[1] Interannual variability of the Wyrtki jets is studied in the context of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Nino and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) wind-forcing using a three dimensional numerical ocean model and observations. The boreal fall (October–November) Wyrtki jet is more significantly affected than the boreal spring (April–May) Wyrtki jet since both the IOD and ENSO tend to peak toward the end of the calendar year. Various statistical methods are used in an attempt to separate the impacts of the IOD and ENSO on these jets, with emphasis on the fall jet. The first two modes of an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) decomposition account for about 90% and 85% of variability in zonal currents and wind stress respectively along the equator in the Indian Ocean, but EOF analysis does not cleanly separate out IOD and ENSO forcing and response. Partial correlation analysis reveals that IOD wind-forcing and zonal equatorial current response are stronger on average than for ENSO and extend further west across the basin. Composite analysis of IOD only, ENSO only, and combined IOD and ENSO years provides a complementary definition of the relative contributions of these two phenomena on Wyrtki jet variability and in general is consistent with the results of the partial correlation analysis.


Software services are susceptible to changes because of the rapid growth and challenges in business environment. Business operations offered by service providers have to able to cope with various and countless service demands from service consumers. Such a case could also be experienced in cloud environment. As cloud platform, the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform allows application developers as tenants to deploy and configure their service artifacts in cloud infrastructure. A multi-tenant aware Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) as applications integrator is introduced to serve tenants in terms of management and administration. The purpose is to ensure data isolation between tenants.

The goal of this diploma thesis is to extend an open source multi-tenant aware ESB with service version control management framework so that the ESB can facilitate the version management of service providers and consumers in a transparent manner, and ensure service compatibility among tenants. The extension can be further decomposed in terms of management and administration, as well as message flows in versions inside the multi-tenant ESB.


This study aimed to uncover the risk of diabetes and its associated factors among Brazilian residents in Japan. An anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among Brazilians living in Japan who were aged >40 years. The questionnaire collected data on the participants' Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC), basic demographics, and health conditions. The analysis was based on the FINDRISC to assess factors affecting the risk of diabetes. Among the 181 participants (mean age, 52.9 years), 77 and 104 were men and women, respectively; 26 (14.3%) people were diagnosed with diabetes. The participants were categorized into high- and low-risk groups based on a FINDRISC value of ≥12 and ≤11, respectively. The high-risk group, 26 [17.7%] patients, contained a significantly higher proportion whose education level was less than elementary school, who were unable to speak Japanese, and whose diets contained little feijoa than the low-risk group. Feijoa is a local Brazilian bean dish that is low in fat and calories but contains high protein content, which helps prevent diabetes. Our findings suggest that increased health literacy is important for controlling chronic diseases, including diabetes.


Purpose
As a typical resource energy-intensive industry, the scale of construction industry has been expanding rapidly owing to the large-scale urbanization and the economic booming in China, which results in a sharp increase in the energy consumption of construction industry. However, it is infeasible to mitigate the energy consumption by reducing the production activities of construction industry. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of construction industry is essential for energy saving. Construction industry has close relationships with other industries. The production activities have not only consumed a great deal of energy but they have also generated a massive energy consumption from other industries. Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry. However, no research has been found focusing on the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry and indirectly by the related industries. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a total energy efficiency evaluation framework to measure the energy efficiency of construction industry in depth.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the framework of embodied energy efficiency (EEE) to establish a total energy efficiency evaluation model. Next, the comprehensive analysis of direct energy efficiency (DEE) and EEE in different provinces with various levels of urbanization and various economic levels is conducted.

Findings
The results show that the embodied energy intensity and its regularities differ greatly between provinces. From the comparison of DEE and EEE, the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu remain DEA-effective and Hainan is the only province in which the EEE is higher than DEE in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Besides, the DEE and EEE in the provinces with higher levels of urbanization and high economic levels are not more effective than those in the provinces with relatively lower levels of urbanization and low economic levels.

Originality/value
Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry while ignoring the energy consumed indirectly by the related industries. Besides, no research has been found focusing on the regulation of energy efficiency in different provinces with different levels of urbanization and different economic levels. It can be concluded that the increasing levels of urbanization and higher economic levels have not brought development and benefits for improving DEE and EEE. Therefore, under the condition that the self-regulation of construction industry and market fail to facilitate the improvement of DEE and EEE in China, policymakers should develop policies and market incentive mechanism to encourage construction industry for employing new technologies to improve the energy efficiency. Since the EEE can reveal the energy efficiency in depth, the evaluation method of EEE should be paid more attention. Besides the fact that the EEE is lower than the DEE in almost all provinces, except Hainan province, the industrial structure is essential to develop the EEE. Hence, improving the energy structure, increasing the energy efficiency and developing new and renewable energy are the basic energy strategies in China.


This thesis explores the issue of world-horizon, as well as its essential role in the interaction and interfusion of film experience and everyday perception. By examining the images of Earth and Space in the science fiction films belonging to the subgenre of Space exploration and those in non-fictional footage produced in the context of live television broadcast and scientific astronautics, I attempt to show how the perceptual and the imaginary worlds infiltrate and influence each other. I argue that Fritz Lang's 1929 Frau im Mond (Women in Moon) played a crucial role in the history of this subgenre and in the broader horizon of real astronautics, for it blazed the trail of the embodied tradition that served as an alternative to the speculative methods used in many other science fiction films, expanded the horizon of the general public by treating science and astronautics seriously, and even contributed directly to modern rocketry and Space programs through its sponsorship of research in real rocket and its use of visual codes and syntagmas that later became the standard visual syntax and semantics for live television broadcasts. In turn, live television broadcast later established the standard for the audiovisual experience of real astronautics, whose visual codes and syntagmas then went back into more contemporary Space exploration films, such as Gravity and Interstellar. The latter films made full use of those established audiovisual codes and created a kinaesthetically affective and emotionally immersive world-horizon by pushing further the embodied tradition that had started with Lang's film. Although I find in this particular subgenre the inherent logic of the world-picture that tends to turn Earth and Space into mere objects, an alternative way can be found through close analyses of these two contemporary Space exploration SF films. These films also reveal a possibility for us to reconnect with the earth as ground instead of Earth as the object.


OBJECTIVE
To study the pathogenesis and treatment of gluteal heterotopic ossification caused by injection.

METHODS
From April 2006 to May 2011, 4 old female patients with gluteal heterotopic ossification caused by injection were treated by resection. The average age was 71 years old ranging from 67 to 76. The illness were bilateral,the clinical character was pain and hard nodules in the both hip. The X-ray, CT and pathology matched the diagnosis of heterotopic ossification. Two of them were treated by totally removing the ossified tissues, and loosing the spastic and adhesive soft tissues. The other two were treated with local resection and soft-tissue lysis.

RESULTS
The wound of all patients healed well, and there were no complication. All patients were followed-up from 2 to 64 months(averaged 26 months). There were no lump and pain in the location of surgical resection.

CONCLUSION
Gluteal heterotopic ossification caused by injection is the drug reaction produced by injecting benzyl alcohol or other drugs,and happens in adults. The key for the treatment is to remove part or all of the painful lump,and loose the local fascia and other soft tissues of the gluteal muscles.


Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) is a primary immunodeficiency due to defect in various genes leading to an increase in susceptibility to skin and mucosal infection. Mutation in signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT 1) gene being the most common cause of CMC can lead to increased risk of infections, multisystem abnormalities, and malignancy. We describe a 27 year old Indian woman with clinical features of CMC including esophageal stenosis, gangrene of the finger, endocrinological and immunological abnormalities and STAT1 mutation (p.Leu407Val). She was treated with antifungals which led to symptomatic improvement.


Despite more than three decades of intense research, a prophylactic HIV-1 vaccine remains elusive. Four vaccine modalities have been evaluated in clinical efficacy studies, but only one demonstrated at least modest efficacy, which correlated with polyfunctional antibody responses to the HIV surface protein Env. To be most effective, a HIV-1 vaccine probably has to induce both, functional antibody and CD8+ T cell responses. We therefore analyzed DNA/DNA and DNA/virus-like particle (VLP) regimens for their ability to induce humoral and cellular immune responses. Here, DNA vaccination of mice induced strong CD8+ responses against Env and Gag. However, the humoral response to Env was dominated by IgG1, a subclass known for its low functionality. In contrast, priming only with the Gag-encoding plasmid followed by a boost with VLPs consisting of Gag and Env improved the quality of the anti-Env NA LPs TLs ntibodies antibody response via intrastructural help (ISH) provided by Gag-specific T cells to Env-specific B cells. Furthermore, the Gag-specific CD8+ T cells induced by the DNA prime immunization could still protect from a lethal infection with recombinant vaccinia virus encoding HIV Gag. Therefore, this immunization regimen represents a promising approach to combine functional antibody responses toward HIV Env with strong CD8+ responses controlling early viral replication. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) is an irreversible lung disease characterized by progressive fibrosis in the small airways with eventual occlusion of the airway lumens. OB is most commonly associated with lung transplant rejection; however, OB has also been diagnosed in workers exposed to artificial butter flavoring (ABF) vapors. Research has been limited by the lack of an adequate animal model of OB, and as a result the mechanism(s) is unclear and there are no effective treatments for this condition. Exposure of rats to the ABF component, 2,3-pentanedione (PD) results in airway lesions that are histopathologically similar to those in human OB. We used this animal model to evaluate changes in gene expression in the distal bronchi of rats with PD-induced OB. Male Wistar Han rats were exposed to 200 ppm PD or air 6 h/d, 5 d/wk for 2-wks. Bronchial tissues were laser microdissected from serial sections of frozen lung. In exposed lungs, both fibrotic and non-fibrotic airways were collected. Following RNA extraction and microarray analysis, differential gene expression was evaluated. In non-fibrotic bronchi of exposed rats, 4683 genes were significantly altered relative to air-exposed controls with notable down-regulation of many inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In contrast, in fibrotic bronchi, 3807 genes were significantly altered with a majority of genes being up-regulated in affected pathways. Tgf-β2 and downstream genes implicated in fibrosis were significantly up-regulated in fibrotic lesions. Genes for collagens and extracellular matrix proteins were highly up-regulated. In addition, expression of genes for peptidases and peptidase inhibitors were significantly altered, indicative of the tissue remodeling that occurs during airway fibrosis. Our data provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of OB. This new information is of potential significance with regard to future therapeutic targets for treatment.


