Marfan's syndrome in a pregnant woman appears to be particularly hazardous because of the increased risk of aortic rupture. The first reported case report of replacement of the ascending aorta in a pregnant woman with a successful outcome for mother and fetus is presented. The literature is reviewed with regard to Marfan's syndrome and pregnancy as well as to open heart surgery during pregnancy.


We report the possibility of creating high-power nonchain electric-discharge HF lasers with an all-solid-state pump source. The maximum energy stored in the pump source capacitors based on solid-state FID-switches is 990 J for the open-circuit voltage of 240 kV. The pulse energy of 30 J is obtained in the hydrogen-containing SF6 mixture at the electric efficiency of the order of 3%.


Cloud-based technologies play a significant role in the technology-enhanced learning domain. The adoption of cloud technologies in the educational environment has a positive impact on the learning process by offering new tools and services to improve and support the learning life cycle, including interactivity. In specific fields, such as clinical skills training, that involve computer-intensive training scenarios, there is an increased demand to deliver training services to a larger number of learners, therefore the need for cloud services. However, to date there has been a lack of a formalized framework relating to the use of cloud computing for on-demand interactive e-training resources. This paper is to formalize a theoretical framework for an interactive e-training system particularly for clinical skills training, taking into consideration e-training system requirements and with a focus on applying cloud technologies to ensure the dynamic scalability of services and computing power while maintaining QoS and security KEywoRdS Cloud Computing, Computer-Intensive Training, Distributed System, E-Learning System, Interactive System


The interaction of two coherent counter propagating TE (transverse-electric) and TM (transverse-magnetic) electromagnetic waves with different initial phases in the absorbing plate placed in the regular ideal waveguide is considered. The losses of energy of TE and TM waves in the absorbing plate are calculated. Some features of tunnel interference in the absorbing plate in the waveguide are revealed. It is shown that the losses of energy strongly depend on the various parameters describing the interaction of the counter propagating waves. Definitely choosing the parameters we can control the electromagnetic processes in this case.


OBJECTIVES
Monitoring of disease activity using DAS28 is more effective than routine RA care, but the ESR measurement is time consuming. Alternative rapid ESR determination methods can be used but effects on DAS28 classification are unknown.

METHODS
Alternative rapid ESR methods, including the Starrsed 30-minute mode and Alifax Roller Test-1TH, were compared to the Westergren method. Mean difference, limits of agreement (LoA) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. Based on these results, using a longitudinal design the percentage of DAS28 misclassification for the Alifax Roller Test-1TH was measured.

RESULTS
The Alifax showed acceptable ICCs, but LoA were large. ICC was 0.67 (0.56-0.76), LoA -43;34. The longitudinal study on the Alifax (n=125) showed an ICC of 0.93, a kappa of 0.61, but disease activity was misclassified in 26% of the patients. Use of the ESR from the previous visit resulted in comparable levels of misclassification.

CONCLUSIONS
ESR measured by automated analysers like Alifax show acceptable ICC but LoA are large compared to the Westergren ESR. The Alifax Roller Test-1TH is very rapid but DAS28 misclassification is considerable and even as large as when using the ESR of the previous visit.


Retinal vasculitis is one of the frequently cause of impair of visual acuity. The vein is involved most of time, and the artery is involved less. Sometimes, the vein and artery are involved together. The types and cause of the disease are complex. In recent years, ophthalmologists have gotten some new achievements on the study of the disease, and some arguments just like naming, diagnosing and treatment still exist. Now we review all the achievement and arguments of the naming, clinic, pathology, etiology, experiment, diagnosing, treatment of the disease.


Summary Hexokinase catalyses the first step in the metabolism of glucose, but has also been proposed to be involved in sugar sensing and signalling in both yeasts and plants. The substrates of hexokinase such as glucose (Glc) and fructose (Fruc) are also the most important sugars during grape berry ripening. The grapevine proteome database was analysed to investigate the roles of hexokinases in grape berry growth and development. Six hexokinase genes displaying high nucleotide sequence identity (72 – 87%) with hexokinase genes in other species were identified. Most of the Vitis vinifera hexokinase (VvHXK) genes had a highly conserved genomic structure consisting of nine exons and eight introns. A search for cis–regulatory elements in the promoter regions of all six hexokinase genes revealed that most were probably regulated by light, sugar, phytohormones, or abiotic stress. The isolation and expression of a hexokinase cDNA from V. vinifera 'Sultanine', named VvHXK3, was also reported. Analysis of the predicted amino acid sequence of VvHXK3 suggested that the protein could be a chloroplast-stromal hexokinase with a possible transit peptide cleavage site after amino acid residue 26. The VvHXK3 gene was differentially expressed in a variety of organs including berries, leaves, roots, and pollen, but its expression was highest in berries during their early development and at the start of ripening. To determine its function, VvHXK3 cDNA was expressed in a triple mutant yeast strain that lacked the ability to phosphorylate Glc and Fru and, therefore, was unable to grow on these sugars as sole carbon source. Mutant yeast cells that expressed VvHXK3 grew on both Glc and Fru, indicating that VvHXK3 could complement this mutant and had hexokinase activity.


QUIC is a performance-optimized secure transport protocol and a building block of the upcoming HTTP/3 standard. To protect against denial-of-service attacks, QUIC servers need to validate the IP addresses claimed by their clients. So far, the QUIC protocol conducts address validation for each hostname separately using validation tokens. In this work, we review this practice and introduce a new QUIC transport parameter to allow a shared address validation across hostnames. This parameter indicates to the client, that an issued validation token can be used to abbreviate the address validation when connecting to specific other hostnames. Based on trust-relations between real-world hostnames we evaluate the performance benefits of our proposal. Our results suggest that a shared address validation saves a round-trip time on almost 60% of the required handshakes to different hosts during the first loading of an average website. Assuming a typical transatlantic connection with a round-trip time of 90 ms, we find that deploying our proposal reduces the delay overhead to establish all required connections for an average website by 142.2 ms.


Cool, moist conditions in combination with minimum tillage, earlier planting, and recent shifts in commercial fungicide seed-treatment active ingredients have led to an increase in corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max) seedling establishment problems. This situation resulted in an investigation of Pythium spp. associated with seed and seedling diseases. Samples of diseased corn and soybean seedlings were collected from 42 production fields in Ohio. All isolates of Pythium recovered were identified to species using morphological and molecular techniques and evaluated in an in vitro pathogenicity assay on both corn and soybean seed, and a subset of the isolates was tested for sensitivity to fungicides currently used as seed treatments. Eleven species and two distinct morphological groups of Pythium were identified, of which six species were moderately to highly pathogenic on corn seed and nine species were highly pathogenic on soybean seed. There was significant variation (P < 0.05) in sensitivity to mefenoxam, azoxystrobin, trifloxystrobin, and captan both across and within species. Multiple species of Pythium had the capacity to reduce germination of both corn and soybean seed. Results indicated that mefenoxam, azoxystrobin, trifloxystrobin, or captan, when used individually, may not inhibit all pathogenic species of Pythium found in Ohio soils.


This paper extends previous work on hierarchical scheduling to multi-core systems. We have implemented partitioned multi-core scheduling of servers in the Linux kernel, using the scheduling framework ExSched. Neither ExSched nor the presented scheduler require any modifications to the Linux kernel. Hence, this makes the installation and kernel-version updates easier. We also present a user-space simulator which can be used when developing new multi-core hierarchical schedulers (plug-ins) for ExSched.
 We evaluate the overhead of our new multi-core hierarchical scheduler and compare it to a single-core hierarchical scheduler. Our results can be useful for developers that want to minimize the scheduler overhead when using partitioned hierarchical multi-core scheduling.


Are there limits to the duration of high quality of life? Are there limits to healthy life for a human brain? We have had the opportunity to evaluate the performance of a 112–113-year-old woman and perform full pathological examination of her body immediately after death at the age of 115. The psychological tests revealed that her general performance was above average of healthy adults of 60–75 years. The pathological observations revealed almost no atherosclerotic changes throughout the body. In the brain almost no beta-amyloid plaques or vascular changes were found and only slight accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein with a Braak-stage 2. Counts of the number of locus coeruleus neurons corresponded with the number of neurons found in the brains of healthy people of 60–80 years old. Our observations indicate that the limits of human cognitive function extends far beyond the range that is currently enjoyed by most individuals and that brain disease, even in supercentanarians, is not inevitable. © 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc.


In recent years, there are many applications of object detection in remote sensing field, which demands a great number of labeled data. However, in many cases, data is extremely rare. In this paper, we proposed a few-shot object detector which is designed for detecting novel objects based on only a few examples. Through fully leveraging labeled base classes, our model that is composed of a feature-extractor, a feature attention highlight module as well as a two-stage detection backend can quickly adapt to novel classes. The pre-trained feature extractor whose parameters are shared produces general features. While the feature attention highlight module is designed to be light-weighted and simple in order to fit the few-shot cases. Although it is simple, the information provided by it in a serial way is helpful to make the general features to be specific for few-shot objects. Then the object-specific features are delivered to the two-stage detection backend for the detection results. The experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for few-shot cases.


