One of the most important problem faced by Indonesia in carrying out
development is a matter of demography. Population problem is an extremely
important and complex, particularly for developing countries and has a large
population. The general objective of national development is trying to reduce
poverty and raise the level of community life. Goals and expectations will be
difficult to realize in the development process is carried out, especially if the
population problem is still not resolved properly.
The main objective of this research is to provide demographic and
socioeconomic profiles of respondents ever married women from Indonesia
Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) 2007. Information based on background
characteristics of respondents in the survey is important in order to explain the
findings presented in this report. This study begins by presenting background
characteristics of respondents according to age, educational level, age of first
marriage and area of residence. In addition, employment data are presented as
measured with the field work respondents. The population in this study are:
Elligible couple interviewed on IDHS Year 2007 in West Nusa Tenggara
Province. The sample in this study were ever married women who are still
married and aged 15-49 in West Nusa Tenggara Province which includes the 633
respondents who included as respondents in Indonesia Demographic Health
Survey 2007. Fertility in this study were measured by the number of children ever
born to each woman.
Analysing the relationship between fertility and its proximate
determinants, it is identified that age becomes the dominant variables that affect
the fertility. The second variable is dominant over the age of fertility is the first
marriage. Both of these variables have a profound impact caused by construction
of a culture that is so thick in the province who said that a girl should be married
in order not to be a "dedare toaq" or spinsters. Two variables that have no effect
on fertility is the child's preferences variables and variables work. There were no
mediating effect on the variables in the ideal number of children and child
preference. In the ideal number of children variables, none of the independent
variables influence, whereas the preference of the child variables, only some
independent variables that influence. The R2 as a whole on fertility is 0.519.
Thus, the contribution of the influence of all independent variables was 51.9%.
Age becomes the dominant variables that affect its fertility. The second variable is
dominant over the age of fertility is the first marriage. Two variables that have no
effect on fertility is the child's preferences variables and variables work.


'Misuse' of pesticides by agricultural workers assumes that these workers have access to the relevant risk information, are able to read the information, and are able to comprehend and apply this information. The main source of risk, health and safety information for workers is the pesticide label. Research conducted with South African farm workers highlights that health and safety label information is often not noticed and mis-interpreted from the expert intended meanings since workers have limited access to comprehension mechanisms. The Globally Haromonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) has been presented as a mechanism for improving label comprehension, but so far research has indicated that label information (e.g., in the form of icons/pictograms and colour codes) despite being harmonised is not understood to provoke the intended safety behaviours. With label information being a poor risk communication vehicle, it is argued that the Hierarchy of Control (HoC), originating from occupational hygiene, should be applied to the use of pesticides and for protecting the health and safety of workers to reduce hazardous exposures. The stages of the HoC are presented (i.e., elimination, substitution, engineering, administrative, behaviour and personal protective equipment) in order of effectiveness for protecting workers and examples applied. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), in conjunction with the WHO, are promoting the identification and management of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). The eight criteria for identifying HHPs appear to be an effective approach to eliminating pesticides too hazardous for workers unable to understand label information to be exposed to. 'Misuse' of pesticides, it is argued, should therefore be referred to as 'unintended uses' to avoid blaming workers who do not have access to risk, health and safety information (i.e., right-to-know) and/or are unable to interpret the messages as scientifically intended (i.e., 'right-to-comprehend').


In most batch processes, quality control measurements cannot be completed before the next batch operation. Thus, the corrective step is often delayed by one batch or more. The uncertain duration of delay with stochastic characteristics can be treated as a random variable of unknown distribution. Coupled with inaccurate process models, the delay may lead to significant process output variations even with EWMA controllers. This paper proposes a new method of handling the uncertain metrology delay and its ensuing complications. The run-to-run controller is designed based on minimization of error entropy, and the probability density function of the tracking error can be estimated by the historical operation data. The simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Abstract The quantitative and qualitative estimation of total body fluid content has proven to be crucial for both diagnosis and prognosis assessment in patients with heart failure. The aim of this review is to summarize the current techniques for assessing body hydration status as well as the principal biomarkers associated with acute heart failure (AHF). Although clinical history, physical examination and classical imaging techniques (e.g., standard radiography and echocardiography) still represent the cornerstones, novel and promising tools, such as biomarkers and bio-electrical impedance are achieving an emerging role in clinical practice for the assessment of total body fluid content. In the acute setting, the leading advantages of these innovative methods over device are represented by the much lower invasiveness and the reasonable costs, coupled with an easier and faster application. This article is mainly focused on AHF patients, not only because the overall prevalence of this disease is dramatically increasing worldwide, but also because it is well-known that their fluid overload has a remarkable diagnostic and prognostic significance. It is thereby conceivable that the bio-electrical vector analysis (BIVA) coupled with laboratory biomarkers might achieve much success in AHF patient management in the future, especially for assisting diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapeutic decision-making.


Machine learning, an important branch of artificial intelligence, is increasingly being applied in sciences such as forest ecology. Here, we review and discuss three commonly used methods of machine learning (ML) including decision-tree learning, artificial neural network, and support vector machine and their applications in four different aspects of forest ecology over the last decade. These applications include: (i) species distribution models, (ii) carbon cycles, (iii) hazard assessment and prediction, and (iv) other applications in forest management. Although ML approaches are useful for classification, modeling, and prediction in forest ecology research, further expansion of ML technologies is limited by the lack of suitable data and the relatively "higher threshold" of applications. However, the combined use of multiple algorithms and improved communication and cooperation between ecological researchers and ML developers still present major challenges and tasks for the betterment of future ecological research. We suggest that future applications of ML in ecology will become an increasingly attractive tool for ecologists in the face of "big data" and that ecologists will gain access to more types of data such as sound and video in the near future, possibly opening new avenues of research in forest ecology.


In the decade preceding Che Guevara's death and in the three decades following, revolutionary politics has ebbed and surged in four great waves. Revolutionary politics reflects regional variations in different historical moments, following diverse strategies and drawn from distinct social bases. The figure and ideas of Che Guevara have been influential and prescient in shaping the revolutionary debates and understanding their potentialities. Too many observers and commentators have taken a shortsighted view in their critical evaluation of Che's ideas and projections. For example, Che's decision to embark on a guerrilla project in the Congo (Zaire) has been described as a "failure," a "mistake," etc. Yet on the 30th anniversary of Che's death, after many turns and twists in the struggle, the U.S./French puppet regime of Mobutu was finally overthrown, precisely by a guerrilla army, led by one of the revolutionaries with whom Che collaborated. The premature judgments of pundits and armchair revolutionaries have been refuted by living historical experiences. Thus among the issues to be considered when analyzing Che Guevara's theory and practice of revolution are the time frame, the location and the political-economic context (at national, regional, and international levels).This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Abstract This study is dedicated to a complex Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) applied to the response phase after a natural disaster. Raised by the last mile distribution of relief goods after earthquakes, it is modelled as a rich VRP involving a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, multiple trips, multiple depots, and vehicle-site dependencies. The proposed method is a generic hybrid heuristic that uses a Set Partitioning formulation to add memory to a Multi-Start Iterated Local Search framework. To better fit the requirements of last mile distribution, the algorithm has been developed in partnership with members of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters and has been evaluated on real scenarios from Port-au-Prince earthquake. The heuristic quickly computes efficient routes while determining the number of required vehicles and the subset of depots to be used. Moreover, the computational results show that the proposed method is also competitive compared to the state of the art heuristics on closely related problems found in industrial distribution.


Under the MDGs, poverty has been reduced but not eradicated. The post-2015 development plan is firming towards poverty eradication not merely to reduce it. One of the most widely held beliefs in development economics is that rapid and sustained economic growth is necessary for lifting living standards which in turn is necessary if poverty is to be eradicated. Debates on poverty alleviation and eradication have tended to focus on the best means of achieving or accelerating growth rates. This approach is reflective of the 'trickle down' theory which dominated development thinking in the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, the development community has shifted its focus from fostering any economic growth per se to achieving 'shared growth' – growth with a maximum pay-off in terms of poverty reduction. The increasing focus on the relevance of inclusive growth highlights the need to understand sectoral contribution to growth to provide insight into the formulation of sustainable national and global growth policies. We examine the relationship between the sectoral composition of economic growth and poverty reduction for the period 1987 to 2006 at a regional level for a cross section of developing countries. We used pooled cross section data with observation over time because of data limitations. Panel data estimation was employed because the characteristics of the data constitute that of panel data. It is necessary to highlight that the panel data set is unbalanced and unevenly spaced, with missing values arising in different years for different countries. While unbalanced panel estimations are able to be carried out with the econometric software at hand, many limitations arise, particularly concerning diagnostic testing. We provide a comparison of the estimated sectoral GDP elasticities of poverty and present evidence that growth in services is twice as effective as growth in both agriculture and industry in reducing absolute poverty. However, these results vary substantially across different income levels and across geographic regions. We maintain that while non-agricultural growth may induce substantial poverty declines by transitioning those marginally below the poverty line, it may fail to target those living in extreme or chronic poverty. Thus, if meaningful poverty reduction is to take place and become self-sustaining, broad-based growth in agriculture and rural economy still appears to be essential to poverty reduction policies. We argue that such a result warrants the attention of post-2015 development agencies and policy makers given the interrelationship between drivers of economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.


