The prevention of depression in individuals who are at risk is important for affected individuals, their family members, and for society at large. This study presents the results of a randomized clinical trial aimed at the prevention of depression in nursing home residents. Residents were screened with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and a diagnostic interview. Those with elevated GDS scores who did not meet diagnostic criteria for depression were randomly assigned to a treatment or control (treatment as usual, TAU) condition. The treatment was an adaptation of the Coping with Stress program developed by Clarke et al. (1995; Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 312–321), and focused on various components typical of cognitive–behavioral treatment (CBT) programs (e.g. increasing pleasant events, reducing negative cognitions). Both groups were assessed on measures of depression before treatment, after treatment, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up points. Compared with the TAU group, residents receiving the intervention showed considerable improvement over the 6-month follow-up on the GDS. Average scores on the GDS, for example, went from 14.0 to 9.4 in the CBT group over the course of treatment and follow-up, vs. scores from 13.4 to 12.3 for the TAU group over the same time. However, results on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale at 3 months were nonsignificant. Overall, the results of this study suggest that a brief, group-based CBT program can have significant benefit in nursing home residents at risk for depression.


The present study evaluated the application of a nano-biotechnological intervention of nutraceutical shikimate for the development of a potential multi-site cross-linker with enhanced cross linking, anti-microbial and cell proliferative activities. The cross-linking and therapeutic properties of the nutraceutical shikimate were simultaneously utilized by caging them onto silver nanoparticles. The caging of shikimate on silver nanoparticles resulted in the cumulative expression of the physico-chemical properties of both silver nanoparticles and shikimate. We observed that in shikimic acid caged silver nanoparticle (SCS nanoparticle) cross-linked collagen, the viscosity and self-assembly process of collagen, along with its mechanical and thermal properties, were significantly improved when compared with native collagen. The three dimensional conformation of collagen was also retained after cross-linking with SCS nanoparticles. Cell viability with SCS nanoparticle cross-linked collagen was found to be enhanced, in comparison to collagen films cross-linked with shikimic acid and native collagen. SCS nanoparticle-stabilized collagen possessed both cell proliferative and anti-microbial properties, which would make SCS nanoparticles a superior cross-linker of collagen. The results suggested a new strategy for cross-linking collagen and provide scope for alternative biocompatible interventions in the development of biomaterials.


This article examined the premises of interpersonal deception theory (IDT) within an advice-giving context. Advisors with quality and persuasion goals provided advice concerning stock rankings to decision makers either primed or not primed to be suspicious of advisors' motives. Two competing hypotheses were proposed. First, suspicious decision makers were predicted to accept less advice from all advisors and be no more likely to detect advisors' motives than nonsuspicious decision makers. Second, suspicious decision makers were predicted to be better able to detect the motives of advisors and accept less advice from the advisor with the persuasive motive than nonsuspicious decision makers. The first hypothesis was supported. The persuasive advisor had significantly higher confidence than the quality advisor on the rankings used to give advice, although not on private rankings. Advisors' confidence on these rankings fully mediated their influence on the decision maker.


Recently, several papers investigated the linear dimensional changes in dentine after air-drying. This paper pertains to weight changes, volume changes, and density changes caused by air-drying of sound and demineralized intact dentine. The densities of sound and artificially demineralized human coronal dentine were measured in the wet state and after various drying periods of up to 24 h. The volume was assessed either by means of a pyknometer (wet samples) or by means of dimension measurements. The air-drying experiments were done using a Mettler thermobalance at room temperature. The density of wet sound coronal dentine was found to be 2.24 +/- 0.12 g.cm-3; the value of wet demineralized dentine was about 1.6 g.cm-3. The data show that previously published density values of powdered sound dentine may have been influenced by powdering effects, air-drying, and air inclusion. In whole demineralized air-dried dentine, air inclusion can be very severe: up to 30% by volume. The results show furthermore that in demineralized dentine we have two drying stages: during the first one (up to about 10 min of air-drying), the lesions shrink about 23%, while a main part of the water in the lesion evaporates, and air is incorporated into the tissue; during the second stage (drying longer than 10 min), the lesions hardly shrink anymore, but water is evaporated mainly from underlying sound dentine, followed by air incorporation.


There are surgeons of wide experience who have never seen that curious embryologic remnant referred to as Meckel's diverticulum. Certainly, many have never had occasion to remove it, so infrequently is it present and so rarely involved in disease. Yet most surgeons whose work necessitates their performing a large number of laparotomies will find this organ the seat of inflammation or the cause of intestinal obstruction at least once or twice in every thousand or fifteen hundred patients suffering from abdominal symptoms and on whom they are called to operate. When it is found, the discovery usually excites the interest of all those who surround the table and, as a rule, is considered sufficiently remarkable to prompt the calling in of all those in immediate touch with the operating room that they may not miss the opportunity of viewing this anatomic curiosity. Meckel's diverticulum usually occurs as a finger-like projection


Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death among infectious diseases worldwide. Identifying the factors associated with the treatment delay and total delay would be helpful in the prevention of tuberculosis and in reducing the burden on the health care system. The objective of this study was to assess the treatment delay and total delay in TB patients and investigate the factors causing these delays. Materials and Methods: This was a longitudinal study conducted in 2009–2015. Our study consisted of 1694 TB patients registered in the TB center of Mazandaran province. Data regarding the patients' demographic characteristics and clinical factors associated with treatment delay and total delay were analyzed. Kaplan Meier plots and log rank tests were used to assess the survival pattern. Cox proportional hazards model for multivariable analysis was discussed. We used mean values and median (Q2) [first quartile (Q1)-third quartile (Q3)] to describe delays. Results: The median treatment delay and total delay were 35 (ranged 23–80) and 36 (ranged 24–82) days, respectively. The mean age of TB patients was 47.40±20.3. No significant association was found between the location of residence, nationality, gender, and type of pulmonary TB patients with treatment delay and total delay. Additionally, age, prison status of patients, HIV test, and contact history had a significant relationship with the treatment delay and total delay (p-value <0.05). It was shown that the median total delay in men patients in the ≤14 year-old age group, imprisoner patients, rural patients, patients who have not received an HIV test, smear negative patients, those who are Iranian, and TB patients whose contact history was unknown was lower than that of others. The highest median treatment delay and total delay was in the >60 age groups, and were 41 and 44 days, respectively. Treatment delay was the same as the total delay except in the place of residence variable; median treatment delay among urban patients was less than that of rural patients. Conclusion: According to this study age, prison status of patients, HIV test and contact history had a significant relationship with the treatment delay and total delay (P-value<0.05). Understanding the factors that are closely associated with these delays is essential to effectively control TB and could be helpful in reducing these delays.


Background: In Pakistani Industries and organization optimistic role of higher management are fundamental for the progress of organization. That is why narcissism and emotional intelligence of these organizational elites is a much more relevant topic. A reasonable level of narcissism with emotional intelligence is the catalyst to success. On contrary, yield drastic results.   The present study intended to investigate the association between emotional intelligence and narcissism in senior corporate executives.
Methods: The sample comprised of 150 senior corporate executives including males (n = 81), and females (n = 69), with the age range of 34 to 53 years (M = 45.0, SD = 4.94), Were selected from various corporate sector organizations. Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SEIT) (Schutte et al., 1998) and Narcissist Personality Inventory (NPI) (Foster & Campbell, 2007) were used to measure the constructs.
Results: Findings of study showed a likelihood of relationship between emotional intelligence and narcissism. The regression analysis indicated that managing self-relevant emotions and work experience were positive predictors of narcissism, while, emotional perception was found to be the inverse predictor of narcissism in senior corporate executives. Moreover, non- significant mean differences were found between gender, and urban and rural background of the executives on emotional intelligence and narcissism.
Implications: This study would be  assist organizations to envision succession planning and leadership decision making.
Conclusions: These findings can serve as a manual that will guide organizations to capitalize on the positive aspects of narcissism in senior executives and diminish its potential negative aspects.


nineteenth century, buy also marked the creation of the first set of truly modern, Italian bastion-style fortifications around any major European city. Hence the book's title, and the decision to devote the bulk of its text to this story of European-wide significance. This large volume should be required reading for any serious student of governmental, and particularly military, mapping in midto late-sixteenth century Europe. While of particular significance for students of Vienna and its cartography, the catalogue descriptions will provide the seedcorn for much future research in European cartographic history. The book also has much of value on the military engineers who were some of the earliest 'scientific' mapmakers in Europe. Furthermore, and together with other recent German and Hungarian studies, it makes a contribution to the history of the mapping of the Hungarian border regions. There are, however, a few weaknesses. There are significant gaps in the cited English-language literature on European local and regional mapping and on military engineering that could modify some of the authors' conclusions. Furthermore very few of the maps and plans in the atlases are illustrated. The online availability of images in the Vienna atlases and citations of illustrations at the end of catalogue entries are really no substitute. Readers need conveniently placed images of the maps to evaluate the validity of the arguments being proposed. Worst of all, for most readers, there is no simplified plan indicating the locations of the often obscure towns and forts depicted in the Angielini atlases. It would be wrong to finish with these few criticisms, however. This book will facilitate the study of the European-wide phenomenon of the Italian influence on military engineering and mapping north of the Alps. It will be interesting to see how the debate develops in coming decades.