Like virtually every other human activity, air transport has an impact on the environment and similar to all other industries environmental impacts and economic issues are exerting more pressure on aircraft sector to meet the demands and implicated conditions. Secondly in today?s competitive industrial performance index new modern techniques are being introduced to improve the aerodynamics so that the efficiency of the newly designed aircrafts could be enhanced. The active flow control techniques have been proved vital towards achieving more effective air flow on the aircraft wing and that eventually helps to increase the lift coefficient at full scale flight. Synthetic jet actuators have been experimentally proved a promising technique towards achieving flow separation delay on the surface they have been deployed on. For the operation the synthetic jet actuators offer a unique characteristic in that they make use of the ambient work fluid and that deny the need of any extra fluid from outside the system and that helps in two fold. Firstly the need to make additional arrangements for air supply through the complex piping system has been ruled out completely. Secondly in the system the addition of any new weight that usually associates with the introduction of any new technique has been avoided.In this work firstly the dye visualization technique is used to study the interaction of the synthetic jet with both types of boundary layers that is laminar and turbulent. Secondly PIV measurements are performed to quantitatively analyze the evolution of vortical structures in the boundary layer. The aim is to understand the fluid dynamics involved in the interaction of the vortical structures with the neal wall fluid that ultimately re-attach the flow with the surface. Lastly an artificial flow separation is generated on the deflected flat plate surface and the synthetic jet is deployed to observe the separation delay on the surface. Various vortical structures have been generated by operating the actuator at varying parameters and issued into the boundary layer upstream of the separation line. The effectiveness of each type of vortices has been evaluated quantitatively to work out the optimum parameters at which the actuator must be operated to achieve the best control effect at the given free-stream condition.


Reading Education Policy in the Global Era The Post-Structuralism of Foucault Critical Policy Analysis A Foucauldian Approach Policy as Text and Policy as Discourse A Framework for Analysis Classical Liberalism Social Democratic Liberalism The Ascendancy of Neo-Liberalism Neo-Liberal Theories of Institutional Restructuring Markets, Professionalism, Trust Discourses of Choice, Inequality and Social Diversity Democracy, Citizenship and the 'Thin' Community Globalization, Democracy and Education


Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-associated death in men. The metastatic spread of PCa cells and the ability to survive when reaching the metastatic nitch is affected by growth factors, chemokines, angiogenic factors and hormones. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), the inducible isoform of the rate-limiting enzyme in heme degradation, counteracts oxidative and inflammatory damage. Here we investigated its nuclear translocation in androgen sensitive (MDAPCa2b and LNCaP) and insensitive (PC3) PCa cell lines. Our results show that endogenous levels of HO-1 are markedly lower in PC3 compared to MDAPCa2b and LNCaP. Hemin treatment, a potent and specific inducer of HO-1, increased protein levels with a resulting nuclear translocation in PCa cell lines. Stable transfection of HO-1 in PC3 (PC3HO-1) also showed a significant nuclear translocation. Furthermore, human prostate cancer PC3HO-1 cells growing subcutaneously in athymic nude mice showed significant HO-1 nuclear staining (detected by immunohistochemsitry and immunofluorescence) compared to PC3pcDNA3 xenografts. Using RT-qPCR-generated gene array we observed a set of inflammatory and angiogenic genes up- or down-regulated in response to HO-1 overexpression, identifying VEGFA as a novel downstream target of HO-1. HO-1 modulation limited the metastatic potential of neoplastic cells by down-regulating VEGFA production. An in vivo angiogenic assay also demonstrated that PC3HO-1 tumors presented less neovascularization than tumors derived from control cells, giving further evidence to support HO-1 anti-angiogenic function. These results implicate for the first time HO-1 in the regulation of key proinflammatory factors, involved in PCa progression. Taken together our results suggest that HO-1 may be a potential target for therapeutic interventions. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-245.


Abstract : An analysis of regulatory actions that will enhance stability in Mexico requires a framework to determine the relationship between these areas of governance and a method to isolate the industrial subsectors that pose the greatest threat. For the analysis to have any merit, it must address structural and enduring problems rather than the minor contours of a particular period or government administration. Using this approach, the Mexican oil industry emerges as the most heavily regulated sector and the one posing the greatest risk to stability. Reforming the nation's energy sector is the most effective regulatory action Mexico can take to enhance stability. Petroleos Mexico (Pemex) is the second largest company in Latin America and the seventh largest producer of oil in the world. The government of Mexico owns the company, and oil sales account for 32% of all government revenues annually. In 2004, production of oil in Mexico began to decline due to a severe reduction in output from the nation's most prolific oil field, and the failure of Pemex to develop additional reserves to compensate. Since that time, the crisis in Mexico's oil industry has emerged as an escalating threat to the government and the stability it provides through domestic spending. However, the failure of Pemex to manage Mexico's oil resources competently is directly attributable to its ownership by the government. While the government regulates some aspects of other Mexican industries, it regulates every aspect of the oil industry. This regulation includes extraction of nearly all Pemex profits for government use, leaving little remaining for business development or reinvestment. Ironically, by attempting to manage Mexico's oil wealth for the public good through Pemex, the government has instead brought the industry to the point of near collapse. Left uncorrected, the resultant loss of government revenue and increased unemployment will have a destabilizing effect on the country for years to come.


A probit model identifies characteristics influencing Idaho potato producer support or opposition to a state mandatory certified seed law. Economic self interest appears to be the most important influencer. Current users of certified seed and growers of certified seed are strong supporters. However, producer attitudes about the impact of seed-borne diseases and effectiveness of certified seed as a control mechanism also are important. Respondent characteristics (gross farm income, potato acreage, and geographic region of the state) seem to be less important influencers.


Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of Salmonella djakarta and Salmonella isaszeg, as well as of a spontaneous R-mutant of S. djakarta were investigated as to their content in neuraminic acid (Neu) and its individual linkage. The two Salmonella serovars both belong to the O:48 serogroup of Salmonella, but to two different subgroups. LPS of both S-forms contained high amounts of Neu, although in different quantities, whereas the R-form was completely devoid of it. Methylation analysis indicated that Neu is exclusively terminally linked in S. djakarta whereas both terminal and 4-linked Neu were recognized in S. isaszeg. Although terminally linked, a sialidase from Arthrobacter ureafaciens was unable to split Neu even after prolonged incubation from both S-type LPSs. When LPS was first treated by mild alkali, however, the total amount of Neu from S. djakarta LPS and about 50% from that of LPS of S.isaszeg could be removed. In contrast, alkali-treated LPS, but also the non-treated one, proved to be effective inhibitors for a sialic acid-binding lectin from Cepaea hortensis. The resistance of terminal Neu towards sialidase may be due to the presence of an O-acetyl group which would be removed during the methylation analysis but would, especially when linked to C-4, not interfere with the reactivity of the lectin.


To identify a chromosomal region of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 14 involved in capsule polysaccharide synthesis, two strategies were used: (i) Tn916 mutagenesis, followed by the characterization of four unencapsulated mutants, and (ii) cross-hybridization with a capsule polysaccharide synthesis gene (cps) probe from S. agalactiae, which has a structurally similar capsule. The two approaches detected the same chromosomal region consisting of two adjacent EcoRI fragments. One of these EcoRI fragments was cloned and hybridized with a cosmid library. This resulted in clone cMKO2. A similar cosmid clone was obtained from an unencapsulated Tn916 mutant, Spnl4.H. Sequence analysis of the two cosmid clones revealed that in the Tn916 mutant, a gene, cps14E, which is homologous to other bacterial genes encoding glycosyl transferases, had been inactivated. An open reading frame immediately downstream of cps14E, designated cps14F, shows no significant homology with any known genes or proteins. A functional assay showed that cps14E encodes a glycosyl transferase and that a gene-specific knockout mutant lacks this enzyme activity, whereas inactivation of cps14F does not have this effect.


Digital economy is relied on the trust of an online authorities. Complex transaction pattern made it difficult to confirm quick transfer of money between hands. Digital transactions provide a platform to make this complex nature of transactions easier for parties involved in online platform. of money Blockchain is a distributed ledger used to have a peer to peer online transaction system without the intervention of any centralized authorities. Blockchain technology facilitates the user with the maximum security during the transaction because the use of the cryptographic hash function by the system which generates a unique output that can not be changed if the transaction is successfully completed. Blockchain also contains a certain verification code for every transaction. It cannot be altered once transaction is completed. Individuals and organizations involved in various monetary interactions need to keep trust on each other. Blockchain technology also keep every record of the transactions being made. Bitcoin is the pioneer cryptocurrency used in blockchain technology is also a peer to peer digital currency.


The carrot ideotype for carrot breeders could be a variety resistant to Alternaria leaf blight-the main foliar disease on carrot worldwide-with a low level of bitterness as consumers consider it as an undesirable taste of carrots. Our previous investigation on carrot resistance to Alternaria dauci allowed the identification of resistance QTLs (rQTLs). Based on these results, breeding for a higher level of resistance is possible but we could interrogate about the impact of selecting these genomic regions on carrot bitterness. To answer this question, we combined chemical and sensorial analyses of a set of resistant and susceptible carrot genotypes evaluated in different environments to identify the metabolites involved in bitterness. The genetic control and heritability field experimentation and colocalizations between rQTLs and metabolite QTLs (mQTLs) were searched in order to evaluate the link between bitterness and resistance traits. Our results showed that selecting the genomic regions mainly involved in carrot resistance is possible without compromising carrot taste. However, the colocalization of rQTLs and mQTLs suggest that some genomic regions are involved in the expression of both traits and should be avoided or even counter selected. INTRODUCTION While breeding for varieties highly resistant to Alternaria dauci is a top priority for carrot seed companies, consumers are more and more demanding on gustative quality, especially low bitter carrots. Amon others, terpens and polyacetylenes are considered key compounds for bitterness in carrots (Simon et al. 1980; Seljasen et al. 2001). Relying on sensory and chemical analyses, Kreutzmann et al. (2008) highlighted that a small number of metabolites, among them eight terpens, could predict bitterness. However, while the genetic control of carrot resistance to A. dauci has already been investigated, leading to the identification of rQTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci involved in resistance) in different genetic backgrounds (Le Clerc et al., 2009; 2015), no information were available except very recently published by Keilwagen at al. (2017) on terpens and polyacetylenes. Identifying the genomic regions involved in resistance and/or bitterness will be very helpful for breeders to develop resistant varieties while avoiding increasing bitterness. To answer this question, chemical and sensory analyses were performed on a set of five carrot genotypes during three years, in four environments to identify the terpens involved in bitterness. These metabolites were characterized during two consecutive years in field trials in a population already segregating for resistance to Alternaria dauci and their genetic control was determined. The colocalization between previously identified rQTLS and mQTLS (QTLs involved in the accumulation of metabolites) were examined and recommendations were made for breeders.


