This is an Article about how to redesign the federal tax system so that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can administer it more effectively given that Congress is only willing to let the IRS have around 82,000 employees and a $12 billion budget. As the IRS Oversight Board and the National Taxpayer Advocate have frequently emphasized, the United States underinvests in the IRS. Underinvesting means that taxpayer services are suffering and that tax enforcement has been significantly weakened.With budget deficits for "as far as the eye can see" and the recent IRS troubles with tax-exempt political organizations, the prospects for increased funding for the IRS are remote. In this Article, we consider a variety of approaches that would make it easier for the IRS to raise and collect revenue, and we offer a number of recommendations for legislative and administrative changes. For example, we recommend simplifying the tax system, enhancing third-party reporting, and streamlining the tax-filing and dispute-resolution procedures.In short, this Article discusses how the tax system should be designed so that it can work with a modestly-funded tax administrator. Part II of this Article provides an overview of the federal tax system, and Part III of this Article provides an overview of tax administration. Part IV of this Article discusses the key problems with current tax administration. Finally, Part V of this Article offers a number of recommendations for change, including some that would require legislation and some that could be achieved administratively.


The main objective of this thesis is to examine factors linking predator-prey relationships, breeding strategies and spatial structure inside colonies of greater snow geese (Chen caerulescens atlantica). We collected data from 2002 to 2005 and used some data collected in previous years at Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada). We first explored how predation, the main determinant of nesting success, was affected by habitat heterogeneity. We showed that wetlands could provide refuges for geese because polygon-patterned grounds decrease travel speed and success of their main predator, the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus). The quality of these refuges varied according to the lemming cycle (the main prey of foxes) with foxes feeding on goose eggs during years of low lemming abundance. Our study also demonstrated that water availability is a major determinant of goose nesting success. First, geese nesting in mesic tundra experienced higher predation risks than those nesting in wetlands due to limited availability of water. Second, by experimentally manipulating water availability, we recorded a 20% increase of nesting success relatively to control nests. Third, we showed a positive relationship between rainfall abundance and nesting success. Nests were less exposed to predators because females were able to reach nearby water holes resulting from recent rainfall accumulation. We found a low fidelity to a specific nesting site, which could result from variable patterns of spring snow-melt and the limited consequences of changing sites. Nonetheless, geese showed fidelity towards habitat type yet geese nest preferentially in wetlands where they experienced lower predation risks. Finally, we explored how dispersal strategies could determine patterns of population genetic structure. We detected a fine-scale genetic structure (few km) among rearing sites but not among nesting sites inside the colony. To conclude, this thesis provides a framework to understand population dynamic and distribution by using multiple-scale analyses of mechanisms driving predator-prey relationships.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.19, p.1273 (1986). Two samples of nominally identical material will usually charge each other if they are rubbed together asymmetrically, e.g. in such a way that a small region of one rubs across a large region of the other. It has previously been supposed that the asymmetric rubbing induced some physical difference, in particular a temperature difference, between surfaces, which in turn causes charge transfer. However, experiments on polymers (reported in the preceding paper) are not easily reconciled with this explanation. In this paper the authors show that it is not necessary to invoke any physical distinction between the two insulators to explain charge transfer. Certain electron distributions can result in net charge transfer during asymmetric rubbing even though the temperature (and other physical properties) remains exactly the same for the two surfaces. The authors present a quantitative model and they show that it is capable of explaining a wide range of experimental facts about charge transfer between identical insulators.


BACKGROUND Gitelman syndrome (GS) is an autosomal recessive renal tubular disorder characterized by renal wasting hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, hypomagnesemia, and hypocalciuria. It is usually caused by mutations in the gene SLC12A3, which encodes the thiazide-sensitive Na-Cl cotransporter. GS is not usually diagnosed until late childhood or adulthood. CASE SUMMARY Here, we report the case of a one-year-old girl who was brought to the emergency department due to persistent vomiting for two days. On admission to our hospital, generalized weakness was observed, and laboratory investigations revealed severe hypokalemia (1.9 mmol/L). However, persistent hypokalemia was observed during outpatient follow-up. Suspicion of the GS phenotype was assessed via the patient's clinical presentation, family history, and biochemical analysis of blood and urine. Further genetic analysis was performed for her and her family by exon-wide sequencing analysis of the gene SLC12A3. The genetic diagnosis of GS was established in the Taiwanese family with three affected individuals, two of whom were children (7 years/17 years) without obvious symptoms, with the youngest being only one year old (patient in our case). CONCLUSION We successfully demonstrated the early diagnosis of GS using family genetic analysis. Any instances of hypokalemia should not be neglected, as early detection of GS with suitable treatment can prevent patients from potentially life-threatening complications.


Synthesis of face images from visual attributes is an important problem in computer vision and biometrics due to its applications in law enforcement and entertainment. Recent advances in deep generative networks have made it possible to synthesize high-quality face images from visual attributes. However, existing methods are specifically designed for generating unimodal images (i.e., visible faces) from attributes. In this paper, we propose a novel generative adversarial network which simultaneously synthesizes identity preserving multimodal face images (i.e., visible, sketch, thermal, etc.) from visual attributes without requiring paired data in different domains for training the network. We introduce a novel generator with multimodal stretch-out modules to simultaneously synthesize multimodal face images. Additionally, multimodal stretch-in modules are introduced in the discriminator which discriminate between real and fake images. Extensive experiments and comparison with several state-of-the-art methods are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed attribute-based multimodal synthesis method.


By employing stimulated Raman backscattering in a plasma, information carried by a laser pulse can be captured in the form of a very slowly propagating plasma wave that persists for a time large compared with the pulse duration. If the plasma is then probed with a short laser pulse, the information stored in the plasma wave can be retrieved in a second scattered electromagnetic wave. The recording and retrieving processes can conserve robustly the pulse shape, thus enabling the recording and retrieving with fidelity of information stored in optical signals.


The author presents a series of radiocarbon chronologies of fossil moa remains covering the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Last Termination (LT) from several fossil sites in the South Island of New Zealand. The climate interpretation of the C sequences assumes that moa species are in strict association with specific vegetation types; and uses New Zealand's δO speleothem series as a master temperature record. The moa chronologies are then evaluated in the light of long-lasting debate about temperature changes during lateglacial times in New Zealand, coming up with a rather controversial claim of rapid warming during the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14.6-13 kcal BP) and significant cooling aligned with the Younger Dryas chronozone (YD; 12.9-11.7 kcal BP).


To identify target cells of prolactin (PRL) in the male gonad, the expression of prolactin receptor (PRL-R) mRNA in adult rat testes was investigated by in situ hybridization using a digoxigenin-labeled cRNA probe. We also investigated PRL binding to testicular cells in vitro. Signals for PRL-R mRNA were detected not only in interstitial cells but also in spermatogenic cells. Although the reaction was positive in all phases of spermatogonia and spermatocytes, it disappeared in early round spermatids. No signals were detected in elongated spermatids or spermatozoa. The signal intensity varied among each phase of spermatogenic cells. PRL-R mRNA was expressed in all stages of the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium. PRL-R were detected on the surface of Leydig cells, Sertoli cells, all phases of spermatogonia and spermatocytes, elongated spermatids, and spermatozoa. Ovine PRL. did not bind to round spermatids. In Leydig cells, pachytene spermatocytes, and spermatozoa, PRL-R were observed in relatively large numbers. There were fewer receptors in other phases of spermatogenic cells. These results indicate that PRL-R mRNA expression is almost consistent with PRL binding sites except for elongated spermatids and spermatozoa, and suggest that PRL may have direct effects on spermatogenic cells.


Fine-needle biopsy and large-needle core biopsy of inaccessible and deep-space lesions of the head and neck are difficult and sometimes hazardous to perform. Patients subsequently may have to undergo a major surgical procedure with exploration of the neck and open biopsy. We describe our experience with computed tomography and ultrasound-guided fine-needle and core-needle biopsy for 11 patients with inaccessible lesions in the head and neck. Carcinoma was diagnosed in three patients and nonmalignant pathologic findings in eight patients. Three of the needle biopsy findings were confirmed by surgical excision. The initial diagnoses made from the cytopathologic findings have remained unchanged in all patients. Compared with the alternative of open biopsy, we have found this method to be technically easy, diagnostically expeditious, and safe. Head and neck surgical oncologists should be familiar with image-guided biopsy techniques, since many of their patients may benefit from these diagnostic procedures.


A critical issue in biopbysical modeling projects is to develop a set of reusable libraries to support the development of future applications. This is true for weather modeling as well. Rain is a software component providing a collection of stochastic approaches to generate precipitation data on daily and subdaily time steps. Synthetic data generated on a daily time step consists of precipitation occurrence and amount. Subdaily generation includes time of peak, peak intensity, storm arrival, and duration. The software design allows for extension of the models implemented without recompiling the component. The component, inclusive of a hypertext help file and of documentation generated from source code comments, has been released as compiled .NET and Java versions, allowing application development in either programming environment. Illustrative examples of Windows-based applications using Rain are provided as source code. A sample web service and a web application were also developed as possible use of the component.


BACKGROUND
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-characterised by excessive and uncontrollable worry-is the most frequently diagnosed anxiety disorder during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Identification of GAD often relies on assessment of its cardinal feature, pathological worry. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) is the most robust measure of pathological worry to date but has not been extensively evaluated for use during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This study evaluated the internal consistency, construct validity, and diagnostic accuracy of the PSWQ in a sample of pregnant and postpartum women with and without a principal GAD diagnosis.