The "Shuffle Conjecture" states that the bigraded Frobeneus characteristic of the space of diagonal harmonics (equal to the operator nabla applied to the nth elementary symmetric function) can be computed as the weighted sum of combinatorial objects called parking functions. In a 2010 paper Haglund, Morse, and Zabrocki studied the family of polynomials given by nabla applied to composition-indexed, rescaled Hall-Littlewood polynomials. They conjecture that these polynomials enumerate a composition indexed family of parking functions weighted by the same statistics. This refinement of the nearly decade old "Shuffle Conjecture" when combined with properties of the Hall-Littlewood polynomials implies the existence of certain bijections between these families of parking functions. The existence of these bijections then follows from some relatively simple properties of a certain recursively constructed family of polynomials. This work introduces those polynomials, explains their connection to the conjecture of Haglund, Morse, and Zabrocki, and explores some of their surprising properties, both proven and conjectured. The result is an intriguing new approach to the Shuffle Conjecture and a deeper understanding of some classical parking function statistics


This study focus on the weak lines that appear on high energy side of the diagram lines which is called High Energy K X-ray hypersatellites i.e., a particular category of characteristic X-ray due to splitting of fine structure levels. It's resulted from the interaction of spin of an electron with the spin of the nucleus. They are emitted when an atom that has undergone a spontaneous transitions from the higher hyperfine level to the lower one to a radiation of frequency and wavelength. Simultaneous double ionization in the K-shell and multiple ionization in the L-shell gives rise to K? X-ray hypersatellites. These can be studied only by high energy resolution instruments like WDXRF spectrometry. Fundamental experimental procedures were outlined in this field by several workers due to different excitation modes. The theoretical models to predict their energies and intensities were developed. And also this review can show a clear discrepancy between theoretical and experimental results in the case of hypersatellites formation from different shells. In case of experimental instrumentation, WDXRF is the most accurate for determining the energy and intensity of X-ray hypersatellites. All sources of data was literature done by different scholars. Keywords: X-ray hypersatellites; Energy Ratio; Intensity Ratio


The internal friction of partially Sr-substituted Y(Ba1-xSrx)2Cu3O7-δ (Y123) ceramics was measured by the vibrating-reed method from liquid nitrogen temperature to room temperature at kilohertz frequencies. The intensity of the internal friction peak, which appears around 220 K, decreases upon Sr doping while the peak position shows no systematic change. Our results do not support the previous oxygen order-disorder explanation; we present another approach relating this peak to the crossover in charge-carrier dynamics, and its evolution with Sr doping is discussed in terms of release of internal strain and electron-phonon coupling.


ABSTRACT This paper presents an analysis of the factors influencing the practical training quality of agricultural higher education programmes from the senior students' perspective. The study was conducted in two public universities located in the north-west of Iran using a cross-sectional survey and structured interviews with a randomised sample of 254 agricultural senior students. The students reported that they received low-quality practical training throughout their agricultural courses. In order for there to be an improvement in the quality of practical training, three elements are essential: active participation of academic staff, effective inter-organisational communication with private and public institutions, and active participation of students in the curriculum. Establishing a strong linkage between universities and relevant institutions could provide the required facilities and an effective learning environment for the students through internship opportunities outside universities and would prepare them for the labour market.


This paper considers abnormalities of flow patterns in the flow patterns in the cervical vasculature due to varying degrees of jugular venous reflux, and their influence on cerebral bloodflow studies. Two commonly encountered patterns are described. In the first group, the abnormal flow study resulted from reflux of the activity in the left internal jugular vein. In the second group, the observed abnormality resulted from reflux of the activity in the left internal jugular vein, followed by flow into the contralateral jugular vein, most probably through the transverse and sigmoid sinuses.


The hydrography of the Cochin harbour is studied with reference to air temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity and pH. The analysis of the data shows unique hydrographical characteristics which are influenced by the monsoon rains. The uniqueness lies mainly in the fluctuations of salinity which registers as low as 0.6 /a° during monsoon period to near sea conditions (29.4 /0 .) during the summer period. The dissolved oxygen, temperature and pH also showed fluctuations corresponding to seasons.


Hospital-acquired infections, also known as healthcare-associated infections (HAI), are nosocomially acquired infections that are typically not present or might be incubating at the time of admission. These infections are usually acquired after hospitalization and manifest 48 hours after admission to the hospital. The infections are monitored closely by agencies such as the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This surveillance is done to prevent HAI and improve patient safety. HAI infections include central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), surgical site infections (SSI), Hospital-acquired Pneumonia (HAP), Ventilator-associated Pneumonia (VAP), and Clostridium difficile infections (CDI). For the last few decades, hospitals have taken the hospital-acquired infections seriously. Several hospitals have established infection tracking and surveillance systems in place, along with robust prevention strategies to reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections. The impact of hospital-acquired infections is seen not just at an individual patient level, but also at the community level as they have been linked to multidrug-resistant infections. Identifying patients with risk factors for hospital-acquired infections and multidrug-resistant infections is very important in the prevention and minimization of these infections. Based on the guidelines from both the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the definitions of Pneumonia have been changed to better identify patients at risk for multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. This, in turn, is aimed at avoiding the overuse of antibiotics. Healthcare-acquired Pneumonia or HCAP, which was widely used previously, has been made obsolete. The term Hospital-acquired Pneumonia or HAP has replaced HCAP. As per the IDSA guidelines, Hospital-acquired Pneumonia is defined as "pneumonia that occurs 48 hours or more after admission to the hospital and did not appear to be incubating at the time of admission". According to IDSA, Ventilator-associated pneumonia or VAP is defined as "pneumonia that develops more than 48 to 72 hours after endotracheal intubation". Both HAP and VAP are associated with poorer outcomes and significant morbidity and mortality worldwide.


Davisson and Germer showed in 1927 that electrons scatter from a crystal the way x rays do, proving that particles of matter can act like waves.


To study the effect of different injection timings on the charge inhomogeneity, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) was applied to an operating engine. Quantitative images of the fuel distribution within the engine were obtained. Since the fuel used, iso-octane, does not fluoresce, a dopant was required. Three pentanone was found to have vapor pressure characteristics similar to those of iso-octane as well as low absorption and suitable spectral properties. A worst case estimation of the total accuracy from the PLIF images gives a maximum error of 0.03 in equivalence ratio. The results show that an early injection timing gives a higher degree of charge inhomogeneity close to the spark plug. It is also known that charge inhomogeneity gives a more unstable engine operation. A correlation was noted between the combustion on a cycle to cycle basis and the average fuel concentration within a circular area close to the spark plug center. The correlation coefficient when a second order polynomial was fitted reached a value of mA0.8 when the engine operated with a high degree of inhomogeneity. The highest correlation coefficient between the duration of 0-0.5% heat released and the average fuel concentration was obtained within a radius of approximately 5-10 mm from the spark plug. When the standard disc-shaped combustion chamber was replaced with a turbulence generating geometry, the inhomogeneity of the charge became very low, independent of injection timing. No cycle to cycle correlations between fuel/air equivalence ratio and combustion were then noted. (Less)


Author(s): Zhang, Shuai | Advisor(s): Xin, Jack | Abstract: A non-convex sparsity promoting penalty function, the transformed L1 (TL1), is studied in optimization problems with its applications in compressed sensing (CS) and matrix completion. The TL1 penalty interpolates l_0 and l_1 norms through a nonnegative parameter a \in (0,+\infty), similar to l_p with p \in (0,1]. TL1 is known in the statistics literature to enjoy three desired properties: unbiasedness, sparsity, and Lipschitz continuity.For compressed sensing problems, a RIP condition for TL1 exact recovery is proposed and proved. Next, difference of convex algorithms for TL1 (DCATL1) are presented in computing TL1-regularized constrained and unconstrained problems. For the unconstrained problem, we prove convergence of DCALT1 to a stationary point satisfying the first order optimality condition. In numerical experiments, we identify the optimal value a=1 and compare DCATL1 with other CS algorithms. An explicit fixed point representation is also developed for the TL1 regularized minimization problem. The TL1 thresholding functions are in closed form for all parameter values. The TL1 threshold values differ in subcritical (supercritical) parameter regime where the TL1 threshold functions are continuous (discontinuous) similar to soft-thresholding (half-thresholding) functions. We propose TL1 iterative thresholding algorithms and compare them with hard and half thresholding algorithms in CS test problems. The TS1 penalty, as a matrix quasi-norm defined on its singular values, interpolates the rank and the nuclear norm through a nonnegative parameter a \in (0, +\infty). We consider the unconstrained TS1 regularized low-rank matrix recovery problem and develop a fixed point representation for its global minimizer. The TS1 thresholding functions are in closed analytical form for all parameter values. We propose TS1 iterative thresholding algorithms and compare them with some state-of-the-art algorithms on matrix completion test problems.


BACKGROUND
Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of neonatal mortality. The clinical outcome mainly depends on the early diagnosis and peripheral venous blood culture (PVBC) is the most widely practiced diagnostic method.

AIMS
This study aimed to evaluate the utility of umbilical cord blood culture (UCBC) in neonates at high risk of early onset neonatal sepsis (EONS) in comparison to peripheral venous blood culture.

METHODS
A total of 40 neonates with two or more risk factors for EONS were included in the study. Umbilical cord blood was collected aseptically during delivery for blood culture and C-reactive protein (CRP). Peripheral venous blood was collected within 24 hours of birth for sepsis screen and PVBC.