Background: Evidence based medicine (EBM) is an approach to improve the quality of clinical decision making, treatment and care provided to patients. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of faculty members of Alborz University of Medical Sciences about EBM. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in 2015 and 40 physicians participated. Data were collected by a valid and reliable structured questionnaire consisting 17 knowledge items, 8 attitude items and 12 items for practices about EBM. Using SPSS software version 19 data analyses was done. Results: From a total of 49 faculty members 40 responded the questionnaires in which 62.5 were female, the mean average age was 40.6 years and mean time of job experience was 8.1 years. About half of the respondents had participated in an EBM workshop, 10 of the participants have stated that do not know EBM and 37.5 had low knowledge, only 7.5 had adequate knowledge. Ninety percent of the respondents believed that EBM has an important role in promoting quality of care and 82 of them were interested to take part in EBM workshops. The information source for clinical practice in 70 of the participants was the text book, 55 Cochrane, and 45 clinical experience. Conclusion: Faculty members had a positive attitude toward EBM; although a vast majority of them claimed that they practice based on evidence in clinical settings, about half of them stated had not adequate knowledge about EBM. Therefore, it is necessary to keep their knowledge up to date.n


Bone hemangioma accounts for approximately 1% of all bone neoplasms and commonly occurs in the vertebral body and skull. However, costal hemangiomas are extremely rare. We herein present a case involving a 52-year-old woman with a hemangioma in the third rib and review 29 cases of rib hemangiomas available in the literature. Rib hemangioma mainly affects women in their 50s and has expansile osteolytic features in radiographs and a weak maximum standardized uptake value in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography images. When these findings are displayed, clinicians should include rib hemangioma as a differential diagnosis and consider avoidance of preoperative biopsy because of the risk of life-threatening bleeding.


Pompe disease (PD) is caused by mutations in the GAA gene, which encodes the lysosomal enzyme acid alpha-glucosidase, causing lysosomal glycogen accumulation, mainly in muscular tissue. Autophagic buildup is considered the main factor affecting skeletal muscle, although other processes are also involved. Uncovering how these mechanisms are interconnected could be an approximation to address long-lasting concerns, like the differential skeletal and cardiac involvement in each clinical phenotype. In this sense, a network reconstruction based on a comprehensive literature review of evidence found in PD enriched with the STRING database and other scientific articles is presented. The role of autophagic lysosome reformation, PGC-1α, MCOLN1, calcineurin, and Keap1 as intermediates between the events involved in the pathologic cascade is discussed and contextualized within their relationship with mTORC1/AMPK. The intermediates and mechanisms found open the possibility of new hypotheses and questions that can be addressed in future experimental studies of PD.


Scytalidium uredinicola Kuhlman et al. is considered an important mycoparasite of western gall rust caused by Endocronartium harknessii (J.P. Moore) Y. Hiratsuka (= Peridermium harknessii J.P. Moore). The temporal occurrence of S. uredinicola and its impact on the ability of western gall rust spores to germinate were determined. Scytalidium uredinicola was not isolated from either external or internal tissues of 3- to 5-year-old galls at any time of the year. However, it was isolated from the external, but not internal, tissues of 6- to 9-year-old galls in most months and from both external and internal tissues of 10+-year-old galls in all months. On galls older than 10 years, S. uredinicola overwintered beneath the periderm and colonized developing rust sori prior to peridial rupture in April. Spore viability of western gall rust was consistently reduced by 85% throughout the period of sporulation over two sporulating seasons. Because S. uredinicola requires considerable time to become persistent and perennial, artificial establishment of the hyperparasite in the early stages of gall rust epidemics might be required to make it an effective biological control agent.


Cluster of differentiation 24 (CD24) is a small glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked cell surface molecule that is expressed in a variety of human carcinomas, including breast cancer. To determine the role of CD24 in breast cancer cells, we expressed CD24 in CD24-negative/low and cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44)-positive MDA-MB-231 metastatic breast cancer cells. Forced expression of CD24 resulted in a decrease in c-Raf/mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase (MEK)/mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling and reduced cell proliferation. Apoptosis induced by DNA damage was greatly enhanced in MDA-MB-231 CD24 cells as compared with MDA-MB-231 vec cells. CD24 expression efficiently attenuated DNA damage-induced nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) signaling in MDA-MB-231 cells. However, in CD24-positive and CD44-negative/low MCF-7 cells, knockdown of CD24 did not significantly affect DNA damage-induced apoptosis nor NF-κB signaling. Silencing of CD24 in CD24/CD44-double-positive MDA-MB-468 cells partially rescued DNA damage-induced apoptosis. Transient transfection studies with 293T cells also revealed that CD24 attenuated cell viability and NF-κB signaling only when CD44 was cotransfected. These data indicate that CD24 expression potentiated DNA-induced apoptosis by suppressing antiapoptotic NF-κB signaling in CD44-expressing cells.


Background There is no consensus on the treatment of developmental dysplasia of the hip in children less than 24 months of age. The aim of this study was to present the results of open reduction and concomitant primary soft-tissue intervention in patients with developmental dysplasia of the hip in children less than 24 months of age. Materials and Methods Sixty hips of 50 patients (4 male, 46 female) with mean age of 14.62 ± 5.88 (range 5-24 months) months with a mean followup of 40.00 ± 6.22 (range 24-58 months) months were included. Twenty five right and 35 left hips (10 bilaterally involved) were operated. Open reduction was performed using the medial approach in patients aged < 20 months (with Tönnis type II-III and IV hip dysplasias) and for those aged 20-24 months with Tönnis type II and III hip dysplasias ( n = 47). However for 13 patients aged 20-24 months with Tönnis type IV hip dysplasias, anterior bikini incision was used. Results Mean acetabular index was 41.03 ± 3.78° (range 34°-50°) in the preoperative period and 22.98 ± 3.01° (range 15°-32°) at the final visits. Mean center-edge angle at the final visits was 22.85 ± 3.35° (18°-32°). Based on Severin radiological classification, 29 (48.3%) were type I (very good), 25 (41.7%) were type II (good) and 6 (10%) were type III (fair) hips. According to the McKay clinical classification, postoperatively the hips were evaluated as excellent ( n = 42; 70%), good ( n = 14; 23.3%) and fair ( n = 4; 6.7%). Reduction of all hip dislocations was achieved. Additional pelvic osteotomies were performed in 14 (23.3%) hips for continued acetabular dysplasia and recurrent subluxation. (Salter [ n = 12]/Pemberton [ n = 2] osteotomy was performed). Avascular necrosis (AVN) developed in 7 (11.7%) hips. Conclusion In DDH only soft-tissue procedures are not enough, because of the high rate of the secondary surgery and AVN for all cases aged less than 24 months. Bone procedures may be necessary in the walking age group with high acetabular index.


Background: Urbanisation filters species in communities depending on their adaptability to conditions in built-up areas, especially in semi-natural habitats. Roadside vegetation is widespread along urban-rural gradients and is therefore a good place to study landscape-scale factors influencing plant community composition. Aim: Our study aimed to assess how plant species distributions vary between urban and rural landscape contexts and to identify biological traits favoured in urban areas. Methods: Presence/absence data for 63 indigenous common species were collected in 296 road verge patches distributed along the urban–rural gradient in three French cities. We investigated the effects of landscape composition on species assemblages and related individual species responses to urbanisation to functional traits associated with dispersal and persistence capacity. Results: Many grassland species were negatively affected by increasing proportion of built-up areas in the landscape. Insect-pollination and high seed production appeared to be key traits favoured in grassland communities in urban areas, whereas dispersal modes were less related to plant distribution. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that urban filters affect common species of widespread, managed road verges. Better knowledge of the flora of these herbaceous roadsides may contribute to the conservation of common biodiversity within other grassland habitats found in urban areas.


The study of adipogenesis is essential for understanding and treating obesity, a multifactorial problem related to body fat accumulation that leads to several life-threatening diseases, becoming one of the most critical public health problems worldwide. In this review, we propose to provide the highlights of the adipogenesis study based on in vitro differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). We list in silico methods, such as molecular docking for identification of molecular targets, and in vitro approaches, from 2D, more straightforward and applied for screening large libraries of substances, to more representative physiological models, such as 3D and bioprinting models. We also describe the development of physiological models based on microfluidic systems applied to investigate adipogenesis in vitro. We intend to identify the main alternative models for adipogenesis evaluation, contributing to the direction of preclinical research in obesity. Future directions indicate the association of in silico and in vitro techniques to bring a clear picture of alternative methods based on adipogenesis as a tool for obesity research.


In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients, neuropathy is a common adverse side effect to some antiretroviral treatments, particularly stavudine. As stavudine is cheap, it is widely used in Asia and Africa. We showed that increasing age and height moderately predict the development of neuropathy. This was improved by the inclusion of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-1031 (rs1799964). To investigate this association, Malay (n = 64), Chinese (n = 74) and Caucasian patients (n = 37) exposed to stavudine were screened for neuropathy. DNA samples were genotyped for polymorphisms in the central major histocompatibility complex (MHC) near TNF, and haplotypes were derived. The haplotype group FVa6,7,8 (incorporating TNF-1031) was found to be associated with neuropathy in Chinese patients in bivariate analyses (P = 0.03), and in Malays and Chinese in a multivariate analysis correcting for age and height (P = 0.02, P = 0.03, respectively). This trend was also confirmed in Caucasians.


This paper presents the performance evaluation of two different size 6 slots and 4 poles brushless DC permanent magnet motor. These devices were simulated and tested in order to obtain efficiency, iron losses, copper losses, and shaft power. The simulation was done using a program called Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) and a script based on the programming language Lua. The electrical steel sheet was characterized through an Epstein experiment, and the results were applied to improve the simulation. Furthermore a dynamometer was used to check the method applied. It was observed that the calculation method allows predicting the motor performance with reasonable precision.


A scholar of eminence in the field of Indian philosophy, Bimal K. Matilal was one of the leading exponents of Indian logic and epistemology. Painstakingly compiled from Matilal's huge body of work, this collection of essays includes a set of previously unpublished essays and reveals the extraordinary depth of Matilal's philosophical interests.


