Background and Purpose— We sought to examine the relationship between menstrual and reproductive factors and the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), using a case-control study. Methods— Cases consisted of a consecutive series of 124 women patients with first spontaneous SAH aged 30 to 79 years and confirmed aneurysm(s) by angiography and/or CT scan. Hospital and community controls subjects were identified, matched to each case by age (±2 years). Results— Increased SAH risk was associated with (1) earlier age at menarche (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=3.24 for age <13 years compared with age ≥13 years; 95% CI, 1.25 to 4.03) and (2) nulligravidity (adjusted OR=4.23; 95% CI, 1.05 to 7.56). No significant association of SAH risk was found with regularity of menstrual cycle, age at pregnancy, age at first birth, and number of births. The greatest risk was for the combined effect of nulligravidity and earlier menarche (<13 years) (adjusted OR=6.37; 95% CI, 1.12 to 36.2). Conclusions— The combined effect of severa...


SUMMARY
The study methodology and regulatory frameworks for real-world data collection is quickly evolving, opening new avenues to use valid and robust real-world evidence (RWE) to support regulatory decision making. Although the Food and Drug Administration has historically accepted specific applications of RWE to support regulatory determinations, significant progress has been made in recent years to examine conditions in which this information can be used to support specific types of premarket decisions. Of note, hybrid study designs that incorporate aspects of randomized clinical trials, including randomization and pragmatic outcomes, are expected to be a driving factor to accelerate the adoption of RWE in regulatory contexts. Generation of RWE to better understand effectiveness and safety of orthopaedic- and trauma-related devices requires careful planning, but it is achievable as demonstrated by the Bioventus Observational Non-Interventional EXOGEN Studies (BONES) clinical development program. This article examines the role of RWE in regulatory decision making and reviews key concepts in RWE study design methodology to facilitate creation of valid scientific evidence in support of marketing authorizations.


The development of new solid-state active elements, such as variable-capacitor diodes and tunnel diodes, has stimulated the network theorist to consider the negative resistor as an additional basic circuit element to be included in problems of linear network analysis and synthesis. In this paper it is first shown that if the negative resistor is added to the usual set of lumped passive building blocks, then it is possible to represent as a network any linear relation between n-port voltages and currents prescribed in terms of real, rational functions of a complex-frequency variable. This leads to the synthesis of some novel pathologic circuits which have neither immittance nor scattering representations, such as a one-port, which is simultaneously an open circuit and a short circuit (v=i=0, the "nullator"), and the linear network in which voltages and currents at the ports are completely arbitrary (the "norator," the unique, linear nonreciprocal, one-port). These elements are shown to be basic linear circuit building blocks. The second part of the paper considers the synthesis in the frequency domain of a real, rational n×n immitance matrix in which pole locations and pole multiplicities are completely arbitrary. It is shown that such a matrix can always be realized with lossless elements and at most n positive and n negative resistors.


Introduction Education for sustainable development (ESD) has focused on the promotion of sustainable thinking skills, capacities, or abilities for learners of different educational stages. Critical thinking (CT) plays an important role in the lifelong development of college students, which is also one of the key competencies in ESD. The development of a valuable framework for assessing college students' CT is important for understanding their level of CT. Therefore, this study aimed to construct a reliable self-evaluation CT framework for college students majoring in the humanities. Methods Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Item analysis were conducted to explore the reliability and validity of the CT evaluation framework. Six hundred and forty-two college students majoring in the humanities were collected. The sample was randomly divided into two subsamples (n1 = 321, n2 = 321). Results The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.909, and the values of the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for individual factors of the scale ranged from 0.724 to 0.878. Then CFA was conducted within the scope of the validity study of the scale. In this way, the structure of the 7-factor scale was confirmed. Results indicated that the constructed evaluation framework performed consistently with the collected data. CFA also confirmed a good model fitting of the relevant 22 factors of the college students' CT framework (χ2/df = 3.110, RMSEA = 0.056, GFI = 0.927, AGFI = 0.902, NFI = 0.923, and CFI = 0.946). Discussion These findings revealed that the CT abilities self-evaluation scale was a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the CT abilities of college students in the humanities. Therefore, the college students' CT self-evaluation framework included three dimensions: discipline cognition (DC), CT disposition, and CT skills. Among them, CT disposition consisted of motivation (MO), attention (AT), and open-mindedness (OM), while CT skills included clarification skills (CS), organization skills (OS), and reflection (RE). Therefore, this framework can be an effective instrument to support college students' CT measurement. Consequently, some suggestions are also put forward regarding how to apply the instrument in future studies.


Background: Transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) is a promising delivery system that provides controlled drug release at a predetermined time. It has many advantages such as bypassing first-pass effect, increase patient convenience by providing single application rather than multiple dosing frequencies, and extends the action of short half-life drugs. There are three ways for drug penetration into the skin either via appendageal (shunt routes), intracellular route, and intercellular route. Permeation of drug substances through the stratum corneum remains a great challenge because it is the rate-limiting step for permeation for most molecules. Aim: This review article highlights the advances and limitations of the strategies to enhance transdermal delivery of the drugs into the skin, including both physical and chemical methods. Conclusion: The transdermal drug delivery system represents a good alternative for oral and parenteral therapy. Various penetration enhancing strategies have been successfully employed to enhance the permeation of low molecular weight molecules. For high molecular weight molecules, physical strategies such as microneedles can be used.


Objective: To know the experience of families and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) regarding the disease and the therapeutic itinerary to the public health care system. Methods: Qualitative exploratory research conducted from August to September 2015. Participants were ten adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus and their family members who participated directly in their care in three Health Centers of Santa Catarina - Brazil. Open interviews were carried out with adolescents and their family members in addition to field observation. Data underwent thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in the construction of three categories: feelings experienced after the discovery of the disease; living with type 1 diabetes mellitus and; health care system in monitoring the person with DM1. Results: The discovery of the disease is accompanied by concern and requires changes in the routine of the whole family. The biggest challenge relates to adjusting eating habits. Acceptance of the disease is complicated by the adolescence condition and living with diabetes is riddled with doubts about the future. In the health care system, the therapeutic choices of families and adolescents are focused on specialized care. Conclusion: The constitution of the therapeutic itinerary of adolescents and family members is marked by the use of several resources that go beyond the boundaries of health services, which should be prepared to support families living with this condition.


The article discusses the results of the comparative analysis of motivational profiles of managers, who work in the construction industry with innovative materials and technologies. In Russian construction industry the innovative building materials and technologies are being introduced slowly because of many reasons: the absence of a clear state policy in construction industry, dependence on the estate market. The purchasing possibility of the population is low. However, the innovation requires an appropriate motivational spirit of managers: "Interest and usefulness", "Creativity", "Achievement", "Variety and change".


The present study was conducted to quantify that dry deciduous forests of Doon Valley have enormous carbon sequestration potential and therefore, biomass estimation of invasive shrub like Lantana along with dominant Sal trees can provide more accurate information about the forest biomass and carbon stock assessment. Variables like DBH and plant height for both Sal and Lantana were found to be more suitable for allometric equation and therefore used in the present study. The maximum Sal biomass was recorded from Thano forest (597.41 Mg ha -1 ) with a carbon density of 280.78 MgC ha -1 . The minimum Sal biomass was recorded from Golatappar forest (392.05 Mg ha -1 ) with carbon density of 184.26 MgC ha -1 . The mean total biomass of Sal was 494.65 Mg ha -1 with mean carbon density 232.48 Mg ha -1 from all study sites. The maximum shrub biomass (11.15 Mg ha -1 ) was recorded from Rajpur Forest periphery with a carbon density of 5.24 MgC ha -1 . The minimum shrub biomass (6.74 Mg ha -1 and carbon density (3.16 MgC ha -1 ) was recorded from Lachchiwala forest periphery. The total mean biomass of both Sal and Lantana accounted for 502.80 Mg ha -1 (494.65


Male breast cancer is an uncommon disease and its aetiology, clinical behaviour and treatment is not well-known . Retrospective studies show that age and stage-matched breast cancer in men and women are compared. Nevertheless, the poor mammary tissue in man allow a rapid local infiltration, late diagnosis and poor survival rate. The Authors report their five years experience and with a short literature review they summarise what is currently known about this uncommon neoplasm in terms of prognostic factors, therapy and survival.


The aim of this study was to determine the influence of maternal undernutrition (MUN) on maternal and offspring adrenal steoridogenic enzymes. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were 50% food-restricted from day 10 of gestation until delivery. Control animals received ad libitum food. Offspring were killed on day 1 of life (P1) and at 9 months. We determined the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of steroidogneic enzymes by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerized chain reaction (RT-PCR). Maternal undernutrition inhibited maternal adrenal expression of P450 cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A1), 11 beta-hydroxylase (CYP11B1), aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2), and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) receptor (ACTH-R; MC2 gene) compared with control offspring. There was a marked downregulation in the expression of CYP11B1, CYP11B2, 11 β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 and 2 (HSD1 and HSD2), CYP11A1, ACTH receptor, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (STAR), and mineralocorticoid receptor (MCR; NR3C2 gene) mRNA in P1 MUN offspring (both genders), with no changes in glucocorticoid receptor (GCR). Quantitative immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the PCR data for GCR and MCR in P1 offspring and demonstrated lower expression of leptin receptor protein (Ob-Ra/Ob-Rb) and mRNA in P1 MUN offspring. In 9-month adult male MUN offspring, the expression of HSD1, CYP11A1, CYP11B2, Ob-Ra/Ob-Rb, and GCR mRNA were significantly upregulated with a trend toward an increase in ACTH-R and a decrease in 17 alpha-hydroxylase (CYP17A1) expression. In adult female MUN offspring, similar to males, the expression of CYP11A1, ACTH-R, and Ob-Rb mRNA were increased, whereas GCR and CYP17A1 mRNA were decreased. These results indicate that the adrenal gland is a target of nutritional programming. In utero undernutrition has a global suppressive effect on maternal and P1 offspring adrenal steroidogenic enzymes in association with reduced circulating corticosterone levels in P1 offspring, which may be secondary to a negative feedback from elevated maternal GC levels and or leptin levels in MUN dams. Gender-specific differences in steroidogenic enzyme expression were found in adult MUN offspring. The common finding of increased ACTH receptor expression in MUN adults of both genders suggests an increased sensitivity of these offspring to stress.


