heat treatment. This is a hydroxy-Al vermiculite and its formation is typical of intense weathering under the acid conditions prevalent at the dune surface.


The nuclear matrix, which in situ corresponds essentially to the interchromatin ribonucleoprotein particles, once isolated appears constituted by a peripheral lamina connected to the nucleolar remnant by a fibrous network. The features of the matrix components depend on the procedure employed during its purification, a multistep method commonly involving nuclease digestion, low and high salt extractions and treatment with a non ionic detergent. Here is reported the application of flow cytometry to the analysis of matrix purification. The experimental data indicate that, despite deep changes of the nuclear content due to the selective extraction of almost all nucleohistone and membrane components, the scatter pattern of the matrix, which is drastically lowered as the nucleic acid content decreases, closely resembles that of the starting nuclei. This behaviour permits one to follow the different matrix populations deriving from diploid and polyploid parenchymal liver nuclei throughout the isolation procedure and confirms the feasibility of flow cytometry for both analysis and sorting of nuclei and nuclear matrices. In addition, an ultrastructural analysis on thin sections and a morphometric study by means of semiautomated image analysis of phase contrast micrographs have been performed. The image analysis showed a decrease in particle dimension to about 50% of the nuclear value, which could partially explain the reduction of forward light scatter.


Abstract In this paper, we propose Lagrangian relaxation technique for solving scheduling problems by decomposition of timed Petri nets. The scheduling problem is represented by the transition firing sequence problem to minimize a given objective function. The timed Petri net is decomposed into several subnets so that the subproblem for each subnet can be easily solved by a shortest path algorithm. The optimality of solution can be evaluated by the duality gap derived by Lagrangian relaxation method. The performance of the proposed method is compared with the conventional optimization algorithm with penalty function method. The results show that the duality gap within 1.5% can be derived for AGVs routing problems. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing the performance between the conventional method.


We assessed the status of coral reef benthic communities at Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, in December 2008 and January 2009 through ?5 km of photo transects taken at depths of 5, 10, and 20 m at 14 locations around the island. Univariate and multivariate analyses detected significant variation in benthic communities among depths and locations, as well as between leeward and windward sides of the island. Mean percentage cover of scleractinian corals ranged between 0.2% and 43.6% at the study sites and tended to be lowest at 5-m depth. The survey recorded 40 scleractinian coral species from 19 genera, within 10 families. Faviidae were by far the most abundant scleractinian family at all depths (predominantly Montastraea spp.), followed by Agariciidae at 20 and 10 m, and by Astrocoeniidae at 5-m depth. Macroalgal cover exceeded scleractinian coral cover at nearly all sites, averaging 34.9% (all samples pooled), compared with a pooled mean coral cover of 15.4%. Windward reefs were characterized by prolific growth of the brown algae Sargassum spp., and leeward reefs by growth of turf algae, Dictyota spp., Trichogloeopsis pedicellata (Howe) I. A. Abbott & Doty, and Lobophora variegata (Lamouroux) Womersley ex Oliveira. Damage from recent hurricanes was evident from the presence of toppled and fragmented corals, the movement of sand, and exposure of cemented Acropora cervicornis (Lamarck, 1816) rubble on the shallow reef platform. The combination of algal dominance and low to moderate coral cover are symptomatic of partly degraded reef systems, particularly as they coincide with elevated nutrients and reduced herbivory.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Rats are commonly used in experimental studies as they have a smaller body size, they are easily available, and their genetic profiles are similar to each other as compared to humans. Kidney pathologies are the result of an imbalance between reactive oxygen species and antioxidants. Parsley aqueous extract is rich in polyphenolic contents and has nephroprotective effects. The objective of this study is to observe the effects of ramipril and parsley leaves aqueous extract in gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity.
METHODOLOGY: An Experimental study consisting of 40 healthy male albino rats were randomly distributed into two categories after taking samples for baseline values of urea and creatinine: Category 1 consisted of a control group (Group 1) having 10 rats, while category 2 comprised of 30 rats, divided into three experimental groups after being given intraperitoneal injections of gentamicin (80mg/kg) per day. Group 2 was taken as disease control, while group 3 and group 4 were parsley treated and ramipril treated for 28 days, respectively. Biochemical markers (serum urea and creatinine) were done at day 35. SPSS version 22 was applied for Statistical analysis. One-way ANOVA test was used to determine any difference in mean values. Post hoc tuckeys test was applied for multiple comparisons amongst groups. p<0.05 was measured as significant.
RESULTS: The treatment decreased the levels of serum urea and creatinine in nephrotoxic rats in group 3 (parsley treated group) and group 4 (ramipril treated group) in comparison to group 2. Group 3 had significantly reduced biochemical markers (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION: Parsley leaves extract significantly reduced the serum urea and creatinine levels as compared to ramipril.