Although the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) appears to be the most widely used measure of psychopathic traits in forensic settings around the world, relatively little is known about how often it is introduced into legal cases and the types of cases in which it is being used. DeMatteo and Edens (2006) first summarized the extant U.S. case law on the PCL-R, identifying 87 cases in which it had been introduced since its publication in 1991 through 2004. Using an identical search strategy employed in the earlier review (LexisNexis legal database), we identified 348 cases involving the PCL-R from 2005 through 2011. Notably, the PCL-R appeared to be primarily a "prosecution tool" in these cases in that it was rarely first introduced into evidence by the defense. In most cases it was used to assess offenders with significant histories of violence in the context of risk assessments—with resulting risk statements being strongly associated with the results of the PCL-R evaluation (i.e., high psychopathy equating with high recidivism risk, low psychopathy equating with low recidivism risk). Challenges to the admissibility of PCL-R evidence in these cases were rare and typically unsuccessful, even though some assertions, particularly in relation to the PCL-R's predictive validity, appeared to have questionable scientific support. On average, prosecution examiners reported PCL-R scores that were 7 points higher than defense examiners. We discuss these findings in the context of the appropriate roles for the PCL-R in court and its potential for misuse when evaluating psycho-legal issues.


Living with a person who experiences mental health problems can have an adverse effect on well-being. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a psychological treatment for relatives of people with mental health problems, byusing an interrupted time-series design. The sample comprised 20 individuals, who completed assessment measures at baseline and 6 months later. Sixteen of these participants then received the treatment and were assessed again at the end of the program. There were no significant changes in outcomes between the baseline and the second assessments done 6 months later and there were significant improvements in well-being following treatment The program shows promise as a treatment for relatives of people with mental health problems and therefore warrants further evaluation in more controlled studies.


ABSTRACT While there is an international definition of social work as a profession, little is known about whether there is a shared pedagogy in social work cross-nationally. To our knowledge, this paper is the first empirical study which aims to fill this gap by applying the concept of signature pedagogy in social work education to explore the commonality of social work pedagogy across countries. The study uses a multi-site case study (six universities in five European countries) through applying a 'critical teacher-researcher' approach in generating the data, followed by a two-phased thematic analysis. The study evidenced a shared principle of social work pedagogy which nurtures social work students to think and perform like a social worker and develop the professional self through developing relationships and dialogue, professional practice, group work, self-reflection and critical thinking. It is argued from, this exploratory study, that even between countries which have different welfare ideology as well as social work history and education systems, there is some common ground in social work pedagogy where one can learn from another through the use of 'teacher as researcher' methodologically.


This paper reports findings from the Oxford Growth of Firms project on the ownership and control position of the largest 250 U.K. companies and, in more detail, that of a sample of 21 of these large firms. An analysis is made of the social and economic historical context in which most of today's large firms grew up. A theoretical model is developed of the stages of control through which firms are likely to pass. It is suggested that most firms are unlikely ever to become controlled by their own professional managers and that there is a trend toward firms being controlled by financial institutions. Evidence is then put forward, from an analysis of the current control position of the top 250 U.K. firms and from brief histories of the 21 sample large firms, which supports the previously outlined theory.


Railway subgrade defect is the serious threat to train safety. Vehicle-borne GPR method has become the main railway subgrade detection technology with its advantages of rapidness and nondestructiveness. However, due to the large amount of detection data and the variety in defect shape and size, defect recognition is a challenging task. In this work, the method based on deep learning is proposed to recognize defects from the ground penetrating radar (GPR) profile of subgrade detection data. Based on the Faster R-CNN framework, the improvement strategies of feature cascade, adversarial spatial dropout network (ASDN), Soft-NMS, and data augmentation have been integrated to improve recognition accuracy, according to the characteristics of subgrade defects. The experimental results indicates that compared with traditional SVM+HOG method and the baseline Faster R-CNN, the improved model can achieve better performance. The model robustness is demonstrated by a further comparison experiment of various defect types. In addition, the improvements to model performance of each improvement strategy are verified by an ablation experiment of improvement strategies. This paper tries to explore the new thinking for the application of deep learning method in the field of railway subgrade defect recognition.


The current research aims to explore the effects of mobile applications (apps.) on English lexis learning. This paper explored the interests of learners in mobile apps., especially in the English vocabulary learning process, and investigated the efficacy of mobile apps in their academic environment. It also observes that Interactive use of technology is showing effectiveness in the performances of the learners. This study adopted a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire that consists of 20 items. 150 students from the English department of National University of Modern Languages (NUML) contributed to this study who were regular users of mobile phones and apps. The data was analyzed by the SPSS program through frequency and mean deviation. The study concludes that it becomes easier for the students to learn vocabulary proficiently when vocabulary is accessible in numerous ways such as Pictures, Definition, Sound, etc. Findings also showed that it is easier for the participants, to learn vocabulary by apps, because it provides them visuals which leave a long lasting impact on their memory. Investigation also proved that the majority of the participants considered learning vocabulary through mobile app an enjoyable experience. Keywords: Mobile Applications, English Vocabulary Learning and Acquisition, Interactive use of Technology.


Recibido 20-V-2014 Corregido 3-X-2014 Aceptado 18-XI-2014 Abstract: Seven asteroids are described from the Tlayua quarries (18° 35´ N - 97° 56´ W), recovered from the Middle Member of the Tlayua Formation. Tlayua quarries are 94 km southeast of Puebla and 2 km northeast of the town of Tepexi de Rodriguez in the Eastern part of central Mexico. The Middle Member is fossiliferous and composed mainly of a micritic lithographic limestone with layers having packs that consist of as much as 30 % hematite. The fossils are confined to these iron rich layers. These Middle Member are about 28 m thick. Due to the abundance, variety and conservation of its paleobiota, the Tlayua quarry is one of the most important fos- siliferous localities from North America's Cretaceous. About 5 000 samples of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils have been collected from this locality and have been studied. The seven specimens belong to the Cretaceous strata and are believed to be of Lower Cretaceous (Albian) age. The asteroids described are referred to the genus Astropecten, Plutonaster, Tamaria and Echinaster. This is the first report of Cretaceous asteroids for Mexico. Rev. Biol. Trop. 63 (Suppl. 2): 7-15. Epub 2015 June 01.


The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the How I think Questionnaire (HITQ), adapted to children in the age of 7 to 9 years old. The main hypothesis was that children between 7 and 9 years old demonstrate some cognitive distortions and that these distortions are predictive of antisocial behaviour. A group of 156 children from the second (N= 75) and the third grade (N= 88) participated in the study. The results showed that the children showed on average a low prevalence of cognitive distortions and that these distortions are predictive of selfreported antisocial behaviour. Another hypothesis was that there is a domain shift from the moral towards the nonmoral domain in the evaluation of hypothetical situations concerning antisocial behaviour. New storyboards, consisting of pictures and stories were made that were suitable for children of the investigated age-group. No domain shift was found, except for a domain shift for boys concerning one hypothetical situation about oppositional behaviour. 3 Cognitive distortions and antisocial behaviour in children


The major citation of Anhui Agricultural Sciences was analyzed from 2001 to 2007 based on the data from The Statistic and Analysis System for Document Evaluation of Chinese Academic Periodicals to find out majors which received mach concern and direct the planning of selecting subjects, in order to improve its academic influence.


In this study, some physical properties of apricot pit of cv. 'Sonnati Salmas' were determined at 5.11, 11.23 and 16.48 % wet base moisture contents. Physical properties such as dimensions, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity, volume, weight and coefficient of static friction on various surfaces were determined as a function of pit moisture content. Length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter and surface area of pits increased with increasing moisture content. Sphericity decreased from 72.16 to 72.10 %, 1000 grain mass and grain volume increased from 1402.43 to 1437.32 g and 1.49 to 1.51 cm 3 , respectively. Porosity decreased from 49.457 to 48.404 %, true density and bulk density increased from 1043.97 to 1045.51 kg/m 3 and 527.65 to 539.44 kg/m 3 , respectively. The coefficient of static friction increased as the moisture content increased. These results are necessary for designing of equipments for processing, conveying, separating and packing apricot pit.


