Literature Review(From Proposal) Men are generally at greater risk for cardiovascular diseases (Reckelhoff, 2001). The death of people has been increasing rapidly with an increase in death, there are more deaths caused by Non-Communicable Diseases (WHO, 2010). Mostly diseases related to Heart E.g.: Cardiovascular and diabetes diseases (WHO, 2010).            The scholar jambukia, has tried to identify the issue of arrythmia in which rhythm of heart rate decrease (Jambukia, et al., 2015). Detecting an arrhythmia is a important aspect for resolving it quickly so that diseases can be cured properly (Jambukia, et al., 2015). The scholar uses the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) (Jambukia, et al., 2015). ECG can be used to detect the issue of chest pain & to detect the abnormal heart rhythm or cardiac abnormalities (Jambukia, et al., 2015). Patient might suffer from heart related problem because of the family history. The heart rhythms can help to know about the problem that might occur like heart attack, and enlargement of heart (Jambukia, et al., 2015). There is high Mortality rate of people because of heart related problem (Jambukia, et al., 2015). The preliminary detection and cure of heart required for those peoples (Jambukia, et al., 2015).The scholar Bulbul extract the dataset of about 48 patients and their feature. There were sixteen types of diseases were in a trained classis (Bulbul, et al., 2017). The Scholar used a MATLAB for analysis of this diseases (Bulbul, et al., 2017). The two classifier Support Vector Machine and Multilayer Sensor classifiers were used because of good results (Bulbul, et al., 2017).            The Scholar Goovaerts has made an model for making chunk of QRS complex (Goovaerts, et al., 2014). QRS complex features is splinted using variational mode decomposition and phase rectified signal averaging method (Goovaerts, et al., 2014). The scholar makes model of 616 patients using 12 leads (Goovaerts, et al., 2014). By using Support vector method, the scholar achieved the 95.0% accuracy (Goovaerts, et al., 2014).1.1           Classification FeaturesElectrocardiography (ECG) is used as a tool to measure the rhythms of heartbeat and to visualize the status of heart (Christov, et al., 2005). There are 10 types of electrode for ECG. Six electrodes for Body, 2 electrodes for hands and 2 electrodes for legs. Mostly, Recording of ECG is done to know the status of heart in future days and to analysis the status of Heart state (Christov, et al., 2005).ECG plays an important role in an emergency cases, when an operation of takes place the ECG plays an important role to detect an issue in blood circulation and contraction. When there is little change in ECG graph then operation is considered as thoughtful. Classifying the normality and abnormality in real time scenario is important to track the ECG data (Christov, et al., 2005). The Scholar follows the KNN Classification approach to classify the data (Christov, et al., 2005).According to the Alarsan's journal (Alarsan & Younes, 2019), this journal proposed an classification of ECG using Machine Learning for extracting its several features (Alarsan & Younes, 2019). The ECG measures the electric activity which occurs in heart. In this journal MATLAB's Libraries and Apache Framework has been used (Alarsan & Younes, 2019). ECG classification were used to properly manage the irregularities in the ECG Signal and to properly identify the types of diseases in the patients' health status. The scholar follows the different classification methods like Decision Tree, Random Forests and Gradient-Boosted Trees. The scholar has taken the dataset of 205,143 records to evaluate the model. By using Gradient-Boosted Trees classification algorithm there was an accuracy of 96.75% and by using Random Forests classification algorithm there was 97.98% accuracy for binary classification. But for multiple classification there was an accuracy of 98.03% from Random Forest.According to the scholar Marisa (Faraggi & Sayadi, 2019), For extracting features from time series data, the scholar used an Fourier and Wavelet techniques to extract features.1.2           Remote ECGAccording to the journal published by Meenu Singh, Tele-ECG has greater possibilities for rural area in which there are less ratio of trained Medical staffs (Singh, et al., 2014). Tele-ECG can be use for those patients who has been discharged from hospital and has been called for follow up then those tools can be for those patients. That help to provide the status of patients to the medical staffs from co-location (Singh, et al., 2014). Tele-ECG were tested in India's Chandigarh, where 70% of patients where from Normal Heart patients and there were an patient having problems on left ventricular hypertrophy were 9.3% (Singh, et al., 2014). This problem was considered as normal disease for many people. Secondly, people suffering from old myocardial infarction were 5.3%. The patient who was diagnosed from that tools they were high number of people who were satisfied by the diagnosis & its result (Singh, et al., 2014). Tele-ECG is good in many prospective, It can transported easily, it's less costly, and good tools for diagnosis and visualizing of heart diseases. These tools will be good for rural areas (Singh, et al., 2014).According to a journal published in 2017, Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the cause of cardiac death worldwide (Acharya, 2016). ECG has been portable for recording devices at home or outdoors and sends them to smartphones or desktops (Irfan , 2020). IOT has a wide range of scope as a self-configuring, adaptive, Complex network that interconnects 'things' to the internet using standard communication protocols (Irfan , 2020).1.3           SummaryIn the meantime, we are facing difficulties from many factors. According to the scholar there has been more occurrence of death because of cardiovascular disease. We must cure those diseases timely. We must use proper techniques for filtering features in ECG data. There must a proper provision of ECG technology so that people from remote location can be benefited.


To clarify the role of disintegrin-like and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type I motifs-1 (ADAMTS-1) in ovarian function, we examined abnormalities in ovulatory processes, folliculogenesis and the vascular system of ADAMTS-1 null ovaries. First, when immature female mice were treated with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG)/human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the number of ovulated oocytes was markedly decreased in ADAMTS-1 null mice in comparison to ADAMTS-1 (+/-) controls. The proportion of anovulated follicles to total mature follicles was significantly higher in ADAMTS-1 null females when compared with controls. The numbers of growing follicles at each stage were counted. The number of follicles at type 5b (late preantral) and later stages was markedly reduced in ADAMTS-1 null mice, irrespective of gonadotropin treatment (no gonadotropins, PMSG alone or PMSG/hCG). These data demonstrate that impairment of ovarian function to ovulate oocytes in ADAMTS-1 null mice occurs at two different levels: in the development of growing follicles and ovulatory processes. Furthermore, ADAMTS-1 null ovaries included a number of unusual atretic follicles that showed no sign of oocyte degeneration but lost the surrounding granulosa cell layers and were considered to be derived from type 4 or 5a follicles. These results suggest that ADAMTS-1 is important for follicular development beyond the type 4 and/or 5a and for maintaining normal granulosa cell layers in follicles. Finally, the number of large blood vessels in the medullar zone was significantly decreased in ADAMTS-1 null mice ovaries, suggesting that ADAMTS-1 is also involved in the organization of the medullary vascular network.


The calcaneus bone mineral density values (BMDs) of healthy Japanese women peaked at 20 to 25 years of age with 435 +/- 66 mg/cm2 (mean +/- S.D.), decreased 0.51% on the average every year thereafter until 45 years of age, 1.72% between 45 and 55 years (menopause) and 0.55% thereafter. The vertebrae bone mineral density value peaked at 30 to 35 years of age with 1.06 +/- 0.13 g/cm2 (mean +/- S.D.), decreased 0.67% on the average every year thereafter until 45 years of age, 1.23% between 45 and 55 years (menopause) and 0.70% thereafter. Mean -2.0 S.D. of the peak bone mass was considered appropriate as the fracture threshold for both the calcaneus and vertebra, judging from the BMDs of osteoporosis patients.


Heterochromatin is essential for epigenetic gene silencing and nuclear chromatin architecture. Early mouse development is accompanied by dynamic epigenetic changes and heterochromatin restructuring in the cell nuclei of cleavage stage embryos. We have previously shown that disruption of heterochromatin markers such as DNA methylation following somatic nuclear transfer causes developmental failure (Beaujean N et al. 2004 Biol. Reprod. 71, 185–193). The aim of the present study was to investigate the transitions and maturation of heterochromatin during normal development to improve nuclear reprogramming technology and understand developmental abnormalities caused by epigenetic alterations in somatic nuclear transfer and assisted reproductive procedures. Mouse pre- and post-implantation embryos and ES cells from B6CBAF1 mice were used in experiments employing the following methodologies. Embryos and ES cells were stained by immunofluorescence to detect heterochromatin proteins and epigenetic markers. Images were captured using laser confocal microscopy. Relative quantification of fluorescent intensity was performed using Zeiss LSM-meta and WCIF-ImageJ software. mRNA of Histone methyltransferase (HMTase), suv39h, suv420h, ehmt, eset, and demethyltransferase (DHMTase), jmjd1a, jmjd2a, jmjd2c were quantified by real-time PCR. siRNA and specific inhibitors were used to study the function of suv39h, ehmt2, jmjd2c genes that may be responsible for heterochromatin reprogramming. Our results demonstrated that H3K9me3, H3K9me2, H4K20me2, H4K20me3, HP1α and HP1β are reprogrammed during early development. The gene expression results showed the dynamic and temporal gene expression of HMTases and DHMTase during development. Inhibition of Ehmt2 and jmjd2c caused preimplantation developmental arrest. Furthermore, we found chromatin modification differences in the heterochromatin of ES cells, ICM and epiblast. We conclude that heterochromatin reprogramming might be essential for development because it may contribute to chromatin architecture, thus influencing gene expression. HMTases and DHTMases could be implicated in the mechanism of heterochromatin reprogramming. It is possible that Ehmt2 and jmjd2c play an important role in preimplantation development by modifying chromatin globally and at the local gene level. This work was supported by a The Royal Thai Studentship. We acknowledge the contributions of technical assistance from T. O'Connor, B. Wongtawan and P. Travers.