Clear cell tumors of the endocrine system and thymus are rare lesions with which surgical pathologists have only infrequent contact. As a result, these neoplasms may be misinterpreted and incorrectly classified. This review considers the histological, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural features of clear cell pituitary adenomas, parathyroid tumors, pancreatic endocrine neoplasms, adrenocortical proliferations, and thymic malignancies. Emphasis is placed throughout on differential diagnosis with microscopically-similar lesions. Clear cell endocrine tumors and thymic lesions manifest a variety of potential lineages, including examples with epithelial, neural, germ cell, and lymphoid differentiation. Because of the wide differences in behavior and recommended treatment in this group, accuracy in diagnosis is essential.


Purpose: There are many benefits for emotion recognition and classification in human-computer interaction, social communications, gaming industries, and entertainment. Therefore, physiological responses of emotions have been receiving a significant attention. However, the assumption of nonlinear characteristics of physiological signals is usually disregarded. Basic methods: In the current study, a novel approach for classification of emotional states is presented using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and nonlinear methodology. Applying 3 channels of EEG from eNTERFACE06_EMOBRAIN database, some measures of recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) (including: recurrence rate, deterministic, average line length of diagonal lines, entropy, laminarity, and trapping time) are calculated in 3 emotional states (exciting negative, neutral and exciting positive). These features are considered as inputs of the multilayer perceptron, time delay neural network, and probabilistic neural network (PNN) classifiers. Main results: Based on the RQA measures and PNN, the emotion detection system outlined here is potentially capable of classifying 3 emotional categories. The accuracy rate of 99.96% is attained which is comparable to the results achieved by others. Conclusions: The results show that the proposed methodology can be used as an appropriate tool for emotion recognition.


Abstract: The APP (Application) store at the Android market is very popular and attractive for most of current smart phone users. A rotary ring type of APP named as Loving SML (Loving Sun-Moon Lake—"愛上日月潭") is an instant information capturer to capture the instant traffic tourism information (info) services and serve as an interactive device for user to know the instant traffic information of SML area where you may want to go. The tourism service is specialized on i 3 travel, which is identified as innovation, intelligent, and interesting for all of the visitors coming from all over the world. The captured instant information is provided by the sightseeing cloud from SML-NSA (National Scenic Area) with the integration of infrastructure of VD (vehicle detector), CMS or VMS (changeable (or variable) message sign), CCTV (closed circuit television), AVI (automatic vehicle identification). The technique of AR (augmented reality) is also used to identify how many sparkling places in front of you that you may visit. One can easily know the road performance ahead from you before you plan a trip.


Background In this study, we aimed to establish and validate a mathematical diagnosis model to distinguish benign pulmonary nodules (BPNs) from early non-small cell lung cancer (eNSCLC) based on clinical characteristics, radiomics features, and hematological biomarkers. Methods Medical records from 81 patients (27 BPNs, 54 eNSCLC) were used to establish a novel mathematical diagnosis model and an additional 61 patients (21 BPNs, 40 eNSCLC) were used to validate this new model. To establish a clinical diagnosis model, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied to select predictors for eNSCLC, then multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine independent predictors of the probability of eNSCLC, and to establish a clinical diagnosis model. The diagnostic accuracy and discriminative ability of our model were compared with the PKUPH and Mayo models using the following 4 indices: area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (ROC), net reclassification improvement index (NRI), integrated discrimination improvement index (IDI), and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified age, border, and albumin (ALB) as independent diagnostic markers of eNSCLC. In the training cohort, the AUC of our model was 0.740, which was larger than the AUCs for the PKUPH model (0.717, P=0.755) and the Mayo model (0.652, P=0.275). Compared with the PKUPH and Mayo models, the NRI of our model increased by 3.7% (P=0.731) and 27.78% (P=0.008), respectively, while the IDI changed −4.77% (P=0.437) and 11.67% (P=0.015), respectively. Moreover, the DCA demonstrated that our model had a higher overall net benefit compared to previously published models. Importantly, similar findings were confirmed in the validation cohort. Conclusions Age, border, and serum ALB levels were independent diagnostic markers of eNSCLC. Thus, our model could more accurately distinguish BPNs from eNSCLC and outperformed previously published models.


: The purpose of this study is systematic reviewing of e-book lending in digital libraries in order to identify the status of researches in ebook lending, existing research gaps, and their research methods. In this way, systematic review is used for study. Searching in databases in three steps finally showed 36 research resources to be studied. Findings demonstrate that researches on e-book lending are in progress and at the future this domain will be in the spotlight. Also findings showed that subjects such as e-book lending, business models and status of laws in e-book lending are the main fields that need more researches. Moreover study on research methods showed that they have mostly been done by quantitative approach and survey method.


Background: The global malaria agenda has the ultimate goal of eliminating malaria in all countries of the world by 2030 through universal access to malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Presumptive treatment of malaria with Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) has been associated with the development of resistance, therefore parasitological confirmation of all fevers is crucial in the context of eliminating malaria. This study assessed physicians' compliance with the national guidelines in the treatment of malaria among under-five (U-5) children and their prescription pattern in a Maternal and Child Care (MCC) centre in Lagos State. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted as an exit interview among 427 mothers/caregivers of febrile U-5 children who were consecutively sampled.The data was collected using a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and a proforma. Epi-info version 7.2.1 was used to analyze the data and the level of significance was set as p<0.05. Results: Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (mRDT) was done for 75 17.6%) of the children and 37 (49.3%) was positive. Anti-malarial drugs were prescribed at consultation to 400 (93.7%) of the febrile children. Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) was prescribed for 364 (91.0%) of the children. The most prescribed ACT was Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL) in 222 (60.9%). Conclusion: The physician's compliance with malaria treatment guidelines for febrile illnesses in U-5 children was poor with regards to parasitological confirmation before treatment. However, the use of ACTs was adhered to in almost all cases. Regular training workshops are recommended for health workers to improve adherence to parasitological confirmation before treatment. Keywords: Malaria, Under-fives, Compliance, mRDT, ACTs, Guidelines


Objectives
Physical activity can reduce the risk for non-communicable diseases (NCD), such as obesity and type-2 diabetes, which are higher in Native American (NA) populations than the general American population. It is worth exploring the physical activity (PA) levels of NA men and women to see if they met general requirements or differ because of the higher rates of NCDs in NA communities.

Methods
As part of the OPREVENT2 trial, 601 adult NA participants across six NA communities completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire- Short Form (IPAQ-SF), which includes questions about walking, moderate and vigorous activity. Data were analyzed using the IPAQ guidelines to create a categorical variable of activity level based on weekly total MET-minutes including truncating extreme values, leaving 586 participants. METs are multiples of a person's metabolic resting rate and help capture intensity. Based on the total MET-minutes per week, participants were broken into two categories, insufficiently active (IA) and sufficiently active (SA).

Results
Based on self-reported IPAQ-SF questions for walking, moderate, and vigorous activity, 71.2% of men (n = 116) and 77.3% of women (n = 327) met the requirement for being SA. Men in the SA category reported an average of 3713 MET-minutes per week compared to an average of 2818 MET-minutes per week for women, which was significantly higher (P = 0.0001). There were several men who had very high total MET-minutes per week due to the self-reported frequent and long session of vigorous activity.

Conclusions
While NA men may exercise for a significantly longer total amount of time during a week, a higher percentage of women were considered sufficiently active. Future physical activity education and interventions should focus on getting more NA men to exercise and focus on duration and intensity of exercise for NA women.

Funding Sources
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute R01.


The Zimbabwean local government environment has been affected by chronic defects in the provision of basic public services. As such, city twinning has been adopted as one of the strategies to address the impasse in service delivery as it allows for the sharing of expertise in local governance, development, strategic international relations and the enhancement of service delivery in local authorities. Using the exploratory case study research design the study explores the impact the twinning arrangement between Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and eThekwini Municipality and how it has enhanced service delivery in Bulawayo. Data was gathered from written documents, observations and in-depth interviews. The study established that the BCC-eThekwini cooperation has been very fruitful and Bulawayo City Council has benefited immensely through the exchange of ideas and information as well as technology transfer among others from this twinning arrangement. Nonetheless, it was also observed that weak legal and financial frameworks hinders the city twinning partnership from realising its full fruition. The study concluded that city twinning between BCC and eThekwini is a favourable route for creating sustainable South to South linkages that benefit developing cities. As recommendations, the article argues that there is need for clarity in defining the partnership roles and goals, community involvement as well as an enabling policy and institutional environment.


Introduction: The world´s population is increasing and thus the pressure on the earth´s resources. To ensure food supply and sustainability, food habits in western societies have to change. By redu ...


N.A. Jocelyn, C.E. Wylie, A. Barrelet, M. Lean and A.K. Foote Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK; Rossdales Laboratories, Rossdales LLP, High Street, Newmarket, Suffolk, UK; University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: email@example.com Reasons for performing study: Neutrophilia in tracheal wash samples is common in various causes of lower airway inflammation, but cytomorphological features and significance to bacterial culture has not been established.


