Lower urinary tract disorders are significant prognostic indicators of institutionalisation and lower quality of life in the elderly and their incidence increases with age. Urodynamics, the gold standard in diagnosis, replicates symptoms to assess functionality through controlled filling and voiding of the bladder but its interpretation is subjective and may be inconclusive; often requiring further testing or leading to inappropriate treatment. Normal filling and voiding biomechanics of the bladder relate directly to the structural composition of the bladder wall. Alterations to tissue composition in aging and pathology have significant impacts on biomechanics but are yet to be fully described. The aim of this thesis was to gain insight into the individual microstructural components of the bladder wall and how they relate to the gross mechanical response. Additionally, representation of these observations in a mathematical model that can be used to improve our understanding of urodynamic data. This aim was achieved through a combination of in situ mechanical testing and the development of a microstructural constitutive model, which was then included within an overall micturition framework to simulate filling and voiding functions, and evaluated with clinical data. Coupled systems of multiphoton microscopy and uniaxial, biaxial and inflation testing were used to correlate extra cellular matrix interactions with the mechanical response of young and aged murine bladder. Wall-layer specific collagen fibre orientation, dispersion and recruitment were quantified and implemented into a novel microstructural constitutive model. The bladder was modelled as a nonlinear elastic, constrainedmixture planar membrane with contribution from smooth muscle and collagen fibres in the detrusor. Collagen recruitment in the detrusor was observed to occur at a finite stretch; correlated with a steep increase in stiffness of the tissue, while collagen of the lamina propria plays a capacitance role. Collagen recruitment was modelled using a triangular probability density function; quantified from sequential microscopy images and fitted to mechanical data. Increased collagen area fraction and changes in dominant fibre orientation were attributed to reduced compliance in aged bladder. This behaviour was captured by the model. The microstructural model was modified to an isotropic thin-walled spherical membrane for the filling phase of a micturition model framework, consisting of a bladder outlet relation and urethral resistance relation. A contractile smooth muscle element was included in the active response. In the first steps towards clinical application the model was applied to male and female 'normal' patient urodynamic data to observe quality of model fit and estimate baseline parameter values. The model simulated key filling and voiding features seen in normal male and female clinical data. Mechanobiological modelling combined with clinically relevant micturition modelling has the potential to quantify bladder dysfunction. Moreover, improved understanding of how the microstructure influences macroscopic mechanics will yield improved understanding of how changes to the bladder impair its functionality. We predict that modelling will become a clinically relevant tool in urodynamics; leading to new options for diagnosis and management of patients with bladder dysfunction.


During Qajar era, superstition and anti-superstition have had great impact on Iran's political thought. Superstitious context as an irrational process and major obstacle to the growth of political thought in Iran, exhorted the society towards subjectivist and reductionist approach. Rational intellectuals, on the other hand, endeavored to erode superstitious trends for pushing the society towards rationality and development. This article with a qualitative historical and analytical methodology and through collecting the library data tries to answer the question that "how superstitious culture had influenced the political thought of Iran during the Qajar period?" The hypothesis of the research is that the culture of superstition and irrationality through subjectivism and reductionism influenced the political thought of Iran during Qajar era, which in its turn led to the "intellectual despotism" and consequently to the "political tyranny". Based on the Giddens conception of the interaction between structure and agency, the article concludes that the contextual factors notably the superstitious culture led to the despotic mindset of Iranian rulers during Qajar period.


Activation of CD4+ T cells by antigenic peptide involves the interaction of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II-peptide complexes on the surface of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) with T-cell receptors. This report describes the kinetics of T-cell triggering by exogenous antigenic peptides in the presence of APCs. A rapid specific increase in extracellular acidification rate is observed within minutes upon exposure of A.E7 T cells (restricted for IEk and moth cytochrome c peptide containing residues 88-103) and 4R3.9 T cells (restricted for IAk and myelin basic protein peptide containing residues 1-14 [AcMBP-(1-14)]) to their cognate peptides in the presence of CH27 cells bearing both IAk and IEk MHC class II molecules. Pretreatment of cloned T cells, but not APCs, with herbimycin A resulted in complete inhibition of triggering events, indicating that the acidification response is mediated by T-cell second messenger pathways. This rapid assay for 4R3.9 T-cell stimulation showed increased T-cell triggering activity for AcMBP-(1-14)-A4 and MBP-(1-14)-M4 peptides compared to the native AcMBP-(1-14)-K4. By using the previously determined kinetic constants for MBP-(1-14)-A4 reactions with IAk, it is possible to show that at the lowest peptide concentrations the kinetics of T-cell triggering are limited by the kinetics of the peptide binding to MHC class II molecules.


There has traditionally always been a place for the amateur in our society — the amateur sportsman, the amateur actor or actress, the amateur gardener, and the amateur teacher. Nowadays, although you have to be a fully qualified teacher to work in schools, the amateur still retains a toehold in colleges of further and higher education, especially if he is professionally well‐qualified and is an evening class teacher. It is true that a few colleges employ only full‐time staff, but they are a tiny minority. Most colleges supplement their teaching strength by appointing part‐time teachers with business or industrial experience. In the present economic climate it could be argued that the chances of employment are slim, but this is by no means certain; adult evening students are expected to pay fairly substantial fees towards covering the cost of the class, and it is cheaper to appoint a part‐time rather than a full‐time teacher. A small to medium‐sized college could have a hundred or more part‐timers on its pay roll. Remuneration depends on the grade of the work, but ranges roughly between £3.50 and £5.50 an hour for most classes — a not ungenerous reward for what can be an absorbingly interesting job.


Swinepox virus infection results in an acute, mild or subclinical course and is characterised by typical poxvirus skin lesions in affected pigs. Additionally, sporadic vertical swinepox virus transmission leads to congenital generalised infection and subsequent abortion or stillbirth. The present report describes the occurrence of epidermal efflorescences in two piglets after intrauterine natural suipoxvirus infection. No clinical abnormalities of the gilt and littermates as well as in other pigs from this herd were present. One of the affected piglets was stillborn and submitted for necropsy, the other animal was alive at birth, but died 3 days later. Histologically, a proliferative to ulcerative dermatitis with epithelial ballooning degeneration and characteristic intracytoplasmatic inclusion bodies was observed. The pathomorphological and histopathological suspected diagnosis of a poxvirus infection was confirmed by electron microscopy. Furthermore, the agent was identified as suipoxvirus by polymerase chain reaction. As demonstrated here, obvious skin lesions in suipoxvirus infection leads to a suspected diagnosis in newborn piglets on macroscopic examination. However, further post mortem examinations, including electron microscopy as well as molecular techniques are essential for the identification of the aetiology and the exclusion of differential diagnoses. Because the disease only affected two pigs there was only a small economic loss. A valid diagnostic plays an important role in advising farmers and for herd health monitoring.


Diffusion-weighted imaging of the liver is prone to the cardiac pulsation artifact, which can lead to reduced lesion visibility. We addressed this problem with a two-fold approach. First, flow-compensated diffusion weightings were used, which are known to reduce this artifact. Using a dataset of 40 patients suffering from focal liver lesions, we addressed the remaining signal voids with different postprocessing techniques, namely weighted averaging, the p-mean approach, and an outlier exclusion algorithm. The algorithms substantially increased the lesion visibility and further reduced the pulsation artifact. An evaluation of CNR and calculation time showed that weighted averaging was suited best.


This study describes and validates the QOPPS, an instrument assessing the quality of early childhood educators' (ECEs) observation and planning practices. High quality ECE promotes children's development. Offering high quality intervention starts with observing each child and plan to best meet his or her needs (NAYEC, 2009). Previous studies have questioned existing measure od the quality of ECEs' observation and planning practices and highlited the need for improvements (Lemay, et al., 2015). High quality require intentional ECEs. They observe children to feed their planning of the curriculum, wich is implemented in a flexible manner, and teh, they reflect upon the latter to improve practices (Epstein, 2009). This pilot study was conducted in Quebec (Canada). Subjects are 181 ECEs working in childcare centers. Base on ECE' responses in a semi0structured interview and a documents check, an assitant rated the 8 items of the QOPPS (double coding 15% of QOPPS). The QOPPS scores were compared base on independent variables known to influence quality and were correlated with other quality measures (Pianta, et al., 2008, Bourgon et Lavall.e, 2013). All participanting ECEs were informed about the project and signed consent form. The QOPPS shows a good interrater reliability and internal consistency. Results provides evidence for convergent validity, whereas the QOPPS scores differ by types of childcare and associate with quality of the interactions and the quality of the physical setting. The QOPPS offers guidelines for the improvement of ECEs practices and seems a promising scale to use in research.


In vitro and in vivo transfers of antibiotic drug resistance were observed when isolates of multi-resistant Salmonella saint-paul and Escherichia coli donors were mated with multi-sensitive E coli and Salmonella typhimurium recipients, respectively. For in vivo studies, day-old turkey poults were used. Drug resistances were transferred either alone or in various combinations. In vitro, transfer was more frequent from E coli to S typhimurium; in vivo, transfer was more often observed from S saint-paul to E coli. Transfer occurred in vivo within 3 or 6 days after the recipient strain was given to poults previously infected with donor bacteria. In some instances, phage typing of S typhimurium indicated a change after transfer of drug resistance from E coli to S typhimurium. The criteria for in vivo transfer of drug resistance were discussed, and the implications of a change in phage type were noted.


he purpose of this study is to include among close-at-hand shelter zones urban green spaces other than parks, and to examine the safety that those spaces provide against fi res in terms of lot size, tree coverage ratio, and the fi re-protection functions of trees. For our study we chose the district in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. This study found that because the tree coverage ratio, which affects a shelter zone's defense against fi re, is changed by the effect of the tree canopy and not by lot size, it is necessary to use methods which ensure a good crown spread, such as planting tree species whose crowns spread well, improving pruning methods, and planting trees closer to the center of a lot. Our study also found that despite the small sizes of lots, many good fi re-protection tree species had been planted.


