The structure of adenine nucleotide bound at the active site of yeast hexokinase PII (PII) was studied in the complexes PII x ADPMg(II), PII x ADPMg(II) x Glc and PII x ADPMg(II) x NO3- x Glc using two-dimensional transferred NOE spectroscopy. Binding of the nucleotide ligand to the enzyme resulted in downfield shift of several ligand resonances. Changes in the chemical shift as a function of ligand concentration indicate that various resonances in the bound and free form of the ligand appear to be in fast exchange. The largest chemical shift change between the bound and the free states (delta vM = 88 +/- 9 Hz) at an NMR frequency of 500 MHz was observed for the H2 resonance of the adenine ring. A lower limit for the rate of ligand dissociation from the complex derived from these results is k(off) >> 550 s(-1). Interproton NOEs for various ligand protons in PII x ADPMg(II), PII x ADPMg(II) x Glc and PII x ADPMg(II) x NO3- x Glc complexes were measured at 500 MHz at 10 degrees C. The NOE buildup curves constructed from such measurements made at various mixing times (40, 80, 120, 160 and 200 ms) were analyzed using complete relaxation matrix calculations and various interproton distances were determined. These distances were used in restrained molecular dynamics calculations to derive the conformation of the nucleotide bound at the active site of the enzyme. The results of these calculations indicate that the nucleotide binds in an anti conformation. The glycosidic torsion angle chi (O4'-C1'-N9-C8) determined for the nucleotide in PII x ADPMg(II), PII x ADPMg(II) x Glc and PII x ADPMg(II) x NO3- x Glc complexes are 68 +/- 4 degrees, 52 +/- 4 degrees and 49 +/- 4 degrees respectively. In all these complexes, the ribose pucker is best represented by the unsymmetrical O4'-endo-C1'-exo twist ((o)T1). The observed decrease in the glycosidic torsion angle of the bound nucleotide is attributed to the glucose-induced conformational changes in the enzyme. The structure of the nucleotide derived here is at variance from the one proposed on the basis of X-ray crystallography and model building [Shoham, M. & Steitz, T. A. (1980) J. Mol. Biol. 140, 1-14].


The newest generation of speech technology caused a huge increase of audio-visual data nowadays being enhanced with orthographic transcripts such as in automatic subtitling in online platforms. Research data centers and archives contain a range of new and historical data, which are currently only partially transcribed and therefore only partially accessible for systematic querying. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is one option of making that data accessible. This paper tests the usability of a state-of-the-art ASR-System on a historical (from the 1960s), but regionally balanced corpus of spoken German, and a relatively new corpus (from 2012) recorded in a narrow area. We observed a regional bias of the ASR-System with higher recognition scores for the north of Germany vs. lower scores for the south. A detailed analysis of the narrow region data revealed – despite relatively high ASR-confidence – some specific word errors due to a lack of regional adaptation. These findings need to be considered in decisions on further data processing and the curation of corpora, e.g. correcting transcripts or transcribing from scratch. Such geography-dependent analyses can also have the potential for ASR-development to make targeted data selection for training/adaptation and to increase the sensitivity towards varieties of pluricentric languages.


ABSTRACT This paper investigates how reading and reflecting upon research published by other teachers could impact pre-service teachers in a language teacher education programme at a university in the west of Turkey. Adopting a holistic single case as the qualitative research approach, the study involved 53 first-year pre-service English teachers who were taking the course Reading Skills at the time for the current research and used data collected through written reflections and think-aloud protocols. We analysed the data through thematic analysis which revealed two major impact-based themes including conceptions of being a teacher and exploring teacher self. These helped us qualify the dimensions of the impact of reading and discussing stories of exploratory action research on the process of learning and development of pre-service language teachers. Drawing on our study, we offer implications for English language teachers and educators in pre-service language teacher education programmes.


PURPOSE With the broad use of next-generation sequencing assays, it has become clear that mutations in DNA repair genes are more commonly found than previously reported. In advanced prostate cancer patients with BRCA1/2 or ATM mutations, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibition (PARPi) causes an increased overall survival advantage compared with patients without these mutations. This review explores the advantages and limitations of PARPi treatment and its use beyond BRCA1/2-altered tumors. Furthermore, it discusses the benefits of current biomarkers and what role functional biomarkers and organoids may play in addressing the involvement of homologous recombination repair mutations in tumor development and progression. METHODS A systematic review was conducted in MEDLINE, National Library of Medicine, and ClinicalTrials.gov to identify studies published between January 1, 2016, and August 31, 2021. The search strategy incorporated terms for PARPi, BRCA, DNA damage, homologous recombination, organoids, patient-derived organoids, biomarker AND prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer. RESULTS A total of 261 records remained after duplicate removal, 69 of which were included in the qualitative synthesis. CONCLUSION To improve the outcome of targeted therapy and increase sensitivity of tumor detection, patients should be repeatedly screened for DNA repair gene alterations and biomarkers. Future clinical studies should explore the use of PARPi beyond BRCA1/2 mutations and focus on finding new synthetically lethal interactions. This review explores PARPi and its use for more than just BRCA1/2 altered tumors


Biocomposites based on poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) and non-woven jute fabrics (NWJF) were fabricated by sandwiching non-woven jute mat between PLA sheets. First, composites were fabricated with various weight proportions of jute fabric (5, 10, 20, and 30 wt.%) with the PLA matrix, and the effect of fabric loading on their mechanical properties was investigated. Higher mechanical properties were found at 10 wt.% fabric-loaded composite. The results show that the tensile, flexural, and impact strengths were increased by 61.7, 52.3, and 47.2%, respectively, as compared with neat PLA. In the second part, the jute fabrics were chemically treated with NaOH, NaClO2, acrylonitrile, acetic anhydride, KMnO4, diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and benzoyl chloride. The effect of chemical treatment on the mechanical and water absorption properties of NWJF/PLA biocomposites was studied. The mechanical properties of these biocomposites were found to be higher than those of untreated biocomposites. Among all the treatments, the combined alkali-benzoylated-treated fabric composite showed higher mechanical properties. The water absorption properties of these composites were found to be remarkably lower than those of untreated fibers. The interfacial adhesion between the fiber and the matrix was shown to increase with surface modification as revealed by SEM analysis.


The civil service in Europe has been undergoing profound changes since the 1980s. Two major developments are responsible for these changes: first, the high budget deficits of governments, and second, the demographic changes causing the share of pensioners to increase. These challenges have caused reactions on the part of governments which are rather similar in most European countries: reducing public sector employment is the most important strategy. Another strategy could be to reduce the salaries of public servants; however, this strategy is not easy to follow because there is a danger of state employment losing its attractiveness. A third strategy to deal with these problems is to reduce pension rights, which are still more favourable for employees in the public service than in the private sector. Against the background of these challenges, the paper focuses on a systematic comparison of the old age pension system in three countries: France, Great Britain and Germany. One main aim of the paper will be to elaborate the main structure of the pension schemes in the civil services in these countries, which, indeed, differ a lot, to relate them to the life chances of civil servants in their old age, and to evaluate the effects of pension policy reforms in the public sector in order to solve problems of population ageing. Thus, this contribution tries to investigate the relationship between the institutional level of pay determination and pension regulations and the life chances (incomes, pensions) of people working in the public sector. At the same time it aims at evaluating institutional regulations by looking at the outcomes of these institutions.


A 45-year-old hypertensive Japanese woman presented with epigastric pain on inspiration, fever, complete atrioventricular block and polyarthritis. Her antistreptolysin O levels were markedly elevated. A diagnosis of rheumatic fever was made according to the modified Jones criteria. She was prescribed loxoprofen sodium, which was partially effective for her extracardiac clinical symptoms. However, she had syncope due to complete atrioventricular block with asystole longer than 10 seconds. Consequently, we implanted a permanent pacemaker. Although we prescribed prednisolone, the efficacy of which was limited for the patient's conduction disturbance, the complete atrioventricular block persisted. In our systematic review of 12 similar cases, the duration of complete heart block was always transient and there was no case requiring a permanent pacemaker. We thus encountered a very rare case of adult-onset acute rheumatic fever with persistent complete atrioventricular block necessitating permanent pacemaker implantation.


An epidemiological study of Babesia canis in dogs in Nigeria was performed. Four hundred blood samples collected from dogs in Nigeria were investigated using nested PCR and sequence analysis. On nested PCR screening, nine samples (2.3%) produced a band corresponding to a 698-bp fragment indicative of B. canis infection. Sequence analysis of the PCR products identified eight samples (2.0%) as B. canis rossi and the ninth (0.3%) as B. canis vogeli. This is the first report of the prevalence of B. canis rossi and B. canis vogeli in dogs in Nigeria.