Background The most frequent myositis specific antibody (MSA) in the serum of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies is anti-Jo-1. The presence of anti-Jo-1 define a distinct clinical phenotype, antisynthetase syndrome (ASS), which is characterized by poor prognosis and multiple organ involvement, such as myositis, interstitial lung disease (ILD), non-erosive arthritis, Raynaud's phenomen, mechanic's hand, skin rashes, and fever. Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the clinical, serological, laboratory and genetic features of anti-Jo1 positive patients followed by our department. Methods Retrospective analysis of medical records of 49 patients (42 female, 7 male) were reviewed. Anti-Jo-1 titer was detected with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HLA DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 genotype was determined using commercial sequence-specific oligonucleotide kit. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson Chi2, Fisher exact test, or Spearman correlation. Results The median age at diagnosis was 43±13,28 years (range: 18-70), 48 patients exhibited myositis (98%), 35 ILD (73%), 43 arthritis (88%), 32 Raynaud's phenomen (65%), 21 fever (43%), 16 mechanic's hand (33%), 27 skin rash (55%) and 6 dysphagia (12%). We could detect significant correlation between the initial anti-Jo-1 titer and the first CK (R=0,328; p=0,003) and CRP (R=0,374; p=0,016) level. Furthermore anti-Jo1 levels during disease course had significant correlation to the corresponding CK (R=0,497; p<0.001), and CRP (R=0,325; p<0.001) level. The most frequent antibody besides anti-Jo-1 was anti-SSA (28/49; 57%). The anti-Jo-1+/SSA+ population had younger age at the diagnosis (36,12±11,08 vs. 47,22±12,87; p=0,004), lower rate of ILD (53% vs. 81%; p=0,039), but higher maintaining steroid (methylprednisolone) dose (9,53 mg vs. 3,7 mg; p=0,031) compared to the Jo-1+/SSA- group. Higher (≥8 mg) maintaining steroid therapy was associated with higher initiating CRP (36,34 vs. 17,84 mg/l; p=0,014) ESR (33,87 vs. 19,81 mm/h; p=0,032) level and higher presence of fever (67% vs. 37%; p=0,038) at diagnosis but not with initiating CK (p=0,374), LDH (p=0,224) level or ILD presence (p=1). 68,96% of the patients were HLA DRB1*03 positive, where the CK level at diagnosis was significantly lower compared to the HLA DRB1*03 negative patients (2816,30 vs. 5969,44 U/l; p=0.04). 58.62% of the patients were positive for HLA DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201 haplotype, but no significant correlation was found regarding to any clinical or laboratory features. Conclusions Our results confirm previously reported data from other centers considering the clinical features of anti-Jo1 positive patients. HLA DRB1*03 positivity was associated with lower CK level but has no influence on clinical or serological features. It seems that anti-Jo1 level might reflect disease activity; ESR, CRP levels, associated fever and anti-SSA positivity at the diagnosis could be considered as prognostic markers. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Cellular metal ion homeostasis is tightly regulated. When metal ion levels are imbalanced, or when one metal is at toxic levels, enzymes may bind to the wrong metal cofactor. Enzyme mismetallation can impair metabolism, lead to new and deleterious reactions, and cause cell death. Beginning with Bacillus subtilis strains genetically sensitized to metal intoxication through loss of efflux or by lowering intracellular iron, we identified mutations that suppress the deleterious effects of excess Mn(II) or Co(II). For both metals, mutations in mpfA, encoding a Mg(II) efflux pump, suppressed toxicity. These mutant strains have elevated intracellular Mg(II), suggesting that Mg(II)-dependent processes are very sensitive to disruption by transition metals. ABSTRACT Transition metals are essential for life but are toxic when in excess. Metal ion intoxication may result from the mismetallation of essential metal-dependent enzymes with a noncognate metal. To begin to identify enzymes and processes that are susceptible to mismetallation, we have selected for strains with increased resistance to Mn(II) and Co(II). In Bacillus subtilis, cells lacking the MntR metalloregulator are exquisitely sensitive to Mn(II) but can easily become resistant by acquiring mutations affecting the MntH Mn(II) importer. Using transposon mutagenesis, and starting with an mntR mntH strain, we recovered mariner insertions that inactivated the mpfA gene encoding a putative Mg(II) efflux system. Loss of MpfA leads to elevated intracellular Mg(II), increased sensitivity to high Mg(II), and reduced Mn(II) sensitivity. Consistently, we also recovered an insertion disrupting the mgtE riboswitch, which normally restricts expression of the major Mg(II) importer. These results suggest that Mn(II) intoxication results from disruption of a Mg(II)-dependent enzyme or process. Mutations that inactivate MpfA were also recovered in a selection for Co(II) resistance beginning with sensitized strains lacking the major Co(II) efflux pump, CzcD. Since both Mn(II) and Co(II) may mismetallate iron-dependent enzymes, we repeated the selections under conditions of iron depletion imposed by expression of the Listeria monocytogenes FrvA iron exporter. Under conditions of iron depletion, a wider variety of suppressor mutations were recovered, but they still point to a central role for Mg(II) in maintaining metal ion homeostasis. IMPORTANCE Cellular metal ion homeostasis is tightly regulated. When metal ion levels are imbalanced, or when one metal is at toxic levels, enzymes may bind to the wrong metal cofactor. Enzyme mismetallation can impair metabolism, lead to new and deleterious reactions, and cause cell death. Beginning with Bacillus subtilis strains genetically sensitized to metal intoxication through loss of efflux or by lowering intracellular iron, we identified mutations that suppress the deleterious effects of excess Mn(II) or Co(II). For both metals, mutations in mpfA, encoding a Mg(II) efflux pump, suppressed toxicity. These mutant strains have elevated intracellular Mg(II), suggesting that Mg(II)-dependent processes are very sensitive to disruption by transition metals.


Abstract : The military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have required the largest and longest use of U.S. military forces since the Vietnam conflict. The buildup of forces for these operations began in 2002, and, by 2007, more than 1.5 million service members had been deployed. Army deployments have been about 12?15 months in length, Marine Corps deployments about seven months, Navy deployments (typically on board ship) about six months, and Air Force deployments three months or longer. Deployments are generally periods of high stress, when daily activities vary from humdrum routine to fast-paced action and traumatizing events, especially for ground forces. Stress is also high among support units at home, as both deployed and nondeployed service members in support activities often work long hours. To varying degrees, deployed service members have been able to stay in contact with family via phone calls and the Internet. In addition, close friendships can develop between ?battle buddies? who rely on each other during missions and for social and psychological support. Departure for deployment means separation from friends and family, and the return from deployment results in an effort to reestablish those relationships. Married service members face the challenge of reintegrating with their families after the spouse has been responsible for running the household, and the children may be anxious and unsure of how to relate to their returning parent.


There is a growing discrepancy between the creation of digital content and its actual employment and usefulness in a learning society. Technologies for recording lectures have become readily available and the sheer number and size of such objects produced grows exponentially. However, in practice most recordings are monolithic entities that cannot be integrated into an active learning process offhand. To overcome this problem, recorded lectures have to be semantically annotated to become full-fledged e-learning objects facilitating automated reasoning over their content. We present a running web-based system - the e-Librarian Service CHESt - that is able to match a user's
 question given in natural language to a selection of semantically pertinent learning objects based on an adapted best cover algorithm. We show with empirical data that the precision of our e-Librarian Service is much more efficient than traditional keyword-based information retrieval; it yields a correct answer in most of the cases (93% of the queries), and mostly with a high precision, i.e., without supplementary hits. We also describe some ideas to improve the retrieval performance by user feedback.


The photoluminescence properties of mercaptocarboxylic acid-stabilized CdSe nanoparticles were modified by coating with polyelectrolyte. With a concentration of the positively charged polyelectrolyte poly(diallydimethyl-ammonium chloride) (PDDA) of 0.45 and 1.14 g l−1, the intrinsic emission of CdSe nanoparticles was enhanced up to 31 times, with a simultaneous enhancement of the trap emission, and the stability of the CdSe nanoparticles was also enhanced dramatically. The negatively charged polyelectrolyte PSS had no effect on the intrinsic and trap emission of CdSe nanoparticles.


This Article explores the curious jurisprudence of sexual patterns and how it constructs female sexuality. In modern rape law, the "unchaste character inference" expressly prohibited by the rape shield endures. Though the boundaries that circumscribe appropriate sexual conduct have shifted over time, courts persist in making normative judgments about women's sexuality. Cloaked in the legitimizing rhetoric of sexual patterns, retrograde notions of deviancy are substituting for rational deliberation on the question of consent. As rape shield law enters its fourth decade, it continues to defy reason, both in application and in theory. The proposed evidentiary approach promises to improve judicial decision making in rape cases, while reorienting the law toward the female sexual subject and the contingency of her consent.


The incidence of infections with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has been increasing worldwide. The emergence of multidrug-resistant NTM is a serious clinical concern, and a vaccine for NTM has not yet been developed. We previously developed a new recombinant Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (rBCG) vaccine encoding the antigen 85B (Ag85B) protein of Mycobacterium kansasii—termed rBCG-Mkan85B—which was used together with a booster immunization with plasmid DNA expressing the same M. kansasii Ag85B gene (DNA-Mkan85B). We reported that rBCG-Mkan85B/DNA-Mkan85B prime–boost immunization elicited various NTM strain-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and induced Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific immunity. In this study, to investigate the protective effect against M. kansasii infection, we challenged mice vaccinated with a rBCG-Mkan85B or rBCG-Mkan85B/DNA-Mkan85B prime–boost strategy with virulent M. kansasii. Although BCG and rBCG-Mkan85B immunization each suppressed the growth of M. kansasii in the mouse lungs, the rBCG-Mkan85B/DNA-Mkan85B prime–boost vaccination reduced the bacterial burden more significantly. Moreover, the rBCG-Mkan85B/DNA-Mkan85B prime–boost vaccination induced antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Our data suggest that rBCG-Mkan85B/DNA-Mkan85B prime–boost vaccination effectively enhances antigen-specific T cells. Our novel rBCG could be a potential alternative to clinical BCG for preventing various NTM infections.


In this article we describe the generation of the evanescent waves which are present in the rarer medium at total reflection by using a mixed-type system, the Ludwig system, which leads naturally to consider a complex-valued phase. The Ludwig system is derived from the Helmholtz equation by using an appropriate modification of the stationary phase procedure: the Chester, Friedman and Ursell's method. The passage from the illuminated to the shadow region is described by means of the ray switching mechanism based on the Stokes phenomenon applied to the Airy function. Finally, the transport system connected to the Ludwig eikonal system is studied in the case of linear wavefronts and the existence of the Goos–Hänchen effect is proved.


Solar steam generation is an attractive method to produce clean water, and high steam generation rates have been achieved using nanostructured light absorbers. However, since it usually takes minutes to reach the temperature for steady-state steam generation under solar illumination, a material that responds quickly to intermittent sunlight is strongly desired. Here, we report an unprecedented heating rate in an ultralight freestanding textile consisting of interconnected Ag and Cu2O nanoparticles. The textile demonstrated high solar absorption with low reflectance and transmittance, which were rationalized using our multiphysics simulations. A commercial polystyrene foam wrapped with this broadband light-absorbing textile showed the fastest response to sunlight together with a good steam generation rate compared to reported inorganic nanostructured steam generators. Furthermore, the textile exhibited antibacterial property, which might lower the risk of the vapor-induced transfer of bacteria during long-term intermittent use and the cost of subsequent water sanitization.