The left ventricular-aortic conduit provides one solution to the problem of a congenital obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract, which may result from a wide variety of conditions. The creation of a double-outlet left ventricle successfully relieves left ventricular hypertension and its sequelae. This case demonstrates one long-term complication of the left ventricular-aortic conduit--stenosis at the point of origin of the graft in the left ventricle due to endothelial proliferation, which necessitated replacement of the graft.


Ideal heat pump performance models containing one adjustable parameter and intensive thermodynamic variables were developed by transformation of the energetic functions of Rankine heat pump. Two unknown groups in the formulated model, labeled AKR and AKF, were found to curve fit to two intensive variables as linear functions. The parameters of the linear fits were obtained using the least square method; consequently, AKR and AKF were expressed as temperature-lift variables. Maximum errors of about 5% were encountered at conditions below reduced temperature of 0.8. Better accuracy was obtained in the range of practical temperature lift (i.e., 10–80°C). Only one fit parameter value is required by these models where similar correlations require three or more. Furthermore, unlike some of the available models where different equations are required for each working fluid, these equations are not working fluid specific and do not require thermodynamic properties' tables or charts. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011


Abstract
Guided by the theoretical framework of human capital theory and using data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, this chapter investigated labor market outcomes for graduates of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) compared to their non-HBCU counterparts. The results from this current study largely indicate that there are no significant disadvantages for Black graduate of HBCUs in terms of labor market outcomes. Moreover, under the premise of human capital theory, this study found that HBCUs serve as equivalent mechanisms for human capital attainment for Black students. This chapter concludes with limitations of the study as well as implications for future research.


We report a case of advanced upper gingival carcinoma with a contralateral metastatic lymph node invading the maxillary sinus (T4aN2cM0). An 83-year-old man was treated concurrently with chemoradiotherapy and S-1. S-1 (80 mg/body/day) was administered for 2 weeks followed by a 1-week rest period as one course. Radiation therapy involved a total of 60 Gy (2 Gy/day; 5 days/week). There were side effects of mild leucopenia and a grade 2 stomatitis. After the completion of 2 courses and radiation therapy, the primary tumor disappeared, and the patient achieved a pathologically complete response. The metastatic lymph node also completely disappeared. S-1 was then administered in the same regimen for 1 year. Neither local recurrence nor distant metastasis has been detected 2 years after the completion of the concurrent chemoradiotherapy with S-1.


This work-in-progress paper presents a project with focus on the role of digital strategies on higher education development in the context of the pandemic situation. During the pandemic, higher education institutions had to switch to distance learning at very short notice. Motivated by the urgency of the external circumstances, digital media were used to a great extent. Numerous empirical studies have examined the experiences of lecturers and students and pointed to potentials and challenges. The steering efforts of higher education management and strategic implications though, have so far been less in focus. This project will contribute to the discourse on how the systematic further development of digitization efforts can take place in a forward-looking manner and what role digitization strategies play in the further development of studies and teaching in the context of the pandemic.


AIMS
This review is focused on the laboratory diagnoses of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by recognizing the antigen of the causative agent SARS-CoV-2 virus. Various antigen tests are available in this moment and these tests are being further developed in order to reach a better diagnostic value. The issue is reviewed in a complex view.

METHODS
In this work, a complex survey of the current literature was made. The relevant and recent papers related to antigen tests of COVID-19 are discussed and cited. Basic specifications of the antigen tests and competitive methods were also scrutinized in the current literature.

RESULTS
The survey of the current literature (years 2019 ‒ 2021) was made and diagnostic methods like lateral flow tests (lateral flow immunochromatographic assay) and various types of biosensors were specified as tools for COVID-19 diagnosis and their application to be used as a point-of-care test is considered.

CONCLUSIONS
Small hand-held assays applicable in the point-of-care conditions for diagnosis of COVID-19 by analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antigen are the means of a growing interest and these means undergo a significant development leading to the improvements of their specifications and applicability to the current praxis. Merit of the assays is discussed in this paper (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 109).


Radio communications is one of the most disruptive technologies in railways, enabling a huge set of value-added services that greatly improve many aspects of railways, making them more efficient, safer, and profitable. Lately, some major technologies like ERTMS for high-speed railways and CBTC for subways have made possible a reduction of headway and increased safety never before seen in this field. The railway industry is now looking at wireless communications with great interest, and this can be seen in many projects around the world. Thus, railway radio communications is again a flourishing field, with a lot of research and many things to be done. This survey article explains both opportunities and challenges to be addressed by the railway sector in order to obtain all the possible benefits of the latest radio technologies.


Tumor-associated glomerulonephritis, mediated by immune complex deposition occurs in carcinoma and hematopoeitic neoplasms but is not described in sarcoma. A 12 year old black girl with chest pain, fever and dyspnea was found to have massive cardiomegaly without murmur or pericardial rub. She also had proteinuria. Pericardiocentesis did not clarify the cardiac lesion. Two months later, cardiac symptoms recurred with pericardial effusion and left ankle swelling. X-ray showed an osteolytic lesion in the distal left tibial metaphysis, later diagnosed as poorly differentiated sarcoma by bone biopsy. Proteinuria was 530 mg/24hr. Renal biopsy revealed proliferative glomerulonephritis granular deposits of IgG and C-3 in glomerular capillary walls and mesangium, and glomerular osmiophilic deposits in subepithelial intramembranous and mesangial zones. Later she developed multiple nodular densities in the lungs and a right sides hemorrhagic pleural effusion. Samples of epicardial tumor implants obtained at thoracotomy revealed telangiectatic osteosarcoma. This pediatric case represents osteosarcoma associated with immune complex proliferative glomerulonephritis.


5065 Alterations in DNA methylation are thought to play a role in tumorigenesis. Lsh belongs to the chromatin remodeling family of SNF2 proteins and is a crucial regulator of DNA methylation in mice. Here we addressed the question whether genomic hypomethylation plays a role in hematopoiesis and the formation of hematopoietic tumors. Using radiation chimera that received Lsh deficient hematopoietic precursor cells, we found a greatly reduced survival rate of Lsh-/- recipients. Death was in part due to an impaired grafting of Lsh deficient precursor cells suggesting a crucial role for Lsh in hematopoiesis. A subset of Lsh-/- mice and Lsh-/-p53-/- mice succumbed to erythroleukemia. Lsh-/- tumor tissues showed activation of endogenous retroviral elements and a slight elevation of the transcription factor PU.1 involved in Friend virus-induced erythroleukemia. Thus DNA hypomethylation caused by Lsh deficiency may promote tumor formation through de-repression of genes such as PU.1.


Recent reforms in mathematics education have been influenced by such theoretical perspectives as constructivism, which have reconceptualised teaching and learning. Mismatches between teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning, and ideas underpinning reform are often viewed as major obstacles to implementing educational reforms. This study examined the mathematical beliefs and practices, and factors affecting practices, of eight primary teachers selected from four schools in two different regions of the Maldives. The research used a multiple case study approach within a qualitative methodology. A questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and observations were used to collect data about teachers' beliefs and practice. Teachers' lesson notes, worksheets, samples of student work, and test papers were used to understand teachers' practice. Data were analysed within and across cases using a thematic approach. Teachers demonstrated a range of beliefs that included both constructivist and traditional elements to different degrees. In general, teachers' observed practice was more traditional than their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. The teachers' practice showed some consistency with their beliefs about the nature of mathematics, mathematics teaching and learning; however, the degree of consistency between beliefs and practice differed from teacher to teacher. Overall, the findings indicated there are several factors affecting teachers' practice, including methods of assessment, teacher accountability for students' results, limited time to cover the curriculum, lack of resources, and parental pressure to use textbooks. National assessment practices, affecting many factors found to limit practice, emerged as being particularly influential on the teachers' instructional behaviour. The study suggests the need to change the nature of national assessment, and remove other barriers if teachers are to be best placed to implement their constructivist beliefs and the Maldives mathematics curriculum. The findings also have implications for professional development and teacher education programmes.


We consider the condensation transition of microemulsion droplets of oil which are dispersed in water in the presence of surfactant. Since a macroscopic oil phase is formed due to this transition, it is called "emulsification failure." Based on the free energy approach, we determine the transition lines between the spherical and the cylindrical droplet phases as well as the phase boundary lines of the emulsification failure. The phase diagrams are calculated by changing the physical properties of the surfactant monolayer such as the saddle-splay modulus and the spontaneous curvature. For a negative saddle-splay modulus, the spherical droplet phase coexists with the excess oil phase. In some cases, a re-entrant transition (sphere-->cylinder-->sphere) is expected to take place. For a positive saddle-splay modulus, the system undergoes a direct transition from the cylindrical droplet phase to the macroscopically phase separated state. The sphere-to-cylinder transition line approaches the emulsification failure boundary as the saddle-splay modulus becomes larger.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a computer-assisted histometric technique that quantitatively determines the amount of regenerating bone, while excluding fibrovascular tissue and void spaces, in tissue-engineered bone constructs. To this end, a histometric technique was developed that couples digital tiling with adaptive, multiband color thresholding (AMBCT).

STUDY DESIGN
To test the technique, a previously described model bone tissue-engineered construct filled with morcellized bone graft was employed. Histometric techniques were applied to quantify the amount of bone formed following eight weeks of implantation.

RESULTS
The histometric technique was able to yield quantitative information regarding the amount of bone despite intrahistologic and interhistologic differences in staining. The technique is user friendly and highly automated. In addition to area fractions, the technique can provide bone ingrowth profiles as a function of geometry and implantation time.

CONCLUSION
Digital tiling coupled with AMBCT offers an easy, fast and reproducible technique that aids in quantification of bone within histologic sections. In addition, the technique can be adapted to quantification of other tissues. Further studies are under way to investigate the potential of correlating the histometric technique with mechanical strength analyses of tissue-engineered bone specimens.