METHODS
One hundred forty-two pregnant and 209 postpartum women participated in this study. Sixty-nine pregnant and 129 postpartum participants met criteria for a principal diagnosis of GAD.

RESULTS
The PSWQ demonstrated good internal consistency and converged with measures assessing similar constructs. Pregnant participants with principal GAD scored significantly higher on the PSWQ than those with no psychopathology and postpartum participants with principal GAD scored significantly higher than those with principal mood disorders, other anxiety and related disorders, and no psychopathology. A cut-off score of 55 and 61 or greater was determined for detecting probable GAD during pregnancy and the postpartum period, respectively. Screening accuracy of the PSWQ was also demonstrated.

CONCLUSIONS
This study underscores the robustness of the PSWQ as a measure of pathological worry and probable GAD and supports its use in the detection and monitoring of clinically significant worry symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum period.


Sulfide minerals are a group of compounds with the presence of sulfur. This group's most abundant and economically members are pyrites, pyrrhotite, chalcocite, galena, sphalerite, and the group of copper sulfides minerals. Resistivity and Induced Polarization (IP) methods, which play an essential role in mineral exploration, showed great success in sulfide exploration. This paper started on reviewing sulfide formation by giving details which help to understand their genesis better. To make the reader understand the procedures and appropriate mineral exploration methods, we have briefly covered the theory, the basic principles of resistivity and IP methods, and different investigation techniques using one, two, and three-dimensional surveys. Based on many electrical surveys, we discussed with examples of resistivity and IP methods applied to the exploration of sulfide deposits: the data inversion and interpretation of the geophysical signatures of most of the sulfide deposits in various geological environments were analyzed and end by showing both successful surveys and limitations of the methods.


A simple system consisting of a pair of atoms in a two-site "minicrystal" is able to reproduce the physics of a widely used model of electrons in a solid.


The difficulty of effectively and securely broadcasting to a remote cooperative group happens in many freshly appearing networks. A foremost dispute in developing such systems is to overwhelm the obstacles of the potentially restricted connection from the assembly to the sender, the unavailability of a completely trusted key generation center, and the dynamics of the sender. The living key administration paradigms cannot deal with these trials effectively. In this paper, we circumvent these obstacles and close this gap by suggesting a innovative key administration paradigm. The new paradigm is a hybrid of customary broadcast encryption and assembly key agreement. In such a scheme, each constituent sustains a single public/secret key two. Upon seeing the public keys of the members, a isolated sender can securely broadcast to any proposed subgroup selected in an publicity hoc way. Following this form, we instantiate a scheme that is verified protected in the standard form. Even if all the no proposed constituents collude, they will not extract any helpful data from the conveyed messages. After the public assembly encryption key is extracted, both the computation overhead and the connection cost are independent of the group dimensions. Furthermore, our scheme facilitates easy yet efficient member deletion/addition and flexible rekeying schemes. Its powerful security against collusion, its unchanging overhead, and its implementation friendliness without relying on a fully trusted administration render our protocol a very undertaking solution to many applications.


This paper deals with professional community interpreting as a tool for guaranteeing equal rights. The main focus is on the interpreter with specialfocus on children in interpreted meetings. Equal access to legal, social and medical rights is a prerequisite for a democratic welfare state. These rights depend to a large extent on verbal communication between an individual and a public servant such as a lawyer, a social worker, a teacher or a doctor. Non-Swedish speakers need interpretation in order to be able to come into contact with these services and enjoy their fullrights. Professional interpretation, therefore, is a necessary tool to enable the public servant to do his/her job; more importantly, it is a tool to obtain maximum legal, social and medical security for the immigrant. The paper deals with the actors involved, and with issues of responsibilityand synergy. The empirical material has been collected from two research projects on community interpreting (2008-2011). A conclusion is that in community interpreting the interpreter and the public servant have responsibilities. Therefore, professionalism together with mutual respect and teamwork are important tools to avoid misunderstandings and to guarantee full access to equal rights.


This paper draws on the author's recently published book, What Really Happened to the 1960s: How Mass Media Culture Failed Democracy, to examine the current struggle against budget cuts and the curtailment of public employee collective bargaining rights by American state governments. The interaction between mass media and 1960s era social movements reveals both a template relevant to assessing strategic considerations in building an effective democracy movement and a crucial force in producing and sustaining the contemporary neo-liberal regime. With the Wisconsin protests as its primary focal point, the paper examines the recent round of protests and their coverage in the mass media with an eye towards their potential to generate a turn toward democracy in the United States.


Distribution of bone remodeling units (BRU) in relation to the perilymphatic space was studied in undecalcified temporal bones from adult rabbits labeled in vivo with bone-seeking fluorochromes. Based on recordings of focal bone formation, relative densities of BRUs inside concentric tissue zones around the inner ear spaces were estimated. Zonal densities of BRUs were found to decline towards the perilymphatic space, lending further support to the existence of a local inner ear mechanism in control of capsular bone tissue dynamics. The possible nature of this mechanism is considered briefly with special reference to inner ear electromechanic activity.


In this chapter, a new topology for Direct-Drive Wind Turbines (DDWTs) with a low-voltage generator design is presented in order to eliminate the required dc-bus capacitors or dc-link inductors. In the presented topology, the grid-side converter is replaced by a boost Current Source Inverter (CSI) therefore removing the need for the dc-bus electrolytic capacitors which results in increasing the system lifetime. In the developed topology, the synchronous inductance of the generator is utilized. This facilitates the elimination of the intrinsically required dc-link inductor in the CSI which further contributes to a reduction in the overall system weight and size. The boost CSI is capable of converting a low dc voltage to a higher line-to-line voltage. This results in the implementation of a low-voltage generator for DDWTs. The feasibility of the presented low-voltage generator is investigated through Finite Element (FE) computations. In this chapter, a modified 1.5 MW low-voltage generator for the proposed topology is compared with an existing 1.5 MW Permanent Magnet (PM) synchronous generator for DDWTs. The feasibility of the presented topology of generator-converter for DDWTs is verified through simulations and laboratory tests. Furthermore, the controls developed for the developed wind turbine topology is also presented in this chapter.


Selective interplay between microtubules and their regulatory proteins emerged as major regulator of neuronal circuit development. However, how microtubule posttranslational modifications influence this interplay to govern axon guidance and targeting remains elusive. Using loss-of-function and rescue experiments during zebrafish development, we show that the microtubule-severing enzyme p60-Katanin controls motor axon pathfinding and larval mobility in a dose-dependent manner, and plays non-overlapping roles with the related protein Spastin in these processes. Notably, we uncover the tubulin glutamylase TTLL6 as a selective and key regulator of p60-Katanin activity during axon navigation. In contrast, our study demonstrates that, although critical for motor circuit wiring, the highly similar glutamylase TTLL11 fails to influence p60-Katanin and to rescue the axon targeting errors associated with TTLL6 knockdown, which discloses the functional specificity of these long-chain glutamylases at a physiological level. Altogether, our work provides in vivo proofs of concept that the tubulin code acts in a highly selective manner to tune the activity of key microtubule-severers in neuronal circuit wiring of a vertebrate model.


Few concepts if any are more central to Shiite Sufism (as to Shiism generally) than valāyat, and the current essay briefly explores its significance in and around an Iranian treatise of the early twentieth-century named the Valāyat-nāme. Three perspectives frame the discussion: the modern theory of friendship generally, Christian mystical and Islamic concepts of Friendship with God, and (Sunni and) Shiite Sufi authority. It is proposed that typical Islamic formulations of Friendship with God are particularised from their mentioned Christian and secular counterparts by the Friend's conception as an initiatory patron, which provides a basis to Sufi authority. Given that Sufi claims to patronage remain contested in Shiite spheres, where legitimacy is predicated on subordination to the Imamate, ambiguous articulations of hierarchy are crucial to understanding Shiite Sufi authority. The Valāyat-nāme read thus sheds light on the downfall of its author, the Sufi master Solṭānᶜalīshāh (d.1909). The latter's projection of spiritual authority unravelled on interrelated religious, economic and political grounds, in the context of the Constitutional Revolution in early twentieth-century provincial Khorasan.


One of the principal causes of different disorders is an uncontrolled inflammatory response. Alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenolic, proanthocyanidin, terpenoid, and steroid compounds are the main reasons for the anti-inflammatory activities of medicinal herbs and plants. The current manuscript introduces a series of potential anti-inflammatory plants, particularly those which are routines in Iranian and Chinese traditional herbal medicine, and simplifies the function and mechanisms of natural constituents for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory disorders. PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Wiley Online Library, Springer, Taylor, Francis, etc., have been used to search for collecting of scientific publications for a full evaluation of current documentation in the literature showing the importance of medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory characteristics and natural medicines. The most notable medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory activities are Baccharis dracunculifolia, Aconitum bulleyanum, Crateya adansonii, Alliums spp., Centella asiatica, Flos lonicerae, Corydalis dubia, Syringae folium, Coptis chinensis, Casearia decandra, Nigella sativa, Cannabis sativa, Tamarindus indica L., Glycyrrhiza glabra, Panax ginseng, Panax notoginseng, Pistacia vera, Smilax china, Scutellaria baicalensis, Rosemarinus officinalis, Moringa olifera, Pulsatilla radix, Pistacia atlantica, Rullia tuberose, Canarium album, Dodonaea polyandra, Forsythia suspense, Polygala tenuifolia, Radiz Isatidis, Hypericum sampsonii, Geranium koreanum, Typha capensis, Isatidis folium, Ginkgo biloba, Houttuynia cordata, snow lotus, etc. Herbal medicine mainly uses numerous parts of plants or combinations of them to prevent and remedy diseases and promote health. More investigations and clinical experiments are needed to provide more information on the importance of medicinal plants as well as their roles in the treatment and prevention of inflammatory diseases.