The problem of multimodal intent and trajectory prediction for human-driven vehicles in parking lots is addressed in this paper. Using models designed with CNN and Transformer networks, we extract temporal-spatial and contextual information from trajectory history and local bird's eye view (BEV) semantic images, and generate predictions about intent distribution and future trajectory sequences. Our methods outperform existing models in accuracy, while allowing an arbitrary number of modes, encoding complex multi-agent scenarios, and adapting to different parking maps. To train and evaluate our method, we present the first public 4K video dataset of human driving in parking lots with accurate annotation, high frame rate, and rich traffic scenarios.


The microsporidia Nosema bombycis is the insect pathogen of pebrine disease severely destructive to sericulture production. Here, we describe the use of Escherichia coli HT115 strain (DE3) to express double‐strand RNAs targeting the gene encoding ADP/ATP protein in N. bombycis. The results showed that dsRNAs deferentially suppressed the gene expression during N. bombycis infection in the silkworm, and the effect waned gradually. Our results, for the first time, provide a tool to utilize the dsRNA expressed by recombinant E. coli to control the pebrine disease of the domestic silkworm.


According to the analysis of the results of complex studies of mineral raw materials and man-handle products containing ultra-dispersed gold, silver, and platinum before and after laser treatment, a qualitative physical model which explains the origin of thermal processes occurring under the action of laser radiation is proposed. It is noted that laser treatment of those materials generates processes of defragmentation, thermocapillary extraction, and agglomeration of micro-and nanoinclusions of these metals.


Polymerization of monomer reactants (PMR)-type polyimide was synthesized and the homogeneous matrix resin solution (30–40% solid) was used to prepare film blocks for tribological tests. Compared with a thermoplastic polyimide with similar molecular formula and similar behavior of weight loss under heating, the high glass transition (Tg) and char yield of the PMR polyimide can be attributed to the self-reaction of phenylethynyl groups to result in a cross-linked structure. Tribological studies on both PMR type thermosetting polyimide and thermoplastic one showed that the friction coefficient and wear rate of the former polyimide were lower than that of the latter one under both similar and even more critical conditions. Scanning electron microscope examinations of worn surfaces and wear debris show that the wear type of the thermoplastic polyimide was adhesive wear and that of the thermosetting one was fatigue wear. In terms of all good tribological properties, this PMR-type thermosetting polyimide, due to its high PV limit, could be a potential candidate for tribo-material in dry sliding against steel under high speed and large load.


Gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar (L.) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae)) larvae were reared from hatch on 1.25"o N or 3.5'~o N artificial diet (previous diet) and switched reciprocally to the other diet (current diet) after molting into the second, third, fourth, or fifth instar. The nitrogen concentration of food consumed during previous instars had a strong residual effect on the growth rate in subsequent instars when a diet switch was made during instars two through four, but did not affect growth rate of fifthinstar larvae despite effects on food consumption and utilization. In early instars, larvae reared on 1.25 ~ o N artificial diet and then switched to 3.75 ~ N diet had lower mass-adjusted growth rates than larvae continuously reared on 3.75 ~ o N diet. Conversely, larvae reared on 3.75 ~ o N diet and switched to 1.25 ~ o N had higher mass-adjusted growth rates than larvae reared continuously on 1.25~ N diet. Relative to larvae previously reared on 1.25 ~ o N diet, fifth-instar male larvae previously reared on 3.75 ~ o N diet had slightly lower consumption rates, higher net growth efficiency (ECD), and higher gross growth efficiency (ECI). Larvae previously reared on 3.75~ N diet tended to have lower food assimilation efficiency (AD) and lower nitrogen assimilation efficiency (AD(N)). Although both previous and current diet nitrogen concentration strongly affected larval growth and food utilization, the interaction term between these was not significant for any response variables except ECD and ECI. Because the interaction term reflects the effect of switching per se, the results indicate that there was a metabolic cost associated with switching, but no inherent net cost or benefit of diet-switching to growth.


Ethiopia's water supply and sanitation coverage is one of the lowest in Africa. Such a situation made people in the country to spend much more time collecting drinking water. In addition to this people have been becoming unhealthy due to the spread of water related diseases. The lack of water supply and sanitation is considered as one factor for the deep and wide spread of poverty in the country. This study investigated the impacts of water supply and sanitation on the poverty incidence through improving the health status of people and increasing crop production. The secondary data, mainly from CSA, MOWR and MOFED used to analyse water supply and sanitation situation in the country and even to estimate the impact of water supply and sanitation in poverty incidence. The study used panel data which were collected from different locations over selected years. The log-log model was specified to get the elasticity of poverty incidence due to the change in the water supply and sanitation. The Fixed Effect Instrumental Variable (FE-IV) estimator was used to estimate the equation. Under the new water supply and sanitation program (2006-2012) a total of 58 million people would get water supply at the end of the 2012. In addition to this a total of 75.5 million people would get basic sanitation service during the same period. In the rural areas a total of 149,023 new water supply and 15,893,313 sanitation infrastructure would be constructed during the plan period. Similarly in the urban areas a total of 1,335 new constructions would be undertaken in the same period. The efforts to reach the universal access program would reduce the incidence of poverty by 23 million by improving the health status of 7 million people and increasing the total crop production by 26 million quintals. But Absence of consistent development plan, lack of appropriate technology, poor cost recovery and lack of fund, poor coordination and experience sharing practices, lack of private sector and absence of micro-enterprise would be the major challenges to realize UAP target in Ethiopia.


Introduction: Actinomycosis of gall bladder is highly infrequent and there are few cases found published in literature. The present case is rare and unique one of such few cases which was diagnosed incidentally in a clinically suspected case of carcinoma of bladder. Presentation of the case: The case being discussed here occurred a male, 68 years, who presented with abdominal discomfort. On examination, he was found to be having cholelithiasis on ultrasonography. An open cholecystectomy was carried out. Histopathology laboratory received the specimen of gall bladder which was grayish brown in colour with diffuse thickening of the gall bladder wall, which contained multiple brownish biliary calculi. Histological examination of the gall bladder revealed diffuse loss of mucosal epithelium with the gall bladder wall showing focal area of haemorrhage and encrusted biliary material. At places, colonies of radiating filamentous structure reminiscent of colonies of Actinomyces spp were noted. The sections were further stained with relevant stains for filamentous bacteria such as Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) stain which confirmed the colonies of Actinomyces spp. Conclusion: The case being presented here is rare and unique case of Actinomycosis of gall bladder in that only 50 confirmed cases are found to be published in literature till date. The case in context is very interesting and unique as it is the only second documented case in India apart from another case published in 1997.


Wearable technology components have been integrated into accessories and then clothes over the evolutionary process. In the future, it is predicted that wearable technologies will be patchable and implantable. Despite progress in wearable technologies, there is an adaptation problem in wearable technologies. One of the most important reasons for this problem is the negative product experiences of the users. In this study, we investigated the user experiences of accessory-based and textile-based wearable technologies. Due to the temporality of the user experience, a mixed method was developed, including a survey for the expectations before use, a diary-interview for during use, and a semi-structured interview for after use. The data obtained with these methods were analyzed with SPSS and NVivo programs and the two different wearing-style experiences were compared. As a result of these analyses, it has been revealed that textile-based wearable technologies give a more positive experience during and after use and may be preferred over accessory-based wearable technologies in terms of wearability.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the changes in corneal tissue after explosive corneal injury and the effect of seawater soaking on the healing of cornea after explosive injury with the help of optical microscope.

METHODS
Make 10 similar explosive injury models of rabbit's eyeball using 10 adult grey rabbits. For each rabbit, both eyes are artificially injured through explosion; its right eye is the comparison eye and after the injury the left eye is soaked in seawater for 30 minutes. (Conduct slit lamp examinations, fluorescein dyeing, and ultrasonic cornea thickness metering on the corneas at intervals, that is, before the injury, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15 days after the injury respectively. Examine the corneas under the optical microscope and make comparisons.

RESULTS
The corneal thickness of the experiment eye becomes apparently thicker than that of the comparison eye after the injury. The corneal clouding of the former apparently aggravates compared with the latter. The healing of corneal epithelium in the injured eye is slower compared with that in the comparison eye. Comparative examination under the optical microscope shows: after the injury, the corneal tissue of the experiment eye changes distinctly, its healing is delayed and the vascularization degree becomes high in corneal stroma.

CONCLUSION
Scars and vascularization of various degrees will appear in corneal stroma after explosive injuries. Seawater soaking will have bad effects on the healing of the cornea injured in explosions.


Few studies both focus on the prognosis for patients with early recurrence and five years overall survival (OS) for patients with BCLC 0-C. Here, we established nomograms for predicting 5-year overall survival and early recurrence after curative resection of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on clinicopathological-radiological model and investigated whether different treatment methods have influenced on OS for patients with early recurrence. The results demonstrate that the nomogram, based on clinical, pathological and radiological factors, had good accuracy in estimating OS and recurrence respectively. Further, reoperation maybe the best option for patients with recurrence in good condition.