RESULTS
Although 11 babies were sepsis screen positive, cord blood CRP was negative in all cases. In comparison to PVBC, UCBC had 100 per cent sensitivity and 94.9 per cent specificity. The results of UCBC were consistent with PVBC. One neonate who was both UCBC and PVBC positive also had isolation of the same pathogen in both the cultures and 33 per cent PPV for UCBC.

CONCLUSION
UCBC is a simple convenient method, which ensures culture of adequate volume of blood from newborns allowing effective early isolation of bacterial pathogens, especially in EONS.


A brief account is given of the main features of chemical reactions occurring in the stationary liquid phase in gas-chromatographic columns during the pulsed injection of the sample. Attention is paid mainly to the use of direct and indirect pulse methods of gas chromatography for determining the kinetic characteristics of reactions in the liquid phase. The advantages and limitations of these methods are analysed. A promising future is shown for the wide application of pulse gas-chromatographic methods for the experimental study of the kinetics of liquid-phase reactions. The bibliography contains 69 references.


About half of world's known oil reserves are in carbonate reservoirs (Roehl 1985). However, many carbonate reservoirs (about 80%) are mixed-wet or oil-wet (Downs, 1989). Hence the efficiency of water flooding is very low as the rock surface is oil wet. In such cases using surfactant flooding has been suggested many times as an advantageous replacement for secondary recovery (Seethepalli et al 2004, Lu et al 2014). Surfactant flooding is an efficient approach for oil recovery from the carbonate reservoirs by a recovery of up to 70% Oil in Place or OOIP (Austad et al 1997, Standnes, et al 2003, Lu et al 2014). As the rock surface prefers oil, spontaneous imbibition does not occur in the reservoir, so break through time decreases and water cut approaches sooner, increasing water production while decreasing the beneficial oil production. In this study Dodecyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide or in abbreviation form DTAB is used as the surfactant element for wettability alteration from hydrophobic to hydrophilic in the limestone cores, to find the impact of temperature and aging time. It is observed that DTAB surfactant's optimum workability is at T=80°C and for surfactant concentration 1.5 W%. The results show that in lower temperatures also the best result is gained for a higher concentration


Abstract In this paper I explore potential relationships between humans and Martian polar ices. Martian ices contain within them multimillion year histories of atmospheric, geological and maybe even biological processes. Polar ices will have many scientific uses, as well as providing resources for human explorers. Their hydrogen atoms may be used to make methane fuel by combination with carbon atoms from atmospheric carbon dioxide. It would be possible to use the ice as a source of water and also of oxygen in the otherwise anoxic atmosphere. Martian polar ices could be used as a shield by human explorers: by covering a research station with ice, high energy solar particles could be absorbed, protecting explorers from potentially damaging radiation exposure. Finally, Martian ices provide a substratum over which scientific and exploratory expeditions could traverse on their way to deep field sites and the geographic poles themselves. Martian polar ices have the potential to open a new and unique chapter in the long relationship between humans and ice.


This article describes an initiative aimed at year 9 pupils (age 13-14) which is associated with the University of Sussex science post-graduate certificate in education (PGCE) teacher-training programme and ensures a common entitlement for PGCE trainees in the context of out-of-school-hours experiences. It involves the GlaxoSmithKline-sponsored 'Masterclasses in Science and Technology' based on the university campus.


Pathologic characteristics of extirpated renal cell carcinoma (RCC) specimens <7 cm were reviewed to get better information on technical nuances of renal mass biopsy (RMB). Specimens were stratified according to tumor stage, nuclear grade, size, histology, presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI), necrosis, and sarcomatoid features. When considering pT1 (0–7 cm) tumors, pT1b (4–7 cm) RCC masses were more likely to have necrosis (43% vs 16%, P < 0.001), LVI (6% vs 2%, P = 0.024), high-grade nuclear elements (29% vs 17%, P < 0.001), and sarcomatoid features (2% vs 0%, P = 0.006) compared with pT1a (0–4 cm) tumors. Additionally, pT3a tumors were more highly associated with necrosis (P = 0.005), LVI, sarcomatoid features, and high-grade disease (P for all < 0.001) when compared to pT1 masses. For masses <4 cm, pT3a cancers were more likely to demonstrate necrosis (38% vs 16%, P < 0.001), LVI (22% vs 2%, P < 0.001), high-grade nuclear elements (45% vs 17%, P < 0.001), and sarcomatoid features (12% vs 0%, P < 0.001) compared to pT1a tumors. Similarly, for masses 4–7 cm, pathologic T3a tumors were significantly more likely to have sarcomatoid features (12% vs 2%, P = 0.006) and LVI (22% vs 6%, P = 0.003) compared to pT1b tumors. In summary, pT3a tumors and those RCC masses >4 cm exhibit considerable histologic heterogeneity and may harbor elements that are not easily appreciated with limited renal sampling. Therefore, if RMB is considered for renal masses greater than 4 cm or those that abut sinus fat, a multi-quadrant biopsy approach is necessary to ensure adequate sampling and characterization of the mass.


In this paper, a TCP-friendly rate control algorithm is proposed for stored MPEG2 layered video. In this algorithm, RTT is observed at the receiver through the use of probe APP packets, and the control interval is chosen based on the self-similar nature of MPEG2 traffic. In addition, the estimated receiving rate is used as an indication to the network status when no packet loss is detected. In our simulations, a friendliness of 0. 94 is obtained, and the video quality fluctuations are acceptable with this control algorithm.


BARD1 protein binds to, stabilizes, and enhances the tumor suppressor functions of BRCA1. However, highly upregulated expression of aberrant BARD1 isoforms correlates with decreased patient survival in NSCLC. BARD1 isoforms are tumor drivers and act antagonistically to E3 ubiquitin ligase functions of BARD1-BRCA1 heterodimer. In particular, isoform BARD1β is promoting cell proliferation by stabilizing Aurora kinases. Since BARD1β and BARD1π are upregulated and correlated with poor prognosis in lung cancer they might act as suitable biomarkers of NSCLC detection/progression. We developed a blood test based on BARD1 isoforms by performing ELISA tests with antibodies against different regions of BARD1 for detection of BARD1 isoforms in blood of NSCLC patients. We also generated a peptide library representing 60 epitopes mimicking BARD1 isoforms, for detection of autoimmune antibodies recognizing epitopes expressed by BARD1 isoforms. Significant differences between serum samples from 60 chemotherapy-naive NSCLC patients and from 40 healthy volunteers have been found. Applying a combination of seven peptides, lung cancer was detected with 87 percent sensitivity and 68 percent specificity. Thus, antibodies against BARD1 isoforms are telltales of NSCLC and their detection can be further developed towards a blood test. Experiments including larger patient and control group numbers, different types of lung cancer are currently ongoing, and should optimize test conditions and define the target patient set.


Institutional Building is a social engineering method adopted by government to deliver intended inovation and improvement to the society. But as an agent of change government was more massive than the change itself. Reformation changed the role of government as a single agent of change. Government and society than have to learn from and to change with another. But how to make the change of mind-set and cultere-set happened and institutionally?


Acute myocardial infarction is a major complication of stenosing coronary artery disease and constitutes the most frequent single cause of death. It is caused by thrombotic occlusion of one of the major epicardial coronary arterial branches in most cases. Sudden death due to ventricular fibrillation is responsible for the majority of early fatalities. In 60% of all fatal infarcts, death occurs within 1 h of the onset of pain. The final extension of myocardial necrosis is reached within 2-4 h. An integrated programme has therefore been developed for the surveillance and treatment of patients suffering acute coronary attack; it has been shown that it can markedly lower infarct mortality. It includes mobile prehospital care, intensive care treatment in the hospital, and rehabilitative procedures for application during reconvalescence. Early antiarrhythmic treatment and myocardial reperfusion via fibrinolysis are the main therapeutic procedures in the earliest stage. In hospital an operating room and an operating team must be available round the clock for the performance of coronary angiography followed by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or bypass surgery, which can be safely carried out in the acute stage providing the indications are strictly observed. Mortality and morbidity can be significantly lowered and both life expectancy and quality of life can be remarkably improved.


The speech act theory, introduced by J. L. Austin in 1962, claims for a third level of language in use analysis which is analysing utterances as linguistic acts (i.e., speech acts). By focusing on the non-literal meaning that arises in language in use, a given speech act is contextualized within a tripartite structure of: utterance, intention (speaker), and purpose (hearer) which correspond respectively to: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. This article attempts to trace this tripartite structure of speech act, with much focus on addressing potential gaps, then, calling for important refinements. This takes place as the main aim is of this paper is to call for a contextualization of language in use within a larger context of action, within which the illocutionary act is but a level of language action potential. In doing so, referring to some scholars' contribution, especially that of van Dijk and Searle, is a necessary step to go through.


The development of time have changed human's life style. Almost every activity and work are not free from modernization and automatization because many people think that working manually is slow, highly error, and inefficient, etc. Nevertheless, many works still use manual system, for example the registery of customer's electrics invoice by PLN. So, practically there are many mistakes happened by KWh metre' officer. Thus, customers will be unsatisfction with PLN's services.
This script discuss automatization of identify cutomer's data, intake of invoice electrics data and also saving its data at database in PC. As identifying cutomer's data use passive RFID, its data communications use Walky-Talky, as processor of main program use MKAT89S8252 and MKAT89S51, as appearance of instructions use LCD. Data base uses Microsoft Acces and the appearance at PC uses Visual Program Basic. When cutomer brings near RFID's card to READER RFID, then cutomer's data will appear on PC and system of transceiver will be directed ask system at KWH metre to deliver the usage's expense of electrics. After process of transfer data is finished hence amount of cutomer's electrics invoice and other information which have on file at database will emerge at PC.
The aim of this appliance to develop former system which still use barcode at identifying cutomer's data. This is expected the better process of intake data from / to KWH metre because do not write down electrics invoice by manual again. Equally, mistakes at process the registery of electrics invoice can be minimalized.


Primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL) is a rare primary cardiac neoplasm with a relatively poor prognosis despite confinement to the heart and/or pericardium. We report a 54-year-old man who had presented with complete heart block for which he had undergone permanent pacemaker implantation, and six months later he was referred to us for evaluation of progressive exertional dyspnea. Multislice spiral computed tomography angiography of the heart and major vasculature showed infiltrative tumoral lesion that has involved interatrial septum, right atrium, left atrium, and left ventricle with invasion into the pulmonary artery. Tissue samples were taken using uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and the histologic examination revealed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Chemoimmunotherapy was effective in inducing tumor regression and the patient was still in remission during the next six months after treatment.


Packet-based on-chip networks are increasingly being adopted in complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs supporting numerous homogeneous and heterogeneous functional blocks. These network-on-chip (NoC) architectures are required to not only provide ultra-low latency, but also occupy a small footprint and consume as little energy as possible. Further, reliability is rapidly becoming a major challenge in deep sub-micron technologies due to the increased prominence of permanent faults resulting from accelerated aging effects and manufacturing/testing challenges. Towards the goal of designing low-latency, energy-efficient and reliable on-chip communication networks, we propose a novel fine-grained modular router architecture. The proposed architecture employs decoupled parallel arbiters and uses smaller crossbars for row and column connections to reduce output port contention probabilities as compared to existing designs. Furthermore, the router employs a new switch allocation technique known as "mirroring effect" to reduce arbitration depth and increase concurrency. In addition, the modular design permits graceful degradation of the network in the event of permanent faults and also helps to reduce the dynamic power consumption. Our simulation results indicate that in an 8 times 8 mesh network, the proposed architecture reduces packet latency by 4-40% and power consumption by 6-20% as compared to two existing router architectures. Evaluation using a combined performance, energy and fault-tolerance metric indicates that the proposed architecture provides 35-50% overall improvement compared to the two earlier routers


The mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway mediates Toll-like receptor signaling during innate immune responses. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) modulate inflammation by deacetylating histone and non-histone proteins. Previous studies in our lab identified MAP Kinase Phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) as a potential acetylation target. Thus, we hypothesize that HDACs regulate LPS-induced inflammation by deacetylating MKP-1. RAW264.7 mouse macrophages preferentially expressed HDAC1, 2, and 3 (class I HDAC isoforms). HDAC1, 2, and 3 interacted with MKP-1. To support our hypothesis, we adopted both genetic and pharmacologic approaches, using HDAC1, 2, and 3 siRNAs and MS-275, a HDAC1, 2, 3 specific inhibitor. Both silencing and pharmacologic inhibition of HDAC1, 2, and 3 increased MKP-1 acetylation in cells. HDAC1 decreased MKP-1 acetylation in vitro. Furthermore, both silencing and pharmacologic inhibition of HDAC1, 2, and 3 decreased LPS-induced p38 MAPK activation and iNOS expression. Finally, pharmacologic inhibition of HDAC1, 2, and 3 decreased LPS-induced NO and IL-6 production. Taken together, our results show that class I HDACs deacetylate MKP-1, and that this modification can significantly affect MAPK signaling and inflammation. Furthermore, our results suggest that MKP-1 is a potential therapeutic target in inflammatory diseases.
 Supported by the American Heart Association grant (0815093E).


What is the research for in the society? We may imagine the professionals engaged in these activities, shall we say, university professors, researchers in the public and private institutions, and even the lay inventors at home or in the neighborhood. The research is related with some of knowledge or ideas, which, however, should be creative and original. It is the main function of those professionals, and can develop in dissemination of the findings produced by research. It frontiers the knowledge of humans which enables a better view of world and generates the public welfare. The scholars are often those professionals who are required or in some cases, squeezed to produce an original contribution to the specific field of academy. As the society develops, we now require a scientific knowledge beyond the plain understanding of the nature and society. The scientific knowledge is qualified of some elements, i.e., evidence-based, universal frame to be applied, sense of understanding, pragmatic in comprehension or application, more persuasion on theory, paradigm, typologies, intersubjectivity, empirical relevance and so. It informs a philosophy of humans, makes them conscientious and knowledgeable, as well as enhances a professional performance for not only their field but also other disciplines. For example, the criminal justice system borrows the idea or information confirmed by other disciplines, psychology and sociology notably. What is the Durham rule in the excuse of culpability? The scope of rule could not enjoy a persuasion if not to be supported by the works of psychologists. The scientific knowledge perhaps could recourse its most salient dynamism in coupling with an economic exploitation. A cultivation of knowledge to serve the economic use and its industrialization reveals it's competitive edge in the society. The kind of concepts, information age, e-technology, and intellectual property rights are leading the present time of narrative as we see routinely. Many new laws, and new concept of e-education or e-government, GMO products as well as the travel of universe in the near future also follow that the updated profile of scientific knowledge on the engineering and natural science contributed to expand our horizon of subsistence. With this crucial importance, the author attempts to file some thoughts on the research and society.


The purpose of the study was to assess the possibility of placental injury detection on computed tomography (CT) in pregnant trauma patients. The images and dictated reports of 44 CT scans of pregnant women who presented to the University of California Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC) from 2003 to 2008 for traumatic abdominal conditions were reviewed for placental abruption. Performances of original dictated reports, an untrained reviewer, and a trained reviewer (who was trained on 22 non-traumatic scans) were compared. Of the 66 pregnant women who received abdominal CT scans, 44 sustained abdominal trauma. Seven suffered placental abruptions, all of which were identified on CT. Sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 79.5%, respectively, for the untrained reviewer, 100% and 82.1% for the trained reviewer, and 42.9% and 89.7% for the original dictated reports. Placental abruptions are often overlooked on CT scan. Sensitivity may be improved by systematic evaluation of the placenta and specificity by training on normal placental morphology.


Background: The prevalence of health care associated infections can be reduced by hand hygiene (HH). This study is aimed at determining the knowledge and practice of HH among healthcare workers (HCWs).Method: descriptive cross-sectional study using semi-structured questionnaire among HCWs selected by cluster sampling was carried out at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu.Results: Respondents were 629, mostly females (64.4%), married (62.3% and aged between 19 and 59 years. About 63% received training on HH. Average knowledge score was 80.3%. All respondents knew about the following moments of HH: before exiting patient's care area and after contact with body fluids. However, 45.6% and 54.2% knew that HH was indicated before touching a patient and after removing hand gloves respectively. Only 12.2% of respondents washed hands before patients. All doctors and nurses washed hands before aseptic procedures. Regular access to HH resources were 17.6%, 7%, 5.5%, and 1.7% among medical laboratory scientists (MLS), doctors, nurses, and health attendants respectively.Conclusion: knowledge of HH was generally high but practice was poor for some moments of HH like before wearing gloves and leaving patients' care area. Unavailability of HH resources was implicated.Keywords: Hand hygiene, knowledge, practice, healthcare workers


The authors explore an alternative way of analyzing the relationship between development, migration, and psychology. The method is based on the first principal component of national net immigrants' data in the Human Development Index rating domain. Results show that the main sources of emigrants are countries with moderate development and the main sink countries are ranked from Human Development Index Rating 10 to 30. This could be in part due to a psychological reason: "If one is poor among poor, incentives to migrate might be lower than if one is poor among (relatively) rich".


Background In the past few decades, a large number of physical performance (PP) tests for clinical assessment of patients with low back pain (LBP) have been introduced. Knowledge is limited, however, on the their appropriateness for treatment outcome, clinical and epidemiological studies, which require a high level of reliability and validity of measurements. Objectives Our review focus on the psychometric properties and clinical usefulness of physical performance measurements in patients with LBP. Methods In order to comprehensively identify instruments of physical performance measurement in LBP patients and studies on their reliability, validity and clinical usefulness, MEDLINE searches were performed for the time interval from 1998 to 2000 using the following controlled vocabulary: low back pain, measurement (s), outcome, tests, function, physical performance, muscle strength, range of motion, reliability, sensitivity, validity. In the second step reference lists of the retrieved papers were used for identification further studies, which were not included in MEDLINE database. The literature about sophisticated, special equipment requiring functional measurements, which application due to cost and time demand in daily clinical practise is restricted, was excluded from analysis. Results 162 papers reporting on physical performance tests in patients with low back pain were analysed. Validity and reliability has been more comprehensively studied for ?Timed-up-and-go?, ?Loaded reach? and ?Sit-to-stand? tests. The high level of reliability of these test were reported (correlation coefficients ranged from r = 0,89 to r = 0.99). No one prospective follow-up study on responsiveness of PP tests was found. Conclusion In our literature search we found that all validated PP tests were designed as a discriminative instruments, whose purpose was to measure differences between the people. In order to use them as a qualitative clinical outcome measurement instruments, their psychometric property such a responsiveness should be investigated. Available in our rewiev.


