: Dr Arthur Jacob (1790-1874), of Dublin, Ireland, was one of the leading ophthalmologists of his time. He was the first to describe the membrane that contains the rods and cones in the eye (membrana Jacobi) and basal cell carcinoma (Jacob's ulcer). He made a curved needle for cataract surgery from a sewing needle (Jacob's needle). Two descriptions of cataract surgery without anaesthesia are presented.


A compliant bistable micromechanism has been developed which can be switched in either direction using on-chip thermal actuation. The energy storage and bistable behavior of the mechanism is achieved through the elastic deflection of compliant segments. The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model was used for the compliant mechanism design, and for analysis of the large deflection flexible segments. To achieve on-chip actuation, the mechanism design was optimized to allow it to be switched using linear motion thermal actuators. The modeling theory and analysis are presented for three design iterations, with two iterations fabricated in the MUMP's process and the third in the SUMMiT process.


Infertility is a global health problem, and an increasing number of couples are seeking medical assistance to achieve reproduction, at least half of which are caused by men. The success rate of assisted reproductive technologies depends on sperm assessment, in which experts determine whether sperm can be used for reproduction based on morphology and motility of sperm. Previous sperm assessment studies with deep learning have used datasets comprising images that include only sperm heads, which cannot consider motility and other morphologies of sperm. Furthermore, the labels of the dataset are one-hot, which provides insufficient support for experts, because assessment results are inconsistent between experts, and they have no absolute answer. Therefore, we constructed the video dataset for sperm assessment whose videos include sperm head as well as neck and tail, and its labels were annotated with soft-label. Furthermore, we proposed the sperm assessment framework and the neural network, RoSTFine, for sperm video recognition. Experimental results showed that RoSTFine could improve the sperm assessment performances compared to existing video recognition models and focus strongly on important sperm parts (i.e., head and neck).


OBJECTIVE
Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) stimulation testing is the current standard for assessing primary and secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI). We aimed to investigate the value of basal cortisol level for prediction of AI.

METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed 804 consecutive patients who had high-dose (250 μg, HDT) or low-dose (1 μg, LDT) ACTH testing as part of their diagnostic work-up. Site-specific cut-off levels for AI were <550 in and <500 nmol/L in HDT and LDT, respectively.

RESULTS
Overall, 70/400 (17.5%) in the LDT group and 118/404 (29.2%) in the HDT group showed an insufficient increase of cortisol and were categorized as AI. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed an overall area under the curve (AUC) for basal cortisol of 0.88, which was comparable in LDT (area under the curve [AUC] 0.88) and HDT (AUC 0.88). If basal cortisol levels were ≥450 nmol/L (n = 234/804, 29.1%), the negative predictive value to rule out AI was 98.7%. If cortisol was ≤100 nmol/L (n = 69/804, 8.6%) the positive predictive value was 93.2% to rule in AI. There was a minimal additional value of the 30-minute cortisol level in HDT as compared to the 60-minute result, as well as for delta values.

CONCLUSION
Basal cortisol levels ≤100 and ≥450 nmol/L were found in almost half of patients tested for possible AI and had high diagnostic accuracy, abolishing the need for formal ACTH testing. The 30-minute cortisol value in HDT did not increase diagnostic accuracy. These data may help guide clinicians when testing can safely be omitted, thereby reducing expenses and simplifying test protocols.

ABBREVIATIONS
ACTH = adrenocorticotropic hormone AI = adrenal insufficiency AUC = area under the curve CI = confidence interval HDT = high-dose test HPA axis = hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis ITT = insulin tolerance test LDT = low-dose test NR = normal responders LR+/- = positive/negative likelihood ratio NPV = negative predictive value PPV = positive predictive value.


BACKGROUND
A paucity of information exists on the effects of cancer on speech, with what little literature exists focussing on the effects of treatment. Baseline assessment of speech in head and neck cancer patients before treatment is important to distinguish accurately the effects of treatment from the effects of the cancer itself.

AIMS
This prospective study had four major foci: (1) to determine if speech intelligibility and motor speech functions of patients with head and neck cancer before treatment differed from the normal population; (2) to determine if impairments in speech intelligibility and motor speech functions were specific to the original site of cancer; (3) to determine which motor speech functions were most related to overall speech intelligibility; and (4) to determine whether there was a relationship between self-report of speech intelligibility, motor speech functions and the clinical assessment thereof. This study aimed incidentally to determine whether the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment is a practicable, valid and reliable tool for assessing speech functions in the head and neck cancer population.

METHODS & PROCEDURES
Twenty participants, between 47 and 76 years of age and all newly diagnosed with a cancer of the head and neck, participated in the pilot study. In examining speech, participants completed a self-report questionnaire pertaining to speech intelligibility and motor speech functions and were then assessed clinically using subscales of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment before the start of cancer treatment. The motor speech functions examined included: respiratory ability and functions of the lip, soft palate, larynx and tongue.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS
Results indicated that participants with head and neck cancer had a greater reduction in both speech intelligibility and in almost all aspects of speech when compared with the normal population. Results further demonstrated that the site of the cancer dictated the type of impairment experienced with respect to speech function. Not all motor speech characteristics correlated with overall speech intelligibility and, lastly, self-report and clinical assessment were significantly correlated with respect to motor speech characteristics, but they differed slightly in the assessment of speech intelligibility.

CONCLUSIONS
This pilot study has highlighted the critical importance of collecting baseline measures and reporting functional results according to the cancer site in future research. It has also shown the usefulness of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment as a practicable, valid and reliable protocol of motor speech assessment for the head and neck cancer population.


Plant camouflage is one of the camouflage methods, which is conducted by using of planting and collecting plant and changing color of plant to conceal targets. It can be used to camouflage relatively big permanent fixed targets in peace time and also to camouflage relatively big permanent fixed targets in peace time and also to camouflage relatively small fixed or moving targets. However, in recent years, with the natural disasters occurring alternately, plant camouflage can be destroyed easily, and it is difficult to rebuild in a short time. To improve the effect of plant camouflage, more fertilizers are required, which may become an environmental hazard, unless adequate technical and socioeconomic impacts are addressed. A multifunctional slow-release nitrogen fertilizer has been developed to improve fertilizer use efficiency and reduce environmental pollution. In this paper, a series of slow-release formulations of nitrogen fertilizer were developed on the basis of natural attapulgite clay, ethylcellulose film, and sodium carboxymethylcellulose/hydroxylethylcellulose hydrogel. The structural of the product were examined. The slow-release profiles of ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate, and urea as nitrogen fertilizer substrates were determined in soil.


Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). However, host factors contributing to susceptibility to S. aureus colonization in CRS remain unknown. We wish to investigate, using a pooled genomewide association study (pGWAS), single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with S. aureus carriage in CRS patients.


Against a background of growing interest in reproducibility in NLP and ML, and as part of an ongoing research programme designed to develop theory and practice of reproducibility assessment in NLP, we organised the second shared task on reproducibility of evaluations in NLG, ReproGen 2022. This paper describes the shared task, summarises results from the reproduction studies submitted, and provides further comparative analysis of the results. Out of six initial team registrations, we received submissions from five teams. Meta-analysis of the five reproduction studies revealed varying degrees of reproducibility, and allowed further tentative conclusions about what types of evaluation tend to have better reproducibility.


Polarization of the 7 3S 6 3PJ radiation from the Hg atom was observed under electron impact with an energy a little above the 6 1S 7 3S threshold excitation energy. The observing direction was perpendicular to both the incident electron beam and the atomic beam. All of the triplet radiation (J = 0, 1 and 2) was slightly polarized. The observed degree of fractional polarization was -3.07, 1.98 and -0.33%, corresponding to J = 0, 1 and 2 spectra in the final 3PJ states of the Hg atom, respectively. These values could be explained by assuming unequal populations in the sublevels Ms = 0 and ±1 of the 7 3S states, deviating from an equal mean value of (1/3) for each sublevel. The deviation value of the fractional population for the sublevel Ms = 0 was 0.348±0.004.


Microlensing is a unique tool, capable of detecting the "cold" planets between ∼1 and 10 au from their host stars and even unbound "free-floating" planets. This regime has been poorly sampled to date owing to the limitations of alternative planet-finding methods, but a watershed in discoveries is anticipated in the near future thanks to the planned microlensing surveys of WFIRST-AFTA and Euclid's Extended Mission. Of the many challenges inherent in these missions, the modeling of microlensing events will be of primary importance, yet it is often time-consuming, complex, and perceived as a daunting barrier to participation in the field. The large scale of future survey data products will require thorough but efficient modeling software, but, unlike other areas of exoplanet research, microlensing currently lacks a publicly available, well-documented package to conduct this type of analysis. We present version 1.0 of the python Lightcurve Identification and Microlensing Analysis (pyLIMA). This software is written in Python and uses existing packages as much as possible to make it widely accessible. In this paper, we describe the overall architecture of the software and the core modules for modeling single-lens events. To verify the performance of this software, we use it to model both real data sets from events published in the literature and generated test data produced using pyLIMA's simulation module. The results demonstrate that pyLIMA is an efficient tool for microlensing modeling. We will expand pyLIMA to consider more complex phenomena in the following papers.