Background: This anatomical study was undertaken to define the soft-tissue spaces, retaining ligaments, and their relations in the midcheek. Methods: Sixty fresh hemifaces were dissected. The retaining ligaments and facial spaces were defined and their dimensions recorded. The course of the key vessels and branches of the facial and infraorbital nerves were defined and their anatomical relations noted. Results: The preseptal and prezygomatic spaces underlie the lid-cheek and malar segments of the midcheek. A previously undocumented soft-tissue space, the premaxillary space, was found to underlie the nasolabial segment. The retaining ligaments of the midcheek are the tear trough–orbicularis retaining ligament complex in the upper midcheek and the zygomatic and maxillary ligaments in the lower midcheek. The tear trough–orbicularis retaining ligament complex separates the preseptal space above from the prezygomatic and premaxillary spaces below. Facial nerve branches in the midcheek are closely associated with the zygomatic ligaments located outside the lower boundary of the prezygomatic space and are protected so long as the dissection is kept within this space. The infraorbital nerve is protected by the floor of the premaxillary space, formed by the levator labii superioris and, at the inferior boundary of the space, by the close relation with the maxillary ligaments. Conclusions: This study completely defined the spaces and retaining ligaments of the midcheek. Knowledge of this anatomy is key to safe and atraumatic suborbicular dissection for effective midcheek lifts.


Introduction: Elderly people with dementia present complex needs and
the challenges in their care may make the caring staff in long term caring
settings vulnerable to the development of burnout because of the emotional and
physical drainage they undergo. Purpose:
of this study was to examine the factors that contribute towards the development
of burnout of professional caregivers of elderly


The recent Deregulation of the downstream oil sector in Nigeria has seen a 66.7% increase in petrol cost, this has consequently led to an increase in the overall cost of operating vehicles especially those for commercial purposes. Vehicles tyre pressures have been identified as a key factor in reducing fuel consumption thereby leading to improved operating cost, thus this work aims at studying how the tyre inflation pressure affects the fuel consumption of vehicles and to proffer optimum inflation pressures that will improve the fuel efficiency of the said vehicles. A sample survey of vehicles at a University campus in Nigeria was carried out to ascertain the level of tyre pressures deviation from the recommended values. The survey was then extended to a major commercial transport operator. Based on the results obtained from the survey a three-dimensional Static simulation was carried out using the SolidWorks software to determine the optimal inflation pressure, after which a mathematical model was developed using statistical method (Linear Regression method) with MATLAB to relate the inflation pressure and the fuel consumption. From the survey conducted in the University, only 2 out of the 100 vehicles studied, representing two (2%) conformed to the manufacturer's recommended pressure. The remaining ninety-eight (98) vehicles, representing ninety-eight (98%), deviated from the recommended value. A mathematical model with the modeling equation (F(p) = 0.02073p 2 – 2.849p + 112) with a RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) of 0.1166 was obtained, this model is used to predict the amount of fuel consumed and relates the value to the tyre inflation pressure. Validation of the model was obtained using the cross-validation technique and by comparism with other published literature. Results from the static simulation and design studies shows that the recommended tyre pressure is optimal pressure which improves fuel efficiency. Keywords: Tyre inflation pressure, static simulation, fuel consumption, road surface, solid works


This article traces the development of the methods of representing the degree of income inequality that were developed in the early twentieth century by Max Otto Lorenz and Corrado Gini. It suggests that Gini's efforts to perfect the Lorenz curve may well have facilitated his discovery of what came to be known as the Gini coefficient and argues that this coefficient is an important example of a multiple (or chain multiple) discovery.


North Carolina is entering a period of transformative change in health care, as health system consolidation, health care reform, and payment reform combine to dramatically reshape health care. In this turbulent time, maintaining focus on quality of care will be critical. North Carolina has been a national leader in efforts to improve quality of care, starting from classic research in the 1950s on the measurement of quality and culminating in major statewide efforts to improve care through the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program, Community Care of North Carolina, the North Carolina Hospital Association, Medicaid, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, academic centers, and many other partners. The purpose of this issue of the NCMJ is to highlight initiatives to improve quality across the continuum of care and across the state. This overview puts these initiatives in context and addresses 3 fundamental questions: Can quality of care be measured and improved? What does the landscape of quality in North Carolina look like now? What should North Carolina's priorities be for improving quality of care moving forward?


whether shaded systems are a feasible strategy to improve the coffee crop sustainability in anticipation of challenging climate conditions. Further research is proposed for developing new coffee varieties adapted to agroforestry systems (exhibiting traits suitable for climate stressors), refining extension tools by selecting locally-adapted shade trees species and developing policy and economic incentives enabling the adoption of sustainable agroforestry practices.


The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effects of castration and slaughtering age on subjective and instrumental characteristics of meat from Corriedale lambs raised on native pasture. Sixty male lambs (30 castrated and 30 intact) slaughtered at 120, 210 and 360 days of age were used in this experiment. The Longissimus dorsi muscle was used for all meat evaluations and analysis. No significant castration × slaughtering age interaction was observed for the studied variables. A significant slaughtering age effect was found for meat fat thickness and marbling, which had lower scores in animals slaughtered at more advanced age as well as for all instrumental characteristics of the meat, mainly tenderness that was reduced in older lambs. However, a significant castration effect was observed only for meat color (brightness according to the CIELAB system). It can be concluded that meat quality from Corriedale lambs grazing native pasture was not affected by castration. Slaughtering age affected meat quality with lambs slaughtered at 120 days of age showing the best results.


ABSTRACT
 This study investigated the impact of transgenic wheat expressing Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA), commonly known as snowdrop lectin, on three wheat aphids: Sitobion avenae (F.), Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), and Rhopalosiphum padi (L.). We compared the feeding behavior and the life-table parameters of aphids reared on GNA transgenic wheat (test group) and those aphids reared on untransformed wheat (control group). The results showed that the feeding behaviors of S. avenae and S. graminum on GNA transgenic wheat were affected. Compared with the control group, they had shorter initial probing period, longer total nonprobing period, shorter initial and total phloem sap ingestion phase (waveform E2), shorter duration of sustained ingestion (E (pd) > 10 min), and lower percentage of phloem phase of the total observation time. Moreover, S. graminum made more probes and had a longer total duration of extracellular stylet pathway (waveform C). The fecundity and intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) of S. avenae and S. graminum on the transgenic wheat were lowered in the first and second generations, however, the survival and lifespan were not affected. The effects of the GNA expressing wheat on S. graminum and S. avenae were not significant in the third generation, suggesting rapid adaptation by the two aphid species. Despite the impact we found on S. avenae and S. graminum, transgenic GNA expressing wheat did not have any effects on R. padi.


We study the dynamics of a repulsively coupled array of phase oscillators. For an array of globally coupled identical oscillators, repulsive coupling results in a family of synchronized regimes characterized by zero mean field. If the number of oscillators is sufficiently large, phase locking among oscillators is destroyed, independently of the coupling strength, when the oscillators' natural frequencies are not the same. In locally coupled networks, however, phase locking occurs even for nonidentical oscillators when the coupling strength is sufficiently strong.


A double-blind study was made to evaluate the two-step exercise electrocardiographic test (Master) as a means of differentiating between anginal and nonanginal chest pain in 100 consecutive patients. A high percentage of false-positive results in nonanginal cases and a number of false negatives in anginal cases greatly impaired the usefulness of the test for this purpose. When Master's criterion of an ST depression of 0.5 mm. or more was employed, there were 39 per cent false positives and 12 per cent false negatives. Stricter criteria progressively diminished the number of false positives, but resulted in increasing numbers of false negatives. Even if 1 mm. or more of ST depression was required, there were 8 per cent false positives and 43 per cent false negatives. There were no false positives only when the ST segment was depressed 2 mm. or more. Although an ischemic type of ST depression may be more significant for angina pectoris than the J type, in our series ischemic ST depressions also occurred more frequently than the J type in false-positive tests in nonanginal patients. The new criteria of Master and Rosenfeld were not more satisfactory than the previous criteria recommended. There are relatively few cases in which an objective two-step test is necessary to aid in the differentiation of anginal and nonanginal pain, since an unequivocal diagnosis of angina pectoris or nonanginal pain was made in 86 per cent of cases independently by at least two observers, on the basis of a single interview, and since this percentage could undoubtedly have been increased by further interviews concerning the effect of effort and of nitroglycerin. Insofar as confirmation of a clinical diagnosis of angina pectoris by an objective exercise test is desirable, an ST-segment depression of at least 1 mm. usually offers such confirmation. However, this degree of ST-segment depression is often absent in unequivocal cases of angina pectoris and conversely may be occasionally present in patients with nonanginal pain.


Abstract The study was conducted in the forests of the State Enterprise "Gorodotske Forest Economy", located in the Manevytsko-Volodymyretsky region of the Volyn Polissya in Ukraine. The annosum root rot (Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref.) impact on timber merchantability was investigated. The comparison of the cost estimation of stands assortment structure was carried out on the basis of the market value at current selling prices of the State Enterprise "Gorodotske Forest Economy" of the Volyn Regional Department of Forestry and Hunting as of 2017, taking into account the quality and the average length of the assortments. We present a comparative analysis of productivity, merchantability and assortment structure and financial value of timber volume by various assortments of pine and birch stands of the Volyn Polissya region affected by annosum root rot. We found that in the pine plantations, the overall productivity and the value of merchantable wood was higher by 42% in the control sites (areas between the fungal disease centers) as compared with those in the root rot disease centers. In the middle-aged birch-pine stands, the value of merchantable wood was higher than that in pine plantations of 34 the comparable age: by 9% in the disease centers and by 8% in control sites.


