We introduce MAClets, software programs uploaded and executed on-demand over wireless cards, and devised to change the card's real-time medium access control operation. MAClets permit seamless reconfiguration of the MAC stack, so as to adapt it to mutated context and spectrum conditions and perform tailored performance optimizations hardly accountable by an once-for-all protocol stack design. Following traditional active networking principles, MAClets can be directly conveyed within data packets and executed on hard-coded devices acting as virtual MAC machines. Indeed, rather than executing a pre-defined protocol, we envision a new architecture for wireless cards based on a protocol interpreter (enabling code portability) and a powerful API. Experiments involving the distribution of MAClets within data packets, and their execution over commodity WLAN cards, show the flexibility and viability of the proposed concept.


Prophylaxis for Hemophilia is globally accepted as a treatment strategy compared to on-demand therapy in the care of persons with hemophilia (PwH) . Prophylaxis is rarely practized in low and middle income countries due to several reasons such as ill-affordability of clotting factor concentrates ( CFCs), lack of awareness, absence of comprehensive / home care infrastructure and misconcepts regarding treatment among general population. The South Indian state of Kerala had been providing CFCs free of cost for on-demand treatment. A recent initiative was started in Hemophilia Treatment Centre(HTC), Aluva , Ernakulam district to provide secondary/tertiary prophylaxis free of cost to children with severe hemophilia (Factor level A clinical audit was done in 11 children at this center for a period of twelve months (6 months retrospectively for on-demand treatment and 6 months prospectively for prophylactic treatment). Among all patients with severe hemophilia, eight have Hemophilia A and the remaining three have Hemophilia B. They were previously treated with CFCs/plasma/cryoprecipitate, a few of them had established joint disease and all of them had absence of inhibitors. These children were initiated on low dose prophylaxis with plasma derived CFCs. Factor VIII concentrate was given at a dose of 20-40 U/kg in 2 divided doses per week for Hemophilia A and Factor IX concentrate at 25-40 U/Kg once a week for Hemophilia B. Outcomes were measured at two time points - at the end of secondary/tertiary prophylactic treatment period and at the end of preceding six months of on-demand treatment. The variables taken as outcome measures were changes in bleed rates, Hemophilia joint health score (HJHS), Functional independence score in Hemophilia (FISH), hospitalization rates and school absenteeism. A reduction in the bleed rate was seen from the transition of on demand treatment to secondary/tertiary prophylactic treatment (14.9 vs 0.91, p 0.005). Similar reductions were seen for hospitalization rates (12.45 vs 2.36 days, p 0.005) and school absenteeism (78.55 vs 1.27 days, p 0.01) respectively(Fig 1 a). FISH and HJHS scores were either maintained or improved during the prophylaxis period.(Fig 1b, 1c). None of the children developed inhibitors during the study period. The estimated cost of CFCs for on demand treatment per patient was 1314.4 USD and 1691.8USD during prophylaxis. The factor consumption for on demand treatment for 6 months was 968.24 IU/Kg and that of secondary/tertiary prophylaxis was 1077.96 IU/Kg respectively. We conclude that low dose prophylaxis for severe Hemophilia in a developing economy is feasible and has marked clinical benefits with greater well-being when compared to on demand therapy. In countries with resource constraints low dose secondary/tertiary prophylaxis should be considered as a therapeutic option over on demand therapy for children with severe Hemophilia in the light of its potential benefits . Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Cytogenetic monitoring of amphibian and rodent populatiotis, and children from the radiocontaminated regions of the Republic of Belarus was conducted as a follow up to Chernobyl nuclear accident. A statistically significant increase in the levels of cytogenetic damage in bone marrow cells of amphibians and rodents and in peripheral blood lymphocytes of children was found. The presence of chromosometype aberrations supports the conclusion that radiation is the causative agent. However, no direct relationship between the level of radionuclide contamination and the degree of the cytogenetic damage was found.


This is a review paper describing recent progress of mid-range applications of wireless power transfer. Starting from Tesla's principles of wireless power transfer a century ago, it outlines magneto-inductive research activities in the last decade on wireless power transfer with the transmission distance in the order of or greater than the coil dimension. It covers the basic characteristics of 2-coil systems, 4-coil systems, systems with relay resonators and the wireless domino-resonator systems.


A Cooperative Cognitive Radio (CCR) network, which integrates a conventional cooperative system and cognitive radios (CRs) into a holistic system, is a promising paradigm for the next generation mobile communication systems. The spectral efficiency, power efficiency, bandwidth reduction and system complexity in CCR networks are the fundamental parameters of our system design and optimization. In this thesis, we focus our attention on opportunistically exploiting the underutilized spectrum band in the CR network with the aid of cooperative protocols. Furthermore, we invoke channel coding schemes in our CCR system in order to improve the overall system throughput. In our CCR system, the overlay based cooperation scheme of Primary Users (PUs) and Cognitive Users (CUs) is considered, which has the potential of leading to a transmission power reduction and transmission rate improvement for both the PU and the CU. More explicitly, our cooperative protocol allows a group of CUs to serve as Relay Nodes (RNs) for relaying the signal of the PUs' transmitters to the PUs' intended destinations. To elaborate further, both one way relaying and two-way relaying schemes are used in our proposed system, so that the bandwidth requirement of the PUs is reduced. Alternatively, the freed bandwidth may be leased to a group of CUs for their secondary communications. Our numerical and simulation results show that the bandwidth reduction attained by the proposed two-way relaying based CR scheme may approach as much as 80% of the PU's bandwidth. Moreover, an Adaptive Dynamic Network Coding (ADNC) scheme is also conceived for this overlay CCR system, which is designed for supporting communications between multiple PUs and a common Base Station (BS). More particularly, the near-instantaneously Adaptive Turbo Trellis Coded Modulation (ATTCM) is employed for appropriately adjusting both the modulation mode as well as the channel coding rate and the network coding rate, according to the near-instantaneous channel conditions. In order to facilitate the recovery of the source information at the BS, the CUs invoke the ADNC technique, which is assisted by our cooperative protocol operating by exchanging the CCR-based control information between the near-instantaneously ATTCM and network coding codec as well as between the CUs and the BS. Additionally, the network encoder may also be activated in its adaptive mode for supporting the CUs, depending on the Boolean value of the feedback flags generated based on the success/failure of the ATTCMdecoder and of the network decoder, which is evaluated and fed back by the BS. Quantitatively, it was found that the joint holistic design of our ATTCM-ADNC-CCR scheme is either capable of freeing up an approximately 40% of the PU's bandwidth in comparison to its non-cooperative counterpart, or increasing the attainable throughput by as much as 2 bit/symbol. Furthermore, a Pragmatic Distributed Algorithm (PDA) is proposed for supporting the efficient spectral access of multiple PUs and CUs in CCR networks. The novelty of our PDA is that the Pus negotiate with the CUs concerning the specific amount of relaying and transmission time, and the CU will decide either to accept or to decline this offer. These CUs relay the signal received from the PUs to the PUs' receiver, but only when both the PUs' and the CUs' minimum rate requirements are satisfied. Moreover, we show that the cooperative spectral access based on our PDA reaches an equilibrium, when it is repeated for a sufficiently long duration. These benefits are achieved, because the PUs are motivated to cooperate by the incentive of achieving a higher PU rate, whilst defecting from cooperation can be discouraged with the aid of a limited-duration punishment. Therefore, our proposed PDA outperforms the benchmark, despite its significantly lower overhead and lower complexity. Finally, we present the joint design of coding, modulation, user-cooperation and CR techniques, which may lead to significant mutual benefits for both the PUs and the CUs.


Aim: Blood-based biomarkers related to immune- and neuroregulatory processes may be indicative of dementia but lack standardization and proof-of-principle studies. Materials & methods: The blood serum collection protocol as well as the analytic procedure to quantify the markers BDNF, IGF-1, VEGF, TGF-β 1, MCP-1 and IL-18 in blood serum were standardized and their concentrations were compared between groups of 81 Alzheimer's disease patients and 79 healthy controls. Results: Applying standardized methods, results for the quantification of the six markers in blood serum are stable and their concentrations significantly differ for all analytes except VEGF between patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls. Conclusion: Analyzing a panel of six markers in blood serum under standardized conditions may serve as a diagnostic tool in primary dementia care in the future.


Abstract Robust stability of linear systems in presence of bounded uncertain time-varying time delays is studied. The time delay robustness problem is treated in the Integral Quadratic Constraint (IQC) framework. The stability criterion is formulated as frequency dependent linear matrix inequalities. The criterion can be equivalently formulated as a Semi-Definite Program (SDP) by applying Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov (KYP) lemma. Therefore, checking the criterion can be done efficiently by using various SDP solvers.


The company owner or manager must be the driver of the implementation of a culture on prevention in order to develop sustainable work and a sense of well-being at work among their employees. But, most employers in the construction industry are small or medium size employers (SMEs). They have limited resources, including safety and health expertise. They also typically are the highest risk employers. How can we assist them in improving their safety and health performance? Vision Zero is very practical approach to improving safety, by focusing only on the seven Golden Rules. In France, we have developed an online platform that employers can use to self-assess their safety performance. It is known as DIAGNEO, and is compatible with Vision Zero . DIAGNEO was developed with minimal resources and has been validated by safety and health experts in collaboration with employers in the construction industry and is currently available to over 2 00 000 construction employers in the Paris region, free of charge. It is easy to use, and does not take a lot of time to complete. After answers to several questionnaires, a profile of probable safety and health performance appears immediately in the form of graphics, which allows the employer to easily understand its deficiencies and where its priorities on regulatory, organisational and technical actions need to be placed. The examination of specific risks to the workplace and exposures is a prerequisite for the prevention of occupational risks. DIAGNEO makes it feasible to do so for even very small and resource-poor employers. There is no longer any excuse for employers not to undertake a self-assessment on Safety and Health at Work.


