Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent hepatocyte mitogen but its effect in liver cancer is conflicting. Methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) is an essential enzyme encoded by two genes (MAT1A and MAT2A), while a third gene (MAT2β) encodes for a subunit that regulates the MAT2A‐encoded isoenzyme. MAT1A is silenced while MAT2A and MAT2β are induced in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The current work examined expression of HGF/c‐met in HCC and whether HGF regulates MAT genes and growth in HepG2 cells. We found the mRNA levels of HGF and c‐met are markedly increased in HCC. To study the influence of cell density, HepG2 cells were plated under high‐density (HD) or low‐density (LD) and treated with HGF (10 ng/ml). Cell density had a dramatic effect on MAT1A expression, being nearly undetectable at LD to a ninefold induction under HD. Cell density also determined the effect of HGF. At HD, HGF increased the mRNA levels of p21 and p27, while lowering the levels of MAT genes, cyclin A, and c‐met. At LD, HGF increased the mRNA levels of cyclin A, MAT2A, MAT2β, and c‐met. Consistently, HGF inhibits growth under HD but stimulates growth under LD. HGF induced sustained high ERK activation under HD as compared to LD. In summary, HGF induces genes favoring growth and is mitogenic when HepG2 cells are plated under LD; however, the opposite occurs under HD. This involves cell density‐dependent differences in HGF‐induced ERK activation. This may explain why HGF is mitogenic only when there is loss of cell‐cell contact in vivo. J. Cell. Physiol. 210: 766–773, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A common [4 + 2]-benzannulation of Morita-Baylis-Hillman acetates of acetylenic aldehydes with boronic acids has been developed for the synthesis of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds through tandem allylic substitution/hydroarylative cycloisomerization process. This method provides a facile and general route to substituted benzenes, naphthalenes, other polycyclic aromatics, and various benzene-fused heteroaromatic compounds such as benzofuran, benzothiophene, indole, and carbazoles.


'Aesthetic and the other' looks at the interpersonal dimension of aesthetics. Aesthetics is rarely a solitary endeavour. We are social beings and there are very few aesthetic situations that are devoid of all social aspects. The discussion of the social dimension of aesthetics in the history of 'Western' aesthetics has been dominated by aesthetic agreements and disagreements. But the real question about aesthetic agreements and disagreements is not about who is right and who is wrong. It is about the ways in which our experiences depend on the allocation of our attention, our background beliefs and knowledge, as well as our past exposure.


THE REPRESSION OF CRIME. THE annual report of the Commissioners of Prisons and Directors of Convict Prisons for the year ending March 31st, i9oI, contains fresh evidences of a steady decrease in crime throughout the country. How far the enlightened administration of our criminal law and the penal system by which it is enforced in our convict and local prisons may have contributed to these happy results may be matter of opinion, but as to the results themselves there can be no doubt.


Satellite remote sensing is regularly used for wildfire detection, fire severity mapping and burnt area mapping. Applications in the surveillance of wildfire using geostationary-based sensors have been limited by low spatial resolutions. With the launch in 2015 of the AHI (Advanced Himawari Imaginer) sensor on board Himawari-8, ten-minute interval imagery is available covering an entire earth hemisphere across East Asia and Australasia. Existing active fire detection algorithms depend on middle infrared (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) channels to detect fire. Even though sub-pixel fire detection algorithms can detect much smaller fires, the location of the fire within the AHI 2 × 2 km (400 ha) MIR/TIR pixel is unknown. This limits the application of AHI as a wildfire surveillance and tracking sensor. A new multi-spatial resolution approach is presented in this paper that utilizes the available medium resolution channels in AHI. The proposed algorithm is able to map firelines at a 500 m resolution. This is achieved using near infrared (NIR) (1 km) and RED (500 m) data to detect burnt area and smoke within the flagged MIR (2 km) pixel. Initial results based on three case studies carried out in Western Australia shows that the algorithm was able to continuously track fires during the day at 500 m resolution. The results also demonstrate the utility for wildfire management activities.


This paper incorporates uncertainties of model risk in a stress scenario for house prices. Our approach consists of mapping the Gaussian (or other alternative) distribution quantiles to the quantiles of the empirical distribution using a statistical criterion. The mapping corrects for the presence of fatter tails (relative to the Gaussian distribution) into the re-parameterized distribution. The focus of the analysis is at the tail of the distribution, which is associated with uncertain adverse events. The application of the model to house prices indicates the relevance of our mapping in terms of capturing the home price declines observed in the Great Recession. The derivation of confidence intervals, furthermore, provides buffers for model risk. For example, while regulatory capital may use the point estimate of the quantile of the distribution, risk management organizations may use this confidence intervals to bolster resilience of financial institutions to home price declines.


Modes of a laser with plano–spherical degenerate and nondegenerate resonators are calculated upon diode pumping producing the Gaussian gain distribution in the active medium. Axially symmetric and off-axis pumpings are considered. It is shown that in the first case the lowest Hermite–Gaussian mode is excited with the largest weight both in the degenerate and nondegenerate resonator if the pump level is sufficiently high or the characteristic size wg of the amplifying region greatly exceeds the mode radius w0. The high-order Ince–Gaussian modes are excited upon weak off-axis pumping in the nondegenerate resonator both in the absence and presence of the symmetry of the gain distribution with respect to the resonator axis. It is found that when the level of off-axis symmetric pumping of the resonator is high enough, modes with the parameters of the TEM00 mode periodically propagating over a closed path in the resonator can exist. The explanation of this effect is given.


: We examined the impacts of hypoxic opposition practice on post-practice hemodynamics in eight strong young men. Subjects had a place in an athletic club (runners, hurdles and long jumpers) and participated in standard physical preparation (2 to 3 hours/day, 5 to 7 days/week). Every member achieved nine respective leg squat arrangements through the two-minutes interval under normoxia (ambient air) and hypoxia (15% FiO2). Our current research was conducted at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore from January 2019 to December 2019. Throughout one hour of recovery, we put the legs in normoxia illness either after normoxic training or after hypoxic training. Those two test conventions were carried out on arbitrary request with a time loss of one week. The leg squat exercise consisted of 53% of 1-RM (15 repetitions) × 5 sets and 52% of 1-RM (max layoffs; 8 layoffs) × 4 sets. The rest time among every set was 1 minute, and the whole of 93 repetitions were achieved. Circulatory pressure, pulse rate and some biomarkers were estimated before and after training. Average arterial pressure reduced afterwards exercise, contrary to pre-exercise estimates for both situations (P < 0.06). MAP at 25 and 35 min recovery in hypoxia remained substantially lesser than in normoxia (P < 0.06, separately). The antidiuretic hormone developed after 65 mins of recovery in mutually cases; furthermore, the qualities of hypoxia remained fundamentally developed than these of normoxia (P < 0.06). Variations in MAP delta relative to the baseline (pre-training) point were essentially identified with changes in RH relative to the pattern of normoxia (r = 0.562, P < 0.002), but not of hypoxia. Those outcomes recommend that hypoxic state inspires a more noticeable hypotension after obstruction, unlike normoxia. In addition, the basic instruments for constriction of hypotension subsequently obstructive practice might vary among normoxia and hypoxia.


This class has been reorganized to focus primarily on the War in Iraq. As in previous years, the class still examines war in cross-cultural perspective, asking whether war is intrinsic to human nature, what causes war, how particular cultural experiences of war differ, and how war has affected American culture.


Over the years, IEEE 802.11b/g wireless networks have been deployed in various locations such as hotels, airports and enterprises. Although IEEE 802.11b/g can be considered a mature technology, its deployment still presents challenges due to the limited number of non-overlapping channels available. This is particularly true in scenarios with a high density of users where a large number of APs covering roughly the same area is required. Through measurements we investigate different deployment scenarios, trying to provide a set of guidelines for the deployment of IEEE 802.11b/g networks so to minimize co-channel interference and maximize throughput. This, when the number of APs required to cover an area is larger than the number of non-overlapping channels available. In particular, we show how using partially overlapping channels causes lower retry rate and higher throughput than if deploying multiple APs on each of the non-overlapping channels.


This study aimed at evaluating the effect of blended binders on the stabilization of clayey soils intended for use as road and pavement materials in selected regions of Sweden. The stabilization potential of blended binders containing five stabilizers (cement, bio fly ash, energy fly ash, slag and lime) was investigated using laboratory tests and statistical analysis. Soil samples were compacted using Swedish Standards on UCS. The specimens were stabilized with blended mixtures containing various ratios of five binders. The effects of changed ratio of binders on soil strength was analyzed using velocities of seismic P-waves penetrating the tested soil samples on the day 14 of the experiment. The difference in the soil surface response indicated variations in strength in the evaluated specimens. We tested combination of blended binders to improve the stabilization of clayey soil. The mix of slag/lime or slag/cement accelerated soil hardening process and gave durable soil product. We noted that pure lime (burnt or quenched) is best suited for the fine-grained soils containing clay minerals. Slag used in this study had a very finely ground structure and had hydraulic properties (hardens under water) without activation. Therefore, slag has a too slow curing process for it to be practical to use in real projects on stabilization of roads. The best performance on soil stabilization was demonstrated by blended binders consisted of lime / fly ash / cement which considerably improved the geotechnical properties and workability of soil and increased its strength. We conclude that bearing capacities of soil intended for road construction can be significantly improved by stabilization using mixed binders, compared to pure binders (cement).