Objective: This study aimed to evaluate sexual dysfunction, depression and associated factors in female hemodialysis patients. Methodology: The study had a cross-sectional and descriptive correlational design and was conducted in a dialysis centre located in Erzurum between April and May 2006. Thirty-three female dialysis patients comprised the study sample. Results: Sexual function scores of the female hemodialysis patients in the study were low, and the patients experienced moderate depression. The most common dysfunction was problems in arousal, but pain was the least common complaint. It was determined that with increasing severity of depression, average scores of sexual desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and total FSFI The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) of the patients decreased. Conclusions: Sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent in female hemodialysis patients. It is strongly associated with increasing severity of depression.


Abstract : The Krook kinetic equation is used as the governing equation in an investigation of a class of exterior flow problems involving flow past an elliptic cylinder. A numerical method for solving the integral equation form of the Krook equation for this class of problems is described, and several sets of solutions are presented.


INTRODUCTION
Acute pericarditis is an inflammation of the pericardium.It has numerous aetiologies and the most common is due to viral infection and myocardial infarction.
CASE REPORT
This is a case of a 30 years old Malay man, a prisoner. He came to the Emergency Department with the complaint of chest pain for 4 days. He claimed that the pain distributed to the whole chest wall, aggravate upon inspiration and movement and associated with shortness of breath. He also claimed that he was having fever for the past one week but deny history of cough. On examination of the lungs, patient was having bibasal crepitation. ECG findings was widespread ST elevation (saddle back pattern) in lead I, II, aVL , V5 – V6 , and PR segment depression in lead II.On the next day, patient developed multiple vesicular rashes over the face and forearm. Patient was diagnosed to have Varicella Zoster infection after the serology sent come back as positive. Thus, the acute pericarditis was found to be due to the Varicella Zoster infection.
DISCUSSION
In acute pericarditis, the most common symptom is stabbing precordial or retrosternal chest pain, aggravated by inspiration or movement and relieved when the patient sits up and leans forward. In acute pericarditis complicated with large pericardial effusion, patient may come with the complaint of dyspnea. During examination, pericardial friction rub is the most common physical finding. ECG is the diagnostic tool by which there is concave upwards (saddle shape) ST elevation. If the cause of acute pericarditis is found, this should be treated and most patients with idiopathic or presumed viral pericarditis have a benign course lasting 1 to 2 weeks.
CONCLUSION
Acute pericarditis should be differentiated from angina , pleurisy and acute myocardial infarction. Proper history taking, examinations and serial ECG could help in making the diagnosis.


Background Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent malignancy among women globally, with approximately 604,000 new cases and 341,000 deaths per year. Necroptosis is a newly discovered mechanism of cell death involved in biological behaviors of cancer. Methods LASSO Cox regression analysis was conducted to construct a prognostic necroptosis-related signature. lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory axis was constructed with a ceRNA network. qRT-PCR was performed to verify our result. Results A total of 54 necroptosis-related genes were differentially expressed in cervical cancer (all p < 0.05). We also summarized genetic mutation landscape of necroptosis-related genes in cervical cancer. We then developed a necroptosis-related prognostic signature including 13 necroptosis-related genes (ATRX, AXL, DDX58, IDH1, ITPK1, MAP3K7, SLC39A7, TARDBP, TNF, TNFRSF1A, TNFRSF1B, TNFSF10, TRIM11) for cervical cancer. Cervical cancer patients with high riskscore had a poor overall survival (HR = 2.128, p = 0.00194) with an AUC of 0.725, 0.763 and 0.637 in 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year ROC curve. Consensus clustering analysis revealed that all cervical cancer cohort could be divided into three subtypes, which was correlated with different prognosis and immune infiltration (p < 0.05). A PPI network revealed TNF as the hub gene and TNF expression was correlated with immune infiltration (all p < 0.05), microsatellite instability (p < 0.012) and drug sensitivity (p < 0.05). The ceRNA network was performed and identified a lncRNA NUTM2B-AS1/miR-361-5p/TNF regulatory axis for cervical cancer. qRT-PCR result also suggested that TNF was upregulated in cervical cancer (p < 0.001) and associated with a poor overall survival (p = 0.007). Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated TNF expression, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage were prognosis factors of cervical cancer patients (p < 0.05). Conclusion We developed a necroptosis-related prognostic signature including 13 necroptosis-related genes for cervical cancer. Moreover, we also identified a lncRNA NUTM2B-AS1/miR-361-5p/TNF regulatory axis, which may play a vital role in the progression of cervical cancer. Further studies should be conducted to verify these results.


Increasing human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination coverage is one of the key approaches to preventing cervical cancer globally. However, some argue that HPV vaccine recipients may engage in risky compensatory sexual behaviours because of perceived protection afforded by the vaccine. Therefore, we investigated the impact of a wide-scale HPV vaccination programme on sexual behaviours among adolescent women in Rwanda-the first African country to implement a national HPV vaccination. We identified a cohort of women who were eligible for the HPV vaccination and those who were not eligible from the most recent Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey. We used a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity design, exploiting the quasi-random change in HPV vaccination eligibility in 2011, to compare sexual behaviours among vaccinated and unvaccinated adolescent women. We studied the impact of the vaccination on reported sexual intercourse, average number of sexual partners and teenage pregnancy across the vaccination eligibility threshold. Our analysis included 3052 adolescent women (mean age: 18.6 years), of whom 58% were eligible for HPV vaccination. Nearly one in five adolescents reported having had sexual intercourse (18.5%). The average reported lifetime number of sexual partners was 1.41. The proportion of teenage pregnancy was 5.3%. We found no evidence that HPV vaccination was associated with any significant changes across the eligibility threshold in reported sexual behaviours we studied: no significant increase in the proportion of having sexual intercourse [odds ratio (OR): 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57-1.12; P = 0.19], in lifetime number of sexual partners (rate ratio 0.99, 95% CI: 0.83-1.17, P = 0.91) and in the proportion of teen pregnancies (OR 1.05, 95% CI: 0.50 to 2.20, P = 0.89) at the eligibility threshold. The Rwandan national HPV vaccination programme did not increase sexual behaviours among adolescent women, assuaging concerns of engaging in risky compensatory sexual behaviours some have feared.


Although microtask platforms are desirable for their speed, scalability, and low cost, task performance varies greatly. Many researchers have focused on improving the quality of the work performed on such platforms. Priming uses implicit mechanisms to induce observable changes in behavior. Although priming has been effective in the laboratory, its use hasn't been explored extensively in software design, perhaps because the effects are often short-lived. In the context of microtask crowdsourcing environments, however, where tasks are short and circumscribed, temporary priming effects can lead to significant performance gains.


Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are an emerging technology for wastewater treatment that utilizes the metabolism of microorganisms to generate electricity from the organic matter present in water directly. The principle of MFC is the same as hydrogen fuel cell and has three main components (i.e., anode, cathode, and proton exchange membrane). The membrane separates the anode and cathode chambers and keeps the anaerobic and aerobic conditions in the two chambers, respectively. This review paper describes the state-of-the-art membrane materials particularly suited for MFC and discusses the recent development to obtain robust, sustainable, and cost-effective membranes. Nafion 117, Flemion, and Hyflon are the typical commercially available membranes used in MFC. Use of non-fluorinated polymeric membrane materials such as sulfonated silicon dioxide (S-SiO2) in sulfonated polystyrene ethylene butylene polystyrene (SSEBS), sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) and graphene oxide sulfonated polyether ether ketone (GO/SPEEK) membranes showed promising output and proved to be an alternative material to Nafion 117. There are many challenges to selecting a suitable membrane for a scaled-up MFC system so that the technology become technically and economically viable.


Background: Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) is increasingly replacing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) as the primary imaging technique to guide device closure of atrial septal defects (ASD). Owing to the length of the procedure, the use of TEE requires general anesthesia. Investigators have reported the usefulness of ICE in adults and children. However, little is known about the use of ICE in children whose weight is <15 kg. Therefore, this study examines the use of ICE guided secundum ASD closure in children <15 kg. Methods: Nineteen patients with a median age of 3.1 years (range 1.8–4.8), and median weight of 13.2 kg (range 8.0–14.4) underwent transcatheter occlusion (Amplatzer occluder) of a secundum ASD using ICE guidance. ICE was performed using an Acunav® catheter. The ICE catheter (10 F shaft) was introduced into an 11 F sheath in a contralateral femoral vein. Diagnostic as well as periprocedure imaging was obtained. Results: Sixteen patients had single, and three had multiple defects. Median defect size as measured by ICE was 16 mm (range 2.5–25). The median balloon stretched diameter (obtained in eight patients) was 18 mm (range 10–21); the median size of the defect for these eight patients was 15 mm (range of 8–20). Both techniques for measuring the defect correlated well with r = 0.94. The ASD occluder size ranged from 7 to 26 mm with a median of 18 mm. The procedure was successful in 16 patients who had a device implanted and no residual shunt. ASD occlusion was not attempted in two patients due to deficient rims and in one patient, the attempt failed due to left atrial disk prolapse through the ASD. Four patients experienced transient complications during the catheter procedure, including supra ventricular tachycardia, sinus bradycardia, and two with complete heart block (resolving with device removal); all had subsequent successful device placement. No complications were attributed to the use of ICE and specifically, no vascular injury was noted. Conclusions: Comparable to results with larger patients, ICE provides adequate imaging (preprocedure diagnosis and periprocedure guidance) during device occlusion of secundum ASDs with no significant complications. Thus, ICE can successfully be used in the closure of ASD in smaller patients (<15 kg) and eliminate the need for endotracheal intubation. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Kallol Borah began development of the Indus project at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2002. Indus demonstrates how general purpose object oriented programming languages can be extended to enable ubiquitous computing applications.