Sports science is an emerging discipline in the field of science (Block, 2016). Traditionally sports science has been recognized as simply educating secondary school teachers in physical education. However, this notion has mostly passed as researchers within the field of sport and exercise sciences have contributed significantly to our understanding of the totality of the human condition. A good example as to the importance of modern day sport science is the large body of scientific evidence that regular and optimized physical activity can increase strength and endurance, substantially reduce the risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cognitive decline and development of Alzheimer's disease, and improve quality of life over the entire life span, with little or no side effects. A notion that is now immortalized in the concept that "exercise is medicine" (Berryman, 2010).In this context, some aspects of the modern day sports science department should be considered, in order not to jeopardize the great developments that have been made and future developments of the discipline.


Matched samples of mental hospital staff and high school students completed mental health questionnaires in Germany and America. The results were factor analysed. One factor concerned the role of the psychiatrist. The role of the psychia trist in each culture seems to reflect basic cultural conceptions of mental disorders. Reference to two earlier papers indicates that patients, staff, and public share these basic conceptions and these conceptions affect patient-staff relationships.


This paper discusses if place names can be used to construct and express identity, with a focus on the Norwegian names of farms and parishes. Since the Norwegian Place Name Act came into existence in 1991, the many appeals in regard to official spellings as decided by the authorities give clear indication that Norwegians have different opinions of how the names of farms and parishes should be spelled compared to names referring to natural features. Many people prefer the spelling of names of natural features to be as close as possible to the dialectal pronunciation, whereas they prefer older, often ornamental spellings or spellings which differ from the pronunciation when it comes to the names of farms and parishes. This paper looks at the reasons for these attitudes towards the spelling of place names, and is highlighted by some theory pertaining to language and identity.


We have performed a systematic study of the rotational, orbital, and X-ray properties of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in globular clusters (GCs) and compared their nature with those of the MSPs in the Galactic field (GF). We found that GC MSPs generally rotate slower than their counterparts in the GF. Different from the expectation of a simple recycling scenario, no evidence for the correlation between the orbital period and the rotation period can be found in the MSP binaries in GCs. There is also an indication that the surface magnetic field of GC MSPs is stronger than those in the GF. All these suggest dynamical interactions in GCs can alter the evolution of MSPs/their progenitors, which can leave an imprint on their X-ray emission properties. While the MSPs in both GF and GCs have similar distributions of X-ray luminosity and hardness, our sample supports the notion that these two populations follow different relations between the X-ray luminosity and spin-down power. We discuss this in terms of both the pulsar emission model and the observational bias.


Issues such as environmental problem and energy insecurity keep worsening as a result of energy use from household to huge industries including automotive industry. Recently, a new type of zero emission vehicle, hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (HFCV) has received attention. Although there are argues on the feasibility of hydrogen as the future fuel, there is another important issue, which is the acceptance of HFCV. The study of technology acceptance in the early stage is a vital key for a successful introduction and penetration of a technology. This paper proposes a model of factors influencing green vehicle acceptance, specifically HFCV. This model is built base on two technology acceptance theories and other empirical studies of vehicle acceptance. It aims to provide a base for finding the key factors influencing new sustainable energy fuelled vehicle, HFCV acceptance which is achieved by explaining intention to accept HFCV. Intention is influenced by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control from Theory of Planned Behaviour and personal norm from Norm Activation Theory. In the framework, attitude is influenced by perceptions of benefits and risks, and social trust. Perceived behavioural control is influenced by government interventions. Personal norm is influenced by outcome efficacy and problem awareness.


Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus disease (ISKNVD) caused significant economic losses to the fishery industry. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) played an important role in ISKNV invasion. However, the molecular regulatory mechanisms among EGFR, PI3K-Akt, and ISKNV invasion are not clear. In this study, ISKNV infection rapidly induced EGFR activation. While, EGFR activation promoted virus entry, but EGFR inhibitors and specific RNA (siRNA) decreased virus invasion. The PI3K-Akt as downstream signalling of EGFR was activated upon ISKNV infection. Consistent with the trends of EGFR, Akt activation increased ISKNV entry into cells, Akt inhibition by specific inhibitor or siRNA decreased ISKNV invasion. Akt silencing combination with EGFR activation showed that EGFR activation regulation ISKNV invasion is required for activation of the Akt signalling pathway. Those data demonstrated that ISKNV-induced EGFR activation positively regulated virus invasion by PI3K-Akt pathway and provided a better understanding of the mechanism of EGFR-PI3K-Akt involved in ISKNV invasion.


Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are important human and veterinary pathogens. These parasites possess an unusual double membrane structure located directly below the plasma membrane named the inner membrane complex (IMC). First identified in early electron micrograph studies, huge advances in genetic manipulation of the Apicomplexa have allowed the visualization of a dynamic, highly structured cellular compartment with important roles in maintaining the structure and motility of these parasites. This review summarizes recent advances in the field and highlights the changes the IMC undergoes during the complex life cycles of the Apicomplexa.


【Skin anti-wrinkle activities of the stems and leaves of Abeliophyllum distichum Nakai were evaluated by the extracts obtained from various extraction processes such as using hot water at $100^{\circ}C$ , 70% ethanol at $85^{\circ}C$ , and 70% ethanol with ultrasonication at $60^{\circ}C$ The ultrasonicated extract showed 95.62% of the highest cell viability in addition of $0.3mg/m{\ell}$ of the extracts into the normal human fibroblast cell, CCD-986sk. For antioxidant activities, the extracts using ultrasonicated extract showed the highest DPPH free radical scavenging as 80.27%, followed by 75.88% and 62.44% for the extracts using ethanol extract and water extract. The ultrasonicated extract also showed the highest elastase inhibition activity as 25.32%, compared to ethanol extract and water extract based method at 22.01% and 12.88%, respectively. MMP-1 production was most effectively decreased down to $2908.1pg/m{\ell}$ with ultrasonicated extract while $6640.8pg/m{\ell}$ with water extract and $3609.3pg/m{\ell}$ with ethanol extract, in addition of $0.3mg/m{\ell}$ . Collagen production was increased up to $154.7ng/m{\ell}$ in addition of ultrasonicated extract, and followed by $121.4ng/m{\ell}$ and $31.2ng/m{\ell}$ for ethanol extract and water extract, respectively. These results indicate that the ethanol extract should have skin anti-wrinkling activities and can be improved by the ultrasonication process that high energy input elute more amounts of bioactive substances eluting more amounts of bioactive substances from the high energy input of ultrasonication.】


OBJECTIVE
To study the chemical constituents from the leaf of Hydnocarpus hainanensis.

METHODS
Compounds were isolated and purified by silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography, their structures were identified by spectroscopic analysis.

RESULTS
Nine compounds were isolated and identified as glutinol (I), fernenol (II), lupeol (III), a-armyrin (IV), 2, 9-dimethyldeca-2, 8-diene (V), phytenal (VI), phytol (VII), 3, 7, 11,15-tetramethylhexadecane-1,2-diol ( VI), 3, 5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (IX).

CONCLUSION
All the compounds are isolated from this plant for the first time.


We forecast constraints on cosmological parameters with primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy information and weak lensing reconstruction with a future post-Planck CMB experiment, the Cosmic Origins Explorer (COrE), using oscillation data on the neutrino mass splittings as prior information. Our Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations in flat models with a non-evolving equation of state of dark energy w give typical 68 per cent upper bounds on the total neutrino mass of 0.136 and 0.098 eV for the inverted and normal hierarchies, respectively, assuming the total summed mass is close to the minimum allowed by the oscillation data for the respective hierarchies (0.10 and 0.06 eV). Including geometric information from future baryon acoustic oscillation measurements with the complete Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, Type Ia supernovae distance moduli from Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and a realistic prior on the Hubble constant, these upper limits shrink to 0.118 and 0.080 eV for the inverted and normal hierarchies, respectively. Addition of these distance priors also yields per cent-level constraints on w. We find tension between our MCMC results and the results of a Fisher matrix analysis, most likely due to a strong geometric degeneracy between the total neutrino mass, the Hubble constant and w in the unlensed CMB power spectra. If the minimal-mass, normal hierarchy were realized in nature, the inverted hierarchy should be disfavoured by the full data combination at typically greater than the 2σ level. For the minimal-mass inverted hierarchy, we compute the Bayes factor between the two hierarchies for various combinations of our forecast data sets, and find that the future cosmological probes considered here should be able to provide 'strong' evidence (odds ratio 12:1) for the inverted hierarchy. Finally, we consider potential biases of the other cosmological parameters from assuming the wrong hierarchy and find that all biases on the parameters are below their 1σ marginalized errors.


Software visualization is concerned with the static visualization as well as the animation of software artifacts, such as source code, executable programs, and the data they manipulate, and their attributes, such as size, complexity, or dependencies. Software visualization techniques are widely used in the areas of software maintenance, reverse engineering, and re-engineering, where typically large amounts of complex data need to be understood and a high degree of interaction between software engineers and automatic analyses is required. This paper reports the results of a survey on the perspectives of 82 researchers in software maintenance, reverse engineering, and re-engineering on software visualization. It describes to which degree the researchers are involved in software visualization themselves, what is visualized and how, whether animation is frequently used, whether the researchers believe animation is useful at all, which automatic graph layouts are used if at all, whether the layout algorithms have deficiencies, and--last but not least--where the medium-term and long-term research in software visualization should be directed. The results of this survey help to ascertain the current role of software visualization in software engineering from the perspective of researchers in these domains and give hints on future research avenues.