The Eyes Absent (EYA) transactivator-phosphatase proteins are important contributors to cell-fate determination processes and to the development of multiple organs. The transcriptional regulatory activity as well as the protein tyrosine phosphatase activities of the EYA proteins can independently contribute to proliferation, differentiation, morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis in different contexts. Aberrant EYA levels or activity are associated with numerous syndromic and non-syndromic developmental disorders, as well as cancers. Commensurate with the multiplicity of biochemical activities carried out by the EYA proteins, they impact upon a range of cellular signaling pathways. Here, we provide a broad overview of the roles played by EYA proteins in development, and highlight the molecular signaling pathways known to be linked with EYA-associated organ development and developmental disorders.


Summary
The review outlines the increasing need to reduce trans fatty acids, and addresses the functionality issues of various trans free solutions through discussion of hydrogenation, interesterification, and fractionation, and their influence on fat crystallisation and solid fat content. Caution is urged not to focus solely on physio-chemical aspects, but to approach trans free designing for specific food applications from a multidisciplinary angle. Examples of specific applications; margarines, shortenings and frying oils are given. The review also offers a glimpse into what the future trans free trends may hold.


In this paper, an extended combined approach of phrase based statistical machine translation (SMT), example based MT (EBMT) and rule based MT (RBMT) is proposed to develop a novel hybrid data driven MT system capable of outperforming the baseline SMT, EBMT and RBMT systems from which it is derived. In short, the proposed hybrid MT process is guided by the rule based MT after getting a set of partial candidate translations provided by EBMT and SMT subsystems. Previous works have shown that EBMT systems are capable of outperforming the phrase-based SMT systems and RBMT approach has the strength of generating structurally and morphologically more accurate results. This hybrid approach increases the fluency, accuracy and grammatical precision which improve the quality of a machine translation system. A comparison of the proposed hybrid machine translation (HTM) model with renowned translators i.e. Google, BING and Babylonian is also presented which shows that the proposed model works better on sentences with ambiguity as well as comprised of idioms than others.


In this communication, a broadband reflective 90° polarization rotator metasurface is presented. The metasurface unit cell is composed of double-slit circular split ring resonator with a Swiss-cross in the middle. A horizontally-polarized normally incident wave is rotated by this metasurface into vertically-polarized wave and vice versa within 3dB fractional bandwidth of 66.6% from 5.7–11.4 GHz. The polarization conversion ratio (PCR) of the proposed polarization rotator is above 75% within the operating band. A broadband polarization rotation is realized because of multiple plasmon resonances at different frequencies.


We examine the contribution of economic and institutional transitions as two potential sources of subnational economic growth in Spain. To this end, we exploit the economic reforms of the 1959 Stabilization Plan (as an example of technocratic, economy-oriented reform) and the democratic transition in 1979 in Spain as the sources of variation for a sample of 50 Spanish provinces in the period 1950-2016. Our approach is to examine the impacts by estimating the missing counterfactual scenarios using the synthetic control method. Our results unveil a positive effect for both economic and institutional transitions on subnational economic growth. A direct comparison of both transitions suggests that the effect of economic liberalization is four-fold higher than the effect of political liberalization. The average growth effect of the economic liberalization is around 40% higher relative to the counterfactual scenario and it appears to be permanent. The estimated effects are robust to the variety of placebo tests and additional robustness checks. This article also deepens the analysis of the effects of the 1959 plan and finds that the policies that generated the most positive impact were those of an "internal" nature, compared to the external ones, dependent on access to the IMF (also positive, but of lesser impact).


We appreciate that the limits of medical discretion in penal execution have been clarified by the legislature with the law issued at August 26, 1999. From the point of view of a head of an institution, this law makes it possible to achieve acceptable results in any relevant case-combinations. The "circumspect head of an institution" should, as far as his general responsibilities allow, make use of his right to be informed in a very restricted way. This right is given by the particular conditions in penal execution. The implementation of this law within the institution requires the following: To inform the prisoners on the existing obligations and rights of information. To inform physicians working within institutions on a general level about existing duties without making provisions for particular cases. To name the recipients of information from the medical sector.


A system and method are provided which have the ability to print whole documents at a time, rather than page by page. The data for an entire multi-page document is fed directly to an output device, and then a print engine. The data stream includes a record layout including data field codes which tell the data system and/or raster image processor where to print strings of variable information in a document so that the strings only need be provided once even if printed in multiple places within the document. Data flows in the data stream to the print engine as the raster image processor functions in real time. The system has the capability to manipulate and transfer data at 10 Mbytes per second, which translate into a transfer rate of approximately 92,000 characters per second at up to 1,000 feet per minute print speeds, for up to six controllers. Either fixed or variable graphic elements may also be transferred in this same manner as the data and processed by the RIP in real time and printed at the same speed as the data.


Background: The national policy on malaria control recommends use of intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (IPT-SP) for chemoprophylaxis against malaria in pregnancy; and use of quinine and arthemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for acute treatment of malaria in the first, and second/third trimesters, respectively. In Nigeria, a large proportion of pregnant women are seen by the general practitioners (GPs). Objective: To determine the pattern of anti-malaria prescription in pregnancy among GPs in Enugu state, and access the level of conformity with the national policy on malaria control. Materials and Methods: Questionnaires were administered to a cross-section of 147 GPs that attended the 2010 Enugu state branch of the Nigeria Medical Association Scientific Conference/Annual General Meeting/Election. Results: The mean age of the GPs was 37 ± 3.6 (range 27-70) years. Quinine was the commonly (45.6% (n = 67)) prescribed anti-malaria drug in the first trimester while in the second/third trimester ACT was commonly (48.3% (n = 71)) prescribed. Seventy-six (51.7%) practitioners prescribed IPT-SP for chemoprophylaxis against malaria while the rest (48.3%) prescribed other drugs. GPs who obtained MBBS qualification less than or equal to 5 years prior to the survey were more likely to comply with the national policy on malaria control in their prescriptions (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The pattern of anti-malaria prescription among GPs in Enugu state is varied, and conformed poorly to the evidence-based national policy on malaria control. There is need for continuing professional development to keep the GPs abreast with current trends in malaria treatment during pregnancy.


The problem of dynamics of vibrating classifiers with rollers intended for sorting of loose materials is considered in the paper. The main goal of research consists in substantiation of a choice of such parameters of rollers and classifiers which provide a steady periodic mode of rollers rotation. Differential equations of rollers rotation under action of inertial forces are essentially nonlinear. These equations are transformed to equations concerning the value of delay of moving rollers concerning rotation of axles on which these rollers are freely suspended. As values of such delays is small, the equations of motion can be linearized with a sufficient degree of accuracy. The linearized equations represent the inhomogeneous Hill equations, which can be under certain conditions transformed into the Mathieu equations. Periodic solutions to these equations are obtained, and also stability of these solutions is investigated.


Background: Chronic total occlusion (CTO) represents the most technically challenging lesion subset for interventional cardiologists and remains undertreated with percutaneous techniques. Hypertension, a strong modifiable risk factor in coronary artery disease (CAD), is known to contribute to severity of CAD through several mechanisms such as shearing forces, reduced endothelial functions and vascular remodeling that aggravate coronary stenosis. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of hypertension on complexity of CTO lesions. Methods: It was an observational analytic study conducted on 122 patients who had CTO based on angiographic data in Hasan Sadikin Hospital within January 2015-December2016. Subjects were divided into hypertensive and non-hypertensive groups and compared with respect to components of Japan Chronic Total Occlusion (J-CTO) Score. Associations of hypertension and components of J-CTO Score were analyzed with Chi-Square test and difference of J-CTO Score between groups was analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Hypertension was found in 74 (60.7%) subjects. There were no significant different in term of age, BMI, gender, DM, smoking, dyslipidemia and family history between groups. Hypertension was found to be significantly associated with blunted entry shape (OR 2.625, CI 1.232–5.591, p = 0.011) and bending vessels more than 45° (OR 3.4, CI 1.4–8.299, p = 0.005). We found a significant difference in J-CTO Score between 2 groups (p = 0.000). Conclusion: Hypertension is found as a risk factor in majority of CTO subjects. Hypertensive patients are tends to have blunted entry shape, more than 45° bending vessels and have significantly different J-CTO Score compared to non-hypertensive patients.