When choosing a career in scientific fields, girls tend to gravitate towards professions that help humanity; thus, the fields of health and medicine are widely chosen by women. To attract young women to engineering careers, girls need to be shown that engineering is used to improve the quality of people's lives. Biomedical engineering applies engineering principles to further medical research via basic research to understand how the human body operates or through collaboration with clinicians to facilitate the diagnosis and/or cure of diseases. NJIT Center for Pre-college Programs offer the Women In Engineering & Technology (WEIT)-FEMME program to encourage pre-college female students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In 2001, Biomedical Engineering FEMME became the newest addition to the WIET Initiative specifically geared towards girls completing the eighth grade. The academic curriculum Integrates engineering principles with biomedical science, and Introduces girls to the role of engineers as "problem-solvers and helpers".


BACKGROUND
We have previously demonstrated that the use of older donor hearts (>45 years) increases the odds of death nearly twofold in the early posttransplantation period when compared with the use of hearts from younger donors. Before excluding this segment of the donor pool, however, the mortality risk for remaining on the waiting list compared with that of receiving an older donor heart should also be considered.

METHODS
We examined all adult status 2 patients added to the United Network for Organ Sharing heart transplant waiting list for primary transplantation between 1992 and 1995 (n = 4681). To account for the transient increased risk after transplantation, we used a time-dependent nonproportional hazards model with an exponential decay component for the analysis. For patients with an equal time since listing, the resulting risk ratios represent the ratio of mortality risk for a patient who receives an older donor heart to the mortality risk for a patient who remains on the waiting list.

RESULTS
After 30 days posttransplantation, the risk of death for recipients of 45- to 49-year-old donor hearts was lower than if they had remained on the waiting list, and by 6 months the relative risk was 0.37 (95% confidence interval: 0.22, 0.62). For recipients of hearts from donors 50 years or older, the risk after transplantation was lower after 64 days, and by 6 months the relative risk was 0.48 (95% confidence interval: 0.31, 0.75).

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that in spite of a high initial risk resulting from the transplant procedure, there was a clear long-term survival benefit for status 2 recipients of older donor hearts. Thus overall, in spite of the increased risk of death associated with receiving older donor hearts, the risk of death without a transplant was even greater. On the basis of this analysis we cannot support the exclusion of older donors from the donor pool.


Cyclotron resonance heating rates are found for a parabolic magnetic mirror. The equation of motion for perpendicular velocity is solved, including the radial magnetic field terms neglected in earlier papers. The expression for heating rate involves an infinite series of Anger's and Weber's functions, compared with a single term for the unrevised expression. The new results show an increase of heating rate compared with previous results. A simple expression is given for the ratio of the heating rates.


BACKGROUND
Pulse oximetry is a simple and non-invasive procedure widely used nowadays in the clinical practice. However, it is unclear if SpO2 values are constant throughout the 24 hours of the day or have periodic fluctuations. In the present study we evaluated if progressive day-night variations of SpO, values occur in children.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Pulse oximetry (Nonin 2500) was carried out approximately every 2 hours during a 24-hours period in pediatric patients hospitalized due to different diseases but without acute or chronic respiratory diseases. Measurements were analyzed through the cosinor method (sinusoidal curve fitting).

RESULTS
A total of 131 patients (23 days to 16 years old) were studied. A sinusoidal fitting of the SpO2 values was accomplished in 84.7% of children. According to these curves, maximal SpO2 values occurred in the late afternoon [4:53 PM (3:49-5:32 PM), median (quartile 1-quartile 3)], while minimal values appeared in the first hours of the day [3:06 AM (2:12-4:08 AM)]. This pattern was the same in sleeping or awake children. More than half of these sinusoidal curves had a period near to 24 hours (between 20 and 28 hours). An additional finding was that maximal and minimal SpO2 values diminished with age (approximately 0.15 and approximately 0.13% SpO2 per year, respectively). In children less than six years old 5th percentile of SpO2 values were 93.8% in the late afternoon and 89.8% in the early hours of the day, while corresponding figures for older children were 91.0% and 88.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggested that, regardless of the sleep influence, in most children the SpO2 follows a progressive fluctuation during a 24-hours cycle, a pattern which is suggestive of a circadian rhythm. A prospective study in healthy children is warranted.