Lettuce emergence rate, seedling growth, and head size has been shown to positively correlate with seed vigor. Seed treatment practices in lettuce that increase seedling shoot mass can significantly influence lettuce growth, development, and final yield. This study investigated effects of lettuce seed treatment with Seed Power® (a nutrient solution containing cobalt and other proprietary compounds; Stoller USA) on lettuce seed germination, crop growth, yield, and potential interaction of Seed Power® with commonly used conventional


The electronic transition of the phenoxy radical C 6 H 5 O produced in a discharge of anisole was measured by using a cavity ringdown (CRD) spectrometer. Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) are optical absorption lines observed in diffuse clouds in interstellar space. They still remain the longest standing unsolved problem in spectroscopy and astrochemistry, although several hundreds of DIBs have been already detected. It is expected that identifications of DIBs can give us crucial information for extraterrestrial organic molecules. One of the best approaches to identify carrier molecules of DIBs is measurements of DIB candidate molecules produced in the laboratory to compare their absorption spectra with astronomically observed DIB spectra. Aromatic radicals in a gas phase are potential DIB candidate molecules. The electronic transitions of aromatic radicals result in optical absorption. However, because the radicals are unstable, their electronic transitions are difficult to observe using a laboratory spectrometer system. To solve this difficulty, we have utilized a glow-discharge cell using a hollow cathode in which the radicals can be effectively produced as a high-density plasma. The radicals produced in a discharge of anisole were measured by using CRD spectrometer, which is an apparatus to observe an high-resolution optical absorption spectrum. The bands observed in the 570 ̶ 630 nm region in the discharge were assigned to the electronic transition of the phenoxy radical C 6 H 5 O on the basis of the reported low resolution spectra. Comparison studies of the phenoxy radical were made with known DIB spectra.


Control System Design Using Matlab: B. SHAHIAH and M. HASSUL (Prentice-Hall, 1993, 503 pp., £31.50) This book is one of the new generation of control systems text books which is specifically written for use with the Matlab programming language. In addition to the book under review, several books have appeared (or are soon to appear) which do the same thing (e.g. Refs. [I] and [2]). This association of teaching with a specific software product is both significant and remarkable. It is significant because it will, I believe,have an impact upon control systems engineering practice. In particular, the use of software to design everyday controllers rather than pencil and paper design will enable the performance and reliability obtained from even the simplest of control loops to be greatly improved. To be specific according to recent surveys one of the features of process control engineering is that 80% of process control loops are either incorrectly tuned or switched to manual. With the availability of software productivity tools such as Matlab and its competitors (Matrix X, Control-C, etc.) and a cadre of control engineers trained in their use, the scope for improved practical controllers is evident. The emergence of books coupled to software products like Matlab is remarkable because it could not have been predicted, say ten years ago. At that time one would have predicted that special CAD packages for control system design would be used in teaching. Instead we see the area of control teaching dominated by an interpretative language based upon numerical routines for special matrix manipulations. Now I will review the book. The first thing to note is that the book would not be suitable as a sole text for a course in control engineering because it does not supply the background theory required. Instead, I believe the book should be considered as a tutorial companion to the software product to which it is linked. When viewed from this perspective the book is a good one, since it takes the reader carefully and logically through the relevant control and signal processing topics and shows how to use the corresponding Matlab commands. The technical topics covered in the book are: classical controller analysis and design, state space analysis and design, algebraic design [i.e, synthesis methods), linear quadratic control and robust control. The technical areas are dealt with carefully with a sufficientnumber of examples. I think that the book is an excellent companion to the software package, and on this basis I recommend it as additional reading for any control course based around Matlab. Finally, can I apologise to the reader for repeatedly mentioning the Matlab product. However, I could hardly do otherwise given the nature of this book. To balance the review a little I will mention again the two rival products Matrix-X and Control-C.


Using machine learning algorithms for the rapid diagnosis and detection of the COVID-19 pandemic and isolating the patients from crowded environments are very important to controlling the epidemic. This study aims to develop a point-of-care testing (POCT) system that can detect COVID-19 by detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a patient's exhaled breath using the Gradient Boosted Trees Learner Algorithm. 294 breath samples were collected from 142 patients at Istanbul Medipol Mega Hospital between December 2020 and March 2021. 84 cases out of 142 resulted in negatives, and 58 cases resulted in positives. All these breath samples have been converted into numeric values through five air sensors. 10% of the data have been used for the validation of the model, while 75% of the test data have been used for training an AI model to predict the coronavirus presence. 25% have been used for testing. The SMOTE oversampling method was used to increase the training set size and reduce the imbalance of negative and positive classes in training and test data. Different machine learning algorithms have also been tried to develop the e-nose model. The test results have suggested that the Gradient Boosting algorithm created the best model. The Gradient Boosting model provides 95% recall when predicting COVID-19 positive patients and 96% accuracy when predicting COVID-19 negative patients. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-SPER-08 Full Text: PDF


Cytotoxic testing has been used to identify and evaluate potential sensitizers among three adult age groups. Coffee and toabacco were used as single sensitizers to further illustrate the vivo WBC response technique, as an independent test for corroborating was advanced outlining a possible explanation of the cytotoxic test results. This theoretical approach might be used to study clinical problems where allergic etiologies are suspected.


Since the adoption of Global Illumination on Monsters University and Renderman RIS on Finding Dory, Pixar has pushed closer and closer to photorealism with physically-based lighting and shading. With each show, Lighting artists have needed to create, organize, and creatively balance more and more light sources of increasing complexity. Because Pixar has also traditionally worked with a "fixed" camera exposure, the light colors and intensities chosen by the artist would also drive the overall brightness of the final image. Toy Story 4, which takes place in both an antiques mall and a traveling carnival, was a challenge to this workflow. The large variety of light sources in the antiques mall would be difficult to group into uniform categories; complex light animation on carnival rides required light intensities driven by upstream assets; and seeing the same lights under day and night illumination meant that production-wide choices for light intensities could not be made under a single, fixed exposure. We needed assets that behaved like in the real world and just worked when placed together in a scene. We developed a method on Toy Story 4 for tagging modeled assets with physical light properties that would automatically be converted into functioning light sources in a shot by a script called Bakelite. This pipeline gave the Lighting department more time for creative iteration with minimal setup, allowed pre-lighting visualization of shots by upstream departments, and ensured a final image that was both rich in surface detail and also accurate in HDR.


The emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in an oil palm plantation associated with land use change have been evaluated on a site-specific basis. Nitrous oxide (N ₂ O) emissions from the application of nitrogen fertilizers during the growth stages of the palm oil were analyzed for palms of different ages within the plantation. The N ₂ O release ranges between 19.11-22.17 kg of N 2 O-N/ha, resulting in the emission of 1052.26-1209.51 kg of CO 2 -eq/ha. However, there is no clear relationship between the emissions of N 2 O or CO 2 -eq and the age of the oil palms. On the other hand, the impact from land use change for the development of the site was also evaluated by assessing the emissions from carbon stock changes within the plantation. The transformation of a rubber estate into an oil palm plantation loses the soil carbon content (i.e., release of carbon emissions). However, this phenomenon has been anticipated in literature. Overall, fertilizer-related emissions and fuel emissions during the growth stages contribute to about 79 and 21%, respectively, of the total GHG emissions from the plantation . Therefore, it is likely that the application of nitrogen fertilizer may increase the existing carbon emission from the conversion of rubber to oil palm plantation, but the values are within the estimated for a Malaysian oil palm plantation.


The delivery of the teacher education program needs to be given utmost importance by the university because what happens in the teacher preparation may influence what they would do in the classrooms as teachers. This descriptive-evaluative study identified the effectiveness of the Laddered Preschool Education offered by Bicol University for academic year 2013-2017. Data were gathered from licensure examination for teachers (LET)-like Exit Examination results of the students and preschool teachers, class observations, focus group discussions and interviews with faculty and students, and licensure examination results. The students had very satisfactory performance in the Exit Examination, and encountered challenges along academic, immersions and non-academic concerns. The students' proficiency level in the core competencies has been found to be significantly better than the practicing preschool teachers or their cooperating teachers. Similarly, the overall performance in the licensure examinations was found to be higher than the target set by the university at 70% passing rate and 26.33% national passing rate. Lastly, the employers' and prospective employers' feedback indicate the competence of the program's graduates, as well as their strengths as prospective preschool teachers. The continuing offering of the program is highly recommended. Considering the implementation of the new Teacher Education curriculum in the country, the measures to address the challenges such as those related to capacity-building activities and instructional resources be sustained.


The number of possible unrooted binary trees (phylogenies) increases super-exponentially with the number of taxa. To find the Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree one has to enumerate and evaluate all these trees. As we will see, this is computationally not feasible. Therefore, one predominantly deploys ad hoc tree search methods that strive to find a "good" ML tree in the hope that it will be close, either with respect to the likelihood score or the topological structure, to the globally optimal ML tree. In this chapter we provide an overview over the most popular and efficient ML tree search techniques. How to cite: Alexandros Stamatakis and Alexey M.