The data for this article consist of alcohol-related advertisements published in seven Finnish women's magazines from 1967 to 2006. We are interested in finding out what kind of alcohol-related subject positions these magazines have created for women audiences from the 1960s onwards, to see how those positions have changed and what these changes tell us about the changes that have happened in the cultural position of drinking in Finland. Our analysis applies semiotic and discourse analytical methods. It shows that in the advertisements from the 1960s, women were placed in the subject position of full-time mother responsible for taking care of the heterosexual relationship. Women's drinking was associated with the private space of the home, with eating meals and socialising with family and friends. Women's subject positions in the 1970s and 1980s were still largely the same, but they also took on slightly new features. The 1990s and 2000s saw the emergence of the active woman who appears in public places, and drinking was associated with women's own time, enjoyment and pleasure. During the period under review we see the emergence of a drinking, self-assertive woman who is a responsible and distinctive consumer, a consumer who toys with stereotypes, and a partying consumer.


Physiological quality of seeds could be seen from viability and vigor. The used of matriconditioning treatment using biological agent and bokashi fertilizer could be the way to enhance physiological quality of seeds. The objective of experiment was to determind the most effective dosage interaction of biological agent and bokashi fertilizer to improve physiological quality of seeds.This research was held at Ciparanje Experimental Farm and Laboratory of Seed Technology Faculty Agriculture Universitas Padjadjaran.from November 2016 until February 2017.  The experiment's method design using randomized block design factorial pattern with Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 5 %. The Cultivar that used for this research was Grobogan with Bokashi that tested at 0 ton/ha, 16 ton/ha, 32 ton/ha, and 48 ton/ha respectively combined with matriconditioning that used biological agent and control without biological agent. The biological agent that used for this treatment were Trichoderma spp., Azotobacter spp., Trichoderma spp + Azotobacter spp., with three replication.  The result of the experiment showed that interaction of biological agent and bokashi fertilizer affected the weight of 100 seeds and vigor index. The treatment that used Trichoderma spp. + Azotobacter spp. and bokashi fertilizer 48 ton/ha has showed that this dosage was the best for weight of 100 seeds parameter. Thus the treatment with trichoderma and azotobacter without bokashi fertilizer showed that this treatment affected the best for vigor index. Keyword: Soybean seeds, physiological quality, Trichoderma spp., Azotobacter spp., Bokashi .


Abstract. Road traffic infrastructure plays a key role in emergency management. It allows to evacuate people from the affected area in the shortest possible time, as well as to organize rapid emergency response. However, disasters often cause the destruction of roads, railways and pedestrian routes, which can significantly affect the evacuation plan and availability of facilities for emergency services, which increases the response time and thereby increases the losses. Therefore, it is very important to quickly provide emergency services with necessary post-disaster maps, created on the principles of rapid mapping. Change detection based on geospatial data before and after damage can make rapid and automatic assessment possible with reasonable accuracy and speed. This research proposes a new approach for detecting damage and detecting the state and availability of the road network based on the satellite imagery data, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and SAR using various methods of image analysis. We also provided an assessment of the resulting combined mathematical model based on neural networks and spatial analysis approaches.


Transmembrane-4-L-six-family-1 (TM4SF1) was originally described as a cancer cell protein. Here, we show that it is highly expressed in the vascular endothelium of human cancers and in a banded pattern in the filopodia of cultured endothelial cells (EC). TM4SF1 knockdown prevented filopodia formation, inhibited cell mobility, blocked cytokinesis, and rendered EC senescent. Integrin-A5 and integrin-B1 subunits gave a similar staining pattern and interacted constitutively with TM4SF1, whereas integrin subunits often associated with angiogenesis (AV, B3, B5) interacted with TM4SF1 only after vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A or thrombin stimulation. TM4SF1 knockdown substantially inhibited maturation of VEGF-A–induced angiogenesis. Thus, TM4SF1 is a key regulator of EC function in vitro and of pathologic angiogenesis in vivo and is potentially an attractive target for antiangiogenesis therapy. [Cancer Res 2009;69(8):3272–7]


We propose a novel unsupervised keyphrase extraction approach that filters candidate keywords using outlier detection. It starts by training word embeddings on the target document to capture semantic regularities among the words. It then uses the minimum covariance determinant estimator to model the distribution of non-keyphrase word vectors, under the assumption that these vectors come from the same distribution, indicative of their irrelevance to the semantics expressed by the dimensions of the learned vector representation. Candidate keyphrases only consist of words that are detected as outliers of this dominant distribution. Empirical results show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art and recent unsupervised keyphrase extraction methods.


NO technical development in all our industrial history has been as highly glamorized as the subject of plastics. It has shown an amazing degree of popular appeal for several reasons, including probably the idea of synthesis from "coal, air and water", the beauty of colour and finish in decorative effects, and the fact that the objects of early manufacture were those of common use by the general public. Feature writers have regrctably enjoyed a general field‐day revelling in the subject, and unfortunately there has been a tendency towards certain misconceptions and exaggerations in such writings. Plastic aeroplanes now flying, plastic automobiles and plastic homes of the future have been described. Actually there is no such thing today as the plastic aeroplane. The plywood airframe has attained great importance owing to the advent of plastic glues, and what might be termed a "plywood plastic" aircraft is still actually a high‐grade plywood. The plastic automobile bodies envisaged today are secondary structures to be built over a metal framework. The post‐war homes will undoubtedly have dozens of items in which plastics will play a part, but primary load‐carrying structures are not among these components as yet. The plastic industry itself has recently become somewhat concerned about the dangers attendant on over‐glamorization and some remedial action has been studied.


Introduction: Women with abnormal vaginal discharge usually suffer from bacterial vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), trichomonas vaginitis (TV) or any combination of these. Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of the combination nifuratel-nystatin with metronidazole -nystatin in the treatment of mixed vaginitis in pregnant women, and its adverse effects. Materials and methods: Randomized, double-blind, parallel-group clinical trial in 153 pregnant women, diagnosed with mixed vaginitis; in a complex private medical institution in Armenia (Colombia), between 2013 and 2017. The patients were randomized 1:1 to receive a daily intravginal egg for six days: nifuratel (500mg) - nystatin (200,000 IU) (Group "A") and metronidazole (500mg) - nystatin (100,000 IU) (Group "B"). A follow-up of the healing of symptoms was determined at one week and an evaluation of the microbiological negativization at one month. Safety was assessed based on reports of adverse events. Descriptive statistics were used. Results: The mean age of the population was 27.59±3.71 years. The mean gestational age in group "A" was 18.56±2.87 weeks compared to 19.57±2.95 weeks in group "B" (p=0.87). The clinical cure rates at 7 days in group "A" were 84.61% vs. 81.33% in group "B", (p=0.91) The microbiological negativization at one month was 91.02% in group "A" vs. 86.66% in group "B", (p=0,072) The recurrence rate was 1.28% in group "A" vs. 5.33% in group "B", (p=0.37) Adverse events were present in the metronidazole-nystatin group, which were mild and self-limited. Conclusion: Both drugs have comparable efficacy and similar safety results in the treatment of mixed vaginitis in pregnant women; therefore, they can be used interchangeably. Studies in larger populations with a control group and random assignment are required to provide better evidence regarding this management.


This study was carried out in pomegranate orchards and other agricultural area in Adana, Mersin and Osmaniye provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean Region in 2007-2009.  In this study, in order to determine host plants of Honeydew moth [ Cryptoblabes gnidiella Mill., 1867 (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)] in the region, damage ratios of the pest on pomegranate fruits was determined by counting 1000 fruits from four different orchards in Adana (Yuregir and Kozan districts), Mersin (Tarsus district) and Osmaniye (Central district) provinces while making non-periodic random samplings in the agricultural areas where may be host plants of the pest are present. At the end of study avocado ( Persea americana Mill.), grapefruit ( Citrus paradisi Macf.), lemon ( Citrus limon L.), mandarin ( Citrus reticulata L.), maize ( Zea mays L.), pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.), cotton ( Gossypium hirsitum L.), eggplant ( Solanum melongena L.), sweet orange ( Citrus sinensis L.), persimmon ( Diosppyros kaki L . ) and grape ( Vitis vinifera L.) were determined as host plants of C. gnidiella. This is the first report for avocado, maize, eggplant and persimmon in Turkey, as host plants of C. gnidiella . Additionally, mean damage ratio was 33.1 and 25.7% on pomegranate fruits by C. gnidiella in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Percent damage ratio changed between 6.4 and 41.2% during this study.


The most comprehensive collection of Neoplatonic writings available in English, this volume provides translations of the central texts of four major figures of the Neoplatonic tradition: Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus. The general Introduction gives an overview of the period and takes a brief but revealing look at the history of ancient philosophy from the viewpoint of the Neoplatonists. Historical background--essential for understanding these powerful, difficult, and sometimes obscure thinkers--is provided in extensive footnotes, which also include cross-references to other works relevant to particular passages.