Metamaterials with negative permittivities or/and permeabilities greatly enrich photonic bandgap (PBG) engineering in one-dimensional (1-D) photonic crystals (PhCs). Nevertheless, their inevitable optical losses strongly destroy the crucial prohibition characteristic of PBGs, which makes such engineered PBGs not utilizable in some relevant physical processes and optical/optoelectronic devices. Herein, we bridge a link between 1-D PhCs and all-dielectric loss-free metamaterials and propose a hybrid 1-D PhC containing all-dielectric elliptical metamaterials to engineer angle-dependence of PBGs. Associating the Bragg scattering theory with the iso-frequency curve analysis, an analytical model is established to precisely describe the angle-dependence of PBG. Based on the analytical model, two types of special PBGs, i.e., angle-insensitive and angle-sensitive PBGs, are designed. By further introducing defects into the designed 1-D PhCs, angle-dependence of defect modes can also be flexibly controlled. Our protocol opens a viable route to precisely engineering PBGs and promotes the development of PBG-based physics and applications.


This volume gathers contributions at the intersection of history and politics. The essays, covering such topics as diverse as Italian identity in the Tientsin concession, international refugee policies in the interwar period and after, and the myths and realities of the Ukrainian-Russian encounter in independent Ukraine, show that history provides better grounding as well as a more suitable paradigm for the study of politics than economics or other hard sciences. All of the contributors have a common link – doctoral work supervised and shaped by Professor Andre Liebich – but have since expanded widely in the world. Hence, the authors of this work at once share a common base and yet benefit from diverse viewpoints.


Cloud computing is a paradigm that is redrawing the information technology landscape by outsourcing the computation and data storage services to public cloud service providers. Over the last years, cloud storage services revealed an unprecedented opportunity for Internet users to profit from online storage services. Thanks to their enriched toolbox for file sharing and syncing, cloud storage platforms provide organizations and individuals with a reliable and cost-effective collaborative workspace. However, in addition to the traditional security issues, cloud storage services introduce new security concerns that are mainly related to the insecure state in which the files are while being synchronized. Recent publications highlighted the significant impact of the security flaws that exist in the syncing protocols used by the most popular cloud storage application. In this paper, we consider the Man in the Cloud (MitC) attack demonstrated in 2015 which allows accessing the files stored in a private repository without the possession of the authentication and authorization credentials. To address this issue, we propose a biometric-based framework for cloud storage services aiming to impede intruders from launching MitC attacks. Our framework is based on our previously published technique to combine chaotic maps and fuzzy extractors. The experiments performed on real biometric features confirm the potential brought by our framework to implement strong authentication in cloud storage applications.


Witness trees recorded in surveyors' notes have been extensively used to describe presettlement forest vegetation throughout eastern North America. Relatively few studies, however, have discussed surveying inconsistencies that could affect the quality of witness-tree data in Colonial metes and bounds surveys. To increase the accuracy of these data, we developed techniques to quantify and mitigate the effects of several irregularities in metes and bounds witness-tree data using Lancaster County, southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, as a model. Irregularities included unequal sampling intensities among regions of contrasting topographic relief, and on a finer scale, unequal sampling among landform classes. We mitigated the effects of these inconsistencies by subdividing the study area into physiographic (topographic) sections, and then subdividing each physiographic section into landform classes before witness-tree analysis. Pre-European settlement forests were dominated by Quercus velutina and Q. alba, with Carya spp. in regions of low topographic relief and Castanea dentata in regions of high topographic relief. We then assessed the effects of Native Americans using catchment analysis in which we tallied witness trees within 5 and 7 km of Susquehannock village sites and compared the forest composition to edaphically similar catchment areas of low Native American activity. Elevated frequencies of Carya spp., Juglans spp., and Robinia pseudoacacia, with depressed frequencies of Quercus alba, occurred on sites with a history of Native American occupation, possibly as a result of disturbance or active cultivation. Together, bias-correction techniques and catchment analysis greatly extend the usefulness of witness-tree data by improving methods for evaluating pre- and post-European settlement disturbance on forest change.


An 8-channel 6-bit 16-GS/s time-interleaved analog- to-digital converter (TI ADC) was fabricated using a 65 nm CMOS technology. Each analog-to-digital channel is a 6-bit flash ADC. Its comparators are latches without the preamplifiers. The input-referred offsets of the latches are reduced by digital offset calibration. The TI ADC includes a multi-phase clock generator that uses a delay-locked loop to generate 8 sampling clocks from a reference clock of the same frequency. The uniformity of the sampling intervals is ensured by digital timing-skew calibration. Both the offset calibration and the timing-skew calibration run continuously in the background. At 16 GS/s sampling rate, this ADC chip achieves a signal-to-distortion-plus-noise ratio (SNDR) of 30.8 dB. The chip consumes 435 mW from a 1.5 V supply. The ADC active area is 0.93 × 1.58 mm2.


The accepted view among psychologists and economists alike is that economic well-being has a statistically significant but only weak effect on happiness/subjective well-being (SWB). This view is based almost entirely on weak relationships with household income. The paper uses household economic panel data from five countries - Australia, Britain, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands - to provide a reconsideration of the impact of economic well-being on happiness. The main conclusion is that happiness is considerably more affected by economic circumstances than previously believed. In all five countries wealth affects life satisfaction more than income. In the countries for which consumption data are available (Britain and Hungary), non-durable consumption expenditures also prove at least as important to happiness as income. Further, results from panel regression fixed effects models indicate that changes in wealth, income and consumption all produce significant, though not large, changes in satisfaction levels.


Background: Timed walking tests are widely used to evaluate functional exercise performance, as they are likely to measure the ability to undertake the activities of day-to-day life. Six minute walk test (6MWT) is an important tool in screening, management and prognostication of pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases and is considered to provide a reliable and valid measure of functional exercise capacity. The aim of the present study was to compare the six minute walk test (6MWT) amongst healthy individuals and COPD patients in the age group of 40 – 70 years. Methods: An observational case control study was carried out in the department of TB & Chest at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand from 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2018, including 140 subjects (70 healthy individuals and 70 COPD patients) in the age group of 40 – 70 years. The 6MWT was performed as per the guidelines laid by the American Thoracic Society (ATS). Results: We observed that the mean six minute walk distance was significantly less in COPD patients (408.00 ± 74.20 meters) as compared to healthy subjects (626.69 ± 64.67 meters) (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The impairment in functional status affecting COPD patients is multifactorial, reflecting the respiratory and non-respiratory expressions of the disease. Impaired exercise capacity as assessed by the 6MWT better reflects the overall compromise than markers that only reflect the physiological impairment of lung function in COPD patients.


In this paper, we provide a set of comparable estimates of aggregate monthly job-finding and separation rates for twenty-seven OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries; these estimates can be used for the cross-country calibration of search models of unemployment. We find that cross-country differences in job-finding rates are much greater than those in separation rates. Our results are quantitatively and qualitatively in line with those published in previous studies; however, they cover a much larger set of countries. We combine our estimates with evidence on unemployment and labor force participation rates to impute steady-state worker flows for twenty-three of the countries in our sample.


Sandalwood  (Santalum album L.)  is known as a fancy plant. Since they have  high economic value, it often over exploited.  As a consequence, the population  dramatically decreased  in their habitats.  Some efforts  have been  done  to conserve  this plant  in order to prevent their extinction, i.e.  seedling multiplication.  As a  hemiparasitic plant,  sandalwoods  need other  plants for a host which grow  around.  Therefore, determining of the the primary host is a necessary aspect in multiplication  of  sandalwood seedling.  This study  used  three  species  plants  to serve sandalwood seedling   as  primary host  in pot cultures consist of local leucaena (Leucaena glauca), vilosa (Acacia villosa)   and calliandra  (Calliandra  calothyrsus).   The results  of this study indicated   that A. vilosa  is better for a primary  host  than  L. glauca and  C. calothyrsus as well. Number of  root connection  between  sandalwood seedlings   and their hosts  have a close correlationship   to  the leaf  number  and the  sandalwood seedling   dry weight, whereas no significant correlationshifp to their height.