This paper presents an eigenvalue based wide area stability control of electric power systems. Different types of intelligent agents are also proposed to realize the proposed wide area stability control system: monitoring agents for gathering required information to evaluate the stability of the study system, control agents which perform the actual control action, and a supervisor agent for the real time monitoring of dynamic stability and the decision of the required dynamic stability control action to keep the pre-specified dynamic stability margin. The supervisor agent sends commands to a selected unit to keep the stability margin within the pre-specified range, whenever the stability margin is violated in the study system. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed eigenvalue based wide area dynamic stability control system, real time non-linear simulations have been performed on a PC based real time power system simulator.


Background: The visually impaired depend much on sound, speech, and touch, and therefore, promotion of oral hygiene maintenance through a health song can improve their oral hygiene practices. Aim and Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of oral health song on oral hygiene status among visually impaired children at baseline and after oral health education (OHE) at different time intervals. Materials and Methods: A study was carried out in Government Blind School, Salem, with prior permission. Out of 63 students, 57 students were taken to the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Seven students were lost to follow-up during the second visit and 9 students during the last visit. During the first visit, a health talk about brushing techniques was given without using any audiovisual aids, and oral health song which is of 2 min duration was taught to the students. Each of the students was given a tooth cast model and was taught how to brush. The oral hygiene status was assessed at baseline and 15th and 45th day using visible plaque index (VPI) and gingival bleeding index (GBI). Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The Bonferroni test was to compare the VPI and GBI scores between the baseline, 15 days, and 45 days, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: VPI and GBI scores were found to be statistically significant at different intervals (P < 0.001). The VPI anterior and posterior percentage (P < 0.001) and GBI anterior and posterior percentage (P < 0.001) at different intervals were found to be statistically highly significant. Conclusion: A song with music can increase interest and helps them retain information easily, which was found to be effective in the present study.


Under the severe energy crisis and the fast development of cloud computing, nowadays sustainability in large data centers receives much more attention than ever. Due to its high performance and reliability, RAID, particularly RAID-5, is widely used in these data centers. However, a challenge on the sustainability of RAID-5 is its scalability, or how to efficiently expand/reduce the disks. The main reason causing this problem is the special layout of RAID-5 with parity blocks. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a novel redistribution approach to accelerate RAID-5 scaling, called Global Stripe-based Redistribution (GSR). The basic idea is to maintain the layout of most stripes while sacrificing a small portion of stripes according to a global view of all stripes. GSR has four main advantages: (1) It supports bi-directional RAID-5 scaling (both scale-up and scale-down), (2) GSR minimizes the overhead of scaling process, including the data migration cost, parity modification and computation cost, and the operations of metadata, (3) Different from previous approaches, GSR provides high flexibility and high availability for the write requests, (4) A disk array can achieve higher capacity, performance and storage efficiency by extending more disks via GSR. In our mathematical analysis, GSR maintains uniform distribution, saves up to 81.5% I/O operations and reduces the data migration time by up to 68.0%, which speeds up the scaling process by a factor of up to 3.13.


Background: Sixty percent of the Ethiopia population is at risk of malaria, with the highest prevalence reported in Gambella (6%) and Benishangul-Gumuz (3%) regions. Within these regions are large agricultural developments with high numbers of seasonal migrant workers. The migrant workers are believed to be at increased risk for malaria infection due to their poor living conditions and outdoor activities, but there is little information on their specific behaviors and health risks. This study was conducted to address this gap. Methods: Quantitative observations were conducted from September to December 2017 in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The nightly routines of mobile migrant workers were observed every month for four consecutive months. The study team collected quantitative data including nocturnal behavioral observations of worker living conditions, malaria prevention efforts, and work activities and surveys of worker representatives. Qualitative data was collected from migrant workers, farm managers and local health providers using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. Results: Migrant farmers arrived in the study area during the peak malaria transmission season and the workers in focus groups reported repeated cases of malaria during their stay on the farms. Overall, less than a quarter of the migrant workers were sleeping under a mosquito net by midnight in all four observation months. Some work activities also took place outdoors at night. The study additionally found a lack of access to malaria prevention and treatment at the farms and challenges in utilizing local public health facilities. Conclusions: There is a need to better address malaria prevention and treatment needs among migrant workers in Ethiopia through outreach from existing healthcare infrastructure and within the farms themselves. This will help prevent malaria transmission both within this population and prevent transmission of malaria back to home communities in lower burden areas in Ethiopia.


The health and wellbeing of indigenous peoples is a significant global problem. Information on intellectual disability (ID) in the Aboriginal population of Western Australia was obtained from records maintained since 1953 by the Disability Services Commission, supplemented by linkage with data from other state databases on morbidity and mortality. Indigenous Australians form 3.5% of the state population, but comprised 7.4% (n = 734) of all people registered for ID services. Their level of ID was borderline or mild in 40.7% of cases, moderate in 19.9%, and severe or profound in 12.1%, but unspecified in 27.2% cases. Median survival was 55.1 years for males and 64.0 years for females, with a mean age at death of 19.6 years. A genetic aetiology was indicated in 131 cases (17.8%), including 32 people with Down syndrome. Leading causes of death in the study cohort were respiratory diseases, circulatory system disease, and accidents. The study provides a comprehensive overview of Indigenous Australians registering for ID services, but more specific information on geographical location, burden of disability and specific client profiles is needed. The data also illustrate the important role of well-maintained population databases in the detailed monitoring of health and wellbeing.


Rotational Dynamics is one of the physics topics which is quite difficult for students. Several previous studies showed students' difficulties on this topic, one of which is the aspect of students' conceptual understanding. Modeling instruction is the effective approach to improve students' understanding. This model is in line with constructivist theory and cognitive model theory. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of modeling instruction that we developed to improve students' conceptual understanding of rigid body mechanics, where the knowledge of particle mechanics serve as anchor or bridging to develop model of rigid body. This research used mixed method with embedded experimental design . It used one group pretest-posttest design and involved 65 students of a high school in Malang as the subject. Data were gathered using test consisting of 17 multiple-choice items with explanation. The students' scores were analyzed quantitatively using t-test and N-gain to measure the improvement of students' understanding, while the students' reasons were analyzed qualitatively. The results showed the average students' score increased from 1.62 to 9.92 with N-gain of 0.54 (in upper medium category). We concluded that the modeling instruction was effective to improve students' conceptual understanding.


The deformation induced by a magnetic field in a composite material made of permanently magnetized Sm2Co7 micro-particles uniformly dispersed into an elastomer matrix is directly evaluated using a Fiber Bragg-Grating (FBG) sensor. This experimental measurement permits to verify the previously developed model of the direct elastomagnetic effect. The good agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions gives the deffinitive validation of the model of the direct elastomagnetic effect in composites made of magnetic micro-particles inside an elastomer matrix. This feature is fundamental for the development of deformation actuators based on these materials with peculiar elastomagnetic and mechanical performances.


Centralized generation is being supplemented or replaced fast by distributed generation, a new way of thinking about electricity generation, transmission and distribution. Understanding the significance and prospects of self-excited induction generators (SEIGs) in distributed wind power generation (DWPG), this paper firstly presents a comprehensive suitability analysis of commercially available niche copper-rotor induction motor (CRIM) and conventional aluminum-rotor induction motor (ARIM) to be used as induction generators in the above application, through experimental investigations performed on two industrial 7.5 hp CRIM and ARIM. The results of the performance analyses on the two machines provide data for development of a novel control scheme comprising of wavelet transforms and particle swarm optimization technique, proposed next, to alleviate the problem of voltage regulation (VR) associated with the SEIGs. The developed controller for VR is implemented on a low cost embedded system, hence making it economical and flexible for patenting. The developed embedded system is validated initially through an actuator performing mechanical switching of requisite capacitances and finally by integrating it with another actuator, namely, the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), for efficient voltage regulation. Finally, the tested results are presented.


The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating many types of games, as well as non-game applications. Initial applications of the GameFlow model were limited to real-time strategy games. However, in order to be considered a general model of player enjoyment in games, the GameFlow model needs to be applied to a more varied set of play experiences. In this article, we revisit the design of the GameFlow model, review the various applications and derivative models, and discuss on-going analysis of the model. Subsequently, we describe a study that aims to extend the initial validation of the GameFlow model to incorporate additional game types. We report the results of expert reviews conducted using the GameFlow criteria to evaluate first person shooter games on Sony PlayStation 3 and adventure games on Apple iPhone. Our findings provide insight into the manifestation of the GameFlow elements in these types of games and also highlight some of the genre-specific considerations in the application of the GameFlow model. Key issues are raised and discussed in relation to immersion, social interaction, and multiplayer games.


We consider a job matching model where the relationships between firms and wealth-constrained workers suffer from moral hazard. Specifically, effort on the job is non-contractible so that parties that are matched negotiate a bonus contract. Higher unemployment benefits affect the workers' outside option. The latter is improved for low-skilled workers. Hence they receive a larger share of the surplus, which strengthens their effort incentives and increases productivity. Effects are reversed for high-skilled workers. Moreover, raising benefit payments affects the proportion of successful matches, which induces some firms to exit the economy and causes unemployment to increase.