One of the most important yardsticks for determining the existence of a banker-customer relationship is the maintenance of an account. There are various types of account a customer can open and maintain. 1 However, the type and nature of account opened and maintained by a customer gives rise to a number of legal issues and implications. Joint account is a special account which bears the names of more than one customer. There are a number of legal incidences or consequences that may arise from the contractual relationship of a banker and the joint account operators. These legal incidences range from the drawing rights, obligations and liability of the operators to the joinder or otherwise of joint account operators in legal proceedings, as well as the legal right of a survivor of the joint account holders; if one or more of the operators are deceased. The legal position and rights as well as the obligations of the survivor of joint account operators if the other is deceased is what is called the doctrine of joint account survivorship. The labyrinth of jurisprudential complexities created by case law and statues on the legal position of a joint account survivor are evidently numerous. This paper is an inquiry or a critical appraisal of the legal position, rights, and liabilities of a joint account survivor as well as a critique of the judicial mechanisms for ascertaining the legal position of a joint account contract. Keywords: Joint Account, Account Holder, Bank, Money


The quality grade of Mg ingots were raised when the smelting crucible was made of non-nickeled heat-erosion resistant steel.The use-life Span of the crucible lasted up to more than one year under normal peoridic serving condition around 850 ℃


Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong The skin is the largest organ of the body, and tumours of the skin represent a significant proportion of workload to dermatologists, plastic surgeons and other clinicians. Since cutaneous tumours are superficial and can be easily accessed, surgical procedures for diagnosis and treatment are commonly the first steps of management. The amount and extent of surgery done by an individual clinician vary according to one's experience and preference as well as the patient's perspective. The nature of the tumour, the location and underlying structure as well as the physical and psychological condition of the patients are to be seriously weighed. This article is divided into two parts, the principles of using different skin biopsy methods for diagnosis, the technique of excision and closure will be addressed in the first part while skin grafting and flap reconstruction that may be required when the defect cannot be closed primarily, the choice of suture material, the commonly encountered malignant and benign tumours will be discussed in the second part.


Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is a field that infers human activities from raw time-series signals acquired through embedded sensors of smartphones and wearable devices. It has gained much attraction in various smart home environments, especially to continuously monitor human behaviors in ambient assisted living to provide elderly care and rehabilitation. The system follows various operation modules such as data acquisition, pre-processing to eliminate noise and distortions, feature extraction, feature selection, and classification. Recently, various state-of-the-art techniques have proposed feature extraction and selection techniques classified using traditional Machine learning classifiers. However, most of the techniques use rustic feature extraction processes that are incapable of recognizing complex activities. With the emergence and advancement of high computational resources, Deep Learning techniques are widely used in various HAR systems to retrieve features and classification efficiently. Thus, this review paper focuses on providing profound concise of deep learning techniques used in smartphone and wearable sensor-based recognition systems. The proposed techniques are categorized into conventional and hybrid deep learning models described with its uniqueness, merits, and limitations. The paper also discusses various benchmark datasets used in existing techniques. Finally, the paper lists certain challenges and issues that require future research and improvements.


In this special session, we will compare and contrast several game engines that have been used in game development courses, and describe our experiences teaching such courses.


ABSTRACT Reduced susceptibility or resistance to vancomycin has been reported among clinical isolates of staphylococci in previous studies. In the present study we report on the isolation of four vancomycin-resistant staphylococcal strains from healthy carriers inside and outside the hospital environment. These carriers did not receive treatment with any antibiotic. All coagulase-negative staphylococcal strains showed variable levels of resistance to several antimicrobial agents, including oxacillin, and unstable resistance to vancomycin, with decreased vancomycin MICs (<4 mg/liter) after 10 days of passage in a nonselective medium. However, exposure of these revertants to vancomycin selected staphylococcal strains resistant to vancomycin at very high frequencies (10−2 and 10−3). The vancomycin resistance in these staphylococcal strains was not mediated by the van gene. The cell wall of the staphylococcal strains studied became thickest after culture in medium containing vancomycin, and the differences in cell wall thickness were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Thus, the thickening of the cell wall in these staphylococcal strains may be an important contributor to vancomycin resistance.


Eco-village development has been considered by the Chinese central government as part of its rural revitalisation campaign and it is seen as a crucial/main solution to the increasingly serious rural issues caused by urban–rural inequality. A significant number of eco-villages are being or will be developed with government leadership and support under the guidance of a corresponding assessment. However, the latest Chinese eco-village assessment, the Evaluation for the Construction of Beautiful Villages (ECBV), has been found to have limitations related to the assessment process, method, and indicators, meaning that it cannot be used to perform a balanced evaluation of the social, economic, and environmental aspects of an eco-village. As assessing an eco-village is as essential as building it, it has become necessary to balance the criteria and improve the ECBV assessment so that it can review existing achievements, guide further development, and ensure better outcomes. Thus, this paper aims to: (1) identify the limitations of ECBV through a case study of a carefully selected Chinese eco-village, Zhenghu Village, by repeating the assessment process and analysing the assessment results, and (2) propose three possible solutions to improve the assessment by applying a revised ECBV assessment, the components of which are adopted and revised from an internationally recognised sustainability assessment, the Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs). The results of the case study confirm the limitations of the ECBV assessment. Besides, the research outcomes of these three possible solutions can improve ECBV assessment and also provide ideas for the improvement of other existing assessment methods. Moreover, other developing countries may apply the research process and method introduced in this paper to formulate or improve their own eco-village assessments.


The dynamic constitutive model could show the dynamic characteristics of soil, so it was essential in ground motion in earthquake safety evaluation and seismic response analysis of soil, and it had great influence on research and analysis of seismic performance of soil and the stability of the foundation. Sandy pebble soil distributed abroad in Sichuan, so it was widely used in engineering construction. Based on the test results of dynamic triaxial non-drain consolidation test,this paper studied the dynamic constitutive model of saturated sandy pebble soil to provide reference for the future use.


CERAMICZNYCH In the evaporative pattern casting process, the surface of a polystyrene pattern (Styrofoam) is coated with a ceramic layer. This ceramic layer, which coats the evaporative pattern, should have specific physiochemical properties including: resistance to thermal, chemical, and erosive activity of molten metal and proper permeability for gases which are produced by the evaporative polystyrene pattern. The article presents the research results of properties of experimentally selected ceramic layers applied on a polystyrene pattern in the evaporative pattern casting process.


Recently, since the advanced nano technology develops unique physical and chemical properties different from those of the conventional materials. Normal concretes mixed with nano - have been studied to improve the fire-resistance with high strength and lower heat conductivity. In this pilot study, the nano-particle contents in the specimens () were 0, 2, 4, and by weight of cement, and fire-temperatures , , and were considered. The results show that as the nano-particle contents increases, the weight loss of concrete gradually decreases, and the compressive strength after fire-attack increases effectively.


Introduction A recently developed service delivery model, called Partnering for Change, encourages collaboration between occupational therapists, educators and families, and aims to improve children's participation across school, home and community settings. Partnering for Change has been successful in facilitating equitable access to services and eliminating wait lists; however, it could have a more significant impact through improved capacity-building with families. The purpose of this study is to describe the factors that therapists view as influencing the development of family–therapist relationships in Partnering for Change, and to explore their ideas to improve relationship-building. Methods Focus groups were completed with 15 occupational therapists who provided Partnering for Change school-based services. Qualitative description methodology and directed content analysis were utilized. Results Several factors were identified that influenced the development of family–therapist relationships including competing demands; consistency and availability; awareness, readiness and commitment; relationships with schools and educators; and sociodemographic characteristics. Increasing in-person interactions and awareness of occupational therapy services were suggested to improve relationship-building. Conclusions Therapists should consider innovative ways of overcoming competing demands, utilizing relationships with schools and educators, and participating in mentorship and communities of practice to address the current barriers of family–therapist relationships, and create better opportunities for collaboration.


PURPOSE
To explore the issues surrounding the falling rates of MMR vaccination followingthe publication of a controversial study by Wakefield et al.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
In order to take a fresh look at the MMR crisis, theGreek tragedy, Antigone, was used as a "strong plot" to de-contextualise the underlying social and political issues. In this short paper, two themes are explored that emerge from reading Antigone with respect to the unfolding crisis of public confidence in the MMR vaccine: first, the challenge to government inthe form of a decrease in public trust in government and government policies; and second, how such a challenge assumes significance and, arising from that, the question of how one might respond to the challenge.

FINDINGS
The MMR debate throws issues of importance to society into relief--for example,public trust in government and science; and notions of public good versus rational choice in public policy on vaccination, However, much of the debate has been polarised into good versus evil--good and evil being subjective positions that are interchangeable, depending on the side one favours. It is argued that the issues are more complex than this, and are as much to do with political consent and the bargain between citizen and state.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
Using "strong plots" to theorise about current issues is powerful because it allows one to explore them from different angles and challenge one's understanding. Antigone provides us with a way of standing back from the MMR crisis and re-conceptualising the issues to capture the essence of the underlying debate.


Educational social entrepreneurs which offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) create social value through removing inequality in terms of reaching educational resources to develop new skills required by the business world through offering free or low cost, high quality online courses to anyone anywhere and removing the barriers of traditional education cost, location, and access. The negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic on unemployment levels and new graduates' expectations about finding a job are apparent. As known, there has also been a long-standing debate over the insufficiency of traditional education models in terms of satisfying human resources qualifications needed by contemporary business world. After the pandemic, new jobs and new business models requiring new employee skills are also expected to occur. As a result, the understanding behind the MOOCs and the importance of social entrepreneurs which offer MOOCs increased. For these reasons, the purpose of this chapter is to examine MOOCs platforms and their actions to create social value during the COVID-19 pandemic.