Objective: This study aims to compare the patient-perceived post-cementation sensitivity of class II metal restorations preoperatively, immediately after cementation, one week after cementation and one month after cementation with (1) Glass Ionomer luting cement (2) Zinc Phosphate cement and (3) Resin-modified Glass Ionomer luting cement. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 patients, irrespective of sex, in the age group of 15-50 years were selected and the teeth were randomly divided into three groups of 20 each. Twenty inlay cast restorations were cemented with three different luting cements. The criteria adapted to measure tooth sensitivity in the present study were objective examination for sensitivity. (1) Cold water test (2) Compressed air test and (3) Biting pressure test. Results: The patients with restorations cemented with Resin-modified Glass ionomer demonstrated the least postoperative sensitivity when compared with Glass Ionomer and zinc phosphate cement at all different intervals of time evaluated by different tests. Conclusion: The patients with restorations cemented with resin-modified Glass ionomer demonstrated the least postoperative sensitivity.


This week, Dr. Ruth Lawrence's 2015 commencement speech at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry entitled, "Going Forth with Compassion," debuts the Medical Commencement Archive. This address was a personal favorite to read and a great reminder for those of us still studying in our medical school caves, as well as those starting their life in residency. Dr. Ruth A. Lawrence, MD, is a graduate of Antioch College and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is a pediatrician, clinical toxicologist and neonatologist. She is Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Medical Director of both the Ruth A. Lawrence Poison and Drug Information Center and of the Breastfeeding and Human Lactation Study Center. She became the Director of the Poison Center at the University of Rochester in 1958 and wrote on the management of household poisonings with Dr. Robert Haggerty, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and former Director of the Boston Poison Center. She has been a member of the New York State Association of Poison Centers since its founding and has served as its President twice. In 2002, Dr. Lawrence received the Life Time Achievement Award from the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology. Dr. Lawrence begins her speech with the almost-intimidating reality of graduating from medical school: "You are about to embark on the most challenging year ever.  Medical school pales by comparison because before you were the student, you were there to learn but it was someone else's responsibility.  In a few weeks, you will be the doctor of record, what you do may save a life, solve a problem, or change the course of an illness." She reminds the class that despite the advances in technology, treatment plans and hospital protocols, and despite the efficiency of a quick reference to "Google," nothing will ever replace the significance of simply listening to your patient and being compassionate. "The key to being a good doctor is to really care about your patient.  The science will come and go, but the best doctors understand people, REAL people, and are good communicators. Listen when patients talk, listen completely." Dr. Lawrence concluded by reciting a short quote: The purpose in life is not to be happy, it is to matter To be productive and responsible To be honorable To be dedicated to goals higher than self To have it make some difference that you lived at all.


DMBA-induced mammary tumours in rats are mixed adenocarcinomas with various growth rate (rapid, slow and stabilized). The electron-microscopic study has shown that ultrastructure of tumours and their growth rate depend on a degree of the parenchyma cell differentiation and on the maturity of connective tissue being the result of their specific interaction.


Based on the large field multicolor observations of Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut (BATC) program, we obtain the spectral energy distribution (SED) for individual regions of M81. We study the structure and evolution of MS1 with an evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) model, PEGASE. We find that the exponentially deceasing star formation rate (SFR) with star formation scale 3 Gyr (hereafter Exp, τ = 3 Gyr) gives the best agreement between the model predictions and the observed SEDs. We then obtain the structure, age distribution and evolutionary history of M81. There is a clear age gradient between the central and outer regions. The populations in the central regions are older than 7 Gyr,those in the outer regions are younger, at about 4.5 Gyr. The youngest components in the spiral arms have ages of about 2.5 Gyr or less.


The present study was conducted to investigate the seasonal effect on milk production and milk qualities of crossbred dairy cows at DGDF, Sylhet. For these purposes, the data of milk production and milk samples were collected from bulk milk tank at District Govt. Dairy Farm, Sylhet and their qualities were measured by physico-chemical and microbiological tests. The season has a significant effect (p<0.05) on the milk yield and milk quality. The total milk production was highest during the rainy season 3354.00 kg followed by summer 3116.70 kg while the lowest milk production was obtained in winter 2925.50kg. The chemical composition of milk was the lowest in summer 4.27% fat, 3.20% protein, 4.46% lactose and 8.55% SNF and in rainy 3.96% fat, 3.24% protein, 4.49% lactose and 8.53% SNF respectively and the highest in winter 5.30% fat, 3.18% protein, 4.46% lactose and 8.59% SNF. The season had a significant influence on the density and freezing point of the milk (p<0.05). The temperature of the milk varied widely from one season to another season. The temperature was maximum in rainy season 28.77 o C while the minimum was 25.80 o C in the winter season. The salt percentage of the milk varied within a small range from one season to another season. During the winter season the average SPC bacteria count was lower compared with the other season, 38.02 ×10 5 cfu/ml. The highest value was obtained in rainy season 40.50×10 5 cfu/ml. Coliform bacteria count was on average 4.5×10 5 cfu/ml in winter, 4.91×10 5 cfu/ml in summer and 5.46×10 5 cfu/ml in rainy season. There was no significant difference compared to the value found during the other season. From this study it was found that season had a significant effect on the milk quantity and quality, except for protein, lactose, SNF, SPC and coliforms count. Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2016. 45 (3): 52-57


Components of aggressiveness in Gibberella fujikuroi populations from South Romania For breeding purposes, use of reliable Fusarium isolates and inoculation techniques for assessment of host resistance are key components for developing strategies to mitigate the risks caused by this pathogen in maize. Results of evaluating aggressiveness of Fusarium accessions obtained in 2008 from five locations from South Romania, under both seedling and field artificial inoculation in 2009, in terms of coleoptile length (% of control), visual score (1-9) and fumonisin content (FUM, ppm), are reported. High aggressive potential was found in all populations regardless of their geographic origin. Mean percentage values of coleoptile length across three maize hybrids inoculated with 30 Fusarium verticillioides isolates collected in 2008 (six/per location) and two types of culture media, ranged in seedling stage from 15.8 (Braila) to 19.7 (Valul lui Traian). A large variability in accumulation of FUM in grains corresponding to 26 maize genotype x Fusarium isolate combinations averaged over two culture media, was found in 2009 inoculated experiment. A significant close negative correlation between visual score and FUM content was found when 61 maize genotypes have been inoculated with FUN 640-1-2/2006 isolate in 2008.


The technological evolution has been progressing for centuries and will possibly increase at a higher rate in the 21st century. Currently, in this age of nanotechnology, the discovery of more economical and sustainable novel materials has considerably increased. The abundance of two-dimensional (2D) materials has endowed them with a broad material platform in technical studies and in the expansion of nano- and atomic-level applications. The innovation of graphene has motivated considerable attention to the study of other novel 2D materials, known as modern day "alchemy", by which scientists are trying to convert most possible periodic table elements into 2D material structures and forms. 2D material devices with high quality and good optical encoder performance have a multitude of industrial applications. However, their stability and large size restrict their applications, but these problems can be overcome by functionalization and substrate-based formation of 2D materials. Therefore, via this review, first, basic attributes of 2D materials are described, and the mechanisms to further enhance their properties are also summarized. Second, the applications of 2D materials are discussed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, some effective device-fabrication approaches, such as heterostructure approaches, are applied to further enhance the properties of 2D materials; their novel device applications and opportunities are also presented. This updated review may provide new avenues for 2D material synthesis and development of more efficient devices compared to conventional devices in different fields.


Pitch differences between concurrent sounds are important cues used in auditory scene analysis and also play a major role in music perception. To investigate the neural codes underlying these perceptual abilities, we recorded from single fibers in the cat auditory nerve in response to two concurrent harmonic complex tones with missing fundamentals and equal-amplitude harmonics. We investigated the efficacy of rate-place and interspike-interval codes to represent both pitches of the two tones, which had fundamental frequency (F0) ratios of 15/14 or 11/9. We relied on the principle of scaling invariance in cochlear mechanics to infer the spatiotemporal response patterns to a given stimulus from a series of measurements made in a single fiber as a function of F0. Templates created by a peripheral auditory model were used to estimate the F0s of double complex tones from the inferred distribution of firing rate along the tonotopic axis. This rate-place representation was accurate for F0s greater, similar900 Hz. Surprisingly, rate-based F0 estimates were accurate even when the two-tone mixture contained no resolved harmonics, so long as some harmonics were resolved prior to mixing. We also extended methods used previously for single complex tones to estimate the F0s of concurrent complex tones from interspike-interval distributions pooled over the tonotopic axis. The interval-based representation was accurate for F0s less, similar900 Hz, where the two-tone mixture contained no resolved harmonics. Together, the rate-place and interval-based representations allow accurate pitch perception for concurrent sounds over the entire range of human voice and cat vocalizations.


This paper considers constructions of institutional culture and power in the cover-up of child sexual abuse (CSA) by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church of Australia. The issue of cover-up has previously been considered in international inquiries as an institutional failing that has caused significant harm to victims of CSA by Catholic Clergy. Evidence given by select representatives of the Catholic Church in two government inquiries into institutional abuse carried out in Australia is considered here. This evidence suggests that, where cover-up has occurred, it has been reliant on the abuse of institutional power and resulted in direct emotional, psychological and spiritual harm to victims of abuse. Despite international recognition of cover-up as institutional abuse, evidence presented by Roman Catholic Representatives to the Victorian Inquiry denied there was an institutionalised cover-up. Responding to this evidence, this paper queries whether the primary foundation of cover-up conforms to the 'bad apple theory' in that it relates only to a few individuals, or the 'bad barrel theory' of institutional structure and culture.