This paper describes a new protocol SMP, which supports multimedia transfer for single-user, multiple-device scenarios. Through its novel naming and control/data plane designs, SMP is able to retain the current client and server protocol operations while placing new functions at the proxy. Our initial evaluation has confirmed its viability.


It is shown that the surface gravity and temperature of a stationary black hole are invariant under conformal transformations of the metric that are the identity at infinity. More precisely, we find a conformal invariant definition of the surface gravity of a conformal Killing horizon that agrees with the usual definition(s) for a true Killing horizon and is proportional to the temperature as defined by Hawking radiation. This result is reconciled with the intimate relation between the trace anomaly and the Hawking effect, despite the non-invariance of the trace anomaly under conformal transformations.


The fauna of Chilopoda Geophilomorpha of Israel has been analyzed after examining 128 new specimens from 35 localities, reinterpreting all published data including 103 records, and relating occurrence of species with major climatic parameters. A key to identification has been compiled. A total of 17 species are distinguished, of which three are reported from Israel for the first time, while five are documented by published records only. The following new synonymies are proposed and discussed: Dignathodon pachypus Verhoeff, 1943 = Dignathodon microcephalus (Lucas, 1846); Geophilus flavidus noduliger Verhoeff, 1925 = Clinopodes escherichii (Verhoeff, 1896); Pachymerium ferrugineum vosseleri Verhoeff, 1902 = P. ferrugineum (Koch, 1835). Of all the species, Bothriogaster signata and Pachymerium ferrugineum are widespread in the country, while other species occupy different climatic zones, from desert to more humid and montane.


Conformational dynamics play a crucial role in protein functions. A molecular-level understanding of the conformational transition dynamics of proteins is fundamental for studying protein functions. Here, we report a study of real-time conformational dynamic interaction between calcium-activated calmodulin (CaM) and C28W peptide using single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) spectroscopy and imaging. Plasma membrane Ca-ATPase protein interacts with CaM by its peptide segment that contains 28 amino acids (C28W). The interaction between CaM and the Ca-ATPase is essential for cell signaling. However, details about its dynamic interaction are still not clear. In our current study, we used Cyanine3 labeled CaM (N-domain) and Dylight 649 labeled C28W peptide (N-domain) to study the conformational dynamics during their interaction. In this study, the FRET can be measured when the CaM-C28W complex is formed and only be observed when such a complex is formed. By using single-molecule FRET efficiency trajectory and unique statistical approaches, we were able to observe multiple binding steps with detailed dynamic features of loosely bound and tightly bound state fluctuations. The C-domain of CaM tends to bind with C28W first with a higher affinity, followed by the binding of the CaM N-domain. Due to the comparatively high flexibility and low affinity of the N-domain and the presence of multiple anchor hydrophobic residues on the peptide, the N-domain binding may switch between selective and non-selective binding states, while the C-domain remains strongly bound with C28W. The results provide a mechanistic understanding of the CaM signaling interaction and activation of the Ca-ATPase through multiple-state binding to the C28W. The new single-molecule spectroscopic analyses demonstrated in this work can be applied for broad studies of protein functional conformation fluctuation and protein-protein interaction dynamics.


ABSTRACT Deportations of socio-economically marginal migrants are a form of quiet, non-brutal violence. This violence is not spectacular nor does it typically cause immediate injury or death. Building on histories of immigration and deportation, research on structural violence in colonial settings and critical studies of affect and emotion, this article considers how the deportation regime in the interwar Middle East and specifically in Palestine affected precarious migrants. During the interwar years in mandate Palestine, quiet colonial violence came to guide emotional and affective encounters between the British-run administration and the migrants it deemed illegible. Focusing on the condition of deportability, inscribed upon migrants who could not present identity documents or prove their legible existence in Palestine, this article foregrounds the framing of the colonial state as an object of emotional investment for these migrants. For refugees, the displaced, orphans, single women and labour migrants who were in Palestine without permission, deportability was an embodied and affectively charged condition of being. The article argues that existence in the colonial state was entirely contingent on being legible. Being illegible, then, was to be open to the quiet violence of colonialism. It considers how the archive presents the voices of deportable migrants and their often ordinary cross-border trajectories.


Image animation transfers the motion of a driving video to a static object in a source image, while keeping the source identity unchanged. Great progress has been made in unsupervised motion transfer recently, where no labelled data or ground truth domain priors are needed. However, current unsupervised approaches still struggle when there are large motion or viewpoint discrepancies between the source and driving images. In this paper, we introduce three measures that we found to be effective for overcoming such large viewpoint changes. Firstly, to achieve more fine-grained motion deformation fields, we propose to apply Neural-ODEs for parametrizing the evolution dynamics of the motion transfer from source to driving. Secondly, to handle occlusions caused by large viewpoint and motion changes, we take advantage of the appearance flow obtained from the source image itself ("self-appearance"), which essentially"borrows"similar structures from other regions of an image to inpaint missing regions. Finally, our framework is also able to leverage the information from additional reference views which help to drive the source identity in spite of varying motion state. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-arts by a significant margin (~40%), across six benchmarks varying from human faces, human bodies to robots and cartoon characters. Model generality analysis indicates that our approach generalises the best across different object categories as well.


The effect of phenotypic complexity on distance correlation plots is investigated for two developmental mappings, a mapping based on L-systems, and a 2D cellular automata mapping. Our treatment of complexity is based on the theory of Kolmogorov complexity. A new genotype sampling algorithm called cross section walk is introduced.


The Global Search Method (GSM) is being proposed for global evaluation of complex structures. This method is based on the analysis of the flexural wave propagation and the comparison of the real structure responses to those from a calibrated simulation model representing the non-damaged condition. Then, the differences are associated to changes in the structural parameters (stiffness, damping, mass, and geometry) or the boundary conditions, and related to a specific region or location within the structure to locate damage and quantify its overall structural effect. The effectiveness of the GSM was evaluated on a cable stayed bridge where damage was simulated when a cable was removed during rehabilitation; dynamic tests were done using a Falling Weight Deflectometer to control the dynamic impact load and previously analogous tests were done to calibrate the finite element model. Results show that the GSM has the ability to identify and quantify damage, where sensitivity increases when the sensors are closer to damage. In the bridge case, damage could not be detected when the distance of the sensors was greater than 65 meters from damage because of signal attenuation.


. Writing is a significant skill whose significance increases when it comes to writing in the English language which is used for global mediation of knowledge. This study explored the problems encountered by students who have difficulty in writing, the factors which could be reasons for these difficulties, and the possible solutions to overcome these. This made use of qualitative research design and employed phenomenological case study framework. After thematic analyses, it was found that the students encountered problems in writing specifically in syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. The students believed that lack of reading and writing practice, lack of ideas, and lack of self-confidence were the factors affecting their writing skills. To address the problems that they encountered in writing, the students recommended increased reading, writing practice, and teacher assistance.


An acute and chronic toxicity of butaglionamide, a new drug in the series of 3,5-dioxopyrazolidines, was contrasted against that of amidopyrine and butadion. The data obtained testify to a much lower toxicity of butaglionamide for rats of different age, both with a single and chronic administration.


This study evaluated the performance of woodchips (WS), rice husk (RH) and wheat straw (ST) in swine tissue composting. The ST treatment was shown to first reach the highest temperature (55℃) at 12 d of composting and lasted 9 days. The total nitrogen content (TN) was higher and nitrogen loss was lower in ST than in WS or RH treatment. Ammonium nitrogen content(AN) analysis demonstrated lower NH3 emission in ST than in WS or RH treatment. Bacterial community analysis indicated that bacterial diversity was higher in ST than in WS or RH treatment. The most dominant genera in all composting treatments were Pseudomonas, Streptomyces, Brevibacterium, Saccharoporyspora, Acinetobacter, Sphingobacterium, Devosia, Rhizobium, Microbacterium and Sanguibacter. The dominant bacteria were Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Sphingobacterium in ST treatment, Streptomyces, Acinetobacter and Sphingopyxis in WS treatment, and Sanguibacter, Pedobacter and Gordonia in RH treatment. Spearman correlation analysis revealed positive relationship of Brevibacterium, Devosia, Sanguibacter, Brachybacterium and Promicromonospora to temperature; Brevibacterium and Staphylococcus to TN; Brevibacterium, Devosia, Microbacterium, Sanguibacter, Brachybacterium and Promicromonospora to AN. This research provides useful information for improving the efficiency of swine tissue composting.


Background
Clinical trials (CT) in breast cancer have been crucial for new treatment discoveries. While participation in cancer CT is low, minorities are particularly underrepresented. This study aimed to identify factors influencing the participation in CTs based on the experiences of Latina breast cancer survivors in Puerto Rico (PR), especially their CT knowledge, motivations, and concerns.

Method
Focus groups (FG) were conducted by two social workers and the University of Puerto Rico/MD Anderson Community Health Educator. Participants were stratified into two subgroups: a) women with CT experience and b) those without CT experience. Seven FG were completed among breast cancer survivors (n=34) at two hospitals located in Caguas and San Juan, PR.

Results
Our findings showed that participants expressed a basic knowledge and understanding of clinical trials. Motivations to participate included a desire to help others, non-monetary incentives to participation, self-benefits, readiness to participate based on the phases of illness, and enhanced relationships with the clinical trial recruitment team. Regardless of their previous experience with CTs, participants expressed concerns about participation including limited of knowledge about trial procedures and results, and lack of transportation, childcare, and support from family.