We are used to classifying different thinkers according to their general orientation: progressive or conservative, revolutionary or nostalgic of the past, materialist or idealist. Walter Benjamin does not fit into these categories. He is a revolutionary critic of the ideologies of progress, a materialist theologian, and his nostalgia for the past is at the service of his Marxist dreams for the future. It is therefore not surprising that so many different and conflicting readings of his work have developed since his death, some trying to bring him back into the usual frames of thinking, others trying to recruit him for the newest philosophical fads, and many simply damning him as ridden with contradictions and therefore an intellectual failure. But there are also some happy exceptions: those who try to take into account the irreducible singularity of his intellectual and political endeavours. These three books, quite different in object and method ‐ a collection of documents from his archives, a biography, and a 'Benjamin Handbook' ‐ belong to these exceptions.


Abstract The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) recently introduced major rule changes that came into effect with the 2010/11 season. Most notably, moving the three-point arc and changing the shot-clock. The purpose of this study was to investigate and quantify how these changes affect the game performance of top-level European basketball players. In order to better understand these changes, we also investigated past seasons and showed the presence of several trends, even in the absence of significant rule changes. A large set of game statistics for 10 seasons and 2198 Euroleague basketball games in which top European clubs competed was analyzed. Results show that the effects of the rule changes are contrary to trends in recent years


Background: Fourteen percent of adults over 60 years may have type two diabetes mellitus, with up to half of these undiagnosed. Screening of high-risk populations is recommended by policymakers, but there is no direct evidence of benefit for those screened. Although abdominal obesity is a recognized risk factor for diabetes, there is controversy regarding its best measure, and its usefulness as a screening measurement is not widely evaluated. Aim: To evaluate the relative performance of waist circumference, body mass index, age and random capillary blood glucose as measurements within a screening programme, in terms of the number of screening tests and diagnostic tests carried out (costs), and the number of cases diagnosed (outcome). Methods: Using national pilot data the study population (n = 4343) comprising those eligible for screening (age _40 years, body mass index _25 kg/m2, no pre-existing diabetes or cardiovascular disease) is described. Threshold analyses by the key variables are displayed in terms of numbers needed to screen and test per new case. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis evaluates their usefulness as screening measurements in this context. Results: The area under the curve for waist circumference is 63.4% compared to 61.5% for body mass index and 60.9% for age; with overlapping confidence intervals. Random capillary blood glucose of levels over 6 mmol/l have a significantly greater area under the curve of 73.2%. This difference becomes insignificant when analysed by sex. Discussion: The theoretical advantage of waist circumference over body mass index as a screening measurement is not demonstrated in a real-life screening programme. If, in addition to age, another measure to select and define a high-risk population for screening is required, body mass index is recommended. Direct blood glucose measurement remains the most effective screening tool.


Dawes LK, Prentice LR, Groom KM National Women's Health (NWH), Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Email: email@example.com Background: Vaginal biomarkers are used to triage women with threatened preterm labour (TPTL); allowing those at high risk to be offered interventions that reduce neonatal morbidity but avoiding unnecessary interventions for those at low risk. Our aim was to assess the impact of different biomarkers on planned clinical care. Methods: We included women with TPTL at 24 to 34 weeks gestation. Qualitative fFN (qualfFN) was performed and used according to hospital guidelines; additional quantitative fFN (qnfFN) and PartoSure tests were taken but clinicians remained blinded to results. Management and delivery outcomes were collected from clinical records. Analysis was performed according to prospectively proposed management protocols. Results: 129/159 women had all 3 matched biomarkers. Spontaneous preterm birth rates were: 7/129 (5.4%) ≤34 +0 weeks, with 5 occurring within 7 days, and 20/129 (15.5%) <37+0 weeks. There were 28 positive qualfFN, 11 qnfFN ≥200ng/ mL and 16 positive PartoSure tests. The use of qnfFN or PartoSure would reduce the rate of hospital admission; 19.4% qualfFN, 8.5% qnfFN and 11.6% PartoSure (p=0.03). No additional women with a negative qnfFN delivered within 7 days or missed corticosteroids compared with standard care (qualfFN), however, 4 cases had a false negative PartoSure and clinical care would have been compromised (no corticosteroid administration or admission). Of 155 matched qualfFN and PartoSure tests only 115 (74.2%) were concordant. Conclusions: The use of qnfFN (≥200ng/mL) would reduce antenatal admission for women with TPTL without compromising antenatal interventions that may prevent neonatal morbidity for babies that go on to deliver preterm.


Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are hemorrhagic neurovascular lesions that affect more than 1 million people in the United States. Rapamycin inhibits CCM development and bleeding in murine models. The appropriate dosage to modify disease phenotype remains unknown. Current approved indications by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and clinicaltrials.gov were queried for rapamycin human dosing for various indications. A systematic literature search was conducted on PubMed to investigate mouse dosimetry of rapamycin. In humans, low daily doses of <2 mg/day or trough level targets <15 ng/mL were typically used for benign indications akin to CCM disease, with relatively low complication rates. Higher oral doses in humans, used for organ rejection, result in higher complication rates. Oral dosing in mice, between 2 and 4 mg/kg/day, achieved blood trough levels in the 5-15 ng/mL range, a concentration likely to be targeted in human studies to treat CCM. Preclinical studies are needed utilizing dosing strategies which achieve blood levels corresponding to likely human dosimetry.


Dirac equation is solved in the near horizon limit geometry of an extreme Kerr black hole. We decouple equations first as usual, into an axial and angular part. The axial equation turns out to be independent of the mass and is solved exactly. The angular equation reduces, in the massless case, to a confluent Heun equation. In general for nonzero mass, the angular equation is expressible at best, as a set of coupled first order differential equations apt for numerical investigation. The axial potentials corresponding to the associated Schrodinger-type equations and their conserved currents are found. Finally, based on our solution, we verify in a similar way the absence of superradiance for Dirac particles in the near horizon, a result which is well-known within the context of general Kerr background.


We study the spatial patterns formed by interacting biological populations or reacting chemicals under the influence of chaotic flows. Multiple species and nonlinear interactions are explicitly considered, as well as cases of smooth and nonsmooth forcing sources. The small-scale structure can be obtained in terms of characteristic Lyapunov exponents of the flow and of the chemical dynamics. Different kinds of morphological transitions are identified. Numerical results from a three-component plankton dynamics model support the theory, and they serve also to illustrate the influence of asymmetric couplings. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.


Perspective on the paper by Bok et al ( see 687 )

Treatable metabolic causes of early onset epilepsy (in the first few months of life) are uncommon but it is important to diagnose them because delay in specific treatment commonly results in poor neurological and cognitive outcome. Indeed, some of these epilepsies are fatal if left untreated. The disorders are listed in table 1 and are divided into vitamin-responsive and other metabolic epilepsies.

View this table:

 Table 1
 Treatable metabolic causes of early onset epilepsy

We are not going to discuss all of these disorders, but will confine ourselves to those presenting at or very close to birth. The investigation and treatment of the other epilepsies are summarised in table 2.

View this table:

 Table 2
 Investigation and treatment of metabolic causes of early onset epilepsy

Typical neonatal onset pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy (PDE) presents in the first few days of life with multiple seizure types which are intractable to anticonvulsant drug treatment. Experienced mothers may also recognise seizures in utero from about 20 weeks of gestation. Approximately one third of infants with PDE will also have features of a neonatal encephalopathy (hyperalertness, irritability and a stimular sensitive startle) which can be accompanied by systemic features. Neuroimaging may show structural brain abnormalities, hydrocephalus or haemorrhage. EEG is abnormal but has no diagnostic features.1 The seizures and EEG abnormalities respond promptly (within minutes) to 100 mg of intravenous pyridoxine. However, in about 20% of infants with pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy the first dose of pyridoxine can also cause cerebral depression, which is more likely if the infant is receiving anticonvulsant drugs. Children with PDE require life-long treatment with pyridoxine at a dose of ∼15 mg/kg/day up to 500 mg/day. With prompt treatment prognosis is generally good, although there may be later learning difficulties, particularly with language. If …


We consider long horizon regression models where the disturbance and the predictor are possibly fractionally integrated. Asymptotic distributions of the OLS estimator and of the test statistic are given. It is found that the t-statistic diverges at the rate of square root of T, where T is the sample size. Thus, it is desirable to use the scaled test statistic, as it converges to a well-defined limit, which depends on the memory parameters through the functionals on the fractional Wiener processes. Simulation studies present some empirical distributions of the scaled test statistic according to different values of the memory parameters. The proposed model with fractional processes is empirically more tractable than the model with local to unity processes, since memory parameters are consistently estimable unlike localizing parameters in the latter model.


recovers some of the ancient emphasis on rhetoric in his approach to New testament texts by offering fresh analysis of rhetorical forms and strategies. the author should further be praised for his pastoral sensibilities, for his exegesis on the pastorals and Johannines is followed, respectively, by a 'Bridging the horizons' section designed to aid the teaching and preaching of these texts in the modern day.


Hundhausen's statements to valuation of repeating training courses show essential deficiencies: Quotations of specialitic authors are placed in a not right context. Relevant empiric results which would withdraw the basis of all his conclusions are not reported by him. So he argues in opposition to published empiric dates (see Winkler 1988, Stephan 1988) and logical arguments (see Stephan 1988), which prove that persons comprised in reality examinations had a above-averades traffic risk. Moreover, he overlooks in his exclusive 'calculatory valuation' that his argue of 'detour production' on the one hand violates the public claim on traffic security and on the other hand the constitutional claim of the alcohol conspicious drivers on proportion of national sanctions and measures. Also in case subsequent trained drivers do not represent a population being specially high relapse dangered, they should be offered the possibility to choose their own milder alternative (shortening of blocking period when having been successful as a course member). This should only be realized when the traffic security is not affected. The attempt to achieve an own valuation of the course success by economic founded scales must be judged as failed because of the not exactly termed premises and the logical consequences as well.