In the integrated crop-livestock system, the pasture establishment can be performed with intercrop of grains crops and tropical forages. This study was conducted during two growing seasons in Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil, evaluating the effect of two cutting heights of corn for ensilage in intercrop with palisade grass cv. Marandu (Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu), palisade grass cv. Piata (Urochloa brizantha cv. BRS Piata) and sole-corn crop with regrowth of signal grass (Urochloa decumbens Stapf cv. Basilisk) and oversowing of yellow oat on the forage availability and botanical composition of pasture. The soil of experimental area is Typic Haplorthox. The experimental design was a randomized block, in split-plot, arranged in factorial scheme with four replications. Treatments consisted in the plots of three cropping systems (sole-corn crop with signal grass regrowth; corn and palisade grass cv. Marandu intercropped; corn and palisade grass cv. Piata intercropped); two cutting heights of corn for ensilage (0.20 and 0.45 m); two growing seasons (2010/2011 and 2011/2012 crop years); and in the subplots, the absence or oversowing of yellow oat (Avena bysantina cv. Sao Carlos). The sowing of simple corn hybrid (2B587 HX) was spaced at 0.45 m. The seeds of grasses were mixing with fertilizer and deposited at depth of 0.08 m. The amount of fertilizers followed the recommendations to silage corn and applied reduced doses of post-emergence herbicides (Nicosulfuron and Atrazine). After the mechanical harvest of corn for ensilage, the oversowing of yellow oat was spaced at 0.17 m. After, all subplots were fertilized with 60 kg/ha of N. From August to November, the pastures were used to lamb's grazing under continuous stocking with fixed stocking rate (133 lambs with average live weight of 30 kg/ha) during 70 days and the animals were supplemented with concentrate and silage from the same treatment. Over lamb's grazing was collected forage at ground level in the pasture. The samples were separated botanically, dried and the amounts extrapolated to kg ha-1 of dry mass. The results were submitted to analysis of variance by test F (P≤0.05) and means, were compared by test LSD (P≤0.05). The best climate conditions in the second growing season increased the forage availability in the first 42 days of grazing by lambs. The corn harvest to ensilage at 0.45 m resulted in less damage to the apical buds and thus showed better recovery with greater forage availability over 70 days of lamb's grazing, mainly in the pasture of palisade grass cv. Marandu. From 43 days of lamb's grazing, the harvest of corn for ensilage at 0.20 m reduced the availability of signal grass forage, reaching values below 400 kg/ha of dry mass between 57 and 70 days of lamb's grazing. In both growing seasons, the availability of yellow oat was restricted to the first 28 days of lamb's grazing, however, increased the forage availability for lamb's grazing. The palisade grass cv. Marandu presents higher competition with yellow oat, mainly in relation to signal grass. However, the sum of both crops increased the forage availability. The ensilage of corn in the cutting height at 0.45 m intercropped with palisade grass cv. Marandu, and oversowing of yellow oat is the most viable option to pasture formation and lamb's grazing in integrated crop-livestock system.


Cardiovascular haemodynamics and circulating catecholamines were studied in 22 patients with cirrhosis. Arterial plasma noradrenaline (NA) was significantly increased (median, 0.48 ng/ml, versus controls, 0.24 ng/ml; n = 17; P less than 0.001), indicating enhanced sympathetic nervous activity. Heart rate was also increased (88 min-1 versus controls, 68 min-1; P less than 0.001), and mean arterial blood pressure was significantly decreased (81 mm Hg, versus controls, 88 mm Hg; P less than 0.002). Cardiac output was above the upper reference limit in eight patients and below the lower limit in two patients. Arterial NA was inversely correlated to stroke volume (r = -0.55; P less than 0.01) and to cardiac output (r = -0.53; P less than 0.02). Statistically significant relationships could not be demonstrated between NA and heart rate, arterial blood pressure, or right atrial pressure, but NA was slightly positively correlated to systemic vascular resistance (r = 0.51; P less than 0.02). The results may suggest that a relatively insufficient cardiac performance in the hyperkinetic circulatory state in cirrhosis may elicit an enhanced sympathetic nervous activity, which may contribute to maintenance of cardiovascular homeostasis.