Recommendations
The barriers and motivations identified for CT participation are modifiable and best targeted using a multidisciplinary approach. Social workers could play a potential role in participant recruitment and retention by clarifying research protocols to potential participants, as well as conducting CT. Our findings can help enhance capacity and training efforts for health professionals involved in CT recruitment and retention in culturally-relevant ways.


This anicle outlines a theory of mental health consultation developed by G. C. Caplan as it has been used by the Speech Pathologists at the South Eastem Child and Family Centre. Theprocess, levels and basic principles of consultation are described and illustrated with relevant case studies. As speech pathology is a developing profession new roles must be considered. The authors feel that working as a consultant is an effective way of reaching a larger population and utilizing the skills of the speech pathologist.


In this article the effect of boundary conditions on dynamic performance of reinforced concrete span during the motion of a locomotive is studied. The critical speeds of a load motion under vertical and longitudinal construction vibrations are determined.


A large-volume (19.5 L) laser tube has been built for the study of extrapolating power from the Cu-Ne-HBr laser medium. A high-power (50 kW) all-solid-state power supply has been also developed for this purpose. Results show a record optical power of 216 W extracted from this type of laser when used as an oscillator and 280 W as an amplifier.


Status epilepticus (continuous or intermittent convulsions with persisting unconsciousness) may be precipitated by sudden change in therapy, intercurrent infection, trauma or cerebral oedema. It is serious and is often fatal because it causes prolonged anoxia with brain and myocardial damage as well as physical injury. Treatment should maintain normal metabolism, ensure oxygenation, prevent further seizures and finally allow return to consciousness. The first doctor to see the patient should start treatment at once, before sending the patient to hospital, preferably in an ambulance with facilities for oxygen therapy. The respiratory passages must be kept clear and the head kept low; occasionally oxygen and artificial respiration are needed. The precipitating cause of the status epilepticus should be treated and anticonvulsant therapy stabilised later.


Information Fusion (IF) systems have long exploited data provided by hard (physics-based) sensors with the aspiration of making sense of the environment they are monitoring. In recent times, the IF community has recognized the potential of utilizing data generated by people, also known as soft data. In this study, we demonstrate how course of action (CoA) generation, one of the key elements of Level 3 High-Level Information Fusion and a vital component for security and defense decision support systems, can be augmented using soft (human-derived) data for improved mission effectiveness. This conceptualization is validated through an elaborate experiment situated in the maritime world. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to apply soft data to automatic CoA generation in the maritime domain.


Modeling should play a central role in K-12 STEM education, where it could make classes much more engaging. A model underlies every scientific theory, and models are central to all the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). This paper describes executable concept modeling of STEM concepts using immutable objects and pure functions in Python. I present examples in math, physics, chemistry, and engineering, built using a proof-of-concept tool called PySTEMM . The approach applies to all STEM areas and supports learning with pictures, narrative, animation, and graph plots. Models can extend each other, simplifying getting started. The functional-programming style reduces incidental complexity and code debugging.


The Little Missouri National Grassland is the largest designated National Grassland in the United States and represents one of the best examples of intact native mixedgrass prairie in the United States. The Little Missouri National Grasslands occurs entirely within the Williston Basin, which has been a leading source of conventional oil and gas production since the 1950s. Recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (since 2000) have greatly increased energy extraction activities on the Little Missouri National Grassland. The objective of this assessment is to synthesize existing knowledge from peer-reviewed literature and administrative studies that describe the actual and potential impacts of oil and gas development on the biological resources of the Little Missouri National Grassland. The assessment focuses on how energy extraction activities may impact soils, vegetation, and wildlife, with specific reference to threatened and endangered species.


Fourteen patients with blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia received combination chemotherapy with mitoxantrone 5 mg/m2 intravenously daily for 3 days, cytosine arabinoside 100 mg/m2 intravenously over 2 hours bid for 7 days and high dose methylprednisolone 1000 mg/day intravenously for 5 days. The patients' mean age was 52 +/- 10 (range 34-64) and Philadelphia chromosome was positive in all. Five patients (35%) achieved complete remission and four patients (28%) had a partial remission. Overall remission rate was 64%. The mean survival was 11.1 +/- 8.6 months (median 13) for all patients, 19.4 +/- 4.0 months (median 19) for those achieving a complete remission, 12.50 +/- 5.7 months (median 14) for patients with partial remission and 1.8 +/- 1.8 months (median 2) for the unresponsive patients. Two of 5 unresponsive patients died early after the second course of remission induction. The treatment regimen was generally well tolerated. Marrow hypoplasia was observed in 9 (64%) patients and 7 (50%) had febrile episodes. Non-myelosupressive toxicity of the regimen was acceptable. Nausea and vomiting were observed in 8 (57%) patients and 3 (21%) patients developed flushing due to cytosine arabinoside. These results suggest that the regimen with mitoxantrone, cytosine arabinoside and high dose methylprednisolone in remission-induction of blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia may be a valid option that may also improve overall prognosis.


ABSTRACT Introduction: The issue of child and adolescent injury and violence is often absent from discussions and is largely invisible in public health policies. The purpose of this study was to describe the frequency and pattern of unnatural deaths during childhood and adolescence in Isfahan province in Iran. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study involved unnatural deaths among individuals under the age of 20 years who died from unnatural causes as determined by a forensic autopsy at the Legal Medicine Center of Isfahan. During the study period, 8,010 unnatural deaths occurred, 1,222 of which were individuals under 20 years old. Results: All 1,222 of these unnatural deaths were identified through autopsy. Among the 1,222 cases, 895 (73.2%) were male, and 327 were female (26.8%). Accidental deaths were found to be the most frequent manner of death comprising 1,029 (83.96%) cases, followed by suicide (120, 9.82%), undetermined cause of death (39, 3.19%), and homicide (9, 2.86%) cases. Road traffic accidents were the number 1 cause of death (597, 49%), followed by burns (122, 10%) and hanging (90, 7.4%). Discussion: Injuries and violence that occur during childhood and adolescence represent a global public health problem, especially in low- and middle-income regions, and require urgent action.


This paper analyzes and optimizes the average Age of Information (AAoI) of Frame Slotted ALOHA with Reservation and Data slots (FSA-RD) in a multi-access network, where multiple users transmit their randomly generated status updates to a common access point in a framed manner. Each frame consists of one reservation slot and several data slots. The reservation slot is further split into several mini-slots. In each reservation slot, users that want to transmit a status update will randomly send short reservation packets in one of the mini-slots to contend for data slots of the current frame. The reservation is successful only if one reservation packet is sent in a mini-slot. The data slots are then allocated to those users that succeed in the reservation slot. In the considered FSA-RD scheme, one user with a status update for transmission, termed active user, may need to perform multiple reservation attempts before successfully delivering it. As such, the number of active user(s) in different frames are dependent and thus the probability of making a successful reservation varies from frame to frame, making the AAoI analysis non-trivial. We manage to derive an analytical expression of AAoI for FSA-RD by characterizing the evolution of the number of active user(s) in each frame as a discrete-time Markov chain. We then consider the FSA-RD scheme with one reservation attempt per status update, termed FSA-RD-One. Thanks to the independent frame behaviors of FSA-RD-One, we attain a closed-form expression for its AAoI, which is further used to find the near-optimal reservation probability. Our analysis reveals the impact of key protocol parameters, such as frame size and reservation probability, on the AAoI. Simulation results validate our analysis and show that the optimized FSA-RD outperforms the optimized slotted ALOHA.


Background & Objectives: Acetamiprid (ACP), as a neonicotinoid toxin, causes free radicals production and oxidative stress in various organisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antioxidative effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and S-methylcysteine (SMC) on reducing acetaminoprid-induced oxidative stress in serum and kidney of rats. Materials & Methods: In this experimental study, 42 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 6 groups of 7 including one control, one sham (normal saline) and five experimental groups, which intra-peritoneally received ACP (5 mg/kg), NAG (160 mg/kg), SMC (100 mg/kg), ACP+NAC, ACP+SMC, and ACP+ NAC+SMC for one week. After separation of serum and kidney tissue, the activity of the catalase (CAT), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione concentration (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant (TAC) was determined. Results: Acetamiprid caused significant increase in GST activity in serum and kidney (p< 0.01), CAT activity in serum and kidney (p< 0.05) but insignificant increase in MDA level and insignificant decrease in GSH and TAC compared to control. NAC and SMC, alone and in combination with ACP, restored the levels of TAC, GSH and MDA and activities of CAT and GST. Conclusion: Acetamiprid increases lipid peroxidation, activity of CAT and GST, and decreases the concentration of GSH and TAC, presumably by producing free radicals. Administration of NAC and SMS as antioxidants causes a decrease in acetamiprid toxicity due to relative reduction of free radicals.


By analyzing a combined and spatial 6-bar linkage weft insertion mechanism, its practical model for optimization design is set up and the modification of penalty strategy is put forward so that the genetic algorithm can be better used in optimization design for mechanisms with non- linear constraints. The design result is discussed.


Trans-chelating bis(diisopropylphosphino)triptycene (1) was employed as a platform for the construction of a new class of C(sp3)-metalated pincer complexes via C−H activation. We synthesized and fully characterized platinum(II), ruthenium(II), and iridium(III) compounds bearing this tridentate ligand. In contrast to the known all-aliphatic C(sp3)-metalated compounds, the new complexes exhibit excellent thermal and conformational stability even under very harsh and noninert conditions, likely due to the lack of labile α- or β-hydrogens. In addition, the three-dimensional barrelene-based scaffold represents a unique structural motif for the design of PC(sp3)P-based compounds with unexplored steric and electronic features.