Xerostomia can be defined as a feeling of dryness of mouth, which may or may not be accompanied with reduced salivary secretions. Xerostomia may result in localized and systemic disturbances within the body. The overall global prevalence of xerostomia is 22% with wide variation among different countries due to difference in target population. This review presents the recent literature on the diagnostic methodologies that are present in recent times through subjective and objective corridors. The most commonly used subjective methods for the xerostomia diagnosis include: Fox questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Xerostomia Inventory (XI), and Shortened Xerostomia Inventory (SXI). Objective xerostomia diagnostic tools include salivary flow rate assessment. Aside from this, there are numerous radiographical modalities that can be used especially in diagnosing salivary gland disorders or radiation exposure due to oncological treatments which can also provide the added information to diagnose or monitor xerostomia. These radiographic tools include computer tomography (CT), scintigraphy, sialography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasonography. Different combination of tools gives a better xerostomia assessment, selection of which also depends on the age and health condition of the patient. KEYWORDS: flow rate; hyposalivation; diagnosis; oral dryness; salivary gland dysfunction


The achievement of low cost deposition techniques for high critical current YBa2Cu3O7 coated conductors is one of the major objectives to achieve a widespread use of superconductivity in power applications. Chemical solution deposition techniques are appearing as a very promising methodology to achieve epitaxial oxide thin films at a low cost, so an intense effort is being carried out to develop routes for all chemical coated conductor tapes. In this work recent achievements will be presented towards the goal of combining the deposition of different type of buffer layers on metallic substrates based on metal–organic decomposition with the growth of YBa2Cu3O7 layers using the trifluoroacetate route. The influence of processing parameters on the microstructure and superconducting properties will be stressed. High critical currents are demonstrated in 'all chemical' multilayers.


The lack of experience and fundamental knowledge about mycology by some mushroomers is one of the leading causes of increasing occurrence of fatal mushroom poisonings. Mushroom intoxications are caused not only by poisonous mushrooms (true primary intoxications), but under certain conditions also by edible mushrooms (secondary intoxications, false intoxications, pseudo-intoxications). Apart from fresh mushrooms intoxications may result also from preserved mushrooms (sterilized in pickles, soured, dried, used for preparation of mushroom extracts, powders, etc.), which are used as garnish. (Tab. 1, Ref. 44.)


The aim is that on the basis of interviews with personnel and clients examine whichexperiences they have of the drug abuse programme and its implementation. To be able toanswer the aim following question has been formulated: (1) What do the personnel and clientthink about the drug abuse program arrangement? (2) In which extend is the programimplemented as thought? (3) How do the personnel assesses the client's participation? (4)How does the client's think about their own participation in the program? (5) Do the client'sthink that the program have been helpful in their personal development? A qualitativemethod was chosen and has used a semi structured interview. Total has ten interviews beenimplemented on Rallsogarden, five with clients and five with personnel. The study'sinterpretation framework builds on research around drug abuse treatment and theories andmethods that lie to shallow for the drug abuse programme. In the study part's assessments ofthe programme has as a whole been done, treatment integrity has been examined on the basisof factors such as education and implementation. Finally, have in some mean examinedmotivation within the clients on the basis of theirs and the personnel's views.One of the results that arrived in the study, where that an all in all assessment from the clientsaround the drug abuse programme where very difficult to get hold off in certain respects. Thisdepended to a large extent on that the clients bar with itself experiences from earliertreatments with another treatment philosophy. The result has influenced the study as a whole.The study's head aim where that on the basis of Rallsogardens commissions, try to understandhow the drug abuse programme is experienced of the clients and the personnel on the basis oftheir different perspectives. The results show that the personnel in most cases has theeducation, motivation and commitments that is needed in order to do something good with theprogramme. Also the manual that is used has support in research where it is to be consideredto give possibility to effective treatment. On the basis of this the conclusion can be drawn thatthe basic requirements are there, to carry out a good treatment programme. The results showhowever on several conditions that can influence the intentions negative.


Methyl chloride (CH3Cl) is the most abundant halocarbon in the atmosphere, and constitutes a significant fraction of the total atmospheric halogen burden. Chemical reactions of CH3Cl in seawater are slow, and it has been believed that the oceans are not an important sink for this compound. However, direct measurements of CH3Cl degradation rates in coastal seawater (Bedford Basin, Nova Scotia), using a stable isotope incubation technique, indicate rapid loss attributed to microbial activity. A series of weekly measurements from March 2000 to May 2001 yielded degradation rates ranging from 0–30% d−1, with an annual mean of 7.4% d−1. If biological uptake of CH3Cl occurs throughout the oceans at similar rates, the mean partial atmospheric lifetime of CH3Cl with respect to oceanic removal could be a few years, rather than several decades as previously thought. This rapid removal would make the oceans a major sink for CH3Cl and lower the overall atmospheric lifetime of CH3Cl from the current estimate of 1.3 to about 1.0 years. Measurements of the degradation rate of CH3Cl in open ocean waters are needed in order to quantify the oceanic uptake rate.


Neurotransmitters are divided into two categories: (1) small-molecule neurotransmitters and (2)neuropeptides. Small-molecule neurotransmitters are processed within the axon terminal. An example of this is acetylcholine (Ach), which is particularly known as an excitatory neurotransmitter. On the other hand, neuropeptides are larger than small-molecule neurotransmitters and act as messengers. Because o their large size, they are made inside the neuronal cell body.


This paper deals with the problem of designing an optimal U - Oscillating Water Column (U-OWC) device equipped with a Wells turbine. Specifically, the paper proposes the implementation of a genetic algorithm for designing a U-OWC exposed to the typical sea states available in the Mediterranean Sea. The first challenge encountered in this problem is the efficient calculation of the U-OWC hydrodynamic parameters. The second challenge relates to the fact that the U-OWC dynamics is governed by two coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations with no closed-form solution. For reducing the computational cost, the genetic algorithm is combined with a semi-analytical approach used for determining the U-OWC hydrodynamic parameters and with a statistical linearization based approximate solution of the equations governing the U-OWC dynamics. Such a procedure allows estimating efficiently, albeit approximately, the power output of the system.
 Numerical results compare a design based on a conventional "design sea state" vis-à-vis a design based on a "design wave climate". For this purpose, the case study of the Roccella Jonica marina (Reggio Calabria, Italy) is considered, as relevant wave data are available to characterize the most energetic seas as well as depicting the global wave climate available at that location. The numerical results highlight the fact that an optimization conducted on the basis of a design sea state does not lead to an optimal design in a wave climate.


The rate of incidence of suicide gradually increases especially in adolescence period. There are a lot of factors affecting on suicidal ideation. Social environment plays a significant role as potential risk factor along with biological disposition and psychiatric disorder. The aim of this study is to determine risk factors related with family, school and work affecting on suicidal ideation among adolescents in Turkey. In the study 6747 adolescents between the age of 12-18, who live in rural and urban area and are conducted face to face survey, were evaluated considering Research on Adolescent Profile in Turkey (TEPA 2013). Participants were selected through multistage, stratified, random sampling. (%50 female and %50 male). Pearson chi-square, odds ratio, correspondence analysis, independent samples t-test and binary logistic regression were used in the study. The relation between suicidal ideation and several factors such as cigarette and alcohol usel, drug addiction, being exposed to violence and sexual abuse, being mocked and family structure were revealed and obtained results were presented.


Abstract Geothermal heat pump(GHP) systems have been shown to be an environmentally-friendly, efficient alternative to traditional cooling and heating systems in both residential and commercial applications. Although some experimental work related to performance evaluation of GHP systems with vertical borehole ground heat exchangers for commercial buildings has been done, relatively little has been reported on the performance simulation of these systems. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cooling and heating performance of the GHP system with 30 borehole ground heat exchangers applied to an commercial building(1,210 m 2 ) in Seoul. For this purpose, a typical design procedure was involved with a combination of design parameters such as building loads, heat pump capacity, circulating pump, borehole diameter, and ground effective thermal properties, etc. The cooling and heating performance prediction of the system was conducted with different prediction methods and then each result is compared.


The keratinocyte (KC) is the predominant cell type in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. Epidermal KCs play a critical role in providing skin defense by forming an intact skin barrier against environmental insults, such as UVB irradiation or pathogens, and also by initiating an inflammatory response upon those insults. Here we describe methods to isolate KCs from neonatal mouse skin and from adult mouse tail skin. We also describe culturing conditions using defined growth supplements (dGS) in comparison to chelexed fetal bovine serum (cFBS). Functionally, we show that both neonatal and adult KCs are highly responsive to high calcium-induced terminal differentiation, tight junction formation and stratification. Additionally, cultured adult KCs are susceptible to UVB-triggered cell death and can release large amounts of TNF upon UVB irradiation. Together, the methods described here will be useful to researchers for the setup of in vitro models to study epidermal biology in the neonatal mouse and/or the adult mouse.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an interesting class of nanostructures which can be thought of as arising from the folding layer of graphite (a graphene sheet) to form a hollow cylinder composed of carbon hexagons. However, practical applications are still limited by the intricate process of synthesis and the inability of present day methods for large scale production of carbon nanotubes. Moreover high quality nanotubes with functionalization capability with polymers are desired for polymer MEMS, Nanodevices and BioMEMS. In this paper, an innovative CVD approacah using microwave energy was developed for large scale production of single wall and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Straight and helical carbon nanotubes were obtained when acetylene decomposed over the cobalt catalyst at 700°C created by microwave field. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of microwave driven MWNTs revealed their homogeneous nature. The high resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) showed typical MWNT has 26 layers. The average diameter of the tubes was observed 20-30 nm. Electronc microscope observations showed higher yield of nanotubes obtained from microwave CVD than thermal filament CVD method.