The maintenance concepts adopted in South Africa are used to illustrate some of the strategies available to a telephone network operator in Africa. Attention is given to preventive vs. corrective maintenance and to maintenance staffing strategy. Maintenance aids and management of resources are also considered, with emphasis on tools and testers, manpower, maintenance instructions, training and replacement equipment.


Here is a sample list of books for review : Bartels, R .H ., J .C. Beatty and B .A. Barsky, An Introduction t o Splines for use in Computer Graphics & Geometric Modeling , Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc ., Los Altos, CA, 198 7 Lancester, P and K . Salkauskas, Curve and Surface Fitting, A n Introduction, Academic Press, 1986 Mantyla, M ., An Introduction to Solid Modeling, Compute r Science Press, Rockville, Maryland, 198 8 Rogers, D .F ., Techniques for Computer Graphics, Springer Verlag, 198 7 Sherr . S ., Input Devices, Academic Press, 198 8 Arnold, D .B . and P .R. Bono, CGM and CGI Metafile and Interface Standards for Computer Graphics, Springer-Verlag, 1988


In this design, the class-E amplifier is used as peaking amplifier in place of the class-C amplifier in the traditional inverted Doherty amplifier to obtain higher power-added efficiency. The load network of class-E peaking amplifier consists of one impedance matching network and two harmonic suppression structures. To validate the analysis, a 38dBm inverted Doherty amplifier with class-E peaking amplifier is designed and fabricated at 1.96 GHz. The simulated results show that 11.5% and 1.1% power-added efficiency improvement is obtained in comparison to balanced class-AB amplifier and traditional inverted Doherty amplifier at an output power of 38dBm respectively. The second and third harmonics were measured to be less than −36dBc and −30dBc, respectively, at output power ranges of 24dBm to 38dBm.


Background and Purpose: The article is devoted to the reduction of energy consumption necessary for delimbing.
Materials and Methods: Branch delimbing method includes feeding the tree trunk through the ring formed by the delimbing knives and simultaneous reciprocator movement of the delimbing knives along the axis of the processed trunk. The distinctive feature of the construction is the presence of the beater unit comprising a pusher and a piston mounted inside a sealed housing.
Results: As a result of the suggested construction the force of the beater impact of the delimbing knife is increased. Using this method, the branches are removed not only due to the force generated when the knives come in contact with branches pushed by feed rolls moving the trunk, but also due to extra beater stress affecting the delimbing knife. The use of the aforesaid method and the construction of the mechanism allows to reduce energy consumption necessary for the delimbing process.
Conclusions: The design of harvesting and processing head proposed in this article can be used in the design and manufacture of logging machines and mechanisms. The technical solution may be an interesting advance of the delimbing process when processing trees, especially when cutting big branches or when cutting forces are temporarily higher than average force values.


An active seismic experiment to study the internal structure of Teide volcano is being carried out on Tenerife, a volcanic island in Spain's Canary Islands archipelago. The main objective of the Tomography at Teide Volcano Spain (TOM-TEIDEVS) experiment, begun in January 2007, is to obtain a three-dimensional (3-D) structural image of Teide volcano using seismic tomography and seismic reflection/refraction imaging techniques. At present, knowledge of the deeper structure of Teide and Tenerife is very limited, with proposed structural models based mainly on sparse geophysical and geological data. The multinational experiment—involving institutes from Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Mexico—will generate a unique highresolution structural image of the active volcano edifice and will further our understanding of volcanic processes.


Several landforms are known to exhibit topographic anisotropy, defined as a directional inequality in elevation. The quantitative analysis of topographic anisotropy has largely focused on measurements taken from specific landforms, ignoring the surrounding landscape. Recent research has made progress in measuring topographic anisotropy as a distributed field in natural landscapes. However, current methods are computationally inefficient, as they require specialized hardware and computing environments, or have a limited selection of scales that undermines the feasibility and quality of multiscale analyses by introducing bias. By necessity, current methods operate with a limited set of scales, rather than the full distribution of possible landscapes. Therefore, we present a method for measuring topographic anisotropy in the landscape that has the computational efficiency required for hyperscale analysis by using the integral image filtering approach to compute oriented local topographic position (LTP) measurements, coupled with a root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) model that compares directional samples to an omnidirectional sample. Two tools were developed: One to output a scale signature for a single cell, and the other to output a raster containing the maximum anisotropy value across a range of scales. The performances of both algorithms were tested using two data sets containing repetitive, similarly sized and oriented anisotropic landforms, including a dune field and a drumlin field. The results demonstrated that the method presented has the robustness and sensitivity to identify complex hyperscale anisotropy such as nested features (e.g., a drumlin located within a valley).


Abstract Objective: Acquired hearing impairment is recognized by the World Health Organization as the third leading cause of disability, with a mild impairment being the most prevalent. The aim of this study was to review research literature concerned with adults with acquired mild hearing impairment; the definitions and prevalence, the resulting activity limitations and participation restrictions, and hearing-aid interventions. Design: This study involved a systematized review of research literature identified through searches in citation databases and through reference checking. Study sample: A total of 151 papers were identified and of these, 33 papers were included in this review. Results: Prevalence rates are significantly influenced by the definition used for mild hearing impairment, and range from 1 in 3 to 1 in 5 adults. The weak correlations between audiological assessments and self-reported difficulties suggest that further assessment of individuals with mild hearing impairment is warranted. The most common intervention is the provision of hearing aids with varying rates of use, benefit, and satisfaction. Conclusions: The development of appropriate audiological assessment in the clinic, and further evaluation of the real-world listening needs and performance of people with mild hearing impairment is required to provide a more effective pathway for this clinical population.


Today, wearable health products play a crucial role in most locations, such as constant wellness monitoring of people, street traffic management, weather forecasting, along with smart house. These sensor devices constantly generate massive amounts of data and are kept in cloud computing. This particular chapter proposes Internet of Things design to store and system scalable sensor information for healthcare apps. Proposed architecture comprises 2 primary architecture, specifically, MetaFog-Redirection and Choosing and Grouping architecture. Though cloud computing offers scalable data storage, effective computing platforms must process it. There's a requirement for scalable algorithms to process the big sensor information and recognize the helpful patterns. To conquer this problem, this particular chapter proposes a scalable MapReduce based logistic regression to process such massive quantities of sensor information. Apache Mahout includes scalable logistic regression to system BDA in a distributed way. This particular chapter uses Apache Mahout with Hadoop Distributed File System to process the sensor information produced by the wearable health units.


Heterolytic cleavage of dihydrogen into a proton and a hydride ion is a fundamentally important step in many reactions, including the oxidation of hydrogen by hydrogenase enzymes and ionic hydrogenation of organic compounds. We report the facile, reversible heterolytic cleavage of H2 in a manganese complex bearing a pendant amine, leading to the formation of a manganese hydride and a protonated amine that undergo H(+)/H(-) exchange at an estimated rate of >10(7) s(-1) at 25 °C.


Growing human population is a solemn risk to biodiversity at a global level. Massive anthropogenic pressure and invasion in the natural habitats initiated the human-wildlife conflict in rural areas. Present study aimed to assess human-wildlife conflict in Musk Deer National Park (MDNP) from 2013 to 2018. Results revealed an estimated 241784 nomadic and 5589 residential livestock heads grazed in different areas of MDNP during the summer season. A total of 126 heads were depredated by carnivores during the study period. Majority (n=39) of livestock heads were killed in May (n=29). Livestock depredation resulted in economic losses worth 3.115 million PKRs (25744 US$) to the herder community while farmers received 1.629 million PKRs (13466 US$) losses due to crop raiding. Most (64%) of the respondents believed human-wildlife conflict heightened due to scarcity of food or prey in the natural habitats of carnivores. Majority (92%) of the respondents did not like the presence of predators in MDNP. Loss compensation schemes could turn this negative attitude into the positive one and increase tolerance about the presence of carnivores in their vicinity. This study provides an insight into the human-wildlife conflict in MDNP and paves a way for understanding the conflict and conservation of carnivore species in the study area.