Background: Prostatic enlargement (prostatomegaly) is a common condition in aging men which can be progressive and lead to acute urinary retention and ultimately need for surgery. Although clinical evidence of disease occurs less commonly, symptoms of prostatic obstruction are also age related and if untreated affect quality of life. Patients with huge prostatic enlargement mostly undergo surgical intervention. Objective: To assess the usefulness of homoeopathic medicines in patients with huge prostatomegaly, a clinical study was conducted at Gaurang Clinic and Centre for Homoeopathic Research, Lucknow, India. Materials and Methods: A total of 116 patients have been shortlisted with prostate weight above 50 g, out of which 61 were found fit for the study. The medicines have been selected on the basis of principles of Homoeopathy. Prostate weight and postvoid residual urine (PVRU) on ultrasonography were assessed before and after treatment. Results: After comparing pre- and post-treatment results, the difference in mean values of prostate weight and PVRU were 67.47 ± 2.78-60.15 ± 3.62 (P < 0.001) and 91.61 ± 11.91-65.94 ± 9.01 (P = 0.009), respectively, which were found statistically significant. Lycopodium (n = 21), Pulsatilla (n = 7), and Nux vomica (n = 3) were found to be most useful medicines. Conclusion: Results obtained from the study are encouraging with findings that almost 64% of patients reduced their prostatic weight significantly. However, such study with inclusion of more parameters is needed for further validation of the role of homoeopathic medicines.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the scope of occupational hazards encountered by veterinary personnel and compare hazard exposures between veterinarians and technicians working in small and large animal practices.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

POPULATION
Licensed veterinarians and veterinary staff in Minnesota.

PROCEDURES
A survey of Minnesota veterinary personnel was conducted between February 1 and December 1, 2012. Adult veterinary personnel working in clinical practice for > 12 months were eligible to participate. Information was collected on various workplace hazards as well as on workplace safety culture.

RESULTS
831 eligible people responded, representing approximately 10% of Minnesota veterinary personnel. A greater proportion of veterinarians (93%; 368/394) reported having received preexposure rabies vaccinations than did veterinary technicians (54%; 198/365). During their career, 226 (27%) respondents had acquired at least 1 zoonotic infection and 636 (77%) had been injured by a needle or other sharps. Recapping of needles was reported by 87% of respondents; the most common reason reported by veterinarians (41%; 142/345) and veterinary technicians (71%; 238/333) was being trained to do so at school or work. Recent feelings of depression were reported by 204 (25%) respondents. A greater proportion of technicians (42%; 155/365) than veterinarians (21%; 81/394) indicated working in an environment in which employees experienced some form of workplace abuse.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Veterinary personnel in Minnesota were exposed to several work-related hazards. Practice staff should assess workplace hazards, implement controls, and incorporate instruction on occupational health into employee training.


In the field of risk assessment, characterizing the nature and magnitude of human health or environmental risks is arguably the most important step in the analytical process. In this step, data on the dose-response relationship of an agent are integrated with estimates of the degree of exposure in a population to characterize the likelihood and severity of risk. Although the purpose of risk characterizations is to make sense of the available data and describe what they mean to a broad audience, this step is often given insufficient attention in health risk evaluations. Too often, characterizations fail to interpret or summarize risk information in a meaningful way, or they present single numerical estimates of risk without an adequate discussion of the uncertainties inherent in key exposure parameters or the dose-response assessment, model assumptions, or analytical limitations. Consequently, many users of risk information have misinterpreted the findings of a risk assessment or have false impressions about the degree of accuracy (or the confidence of the scientist) in reported risk estimates. In this article we collected and integrated the published literature on conducting and reporting risk characterizations to provide a broad, yet comprehensive, analysis of the risk characterization process as practiced in the United States and some other countries. Specifically, the following eight topics are addressed: (1) objective of risk characterization, (2) guidance documents on risk characterization, (3) key components of risk characterizations, (4) toxicity criteria for evaluating health risks, (5) descriptors used to characterize health risks, (6) methods for quantifying human health risks, (7) key uncertainties in risk characterizations, and (8) the risk decision-making process. A brief discussion is also provided on international aspects of risk characterization. A number of examples are presented that illustrate key concepts, and citations are provided for approximately 100 of the most relevant papers.


Background Changes in national wealth and income inequality are strong determinants for child and adolescent mortality in low and middle income countries (LMIC), but their influence may differ between young children and adolescents. Methods Multilevel longitudinal models were used to describe associations between changes in income inequality (Gini coefficient) and national wealth (gross domestic product, GDP) and mortality among adolescents (15–19) compared with young children (1–4) in LMIC between 1990 and 2012. Mortality data were accessed from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and causes were grouped by Global Burden Disease category, (communicable, non-communicable diseases (NCD), and injuries). Counterfactual models were used to describe mortality scenarios following significant changes in income inequality or national wealth. Results Data were available for 109 countries. Gini was positively associated with increased all-cause, communicable, NCD and injury mortality in both age groups between 1990 and 2012. Relative improvements in all-cause mortality between 1990 and 2012 may have been up to 27% greater for 15–19 year olds and 10% greater for 1–4 year olds had all Gini coefficients decreased by the amount seen in the top 10% of countries. After adjusting for income level in 1990, higher GDP was associated with increased male all-cause mortality among 15–19 year olds and decreased male and female mortality among 1–4 year olds. Higher GDP was associated with increased injury mortality and decreased communicable mortality in both age groups. Conclusion The impact of changes in national wealth on child and adolescent mortality in LMIC vary by age group and mortality cause, owing to changes in disease burden across age groups. Younger children benefit more from economic development than adolescents whose all-cause mortality actually increases as economies grow in low income settings. In contrast, increased income inequality was associated with worse outcomes in all age groups and mortality causes studied. Efforts to reduce income inequality may be particularly beneficial for adolescents in LMIC.


The propargyl electrophile has proven to be a versatile reactant when coupled with palladium catalysis. Its versatility is owed to the several reaction pathways that the palladium-propargyl intermediate can proceed by and the outcome can be predictably controlled by varying several factors. The tunable nature of the propargyl electrophile along with its versatility are detailed herein. The initial reports for each of the pathways are highlighted along with a discussion of more recent developments in the field.


This study examines the effects of the key factors influencing the intention of first-time house buyers to choose Islamic home financing products. First-time house buyers are selected since they are the major segment of Islamic banks' profit for the Islamic mortgage sector. Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study proposes a model to test the effects of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control on the intention of selecting Islamic home financing. This study also examines the effect of "perceived customer taqwa" on customer receptiveness to Islamic home financing. Based on 150 usable questionnaires, PLS results indicate that attitude and perceived behavioural control of the TPB are instrumental in determining the receptiveness of Islamic home financing products. Besides, the added factor, namely, perceived customer taqwa is influential in explaining the receptiveness- implying that God-fearing and God-conscious in oneself resulted in strong intention to opt for halal products. The findings demonstrate that the enhancement of measurement items for TPB factors as well as generation of new factor reflecting Islamic home financing are relevant in determining one's decision of Islamic home financing. Besides, the findings could offer support to Islamic bank managers to enhance their planning for Islamic home financing products and develop effective strategies accordingly that benefit their customers.


Several different mechanisms contribute to the pathogenesis of cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid haemorrhage. Whatever these mechanisms are, the vessel contraction is ultimately induced by an increase of free intracellular Ca2+ in the arterial wall. In this study, we investigated the effect on cerebral blood flow of a new dihydropyridine derivative Ca-channel blocker Niguldipine, in a rabbit experimental cerebral vasospasm model. The cerebral blood flow was significantly decreased in the saline treatment group when compared with control group. Niguldipine pretreatment caused a significant increase in cerebral blood flow. This effect should be investigated further.


Image retrieval under generalized test scenarios has gained significant momentum in literature, and the recently proposed protocol of Universal Cross-domain Retrieval is a pioneer in this direction. A common practice in any such generalized classification or retrieval algorithm is to exploit samples from many domains during training to learn a domain-invariant representation of data. Such criterion is often restrictive, and thus in this work, for the first time, we explore the generalized retrieval problem in a data-efficient manner. Specifically, we aim to generalize any pre-trained cross-domain retrieval network towards any unknown query domain/category, by means of adapting the model on the test data leveraging self-supervised learning techniques. Toward that goal, we explored different self-supervised loss functions~(for example, RotNet, JigSaw, Barlow Twins, etc.) and analyze their effectiveness for the same. Extensive experiments demonstrate the proposed approach is simple, easy to implement, and effective in handling data-efficient UCDR.


This study proposes a novel method for multi‐robot deployment and navigation under dynamic environments. To automatically determine the location deployment of multiple robots, a grid‐based method and self‐clustering algorithm (SCA) were used to simplify the environmental information and automatically deploy robot locations. In the navigation process, a behavior selector automatically turns on towards goal mode or wall‐following mode (WFM) depending on environmental conditions. WFM control adopts an interval type‐2 fuzzy controller (IT2FC). The parameters of the IT2FC are adjusted by using the dynamic group whale optimization algorithm (DGWOA). The proposed DGWOA uses a dynamic group and Lévy flight strategy to overcome the problem of falling into a local minimum solution. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method can successfully complete navigation tasks under dynamic environments.


We have synthesized two sets of 15-base-long oligodeoxyribonucleotides corresponding to all possible coding sequences for a small portion of human beta 2-microglobulin. Labeled oligonucleotides were used as hybridization probes to screen bacterial clones containing cDNA sequences primed with oligo(dT) and inserted into the plasmid vector pBR322. One beta 2-microglobulin cDNA clone was detected in the 535 bacterial plasmid clones that were screened. The clone has been characterized by blotting and nucleotide sequence analysis. The cloned beta 2-microglobulin sequence contains 217 base pairs of the 3' untranslated region of the mRNA and 328 base pairs (97%) of the coding region.


, ABSTRACT: The present experiment was carried out in the Poultry Farm, Department of Poultry and Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia University at Shibin El-Kom, Egypt. The local strain used was Sinai Bedouin fowl. The experiments lasted for four years, starting from October 2004. The aim of the experiment was to study the response of selection for high protein efficiency (g protein/g egg) of laying Sinai hens. Protein efficiency for egg production during the first 90 days of production was calculated according to : The average protein efficiencies were 0.770 ± 0.159, 1.001 ± 0.452 and 0.670±0.171 in the first, second and third generations, respectively. The actual genetic responses to selection for protein efficiency were obtained. The selection responses were -0.081, -0.132 and -0.528 (g) in the first, second and third generations, respectively. The calculated heritability for protein efficiency g protein per 1 g eggs was 0.12


Software product families (PF) are becoming one of the key challenges of software engineering. Despite recent interest in this area, the extent to which the close relationship between PF and requirements engineering is exploited to guide the V&V tasks is still limited. In particular, PF processes generally lack support for generating test cases from requirements. In this paper, we propose a requirements-based approach to functional testing of product lines, based on a formal test generation tool. Here, we outline how product-specific test cases can be automatically generated from PF functional requirements expressed in UML (Unified Modeling Language). We study the efficiency of the generated test cases on a case study.


