In this paper, a semantic analysis is presented of the Dutch particle toch and its German cognate doch. On the formal level they may appear as either adverb, conjunction or interjection, and they also occur in different sentence types. It is argued that the core meaning of both particles is the same. The range of uses differs, however, between the two languages. For example, German doch can be used as an 'answering particle' in reaction to a negative statement or question. This is not possible in Dutch. The core meaning of the particles can be explicated in terms of three steps: the utterance with toch/doch represents a positive step. This step is preceded (implicitly or explicitly) by a negative step, which is in turn preceded by a positive step wich is identical to the actual positive step. For certain uses of toch and doch, however, we have to assume a modification of this general schema. A Dutch novel (by Maarten 't Hart, 1983) and its German translation was used as a corpus. The original text contained 270 occurrences of toch, and the translation 230 doch's.


Cymbals are percussion instruments that vibrate and radiate sounds when hit with a stick or when used in pairs. The sound radiated from a cymbal depends on its vibration characteristics. Cymbals are made through spin forming, hammering and lathing processes. The spin forming creates the domed shape of cymbals, determining the basic vibration characteristics. The hammering and lathing make specific sound quality adjustments by changing the vibration characteristics. In this paper, we focus on how the hammering affects the cymbal's vibration characteristics. The hammering produces many shallow dents over the cymbal's surface, generating residual stresses in it. These residual stresses change the vibration characteristics. We perform finite element analysis of the hammered cymbal to obtain its vibration characteristics. In the analysis, we use thermal stress analysis to reproduce the stress distribution and then with this stress distribution we perform vibration analysis. The results show that the effects of thermal load (i.e., hammering) vary depending on the mode: an increase or decrease in the natural frequency. As a result, the peak frequencies and their peak values in the frequency response function change.


Najmah Formation is an unconventional reservoir consisting of kerogen rich mudstone. It serves as an excellent source as well as reservoir and seal rock. It has low porosity and matrix permeability with sustained commercial production only in regions of high natural fracturing. Petrophysical evaluation of Najmah Formation poses many challenges and there is always a degree of uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to deliberate the methodology adopted in order to minimize the uncertainty. In the wells under study, a complete suite of logs were recorded including elemental log and nuclear magnetic resonance. Petrophysical evaluation was conducted using a mineral solver. Calcite, quartz, pyrite, illite, chlorite and kerogen were the minerals solved. The fluid volumes were obtained using Simandoux equation. Porosity was computed from sum of the fluid volumes, hence, intrinsically corrected for the presence of kerogen. TOC was computed based on the conversion of kerogen volume to TOC as proposed by Tissot and Welte (1978). The Langmuir isotherm methodology was used to determine the amount of adsorbed gas. The mineral volumes, porosity and TOC show good correlation with the core data. The computed adsorbed and total gas volumes confirm the economic potential of this unconventional reservoir.


In this paper, we propose a modified incremental subgradient (MIG) algorithm with a variable step size for positioning and tracking a target in wireless sensor networks. The proposed positioning scheme formulates location estimation as a nonlinear least-squares problem using the received signal strength, and then applies the MIG algorithm with a fixed step size to solve the problem. This scheme can be realized in an iterative, decentralized manner to improve both bandwidth and energy efficiencies. To track a moving target, we further present a step-size adjustment mechanism based on the velocity of the target. In addition, a convergence analysis is given for the MIG-based positioning process. As compared with related positioning and tracking methods, the proposed scheme has better location accuracy and tracking performance.


Understanding methods of vector control is essential to vector-borne disease (VBD) management. Vaccines or standard medical interventions for many VDBs do not exist or are poorly developed so disease control is focused on managing vector numbers and dynamics. This involves understanding not only the population dynamics but also the population genetics of vectors. Using mosquitoes as a case study, in this chapter, the modern genetics-based methods of vector control (self-limiting, self-sustaining) on mosquito population and disease suppression will be reviewed. These genetics-based methods highlight the importance of understanding the interplay between genetics and ecology to develop optimal, cost-effective solutions for control. The chapter focuses on how these genetics-based methods can be integrated with other interventions, and concludes with a summary of regulatory and policy perspectives about the use of these approaches in the management of VBDs.