Authors' reply: Crow and we have been talking at cross-purposesand misunderstand ing one another. The proposition that ma ternal influenza in the second trimester of pregnancy results in a doubling (or an 87% increase) of the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring conceals two quite different hy potheses: (a) that the offspring of the entire populationof womenin thesecondtrimester of pregnancy at the time of an influenza epidemic will be twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as the offspring of an unex posed population; and (b) that the offspring of women who actually contract influenza during the second trimester of pregnancy will be twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as the offspring ofwomen who do not. Hypoth esis (a) was proposed by O'Callaghan (but not, incidentally, by Mednick) and tested by Crow & Done. We made it clear in our original contribution to this correspondence (Adams & Kendell, 1996a) that we were concerned with hypothesis (b). We were wrong to suggest that Crow & Done's arithmetic was faulty; it was appropriate to the hypothesis they were testing. They were wrong to entitle their article †̃¿ Prenatal cx posure to influenza does not cause schizo phrenia'. As we have demonstrated (Adams & Kendell, 1966b), they had too few


This paper deals with a work-in-progress about an efficient development of a 3D time domain BEM approach based on the half space fundamental solution. Internal soil attenuation is implicitly considered by means of the Barkan's model. All fundamental solution singularities are identified. Different techniques are proposed to avoid unstable solution behaviour. BEM approach is numerically validated by comparison with  analytical half space solution.


The optical-optical double-resonance technique has been used for measurements of emission spectra from separate vibrational levels of the 1(3P2) state of ICl (v´ = 12 and 14) populated via the A 1 3 state. The electric dipole moment function of the A transition has been determined over the range of the internuclear distance of 0.29-0.39 nm by means of simulation of the emission spectra from the state.


By means of X-ray structure analysis, the crystal structure of neodymium gallium perovskite (NGP) single crystals (NdGaO3) being used as a substrate for HTSC film epitaxy has been refined and the position of atoms has been determined. The possibility of YBa2Cu3O7-x film epitaxy on the plane (110) of NGP crystal as well as its advantages and pitfalls are analysed from structural data. The twinning types in the NGP crystal were established. The twinning structure of NGP substrates is found to be stable up to a temperature of 1173 K, as differentiated from the LaGaO3 and LaAlO3 substrates. It is intimated that the twinning in the NGP substrates oriented as (001) can result in creation of 90 degrees twin bonds in a film, and in the case of (110)-oriented plates it is possible to ignore the twinning presence in substrate completely.


We investigated how the microbiota in the ileum and cecum of broiler chickens fed a diet of low calcium (Ca) and available phosphorus (aP) and prebiotic fructooligosaccharides (FOS) supplements changed over a 3 weeks period. Three dietary treatments were randomly assigned to four replicate cages of five birds each, including: positive control (PC), a wheat-corn-soybean meal-based diet; negative control (NC), as PC with 0.2% reduced Ca and aP; and NC + FOS, as NC supplemented with 0.5% of FOS. Ileal and cecal digesta were sampled from each replicate (n = 4) on d21 and processed for 16S rRNA gene amplicon (V4 region) sequencing using Illumina platform. Statistical differences were observed in the microbiome by GI location as determined by 2-way ANOVA and Permutational MANOVA. On average, 24,216 sequence reads per sample were generated resulting in 800 and 1,280 operational taxonomic units in the ileal and cecal digesta, respectively. Difference (P < 0.0001) on alpha diversity and abundances of several phyla was observed between ileal and cecal digesta. ß-diversity was different (P < 0.05) between each treatment groups in the ileum but not in the cecum. In the cecum, species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and the number of observed species were higher in PC compared to NC + FOS (P < 0.05). Several phyla, including Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria, had significantly different abundance in the ileal and cecal digesta (P < 0.05). In the ileal digesta, positive correlation were observed between Salinibacterium and Lysobacter and PC diet. Blautia, Faecalibacterium and Pseudomonas and the NC diet and Lactobacillus and Escherichia and the NC + FOS diet. In the cecal digesta, Butyrivibrio, and Allobaculum were positively correlated to PC. Although, Clostridium and Anaerotruncus were positively correlated to NC + FOS, they showed negative correlation to PC and NC. The study concludes that dietary Ca and aP level and FOS supplementation alters ileal microbiota of the broiler chickens.