Hadron and proton therapy are cutting edge techniques for cancer treatment and a great development of specialized medical centers and research facilities is foreseen in the next decades. One of the main obstacles to the penetration of the use of charged particles for therapy is the construction of complex and expensive accelerating structures and rotating transfer lines, i.e., gantries, able to bend and focus the beam down to the patient. GaToroid is a novel concept of a fixed toroidal gantry, able to deliver the dose at discrete angles in the whole range of treatment energies in steady-state configuration. The steady-state current and magnetic field are appealing features, implying simplified demands on stability, powering, mechanics and cooling, as well as for the clinical perspective, allowing rapid variations of beam energy and treatment angle. In this work, we present the magnetic design of the toroidal coils composing the first instance of GaToroid, focusing the analysis on an option for a proton machine with an energy range of 70 MeV to 250 MeV. To create a proper magnetic field distribution, the coils have been designed with peculiar asymmetric shape and the windings have been graded. An initial winding geometry was obtained with an optimization aiming at maximum energy acceptance of the gantry. We are now progressing to the detailed engineering design. We describe here the overall magnet design, coil and conductor layout (LTS and HTS options), and mechanical studies involving the general torus structure. Quench protection is evaluated for LTS (Nb-Ti) configuration, as well as more innovative HTS (ReBCO) options. Finally, we present the design and the construction of a scaled-down demonstrator, intended as the proof of principle of winding procedure and mechanical coil structure.


Lake Clark is an important nursery lake for sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, the most productive wild salmon fishery in the world. Reductions in water clarity within Alaska lake systems as a result of increased glacial runoff have been shown to reduce salmon production via reduced abundance of zooplankton and macroinvertebrates. In this study, we reconstruct long-term, lake-wide water clarity for Lake Clark using the Landsat TM and ETM+ surface reflectance products (1985–2014) and in situ water clarity data collected between 2009 and 2013. Analysis of a Landsat scene acquired in 2009, coincident with in situ measurements in the lake, and uncertainty analysis with four scenes acquired within two weeks of field data collection showed that Band 3 surface reflectance was the best indicator of turbidity (r2 = 0.55, RMSE << 0.01). We then processed 151 (98 partial- and 53 whole-lake) Landsat scenes using this relation and detected no significant long-term trend in mean turbidity for Lake Clark between 1991 and 2014. We did, however, detect interannual variation that exhibited a non-significant (r2 = 0.20) but positive correlation (r = 0.20) with regional mean summer air temperature and found the month of May exhibited a significant positive trend (r2 = 0.68, p = 0.02) in turbidity between 2000 and 2014. This study demonstrates the utility of hindcasting turbidity in a glacially influenced lake using the Landsat surface reflectance products. It may also help land and resource managers reconstruct turbidity records for lakes that lack in situ monitoring, and may be useful in predicting future water clarity conditions based on projected climate scenarios.


This paper presents an efficient algorithm for virtual fly-through of CT-colonography. The algorithm first segments colon using a fuzzy based region growing technique. Then, a skeletonization method based on a voxel coding scheme to define an optimum path for virtual camera is applied on segmented colon. The optimum path is a connected and one-voxel-thin centerline of a 3D object, which provides the location of a virtual camera for the fly-through. Finally, a smooth and stable virtual camera view direction on the optimum path is recursively calculated based on updating the view direction of the current site by adding a deviation vector that is determined by the weighted average of the deviation vector of the next n voxels with respect to the current location. The proposed system was applied on several CT colonography data. The experimental result was visually inspected by a qualified radiologist and it demonstrates the efficiency of the algorithm.


Evidence for foot preferences has been reported in parrots and the majority of parrot species uses the left foot to hold and process food objects. Here we assessed the footedness of ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in a wild-living non-native population in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Observations were made when parrots fed on catalpa trees Catalpa sp., with 20- to 50-cm-long fruits. Parakeets tend to bite off catalpa fruits with their beak, using one foot holding the fruit. Further, we established an experimental set-up (feeding location) and prepared pieces of apple in an adequate size to force parrots to handle the food with one foot. From 184 individuals feeding on the catalpa trees, 102 were recorded using the left foot and 82 the right foot. At the feeding location, 24 individuals were left-footed and 11 were right-footed. These observations suggest a foot preference in the ring-necked parakeet both on the population level and on the individual level.


In this paper, we address the problem of modeling and predicting the music genre preferences of users. We introduce a novel user modeling approach, BLLu, which takes into account the popularity of music genres as well as temporal drifts of user listening behavior. To model these two factors, BLLu adopts a psychological model that describes how humans access information in their memory. We evaluate our approach on a standard dataset of Last.fm listening histories, which contains fine-grained music genre information. To investigate performance for different types of users, we assign each user a mainstreaminess value that corresponds to the distance between the user's music genre preferences and the music genre preferences of the (Last.fm) mainstream. We adopt BLLu to model the listening habits and to predict the music genre preferences of three user groups: listeners of (i) niche, low-mainstream music, (ii) mainstream music, and (iii) medium-mainstream music that lies in-between. Our results show that BLLu provides the highest accuracy for predicting music genre preferences, compared to five baselines: (i) group-based modeling, (ii) user-based collaborative filtering, (iii) item-based collaborative filtering, (iv) frequency-based modeling, and (v) recency-based modeling. Besides, we achieve the most substantial accuracy improvements for the low-mainstream group. We believe that our findings provide valuable insights into the design of music recommender systems.


Supported by the antiherpetic properties of 3-quinolinecarboxamides and the importance of the planar intramolecular H-bonded beta-keto amide pharmacophore, a series of novel conformationally rigid analogues that contain a heterocyclic bridge between the 3- and 4-positions of the quinoline ring have been evaluated. Two isoxazolo-fused derivatives 17 and 23 displayed good in vitro antiherpetic potency that was similar to that of 1, the 3-quinolinecarboxamide that served as the comparison structure for this study. The pyrazolo, pyrrolo, and pyrimido derivatives showed considerably less or no activity. In vitro activity did not translate to in vivo efficacy. For 17, the lack of in vivo activity is likely a consequence of insufficient plasma drug levels (both Cmax and duration) in mice relative to the MIC versus HSV-2.


Although lead poisoning, through the ingestion of gunshot embedded in prey, is known to have been a significant mortality factor for several raptor species in the United States (Haliaeetus leucocephalus and Gymnogyps Californianus), very little published information is available concerning raptors in Europe. This paper presents the results of liver lead analysis from 222 raptors collected throughout France and reviews other published and unpublished European information. Of the 11 diurnal and 6 nocturnal raptor species investigated in this study, elevated liver lead concentrations, suggestive of shot ingestion, were found in 3 (Accipiter nisus, A. gentilis, Buteo buteo). The likelihood of a species to ingest shot appears related to feeding habits, with scavengers and predators that take game species the most susceptible. Raptor species at risk from lead poisoning, including some of high conservation value, are described, and future priorities for lead poisoning research and policy are suggested.


Introduction The "potentially preventable hospitalizations (PPH)'' are hospital admissions that could have been avoided through effective primary care given at the appropriate time. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), causes of PPH, are the leading cause of death worldwide with significant socioeconomic consequences especially in developing countries. This study aimed to assess the burden of potentially preventable hospitalizations in the St. Louis regional hospital. Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The surveyed population consisted of all patients older than one year, admitted to St. Louis hospital for more than four (04) hours time between January 20 and April 30, 2015. Patients hospitalized in surgery (general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology), maternity and neonatology, as well as those who refused or were unable to participate in the study were excluded. Results The study included one hundred forty four (144) individuals with an average age of 54.68±15 years (17-88 years) and sex ratio woman/man of 1.21. The PPH represented 54% of all hospitalizations. The main causes of hospitalizations were diabetes with 22.1%, chronic kidney disease 12%, hypertension 10.9%, Stroke 6.4% and finally broncho-pulmonary diseases 2.6%. The average length of stay was 6.68±5.51 days. The average distance between the residence and the hospital was 26.51±60KM with a median of 3.5KM. The average cost of care was Euros 104.583 ±83.51. For 61.10%, it was a first hospitalization and for 30.60%, a second one. The Knowledge about signs of disease severity had changed significantly at the end of hospitalization, from 29% at the beginning to 98% at the end of stay in hospital. As for the means of prevention, 30.55% reported knowing them before their hospitalization and 68% after hospitalization. Conclusion Potentially preventable hospitalizations are a heavy burden for the population of St. Louis. Their negative social and economic impacts may hinder health policies initiated to relieve vulnerable groups. Their prevention should be a national priority.


Heavy mineral sands (HMS) are a resource of Ti minerals, zircon, monazite and critical elements such as Hf and the rare earth elements (REE). Portable field techniques capable of measuring the geochemical composition, such as portable XRF (pXRF), may assist in identifying and quantifying the multiple minerals present in HMS. In this study, we assess the application of pXRF to the characterization of garnet–magnetite mineral sands from the Namibian coastline. Forty-six HMS samples from the northern Namibian coast were analysed by pXRF for SiO2, Ti, Mn, Fe, Zr, Th, Y, V and Hf. The HMS were analysed as powdered and unground samples to test whether minimal sample preparation yields reliable results. Our tests show that the pXRF results of unground sands scatter widely due to sample heterogeneity. Powdered samples, however, can be measured precisely and can be corrected with conventional laboratory analyses. Some spectral interference specific to this material occurs, e.g. Th on Pb and Bi and Hf on Cu. Selectively corrected pXRF data for powdered HMS were compared to XRD Rietveld data to determine proportions of heavy minerals (Ti minerals, Fe oxides, zircon, garnet). Geochemical and mineralogical data correlated well for garnet and moderately for Fe oxides and Ti minerals. The presence of zircon and monazite is also indicated by Zr, Hf and Th concentrations, which demonstrates that pXRF is a useful tool for HMS characterization. Supplementary material: Tables of raw data (Supplementary Table S1), statistical parameters (Supplementary Table S2) and corrected pXRF values (Supplementary Table S3) are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4536992


Plant regeneration is a well-known capacity of plants occurring either in vivo or in vitro. This potential is the basis for plant micropropagation and genetic transformation as well as a useful system to analyse different aspects of plant development. Recent studies have proven that RNA species with no protein-coding capacity are key regulators of cellular function and essential for cell reprogramming. In this review, the current knowledge on the role of several ncRNAs in plant regeneration processes is summarized, with a focus on cell fate reprogramming. Moreover, the involvement/impact of microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in the regulatory networks of cell dedifferentiation, proliferation and differentiation is also analysed. A deeper understanding of plant ncRNAs in somatic cell reprogramming will allow a better modulation of in vitro regeneration processes such as organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis.