Background Anca Associated Vasculitis (AAV), are a group of necrotizing primary vascultitis, whith multisistemic manifestation, of unknown etiology. The variants are: Microscopic Polyangiitis (MPA), Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), Granulomatosis whith Polyangiitis and Eosinophilia (GPE) and AAV limited to one organ. Until now, there are no diagnostic criteria for AAV. Therefore definitions, as Chapell Hill consensus Conference Nomenclature, classification criteria and the physician judgement are used for diagnosis. Currently the DCVAS (Diagnosis and Classification Criteria in Vasculitis) proyect is developing diagnostic criteria for AAV, using data-driven methods. The preliminary DCVAS classification criteria for granulomatosis whith polyangiitis has been recently realesead. Objectives To evaluate and compare the acuraccy of ACR/EULAR 2017 provisional Classification Criteria for GPA whith the ACR 1990 Classification Criteria In Chilean patients with AAV. Methods All adult patients (>18 yo) with diagnoses of AAV according to their rheumatologist judgment, from 2000–2016 at the University of Chile, Clinical Hospital (UCCH), were included. Clinical variables of interest were extracted form medical chart and AAV database, wich is kept for these patients at the Rheumatology Section of UCCH. Based on that data, the Classification criteria ACR 1990 and 2017preliminary ACR/EULAR (DCVAS) classification criteria for GPA were applied to each individual. Sensibility, especifity, Likehood ratio (LR +/-), predictive values (PPV/NPV) and accuracy were calculated for both sets of Criteria as compared to Clinical diagnosis Results 93 patient were included in the study. 59 patients with GPA, 33 with MPA and 1 with GPE (Patients characteristics are described in Table 1). From the 59 patients with GPA according to clinical judgment, 34 fullfilled the ACR 1990 criteria (57,63%) whereas 51 (86,44%) fullfilled the ACR/EULAR 2007 criteria. From the 33 patients diagnosed as having MPA 9 (27,27%) and and 3 (9.09%) fulfilled classification criteria for GPA according to ACR 1990 criteria and 2017 ACR/EULAR preliminary criteria, respectively.The patient with GPE did no classify as GPA by either set of criteria.The values for Sensibility, Espicifity, LR+ LR-, PPV and NPV in our population for both Criteria sets, are described in table 2. Conclusions In our population, provisional 2017 ACR/EULAR criteria for classificatiόn of GPA have better acurracy than ACR 1990 classification criteria. References -Leavitt RY, Fauci AS, Bloch DA, Michel BA, Hunder GG, Arend WP, Calabrese LH, Fries JF, Lie JT, Lightfoot RW Jr, et al.The American College of Rheumatology 1990 criteria for the classification of Wegener's Granulomatosis. Arthritis Rheum 1990;33:1101–7. -Luqmani, R, Merkel, P. New Clasification Criteria for ANCA-Associated Vasculitis: Implication for Clinical Practice. Lecture, 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Metting. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Now a day Big Data has turned the attention of the academia and IT industry towards it to think due to information is generated and collected at unimaginable rate that rapidly exceeds the very large range. The easy availability of big data indicated the need to manage it for useful purpose, business need, scientific research, future predictions for community welfare, lifestyle enhancements etc. The observations stated by researchers are that Google processes 50TB, Twitter 20TB data everyday which is huge in volume, velocity and variety. To streamline the big data issues several solutions are developed on high computing machines and through large scale nodes with the help of distributed processing technologies and software tools like MapReduce from Google, Hadoop of Apache foundation and its eco system. However it is also the observation that these technologies and tools needs to be modified due to problems exists such as not making usefulness of intermediate data, inefficiency in output, increased overhead on processors, inefficient storage technologies and poor security. The purpose of this survey is to appreciate and think for probable enhancements that can be possible for the forthcoming requirements of future. One of the observations among various issues of enhancements for big data where in this paper concentration is provided that large amount of intermediate data generated by map and reduce operation is not used when task finish and thrashed away as well as incremental computations are not treated well by the existing cache mechanism. Hence the research will be done to use cache mechanism efficiently to optimize computational time and reduce storage overhead for real time data over the distributed file system (DFS). The survey focuses on big data domain orientation, the technologies applied for execution of big data applications and its eco system, literature survey from various existing practices towards improvements in optimization of computational time and reduction in space of storage system as well as to improve the performance, efficiency, scalability and architecture and proposed new system architecture to achieve above aspects.


Caregivers have a key role in protecting children's wellbeing, and, with appropriate skills, can prevent a multitude of negative social outcomes, particularly in challenged or humanitarian settings. Accordingly, the Strong Families programme was designed as a light touch family skills programme, with a focus of supporting caregiving during stressful situations. To evaluate the short-term impact of the Strong Families programme, we performed a time-convenience, randomized, controlled trial in Iran. A total of 292 families (63% from Iranian decent, 39% from Afghan decent, and 1% other), with children aged eight to twelve years, were recruited through ten centers in Iran and allocated to an intervention (n = 199) or waitlist/control group (n = 93). The two groups did not differ demographically at baseline. We assessed families prospectively, through three scales, PAFAS (parenting and family adjustment scales), SDQ (strengths and difficulties questionnaire), and CYRM-R (child and youth resilience measure). Caregivers in the intervention group improved (highly) statistically significantly on all but one PAFAS subscales (parental consistency, coercive parenting, positive encouragement, parental adjustment, family relationships, and parental teamwork), which was not noted in the waitlist group. On the SDQ, there were (highly) significant positive changes in scores in the intervention group on all sub-scales and the "total difficulty scale", whereas the waitlist/control group also improved on three (prosocial, conduct problems, and hyperactivity) of the five SDQ subscales. Children originating from Afghanistan improved significantly on the overall resilience scale of the CYRM-R in the intervention group, but not in the waitlist/control group. Overall, all our stratified results of the different scales reflect an accentuated improvement in families with higher levels of problems at baseline. Our comparative results indicated a strong alignment of the strong families programme with its intended short-term impact, per its logical frame on parenting practices and family management skills, children behaviour, caregivers and children mental health, and capacity to cope with stress. We postulate that the potential nudging or diffusion of knowledge (cross-contamination between intervention and waitlist/control group) at the community level could explain improvements in the waitlist/control group on some indicators, however, further research on this is recommend.


ABSTRACT India's growth of energy demand in the building stock, and efforts to curb it, are placed into an international context by adapting the reporting criteria developed for the Global Alliance on Building & Construction's (GABC) Global Status Report (2017) on buildings and construction. A survey of state and non-state actor climate commitments submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Non State Actors Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) database and recent research on the status of building energy codes and standards globally are also presented. To contribute to a 2°C pathway, India must achieve a 50% reduction in building energy demand and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. India is taking steps toward this goal through initiatives such as recent upgrades to the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), encouraging green building rating and energy certification, and stimulating markets for low-carbon/high-efficiency technologies. However, despite improvements in building energy intensity, neither the global or the Indian building sectors are currently decarbonizing. The adoption of consistent national energy and GHG emission reduction goals could further align national, subnational and private-sector climate action commitments to facilitate a transition to a low-carbon emissions pathway and contribute to limiting global warming to well below 2°C.


In this paper, we introduce the Riemann sum method (RSM) as an effective tool for the design of sum-of-cisoids (SOC) simulators for narrowband mobile Rayleigh fading channels under non-isotropic scattering conditions. We show that the RSM results in an excellent approximation of the channel's autocorrelation function (ACF). Furthermore, we compare the performance of the RSM with that of the generalized method of equal areas (GMEA) and Lp-norm method (LPNM), which were until now the only methods available for the design of SOC simulators for non-isotropic scattering channels. The obtained results indicate that the RSM is better suited than the GMEA and the LPNM to approximate the channel's ACF, whereas the latter two methods provide better results regarding the emulation of the envelope distribution. Owing to its simplicity and good performance, the RSM can be used to design flexible simulation platforms for the analysis of mobile communication systems operating in non-isotropic scattering environments.


The purpose of ecosystem monitoring programs is to indicate the state of ecosystems and whether they have been impacted by activities such as fishing. This paper discusses a range
of methods for inferring such impacts using monitoring data with no control sites. These methods assess either (i) the expected probability of an observed value in an unimpacted
system, or (ii) the frequency of values below a fixed reference point. The second approach allows inference criteria based on changes in this frequency rather than by reference to a critical probability. All methods would have provided a sustained indication of a significant
decline in Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) pup production at South Georgia from the early 1990s within a few years of its onset, but a fixed reference point method could have provided this sustained indication from the onset. Furthermore, simulation of all methods suggests that the total probability of error (false positives and false negatives combined) is lowest with fixed reference point methods. The probabilities of Type I and
Type II error can be evaluated analytically for these methods, which facilitates decision-making based on attitudes to risk.


In this investigation, a synthetic biopolymer prepared from bithiophene monomer, isosorbide and ethylene glycol, was synthesized through melt polycondensation. The result showed the polyesters to possess promising thermal and mechanical properties. The bithiophene monomer, [2,2'-bithiophene]-5,5'-dicarboxylicacid acid, was synthesized from a palladium-catalyzed, phosphine ligand-free direct coupling protocol, using polyethylene glycol palladium (Pd/PEG) as catalyst. The procedure was found effective at polymerizing the bithiophene monomer with isosorbide and glycol. The bithiophene polyester displayed several intriguing properties among good thermal resistance, crystallinity and high tensile modulus. Additionally, the bithiophene monomer coupled to isosorbide enhanced the polyester with a comparatively high glass transition temperature. Films cast out these polyesters display excellent oxygen and water barrier properties, and were interestingly superior to those of poly(ethylene terephthalate). Moreover, the novel polyester also has good soil degradability properties.