This article deals with the origins of the term Orphism. The term was defined in 1912 by G. Apollinaire to characterize the works of F. Kupka, R. Delaunay, F. Picabia, M. Duchamp and F. Leger. Today's fine arts scholarly thought treats Orphism as art of pure painting, a search for luminiferous colours. Art historians associate the origins of the term with the legend about Orpheus — initiator of the cult of Apollo as it follows from ancient sources. This research aims to elicit the significance of the myth of Orpheus-the-musician for the emergence of the term Orphism by tracing the appeal of the named painters to musical-painting analogue. Art of Kupka, Delaunay and Picabia and their contemporaries' numerous assertions on the problem are the central point of this research.


Introduction The debate on reforming corporate boards of directors has centered on monitoring management to ensure that corporate board members act in the interests of shareholders rather than in their own personal interests.' To best monitor situations where managerial interests conflict with those of shareholders (conflicts monitoring), reformers have made numerous proposals to make boards independent of management. Two main problems confound these proposals. First, the proposals fail to deal adequately with social dynamics on boards that make independent decision making difficult when conflicted or nonindependent board members serve on the board, namely, inside (employee) directors and outside (nonemployee) directors with business relationships with the corporation or its management. Second, the proposals do not take proper account of the many important relational roles of the board other than conflicts monitoring. In recognition of the importance of an independent board to conflicts monitoring and of the importance of the full range of relational roles of the board that requires a mix of different kinds of directors, I propose that state legislators modify state corporation statutes to permit public corporations to utilize a dual board structure. This structure would consist of two boards, each ideally composed to perform certain functions. One board, called the conflicts board, would perform conflicts monitoring and would be composed solely of independent directors, who are outside directors with no business relationships with the corporation or its management. The other board, called the business review board, would consist of a mix of different kinds of directors and would perform other relational roles. A full-time ombudsperson, selected by independent directors, would assist the independent directors in performing conflicts monitoring on the conflicts board or existing unitary boards. Two theories of the board, contra-managerial hegemony theory2 (hegemony theory) and agency cost theory,3 have provided the foundation for the debate on corporate board reform. Both theories are conflicts monitoring theories. While hegemony theorists have given some attention to psychological factors that may hinder independent decision making by board members, they have not gone far enough in recognizing the substantial conformity pressures on board members. Both hegemony and agency cost theorists are content with a board containing inside directors and outside directors with business relationships with the corporation or its management.' As this Article suggests, such a board would be less effective at conflicts monitoring than a board composed solely of independent directors. The focus on conflicts monitoring by prevailing legal theories, however, gives inadequate attention to other important roles of corporate boards. To explore these roles, reference is made to a broader theory of the board, the power coalition theory,5 which is widely accepted in the business literature, but has been largely ignored by legal reformers. Whereas conflicts monitoring theories perceive the board as mediating conflicts between managers and shareholders, power coalition theory describes the board's roles in terms of the corporation's relationships with various corporate stakeholders (including shareholders) and the corporation's social environment. Under power coalition theory, the board provides the corporation with relational resources that decrease the corporation's uncertainty and enhance its chances of survival.6 These resources include coordination with the external environment, information access and exchange, support of corporate business, advice on various subjects, legitimacy and status in the eyes of relevant communities, monitoring, and control. Under this theory, functions of boards in addition to conflicts monitoring are economically significant. Independent directors, however, may not always be in a position to provide all of these resources. …


SUMMARY 1. Historically, biogeographic barriers to the movement of aquatic organisms existed at multiple spatial scales and contributed to the development of unique regional faunas. At increasing spatial scales, these barriers consisted of waterfalls and cascades; catchment divides; major mountain ranges and oceans. This hierarchy of movement barriers produced increasingly distinct aquatic biotas at larger drainage units. 2. Humans have provided a variety of pathways by which aquatic species can circumvent historical biogeographic barriers. These include both authorised and unauthorised stocking, construction of canals and water conveyance systems, transport in ship ballast water, fishing and angling gear (including boats) transferred among water bodies and intentional release of ornamental and other captive species. 3. One consequence of human-aided breaching of biogeographic barriers has been the spread of noxious species that have altered aquatic ecosystems and fisheries in ways that are undesirable to humans. 4. Another consequence of human-aided breaching of biogeographic barriers has been the homogenization of aquatic biotas. Homogenization occurs when a few cosmopolitan species come to dominate communities at the expense of unique native species. Among aquatic organisms this phenomenon is best documented for fish faunas where a small set of species introduced for sport fishing, aquaculture, or ornamental purposes have become widespread throughout the world. 5. Slowing biotic homogenization will require slowing the rate at which species breach biogeographic barriers. This will involve implementing regulations that limit stocking opportunities; increasing the public's awareness about the consequences of releasing nonnative species and developing technological solutions that prevent movement of aquatic organisms or eliminate them before they become established. 6. River restoration can influence homogenization of aquatic biotas through two major mechanisms: by removing barriers to movement and by restoring natural habitat conditions. Removal of movement barriers may facilitate the spread of non-native species and thus contribute to biotic homogenization. Restoration of natural flow regimes and habitat conditions may reduce biotic homogenization by favouring regional native species over cosmopolitan, non-native species.


The generalized concept is proposed for automation of secondary data processing. Initial information is stored in the knowledge base. During processing the verbal description is generated for each object. All further operations are reduced to the transformation of the textual data. This approach makes it possible to accumulate information of diverse types and efficiently analyze it according to the universal scheme.


Quantum emitters characterized by their emission colors constitute important elements in the design of modern nano-optics. Although we can change the emission colors of a quantum emitter by tailoring its chemical component, once selected, the color usually cannot be changed. It will be tempting to find out whether the emission color of an emitter could be tuned without touching its chemical component. In this Letter, we theoretically propose a strategy to externally tune the emission color of a model emitter by changing its electromagnetic environment. We found that the photonic local density of states (PLDOS) strongly affect the competition between various internal radiative and nonradiative channels, thus enabling a selective electronic state to dominate the emission spectrum. Indeed, quantitative calculations show that the emission color of a model emitter could be tuned from red to green and blue as the PLDOS increases. Moreover, due to direct correspondence between the emission color and PLDOS, the emitter can be potentially used as a sensor to characterize the local electromagnetic environment by its emission color at the nanoscale. This simple strategy may prove to be useful in the future design of various nano-optical devices.


The tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) binds reversibly and with high affinity and specificity to nuclear macromolecules in mouse epidermis. The dissociation constants determined from Scatchard analysis of epidermal nuclei and nuclear macromolecules are 3.58 +/- 0.66 (S.E.) and 2.18 +/- 0.54 nM, respectively. The solubilization of TPA receptors from epidermal nuclei by DNase I was examined. Following a 20-min digestion at 22 degrees, more than a 2-fold increase in specific TPA binding was observed in the supernatant relative to non-nuclease-treated nuclei (0.71 versus 0.32 pmol/mg protein, respectively). Our data indicate that epidermal nuclei contain saturable and specific TPA-binding macromolecules and that these binding components may be associated with regions of chromatin that are preferentially susceptible to nucleolytic cleavage. These data suggest the existence of nuclear receptors for the phorbol ester tumor promoters. These observations may necessitate a more critical assessment of plasma membrane binding as the sole binding site responsible for triggering the multistep process of tumor promotion in mouse epidermis.


Arousal-based physiological changes influence acoustic features of vocalizations in mammals. In particular, nonlinear phenomena are thought to convey information about the caller's arousal state. This hypothesis was tested in the infant African elephant (Loxodonta africana) roar, a call type produced in situations of arousal and distress. Ninety-two percent of roars exhibited nonlinear phenomena, with chaos being the most common type. Acoustic irregularities were strongly associated with elevated fundamental frequency values. Roars produced in situations of highest urgency, based on the occurrence of behavioral indicators of arousal, were characterized by the lowest harmonics-to-noise ratio; this indicates low tonality. In addition, roars produced in these situations lasted longer than those produced in contexts of lower presumed urgency. Testing the infant roars for individual distinctiveness revealed only a moderate classification result. Combined, these findings indicate that infant African elephant roars primarily function to signal the caller's arousal state. The effective communication of this type of information may allow mothers to respond differentially based on their infant's degree of need and may be crucial for the survival of infant African elephants in their natural environment.


We studied the kinetics of β-cristobalite formation with the coexistence of amorphous silica on polycrystalline β-SiC films during high-temperature oxidation in air, by in situ X-ray diffractometry using an imaging plate. The kinetics was found to obey parabolic laws. The apparent activation energy Q of cristobalite formation estimated in our experiments suggested a possibility that Q might be significantly larger than reported previously for oxide growth on SiC. Possible causes for this large value were discussed.


Spatial navigation in the mammalian brain relies on a cognitive map of the environment. Such cognitive maps enable us, for example, to take the optimal route from a given location to a known target. The formation of these maps is naturally influenced by our perception of the environment, meaning it is dependent on factors such as our viewpoint and choice of reference frame. Yet, it is unknown how these factors influence the construction of cognitive maps. Here, we evaluated how various combinations of viewpoints and reference frames affect subjects' performance when they navigated in a bounded virtual environment without landmarks. We measured both their path length and time efficiency and found that (1) ground perspective was associated with egocentric frame of reference, (2) aerial perspective was associated with allocentric frame of reference, (3) there was no appreciable performance difference between first and third person egocentric viewing positions and (4) while none of these effects were dependent on gender, males tended to perform better in general. Our study provides evidence that there are inherent associations between visual perspectives and cognitive reference frames. This result has implications about the mechanisms of path integration in the human brain and may also inspire designs of virtual reality applications. Lastly, we demonstrated the effective use of a tablet PC and spatial navigation tasks for studying spatial and cognitive aspects of human memory.