An amino acid substitution matrix specifies probabilities of substitutions for each pair of the 20 amino acids. Log-odds scores transformed from the values in substitution matrices are widely used to construct protein sequence alignments. Any given substitution matrix is suited to matching sequences diverged by a specific evolutionary distance. However, for a given set of sequences, it is not always clear what matrix should be used. We used an artificial neural network model to predict probabilities of amino acid substitutions with alignment samples of different evolutionary distances. From this internal description, substitution matrices suitable for detecting relationships at any chosen evolutionary distance can be instantly generated. By using the additional information of evolutionary distances, the average cross entropy error of our neural network model is lower than that of a series of BLOSUM and PET matrices over all testing sets. Our model is more accurate on the prediction of amino acid substitution probabilities.


The tropical palm Mauritia flexuosa has highly nutritious fruits and is an important food resource for both humans and wildlife throughout its geographic range in South America. Unsustainable harvesting threatens wild populations. Mauritia f. occurs primarily in wetlands called Aguajales where it can become the dominating canopy species. Seed predation and dispersal can dramatically affect the survival and distribution of plant species in tropical rainforests (Janzen 1970, Connell 1971, Bleher & Bohning-Gaese 2001, Paine & Beck 2007, Mari et al. 2008). Increased knowledge of seed predation and germination requirements is essential for successful management of this commercially and ecologically important palm. Four experiments were conducted in Manu National Park in southeastern Peru to study: (1) Seed survival in the Aguajal, (2) Quantify seed predators on dry land, (3) Insect visitors and consumers of fruits and seeds, and (4) Germination in greenhouse experiments. Seed survival was significantly higher below water compared to on dry micro sites within the Aguajal. Seeds and fruits placed on dry land were preyed upon by both insects and mammals. Terrestrial insects were the most important predators. Different insects visited fruits and seeds, indicating a successive breakdown of different tissues. Seed survival was also higher below water and/or soil in the greenhouse experiment. This may suggest that the distribution of Mauritia f. is highly influenced by seed predation and that water protects seeds from their insect enemies.


This study investigates corrosion inhibition of X70 mild steel using thiourea and zinc thiocyanate in a 3% NaCl solution with pH=5.5.The first part of the study compares the inhibitory effects of each component. For the 100ppm the inhibitory action of thiourea has not been clearly demonstrated, the electrochemical tests show that the inhibitory effect is more marked increasing by the concentration of zinc thiocyanate. The maximum inhibition efficiency obtained is 98.6% at 100ppm. The second part of this study presents the results obtained for two concentrations of thiourea mixed with zinc ions and zinc thiocyanate. Adsorption of thiourea and Zn(SCN)2 on X70 steel surface was found to obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm with a standard free energy of adsorption ∆Gads -17.29 and -22.05 kJ/ mol respectively. The stationary polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) diagrams shows the mechanism of inhibition of the compounds studied.


Bovine enteroviruses are currently classified into two serotypes within the species Bovine enterovirus (BEV). Comparison of the sequences of six American and eleven German BEV isolates with published BEV sequences revealed the necessity to revise the taxonomy of these viruses. Molecular data indicate that the bovine enteroviruses are composed of two clusters (designated BEV-A and -B) each with two and three geno-/serotypes, respectively. Whereas low amino acid identity of the capsid proteins 1C (VP3) and 1D (VP1) is the main criterion for the discrimination of geno-/serotypes, the BEV clusters, presumably representing species, differ in sequence identity of all viral proteins. In addition, characteristic lengths of (i) the capsid proteins 1B, 1C and 1D, (ii) the 2C protein, and (iii) the 3'-non-translated region are observed. The BEVs can be distinguished from the other enteroviruses by sequence identity and unique features of the 5'-non-translated region, i.e. a conserved second cloverleaf and characteristic RNA structures of the internal ribosome entry site. Phylogenetically, the closest relatives of the bovine enteroviruses are the porcine enteroviruses. Incongruent phylogenies of the 5'-non-translated region, the capsid proteins and the 3D polymerase indicate frequent intraserotypic and interserotypic recombination within the non-capsid and the capsid region of the BEV genome.


Background: The production of the different COVID-19 vaccines has offered hope towards controlling the pandemic. Many governments around the world have been able to secure the number of doses required for the vaccination of their entire population. In Cameroon, the government's strategy has been to secure the number of doses required to vaccinate frontline workers and other population at risk. A threat to this strategy could be vaccine hesitancy as demonstrated in previous studies. In this article we discussed the influence of spirituality on vaccine acceptance. We also examined other factors associated with vaccine acceptance amongst healthcare workers in Cameroon. Methods: This was a cross-sectional online survey of healthcare workers in Cameroon. Data was collected using Surveysparrow and then computed into Microsoft Excel. All analysis were done using Stata 14. Results: A total number of 371 healthcare workers took part in the survey and 45.38% indicated willingness to accept the vaccine if offered. The most common reason advanced for non-acceptance of the vaccine was negative perceptions about the efficacy of the vaccines. Independent factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance following a multivariate logistic regression included: being married (AOR 1.13, p< 0.01), presence of comorbidity (AOR:2.10, p<0.02), participants who had direct contact with covid patients (AOR: 3.34, p<0.01). Spirituality level was not independently associated with vaccine acceptance (AOR: 1.12, p<0.63). Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance amongst healthcare workers in Cameroon is low. This is likely to reduce the vaccine uptake amongst healthcare workers. HCWs are in the best position to influence the uptake of these vaccines by the general population, therefore educating healthcare workers on the efficacy of these vaccines might improve their acceptance.


Seimic data represent a largely untapped source for characterising of fault zones. The key for using it lies in linking fault zone structure and properties to seismic response. The recent development of outcrop-based fault zone models allows this links to be studied. A seismic imaging procedure for fault zones, using multicomponent surface data generated for statistical fault facies models, is presented and discussed. It is based on a specific imaging procedure, which consists in a weighted summation of multicomponent multishot/multioffset data and spectral filtering of seismic data. The imaging procedure presented here is capable of resolving details inside the fault zone, which opens up for using seismic data to characterize sub-surface faults.


Background: Premenstrual Syndrome is a variety of physical symptoms
psychological, and emotional experienced by women before the arrival o
menstrual. 75 % womens will experience symptoms premenstrual syndrome
When the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome on ignore, will affect the studen
activities
Objective: The objective of this research is to investigate the corellation between
the grade of premenstrual syndrome and learning activity of the midwifery.
Method: This research used the observational analytical research method with th
cross-sectional design. The samples of the research were taken by using th
Simple Random Sampling technique. They consisted of 76 students. The data o
the research were gathered through quisioner. They were then analyzed by using
the statistical test of kendal-tau.
Result: 71 students (93.4%) have mild grade of premenstrual syndrome, and 35
students (46.1%) have a moderate learning activities. Kendal tau statistik result i
p=0.048 (p<0.05) with that of r=0.214.
Conclution: There is a significant corellation The corellation between the grad
of premenstrual syndrome and learning activity of the midwifery, meaning tha
the most mild premenstrual syndrome is, the higher the learning activity to dea
with it.
Key word: Premenstrual syndrome, Learning activity


The higher education literature demonstrates that a student's approach to learning is a critical factor in determining the quality of the learning outcome. This is the first study undertaken in an Irish context which examines the relationship between accounting students' approaches to learning and their learning outcomes. The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) is used to measure the approaches to learning adopted by first year students in their study of management accounting. Students' learning outcomes are represented by their performance in the various assessment components of that module. Gender differences are specifically considered in this study. The analysis reveals that for the full group the deep and strategic approaches are positively associated with high academic performance and the instrumental approach is associated with poor performance. This relationship exists for female students but, surprisingly, there is little evidence of a relationship between performance and learning approaches for male students. This may be explained by male students failing to effectively report their actual approach to learning.


The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) ranks consistently as one of the most revered snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. It has potent neurotoxic venom, and envenomation results in rapid onset and severe clinical manifestations. This report describes the clinical course and reversal of effects of black mamba envenomation in a 13-year-old boy in the Jimba area of Malindi. The victim presented to Watamu Hospital, a low resource health facility with labored breathing, frothing at the mouth, severe ptosis and pupils non-responsive to light. His blood pressure was unrecordable, heart rate was 100 beats per minute but thready, his temperature was 35.5 °C, and oxygen saturation was 83%. Management involved suction to clear salivary secretions, several hours of mechanical ventilation via ambu-bagging, oxygen saturation monitoring, and the use of South African Vaccine Producers (SAVP) polyvalent antivenom. Subcutaneous adrenaline was used to stave off anaphylaxis. The victim went into cardiac arrest on two occasions and chest compressions lasting 3–5 min was used to complement artificial ventilation. Hemodynamic instability was corrected using IV infusion of ringers lactate and normal saline (three liters over 24 h). Adequate mechanical ventilation and the use of specific antivenom remain key in the management of black mamba envenomation.