Abstract: Prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) has long been criticized for its lack of specificity in screening for the occurrence of prostate cancer. In this study, we tried to measure levels of another biomarker, prostate‐specific membrane antigen (PSM), in the peripheral circulation from subjects with either prostate cancer or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Total RNA was extracted from blood samples of 70 patients with prostate cancer and 19 with BPH. Reverse transcription was performed to convert mRNA to cDNA. The cDNA was analyzed with a novel real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol to measure PSM mRNA levels in the circulation. Melting curve analysis was adapted to assure that correct amplification data were obtained. Results showed that 41 of 70 prostate cancer patients had positive results, whereas 9 of 19 BPH cases were negative. Therefore, the sensitivity and specificity were determined to be 58.6% and 47.4%, respectively. For comparison, traditional nested PCR was performed to investigate whether the new method was superior. The sensitivity and specificity of nested PCR were determined to be 27.1% and 57.9%, respectively. The detection limits of these two methods were 0.0005 ng (for the real‐time quantitative PCR method) and 0.5 ng of PSM‐cDNA (for the nested PCR method). In conclusion, we have successfully developed a novel, noninvasive real‐time quantitative PCR method to detect the PSM mRNA levels in the peripheral circulation of prostate cancer subjects. This method may provide references for urologists diagnosing prostate cancer or monitoring the patient's condition after treatment.


Deep neural networks have proven remarkably effective at solving many classification problems, but have been criticized recently for two major weaknesses: the reasons behind their predictions are uninterpretable, and the predictions themselves can often be fooled by small adversarial perturbations. These problems pose major obstacles for the adoption of neural networks in domains that require security or transparency. In this work, we evaluate the effectiveness of defenses that differentiably penalize the degree to which small changes in inputs can alter model predictions. Across multiple attacks, architectures, defenses, and datasets, we find that neural networks trained with this input gradient regularization exhibit robustness to transferred adversarial examples generated to fool all of the other models. We also find that adversarial examples generated to fool gradient-regularized models fool all other models equally well, and actually lead to more "legitimate," interpretable misclassifications as rated by people (which we confirm in a human subject experiment). Finally, we demonstrate that regularizing input gradients makes them more naturally interpretable as rationales for model predictions. We conclude by discussing this relationship between interpretability and robustness in deep neural networks.


Introduction and Objective: The metastasis of cancer is preceded by the dissemination of cancer cells from the primary tumor site to remote sites via the blood circulation. The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood represents a strong and independent prognostic factor for decreased disease-free and overall survival. Immune-affinity based capture, although being the most commonly used method for the isolation of CTCs, offers low throughput (∼1mL/hr) and have considerably cell loss caused by the heterogeneous expression of biomarkers on CTCs. Various label-free approaches utilizing the physical properties of CTCs have been developed to overcome the limitations, such as micro-filters, microscale laminar vortices, inertial migration of particles, and integrated systems. Here we present an inertial microfluidic-based separation technique for high throughput and label-free isolation of CTCs yielding the highest throughput with high CTC recovery and high blood cell removal among all the label-free technologies. The isolated CTC populations were further analyzed for single cell multiplex gene expression analysis. Methods: The PDMS-made inertial microfluidic device has 637 mm in length with 56 corners, 500 μm in width, and 100 μm in height. The separation of CTCs is driven by two main forces: (i) inertial force that focuses the cells into streamlines, and (ii) drag force from Dean flow that migrates the focused cells to various positions based on size. Device is optimized with MCF-7 and Panc-1 cell line within PBS buffer solution and diluted blood, and is tested in patients with breast cancer on an average of 5 mL of whole blood processed through double devices in series. CTCs isolated were analyzed for tumor specific protein markers and genomic characterization is done using singe cell analysis techniques. Results: Samples are processed through the inertial microfluidic device and CTCs are enriched in second outlet based on size difference between CTCs and blood cells. Device is optimized to operate at an extremely high throughput of 2500 μL/min with high recovery (greater than 90%) and high white blood cells (WBCs) removal (5 log orders). In patient samples, we identified CTCs in 38 of 40 (95%) breast patients with metastatic disease (5.4±4.6 CTC/mL) with low WBC contamination (663±647 WBC/mL). Based on the gene expression, both inter and intra patient heterogeneity of CTCs at the single cell level were discovered among the tested patient samples. Conclusion: The study of CTCs could have a direct impact upon society by presenting novel ways to address one of the major hurdles in cancer research - early detection - and will foster the advancement of science and engineering via the exploration of new druggable targets approaches and the further understanding of the pharmacodynamics. Citation Format: Eric Lin, Lianette Rivera, Shamileh Fouladdel, Hyeun Joong Yoon, Stephanie Guthrie, Jacob Weiner, Yadwinder S. Deol, Evan Keller, Vaibhav Sahai, Diane M. Simeone, Monika L. Burness, Ebrahim Azizi, Max S. Wicha, Sunitha Nagrath. Label-free high throughput microfluidic device for the isolation and single cell multiplex gene expression analysis of circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3307.


Architectural features extracted from high spatial resolution MR images of the breast can help distinguish malignant from benign breast abnormalities and can help predict specific histopathologic diagnoses. Various breast pathologies consistently display certain MR architectural features. Individual architectural features have been incorporated into interpretation models that can improve the diagnostic performance of MR imaging over the use of individual features alone.


This study was carried out in order to determine the species of parasitoids associated with Diptera collected in food remains. Pupae of Diptera were collected twice a month from the food remains kept for more than fifteen days in garbage containers. Pupae were obtained by flotation and they were placed individually in gelatin capsules until the emergence of the adult flies or parasitoids. The most frequent species was Megaselia sp. with 47.1%. The overall percentage of parasitism was 2.4% and in Musca domestica L. the parasitism rate reached 20.0%. Pachycrepoideus vindemiae (Rondani), and Muscidifurax raptor Girault & Sanders presented parasitism rates of 2.1% and 0.2%, respectively.


Background Mucormycosis (MM) is an angioinvasive locally destructive fungal infection. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it was associated with diabetes (particularly diabetic ketoacidosis), immunosuppressive drugs and trauma. Among its various forms, cerebral invasion is considered to be highly fatal even if with long-term treatment. Treatment with injection amphotericin B (Amph-B) with early surgical interventions is highly efficacious. Liposomal preparation is considered to be superior in the context of fewer side effects. Methods We present a single-centre prospective study of 124 patients with MM in a tertiary care hospital. After the approval from the ethics committee, basic information was taken from all patients including all available past history about the COVID-19 infection and treatment. The studied outcomes were discharge, death and number of days of hospitalisation. Secondary objectives were to estimate the association of MM with known risk factors, to find the association of an outcome with various inflammatory markers, to determine adverse events with the use of injection Amph-B and posaconazole and to find the case fatality rate of MM. Results In our study, we observed that the number of patients with MM was double in the less than 60 years age group. However, mortality was 33.3% in the elderly as compared to 15.29% in patients less than 60 years of age. The majority of the patients (69.35%) were males, but no significant difference in mortality was seen between males and females. The case fatality rate was 20.97%. Ocular symptoms such as orbital swelling and pain were the common presenting symptoms. Almost all patients (93.54%) were diabetics. The non-diabetic group consisted of only 8 (6.4%) patients, and therefore, the comparison was not possible. A total of 20 (16%) out of 124 patients who had received high-dose steroids showed higher mortality (55%). Maximum patients (65.32%) had presented with MM following a past COVID-19 infection. However, a significant number of MM patients (20.96%) had a recent COVID infection and had higher mortality (57.69%) compared to their counterparts. The most common site of involvement in our study was the paranasal sinus (50%) and the outcome was the best in those patients whose disease was localised only to the sinuses, although among 14 (11.29%) patients with cerebral involvement, mortality was maximum (42.85%). Renal impairment and dyselectrolytemia were the most common adverse effects of Amph-B, and 46.42% of patients required surgical removal of the local part. Conclusion We saw that diabetes was a major contributory factor in the etiopathogenesis of MM. COVID-19 could also be a major causative factor by impairing the immune system; however, further studies at the molecular level are required to establish an association. The use of steroid cannot be the only independent risk factor, and other associated factors must be present. Treatment with antifungal and early surgical intervention had good outcomes. Treatment with conventional lyophilized Amph-B was equally efficacious as lipid-based solutions, but with more side effects. Hypokalemia and hypocalcemia were the most common electrolyte abnormalities associated with the use of injection Amph-B. Uncontrolled diabetes, the severity of the COVID-19 infection at presentation, acidosis, a high C-reactive protein level (above 100) and local brain involvement were associated with a poor outcome.