Tripterygium hypoglaucum (Lévl.) Hutch (THH) is believed to play an important role in health care and disease treatment according to traditional Chinese medicine. Moreover, it is also the representative of medicine with both significant efficacy and potential toxicity. This characteristic causes THH hard for embracing and fearing. In order to verify its prospect for clinic, a wide variety of studies were carried out in the most recent years. However, there has not been any review about THH yet. Therefore, this review summarized its characteristic of components, pharmacological effect, pharmacokinetics and toxicity to comprehensively shed light on the potential clinical application. More than 120 secondary metabolites including terpenoids, alkaloids, glycosides, sugars, organic acids, oleanolic acid, polysaccharides and other components were found in THH based on phytochemical research. All these components might be the pharmacological bases for immunosuppression, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour effect. In addition, recent studies found that THH and its bioactive compounds also demonstrated remarkable effect on obesity, insulin resistance, fertility and infection of virus. The main mechanism seemed to be closely related to regulation the balance of immune, inflammation, apoptosis and so on in various disease. Furthermore, the study of pharmacokinetics revealed quick elimination of the main component triptolide. The feature of celastrol was also investigated by several models. Finally, the side effect of THH was thought to be the key for its limitation in clinical application. A series of reports indicated that multiple organs or systems including liver, kidney and genital system were involved in the toxicity. Its potential serious problem in liver was paid specific attention in recent years. In summary, considering the significant effect and potential toxicity of THH as well as its components, the combined medication to inhibit the toxicity, maintain effect might be a promising method for clinical conversion. Modern advanced technology such as structure optimization might be another way to reach the efficacy and safety. Thus, THH is still a crucial plant which remains for further investigation.


The amplitudes of peaks in the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in the microwave background radiation depend on the mass content of the universe. The second peak should be prominent when cold dark matter is dominant but is depressed when baryons dominate. Recent microwave background data are consistent with a purely baryonic universe with Ωm = Ωb and ΩΛ ≈ 1.


In this paper, we draw on recent research on so-called Fermi problems and situate the fundamental principles underlying this type of tasks and their use from a task design perspective. We use the models and modelling perspective on teaching and learning to elaborate on aspects related to the design of single-use, as well as sequences of, Fermi problems. In addition, we discuss a framework (called the Fermi problem activity template [FPAT] framework) for supporting the design and use of Fermi problems to facilitate students' learning within particular mathematics content areas and/or aimed at particular concepts or higher-order thinking skills. We also illustrate how the FPAT framework can be used to (i) facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations with other subjects such as the social sciences, but in particular with the other STEM subjects; and (ii) support teachers in adapting and implementing Fermi problems in their classrooms.


Background: Schizophrenia is one of the most prevalent and disabling psychiatric diseases. Several intervention programs have been implemented in order to assess schizophrenia from a community and integrated view. Despite the well-known effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, little is known about the effect they have in the pharmacological treatment with antipsychotics indicated in this group of patients. Despite their effectiveness, antipsychotics are known to have important secondary effects, highlighting cardiovascular side effects for being highly prevalent, and for being the most important cause of natural death among those patients. Moreover, antipsychotics account for a non - despicable proportion of the global cost of the disease, contributing to make schizophrenia the most expensive psychiatric disorder.
Aim: To analyze the effect an integrated psychosocial intervention has on the dose of antipsychotic used in the maintenance phase treatment (defined as a Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF) ≥ 70) in patients with a diagnosis of severe schizophrenia. Secondary, it would be interesting to determine its effect on the cardiovascular disease risk and metabolic syndrome, as well as on the global cost of the disease.
Methods: A prospective cohort study will be performed following 148 patients diagnosed with severe schizophrenia consulting to any service of the Xarxa de Salut Mental de la provincia de Girona due to an exacerbation of the disease. Patients will be collected in a non – probabilistic consecutive method and will be classified in two groups, both following interventions used in the routine clinical practice: an integrated psychosocial intervention program plus pharmacological treatment or only pharmacological treatment plus standardized visits. Patients will be categorized using a propensity score matching method regarding sex, age, family support and initial GAF score, in order to diminish selection bias. Patients will be followed during a 2 – year period, and the dose of antipsychotic needed in the maintenance phase at the end of the study will be compared in both groups, using bioequivalence transformations into olanzapine and categorizing patients according to the dose required. Maintenance will be defined using the GAF scale. The cardiovascular disease risk will be compared at the beginning and the end of the study in both groups, using the REGICOR scale, as well as the Metabolic Syndrome prevalence. Finally, an estimation of the global cost of the disease will be analyzed in both groups. Several co – variates will be taken into account in the statistical analysis in order to determine possible confounding factors, using a Multiple Logistic Lineal Regression Model for qualitative variables, and a Multiple General Lineal Model for quantitative variables


summary
Chroococcidiopsis sp. cells from hot desert rock (Timna National Park, Israel) were grown in modified BG-11 medium which was either N-free or which contained different concentrations of nitrogen, provided as nitrate. The life cycle, ultrastructure and physiological activities of the cyanobacterium were investigated over a period of 4 months. No alterations were detected in cells grown in medium containing 250 or 125 μg N ml−1. In contrast, cells grown in medium with 62 μg N ml−1 or lacking nitrogen occurred only as isolated viable forms, after 3 months and 1 month of growth, respectively. In these cells a decrease in the content of cellular chlorophyll and phycocyanin paralleled undetectable O2 evolution and depressed O2 uptake. In addition, such isolated cells were characterized by a multilayered envelope, whereas, in the cytoplasm, vesiculated thylakoids and glycogen granules were observed. N-limited and N-starved cells recovered their cellular organization and physiological activities upon N repletion. These 'survival' cells had a spore-like form, and were functionally comparable to akinetes.


In additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) environments, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation can be easily obtained since the noise spectrum density is flat. However, the performance is degenerate when the noise is colored. A novel SNR estimation method based on two-channel model for colored-noise environments is proposed. We use the phase information from the two-channel model to obtain the signal bandwidth and calculate the signal energy in this bandwidth. Hence, the SNR can be estimated in colored-noise environments. The simulation shows that the novel method performs better than the method reported for colored- noise environments.


Every year 300 000 newborns are afflicted by the two commonest neural tube defects, myelomeningocele and anencephaly.1 The burden of disability is immense, especially in the developing world. This review will focus on myelomeningocele and other congenital anomalies of the spinal cord. The term spina bifida refers to a spectrum of congenital disorders of the bony spine which may be associated with an underlying abnormality of the spinal cord, in which case the disease
may be referred to as spinal dysraphism. In its simplest form, spina bifida is characterised by a defect in the posterior bony neural arch (spinous process and laminae) which may be seen on spinal x-rays in about 10% of people2 and is seldom of importance.


【Variety and individuality are characteristic of consumer in modern society. For the necessity of new designed men's formal suit is on the rise with advance of party culture and change of wedding style. In addition to growing numbers of Korean grooms are getting more interested in make themselves well-groomed on the wedding ceremony. The purpose of this study is to develop the men's formal suit pattern for right fit and better style for Korean grooms. In order to find out how to modify their fit, comparison among the existing patterns was necessary. In this study we proposed new patterns of men's formal suit, a morning coat, a tail coat, tuxedoes, director's suit, three-peaces suit, navy blazer. Considering the results of this study, developed patterns were altered to fit better and to smarter. They were well graded in waistline position, shoulder shape, back princess line shape. Also they were best to move around sleeve and bodice. And the developed patterns were altered to make armhole narrower to make bodice length shorter, to make bodice slimmer. The researcher's pattern's were made up into garments using wool 100%, silk 100%. According to verify the improvements and grade better in both appearance and comport, it will be to take the lead men's formal dress culture and expand the base of popular consume for men's formal wear.】


Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the caries frequency, which was determined using different caries indexes Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of in-office bleaching agents on the color and translucency of different resin composites. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four disk-shaped specimens with 1 mm thickness and 8 mm diameter were fabricated from five different resin composites. The specimens were then divided into three subgroups, two office bleaching groups (40% Opalescence Boost, 38% Whitesmile Power Whitening) and one control group (n=8). All specimens were polymerized for 40 s with a LED light-curing unit. Color measurement was performed using a spectrophotometer. Bleaching agents were applied to the experimental groups in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions for 14 days, while the specimens in the control group were kept in distilled water only. Translucency parameters of the specimens before and after bleaching and the color changes after bleaching were calculated using CIE L * a * b * color coordinates. Data were analyzed using the paired sample t-test and ANOVA (α=0.05). Results: Statistically significant differences were found between the control group and the bleached groups according to color change values (p<0.05). The highest mean color change value was observed in the Ceram-X / Opalescence Boost group. The Ceram-X / Opalescence Boost, Majesty Esthetic / Opalescence Boost, and Ceram-X / Whitesmile Power specimens showed clinically non-acceptable color changes. Translucency parameter values in each group between baseline and the end of the 14th day revealed no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusions: The office bleaching agents may affect the color and translucency parameters of composite resins depending on the structural properties.


Based on true facts, Erin Brockovich tells the story of the extraordinary role of a woman, with no legal training and with a complicated family background, in the preparation and outcome of a successful lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company for polluting water for human consumption with hexavalent chromium in Hinkley (California, USA). The film offers a view of the strategies used by large industrial corporations for the concealment of environmental risks, while it claims the value of nonexpert knowledge and the empowerment of the population as a whole in the defence of the right to health.


Organismal traits often influence fitness via interactions with multiple species. That selection is not necessarily predictable from pairwise interactions, such as when interactions occur during different life cycle stages. Theoretically, directional selection during two sequential episodes (e.g., pollination and seed survival) can generate quadratic or correlational selection for a set of traits that passes both selective filters. We compared strength of selection during pollination versus seed predation in the field and tested whether interactions with multiple species give rise to nonlinear selection on floral traits. We planted common gardens with seeds of two species of Ipomopsis and hybrids at sites where pollination was primarily by hummingbirds or also included hawk moths. We examined selection on six floral traits, including corolla width, sepal width, color, nectar, and two scent compounds. Female fitness (seeds) was broken down into fitness during (1) pollination (seeds initiated) and (2) seed predation (proportion of seeds escaping fly predation). All traits showed evidence of selection. Directional and quadratic selection were stronger during seed initiation than during seed predation. Correlational selection occurred mostly during seed initiation rather than arising from combining species interactions at two points in the life cycle. These results underscore how multispecies interactions can combine to exert selection on trait combinations.


The Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) pub- lish information about all allocated IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks including country codes for each block. This information can be used for IP address geolocation. However, since large IP address blocks assigned to one country may belong to large international organisations spread over multiple countries the accuracy is questionable. With data from May 2012 we compare the IP to country mapping of the RIR data for the whole allocated IPv4 and IPv6 space against MaxMind's GeoLite country geolocation database, which has a claimed accuracy of 99.5% [1]. For IPv4 there is a difference for 5% of the address space. This means GeoLite is presumably more accurate, but on the other hand for 95% of the IPv4 address space the mapping is identical. For IPv6 there is almost no difference between the RIR data and GeoLite.


Uncertainty plays an important and complex role in data analysis and affects many domains. To understand how domain experts analyse data under uncertainty and the tasks they engage in, we conducted a qualitative user study with 12 participants from a variety of domains. We collected data from audio and video recordings of think-aloud demo sessions and semi-structured interviews. We found that analysts sometimes ignore known uncertainties in their data, but only when these are not relevant to their tasks. More often however, they deploy various coping strategies, aiming to understand , minimise or exploit the uncertainty. Within these coping strategies, we identified five high level tasks that appear to be common amongst all of our participants. We believe our findings and further analysis of this data will yield concrete design guidelines for uncertainty-aware visual analytics.


Centers of Excellence rely on university staff and students to bring RFID technology out into the real world. This paper focused on making RFID more applicable in our everyday lives, individuals such as these are converging at the two dozen or so RFID Centers of Excellence that have sprouted up around world over the last two to three years. They have come in the wake of Wal-Mart and Department of Defense mandates that their suppliers use RFID technology. Unlike RFID labs, which are often run by equipment manufacturers themselves, Centers of Excellence-and there are a host of them specializing in different fields around the United States-are based in universities and staffed by faculty and students


A coding and modulation technique is studied where the coded bits of an irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) code are passed directly to a modulator. At the receiver, the variable nodes of the LDPC decoder graph are connected to detector nodes, and iterative decoding is accomplished by viewing the variable and detector nodes as one decoder. The code is optimized by performing a curve fitting on extrinsic information transfer charts. Design examples are given for additive white Gaussian noise channels, as well as multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels where the receiver, but not the transmitter, knows the channel. For the MIMO channels, the technique operates within 1.25 dB of capacity for various antenna configurations, and thereby outperforms a scheme employing a parallel concatenated (turbo) code by wide margins when there are more transmit than receive antennas.


As members of the same group in the periodic table, the industrially significant elements aluminum and gallium exhibit strong similarities in the majority of their compounds. In contrast there are significant differences in the structures of the two elemental forms: Aluminum forms a typical closest-packed metallic structure whereas gallium demonstrates a diversity of molecular bonding principles in its seven structural modifications. It can therefore be expected that differences between Al and Ga compounds will arise when, as for the elemental forms, many metal-metal bonds are formed. To synthesize such cluster compounds, we have developed the following synthesis procedure: Starting from gaseous monohalides at around 1000 degrees C, metastable solutions are generated from which the elements ultimately precipitate by means of a disproportionation reaction at room temperature. On the way to the elemental forms, molecular Al and Ga cluster compounds can be obtained by selection of suitable ligands (protecting groups), in which a core of Al or Ga atoms are protected from the formation of the solid element by a ligand shell. Since the arrangement of atoms in such clusters corresponds to that in the elements, we have designated these clusters as metalloid or elementoid. In accordance with the Greek word [see text] (ideal, prototype), the atomic arrangement in metalloid clusters represents the prototypic or ideal atomic arrangement in the elements at the molecular level. The largest clusters of this type contain 77 Al or 84 Ga atoms and have diameters of up to two nanometers. They hold the world record with respect to the naked metal-atom core for structurally characterized metalloid clusters.


The Arctic sea ice cover is crisscrossed by leads and pressure ridges, often referred to as linear kinematic features (LKFs). Leads are areas of open ocean in the sea ice cover. As such they play a crucial role in the Arctic climate system because they accommodate large amounts of the Arctic heat loss and thus enable sea ice formation. Hence a proper representation of LKFs in a climate model is expected to improve its overall performance.

So called viscous-plastic (VP) sea ice models are used in most climate models and are thought to represent the sea ice accurately on large scales. Here, the spatial resolution is pushed to scales of 1 km to show leads emerging in a VP sea ice model at those very high resolutions. In order to avoid unnecessary computational limits, first steps are taken with an idealized environment set up implemented with the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm). The modeled sea ice deformation is compared to observational data by a statistical analysis and using the fractal characteristics of sea ice deformation.
The probability distributions of the deformation rates have power-law tails in attraction of the Levy law at high resolutions.
This implies that, the localization of strain rate events increases with refining spatial resolution.
In addition, it is found that the ice strength depends on the spatial resolution. So that, the ice strength P* needs to be reduced with increasing grid size to obtain comparable dynamic behavior of the modeled ice.
Moreover, spatial and temporal scaling laws are explored for sea ice deformation. By increasing the resolution of the wind forcing more small scale strain rate events are induced in the ice leading to a better agreement with fractal characteristics of spatial scaling laws. So that VP becomes comparable to the elasto brittle (EB) rheology.
Areas of low sea ice concentration dominate temporal scaling laws. In dense pack ice, deformation events persist over a period of ten days at small spatial scales.

In the second part the predictability of the modeled leads is investigated. The position of modeled LKFs is strongly sensitive to uncertainties in the wind forcing and initial conditions. Uncertainties in satellite sea ice products and weather forecast lead to a predictive skill of 1 to 2 days.


. In this work we present the results of our study on a particular class of Galactic and extragalactic evolved stars, which are part of a binary system, and surrounded by a stable dusty disc. By combining spectroscopic, photometric and interferometric observations with detailed models describing dust properties and disc structure, we investigate the exact disc composition and structure. With this study we hope to trace the evolution of these evolved binaries and their disc, and determine the impact of the disc on the entire system.


Developments in technology have combined with economic globalization to allow and encourage the 'off–shore' movement of IT–enabled services work. However, in the rush to exploit financial benefits, the effects on labour may easily be forgotten. This paper evaluates work in the off–shored services sector in India according to the ILO's decent work criteria, examining the employment opportunities provided, the social protection offered by such employment, the rights accorded to off–shored services workers, and the social dialogue occurring in or with this sector. Finally, the paper draws conclusions regarding the contribution of off–shored services to the creation of 'decent work' in India, and makes suggestions for furthering this contribution.


The conditions are examined under which a single bubble and a number of bubbles are in equilibrium within a closed volume of liquid that is maintained at constant temperature and pressure. It is predicted that depending on the amount of gas present in the volume, there may be no equilibrium state for the bubble or bubbles, one equilibrium size, or two possible equilibrium sizes. In the latter case, it is also predicted that the equilibrium state corresponding to the larger bubble size is a stable equilibrium state. This is in contrast to the case of an unbounded volume of liquid where there is the possibility of only one equilibrium state for a bubble, and this state is unstable. The predicted stability for a bubble in a closed volume was examined experimentally, and agreement was found between the measurement and the prediction. A striking result is the reduction in the stable equilibrium size with the number of bubbles present. In particular, micron‐sized bubbles can be shown to be in stable equilibrium...


Most of the Iranian oil reservoirs are naturally fractured. Reinfiltration is a key process which controls oil flow from the upper to the lower matrix block. However, theoretical modeling of fracture aperture as well as fracture dip angle effects on flow rate of drained oil during reinfilteration process remains a topic of debate in the literature. Moreover, there is no reported experience in the literature that compared the oil velocity predicted by traveling oil bridges and continuum film flow approaches. In this work reinfiltration process is modeled through two different approaches: discrete traveling liquid elements and continuum film flow along inclined fractures. For a case study reported in the literature, the oil velocity at various fracture aperture as well as fracture dip angle was predicted and compared using both approaches. The results of this work confirmed that the geometry of fractures between matrix blocks plays a crucial role on drained oil during reinfiltration process. By decreasing fracture aperture or fracture dip angle the oil velocity modeled by liquid film flow approach decreases, it might be due to more time available, for the droplets and film to be adsorbed on lower block; therefore reinfiltration effect increases. It has been observed that the velocity of traveling liquid bridges is maximized for fracture aperture close to 0.5 mm. A surprising result, for the case studied here, is that there are critical values for fracture aperture and fracture dip angle, close to 1 mm and 15 degree respectively, in which after those the velocity of traveling liquid elements is higher than that predicted by liquid film flow approach. The results of this work might help to obtain an independent transfer function for dual permeability model incorporating the interaction between matrix blocks which might improve the reliability of simulators for evaluation of naturally fractured reservoirs.


The strongest event of geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) detected by the North‐West Russian GIC network occurred during the main phase of the magnetic storm on 28 and 29 June 2013. Extremely high value, 120 A, was recorded in the 330 kV transformers on Kola Peninsula in the 04–07 magnetic local time (MLT) sector. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft took a sequence of ultraviolet (UV) auroral images in the southern hemisphere and observed multiple omega bands. The ionospheric equivalent electric currents based on the International Monitor for Auroral Geomagnetic Effects (IMAGE) magnetometer network reveal a sequence of current vortex pairs moving eastward with the speed of 0.5–2.5 km/s that fits to the electrodynamics scheme of omega bands. Although the temporal variations of the associated current system are slow, the omega bands can be responsible for strong magnetic variations and GIC due to fast propagations of currents in the azimuthal direction.