The aim of this dissertation is to describe and explain textual changes in the early social democratic press. Three social democratic newspapers and three non-socialist competitors are analyzed, sampled from the period 1892-1912. This period encompasses the breakthrough of the labour movement as well as the shaping of the modern, commercial press.After a general study of the genre system, the analyses concentrate on discours structure and style in news genres. The method involves both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The analyses draw on the tradition of critical discourse analysis. Important theoretical concepts are text and genre. A constructivist view on genre is advocated and special emphasis put on the social effects of texts.The study demonstrates that there are considerable differences between the earliest social democratic newspapers and their non-socialist competitors. Over time, howvever, there is a remarkable convergence, as the newspapers become a part of the same public sphere. It is also clear that the social democratic newspapers do not copy the non-socialist. Rather, there is a process of mutual borrowing and reshaping. In the social democratic newspapers, the textual changes are in may respects connected with a transition from a predominantly spoken to a predominantly written public sphere.


The new tendencies in the theory and practice of human resource management are more and more concerned with implementing a Strategic Human Resource Management. Scholars tried to define this new concept in various manners but the common ground resides in the fact that they all agree that in the next period all organizations need to better understand the linkages between human capital, its management and the extent in which these impact organizational goals, which implies a new series of metrics that organizations should consider. This paper aims to present some of the most interesting perspectives concerning the links between the above mentioned concepts and it is a first step towards a complete assessment of the new human resource management metrics.


The physical mechanisms triggering electrostatic discharge (ESD) in high voltage LDMOS power transistors (> 160 V) under transmission line pulsing (TLP) and very fast transmission line pulsing (VFTLP) stress are investigated by TCAD simulations using a set of macroscopic physical models related to previous studies implemented in Sentaurus Device. Under VFTLP stress, it is observed that the triggering voltage of the high voltage LDMOS obviously increases, which is a unique phenomenon compared with the low voltage ESD protection devices like NMOS and SCR. The relationship between the triggering voltage increase and the parasitic capacitances is also analyzed in detail. A compact equivalent circuit schematic is presented according to the investigated phenomena. An improved structure to alleviate this effect is also proposed and confirmed by the experiments.


With the advance of digital communications the distribution of video content has become common place. In this framework digital video watermarking can be a promising solution in a digital rights management system. H.264/AVC is a state of the art video coding standard and has been used in many applications. In this work, we propose a two-level hierarchical prior in the framework of intra-coded DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) coefficients in H.264/AVC video stream. It is well known that Gaussian, Laplacian, Generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) and Cauchy distributions exhibit improved capabilities for the description of the empirical DCT coefficients. For the bipolar additive watermark in H.264/AVC video stream, the aforementioned distributions have been proved a base for improved detection algorithms. In this framework, the proposed watermark detection based on the hierarchical prior, deserves further investigation. Thus our simulation results show improved detection performance along with improved robustness against different attacks.


Energy consumption in residential areas is rising; residential areas have deployed a photovoltaic (PV) system to save energy cost and provide continuous power in the area. The PV system needs to be continuously monitored to maintain its performance. In addition, it is desirable to monitor each PV module because one abnormal PV module affects the whole PV system. Here Power line communication (PLCC) technology is used to monitor each PV module in order to check the performance of PV system. Power line communication (PLCC) carries data on a conductor that is also used simultaneously for AC electric power transmission. The parameters in PV module are monitored by PLC. The system architecture is composed of the following components: PLC modem, CUK Converter, and inverter connected with AC load. The PLC modems are deployed on each PV module for continuous monitoring. The CUK converter will provide constant voltage to the battery. The device retrieves the stored data in microcontroller unit and informs users about the status of the photovoltaic module.Voltage, Current and Temperature are the parameters which are going to be noted in PV module. The output of the inverter circuit is given to the AC load by using resistive load. Users can browse and figure out the PV system performance in detail by using power line communication technology. The system is installed in the field.It is composed of sixteen PV modules with 960V; since each PV module provides 60V and a 1kW inverter. This scheme will maintain the performance of a PV system and can be used for industrial applications.


Abstract Most pathogenic species of Penicillium have a limited host range, suggesting unique adaptations to particular hosts. P. digitatum and P. italicum are primarily pathogens of mature citrus fruit, while P. expansum has a broad host range, but does not infect citrus. One possible basis of host specificity is that the pathogens are physiologically adapted to grow in the presence of the many bioactive compounds present in the citrus peel. To test this, peels from the fruit of seven Citrus sp. were extracted with 80% ethanol, concentrated and standardized. Growth of P. digitatum, P. italicum and P. expansum on potato dextrose broth, alone, or plus extract, was quantified by measuring conversion of the vital stain, thiazol blue. All citrus peel extracts stimulated growth of P. digitatum andP. italicum at greater dilution and to a greater degree than P. expansum. 'Marsh' grapefruit extract was separated into hexanes, ethyl acetate and aqueous partitioning fractions. The aqueous fraction was active at the greatest dilution tested, the hexanes fraction was active only at the highest concentration tested, while the ethyl acetate fraction had no stimulatory activity. When the aqueous and hexanes fractions were combined, growth increased tremendously, indicating a synergistic effect. The primary growth stimulating component in the hexanes fraction of grapefruit was identified as nootkatone. Growth ofP. digitatum and P. italicum is stimulated by components present in citrus peel. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.


Department of Business and Administration, University of Cantabria, Spain Sustainable tourism should be promoted as a new system for the sustainable management of resources from a socioeconomic and environmental point of view. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop a tool capable of assessing the impacts associated with each of the stages of the sector and to identify which actions are currently being addressed in the tourism sector in order to achieve the desired sustainability in the sector. This timely study aims to describe the current framework of life cycle assessment (LCA) and its application to the tourism sector. To address these questions, the geographical distribution, the temporal evolution of the publications, as well as the most relevant characteristics of the tourism industry articles were evaluated such as the functional unit and system boundaries considered. The study identifies key recommendations on the progression of LCA for this increasingly important sustaining tourism sector. As important results, it stands out that 94% of articles focused on LCA methodology were from the last decade and almost 26% of the articles reviewed cover sustainable tourism term, considering environmental, social and economic aspects. Specifically, LCA is a highly effective tool capable of assessing direct and indirect carbon emissions at all stages of the activity as well as the socioeconomic and environmental impacts generated in the tourism sector. This review showed that the most common environmental indicator in the LCA methodology is the carbon footprint. COVID-19 pandemic is also an object of discussion in the framework of the sustainable tourism together with advocating support for the eco-labelling and digitalisation of the tourism experiences as valuable tools to minimize environmental negativities, to promote mechanisms to access green markets and to frame successful synergies. © 2022 WIT Press.


ABSTRACT Cokgor, S. and Durmus, O., 2018. 3D experimental analysis of turbulence induced scour in front of the ruble mound breakwater. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 1251–1255. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Laboratory data of velocity fields in front of a 45° angled side of a rubble-mound breakwater are presented and discussed for non-breaking wave condition. Velocity measurements were conducted near the breakwater by an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (Nortek Vectrino) regular wave. The raw data were analyzed by using a numerical-filtering scheme so that turbulent fluctuations are separated from the phase-dependent wave motions. Root mean square (RMS) values of the turbulent fluctuations in the vertical and horizontal directions were obtained. The spatial variations of the turbulent shear stress and of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in front of the breakwater were determined. The results indicate that turbulent intensities take larger values when the wave contracts over the breakwater. On the other hand, maximum turbulent shear stress values were observed near the breakwater surface, as a consequence of the rough surface effect.


Offset analgesia (OA) has been observed as a disproportionately large decrease in pain ratings following a slight intensity decrease in noxious heat stimulation. It is of interest to investigate whether OA is a distinct feature of the heat nociceptive system. The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of OA in deep muscle pain. Seventeen healthy subjects were recruited and a standard heat OA paradigm was applied as a control measurement of the subjects. Temporal summation (TS) and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) were measured in order to assess temporal and spatial pain mechanisms. Pressure OA paradigms were applied using a tourniquet cuff. OA was defined as the minimum pain rating following an incremental decrease in noxious stimulus relative to a time-related pain rating of a constant noxious stimulus. OA was present when applying noxious heat stimulations (P < 0.001). The known temporal and spatial pain modulating mechanism TS and CPM showed normal facilitating and inhibitory systems of the subjects. In contrast, OA was absent when applying four different noxious pressure stimuli (F(3)= 0.227, P = 0.750). Within the limitations of this study the hypothesis of OA as an endogenous analgesic mechanism evoked in deep muscle pain by noxious pressure stimuli cannot be supported.