Bt toxins bind to receptors in the brush border membrane of the insect gut and create pores, leading to insect death. Bt-resistant insects demonstrate reduced binding of the Bt toxins to gut membranes. However, our understanding of the gut receptors involved in Bt toxin binding, and which receptors confer resistance to these toxins is incomplete, especially in diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), a major agricultural pest. Identifying receptors has remained challenging because we lack sufficiently sensitive methods to detect Bt receptor interactions. Here, we report a modified far-immunoblotting technique, which revealed a broad spectrum of binding targets for the Bt toxins Cry1Ac, Cry1Ab, and Cry1Bd in diamondback moth. We confirm the role of the glucosinolate sulfatases GSS1 and GSS2 in Cry1Bd toxicity. GSS1 and GSS2 bind directly to Cry1Bd, and their expression is crucial for Cry1Bd toxicity. These results improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of Bt toxicity. AUTHOR SUMMARY The Bt toxins, from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, have wide applications in agriculture as insecticides applied to plants or expressed in genetically modified crops. Bt toxins bind to receptors in the brush border membrane of the insect gut and create pores leading to insect death. The success of the Bt toxins in controlling insect pests has been hindered by the emergence of resistant insects, which show reduced binding of Bt to their gut membranes. Although ongoing research has identified a few receptors, many remain unknown and the mechanisms by which these receptors cause resistance remain unclear. Here, we used a modified far-immunoblotting technique to identify proteins that bind to the toxins Cry1Ac, Cry1Ab, and Cry1Bd in the diamondback moth. This identified two glucosinolate sulfatases that bind directly to Cry1Bd; also, the toxicity of Cry1Bd requires expression of these glucosinolate sulfatases. Therefore, identification of these candidate receptors improves our understanding of Bt function and resistance.


BNLP is an open source language processing toolkit for Bengali language consisting with tokenization, word embedding, POS tagging, NER tagging facilities. BNLP provides pre-trained model with high accuracy to do model based tokenization, embedding, POS tagging, NER tagging task for Bengali language. BNLP pre-trained model achieves significant results in Bengali text tokenization, word embedding, POS tagging and NER tagging task. BNLP is using widely in the Bengali research communities with 16K downloads, 119 stars and 31 forks. BNLP is available at https://github.com/sagorbrur/bnlp.


BACKGROUND
Risk behaviors and hormone use place transgender individuals (TIs) in jeopardy for osteoporosis.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to expand the science about the knowledge, health beliefs, and osteoporosis (OP) preventing behaviors of TIs.

METHODS
This was a mixed-methods pilot study of a convenience sample of 31 TIs 30 years and older. Participants completed an online Osteoporosis Bone Health Survey. Fifteen participants were randomly selected for an interview to describe their perceptions of bone health.

RESULTS
Transgender individuals performed poorly on the knowledge measure. There were no significant findings for osteoporosis health beliefs. Participants' daily dietary dairy calcium intake was 800 mg and daily walking activity was 17 minutes. Perceptions of bone health revealed two essential elements, knowing and doing.

CONCLUSION
Determining TIs' bone health perception is important because of their unique healthcare issues. Healthcare providers need to be aware of TIs' bone health needs to help enhance TIs' OP knowledge, health beliefs, and preventing behaviors.


Morphological and genetic evidence is presented which supports the existence of periostracal adventitious hairs on spat of the mussel Mytilus edulis. This character appears not to have been reported previously for Mytilus, and was thought to be restricted to a closely-related genus, Modiolus. The species identity of hairy mussel spat was confirmed by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification of a diagnostic portion of the nuclear ribosomal DNA repeat unit (i.e. the ITS-2 region). Size-frequency analysis of spat, sampled in mid-September 1993, from rock pools and from the byssus of a nearby adult mussel bed, showed that hairy spat (mean shell length 1.87 mm, SE 0.17) were significantly (t=7.74; P<0·001) smaller than smooth-shelled spat (mean shell length 2.77 mm, SE 0.28), although not all small-sized individuals displayed this character. These findings suggest that there is a gradual loss of hairs (through abrasion or by 'programmed' loss) as the animal grows. We suggest that this character has some adaptive significance since it probably reduces predation by boring gastropods (e.g. juvenile Nucella lapillus) and may inhibit fouling, particularly by conspecifics, during the primary settlement phase.


The reactions of o-(N-benzylidene)aminophenol with ethylene chlorophosphite and diethyl chlorophosphite in CHCl3 in the absence of an external acceptor of HCl result in the formation of diastereomeric 2-(2'-alkoxy)-2-oxo-3-phenyl-5,6-benzo-1,4,2-oxazaphospho-rinanes different in the configurations of phosphorus atoms.


While variation in mean annual precipitation (MAP) of the native habitat of a species has been shown to determine the ability of a species to resist a hydraulic decrease during drought, it remains unknown whether these variations in MAP also influence the ability of a species to recover and survive drought. Leaf hydraulic and gas exchange recovery following drought and the underlying mechanisms of these responses in six Caragana species from habitats along a large precipitation gradient were investigated during rehydration in a common garden. The gas exchange of species from arid habitats recovered more rapidly during rehydration after mild, moderate and severe drought stress treatments than species from humid habitats. The recovery of gas exchange was not associated with foliar abscisic acid concentration, but tightly related to the recovery of leaf hydraulic conductance (Kleaf ). The recovery of Kleaf was associated with the loss of Kleaf during dehydration under mild and moderate drought stress, and to leaf xylem embolism formation under severe drought stress. Results pointed to the different ability to recover in gas exchange in six Caragana species post-drought is associated with the MAP of the species in its native habitat.


Electric Vehicles (EVs) represent an option that contributes substantively to improve mobility and decrease pollution, generating great expectations for the future of transportation sector, with pilot projects of companies using EVs for delivering products. In this work, a novel approach for optimal planning of EVs for cargo transportation is presented, considering battery swap stations (BSSs) location and the impact on the power distribution network (PDN). This integrated planning is formulated through a mixed integer linear programming mathematical model. To evaluate the model performance three test systems of different sizes are proposed (considering transportation network and PDN). The results show a tradeoff between EVs routing, energy losses of PDN and BSSs location.


Six hybrids maize (Zea mays L.) line:(1) ZM4L,(2) ZM51L,(3) ZP-301,(4) ZM19L, (5) OH, and(6) Un440 were used in crossing program for obtaining first-generation hybrids during the spring 2016 season. Selfing F1s' of the previous hybrids on autumn season of the same year led to obtained the second-generation hybrids. The inbred lines Two generations hybrids were planted on 2017 spring season. The experiment was carried out by using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), with three replicates. The goal of the experiment was to find out the performance of genotypes and estimation of heterosis based on the best parent, of the commercial hybrid (CADZ). of first-generation hybrids and inbreeding depression of the second-generation on the days to female flowering. Other characteristics including; plant height, leaf area, number of rows per ear , number of kernel in each row, weight of 300 grains, and yield of individual plant . The results of the statistical analysis revealed significant differences of all the studied characteristics of each parents, the first-generation, and second-generation except for the number of days of male flowering. Hybrid; Un440 x ZM4L showed a significant and desirable heterosis for the plant height, leaf area, and number of kernel in the rows compared to the best parents and commercial variety. The hybrids; ZM19L x ZM51L and Un440 x ZM51L, showed it did not happen to them inbreeding depression because of the negative and significant correlation with the desired the number of kernels in the row. While, the hybrid; OH x ZM4L , for the number of rows per ear and the hybrid; OH x ZM19L , for the weight of 300 grains. © 2019 TJAS. College of Agriculture, Tikrit University


This study tested the prediction that reading Vedic Sanskrit texts, without knowledge of their meaning, produces a distinct physiological state. We measured EEG, breath rate, heart rate, and skin conductance during: (1) 15-min Transcendental Meditation (TM) practice; (2) 15-min reading verses of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit; and (3) 15-min reading the same verses translated in German, Spanish, or French. The two reading conditions were randomly counterbalanced, and subjects filled out experience forms between each block to reduce carryover effects. Skin conductance levels significantly decreased during both reading Sanskrit and TM practice, and increased slightly during reading a modern language. Alpha power and coherence were significantly higher when reading Sanskrit and during TM practice, compared to reading modern languages. Similar physiological patterns when reading Sanskrit and during practice of the TM technique suggests that the state gained during TM practice may be integrated with active mental processes by reading Sanskrit.


abstract:Marla Carlson's Affect, Animals, and Autists presents a comprehensive survey of affective responses to performances that involve the simulated, symbolic, and actual presence of animals and people on the autism spectrum in order to critique the processes that reaffirm or trouble the homogenized boundaries of the "normate" human.


Multi-omics analyses are increasingly employed in microbiome studies to obtain a holistic view of molecular changes occurring within microbial communities exposed to different conditions. However, it is not always clear to what extent each omics data type contributes to our understanding of the community dynamics and whether they are concordant with each other. Here we map the molecular response of a synthetic community of 32 human gut bacteria to three non-antibiotic drugs by using five omics layers, namely 16S rRNA gene profiling, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics. Using this controlled setting, we find that all omics methods with species resolution in their readouts are highly consistent in estimating relative species abundances across conditions. Furthermore, different omics methods complement each other in their ability to capture functional changes in response to the drug perturbations. For example, while nearly all omics data types captured that the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine selectively inhibits Bacteroidota representatives in the community, the metatranscriptome and metaproteome suggested that the drug induces stress responses related to protein quality control and metabolomics revealed a decrease in polysaccharide uptake, likely caused by Bacteroidota depletion. Taken together, our study provides insights into how multi-omics datasets can be utilised to reveal complex molecular responses to external perturbations in microbial communities.


Cases of pneumonia and/or diarrhoea were compared in 3 groups of calves with a different iron supply in their 56-day stay in the weaning range of a rearing farm (A: without additional iron supply; B: 200 mg Fe/d between feeding times; C: 1.0 and 1.5 g Fe on the 3rd and 36th day in the weaning range). Anaemia frequency (hemoglobin content lower than 105 g/l) immediately after stabling the calves that had come from various farms was 57.4%. Iron application was carried without considering individual iron equipment. Ferridextrane intervention resulted in a drastic reduction of the crowding disease development. Oral iron supply had a more distinct effect than intramuscular supply and the effect was more evident in the duration of pneumonia than in that of diarrhoea.