The genes of the vertebrate beta-globin locus undergo a switch in expression during development whereby embryonic/fetal genes of the cluster are sequentially silenced and the adult genes are activated during erythroid development. DNA methylation has been shown to be associated with developmentally silenced globin genes, and compounds that inhibit cytosine methylation have been shown to activate transcription from developmentally silenced globin genes in several species, including humans. Previously, we have shown that the methyl domain binding protein 2 (MBD2) is involved in maintaining embryonic rho-globin gene silencing in adult avian erythroid cells. We describe here a role for MBD2 in the DNA methylation mediated silencing and maintenance of silencing of the human fetal gamma-globin gene in a transgenic mouse model. We confirmed the previously published report by Pace et al that the gamma-globin gene is reactivated, upon treatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-azacytidine, of mice containing the entire beta-globin locus as a yeast artificial chromosome (BetaYAC) transgene. In order to elucidate the mechanism through which DNA methylation represses the gamma-globin gene in adult erythroid cells, betaYAC/MBD2−/− mice were generated by breeding BetaYAC mice with MBD2−/− mice. Anemic adult betaYAC/MBD2−/− mice continue to express the gamma-globin gene at a level commensurate with animals treated with 5-azacytidine, which is10–20 fold over those treated with 1-acetyl-2-phenylhydrazine alone, as measured by both quantitative PCR and by RNase protection assays. In addition, the level of gamma-globin gene expression is consistently several fold higher in MBD2−/− compared to wild type BetaYAC mice in 14.5 and 16.5 dpc fetal liver erythroblasts. Furthermore, transcriptional activation of the gamma-globin gene in adult erythroblasts is associated with a modest decrease in DNA methylation around the gamma-globin promoters and a ~4-fold enrichment of histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 4 (TriK4), as measured by chromatin immunoprecipitation assay using quantitative PCR. Finally, treatment of MBD2 null mice with 5-azacytidine induces only a small, non-additive induction of gamma-globin expression indicating that DNA methylation acts primarily through MBD2 to maintain gamma-globin suppression in adult erythroid cells. These results suggest that MBD2 is a potential target for therapeutic induction of gamma-globin gene expression in the settings of sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia.


The moss Physcomitrella patens, has been genetically engineered to produce patchoulol and β-santalene, two valuable sesquiterpenoid ingredients in the fragrance industry. The highest yield of patchoulol achieved was 1.34 mg/g dry weight. This was achieved by non-targeted transformation of the patchoulol synthase and either a yeast or P. patens HMGR gene under the control of a 35S promoter. Santalene synthase targeted to the plastids yielded 0.039 mg/g dry weight of α/β santalene; cytosolic santalene synthase and 35S controlled HMGR afforded 0.022 mg/g dry weight. It has been observed that the final yield of the fragrance molecules is dependent on the expression of the synthase. This is the first report of heterologous production of sesquiterpenes in moss and it opens up a promising source for light-driven production of valuable fragrance ingredients.


Purpose – Despite the growing scientific evidence regarding risks caused by global warming and climate change, virtually no studies have been conducted to investigate general public's attitudes toward this phenomenon in a non-Western context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing concern for global warming in a representative sample of 2,551 respondents in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses logistic and Bayesian logistic regression modeling techniques to test the influence of post-materialistic tendencies, religiosity, political orientation and locus of control on concern for global warming in Egypt. Findings – Results contradict the post-materialist hypothesis and show that concern for global warming is driven by religiosity, political orientation and internal locus of control. Originality/value – The findings highlight the importance of investigating the specificity of global warming and environmental concern in a non-Western context.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to clarify the essence of the Management Consulting phenomenon, as it applies to the Azerbaijan Republic and other regions. The first part focuses on the historical basis of the establishment of Management Consulting as a separate profession and field, the arguments about it, and the geography of the initial spread. The second part clarifies some questionable practices in this area. The third part clarifies the level of consulting activities in Azerbaijan, consulting habits, and approach of the local community in this area, and the fundamental obstacles that make the phenomenon impossible to develop.


This study empirically compares the level of importance assigned to the knowledge, skills, and experiences of applicants for entry-level positions by members of the agribusiness community and how these criteria were perceived by chairpersons of departments of agricultural economics. Chairpersons had a good understanding of criteria important to employers in evaluating applicants and how they prioritize these criteria. Communication and interpersonal skills were ranked as the most important criteria by both groups. Industry members assigned lower levels of importance for formal international training, an attribution largely shared by academic counterparts.


The protocol of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced transformation of B-lymphocytes from reripheral blood of normal humans has been described. The requirements for mononuclear EBV-infection and for selection, cultivation, and cloning of EBV-transformed cell lines have been investigated. Successful establishment of stable human immunoglobulin-producing cell lines from lymphocytes of immunized donors could be achieved following the protocol presented.


Smads are signal transducers for the members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and their receptors induce differentiation of C2C12 cells into osteoblast-like cells. Using an adenoviral expression vector system, we showed that receptor-regulated Smads (R-Smads) activated by BMPs can induce the differentiation of C2C12 cells. Inhibitory Smads (I-Smads) interfere with the osteoblast differentiation of C2C12 cells by preventing the nuclear translocation of R-Smads. After translocation into the nucleus, Smad oligomers regulate the transcription of target genes through binding to DNA directly, interaction with other DNA binding proteins, and recruitment of transcriptional co-activators or co-repressors. Through interaction with different transcription factors and transcriptional co-activators or co-repressors, Smads may exhibit specific effects in various cell types.


Graph class which has the characteristic of odd harmonious labeling is called as odd harmonious graph. Net graph is a graph which is gained by using operation Cartesian product of two line graphs. The construction of snake-net graph is inspired by the definition of snake graph replacing the round graph to net graph. In this paper, the study will show that snake-net graph fulfill the characteristic of odd harmonious graph in such a way snake-net graph is the odd harmonious graph. In the end of this paper, it is also shown that the union of snake-net graph is also called as the odd harmonious graph.


A review of the literature on infections of the biliary tract reveals the fact that there is a wide difference of opinion as regards both the frequency and the nature of an hepatic involvement in association with the relatively simple and more common types of cholecystitis. Such conditions as liver abscess and "obstructive biliary cirrhosis" in association with infections of the biliary tract have long been known. But the changes in the liver which occur in connection with the relatively simple types of cholecystitis which are so commonly encountered at operation seem not to have been investigated until the study made by one of us (Graham), the results of which were published in 1918. 1 In general, the only evidence of hepatic involvement which has been considered has been an increase in the size of the liver. Kehr 2 quotes Langenbach as saying that an enlargement of the liver is


… Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of racecadotril, smectite and placebo among children having acute diarrhea. Study Design: Randomized Controlled trial. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Allama Iqbal Memorial Teaching Hospital, Sialkot. Period: January 2021 to June 2021. Material & Methods: A total of 120 children (40 in each group) of both gender, aged above 6 months to 5 years with acute diarrhea were enrolled. All children were prescribed oral rehydration therapy (ORT). As co-adjuvant treatment, children in Group-A (n=40) were prescribed smectite, racecadotril in Group-B (n=40) while placebo was given in Group-C (n=40). Among all children, treatment duration was 7 days and all children were asked to follow up on 3 rd , 5 th and 7 th day for the evaluation of stool frequency, stool consistency and dehydration status. Results: In a total of 120 children, 62 (51.7%) were male. Overall, mean age was noted to be 17.9+9.4 months. Stool frequency significantly reduced in Group-A and Group-B in comparison to Group-C at day-3 (p<0.001), day-5 (p<0.001) and day-7 (p=0.018). During the follow ups, need for IV rehydration was 1 (2.5%) in Group-A, 1 (2.5%) in Group-B and 6 (15.0%) in Group-C (p=0.035). Significant improvement was observed in stool grading of children in Group-A and Group-B when compared to Group-C at day-3 (p<0.001), day-5 (p<0.001) and day-7 (p=0.043). No side effects were recorded in any of the patients. Conclusion: Along with oral rehydration therapy, non-specific anti-diarrheal agents like smectite and racecadotril were found to have good efficacy and safety in the management of acute diarrhea in children.


- Energy distribution function for electrons in SF 6 -Ar mixtures gas used by MCS-BEq algorithm has been analysed over the E/N range 30~300[Td] by a two term Boltzmann equation and a Monte Carlo Simulation using a set of electron cross sections determined by other authors experimentally the electron swarm parameters for 0.2[%] and 0.5[%] SF 6 -Ar mixtures were measured by time-of-flight(TOF) method, The results show that the deduced longitudinal diffusion coefficients and transverse diffusion coefficients agree reasonably well with theoretical for a rang of E/N values. The results obtained from Boltzmann equation method and Monte Carlo simulation have been compared with present and previously obtained data and respective set of electron collision cross sections of the molecules.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the early treatment outcomes of combined gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel treatment for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer (LURPC). The subjects comprised 7 patients with LURPC receiving the abovementioned combination therapy at the Hirosaki University Hospital (Hirosaki, Japan) between January and September, 2015. The clinicopathological factors, adverse events and response to treatment were investigated. To determine whether the cases were unresectable, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, version 2. 201,) were applied. The patients underwent a median of 4 (range, 2-7) courses of treatment. The response to treatment was evaluated using the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors. The subjects included 1 male and 6 female LURPC patients, with a median age of 71 years (range, 59-78 years). The tumor was located in the head and body of the pancreas in 6 and 1 patients, respectively. No patients achieved a complete response, 5 achieved a partial response, 2 had stable disease, and none exhibited progressive disease. The response rate was 71%. The mean tumor diameter decreased significantly from 35 mm (range, 24-60 mm) prior to treatment to 22 mm (range, 20-35 mm) following treatment. Two patients were downstaged. The mean carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 values decreased significantly from 767 U/ml (range, 14-1,977 U/ml) prior to treatment to 35 U/ml (range, 14-123 U/ml) following treatment. Adverse events classified as grade ≥3 occurred in 4 patients (57%): 3 patients (43%) suffered from neutropenia and 1 patient (14%) developed bilateral cellulitis of the lower extremities. No patients experienced an increase in disease severity, and all were able to continue treatment following temporary withdrawal or dosage reduction. Therefore, combined treatment with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel had favorable tumor-reducing effects and was not associated with severe adverse events, suggesting that this is a useful therapeutic strategy for patients with LURPC.