The article firstly proves that the constant quality factor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) contours for passive circuits, while represented on a 2D Smith chart, form circle arcs on a coaxal circle family. Furthermore, these circle arcs represent semi-circles families in the north hemisphere while represented on a 3D Smith chart. On the contrary, it then shows that, the constant <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> contours for active circuits with negative resistance form complementary circle arcs on the same family of coaxal circles in the exterior of the 2D Smith chart. Moreover, we reveal that these constant <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> contours represent complementary semi-circles in the south hemisphere while represented on the 3D Smith chart for negative resistance circuits. The constant <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> semi-circles implementation in the 3D Smith chart computer aided design (CAD) tool is then successfully used to evaluate the quality factor variations of newly fabricated Vanadium dioxide inductors, directly from their reflection coefficient, as the temperature is increased from room temperature to 50 degrees Celsius (°C). Thus, a direct multi-parameter frequency dependent analysis is proposed including <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, inductance and reflection coefficient for inductors. Then, quality factor direct evaluation is used for two tunnel diode small signal equivalent circuits analysis, allowing for the first time the direct analysis of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and input impedance on a 3D Smith chart representation of a circuit, while including negative resistance.


This paper examines the differences in wealth ownership between immigrant and native households in France. Using data from the 2009-2010 wealth survey conducted by Insee, we find that the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of immigrant households explain a large part of the observed ownership gap. After controlling for characteristics, we find that immigrants are as likely as natives to own financial and real estate wealth, except for saving accounts. They have a lower rate of ownership. The specific factors of the immigrant population such as region of origin, legal status and the duration of residence have significant effects on wealth and contribute to explain the observed gaps. Classification JEL: D31, F22, J15, R21, R23.


In this talk, we present, after an analysis of the BI models, a theory of semantic proof-search for BI, that is based on the use of algebras of labels in order to solve the resource-distribution and sharing problems. Therefore, we deduce methods that generate proofs or countermodels in BI. As consequences, we have two strong results for propositional BI: decidability and finite model property, and we also propose, a new resource semantics, based on partially defined monoids, which generalizes the semantics of BI's pointer logic and for which BI is complete. We analyse the consequences of these proof-theoretic and semantics results about BI in the context of separation and spatial logics (specifications and proofs of programs or distributed concurrent systems).


We describe the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for Gallium Nitride (GaN) High-Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) model parameter extraction to improve the model accuracy between 110 and 170 GHz. Fully-connected ANNs trained by backpropagation relate the physics-based ASM-HEMT model parameters to RF transistor measurements. The effects of ANN activation function, number of layers, number of nodes and number of training set data points on training accuracy are studied. For the 12 model parameters that dominate the 40-nm GaN HEMT RF characterization, we obtained a combined root-mean-squared (RMS) error of 2.5% between the ANN prediction and the training set, which is acceptable for most design tasks.


It seems that endogenous prostacyclin is one of the most important natural protective substances in the (human) gastroduodenal mucosa. According to the observations, in humans there is a definite tendency toward decreased endogenous prostacyclin production in the gastroduodenal mucosa of smokers. This phenomenon draws attention to the possible role of smoking in the development of peptic ulcer disease.


This article presents a framework that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate simulations used for teaching strategies in nursing education. Components of the framework include best practices in education, student factors, teacher factors, simulation design characteristics, and outcomes. Variables are identified for each of the framework components.


Two fission experiments have been performed at GANIL using 238 U beams at different energies and light targets. Different fissioning systems were produced with excitation energies from 10 to 230 MeV and their decay by fission was investigated with GANIL spectrometers. Preliminary fission-fragment isotopic distributions have been obtained. The evolution with impinging energy of their properties, the neutron excess and the width of the neutron-number distributions, gives important insights into the dynamics of fusion-fission mechanism.


The Fermi-Hubbard model is of fundamental importance in condensed-matter physics, yet is extremely challenging to solve numerically. Finding the ground state of the Hubbard model using variational methods has been predicted to be one of the first applications of near-term quantum computers. Here we carry out a detailed analysis and optimisation of the complexity of variational quantum algorithms for finding the ground state of the Hubbard model, including costs associated with mapping to a real-world hardware platform. The depth complexities we find are substantially lower than previous work. We performed extensive numerical experiments for systems with up to 12 sites. The results suggest that the variational ansatze we used -- an efficient variant of the Hamiltonian Variational ansatz and a novel generalisation thereof -- will be able to find the ground state of the Hubbard model with high fidelity in relatively low quantum circuit depth. Our experiments include the effect of realistic measurements and depolarising noise. If our numerical results on small lattice sizes are representative of the somewhat larger lattices accessible to near-term quantum hardware, they suggest that optimising over quantum circuits with a gate depth less than a thousand could be sufficient to solve instances of the Hubbard model beyond the capacity of classical exact diagonalisation.


This article analyzes human and non-human relations in the Huainanzi 淮南子 to interrogate the claim that early Chinese thought is environmentally valuable because it is based on assumptions of holism and harmony. It contends that the Huainanzi's argument serves to complicate that claim and open up new research possibilities by anticipating the idea of the "Anthropocene."


Three cases of extraneural metastases of pineal tumors are reported from a series of 81 cases collected between 1949 and 1982. The diagnostic, etiopathic and therapeutic problems arising from these cases and from a review of the literature are considered.


Although still not sufficiently well-known by ship-owners, the procedure under Article 292 of the UN Law of the Sea Convention covers a most substantial part of the overall activity of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. This procedure enables ship-owners to obtain the prompt release of their vessels detained by coastal States for alleged illegal fishing in their EEZ as well as the prompt liberation of the detained crews upon the posting of a reasonable bond. The main objective of Article 292 procedure is for the Tribunal to appreciate the reasonableness of such a bond by the ship-owner is actually. Yet, despite the efforts of the Tribunal, many crucial questions regarding this procedure remain unanswered (criteria of the reasonableness, possibility for the detaining State to confiscate the ship ad son on)


In this paper we use a deep auto-encoder for extractive query-based summarization. We experiment with different input representations in order to overcome the problems stemming from sparse inputs characteristic to linguistic data. In particular, we propose constructing a local vocabulary for each document and adding a small random noise to the input. Also, we propose using inputs with added noise in an Ensemble Noisy Auto-Encoder (ENAE) that combines the top ranked sentences from multiple runs on the same input with different added noise. We test our model on a publicly available email dataset that is specifically designed for text summarization. We show that although an auto-encoder can be a quite effective summarizer, adding noise to the input and running a noisy ensemble can make improvements.


Abstract Digital inclusion is becoming more important as many consumer products and engineered systems adopt increasingly digital interfaces. The designers of such services often assume that users have a certain level of digital interface competence, but this is not the case for many users. In this paper, we present a set of personas that could help designers to better understand and consider the range of digital expertise across the population. The personas are based on survey data from 338 people across England and Wales in 2019. The survey examined various factors that affect ability to use digital interfaces, including technology experience, attitudes towards technology and competence with basic interface operations. Twelve clusters were identified using K-means cluster analysis, and twelve personas were developed based on these. The personas help to bring to life the range of digital expertise and highlight people at risk of digital exclusion. In addition, the cluster sizes indicate the proportion of the population represented by each persona and thus the scale of potential digital exclusion.


The cold-start problem is a primary factor causing performance loss in collaborative filtering. In this paper, we examine a fatal flaw of existing similarity measures in the cold-start condition. We propose a novel method, MSRV, using the moment of a random variable to solve the weaknesses of existing similarity measures that contain vector cosine similarity and correlation analysis-based methods. The proposed method is based on a prudent concept; if the expectation of the difference between two random variables is low, they will be similar to each other. We improve memory-based collaborative filtering performance using the moment that is a major statistical parameter. An experiment using various datasets confirms that the proposed method demonstrates significantly improved prediction performance compared to existing measures in full rating experiments.


The key enzyme for fibrinolysis is plasmin, which is converted from plasminogen by plasminogen activator. Activated plasmin lyses fibrinogen and fibrin to make fibrin degradation products(FDPs) and plasmin is inactivated immediately by alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor. As FDP.D dimer is derived solely from insoluble fibrin, FDP.D dimer is thought of as an index for clot lysis. We measured plasmin-alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor complex(PIC) and FDP.D dimer plasma levels in 3 patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator(tPA). Fifteen million units of tPA(TD-2061) were infused in one hour on the first, second and third hospital days. PIC and FDP.D dimer before tPA infusion showed slightly elevated values as compared to normal ranges. They increased markedly after tPA infusion. These findings suggest that the fibrinolytic system is slightly activated in the acute phase of pulmonary thromboembolism and also strongly activated by tPA infusion. Increased FDP D dimer suggests that fibrin clots are dissolved by activated plasmin. Improvement of arterial oxygen tension was observed after tPA infusion. As sustained higher FDP.D dimer means the existence of fibrin clots, heparin treatment should be continued for prevention of clot formation as long as FDP.D dimer shows higher value. In conclusion, PIC and FDP.D dimer are useful indices not only to detect the activated state of the fibrinolytic system but also to know clot lysis in tPA treatment.