Digital x-ray detectors consist of a conversion material, which converts incident radiation to an electrical signal, as well as a read-out circuit that is used to detect the electrical signal. Research is being conducted in order to improve their performance across various fields. In particular, many studies have explored the conversion materials to address the limitations of amorphous selenium (a-Se) currently in use and to develop alternative materials. Mercuric iodide (HgI2) is one of the alternative materials being considered as it has greater x-ray sensitivity than a-Se and other candidate materials. This is due to its high atomic number and high x-ray absorption efficiency. It also had a high rate of electron-hole pair generation per particle due to its low pair creation energy. However, it is difficult to commercialize HgI2 due to its high leakage current and unstable x-ray sensitivity. This study aims to resolve the disadvantages of HgI2 by adding silicone dioxide (SiO2), which is used as oxide film and insulating film in semiconductor processes, and titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is used as an electrode in dye sensitizer solar cells. Detectors are fabricated for analysis using HgI2, HgI2-TiO2, and HgI2-SiO2 unit-cells and the particle-in-binder method. SEM, dark current, and x-ray sensitivity measurements are used to compare their structural characteristics, electrical properties, and stability, respectively.


The management of ecotourism sites is a very important issue not only for environmental organisations, but also for many governments around the world. This concern is based on the need to balance the notion of sustainability of the environment with economic sustainability. Since successful management of ecotourism will create the conditions for sustainable development of the environment and the economy, both at local and regional and at micro and at macro levels. This paper considers some management issues and approaches associated to tourism and ecotourism development to single out the best practice available for developing countries such as Iran. It is also the starting point to make comparisons with other developed and developing countries.


Petrographic, stratigraphic, and structural evidence is presented for the sedimentary origin of one of the oldest known stratiform barite deposits. The setting of the barites within the Fig Tree Group of the Swaziland Supergroup (> 3.2 b.y.) is outlined in terms of a new facies concept. The barite was deposited on a narrow submarine ridge zone. This "Proto-Inyoka Zone" separated a "graywacke facies" from a "shallow-water facies" within the Fig Tree basin.


In this study we carry out the first formal estimation of the social cost of transactions in Costa Rica. The estimation considers transactions in cash and cards, covers the 2008- 2011 years and is based on the methodology applied by Bergman, Guibourg and Segendorf (2007) for Sweden, with adaptations specific for Costa Rica. We estimate that the social cost of transactions has remained relatively stable as a share of GDP during the years included. We assess that the importance of costs stemming from cash use is high: depending of the assumptions used, our estimations suggest that they are at least as important as those stemming from card transactions. We found that the decisions made by the consumers generate a sizable part of the social costs of using cash. Social costs per transaction are comparable to those calculated in the relevant literature, and they indicate that cash is generally less costly than cards. If the composition of private and social costs is analyzed, it can be seen that the components of the cost on which the BCCR could have more influence are associated with the withdrawal, holding and use of cash in transactions, all of which affect the private costs of consumers, banks and retailers. An institutional strategy to provide alternative electronic payment systems and to promote its use among consumers and retailers would result in a lower need to withdraw cash, in lower cash stocks to manage by banks and other companies, and in a lower opportunity cost for the cash held.


Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in female representing approximately 25% of all cancer. It is also ranked number one cancer among Indian females with age-adjusted incidence rate of 25.8 per 100,000 women and mortality 12.7 per 100,000 women. Hormone receptors are the receptor protein found in normal breast cells. Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess the histologic type, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu of all breast carcinoma patients coming to the inpatient department of general surgery of a tertiary care hospital. This study was conducted to assess the histologic type, ER, PR, and HER2/neu of all breast carcinoma patients coming to the outpatient department of general surgery of a tertiary care hospital. The present study is a prospective observational study conducted in the department of general surgery at KR Hospital for 1 year from December 2020 to November 2021. All patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy for breast carcinoma or core biopsy to start chemotherapy and hormone therapy before surgery were included in the study. They were subjected to histopathological examination and immunochemistry. Results: The most common age group, in which breast carcinoma was diagnosed, was 51–55 years. The most common type of breast carcinoma is invasive ductal carcinoma seen in 66% of the patients. Among the 100 patients IHC, ER positive was seen in 54% of the patients, PR positive was seen in 39% of the patients, and HER2neu-positive was seen in 31% of the patients. Most common was ER/PR+HER2neu – in 28% of the patients. Triple-negative hormonal status was seen in 23% of the patients. Conclusion: This single institutional study of 100 cases of breast cancer patients from South India suggest that mean age of breast cancer patient was between 51 and 55 years, with invasive ductal carcinoma being the most common histological type with ER positivity of 54% and PR positivity of 39% and triple-negative cancers of 23%, not grossly different from rest of the country but significantly lower than Western studies.