An increasing incidence of cancer has led to high patient volumes and time challenges in ambulatory oncology clinics. By knowing how many patients are experiencing complex care needs in advance, clinic scheduling and staff allocation adjustments could be made to provide patients with longer or shorter timeslots to address symptom complexity. In this study, we used predictive analytics to forecast the percentage of patients with high symptom complexity in one clinic population in a given time period. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling was utilized with patient-reported outcome (PRO) data and patient demographic information collected over 24 weeks. Eight additional weeks of symptom complexity data were collected and compared to assess the accuracy of the forecasting model. The predicted symptom complexity levels were compared with observation data and a mean absolute predicting error of 5.9% was determined, indicating the model's satisfactory accuracy for forecasting symptom complexity levels among patients in this clinic population. By using a larger sample and additional predictors, this model could be applied to other clinics to allow for tailored scheduling and staff allocation based on symptom complexity forecasting and inform system level models of care to improve outcomes and provide higher quality patient care.


A right-sided aortic arch and Kommerell's diverticulum, remnants of the left dorsal aortic arch in the circulation of the embryo, are uncommon congenital defects of the aorta. They may be asymptomatic in most cases, but symptoms are manifested by compressing mediastinal structures or are related to congenital heart anomalies. If aneurismal dilatation of the diverticulum presents with rupture, it is lethal. We report a case of esophageal compression by a right-sided aortic arch and Kommerell's diverticulum that mimicked an esophageal submucosal tumor in a patient who complained of symptoms during the past ten years of food retention in the upper thorax when a bolus of food was ingested. (Korean J Gastrointest Endosc 2008;36:78-82)


The work of the new FP7 ICT DEPLOY Integrated Project (February 2008 -- January 2012) [1] is driven by the tasks of achieving and evaluating industrial take-up, initially by DEPLOY industrial partners, of DEPLOY methods and tools, together with the necessary further research on methods and tools.


Background: The health-related quality of life (HRQL) is an important health outcome for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. This study explored the predictors of HRQL of CHC patients in Libya. The objective of the study was to identify the common predictors of physical and mental component scores (PCSs and MCSs) of HRQL of CHC patients in Tripoli Medical Center in Libya. Materials and Methods: A cross section study was conducted among 100 CHC patients randomly selected from the infections and gastroenterology clinics in Tripoli Medical Center in Libya. Well validated and self-administered questionnaire was used. Data analysed using bivariate and multivariate statistical tests. Result: In a bivariate analysis, age, gender, work status, other medical disease(s) and treatment(s), virological response, adherence to ribavirin treatment, knowledge of HC infection, self-efficacy, and social support significantly (p < 0.05) predicted both the physical and mental components of the HRQL. However, after controlling for the independent variables and covariates in multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), it was found that only gender significantly (p < 0.025) predicted both the physical and mental components of HRQL, while the virological response and social support could only predict the mental components of the HRQL significantly. Conclusion: This study has important clinical implications as identification of predictors of the physical and mental components of the HRQL for patients with CHC allows for efficient clinical therapy and counselling for these patients before and during the course of treatment.


Background and Aims: Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) within the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is well debated; however, WASH in health care sector is still in nascent phase, especially for maternity units. Although there are studies on WASH in maternity units, least are focused towards the microbiological safety. The objective of present study is to compare the visual assessment with microbiological assessment of selected maternity units of Gujarat (India) and to document microbiological contamination and drug resistance. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 10 selected maternity units of Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, India, during Feb-March 2018. Two steps of Tool Box Plus were used for documentation: visual and microbiological assessment. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) patterns amongst positive microorganisms were also documented. Results: Although the majority of the studied maternity units were visually clean, the microbiological findings contraindicated the same. The overall visual score across all facilities was close to 50% indicating good visual cleanliness. Out of 195 samples collected, 18% (35) samples were positive for pathogenic organisms and the majority were identified from mops and labour table. 1/3rd of organisms were resistant to > 5 antibiotics. Pathogenic organism identified includes Acitenobacter, Klebsilla, MR CONS, E coli, Psudomonas Aeruginosa and Pseudomonas species. Conclusions: Visual assessment alone which is currently used for assessment of hygiene is not a proxy for safety. It should be validated by the microbiological method. Microbiology surveillance should be explored to get valuable insights on the effectiveness of cleaning practices of the maternity units.


Palestinian Amoraic literature depicts some rabbis as recipients of charity. While some scholars have suggested that these donations supported poor students and others have argued that rabbis solicited charity in order to expand their own power, this essay suggests that these approaches sideline rabbinic hermeneutics. When viewed through the lens of grammarian piety, there is a grammarian and conceptual case to be made that rabbis should in fact receive charitable donations. Analyzing two linguistic exercises using Isaiah 58:7b in Palestinian Amoraic literature, this article demonstrates how the association of rabbis and charitable donations made conceptual sense according to the logic generated through grammarian hermeneutics.


Calculations of the decline in f H2O in equilibrium with typical metamorphic assemblages during cooling indicate that there will be a large drop in pore-water pressure within 100° of the metamorphic maximum. The loss of pore fluid and the generation of large effective pressures across grain boundaries will inhibit rock deformation by those mechanisms that depend on the presence of an aqueous fluid phase. In many metamorphic belts, extensive deformation occurs below the metamorphic maximum during heating (that is, while fluid is being generated), whereas rocks do not deform in the same ductile manner on cooling, even while temperature is high. This may reflect changing mechanical properties of the rocks rather than merely changes in regional stresses; mobile belts could be made rigid in this way in about 20 m.y.


The human life-threatening novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona-virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has lasted for over a year escalating and posing simultaneous anxiety day-by-day globally since its first report in the late December 2019. The scientific arena has been kept animated via continuous investigations in an effort to understand the spread dynamics and the impact of various mitigation measures to keep this pandemic diminished. Despite a lot of research works having been accomplished this far, the pandemic is still deep-rooted in many regions worldwide signaling for more scientific investigations. This study joins the field by developing a modified SEIR (Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed) compartmental deterministic model whose key distinct feature is the incorporation of the COVID Alert SA app use by the general public in prolific intention to control the spread of the epidemic. Validation of the model is performed by fitting the model to the Republic of South Africa's COVID-19 cases reported data using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation algorithm implemented in fitR package. The model's sensitivity analysis and simulations stipulate that gradual to complete use of the app would be perfect in contact tracing and substantially reduce the plateau number of COVID-19 infections. This would consequentially contribute remarkably to the eradication of the SARS-CoV-2 over time. Proportional amalgamation of the app use and test for COVID-19 on individuals not using the app would also reduce the peak number of infections apart from the 50 – 50% ratio which spikes the plateau number beyond any other proportion. The study establishes that at least 30% implementation of the app use with gradual increase in tests conducted for individuals not using the app would suffice to stabilize the disease free equilibrium resulting to gradual eradication of the pandemic.


Objective : To explore the status of cancer research in the Republic of Korea. Methods : Thirty-eight medical journals, published in Korea between 1990 and 1996, were reviewed for abstracts relating to cancer research. Of the 5,899 eligible abstracts related to cancer, 4,732 were collected and evaluated. Results : Including first author and first two co-authors, a total of 7,427 authors were identified. Those who published an average of one or more article per one year were defined as cancer researchers for this study. This group, however, accounted for a small proportion of the total (3.1%). Analysis of the selected abstracts showed that the study goals in more than half focused on pathophysiologic mechanisms. Studies that were designed to use causal relationships such as cohort studies and randomized controlled trials were rare. A greater number of analytic and experimental studies were found in abstracts published by the cancer researcher group. More advanced study designs that explored causal relationships and analytic procedures were found in abstracts published later than those abstracts published from 1990 to 1992. Conclusion : Our findings show that researchers who published more articles adopted more advanced study designs. This study provides primary data that can be used to compare the status of cancer research in future studies.


A set of sixty six surface sediment samples were collected from the beach area and its adjacent region in Central part of Tamil Nadu State, SE Coast of India. The samples were analyzed for organic carbon, carbonates, texture of sediments and Partially Extracted Trace Metals (PETMs) (As, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Sr, V, Zn). The results indicate that the organic carbon and carbonates in the study area is brought down by the numerous minor rivers in the area and they do not play any role in the deposition of PETMs. The concentration pattern and the comparison of PETMs indicate that the higher values of Fe, Mn, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu and Ni is due to the direct input from various industries situated in the coastal regions.


Abstract In "Constructions in analysis" (1937), S. Freud compared the analyst's work to that of the archaeologist searching among vestiges, with the big difference that the object of our work is alive, and working with it causes fear, pain and suffering. Last year, during a visit to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, impressed by the strangeness of the atmosphere, by people carbonised by lava, eternal statues in a shocking atemporality among the archaic objects and traces of the place, I picked up the thread of psychoanalytic reflections on such ruins, vestiges, the layers of "ash" also present in the human psyche and their relevance in the work of the analytic cure. How to communicate the unthinkable, the unsayable, the un-representable, the barely figurable? How to transform traces of your "ancestors' ancestors' ancestors", even as passed down from Superego to Superego, or via inter-transgenerational transmissions? How to transform the formless into form? From S. Freud to D. W. Winnicott, and W. Bion, from A. Green and J. McDougall, via D. Anzieu and R. Roussillon, the author is proposing to revisit the psychic vestiges as they are expressing during the analytic process.