The author deals with causes of inequalities of health care in different regions. He thinks that it is due to the professional and economic management of the health services. Local decision of the Communist Party and the national committees was frequently at variance with the competence of the state health administration and thus gave preference to some types of health institutions, while others were neglected. To ensure an even development it is important to introduce more consequential vertical management. The author mentions controversies between resolutions of the Communist Party and state organs and reality in conjunction with deceiving the public by maintaining that health care is developing and improving. Actually the health services deteriorated and only narrow specialized branches developed further. The authority of general practitioners declined and so did the satisfaction of patients whose health deteriorated and whose life expectancy declined. At present the objective is to eliminate existing disproportions and restore to the general practitioner his original mission and to enable him to become a family doctor. Subsequently the author deals with the use of the doctor's working hours, inadequate function of the ambulatory services because of technical shortcomings, training of doctors and the reduced ratio of paramedical personnel per doctor.


The article is devoted to the study of the tragic value spectrum of F. Dostoevsky's works. In the analysis of the critical works of V. Ivanov and L. Shestov identify the constants of the tragic architectonics proposed by these researchers. The conclusion is made about the semantic multidirectionality of the tragic assessments in the reading of F. Dostoevsky. In Ivanov's interpretation, the hero perceives the lost harmony of spiritual unity as a value and seeks to restore it. In Shestov's philosophy, the pathos of tragedy consists in the voluntary heroic rejection of harmonious ideals by the individual. In both cases, the tragic, as an architectonic value, acquires specific semantic overtones of 20th century art.


Interstitial Lung Disease in Connective Tissue Disease What types of ILD do we see in patients with CTD? Similarly, what is the spectrum of connective tissue disease associated with the development of ILD? The terminology for the ILDs is confusing and has evolved based on different classification schemes. The most recent revision (Table 1) incorporates the clinico-radiologic-pathologic information to arrive at a specific ILD pattern. These specific patterns are classified as distinct entities because they often "behave" differently, based on how they present (insidious vs. acute), and mostly due to prognostic differences among the patterns. Although this classification schema is applied to patients with CTD, it is based on patterns described for "idiopathic" ILD (also called idiopathic interstitial pneumonia IIP ). Usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) presents insidiously and is the most common pattern seen among those with IIP. UIP is seen with all of the connective tissue diseases, and appears to be the most common pattern associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its radiographic equivalent is that of fibrosis or "honeycombing." Idiopathic UIP (called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis IPF ) is the least responsive to therapy and has the worse prognosis. Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), can present acutely, subacutely, or insidiously, and is subclassified as either cellular, fibrotic, or mixed. It is thought be more immunoresponsive, is associated with inflammation, and the HRCT correlate has the appearance of "ground-glass opacification." The finding of NSIP should prompt strong suspicion for underlying CTD. Among those with IIP, the cellular form of NSIP is associated with better survival than fibrotic NSIP, and patients with either form of NSIP tend to live longer than those with UIP. Organizing pneumonia (formerly known as "BOOP") presents acutely, is also frequently seen among the spectrum of CTD, is probably the most immunoresponsive of the ILD patterns, and associated with a generally favorable prognosis. Its radiographic equivalents include the presence of ground-glass opacities and consolidation. Almost all of the ILD patterns occur within the spectrum of the various connective tissue diseases, with NSIP being the most common pattern for each CTD except perhaps RA.


Abstract Simulations are carded out to verify a mesoscale model in order to perform sensitivity tests of satellite response to atmospheric dust content. The model chosen is the mesoscale model of Colorado State University with a modified radiation parameterization in order to take atmospheric dust content into account. Downward and upward longwave irradiances are estimated using a 25-interval model. The shortwave pan of the spectrum is processed by a very fast, highly parameterized, single-interval code. Tests using experimental data gathered during the Etude de la Couche Limite Atmospherique Tropicale Seche (ECLATS) experiment performed during the 1980 dry season near Niamey (Niger, West Africa) prove that dust content is satisfactorily handled. Three 24-h simulations performed under various meteorological and turbidity conditions show that ground surface energy exchanges are satisfactorily described, so that surface temperature is predicted with a standard deviation of about 1°C. Vertical profiles of co...


In this article, genetic disorders of the gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary tracts ranging from common to very rare are reviewed. The first portion of each section highlights the clinical manifestations of the disorder; the second and more detailed portion of each section discusses what is currently known about the biology and genetics of the disorder. The potential use of gene therapy to treat many of these disorders is also reviewed.


In this paper the stability of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation is investigated. It is shown analytically and numerically that small perturbations of solutions of the KdV-equation introduce effects of dispersion, hence the perturbation propagates with a different velocity then the unperturbed solution. This effect is investigated analytically by formulating a differential equation for perturbations of solutions of the KdV-equation. This differential equation is solved generally using an Inverse Scattering Technique (IST) using the continuous part of the spectrum of the Schrödinger equation. It is shown explicitly that the perturbation consist of two parts. The first part represents the time-evolution of the perturbation only. The second part represents the interaction between the perturbation and the unperturbed solution. It is shown explicitly that singular non-dispersive solutions of the KdV-equation are unstable.


Background: Inhaled dry powder mannitol is an osmotic agent with a potential to improve lung functions in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients and possibly act as a disease modifying agent. Aim: Primary outcomes are to evaluate the improvement of lung functions. Methods Study selection criteria: Randomized trials that evaluated the improvement of lung functions in CF patients with the use of inhaled dry powder mannitol. Data collection & extraction: Articles were searched in Medline, Pubmed, and Ovid journals. Statistical method: Pooled proportions were calculated using fixed and random effects model. Results: Initial search identified 387 reference articles, of which 31 articles were selected and reviewed. Data was extracted from 6 studies (N = 771) which met the inclusion criteria. After the treatment duration (median12 weeks), FEV1% increased by 7.23 (95% CI = 6.88 to 7.58) and 2.77 (95% CI = 2.57 to 2.97) in the pooled patients of treatment and control groups respectively. FEV1 (in ml) improved by 114.12 (95% CI = 108.96 to 119.29) and 6.80 (95% CI = 6.13 to 7.48) in treatment and control groups respectively. Odds ratio for pharyngeal pain, cough, hemoptysis and headache in treatment group compared to control group were 1.52 (95% CI = 0.91 to 2.52), 1.27 (95% CI = 0.85 to 1.90), 1.82 (95% CI = 0.97 to 3.39) and 0.80 (95% CI = 0.54 to 1.19) respectively. Conclusion: Inhaled mannitol may be used as a chronic disease modifying treatment in patients with pulmonary CF and possibly improve the overall outcomes. characterized progressive decline in lung function superimposed intermittent acute exacerbations. modulators of gene


A large defect in the thoracic trachea was produced by resecting 10 rings of tracheal cartilage in each of 11 adult mongrel dogs. An allograft of the five tracheal rings was interposed in this site via end-to-end anastomosis and then wrapped with the pedicled omental flap. These animals received no immunosuppressive therapy. The pseudostratified tracheal epithelia were remained and the graft revascularization through the omental pedicle proved to be established within about one week after surgery without immunosuppression. Marked mononuclear cell infiltration was observed beneath the epithelia and around the capillaries in the subepithelial layer over one week after surgery, which was followed by phagocytosis of the tracheal cartilages by macrophages. After the completion of rejection reaction, inflammation finally induced scarring or necrosis of the tracheal allograft, resulting in asphyxia or perforation. Only one animal survived 71 days after surgery without graft trouble. However, even in this animal, weak rejection reaction was observed microscopically and the structure of the graft was not that of the normal trachea. We think these results suggest that allotransplantation of trachea induces rejection, and therefore, that the use of immunosuppressants is necessary.


Thromboxane A2 (TxA2) is a strong platelet agonist involved in the pathogenesis of thrombotic diseases that elicits platelet aggregation and vasoconstriction through the activation of its specific membrane receptor (TP). Previous studies have demonstrated that certain flavonoids, naturally occurring phytochemicals, inhibit platelet function through several mechanisms, including antagonism of TP in these cells. However, the steric and inductive or mesomeric requirements underlying this effect are not fully understood. In this study, the ability of 20 naturally occurring flavonoids belonging to different structural subtypes to inhibit [3H]-SQ29548 binding to platelet-rich plasma was compared to establish the structural basis explaining their TP antagonistic activity. The results show a key contribution of C7 and C8 carbons in the A ring, gamma-pyrone structure conjugated with a double bond between C2 and C3 carbons in the C ring, and C2', C3', and C4' carbons in the B ring as the structural determinants that create the active flavonoid skeleton in TP blockade. These data might help in the design of new TP antagonists with potential antithrombotic effects and provide additional evidence for the correlation between biological properties of flavonoids and their structure.


With the growing complexity of synthetic biological circuits, robust and systematic methods are needed for design and test. Leveraging lessons learned from the semiconductor and design automation industries, synthetic biologists are starting to adopt computer-aided design and verification software with some success. However, due to the great challenges associated with designing synthetic biological circuits, this nascent approach has to address many problems not present in electronic circuits. In this session, three leading synthetic biologists will share how they have developed software tools to help design and verify their synthetic circuits, the unique challenges they face, and their insights into the next generation of tools for synthetic biology.