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Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) is a government program that aims to improve the welfare of the community. However, the facts on the ground show that many people do not use it properly, so this has an impact on dishonesty which has an effect on the religiosity of the beneficiaries. Therefore, this study aims to measure the effectiveness of the Family Hope Program and review the impact of religiosity. This type of research is field research, with quantitative methods. The data in this study comes from primary data in the form of assistance data from the Family Hope Program in Solok district and secondary data from data from the Central Statistics Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Two models of analytical tools used are simple mathematics to measure the level of effectiveness and product moment correlation from Pearson. The results of the study prove that the impact of the Family Hope Program assistance in poverty alleviation in Solok Regency with a predicate of 81% and is in the very effective category. However, the output indicators on the items of responsibility in the religious sector are still less effective because awareness for increasing faith is still lacking.


Study Design. Finite element and in vitro study. Objective. Finite element calculations to delineate a dynamic fixator and confirmation with an in vitro experiment. Summary and Background Data. In the last few years, there was a paradigm shift from rigid to dynamic fixation of spinal segments. However, some so-called dynamic implants like the Dynesys performed still stiffer than anticipated. The aim of this study was to optimize a dynamic stabilization system. Methods. The development steps of this implant design can be summarized in a development loop. First, a finite element model of an intact human L4–L5 segment was used to delineate implant stiffness parameters for the implant, in consideration of clinical concerns and safety aspects. These data were used in a second step, leading to the final implant design. This development process was completed with an appropriate in vitro experiment. The optimal axial and bending stiffness were computed to reduce the spinal motion by 30%. For the validation process, in vitro tests were performed on 6 human lumbar spinal segments L2–L3 with a median age of 52. The model and the specimens were loaded with pure unconstrained moments of 7.5 Nm in flexion, extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. Results. This study demonstrated the advantages of employing a finite element model for the implant parameter delineation. It was possible to prospectively outline the needed stiffness parameters for a desired spinal range of motion achievement. Conclusion. In summary, FEM may accelerate the development and the realization of a new implant design.


Various carbon materials with a characteristic morphology and pore structure have been produced using template methods in which a carbon-template composite is once formed and the characteristic features derived from the template are generated after the template removal. In this study, hemoglobin, which is a natural compound that could be abundantly and inexpensively obtained, was used as the carbon material source to produce a carbonaceous noble-metal-free fuel cell cathode catalyst. Magnesium oxide was used as the template concurrently generated with the hemoglobin carbonization from magnesium acetate mixed with hemoglobin as the starting material mixture to enable pore development for improving the activity of the carbonized hemoglobin for the cathodic oxygen reduction. After removal of the MgO template, the substantially developed pores were generated in the carbonized hemoglobin with an amorphous structure observed by total-electron-yield X-ray absorption. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure at the Fe-K edge indicated that Fe was coordinated with four nitrogen atoms (Fe-N(4) moiety) in the carbonized hemoglobin. The oxygen reduction activity of the carbonized hemoglobin evaluated using rotating disk electrodes was dependent on the pore structure. The highly developed pores led to an improved activity.


Active modules identification has received much attention due to its ability to reveal regulatory and signaling mechanisms of a given cellular response. Most existing algorithms identify active modules by extracting connected nodes with high activity scores from a graph. These algorithms do not consider other topological properties such as community structure, which may correspond to functional units. In this paper, we propose an active module identification algorithm based on a novel objective function, which considers both and network topology and nodes activity. This objective is formulated as a constrained quadratic programming problem, which is convex and can be solved by iterative methods. Furthermore, the framework is extended to the multilayer dynamic PPI networks. Empirical results on the single layer and multilayer PPI networks show the effectiveness of proposed algorithms. Availability: The package and code for reproducing all results and figures are available at https://github.com/fairmiracle/ModuleExtraction.


Abstract Several unhealthy lifestyles are associated with increased sickness absence (SA). This study examined the associations of changes in diet and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) with employer's direct cost of subsequent short-term (<10 working days) SA. The survey data from phases 1 (2000−2002) and 2 (2007) of the Helsinki Health Study (HHS), a longitudinal cohort study of initially 40−60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland, were linked with SA register data. Final data consisted of 4157 employees. Dietary habits were inquired with a short food frequency questionnaire. Consumption of fruits (F) and vegetables (V) was used to indicate healthiness of diet. LTPA was measured with a series of questions on the intensity and the amount of LTPA. Data on short-term SA and salaries (2008−2012) were received from the employers' registers. A two-part model was used to analyse the associations. Those who improved their F&V consumption from non-daily to daily and persevered physically active got 620 € (95% CI −1194, −47) lower cost than those remaining non-daily F&V consumers and physically inactive. When examining LTPA only, those who persevered physically active or improved from moderately active to active got 19% less cost for the employer than those remaining inactive. Dietary changes were not independently associated with the cost. Improving employees' diet and LTPA may reduce employer's direct cost of SA. Although the associations of diet with SA cost were not statistically significant, improvements in diet may contribute to the beneficial associations of LTPA and employer's cost of SA.


The purpose of this paper is to examine investor sentiment by measuring the impact of market sentiment shocks on the volatility of the Islamic stock index of five ASEAN countries, with noise traders as a proxy for market sentiment.,The GJR-GARCH model is used to capture the empirically observed fact that negative shocks in the past period have a stronger impact on variance than positive shocks in the present.,All five ASEAN Islamic stock indices show clustering volatility. However, only three countries, namely, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, demonstrate leverage effects. In addition, the effect of market sentiment on Islamic stock index returns is observed in the Indonesian and Malaysian markets, which are the two largest Islamic markets with a dominant Muslim population in the ASEAN. This finding implies that the trading behaviours of Muslim investors in the Shariah market are the same as their behaviours in the conventional market, that is, nonadherence to the Sunnah.,Whilst establishing investment strategies, creating portfolios and providing client-advisory services, investors and fund managers should factor in the presence of market sentiment and its impact on stock performance and volatility. In addition, a capital market system preventing rumour-based transactions is compelling.,In some markets, the Islamic financial products awareness should be increased through education to attract increased domestic investors with the potential to boost growth in the Islamic stock market.,Investigation market sentiment impacts on the Islamic stock index using noise traders as a proxy.


The best technology is worthless if it cannot find a market Beam energy propulsion (BEP) is a very promising technology, but faces major competition from less capable but fully developed conventional rockets. Rockets can easily handle projected markets for payloads into space. Without a new, huge demand for launch capability, BEP is unlikely to gain the resources it needs for development and application. Launching tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste into space for safe and permanent disposal will provide that necessary demand while solving a major problem on earth. Several options exist to dispose of nuclear waste, including solar orbit, lunar orbit, soft lunar landing, launching outside the solar system, and launching into the sun.


centered learning has long time been introduced in the local polytechnics to enhance student's learning in technical skills. Learning is believed to be much more effective when student undergoing group projects including lab works, computer assisted learning, group discussion, practical works and etc. But somehow there is some space for current practice to have some improvement in terms of its implementation strategy. We found that most of the assessments took place only at the end of the project completion. The criteria much focus on content knowledge rather than to view the evaluation process from wider perspective. This wider perspective importantly refers on nurturing student personal skills development. As a result, the student's ability to apply knowledge in the workplace was claimed poor by most of the employers. Therefore, this study aims to look into the possible ways of adaptation of the existing system by developing the best practice guideline model of monitoring and assessment specifically in technical skills program in electrical engineering course. The final product is a rubric that will nurture student performance in personal skills during the learning process.


The flowering response of Coleus frederici and Coleus blumei x C. frederici is dependent on the photoperiod; both plants have a critical day length of about 12 hr. The inductive phase, defined as the period when light signals inhibit floral development, started 10 hr after the onset of darkness under 4 and 8-hr photoperiods, and 8 hr after the onset of darkness under a 12-hr photoperiod. However, a fixed temporal relationship between the inductive phase and the minimum leaf position was observed for Coleus frederici. The inductive phase always started 5 hr after the minimum leaf position. This evidence supports the theory that a circadian clock participates in the time measurement process of photoperiodic floral induction.


Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) 1 regulates cell differentiation and proliferation in different physiological settings, but is also involved in fibrotic progression and protects tumors from the immune system. Integrin αVβ6 has been shown to activate latent TGFβ1 by applying mechanical forces onto the latency-associated peptide (LAP). While the extracellular binding between αVβ6 and LAP1 is well characterized, less is known about the cytoplasmic adaptations that enable αVβ6 to apply such forces. Here, we generated new tools to facilitate the analysis of this interaction. We combined the integrin-binding part of LAP1 with a GFP and the Fc chain of human IgG. This chimeric protein, sLAP1, revealed a mechanical rearrangement of immobilized sLAP1 by αVβ6 integrin. This unique interaction was not observed between sLAP1 and other integrins. We also analyzed αVβ6 integrin binding to LAP2 and LAP3 by creating respective sLAPs. Compared to sLAP1, integrin αVβ6 showed less binding to sLAP3 and no rearrangement. These observations indicate differences in the binding of αVβ6 to LAP1 and LAP3 that have not been appreciated so far. Finally, αVβ6-sLAP1 interaction was maintained even at strongly reduced cellular contractility, highlighting the special mechanical connection between αVβ6 integrin and latent TGFβ1.