External advisory committees have played a crucial role in both the implementation of the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) program and preparation for ABET accreditation for the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The advisory committee model utilized by the MIE program consists of members from both academia and industry that are selected based on their credentials and national stature in their fields. The committee serves as a group of critical friends and provides constructive advice on how to improve implementation of the program, keeping in mind the purposes of the original award: to increase the quality and quantity of under-represented minorities who earn degrees in science and engineering. Recommendations from the committee have positively impacted the program and the university. Based on the recommendations of the committee, the program expanded its pilot entering student program to include all entering science and engineering students in 1998. The success of the entering student program influenced the formation of a new administrative unit at UTEP, the University College, which serves the needs of all entering students. Based on the positive influence of this advisory committee, the College of Engineering adopted its own advisory board. The college then went to the next level and developed a strategic partnership with one company in preparation for ABET accreditation in the fall of 2001.


Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) offers innovative solutions to a healthier life, making radical changes in people's lives. Healthcare providers are enabled to continuously and remotely monitor their patients for many medial issues outside hospitals and healthcare providers' offices. MIoT systems and applications lead to increase availability, accessibility, quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services. On the other hand, MIoT devices generate a large amount of diverse real-time data, which is highly sensitive. Thus, securing medical data is an essential requirement when developing MIoT architectures. However, the MIoT architectures being developed in the literature have many security issues. To address the challenge of data security in MIoT, the integration of fog computing and MIoT is studied as an emerging and appropriate solution. By data security, it means that medial data is stored in fog nodes and transferred to the cloud in a secure manner to prevent any unauthorized access. In this paper, we propose a design for a secure fog-cloud based architecture for MIoT.


Background: Respiratory tract symptoms are associated with workplace moisture damage (MD). The focus of this observational clinical study was patients with workplace MD-associated symptoms, to evaluate the usefulness of different clinical tests in diagnostics in secondary healthcare with a special interest in improving the differential diagnostics between asthma and laryngeal dysfunction. Methods: In patients referred because of workplace MD-associated respiratory tract symptoms, we sought to systematically assess a wide variety of clinical findings. Results: New-onset asthma was diagnosed in 30% of the study patients. Laryngeal dysfunction was found in 28% and organic laryngeal changes in 22% of the patients, and these were common among patients both with and without asthma. Most of the patients (85%) reported a runny or stuffy nose, and 11% of them had chronic rhinosinusitis. Atopy was equally as common as in the general population. Conclusions: As laryngeal changes were rather common, we recommend proper differential diagnostics with lung function testing and investigations of the larynx and its functioning, when necessary, in cases of prolonged workplace MD-associated symptoms. Chronic rhinosinusitis among these patients was not uncommon. Based on this study, allergy testing should not play a major role in the examination of these patients.


&NA; Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Spinal metastasis is rare. However, as local control of the primary tumor improves, metastatic disease is increasingly possible. The neuroscience nurse plays an instrumental role in caring for patients with GBM, developing a plan of care based on each patient's needs and outcomes.


Several strategies aimed at sorting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) by diameter and/or electronic structure have been developed in recent years. A nondestructive sorting method was recently proposed in which nanotube bundles are dispersed in water-surfactant solutions and submitted to ultracentrifugation in a density gradient. By this method, SWNTs of different diameters are distributed according to their densities along the centrifuge tube. A mixture of two anionic amphiphiles, namely sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and sodium cholate (SC), presented the best performance in discriminating nanotubes by diameter. We present molecular dynamics studies of the water-surfactant-SWNT system. The simulations revealed one aspect of the discriminating power of surfactants: they can actually be attracted toward the interior of the nanotube cage. The binding energies of SDS and SC on the outer nanotube surface are very similar and depend weakly on diameter. The binding inside the tubes, on the contrary, is strongly diameter dependent: SDS fits best inside tubes with diameters ranging from 8 to 9 A, while SC is best accommodated in larger tubes, with diameters in the range 10.5-12 A. The dynamics at room temperature showed that, as the amphiphile moves to the hollow cage, water molecules are dragged together, thereby promoting the nanotube filling. The resulting densities of filled SWNT are in agreement with measured densities.


Our educational system has always prepared the Romanian student to consider popular creation uprooted from its ethnographic context, either esthetically monumentalising it as unique or as a masterpiece marked by profound meanings that is endowed with every power to back up an identity discourse, or inducing the idea of sub-literature, of a superficial text, a reflex product of some Romanian traditional primitivism. Popular culture, however, is neither a collection of masterpieces nor an assemblage of written passages only. Ethnographic or performance contexts provide a paratext pregnant with clues, some suggestive "stage directions" in the absence of which the apprehension of the masterpiece would be nothing but a fake, a mystification of reality. In the middle of these "stage directions", there is the performer himself, the one who with each performance, re-interprets a cultural heritage which is both codified and formalized. His performance is a response not only to the stimuli forwarded by inheritance but also to the ones dictated by immediate pressures. Any act of performance is, actually, a process of working out a crisis. The performer seeks for solutions to appease the two pressures, namely inheritance and immediate pressures. He inserts the solutions within the text he performs. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate this by analysing two epic variants of the same motif (The walling up alive of a human being) situated almost a century apart, when power and human sacrifice are dissimilarly understood by the collectivity. The paper discusses the anonymous society's apprehension of the mechanisms of power, highlights the textualisation of the motif (its monumentalisation through national education), points out the interpretations it generates and makes evident the changes it entails.


Many countries will experience the effects of an aging population, resulting in a high demand of healthcare facilities. Development of novel biomedical technologies is an urgent necessity to improve diagnostic services for this demographic. Electrocar diogram (ECG) and temperature recording have been used for more than 50 years in medical diagnosis to understand various biological activities [1], [2]. A more recent development, electronic pill technology, requires the integration of more complex systems on the same platform when compared to conventional implantable systems. A small miniaturized electronic pill can reach areas such as the small intestine and can deliver real time video images wirelessly to an external console. Figure 1 shows an electronic pill system (i.e., wireless endoscopy) for a medical monitoring system. The device travels through the digestive system to collect image data and transfers the data to a nearby computer for display with a distance of one meter or more. A high resolution videobased capsule endoscope produces a large amount of data, which can then be delivered over a high-capacity wireless link.


Efforts to reduce the incidence of malaria are increasing significantly, says a major report published on 18 September by the World Health Organization. Parts of Africa that have made aggressive use of a combination of preventive measures over the past few years have seen dramatic falls in the number of cases, WHO says.

The World Malaria Report 2008 found an estimated 247 million cases of malaria and 881 000 deaths from the disease, mostly among children in Africa, meaning that it remains one of the world's leading causes of death. However, several countries had achieved a sharp fall in the number of people affected by malaria after increasing control measures.

Eritrea, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, and Zanzibar (in Tanzania) each reported reductions of 50% or more in the number of malaria cases and deaths between 2000 and 2006 or 2007.

These areas had achieved high coverage of …


DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/geouerj.2014.14406 The transformations undergone in the country show an important separation between the meaning of rural and agricultural. The economic activities in the country incorporate the service sector, especially in the case of the RegiaoSerranaFluminense, wherethe main activity is tourism in the rural areas. At the same time, the small farmers' crop keeps the supply function for the state capital and its girth even under the context of changes in the rules and ways which the goods are trade. The text discuss how the elements present in the country relate among themselves and their relationship with the cities, within the context of agricultural marketing, and network connections.


Bleeding from esophageal varices with its high mortality rate is a known complication in patients with cirrhosis. The clinical course in these cirrhotic patients shows progressive splenomegaly. The purpose of this retrospective study by Watanabe et al. was to determine if splenic size in cirrhotic patients correlated with the severity of esophageal varices, gastric varices, and liver functions. Splenic size was determined by using computed tomography images showing the largest size of the spleen and calculating the splenic index (SI). SI 5 length 3 width 3 height of the spleen. Esophageal varices were evaluated with upper esophagogastroduodenoscopy. The study group consisted of 110 patients with various causes of cirrhosis, and the control group consisted of 112 patients. There was no significant difference in the SI in patients with and without gastric varices. In patients with uncompensated cirrhosis, the SI was greater than that in patients with well-compensated cirrhosis. Patients with esophageal varices showed a greater SI than those without esophageal varices. Patients showing red color signs on esophageal varices or risky varices had a greater SI than those patients not showing these signs. The study shows a good correlation between the presence of esophageal varices, especially risky esophageal varices, in patients with cirrhosis and the SI. Esophageal varices were present in all patients with an SI . 963 cm. In patients with cirrhosis, a high SI calculated on a noninvasive computed tomography scan may predict esophageal bleeding.


System administrators are end-users too. And as end-users, they develop tools, create web pages, write command-line scripts, use spreadsheets, and repurpose existing tools. In short, they engage in end-user programming activities in support of their systems management work. We examined system administrator practices in software tool development, operations, and maintenance based on ethnographic field studies at service delivery centers and data centers across the United States. Our findings suggest that software practices were mostly informal and collaborative and mixed within formal change processes; tool development and debugging were interleaved with tool use and maintenance as they interacted with live systems; and the complexity of large-scale systems and the risks involved in changing live and critical systems put increased demands on system administrators. We argue that system administrators might benefit from certain software engineering methodologies such as agile software development and software modeling.