According to prevailing models, experiential learning is by definition a stepwise process beginning with direct experience, followed by reflection, followed by learning. It has been argued, however, that stepwise models inadequately explain the holistic learning processes that are central to learning from experience, and that they lack scientific or philosophical foundations. Criticism also centers on the way complex cultural, social, and physical processes during experience and learning are reduced to a rational, excessively cognitive, individual phenomenon. This article reviews this criticism and adds a historical dimension to the analysis, concluding that existing cyclic models might be better valued for their important historical contribution, rather than as active theories of learning in experiential education.


In cutting of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, the cutting speed is limited since a high cutting temperature leads to severe tool wear and short tool life, resulting in poor production efficiency. On the other hand, some recent literature has reported that various beneficial effects can be provided by forming micro-textures on the tool surface in the metal cutting process. In this study, in order to achieve high-performance machining of Ti-6Al-4V, we first investigated the mechanism of the tool failure process for a cemented carbide cutting tool in high-speed turning of Ti-6Al-4V. Based on the results, cutting tools with micro textured surfaces were developed under the consideration of a cutting fluid action. A series of experiments showed that the textured rake face successfully decreases the cutting temperature, resulting in a significant suppression of both crater wear and flank wear. In addition, the temperature zone where the texture tool is effective in terms of the tool life in the Ti-6Al-4V cutting was discussed.


In magnetically confined fusion experiments interferometry is commonly used to measure plasma electron density. This because interferometry is a very reliable technique, not affected by calibration problem. The main drawbacks of interferometers are the integral characteristic of the measurement and the fringe loosing problem. Scanning beam interferometry can always overcome the former problem and in some cases the second as well. The advantages of the scanning beam technique can better exploited in two colours vibration compensated medium infra-red (MIR) interferometers. Indeed the short wavelength of the probing beams provide small beam sizes allowing plasma density measurement along many non-overlapping paths, furthermore the vibration compensation system relaxes the requirement of massive interferometer structures embracing the fusion device, actually allowing to install back-reflecting mirror directly attached to the experimental machine. As an example of application of this technique the two-color medium-infra-red-compensated scanning beam interferometer installed on the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) experiment is presented. We present also a preliminary design of a scanning interferometer for the new proposed Fusion Advanced Studies Torus (FAST) experiment. The interferometer uses retroreflectors installed inside the vessel to back reflect the scanning beams; this will allow realizing scanning beams measuring from the plasma edge. This feature in principle can solve the fundamental problem of interferometers: the fringe loosing problem.


Mycobacterium leprae is not cultivable in axenic media, and direct microscopic enumeration of the bacilli is complex, labor intensive, and suffers from limited sensitivity and specificity. We have developed a real-time PCR assay for quantifying M. leprae DNA in biological samples. Primers were identified to amplify a shared region of the multicopy repeat sequence (RLEP) specific to M. leprae and tested for sensitivity and specificity in the TaqMan format. The assay was specific for M. leprae and able to detect 10 fg of purified M. leprae DNA, or approximately 300 bacteria in infected tissues. We used the RLEP TaqMan PCR to assess the short and long-term growth results of M. leprae in foot pad tissues obtained from conventional mice, a gene knock-out mouse strain, athymic nude mice, as well as from reticuloendothelial tissues of M. leprae–infected nine-banded armadillos. We found excellent correlative results between estimates from RLEP TaqMan PCR and direct microscopic counting (combined r = 0.98). The RLEP TaqMan PCR permitted rapid analysis of batch samples with high reproducibility and is especially valuable for detection of low numbers of bacilli. Molecular enumeration is a rapid, objective and highly reproducible means to estimate the numbers of M. leprae in tissues, and application of the technique can facilitate work with this agent in many laboratories.


The dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity of fluid-saturated rat femoral bone were determined as a function of the conductivity of the immersion fluid over a frequency range of 10-100 Hz to 8 MHz. The specimens were equilibrated in various solutions of Hank's balanced salt solution modified to contain various sodium chloride concentrations, with conductivities ranging from 0.13 to 3.55 s/m. The results of these measurements show that the dc conductivity of the tissue is about 1 percent of the conductivity of the immersion solution. Similar conductivity values were predicted from a simple model of the tissue, in which it is assumed that the only significant contribution to the conductivity arises from the capillaries that pass through the tissue. The permittivity of the tissue exhibits a dispersion whose mean relaxation frequency is proportional to the conductivity of the immersion fluid. The permittivity ranges from about 1000 at low frequencies to 10-20 in the high frequency limit. The dielectric data could be fitted to a Cole-Cole function having a distribution parameter of about 0.5-0.6, which suggests the presence of a diffusion-controlled ionic polarization mechanism, although other relaxation processes could also be present.


Human assistive robotics have the potential to help the elderly and individuals living with disabilities with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Robotics researchers present bottom up solutions using various control methods for different types of movements. Health research on the other hand focuses on clinical assessment and rehabilitation leaving arguably important differences between the two domains. In particular, little is known quantitatively on what ADLs humans perform in their everyday environment - at home, work etc. This information can help guide development and prioritization of robotic technology for in-home assistive robotic deployment. This study targets several lifelogging databases, where we compute (i) ADL task frequency from long-term low sampling frequency video and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data, and (ii) short term arm and hand movement data from 30 fps video data of domestic tasks. Robotics and health care communities have different terms and taxonomies for representing tasks and motions. We derive and discuss a robotics-relevant taxonomy from this quantitative ADL task and ICF motion data in attempt to ameliorate these taxonomic differences. Our statistics quantify that humans reach, open drawers, doors, and retrieve and use objects hundreds of times a day. Commercial wheelchair mounted robot arms can help 150,000 upper body disabled in the USA alone, but only a few hundred robots are deployed. Better user interfaces, and more capable robots can increase the potential user base and number of ADL tasks solved significantly.


Membrane potential and resistance were measured in eggs, cleavage stages and blastulae of the South African toad Xenopus laevis , using intracellular microelectrodes.

The membrane potential increased from −6·5 ± 2mV in eggs to −57 ± 8·0mV at the mid-blastula stage.

The input resistance of fertile eggs ranged from 0·5 MΩ to 5·0 MΩ corresponding to a specific resistance of 20–200kΩcm2. During the first two or three division cycles the input resistance usually decreased by a factor of 2–10 and then subsequently rose during the blastula stages from a mean value of 600 ± 100kΩ at stage 5 to 2·0 ± 0·5 MΩ at stage 8.

At all developmental stages examined, point polarization of a surface cell in the embryo by rectangular current pulses of 0·5−6 × 10−8 A produced voltage deflexions in other surface cells. This was seen even when several (7–8) cell junctions intervened between the current passing and voltage recording microelectrodes at distances of more than 1 mm. These measurements suggest that the junctional resistance is low compared with that at the surface, though the geometrical arrangement of cells is not favourable for calculation of absolute values of membrane resistance.

Current spread between cells occurred apparently less easily during mid-blastula stages than at earlier stages in development, perhaps indicating an increase in junctional resistance during development.

A comparison has been drawn between the present measurements and similar ones made in another amphibian, Triturus .


IC 1396 is a relatively nearby (750 pc), large (.28), H II region ionized by a single O6.5 V star and containing bright-rimmed cometary globules. We have made the first arcminute resolution images of atomic hydrogen toward IC 1396, and have found remarkable ''tail''-like structures associated with some of the globules and extending up to 6.5 pc radially away from the central ionizing star. These H I ''tails'' may be material which has been ablated from the globule through ionization and/or photodissociation and then accelerated away from the globule by the stellar wind, but which has since drifted into the ''shadow'' of the globules. This report presents the first results of the Galactic Plane Survey Project recently begun by the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. Subject headings: H II Regions— ISM: globules— ISM: individual (IC 1396)


Continuous increase in the traffic density over the certain en-route sectors provokes many situations in which a loss of separation minima (SM) between two aircraft occurs. Although, this loss is predicted well in advance, giving a proper look-ahead time (LAT) for a detection function, the resolution of such an event may lead to a new conflict situation due to dynamics of surrounding traffic aircraft. A multiagent system framework can deal with these cases. This work presents three different complexity indicators that can be used to shape the social behavior of the agents. Simulation results show that the proposed indicators can suggest drastically different nature of the same ecosystem, therefore further investigation of the correlation of the proposed indicators to the actual complexity is necessary.