Gait recognition method based on the feature combination of gait image and its region bounded by legs is proposed. Firstly, all the Eigenvectors correspond to nonnegative Eigenvalues of the entire scatter matrix of training samples are selected to compose a lower-dimension transform space. In this transform space, in order to overcome the small-sample-size problem, a regularization term is added to each sample class covariance matrix. And a new criterion function is established. By computing this optimization problem, and the eigen-matrix is made up by some eigen-vectors. Based on this method, the features of gait image and its region bounded by legs are combined to represent gait features. Finally, three gait databases of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CASIA A, CASIA B and CASIA C, are selected and the minimum distance classifier are used to verify the effectiveness of presented method. Keywords—Gait Recognition; Gait Energy Image (GEI); Region Bounded by Legs (RBL); Feature combination; Regularization term


When operators develop shale gas reservoirs in the southern Sichuan basin in China, they encountered numerous occurrences of casing deformations (CD) and even failures. The high frequency and severity of CD have led to significant financial loss. Since then, a considerable amount of research has been conducted with some field trials. Some research findings have been implemented in fields. The purpose of this paper is to present what we know and the trial results.
 We observed that casing deformation/failure were mainly in shearing failure and collapse modes. In the early stage of the development, most of the failure was due to shearing deformation caused by pre-existing geological features such as faults and weak interfaces. With the depletion of the reservoir and pressure decrease, casing collapses during the hydraulic fracture with extended length have become more and more popular in the later development stage. Laboratory tests on casing material and cementing material have shad lights on possible solutions. Increasing the casing wall thickness and cement thickness seems a viable solution for casing collapse, but the application of these recommendations yielded little effectiveness in mitigating casing deformation. Current operators redesigned a cementing material with high-strength beads which would collapse when stresses are above the designed threshold, which would "absorb" the formation displacement and reduce the severity of casing deformation caused by the aforementioned mechanisms.
 This paper summarizes the main research results from implementing numerical modeling and simulation. Based on that, we designed a special cementing with hollow high-strength particles in the cement slurry. In the later stage of fracturing, when the stress is above a threshold, the particles would burst and allow the casing to nudge slightly so that the deformation severity would be much less and more graduate. We implemented the new technology on 14 wells, and so far eight wells have been successfully completed without losses of horizontal segments. This new technology certainly brings hope for future study and provides field cases for future simulation work and laboratory studies for improvement.


Ultra-low volume applications of d-allethrin and d-phenothrin could possibly reduce populations of Anopheles albimanus when used in conjunction with residual spraying of fenitrothion. The experiments were carried out in Les Cayes, Haiti.


Abstract The nursery industry depends on public gardens to supply propagation material for newly introduced plant species grown from seed. Most seed obtained by public gardens is received in small quantities and must be handled efficiently to assure at least minimal germination. A seed germination protocol is proposed which leads the propagator through a series of steps including a systematic search of the literature, a comparison of species about which little or nothing is known to related species with known propagation methods, a study of the climatic conditions present in the seeds' native area, a study of ecological factors that may affect germination, and finally to the propagation process itself. Examples are provided which illustrate how the protocol is used.


Dynamics of collisionless plasma described by the Poisson-Vlasov equations is connected with the Hamiltonian motions of particles and their symmetries. The Poisson equation is obtained as a constraint arising from the gauge symmetries of particle dynamics. Variational derivative constrained by the Poisson equation is used to obtain reduced dynamical equations. Lie-Poisson reduction for the group of canonical diffeomorphisms gives the momentum-Vlasov equations. Plasma density is defined as the divergence of symplectic dual of momentum variables. This definition is also given a momentum map description. An alternative formulation in momentum variables as a canonical Hamiltonian system with a quadratic Hamiltonian functional is described. A comparison of one-dimensional plasma and two-dimensional incompressible fluid is presented.


&NA; Total joint arthroplasty is very effective for improving the quality of life of patients with end‐stage arthritis. Despite advances in materials, surgical technique, and rehabilitation regimens, joint replacements are still fraught with complications leading to their premature failure. Aseptic loosening and osteolysis are the primary causes of implant failure. Other reasons include early migration of components leading to instability, lack of ingrowth into implant porosities, and bone loss caused by stress shielding. Pharmaceutical agents used for preventing and managing postmenopausal osteoporosis (eg, bisphosphonates) may in the future play an important role in improving the long‐term duration of joint arthroplasties. Early findings indicate that bisphosphonates upregulate bone morphogenetic protein‐2 production and stimulate new bone formation. Because of their anabolic effect on osteoblasts, bisphosphonates have the potential to enhance bone ingrowth into implant porosities, prevent bone resorption under adverse conditions, and dramatically extend the long‐term durability of joint arthroplasties. The long‐term effects of bisphosphonate use on the mechanical properties of bone have not been adequately investigated. Along with improvements in implant design and material properties, bisphosphonates and other pharmaceutical agents may, in the near future, be part of the growing armamentarium that provides more durable joint arthroplasties.


The Photovoltaic (PV) Cell and Module Performance Characterization team at NREL supports the entire photovoltaic community by providing: secondary calibrations of photovoltaic cells and modules; efficiency measurements with respect to a given set of standard reporting conditions; verification of contract efficiency milestones; and current versus voltage (I-V) measurements under various conditions of temperature, spectral irradiance, and total irradiance. Support is also provided to in-house programs in device fabrication, module stability, module reliability, PV systems evaluations, and alternative rating methods by performing baseline testing, specialized measurements and other assistance when required. The I-V and spectral responsivity equipment used to accomplish these tasks are described in this paper.


Following removal of the invasive species Rhododendron ponticum, the native understorey plant community typically fails to reestablish itself. Potential explanations for this failure include (1) lack of an appropriate native seed source; (2) inability of seed to penetrate a dense bryophyte layer; and (3) persistence of chemical "legacy effects" in the soil. We established an experiment to test these competing hypotheses in an Atlantic oak woodland where R. ponticum had been removed. The following experimental treatments were applied singly and in combination: (1) addition of a native seed mix to test for seed limitation; (2) removal of the established ground vegetation at the start of the experiment (which principally consisted of bryophytes) to test for the impact of a barrier layer; (3) addition of activated carbon to test for chemical legacy effects in the soil; and (4) fertilization as an additional measure to promote the establishment of native vascular plants. Application of the native seed mix was revealed to be an effective way to increase the cover of native vascular plants and was particularly effective when applied after the removal of the bryophyte layer. The application of activated carbon and/or fertilizer, however, had no effect on the cover of native vegetation. We conclude that reports of R. ponticum exerting chemical legacy effects long after its removal may have been overstated and that seed limitation and inability to successfully establish in a dense bryophyte layer provided the strongest barriers to natural recolonization by the native plant community following R. ponticum removal.


The number of highway concession contracts in North America is increasing rapidly with many agencies turning to the public/private/partnership model to develop and build much needed highway infrastructure. As agencies build on the PPP model, they transfer more risk to the private sector including the risks associated with the operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of the asset network. For most concessions, the pavements constitute a large percentage of the cost to maintain. To ensure public safety and acceptable levels of service, agencies specify key performance indicators and maintenance trigger values, as well as financial penalties to ensure compliance. The transfer of risk, especially cost-associated risk, permits more effective budget planning for the agency. The challenge for the agency is to establish key performance indicator limits to maximize public benefits while minimizing PPP costs. The challenge to the concessionaire and pavement management practitioner within the PPP context is to accurately judge and predict key pavement performance indicators and maintenance/ rehabilitation actions to facilitate compliance with project specifications while minimizing the cost to complete the work an interruption to the travelling public. In addition, it is the goal of the agency to maximize the value of the assets when they are eventually turned back to the public trust. This paper examines conflicts between the binding requirements for maintenance activities and the overall objective of effectively managing the pavement infrastructure.


Abstract : During this phase a lightweight, high performance hot gas flow train using liquid oxygen and JP-4 was designed and component modeling completed. The magnetohydrodynamic channel/diffuser performance parameters which were used as the design criteria were an output power of 30 MWe, a specific energy extraction of 1.0 MJ/kg, and a specific power density of 200 MWe/cu.m. To achieve these performance requirements, the required characteristic velocity efficiency of the combustion system was greater than 99%. During this program a limited amount of development testing was completed using a heat sink combustor and a diagnostics channel. These tests measured the combustor characteristic velocity efficiency and the gas electrical conductivity, as well as pressures, vibrations, and temperatures. The results of the development test program, which verified the design assumptions used to achieve the performance requirements, were a characteristic velocity efficiency of nearly 99% and a gas electrical conductivity at the magnetohydrodynamic channel inlet of 15 mhos/m.


Schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni became resistant to antibody-dependent complement damage in vitro after pre-incubation with normal human erythrocytes (NHuE) whatever the ABO or Rh blood group. Resistant parasites were shown to acquire host decay accelerating factor (DAF), a 70 kDa glycoprotein attached to the membrane of NHuE by a GPI anchor. IgG2a mAb anti-human DAF (IA10) immunoprecipitated a 70 kDa molecule from 125I-labeled schistosomula pre-incubated with NHuE and inhibited their resistance to complement-dependent killing in vitro. Incubation of schistosomula with erythrocytes from patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNHE) or SRBC, which are DAF-deficient, did not protect the parasites from complement lesion. Supernatant of 100,000 x g collected from NHuE incubated for 24 h in defined medium was shown to contain a soluble form of DAF and to protect schistosomula from complement killing. Schistosomula treated with trypsin before incubation with NHuE ghosts did not become resistant to complement damage. On the other hand, pre-treatment with chymotrypsin did not interfere with the acquisition of resistance by the schistosomula. These results indicate that, in vitro, NHuE DAF can be transferred to schistosomula in a soluble form and that the binding of this molecule to the parasite surface is dependent upon trypsin-sensitive chymotrypsin-insensitive polypeptide(s) present on the surface of the worm.