During light work using the arm in a warm environment, skin temperatures of the arms and chest fell and remained at lower levels during work. The fall in skin temperature during work was not observed in a cool environment. The fall in skin temperature was nearly proportional to work intensity and was observed in both static and dynamic work. Leg work of moderate intensity produced an initial decline and a subsequent rise in skin temperatures of the hands, thighs and legs. A significant fall in skin temperature was observed not only in the foot but also in inactive regions such as the epigastrium. The mean skin temperature remained practically unchanged during work. The fall in skin temperature during work was not due to increased evaporative cooling, but was the result of segmental vasoconstriction probably caused as a reflex in the spinal cord by non-thermal afferents from exercising muscles or moving tissues. The effect of thermoregulatory vasodilation was reduced by the reflex vasoconstriction caused by non-thermal factors. The rise in internal temperature during work could be explained by decreased heat loss due to persistently lower skin temperature.


Abstract Introduction The basic helix-loop-helix PER-ARNTSIM (bHLH-PAS) family of transcription factors respond to a wide range of external stimuli to regulate diverse biological processes ranging from development to circadian rhythms. These proteins selectively heterodimerize through relatively well-conserved bHLH and PAS domains, while differences in C-terminal regulatory domains confer opposing activities to either stimulate or repress transcription. The evolution of modular regulatory domains and the ability to selectively dimerize with different subunits within the family allows fine-tuning of gene expression through temporal and tissue-specific expression of bHLH-PAS subunits. The aim of this critical review is to discuss the functional specification through modular domain architecture of bHLH-PAS proteins. Conclusion The modular domain architecture of bHLH-PAS transcription factors plays an integral role in their ability to keep mammals healthy and in tune with their environment.


This study reports on a in situ lycopod assemblage of stumps and trunks from a sand-rich coaly section of the Rio Bonito Formation (Artinskian – Kungurian) in Rio Grande do Sul state. These dense tickets of arborescent forms have been found in situ ; their cormose rooting systems are "non stigmarioid". The variation observed, from elliptical ( Brasilodendron type) to rhomboidal ( Lycopodiopsis type) leaf cushion in the same specimen indicates that both can represent different levels in the same trunk. Considering that the South Brazilian coals are mainly hipoautochthonous, lycopods of Brasilodendron type could be dominants in the plant forming association of the peat.


Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men and women in Western countries. Epidemiological studies have linked the consumption of fruits and vegetables to a reduced risk of colon cancer, and small fruits are particularly rich sources of many active phytochemical stilbenes, such as resveratrol and pterostilbene. Recent advances in the prevention of colon cancer have stimulated an interest in diet and lifestyle as an effective means of intervention. As constituents of small fruits such as grapes, berries and their products, stilbenes are under intense investigation as cancer chemopreventive agents. One of the best-characterized stilbenes, resveratrol, has been known as an antioxidant and an anti-aging compound as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. Stilbenes have diverse pharmacological activities, which include cancer prevention, a cholesterol-lowering effect, enhanced insulin sensitivity, and increased lifespan. This review summarizes results related to the potential use of various stilbenes as cancer chemopreventive agents, their mechanisms of action, as well as their pharmacokinetics and efficacy for the prevention of colon cancer in animals and humans.


Aim. To evaluate the antifibrotic effect of bicyclol with promising clinical effects on diffuse parenchymal liver diseases.Materials and methods: We have included 40 adult male Wistar rats (weight, 180 to 200g) with experimentally inducted toxic F3 stage liver fibrosis. Control group consisted of 16 rats that received standart chow, experimental group of 24 rats also received 30-day bicyclol supply. To evaluate the results we used histological, biochemical, molecular genetic and statistical methods.Results. In experimental group interlobular fibrosis was maintained in 4,16% (p<0,001) of cases after the end of the therapy, stromal fibrosis of portal tracts was observed in 62,5% (p<0,001) of cases. Periportal fibrosis detection rate in experimental group was 66,7% (p<0,001). Rats from experimental group showed regression of liver fibrosis to F1- F2 stage in 16,6% (METAVIR) whereas control group had F3 stage liver fibrosis in 62,5% (p <0,05). Statistically significant increase in ALT activity and decreased total protein levels in control group were observed. No changes in gut microbiome profile in experimental animals were found.Conclusion. Use of bicyclol led to pronounced suppression of liver fibrotic changes in laboratory animals and temporary decreased serum ALT level. Our study showed no link between therapeutic effects of the drug and gut microbiome status.


Work-sharing in production systems is a modern approach that improves throughput rate. Work is shifted between cross-trained workers in order to better balance the material flow in the system. When a serial system is concerned, a common work-sharing approach is the Bucket-Brigade (BB), by which downstream workers sequentially take over items from adjacent upstream workers. When the workers are located from slowest-to-fastest and their speeds are deterministic, it is known that the line does not suffer from blockage or starvation, and achieves the maximal theoretical throughput rate (TR). Very little is known in the literature on stochastic self-balancing systems with work-sharing, and on BB in particular. This paper studies the basic BB model of Bartholdi & Eisenstein (1996) under the assumption of stochastic worker speeds. We identify settings in which conclusions that emerge from deterministic analysis fail to hold when speeds are stochastic, in particular relating to worker order assignment as a function of the problem parameters.


Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) addresses the problem of associating subsequences of individuals' genomes to the observable characteristics called phenotypes. In a genome of length G, it is observed that each characteristic is only related to a specific subsequence of it with length L, called the causal subsequence. The objective is to recover the causal subsequence, using a dataset of N individuals' genomes and their observed characteristics. Recently, the problem has been investigated from an information theoretic point of view in [1]. It has been shown that there is a threshold effect for reliable learning of the causal subsequence at $\displaystyle \frac {Gh(L/G)}{N}$ by characterizing the capacity of it. Here h denotes the binary entropy function. However, it is assumed that the dataset is collected from one population and the problem of mixed population datasets is not considered in [1], which is observed in many practical settings. In this paper, we study the mixed population version of GWAS, where we assume that the dataset is gathered from K subpopulations, rather than one. Each subpopulation has a specific causal subsequence for the observed characteristic and the subpopulation origins of individuals are latent. The objective is to recover all the causal subsequences with high accuracy. We investigate the fundamental limits of mixed population GWAS and characterize its capacity. It is observed that for a special class of two subpopulations, the capacity is one-fourth of the capacity of unmixed population case with the same parameters. Also, the capacity of this problem has connections to the capacity region of the Multiple Access Channel (MAC).


Voice Quality is a concept which is quite difficult to define. This study proposes a description and a definition of it according to John Laver's model. Moreover, very few studies focused on the variation of voice quality according to accents. This pilot study aims at describing the voice quality of the accent of Liverpool thanks to a perceptual analysis called the Vocal Profile Analysis scheme. The results show that the VPA scheme is a useful tool in order to determine some features of the voice quality of the Liverpool accent. Finally, to our knowledge, there is no study that compares voice quality across several accents of the British Isles. This is why, this study is part of a larger project that will try and identify the voice quality features of some British accents using the VPA scheme.


Background and Aims: While current guidelines recommend a selective invasive approach after low-risk ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated by thrombolysis, based on noninvasive identification of patients with residual or inducible myocardial ischemia, in many instances physicians employ a strategy of routine angiography. The present study was undertaken to reexamine the correlation between noninvasive testing and coronary angiography in patients recovering from uncomplicated STEMI with regard to detection and management of residual infarct artery stenosis and to identify patients with multivessel (MVD) or high-risk coronary disease. Methods: We prospectively performed predischarge exercise testing (ETT) and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) prior to routine predischarge coronary angiography in 83/276 consecutive STEMI patients, who after treatment with initial and early thrombolysis, were defined as low risk by ACC/AHA risk classification. Results: ETT was positive for myocardial ischemia in 11/43 (26%) patients with single-vessel disease (SVD) and 11/22 (50%) patients with MVD, but normal or nondiagnostic in the remainder. MPS revealed significant reversible perfusion defects in 13/40 (32%) patients with SVD and 13/22 (59%) patients with MVD. A selective strategy of ETT followed by MPS for nondiagnostic ETT missed residual infarct-related artery stenosis and/or MVD in 31/81 (38%) of the cohort. Among patients who may not otherwise have been referred for angiography, severe (≧70%) residual stenosis of the infarct-related artery was present in 56% and MVD in 16%. Conclusions: Early predischarge ETT and/or MPS had limited sensitivity for the detection of coronary disease in low-risk post-STEMI patients. The study supports a simpler strategy of routine coronary angiography in most patients after low-risk STEMI.


For Small Island Developing States such as the Maldives, climate change poses an existential threat to the future and welfare of their countries' populations. The effects of global warming, such as rising sea levels and increased flooding, have forced countries to consider different measures in order to adapt, and some are even worried about a possible climate forced migration as a result of these dangers. Unfortunately, a lack of recognition of climate migrants under international law means that island states are left on their own to decide the best course of action. This raises an important question: What are possible challenges and solutions for Small Island Developing States [SIDS], such as the Maldives, who are planning for the climate forced migration of their populations? Using a case study of the Maldives, this paper explores both mitigation and adaptation measures that the Maldivian government has considered to develop its climate resilience. It also argues that rather than plan for relocation, the Maldives and other SIDS should prioritize keeping their populations together, maintaining cultural integrity, and implementing initiatives which support sustainable development.


In this paper the relation between nonanticipative rate distortion function (RDF) and Bayesian filtering theory is investigated using the topology of weak convergence of probability measures on Polish spaces. The relation is established via an optimization on the space of conditional distributions of the so-called directed information subject to fidelity constraints. Existence of the optimal reproduction distribution of the nonanticipative RDF is shown, while the optimal nonanticipative reproduction conditional distribution for stationary processes is derived in closed form. The realization procedure of nonanticipative RDF which is equivalent to joint-source channel matching for symbol-by-symbol transmission is described, while an example is introduced to illustrate the concepts.