Introduction. The majority of clinically described patient material worldwide is available as formalin fixed parafin embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks. Despite being a cheap and convenient way of archiving tissue suitable for review under the microscope, FFPE blocks are difficult to interrogate with modern molecular biology methods due to changes occurring during the process of fixation, embedding and aging. Genetic analysis of tumours with limited malignant cell count, like classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) or T-cell/histiocyte-rich B cell lymphoma (TCHRBCL) is impeded by a bulk mass of non-malignant tumour infiltrating cells. Laser capture microdissection is currently a method of choise for rare tumor cell isolation, however it induce serious damage for gDNA, therefore additional techniques for enrichment are needed to enable meaningful genome-wide aberration analysis of tumors with low cancer cell content. Methods. For extraction of nuclei from FFPE blocks of cHL and TCHRBCL cases enzymatic digestion and mechanical force were utilized. Pure populations of cancer cell nuclei were isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) based on cancer type-specific nuclear markers Pax-5, Mum-1, Bcl-6, Ki-67. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was utilized for genome-wide aberration analysis. Results. We have optimized a set of methods to successfully isolate intact, high quality nuclei from FFPE tissue blocks. Nuclei retain their antigenicity and, therefore, are suitable for labelling with frourophore-conjugarted antibodies, which enables flow-sorting based not only on physical parameters and DNA content, but also on positivity for highly specific nuclear markers. Tumour nuclei populations from cHL and TCHRBCL of 70-90% in purity were isolated. DNA extracted from as little as 500 flow-sorted nuclei was sufficient to generate high-resolution and reproducible aCGH data. Conclusions. Our proposed methodology allows the use of tissues in FFPE blocks more widely. Efficient isolation of malignant cells from the tumour mass was achieved. In the cases where starting material is scarce and very low number of target nuclei can be isolated, DNA extraction with improved recovery together with commercially available whole genome amplification methods enable genome-wide aberration analysis. Citation Format: Darius Juskevicius, Christian Ruiz, Tanja Dietsche, Alex Rufle, Michael T. Barrett, Lukas Bubendorf, Stephan Dirnhofer, Alexander Tzankov. Genome-wide aberration analysis of rare cancer cell populations derived from formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 820. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-820


In May 1995 the third Hanseatic Endocrine Conference at Stade, Germany, attracted 140 scientists from all over the world to summarize the current knowledge on one hormone--oxytocin. This article presents the major findings of the meeting with the realisation that oxytocin provides major model systems with which to elaborate a whole series of novel endocrinological paradigms, as well as being the example of choice for establishing revolutionary new techniques, which will no doubt spread to studies of other hormone systems. The papers from this symposium will be published in full.


Unit testing is critical to the software development process, ensuring the correctness of basic programming units in a program (e.g., a method). Search-based software testing (SBST) is an automated approach to generating test cases. SBST generates test cases with genetic algorithms by specifying the coverage criterion (e.g., branch coverage). However, a good test suite must have different properties, which cannot be captured using an individual coverage criterion. Therefore, the state-of-the-art approach combines multiple criteria to generate test cases. Since combining multiple coverage criteria brings multiple objectives for optimization, it hurts the test suites' coverage for certain criteria compared with using the single criterion. To cope with this problem, we propose a novel approach named \textbf{smart selection}. Based on the coverage correlations among criteria and the subsumption relationships among coverage goals, smart selection selects a subset of coverage goals to reduce the number of optimization objectives and avoid missing any properties of all criteria. We conduct experiments to evaluate smart selection on $400$ Java classes with three state-of-the-art genetic algorithms under the $2$-minute budget. On average, smart selection outperforms combining all goals on $65.1\%$ of the classes having significant differences between the two approaches. Secondly, we conduct experiments to verify our assumptions about coverage criteria relationships. Furthermore, we experiment with different budgets of $5$, $8$, and $10$ minutes, confirming the advantage of smart selection over combining all goals.


Transgenic tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum var Xanthi) and Arabidopsis ( A. thaliana ) plants expressing an antimicrobial bovine lactoferrin (BLF) gene were developed and evaluated for resistance against an economically important fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani , the causal agent of damping off diseases. The plants were transformed with the Agrobacterium strain C58C1 containing a plasmid construction carrying a modified BLF cDNA. The introgression of BLF cDNA into susceptible tobacco and Arabidopsis lines was confirmed by Southern blot and the expression of full-length lactoferrin transcript and protein was also detected by Northern and Western blots, respectively. Transgenic lines segregating for a single locus insertion were identified and used for disease resistance assays. Transgenic tobacco plants exhibited high levels of Rhizoctonia resistance in detached leaf assays. Similarly, transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings were resistant to the fungus and prevented damping off symptoms. Use of lactoferrin gene is a potential new approach to consider for control of diseases caused by fungal pathogens.


Campus and enterprise wireless networks are increasingly characterized by ubiquitous coverage and rising traffic demands. Lfficiently assigning channels to access points (APs) in these networks can significantly affect the performance and capacity of the WLANs. Ihe state-of-the-art approaches assign channels statically, without considering prevailing traffic demands. In this paper, we show that the quality of a channel assignment can be improved significantly by incorporating observed traffic demands at APs and clients into the assignment process. We refer to this as traffic-aware channel assignment. We conduct extensive trace-driven and synthetic simulations and identify deployment scenarios where tratfic-awareness is likely to be of great help, and scenarios w~here the benefit is minimal. WXe address key practical issues in using traffic-awareness, including measuring an interference graph, handling non-binary interference, collecting tratfic demands, and predicting future demands based on historical information. We present an implementation of our assignment scheme for a 25-node WLAN testbed. Our testbed experiments show that traffic-aware assignment offers superior network pertormance under a wide range ot real network configurations. On the whole, our approach is simple yet effective. It can be incorporated into existing WLANs with little modification to existing wireless nodes and infrastructure.


Forests are dynamic, complex and multidimensional ecosystems and play an irreplaceable role in social, economic, environmental, ecological and cultural context. Eucalyptus is the most common exotic species in Portugal forests. This species is fundamental in the industries related to the pulp paper production and the concern about their effects in ecosystems is growing. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) combined with Remote Sensing (RS) data can help to understand this complex ecosystem. Moreover, GIS and RS are commonly used in forest management. GIS allows the manipulation, analysis, and generation of considerable amounts of environmental information. This information can be used in the evaluation of ecosystems' conditions and for decision making. The study case of this project was the municipal lands included in "Serras do Porto" and Valongo's Nature 2000 network (Porto district, Portugal). The study zone considered in this work is a landscape of extreme relevance to Porto Metropolitan Area. For decades this area was extensively explored with eucalyptus plantations in order to produce cellulose for paper industry. Due to the characteristics of the area and its extension (40 hectares) the use of GIS became the most accurate and reliable alternative to characterize it. The combination of GIS tools and RS data allows the characterization of terrain relief, namely the analysis of altimetry, hypsometry, hydrography, the creation of environmental indexes such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). RS technology offer the potential to explore the effects of land-use changes and disturbances on forest dynamics at large spatial scales. A Sentinel-2A image was used to produce NDVI, EVI, and NDWI environmental indexes and to generate the Land Use Land Cover (LULC) map, through Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin from QGIS software using Minimum Distance algorithm. The LULC was classified with two classes because the study area only presents two types of species: eucalyptus and bare soil. The LULC map obtained was validated through field points collected in the study area with a GPS receptor. An overall accuracy of 92.98% and a kappa statistic of 0.842 was obtained. Also, some of the geographic information obtained in the field was then integrated in QGIS software. Moreover, a phenological study was performed using NDVI values obtained from Sentinel-2A images, to understand the eucalyptus behavior in a certain period of time.. Because of that RS data provided useful information about the landscape dynamics allowing the assess to forest cover change and land use helping to create decision making plans and forest conservation measures.


ABSTRACT This research aims to compressive strength in fiber-reinforced concrete treatment with conventional treatment, the treatment compressive strength fiber-reinforced concrete curing compound by treatment, Strong bending in the fiber-reinforced concrete maintenance treatment at curing compound. Treatment of fiber-reinforced concrete accelerated hardening process using two methods of treatment and care of concrete with concrete soaked with curring compound. This research used 24 samples of the specimen cylinder with a diameter of 15 cm and 30 cm, to test a row of concrete at the age of 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 28 days. Flexural strength testing 24 samples of concrete using beam specimen with a length of 53 cm, height 10 cm width 10 cm, tests are carried out in succession at the age of 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 28 days. This study took this 3 sample test specimens for each type of testing at a certain age. The results showed that of the compressive strength in fiber-reinforced concrete treatment with conventional treatment at the age of 3 days: 35.36 N/mm2, 7 days: 41.87 N/mm2, 14 days: 43.32 N/mm2, and 28 days: 48.66 N/mm2. Flexural strength on fiber-reinforced concretetreatment with conventional treatment in a row at the age of 3 days: 8:30 N/mm2, 7 days: 7:58 N/mm2, 14 days: 8.66 N/mm2, and 28 days: 8.85 N/mm2. Compressive strength in steel with treatment of fibrous concrete curing compound treatments successively at the age of 3 days: 27.34 N/mm2, 7 days: 30.46 N/mm2, 14 days: 37.53 N/mm2, 28 days: 37.72 N/mm2. Flexural strength in the treatment of fiber-reinforced concretecuring compound treatment at successively at the age of 3 days: 7:45 N/mm2, 7 days: 6.75 N/mm2, 14 days: 7.86 N/mm2, 28 days: 8.98 N/mm2. Compressive strength test with care soaked 21.25% higher than the curing compound, and flexural strength test with marinated treatments 7.25% higher than that of concrete curing compound with marinated care is stronger than concrete curing compound treatment and how treatment may affect the resulting strength of the concrete. Keywords: Compressive strength, Curing compound, Flexural strength


Purpose of reviewVoice tremor is a feature of many neurological conditions. Historically, clinical evaluation of voice tremor has relied on auditory–perceptual evaluation. We review developments in understanding of voice tremor that advocate additional approaches (acoustic, fibreoptic nasolaryngoscopic examination) to evaluation and stress the contribution from multiple sites in the speech mechanism to perceived tremor. Recent findingsAn isolated focus on the speech signal does not identify the source/s of tremor. Structures in the pharynx and larynx can be important sources of perceived voice tremor. In addition to a sustained vowel phonatory task for evaluation, fibreoptic nasolaryngoscopic examination is recommended to observe tremor behaviour in different anatomic sites using different speech tasks; acoustic analysis is recommended to quantify tremor and enhance understanding of underlying mechanisms. Tremor measures (rate, periodicity, magnitude of frequency and amplitude tremor) have proved useful in differentiating speakers with tremor from normal speakers. Differentiating between tremor aetiologies is proving more challenging. The investigation of a conceptual model of voice tremor to understand the effect that oscillations in different parts of the speech mechanism have on the speech signal is an important development in the field. SummaryA sustained phonatory vowel task with fibreoptic nasolaryngoscopic examination of pharyngeal and laryngeal musculature, supplemented by acoustic measures, is currently recommended for clinical identification, quantification and characterization of voice tremor.