Two different types of mesenchyme, fat pad precursor cells (FP) and fibroblastic cells (MM) are involved in the morphogenesis of mammary gland epithelium of mouse embryo. Especially, an interaction between FP and the epithelium is necessary for its characteristic shaping of ductal branching structure. To assess the relative participations of the mesenchymes, we have analysed the extracellular matrix products by immunofluorescent staining method using antibodies to laminin, proteoheparan sulphate, and fibronectin. The staining patterns suggested that, after the 16th day of gestation when fatty substances first appeared in FP and the epithelial rudiments started to elongate and branch rapidly, FP initiated synthesis of laminin and proteoheparan sulphate, while MM synthesized fibronectin at all times. Attention was also paid to differences in the epithelial basement membranes (BM) concomitant with ones in the mesenchyme. BM were always stained with antibodies to laminin and proteoheparan sulphate. However, topographical differences in thickness were observed: the one facing FP, often seen at the tip region of the end bud, was thin, while the other surrounded by MM, often at the flank region of the duct, was thick. Specific elaboration of BM-like extracellular matrix products by FP may attribute to observed differences in BM thickness which are related to the characteristic shaping of the mammary gland.


The functional deficiencies of the stratum corneum (SC) have been well documented in the skin of atopic dermatitis (AD) patients. AD tends to affect certain predilection areas chronically such as the face, neck and the flexural folds of the extremities. From the paucity of the information about the functional characteristics of the SC in such skin areas, we conducted biophysical measurements at the predilection sites of AD, i.e. the cheek, anterior surface of the neck, nape, antecubital fossa and popliteal fossa and relatively uninvolved sites such as the elbow, mid volar forearm, knee and mid calf in 34 AD patients and in 40 normal individuals. Reflecting the great interlocation variations in the SC noted even in the normal individuals, we found location-dependent as well as severity-dependent changes of SC function in the AD patients. Thus, the values of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) obtained on the cheek and, unexpectedly, the elbow were quite high, whereas those on the poplieal fossa were very low; even those values recorded on the lesional skin of the latter of the AD patients were significantly lower than those of the cheek of normal healthy individuals (p < 0.05). Moreover, the TEWL values measured at the nonlesional skin of AD patients were much closer to those of the normal healthy skin than to those of the lesional skin in most areas. Similarly, the SC hydration state that is influenced by the amount of skin surface lipids showed prominent location-dependent changes in addition to a severity-dependent change. It was much higher even in the lesional skin of the face and neck than in the normal skin of the extensor surface of the limbs. The corneocyte size, which inversely correlates with the turnover rate of the SC, was larger even on the lesional skin of the extremities than that of the normal cheek. It is only in skin surface pH that such location dependency was not demonstrable; it uniformly revealed higher values in the lesional and nonlesional skin of AD patients regardless of the sites. From these comparative data obtained at the predilection sites and relatively unaffected sites of AD, we think that those functional abnormalities of the SC reported in AD patients simply reflect the severity of underlying inflammatory changes rather than inherently defective SC functions.


Producers in eastern South Dakota are interested in adding winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to their crop rotations to improve crop yield and pest management. Our study quantified winter wheat response to preceding crop and crop management. Preceding crops were soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill], oat (Avena sativa L.)-pea (Pisum sativum L.) mixture, and spring wheat. Two crop management strategies, high-input and conventional, were compared. High-input management differed from conventional management by a 60% higher seeding rate and a split application of N fertilizer. Winter wheat with high-input management yielded the highest following oat-pea; in contrast, winter wheat with conventional management yielded 28% less following spring wheat. Winter wheat following soybean yielded 88% of the winter wheat with high-input following oat-pea. Tiller density was 32% higher when winter wheat followed oat-pea compared with soybean. Winter wheat developed faster following oat-pea compared with other preceding crops, as determined by measuring solar radiation at the soil surface in early May and date of heading. Winter wheat production can be improved by increasing seeding rate and banding a starter fertilizer by the seed at planting.


The federal Pro-Children's Act of 1994 and other public health laws prompted most schools to create policies that address tobacco issues. To date, however, the literature is devoid of research that assesses the quality of a district's tobacco policy. This article describes the process and results from a large-scale, tobacco policy review. An Interagency Tobacco Task Group requested that tobacco policies of all New York State Schools be reviewed. A policy rubric was developed using the documents Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn and the School Health Index. The rubric assessed five policy components. Aggregate data were calculated for each policy component and for the final score. School policies also were evaluated for compliance with state and federal laws. Overall policy review scores were quite low, suggesting greater effort be placed on helping schools to develop more effective tobacco policies. Initial efforts included sending letters and a "tobacco tool kit" to schools containing recommendations and resources to improve their district's tobacco policy.


Background Relying on freezer stored biospecimens is preferred in epidemiolocal studies exploring environmental pregnancy exposures and later offspring health. Storage duration may increase the pre-analytical variability, potentially adding measurement uncertainty. We investigated evaporation of maternal serum after long-term biobank storage using ions (sodium, Na+; chloride, Cl-) recognized for stability and relatively narrow normal biological reference ranges in human serum. Methods A chemical analysis study of 275 biobanked second trimester maternal serum from a large Danish pregnancy screening registry. Serum samples were collected between 1985–1995 and stored at -20°C. Ion concentrations were quantified with indirect potentiometry using a Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer and compared according to storage time and normal biological ranges in second trimester. Ion concentrations were also compared with normal biological variation assessed by baseline Na+ and Cl- serum concentrations from a separate cohort of 24,199 non-pregnant women measured before freezing with the same instrument. Results The overall mean ion concentrations in biobanked serum were 147.5 mmol/L for Na+ and 109.7 for Cl-. No marked linear storage effects were observed according to storage time. Ion concentrations were consistently high across sampling years, especially for specific sampling years, and a relatively large proportion were outside respective normal ranges in second trimester: 38.9% for Na+ and 43.6% for Cl-. Some variation in concentrations was also evident in baseline serum used as quality controls. Conclusions Elevated ion concentrations suggest evaporation, but independent of storage duration in the present study (27–37 years). Any evaporation may have occurred prior to freezer storage or during the first 27 years. Other pre-analytical factors such as low serum volume have likely influenced the concentrations, particularly given the high within year variability. Overall, we consider the biobanked serum samples internally comparable to enable their use in epidemiological studies.


Purpose To compare the incidence of hip implant loosening in cemented and uncemented fixation, to work out the recommendations for bone cement removal from the femoral canal and to evaluate the efficiency of using spacers and the proposed technique of filling the bone defect of the acetabular components. Materials and Methods The authors present the analysis of indications for performing revision hip arthroplasty and the relative frequency of performance after using the implants with uncemented and cemented fixation. Twenty eight (84.8%) out of 33 patients with implant instability had implants with cemented fixation. The authors focus on the need of sparing removal of the primary implant. A technique of bone cement removal from the femoral canal with the preservation of the proximal femur is proposed. The use of allogenic spongy bone grafts produced from the utilized femoral heads at the FSBI All-Russia Centre of Ophthalmic and Plastic Surgery of the RF Ministry of Health (Ufa) is offered for bone defect plasty Results Among 33 patients, good results were obtained in 23 patients (80-100 points according to W.H. Harris score) with the outcome of functional joints at follow-ups (range: 3 to 8 years), and fair outcomes in four (4) patients. The implant stem sinking developed in two patients within one year after surgery that required the replacement of the stem. The outcomes were good at follow-ups of five to seven years. Conclusion The presented technical solutions for performing revision hip arthroplasty can be used in orthopaedic practice.


The industrial sectors that produce synthetic chemicals and and polymers rely heavily on fossil resources. Rice straw is very abundant in Indonesia and can be used as a substitute for fossil resources to produce petrochemical precursors. It is known that cellulose component is the main source for LG formation. Due to high contain of cellulose, the potential of rice straw can be transform by pyrolysis to produce bio-oils and derivative products towards levoglucosan (LG) should be developed. Levoglucosan is an important intermediate compound as it can be convert to the precursor of bio-polymer adipic acid, bio-ethanol, etc. Nowadays it's still rarely research focused on this mechanism route producing LG through pyrolysis. LG then can run into a further reaction and produce derivative products. In order to obtain the highest yield of LG in bio-oil, a condition that may inhibit the further reaction of LG during pyrolysis takes place. The factor of biomass source and composition, temperature, and holding time (adjusted by N 2 feed) most likely greatly affect the product composition formed at the end of pyrolysis. In this study, fast-pyrolysis of rice straw was performed in fixed-bed reactor (5 grams of biomass) under different temperature ranges (450 to 600 °C), N 2 flow rate (1200 to 1582 ml/min) to maximize the yield of LG. The content of LG on bio-oil was measured by GC-MS instrument. The maximum yield of LG (67.78% of area) was obtained at an optimal temperature of 500°C with holding time of 1.35 s.


Abstract Urethral duplication is a rare congenital anomaly. In addition to a normally urethra, there is an accessory urethra arising from the bladder or the proximal urethra which may open anywhere on the penis or even on the perineum. Many patients with this malformation are asymptomatic. Some patients may complain of intermittent discharge from the accessory urethra, incontinence, infection, double streams or stricture. The duplicated urethra may be complete or incomplete, may be located dorsal, ventral or in Y-type. The treatment of urethral duplication is individualized, depending on the type of malformation. We report two cases of dorsal urethral duplication discovered in two boys.


BackgroundTo identify the prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Chinese hypertensive population managed in a local public primary care clinic and to explore its associated risk factors. MethodsMedical records of Chinese adult hypertensive patients (> 18 years of age) who had been followed up in a public general outpatient clinic (GOPC) from 1 Jan 2018 to 30 Jun 2018 were retrieved and reviewed, and a sample group was randomly selected. Demographic, clinical parameters including age, gender, smoking status, body weight, height, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, biochemical data, and comorbidities were collected from the Computer Management System (CMS). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated by using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation. CKD was defined as eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73m2 and staged according to Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) 2012 criteria. Student's t-test was used to analyze continuous variables and the Chi-squared test was used for categorical data. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to examine the association between CKD and variable associated factors. All statistical tests were two-sided, and a P-value of <0.05 was considered significant.ResultsAmong the 993 Chinese hypertensive patients included in the final analysis, 152 were found to have CKD, with overall prevalence being 15.3%. In addition, the prevalence of CKD increased with the ageing of the population. In multivariate analysis, associated factors for CKD included age (OR 4.3 for every 10 years increase), history of congestive heart failure (OR 7.2), diabetes mellitus (OR 1.8), gout (OR 3.2), number of anti-hypertensive medications (OR 1.6) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (OR 0.38). Conclusions15.3% of Chinese adult hypertensive patients have CKD. Associated factors for CKD include older age, concomitant cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, gout, and lipid disorder. Family physicians should make a concerted effort in early recognition of these risk factors for CKD among HT patients.