This tutorial review discusses basic features of electronic multipoles and their ordering phenomena. Starting with classification of electric and magnetic higher multipoles under spherical symmetry, we proceed to two representative cases with strong spin-orbit interaction. First, staggered octupole orders in Ce1−xLaxB6 and SmRu4P12 are discussed using the crystalline electric field states. Secondly, a scalar component of even higher multipoles in Pr skutterudites is studied where ordering of fourth-rank tensor (hexadecapole) and sixth-rank one (hexacontatetrapole) has been observed. Possibility of a reentrant transition from the multipole ordered state is discussed. Briefly mentioned are multipole aspects of Pomeranchuk instability of itinerant electrons and collective motion of nucleus. It is argued that the multipoles provide a new framework to study the metal-insulator transition.


The urea, guanidine hydrochloride, salt, and temperature dependence of the rate of dissociation of CO from a nonequilibrium state of CO-bound native ferrocytochrome c has been studied at pH 7. The heme iron of ferrocytochrome c in the presence of denaturing concentrations of guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) and urea prepared in 0.1 M phosphate, pH 7, binds CO. When the unfolded protein solution is diluted 101-fold into CO-free folding buffer, the protein chain refolds completely, leaving the CO molecule bonded to the heme iron. Subsequently, slow thermal dissociation of the CO molecule yields to the heme coordination of the native M80 ligand. Thus, the reaction monitors the rate of thermal conversion of the CO-liganded native ferrocytochrome c to the M80-liganded native protein. The rate of this reaction, k(diss), shows a characteristic dependence on the presence of nondenaturing concentrations of the denaturants in the reaction medium. The rate decreases by approximately 1.9-3-fold as the concentration of GdnHCl in the refolding medium increases from nearly 0 to approximately 2.1 M. Similarly, the rate decreases by 1.8-fold as the urea concentration is raised from 0.l to approximately 5 M. At still higher concentrations of the denaturants the denaturing effect sets in, the protein is destabilized, and hence the CO dissociation rate increases sharply. The activation energy of the reaction, E(a), increases when the denaturant concentration in the reaction medium is raised: from 24.1 to 28.3 kcal mol(-1) for a 0.05-2.1 M rise in GdnHCl and from 25.2 to 26.9 kcal mol(-1) for a 0.1-26.9 M increase in urea. Corresponding to these increases in denaturant concentrations are also increases in the activation entropy, S(diss)/R, where R is the gas constant of the reaction. The denaturant dependence of these kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the CO dissociation reaction suggests that binding interactions with GdnHCl and urea can increase the structural and energetic stability of ferrocytochrome c up to the limit of the subdenaturing concentrations of the additives. NaCl and Na(2)SO(4), which stabilize proteins through their salting-in effect, also decrease the rate with a corresponding increase in activation entropy of CO dissociation from CO-bound native ferrocytochrome c, lending support to the view that low concentrations of GdnHCl and urea stabilize proteins. These results have direct relevance to the understanding and interpretation of the free energy-denaturant relationship and protein folding chevrons.


This study analyzes the effects of hospital caseload on medical charges and length of stay for inpatients. Hospital caseload, representing the level of concentration of patients, was measured with the Internal Herfindal Index for three diagnosis related group (DRG) codes (appendectomy, operations on anus, and operations on uterus and adnexa). Ordinary least squares regression was used for analysis. Results showed that medical charges per inpatient and average length of stay significantly differed with respect to hospital concentration indices, and that hospital caseload was inversely related to operational performance for appendectomy and operations on uterus and adnexa. The significant negative relationship between concentration index and length of stay may decrease the total medical charges. The results imply that the expansion of the DRG payment system to hospitals will have a negative influence on their gross sales.


Background: Our drug discovery program has led to the development of a series of diverse, unique small molecule drugs targeting the key oncogenic transcription factor STAT3 which drives diverse human cancers. WP1066 was selected as a lead drug because of its drug-like properties, therapeutic window and validated in vivo activity in a broad range of tumor models. During the process of WP1066 development as a clinical phase new agent, we developed and further characterized an orally bioavailable formulation of WP1066 using a spray dried oral formulation. Methods: The spray dried formulation of WP1066 (SDD1) was prepared using Hypermellose acetate succinate (HPMCAS) as an enteric coating film. HPMCAS is a mixture of acetic and monosuccinic acid esters of hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose. While insoluble in gastric fluids, the SDD1 formulation swells and leads to rapid dissolution in the higher pH found in upper small intestine, and subsequent release of the drug. For theses studies SDD1 was characterized for size, stability and purity. Single and multiple-dose toxicity studies were done in female CD-1 mice, using 5% dextrose as a vehicle. Single dose PK and organ distribution analysis was performed after oral gavage administration of 200 mg/kg after 12 hour fasting. Animals were sacrifice at different time-points (2 min to 24 hours). Plasma, brain and pancreas were isolated and the apparent concentration of WP1066 was determined using HPLC/MS/MS analysis. For multi-dose PK analysis, animals were fasted for six hours, dosed with SDD1 at 200 mg/kg. Animals were euthanized at different time intervals after the second dose (given six hours after first dose). Results: Mice dosed with SDD1 did not show any apparent toxicity when administered up to 200 mg/kg. For multiple doses, mice received 50, 100 or 200 mg/kg of WP1066 in SDD1 every day for 28 days. No apparent toxicity or significant weight lost was observed. In a similar way, animals dosed twice a day with 200 mg/kg of WP1066 (SDD1) for 15 doses did not show any symptoms of toxicity. Pilot PK analysis confirmed dose-dependent absorption of WP1066. Single-dose PK analysis revealed rapid GI absorption with a TMAX = 45 min and CMAX in plasma 1.5 μg/ml (which corresponds to ∼4 μM). The estimated half-life was approximately 3 hrs. Similar parameters were obtained from PK analysis performed in canines. SDD1 dosing led to significant accumulation of WP1066 in intact brain and pancreatic tissues in mice. These results support further preclinical development of SDD1 formulated WP1066 aimed the initiation of clinical studies in pancreatic, brain cancer and melanoma metastasis to brain patients. Acknowledgment: These studies were supported in part by the grants: Brain SPORE (2 P50 CA127001), Melanoma SPORE (2 P50 CA093459); Viragh Foundation, Houston Pharmaceuticals. Citation Format: Rafal Zielinski, Aleksandra Rusin, Timothy Madden, Charles Conrad, Mary Johansen, Izabela Fokt, Stanislaw Skora, Arumugam Jayakumar, Amy Heimberger, Waldemar Priebe. Development of orally bioavailable formulation of WP1066 and its evaluation in vivo. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4540. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4540


Consistency of a binary relation requires any preference cycle to involve indifference only. It has been shown that consistency is necessary and sufficient for the existence of an ordering extension of a binary relation. It is therefore of interest to examine the rationalizability of choice functions by means of consistent relations. We describe the logical relationships between the different notions of rationalizability obtained if reflexivity or completeness are added to consistency. All but one such notion are characterized for general domains, and all are characterized for domains that contain all two-element subsets of the universal set.


THE ANATOMICAL basis for Sturge-Weber-Dimitri syndrome is a hemangiomatous dysplasia in the cephalic region. Since port-wine nevi are frequently found also on the trunk and extremities, the syndrome may be considered as a partial or regional manifestation of generalized neurocutaneous hemangiomatosis. As such, it may be classified along with von Recklinghausen's disease, tuberous sclerosis, and neurocutaneous melanomatosis, for in all of these disorders the skin manifestations indicate the possible presence of changes in the nervous system, as well as in other systems. The clinical features of the syndrome are a vascular nevus of the face, associated with signs of cerebral dysfunction, such as epilepsy, mental deficiency, and hemiplegia, and roentgenographic evidence of sinuous shadows within the cranial cavity. The skin lesion is generally a nevus flammeus of the face or scalp, which often exhibits striking evidence of being confined to the areas of distribution of branches of the trigeminal nerve.


Identifying relevant genomic features that can act as prognostic markers for building predictive survival models is one of the central themes in medical research, affecting the future of personalized medicine and omics technologies. However, the high dimension of genome-wide omic data, the strong correlation among the features, and the low sample size significantly increase the complexity of cancer survival analysis, demanding the development of specific statistical methods and software. Here, we present a novel R package, COSMONET (COx Survival Methods based On NETworks), that provides a complete workflow from the pre-processing of omics data to the selection of gene signatures and prediction of survival outcomes. In particular, COSMONET implements (i) three different screening approaches to reduce the initial dimension of the data from a high-dimensional space p to a moderate scale d, (ii) a network-penalized Cox regression algorithm to identify the gene signature, (iii) several approaches to determine an optimal cut-off on the prognostic index (PI) to separate high- and low-risk patients, and (iv) a prediction step for patients' risk class based on the evaluation of PIs. Moreover, COSMONET provides functions for data pre-processing, visualization, survival prediction, and gene enrichment analysis. We illustrate COSMONET through a step-by-step R vignette using two cancer datasets.