Although there is evidence for high comorbidity between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and substance use disorders, particularly alcohol use, more research is needed on the associations between BPD and prescription opioid use because of the increasing national problem of prescription opioid misuse. The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between BPD features and prescription opioid use, risk for misuse, consequences, and dependence features, and to determine which aspects of BPD account for these associations. As predicted, BPD features were associated with greater quantity and frequency of opioid use, risk for pain medication misuse, consequences, and dependence features. Additional analyses indicated that most of these effects were accounted for by the self-harm/impulsivity component of BPD. The authors conclude that individuals with more pronounced BPD features may be at risk for use and dependence on prescription opioids, and that this association may be primarily associated with the impulsivity features of BPD.


This book draws on world-wide experiences and valuable lessons to highlight community-ecosystem interactions and the role of traditional knowledge in sustaining biocultural resources through community-based adaptations. The book targets different audiences including researchers working on human-environment interactions and climate adaptation practices, biodiversity conservators, non-government organizations and policy makers involved in revitalizing traditional foods and community-based conservation and adaptation in diverse ecosystems. This volume is also a source book for educators advocating for and collaborating with indigenous and local peoples to promote location-specific adaptations to overcome the impacts of multiple biotic and abiotic stresses.


Both deaf and hearing infants produce many speech-like sounds in their first years of life. Hearing children in American-English language environments have shown to follow specific preferred patterns of combining consonantlike and vowel-like sounds when canonically babbling. In the present study concerning infants in the Dutch language environment, we investigated whether they show the same preferred patterns. In particular this paper concentrates on the question as to how far deaf or severely hearingimpaired children differ from their hearing peers with respect to their utterance structures. Utterances of five hearing and five deaf Dutch children from 10.5 to 17.5 months of age were analyzed for a number of speech characteristics, like phonation and articulation type, number of syllables, utterance structure, place of articulation and preferred combinations of vowel-like and consonant-like elements. Results show that although deaf children produce many multi-syllabic utterances, alternations of CV movements are scarce compared to hearing children. Moreover the preferred patterns of the Dutch children deviate from those of American-English children.


Target tracking is one of the key applications of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that forms basis for numerous other applications. The overall procedures of target tracking involve target detection, localization, and tracking. Because of the WSNs' resource constraints (especially energy), it is highly desired that target tracking should be done by involving as less number of sensor nodes as possible. Due to the uncertain behavior of the target and resulting mobility patterns, this goal becomes harder to achieve without predicting the future locations of the target. The presence of a prediction mechanism may allow the activation of only the relevant sensors along the future course, before actually the target reaches the future location. This prior activation contributes to increasing the overall sensor networks lifetime by letting non-relevant nodes sleep. In this paper, first, we introduce a Yaw rate aware sensor wAkeup Protocol (YAP) for the prediction of future target locations. Second, we present improvements on the YAP design through the incorporation of adaptability. The proposed schemes are distributive in nature, and select relevant sensors to determine the target track. The performance of YAP and A-YAP is also discussed on different mobility patterns, which confirms the efficacy of the algorithm.


Background Long-term management of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) who have received inferior vena cava (IVC) filters still remains under debate. Long-term and adequate anticoagulation can reduce a risk of thromboembolic complications in such patients. Methods In the period from 1993 to 2011 in our hospital 243 patients with VTE had indications to undergo IVC filter placement. The most frequent indication was recurrent pulmonary embolism (PE) despite anticoagulation. In all patients vitamin K antagonists (VKA) were given (INR target = 2.5). During follow-up there were assessed the rates of symptomatic pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and IVC thrombosis. At least every two years physical examination and ultrasound surveillance were conducted. The ultrasound surveillance included assessment of the lower extremities deep veins and examination of the IVC filter. If filter clot was detected, graded intensities of anticoagulation were temporarily instituted, depending upon the clot burden. Results Symptomatic DVT and PE occurred in 46 (18.93%; 95% CI 14.50-24.32%) and 10 (including 2 fatal PE) (4.12%; 95% CI 2.25-7.41%) out of 243 patients respectively. There were 72 episodes of filter clot in 64 patients (26.34%; 95% CI 21.20-32.21%) Total occlusion of IVC filter was observed in 6 patients (2.47%; 95% CI 1.14-5.28%). Conclusions VTE patients with IVC filters can benefit from ultrasound surveillance of the IVC and adjusted anticoagulation if filter clot is detected.


Various studies have shown that changes over time in spring ice‐out dates can be used as indicators of climate change. Ice‐out dates from 29 lakes in New England (USA) with 64 to 163 years of record were assembled and analysed for this study. Ice‐out dates have become significantly earlier in New England since the 1800s. Changes in ice‐out dates between 1850 and 2000 were 9 days and 16 days in the northern/mountainous and southern regions of New England respectively. The changes in the ice‐out data over time were very consistent within each of the two regions of New England, and more consistent than four air‐temperature records in each region. The ice‐out dates of the two regions had a different response to changes in air temperature. The inferred late winter–early spring air‐temperature warming in both regions of New England since 1850, based on linear regression analysis, was about 1.5°C. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Representations of animals occur throughout Pablo Picasso's career (1891-1973) but especially during and after his involvement with Surrealism in the 1920s and 30s. This work presents these images by subject, that is, the cat, the goat, the bull, as they might appear in a medieval bestiary or "Book of Beasts". Picasso never painted animals with a naturalist's eye, but in keeping with his lifelong preoccupation with essentially human experiences, such as emotions and truths, he often saw the animal kingdom as an opportunity to make visual allegories and parables. This text is written by the curators of the exhibition, "A Picasso Bestiary", held in Croydon Museum, London, in 1995.


Scalability of architecture, programming model and task control management will be a major challenge for MP-SOC designs in the coming years. The contribution presented in this paper is HS-Scale, a hardware/software framework to study, define and experiment scalable solutions for next generation MP-SOC. The hardware architecture, H-Scale, is a homogeneous MP-SOC based on RISC processors, distributed memories and a globally asynchronous/locally synchronous network on chip. S-Scale is the software support to program H-Scale. It is a multithreaded sequential programming model with dedicated communication primitives handled at run-time by a simple operating system we developed. The hardware validations on FPGA and CMOS 90 nm technology and the experimental case studies on several applications (FIR, DES and MJPEG) demonstrate the scalability of our approach and draws interesting perspectives to automate task placement and duplication.


Hybrid ryegrass (HRG) is purported to have high overwinter growth characteristics and may have a role in Irish grassland systems. In a 3-year small-plot study at Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, the dry matter (DM) production and herbage quality of HRG cultivars in early spring were compared with diploid and tetraploid perennial ryegrass (PRG) cultivars. Treatments comprised ryegrass cultivars × defoliation managements × defoliation heights in a 5 × 3 × 2 factorial arrangement. The cultivars were Navan (tetraploid PRG), Foxtrot (diploid PRG), Foyle (tetraploid HRG), Brutus (diploid HRG) and Belleek (tetraploid HRG). Defoliation dates were: (A) 2 February and 20 April; (B) 2 February, 3 March and 20 April; and (C): 2 February, 23 March and 20 April. Defoliation heights were 4 and 7 cm, applied across each management. The HRG cultivars yielded similarly to cv. Navan on 2 February. Cumulative spring DM production was higher in cvs. Brutus and Belleek than all other cultivars. During this period, the managements A and B had similar DM yields (2765 kg DM ha−1) but were greater than management C. Defoliating swards to 4 cm height increased DM yield compared with 7 cm height. Organic matter digestibility of grass at the silage-harvest growth stage was greater for PRG cultivars. The study indicates that early spring growth of the three HRG cultivars evaluated here was not sufficiently greater than the tetraploid PRG cv. Navan to compensate for their poorer midseason sward quality.


Objectives Few studies have investigated the incidence of eating disorders (EDs). Important questions about changes in the incidence of diagnosed disorders in recent years, disorder and gender-specific onset and case detection remain unanswered. Understanding changes in incidence is important for public health, clinical practice and service provision. The aim of this study was to estimate the annual (age-specific, gender-specific and subtype-specific) incidence of diagnosed ED: anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) in primary care over a 10-year period in the UK (2000–2009); to examine the changes within the study period; and to describe peak age at diagnosis. Design Register-based study. Setting Primary care. Data were obtained from a primary care register, the General Practice Research Database, which contains anonymised records representing about 5% of the UK population. Participants All patients with a first-time diagnosis of AN, BN and EDNOS were identified. Primary outcome Annual crude and age-standardised incidence rates were calculated. Results A total of 9072 patients with a first-time diagnosis of an ED were identified. The age-standardised annual incidence rate of all diagnosed ED for ages 10–49 increased from 32.3 (95% CI 31.7 to 32.9) to 37.2 (95% CI 36.6 to 37.9) per 100 000 between 2000 and 2009. The incidence of AN and BN was stable; however, the incidence of EDNOS increased. The incidence of the diagnosed ED was highest for girls aged 15–19 and for boys aged 10–14. Conclusions The age-standardised incidence of ED increased in primary care between 2000 and 2009. New diagnoses of EDNOS increased, and EDNOS is the most common ED in primary care.


Mentarang (Pholas orientalis) protein hydrolysate was produced by hydrolysis with Alcalase 2.4L using pH-stat method. The muscle was initially hydrolysed for 2 hours at 3% enzyme-substrate ratio, 60 0 C and pH 8.5, centrifuged and freeze dried. The yield, composition and functional properties of the resulting hydrolysate were determined. A reasonably high yield was achieved which is 11.03%. The hydrolysate was characterized by high protein content (43.0%) and yellowish in colour (L* = 72.98, a* = 0.42, b* = 15.15). It contains high amount of essential amino acids (45.62%) with alanine and serine as the dominant amino acids. The protein hydrolysate had an excellent solubility (92.32%) and an emulsifying stability index of 36.13 min. Foaming properties decrease significantly (p<0.05) with increasing time of foam. In view of these beneficial properties, mentarang (Pholas orientalis) hydrolysate has the potential for application as a natural additive in food.