Objectives and Methods : This study was performed to investigate the effect of electro -acupuncture at four gates(bilateral LR3 and LI4) on brain activity in normal subjects using fMRI. Results and Conclusions : 1. fMRI signal increase by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LR3 was observed in Rt. Middle frontal gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 2. fMRI signal decreases by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LR3 were observed in Rt. Superior frontal gyrus, Rt. Middle temporal gyrus, Rt. Cingulate gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 3. fMRI signal increases by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LI4 were observed in Lt. Superior frontal gyrus, Lt. Middle frontal gyrus, Lt. Inf. Semi-Lunar Lobule(cerebellum), Rt. Middle frontal gyrus, Rt. Cingulate gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 4. fMRI signal decreases by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LI4 were observed in Lt. Middle frontal gyrus, Lt. Inferior frontal gyrus, Lt. Precentral gyrus and Rt. Middle frontal gyrus, Rt. Middle temporal gyrus, Rt. Precuneus, Rt. Inferior frontal gyrus, Rt. Postcentral gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 5. fMRI signal increase by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LR3 and Lt. LI4 in group average as well as more than half of the subjects was not observed. 6. fMRI signal decreases by electro-acupuncture at Lt. LR3 and Lt. LI4 were observed in Lt. culmen(cerebellum), Lt. Cingulate gyrus와 Rt. Middle frontal gyrus, Rt. Cingulate gyrus, Rt. Inferior frontal gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 7. fMRI signal increases by electro-acupuncture at four gates (bilateral LR3 and LI4) were observed in Lt. Middle temporal gyrus and Lt. Postcentral gyrus in group average as well as more than half of the subjects. 8. fMRI signal decrease by electro-acupuncture at four gates (bilateral LR3 and LI4) were observed in Lt. Middle frontal gyrus, Lt. Precentral gyrus, Lt. Inferior frontal gyrus, Lt. Middle temporal gyrus, Lt. Frontal sub-gyral and Rt. Tuber(cerebellum) in group average as well as more than half of the subjects.


Medical students are expected to learn not only academic knowledge but also other kinds of behavior, such as ethics, cooperativeness, and communication skills. Clinical clerkship has recently become increasingly important, but there are several problems in the standardized educational system, human resources of medical education, and recognition of the general public. A questionnaire survey was performed concerning clinical clerkship and medical education. A total of 100 responses were received from patients and their families. The results clearly showed that the general public had a lower-than-expected awareness of clinical clerkship (n = 24). Some patients and their families expressed anxiety over the students' medical care (n = 43). There are some problems of patient safety and the quality of medical care, and personal medical information. However, the remarks of the general public indicated that they desired to participate actively in medical education because they had high expectations of medical students (n = 63). It is necessary to promote the understanding of the clinical clerkship among the general public and to share medical education with society, as well as improvement of patient safety education for medical students.


Nowadays, the construction of Smart Grid in China is getting into a raging state and a period of swift development. At the same time, the characteristics of the power load are changing greatly. In this paper, the research of self-adjusted scheme for load towards utilization equipment is mainly for home users, in order to adapt to the changes in China's electric power load characteristics. Focus on family lights, a water heater and an air conditioner, and put forward the self-adjusted principles for their loads, propose a corresponding self-adjusted scheme for load. Through the research, a practical scheme for it could be proposed. Based on it, great enhancement could be made on the facets such as energy saving, the increase of the loading rate, the improvement of power usage efficiency and so on.


Human activity recognition (HAR) is a promising research issue in ubiquitous and wearable computing. However, there are some problems existing in traditional methods: 1) They treat HAR as a single label classification task, and ignore the information from other related tasks, which is helpful for the original task. 2) They need to predesign features artificially, which are heuristic and not tightly related to HAR task. To address these problems, we propose AROMA (human activity recognition using deep multi-task learning). Human activities can be divided into simple and complex activities. They are closely linked. Simple and complex activity recognitions are two related tasks in AROMA. For simple activity recognition task, AROMA utilizes a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract deep features, which are task dependent and non-handcrafted. For complex activity recognition task, AROMA applies a long short-term memory (LSTM) network to learn the temporal context of activity data. In addition, there is a shared structure between the two tasks, and the object functions of these two tasks are optimized jointly. We evaluate AROMA on two public datasets, and the experimental results show that AROMA is able to yield a competitive performance in both simple and complex activity recognitions. 1


"The two rode on. To left and right were lighted streets of tents, visited here and there by substantial cabins. Soldiers were everywhere, dimly seen within the tents where the door-flap was fastened back, about the camp-fires in open places, clustering like bees in the small squares, everywhere apparent in the foreground and divined in the distance. From somewhere came the strains of 'Yankee Doodle.' A gust of wind blew out the folds of the stars and stripes, fastened above some regimental headquarters. The city of tents and of frame structures hasty and crude, of fires in open places, of Butlers' shops and canteens and booths of strolling players, of chapels and hospitals, of fluttering flags and wandering music, of restless blue soldiers, oscillating like motes in some searchlight of the giants, persisted for a long distance. At last it died away; there came a quiet field or two, then the old Maryland town of Frederick."from The Long Roll Before Gone with the Wind exploded into print, Mary Johnston's The Long Roll was one of the definitive novels about the Civil War. Unlike Mitchell's novel of Southern aristocracy, however, Johnston sets her tale among the fighting armies. The Long Roll begins with secession and ends with the funeral of Stonewall Jackson. Our protagonists are Richard Cleave of Virginia, and General Jackson himself, who begins the novel as a major. Cleaves' action in the Confederate artillery alternates with Jackson's cavalry maneuvers to show a wide range of battle experience and combat effectiveness. Johnston peels away some of the historical romance of the cavalry and shows how vital artillery was in the battles. No less significant, she pays close attention to the importance of planning and patience, and the role of roads, rail, horse, and boat, mixing all of these elements with descriptions of raw courage and reckless abandon. As the narrative follows Cleave and Jackson, we are led through the most decisive engagements in the years of Confederate supremacy: Manassas, The Seven Days, Fredericksburg, Malvern Hill, and Sharpsburg. The Long Roll brings alive the differing motives for secession and war, and eerily evokes the suspicion and battered consciences of both North and South.


Background
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men in the United States. There is scant real-world evidence characterizing the care utilization and clinical outcomes associated with the use of therapies currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Objective
To describe the real-world treatment patterns, healthcare costs, and survival rates of patients with metastatic CRPC and bone metastases who have commercial or Medicare coverage.

Methods
This retrospective observational study was conducted using medical and pharmacy claims from the Humana research database for male patients who had Medicare or commercial coverage and were aged 55 to 89 years at the initiation of treatment for metastatic CRPC. Three inclusion criteria were used to identify appropriate patients for the 2 cohorts, including (1) a diagnosis of prostate cancer (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] code 185.x); (2) a diagnosis of bone metastasis (ICD-9-CM code 198.5) between 2013 and 2014; and (3) a healthcare insurance claim indicating a prescription for an FDA-approved first-line treatment for metastatic CRPC. Subsequent lines of treatment were also identified through the healthcare claims data. The 2-year survival rate was calculated and controlled for demographic and clinical characteristics, and the total costs (medical plus pharmacy) were calculated for the 6 months postindex.

Results
A total of 1855 patients met the study inclusion criteria. Of these patients, 660 (35.6%) received at least 1 medication. The patient count by line of treatment was 660 (100%) who received first-line therapy, 380 (57.6%) who received second-line treatment, 204 (30.9%) who received third-line therapy, and 107 (16.2%) who received fourth-line therapy. The medication distribution by line of treatment (using first-, second-, third-, or fourth-line therapy for each drug) was abiraterone acetate (50.5%, 61.3%, 68.6%, 75.7%); enzalutamide (15.6%, 39.2%, 54.4%, 71.0%); sipuleucel-T (9.2%, 13.9%, 20.1%, 20.6%); radium-223 dichloride (1.7%, 2.6%, 7.4%, 13.1%); cabazitaxel (2.3%, 5.5%, 16.2%, 19.6%); and docetaxel (22.1%, 32.1%, 42.6%, 48.6%). The total monthly unadjusted healthcare costs for patients who received an FDA-approved treatment was much higher ($9435) than for patients with metastatic prostate cancer who did not receive an FDA-approved treatment ($5055), and the 2-year survival rate for patients who received an FDA-approved treatment was 57.1% (25th percentile, 250 days; 50th percentile, 541 days).

Conclusions
The most common first-line treatment for patients with commercial or Medicare coverage who had metastatic CRPC was abiraterone or enzalutamide. Hormone therapies used as monotherapy were the most frequently used treatment, and their concomitant administration with other treatments was the second most common treatment pattern. Additional clinical studies are needed to further elucidate the treatment sequencing for patients with metastatic CRPC.


We present an advanced model for the formulation and solution of large scale fleet assignment problems that arise in the scheduling of air transportation. Fleet assignment determines the type of aircraft to operate each flight in a given schedule, subject to a variety of side constraints, due to marketing, operational, maintenance and crew restrictions. We model the problem as mixed-integer multicommodity flow on networks encoding activities linking flight departures. We focus on fully representing flight connection possibilities, while accurately capturing complex operational rules. We also provide a unified framework for the expression of resource constraints via piecewise linear penalties, which permits a profitability-based tradeoff between operational goals and revenue. Computational results on actual schedules show that high quality assignments for one-day problems can be obtained within an hour of computation. The use of the model at USAir results in an annual benefit of at least $15 million.


At the beginning of the 20 th century, in the years encompassing the First World War, diverging views on colonial rule and securing self-rule were spreading in the Indian subcontinent. When the First World War broke out, many leading revolutionaries encouraged allegiance to the British in their war effort as a means of proving capability for self-rule. Nevertheless, among Indians from different social classes, allegiances were mitigated or reified according to various situations that arose, including the treatment of Indians under British command on the battlefield and official British attitudes towards the Ottoman Caliphate before and after the war. By examining the life work of Dr. Mukhtar Ansari, who led a medical mission from India to the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars, and that of the Indian sepoys in Mesopotamia in 1915-1916, this paper explores the changed and bargained allegiances affected by religious, ethnic, and colonial contexts.