ABSTRACT In order to obtain a better molecular understanding of recurrent urinary tract infection (RUTI), we collected 75 cases with repeatedly occurring uncomplicated UTI. The genetic relationships among uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) isolates were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. While 39 (52%) of the RUTI cases were defined as "persistence" of the same strain as the primary infecting strain, 36 (48%) were characterized by "reinfection" with a new strain that is different from the primary strain. We then examined the antimicrobial susceptibilities and phylogenetic backgrounds of 39 persistence and 86 reinfection UPEC isolates, and screened 44 virulence factor (VF) genes. We found that isolates had significant differences in the following: placement in phylogenetic group B2 (41% versus 21%; P = 0.0193) and the presence of adhesin genes iha (49% versus 28%; P = 0.0233) and papG allele I′ (51% versus 24%; P = 0.003), iron uptake genes fyuA (85% versus 58%; P = 0.0037), irp-2 (87% versus 65%; P = 0.0109), and iutA (87% versus 58%; P = 0.0014), and an aggregate VF score (median, 11 versus 9; P = 0.0030). In addition, 41% of persistence strains harbored three adhesin genes simultaneously, whereas 22% of reinfection isolates did (P = 0.0289). Moreover, 59% versus 29% (P = 0.0014) of persistence and reinfection isolates contained seven types of iron uptake genes. Taken together, the antimicrobial susceptibilities of UPEC isolates had little effect on the RUTI. Compared with reinfection strains, persistence UPEC isolates exhibited higher VF scores and carried more VF genes than may be involved in the development and progression of RUTI.


Background Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been implicated in several auto-immune diseases, especially those involved in the recognition of nucleic acids (viral, bacterial, and possibly self). In primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) TLR7-induced B cell activation has been implicated in the immunopathology. An increased expression of TLR7 mRNA has been found in the parotid gland of pSS patients. In addition, TLR7 specifically recognizes ssRNA from viruses, and possibly self-ssRNA, with which Ro- and/or La-proteins form complexes, facilitating anti-SSA/SSB auto-antibody production, one of the hallmark disease parameters of pSS. Interestingly, EBV-transformed B cells have been shown to express the IL-7R and IL-7. Recently, we found increased levels of IL-7 in the minor salivary gland as well. Objectives To investigate the role of IL-7/IL-7 receptor-mediated immune activation in TLR7-induced B cell activation in pSS patients. Methods Isolated CD4 T cells and CD19 B cells from HC (n=7) and pSS patients (n=5) were co-cultured with and without a TLR7 agonist (TLR7A, Gardiquimod) in the presence or absence of CD14 monocytes/macrophages. Additionally, PBMCs (HC n=5, pSS n=8) were cultured with TLR7A with and without soluble human IL-7R (shuIL7R) and fully human anti-human IL-7 mAb. Proliferation of T cells and B cells was measured using 3H-thymidine incorporation and Ki67 expression (FACS analysis). Activation markers (CD19, HLA-DR, CD25) and intracellular IL-7 and IL-7Rα expression by B cells were measured by FACS analysis. Results TLR7A-increased proliferation of T and B cell co-cultures was associated with significant and selective increases in Ki67+ CD19 B cells (HC from 1.2±0.2% to 9.3±1.3%, p<0.01 vs. pSS from 1.2±0.2% to 7.0±2.2%, p<0.05), but not CD4 T cells. Additionally, markers of activation on CD19 B cells (HC: CD25+ from 42.2±4.8% to 80.1±4.4%; CD19 MFI from 26.8±3.3% to 63.4±9.6%; HLA-DR MFI from 214±32 to 649±105) were significantly increased, equally effective in HC and pSS. TLR7-induced B cell activation was further increased in the presence of monocytes (Ki67+ B cells: HC from 0.9±0.1% to 30.2±8.9% vs. pSS from 1.0±0.1% to 11.6±2.9%, both p<0.05). IL-7(R) blockade markedly inhibited proliferation of TLR7A stimulated PBMCs from HC (from 8880±2069 cpm to 2289±624 cpm; p<0.05) and pSS patients (from 8580±2555 cpm to 4802±1526 cpm; p<0.01), associated by a selective inhibition of Ki67-proliferating B cells. The specific role of IL-7R-mediated activation was supported by an increase in intracellular IL-7Rα and IL-7 upon TLR7 triggering in B cells, and confirmed by blockade of TLR7-induced B cell activation with a fully human anti-IL-7 mAb (mean inhibition 50%, p<0.05). Conclusions Our results show that TLR7 triggering activates B cells in pSS, which is facilitated by monocytes. Interestingly, TLR7A-induced B cell activation is potently and selectively inhibited by IL-7/IL-7R blockade. Together with the up regulation of IL-7 and IL-7R upon TLR7 activation, these results suggest that shuIL-7R/anti-IL-7 mAb blocks an autocrine function of IL-7 in B cells. This indicates that IL-7/IL-7R blockade, targeting not only T cells as previously shown, but also B cells, represents an interesting new therapeutic approach in pSS. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The voltage collapse problem can avoid by providing proper reactive power resources to maintain specified voltage profile in the network. The traditional approaches are not sufficient to mitigate reactive power imbalance in the modern power system. Hence one of the emerging technologies like integration of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices has been adopted in this paper. A hybrid algorithm is proposed to improve voltage stability of power system and to optimize the FACTS controllers. This Hybrid algorithm intended by the combination of genetic algorithm (GA) and gravitational search algorithm (GSA). For the implementation of this technique, one of the FACTS devices namely Unified power flow controller (UPFC) is selected. The GA is applied to identify best locations of UPFC and later GSA is implemented to optimize UPFC ratings in a sequential manner. The proposed method is implemented on IEEE-30 bus system using MATLAB working platform. The results have shown the effectiveness of proposed algorithm for practical applications.


Probabilistic networks (also known as Bayesian belief networks) allow a compact description of complex stochastic relationships among several random variables. They are used widely for uncertain reasoning in artiicial intelligence. In this paper, we investigate the problem of learning probabilistic networks with known structure and hidden variables. This is an important problem, because structure is much easier to elicit from experts than numbers, and the world is rarely fully observable. We present a gradient-based algorithm and show that the gradient can be computed locally, using information that is available as a byproduct of standard inference algorithms for probabilistic networks. Our experimental results demonstrate that using prior knowledge about the structure, even with hidden variables, can signiicantly improve the learning rate of probabilistic networks. We extend the method to networks in which the conditional probability tables are described using a small number of parameters. Examples include noisy-OR nodes and dynamic probabilistic networks. We show how this additional structure can be exploited by our algorithm to speed up the learning even further. We also outline an extension to hybrid networks, in which some of the nodes take on values in a continuous domain.


published in journals or monographs, the readership of which will normally run to a few hundred rather than the thousands who will read his book, or at least the boiled-down versions in the media. Second, so much of what Goodhart claims is strikingly novel, but will come as no surprise to anyone working on migration, many of whose efforts, to be fair to him, the author tries hard to draw upon. Third, those people will quickly realise that quite a lot of the incontrovertible facts that we must all apparently face before it's too late turn out not to be incontrovertible at all. None of this, however, is necessarily a bad thing. Although the book may well irritate more than it convinces, it will not only provoke plenty of debate in a teaching situation but may even encourage more people who really know their stuff into bringing it to a wider audience. If they don't, Goodhart will remain the media's go-to-guy on all these issues. If that happens, we have only ourselves to blame.


Currently, concrete structures are maintained based on routine visual inspection to find apparent damage such as crack, delamination, spalling, rebar exposure, and segregation. However, visual inspection requires a lot of labor and time, while the risk to inspectors is high. Thus in this study, an image-based concrete spalling detection technique has been developed using deep learning. First, a training image dataset is built by scraping images from internet, and they are categorized into Spalling, Concrete Joint and Edge, Intact Concrete Surface, and Etc. The number of training images increases by implementing image augmentation techniques. An image classifier to detect concrete spalling is developed by a transfer learning approach that fine-tunes the existing convolutional neural network AlexNet using the augmented training image dataset. With two overlapped windows sliding with stride of a window size, the developed classifier is implemented in each window. A probability map of spalling is then constructed using the average of two score values of the last softmax layer in the classifier. Lastly, pixels with a score larger than 25 % out of 100 % are marked as spalling. The developed approach is validated for 14 spalling images with and without rebar exposure. The existence of spalling is not missed in any cases, and the recall in the pixel level, which shows the detectability of spalling, is found to be over 80% for all test images. The developed approach can be expanded for different types of concrete damage.


One of the greatest challenges nowadays in robotics is the advancement of robots from industrial tools to companions and helpers of humans, operating in natural, populated environments. In this respect, the Autonomous City Explorer (ACE) project aims to combine the research fields of autonomous mobile robot navigation and human robot interaction. A robot has been created that is capable of navigating in an unknown, highly populated, urban environment, based only on information extracted through interaction with passers-by and its local perception capabilities. This paper describes the algorithms and architecture that make up the navigation subsystem of ACE. More specifically, the algorithms used for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), path planning in dynamic environments and behavior selection are presented, as well as the system architecture that integrates them to a complete working system. Results from an extended field experiment, where the robot navigated autonomously through the downtown city area of Munich, are analyzed and show that the robot is capable of long-term, safe navigation in real-world settings.