Objective: Development of a methodology for measuring the deuterium content in water for pharmaceutical purposes by laser light scattering based on ideas about the cluster structure of water.
Methods: Samples of industrially manufactured drinking water from different manufacturers with varying deuterium content from 10 ppm to 115 ppm. For the titration of laboratory samples of deuterium depleted water in increments of 5 ppm the following reagents were used: Water, deuterium-depleted (≤1 ppm (D2O, Aldrich, USA); Deuterium oxide/Heavy water/Water-d2 (99.9 atom % D, Aldrich, USA); water Milli-Q (specific resistance 18.2 µS·sm at 25 оС, ТОС ≤ 5 ppb, Merck Millipore). The determination of deuterium content in samples of industrially manufactured water and water obtained in a laboratory manner was carried out by the method of low-angle laser light scattering (LALLS) at the Mastersizer (Malvern Instruments) analyzer and using a working measuring tool–laser dispersion meter/MDL («Cluster-1», Russia/Ukraine). The statistical methods–packages OriginPro®9.
Results: It was found that the content of isotopologies in water leads to physicochemical water's properties changes and morphology changes of giant heterogeneous clusters (GHC). The results of low-angle laser light scattering (LALLS) in the water samples under investigation showed the dependence of the water GHC "dispersibility" expressed in the differentiation of curves of the volume size distribution ("size spectra"), the volume concentration, w%, the laser obscuration values (I ‒I0) as the function of the water isotopic composition variations. The laser diffraction method results correlate with two-dimensional (2D) multi-descriptor mathematical analysis.
Conclusion: When identifying deuterium depleted water, it should be considered not only the indicators that determine its pharmacopoeial quality, but also the D/H ratio, because even small changes in the natural isotopic composition of water lead to significant biological effects. Our proposed approach using laser diffraction in combination with mathematical apparatus of (2D) multi-descriptor laser scattering analysis makes possible the exact calculation of individual signs of deuterium depleted water as the pharmaceutical object of study.


The role of spin polarization on adsorption of atomic and molecular hydrogen on Si(111)(1× 1) surface is examined by comparing the results of the local spin density approximation (LSD) and those of the local density approximation (LDA). A large improvement of the adsorption energies (around 0.8 eV/H) was found for the H atom adsorbed on Si(111)(1× 1) surface. The inclusion of spin polarization reduces the overbinding between the H atom and the silicon surface and its effect is much more pronounced when the H atom is far away from the surface. Despite of the large changes in the adsorption energies, the main character of the potential energy surface of the H atom on Si(111)(1× 1) surface is retained. An opposite effect is found in the charge-density-transfer map of LSD results as compared to LDA results for the H atom approaching the surface through the H3 path, in which the H atom loses electrons rather than gains electrons from the surface. The fact that the H atom tends to lose electrons in the silicon bulk has already been reported by the experimental studies for the behavior of the H atom in the p-type silicon. For the molecular hydrogen on Si(111)(1 × 1) surface, the effect of the spin polarization is so small that it can be neglected. c © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 79: 47–55, 2000


The article attempts to depict the governmental system of the EU on the basis of the characteristics of its executive institutions, intra-executive relationships, the relationships between the executive and legislative institutions, and the combination of supranational (the Community method) and intergovernmental nature of decision-making in the post-Maastricht period of European integration. Sui generis characteristics of the EU do not preclude a systemic configuration on the basis of comparative analysis with statal governmental systems. The article asserts that post-Maastricht European integration has led to the gradual establishment of a semipresidential governmental system in the EU. This system accordingly involves particularly on the one hand the deliberative dual-executive authority in the EU, namely the European Council with accumulated prerogatives and the Commission with a subordinated role compared to the dominant position of the European Council, though being subject to legislative scrutiny, or the Council with an occasional executive role in certain fields, and on the other hand the expanded powers of the European Parliament, as the lower house.