This paper presents a finite element (FE) model for the thermo-mechanical analysis of insulated FRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams exposed to fire. In the model, the effects of loading, thermal expansion of materials, and degradations in both the mechanical properties of materials and the bond behavior at FRP-to-concrete and steel-to-concrete interfaces due to elevated temperatures are all considered. The validity of the FE model is demonstrated through comparisons of FE predictions with results from existing standard fire tests on insulated FRP-strengthened RC beams.


Origami engineering aims to combine origami principles with advanced materials to yield active origami shapes, which fold and unfold in response to external stimuli. This paper explores the potential and limitations of dielectric elastomers (DEs) as the enabling material in active origami engineering. DEs are compliant materials in which the coupled electro-mechanical actuation takes advantage of their low modulus and high breakdown strength. Until recently, prestraining of relatively thick DE materials was necessary in order to achieve the high electric fields needed to trigger electrostatic actuation without inducing a dielectric breakdown. Although prestrain improves the breakdown strength of the DE films and reduces the voltage required for actuation, the need for a solid frame to retain the prestrain state is a limitation for the practical implementation of DEs, especially for active origami structures. However, the recent availability of thinner DE materials (50 μm, 130 μm, 260 μm) has made DEs a likely medium for active origami. In this work, the folding and unfolding of DE multilayered structures, along with the realization of origami-inspired 3D shapes, are explored. In addition, an exhaustive study on the fundamentals of DE actuation is done by directly investigating the thickness actuation mechanism and comparing their performance using different electrode types. Finally, changes in dielectric permittivity as a function of strain, electrode type and applied electric field are assessed and analyzed. These fundamental studies are key to obtaining more dramatic folding and to realizing active origami structures using DE materials.


Over the last few years, a large number of researchers have directed their efforts and interests for the in vivo study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of leukocyte-endothelial interactions in the microcirculation of many tissues under different inflammatory conditions. The main goal of these studies is to develop more effective therapeutic strategies for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Nowadays, analysis of the leukocyte-endothelial interactions in small animals is performed by visual assessment from an intravital microscopy image sequences. Besides being time consuming, this procedure may cause visual fatigue of the observer and, therefore, generate false statistics. In this context, this work aims to study and develop computational techniques for the automatic detection and tracking of leukocytes in intravital video microscopy. For that, results from frame to frame processing (2D – spatial analysis) will be combined with those from the three-dimensional analysis (3D=2D+t – spatio-temporal analysis) of the volume formed by stacking the video frames. The main technique addressed for both processings is based on the analysis of the eigenvalues of the local Hessian matrix. While the 2D image processing aims the leukocyte detection without worrying about their tracking, 2D+t processing is intended to assist on the dynamic analysis of cell movement (tracking), being able to predict cell movements in cases of occlusion, for example. In this work we used intravital video microscopy obtained from a study of Multiple Sclerosis in mice. Noise reduction and registration techniques comprise the preprocessing step. In addition, techniques for the analysis and definition of cellular pathways comprise the post processing step. Results of 2D and 2D+t processing steps, compared with conventional visual analysis, have shown the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Scoring involves the compression of a number of quantitative attributes into a single meaningful value. We consider the problem of how to generate scores in a setting where they should be weakly monotone (either non-increasing or non-decreasing) in their dimensions. Our approach allows an expert to score an arbitrary set of points to produce meaningful, continuous, monotone scores over the entire domain, while exactly interpolating through those inputs. In contrast, existing monotone interpolating methods only work in two dimensions and typically require exhaustive grid input. Our technique significantly lowers the bar to score creation, allowing domain experts to develop mathematically coherent scores. The method is used in practice to create the LEED Performance scores that gauge building sustainability.


The performance of several feature extraction methods for classifying ground covers in satellite images is compared. Ground covers are viewed as texture of the image. Texture measures considered are: cooccurrence matrices, gray-level differences, texture-tone analysis, features derived from the Fourier spectrum, and Gabor filters. Some Fourier features and some Gabor filters were found to be good choices, in particular when a single frequency band was used for classification. A Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite image showing a variety of vegetations in central Colorado was used for the comparison. A related goal was to investigate the feasibility of extracting the main ground covers from an image. These ground covers may then form an index into a database. This would allow the retrieval of a set of images which are similar in contents. The results obtained in the indexing experiments are encouraging. >


We have investigated material susceptibilities to atmospheric neutrons by calculating nuclear cross sections for every natural element from carbon to bismuth. The alpha emitters that can be present in microelectronic devices have also been identified. To improve the performance of microelectronic devices, the semiconductor industry has introduced a number of chemical elements in the device process. These elements experience a natural flux of neutrons and can also contain natural radioactive isotopes. In both cases, device reliability can be compromised. We show that, at ground level, the introduction of an element may be more important than the effect of neutrons.


Therapeutic vaccines continue to be one of the most active fields in cancer research. However, despite clear evidence of antitumor effect in laboratory animals, and despite the ability of current vaccine candidates to elicit tumor specific antibodies and T-cells in humans, objective responses in the clinical trials are rare. The role of therapeutic vaccines in advanced cancer patients, if any, would be to decrease the rate of disease progression and to increase survival and quality of life. Due to the redundant regulatory loops contracting the immune response to antigens that cannot be eliminated, such a role would require chronic vaccination, which is at first sight at odds with the classic experience of vaccinology. During the last decade our team has been developing a therapeutic vaccine for advanced lung cancer, which consists in human recombinant Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) chemically conjugated to a carrier protein from Neisseria meningitides. Several clinical trials have been carried out, showing increase in anti-EGF antibody titters, decrease in plasma EGF concentration and survival advantage in vaccinated patients. In the present paper we review data from 58 patients who were vaccinated monthly for more than one or two years. Long term vaccination was feasible and safe, and there was no evidence of cumulative toxicity. Patients kept high anti-EGF antibody titters during all the time of vaccination, without evidence of immune response exhaustion. Continued vaccination increased the probability to get a high antibody response, which has been previously shown to be, in turn, associated with a better survival. Observations done in this series of patients suggest that long term therapeutic vaccination is a feasible strategy, worth to be further explored in the aim of transforming advanced cancer into a chronic disease.


During February 2000, the Churchill Northern Studies Centre hosted the Fourth Circumpolar Ecosystems Conference and Workshop. ..., the objective of the Circumpolar Ecosystems meeting was to bring together Northerners and scientists to exchange information and discuss relevant options for sharing indigenous knowledge and scientific research. This has been done in the traditional winter environment that dominates northern processes and lifestyles. A number of themes were developed at the meeting. One theme was adaptation to the changing climate. Although in general the ongoing warming has brought a decline in the period of annual snow and ice cover, the timing of seasons has become unpredictable. Changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation have been associated with a greater input of contaminants from southern latitudes, which is a major cause of concern. Another theme was that the approach to the coastal marine environments must be consolidated. For example, aspects of the Hudson Bay ecosystem involve the jurisdictions of three provinces and one territory, as well as aboriginal, federal, and international jurisdictions. It was suggested that a cooperative framework is needed in approaching systems like that of Hudson Bay. The final theme was that we need strong north-south communication and the establishment of a comprehensive northern ecological monitoring and assessment network in support of the issues relating to the other themes. The discussions relating specifically to Hudson Bay have been published by the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (2000) as a report entitled "Addressing Climate Change in Hudson Bay: An Integrated Approach." ...


A test based on tapering is proposed for use in testing a global linear hypothesis under a functional linear model. The test statistic is constructed as a weighted sum of squared linear combinations of Fourier coefficients, a tapered quadratic form, in which higher Fourier frequencies are down-weighted so as to emphasize the smooth attributes of the model. A formula is $Q_n^{OPT}=n\sum_{j=1}^{p_n}j^{-1/2}\|\boldsymbol{Y}_{n,j}\|^2$. Down-weighting by $j^{-1/2}$ is selected to achieve adaptive optimality among tests based on tapering with respect to its ``rates of testing,'' an asymptotic framework for measuring a test's retention of power in high dimensions under smoothness constraints. Existing tests based on truncation or thresholding are known to have superior asymptotic power in comparison with any test based on tapering; however, it is shown here that high-order effects can be substantial, and that a test based on $Q_n^{OPT}$ exhibits better (non-asymptotic) power against the sort of alternatives that would typically be of concern in functional data analysis applications. The proposed test is developed for use in practice, and demonstrated in an example application.


Surface wave studies have shown that the transition region of the upper mantle, Bullen's Region C, is not spread uniformly over some 600 km but contains two relatively thin zones in which the velocity gradient is extremely high. In addition to these transition regions which start at depths near 350 and 650 km, there is another region of high velocity gradient which terminates the lowvelocity zone near 160 km. Theoretical body wave travel time and amplitude calculations for the surface wave model CIT11GB predict two prominent regions of triplication in the travel-time curves between about 15° and 40° for both P and S waves, with large amplitude later arrivals. These large later arivals provide an explanation for the scatter of travel time data in this region, as well as the varied interpretations of the "20° discontinuity."