Old landraces and obsolete cultivars represent a national heritage that must be conserved for future generations. Similarly, crop wild relatives (CWR) are a valuable gene pool for plant breeding or for direct in - troduction as a new crop. These materials have been mapped, collected, evaluated, regenerated, and conserved in the Gene Bank. In total, 3726 seed and vegetative samples have been collected in the Czech Republic, as well as 1582 abroad (in Slovakia, Poland and Austria) during cross-border cooperation projects. All collecting sites (over 1000) were located by GPS and plotted using the Geobaze Professional 2.8 mapping software. Altogether, 688 samples were declared as a national collection, and 627 seed accessions were conserved in the Gene Bank. In addition, 842 accessions of fruits were recommended for in situ conservation. Selected species of the families Poaceae, Fabaceae, and alliaceae , which are rare or threatened in the Czech Republic, have been monitored in situ for 3-5 years. Two sites were suggested for protection as new protected areas.


Mechanisms, features, and properties of strong flux pinning in superconducting 123 materials are reviewed. These include pinning by nonsuperconducting particles of 211 or 422 phase, regions with lower critical temperature (Tc) such as a region where Ba sites are substituted for with light rare-earth elements and an oxygen-deficient region, and radiation-induced columnar defects. In particular, the pinning by lower-Tc regions which seem to be associated with the well-known pronounced peak effect are focused upon. It is speculated that these regions work as strong repulsive pinning centres resulting from the kinetic energy of the order parameter under a significant proximity effect. This pinning mechanism is different from the usual attractive condensation energy interaction which occurs in 211 or 422 particles. A discussion will be given on the mechanism which brings about the peak effect. General guiding principles for the improvement of the flux pinning property will also be discussed.


The presented materials on the reception of Osip Mandelstam's work were revealed in memoir testimonies, published epistolaries, works on the biography of the writer and scientist Vincas Krėvė and his colleague at the University of Lithuania in Kaunas (Vytautas Magnus University since 1930) Mykolas Banevičius (Mikchail Podshibyakin), and periodicals in Lithuanian and Russian languages. The study showed that among the Lithuanian poets and translators there were connoisseurs of poetry and prose by Mandelstam, but translations into Lithuanian language did not appear during the interwar years. A possible explanation for this is the lack of a demand for this kind of creativity, as the materials of the reception of contemporary Russian literature show. The only text by Mandelstam published in Lithuania in Russian is a translation of the story by Henri Barbusse, reprinted in 1926 by a Kaunas newspaper from a Soviet edition. The only characteristic of his poetry is presented in an article in Russian about the latest Russian poetry, published in 1931 in an academic journal under a pseudonym; its most likely author could be M. Podshibyakin.


Today the foundation of soil treatment is to change its state by means of transferring of physical and mechanical properties of the initial state to the required one. Moreover, the transition process is carried out by simple mechanical impact of a deformer (working body), which is a solid body moving in the soil and disturbing its initial structure due to the interaction with it. As the result of processing is a non-equilibrium state of the soil, in any case, soil tillage is a process to feed it a certain amount of energy to change its properties and achievements in terms of agronomic science optimal addition, at which the maximum effect (e.g., crop yields) is obtained. Thus one of the objectives is to provide tillage supplying energy to the soil in a form and amount sequences that allow it to obtain the required condition, expending less energy as possible. It is desirable to form the energy input as low as possible "cheap", in terms of its availability. [Kapov S.N., Aduov M.A., Nukusheva S.A. Model of soil environment as object of mechanical tillage. Life Sci J 2014;11(12s):156-161] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 30


Youth empowerment within the context of sustainable development (SD) is starting to gain more attention within social work, both internationally and in Sweden. SD, as an integrated set of global goals in tackling social, economic, and ecological challenges, is a vital concept in social work. Protecting people and the natural environment can be considered the fullest realization of the person-in-environment, a foundation upon which the social work profession is built. The ecosocial perspective is widely discussed in terms of societal transformation in harmony with nature. Within this context, this article explores ecosocial work discourses in youth empowerment. Data were gathered through 20 qualitative semi-structured interviews with key representatives of youth organizations from Gävle municipality, Sweden, and analyzed using ATLAS.ti v.9.0. The main findings are discussed within the framework of ecosocial work, youth empowerment, and a Foucauldian perspective on discourse, power, and knowledge. The results indicate the need for an ecosocial youth empowerment, calling for increased knowledge of both youth empowerment through SD and ecosocial work for those working with/for youth connected to social work practice. The results highlight the importance of an ecosocial youth empowerment on a more structural and collective level.


Head-neck stabilization is inherently challenging even when stationary, requiring constant vigilance to counter the downward pull of gravity. It involves a highly complex biomechanical system comprised of a large mass (the head) balanced on top of seven vertebrae (the neck), that are in turn connected to a moving base (the torso). This multi-degree-of-freedom system is controlled by an equally impressive array of more than 30 bilateral muscle pairs that connect across various combinations of the skull, vertebrae and thorax. Visual and vestibular systems, together with neck somatosensory inputs are integrated by the central nervous system to provide an estimate of both the external world and an internal representation of ourselves. When our external (or internal) environments change, for example through unexpected or unpredictable disturbances, neck muscles make nimble corrections, through CNS control, to ensure the head remains upright and stable. However, for patients suffering from neck sensorimotor disorders, stable head posture is a constant challenge, often leading to complaints of neck pain and fatigue. This thesis investigates the contribution of different sensory feedback mechanisms – with particular focus on vestibular and proprioception sensory systems – to natural head-neck stabilization. The experimental methods developed and the research outcomes obtained from studying healthy controls are in turn used to investigate patients suffering from the neck movement disorder, cervical dystonia. This thesis draws two primary conclusions. The first conclusion is that healthy subjects substantially modulate vestibular and proprioception reflexes with the bandwidth and amplitude of torso perturbations, and that this modulation is dependent upon the presence of visual feedback and the descending motor command. In cervical dystonia patients, neck reflex dynamics were modulated across conditions in a manner similar to healthy controls, provided patients were engaged in a task to overcome the reorienting effects of the dystonia. The second conclusion is that the neurophysiological properties of the vestibular neck reflex indicate a highly robust and wide bandwidth influence of vestibular information over neck muscle control that differs markedly from other muscles throughout the body.


: The incidence of TB-HIV in Indonesia is high and life-threatening, while on the other hand, TB-HIV patients have the right to get medical and financial assistance in health services. Therefore, integrated health services are needed within the framework of the National Health Insurance. Health workers are an important aspect in the various health care approaches to patients with TB-HIV. This study aims to determine and examine the role of Health Workers in TB-HIV control and obstacles that are faced by Health Workers in carrying out their roles at Panti Wilasa Dr. Cipto Hospital, Semarang. This research is a qualitative research with a sociological juridical approach. The data collection method used is literature study and field study. Primary data were obtained from interviews with the Semarang City Health Office, health workers and patients at Panti Wilasa Dr. Cipto Semarang Hospital. Secondary data consists of laws and regulations, books and journals. From the results of the research and discussion, it was concluded that the role of the Semarang City Health Office and Health Workers, such as General Practitioners, Specialist Doctors, Nurses, Laboratory and Pharmacy Officers at Panti Wilasa DR. Cipto Semarang hospital in the prevention of TB-HIV has been implemented well, but not optimal. This was influenced by: juridical aspects, sociological aspects, and dynamic aspects. The Problems faced by Health Workers in carrying out their role in TB-HIV control are patients dishonesty, not taking medication, negative views of patients towards health workers, psychologically declining patients who tend to close themselves off from their families, lack of hospital services integration, lack of supporting hospital facilities, lack of health workers to track patients' house, lack of patients medical control, patients unable to take the TB-HIV medicine from hospitals due to their work schedule, and lack of hospitals' specific provisions regulating the role of health workers that can be used as the basis for legal protection in the implementation of TB-HIV disease control.


Although happiness is a common state of mind, perceptions of happiness vary along social and cultural contexts, especially in the societies influenced by Buddhism, such as Thailand. Until recently, a limited number of empirical studies on individual perception of happiness have been conducted in Thailand. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the conceptual framework of happiness among undergraduate students within the Thai social and cultural context. A qualitative investigation was conducted. Data were collected from 26 undergraduate students from public universities and Rajabhat universities from both metropolitan and suburban areas in Bangkok; an in-depth thematic analysis was used for the interviews. The results revealed five main themes of perceived happiness: (1) life satisfaction, (2) interdependence, (3) faith in the life of integrity, (4) peaceful mind, and (5) wisdom and understanding of the truth of life. Participants also indicated that they derived happiness from responding to meritorious desires—called "virtuous happiness"—by leading a benevolent life, benefiting both themselves and others, as well as having a peaceful mind, wisdom, and understanding of the true nature of life. This happiness leads them to experience life satisfaction and internal well-being. Findings were congruent with Buddhist concepts that teach people to consider the causes of suffering and happiness within themselves through the development of Sīla (precepts), Samādhi (concentration), and Panna (wisdom). This conceptual framework of happiness serves as a guideline for the development of a happiness assessment inventory, based on Buddhist Dhamma, which would be beneficial for the assessment and feedback provision within the context of therapeutic counseling for personal growth and development. Key words : Happiness, students, qualitative study


The combinatorial space of translation derivations in phrase-based statistical machine translation is given by the intersection between a translation lattice and a target language model. We replace this intractable intersection by a tractable relaxation which incorporates a low-order upperbound on the language model. Exact optimisation is achieved through a coarseto-fine strategy with connections to adaptive rejection sampling. We perform exact optimisation with unpruned language models of order 3 to 5 and show searcherror curves for beam search and cube pruning on standard test sets. This is the first work to tractably tackle exact optimisation with language models of orders higher than 3.