Abstract. Cases of mastitis were recorded from 22 812 lactations of 10 294 cows on seven farms in the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2012. The per cow number of clinical mastitis (CM) cases per lactation (CM1), number of days of CM per lactation (CM2), and CM considered as an all-or-none trait (CM3) with values of 0 (no CM case) or 1 (at least 1 CM case) were analyzed with linear animal models. Bivariate linear animal models were used for estimation of genetic correlations between CM traits and average lactation somatic cell score (SCS305), average 305-day milk (MY305), fat (FY305) and protein (PY305) yield, and interval between calving and first insemination (INT) and days open (DO). Factors included in the model of choice were parity, herd effect, year of calving, calving season, permanent environmental effect of the cow, and additive genetic effect of the cow. Estimated heritabilities for CM traits were in the range of 0.09 to 0.10. Genetic correlations of SCS305 with CM traits 1, 2, and 3 were 0.22 ± 0.062, 0.23 ± 0.064, and 0.29 ± 0.086, respectively; those of MY305 with the three CM traits were 0.80 ± 0.037, 0.79 ± 0.040, and 0.83 ± 0.038, respectively; those of INT with the three CM traits were 0.19 ± 0.087, 0.17 ± 0.089, and 0.26 ± 0.091, respectively; and those of DO with the three CM traits were 0.28 ± 0.089, 0.22 ± 0.091, and 0.27 ± 0.091, respectively. Knowledge of genetic parameters of mastitis incidence and assessment of the economic importance of the disease is necessary to design breeding programs to improve udder health.


Of all the systems of medical pratice which appeared in the history of medicine towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, homeopathy is the only one which today can still look back on a continuous tradition of its practical-therapeutical application and still has a wide following. In fact, here and now it has once again brought together colleagues from many countries and different continents. There may be more than one explanation as to why this is the case. However, apart from the countless cures which have been attributed to homeopathy, surely one of the most fundamental reasons must be its claim to rationality. If in fact homeopathy was nothing else but pure empiricism, on the one hand a conflict of principles between the experiences made by homeopaths and those made by alleopaths could never have evolved (because then one observation would be just as good as another). On the other hand the mere accumulation of empirical knowledge could scarcely amount to an independent branch of medical science, let alone such a branch of medical science which distinguishes itself from others by virtue of its special concept and thus claims a place in its own right in the history of medicine. Through its claim to rationality, homeopathy elevates itself from the field of pure empiricism (where every new observation relativises the one made previously) to the level of principles whose inner coherence has to be based on certain logical rules. Since Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) founded homeopathy as rational therapeutics, the cogent nature of his concept cannot be demonstrated simply by a presentation of casuistic records but rather only by attempting a rational reconstruction of its principles. In contrast to strictly historical accounts of homeopathy, which usually do appraise the originality of its founder, but not the cogency of his special concept as such, let us attempt here to sketch the main outline of the course of the logically reconstructable steps which brought Hahnemann to the conception of his rational therapeutics, the results of which he finally published in "Organon der rationellen Heilkunde" in the year 1810.


This case report presents a successful treatment with fat transplantation to painful scar tissue in the neck and back region after excision of a proliferative myositis (pseudosarcoma) and reconstruction with a trapezius flap in 1983. The patient had chronic pain, social disabilities and a visual analogue scale (VAS) score of 8 preoperatively. At a postoperative control six months later the patient experienced no pain any longer, the VAS score was 1 and he was working full time.


The common law, statutes and professional codes of medical and health care uphold the right of competent patients to refuse treatment that they have been advised is in their best medical interests, recognising that they have the right to decide whether such medical advice aligns with their self-determined, global interests. But sometimes, there can be ambivalence within the treating practitioner's mind as to what the patient's best medical interests consist of in the first place. The case presented here of chronic mental health problems illustrates this ambivalence or clinical equipoise, and raises clinical, conceptual, ethical, legal and conscience issues for individual practitioners and the wider community. The case evades clarity and consensus over the doctor's legal obligations, but the complex emotional, psychodynamic, attachment and existential issues that it raises also render any ethical analysis ultimately unsatisfactory, unless it be agreed that some people can only be helped by suspending judgment and treatment, and by just being there.


Background Antibiotic use as growth promoters for livestock is presumed to be a major contributor to the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in humans, yet data evaluating AMR patterns in the setting of animal exposure are limited to observational studies that do not capture data from prior to livestock introduction. Methods We performed a feasibility study by recruiting a subset of women in a delayed-start randomized controlled trial of small-scale chicken farming in order to examine the prevalence of clinically-relevant AMR genes. Stool samples were obtained at baseline and one year from five intervention women who received chickens at the start of the study, six control women who did not receive chickens until the end of the study, and from chickens provided to the control group at the end of the study. Stool was screened for 87 clinically significant AMR genes using a commercially available qPCR array (Qiagen). Results Chickens harbored 23 AMR genes from classes also found in humans as well as vancomycin and additional β-lactamase resistance genes. After one year of exposure to chickens, six new AMR genes were detected in controls and seven new AMR genes were detected in the intervention group. Women who had direct contact with the chickens sampled in the study had greater similarities in AMR resistance gene patterns to chickens than those who did not have direct contact with chickens sampled (p = 0.006). There was a trend towards increased similarity in AMR gene patterns with chickens at one year (p = 0.12). Conclusions Chickens and humans in this study harbored AMR genes from many antimicrobial classes at both baseline and follow up timepoints. Studies designed to evaluate human AMR genes in the setting of animal exposure should account for high baseline AMR rates, and consider collecting concomitant animal samples, human samples, and environmental samples over time to determine the directionality and source of AMR genes. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02619227


In this paper, a reduced-rank scheme with joint iterative optimization is presented for direction of arrival estimation. A rank-reduction matrix and an auxiliary reduced-rank parameter vector are jointly optimized to calculate the output power with respect to each scanning angle. Subspace algorithms to estimate the rank-reduction matrix and the auxiliary vector are proposed. Simulations are performed to show that the proposed algorithms achieve enhanced performance over existing algorithms in the studied scenarios.


In a communication which I made to the Society "On the Drifts of the Vale of Clwyd and their Relation to the Caves and Cave-deposits"*, I considered the subject under the following heads:— (1) The Age of the Drift. (2) The Relation of the Deposits in the Caves to that Drift. In discussing the age of the drift, I was of course obliged to offer a tentative classification of the Pleistocene deposits of the district in order to show the relative position and age of the St. Asaph beds, to which I referred the drift on the flanks of the hill in which the Ffynnon Beuno Caves occur. The classification I suggested has been called in question, and I have relegated the discussion of this part of the subject in its wider bearing to a separate paper. It will be desirable, however, to restate briefly the conclusions at which I then arrived. They were:— That the interpretation of the glacial phenomena of North Wales is much more simple than that suggested by most recent observers in East England. That we have evidence of the following sequence of events:— That glacier-ice came down from the Snowdon and Arenig group of mountains, riding across pre-existing north and south valleys as far at any rate as the Cheshire plain on the east, and as far as the Irish Channel, which was the corresponding north and south valley on the west. That glacier-ice came also from the north and held back the


An in vivo tracheal muscle preparation in the rabbit was developed which enabled us to measure changes in the isometric tension of the trachealis muscle in response to electrical stimulation of autonomic nerves and to i.v. administration of autonomic agonists and antagonists. The preparation was very sensitive to injections of carbachol, and showed graded contractions to stimulation of the caudal end of the cut cervical vagus as frequency and strength of stimulation were increased. Stimulation of the rostral end of the cut cervical sympathetic nerve fibers produced contractions in all preparations. This effect was mimicked by the alpha-adrenoceptor agonist, phenylephrine. The effects of both sympathetic stimulation and phenylephrine were blocked by phentolamine and not inhibited by pretreatment with atropine or propranolol. Sympathetic stimulation produced contractions of the trachealis muscle whether the initial tone was normal or actively increased by carbachol, while adrenaline produced relaxation when the initial tone was high. Using this new in vivo trachealis muscle preparation in the rabbit, we could show that sympathetic stimulation produced contractions of the trachealis muscle. This effect is consistent with the existence of smooth muscle activating alpha adrenoceptors.


Different models in Information and Communication Technologies were analyzed for the creation of an alternative model for mitigating information security risks within telecommunications organizations. The main objective is to define a concept model prototype for the management of process and information security in this type of organizations. Was used the deductive and exploratory research method to analyze the information of the references. It is research in an information security prototype through a risk matrix, a conceptual security prototype. It was concluded that the prototypes presented as results are an alternative to improve the security of the processes and the flow of information and that these can be used as a reference in this type of organizations.


Background The chemical reaction of carbon dioxide absorbent and sevoflurane is known to produce compound A. However, carbon dioxide absorbents are not controlled by the Food and Drug Administration, but are treated as industrial products in some nations. Moreover, carbon dioxide absorbents differ in their capacities to produce compound A, because their chemical compositions differ. In this study, we compared the renal safety between carbon dioxide absorbent products in patients under sevoflurane anesthesia. Methods Eighty patients with no preexisting renal disease undergoing elective gynecologic surgery were randomly assigned to receive sevoflurane or isoflurane anesthesia with one of four carbon dioxide absorbent products (Sodasorblime®, Sodalyme®, Sodasorb®, Spherasorb®) at the same fresh gas flow of 2 L/min. The renal safety was evaluated by changes of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and urine N-acetyl-b-glucoseaminidase (NAG)-creatinine ratio at 24 hours and 72 hours after surgery from preoperative level. Results There was no significant difference in the renal safety indicators between carbon dioxide absorbents during sevoflurane anesthesia (P > 0.05). However, the BUN and urine NAG-creatinine ratios at 72 hours after surgery were higher in isoflurane anesthesia in some carbon dioxide absorbent groups (P = 0.03 and 0.04, respectively). Conclusions We could not find significant differences of renal safety indicators with carbon dioxide absorbents. Although the adverse effect of carbon dioxide absorbents on renal function was not proved, consideration should be given to their contol by the regulation on their efficacy and safety because carbon dioxide absorbents can produce compound A.