Media Access Control (MAC) protocols in Wireless Networked Control System (WNCS) must minimize the radio energy costs in sensor nodes. Latency and throughput are also important design features for MAC protocols in the applications. But most of them cannot guarantee quality for real-time traffic. This paper studies the state of the art of current real-time MAC protocols, and then introduces a medium access control protocol and a improved protocol that provide multiple priority levels and hard real-time transmission. The channel is accessed by sensors according to their priorities. Sensors send frames in a round manner with same priority. The fairness between different priorities is provided. The channel access procedure is divided into two stages: broadcast period and transmission period. Simulation and experiment results indicate that our protocol provides high channel utilization and bounded delays for real-time communication and can be well applied in the many fields especially the dynamic wireless sensor networks.


In response to recent increases in cases of pediatric encephalitis with unknown etiology in northern Vietnam, surveillance for arbovirus activity was conducted in four provinces surrounding the city of Hanoi during June 2002 and July-August 2004. A total of 20,615 mosquitoes consisting of 19 species in 1,122 pools were processed for virus isolation; virus isolates were obtained from 44 pools. Sagiyama virus (11 isolates), Getah virus (15 isolates), Oya virus (13 isolates), and Akabane virus (4 isolates) were identified by immunofluorescence assay and sequence analysis of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction fragments. Surprisingly, no isolates of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus were obtained. Isolation of Akabane virus, Oya virus, Getah virus, and Sagiyama virus is reported for the first time from Vietnam.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Oncologic benefits of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) have been described. The prognostic significance of pT0-1 stage in patients receiving NAC versus chemotherapy-naive patients remains unclear. Therefore, among patients found to have stage pT0-1 (including pTis) after undergoing extirpative surgery for high-grade UTUC, we sought to 1) compare clinicopathologic characteristics between ypT0-1 and pT0-1 patients and 2) evaluate whether receipt of NAC influences oncologic outcomes in these patients. METHODS: Clinicopathologic data from 647 patients who underwent extirpative surgery for UTUC among three institutions from 1993-2016 were compiled. Patients with low or unknown grade disease or muscle invasion were excluded. Pathologic data and oncologic outcomes were compared between pT0-1 and ypT0-1 patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and intravesical RFS (IVRFS) among patients. Cox regression was performed to identify predictors of these oncologic endpoints. RESULTS: 234 patients with high-grade non-muscle-invasive disease were included for analysis (43 ypT0-1 and 191 pT0-1). ypT0 was achieved in 2 patients. Lymphovascular invasion was more prevalent among ypT0-1 patients (15.4% vs. 4.3%, p=0.022). Preoperative radiographic cT3 disease was nearly twice as prevalent in ypT0-1 than in pT0-1 patients (7.1% vs. 3.6%, p=0.390), though statistical significance was not achieved. Clinicopathologic characteristics were otherwise similar between groups. On Kaplan-Meier analyses (Figure), OS (p=0.055), CSS (p=0.152), RFS (p=0.148), and IVRFS (p=0.645) were comparable between ypT0-1 and pT0-1 patients. Receipt of NAC was not a significant predictor for any of these endpoints on Cox regression. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ypT0-1 stage disease exhibit similar oncologic outcomes as those with pT0-1 stage disease in high-grade UTUC. Our results suggest that tumors successfully downstaged to non-muscle-invasive disease using NAC resemble the behavior of those that are non-muscle-invasive without NAC. Thus, pathologic downstaging from NAC may potentially serve as a surrogate for oncologic endpoints. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: none


Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone malignancy, and the pathogenesis has not been entirely elucidated yet. An important deimination modification enzyme PADI4 (peptidylarginine deiminase 4) has attracted much attention in recent years for its important function in several kinds of human tumors. However, the role of PADI4 on osteosarcoma tumorigenesis remains largely unrevealed. Here, we first assessed the effect of PADI4 on osteosarcoma proliferation by the CCK8 method and colony formation assay. Ectopically expressing PADI4 positively regulates the colony formation capacity of both U2OS and Saos-2 cells. Furthermore, we explored the related mechanism and showed that PADI4 could stimulate Wnt/β-catenin and MEK/ERK signaling in both U2OS and Saos-2 cells. Then, we detected expression of PADI4 in human tissues of osteosarcoma and revealed that differential expression of PADI4 was associated with tumorigenesis of osteosarcoma. Last, we performed the in vivo experiment in nude mice and results also showed PADI4 could affect the tumor growth. In conclusion, this work revealed that PADI4 could upregulate the proliferation of osteosarcoma, mainly via the Wnt/β-catenin and MEK/ERK signaling pathway. This study gives us new insight into the regulation mechanism of osteosarcoma proliferation and highlights PADI4 as a promising target for osteosarcoma diagnosis and treatment.


In the factorized picture of semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering the naive time reversalodd parton distributions exist by virtue of the gauge link which is intrinsic to their definition. The link structure describes initial/final-state interactions of the active parton due to soft gluon exchanges with the target remnant. Though these interactions are non-perturbative, calculations of final-state interaction have been performed in a perturbative one-gluon approximation. We include higher-order contributions by applying non-perturbative eikonal methods to calculate the Boer-Mulders function of the pion. Using this framework we explore under what conditions the Boer Mulders function can be described in terms of factorization of final state interactions and a spatial distortion.


The object of this study was to investigate whether subjects are able to compare the prominence caused by different types of accent‐lending pitch movements, and, if so, whether some pitch movements lend more prominence to a syllable than others. These experiments were carried out with the utterance/mamama/, with the second syllable accented by either a rise, a fall, or a rise–fall. Subjects adjusted the variable excursion size of a comparison stimulus to the fixed excursion size of a test stimulus in such a way that the accented syllable in test and comparison stimuli had equal prominence. The rise–fall was only presented in standard position, the fall and the rise were tested for five different positions in the syllable. It is concluded that subjects are well able to equate the prominence of syllables accented by various types of pitch movement, viz., a rise–fall in standard position, a rise starting before the vowel onset, and a fall whatever its position in the syllable. Moreover, when lending equal prominence, the early starting rise and the rise–fall have equal excursion sizes. The fall, however, appears to lend more prominence to a syllable than the rise or the rise–fall of equal excursion size, independent of its position in the syllable. This difference increased with increasing declination of the pitch contour.


In this paper, an accurate model of the spin-coating process is presented and investigated from the analytical point of view. More precisely, the spin-coating process is being described as a one-phase free boundary value problem for Newtonian fluids subject to surface tension and rotational effects. It is proved that for T > 0 there exists a unique, strong solution to this problem in (0, T) belonging to a certain regularity class provided the data and the speed of rotation are small enough in suitable norms. The strategy of the proof is based on a transformation of the free boundary value problem to a quasilinear evolution equation on a fixed domain. The keypoint for solving the latter equation is the so-called maximal regularity approach. In order to pursue in this direction one needs to determine the precise regularity classes for the associated inhomogeneous linearized equations. This is being achieved by applying the Newton polygon method to the boundary symbol.


Episodic fluid expulsion through fractures is widely expected during hydrocarbon generation, yet direct evidence for this process is lacking in the case of organic-rich shales. We investigated the formation of antitaxial, bed-parallel fibrous calcite veins hosted in organic-rich shales of the Eocene Dongying Depression, Bohai Bay Basin, China. Our results from detailed, in situ geochemical traverses show that while some symmetric veins exhibit broadly synchronous and steady-state opening, other asymmetric veins consist of two geochemically distinct generations of calcite to either side of the median zone, suggesting asymmetric and asynchronous growth in two discrete episodes during hydrocarbon expulsion. Thus, we argue that each asymmetric vein recording two stages of opening implies that hydrocarbons were expelled from shales episodically.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the palatability of iodinated oral contrast media commonly used in abdominopelvic CT and CT colonography (CTC).

METHODS
80 volunteers assessed the palatability of a 20-ml sample of a standard 30 mg ml(-1) dilution of Omnipaque® (iohexol; GE Healthcare, Cork, Ireland), Telebrix® (meglumine ioxithalamate; Guerbet, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France), Gastromiro® (iopamidol; Bracco, High Wycombe, UK) and Gastrografin® (sodium diatrizoate and meglumine diatrizoate; Bayer, Newbury, UK) in a computer-generated random order.

RESULTS
Gastrografin is rated significantly less palatable than the remaining media (p<0.005). Omnipaque and Telebrix are significantly more palatable than Gastromiro. No difference existed between Omnipaque and Telebrix. 39% of participants would refuse to consume the quantities of Gastrografin required for a CTC examination compared with Telebrix (7%) and Omnipaque (9%) (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Omnipaque and Telebrix are significantly more palatable than both Gastromiro and Gastrografin, with participants more willing to ingest them in larger quantities as well as being less expensive.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE
Omnipaque and Telebrix are significantly more palatable iodinated oral contrast media than both Gastromiro and Gastrografin, which has potential implications in compliance with both abdominopelvic CT and CTC.


Background. In tropical and subtropical regions there are ideal conditions for the maintenance and proliferation of leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, American trypanosomiasis, and heartworm disease, which affect the welfare and health of domestic and synanthropic animals and can cause zoonoses. Objective. To identify the main epidemiological findings of potentially zoonotic diseases such as leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, American trypanosomiasis, and heartworm disease in domestic animals, synanthropics, and humans in the Yucatan Peninsula. Methodology. The compilation of scientific articles from the studies carried out by the academic body of Animal Health in the first 50 years of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the Autonomous University of Yucatan was carried out. The review focused on four infectious agents with zoonotic potential ( Leptospira spp, Toxoplasma gondii , Trypanosoma cruzi , and Dirofilaria immitis ) that affect animals in the Yucatan peninsula. Results. The studies have shown a wide distribution of animals affected by these agents and described various aspects of epidemiology in animals and humans. Implications. Epidemiological monitoring of these agents and the study of their impact on health is essential for decision-making when it comes to implementing official control and prevention measures in both animals and humans. Conclusions. The infectious agents described (bacteria, protozoa and nematode) have a wide distribution in various species of domestic and synanthropic animals of the Yucatan peninsula, and have an impact on the human population in this region of Mexico. The epidemiological conditions described in this region should serve to prevent and control these diseases.