Twenty-one years have passed since PubMed Central (PMC) launched. The present case study describes Korean editors' history of participation in PMC and their contributions to PMC. The three main turning points in the history of Korean editors' involvement with PMC were as follows: first, the production of PMC XML files and deposition starting in 2008; second, thorough evaluations of applying journals since 2014; and third, the feasibility of non-English journals being indexed in PMC starting in 2019. The importance of PMC is further shown by the fact that KoreaMed Synapse, a full-text XML database of biomedical journals in Korea that was launched in 2007, was created by benchmarking PMC. Scholarly societies or institutes publish 724 (34.2%) of the 2,119 PMC journals without embargo in June 2021. Out of those 724 journals, 127 (17.5%) are published in Korea. PMC has helped local journals receive more citations from researchers worldwide, increasing their likelihood of being indexed in international databases. The number of submissions from international researchers has increased, thereby making it possible for journals to achieve international diversity. As the best full-text platform of biomedical journals, PMC has provided an excellent opportunity for biomedical journal editors in Korea to change their journals' language to English and produce full-text JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite) XML files. These factors have made Korea the second-ranked country in terms of no-embargo PMC journals published by academic societies or institutes.


Current clinical challenges of prostate cancer management are to restrict tumor growth and prohibit metastasis. AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carbox-amide-1-β-d-ribofuranoside), an AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) agonist, has demonstrated antitumor activities for several types of cancers. However, the activity of AICAR on the cell growth and metastasis of prostate cancer has not been extensively studied. Herein we examine the effects of AICAR on the cell growth and metastasis of prostate cancer cells. Cell growth was performed by MTT assay and soft agar assay; cell apoptosis was examined by Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage western blot, while cell migration and invasion were evaluated by wound-healing assay and transwell assay respectively. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related protein expression and AMPK/mTOR-dependent signaling axis were analyzed by western blot. In addition, we also tested the effect of AICAR on the chemosensitivity to docetaxel using MTT assay. Our results indicated that AICAR inhibits cell growth in prostate cancer cells, but not in non-cancerous prostate cells. In addition, our results demonstrated that AICAR induces apoptosis, attenuates transforming growth factor (TGF)-β-induced cell migration, invasion and EMT-related protein expression, and enhances the chemosensitivity to docetaxel in prostate cancer cells through regulating the AMPK/mTOR-dependent pathway. These findings support AICAR as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of prostate cancer.


This paper describes a low noise n-channel tetrode field effect transistor circuit in which the d.c. input and output voltages of a current integrator are held close to zero. This is achieved by a feedback network to the substrate gate of the tetrode FET. An analysis is made of the circuit arrangement. The application for the circuit configuration is for use in low-noise input stages of nuclear pulse preamplifiers and low frequency preamplifiers used with optical and acoustical detectors. The mutual conductance of the tetrode FET through the input gate is typically 50 mS.


Activity of interneurons from isolated pedal ganglia of marine mollusc Clione limacina was recorded during generation of the locomotor rhythm. Two groups of reciprocally active interneurons were found. These neurons generate one prolonged action potential per locomotory cycle. Inhibitory interaction between the two groups was observed. The interneurons were supposed to generate the locomotor rhythm.


Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the predictive value of BRAF V600E mutation for the persistence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) after total thyroidectomy and routine central neck dissection. Patients and Methods We collect the clinicopathological data of 288 PTC patients with total thyroidectomy (TT) and routine central neck dissection (CND), and analyzed the relationship between BRAFV600E mutation status and the rate of elevated non-stimulated thyroglobulin (NSTg) value. And we also collect the clinicopathological data of 370 PTC patients who needed radio iodine ablation(RIA) after TT and routine CND, and analyzed the relationship between BRAFV600E mutation status and the rate of elevated stimulated Tg (STg)value before RIA. The clinicopathological data included gender, age at diagnosis, multifocality, bilaterality, tumor size, extrathyroidal invasion, and lymph node status of these patients. All the patents were diagnosis as PTC before operation by the combination with ultrasonograph and FNA (fine needle asperation). Results BRAFV600E mutation is not associated with the elevated rate of elevated Tg value after TT and routine CND. Conclusions BRAF V600E mutation is not an independent predictive factor for the persistence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) after TT and routine CND.


Finally! A detailed compendium for the new CRM UI technology. Written to teach developers and CRM application consultants how to develop and customize the CRM WebClient, this book discusses the technical principles, customizing, and programming of the new user interface in detail, and explains the basic principles of the WebClient UI, as well as all customizing and enhancement options. Beginning with an explanation of the CRM WebClient frontend, you'll move on to learn about the customizing for each area of the WebClient, and wrap up with a detailed exploration of the development of custom functionality.


In 1981, the idea of a superwind that ends the life of cool giant stars was proposed 1 . Extreme OH/IR-stars develop superwinds with the highest mass-loss rates known so far, up to a few 10 − 4 M (cid:12) /yr 2–12 , hence epitomizing our understanding of the maximum mass-loss rate achieved during the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase. A condundrum arises whereby the observationally determined duration of the superwind phase is too short for these stars to become white dwarfs 2–4,6,8–10 . Here, we report on the detection of spiral structures around two cornerstone extreme OH/IR-stars, OH 26.5+0.6 and OH 30.1 − 0.7, identifying them as wide binary systems. Hydrodynamical simulations show that the companions gravitational attraction creates an equatorial density enhancement mimicking a short


Functionalized and environmentally friendly ionic liquids are required in many fields, but convenient methods for measuring their polarity are lacking. Two novel ether-functionalized amino acid ionic liquids, 1-(2-methoxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium alanine ([C1OC2mim][Ala]) and 1-(2-ethoxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium alanine ([C2OC2mim][Ala]), were synthesized by a neutralization method and their structures confirmed by NMR spectroscopy. Density, surface tension, and refractive index were determined using the standard addition method. The strength of intermolecular interactions within these ionic liquids was examined in terms of standard entropy, lattice energy, and association enthalpy. A new polarity scale, PN, is now proposed, which divides polarity into two compartments: the surface and the body of the liquid. Surface tension is predicted via an improved Lorentz-Lorenz equation, and molar surface entropy is used to determine the polarity of the surface. This new PN scale is based on easily measured physicochemical parameters, is validated against alternative polarity scales, and is applicable to both ionic and molecular liquids.


The paper presents the possibility of using the liquid crystal display (LCD) waste as a partial substitute of fine aggregate. Concretes with two types of cement, CEM I 42.5 R and CEM II/B-S 42.5 N, with and without LCD addition, were investigated. The properties that influence the structures exposed to severe environments were examined. The results and analyses pertaining to their micro-structure, including interfacial transition zone (ITZ), were presented as well. All concretes exhibited good freeze–thaw (F–T) resistance after 150 F–T cycles. The water-tightness was established as 0.8 MPa. All concretes both with and without LCD achieved the same class C50/60.


The focus of this research study was to analyze the product realization cycle, which is the process of creating, refining, manufacturing, and mass-producing a product that both fulfills customer needs and maximizes profit. This was done by utilizing the product realization life cycle to generate a product for potential customers in the University of Mississippi, city of Oxford, and Lafayette County area. The product to be researched was a home docking and organizational stand for a user's personal items like a phone, watch, keys, wallet, and other necessities. First, the conceptual design process was followed to develop customer needs and determine how these translate to product features and functionality. These requirements were then used to develop a draft product that could be manufactured with resources and equipment available to the Center of Manufacturing Excellence, an on-campus facility with a fully-equipped factory floor. Marketing and financial considerations were considered at each step of the design process and a best concept was refined to fulfill most, if not all, customer requirements. The second aspect of this research study was optimizing the product and its manufacturing process so that it could produce the maximum amount of profit with the least amount of waste or non-value-added activity and material while staying ahead of lead times required by simulated customer bases. Improvements were made as necessary to establish the best process flow and layout for the product.


Novel 4-branched diblock copolymers consisting of cationic chains as an inner domain and nonionic chains as an outer domain were prepared by iniferter-based living radial polymerization and evaluated as a polymeric transfectant. The cationic polymerization of 3-(N,N-dimethylamino)propyl acrylamide (DMAPAAm) using 1,2,4,5-tetrakis( N,N-diethyldithiocarbamylmethyl)benzene as a 4-functional iniferter followed by the nonionic block polymerization of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAAm) afforded 4-branched diblock copolymers with controlled compositions. By changing the solution or irradiation conditions, 4-branched PDMAPAAms with molecular weights of 10,000, 20,000, and 50,000 were synthesized. In addition, by graft polymerization, PDMAPAAm-PDMAAm blocked copolymers with copolymer composition (unit ratio of DMAAm/DMAPAAm) ranging from 0.18 to 1.0 for each cationic polymer were synthesized. All polymers were shown to interact with and condense plasmid DNA to yield polymer/DNA complexes (polyplexes). A transfection study on COS-1 cells showed that the polyplexes from block copolymers with cationic chain length of approximately 50,000 and a nonionic chain length of 30,000, which were approximately 200 nm in diameter and very stable in aqueous media, had the most efficient luciferase activity with minimal cellular cytotoxicity under a charge ratio of 20 (vector/pDNA). The PDMAPAAm-PDMAAm-blocked, star-shaped polymers are an attractive novel class of nonviral gene delivery systems.