In 2017, a high-energy muon neutrino detected by IceCube was found positionally coincident with the direction of a known blazar, TXS 0506+056, in a state of enhanced W-ray emission. Soon after, IceCube reported a compelling evidence for an earlier neutrino flare from the same direction found in the archival data, this time not accompanied by any observed electromagnetic activity. The IceCube findings suggest searching for flaring neutrino emissions from astrophysical sources, not necessarily accompanied by flares detected in W-rays. The analysis presented in this contribution scans the events collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope in 13 years of data taking in a search for clustering in space and time. The analysis method is based on an unbinned maximum likelihood approach. Generic Gaussian and Box profiles are assumed for the signal time emission, with both the central time and duration of the flare being free parameters in the likelihood maximization. The time-dependent approach is applied to the catalog of radio-bright blazars for which a promising directional correlation with IceCube muon tracks was recently reported [ApJ 894 (2020) 101, ApJ 908 (2021) 157].


Vitamin B12 deficiency is a common condition that manifests classically with megaloblastic anaemia. However, neuropsychiatric disorders can occur as the first manifestation of vitamin B12 deficiency. Herein, we reported two cases with neuropsychiatric disorders as the first manifestation. The first was an Indian man who presented with an unsteady gait and numbness in the lower limbs associated with low back pain and normal hemoglobin with normocytosis. MR images were consistent with subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. Vitamin B12 level was found to be low. The second case was an Indian man without a psychiatric history who was brought to the emergency room because of abnormal behavior and poor sleep. His blood study and brain images were normal. The deterioration of his condition in addition to being vegetarian prompted the attending physician to look for another cause of his illness. Vitamin B12 was low. Both patients received B12 supplements and showed significant improvement.


We consider an overall neutral system consisting of two similarly charged plates and their oppositely charged counterions and analyze the electrostatic interaction between the two surfaces beyond the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann approximation. Our physical picture is based on the fluctuation-driven counterion condensation model, in which a fraction of the counterions is allowed to "condense" onto the charged plates. In addition, an expression for the pressure is derived, which includes fluctuation contributions of the whole system. We find that for sufficiently high surface charges, the distance at which the attraction, arising from charge fluctuations, starts to dominate can be large compared to the Gouy-Chapmann length. We also demonstrate that depending on the valency, the system may exhibit a first-order binding transition at short distances.


Producing food items through farming and forestry is called agriculture. The existence of the entire human race is dependent on agriculture itself. The basic requirement of our life is fulfilled by the agriculture sector. In agriculture, the practice of growing crops or raising animals is described. India is an agricultural dominated country, and it is the foundation of our country's economy. In India agriculture is not just farming, but an art of living. The entire country depends on agriculture. The hunger of the people is eradicated only through agriculture. Despite being the main economic activity, productivity of production factors involved in agriculture is very low compared to developed nations. Economists have proved that agriculture and farmers are pioneers of economic development, who contribute immensely in its development. Such as by supplying wage goods to industrial workers, transferring surplus from agriculture to finance, for industrialization, using the product of industry as an investment for the agricultural sector, and transferring excess labour from agriculture to industrial jobs. It is very sad that the farmer who feeds the people is facing economic difficulty due to low productivity. Government of India, State governments, National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development and other financial institutions continuously working to enhance the livelihood of farmers. Agricultural finance is a finance system related to the execution of works related to rural development and agriculture related activities which are known as a department dedicated to the financing of its supply, wholesale, distribution, processing and marketing. Despite many financial inclusion programs, about 44% of rural households take loans from informal sources. Additionally, the majority of the debt is taken over by affluent farmers and is used for consumption as opposed to productive purposes. This paper looks at different types of finances available, importance of Agriculture financing, various initiatives taken by the government and financial institutions to uplift the agriculture sector and various challenges facing by agriculture sector.


Agriculture faces unprecedented challenges due to climate change, population growth, and water scarcity. These challenges highlight the need for efficient resource usage to optimize crop production. Conventional techniques for forecasting hydrological response features, such as soil moisture, rely on physics-based and empirical hydrological models, which necessitate significant time and domain expertise. Drawing inspiration from traditional hydrological modeling, a novel temporal graph convolution neural network has been constructed. This involves grouping units based on their time-varying hydrological properties, constructing graph topologies for each cluster based on similarity using dynamic time warping, and utilizing graph convolutions and a gated recurrent neural network to forecast soil moisture. The method has been trained, validated, and tested on field-scale time series data spanning 40 years in northeastern United States. Results show that using domain-inspired clustering with time series graph neural networks is more effective in forecasting soil moisture than existing models. This framework is being deployed as part of a pro bono social impact program that leverages hybrid cloud and AI technologies to enhance and scale non-profit and government organizations. The trained models are currently being deployed on a series of small-holding farms in central Texas.


Previous work has indicated that BALB/c T helper cells (Th) recognize an idiotope expressed on a 88-114/117 fragment of V lambda 2 of BALB/c myeloma protein 315. In the present study the antigenic structure of this idiotope was further analyzed. Conventional carrier-specific Th elicited by immunization of BALB/c mice with free lambda 2(315) did not cross-react with the free lambda 2 chain of the BALB/c myeloma protein T952 which differs from lambda 2(315) in five amino acid positions (38, 94, 95, 96, 99). Similarly, Th primed with free lambda 2T952 did not respond to a boost with free lambda 2(315). Thus, BALB/c lambda 2(315)-specific Th recognize an idiotope that depends on some or all of the residues at positions 94, 95, 96 and 99. Furthermore, free lambda 2T952 contains an idiotope immunogenic to Th that depends on some or all of residues 38, 94, 95, 96 and 99. Th recognition of the free lambda 2T952 idiotope was quenched upon H + L chain assembly because Th elicited by free lambda 2T952 did not respond to a boost with the complete T952 myeloma protein. In contrast to the lack of Th cell cross-reactivity, some of the antisera from BALB/c mice immunized with free lambda 2T952 cross-reacted with free lambda 2(315), free lambda lJ558 and free lambda 3CBPC49 but not with free kappa W3129 or polyclonal L chains. The H chain of T952 (alpha, kappa 2) myeloma protein was abnormally short (Mr = 48 000) and T952 existed as a halfmere probably due to this H chain deletion. Furthermore, H and L chains were disulfide bonded to each other.


Abstract In this paper we propose a novel algorithm CLAR to build an agent based routing protocol using ACO technique in cluster based mobile ad-hoc networks. Clustering makes possible hierarchical routing in which paths are recorded between cluster-heads instead of nodes. This reduces routing overheads. Presence of an unstable and non-reliable cluster-head degrades the performance of the network since cluster-heads of the network take active role in routing messages between a source destination pair. The proposed algorithm chooses the most reliable and stable node as cluster-head depending on four criteria i.e.: stability, battery power, degree, and trust value of the node. It also uses a multiagent based routing algorithm to generate load balanced routes between source and destination in cluster-based network. Performance of CLAR is compared with other existing efficient algorithms such as AODV, CBRP, Wu & Li's Algorithm, dominating set based clustering algorithms, agent-based algorithms named as SACO and MALBACO. Simulation results prove that the proposed protocol combines merits of both clustering approach and agent based approach and provides efficient packet delivery even in the presence of high load in the network


Treating schizophrenia with the available pharmacotherapy is difficult. One possible strategy is focused on the modulation of the function of the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is comprised of cannabinoid (CB) receptors, endocannabinoids and enzymes responsible for the metabolism of endocannabinoids (fatty acid hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL)). Here, the aim of the experiments was to evaluate the impact of inhibitors of endocannabinoids' enzymatic degradation in the brain: KML-29 (MAGL inhibitor), JZL-195 (MAGL/FAAH inhibitor) and PF-3845 (FAAH inhibitor), on the memory disturbances typical for schizophrenia in an acute N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction animal model of schizophrenia (i.e., injection of MK-801, an NMDA receptor antagonist). The memory-like responses were assessed in the passive avoidance (PA) test. A single administration of KML-29 or PF-3845 had a positive effect on the memory processes, but an acute administration of JZL-195 impaired cognition in mice in the PA test. Additionally, the combined administration of a PA-ineffective dose of KML-29 (5 mg/kg) or PF-3845 (3 mg/kg) attenuated the MK-801-induced cognitive impairment (0.6 mg/kg). Our results suggest that the indirect regulation of endocannabinoids' concentration in the brain through the use of selected inhibitors may positively affect memory disorders, and thus increase the effectiveness of modern pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia.


The paper aims to illustrate the transformation of Milan, focusing on its relationship with (urban) greenways. At the beginning of XXI century Milan was deeply converted into a mere service industry centre. The change modified also its territory. Brownfields took place of industries and logistic compounds, places without a use dotting its urban fabric. In the 1970s, visionary architects, planners, and landscape architects started to design a series of parks surrounding the town, creating a green crown fading its outskirts. North Park and South Park together with Boscoincittà (Wood-in-town) created a continuous green curtain setting the basis for a circular greenway. In the 1990s some studies, including the PhD thesis 'Post-industrial Green' by one of the authors and the academic research 'Metro-Bosco' by Stefano Boeri, demonstrated how Milan, while becoming a shrinking town passing from 2 million to 1.6 million inhabitants, could be transformed in a town where districts could be connected through green corridors. These theories, even if they had good dissemination and were widely published, actually didn't become real as Milanese Administration imposed an anachronistic policy based on the developing of new neighbourhoods, trying to 'sprawl' a city that actually was decreasing. This proposal however bore a series of radiant green corridors starting in the centre of Milan (Raggi Verdi -Green Rays, a project by LAND, 2005). In the second decade of the new Millennium, it was clear that Milan had to accept to decrease, enabling at the same time a way to foster the quality of life for its citizens. In the last five years, the new Administration's policy encouraged the abandoned areas requalification (actions 'Re-shaping Milan' 2015, and 'Re-shaping Milan', 2018-ongoing, developed with the Politecnico di Milano), and asked Italian Railways (Trenitalia) to 'give back' to the town six unused railways-yards encrusted in the city territory. This request, endorsed also by the common people asking more and more green spaces and slow mobility in the town-, became real with the visionary plan "Fiume Verde" by Studio Boeri Architetti (Green River, 2016). This proposal designed a net of inner green corridors able to increase deeply the city green surface. In 2018, the first international competition to transform two railway-yards has been launched. One will be a linear park, the other will host the widest Milanese public park). The first concrete milestones for a green-way transformation of Milan.