The design, synthesis, and characterization of two novel metalloprotein motifs is
presented. The first project involved the design and construction of a protein motif which
was programmed to form a tetradentate metal complex upon the addition of metal cations.
The overall structure of the motif was based on a ββ super-secondary structure consisting of
a flexible peptide sequence flanked by metal binding regions located at the carboxy and
amino termini. The metal binding region near the amino terminus was constructed from a
reverse turn motif with two metal ligating residues, (2R, 3R)-β-methyl-cysteine and
histidine. Selection of the peptide sequence for this region was based on the
conformational analysis of a series of tetrapeptides designed to form reverse turns in
solution. The stereospecific syntheses of a series of novel bipyridyl- and phenanthrolylsubstituted
amino acids was carried out to provide ligands for the carboxy terminus metal
binding region. These residues were incorporated into peptide sequences using solid phase
peptide synthesis protocols, and metal binding studies indicated that the metal binding
properties of these ligands was dictated by the specific regioisomer of the heteroaromatic
ring and the peptide primary sequence. Finally, a peptide containing optimized components for the metal binding regions
was prepared to test the ability of the compound to form the desired intramolecular
peptide:metal cation complexes. Metal binding studies demonstrated that the peptide
formed monomeric complexes with very high metal cation binding affinities and that the
two metal binding regions act cooperatively in the metal binding process. The use of these
systems in the design of proteins capable of regulating naturally occurring proteins is
discussed. The second project involved the semisynthesis of two horse heart cytochrome c
mutants incorporating the bipyridyl-amino acids at position 72 of the protein sequence.
Structural studies on the proteins indicated that the bipyridyl amino acids had a neglible effect on the protein structure. One of the mutants was modified with Ru(bpy)_2^(+2) to form
a redox-active protein, and the modified protein was found to have enhanced electron
transfer properties between the heme and the introduced metal site.


We report the intermediate-scale (0.3-40 h-1 Mpc) clustering of 35,000 luminous early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.16-0.44 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We present the redshift space two-point correlation function ξ(s), the projected correlation function wp(rp), and the deprojected real space correlation function ξ(r), for approximately volume-limited samples. As expected, the galaxies are highly clustered, with the correlation length varying from 9.8 ± 0.2 to 11.2 ± 0.2 h-1 Mpc, dependent on the specific luminosity range. For the -23.2 < Mg < -21.2 sample, the inferred bias relative to that of L* galaxies is 1.84 ± 0.11 for 1 h-1 Mpc < rp ≲ 10 h-1 Mpc, with yet stronger clustering on smaller scales. We detect luminosity-dependent bias within the sample but see no evidence for redshift evolution between z = 0.2 and z = 0.4. We find a clear indication for deviations from a power-law in the real space correlation function, with a dip at ~2 h-1 Mpc scales and an upturn on smaller scales. The precision measurements of these clustering trends offer new avenues for the study of the formation and evolution of these massive galaxies.


All Higher Education Institutions were mandated by the Commission on Higher Education to continue amid the COVID-19 pandemic through flexible learning. This sudden shift was challenging for both faculty and students as it affects their level of emotional intelligence (EI). This study determines the correlation of EI level and coping approaches of CEU pharmacy community during flexible learning despite COVID19. This cross-sectional correlational study employed a descriptive quantitative method. 291 student respondents were obtained using proportionate stratified random sampling. Contrastingly, 14 SOP faculty of second semester A.Y. 2021-2022 were included. There was an online survey containing three sections for socio-demographic profile and the difficulties encountered during flexible learning, level of EI, and coping approaches applied. Subsequently, the percentage and frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and profile analysis were utilized to analyze and interpret the data collected. The teachers were reported to have good EI domains except for self-regulation, which could be improved, and students have satisfactory EI. They recognized their self-regulation (64.58) and empathy (65.26) better than the teachers who realized their self-awareness (75.60), motivation (64.29), and social skills (73.21) better. Both respondents preferred problem-focused as their coping strategy. The teacher respondents had a good approach to problem solving (55.13), fair to their emotions (43.75), and poor to their avoidant coping (18.97). While, students had a good approach to problem solving (56.75) and fair to their emotions (47.57) and avoidant coping (26.71). Hence, there was no significant difference between the respondents' socio-demographic profile and EI as well as coping mechanisms.


Korean Government has invested a lot of efforts on digital contents industry. It believes that the digital contents industry enables Korea to regain the reputation of the most powerful IT country. Among its various efforts to promote the digital contents industry, a Digital Contents Identifier System, called UCI(Universal Contents Identifier), has been developed and deployed. UCI has provided a critical infrastructure for digital contents production and distribution. Thanks to Korean Government's efforts, users (companies and individuals) have currently registered 3.8 million digital contents through 25 RA organizations. Although the number of registered contents has been increased rapidly, many organizations hesitate to adopt the UCI system due to the lack of visible and short-term returns from the UCI system. Thus, this research tries to explore factors which affect UCI user satisfaction. This research finds that user's awareness, information quality, and service quality are the critical influencing factors toward UCI user satisfaction. In addition, this research finds that the critical influencing factors in public organizations are different from the critical influencing factors in private organizations. These findings hopefully provide useful guidelines for disseminating the UCI system widely.


Background This study sought to determine possible effects of different antiplatelet therapies on walking exercise performance in intermittent claudication. Aspirin, in contrast to clopidogrel, interferes with processes that increase collateral conductance in an ischemic animal model. Methods and Results Patients with stable intermittent claudication were recruited from 21 centers in Switzerland and Germany and randomized to either aspirin or clopidogrel treatment. They participated in a 3-month rehabilitation program (electronically monitored, home-based, 1-hour daily walking sessions at a speed of approximately 120 steps/min). Walking distance was assessed by treadmill tests (3.2 km/h; 12% grade) at baseline and after 12 weeks. A total of 229 of 259 patients with a mean age of 66.2±7.7 years completed the study according to the protocol. A total of 24.5% were females, 20.1% diabetics, and 85.6% were active/ex-smokers. The baseline characteristics were a median (interquartile range) ankle/brachial index of 0.69 (0.57±0.8), an initial claudication distance (ICD) of 98 m (70 to 151 m), and an absolute claudication distance (ACD) of 162 m (113 to 302 m). Training resulted in a median increase of initial claudication distance by 33.5 m (33.3%) in the clopidogrel group and 29 m (33.9%) in the aspirin group. The values for absolute claudication distance were 60.5 m (34.9%) and 75 m (35.3%), respectively (pICD=0.42 and pACD=0.66). Conclusions Treatment with aspirin did not show a difference in initial claudication distance or absolute claudication distance improvements compared with clopidogrel after a 3-month walking rehabilitation program. (J Am Heart Assoc. 2012;1:51-56.) Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00189618, URL: https://EudraCT.ema.europa.eu, Unique identifier: 2004-005041-35


Electrostimulation must be selective and sparing. Selectivity is obtained establishing which denervated muscles are responsible for loss of a given function, choosing a proper size of the stimulating electrode and its point of application, and testing the muscle bioelectrically. Sparing electrostimulation includes the application of current of appropriate parameters, that is: impulse duration, current intensity, frequency of impulses and duration of procedure. The results obtained by this method assessed according the Lovett's scoring system were very good and good in moderately advanced paresis, but unsatisfactory in severe paralysis.


The need to have a screening tool for onchocerciasis control to compliment parasitological and molecular diagnosis has remained an important goal. A novel Onchocerca volvulus slide flocculation test (Ov-SFT) was developed using tissue homogenates from rat organs (kidney, liver, heart, spleen, muscle, brain, lungs and testes). Liver followed by spleen and then kidney tissue homogenates performed better than others. Flocculation reactions were performed with antigens extracted from female adult worms of O. volvulus using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and sera from confirmed onchocerciasis infected patients. Negative and assay controls included non-infected serum and phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Results were subjectively graded as no reaction, 0 or negative. Positive reactions were rated 1 to 5 for low, moderate, medium, high and very high flocculation. The grading corresponded to titre levels ranging from 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32. The liver homogenate had the highest titre of 1/16 (4) followed by that of the kidney 1/8 (3) and heart 1/4 (2) flocculation reaction. The liver homogenate was validated as binding surface for Ov-SFT for screening field samples. Serum was added undiluted to SDS-extract at 1:40 dilution. Result showed that 33 (50.8%) of the sera samples (n= 65) from onchocerciasis endemic communities receiving ivermectin treatment tested positive. Intensity of antibody reactivity were at 1/2, 1 (1.54%); 1/4, 4 (6.15%); 1/8, 6 (9.23%); 1/16, 9 (13.85%) and 1/32, 13 (20%) dilutions. Three out of the five malaria positive cases were Ov-SFT sero-positive compared to 9 (63.5%) of the 14 malaria negative. There is potential field and point of care application of this test for surveillance and monitoring of onchocerciasis. The possibility of using it with other parasitic and bacterial diseases control is discussed.