Background As in other regions, rates of gonorrhea in North America continue to rise, while Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) antimicrobial susceptibility, and particularly macrolide susceptibility, has declined. These patterns have heightened concerns about emerging resistance to the only remaining recommended treatment regimen and the prospect of untreatable gonorrhea. Methods In this session, available data on Ng antimicrobial susceptibility trends in North America will be reviewed, with a focus on recent trends in cephalosporin, macrolide, and fluoroquinolone susceptibility. Public health responses, such as United States outbreak preparedness and response activities, will be explored. Results Although the percentage of Ng isolates with reduced cephalosporin susceptibility has declined in recent years in the United States and Canada, the percentage with reduced azithromycin susceptibility has increased in both countries. High-level azithromycin resistant strains have been identified in the United States, and an isolate with a high ceftriaxone minimum inhibitory concentration (1 µg/ml) was identified in Canada (2017). Data from Mexico are limited. In addition to robust surveillance in the United States and Canada, the United States has implemented efforts to enhance rapid detection and response to Ng resistance. Conclusions Robust surveillance and public health engagement are critical to address the growing threat of Ng resistance.


This paper is aimed to define the main specifications and system requirements of a future spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mission with polarimetric and interferometric capabilities, to be applied in agriculture monitoring. Firstly, a previous discussion concerning the applications of remote sensing to agriculture and the requirements demanded by end users is introduced. Then, a review of polarimetric SAR and interferometric SAR techniques employed in agriculture is performed in order to explore and justify the potential contributions to crop parameter retrieval of polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR). The current status of the research about PolInSAR when applied to the retrieval of biophysical parameters of agricultural crops is also addressed, covering recent advances in theoretical modeling aspects (both direct and inverse models), the validation carried out so far with indoor data, and complementary information provided by other different but related experiments. From this experience, we describe some system specifications that will be important for the success of this technique. Among them it is emphasized the need of baselines larger than usual, medium‐high frequency band, and a mandatory single‐pass mode for overcoming temporal decorrelation. Finally, a set of future experiments is also proposed for additional testing and confirmation of observations made so far regarding minimum baseline requirements, temporal evolution of observables and modeling issues, among others.


Stemming is a pre-processing step in Text Mining applications as well as a very common requirement of Natural Language processing functions. Stemming is the process for reducing inflected words to their stem. The main purpose of stemming is to reduce different grammatical forms / word forms of a word like its noun, adjective, verb, adverb etc. to its root form. Stemming is widely uses in Information Retrieval system and reduces the size of index files. We can say that the goal of stemming is to reduce inflectional forms and sometimes derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form. In this paper we have discussed different stemming algorithm for non-Indian and Indian language, methods of stemming, accuracy and errors.


Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by hypoventilation during sleep secondary to a blunted response to hypercapnia and hypoxia. The current case report describes developmentally normal four-year-old monozygotic twin boys who presented in infancy with variable presentations and clinical severity of congenital central hypoventilation syndrome. Both were managed with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation.


Ripple designs of FIR digital differentiators are suitable for wideband applications, but cannot produce very high accuracies in narrow bands. In this paper, we present new simple designs for FIR digital differentiators, with very high accuracies in the narrow bands centered at arbitrary frequencies in the lower half of the frequency band. First, a new design with maximal linearity at the middle of the frequency band is presented, by imposing the maximal linearity constraints to the frequency response. This design is then combined with an existing design having maximal linearity at zero frequency, to obtain differentiators with very high accuracies at arbitrary frequencies in the lower half of the frequency band. Explicit formulas for the filter coefficients are derived, and design examples are presented to show their higher accuracies as compared to the existing designs.


Freshwater ecosystems have long been affected by numerous types of human interventions that have a negative impact. Ecosystem disturbance constitutes the worst aquatic response to anthropogenic pressures. The research was initiated by identifying the human pressures on the lakes' ecosystem, the main objective being to establish, quantify and diminish the aquatic ecosystem responses. The case study was applied in the suburban area of Craiova city for a natural protected area. The chosen methodology is based on the analysis of the response of the 10 ten lakes located along Preajba Valley to human pressures from two perspectives: morphometric parameters of the lakes and indicators of the aquatic condition. For this purpose, a statistical analysis using Google Earth and GIS tools was conducted. The research was completed by field observations during 2009-2019. The results of the study draw attention to the lacustrine surface, its size decreasing from 28 ha in 2009 to 27 ha in 2019. The aquatic vegetation response was completed by determining the tendency of the vegetation extension (which has been ascending for Lakes II, III, VI and X). Following the interpretation of quantitative biocenotic indices, it can be concluded that the species Carassius gibelio is constant (Frequency-86.8% and Abundence-51.8%), being closely followed by Perca fluviatilis and Lepomis gibbosus as accessory species. Our results support the evidence that the high pH (8.2 pH unit), fixed residue (384 mg/dm3), NO2 (0.124 mg/dm3), NO3 (16.28 mg/dm3) and CCOCr (49.7 mg/dm3) confirms the high degree of eutrophication in 2019. The paper suggested the assessment of lakes responses to human pressures as a support tool for sustainable lake ecosystems management in suburban areas.


In a study of the role of oestrogen-receptor analysis in early breast cancer the oestrogen-receptor content of the tumour was estimated in 286 patients undergoing mastectomy. These patients were followed for up to 39 months, and the recurrence of disease was noted in relation to the presence or absence of oestrogen receptor.Recurrence-rates were significantly higher in patients whose tumours did not contain receptors than in those whose tumours did. This same relationship was seen when women with and without axillary metastases were considered separately. The highest rates of recurrence were in women with axillary lymph-node involvement whose tumours lacked oestrogen receptors. Women without axillary-node involvement whose tumours lacked oestrogen receptors showed the same high rate of recurrence as all women with axillary-node involvement. The oestrogen-receptor content of a primary breast cancer appears to be an independent guide to early recurrence of the disease.


The disposal of waste water into a confined stratum of the earth's crust through recharge wells is gaining increasing popularity. Underground burying of radioactive liquid and solid wastes has been practiced for years at Hanford, Oakridge, and other places. These highly dangerous wastes can diffuse out in lateral directions if the containers crack due to earthquakes and internal pressures in relatively thin confined stratum. These situations are often characterized as the absorption of moisture by the partially saturated soil surrounding the disposal site. This phenomenon is governed by a nonlinear partial differential equation, subject to initial and boundary conditions. A method of weighted residuals is applied to extract an explicit solution, which is simple for applications. The solution is valid for any form of the diffusivity function and can be used with any value of initial moisture content. The problem with the initial soil moisture at the threshold level (the minimum moisture content at which the permeability exists) has been investigated by Philip, and the corresponding results of the present paper compare very well with the results obtained by Philip.


This study analyses the intellectual output of Adya Gur Horon (Adolphe Gourevitch, 1907-1972), a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking, French-educated ideologue of modern Hebrew nationalism, and one of the founding fathers of the anti-Zionist ideology known as "Canaanism", whose heyday was mid 20th-century Israel. The dissertation's starting point is that if the "Canaanites" (otherwise the Young Hebrews) declared themselves to be above all a national movement independent of, and opposed to, Zionism, they should be analysed as such. In treating "Canaanite" support for the existence of an indigenous Hebrew nation in Palestine/Israel as equally legitimate as the Zionist defence of the Jews' national character (both ultimately constituting "imagined communities"), this work comes to the conclusion that the movement should indeed be classified as a fully-fledged alternative to Zionism; not a radical variation of the latter, but rather a rival national ideology.My chief assertion is that the key to a proper understanding of "Canaanism" is Horon's unique vision of the ancient Hebrew past, which constitutes the "Canaanite" foundational myth that stands in sharp contradiction to its Zionist counterpart. Furthermore, I demonstrate that Zionism and "Canaanism" are incompatible not only because they differ over history, but also because some of the basic socio-political notions they employ, such as national identity or nation-formation, are discordant. A methodology such as this has never before been applied to the "Canaanite" ideology, since most of those who have studied the movement treat "Canaanism" either as an artistic avant-garde or as a fringe variation of Zionism.This study demonstrates that, despite being sidelined by most researchers of "Canaanism", Adya Horon is beyond doubt the leading figure of the "Canaanite" movement. I believe that only by giving due weight to the divergence in national historiographies between "Canaanism" and Zionism can we grasp the former's independence from the latter, both intellectually and politically, without negating "Canaanism's" complex relationship with Zionism and the sometimes significant overlaps between the two. The dissertation makes systematic use of many newly discovered materials, including Horon's writings from the early 1930s to the early 1970s (some of them extremely rare), as well as his private archive. My study thus sits at the intersection of three fields of academic enquiry: nationalism studies; language-based area studies; and historiographical discourse analysis.