Village elections in China present scholars with the case of a single-party regime that allows voters to reject candidates regularly. Using a micro survey of 698 voters in 30 rural election districts, the authors demonstrate that when some candidates can lose, voters participate. A comparison of models of voter turnout and running for office further demonstrates that even when competition is structured to the benefit of party members, the perception of competition as choice between candidates is sufficient to engage voters and increase their perception that the electoral process is fair. These findings hold regardless of a respondent's age, gender, membership in the Communist Party and Youth League, and general knowledge level and access to media. Village wealth and geographical isolation also do not demonstrate a strong substantive impact. One theoretical implication of these findings is that contested elections in authoritarian regimes may simultaneously strengthen demand for accountability and loyalty to the regime.


This paper concerns three topics for realizing embodied"proactive"human interface, where a humanoid is used as an interface capable of making some reaction against to user's gesture input in advance to the termination of the gesture. The first topic is early recognition of gestures: the recognition result of a gesture is provided at the beginning part of the gesture. The second topic is motion prediction: the subsequent posture of the person who makes a gesture is predicted by using the result of early recognition. The third topic is a network model constructed for improving the performance of early recognition and motion prediction. The effectiveness of these methods was shown by experimental results.


Since its inception in the 1970s, space syntax has matured into a theory and a method comprising a set of recurring theoretical and analytical concepts, as well as new ones emerging through the years. How can we trace the evolution of the field through language? How can we analyse the development of ideas in space syntax research? What can we learn from this evolution about knowledge creation in this area? Recognising that language is central to the development of ideas in any field, this paper uses automated text-analyses, focusing more specifically on all papers published in the space syntax symposia proceedings from 1997 to 2017. The purpose is to trace the trajectory of ideas as they were elaborated, used and perhaps changed in the collective work of authors researching within this field in different parts of the world. Firstly, we identify concepts and technical terminology in the field through a combined quantitative and qualitative text analysis. Secondly, we statistically assess the use of these terms, revealing patterns and trends in the evolution of knowledge in space syntax. Thirdly, we compare patterns between established concepts and categories that stabilise over time with concepts emerging more recently. The results from our analysis of networks of concept relationships suggest that: (i) concepts and terms evolve in dependent trajectories; (ii) ideas have evolutionary developments, with some emerging and gaining growing attention, while others showing clear signs of stability, and others losing centrality over time, including networks of what can be termed as 'canonical' concepts. We have also identified (iii) an overall decline in the use of early space syntax concepts rooted in social theory and anthropology; (iv) a trend of decreasing conceptual novelty over time; (v) traces of increasing influence by other fields; and finally (vi) signs of a clear 'technological turn' in the field.


: This research's objectives were to analyze the using of new media in the form of set up candid clip that affects the product and presenter, to study the effectiveness of using new media in the form of set up candid clip in order to increase the circulation and audience satisfaction and to use the earned information and knowledge to develop the communication for publicizing and advertising via new media. This research is qualitative research based on questionnaire from 50 random sampling representative samples and in-depth interview from experts in publicizing and advertising fields. The findings indicated the positive and negative effects to the brands' image and presenters' image of product named "Scotch 100" and "Snickers" that used set up candid clips via new media for publicizing and advertising in Thailand. It will be useful for fields of publicizing and advertising in the new media forms.


Human wellbeing depends on nature, but in spite of much work by and since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, it is not clear whether existing frameworks adequately analyze this relationship given our increasing market based societies. We report on a reassessment of this situation, developed at the recent workshop "Quantification of Ecosystem Services: concepts and measurement", co-organized by the World Agroforestry Centre, the Centre for International Forestry Research, Bioversity International and Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre. We assessed the need for a new framework, and sought consensus on the meaning of the term "ecosystem services" (ES), on approaches to their measurement and valuation along the full gradient of human modification of landscapes and on how to capture this vital knowledge in green accounting in a way that speaks to policy makers. A new framework is presented that combines both the ES and the livelihood capitals approaches. The ES concept emphasizes the benefits obtained by people from ecosystems and their economic value. In contrast, the multiple-capital livelihood framework has reframed debates on poverty by focusing on assets and resource access, not just on income. However, to maintain ES we need investment in natural capital. New standards for green accounting require clarity on "stocks", "stock change" and "flows". The agro-ecosystems managed to maximize "provisioning services" are both recipients and providers of ES - understanding and managing these dual roles require a framework that can apply to all phases of "forest and rural transitions", as well as the processes of change, so that strategic interventions can be planned. The proposed framework includes direct and indirect ES where benefits are derived from presence of natural capital respectively without and with the involvement of market economy. Thus human, social, cultural and political capitals (human wellbeing) are directly affected by natural capital, and indirectly affected through built and financial capitals (market economy). The benefits derived from ecosystem services must somehow lead to incentives to maintain and restore the natural capital that provides such services. By integrating the livelihood capitals approach, including a revised definition of natural capital, this new framework is applicable across the forest transition curve, and appropriate for assessing changes in importance and interactions of different capitals as societies pass from subsistence to market-based economies. It will also provide insight regarding interactions between people, nature and economy under different scenarios, including payment for ecosystem services schemes, green accounting and others. (Texte integral)


ABSTRACT Smart Specialisation (S3) has been the driving force behind the European Union's regional innovation strategy for the last seven years. However, criticism has been levelled at the policy as lacking an evidence base. This paper tackles this gap in the literature by providing an empirical assessment of a strategy remarkably similar to S3: the Maine Economic Improvement Fund (MEIF). The paper finds that the MEIF has succeeded in increasing employment, but is less successful in increasing productivity. Given the similarity between the MEIF and S3, the paper provides important lessons for European practitioners and policy-makers implementing the strategy.


This article outlines the different initiatives addressing men's responsibility in reproductive health of present and future generations. In European countries, focus has been directed on information, education and communication (IEC) activities for soldiers. Military cooperation on a program to implement IEC activities for young soldiers in Turkey and Bulgaria has been documented. In addition, migration and male reproductive health behavior is addressed in an initiative by the Institute of Public Health of Serbia. However, discussions on male involvement in reproductive health services points out that new initiatives for male participants should not come at the expense of programs for women. Furthermore, the need to male involvement in sexual and reproductive health services should identify men's perspective, concerns and specific problem, as well as the establishment of clinics and services for the exclusive use of men.


Magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) images prior to endoscopic laser photoresection for obstructing lesions of the airways were compared in 24 patients. In 33% of the cases, MR was considered superior to CT in defining the relationship of the vessels to the tracheobronchial tree and the location and extent of the airway lesion. In 50% MR and CT were equal. In 17% MR was not diagnostic, mainly because of motion degradation of the images. Transverse MR imaging can define tumor relationship to vessels. Coronal imaging allows visualization of the trachea and mainstem bronchi, and surface coil technology allows imaging with improved resolution of the proximal trachea. MR, when available, is an appropriate first imaging modality for evaluating the relationships of the tracheobronchial tree and vasculature prior to laser photoresection. If MR is not readily available, or if cardiac arrhythmia or patient motion precludes MR imaging, then contrast-enhanced CT evaluation would be the modality of choice.


This paper attempts to highlight the publication status and growth of global cosmic rays research publication output of Web of Science during 2004-2013. A total of 20395 publications were published on cosmic rays during this period. The average number of publications per year is 2039.5 and the highest numbers of publications 2565 were published in 2009. Out of total publications, 5288 were produced by mega authors and 2794 by multi authors. Pattern of Co-Authorship revealed that the improving trend of co-authored publications. The average value of Collaboration Coefficient for cosmic rays is 0.64. The parameters studied include forms of publications, annual growth rate, relative growth rate and doubling time ofpublications, authorship pattern, identification of most prolific authors, country wise distribution of publications, identification of highly productive institutions, language wise distribution of publications and highly preferred source titles for publications.


The Nihewan Basin (40°N) in North China is a rich source of Early Pleistocene Paleolithic sites and thus a key area for studying early human evolution in high‐latitude (from an early human perspective) East Asia. Here a high‐resolution magnetostratigraphic investigation is carried out on a fluvio‐lacustrine section in the northeastern Nihewan Basin, which contains the Feiliang and Lanpo Paleolithic sites. Paleomagnetic results suggest that this section records the lower portion of the Brunhes polarity chron and the upper Matuyama polarity chron. Furthermore, the Jaramillo polarity subchron and seven of the nine validated geomagnetic excursions within the Matuyama polarity chron are identified, including the Kamikatsura, Santa Rosa, Intra‐Jaramillo, Cobb Mountain, Bjorn, Gardar and Gilsa excursions. The Feiliang artifact layer is located just at the bottom of the Cobb Mountain excursion, thus its age is estimated to be ∼1.2 Ma. The Lanpo artifact layer appears to be coeval with the Gilsa excursion, yielding an estimated age of ∼1.6 Ma. This study provides new evidence for the presence of early humans in North China before 1.5 Ma and documents the powerful role of geomagnetic excursions: they provide valuable age control points for ongoing efforts to date the early Paleolithic sites.