A 36‐year‐old Chinese female with an 8‐year history of chronic, generalized plaque psoriasis demonstrated a marked improvement of the disease after removal of an intercurrent euthyroid multinodular goitre. Thyroxine was commenced immediately postoperatively. No thyroid antibodies were detected and thyroid function and calcium levels remained within normal limits both pre‐ and postoperatively. Four weeks following surgery, narrow‐band ultraviolet B (nbUVB) therapy was recommenced for recurrent psoriasis. The manifestations of psoriasis at this stage were less severe than before thyroidectomy and responded well to treatment, whereas before surgery the response to therapy had been poor. One year following total thyroidectomy, the patient received very effective psoriasis control with nbUVB therapy. The possible role of surgery and thyroid hormones in altering the pathogenesis of psoriasis in the acute setting is clearly of interest and warrants further research consideration.


Streptolysin O (SLO), an oxygen-labile cytolysin, is the cholesterol-binding exotoxin of hemolytic streptococci. Besides microbiological and pathological interests, this cytolysin has been used as a tool for permeabilization of biomembranes. SLO serves as a diagnostic reagent for determination of anti-SLO antibody titer in streptococcal infection. Availability of highly purified SLO, however, has been limited by low yield in streptococcal culture and purification process. Present subcloning of mature-type full-length SLO gene into an expression vector having strictly controllable araBAD promoter enabled efficient production of the cytolysin. Further, anti-SLO antibody with high specificity was obtained by immunizing with purified SLO protein.


Phase-locked loops (PLLs) are ubiquitous and critical blocks in solid-state electronic systems. The stability of clock signals affects the performance and power (and, hence, battery-life) of microprocessors, data converters, radios and cell phones. The first six papers in this session present several PLLs and DLLs that incorporate techniques to overcome various limitations of highly scaled CMOS technologies when used for analog circuits.


Background— The mechanisms of right ventricular (RV) failure in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are poorly understood. Abnormalities in fatty acid (FA) metabolism have been described in experimental models of PAH, but systemic and myocardial FA metabolism has not been studied in human PAH. Methods and Results— We used human blood, RV tissue, and noninvasive imaging to characterize multiple steps in the FA metabolic pathway in PAH subjects and controls. Circulating free FAs and long-chain acylcarnitines were elevated in PAH patients versus controls. Human RV long-chain FAs were increased and long-chain acylcarnitines were markedly reduced in PAH versus controls. With the use of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in vivo myocardial triglyceride content was elevated in human PAH versus controls (1.4±1.3% triglyceride versus 0.22±0.11% triglyceride, P=0.02). Ceramide, a mediator of lipotoxicity, was increased in PAH RVs versus controls. Using an animal model of heritable PAH, we demonstrated reduced FA oxidation via failure of palmitoylcarnitine to stimulate oxygen consumption in the PAH RV. Conclusions— Abnormalities in FA metabolism can be detected in the blood and myocardium in human PAH and are associated with in vivo cardiac steatosis and lipotoxicity. Murine data suggest that lipotoxicity may arise from reduction in FA oxidation.


As cloud adoption increases, so do the number of available cloud service providers. Moving complex applications between clouds can be beneficial—or other times necessary—but achieving this so‐called cloud portability is rarely straightforward. This article presents the adoption of OASIS TOSCA, a standard in the declarative description of cloud applications, to encourage and facilitate cloud portability in MiCADO, an application‐level multi‐cloud orchestration and auto‐scaling framework. The interface to MiCADO is an Application Description Template, which draws from the TOSCA specification to describe an application in MiCADO. The generic design of these templates is presented and their applicability for achieving portability between different container and cloud environments is analysed and evaluated. A proof‐of‐concept where MiCADO serves as the deployment and execution engine for a Science Gateway in Sleep Healthcare is then described. In this proof‐of‐concept, MiCADO facilitates the deployment of a complex healthcare application, which is then moved from one cloud service provider to another with only minimal changes to the template which originally described it. This TOSCA‐based approach to templates in MiCADO encourages movement between clouds by making cloud portability more approachable.


The inception and termination of the ca. 670-550 Ma Avalonian-Cadomian orogenic cycle are interpreted in terms of the amalgamation and breakup of a late Precambrian supercontinent. Synorogenic, arc-related volcano-sedimentary and granitoid rocks are attributed to oblique, southward-directed subduction along the margin of the supercontinent after its amalgamation. Breakup of the supercontinent and inception of the Iapetus cycle led to termination of subduction and its replacement by transform activity. The resulting closure of late Precambrian arc-related basins and the development of Early Cambrian platform successions with Acado-Baltic fauna accompanied the formation of Iapetus, but took place on the active margin of a preexisting ocean and do not record the evolution of its rifted European flank.


As college and university campuses continue to increase access and diversify their enrollments, more research must examine the experiences of specific student populations and at specific institutions, particularly as these relate to student success in terms of persistence. Dominant persistence theories are often inadequate to explain the behaviors of today's diverse students. Recent research has attempted to broaden these theories by examining factors such as campus climate, sense of belonging, validation, and cultural background to determine their impact on persistence. Institutional characteristics play a critical role in students' academic and social experiences and must also be considered. Similarly, additional research is needed that examines factors affecting persistence beyond the first year. This qualitative study explored the experiences of international students in their senior year at a faith-based institution to identify persistence factors. Although international students are significant contributors to institutional diversity in U.S. higher educational institutions, relatively little is known about their persistence behaviors. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on student experiences beyond the first year and at a particular type of institution. The findings partly support prevailing persistence theories, though in unexpected ways. Central findings indicate that international student persistence could be improved by increasing vision, validation, and spiritual engagement. Creating a campus climate that enhances these factors demonstrates how institutions can change to support diversity.


The purpose of these studies was to determine whether beliefs measured along four cognitive variables–Norms, General Beliefs, Beliefs about Self and Goals–are related to behaviors corresponding to the defense mechanisms of rationalization, denial and projection. Study I reports the construction of a questionnaire of beliefs and the testing of its adequacy in terms of interrelations between the scores, homogeneity, reliability and validity. Study II describes three behavioral measures of defenses, administered after a series of frustrations, and provides data confirming the hypothesis that only scores representing the distributions of beliefs along all cognitive variables, but not each cognitive variable separately nor an overall distribution of beliefs regardless of variables, are predictive of behavior.


This research is aimed at determining: (a) the effect of welfare distribution with applied import tariff on the government revenue, consumer expenditures, producer revenues, and efficiency losses (in production, in consumption and net effect), and (b) the level of competitiveness of sugar cane in Indonesia by calculating the Domestic Resource Cost (DRC). The research using library research method, that is collecting data from the related preceding researches and other references such as magazines, journals, bulletins and the like. The research result showed that : (a) the government revenue, change of consumer surplus, producer surplus, economic net loss in production, consumption and exchange gain economization, are influenced by the import tariff and elasticity price toward supply and demand, such that the welfare distribution value will be bigger; (b) sugar product competitiveness in Indonesia by knowing that cane field calculation in East Java in the wet and dry fields is higher than the same product from other countries as it is shown by the value DRC Key word: Sugar, Welfare Distribution, Domestic Resource Cost (DRC), Import tariff


A topology of switched capacitor integrator with gain compensation is proposed. It employs the same input as in the integrating phase during the calibration cycle to compensate for the integrating pole error due to the finite gain of the op-amp, and it eliminates the need of a "slow motion input" requirement. The proposed topology can be used, for example, in the switched capacitor implementation of sigma-delta modulators.


Infection of L cells with wild-type (L1) vesicular stomatitis virus at high or low multiplicities does not result in the production of interferon; however, infection of L cells with low multiplicities of a small-plaque mutant (S2) results in the synthesis of large amounts of interferon. In chick embryo (CE) cells, both viruses induce synthesis of interferon; there is no significant multiplicity effect in CE cells. The rate and efficiency of shutoff of macromolecular synthesis in the different host cells is a critical factor in determining the ability of the viruses to induce interferon synthesis. If host ribonucleic acid or protein synthesis is shut off by the virus before the required new ribonucleic acid is transcribed or translated, interferon production does not occur. The relative yield of the two viruses in CE and L cells is not related to the effects of interferon produced during the course of infection.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Metastatic melanoma is an aggressive skin disease for which there are no effective therapies. Emerging evidence indicates that melanomas can be sensitized to chemotherapy by increasing integrin function. Current therapies work by targeting integrins from outside the cell, resulting in complete gains or losses of integrin function that lead to mechanism-based toxicities. An attractive alternative approach would be to target proteins, such as vinculin, that associate with the integrin cytoplasmic domains and regulate its ligand binding properties. Here we report that a novel reagent, denoted vinculin activating peptide or VAP, increases integrin activity from within the cell, as measured by elevated: (1) active integrins on the cell surface, (2) adhesion of cells to extracellular matrix ligands, (3) numbers of cell-matrix adhesions, and (4) downstream signaling. These effects are dependent on both integrins and a key regulatory residue A50 in the vinculin head. We further show that VAP enhances integrin function independent of both its mode of delivery and the melanoma cell type tested. Furthermore, VAP dramatically increases the sensitivity of melanomas to chemotherapy in clonal growth assays and in vivo mouse models of melanoma. Finally, we demonstrate that the increase in chemosensitivity results from increases in p53-dependent DNA damage-induced apoptosis. Collectively these findings demonstrate for the first time that integrin function can be manipulated from within the cell and validate integrins as a new strategy for the treatment of chemoresistant melanomas.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1535. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1535