STUDY DESIGN
A prospective clinical trial to study the radiographic parameters and functional outcome in patients undergoing spinal osteotomy.

OBJECTIVES
To determine whether correction of specific radiographic parameters is associated with improved functional outcome.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Although vertebral osteotomies have been shown to improve functional outcome in patients with spinal deformity, no prospective reports have studied whether correction of specific radiographic parameters is associated with improvement in functional outcome.

METHODS
Eighty-three patients with fixed sagittal and/or coronal deformity were followed over a 7-year period. Patients were evaluated clinically and radiographically and completed a SF-36 Health Survey and American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Modems Instrument questionnaire. Spearman correlation analysis was used to determine the association between correction of radiographic parameters and functional outcome.

RESULTS
Mean preoperative lumbar lordosis measured -14.2 degrees (i.e., kyphosis) with an average postoperative correction of 27.9 degrees. Mean preoperative lumbar scoliosis measured 40.1 degrees with an average postoperative correction of 15.1 degrees. Mean preoperative plumb sagittal and coronal plane alignment was 8.37 cm and 4.22 cm, respectively; after surgery they improved to 3.33 cm and 2.31 cm, respectively. A significant association was found between sagittal angular correction and physical function (P = 0.034) and role-physical (P = 0.01) when postoperative lumbar lordosis was >25 degrees. A significant association was also found between plumb coronal correction and physical function (P = 0.041), vitality (P = 0.05), and social function (P = 0.047) when postoperative plumb coronal alignment was <2.5 cm.

CONCLUSIONS
Correction of sagittal and coronal deformity is important in the treatment of spinal deformity. A significant association was found between outcomes and radiographic correction of coronal and/or sagittal deformity if postoperative sagittal lordosis was >25 degrees and if postoperative plumb coronal alignment was <2.5 cm. Therefore, these radiographic parameters should be the goal of a spinal osteotomy. The surgery has a relatively high complication rate.


Abstract:Cutaneous fungal infections used to be rare in most developed countries. However, they have become more common due to immunosuppression and globalization. In this report, we summarize the histopathologic findings of the main cutaneous fungal infections that are commonly seen in daily practice, including eumycetoma, sporotrichosis, histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, coccidioidomycosis, aspergillosis, zygomycosis, phaeohyphomycosis, alternariosis, blastomycosis, paracoccidioidomycosis, lobomycosis, and chromoblastomycosis. We also include protothecosis (despite the fact that the infectious agent of this disease is algal and not fungal) and rhinosporidiosis (despite being caused by mesomycetozoea, which are not fungi).


A highly enantioselective alkene aryloxyarylation led to the high-yielding formation of a series of 1,4-benzodioxanes, 1,4-benzooxazines, and chromans containing quaternary stereocenters with excellent enantioselectivity. The sterically bulky and conformationally well defined chiral monophosphorus ligand L4 or L5 was responsible for the high reactivity and enantioselectivity of these transformations. The application of this method to the synthesis of the chiral chroman backbone of α-tocopherol was demonstrated.


Eimeria maxima is one of the seven species of protozoan parasites that cause intestinal coccidiosis in chickens. Discovered and first described exactly 70 years ago, the parasite has some unique features that both distinguish it from the other members of the genus and make it of relevance to the world's poultry industry. Of special interest is the balanced immunological relationship that E. maxima achieves with its host. The marked immunogenicity of the parasite results in swift and complete protection to homologous challenge, but is counterbalanced by the ubiquity of antigenically different strains that provide a significantly heterologous challenge and are only poorly controlled-essentially two sides of the same coin. In this paper, we will describe some of the features of the biology of E. maxima, with an emphasis on the immunogenicity and antigenic diversity of the parasite, and discuss some of the ways in which these features impinge on attempts to control infection. The review is, of necessity, brief and selective by choice; for more information, the reader is referred to the definitive paper on E. maxima by Tyzzer (1929) and to reviews on other aspects of Eimeria spp., including E. maxima, by Rose (1997) and Chapman (1997).


The proto-oncogene c-fos is important in cell growth, differentiation and development. Several promoter elements have been identified as mediators for the induction of c-fos by serum, tumor promoting agents, epidermal growth factor and other stimuli. Stressors, including heat shock, arsenite and cadmium can induce c-fos transcription, but a heat shock element in the c-fos promoter has not been described. In this report we show that the induction of c-fos by heat shock, arsenite and cadmium can be mediated by the serum response element. Furthermore we show that casein kinase II, which has been proposed to be involved in serum induction via the serum response element, may also be involved in heat shock, arsenite and cadmium induction of c-fos.


The proposed scenario of the interactive excursion-performance is designed for a children's audience of 6–9 years. The task of the excursion-performance is to immerse the historical and cultural environment of the ancient policy through the participation of the child in gaming cognitive activity. The project is part of the academic partnership program of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen with the historical and archaeological museum-reserve "Chersonesos Tauric" and is implemented during visiting summer practices of bachelors of the Department of Theory and History of Culture.


A new procedure to design numerical schemes for coupled partial differential equations is proposed. The resulting schemes have discrete counterparts of conservative or dissipative quantity in original system. They also enjoy another welcome feature that they are constructed on staggered time meshes, by which each variables can be computed alternately with less computational costs than usual schemes. The procedure is demonstrated in the case of the coupled KdV equations.


Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third most important source of calories for human and animal in Africa. Its production is adversely affected by Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) which is the most important viral disease in cassava fields. To fight these virus diseases, it is significant to seek strategies of effective control while answering the taste of consumers. One of these strategies is to create new resistant/tolerant clones by genetic selection. However, in order to hasten the selection of these resistant/tolerant clones, it is important to know the germination conditions of these cassava seeds in order to have healthy planting materials for screening purposes in the field. With this purpose, a Split-Split-plot design was adopted to evaluate effect of various factors (sunning, germination medium and treatment by sulfuric acid, heat or cold) on the germination of seeds. The results were subjected to statistical analysis using GenStat and means were separated by Duncan's Multiple Range Test at 5% level of significance. These evaluation results revealed that germination of cassava seeds is influenced by degree of sunning. Amongst the treatments carried out, the treatment of the seeds by cold increased the germination percentage from 30 to 70%. The nature of the germination media used for seed germination in this study did not have any significant effect on the rate and speed of germination. The length of the germination can be reduced from 2 weeks-several months to 8-30 days under favourable conditions.

 Key words: Cassava seeds, clones, conditions, germination, selection.


Rhenium-osmium geochronology using arsenopyrite was undertaken for three gold deposits in the Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada, in order to better constrain their age of formation and to assess the utility of arsenopyrite for dating similar deposits globally. Analyses of arsenopyrite from bedding-concordant veins from The Ovens locality, southwest Meguma terrane, yield a precise Re-Os isochron age of 409 ± 5 Ma. Arsenopyrite analyses from a bedding-discordant vein at this locality indicate an identical Re-Os age of 407 ± 4 Ma. Saddle-reef veins from the Dufferin deposit, northeast Meguma terrane, contain arsenopyrite with a precise Re-Os isochron age of 380 ± 3 Ma. The lack of common Os in some arsenopyrite samples from both The Ovens and Dufferin permit calculation of single mineral model ages for each deposit, which are identical to those determined using the isochron method. Initial Os compositions for the two vein types at The Ovens suggest a predominately crustal source of Os in the mineralizing fluids, whereas a less radiogenic initial Os composition for arsenopyrite from Dufferin does not as clearly define a crustal metal source. At a third locality, the Touquoy deposit, the Re-Os systematics of arsenopyrite associated with disseminated gold mineralization do not define a precise formation age, possibly as a result of mixing of Re and Os derived from the mineralizing fluid and the shale host rock.

The Re-Os ages of arsenopyrite indicate that there were at least two distinct periods of gold deposition in the Meguma terrane coinciding with widespread tectonothermal events: regional deformation and metamorphism associated with Acadian orogenesis, and widespread generation of meta- and peraluminous granites and high-grade metamorphism within the basement rocks under the Meguma terrane. The ca. 407 Ma age for The Ovens arsenopyrite provides the best estimate for the timing of regional Acadian deformation in the Meguma terrane and is slightly older than previous estimates based solely on 40Ar/39Ar dating.