Implementation, deployment and maintenance of enterprise software pre-configured products are one of the key challenges managers need to address in order to stay competitive in the never ending search to find better ways of conducting business. In the literature there are discovered two general approaches through which managers can use for a successful implementation, deployment and maintenance of enterprise software products. First approach is based on the internal re-deployment of the managerial practices that are already used to manage other fields in the enterprise. Second – the deployment of "world-wide" industry "best practices" that international vendors of enterprise software and their local representatives sell as part of their pre-configured software products. This paper presents a novel model that enables enterprises to systematically evaluate the fit between their specific organizational characteristics and the organizational characteristics complementary with successful deployment of international pre-configured enterprise software products. The proposed model is tested through a comparison of two groups of enter-prises from the population of 1000 biggest enterprises in Slovenia. The first group mostly invests in local, while the second group mostly invests in international enterprise software products. The paper finds that on average there are significant and relevant differences in 44% of the examined organizational characteristics between the groups of enterprises that mostly invest in international or local enterprise software products. The model serves as a comprehensive organizational risk checklist for enterprises that are about to invest in enterprise software products.


We define sound and adequate denotational and operational semantics for the stochastic lambda calculus. These two semantic approaches build on previous work that used similar techniques to reason about higher-order probabilistic programs, but for the first time admit an adequacy theorem relating the operational and denotational views. This resolves the main issue left open in (Bacci et al. 2018).


In this work several compounds were detected in wines by HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry. In particular cinnamic and benzoic acids, tyrosol, apigenin-7-glucoside and luteolin-7-glucoside were identified and quantified in Italian wines. Red wines show bigger amount of cinnamic and benzoic acids than white wines. tyrosol is in bigger amount with respect to two flavones: luteolin-7-glucoside and apigenin-7-glucoside. These last two flavones are only in some wine, but it can be important to detect the presence of different substances in small amount to be able to characterize a wine.


An improved Gurney model considering explosive energy waste originated in the process of driving rod-shaped fragment revolving, is proposed herein to predict initial velocity of parallel-moving rod-shaped fragment using parameters such as Gurney constant, mass ratio of explosive charge to rodshaped fragments, and slanting angle of rod-shaped fragments arrangement. Static arena test was performed to evaluate validity of said improved model, and predictions based on the improved Gurney model exhibit impressive consistency with test results, providing a reliable methodology to predict initial velocity of parallel-moving rod-shaped fragments in the engineering development of controllable discrete rod warhead.


A modal logic is non-iterative if it can be defined by axioms that do not nest modal operators, and rank-1 if additionally all propositional variables in axioms are in scope of a modal operator. It is known that every syntactically defined rank-1 modal logic can be equipped with a canonical coalgebraic semantics, ensuring soundness and strong completeness. In the present work, we extend this result to non-iterative modal logics, showing that every non-iterative modal logic can be equipped with a canonical coalgebraic semantics defined in terms of a copointed functor, again ensuring soundness and strong completeness via a canonical model construction. Like in the rank-1 case, the canonical coalgebraic semantics is equivalent to a neighbourhood semantics with suitable frame conditions, so the known strong completeness of non-iterative modal logics over neighbourhood semantics is implied. As an illustration of these results, we discuss deontic logics with factual detachment, which is captured by axioms that are non-iterative but not rank 1.


Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer is an autosomal, dominantly inherited disease, characterized by an early age of onset, right colon predominance and an association with various extracolorectal malignancies. We present a case of a 47-year-old woman who met the clinical criteria for the diagnosis of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer from her past and family histories. She had undergone operations for uterine cancer (histology not confirmed) at age 35 and for advanced cancer of the ascending colon at age 45. Gastroendoscopy revealed a flat elevated lesion, 20 mm in size, with a protrusion (type IIa + Is) in the second portion of the duodenum in March 1996. Additionally, colonoscopy showed a flat elevated lesion, 30 mm in size, with an irregular and nodular surface (type IIa, laterally spreading tumor) in the descending colon. After the operation, the resected specimen of the duodenum histologically showed a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma associated with a tubulo-villous adenoma which had invaded the submucosal layer. The tumor of the colon was histologically confirmed to be a moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma with submucosal invasion. A high frequency of replication error positivity (4/5 loci) was detected in both of the tumors. Reports of early cancer of the duodenum, associated with extracolorectal malignancies in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, are very rare in the literature. Although it is difficult to determine which extracolorectal tumor sites should be taken into consideration by screening programs, we believe that careful observation by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, which includes the duodenum, is necessary for patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.


Problem: Technical writers rarely work on patent applications, but the typical documents writers prepare during research and development are important during patent disputes. Patent disputes are so costly that the potential for these disputes weighs heavily on the minds of those preparing patent applications. The relationship between technical documentation and the legal processes surrounding research and development need to shape a writer's documentation practice. Research question: What legal concepts do technical writers need to know when working in research and development? Key concepts: Patent prosecution is the process of obtaining a patent. Technology transfer is the communication that places an innovation into the marketplace. Patent disputes arise when a party believes its patent rights have been infringed. The work of technical writers becomes relevant during patent disputes. Two Supreme Court cases inform the process for reconstructing the meaning of patent claims during a dispute: ${\rm Markman \,v.\, Westview\, Instruments, \, Inc.}$ and ${\rm Phillips \,v. \, AWH Corp. \, Markman}$ limits the audience who determines the meaning of a claim to the judge instead of a jury, and Phillips establishes the role written documents have in a patent dispute. The ${\rm Phillips}$ case shows how a judge might use technical documentation to determine the meaning of a patent claim or term. From these cases, we can draw strategies for preparing technical documents. Key lessons: While impossible to know prior to a patent dispute how a document will affect the outcome of the dispute, technical communicators can adopt three strategies for preparing precise and complete documents. First, technical writers can adopt a "liminal" practice—the ability to interact as needed with different disciplines. Second, technical communicators can approach new subjects with assent, a type of seeking understood in order to fully explore a new technology. And third, technical communicators can approach writing about research and development as a technical translation practice to translate highly scientific or technical language into precise plain language. Implications to practice: By developing a liminal practice, technical communicators can build a robust documentation practice that includes the contextual nuances essential for work in patent prosecution and technology transfer.


Introduction: Non-persistence to treatment with hypomethylating agents (HMA) in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS) patients can result in loss of response or ability to achieve a primary response. HMA treatment is recommended to be given to HR-MDS patients for least 4-6 treatment cycles to elicit a clinical response and premature termination is likely to result in poor outcomes and considerable healthcare spending. The study objective was to assess direct medical costs associated with HMA treatment non-persistence among HR-MDS patients.
 Methods: Using a retrospective cohort design, MDS patients with refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB) were analyzed using 2010-2016 Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare linked database. RAEB diagnosis is considered to substantially overlap with HR-MDS and has been used as a surrogate for HR-MDS. The study cohort included RAEB patients diagnosed between 01/2011 and 12/2015. Patients were included if they had ≥ 1 year of continuous Medicare enrollment prior to diagnosis and did not receive stem cell transplant or lenalidomide in the follow-up period. HR-MDS patients receiving HMAs were stratified into HMA persistent (receiving 4 or more HMA cycles without any gap of ≥90 days between cycles) and HMA non-persistent (receiving less than 4 cycles or a gap of ≥90 days between cycles) groups. Healthcare resource use (HCRU) and associated direct medical costs incurred during the follow-up period were described as per-patient-per-month (PPPM). To account for baseline differences between HMA persistent and non-persistent groups, propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW) were calculated. Weighted HCRU and costs (PPPM) were further estimated using generalized linear models (GLMs). Costs were inflated to 2019 USD using medical component of consumer price index.
 Results: There were 664 patients identified with RAEB, of which 295 (44.4%) patients were classified in the HMA non-persistent group and 369 (55.6%) patients in the HMA persistent group. HMA persistent and non-persistent groups were similar in baseline demographic and clinical characteristics; however, non-persistent HMA users were older at diagnosis and a lower proportion of patients were married. Results from weighted GLM analysis indicated higher PPPM resource utilization in HMA non-persistent patients compared to HMA persistent patients specifically for hospitalizations (Incident rate ratio [IRR], 1.543, 95% Confidence interval [CI]: 1.181 - 2.018]), ER visits (IRR= 1.322, 95% CI: 1.146 - 1.524), SNF use (IRR = 2.158, 95% CI: 1.308 - 3.560), home health (IRR = 1.335, 95% CI: 1.039 - 1.714] and hospice care use (IRR = 2.555, 95% CI:1.972 - 3.309) (Table 1). Further, HMA non-persistent patients had significantly (P<0.05) higher total PPPM costs than HMA persistent patients ($18,039 vs. $13,893, p<0.05); particularly for hospitalizations ($3,375 vs. $2,131), and ER costs ($5,517 vs. $2,867) (Figure 1).
 Conclusions: A significant proportion of HR-MDS (RAEB) patients discontinue guideline-recommended HMA treatment. Non-persistence with HMA treatments was associated with substantial cost burden. The study findings call for closer care management by healthcare providers to ensure HMA treatment is completed as scheduled (unless directed otherwise by the provider) to manage outcomes and healthcare spending.