The aim of this research was to evaluate the integration of video conferencing technologies in a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Programme in the United Kingdom for the pedagogical development of trainee teachers. Two types of video conferencing were employed in this case study of a Primary PGCE course. Firstly, weekly multi-point video conferences over VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) took place between a group of trainees whilst on schoolbased teaching experiences. Secondly, many-to-many video conferences were employed to enable trainees to observe remotely a number of classroom lessons, following which they had the opportunity to interact "live" with teacher and pupils. The underpinning goal of this study was to understand the process by which trainees "become teachers" within their university community of practice (CoP) moving towards the school CoP, with the identity issues involved, and to explore ways that technology potentially supports, sustains or expands this process. Wenger"s conception of a CoP, a group of people who share a concern about what they do and who interact regularly to share what they learn in order to learn more and learn how to do it better theorised the dynamics of the group of trainees, as revealed in this qualitative research. Interview evidence was taken from trainees, university PGCE tutors and experienced teachers. It was found that video conferencing technologies genuinely enabled thinking about thinking, reflexivity, and a passion for teaching and communicating for a number of trainees within CoPs. Learning was itself the trajectory for trainees to "become teachers". The synchronous, immediate and communicative nature of video conferences enhanced this trajectory through the collective reflective work of all involved participants and bridged the two diverse but essentially overlapping CoPs, communities of pre-service and in-service teachers respectively.


In order to produce antiserum with broad protection against different Gramnegative bacteria we immunized rabbits with a UDP-galactose-deficient mutant (J5) of Escherichia coli O111 that is unencumbered by O antigen since it cannot incorporate galactose into core LPS. Without O side chains, core is accessible for producing antiserum to a wide range of bacteria with similar cores. Such antiserum has previously been shown to prevent unrelated endotoxins from producing dermal and generalized Shwartzman reactions, and death. The current study reports the results of treating bacteremia with this antiserum.
 Bacteremia was produced in rabbits made granulocytopenic with nitrogen mustard and fed either Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli O17 (multiply antibiotic-resistant), or E. coli O4. Since most rabbits are coliform-free, the organisms colonized the gut and overwhelming bacteremia occurred as granulocytes disappeared. When nonimmune serum was given intravenously (i.v.) at the onset of bacteremia with any of these three organisms, only 3.1% to 5.7% survived. In contrast, survival rates in animals given antiserum to the J5 mutant were 33.3% from E. coli O4, 40% from Klebsiella, and 69.2% from the multiply antibiotic-resistant E. coli O17 (combined p < 0.0005). Antiserum to the parent E. coli O111, (with O antigen intact) provided no significant protection. The protection against death from E. coli O17 by J5 antiserum was greater than that obtained from gentamicin (50%), the only antibiotic to which this strain was sensitive. Rabbits given J5 antiserum cleared labeled bacteria more rapidly than those given nonimmune sera. Antiserum to the J5 mutant is thought to prevent lethal bacteremia from unrelated Gram-negative bacteria by acting as both antitoxin and opsonin.


Bimba is an exploration into designing playful interfaces which use embedded sensors to sonify object interactions. The system wirelessly collects data from sensors integrated into foam balls and generates a sound composition extracting the most relevant features of movement. We have designed and built a collection of sensor units, implemented a protocol to support a wireless real-time data network infrastructure, and proposed a sonification mapping for the generated output. The implementation of Bimba informs design possibilities for creative and expressive interfaces, with particular focus on those generating sound.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate facilitators of evidence-based practice (EBP) in Clinical Nurses. Method: The instruments used in study were the EBP facilitator scale developed by Nagy et al. and a questionnaire on EBP-related characteristics. Data were collected from 230 nurses at a tertiary hospital and analyzed by descriptive statistics. Results: Compared to previous studies, this study showed that nurses had more experience related to research courses and clinical research. However, the proportion of nurses who reviewed relevant articles still remained low. The respondents had positive perceptions of organizational supports for EBP and belief in the value of EBP, whereas they had negative perceptions of skills in locating and evaluating research reports, knowledge of research terms and statistics, and time to devote to EBP. Conclusion: The findings of the study provide important basic data to develop and implement an EBP programs. In future, EBP programs should cover the nurses' skills to search and review research literature as well as their knowledge of research terms and statistics. Furthermore, nurses will require help to ensure that there is adequate time to devote to EBP.


This paper makes the empirical research for the relationship between patent output and economic growth in the high-tech industry by panel data model. On the whole, the result shows that there is a significant long-run equilibrium relationship between patent output and economic growth. Moreover they are the Granger reason mutually, with the interactive mechanism. Patent output contributes to economic growth with a significant lagged effect, displaying the function of patent output is a dynamic accumulation process. Subsequently, through constructing the individual fixed effect regression model and analyzing it, this paper finds that there is the conspicuous difference among the spontaneous effects of economic growth among high-tech industry. Finally, this paper proposes that the science and technology input should be arranged reasonably according to the various development characteristic of each industry, instead of one-sidedly pursuing the equalization in industry distribution of the science and technology input.


Secondary fertilisers are becoming an important alternative to conventional mined fertilisers. For the first time, the struvite "relative" hazenite (KNaMg2(PO4)2∙14 H2O) has been artificially synthesised. A pot trial assessed whether hazenite-fertilised ryegrass had comparable potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), or phosphorus (P) uptake and shoot yields with treatments receiving conventional K (muriate of potash), Mg (kieserite) or P (triple superphosphate, TSP) fertilisers. Ryegrass shoot biomass production and K/Mg uptake in replicates receiving hazenite were as good as or superior to those amended with conventional fertilisers. Phosphorus uptake of plants whose P source was TSP was significantly higher than that of the hazenite-amended replicates without significantly higher shoot biomass, indicating luxury P uptake. Hazenite's constituent sodium (Na) makes it a potentially useful soil amendment for forage grasses or natrophilic crops such as sugar beet. Its component Mg would also be desirable in forage grasses to pre-empt ruminant hypomagnesemia or in crops with a relatively high Mg demand, for example, maize. Furthermore, hazenite represents a good alternative to KCl for chlorophobic crops such as potatoes. However, given its unusual ratio of Mg, P, and K, the ideal application of hazenite would probably be in combination with other fertilisers.


The Dashui porphyry granitoids in the western Qinling Orogen are spatially associated with the Dashui gold deposit, but their ages and tectonic setting have not been well defined yet in previous studies. This paper reports the results and understandings obtained from our original study in geochronology and isotope and element geochemistry. SHRIMP zircon U–Pb dating yielded ages of 213.7 ± 2.7 Ma for granitic stock and 215.1 ± 2.5 and 210.2 ± 1.6 Ma for granitic dikes. The granitoids are characterized by high LREE but low HREE and HFSE. They have (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.706 to 0.709 and εNd(t) values of −5.3 to −7.6. The majority of zircons in the Dashui granitoids have εHf(t) values ranging from −6.2 to 6.7 and TDM2(Hf) ages from 743 to 1464 Ma. The isotope signatures, together with La/Y and Mg# values, show that the magmas are mainly sourced from partial melting of a subducted slab, and possibly assimilated immature sediments during upward migration. Thus, the Dashui granitoids most likely formed in a volcanic arc where supra‐subduction zone melts assimilated lower crustal material no later than 215 Ma. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Although pain management is an important nursing responsibility, few interventions for minimizing distress of infants during painful procedures have been studied. Sixty infants, 2 through 6 months of age, were studied during a routine DPT immunization in order to examine (a) the effectiveness of cooling the skin in reducing distress behaviors and (b) the relationship between age and distress behavior. Infants were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. Prior to the injection, the sites were sprayed for 2 to 3 s with either a skin refrigerant/anesthetic or compressed air. Behaviors were video- and audio-taped during and 60 s post injection, and coded for (a) facial expression, (b) cry, and (c) body movements. MANOVA revealed fewer distress behaviors following refrigerant spray and more complex, varied behavioral responses for older infants. The findings provide further evidence that infants perceive pain and that nursing interventions for pain reduction should be tested and extended to the very young.


This paper argues that China's attitude to multilateral trade is unclear. Moreover, China assumes little responsibility to maintain international order in global economic governance. Furthermore, this paper argues that China should hide less behind the status of a developing country and stand up to its own ambition to new leadership. The paper is divided into eight parts. After the introduction, Part II deals with the criteria to be a global economic superpower, making the case that China is one of the three global economic superpowers today (the U.S. and the European Union (EU) being the other two). Part III examines China's attitude toward multilateral trade, making the case for China's preference for regionalism, and analyzes China's position at the WTO. Part IV examines the current EU-China relations by analyzing the steps taken for negotiating a prospective and comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the two parties. Part V is devoted to EU-China trade relations and Part VI to the bilateral trade relations from a Chinese perspective. Part VII, before the conclusions in Part VIII, examines the various ways to improve the currently difficult EU-China trade relations.