A significant proportion of the work effort for finite element (FE) analysis is spent for pre-processing activities, especially for complex structural components and component assemblies. An exclusive use of hexahedron (hex) elements increases the meshing effort substantially compared to tetrahedral elements. An automated method to generate high quality hexahedral meshes for an arbitrary geometry does not exist. In this work, commercially available FE software tools for meshing were investigated with the focus on an advantageous pre-processing effort. The evaluation showed that the software package NX (Siemens PLM Software) offers robust advanced semiautomatic hex meshing capabilities.Furthermore, a Contact Meshing Approach (CMA) was elaborated to reduce the effort of the challenging and time-consuming geometry decomposition significantly. Using the example of an intermediate pressure compressor it can be shown that the pre-processing effort time can be reduced up to 75%. Due to the independent meshes, element transitions in the geometry become redundant. This results in lower total element numbers and higher mesh qualities and subsequently leads to more efficient calculations. Moreover, the increased element quality has positive effects on the result quality.Copyright © 2014 by Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG


To explore the substrate or subsite specificity of a mouse hatching enzyme, effects of leupeptin [acetyl(P4)‐Leu(P3)‐Leu(P2)‐argininal(P1)] and its analogs (peptidyl argininals) on mouse blastocyst hatching were investigated. The compounds containing benzyloxycarbonyl group (Z) in the P4 position inhibited the hatching more strongly than those containing acetyl group or unprotected N‐terminal amino acid. Among five Z‐Leu‐P2‐argininals, a derivative containing a P2 Ser residue was the most potent inhibitor, and the derivatives containing Leu, Thr, Pro, and Gly in the P2 position followed in this order. Then, we synthesized four Z‐P3‐Ser‐argininals and tested their effects on hatching. The result indicated that the compound with Phe residue in the P3 position was the strongest inhibitor, and the Leu‐, Pro‐, and Ala‐containing derivatives were ranked in this order. Thus, among Z‐dipeptidyl‐argininals tested, Z‐Phe‐Ser‐argininal most potently inhibited the mouse embryonic hatching, suggesting the preference of the mouse hatching enzyme for Phe(P3)‐Ser(P2)‐Arg(P1) sequence as a substrate.


Statistical testing based on a usage model is a key technique for realistic reliability estimation. Since this technique requires large samples (test suites), test execution is automated via scripts and script-based execution engines. However, such scripts are too complex to design manually, both because of the sample size and the complexity of the usage model, which is normally represented with a Markov chain. At the CPTS (Software Testing Research Center), we developed an approach that automates two steps of script design: test suite generation and converting test cases into scripts. The only manual step is the usage model design, which is represented in two models: a stochastic automata network (SAN) for representing the usage model and an intermediate model (called the Interface Event-State Model) to map the abstract usage model into the implemented interface components. SANs allow modular representation of systems with complex non-deterministic behavior, minimizing the state-space explosion found in Markov chains. The use of a separate model for the implementation has the advantage of making changes in the interface and generating the script automatically without affecting the abstract usage model. We implemented the technique into the STAGE environment; the experiments indicate that the modeling task takes less than one day for a typical model with 420 global states and 8 days for one with over 200.000 global states, while the test suite and script generation takes less than 1 minute. Also, the performance of test case and script generation with SANs is at least compatible with Markov-based generation.


A Stochastic Differential Equation appearing in the statistical theory of turbulence is extended in random environment by assuming that its two parameters are switched by an unobserved continuous-time Markov chain whose states represent the states of the environment. A Dirichlet process is placed as a prior on the space of the sample paths of this chain, leading to a hierarchical Dirichlet model whose estimation is done both on simulated data and on real data of wind speed measured at the entrance of a mangrove ecosystem.


The efficacy of leukocytapheresis in a pancytopenic patient with hairy cell leukemia in postsplenectomy stage is reported. Cytapheresis as the only therapy was effective on more than one occasion in inducing remission and reducing transfusion requirements. Fourteen months after the last leukocytapheresis, the patient's hemoglobin and hematocrit remain normal. The leukocyte concentrates removed contained 90 percent lymphocytes consisting of 75 percent T cells, 15 percent B cells, and only 2 to 4 percent hairy cells. Thus, the removal of a large number of lymphocytes, not necessarily hairy cells, induced a sustained clinical improvement and indicated that cytapheresis may be a useful alternative to chemotherapy for these patients.


Tolytoxin, a cytostatic, antifungal macrolide produced by blue-green algae of the genus Scytonema, is a potent, reversible inhibitor of cytokinesis in cultured mammalian cells. Treatment of KB cells with 2-16 nM tolytoxin results in profound morphological changes, beginning with the formation of zeiotic processes and culminating in nuclear protrusion. In L1210 cells, cytokinesis is inhibited by as little as 2 nM tolytoxin, while karyokinesis proceeds normally, resulting in polynucleation. Tolytoxin specifically disrupts microfilament organization in A10 cells, while having no apparent effect on microtubules or intermediate filaments. Tolytoxin inhibited actin polymerization in vitro and also caused the depolymerization or fragmentation of F-actin in vitro. Tolytoxin exhibits effects that closely resemble those of cytochalasin B but is effective at concentrations 1/50-1/1,000 that of cytochalasin B.


Previous studies have shown that prepubertal olfactory bulbectomy will prevent the testicular regression associated with short photoperiod in golden hamsters. The gonadal regression which normally occurs in hamsters on short photoperiod is known to be due in part to an increased responsiveness of the reproductive neuroendocrine system to the negative feedback actions of testosterone on LH and FSH secretion. The present study tested whether the olfactory bulbs influence the feedback effects of testosterone on gonadotropin secretion. Twenty-four- to 26-day-old male golden hamsters were either olfactory-bulbectomized (BX) or sham-olfactory-bulbectomized. Eight weeks later, all hamsters were castrated, and one half of each group was placed in LD 10:14 (this was called week-8 of the study), while the other half was returned to long photoperiod (LD 14:10). Eight weeks following castration (week 0 of the study), all animals were implanted with silastic capsules containing 0, 4, 8 or 16 mm of testosterone. All hamsters were bled by cardiac puncture at -8, -4, 0, +2, +4, +6 and +8 weeks. The concentration of LH and FSH in these samples was then determined by RIA. BX completely prevented the negative feedback of testosterone on gonadotropin secretion in hamsters on either long or short photoperiod at all levels of testosterone tested in this study. In addition, there were seemingly steroid-independent effects of BX on gonadotropin levels in the castrated hamsters prior to testosterone replacement at weeks -4 and 0.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The Waianae Diet Program is a community-based intervention strategy designed to be culturally appropriate by using a pre-Western-contact Hawaiian diet to reduce chronic-disease risk factors in Native Hawaiians. This paper describes a trial of the traditional Hawaiian diet fed ad libitum to Native Hawaiians with multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease to assess its effect on obesity and cardiovascular risk factors. Twenty Native Hawaiians were placed on a pre-Western-contact Hawaiian diet for 21 d. The diet was low in fat (7%), high in complex carbohydrates (78%), and moderate in protein (15%). Participants were encouraged to eat to satiety. Average energy intake decreased from 10.86 MJ (2594 kcal)/d to 6.57 MJ (1569 kcal)/d. Average weight loss was 7.8 kg (P less than 0.0001) and average serum cholesterol decreased 0.81 mmol/L (P less than 0.001) from 5.76 to 4.95 mmol/L. Blood pressure decreased an average of 11.5 mm Hg systolic (P less than 0.001) and 8.9 mm Hg diastolic (P less than 0.001).


In collaboration with Monti, 1 I found that 95 per cent. of the children of the poor in Vienna showed evidence of a tuberculous infection at the time of puberty. Since then a number of papers on this subject have appeared from various cities and countries. The results were very different. The cause of this variation lies partly in the actual differences in the various cities, but to a certain extent the difference in the method used for the examination and the difference in the selection of the material share the responsibility. I regard it necessary that the important question of the spread of tuberculosis in definite cities, countries and strata of society should be answered definitely. To this end it is absolutely necessary to use the best methods of examination and to select the material properly. SELECTION OF MATERIAL A true picture of the actual conditions can only be


ATCC 49444, originally designated as Staphylococcus aureus, has been cited as a component strain in the CAMP test for identification of Listeria monocytogenes. A polyphasic study, in which molecular data were combined with cytochemical properties and physiological characteristics, identified this isolate as Staphylococcus pseudintermedius. The nucleotide sequences of the 16S rRNA and sodA genes from ATCC 49444 were determined and found to be identical to those of other S. pseudintermedius strains. Ribotyping analysis of ATCC 49444 indicated a low (0.2) similarity index with S. aureus and Staphylococcus intermedius strains but a similarity index of more than 0.66 with S. pseudintermedius isolates. A functional comparison of ATCC 49444 with S. aureus ATCC 25923 utilizing the CAMP test demonstrated equivalent hemolytic enhancement with L. monocytogenes isolates. While this study demonstrates that ATCC 49444 is a valid component strain for the CAMP test, it is proposed that ATCC 49444 be reclassified as S. pseudintermedius and that users worldwide be alerted to this reclassification and name change.


Optical techniques for data storage have advanced rapidly during the last decade. Optical data storage presents many unique advantages, notably the high storage density and low access time, not attainable by conventional recording techniques. The special features of optical recording, the proposed materials and techniques, the components for optical storage as well as some representative optical bit-by-bit and holographic recording systems are reviewed. It is noted that in spite of the lack of widespread commercial success of the optical recording at the present, some unique devices have been successfully demonstrated. The knowledge accumulated in the development of optical data storage should be useful for many recent Applications such as video recording. It is expected that when the conventional magnetic memory technology reaches its limit, optical storage technology should be a competitive contender for the next generation data storage.


Composite skull defects in patients with severe head injuries are very challenging to manage. The dilemma when deciding whether to perform a definitive reconstruction is how long to wait for physiological recovery before an intervention complicates the situation. The inability of such patients to tolerate prolonged anesthetic exposure is a driving factor for performing the minimal intervention necessary to facilitate recovery. Herein, we present a case involving the successful immediate reconstructive treatment of a severely head-injured adolescent with a composite scalp defect secondary to trauma. A 14-year-old boy sustained a severe head injury from a motor vehicle accident with a composite scalp defect in the right fronto-parietal region. The frontal lobe was exposed, and the right eye was crushed and devitalized. The patient was deeply unconscious for 3 days, without any significant improvements before reconstructive surgery was proposed due to fear of possible meningitis resulting from the exposure of brain structures. We successfully managed the patient with a fronto-parieto-occipital flap, after which the patient promptly recovered consciousness.