Since the discovery of Drosophila pseudoobscura in the tropical highlands of the Colombian Andes during the 1960s, this population has been studied by many evolutionary biologists because of its geographical isolation from the main North American range of this species. We used five highly variable microsatellite loci (DPSX001, DPS2001, DPS3001, DPS3002, and DPS4001) to analyze the genetic structure of three Colombian populations and the genetic relationships with four North American populations. We found that the average heterozygosity was consistent among the three tropical Colombian populations (H = 0.665–0.675), but they had less variability than their North American counterparts. Nonetheless, the genie diversity found in the Colombian populations was higher than that found previously using other genetic markers. The average genie heterogeneity estimate among the Colombian populations (Rjr = 0.042), although statistically significant, was substantially lower than that found among the North American populations (RsT = 0.088). We identified alleles in the Colombian populations not reported in North American populations, suggesting further divergence between the populations. We estimated that the populations on the two continents diverged ca 80,000 years ago, consistent with independent sequence analyses of these populations but contrary to some suggestions in the literature. Finally, we estimated an average effective population size of the Colombian populations to be on the order of 100,000.


To put an economy on an equitable growth path, economic development must be based on social efficiency, equity, and job creation. It has been shown that unemployment has far-reaching effects, all leading to an inequitable distribution of well-being. But many economists assume that unemployment tends toward a natural rate below which it cannot go without creating inflation. The paper considers a particular employment strategy: a government job creation program, such as an employment guarantee or employer-of-last-resort scheme, that would satisfy the noninflationary criteria. The paper analyzes the international experience of government job creation programs, with particular emphasis on the cases of Argentina and India. We conclude by considering the application of an employer-of-last-resort policy to the developing world and as a vehicle to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.


In this paper, we present a novel framework that jointly performs three tasks: speaker diarization, speech separation, and speaker counting. Our proposed framework integrates speaker diarization based on end-to-end neural diarization (EEND) models, speaker counting with encoder-decoder based attractors (EDA), and speech separation using Conv-TasNet. In addition, we propose a multiple $1 \times 1$ convolutional layer architecture for estimating the separation masks corresponding to a flexible number of speakers and a fusion technique for refining the separated speech signal with obtained speaker diarization information to improve the joint framework. Experiments using the LibriMix dataset show that our proposed method outperforms the single-task baselines in both diarization and separation metrics for fixed and flexible numbers of speakers and improves speaker counting performance for flexible numbers of speakers. All materials will be open-sourced and reproducible in ESPnet toolkit11https://github.com/espnet/espnet.


Iowa Royster was a graduate of University of North Carolina and a tutor at the university before he enlisted in the Confederate army in March of 1862. Below is transcription of a letter he wrote to his mother, Mary Royster, while he traveled with the Confederate army into Pennsylvania. This was his last letter. Iowa Royster died on July 15, 1863 -just over two weeks after he wrote this letter -from injuries sustained during the Battle of Gettysburg.


Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) polymorphs incubated with rifampicin before or after staphylococcal phagocytosis inactivated the bacteria. Lysates of normal polymorphs incubated with rifampicin inactivated bacteria. These effects were not due to damage to the polymorphs. Polymorph lysates of rifampicin-treated CGD patients and healthy subjects inactivated bacteria, but the polymorphs of rifampicin-treated CGD patients did not kill the bacteria in vitro. The role of rifampicin in the treatment of CGD patients and of other patients with intracellular infections is discussed.


Significance: Exercise-induced ROS production activates multiple intracellular signaling pathways through genomic and non-genomic mechanisms that are responsible for the beneficial effects of exercise in muscle. Beyond the positive effect of exercise on skeletal muscle cells, other tissues such as white and brown adipose, liver, central nervous system, endothelial, heart and endocrine organ tissues are also responsive to exercise. Recent Advances: Crosstalk between different cells is essential to achieve homeostasis and to promote the benefits of exercise through paracrine or endocrine signaling. This crosstalk can be mediated by different effectors that include the secretion of metabolites of muscle contraction, myokines and exosomes. During the past 20 years, it has been demonstrated that contracting muscle cells produce and secrete different classes of myokines, which functionally link muscle with nearly all other cell types. Critical Issues: The redox signaling behind this exercise-induced crosstalk is now being decoded. Many of these widespread beneficial effects of exercise require not only a complex ROS-dependent intramuscular signaling cascade, but simultaneously, an integrated network with many remote tissues. Future Directions: Strong evidence suggests that the powerful beneficial effect of regular physical activity for preventing (or treating) a large range of disorders might also rely on ROS-mediated signaling. Within a contracting muscle, ROS signalling may control exosomes and myokines secretion. In remote tissues, exercise generates regular and synchronized ROS waves, creating a transient pro-oxidative environment in many cells. These new concepts integrate exercise, ROS-mediated signalling and the widespread health benefits of exercise.


We consider the stability of matchings when individuals strategically submit preference information to a publicly known algorithm. Most pure Nash equilibria of the ensuing game yield a matching that is unstable with respect to the individuals' sincere preferences. We introduce a well-supported minimal dishonesty constraint, and obtain conditions under which every pure Nash equilibrium yields a matching that is stable with respect to the sincere preferences. The conditions on the matching algorithm are to be either fully-randomized, or monotonic and independent of non-spouses (INS), an IIA-like property. These conditions are significant because they support the use of algorithms other than the Gale-Shapley (man-optimal) algorithm for kidney exchange and other applications. We prove that the Gale-Shapley algorithm always yields the woman-optimal matching when individuals are minimally dishonest. However, we give a negative answer to one of Gusfield and Irving's open questions: there is no monotonic INS or fully-randomized stable matching algorithm that is certain to yield the egalitarian-optimal matching when individuals are strategic and minimally dishonest. Finally, we show that these results extend to the student placement problem, where women are polyandrous but must be honest but do not extend to the admissions problem, where women are both polyandrous and strategic.


Abstract Proto-Germanic (PGmc.) ai in stressed syllables shows varied outcomes in Germanic languages (ā, ē, ei), with many of these developments being conditioned by different phonological contexts. This article presents a reconstruction that unifies this variation by assuming that the monophthongisation spread over 'Germania' in two waves with different scopes and directions. The first wave expanded from north to south and was primarily limited to the contexts before -h and -r. A second wave, affecting the remaining instances of PGmc. ai, did not reach Old High German and Old West Nordic. The whole process covered the time between 400 and 900. The monophthongisation of PGmc. ai does not reflect any structural contrast among the Germanic languages, but the results had a differentiating impact on their vowel systems. The presented reconstruction is consistent with the information from runic inscriptions. It supposes a geographical configuration of tribes in a post-Migration setting.


Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) operating in Geiger mode can detect weak optical signals at high speed. The implementation of APD systems in a CMOS technology makes it possible to integrate the photodetector and its peripheral circuits on the same chip. In this paper, we have fabricated APDs of different sizes and their driving circuits in a commercial 0.18-mum CMOS technology. The APDs are theoretically analyzed, measured, and the results are interpreted. Excellent breakdown performance is measured for the 10 and 20 m APDs at 10.2 V. The APD system is compared to the previous implementations in standard CMOS. Our APD has a 5.5% peak probability of detection of a photon at an excess bias of 2 V, and a 30 ns dead time, which is better than the previously reported results.


Objective: Medication adherence and the assessment of patients' adherence are known to be problematic. There is often a discrepancy between the adherence rate estimated by the physician and the actual adherence rate of the patient. This literature review gives an overview about the published studies investigating physicians' assessment of patient adherence in comparison to the actual medication adherence.
Methods: This review was conducted in compliance with the Grade system in March 2016 and September 2018. Articles included in this review were identified by literature search in Medline and the Cochrane Library. Search terms included patient compliance, physicians, physician-patient relations and assessment. We included every type of study, in German or in English language.
Results: Out of 588 results, 41 were included in the review. Due to the language, non-availability of the article or inconsistency with the investigated topic, only 19 studies were evaluated. In most of the studies an overestimation of patients' adherence by physicians got obvious.
Conclusion: Physicians assessed medication adherence of their patients mostly incorrect. They tend to overestimate the medication adherence of patients. Only in mental disorders they tend to underrate. A visual analog scale seems to be a good method to assess physicians' estimation of patients' adherence. Patients' adherence should be measured by directs methods or MEMSTM.
Practice implications: For evaluating the non-adherence in patients the physicians have to discuss the medication regimen with the patient and have to ensure the adherence of the patients.


5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is the key precursor for the biosynthesis of tetrapyrrole compounds, with wide applications in medicine, agriculture and other burgeoning fields. Because of its potential applications and disadvantages of chemical synthesis, alternative biotechnological methods have drawn increasing attention. In this review, the recent progress in biosynthetic pathways and regulatory mechanisms of 5-ALA synthesis in biological hosts are summarized. The research progress on 5-ALA biosynthesis via the C4/C5 pathway in microbial cells is emphasized, and the corresponding biotechnological design strategies are highlighted and discussed in detail. In addition, the detection methods and applications of 5-ALA are also reviewed. Finally, perspectives on potential strategies for improving the biosynthesis of 5-ALA and understanding the related mechanisms to further promote its industrial application are conceived and proposed.


The particle motion equation for a Radio Frequency (RF) quadrupole is derived. The motion equation shows that the general transform matrix of a RF quadrupole with length less than or equal to 0.5βλ (β is the relativistic velocity of particles and λ is wavelength of radio frequency electromagnetic field) can describe the particle motion in an arbitrarily long RF quadrupole. By iterative integration, the general transform matrix of a discrete RF quadrupole is derived from the motion equation. The transform matrix is in form of a power series of focusing parameter B. It shows that for length less than βλ, the series up to the 2nd order of B agrees well with the direct integration results for B up to 30, while for length less than 0.5βλ, the series up to 1st order is already a good approximation of the real solution for B less than 30. The formula of the transform matrix can be integrated into linac or beam line design code to deal with the focusing of discrete RF quadrupoles.