The main cause to the deactivation of ZSM-5 catalyst, used for oxidation of benzene to phenol (BTOP) by nitrous oxide, is that the carbon deposition on the catalyst surface blocks the mouth of pores of the catalyst. In the experiments, ZSM-5 catalyst was modified by chemical surface deposition of silicon, and then the effect of modification condition on the catalyst activation was studied. The catalyst samples were characterized by XRF, EPS, XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption at low temperature, pyridine adsorption-infrared technique and etc. All the above results show that the uniform SiO2 membrane can be formed on ZSM-5 crystal surface. The SiO2 membrane covers the acid centers on ZSM-5 surface to inhibit surface coking, to avoid or decrease the possibility of ZSM-5 pore blockage so that the catalyst activity and stability can be improved efficiently. The optimum siliconiting conditions determined by the experiments are as follows: 4% load of silanizing agent, volume (ml)/mass (g) ratio of hexane/ZSM-5=15/1, and 16 h of modification time. Compared with the samples without siliconiting treatment, the samples treated under the above optimum condition can increase the productivity of phenol by 14% for 3h reaction time and by 41% for 6h reaction time respectively.


We propose the Detailed Outline Control (DOC) framework for improving long-range plot coherence when automatically generating several-thousand-word-long stories. DOC consists of two complementary components: a detailed outliner and a detailed controller. The detailed outliner creates a more detailed, hierarchically structured outline, shifting creative burden from the main drafting procedure to the planning stage. The detailed controller ensures the more detailed outline is still respected during generation by controlling story passages to align with outline details. In human evaluations of automatically generated stories, DOC substantially outperforms a strong Re3 baseline (Yang et al., 2022) on plot coherence (22.5% absolute gain), outline relevance (28.2%), and interestingness (20.7%). Humans also judged DOC to be much more controllable in an interactive generation setting.


PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the trends, frequency, and nature of industry sponsorship of plastic surgery research since the establishment of conflicts of interest (COI) reporting policies. METHODS: We analyzed the frequency and types of self-reported COI in three major plastic surgery journals since the adoption of reporting policies in 2007. All original articles that were published in three major plastic surgery journals from 2008 to 2014 were included. The type of self-reported COI was characterized into the following categories: research or institutional support, royalties/stock options, consultant/ employee, or miscellaneous funding. A multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine what study-specific variables increase the likelihood of COI being disclosed. RESULTS: A total of 3722 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The incidence of COI steadily decreased from 24% in 2009 to 9% in 2013. The types of COI also significantly changed from 2008 to 2013 (p < 0.001). In 2008, 71% and 17% of COI were categorized as research support and consultant/employee, respectively. However by 2013, 34% and 57% were categorized as research support and consultant/employee, respectively. A multivariate regression analysis revealed that article subspe-cialty topic was associated with disclosure COI (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: If self-reporting of COI are assumed to be accurate, the number of surgeon-reported COI in plastic surgery declined overall. Our analysis also suggests that industry has steadily increased the number of consultancies rather than direct research support over this period. PURPOSE: The Physician Payment Sunshine Act (PPSA) is a government initiative requiring all biomedical companies to publicly disclose payments to physicians. There continues to be misinterpretation and a lack of awareness amongst plastic surgeons, the public, and the media regarding these financial transactions. The goal of this study is to evaluate changes in the PPSA data since its implementation in 2014. METHODS: Using PPSA data (Jan 2014-Dec 2015), we studied and compared the distribution of non-research industry payments made to plastic surgeons nationally. CONCLUSION: During 2014–2015, ~75% of plastic surgeons received industry payments of <$1,000. The largest payment category was royalty and licensing fees, paid to <0.005%. Over the two-year period, our analysis revealed changes in payments amounts and types. Awareness and continued surveillance of the PPSA data are critical to better understand industry payments to plastic surgeons.