Interdepence of the art of dance dan its accompanying music means interrelation between the two. The performance of a dance is usually accompanied by a music, in certain occasion the performance does not use a music at all. The definition of dance usually emphasises that dance is a human expression through rhythmic and beautiful body movement and the movement is the expression of its creator to communicate directly with the audience. Body movement in a dance performance contains rhythmic elements as can be found in music, so the performance is close related to music which also contains important rhythmic elements. Music and dance has rhythm as the basis of their movement. Music can express abstract aspects of movement. It can also express the easiness and difficulty of movement. But not all music can be use to accompany a dance performance. Basically, the selection of music for a dance performance should be based  on its limitation and contribution to the performance


The American Diabetes Association 2020 Standards of Care for the treatment of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes includes a treatment pathway when "cost is a major issue." This pathway recommends use of 2 generic drug classes, thereby codifying differential treatment for those with financial hardship. This article explores 4 implications of incorporating the cost pathway into clinical recommendations: (1) the presence of a cost pathway might create the appearance of an evidence-based quality difference through activation of implicit bias; (2) screening for financial hardship to guide therapy has potential harms for patients; (3) concern that financial hardship warrants differing care might impact overall quality of care and patient-clinician relationships; and (4) applying the guidelines when caring for patients with financial hardship might demoralize clinicians.


Antibodies are playing an important role in drug development in the last years. The function of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is directly depending on their structure including terminal modifications like C-terminal lysine excision and N-terminal pyroglutamylation of the heavy chain. Here, we describe a method for very fast and simple validation of the terminal sequences of heavy and light chain of intact monoclonal antibodies using MALDI-Top-Down-Sequencing (MALDITDS) using in-source decay (ISD). Intact mAb (IgG) in a concentration of 1 mg to 5 mg/ml was directly mixed with matrix solution without prior reduction and alkylation or separation of the different chains. We used 1,5-diaminonaphtalene (DAN) as matrix because of its reductive and ISD enhancing properties. The samples were mixed with matrix solution and dried at ambient air on the MALDI sample plate. In a second experiment, the same samples were prepared using sDHB (super DHB), which is known to be a good ISD matrix but without reduction capacity. The samples in sDHB didn't generate any ISD fragmentation due to the intact disulfide crosslinks in IgG. In DAN, the same samples generated rich ISD spectra containing fragments from both the heavy and the light chain of the antibodies. The ISD spectra permitted reading through the cysteine residues in the sequences implicating the disulfide bridges were reduced by DAN. Up to 60 residues of the different chains of various mAbs were matched and validated, respectively. A dedicated software tool allowed a very fast interpretation of the spectra. Overall the method takes only a few minutes from sample preparation, spectrum acquisition and processing to the result in form of sequence annotations in the ISD spectra.


This essay has three major aims: first, to understand how the visual image articulated in both textual and photographic media constituted a crucially important element of South African apartheid resistance efforts of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Second, to investigate the ways in which Alex La Guma and three fellow anti-apartheid activists working in critical documentary photography—Peter Magubane, David Goldblatt, and Omar Badsha—used the image in order to critique the tyranny of visual hegemonies, particularly those that enunciated a materialist standard from which non-white South Africans were excluded. And third, to complicate recent La Guma criticism that has excised the image from its surrounding narrative trajectories. What La Guma and these photographers achieved made for powerful leverage against apartheid's putative control of the visual realm.


Following behavior is a widespread feeding tactic among marine fishes, but remains poorly documented for freshwater fishes. The present study describes such association between two freshwater species: the minute armored catfish Parotocinclus maculicauda and the South American darter Characidium sp. During underwater observations in an Atlantic Forest stream, we recorded Characidium sp. closely following P. maculicauda (<5cm), catching the particles dislodged by this catfish's grazing activity. The following behavior displayed by the darter is considered opportunistic and possibly favors the capture of preys associated to the periphyton. This study is one of the few records of nuclear-follower feeding association between freshwater fishes and the first one in Atlantic Forest streams.


In a recent issue of the Journal of Medical Genetics , Smith et al 1 report a significantly higher risk of breast cancer among non-carriers in breast cancer families in which a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had been identified through clinical testing. The authors found an elevated risk of approximately five-fold, which, if true, has considerable implications for the counselling and clinical management of women testing negative for the mutations found in their family.

Until the study of Smith et al ,1 the excess of cases observed among such non-carriers had been noted only anecdotally by many in both the clinical and research settings. In this respect, the systematic study of Smith et al was a welcome confirmation of these anecdotal observations. However, there are a number of methodological flaws in the analysis of Smith et al that render their results difficult to interpret. This stems from the fact that the families used in the analysis were not randomly sampled from the population of all potential families with a mutation, but rather had to meet certain eligibility criteria for genetic testing. Furthermore, the decision to attend a specialty oncogenetics clinic very likely depends on the family history of the individual deciding to undergo testing; the more relatives affected with breast cancer (especially diagnosed at an early age), the more likely a person is to seek genetic counselling/testing. This selection of families, whether through self-selection on family history for attending such clinics and/or through eligibility criteria for genetic testing after evaluation of family history, will result in a bias due to under-representation of families with many unaffected individuals. This bias applies to both mutation carriers and non-carriers, resulting in overestimation of both the penetrance and the phenocopy rate. Although it is possible to correct for this ascertainment bias in …


In this critical review and social innovative narrative, the author details their perspective on early intervention and prevention in relation to terrorism, radicalization, and extremism. Drawing on over 10 years of frontline experience as a teacher, police officer, and registered social worker, the author discusses the interdisciplinary approach that is crucial in preventing and resolving criminal behaviors especially as it relates to terrorism, radicalization, and extremism. While the paper focuses on this global act of violence, the discussion does not only apply to terrorism and radicalization. There are a multitude of psycho-social factors that may cause one to become vulnerable, making them susceptible to being recruited and/or engaging in criminal activity especially for women who have historically and currently been disadvantaged. The following will discuss why the current approach in crime prevention and detection follows a more reactive model. Ultimately it will consider whether the current approach, that is largely driven by law enforcement and security who are at the forefront in resolving these issues, is the most effective approach in crime resolution.


In nature, the yeast cell barrier encounters threats ranging from physical impact to abrupt changes in osmolality after rainfall. Genetic materials are protected from these environmental attacks by the rigid cell wall. Laboratory methods for challenging cell wall integrity have made an enormous contribution to the study of the yeast cell surface, but most have targeted whole-cell populations in place of single-cell analysis. This protocol describes pulse-laser-based acute disruption of the yeast cell surface, which enables the observation of single-cell response to submicron-scale damage.


Load-controlled low cycle fatigue tests were carried out on the reduced activation martensitic steel, F82H modified, in pure oxygen-free water at 240°C, thus simulating the most viable coolant chemistry for fusion reactors. It was found that water determined cyclic life reduction as compared to the base-line data in air. Depending on the mechanical parameters employed, the fracture modes were either of the fatigue type and associated with subcritical crack nucleation and stable propagation assisted by the aqueous environment, or almost completely plastic due to the onset of deformation instability which preceded any environmentally-induced cracking process. The results presented in this paper will be discussed in terms of individual concurrent damaging mechanisms, either time or cycle dependent. Possible causative factors are also suggested for further assessments concerning the cyclic response variability observed in specimens from different lots having, a priori, the same history.


This paper explores the sociolinguistic predictors of Mandarin-English codeswitching, and also tests such patterns against current syntactic constraints of codeswitching. By doing so, I demonstrate the value of incorporating sociolinguistic factors as predictors into computational models of codeswitching, explored in a companion paper (Yi 2022). The study presented here draws from novel data collected from 12 Mandarin-English bilingual speakers from Grand Rapids, Michigan. These speakers come from two generations, correlated with their age and immigration history. Speakers participated in sociolinguistic interviews that were designed to elicit codeswitching in narrative-style responses on a variety of topics, including family, school, and culture. Participants also answered metalinguistic questions about their own language practices and attitudes and completed a written Language History Questionnaire (LHQ) (Li et al. 2020), which asked for self-evaluations of language habits (proficiency, immersion, and dominance in the two languages). LHQ responses were then quantified into "scores" that served as sociolinguistic predictors for the companion paper (Yi 2022). Patterns found in this novel Mandarin-English data frequently, and potentially systematically, violate many of the currently proposed syntactic constraints on codeswitching (which mainly come from research on Spanish-English bilinguals), implying that the constraints may not be universal, and that new avenues should be considered for understanding the morphosyntax of bilingual codeswitching. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol28/iss2/19


The present study was designed to localize some important enzymes, such as adenosine diphospate-degrading enzyme (ADP-degrading enzyme) (plasma membrane enzyme), cytochrome c oxidase (mitochondrial enzyme) and glucose-6-phosphatase (endoplasmic reticulum enzyme), in placentae from patients with idiopathic fetal growth restriction (FGR) associated with absent end-diastolic flow velocity in the fetal umbilical artery. We compared these enzyme activities and their localization patterns to those in placentae both from pre-eclampsia with FGR and normal pregnancy with appropriate for their gestational age infants. In idiopathic FGR placentae, the intensity and localization patterns of these three enzymes did not differ from those seen in the placentae from normal pregnancy. Decreased ADP-degrading enzyme activity and cytochrome c oxidase negative mitochondria, which were characteristic features of pre-eclamptic trophoblasts, were absent from trophoblasts of the idiopathic FGR placentae. These observations indicated that enzyme-cytochemically detectable trophoblastic cell dysfunction may be absent in idiopathic FGR, or if present, there is less functional impairment of each trophoblast in this disease than in pre-eclampsia. Though both idiopathic FGR and pre-eclampsia lead to placental insufficiency, and finally to restricted fetal growth, a different mechanism and pathophysiology may work at the cellular and subcellular levels in these two diseases.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of British army recruit training on the physical fitness and strength of female recruits. A total of 73 females (aged 17-23 years) of a single intake of Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) recruits were tested at the beginning and end of their 6-week recruit training programme at the WRAC training centre, Guildford. The battery of tests comprised the maximal cycle time for a standard NATO test as an indirect method of determination of maximal oxygen intake (VO2 max) using a cycle ergometer; maximal isometric hand grip strength (Max Grip); maximal isometric 38 cm upright pull strength (Max 38) and maximal incremental dynamic lift to 152 cm (IDL 152). In addition, body-weight and the sum of biceps, triceps, suprailiac and subscapular skinfold thicknesses were measured in order to assess alterations in fat-free mass and percentage of body fat (BF). The recruits responded to training with significant increases in mean VO2 max from 45.7 ml kg-1 min-1 (SD = 5.2) to 46.7 ml kg-1 min-1 (SD = 4.4) or 2.2% (p < .05), mean Max Grip from 263.1 N (SD = 52.2) to 304.9 N (SD = 54.0) or 15.9% (p < 0.001) and mean IDL 152 from 328.0 N (SD = 78.1) to 361.2 N (SD = 74.6) or 10.1% (p < 0.001). There was a significant increase in the mean body-weight of 0.61 kg or 1% (p < 0.05), mean fat-free mass of 1.05 kg or 2.4% (p < 0.001), and a significant reduction in the mean % BF by 3.3% (p < 0.001). It is concluded that female recruit training in the British army is effective in terms of increasing aerobic fitness, physical strength and fat-free mass and in reducing the percentage of body fat.