TCP has been a robust and efficient protocol for data communication in the terrestrial wired networks for more than a couple of decades now. However, TCP is very inefficient over high delay and high-error-rate links that might be found in tactical networks especially tactical SATCOM networks. The space communications protocol standards (SCPS) organization has proposed a more efficient SCPS-TP protocol, which is a modification of TCP to be used for space environments. The selective negative acknowledgement (SNACK) is an important capability provided by SCPS-TP. Because TCP/IP has gone through many incremental refinements, the protocol itself has grown increasingly complex, which makes analytical modeling quite difficult. As a result, much of the evaluation of TCP/IP QoS mechanism has been done using event driven simulators, such as NS-2 or OPNET. More recently, effort for analytical modeling of the performance of TCP has been active. This analysis has been triggered by the limitations inherent in event driven simulations: 1) Time consuming for network-centric system engineer to use a packet level granularity when investigating the performance of large, complex networks. 2)Analytical models help network engineer understand the effectiveness of new mechanisms such as TCP performance enhancing proxy and/or ECN being added to the system and implement better requirements and test cases coverage for different network deployment scenarios. SCPS-TP is typically available from performance enhancement proxy (PEP) which serves as a transport layer proxy to split TCP connections. explicit congestion notification (ECN) is used by routers to signal congestion to end points. The analytical model provides quantitative results to compare the ability of ECN signals vs PEP to distinguish between the packet losses due to network congestion and those due to interference or blockages frequently encountered in tactical wireless networks.


Curcumin, an orange‐yellow lipophilic polyphenolic molecule, is the active component of Curcuma longa, which is extensively used as a spice in most of the Asian countries. This natural compound is able to interact with a large number of molecular structures like proteins, enzymes, lipids, DNA, RNA, transporter molecules, and ion channels. It has been reported to possess several biological effects such as antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, wound healing, antimicrobial, anticancer, antiangiogenic, antimutagenic, and antiplatelet aggregation properties. These beneficial effects of curcumin are because of its extraordinary chemical interactions such as extensive hydrogen and covalent bonding, metal chelation, and so on. Therefore, the aim of this review was to outline the evidence in which curcumin could affect different types of ion channels and ion channel‐related diseases, and also to elucidate basic molecular mechanisms behind it. © 2019 IUBMB Life, 2019


Abstract This article describes an investigation into the use of self-assessment to facilitate students' learning in teacher education. The study aimed to explore whether there were any changes in students' teaching and learning practice after using self-assessment. Participants comprised 47 students who were enrolled in an in-service teacher education program and who engaged in a self-assessment process by setting goals, recording evidence, and evaluating their teaching performance. Questionnaire and focus group interviews were employed to examine the usefulness of the self-assessment and the possible changes in students' learning. Analysis of the results indicates that students found that self-assessment enhanced their learning during teaching practice, especially in the area of reflective thinking. The self-assessment process helped students to assess the quality of their teaching, and it provided information on which to reflect and plan their next lessons. Students also reported evidence of positive changes in terms of their planning, teaching, and reflection.


Electron-positron annihilation is a fundamental process, when an electron and a positron collide in free space; the energy-momentum conservation requires that the annihilation takes place with the emission of at least two photons. Annihilation of electron-positron in more than two photons is less likely and (very) too sensitive to detect. In this work I created a simulation of the triple-photon decay in electron-positron pair annihilation, by using IPython program, and I compared the simulation results with actual data of the experiment that was performed by M. E. A. Elbasher et al in the Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch


Abstract The disintegration of the tsarist police system in 1917 presented contemporaries with the challenge of creating an alternative and defining its purpose. This essay suggests that, despite the radical implications of the militia system that appeared, formal ideas about policing were conventional. Even the Bolsheviks, despite conceptualising the militia as 'the people in arms', legislated for a civilian police force that was similar to its predecessors, at least in terms of formally defined functions. The essay also suggests that debates about the militia during 1917 and 1918 are better understood within the wider context of pan-European historical models of policing.


Background: Digital technology offers good opportunities for HIV prevention. This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of interactive digital interventions (IDIs) for prevention of sexually transmitted HIV. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of IDIs for HIV prevention, defining 'interactive' as producing personally tailored material. We searched databases including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, grey literature, reference lists, and contacted authors if needed. Two authors screened abstracts, applied eligibility and quality criteria and extracted data. Meta-analyses used random-effects models with standardized mean differences (SMD) for continuous outcomes and odds ratios (OR) for binary outcomes, assessing heterogeneity using the I2 statistic. Results: We included 31 RCTs of IDIs for HIV prevention. Meta-analyses of 29 RCTs comparing IDIs with minimal interventions (e.g. leaflet, waiting list) showed a moderate increase in knowledge (SMD 0.56, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.80), no effect on self-efficacy (SMD 0.13, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.27), a small improvement in intention (SMD 0.16, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.26), improvement in HIV prevention behaviours (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.57) and a possible increase in viral load, but this finding is unreliable. We found no evidence of difference between IDIs and face-to-face interventions for knowledge, self-efficacy, intention, or HIV-related behaviours in meta-analyses of five small RCTs. We found no health economic studies. Conclusion: There is good evidence that IDIs have positive effects on knowledge, intention and HIV prevention behaviours. IDIs are appropriate for HIV prevention in a variety of settings. Supplementary Video Abstract


This chapter overviews the current state of the art of commercial externally powered prostheses and outline current developments in research that will most likely have an important impact on future commercial prosthetic systems. It presents the requirements of advanced prostheses and discusses the rather large gap between commercial systems and systems in academic research. Since the prosthetic hand is a key component in upper limb prosthetics, the chapter mainly focuses on prosthetic hands. In fact, the lack of sufficiently powerful human-machine interfaces-or, more specifically, neural-machine interfaces-is the major limiting factor at the moment in upper limb prosthetics. Given the rather small number of upper limb amputees and the complexity of the advanced solutions discussed in this chapter as well as the excessive costs for clinical evaluation, there is no doubt that prosthetic products based on these technologies could be expensive.


The strongly related parameters rank, age and period-of-residence determine which reproductive tactics a savanna baboon male will use primarily. Baboon males go through the following phases with respect to the use of mating tactics, as they are longer in the group and thus grow older and, as a rule, drop in rank: Phase 1. Peripheral, relatively little social contact, low mating success, building up of a social bond with a few females. Phase 2. High mating success, based on individual fighting ability, social bonds mainly with females that are, or will soon be, sexually attractive. Phase 3, variant a. (Males that were very successful in Phase 2). Considerable time devoted to guarding infants conceived in phase 2 and to the mothers of those infants. Mating activity drops sharply compared to Phase 2. Phase 3, variant b. (Males that did not go through a very successful Phase 2). Low mating success through whatever tactic, relatively peripheral. Phase 4. Relatively high mating success, partly through collaboration with other males. Considerable time is invested in the care for potential offspring and their mothers. Phase 5. Diminishing share in the total mating activity in the group. The support for infants is spread over a relatively large class of infants conceived after immigration. Social contact with a large number of females. The data did not show the relation between agonistic rank and mating success predicted by ALTMANN'S priority-of-access model. A modification of the model is presented, which allows for coalition formation among males that are too low in rank to be successful on their own. This model could not fully explain, however, the exceptional success of some middle ranking males. The theory of Coalition games can give insight in the processes that lead to distributions of mating success that depart from the modified priority-of-acces model. The lack of agreement between the data and the original priority-of-access model cannot be explained by higher selectivity of the high ranking males. The only qualitative parameter of consorts obtained, according to which high ranking males had an advantage, is the time of the day on which mating activity takes place. This is a direct result of the way in which males obtain their consorts. Consorts are often formed in the sleeping trees during the night or in the early morning. In that situation single, strong males have an advantage in conflicts against coalitions of lower ranking males. Lower ranking males have a relative advantage later in the day, when conflicts are fought out on the ground.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging was successfully used to study the activation of the motor cortices during retrieval of Japanese ideogram, kanji. The subjects performed kanji completion tasks to generate a kanji in response to an element which is always written first. In most of the subjects, the contralateral premotor cortex, the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and the bilateral intraparietal sulcus were activated during retrieval of kanji without actual writing nor intentional mental writing. Activation associated with actual writing was shown in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex and the SMA proper. These results suggested that retrieval of kanji would share the neural basis of motor representation with writing of kanji except for regions directly working for motor output.


Evidence continues to grow that KRAS, once considered an "undruggable" target, can be targeted successfully in non-small cell lung cancer. In a phase I trial, the KRASG12C inhibitor sotorasib elicited responses in about a third of patients with the disease and was generally well tolerated.