Travel times, apparent velocities and amplitudes of P waves are calculated for the Earth models of Gutenberg, Lehmann, Jeffreys and Lukk and Nersesov. These quantities are calculated for both P and S waves for model CIT11GB. Although the first arrival travel times are similar for all the models except that of Lukk and Nersesov, the times of the later arrivals differ greatly. The neglect of later arrivals is one reason for the discrepancies among the body wave models and between the surface wave and body wave models.

The amplitude calculations take into account both geometric spreading and anelasticity. Geometric spreading produces large variations in the amplitude with distance, and is an extremely sensitive function of the model parameters, providing a potentially powerful tool for studying details of the Earth's structure. The effect of attenuation on the amplitudes varies much less with distance than does the geometric spreading effect. Its main effect is to reduce the amplitude at higher frequencies, particularly for S waves, which may accunt for their observed low frequency character.

Data along a profile to the northeast of the Nevada Test Site clearly show a later branch similar to the one predicted for model CIT11GB, beginning at about 12° with very large amplitudes and becoming a first arrival at about 18°. Strong later arrivals occur in the entire distance range of the data shown, Formula. to 21°. Two models are presented which fit these data. They differ only slightly and confirm the existence of discontinuities near 400 and 600 kilometers.

A method is described for predicting the effect on travel times of small changes in the Earth structure.


Italy has a historical earthquake record that is complete for events with a magnitude above 5.8 since A.D. 1349, making it possible to study Coulomb failure stress changes (ΔCFS) over a long period. In this study, we investigated the interactions between moderate-to-large earthquakes through ΔCFS over 100 yr in central Italy. This region is characterized by intense seismicity with predominantly extensional components. Hence, earthquake hazard assessment is of great public concern. Besides, earthquake interactions on normal faults are relatively less studied compared to reverse and strike-slip faults. ΔCFS calculations in this study incorporated both coseismic stress transfer and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation, and found the epicenters of 13 out of 15 events located in positively stressed lobes induced by previous earthquakes, confirming a correlation between the ΔCFS pattern and locations of moderate-to-large earthquakes. Next, we estimated the current distribution of ΔCFS on active faults, and after a comprehensive analysis of ΔCFS accumulation, slip rates, historical seismicity, and locations of populated cities, we identified three regions of potential seismic hazards in this region.


Abstract Quantitative representation of fracture intensity or its inverse, fracture spacing, in a static fracture model often comes from several data sources (core, borehole image logs, outcrop, and measures at the bit). These necessary constraints give inherently different quantitative assessments, due to differences in resolution and interpretative confidence. This is often imposed on an evaluation program by differing data types acquired during different stages of our exploration and development history of a reservoir due to changes in well path and borehole design. Our challenge is how to merge or meld differently acquired fracture quantifications to populate a quantitative static conceptual fracture model. This manuscript shows (1) the varying interpreted fracture intensity numbers derived from differing types of datasets, (2) the need for dataset calibration early in the development history of a fractured reservoir, and (3) the plan for laying out an appropriate data acquisition program to effectively utilize a multi-faceted fracture database in model construction and quantification from core, outcrop, and various borehole image logs. While there is great need to quantify fracture intensity to constrain of static fracture models for reservoir simulation and prediction, often we must have to merge disparate data types of inherently different resolution and error. This can be accomplished effectively if we gather appropriate calibration datasets. However, many of our calibration datasets fall short in doing the job in a quantitative sense. Proper calibration procedures are detailed.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of potential risk factors of stroke among peopleattending the stroke (Falij) screening camps in Sindh provinceof Pakistan.METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the 12 rural and urban areas of Sindh through stroke screening camps, during the period of six months in 2018. A total of 1,480 consecutive persons18 years or above who had no prior stroke were enrolled.The questionnaire comprised of demographic information, stroke related risk factors, personal history, family history of stroke and investigations did during the camp. Stroke-related risk was categorized as low-risk (1-2 risk factors), moderate-risk (3 risk factors) and high-risk (≥4 risk factors). Out of 1,480 persons screened, twenty-eight persons were excluded due to missing information and final sample size was 1,452. Statistical analysis was performed on SPSS version-21. RESULTS: Out of 1,452 subjects, 802 (55.2%) were males and 650 (44.8%) were females. Mean age was 46.7±13.8 years and majority (n=1026; 70.6%) were aging >40 years.Mean BMI was 29.2±14.4. Low-, moderate- and high-risk groups included 691 (47.6%), 614 (42.3%) & 147 (10.1%) cases respectively. Common potential risk factors of stroke were hypertension (n=722; 49.8%), diabetes mellitus (n=518; 35.7%), dyslipidemia (n=290; 19.97%) and smoking (n=288; 19.8%).CONCLUSION: Common potential risk factors of stroke in our study are hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and smoking. More than half of the participants have potentially moderate- and high-risk of stroke. Robust population-based studies are needed to study the epidemiology of stroke and its risk factors in Pakistan.


Cryopreservation is the method of choice for long term storage of human PBMCs. This study was designed to compare the different combinations of variables affecting the cryopreservation of PBMCs samples. The viability of PBMCs separated from 2×5 ml peripheral blood samples obtained from 16 healthy adult volunteers, were measured using trypan blue dye exclusion method just before freezing with different concentrations of DMSO (10, 15, and 20%) and FBS (40 or 70%) at two different temperatures (either 4oC or 25oC). Then after 2 weeks the cells were thawed and the viability was measured again. Also the PBMCs response to PHA was measured after 48 h using MTT assay. The effects of the different variables were calculated and compared among the groups. A total of 192 PBMCs cryotubes made from blood samples of 16 volunteers were tested. The viability of the cells obtained by the two centrifugation procedure was the same (both more than 99%). The concentration of the FBS (40 vs 70%) did not show to have significant effects on either cells viability or response to PHA. On the other hand 20% DMSO concentration and freezing temperature at 25oC decreased both cells. Based on the obtained results, it is recommended to centrifuge the PBMCs under higher revolt speed at shorter time (700 g for 20 minutes) and decrease the FBS concentration to 40%. The DMSO concentration should be kept at 10-15% and the freezing medium be cooled down to 4oC.


Abstract Background: The aim of this review was to explore hospital socio-natural disaster resilience by identifying: studies assessing structural and non-structural aspects of building resilience; components required to maintain a safe and functional health facility; and if the checklists used were comprehensive and easily performed. Methods: A review systemic approach using PRISMA was taken to search the literature. The search focused on articles that discuss hospital disaster resilience. This includes assessments and checklists for facility structural and non-structural components. Results: This review identified 22 articles describing hospital assessments using checklists containing structural and non-structural elements of resilience. These studies identified assessments undertaken in ten countries, with eight occurring across Iran. A total of seven differing checklists were identified as containing aspects of structural or non-structural aspects of building resilience. The World Health Organization (WHO) has authored three checklists and four others were developed independently. The structural resilience domain includes building integrity, building materials, design standards, and previous event damages as important elements to determine resilience. Within the internal safety and resilience domains, 11 differing elements were identified as important to non-structural or internal infrastructure resilience. These included the safety of power, water, telecommunication, medical gas supply, and medical equipment resupply systems. Independent evaluation methods were reported in the majority of articles, with a small number highlighting the benefits of both self-evaluation and independent review processes. Implementation of training programs to evaluators was mentioned in three papers with the assessor's knowledge and understanding of all checklist elements being highlighted as important to the validity of the evaluation. Conclusion: The review identified the assessment of hospital resilience as important for management to determine areas of vulnerability within the hospital's infrastructure and to inform improvement strategies. Assessment criteria must be comprehensive, highlighting structural and non-structural aspects of facility infrastructure. These assessments are best done as a multi-disciplinary collective of experts, involving hospital employees in the journey. This collaborative approach provides a key educational tool for developing disaster capacity, engaging ownership of the process, and the resulting improvements. The on-going development of health facility and wider health system resilience must remain a key strategic focus of national governments and health authorities. The development of standardized procedures and guidelines must be embedded into daily practice.


The social justice roots and theory of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) model is presented, followed by an empirical study examining the influence of MVP in high school settings. Findings reveal students exposed to the MVP model are more likely to see forms of violence as being wrong and are more likely to take actions to intervene than students not exposed to the program. Findings support the premises on which MVP is founded.


A 35-kWh superconductor flywheel energy storage (SFES) system using hybrid bearing sets, which is composed of a high-temperature superconductor bearing and an active magnet damper, has been developed in the Korea Electric Power Corporation Research Institute (KEPRI). To keep the flywheel system safe, backup bearings were adapted, and a ball bearing was selected through simulations. The 35-kWh SFES was tested up to 6500 r/min successfully. During rotation tests, there were few accidents. An accident occurred while decreasing speed, at around 4000 r/min. Although the backup bearing was damaged to keep the flywheel system safe, the shaft was also damaged. Contact due to the elongation of the flywheel shaft was considered as the reason for the accident. Some results of the accident are described and analyzed.


This work proposes a new approach for the optimal energy management of a hybrid electric vehicle (EV) considering traffic conditions. The method is based on a bilevel decomposition. At the microscopic level, the offline part computes cost maps due to a stochastic optimization that considers the influence of traffic, in terms of speed/acceleration probability distributions. At the online macroscopic level, a deterministic optimization computes the ideal state of charge at the end of each road segment using the computed cost maps. The optimal torque split can then be recovered according to the cost maps and this SoC target sequence. Since the high computational cost due to the uncertainty of traffic conditions has been managed offline, the online part should be fast enough for real-time implementation on board the vehicle. Errors due to discretization and computation in the proposed algorithm have been studied. Finally, we present numerical simulations using actual traffic data and compare the proposed bilevel method to the best possible consumption, obtained by a deterministic optimization with full knowledge of future traffic conditions, as well as to an established solution for energy management of a hybrid EV. The solutions show a reasonable overconsumption compared with deterministic optimization and manageable computational times for both the offline and the online part.