Maerua pseudopetalosa (Gilg and Bened.) De Wolf tubers which are used traditionally as antitumor agent in Sudan were subjected to separation by column chromatography technique. Eight fractions were obtained for the ethyl acetate extract and twelve for the ethanolic extract. The ethanolic fractions F8, F9, F11 and F12, with high bioactivity were subjected to further investigations. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used for assessment of the cytotoxicity. Remarkable cytotoxicity against Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) was shown, for the first time. Actually, the results revealed that F12 is a very promising one with remarkable activity against MCF-7 cell lines (43.51 µg/g at 72 h), high antioxidant activity (91.3% by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and 97% by ABTS) and flavonoid and phenolic contents (11.75 and 20.72 mg/g). Six compounds were detected in F9 (syrngic 11.65 µg/g, sinapic 8 µg/g) and F12 (gallic 88.12 µg/g, caffic 11.1 µg/g, sinapic 38.67 µg/g) which were not recorded in any previous work in the available literature by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

 Key words: Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) breast cancer, Maerua pseudopetalosa, phenol and flavonoid contents, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, antioxidant activity.


When this journal was founded the telescope had only just been invented. Humankind knew of six planets including our own. The next three centuries added Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to the known list as well as the many moons, asteroids and comets that we know today. Discoveries such as that Earth was not the centre of the universe and that planets orbit the Sun were key steps in increasing the understanding of Man'place in space. But it is only in the latter part of the 20th century that we have been privileged to carry out in situ exploration of the planets, comets and the solar wind'realm and to begin to understand the special conditions on Earth that enabled life to start here. In this article, we briefly review our current knowledge of the Solar System that we inhabit. The Sun itself, the planets, comets and asteroids are all discussed in general terms, together with the important discoveries from space missions which have led to our current views. For each of the bodies and for the interplanetary medium we present the current understanding of the physical properties and interrelationships and present questions for further study. We describe the solar wind and the way that it interacts with the planets and comets that it encounters. The importance of the obstacle in the magnetized plasma flow is explored in particular detail. We identify the gaps in our knowledge in each case. What is in store for planetary exploration and discoveries in the next millennium? Already, a sequence of Mars exploration missions including sample return, a landing on a comet, further exploration of Saturn and the Jovian system and the first fly-by of Pluto are planned. We examine the major scientific questions to be answered and speculate on possible space exploration in the future.


Cloud based E-Learning is one of the booming technologies in Information Technology which brings powerful E-learning products with the help of cloud power. In recent years e-learning has grown into a widely accepted way of learning, and the usage of the global network is inevitable in every education process. Ubiquitous learning integrates wireless, mobile and context awareness technologies in order to detect the situation of the learners and provide more seamless adaptive support beyond formal learning process. In order to support modern pedagogical approaches, as well as a variety of heterogenic learning resources within courses, ubiquitous learning environments need to be based on a powerful IT infrastructure. At the same time, in order to be efficient, ubiquitous learning environments need to be based on learning management systems and integrated into an existing e-learning environment of educational institutions. Cloud technology has numerous advantages over the existing traditional E-Learning systems but at the same time, security is a major concern in cloud based e-learning. So security measures are unavoidable to prevent the breach of confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. Cloud based e-learning providers also need to satisfy the security needs of their customers and overcome various security threats which attack valuable data stored in cloud servers. So the survey investigated various security issues involved in cloud based e-learning technology with an aim to suggest solutions in the form of security measures and security management standards. These will help to overcome the security threats in cloud based e-learning technology.


Background Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial and one of the most common problems treated in an ophthalmic outpatient clinic. Due to the variability in presentation, diagnosis of DED consists of a combination of subjective and objective clinical tests. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a handheld smartphone-based infrared thermal (IRT) camera for screening symptomatic evaporative DED. Methods This observational sex-matched control study assessed IRT images of 184 right eyes (46 normal and 138 DED) of 184 participants. Evaporative DED was assessed using noninvasive tear breakup time, fluorescein staining, and the Chinese version of the ocular surface disease index (C-OSDI) questionnaire and categorized into their respective dry eye symptomology group (none, mild, moderate, or severe). The ocular surface temperature (OST) at 8 anatomical regions of interest (ROI) (nasal conjunctiva, nasal limbus, nasal cornea, central cornea, inferior cornea, temporal limbus, temporal cornea, and temporal conjunctiva) were measured and compared using a handheld smartphone-based IRT camera. The effectiveness of these 8 ROIs OST in detecting varying severity of DED was evaluated in terms of correlations with severity of DED and their area under the curve (AUC). Results OST at the 8 anatomical ROI was significantly higher in DED participants than in the non-DED group (p < 0.05) except for inferior cornea, temporal limbus, and temporal conjunctival regions (>0.05). Analyzing 8 anatomical ROIs revealed that the nasal limbus had the highest Pearson correlation with the severity of DED (0.64, p < 0.001). Additionally, the nasal limbus ROI achieved the highest AUC of 0.79 (CI: 0.73–0.85; p < 0.05), sensitivity, and specificity (0.96 and 0.91) when comparing its ability to discriminated DED vs. non-DED eyes. Conclusions Rather than a diagnostic tool, handheld smartphone-based IRT images can be considered as a rapid, noninvasive, and hygienic screening tool in discriminating DED and non-DED and potentially alleviating inconvenience experienced during conventional tests.


Fe-doped NiO nanostructures were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The co-precipitation method used a solution of 0.5 M, NiCl2.6H2O as a precursor and doped FeSO4.7H2O having compositions of 0 to 10% at a temperature of 60 OC with magnetic stirrer time of 0.5 h together with dropping a NaOH of 0.5 M. The precipitate product was dried at the temperature of 120 OC for 9 h and sintered at the temperature of 400 OC for 4 h in air. Finally, the powder product was analyzed the optical property and energy band gap by ultraviolet visible spectroscopy. It was found that wavelength, absorption and energy band gap were decreased with increasing the doping Fe. The wavelength and absorption were shown in the range of 325-298 nm and 3.74-1.55 a.u., respectively. The energy band gap of 100% for NiO was shown at 3.43 eV. However, the energy band gap was shown to be at a maximum at 3.50 eV of 2% doping and 3.26 eV for the doping of 8 % as the minimum.


Background: The outer root sheath of the anagen and telogen hair is structurally similar to the epidermal layer of the skin. Hence Direct Immunofluorescence(DIF) demonstrating Antibodies to Desmoglein 1 and 3 in Pemphigus group of autoimmune bullous diseases would show a similar pattern in skin & hair. Aim: To compare DIF of skin and telogen hair in pemphigus group of patients in clinically active cases and those in remission. Method: 30 consecutive diagnosed cases of Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) (both active cases and remission) were selected for the prospective study. Other blistering diseases –Dermatitis herpitiformis, Chronic Bullous Dermatosis of childhood and vasulitis were excluded. Skin biopsy and telogen hair obtained by combing were subjected to Direct Immunoflurescence. (Fluorescein Isothyocyanate) FITC –conjugated rabbit antihuman IgG was used. The samples were viewed under fluorescence microscope using a blue filter (490 nm). Green fluorescence was observed. The pattern of staining & intensity of staining were compared. Results: 30 cases of Pemphigus included 22 cases of Pemphigus vulgaris(PV), 5 cases of Pemphigus Foliaceous(PF) and 3 of pemphigus erythematosus(PE). Pemphigus Vulgaris and Pemphigus Foliaceous patients with active disease showed strong ICS(Intercellular substance) deposits in both skin and hair. 37.5% and 50% of Pemphigus Vugaris and Pemphigus Foliaceous in remission showed weak deposits in hair only. All cases of Pemphigus Eryhtematosus showed only ICS pattern with no (BMZ) Basement membrane zone deposits. Conclusion: Direct Immunoflurescence of skin and hair are comparable in pattern and intensity. Telogen hair is a useful tool in remission period as it is easily accessible and picks up potential cases likely to develop relapse and therefore requiring close follow up.


This paper proposes an empirical test for Minskyan financial cycles in asset prices, driven by the interaction of fundamentalist and momentum traders. Both price strategies are unobserved and can be modelled in a state space model. We use the Kalman filter to identify the two pricing strategies and evaluate whether the conditions for the existence of cycles hold. The model is estimated for four major OECD countries, the UK, France, Germany and the USA, for equity and housing prices for the period 1970-2017 using annual data. We find evidence of cycles in the equity market for all four countries and for housing prices, in the UK, France and the USA but not in Germany. Our results provide empirical support for the existence of endogenous financial cycles on asset markets.


A 3-day diary with portion sizes weighed by the subject and a 24-h recall were obtained on 50 sets of subjects: Seventh-day Adventist lacto-ovo-vegetarians and nonvegetarians, and general population nonvegetarians, matched on age (+/- 5 yr), sex, marital status, education, type of milk preferred, and an index of the frequency of dairy and egg product use. An additional 18 unmatched persons who follow a pure vegetarian dietary pattern (use no meat, fish, fowl, dairy, or egg products) were recruited into the study. The rational for the dietary methods used is presented and details of each of the methods used are given. The results of the nutrient analysis of the 24-h recall and 3-day diary are presented. The 3-day nutrient intake means for the four groups are compared to the sex-specific recommended daily allowance both with and without supplements. The contribution of nutritional supplements to the nutrient intake is discussed. All groups show adequate or excess intake levels of calories, protein, and fat when either the 24-h recall or the 3-day diary values are considered. The higher intake of calories noted among nonvegetarians can be explained by a higher intake of both fat and protein in these groups. A, B, and C vitamin levels (3-day dairy estimates) are adequate both with and without supplements. Calcium intake is much below recommended levels for pure vegetarian females. Iron intake is low for all females. A heme iron source does not improve the intake levels for nonvegetarian females. A comparison of these results with prior reports of nutrient intake among Seventh-day Adventists is presented.