Whereas fluvial flood risks have, in recent years, become better appreciated and understood, little is generally known about the risks posed by groundwater emergence. To better understand the risks of groundwater flooding, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) commissioned a scoping study to assess these risks. As part of the scoping study, provisional maps of areas vulnerable to groundwater emergence from consolidated aquifers were produced that reflect the groundwater conditions experienced in the exceptionally wet winter of 2000–2001. These maps, covering all consolidated aquifers of England, are presented as a provisional set of risk maps that, with further refinement, could be utilized in regional planning decisions and for flood risk management.


ABSTRACT Liu, Y.; Li, M.; Mao, L.; Cheng, L., and Li, F., 2013. Toward a method of constructing tidal flat digital elevation models with MODIS and medium-resolution satellite images. The terrain of tidal flats often varies remarkably over space and time, but few existing methods are capable of producing fine–spatiotemporal resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for tidal flats. This research aims to fill the knowledge gap and propose a 6-step method to construct tidal flat DEMs by incorporating both moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer and medium-resolution satellite images. The six steps include: waterline extraction, water level simulation, height assignment, median filtering, waterline point fusion, and interpolation to DEMs. A case study was conducted at the Dongsha sandbank—one of the largest sandbanks among the radial tidal sand ridges of Jiangsu Province, China. The resultant DEMs were compared with the light detection and ranging–based DEMs for vertical accuracy assessment. The results show that the proposed method successfully shortens the temporal resolution of DEMs to 3 months, while retaining high spatial resolution and vertical accuracy. An additional analysis of seasonal sediment change for tidal flats based on the proposed method shows that the sediment deposition in the Dongsha sandbank apparently has a semiannual cycle—the tidal flats are deposited in winter and eroded in summer. All of these findings are valuable references for researchers and local authorities to conduct research on the evolution of tidal flats and to boost environmental management, coastal protection, and economic exploitation.


Abstract I try to return the focus of the philosophy of history to the nature of understanding, with a particular emphasis on Louis Mink's project of exploring how historical understanding compares to the understanding we find in the natural sciences. On the whole, I come to a conclusion that Mink almost certainly would not have liked: that the understanding offered by history has a very similar epistemic profile to the understanding offered by the sciences, a similarity that stems from the fact that both are concerned with grasping how the objects of their study are structured, or how the various elements of the things they study depend upon and relate to one another. At the same time, however, I claim that historical inquiry naturally puts us in a position to acquire further epistemic goods, including the old-fashioned epistemic good of wisdom, which is plausibly constituted by knowledge of how to live well. This is something the natural sciences cannot offer, and it is part of the reason why history is such an important form of inquiry.


Objective: This study aimed to determine the efcacy of Pomegranate based cosmeceutical product as skin whitening
and hydrating agents. The study are conducted by selecting marketed pomegranate skincare Materials and methods:
products which are the body shop pomegranate cream and skin food pomegranate emulsion and the subjected to applied
the product every night on the back of the forearm for a duration of one month. The initial and nal reading were
compared and analyzed by DermaLab® Combo Handling Techniques. This study found that both products Results:
showed positive result for skin whitening and hydrating activity however their superiority in terms of efcacy cannot be
made due to subject compliance issue, the formulation differences as well as other environmental factors such as
drinking and sun light exposure. Findings of this study suggest that the L. would be Conclusion: Punica granatum
potential skin whitening and antihydrating agent in pharmaceutical or cosmeceutical products in near future.


This article presents a perspective on the relationship between adult education and human resource development of the past two decades and the subsequent emergence of workforce development. The lesson taken from the article should be more than simply a recounting of events related to these fields of study. Instead, the more general lesson may be to illustrate again the dynamic of how applied fields of study emerge. That is, as societal issues of importance occur, existing processes and information are often used out of necessity by practitioners to address the issues, which in turn promotes reflections mostly from the academic community about what was done. For some professionals, the evolving cycle is painful to experience because it often calls for fundamental change in their known intellectual territory. Alternately, such change should be embraced to ensure the continuing societal relevance of the field of study.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) and its severe subtype pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) encompass a set of multifactorial diseases defined by sustained elevation of pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance leading to right ventricular failure and subsequent death. Pulmonary hypertension is characterized by vascular remodeling in association with smooth muscle cell proliferation of the arterioles, medial thickening, and plexiform lesion formation. Despite our recent advances in understanding its pathogenesis and related therapeutic discoveries, PH still remains a progressive disease without a cure. Nevertheless, development of drugs that specifically target molecular pathways involved in disease pathogenesis has led to improvement in life quality and clinical outcomes in patients with PAH. There are presently more than 12 Food and Drug Administration–approved vasodilator drugs in the United States for the treatment of PAH; however, mortality with contemporary therapies remains high. More recently, there have been exuberant efforts to develop new pharmacologic therapies that target the fundamental origins of PH and thus could represent disease-modifying opportunities. This review aims to summarize recent developments on key signaling pathways and molecular targets that drive PH disease progression, with emphasis on new therapeutic options under development.


The location of graphical entities such as data points, glyphs, or icons in a display can be used to convey signiicant information about the relations between entities. The placement problem manifests itself in many areas, including data visualization, information visualization, and screen layout, and many strategies have been developed in each domain. The goal of this paper is to identify and unite a variety of placement techniques from diierent disciplines, correlate techniques with implicit and explicit relations within the entities being visualized, and suggest new methods for placement and interaction with the resulting entities. We will focus on the placement of glyphs, which are graphical entities whose visual attributes are controlled by diierent elds of multivariate data points. However, many of our results are pertinent to the placement of icons and data points as well. Entities to be placed on a screen may or may not have quantiiable relations with each other. Linear orders may be derived by sorting the entities based on some attribute of the entity. Hierarchical ordering relations can be explicit, as in organizational charts or directory structures, or derived, such as by using clustering or partitioning algorithms. A relation which is perhaps more powerful than ordering is that of a distance or similarity metric, where a value exists for each pair of entities indicating the degree of similarity or diierence. A major criterion for eeectively conveying information graphically is that distortion of the actual information is minimized. Thus not only should the viewer be able to infer correct relational information (semantically similar entities should be placed near each other on the screen), but false relations (entities which are near on the screen, but not semantically close) should not be presented. Another issue is the eeect of occlud-ing entities; in most situations we would like to perceive each entity individually, which dictates against occlusion. Finally, we want to make eeective use of the empty space on the screen; too much empty space may be an indication that not enough space is being allocated for glyph display, while not enough empty space may make relations, especially those involving clustering, diicult to perceive. The most common strategy for glyph placement is either to divide the screen into M roughly equal sized regions and assign each glyph to a successive slot based on some ordering 5] or use two numeric attributes of the glyph to determine a position. The former …


This paper presents the results obtained in an extensive Gas Lift Valves (GLVs)flow trials, which were performed in an experimental liquid flow test loop. The objective was to evaluate GLVs performance with respect to their back flow retention condition, after being exposed to large volumes of flowing liquids. In case of a check valve failure, remediation strategies were also presented and evaluated.
 Four different GLVs were subjected to brine flow. The tests consisted of a minimum of 15 flow cycles comprising a volume of 150 m3 (942 bbl) each, at a flowrate of 0.32 m3/min (2 bbl/min). In between cycles, the GLV was tested for back flow. The check valve test was performed with the GLV installed in its original position at the flow test loop (i.e., no need to disassemble the GLV and move it to another facility). In case of back flow failure detection, remediation strategies, such as flushing with industrial water and cycles of pressurization and depressurization, were tested.
 None of the four GLVs tested completed the minimum of 15 cycles without any failure. After flushing the system with industrial water, three GLVs regained its back flow retention capabilities and the other still presented the back flow failure. In some cases, the check valve presented failure when tested inside the flow loop, but did not present the same failure when moved to the Nitrogen/calibration test bench. This event has indicated the importance of testing the back flow retention inside the flow test loop. It was also observed that pressurization and de-pressurization speed can affect the results.
 Testing of liquid flow through GLVs usually involves a small volume of liquid, which may not be enough to cause problems with the check valve. In this paper we present new tests results with larger liquid volumes of liquid passing through the GLVs. The results are important to understand the condition of GLVs to handle higher flow liquid volumes.


Designers are constantly looking for ways to reduce the structure weight to lower the overall displacement and hence the cost of fast ferries and other high-speed vessels. The easiest option for the designer is to choose a lightweight material. Aluminum has become the adopted choice of material for high-speed vessels owing to its high strength to weight characteristics. Unlike steel, aluminum is more prone to fatigue cracking and has no fatigue limit. In order to minimize weight, the designer will make use of finite element methods to optimize the scantlings and perform fatigue checks against established codes. This can lead to a structure that has the empirical margins of safety reduced owing to the accuracy of mathematical modeling. However, what is often overlooked is the effect the manufacturing process has on the fatigue life of the fabricated structure. This aspect is excluded from the designer's fatigue calculations, which assist in reducing the scantlings. Currently, there is no guidance for fatigue life reduction for the designer that establishes good and bad workshop practice, other than experience, or the implications of basic shipyard fabrication. It is shown that whereas strain-hardened alloys improve mechanical strength, they reduce ductility. This has consequences when forming the hull plate by potentially introducing cracklike flaws into the alloy matrix if the plater overrolls the plate. If there is misalignment or there is too much gap between the plates, the weld will create localized stress concentrations. If the welder has poor joint preparation or gas shielding, porosity can be introduced into the weld. Porosity has a significant effect on the fatigue life of the weldment. This paper brings together a collection of data on such issues that the designer needs to be aware of to prevent an unwanted fatigue failure in the fabrication process.