The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze the effect of the role of price, testimonials and word of mouth (WOM) on consumer interest in MS GLOW products. This type of research uses descriptive quantitative. The data used are primary data using a questionnaire. The research sample was respondents, amounting to 152 people. The dependent variable is consumer interest with 5 indicators. And the independent variables in this study are price, testimonials, and word of mouth (WOM). The data analysis used was multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that the variable price and word of mouth (WOM) had a significant effect on consumer interest, while testimonials had no effect on consumer interest in MS GLOW products.


Purtscher's retinopathy presents to the clinician as loss of vision in a patient with a history of a possible precipitating event such as recent major trauma, pancreatitis, childbirth or renal failure. The ophthalmological picture is one of ischaemia at the posterior pole with white patches of oedema and haemorrhages concentrated around the optic disc. The most probable pathological cause is embolisation of the peripapillary terminal arterioles supplying the superficial peripapillary capillary net. The nature of the embolic particles remains uncertain. Complement-mediated aggregates, fat, air, fibrin clots and platelet clumps may all be involved in what is most likely to be a multifactorial process. There is at present no recognised treatment for the condition.


This research analyzes the characteristics of the solidarity economy in Colombia, as a form of economic organization and its trend in a globalized capitalist environment. To achieve writings we review the past decade, both national and international, rescuing articles, publications, business journals, journals of opinion, written in general about the solidarity sector; also the capitalist sector, grade papers, monographs, among others, which contain information about the history, current situation and views on the future of the solidarity sector, integrating issues of capitalist economy and globalization in Colombia.


Despite having a mental health act and clinical practice guideline, Malaysian patients with depression frequently progress to severe disease with poor prognosis. Understanding the underlying factors which influence help-seeking behaviour using a patient journey approach can provide insights for designing effective interventions. The study aimed to determine the different stages of patients journey for depression including awareness, screening, diagnosis, treatment, adherence, and control using a semi-systematic review. The review was conducted through (i) structured keyword search in Embase, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS databases using OVID platform for English articles published between 2005 and 2021; and (ii) an unstructured search on websites of Google, Incidence and Prevalence Database, World Health Organization, and Malaysian Ministry of Health. Studies included in the semi systematic review were based on Malaysian patients aged ≥18 years at different journey stages for depression and publications from year 2005 to July 2021. Thesis abstracts, letters to the editor, editorials, and case studies, or articles representing smaller population subgroups were excluded. Three articles out of 1062 retrievals through structured search and two articles out of four retrievals through the unstructured search were included in the final synthesis. We have found that the prevalence of major depressive disease (2.3%), low initial screening (20%), diagnosis (50% to 60%) and adherence (30% to 40%), despite high awareness (76.9%) and initiation of treatment (75.3%). Low education level, ethnicity, stigma regarding mental health, and irrational prescription pattern of primary care physicians were associated with poor mental health help-seeking behaviour. Depression literacy can improve the help-seeking behaviour of the patients.


Local opposition to town planning applications creates time delays for developers, town planners, and municipal authorities, while also increasing financial costs associated with development. For local communities, opposition means considerable time and financial investment to protect the place they live in from unwanted development. Place attachment, which develops as a result of experiences with or in a place, is one of the reasons why local communities oppose land development – this reaction towards proposed land changes is often considered NIMBYist. Although disciplines such as natural resource management already trained its focus on the influence of place attachment as a motivating factor in participatory planning intentions internationally, it is not clear whether there exists a relationship between place attachment and public participation in South African town planning processes. As such, the aim of this research is to explore the relationship between place attachment and public participation in a South African town planning process. This research focuses on the lived experience of place attachment of residents of the Bult area of the Tlokwe Local Municipality in the North West Province of South Africa, and the role that place attachment experiences played in their participation in a town planning process. The research design is qualitative, using archival data, located participant interviews, and supportive photographic data to explore the lived experiences of 18 participants from three case studies. The data was analysed thematically. The data indicated the link between actual or potential incremental changes through town planning actions in an urban environment and the impact these changes had on the well-being of the residents of that place. The effect of incremental urban changes, actual or potential, motivated participants to participate in the public participation process of rezoning applications in order to oppose the environmental changes. These potential and/or actual environmental changes also led to place protective actions outside the formal participation process. This research indicates that due consideration should be given to opposition to town planning applications, as it can in fact be driven by deeper emotional reasons that cannot be expressed in the legal and technical language associated with the town planning discipline. These reactions should not be considered in a negative light by developers, town planners, and municipal authorities, as they can provide insight on what types of land use changes can implemented successfully in a place. To this effect, a life cycle relationship between place attachment and public participation in a town planning process (as it happened in the three case studies) is proposed as a point of departure for future research. A suggestion is made to incorporate place attachment in urban planning practice.


Abstract One of the most influential theories in the study of nationalism has been the ethnic-East/civic-West framework developed by Hans Kohn. Using the 2002 Eurobarometer survey on national identity and building on earlier survey studies, this article examines whether the Kohn framework is valid at the level of popular understandings of nationhood. It scrutinizes the framework both conceptually – do people define nationhood in civic or ethnic terms? – and regionally – is the East indeed more ethnic than the West and the West more civic than the East? It will show that identity markers cluster in a political, a cultural and an ethnic dimension. Respondents do not see these dimensions as competing sources of nationhood, however. The article further lends some support for the regional component of the framework. Lastly, it argues that it is the intensity of national identifications rather than their qualitative nature (ethnic-civic) that correlates with xenophobia.


BACKGROUND
Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided choledochoduodenostomy (CDS) is an alternative to percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) drainage in patients with an obstructed biliary system where conventional endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage (ERBD) has been unsuccessful.

METHODS
Five EUS-CDS procedures were reviewed to assess whether successful decompression was achieved and maintained.

RESULTS
There was technical success in each instance with no immediate complications. There was a significant fall in the median bilirubin of 164 mmol/l. The median follow-up was 44 days. In one patient the stent migrated with no adverse outcome.

CONCLUSION
EUS-CDS is a viable alternative to PTC with fewer complications and comparable success rates. EUS-CDS may offer a future route for novel therapeutic advances.


A description is given of the load data analysis workstation (LDAW), developed for the Electric Power Research Institute to handle the increasing analysis requirements in utility load research and demand-side programs. The hardware and software of the latest, third-generation LDAWs are examined. Three applications to utility end-use load monitoring programs are presented: a load research program, a direct load control program and an energy management program. Additional capabilities are briefly sketched.<<ETX>>


The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of pyrethroids, such as deltamethrin, cypermethrin and bifenthrin on the growth and the number of ρ-mutants in the cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. sP-4 mat alpha leu1 arg4 yeast strain was used as a standard strain for experiments. The cells were grown on a standard YPG liquid medium, under aerobic conditions until they reached the loga rithmic or stationary phase of growth. Different concentrations of pyrethroid were added to the medium and the cells were incubated for 2 h. The survival rate of the cells was determined by diluting the cells and plating them on yPg Agar plates. The number of ρ-mutants was determined by examining the number of cells that hadn't grown on yPg medium from among all surviving cells. As far as the investigated forms of pyrethroids are concerned, deltamethrin was the most toxic to yeast cells. it was also observed that low amounts of pyrethroid caused a greater destruction of cells at the logarithmic than at the stationary stage of growth. The influence of pyrethroid on the frequency of mutation of mitochondrial DNA of yeast cells was also studied. it was observed that after incubation with pyrethroid addition the frequency of ρ-mutation increased, especially at the logarithmic stage of growth.


Critical literacy education has, as one of its cornerstones, an interest in positive social change and addressing social justice. In this paper, we present data from classrooms that show how teachers enact critical literacy in three neo-liberal, Global North contexts: Sweden; Ontario, Canada; and Queensland, Australia.  Against a backdrop of proliferating instructional models of how to do critical literacy world-wide, alongside local education policy and curriculum that is at various stages of endorsing and embracing the 'critical enterprise' or not, teachers teach literacy critically. How they do this, within different educational jurisdictions and under the influence of different critical literacy policies and instructional models, is our interest here. Literacy teaching approaches, and the policies that inscribe or omit them institutionally, are always taken up, augmented and even resisted by teachers in differing ways.  First, we present the ways in which critical literacy (CL), as a component of learning to be literate, is constructed in curriculum documents in these three contexts. In comparing the ways in which official policies represent CL, we paint a brief picture of how it is manifesting at this hierarchical level across these three contexts at this point in history – how CL in policy is being 'done to' teachers (Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012). We then present a range of influential critical literacy  instructional models that share synergies with each other and that have gained traction internationally. These models offer ways for teachers to interpret and enact CL and contribute to the professional development space that often sits between policy and curriculum on the one hand and the day to day classroom work of teachers on the other.  Thirdly, snapshots of classroom practice on a local, contingent scale in a primary and two high schools in Gothenburg, Toronto and Brisbane will then be explored to show the often "sophisticated, contingent, complex and unstable" (Ball, 1994, pp. 10-11) process of teachers translating policies on critical literacy, curriculum priorities (or otherwise) around critical literacy as well as best practice models of how to do critical literacy. At this nexus, stands the teacher endeavouring to negotiate, interpret and translate these 'texts' into everyday classroom work; undertaking complex meaning-making processes to make critical literacy fit with the multiple and complex realities of their own and their students' lives (Freebody, Morgan, Comber & Nixon, 2014).