Online controlled experiments (for example A/B tests) are increasingly being performed to guide product development and accelerate innovation in online software product companies. The benefits of controlled experiments have been shown in many cases with incremental product improvement as the objective. In this paper, we demonstrate that the value of controlled experimentation at scale extends beyond this recognized scenario. Based on an exhaustive and collaborative case study in a large software-intensive company with highly developed experimentation culture, we inductively derive the benefits of controlled experimentation. The contribution of our paper is twofold. First, we present a comprehensive list of benefits and illustrate our findings with five case examples of controlled experiments conducted at Microsoft. Second, we provide guidance on how to achieve each of the benefits. With our work, we aim to provide practitioners in the online domain with knowledge on how to use controlled experimentation to maximize the benefits on the portfolio, product and team level.


: The purpose of the present research is to explore nature and degree of the subjectivity of the constellation of stereotypes, myths united by the "dashing nineties" cliché that surround the period of 1990s of the Russian history. The fi rst part of the article is devoted to the literature review on the ontology of social "mythologization" of historical events. It reveals that subjective interpretation of the past ("construction of history") is signifi cant as a tool for legitimizing the present, primarily the political. In addition, review reveals a number of persistent historical narratives, associated with the 1990s , that have been circulating in Russian political discourse. The methodological basis of the work are in-depth interviews with people who held positions in Russian offi cial bodies throughout the 1990s . Informants disclosed that life diffi culties that the majority of citizens had faced during the 1990s , coupled with the usage of the negative ideological stamp of "dashing 90s" by the contemporary Russian political regime are the main causes of mythologization. In turn, respondents pointed out that each particular mythology mentioned are the simplifi ed derivatives of the reception of events by ordinary people suffering from a fl awed and incomplete understanding of what was happening. In conclusion, it is inferred that the presence of a quasi-offi cial state position that reinforce the philistine view of the 1990s imposes certain restrictions on the scope and intensity of public discussion about the role of the 1990s in the history of the Russian state, which defi nitely hinders the demythologization of this period in the mass consciousness.


Abstract X-ray diffraction and thermomechanical analysis have been used, respectively, to examine structural order and shrinkage behaviour for oriented samples of rigid and flexible poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Results were compared with previously measured tensile properties and structure–property relationships explored. X-ray diffraction showed that drawing produces planar crystallite orientation in PVC sheets. If drawing and subsequent annealing conditions are held constant, but draw ratio is varied, there is good correlation between structural order measured by X-ray diffraction and tensile strength. Increased annealing time and temperature improve crystallite order and dimensional stability, while tensile strength is unchanged. The greatest enhancement in tensile strength is achieved by stretching PVC towards its maximum draw ratio at 90°C, but optimum thermal stability of the oriented structure is achieved when higher annealing temperatures are used. Room temperature recovery is observed for flexible PVC when the material has a glass transition temperature below ambient. This can be delayed by increased annealing time and temperature, and by increased draw ratio.


Dieulafoy's lesion is a rare cause of severe gastrointestinal bleeding. In most cases, Dieulafoy's lesion is typically found in the stomach within 6 cm from the gastroesophageal junction, but the presence of lesions has also been described throughout the gastrointestinal tract. A jejunal Dieulafoy's lesion is extremely rare, and only a few cases have been reported in the Korean population. We experienced a case of a jejunal dieulafoy's lesion mimicking a submucosal tumor that presented with massive gastrointestinal bleeding. The lesion was diagnosed by the use of double balloon enteroscopy and was then confirmed by a pathological examination of the surgical specimen.


Abstract Introduction: The second division tournament that allows the teams to move up in the first league had, at the start, the 4 best teams in the country. Taken place in Timisoara, between the 12th - 14th of May 2017, this competition gave us the possibility to follow the way in which UVT Agroland Timisoara improve its own attack. This action, according to the statisticians, had the most weight in obtaining the majority of the points. Aim: This study estaablishes the efficiency of UVT Agroland Timisoara's attack according to the statistics that were taken out during the 3 games when the team played in the tournament. Moreover, this study highlights the gap between the team in question and the rest of the pack. Heterogeneous in terms of age, the hitters represent both young players (15-16 years old) and also experience ones (28-30 years old). This aspect was managed very well by the head coach who created a perfect connection between young and veteran players. Metods: For carrying out this study we used the following research methods: study of the literature, observational methods, mathematical and statistical methods. Results: In the wining sets the efficiency of the attack was 68% and on the losing sets the attack was just 45%. The average winning points of the opposing team is 17 points per set. This is an indication that the team in question (UVT Agroland Timisoara) wins relatively easy the sets that were monitored. Conclusion: We found that the best efficiency of the attack was 79% in the winning sets. Second best was 62% in the sets that were won very hard. And the lowest efficiency was 46% in the sets that were won relatively easy. This variation of efficiency of the attack is due to some imperfections of the actions prior completing the point, and also the relaxation of the players who think that opposing team is proven to be inferior.


This article advances a call for greater reflexivity in International Relations (IR) to uncover various intellectual and political biases that may obscure the research process. Inspired by existing reflexive practices in IR and, in particular, Pierre Bourdieu's use of such a method, it argues that reflexivity matters for enhancing ethically grounded research, in terms of not only the choice of subjects to study, but also how specific problems are treated, and hence what kind of results can be expected. However, the argument also goes beyond the appeal to autobiographical reflexivity to embrace other dimensions. This includes attention to institutional forces that shape the agency of the scholar and, in turn, the complex relationship between the academy and the wider political world. In the most ambitious sense, the potential for reflexivity can also be conceived collectively in terms of activist intellectuals who seek to reward reflexive practices through dialogue and political intervention. The social space of international trade politics is taken as an empirical example.


Inverted, staggered thin‐film transistors (TFTs), in which the a‐Si:H layer is deposited stepwise, using different rf powers, were prepared and studied. Using identically prepared top and bottom interface silicon layers, the multilayer a‐Si:H TFT characteristics can be better or worse than those of a single‐layer a‐SiH TFT, depending on the rf power used to deposit the middle layer and the total number of layers added. The result can be explained by considering the mechanism of the SiH4 plasma deposition process. For example, the extra hydrogen generated in the high power plasma can passivate dangling bonds, which enhances the transistor performance. The high intensity plasma radiation source can generate defects at the film/film interface as well as in the bulk of the film, which deteriorates the transistor.


To understand the effect of alloy stoichiometry on the microstructural development and mechanical behavior of γ-TiAlbased materials, it is necessary to have a determination of the phase relationships for the TiAl alloy system near the γ phase field.Cast structures and phases of Ti-(43-47)Al-8Nb-(1-2)Mn (at%) alloys have been studied by using scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. Their solidification path and microstructure development during the solidification were analyzed. The experimental results show that the alloys with different Al contents form different macrostructures and microstructural morphologies. This indicates that the solidification paths are different with different Al contents. The alloy with 43Al forms equiaxed grain structure, and the solidification path is as follows: L → L+β→β→α+β→α+β cores →α2+γ+B2 cores. Whereas the alloy with 47Al forms columnar grain structure, and the solidification path is as follows: L → L+β→α+β+L →α+γ+β cores →α2+γ+B2 cores. The β phase is their primary solid phase and can be retained to ambient temperature. The alloy with 43Al solidifies completely into β phase. The peritectic reactions L+β→α and L+α→γ appear when the Al content increases to 47Al.


For the first time eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) was described by Shulman. It occurs predominantly in young men, rarely in older women and sporadically in children. The illness was characterised by swelling of the extremities, skin changes, myalgia, and elevation of the peripheral blood eosinophils count and hypergammaglobulinemia. It is followed by rapidly progressive cutaneous and subcutaneous indurations. The histopathologic examination of affected skin shows thickening of the fascia, deep dermal fibrosis and infiltration mainly consists of lymphocytes, plasmocytes, eosinophils. It is suggested that the cells from infiltration induce fibrosis. The tryptophan disturbance has significant influence on development of EF in predisposed persons. Eosinophilic fasciitis is classified into wide spectrum of scleroderma disorders by many authors. The authors tried to show differences between EF, morphea and systemic scleroderma.


This study analyzed the quality of care in health centers in Coari, Amazonas, Brazil. This is a descriptive, quantitative, and evaluative research that used a validated questionnaire from the 2015 National Health Services Evaluation Survey. Data were collected in three centers in the second half of 2016. The results show that most interviewees were female, married, 40 years of age or older, self-declared as brown, with high school degree and low income, living in the urban area. Users considered the reception service in the units good, but were dissatisfied with the availability of medicines. Regarding cleanliness of the environment, the percentages ranged from good to fair, and the physical structure of health facilities was considered good.


Abstract: Standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) and apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen (AMEn) in samples of organic corn and soybean meal (SBM) were determined. Conventional corn (CC) and SBM (CSBM) samples were tested for comparison. A total of 560, fourteen-day-old male broiler chickens (Cobb 500) were weighed, placed in cages (10 birds per cage), and allocated to seven (n = 8) semi-purified wheat-starch-based diets. Diets were (1) CC, (2) imported organic corn, (3) local organic corn, (4) CSBM, (5) imported organic SBM (OSBMI), (6) local organic SBM (OSBML), and (7) nitrogen-free wheat starch. Only few differences were observed on SID of AA; SID of lysine was lower (P = 0.002) in organic corn samples relative to CC, and SID of methionine was lower (P = 0.002) in OSBML sample relative to CSBM and OSBMI samples. The AMEn of CC was higher (P < 0.01) than that of organic corn samples. The AMEn of OSBML was higher (P < 0.001) than for CSBM and OSBMI; however, the value for OSBMI was higher (P < 0.001) than for CSBM. In conclusion, utilization of AA in conventional and organic feedstuffs was comparable; however, differences in energy utilization warrant considerations in organic broiler feed formulation.