The RCA lineage of the marine Roseobacter group represents one of the slow-growing but dominant components of marine microbial communities. Although dozens of roseophages have been characterized, no phages infecting RCA strains have been reported. In this study, we reported on the first RCA phage genomes and investigated their distribution pattern and relative abundance in comparison with other important marine phage groups. Two of the four RCA phage groups were found closely related to previously reported SAR116 phage HMO-2011 and Cobavirus group roseophages, respectively. The remaining two groups are novel in the genome contents. Our study also revealed that RCA phages are widely distributed and exhibit high abundance in marine viromic data sets. Altogether, our findings have greatly broadened our understanding of RCA phages and emphasize the ecological and evolutionary importance of RCA phages in the marine virosphere. ABSTRACT Many major marine bacterial lineages such as SAR11, Prochlorococcus, SAR116, and several Roseobacter lineages have members that are abundant, relatively slow-growing, and genome streamlined. The isolation of phages that infect SAR11 and SAR116 have demonstrated the dominance of these phages in the marine virosphere. However, no phages have been isolated from bacteria in the Roseobacter RCA lineage, another abundant group of marine bacteria. In this study, seven RCA phages that infect three different RCA strains were isolated and characterized. All seven RCA phages belong to the Podoviridae family and have genome sizes ranging from 39.6 to 58.1 kb. Interestingly, three RCA phages (CRP-1, CRP-2, and CRP-3) show similar genomic content and architecture as SAR116 phage HMO-2011, which represents one of the most abundant known viral groups in the ocean. The high degree of homology among CRP-1, CRP-2, CRP-3, and HMO-2011 resulted in the contribution of RCA phages to the dominance of the HMO-2011-type group. CRP-4 and CRP-5 are similar to the Cobavirus group roseophages in terms of gene content and organization. The remaining two RCA phages, CRP-6 and CRP-7, show limited genomic similarity with known phages and represent two new phage groups. Metagenomic fragment recruitment analyses reveal that these RCA phage groups are much more abundant in the ocean than most existing marine roseophage groups. The characterization of these RCA phages has greatly expanded our understanding of the genomic diversity and evolution of marine roseophages and suggests the critical need for isolating phages from the abundant but "unculturable" bacteria. IMPORTANCE The RCA lineage of the marine Roseobacter group represents one of the slow-growing but dominant components of marine microbial communities. Although dozens of roseophages have been characterized, no phages infecting RCA strains have been reported. In this study, we reported on the first RCA phage genomes and investigated their distribution pattern and relative abundance in comparison with other important marine phage groups. Two of the four RCA phage groups were found closely related to previously reported SAR116 phage HMO-2011 and Cobavirus group roseophages, respectively. The remaining two groups are novel in the genome contents. Our study also revealed that RCA phages are widely distributed and exhibit high abundance in marine viromic data sets. Altogether, our findings have greatly broadened our understanding of RCA phages and emphasize the ecological and evolutionary importance of RCA phages in the marine virosphere.


F ROM the standpoint of the volume of literature, diversity of therapeutic indications and duration of use, mercury in its various forms has no equal among the commonly used drugs of today. Inorganic mercury was employed for its diuretic properties in the sixteenth century.' Many references have been made to the combined use of digitalis and mercurous chloride. However, the policy of continuing the administration of mercury until stomatitis appeared was responsible for a decline in its popularity until fairly recently. There were no really significant advances in the use of mercurial diuretics until 1917, when an organic mercurial compound, Novasurol (the double salt of sodium mercurichlorphenyl oxyacetate with diethyl barbituric acid), was introduced by Zeiler as an antisyphilitic agent. In 1920 Saxl and Heilig2 first reported an accidental observation on the efficacy of Novasurol as a diuretic. Extensive search for organic mercurial diuretics of less toxicity resulted in the introduction of several such compounds. Of the more commonly used preparations, Salyrgan (sodium [o-(hydroxy-mercuric-methoxylpropyl carbamyl) phenoxyl-acetate) was introduced in 1924, then Mercupurin (Mercuzanthin; sodium trimethyl cyclopentane dicarbonic acid methoxy mercury allylamide theophylline), Mercuhydrin (sodium salt of methoxy-oxymercuripropylsuccinylurea with


The COVID-19 lockdown had a series of intended and unintended consequences, including reduced infections, changes in activities and work practices. Some of these changes may have been beneficial to perinatal outcomes, however other factors such as reduced access to face-to-face healthcare and/or reluctance to attend hospital for fear of exposure to infection may have contributed negatively to antenatal care. A systematic review suggests that preterm births have not significantly changed overall, but they have decreased in high-income countries. The aim of this audit was to compare neonatal admissions in the South West of England during 2020 to 2018 and 2019. Anonymised birth and neonatal admission rates from January-December 2020 was obtained and compared to data from 2018–2019. The results demonstrate a decreasing of neonatal unit admissions between 2018–2020 (p = 0.002). However, the reduction in neonatal unit admissions is observed from 2018 and there were no significant differences across gestational groups. It is unclear without nationwide data whether the trends observed in our audit are generalisable and related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the data have clinical significance and revisiting clinical practices like organisational and workforce issues is warranted. Future research exploring the impact of lockdowns on behaviour change during pregnancy is required to understand the reality of pregnancy and preterm birth.


Studies on the bioavailability of As, Cr, Cu, Pb, Mn and Cd of impacted soils; the As bioaccesibility in the edible parts of carrots, beets and quinoa growing in these polluted soils thought "in vitro" gastrointestinal process; the As speciation both in the edible parts of vegetables and in their gastrointestinal extracts have been performed. Elemental analysis and As speciation have been performed by ICP-MS and LC-ICP-MS, respectively. The high As contents in the interchangeable and oxidized fractions of soil may be responsible for the high As species content in these high vegetables consumption. The Arsenic recovery after the in vitro gastrointestinal digestion was from 98, 90 and 40% for carrots, beets and quinoa, respectively; with no significant transformation of original As species. These studies provide a clearer understanding of the impact that As and other contaminant elements may present in the population of this high polluted Chilean region


Phlebotomus argentipes is the main suspected vector for leishmaniasis in Sri Lanka. Investigations on the presence of aerobic bacteria in the gut of sand flies which evidence a potential approach to control leishmaniasis transmission through a paratransgenic strategy are still not available for the local sand fly populations. Field-caught unfed female sand flies collected from three selected Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas (Polpithigama, Maho, and Galgamuwa) in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka from August to December 2018 were used. Prokaryotic 16S ribosomal RNA partial gene was amplified and sequenced. Morphological identification revealed the presence of only one sand fly species, P. argentipes (n = 1,969). A total of 20 organisms belonging to two phyla (Proteobactericea and Furmicutes) were detected within the gut microbial community of the studied sand fly specimens. This study documents the first-ever observation of Rhizobium sp. in the midgut of P. argentipes. The presence of Bacillus megaterium, which is considered as a nonpathogenic bacterium with potential use for paratransgenic manipulation of P. argentipes suggest that it may be used as a delivery vehicle to block the vectorial transmission of Leishmania parasites. In addition, Serratia marcescens may be used as a potential candidate to block the parasite development in sand fly vectors since it has evidenced antileishmanial activities in previous investigations. Hence, further studies are required to gain full insight into the potential use of this bacterium in the control of Leishmania parasites through paratransgenesis.


As a reaction on bankruptcy and financial scandals of the important international corporations, the Congress U.S.A. issued in 2002 a new law - Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The important part of it deals with the regulation of auditor profession by means of a new established institution - PCAOB. This paper is a disputation with an opinion that this institution could contribute significantly to rectification. The right reason dwells in generally accepted shareholder theory, which economists and managers consider as only legit and scientific. But this theory is not neutral as it has a powerful ideological background and undesirable economical and social subsequences. Paper alerts on the existence of stakeholder theory, acceptation of which could contribute to resolution of these problems.


River floodplains are the dominant wetland habitat in the Amazon river basin, providing important habitation for aquatic flora and fauna, and playing a key role in sustaining regional fish production. The annual inundation pulse has been identified as the dominant environmental factor affecting aquatic biota on the floodplain, and the characteristics of this pulse, in terms of timing, duration and amplitude, vary spatially on the floodplain as a function of fluctuations in river stage height and topography. River floodplains are furthermore globally significant sources of methane (CH 4 ) and other trace gases essential to climate regulation. Refined information on wetland distributions and dynamics are currently needed to improve estimates of habitat availability and to calculate regional contributions of trace gases, especially CH 4, to the troposphere. This paper describes how multitemporal time series of spaceborne L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Japanese Earth Resource Satellite 1 (JERS-1) were used to generate a model of the spatial and temporal variation of inundation on the floodplain of a typical black water river in the Central Brazilian Amazon and how this model was utilized, together with in situ measurements of river stage heights and CH4 fluxes, to model regional estimates of CH 4 emissions. We also demonstrate how a JERS-1 SAR time series can be used to map the spatial variation of flood duration on the floodplain, a key factor controlling local variations in plant biodiversity. For both applications, the availability of adequate time series of satellite sensor data is the prime factor affecting the reliability and accuracy of the flood models and the spatial details of the flood duration map. The availability of in situ data, especially daily river height measurements, was also critical for the development of the flooding model and for the subsequent decoupling of the model from the satellite sensor data.


Satellite‐geodetic altimetry investigations in the Karakoram have indicated slight mass gain or loss of the glaciers during the early part of 21st century. Equivalent discharge in the upper Indus Basin due to these mass changes has been estimated at 5 to 10% of mean annual flow. However, satellite altimetry and geodetic glacier mass estimates in the extreme topography of the Karakoram have not yet been counter‐validated by hydrological analysis. Therefore, we present a first cross validation of three to five decades of river flow data from the three major watersheds in the Karakoram, with matching series of monthly precipitation, temperature, and evaporation provided by six atmospheric reanalysis products for 1979–2014. The analyses suggest that in most cases river flows have been increasing steadily from the end of the 1960s and 1970s to the middle of the 1990s and have stabilized or are in decline since then. Hunza watershed in Karakoram West shows consistently declining flows over the first half of the analysis period and stable flows during the second half for most of the summer melting season, suggesting mass accumulation. Rising river flows in the Shyok and Shigar watersheds, followed by stabilizing or slightly declining flows from 1995 onward, can be explained by consistently increasing precipitation during the first half of the analysis period, and successive stabilization or minor decline thereof. Flow data do not necessarily suggest considerable loss or gain of glacial mass in the Karakoram during the late 90s and early 2000s as suggested by satellite‐based altimetry studies.