The paper aims to use the literature on learning styles to establish a list of assumptions and guidelines and to identify a theoretical framework/model for designing and developing a web-based course. It describes the process of integrating learning style theory into the design and development of an undergraduate online course, and provides information on the effects of the course design specification on the quality of students' learning and their attitude and satisfaction.


Among the staff of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, who received the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on January 30 in 2021, 28 recipients were selected for this research. Samples for nucleic acid tests were collected from the surface of the recipients' both hands before and after vaccination. The hemostatic stickers used after the inoculation were also collected for nucleic acid tests. The nucleic acid tests of the samples collected from the surface of both hands of the 28 recipients before vaccination were all negative. After vaccination, the nucleic acid tests of the samples collected from the surface of both hands of recipients were positive in 3 cases, and suspicious in 8 cases, with a positive rate of 10.7%. A total of 25 hemostatic stickers used were collected, 24 of them had positive nucleic acid tests, and the rest one had suspicious nucleic acid test result, with a positive rate of 96%. The hemostatic stickers used after the inoculation have the risk of nucleic acid contamination.


In his Defensio fidei catholicae de satisfactione Christi adversus Faustum Socinum Senensem Grotius makes use of sources taken from Roman law. We discuss three examples and ask the question whether something may be said about the weight of the arguments Grotius has taken from Roman law, mainly the Digest. The first one relates to his belief that it is a matter of public interest that crimes do not remain unpunished and he calls this argument even a trivial commonplace: Hoc enim iudicare videtur trita sententia delicta puniri publice interest. (2) The second example is Grotius's thesis that si alio animo alius idem solvat, liberatio non contingit. (3) The third example is his thesis that ex Romanorum legibus … poenae variantur pro conditione personarum which he also justifies with an impressive number of references. The conclusion is that Grotius uses these arguments, as if they were propositions suitable to function as part of the theological construction apt to rebut the views of Socinus, but for that purpose Grotius´s quotations are generally taken out of their original context and landed on a sort of Procrustean bed of his theological presuppositions.


Pre-training speech models on large volumes of data has achieved remarkable success. OpenAI Whisper is a multilingual multitask model trained on 680k hours of supervised speech data. It generalizes well to various speech recognition and translation benchmarks even in a zero-shot setup. However, the full pipeline for developing such models (from data collection to training) is not publicly accessible, which makes it difficult for researchers to further improve its performance and address training-related issues such as efficiency, robustness, fairness, and bias. This work presents an Open Whisper-style Speech Model (OWSM), which reproduces Whisper-style training using an open-source toolkit and publicly available data. OWSM even supports more translation directions and can be more efficient to train. We will publicly release all scripts used for data preparation, training, inference, and scoring as well as pre-trained models and training logs to promote open science.


Teenage pregnancy is controversial. Often the social environment of teenagers has a strong judgement on what they should do: abortion or parenthood. Although women in the Netherlands have legal and safe access to abortion, there is also a deep ambivalence about the morality of abortion manifest in politics and media. In this article I analyse the decision-making of girls who are confronted with an unintended pregnancy. In-depth interviews with 46 girls who got pregnant before their 20th birthday illuminate their motives for the choice they made. It also shows their resilience. Often, becoming pregnant and motherhood helped them to take better care of themselves. In that sense, pregnancy was a blessing in disguise, marking a turning point in a girl's life. This was applicable to young mothers, but also to girls who had an abortion against the wishes of their social environment, since they took back control on their lives.


We run an experiment to assess whether preferences for risk significantly differ for individuals with different health habits. We administrate a questionnaire followed by an experimental test to a sample of 120 subjects. The questionnaire measures health characteristics, habits and life style and assesses details about individual nutritional balance , drinking, smoking and physical exercise. We construct a number of individual health and nutritional indexes, including the Healthy Eating Index based on the USDA guidelines. We elicit preferences for risk using variants of the Holt and Laury (2002) paired lotteries test. Conditional on individual health and life style variables, we estimate the risk preferences for each subject, using Maximum Likelihood estimation. We observe that risk preferences significantly differ for subjects with different health habits and found some evidence of risk aversion. In particular, while smokers do not appear to be significantly more risk seeking, subjects with high scores of the Healthy Eating Index are characterized by higher degree of risk aversion. JEL: Experiments in Health Economics; Healthy Eating Index; Risk Preferences. 1 We are grateful to John Bone, John Hey and John Suckling for access to the ORSEE recruitment system and the mailing list of EXEC. We are grateful to Miguel Costa-Gomes for his suggestions and support. Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the ESA World Congress in Experimental Economics at LUISS University, Rome; at the 1 international conference Gastronometrica on economics of food and nutrition, at University of Bordeaux; at the V IMEBE International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral Economics, at University of Granada; at the international conference APES in Health Economics in Lisbon; at the X international conference JEE Experimental Economics Days at Bourgogne Business School of Dijon; at the Centre for Health Economics of University of York; at the European Conference in Health Economics, at University Tor Vergata, Rome; at the Health Econometrics and Data Group of the University of York; at the London Health Economics Group, at London School of Economics; at I Workshop of Italian Experimental and Behavioural Economists, at University of Florence; at Health Management Group at Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London; at seminars at Universities of Brescia; Tor Vergata, Rome; Kuopio; Leeds; Sheffield; Bocconi, Milan; Oxford. We thank all the participants for their helpful comments. We are especially grateful to Pierre Combris, Anna Conte, Daniela Di Cagno, Mark Dusheiko, Simone Ghislandi, Glenn Harrison, Arne Risa Hole, Andrew Jones, Raffaele Miniaci and Peter C. Smith for their suggestions and discussions. 2 Matteo M Galizzi gratefully acknowledges funding from the Alan Williams Fellowship. Part of this research was conducted while he was Alan Williams Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics of the University of York.


Tocolysis is among the most common obstetric measures. The objective is to prolong the pregnancy by at least 48 hours to complete foetal lung maturation and for the in-utero transfer of the pregnant woman to a perinatal centre. The indication for tocolysis is regular, premature contractions (≥ 4/20 min) and a dynamic shortening of the cervical length/cervical opening between 22 + 0 to 33 + 6 weeks of pregnancy. In this connection, the cervical length measured on ultrasound and the determination of biomarkers in the cervicovaginal secretions can be important decision-making aids. Beta sympathomimetics should no longer be used due to the high rate of severe maternal adverse effects. Given controversial data, magnesium sulphate is no longer recommended for tocolysis in current guidelines. Atosiban is as effective for prolonging pregnancy as beta sympathomimetics and nifedipine, has the lowest rate of maternal adverse effects, but also the highest drug costs. Nifedipine and indomethacin are recommended in international guidelines for acute tocolysis, however there are indications of increased neonatal morbidity following indomethacin. Current problems are, above all, the lack of randomised, controlled comparative and placebo-controlled studies, the data which are controversial to some extent, and the insufficient evidence of tocolytics to significantly improve the neonatal outcome.


Network based distributed computing has been gaining popularity over the past decade. Many parallel programming languages and related parallel programming modes are becoming widely accepted. However, the execution of parallel applications on distributed systems has been hampered by the high communication overhead. To reduce the communication overhead and the completion time of a parallel application, we propose a key message model for parallel computing on network of workstations (NOWs). In the key message model, all messages generated in a key message path are prioritized. A key message path in a task graph is defined as the path that is optimized by the key message algorithm. All messages generated in a key message path are prioritized. Besides, the key message algorithm automatically finds the key message paths. In this paper, we first describe the algorithm that identifies the key messages to be prioritized in a parallel application, then analyze the cost of the algorithm, and finally evaluate the performance of the algorithm in a simulation. Our preliminary analysis of the algorithm shows improvement over the system which does not use prioritization scheme.


One of the emerging trends for sports analytics is the growing use of player and ball tracking data. A parallel development is deep learning predictive approaches that use vast quantities of data with less reliance on feature engineering. This paper applies recurrent neural networks in the form of sequence modeling to predict whether a three-point shot is successful. The models are capable of learning the trajectory of a basketball without any knowledge of physics. For comparison, a baseline static machine learning model with a full set of features, such as angle and velocity, in addition to the positional data is also tested. Using a dataset of over 20,000 three pointers from NBA SportVu data, the models based simply on sequential positional data outperform a static feature rich machine learning model in predicting whether a three-point shot is successful. This suggests deep learning models may offer an improvement to traditional feature based machine learning methods for tracking data.