The use of natural prostaglandins (PG), such as PGD2, PGE2, PGF2 alpha, and PGI2, for treating glaucoma is limited by their ocular side effects. One approach to achieve the required separation of ocular hypotensive activity from side effects is to employ ester prodrugs. From a novel series of 11- and 15-mono and 11,15-diacyl esters of PGF2 alpha we identified prodrugs where PGF2 alpha formation rates in the iris-ciliary body exceeded those in the conjunctiva, sclera, and corneal endothelium. Compared to PGF2 alpha-1-isopropyl ester the ocular tissue hydrolysis rates of the 11-monopivaloyl, the 11,15-dipivaloyl ester and the 1,11-lactone were up to 1000 fold less. Despite this large disparity in hydrolysis rates, the pivaloyl esters and the 1,11-lactone were potent ocular hypotensives in our animal models. In studying prostaglandin analogs, we found that a diverse variety of prostanoid receptor selective agonists lowered intraocular pressure in dogs and/or monkeys. These included DP-, EP1-, EP2-, EP3-, and FP-receptor selective compounds. These findings were surprising and prompted us to re-examine the receptor selectivity of these agonists by radioligand binding studies. Using radiolabelled PGE2, 17-phenyl PGF2 alpha, and sulprostone we were able to confirm the selectivity of the agonists currently used for receptor characterization directly by radioligand binding competition studies. It appears that multiple prostanoid receptor subtypes may be involved in regulating intraocular pressure.


Strength and biocompatibility of composite materials (using a polymer matrix) are used in medicine for various devices such as prostheses and marker clips (biomarkers). Marker clips indicate the site of a lesion in the body, specifically for breast cancer diagnosis or treatment. In general, marker clips are made of steel or titanium, but lately, materials containing biodegradable polymers had been proposed. Our hypothesis is that a copolymer of polylactic acid and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PLA-PCL) could be used as marker clip material. After evaluating different polymer rates performance, metallic nanoparticles (NPs) were included to enhance the stability of the best copolymer and a marker clip prototype was proposed. Characterization of nanoparticles was made by dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetic measurements. Mechanical, thermal and radiopacity properties were evaluated for composites formulation. In vitro, radiopaque experiments showed that BM-2 composite had the best performance. In vivo experiments showed that, after five months, the marker clip prototype maintained its shape, visibility and contrast properties. In consequence, a novel formulation of composite (PLA-PCL/metallic nanoparticles) is suitable for further studies as an alternative material for marker clips for breast cancer lesions.


The literature review analyzed 24 studies that explored male intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration risk factors among men, in particular Hispanics, using the socioecological model framework composed of four socioecological levels for violence prevention. Six databases were reviewed within the EBSCO search engine for articles published from 2000 to 2014. Articles reviewed were specific to risk factors for IPV perpetration among Hispanic men, focusing particularly on Mexican American men. Many key factors have previously been associated with risk for IPV perpetration; however, certain determinants are unique to Hispanics such as acculturation, acculturation stress, and delineated gender roles that include Machismo and Marianismo. These risk factors should be incorporated in future targeted prevention strategies and efforts and capitalize on the positive aspects of each to serve as protective factors.


Some open water areas between fast ice and pack ice zones are often observed off the Prince Olav Coast and Riiser-Larsen Peninsula all year round. In such open waters, called coastal polynyas, which are exposed to the cold air, sea ice newly forms with high growth rate. It is considered that coastal polynyas serve as more efficient ice factories than ice-covered areas where sheet ice gradually grows. So heat loss to the atmosphere is very large. In addition, large salt flux occurs there as sea ice excludes brine. In this way large quantities of heat to the air and salt to the ocean are supplied through the processes of sea ice production in polynyas, which have great influence on global climate. In 1990-1991 (J ARE-31) we carried out oceanographic observations to clarify the thermal structure in the polynya region off Liitzow-Holm Bay using aircraft-deployed expend able bathythermographs (AXBT, made by the Tsurumi Seiki Co., Japan) from a Cessna plane. This polynya is commonly called 'Otone Suiro' and is located about 50 miles north of Syowa Station. Temperature and depth accuracies of the AXBT are ±O. l°C and 5 m or ±2 % of depth, respectively. Sixteen temperature profiles down to about 500 m in depth were obtained from March 1990 to January 1991 except for the polar night season. The thickness of the convective mixed-layer with near freezing temperature was 300-500 m. These mixed layers were clearly thick and cold as compared with those in fast ice and pack ice zones. From spring to early summer, the temperature of the surface 50 m layer rose to about -1.5--l.0°C because of absorption of solar radic1tion.


Abstract Basilar invagination (BI) is a congenital or acquired craniovertebral junction (CVJ) anomaly with odontoid process superiorly migrating into the foramen magnum. Compression of neural structures is the most relevant complication of BI. However BI is also a rare cause of ischemic stroke. In this case we reported a 30-year-old female with BI who developed recurrent ischemic stroke in posterior circulation. Before the onset of ischemic stroke, she didn't present neck pain or clinical signs of lower cranial nerve dysfunction, brainstem compression or transient ischemic attack. At first she suffered from sudden onset of left-sided hemidysesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging from a local hospital revealed an acute infarction in the right thalamus. Cerebral MR angiography was unremarkable at that time. The tip of the odontoid process had protruded into the foramen magnum and could be observed at the level of the lower medulla, but unfortunately it was ignored by the clinicians and the radiologists. She was given antiplatelet therapy and the sensory disturbance disappeared gradually. However she experienced a recurrence in the pontine and midbrain region 2 months later. At this time she was transferred to our hospital, and reconstructed computed tomography of cervical spine demonstrated basilar invagination, atlanto-axial dislocation, and atlanto-occipital assimilation. Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) revealed a dominant right vertebral artery (VA) and a redundant loop in its third segment. Dynamic cerebral angiogram demonstrated that the patient had a Bow Hunter's type phenomenon, with dynamic occlusion of the right dominant VA during contralateral head turn. This case highlighted the necessary of hemodynamic evaluation in asymptomatic basilar invagination.


ENT1 of Arabidopsis thaliana was the first member of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter (ENT) family to be identified in plants and characterized as a cellular, high-affinity nucleoside importer. Evidence is presented here for a tonoplast localization of ENT1 based on proteome data and Western blot analyses. Increased export of adenosine from reconstituted tonoplast preparations from 35S:ENT1 mutants compared with those from the wild type and ENT1-RNAi mutants support this view. Furthermore, increased vacuolar adenosine and vacuolar 2′3′-cAMP (an intermediate of RNA catabolism) contents in ENT1-RNAi mutants, but decreased contents of these metabolites in 35S:ENT1 over-expresser mutants, were observed. An up-regulation of the salvage pathway was detected in the latter mutants, leading to the conclusion that draining the vacuolar adenosine storage by ENT1 over-expression interferes with cellular nucleotide metabolism. As a consequence of the observed metabolic alterations 35S:ENT1 over-expresser mutants exhibited a smaller phenotypic appearance compared with wild-type plants. In addition, ENT1:RNAi mutants exhibited significantly lower in vitro germination of pollen and contained reduced internal and external ATP levels. This indicates that ENT1-mediated nucleosides, especially adenosine transport, is important for nucleotide metabolism, thus influencing growth and pollen germination.


The high mortality of nineteenth-century cities included excess summer mortality among infants and young children. Data from New York City, New Or-leans, and Chicago from 1870 to 1917 and earlier data from New York City permit an examination of this high summer mortality and its decline during the early twentieth century in relation to changes in infant feeding practices, sanitation projects to improve water supplies and methods of waste disposal, and efforts to improve the quality of milk.


Abstract During a recent survey of Atlantic central African orchids, we collected four orchid specimens in Rio Muni (Equatorial Guinea) that share the general morphology at Angraecum gabonense, the most frequent member of Angraecum section Pectinaria in Central Africa, but differ in leaf shape and flower size. Further inspection of specimens deposited at the Wageningen herbarium and cultivated in their greenhouse led to the discovery of additional specimens from the Monts Doudou area in Gabon. Comparison with other Angraecum specimens indicate that these collections represent a new species, which we describe here as Angraecum atlanticum, the fifth species of Angraecum section Pectinaria recorded in central Africa. The new species is restricted to submontane forests covering the mountain chain situated along the coasts of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The distinguishing features of the species include its leaves, which are more widely spaced than A. gabonese, and are 2.2 mm wide; its petals and sepals, which are slightly longer than the lip; its spur, which is somewhat inflated in the middle; and its larger ovary. Information on the ecology, phenology and distribution of Angraecum atlanticum is presented, along with a preliminary conservation assessment using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.