Glioblastoma (GBM) is a World Health Organization grade IV astrocytoma with poor patient survival, characterized by extreme heterogeneity and invasiveness, and by resistance to radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs. Brain metastases are 2-3x more frequent than GBM, with breast cancer among the top 3 brain metastasizing tumor types. The tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome ten (PTEN) is mutated or deleted in ~50% of all high grade gliomas and is lost in 33-49% of all breast cancers. We propose to target the dysregulated PTEN pathway in brain tumors to enhance patient survival. Oncolytic viruses are engineered to destroy tumor cells while sparing non-neoplastic cells, and can be designed to incorporate payloads that enhance their oncolytic effects. PTEN-L is a recently discovered, longer form of PTEN which is secreted and membrane permeable, and retains its phosphatase activity after secretion and re-entry into cells. We have generated a novel oncolytic herpesvirus (RAPTOR) that secretes PTEN-L from infected cells for the treatment of GBM and breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM). In vitro assays to evaluate virally mediated tumor cell killing, virus replication, transgene expression, and flow cytometry to evaluate intracellular pAkt and cell surface programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) were performed. In vivo studies using mice bearing orthotopic human GBM (nude mice) or murine BCBM (nude and FVB/N) were used to evaluate brain immune infiltrates and survival. Western blot analyses of infected cell lysates and conditioned media show that RAPTOR produces functional secreted PTEN-L, as confirmed by intracellular pAkt FACS. Tumor cell killing and replication were equivalent between RAPTOR and control HSVQ. In vivo, treatment of mice bearing established orthotopic BCBM revealed improved anti-tumor efficacy of RAPTOR. Significantly, 9/10 RAPTOR treated mice were long term survivors in immunocompetent FVB/N mice vs. 4/10 HSVQ treated mice (p=0.044). Treatment of nude mice bearing the same tumors did not produce long term survivors, implicating the development of antitumor immunity in RAPTOR treated animals. Flow cytometry revealed significant down regulation of the T-cell repressor PD-L1 on RAPTOR vs. HSVQ treated cells. Consistent with this, FACS of virus treated tumor bearing brain hemispheres revealed RAPTOR induced a significant influx in antigen presenting, NK, and CD8 T cells 7 days post treatment. Our findings demonstrate that RAPTOR enhances survival of brain tumor bearing mice using a two-pronged approach: lytic tumor cell death and immune cell education and activation against the brain tumor. RAPTOR inhibits virally induced PD-L1 expression on tumor cells, and could pave the way for a paradigm shift in immune therapy where immune checkpoint inhibition occurs locally within the tumor rather than globally, overriding toxicity of neutralizing antibodies. Citation Format: Luke Russell, Alexander Sprague, Alena Cristina Jaime-Ramirez, Chelsea Bolyard, Yeshavanth Banasavadi-Siddegowda, JiYoung Yoo, Pin Yi Wang, Timothy Cripe, Balveen Kaur. Oncolytic and immune effects of RAPTOR: a novel oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus 1 expressing PTEN-L for brain tumor therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 601. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-601


Indonesia is one of the sugar producing countries in the world, but the domestic sugar industry is still unable to meet the needs of its own country. The condition of sugar self-sufficiency is pursued through the development of sugar cane and also through other sources of raw materials, one of which is from palm sugar. Palm juice quickly changes to acid because of the fermentation process, which is usually caused by late processing after tapping, or because of the uncleanness of the juice container. This study aims to observe the effect of giving natural preservatives in the form of hiris leaf powder, mangosteen peel powder, and palm sugar in maintaining the quality of palm juice done in several concentrations (b / v). The research method used was an experimental method with a method. The first factor was 3 levels of natural preservative types (mangosteen peel powder, sliced leaves, and brown sugar), while factor II was 3 preservative concentration levels (3%, 4.5%, and 6%), and each treatment was repeated 3 times so that it was obtained 27 trial units. The test results showed that the lowest reducing sugar content in palm sugar using natural preservatives was found in the Hiris Leaf with an average of 31.192% and 4.5 treatment dose with an average of 34.683%. While for the lowest moisture content found in palm sugar that uses natural preservatives of mangosteen peel with an average of 1.5983% and the best treatment dose is at dose 3 with an average of 1.1267%