Background It remains controversial whether the older age at closed reduction (CR) of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), the higher incidence of complications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the Mid-term outcome of CR for DDH among difference age groups, and to analyze and identify risk factors for the failure of this procedure. Methods Clinical data of DDH patients, who received CR, were retrospectively reviewed. Hips were divided into three groups according to initial age (Group I: <12 months; Group II: 12 months to ≤18 months; Group III: >18 months). The presence of avascular necrosis (AVN), residual acetabular dysplasia (RAD), re-dislocation, further surgeries (FS) and failure of CR were observed. The risk factors were identified for those outcomes abovementioned. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis based on age, pre-op AI and post-op AI for failure was conducted.Results A total of 107 patients (156 hips) undergoing CR were evaluated with a median age at initial reduction of 13.0 months (range, 4 to 28 mo). Mean follow-up time in this study was 6.7 years (range, 3-8 years). The incidence of AVN, RAD and re-dislocation was 15.4% (24/156), 17.3% (27/156) and 14.7% (23/156). For AVN, RAD and re-dislocation, the risk factors were pre-op IHDI IV (p=0.033), age≥18 months (p=0.012), and pre-op IHDI IV and walking (p=0.004 and p=0.011), respectively. The areas under the ROC curve of failure were 0.841 (post-op AI), 0.688 (pre-op AI) and 0.650 (age).Conclusions RAD is a complication that must be carefully considered for severe patients older than 18 months before CR. Re-dislocation is associated with pre-op IHDI IV and walking. Patients, who are older than 12.5 months or have a pre-op AI of 38.7° or a post-op AI of 26.4°, are more likely fail of CR.


In this paper we demonstrate fast-response Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase optical elements (PBOEs) based on polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC). First, a non-interferometric photo-alignment technique is employed to generate PB patterns in a dye-doped liquid crystal by green laser light. Then the samples are exposed to UV light to form polymer networks. Due to the greatly increased elastic constant in PSLC, all PBOEs can achieve submillisecond response time, while maintaining high diffraction efficiency (>90%). Furthermore, a varifocus PB lens (PBL) is implemented based on two identical PB lens elements and its application in fatigue free augmented-reality (AR) displays is verified. The fast response PBOEs based on PSLC hold great potential for various display and photonics applications.


The causes of death recorded in 480 consecutive post mortem examinations of horses performed at the department of pathology, Veterinary Field Station, University of Liverpool, between February 1958 and February 1980, are reported. The alimentary, locomotor and nervous systems were those most frequently diseased. The most common specific entities were those associated with grass sickness, fractures and endoparasitism.


Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was successfully used for the first time to follow the Bergman cyclization of bis-ortho-diynyl arene (BODA) compounds. Five BODA monomers with different spacer (X) and terminal groups (R) were compared. In situ polymerization via EPR spectroscopy yielded first-order rate expressions. Monomers with spacer -O- or -C(CF(3))(2) and terminal group R = Ph exhibited similar kinetic behavior upon thermal polymerization, whereas monomers with pyridine and thiophene terminal groups gave significantly higher rates of polymerization over phenyl-terminated derivatives. A model compound, 1,2-bis(phenylethynyl)benzene, was used to probe the polymerization mechanism, and radical intermediates were found to be stable indefinitely at room temperature.


We have previously reported the observation of an extremely nonlinear optical effect in aligned methyl-red doped nematic liquid crystal [NLC] film, associated with optically induced liquid crystal director axis reorientation. Unlike the so-called photorefractive effect in other dye or C 60 doped film, no dc bias voltage is required. The response times are on the order of milliseconds, depending on the optical intensity and film geometry. The effect has been demonstrated in both planar and homeotropic aligned films. The effect can be enhanced by an ac field of appropriate frequency applied along the director axis in a homeotropically aligned NLC film.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to assess the impact of preprocedural time-out on workflow and patient safety in computed tomography (CT)-guided procedures.

METHODS
In this institutional review board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study, preprocedure time-out was assessed by an independent observer in CT-guided procedures performed from January 16, 2018, to May 15, 2018. Anonymous survey of 302 radiology team members involved in image-guided procedures about preprocedure time-out was performed using REDCap.

RESULTS
Preprocedure time-out for 100 CT-guided procedures (biopsies, drainages, ablations) was observed. Procedures were recruited per observer availability and thus were nonconsecutive and nonrandom. Preprocedure time-out was performed in 100 procedures (100%). Median duration was 60 seconds (interquartile range, 60-71 seconds). Scripted checklist was followed in 52 cases (52/100, 52%). Omissions from the preprocedure time-out were identified in 40 cases (40/100, 40%) and were much more frequent when scripted checklist was not used (30/48 [63%] vs 10/52 [19%], P < 0.005). One case (1/100, 1%) was postponed due to abnormal coagulation parameters discovered during the time-out. Three cases (3/100, 3%) were delayed by 3 minutes to address other safety issues. In additional 14 cases (14/100, 14%), safety issues were raised during the time-out, which were resolved in less than 30 seconds.A total of 137 (45%) of 302 survey responses from 54 radiologists (39%), 55 technologists (40%), and 28 nurses (20%) were received. Forty-eight respondents (48/137, 35%) encountered a procedure that was cancelled or delayed as a result of information identified during time-out. Ninety-six percent (131/137) of respondents stated that time-out improves teamwork, 98% (134/137) stated that it enhances communication between the team members, and 93% (127/137) stated that it identifies and resolves problems and ambiguities.

CONCLUSIONS
Scripted preprocedure time-out for CT-guided procedures takes approximately 1 minute to execute and detects safety issues in 18% of cases.


Summary Objectives: Methodology based on expert panels has been commonly used to evaluate the appropriateness of interventions. An important issue is the adequate synthesis of the generated information in an applicable way to clinical decision making. This paper shows how statistical procedures help synthesize the results of an expert panel. Methods: Three statistical techniques were applied to an expert panel that developed explicit criteria to assess the appropriateness of total hip joint replacement: classification tree, regression tree and multiple correspondence analysis combined with automatic classification. Results: Results provided by the three models were shown in graphical displays and were compared to the original panel results using crude and weighted probability of misclassification. Results were also applied to real interventions in order to know the implication of the misclassification on real patients. Conclusions: The statistical techniques help summarize data from panels of experts and provide useful decision models for clinical practice, especially when the number of indications is big. However, degree of misclassification and its implication should be taken into account.


The papers presented in this colloquium were chosen to illustrate the growth and diversity of ideas and applications that are derived from the original work on liposomes in Bangham's laboratory. The first paper considers methods used to produce liposomes having different properties, followed by a paper showing how they can be used to reveal structural and permeability characteristics of natural membranes. The next paper illustrates the study of a purified protein, the Na' pump, reconstituted in proteoliposomes. Finally, the potential which liposomes have as carriers of specific molecules is covered in a paper on the delivery of a genetically engineered protein in an anti-malarial vaccine. While the 'liposome story' continues to unfold with new applications and fields of study being developed each year, this is a fitting moment, following his recent retirement, to pay tribute to Alec Bangham's massive contribution to the study of membranes. This collection of papers forms a permanent tribute from the authors and the Membrane Group of the Biochemical Society, together with the gifts and verbal expression of admiration presented during the Colloquium.


The reliably accurate and precise quantification of biomarkers is a priceless objective in the drug development and diagnostic arenas. To employ a technique that brings such reliability and furthermore involves a simpler, faster, and inexpensive regime would only underline the potential importance of the concept and technique. To the existing established approaches for biomarker quantification in bioanalytical LC–MS, surrogate matrix (SUR-M) and surrogate analyte (SUR-A), in this Letter we present an approach that fulfills the aforementioned advantages. The concept builds on the historic method of standard addition (SA), in which one source of biological matrix is spiked with analyte to form a calibration curve. With the SA curve back-calculated, the heart of this procedure is the subsequent adjustment of the intercept to zero, the origin, and using only the slope of the curve for interpolation giving calculated sample concentrations. In SA, the concentration axis intercept indicates the endogenous analyte concentration, and our zeroing of this is equivalent to removing the endogenous level. This key shift of the calculated line to the origin unveils our novel origin-adjusted (OA) approach. It enables use akin to a regular xenobiotic method, with no need to ultimately account for the endogenous analyte level in the control matrix used for calibrants. We present a comparison of OA against the control approach of SUR-M in a representative application for kynurenine and tryptophan in human plasma by LC–MS. A numerical performance analysis performed is demonstrative of equivalence between the two approaches for both analytes.


For random graphs distributed according to a stochastic block model, we consider the inferential task of partioning vertices into blocks using spectral techniques. Spectral partioning using the normalized Laplacian and the adjacency matrix have both been shown to be consistent as the number of vertices tend to infinity. Importantly, both procedures require that the number of blocks and the rank of the communication probability matrix are known, even as the rest of the parameters may be unknown. In this article, we prove that the (suitably modified) adjacency-spectral partitioning procedure, requiring only an upper bound on the rank of the communication probability matrix, is consistent. Indeed, this result demonstrates a robustness to model mis-specification; an overestimate of the rank may impose a moderate performance penalty, but the procedure is still consistent. Furthermore, we extend this procedure to the setting where adjacencies may have multiple modalities and we allow for either directed or undirected graphs.