Background. There is a growing interest in the use of Euphorbia hirta Linn. as herbal remedy for dengue, supposedly based on folkloric practice. However, there has been no ethnobotanical documentation of such use in the Philippines. Because of this, the medical community cautions the public against the sole use of E. hirta in treating dengue.
General Objective. To describe the ethnomedicinal uses of Euphorbia hirta Linn. In selected communities in the Philippines.
Specific Objectives. (1) To identify the vernacular names of the plant; (2) to identify the earliest known use of the plant against dengue infection and for other indications; (3) to document the methods of preparation and administration, side effects, and contraindications of use.
Methods. Cross-sectional descriptive design using the snowball sampling of interviewer-guided key informants for the ethnobotanical interview.
Limitations. The results of this study may be limited by its convenient sampling design and the use of plant pictures with different magnifications.
Results and Conclusion. Majority of the respondents were female (93%), 41-60 years old (39%), had high school education (43%), and resided in Quezon City (31%). The plant is locally known as tawatawa, butobutonesan, malagatas, and mangagaw. It has been used to treat fever in the Philippines as early as 1948. Its use as a treatment for dengue started only in the 1980s. The plant is either squeezed, crushed, or boiled, and is administered topically or orally. The only reported side-effect is increased urinary frequency.
Recommendations. It is recommended that more comprehensive and large scale studies be conducted, including: (1) identification of folkloric uses of E. hirta for the treatment of other diseases; (2) determination of different concentrations of extract (crude or semicrude) using the various reported preparations for optimal outcomes for the different reported medicinal uses.


Speech acoustics vary due to differences in age, gender, vocal tract length, microphone, and so on. The authors recently proposed a structural and abstract representation of speech, where these variations were effectively removed. This representation captures only dynamics of speech. In our previous study, using this abstract representation, a new framework of speech synthesis was proposed and some fundamental investigations were carried out. In this new framework, an utterance is modeled using two separate attributes; one corresponding to what is known as speech Gestalt, which is a speaker-invariant speech form, and the other to the embodiment seen in vocal tubes, which characterizes speaker differences. Acoustic signals are generated by using the Gestalt as constraint conditions and the vocal tube embodiment as initial conditions. In other words, the Gestalt can be acoustically realized only when the speaker's embodiment is provided. This new framework can be regarded as an implementation of infants' vocal imitation. In this study, by following the initial investigations, we improve accuracy and efficiency in acoustic realization of the Gestalt based on a structural cost function. Experiments of generating continuous utterances of Japanese vowels show the validity of the proposed method.


In this paper, we present a novel approach for 3D hand tracking in real-time from a set of depth images. In each frame, our approach initializes hand pose with learning and then jointly optimizes the hand pose and shape. For pose initialization, we propose a gesture classification and root location network (GCRL), which can capture the meaningful topological structure of the hand to estimate the gesture and root location of the hand. With the per-frame initialization, our approach can rapidly recover from tracking failures. For optimization, unlike most existing methods that have been using a fixed-size hand model or manual calibration, we propose a hand gesture-guided optimization strategy to estimate pose and shape iteratively, which makes the tracking results more accuracy. Experiments on three challenging datasets show that our proposed approach achieves similar accuracy as state-of-the-art approaches, while runs on a low computational resource (without GPU).


In recent years, several ontology-based systems have been developed for data integration purposes. The principal task of these systems is to accomplish an ontology alignment process capable of matching two ontologies used for modeling heterogeneous data sources. Unfortunately, in order to perform an efficient ontology alignment, it is necessary to address a nested issue known as ontology meta-matching problem consisting in appropriately setting some regulating parameters. Over years, evolutionary algorithms are appeared to be the most suitable methodology to address this problem. However, almost all of existing approaches work with a single function to be optimized even though a possible solution for the ontology meta-matching problem can be viewed as a compromise among different objectives. Therefore, approaches based on multi-objective optimization are emerging as techniques more efficient than conventional evolutionary algorithms in solving the meta-matching problem. The aim of this paper is to perform a systematic comparison among well-known multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) in order to study their effects in solving the meta-matching problem. As shown through computational experiments, among the compared multi-objective EAs, OMOPSO statistically provides the best performance in terms of the well-known measures such as hypervolume, Δ index and coverage of two sets.


This article deals with the varieties of French spoken down to our own day by the descendants of the two historic Jewish populations established in Southern France. The first of these two populations was located in Southeastern France and comprised Jews of the former Papal State of Avignon and the adjacent territories formerly known as Comtat Venaissin. The second, located in Southwestern France is of more recent vintage, having been founded in the sixteenth century by descendants of fugitives from the Iberian Inquisitions. Today neither of these two groups numbers more than a few dozen individuals. The unique varieties of French, which they use and which have replaced former varieties of Provencal and Gascon, are teetering on the verge of extinction. Hitherto there has been little systematic study of these dialects. But today, realizing their status as endangered languages, we claim that it is urgent to record and chronicle as much of them as possible. Here we provide a description based upon extant written documents and the results of an ongoing in loco investigation. This is followed by a linguistic analysis of the material, taking into account inter alia the phonetics, the phonology and the constructional morphology of the specific vocabulary. This study is then complemented by a sociolinguistic outline of the situations of use of this heretofore almost neglected linguistic material. The conclusions of our study are that, despite the apparent relationship between these two varieties, their patterns of linguistic divergence are deeply differentiated, hence our doubts about the legitimacy of a single and common denomination, i. e. of "Jewish varieties" or "Jewish languages", for such unrelated linguistic mechanisms.


Due to rapid advances in technology, social networks have become important platforms for daily communication, product marketing, and information dissemination. Targeted delivery of social network advertisement can considerably improve the efficacy of the advertisement and maximize the profits from it. In this context, managing the specific audience of a social network advertisement and achieving targeted advertisement delivery have been the ultimate goals of the social network advertising sector. Identifying user groups with similar properties is critical to increasing targeted sales. When both the scale of mobile social network and the coplexity of social network user behaviors grow, similar groups are hidden in user behaviors. In order to analyze community structure with user trust relationship more appropriately in the large-scale multilevel social network environment, a novel local community detection model E-MLCD is proposed in this paper. It is jointly based on the multilevel properties and the strength of similarity of multilevel social interaction among communities. By studying three real-world multilevel social networks and specific QQ Zone marketing data, the model defines a new metric of community trust based on similarity. Comparison between other stateof-the-art detection methods demonstrate E-MLCD's ability to detect communities more effectively.


Issues relating to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have taken a centre stage in modern societies. Strategic accent of CSR is strongly emphasized by the new EU Communication on CSR that was issued in October 2011 which puts forward a new understanding of CS. This understanding no longer refers to CSR as a voluntary action beyond compliance but highlights that every corporation causes impacts which it is then responsible for. Contemplation of the concept of corporate social responsibility as a derivative of certain conditions markets create, thus determining the nature of relations between various stakeholders, positions it in the context of major forces in today's economic and social changes. In order to assess voluntary practices of Croatian companies, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development started developing a benchmarking methodology, which was launched in 2008 in the form of the CSR index of Croatian public and private enterprises. The used methodology for index development was context based, although it was initiated in accordance with similar comparative methodologies such as BITC CR Index. Since 2008, the index was revised, improved and conducted on an every year basis through a voluntary questionnaire that covers six different fields. The principle goal of the project of CSR index was to accelerate development of CSR as a strategic integration tool among Croatian companies and foster a knowledge sharing process among its participants. In this paper we will describe how a project evolved from an idea to an ongoing important national project, and how all stakeholders involved in that process tried to build a benchmark of acceptable corporate behavior among all participants involved.


Several studies have been conducted in the last decades aiming to obtain an anti-caries vaccine, however some studies have demonstrated cross reactivity between Streptococcus mutans surface antigens and the human cardiac tissue. In this work, the reactivity of five anti-Streptococcus mutans monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) (24A, 56G, C8, E8 and F6) was tested against oral streptococci, cardiac antigens and skeletal and cardiac myosins, aiming to evaluate the specificity of these MoAb. The hybrid producers of immunoglobulins of the IgG2b class were cloned by limit dilution and expanded in vivo. MoAb were tested by ELISA. The hybrid 24A reacted with S. mutans CCT 1910, S. salivarius CCT 0365 and S. pyogenes T23. No reactivity difference was observed among the tested species. Cross reactivity with heart and cardiac myosin was not confirmed and only reaction with myosin of skeletal muscle was observed (p = 0.0381). The hybrid 56G reacted with all the tested microorganisms and there was statistically significant difference between S. mutans and S. pyogenes T23 (p < 0.001). This hybrid also reacted with myosin of skeletal muscle (p = 0.0095). C8, E8 and F6 presented low reactivity against oral streptococci strains and no reactivity against cardiac antigens. The data of this study showed that the 24A and 56G anti-S. mutans MoAb presented reactivity with S. pyogenes and S. salivarius, reinforcing the occurrence of common antigens between these species. The tested MoAb presented low cross-reactivity with myosin of skeletal muscle, but anti-heart activity could not be confirmed.