ABSTRACT In this article on the Internet material resources published in 2011–2013 years. Considered the state of modern culture Pacific Russia. Analyzes the impact of her traditional and contemporary cultures of Japan and the Republic of Korea, North Korea and China, the U.S. and Canada. Conclusions about the attractiveness of the territory south of Pacific Russia for Japan, South Korea and China, northern territory – the northern states of the USA and Canada, and it is this position is crucial in creating a complex system of transmission of culture and perception of the neighboring states of Pacific Russia. Keywords: Modern Culture, Pacific Russia, Neighboring Countries, Internet Resources.


Innovation is the impetus and source of enterprise development, and the cooperatively technical innovation is become a main innovation method. It is necessary to take measure to prevent and indemnify the loss that the risk may bring. Because of the existence of the complex non-linear function mechanism between the risk factors, so the non-linear method can be used to research the keeping way and controlling mechanism of cooperatively technical innovation. At first, this paper analyzed the seeking method of enterprise cooperatively technical innovation risk, and the steps of seeking risks are presented. And then the concept of controlling risk regulation gradient is put forward, and the method of calculating risk regulation gradient is expatiated in detail. The nerve network is suitable for recognizing and simulating nonlinear system, and the wavelet transformation or the decomposition displays the good time frequency localization characteristic and the multi-criteria function, therefore the wavelet nerve network based on the wavelet decomposition and the nerve network has the good fault-tolerant ability and the non-linearity approaching performance. And based on this, a complete controlling risk model of cooperatively technical innovation is brought forward, and the algorithm of risk control model is discussed.


The strong association between severe coronary stenosis and collateral growth continues to be a paradigm in this field of investigation. The present study was based on the hypothesis that angiogenic growth factors are produced by ischemic cardiac tissue, are diffusible and more concentrated in pericardial fluid, and accelerate the growth of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Pericardial fluid from 17 patients with stable or unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction (group A) and from 10 patients with nonischemic heart disease (group B) were collected at the time of open heart surgery. Cultured human aortic VSMC were plated at the third passage at a density of 5x10(3)/100 microl and allowed to attach for 24 h. The 3-day growth assay was preceded by 72 h of growth arrest with 0.4% fetal calf serum (FCS). Growth was restarted by the addition of 90 microl of medium containing 0.4% FCS, and 1O microl of each pericardial fluid. Cell counts on triplicate wells were performed using a dimethylthiazol (MTT) method on days 0 and 3. The effect of pericardial fluid on the growth of VSMC was evaluated as a ratio (R) of cell numbers on day 3 to those on day 0. The concentration of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in pericardial fluid was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The concentration of bFGF in pericardial fluid of group A was 633+/-127 pg/ml, and significantly (p=0.003) higher than that of group B (86+/-23 pg/ml). R in group A was 2.29+/-0.18 and significantly (p=0.019) higher than that in group B (1.68+/-0.11). The level of bFGF positively correlated with R (p=0.009). These findings indicate that pericardial fluid from patients with ischemic heart disease contains some substances that mediate collateral development, and bFGF might be one of them.


Objective The current study aimed to identify the barriers to participation among high-risk individuals in the UK Lung Cancer Screening (UKLS) pilot trial. Setting The UKLS pilot trial is a randomised controlled trial of low-dose CT (LDCT) screening that has recruited high-risk people using a population approach in the Cambridge and Liverpool areas. Participants High-risk individuals aged 50–75 years were invited to participate in UKLS. Individuals were excluded if a LDCT scan was performed within the last year, if they were unable to provide consent, or if LDCT screening was unable to be carried out due to coexisting comorbidities. Outcome measures Statistical associations between individual characteristics and UKLS uptake were examined using multivariable regression modelling. In those who completed a non-participation questionnaire (NPQ), thematic analysis of free-text data was undertaken to identify reasons for not taking part, with subsequent exploratory linkage of key themes to risk factors for non-uptake. Results Comparative data were available from 4061 high-risk individuals who consented to participate in the trial and 2756 who declined participation. Of those declining participation, 748 (27.1%) completed a NPQ. Factors associated with non-uptake included: female gender (OR=0.64, p<0.001), older age (OR=0.73, p<0.001), current smoking (OR=0.70, p<0.001), lower socioeconomic group (OR=0.56, p<0.001) and higher affective risk perception (OR=0.52, p<0.001). Among non-participants who provided a reason, two main themes emerged reflecting practical and emotional barriers. Smokers were more likely to report emotional barriers to participation. Conclusions A profile of risk factors for non-participation in lung screening has emerged, with underlying reasons largely relating to practical and emotional barriers. Strategies for engaging high-risk, hard-to-reach groups are critical for the equitable uptake of a potential future lung cancer screening programme. Trial registration number The UKLS trial was registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register under the reference 78513845.


Supply chain management (SCM) environments are often dynamic markets providing a plethora of information, either complete or incomplete. It is, therefore, evident that such environments demand intelligent solutions, which can perceive variations and act in order to achieve maximum revenue. To do so, they must also provide some sophisticated mechanism for exploiting the full potential of the environments they inhabit. Advancing on the way autonomous solutions usually deal with the SCM process, we have built a robust and highly-adaptable mechanism for efficiently dealing with all SCM facets, while at the same time incorporating a module that exploits data mining technology in order to forecast the price of the winning bid in a given order and, thus, adjust its bidding strategy. The paper presents our agent, Mertacor, and focuses on the forecasting mechanism it incorporates, aiming to optimal agent efficiency


This paper proposes a new approach to combine the knowledge-based model and the cooperation technique of evolutionary agents to identify the location of the desired object in a satellite image. The agents interact with the local information of the image pixels to search for the target objects through an evolutionary process. A new set of fitness function and evolutionary operators are defined for the process. The decentralized, bottom-up and evolutionary natures of the agents can be used to construct a robust system for object recognition in satellite images. The experimental results are satisfactory and have demonstrated the flexibility and power of the approach.


Abstract Correctly resolving textual mentions of people fundamentally entails making inferences about those people. Such inferences raise the risk of systematic biases in coreference resolution systems, including biases that can harm binary and non-binary trans and cis stakeholders. To better understand such biases, we foreground nuanced conceptualizations of gender from sociology and sociolinguistics, and investigate where in the machine learning pipeline such biases can enter a coreference resolution system. We inspect many existing data sets for trans-exclusionary biases, and develop two new data sets for interrogating bias in both crowd annotations and in existing coreference resolution systems. Through these studies, conducted on English text, we confirm that without acknowledging and building systems that recognize the complexity of gender, we will build systems that fail for: quality of service, stereotyping, and over- or under-representation, especially for binary and non-binary trans users.


Magnetic resonance imaging represents voxels (volume elements) of the body placed in a magnet, by their magnetization determined under various acquisition conditions weighting the contrast of the image by the density of free water protons and their relaxation times T1 and T2. Thus, the sensitivity in depicting lesions is high but pathological specificity is poor. Efforts are made to increase the diagnosis powerfulness of M.R.I. in multiple sclerosis: a careful correlation with the clinical presentation and the use of better M.R.I. criteria increase the specificity of the conventional T2 sequences. New sequences such as fast spin echo (F.S.E.), turbo spin echo (T.S.E.) or derived from inversion recovery (F.L.A.I.R.: fluid attenuated inversion recovery) improve the detection of lesions. Under specific conditions M.R.I. can be used to monitor the evolution of M.S. Acute phase monitoring focuses on changes in disease activity, new, recurring, enlarging, gadolinium (Gd) enhancing lesions, and chronic phase monitoring appreciate the burden of the disease. However M.R.I. is always considered as a secondary outcome in the phase III trials because insufficient correlations with the clinical disability. In the neurological daily practice conventional M.R.I. is of poor interest in the follow up of individual M.S. patients considering the weakness of prognosis value and the problems in the measurement of the lesions load which is emphasized in the methodology of the clinical trials. Nevertheless, there is a continuing search for techniques which correlate better with clinical measures of the disease such as the quantification of "black holes" on T1 w images or the cerebral and spinal atrophy. New techniques allow to weight the signal by the movement (diffusion imaging), by the complexity of the molecular architecture (magnetization transfer imaging), by the chemical shift (chemical shift imaging) or by the local status of oxygenation (functional M.R.I.). The basic aspects of the pathological lesions in M.S., edema, membrane disruption, demyelination, gliosis, cellular infiltration and axonal loss can be studied more precisely by these new M.R. techniques which should better describe the actual clinical impact of the destructive process. In the last year the importance of axonal loss has simultaneously been confirmed by M. R. spectroscopy and pathological findings. However, magnetization transfer imaging, M.R. diffusion imaging and functional M.R.I. are intensively under investigation for a better analysis of these different factors conditioning the reversibility of the patient disability.


: The watching eyes effect describes the phenomenon that just showing simple images of watching eyes can change people's behaviors. There is much debate about whether this effect can be explained by the reputation mechanism and the norm psychology. Furthermore, the watching eyes effect has been found to be affected by factors such as task type, experimental situation, exposure time, anonymity, participants' group identity, and personal characteristics. Future research need to explore evolutionary mechanisms from the perspective of embodied cognition, cross-cultural variations in the watching eyes effect, and neural mechanisms underlying this effect. Researchers should also consider applying the watching eyes effect in real-life situations to increase prosociality.