Participation in intensive training programs for the unemployed in Germany is allocated by awarding training vouchers. Using rich administrative data for all vouchers and actual program participation, the authors provide first estimates of the short-run and long-run employment and earnings effects of receiving a training voucher award based on a selection-on-observables assumption. The results imply that, after the award, voucher recipients experience long periods of lower labor market success compared to had they not received training vouchers. Small positive employment effects and no gains in earnings were observed four to seven years after the receipt of the voucher award. In addition, the findings suggest stronger positive effects both for all low-skilled individuals who were awarded and redeemed a voucher and for low-skilled and medium-skilled individuals who chose to take degree courses than for higher-skilled recipients.


Hexatriene electrocyclization, if not disfavored by its harsh reaction conditions, can be highly useful for the synthesis of complex organic molecules. Herein we developed a two-layer ONIOM method which could predict the activation free energy of hexatriene electrocyclization with an accuracy of about 1.0 kcal/mol. Using this carefully benchmarked method, we calculated the activation free energies for a variety of substituted hexatrienes. It was found that extraordinarily rapid electrocyclization could occur for certain patterns of captodative substituted hexatrienes, including 2-acceptor-3-donor hexatrienes, 2-acceptor-5-donor hexatrienes, and 3-acceptor-5-donor hexatrienes. The activation free energies for these systems could be up to 10 kcal/mol lower than that of the unsubstituted hexatriene, and therefore, their electrocyclization could proceed smoothly even at room temperature. The mechanism for the captodative effect on hexatriene electrocyclization could be understood by calculating the affinity between the donor and acceptor group in the reactant state and transition state of the reaction. If the affinity was stronger in the transition state, captodative substitution would produce an extra acceleration effect. It was shown that our theoretical results were in excellent agreement with the experimental data from the recent synthetic studies of hexatriene electrocyclizations. Thus, the theoretical tools developed in the present study could be used to predict not only how to accelerate the hexatriene electrocyclization via substituent manipulation but also under what conditions each particular electrocyclization could be accomplished in the real experiment.


Exercise duration may influence the acute effects on cognition. However, only one study to date has explored the dose-response relationship between exercise duration and cognition in adolescents. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of differing durations of high-intensity intermittent running on cognition in adolescents. Thirty-eight adolescents (23 girls) completed three trials separated by 7 d: 30 min exercise, 60 min exercise, and rest; in a randomised crossover design. The exercise was a modified version of the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST), which elicited high-intensity intermittent exercise. Cognitive function tests (Stroop test, Sternberg paradigm, Flanker task) were completed 30 min pre, immediately post, and 45 min post exercise. Response times on the incongruent level of the Flanker task improved to a greater extent 45 min following the 30 min LIST, compared to rest (p = 0.009). Moreover, response times improved to a greater extent on the three-item level of Sternberg paradigm 45 min following the 30 min LIST, compared to the 60 min LIST (p = 0.002) and rest (p = 0.013), as well as on the five-item level 45 min following the 30 min LIST, compared to the 60 min LIST (p = 0.002). In conclusion, acute exercise enhanced subsequent cognition in adolescents, but overall, 30 min of high-intensity intermittent running is more favourable to adolescents' cognition, compared to 60 min.


Acute, acute recurrent, and chronic forms of pancreatitis have been increasingly diagnosed in children in the past 2 decades. Risk factors in the pediatric group are broad and appear to be strikingly different compared with the adult cohort. However, the disease burden and impact on quality of life are surprisingly similar in children and adults. This review summarizes the definitions, epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, and management of pediatric pancreatitis, identifies features that are unique to the childhood-onset disease, identifies gaps, and proposes recommendations for future opportunities.


Among all scholars of social contract theory, Hobbes regarded as the first and the foremost thinker. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the anthropological base of his political thought. Reviving the classical understanding of the central place of his philosophical anthropology to politics, and the conception of humans he developed can help better understanding of political behavior even in the contemporary epoch. This paper argued that his political philosophy departs from a number of premises that are supposed to be self-evident, supplemented by various observations from experience which can be found in "Leviathan", his famous and the most influential works of political philosophy ever written. Moreover, this paper also considered the relevancy of Hobbes' thought on several issues on psychological politics such as democracy, game theory, and bargaining in the social contract.


Objective: To provide theoretical basis for early diagnosis and accurate bronchoscopic classification of tracheobronchial tuberculosis (TBTB) in children through analyzing the clinical characteristics, bronchoscopic classifications and treatment effect in children with TBTB. Methods: In this respective study, we collected clinical data of patients with TBTB who accepted bronchoscopies in Interventional Pulmonology Department of Beijing Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University between January, 2006 and December, 2019. The basic data, including clinical manifestations, imaging features, bronchoscopic characteristics and effects of interventional therapy were analyzed. The results of the study were statistically described and analyzed using SPSS 22.0 statistical software for relevant data. Results: Total 252 children with TBTB were included in this study. The median age was 1.7 years (quartile: 0.8 years, 5.2 years). Analysis of the classification of TBTB showed that the percent of lymph node fistula type was 96.4% (243/252), ulcerative necrosis type 1.2%(3/252), granulation proliferation type 0.4% (1/252), and cicatricial stricture type 0.8% (2/252). In addition, 1.2% (3/252) of the cases showed the same bronchoscopic manifestations as lymph node fistula type, but it was not clear on imaging whether the caseous material in the lumen was caused by lymph node or lung erosion. Therefore, the "bronchial fistula type" was proposed. Conclusions: Lymph node fistula type of TBTB was the common in children. The classification of lymph node fistula mostly depended on imaging evidence, and this may lead to some uncertainty in classifying TBTB in cases with no imaging evidence of enlarged lymph nodes.


Distributed graph algorithms that separately optimize for either the number of rounds used or the total number of messages sent have been studied extensively. However, algorithms simultaneously efficient with respect to both measures have been elusive for a long time. For example, only very recently was it shown that for Minimum Spanning Tree (MST), an optimal message and round complexity is achievable (up to polylog terms) by a single algorithm in the CONGEST model of communication.
In this paper we provide algorithms that are simultaneously round-optimal with near-linear message complexities for a number of well-studied distributed optimization problems. Our algorithmic centerpiece is such a distributed algorithm that solves what we dub Part-Wise Aggregation: computing simple functions over each part of a graph partition. From this algorithm we derive round-optimal algorithms for MST, Approximate Min-Cut and Approximate Single Source Shortest Paths (SSSP), all with $\tilde{O}(m)$ message complexities. On general graphs all of our algorithms achieve a worst-case optimal $\tilde{O}(D+\sqrt n)$ round complexities and $\tilde{O}(m)$ message complexities.
Furthermore, our algorithms require even fewer rounds on many widely-studied classes of graphs, namely planar, genus-bounded, treewidth-bounded and pathwidth-bounded graphs. For these graphs our algorithms require an optimal $\tilde{O}(D)$ rounds and $\tilde{O}(m)$ messages. Our results are the first instance of distributed algorithms with $\tilde{O}(m)$ message complexities for Approximate Min-Cut and Approximate SSSP. Moreover, our algorithms are the first algorithms for any of these problems that beat the general graph round lower bound of $\tilde{\Omega}(D + \sqrt{n})$ on graph families of interest and simultaneously achieve an $\tilde{O}(m)$ message complexity.


Background: Vitamin D deficiency is commonly found in children with biliary atresia (BA). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in vitamin D-related genes are linked to circulating vitamin D levels in various chronic liver diseases. Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether vitamin D related SNPs were associated with disease susceptibility and clinical manifestations in Thai children with BA. Methods: DNA specimens from 85 Thai children with BA and 90 age and gender matched healthy controls were genotyped for DHCR7 rs12800438, CYP2R1 rs10741657 and GC rs7041 using TaqMan polymerase chain reactions. Results: The frequency of the T allele of GC rs7041 was significantly higher in children with BA compared with healthy controls (OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.06 2.64, P = 0.028). Similarly, the frequencies of GT+TT genotypes of GC rs7041 were significantly higher in the BA group than the control group (OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.03 3.42, P = 0.040). The genotype distributions and allele frequencies of DHCR7 rs12800438, CYP2R1 rs10741657 were not different between groups. All these SNPs were not related to baseline clinical parameters including ALT level, jaundice and liver stiffness measured by transient elastography. Conclusion: The GC rs7041 variant had significantly higher prevalence among BA patients than healthy individuals, indicating its potential role that might contribute to the susceptibility of BA. Thus, identification of the SNP genotype might serve as a predictive parameter for assessing the likelihood of BA in children.


Graph learning is often a necessary step in processing or representing structured data, when the underlying graph is not given explicitly. Graph learning is generally performed centrally with a full knowledge of the graph signals, namely the data that lives on the graph nodes. However, there are settings where data cannot be collected easily or only with a non-negligible communication cost. In such cases, distributed processing appears as a natural solution, where the data stays mostly local and all processing is performed among neighbours nodes on the communication graph. We propose here a novel distributed graph learning algorithm, which permits to infer a graph from signal observations on the nodes under the assumption that the data is smooth on the target graph. We solve a distributed optimization problem with local projection constraints to infer a valid graph while limiting the communication costs. Our results show that the distributed approach has a lower communication cost than a centralised algorithm without compromising the accuracy in the inferred graph. It also scales better in communication costs with the increase of the network size, especially for sparse networks.


@benwerd @adammathes Using "Open" when you mean "Free" may be pragmatic for marketing, but surely we don't have to go Bến Tre to win?