In the current study, three different photo-assisted sources were used to evaluate the photo-Fenton oxidation process for the pollutant degradation of mature landfill leachate. Solar, UV, and LED visible light photo sources were adopted in this Fenton process. Fenton dosages (FeSO4 : H2O2) 1:30, 1.5:30, 2:30, and 2.5:30g/L were used in the investigation, which was conducted under a variety of pH settings (2 to 3.5) and at experimental reaction duration of 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. To analyze and compare the efficiency of the solar, UV, and LED visible light photo Fenton processes for pollutant degradation, Taguchi experimental design orthogonal arrays (L16) was employed. To analyse the significance of this experimental design for landfill leachate treatment, Larger the Better was selected. The highest levels of pollutant degradation in the Solar Photo Fenton method was identified when compared to UV, and LED visible light photo Fenton processes. The maximum removal of 95% color, 83% COD, 89% TSS, 94% Cr, 86% Cd, and 93% Cu was achieved in Solar Photo Fenton process at pH-3, Fenton dosage 1.5:30 g/L and reaction period 60 minutes.


The aim of this study was to assess the impact of obesity and low birth weight on both office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) values, as well as on aortic-derived parameters in youths. A total of 422 white youths, from 10 to 18 years of age, were included. Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to the presence (234; 55%) or the absence (188; 45%) of obesity and according to low (114; 27%) or normal (308; 73%, birth weight. Spacelabs 90207 was used to measure ambulatory BP during a 24-hour period. SphygmoCor radial/aortic transform software was used to estimate aortic pressure waveform. Office, 24-hour, daytime, and nighttime systolic BP values were significantly higher in those subjects with low birth weight who became obese. The lowest BP values were present in nonobese subjects in the absence of low birth weight. In the middle, with similar BP values, were nonobese subjects with low birth weight and obese subjects in the absence of low birth weight. No interaction existed between obesity and low birth weight in the office (P=0.165) or ambulatory (P=0.603) systolic BP values. Augmentation index, an estimate of the pulse wave reflection, was significantly higher in the nonobese low birth weight group when compared with the other groups after controlling for height, heart rate, and diastolic BP. A significant interaction between low birth weight and obesity (P<0.005) existed. In conclusion, although the low birth weight children who become obese have the highest systolic BP values, the presence of obesity blunts the increment of the reflecting wave observed in low birth weight subjects.


Local authorities have played an important role in the Swedish model of the Welfare State. This state is characterised by high levels of welfare provision paid for through general taxation, the rates of which are very high and the application of uniform standards across the entire country based on the principles of equity and fairness. The main form of income for local authorities is a Local Income Tax which is paid by 85% of the population. In the 1980s and 1990s, Sweden went through an economic crisis which resulted in significant changes to the tax system, although the Local Income Tax was retained. Subsequent changes have followed a pendulum process, with deregulation of local government finances in the 1990s being followed by greater regulation in the following years. Today, Sweden is conducting a major debate about the role and functions of different levels of government in the light of social, economic and political changes in the international scene.


Low-cost hierarchical porous carbon materials with a controllable structure and high specific surface area as well as large pore volume were synthesized by a one-step route involving SnO2@chitosan precursor carbonization and subsequent SnO2 template removal. We found that when HPC CISC-29 is applied as the electrode in the supercapacitor device, it exhibits both high specific capacity (260.4 F g−1) and excellent rate capacitance retention (81.9%) from 0.1 A g−1 to 10 A g−1. CISC-29 shows superiority compared to conventional activated carbons for which specific capacitance and capacitance retention are 100–200 F g−1 and 60–70%, respectively. Solid-state NMR and NLDFT porosity distribution results reveal that the high specific capacitance is most likely associated with the optimized hierarchical porous structure, e.g. rich small-size micropores and their good connection with large-size mesopores. Finally, CISC-29 was complexed with Se to construct a cathode for lithium selenium batteries. Se@CISC-29 shows excellent performance with a specific capacity of 1207.0 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1.


Genomic and functional analyses of staphylococcal strain specificity reveal roles for microbes in human atopic dermatitis pathogenesis. Diving into the depths of atopic dermatitis The genus Staphylococcus is a known component of atopic dermatitis. In this issue, Byrd et al. used shotgun metagenomic sequencing to analyze the species and strains present at baseline and during flares in pediatric atopic dermatitis. They observed that patients with more mild disease had more Staphylococcus epidermidis detected in flares and that those with severe disease were colonized by dominant clonal Staphylococcus aureus strains. S. aureus strains from patients were applied to mouse skin, and strains from severe flares induced T cell expansion and epidermal thickening. These results highlight that not all Staphylococcus can be considered the same, even at the strain level, when it comes to atopic dermatitis pathogenesis. The heterogeneous course, severity, and treatment responses among patients with atopic dermatitis (AD; eczema) highlight the complexity of this multifactorial disease. Prior studies have used traditional typing methods on cultivated isolates or sequenced a bacterial marker gene to study the skin microbial communities of AD patients. Shotgun metagenomic sequence analysis provides much greater resolution, elucidating multiple levels of microbial community assembly ranging from kingdom to species and strain-level diversification. We analyzed microbial temporal dynamics from a cohort of pediatric AD patients sampled throughout the disease course. Species-level investigation of AD flares showed greater Staphylococcus aureus predominance in patients with more severe disease and Staphylococcus epidermidis predominance in patients with less severe disease. At the strain level, metagenomic sequencing analyses demonstrated clonal S. aureus strains in more severe patients and heterogeneous S. epidermidis strain communities in all patients. To investigate strain-level biological effects of S. aureus, we topically colonized mice with human strains isolated from AD patients and controls. This cutaneous colonization model demonstrated S. aureus strain–specific differences in eliciting skin inflammation and immune signatures characteristic of AD patients. Specifically, S. aureus isolates from AD patients with more severe flares induced epidermal thickening and expansion of cutaneous T helper 2 (TH2) and TH17 cells. Integrating high-resolution sequencing, culturing, and animal models demonstrated how functional differences of staphylococcal strains may contribute to the complexity of AD disease.


Diabetes Mellitus is also known as a disease related to food intake, both as a causal factor and treatment. Diabetes is increasing every year. The worldwide commonness of Diabetes among grown-ups is expanding and happening quicker in the center world. Until 2020 when the age of the Indonesian population over 20 years reached the number of 178 million people and assuming the number of people with Diabetes Mellitus 4%, the proportion of cases of Diabetes Mellitus from 2018 to 2019 increased to 2546 cases from all Community Health Center in Kendari City. This analysis could be a sort of quantitative analysis with a cross-sectional style. The population in this study is all new cases of Diabetes Mellitus patients who conducted examinations or treatment at the Labibia Health Center Kendari city as many as 107 people and samples in this study took 52 people with accidental sampling techniques. The statistical test used was Chi-square with a 95% confidence level. The results showed that the diet about diabetes mellitus in the sufficient category was 19.2%, and the less category was 80.8%. In comparison, the exposure to sources of information about diabetes mellitus in the sufficient category was 46.2%, and the less category was 53.8%. The analysis results also show a significant relationship between diet and Diabetes Mellitus, as evidenced by the p-value = 0.036 ( = 0.05), and exposure to information sources with Diabetes Mellitus as evidenced by the p-value = 0.012 ( = 0.012 value). 0.05).

Keywords: diet, exposure to information sources, diabetes mellitus.


Objective. To evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for labor stimulation. Methods. Nulliparous women at 38 weeks or greater were randomized to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or usual care only groups. Acupuncture points LI4, SP6, BL32, and BL54 were needled bilaterally. The primary outcome was time from enrollment to delivery. Secondary outcomes included rates of spontaneous labor and cesarean delivery. Medical records were abstracted for maternal demographic, medical, and delivery outcome data. ANOVA, Student's t-test, Chi-square, and Kaplan–Meier statistics were used to compare groups. Results. Eighty-nine women were enrolled and randomized. Maternal age, gestational age, prior acupuncture experience, tobacco, alcohol and drug use, gravida, and history of gynecological surgery were similar among the groups. There were no statistically significant differences among groups for time from enrollment to delivery (p = 0.20), rates of spontaneous labor (p = 0.66), or rates of cesarean delivery (p = 0.37). Rates of maternal and neonatal outcomes were not significantly different. Conclusion. TCM acupuncture was not effective in initiating spontaneous labor or reducing the rate of cesarean delivery compared with sham acupuncture or usual medical care.


PURPOSE
To relate different types of radiographic contrast material distributions to anatomic compartments by using cadaveric specimens and to relate the injection site to treatment-induced discomfort and therapeutic effect.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The contrast material distributions of selective nerve root blocks (SNRBs) in 36 patients (13 women, 23 men; mean age, 52 years; age range, 22-88 years) were graded by two radiologists in conference as type 1 (tubular appearance), type 2 (nerve root visible as filling defect), or type 3 (nerve root not visible). These patterns were correlated with pain reduction after 15 minutes and 2 weeks (with a visual analogue scale of 100-mm length). In addition, 30 nerve roots were injected with iodine-containing contrast material and blue dye in three cadaveric specimens. Radiographs were compared with anatomic sections.

RESULTS
After 15 minutes and 2 weeks, 75% and 86% of the patients, respectively, reported pain relief. Mean pain relief length after 15 minutes for type 1 distribution was 60 mm; for type 2, 44 mm; and for type 3, 22 mm; and after 2 weeks, it was 34 mm for type 1, 31 mm for type 2, and 57 mm for type 3. There was no correlation between early and late response. Pain during intervention was less pronounced in type 2 injection, compared with type 1 (P = .002). On the basis of anatomic sections, type 1 injection was intraepineural; type 2, extraepineural; and type 3, paraneural.

CONCLUSION
Therapeutic SNRB is effective in sciatica, but early response does not predict the effect after 2 weeks. Type 1 injections are more painful than type 2 injections.