To appraise the clinical impact of combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia (CSE) in patients undergoing total extraperitoneal laparoscopic hernia repair (TEPP), we performed a prospective study in 40 patients. These patients were randomized to receive either CSE (n = 20) or a balanced general anaesthesia (BGA) with controlled ventilation (n = 20). The aim of the study was to determine the impact of the intraoperative gas insufflation on compensatory respiratory reactions during regional anaesthesia. Therefore, blood gas samples were drawn and additional parameters were assessed as follows: noninvasive haemodynamic, lactate and glucose levels, differential blood count, and the patients' level of comfort during the perioperative setting, which was determined by a questionnaire. In our study it was clarified that the respiratory compensation of extraperitoneal gas insufflation is not decreased by regional anaesthesia. The haemodynamic state of the patients was stabilized by early interventions. In addition--there was no evidence that the anaesthesia regime used had any influence on the so called stress-parameters. Most of the patients with regional anaesthesia showed severe agitation often accompanied by chest pain. Hence, regional anaesthesia is not recommended in this setting.


The study investigates the effect of explicit contrastive analysis and translation activities on the incidental acquisition of single words and collocations. We compared three high school groups of learners of the same L1 and comparable L2 (English) proficiency. Each group represented one instructional condition: meaning focused instruction (MFI), non-contrastive form-focused instruction (FFI), and contrastive analysis and translation (CAT). The target items consisted of ten unfamiliar words and ten collocations in L2—English. The MFI group performed content-oriented tasks which did not require attention to the target items. The FFI group performed text-based vocabulary tasks which focused on the target items. The CAT group was assigned text-based translation tasks: from L2 into L1, and from L1 into L2. During the correction stage, the teacher provided a contrastive analysis of the target items and their L1 translation options. Time-on-task was kept constant in the three groups. After completing the tasks, the three groups were tested on the retention of the target items by two tests: active recall and passive recall. A week later, the participants received the same tests. The CAT (contrastive analysis and translation) group significantly outperformed the other two groups on all the tests. These superior results are discussed in light of the 'noticing' hypothesis, 'pushed output', 'task-induced involvement load', and the influence that L1 exerts on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary.


BACKGROUND: Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a pathological state resulting from repetitive loading or stress on the tendon. The article aims to evaluate the effects of the low - energy radial extracorporeal shockwave therapy (RESWT) in the treatment of the adult with chronic insertional Achilles tendinopathy (AT) after the unsuccessful conservative treatment, with 18 months follow - up evaluation. CASE REPORT: We report the case of a 55 years - old male suffering from severe right posterior heel pain for 4 months. For his chronic insertional Achilles tendinopathy on the right heel, he received conservative treatment in the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. For outcome assessment, Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) for pain, the range of motion in the ankle, and Roles-Maudsley Score (RMS) for assessment of function were used. At the baseline the pain was severe, and he received physical therapy treatment. After unsuccessful conservative treatment, he underwent RESWT treatment. Numeric Rating Scale was significantly decreased at immediate, short-term and long-term follow-up. After the last treatment, the patient had no pain, and function assessed by Roles-Maudsley Score was excellent. At the follow-up check-up at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months the patient had no pain and excellent functional results. CONCLUSION: Radial ESWT is a safe and effective treatment even for a longer period for patients with chronic insertional Achilles tendinopathy.


The synthesis of Ag-TiO2 coating using AgNO3 precursor is expected to give the properties as pure as Ag nanoparticles. Commonly, high concentration of Ag attributed to agglomeration of silver species and reduction to Ag0 particles on TiO2 surface. In contrast, at lower concentration, Ag species exist as AgO, Ag2O and Ag0. Hence, the exact amount of Ag, which can effectively control the particle growth and agglomeration, surface area, thermal stability and band gap of the TiO2 coating, are still vague and stated differently. In the present study, the effect of Ag content on the phase transformation and surface morphology of Ag-TiO2 coating were reported. TiO2 sol were prepared by incorporating Ag at 2.5, 5 and 7.5 mol % and deposited on unglazed ceramic tiles thru five times dip coating. The deposited Ag-TiO2 coatings were heat treated at 500 °C for 1 hour soaking time. XRD analyses revealed that the deposited Ag-TiO2 coating consists of anatase, rutile, Ag2O and metallic Ag. Almost all the coating surfaces illustrated cracks. Increased Ag content lead to presence of tiny particles on the surfaces and EDX spectrum revealed the presence of Ti, O and metallic Ag particles. However, at the addition of 5 mol % Ag, there was no metallic Ag presence and a dense coating with the lowest thickness of ±11.4µm is observed.