 Joshi: Pharmerit International: Current Employment. Kale:Pharmerit International: Current Employment. Corman:Pharmerit International: Current Employment. Hill:Taiho Oncology: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Wert:Taiho Oncology: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Zeidan:Otsuka: Consultancy, Honoraria; Aprea: Research Funding; ADC Therapeutics: Research Funding; Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: Other; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria; Ionis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Incyte: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Jazz: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene / BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Astex: Research Funding; CCITLA: Other; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Cardiff Oncology: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other; BeyondSpring: Consultancy, Honoraria; Acceleron: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Boehringer-Ingelheim: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; MedImmune/Astrazeneca: Research Funding; Trovagene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Agios: Consultancy, Honoraria; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; Taiho: Consultancy, Honoraria; Cardinal Health: Consultancy, Honoraria; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding.


We present the synchronous implementation of handshake circuits as an extra feature in the otherwise asynchronous design flow based on Tangram. This synchronous option can be used in the mapping onto FPGAs or as a fallback option to provide a circuit that is easier to test and integrate in a synchronous environment. When single-rail and synchronous realizations of the same handshake circuit are compared, the synchronous versions typically require fewer state-holding elements, occupy less area, have similar performance, but consume significantly more power (in the examples studied up to a factor four). Synchronous handshake circuits provide a means to study clock-gating techniques based on the synthesis starting from a behavioral-level specification. In addition, the study provides hints as to where the asynchronous handshake circuits may be optimized further.


site-directed mutagenesis studies in combination with patch-clamp experiments. Our results suggest that the efficacy of the agonists is closely coupled to the energetics of the C-loop of the receptor. With the presence of different ligands in the binding sites, the C-loop closure energy profiles given by potential of mean force (PMF) calculation reveal interesting differences. The results suggest that the combination of modelling and patch-clamp experiments for partial agonists can be a powerful approach to deciphering the atomistic details of glycine receptor activation.


One woman developed a pouch-vaginal fistula after reconstructive proctocolectomy for ulcerative colitis. This study describes the risk factors which predispose to the development of this rare complication, as well as the various treatment options available. A diverting ileostomy was maintained and gracilis muscle interposition flap was used to treat the patient. An excellent result was achieved. This procedure can be useful in this rare but distressing complication.


Abstract The author explores how the ritual religious practice of Sufism and the charismatic leadership of the sheikh play a role in ethical self-making and community-building in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. She traces how the Sufi concept of adab, or proper dervish conduct, represents at once a transcendent relationship with the Divine and urban civility. The author argues that Sufi practices in the care for the self represent an authentic response to the postwar and postsocialist ethical demand in the city of restoring urban social relationships. The processes analysed here reflect wider changes in what constitutes an Islamic authority in post-Yugoslav Bosnia, and the impact this has on the ongoing local debate on Islam as discursive tradition.


The Southeast Asian cyprinid genus Henicorhynchus has a complicated taxonomic history due to morphological similarities with other genera and among species within the genus itself. Henicorhynchus and its constituent species are herein revised based on morphological examinations of over 1,000 specimens with a particular emphasis on oromandibular structures. Five species are now recognized in the genus. Henicorhynchus entmema and H. caudimaculatus are senior synonyms of H. lobatus and H. lineatus, respectively. Henicorhynchus caudiguttatus is removed from synonymy with H. caudimaculatus. A revised diagnosis of the South Asian cyprinid genus Gymnostomus, previously considered a senior synonym of Henicorhynchus, is also provided.


Because plants are mostly sessile, dispersal of pollen and seeds during reproduction determines changes in gene frequencies within populations and plant distributions on a broader scale. Selection favours a mixture of local and distant dispersal and for nearly all plants this is achieved with a single type of dispersal structure because dispersal is relatively ineffective on average whatever the dispersal mode; this ineffectiveness probably accounts for the rarity of dimorphic dispersal structures. Empirical studies show that most dispersal is local, but far-dispersal events, because of their potential to increase fitness though colonisation of unoccupied habitat patches, are probably what largely determines the selection of dispersal structures. The effectiveness of dispersal can be described in terms of distance, and the ability to reach favourable habitats. Effectiveness in achieving distance, a result of the interaction of the dispersal mode and agent with the environment, results in the typical leptokurtotic dispersal curve. There is no evidence that the shape of the dispersal curve itself is selected.


Abstract Zinc oxide nanoparticles (Nano-ZnO) is currently one of the most extensively used inorganic particles in a wide range of skin care and consumable products. Therefore, examining the biological effects of Nano-ZnO, especially in the non-cytotoxic levels, thus holds important contemporary practical implications. Herein, our study demonstrates that long-term conditioning of human keratinocytes (HaCaTs) to non-cytoxic dose of Nano-ZnO (∼100 nm) can induce an adaptive response, leading to an enhancement of the cells tolerance against cytotoxic level of Nano-ZnO. It was found that the Nano-ZnO induced adaptive alteration is mediated by a strong synergism between the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) flares by a sub-population of cells that are loaded with Nano-ZnO and upregulation of several pro-inflammatory transcripts. Further studies revealed activation of the nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf-2) stress response pathway and the associated downstream sustained augmented level of chymotrypsin-like 20 s proteasome activity to be the major mechanism underpinning this phenomenon. Interestingly, these cytoprotective responses can further aid the Nano-ZnO conditioned HaCaT cells to cross-adapt to harmful effects of ultraviolet-A (UVA) by reducing radiation-induced DNA damage. Our findings have unveiled a range of previously undocumented potent and exploitable bioeffects of Nano-ZnO induced ROS mediated signaling within the framework of nano-adaptation.


In the absence of intracardiac or intrapulmonary shunts, the pulmonary microvasculature traps all embolized particles greater than 10 microns. In the vast majority of cases these emboli are venous thrombi which lodge in larger pulmonary arteries, resulting in obstructive phenomena rather than primarily being injurious to lung parenchyma. This review deals exclusively with nonthrombotic pulmonary embolism which involves substances that lodge predominantly in the pulmonary microvessels and cause a true endothelial and parenchymal injury, as well as obstructive phenomena. The article focuses on fat embolism, amniotic fluid embolism, gas embolism, septic emboli, and tumour pulmonary embolism.


Many applications, as in computer vision or medicine, aim at identifying the similarities between several images or signals. Thereafter, it is possible to detect objects, to follow them, or to overlap different pictures. In every case, the algorithmic procedures that treat the images use a selection of keypoints that they try to match by pairs. The most popular algorithm nowadays is SIFT, that performs keypoint selection, descriptor calculation, and provides a criterion for global descriptor matching. We considered changing the classical descriptor, which resulted in a shift testing problem that we solved in the minimax frame. Then, we gave a rigorous statistical formulation for the global descriptor matching problem and studied it in some special cases.


ABSTRACT Purpose. The standard approach to right colon cancer resection is still a matter of debate and includes laparoscopy, open midline incision, or open transverse incision. We aimed this study to compare the short- and long-term results of laparoscopic right-colectomy with those provided by the open approaches. Methods. Of the 176 patients who underwent right-colectomy at our Department for nonmetastatic colon cancer, 40 patients treated by laparoscopy, 40 treated by transverse incisions, and 40 treated by midline incisions were selected and matched using the propensity score method. Short-term results included: operating time, morbidity rate, number of lymph-nodes harvested (LNH), patients' recovery features, and costs. Long-term results included: disease-specific survivals and the rate of incisional hernias. The sub-groups were compared using t-test and Chi-square tests, whereas the Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess survivals. Results. Laparoscopies were the longer procedures, providing similar morbidity rates and LNH in comparison with the open approaches. Laparoscopy provided a faster return to oral intake and a shorter use of analgesics comparing with the midline approach; however, it showed only a minor consumption of analgesics in comparison with transverse laparotomy. There were no differences in the hospital stay and the long-term results were comparable between sub-groups. Costs analysis documented minor but not significant surgical expenses for the transverse approach. Conclusions. Laparoscopy was documented safe, with similar morbidity rates and long-term results comparing with open surgery. Laparoscopy provided better functional short-term results comparing with the midline approach, but only small differences with respect to the transverse incision approach.


.. Objectives: To analyze the comparative results of dynamic DHS fixation in stable and the unstable intertrochanteric fractures at LUH. Study Design: Comparative study. Setting: Orthopedic unit I of LUH Jamshoro. Period: 26th May 2010 – 25th August 2011. Methodology: All 40 patients with femur intertrochanteric fracture were enlisted. All cases isolated in 2 groups every having 20 patients, group A stable fracture and group B unstable fractures. After complete physical examination, examinations and fracture arrangement evaluation, patients were readied for operation. Fracture table was used in each operation. Fracture reduction was initially attempted by close manipulation and was successful in 30 (75%) cases. Lateral approach for proximal femur was used in every case. All fractures, whether stable or unstable, were reduced anatomically without any type of osteotomy and then fixed with 135o dynamic hip screw. Results: Mean age was 62.8.2 years of the cases. Gender ratio was 3:1. According to mode of injury were found RTA in 21 (70%) patients. Postoperative complications were recorded as; superficial infection noted in 2 (5%) patients and there was no case of deep infection. Average stay of hospital found 16.5 days in 17 (42.5%) patients belongs to stable group and 06 (15%) patients belong to unstable group. All (n=40) patients were pain free on their discharge from hospital. In all (n=40) patients we achieved union and there was no case of delayed union or non-union. We assessed functional outcome of our patients on the base of Stinchfield Hip Assessment system. According to SHAS 28 (70%) patients were excellent, 05 (12.5%) patients were good, 04 (10%) were fair and 03 (7.5) were poor. We had not found mortality in our patients. Conclusions: According to our conclusion DHS is the best implant for intertrochanteric fracture fixation. No matter; whether fracture is stable, unstable and fresh or old.