The rapid escalation in the incidence of prostate carcinoma between the years 1988 and 1992 has been attributed to prostate specific antigen screening. There have been concerns regarding the possible diagnosis and treatment of insignificant tumors in the absence of randomized, controlled trial evidence of a decrease in mortality. Descriptive studies suggest that serial screening decreases the detection of advanced disease. In November 1996, the National Center for Health Statistics recorded a decrease in prostate carcinoma mortality.


Despite its small size Colombia hosts 10% of the planet's biodiversity, in the over 53% of its territory which is covered by different types of tropical and Andean forests. However, decades of war have had devastating effects on the country's environment, which is threatened with deforestation for the clearing for agriculture areas, mostly for illegal crops; as well as on its population, which has seen forced displacement of an estimated 8.1 million people and human rights violations that have often gone unpunished. A peace accord signed between the Colombian Government and the largest guerrilla group FARC in 2016 was celebrated internationally as a victory that would send Colombia on a new path towards economic and social development. The Program of Substitution of Illicit Crops contained in this accord, has the potential to promote environmental sustainability, improve the life of the most marginalized communities living in the remote rural areas that hosted the war, and to rectify the longstanding land distribution inequality issues which have largely been blamed for being the source of the conflict. Two and a half years after the signing, the implementation of the accord has slowed down, especially in the points directly and indirectly related to the program of substitution. Increases in the extension of coca crops after the signing have emboldened the newly elected administration, into pushing aside the human development components of the substitution program, and focusing on forced eradication, including reinstating the aerial spraying of glyphosate, a practice which had been suspended in 2015 after the WHO raised concerns about its possible negative effects on human health. This thesis aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on the consequences of implementing policies in rural areas, especially of illicit crops, by analysing the environmental and social effects of current practices associated to the cultivation and eradication of coca, and comparing them to those of an alternative crop. Further the study aims to find the necessary steps the state must take to help farmers effectively substitute coca crops, through the analysis of the reasons and motivations guiding farmers' decision to cultivate coca, increase the extension of their crop, eradicate and relapse. (Less)


Abstract This study aimed to investigate the standard formulation of aloe Vera drinks using different moringa leaf extract levels and assess the quality parameters. The result showed the moisture content of the formulated samples was 99.85 to 99.80%, with higher in sample T2 and lowered in the control sample (T0). The protein content for all samples ranged from o.11 to 0.42%, with the highest found in sample (T3) and lowest found in sample T0. The pH was increased from 3.8 to 4.13 for all samples. The mean values of TSS of aloe Vera drink for all samples were ranged between 11.33 to 13.67 %. The acidity for all samples was in the ranges of 0.25 to 0.31%. The sensory attributes of drinks were evaluated in terms of color, flavor, taste, and overall acceptability. After increasing, the moringa leaves percentage; the consumer acceptance was gradually decreased. Overall, sample T1 containing 1% moringa leaves blended with 4% aloe Vera showed a reliable result compared to other samples.


Career opportunities for Australian research graduates have expanded in recent years into areas outside academia. However, the employment market is highly competitive, and Australian universities have recognised the need to produce graduates with transferable skills across all sectors, not just academia. The need to provide an infrastructure to support the career and skill development of research students has become essential, with funding from the Australian government hinging on institutions providing explicit graduate outcomes. This paper presents a research student peer-to-peer support programme as a model that contributes to the development of graduate career planning and employability skills.


This study investigated the relationship between fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) and glucose metabolic state in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). A total of 52,062 patients were enrolled in this study. Patients were classified according to FAR tertiles (T1: FAR < 0.0073; T2: 0.0073 ≤ FAR ≤ 0.0886; T3: FAR ≥ 0.0887). Patients were also classified into the normal glucose regulation (NGR) and elevated blood glucose (EBG) groups. The relationship between FAR and EBG was analyzed using logistic regression, and the association was evaluated according to sex and age. Among the participants, 32,471 (62.4%) had EBG, which was positively associated with FAR (odds ratio [OR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-1.23). The OR of the FAR for EBG in males was higher than that in females (1.25; 95% CI 1.18-1.33 vs 1.15; 95% CI 1.10-1.20). Moreover, the OR of FAR for EBG was greater in patients aged 60 or younger (OR: 1.25; 95% CI 1.18-1.33) than in the elderly patients (over 60 years of age) (OR: 1.15; 95% CI 1.10-1.20). The results indicated a significant relationship between FAR and EBG and this association was higher in males and middle-aged patients.


Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography was used to separate levodopa (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine), dextrodopa (D-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine) and DL-3-O-methyl-dopa, a metabolite of dopa, which were derivatised with the Marfey's reagent, in sodium borate, sodium dodecyl sulfate and acetonitile buffer system. Whereas DL-dopa derivatives could be separated, DL-3-O-methyl-dopa derivatives could not.


Recently with the widespread emergence of personal navigation devices and growth of mobile networks, large quantities of time‐stamped, location data have become available. To analyze real‐time spatial movement data, we have developed a Web 2.0 platform called VisTracks®. The platform includes spatial servers for generating maps, performing navigation, and tracking moving assets and a flexible Silverlight visual analytics web client. Using VisTracks, it is possible to develop rich visual analytics web applications for understanding location, movement, tracking, and analytics through time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Most business model innovations are platform plays. Platforms are business models and enabling infrastructure that create value for multiple, complementary constituencies through powerful network effects. Tipping dynamics can produce a dominant platform in a particular application, content, or market domain. This paper explores three questions of importance for platform entrepreneurs, investors, and users. Why do dominant platforms often emerge? What are the secrets of their success? How can you win the race for platform dominance? It uses the combination of a causal loop model and case studies to analyze the dynamics that shape the lifecycle of a platform. Past research emphasizes the economic value created by platforms. We highlight the value created by social features, e.g., sharing, conversation, collaboration, and influence, the importance of social network effects, and the role of functional features in enabling the social dynamics of platforms. This paper considers three critical phases of a platform's development, each with its own signature dynamics. The three phase model highlights the strategic imperatives for successful platform development. The dominant dynamics at each phase are different, but set the stage for the subsequent phase. These evolving dynamics should define the focus and objectives of a platform development strategy.


Autonomous vehicles were experiencing rapid development in the past few years. However, achieving full autonomy is not a trivial task, due to the nature of the complex and dynamic driving environment. Therefore, autonomous vehicles are equipped with a suite of different sensors to ensure robust, accurate environmental perception. In particular, the camera-LiDAR fusion is becoming an emerging research theme. However, so far there has been no critical review that focuses on deep-learning-based camera-LiDAR fusion methods. To bridge this gap and motivate future research, this article devotes to review recent deep-learning-based data fusion approaches that leverage both image and point cloud. This review gives a brief overview of deep learning on image and point cloud data processing. Followed by in-depth reviews of camera-LiDAR fusion methods in depth completion, object detection, semantic segmentation, tracking and online cross-sensor calibration, which are organized based on their respective fusion levels. Furthermore, we compare these methods on publicly available datasets. Finally, we identified gaps and over-looked challenges between current academic researches and real-world applications. Based on these observations, we provide our insights and point out promising research directions.


ITF 282 is an iron succinyl casein complex containing 5% iron. The main property of the derivative is to keep iron bonded at acidic pH values. This accounts for a better tolerability of the compound compared with iron salts, during the treatment of iron deficiency. Pharmacological studies in normal and anemic rats demonstrated that this iron complex is almost as active as ferrous sulphate against iron deficiency anemia, but it is significantly less potent in increasing serum iron. Better gastrointestinal tolerability of ITF 282 was demonstrated in rats and dogs. Chemical and pharmacological properties of iron-protein succinylate are described.


Abstract Objective: To test the null hypothesis and there has been no change in the prevalence or severity of childhood asthma over recent years. Design: Repeated population prevalence survey with questionnaires completed by parents followed by home interviews with parents. Setting: London borough of Croydon, 1978 and 1991. Subjects: All children in one year of state and private primary schools aged 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 years at screening survey. Main outcome measures: Trends in symptoms, acute severe attacks, and chronic disability. Results: For 1978 and 1991 respectively, the response rates were 4147/4763 and 3070/3786, and home interviews were obtained from 273/288 and 319/395 parents of currently wheezy children. Between 1978 and 1991 there were significant relative increases in prevalence ratios in the 12 month prevalence of attacks of wheezing or asthma (1.16; 95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.31), the one month prevalence of wheezing episodes (1.78, 1.15 to 2.74), and the one month prevalence of night waking (1.81; 1.01 to 3.23) but not in frequent (>=5) attacks over the past year (1.05; 0.79 to 1.40). There were substantial and significant decreases in the 12 months prevalence of absence from school of more than 10 days due to wheezing (0.52; 0.03 to 0.90), any days in bed (0.67; 0.44 to 1.01), and restriction of activities at home (0.51; 0.31 to 0.83) and an equivalent but not significant fall in speech limiting attacks (0.51; 0.24 to 1.11). Conclusion: The small increase in the prevalence of wheezy children and relatively greater increase in persistent wheezing suggests a change in the environmental determinants of asthma. In contrast and paradoxically the frequency of wheezing attacks remains unchanged and there are indications that severe attacks and chronic disability have fallen by about half; this may be due to an improvement in treatment received by wheezy children.