The article seeks to explore modern business environment for Ukrainian industrial enterprises of railway transport that challenges the development and implementation of mechanisms to intensify economic behaviour management practices in the context of neo-industrial modernization that will facilitate better access to entering new markets, help to attract new consumers and enhance the enterprise competitiveness. It is emphasized that ensuring intensification of economic behavior management for railway transport industry enterprises in the frameworks of neo-industrial modernization is a multidimensional process since the ultimate performance depends on the quality of management decisions and involves the implementation of innovative approaches as well as relies on other factors that determine the effectiveness of business activities. The proposed concept for the intensification of economic behavior management in the railway transport industry has to provide relevant information management support that will guide effective managerial decision making together with offering a mandatory forecast of their economic outcomes, ensuring operational control, etc. It is argued that the intensification of economic behavior management is a driving factor in building a development strategy of railway transport enterprises with due regard to its structural elements and their indicators effects, and accounting for their advantages and disadvantages. The study suggests a conceptual methodological approach to evaluate the economic behavior of industrial enterprises in the sector of railway transport which covers the three phases: preliminary, basic and final. The findings provide a reasoned argument as to the effectiveness of this approach in management decision making and their further implementation in enhancing economic behavior management of the railway transport industry enterprises in the neo-industrial modernization business settings.


The Aim is to determine the level of functional ability of abdominal muscles in patients of different ages after LCH in the long-term rehabilitation period.
Materials and methods. Lovett's manual muscle testing (MMT) was performed on 113 patients after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LCH), who were undergoing rehabilitation at the Morshyn kurort resort complex in 2020 and 2021. The average age of patients was 52,96±0,62 years. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to three age categories: group A - women aged 18 to 44 years (n = 14); group B - aged 45 to 59 years (n = 79); group C aged from 60 to 74 years (n = 20). Inclusion criteria: patients after LCH from 1 month to 1 year after surgery. Exclusion criteria: patients who have contraindications to testing: early postoperative period; pregnancy; severe circulatory failure, the presence of patients with neuropsychiatric pathology; peptic ulcer of the stomach and, or duodenum with bleeding, patients' refusal to participate in the study.
Methods. Evaluators were blinded during testing. Methods of synthesis, analysis and mathematical statistics. Indicators under study: functional ability of torso flexion and rotation muscles.
In order to assess the effect of LCH on the functional ability of the abdominal muscles, MMT was performed according to the Lovett method.
The results of the study. The results of the assessment of the functional ability of the abdominal muscles of patients after LCH in the long term indicate a decrease in the strength of the abdominal muscles in patients of three groups. Analyzing the results, it was found that the functional ability to bend the torso was the best in the youngest group A 2.86 ± 0.20 points. Slightly lower level of torso flexion was in group B 2.44 ± 0.07 points and the worst in the oldest group C - 2.20 ± 0.11 points. A statistically significant difference was found between the three groups in this indicator. In all three groups, the level of functional flexion of the abdominal muscles of patients after LCH was low. However, it was found that in three age groups there is an asymmetry in the level of muscle strength - in all patients the muscles that perform the function of torso rotation on the right are weaker than the muscles on the left side. In all three groups, there was a greater statistically significant difference between the strength of the functional ability of the abdominal muscles to rotate on the left than on the right. This result indicates that even minor surgery with minor damage to muscle fibers and fascia reduces the functional capacity of the abdominal muscles. LCH leads to an asymmetry in the strength of the external and internal oblique muscles of the abdominal press - a statistically significant decrease in the functional state of these muscles on the right compared with the strength of the muscles on the left in all age groups.
Conclusions. The low level of functional ability of the abdominal muscles of patients after LCH in the long term requires the inclusion in the protocols of rehabilitation physical therapy and occupational therapy. Accordingly, physical therapy and occupational therapy programs at this stage should include techniques to increase the strength of the abdominal muscles, due to the postponed surgery, recovery and improvement of motor capacity.


After a period of heavy rainfall, the landslide of a mass of residual soil in the side slope to the Pipeline Range of PETROBRAS occurred, in which two oil pipelines and gas pipeline connecting a terminal to a refinery.On the day following the event in field inspection performed by the TRANSPETRO team, it was found that due to the landslide, the gas pipeline was exposed, with a Section of approximately 8.0 meters apparent in a slope at risk of undergoing deformations with the movement of unstable soil.In the course of the inspection several indications soil movement were observed, such as cracks in the ground, breaks and located cracks in reinforced concrete structures of the drainage system. Surge flow of water or soil saturation was not found, despite the high rate of rainfall during the period. Thus one ruled out the possibility of the presence of a high water table which could have caused sliding. It is assumed that this may have begun on lower slopes due to deficiencies in the surface drainage system, which caused the accumulation of rainwater and its collapse. Hence, ruptures allegedly have occurred progressively upstream until it reaches the side of the pipeline range.To ensure the integrity of the gas pipeline and operational safety and prevent the evolution of the incidents with more serious consequences, a contingency group responsible for coordinating emergency actions to contain the slope and protecting the pipeline exposed was called.The first actions consisted of protecting the slope using a plastic tarpaulin to prevent the infiltration of more rainwater, metal profile riveting to contain side soil movement to the pipelines and finally to the implementation of contention with soil nailing technique with shotcrete on the surface of the slope where the pipeline was exposed found. Repairs to the surface drainage system of the range and slopes, which had been damaged during landslide were made.In parallel to emergency actions, a campaign of geotechnical surveys using Standard Penetration Test (SPT) aiming at providing grounds for stability studies for the preparation of final stabilization project of the slope.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


There is lack of a suitable assessment tool that can be used routinely and systematically by hospital staff to address family caregivers' (FCs') support needs. This paper describes a novel approach to identifying and addressing FCs' needs following hospital discharge of the older person receiving care. Setting and participants FC recruitment occurred on the patient's discharge from a tertiary hospital in Western Australia; 64 completed the study; 80% were female; mean age 63.2 years. Intervention The Further Enabling Care at Home (FECH) programme was delivered over the telephone by a specially trained nurse and included: support to facilitate understanding of the patient's discharge letter; caregiver support needs assessment and prioritisation of urgent needs; and collaborative guidance, from the nurse, regarding accessing supports. Results Sixty-four FCs completed the FECH programme. The top three support needs identified by the FCs were: knowing what to expect in the future (52%), knowing who to contact if they were concerned (52%) and practical help in the home (36%). The telephone-based outreach service worked well and was convenient for the nurse and the FCs, and saved on transport, time and money. Most of the FCs appreciated the systematic approach to identify and articulate their needs and were satisfied with the support they received, mainly navigation through the systems, problem solving, self-care strategies, explanation of illness, symptoms and medication and access to after-hours services. Conclusions In order to guide services which may consider adopting this systematic approach to supporting FCs and integrating it into their routine practice, this evaluation of the FECH programme has described the processes implemented and highlighted the factors that hindered or facilitated these processes to engage caregivers with appropriate services in a timely manner. Positive feedback indicated that the programme was a useful addition to hospital discharge planning. Trial registration number ACTRN12614001174673; Results.


Background: The total intracapsular thyroidectomy is a new procedure that removes all the thyroid tissue for benign thyroid diseases and two third of thyroid capsule with better intraoperative and post-operative consequences and less operative time than the capsular dissection and no recurrence rate of goiter or Graves' disease that was detected during the follow up period. Objectives: To evaluate the outcome of total intracapsular thyroidectomy of benign thyroid diseases in term of safety and efficacy. Patients and Methods: This is a prospective descriptive study carried out in department of general surgery including a total of 80 patients with benign thyroid disease who underwent intracapsular total thyroidectomy. Patients were followed up for 6 months to 3 years with a median of 41.4 months for postoperative complications. Results: The mean age of the patients was 42.72 ± 8.12 years. The majority of patients were females (87.5%). The study showed that 97.5 % of the patient had no intraoperative complications. Postoperatively, only 4 patients (5%) developed complications. The mean operative time and blood loss was 71.78 ± 9.32 min and 82.8 ± 32.5 ml, respectively. Conclusion: The total intracapsular thyroidectomy is new procedure and more sophisticated than other operation types to treat benign thyroid disease. However, it is safe and efficient.


Abstract Early epidemiological studies demonstrated that short stature is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, lower energy intake or food deprivation during growth, poor health, and increased all-cause mortality. Nevertheless, the links between adult height and longevity become tenuous if certain confounders (e.g. BMI, SES, educational attainment, etc.) are allowed for. Furthermore, numerous studies have found that like excess weight, tallness is costly in terms of longevity in late ontogeny, and shorter people tend to outlive their taller peers, especially if they are slim and maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. Therefore, there is currently a lack of agreement in the literature as to whether and how body height and lifespan are linked. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between adult stature and longevity on the basis of a large sample from a population-based cohort study. Data on declared height and exact dates of birth and death were available from 480,493 men and 364,666 women who died in the years 2004-2008 in Poland. To control for secular changes, the sample was divided into fifteen birth cohorts and each group was subsequently split into five height categories using pentiles, separately for both sexes. The analysis has revealed an inverse relationship between height and lifespan in men and women. However, after controlling for secular changes in height, the relationship turned out to be very weak and linear in men, and inverted U-shaped in women. In general, taller individuals had lower age at death compared to shorter ones, and this relationship was more pronounced and consistent in men. To sum up, these findings do not comport with the traditional belief that taller individuals live longer. The role of several possible biological mechanisms pertinent to enhanced longevity in smaller individuals was emphasized, and these biological factors were discussed.


The first part of this text reviews the standard economic viewpoint on expectational coordination, a viewpoint that the recent events have challenged. The second part reviews different existing directions assessments of the rational expectations hypothesis that have been made to-date. The third part shows how such a critical assessment, along the lines of the so-called "eductive" learning approach, radically modifies our view of three key problems : the economic role of speculation, the informational efficiency of markets and, last but not least, the ability of agents with long horizon to anticipate the future. The fourth part stresses what has been achieved so far well as the future challenges of the approaches advocated in this paper.