Keywords: hiris leaves, mangosteen peel, palm juice, natural preservatives


The authors examine how the Russian judiciary formulates legal policies when adjudicating cases in which religious beliefs are concerned. First, the authors describe the framework within which their research on this matter is conducted, basing it on the theory of legal argumentation. Applying this framework to the investigation of Russian court practice has enabled the authors to discover important features, which they argue are characteristic of legal reasoning of the judiciary in this category of cases. In particular, the authors note that, at least until the present, the Russian Constitutional Court has chosen to abstain from crafting principles of legal policy regarding religious issues. Furthermore, in religious cases, the Russian judiciary—by and large—does not follow the jurisprudence of the ecthr, and the Russian Supreme Court has no clear-cut policy in handling these cases. In such a situation, ordinary judges choose individual strategies. These are indispensable insomuch as fidelity to the letter of the law is inadequate for adjudicating such cases. Russian court practice (from 1997 on) in religious cases can be more easily understood from this perspective than it can in the light of presumed political influence.


The effects of probenecid on the pharmacokinetic parameters of cefadroxil administered in a single dose of 500 mg are studied. The serum and urine levels of the antibiotic were determined by a microbiologic plate diffusion method. The antibiotic follows a single-compartment model. The half-life of cefadroxil in serum has an average value of 1.13 h, rising to 1.63 h when the antibiotic is associated with probenecid. The apparent distribution volume remains unmodified with a value close to 23 liters. The lag time is 0.25 h in the absence of probenecid, rising to 1.029 h in the presence of the uricosuric agent.


An account is given of the principal results of the theoretical and experimental investigations of the paramagnetic resonance absorption due to conduction electrons in metals. The physical principles of the phenomenon and the features which distinguish it from electron paramagnetic resonance in insulators are considered, and modern data on the resonance line shape and on the g factor are given briefly. A considerable part of the review is devoted to an account of the different mechanisms of spin relaxation of electrons in metals. In particular, a detailed survey is given of the results of recently performed theoretical and experimental studies of the problem of impurity relaxation in solid and liquid metals. In the final part of the article, the data available in the literature on the influence of surface effects on the spin resonance absorption are critically analyzed (these data are partly contradictory), and the question of the possibility of observing spin resonance in superconductors is briefly considered.


This paper presents a flash-type Time to Digital Converter (TDC) based on parallel delay elements in 65-nm CMOS process technology. By using parallel delay elements the conversion resolution of the TDC becomes equal to the difference of delay elements rather than the delay time of each element. A Sensed Amplifier Flip Flop (SAFF) ensures narrow sampling window. Operating at 1.2-V supply, this TDC shows 3ps resolution with 0.5LSB of INL and 0.33LSB of DNL respectively and consumes average power 442μW.


While evolvability of genes and traits may promote specialization during species diversification, how ecology subsequently restricts such variation remains unclear. Chemosensation requires animals to decipher a complex chemical background to locate fitness-related resources, and thus the underlying genomic architecture and morphology must cope with constant exposure to a changing odorant landscape; detecting adaptation amidst extensive chemosensory diversity is an open challenge. Phyllostomid bats, an ecologically diverse clade that evolved plant-visiting from an insectivorous ancestor, suggest the evolution of novel food detection mechanisms is a key innovation: phyllostomids behaviorally rely strongly on olfaction, while echolocation is supplemental. If this is true, exceptional variation in underlying olfactory genes and phenotypes may have preceded dietary diversification. We compared olfactory receptor (OR) genes sequenced from olfactory epithelium transcriptomes and olfactory epithelium surface area of bats with differing diets. Surprisingly, although OR evolution rates were quite variable and generally high, they are largely independent of diet. Olfactory epithelial surface area, however, is relatively larger in plant-visiting bats and there is an inverse relationship between OR evolution rates and surface area. Relatively larger surface areas suggest greater reliance on olfactory detection and stronger constraint on maintaining an already diverse OR repertoire. Instead of the typical case in which specialization and elaboration is coupled with rapid diversification of associated genes, here the relevant genes are already evolving so quickly that increased reliance on smell has led to stabilizing selection, presumably to maintain the ability to consistently discriminate among specific odorants — a potential ecological constraint on sensory evolution. Significance Statement The evolutionary relationship between genes and morphology is complex to decipher, and macroevolutionary trends are often measured independently; this is especially challenging to quantify in unstable genomic regions or hypervariable traits. Odorant cues are detected by proteins encoded by the largest and fasted-evolving gene family in the mammalian genome and expressed in epithelia distributed on elaborate bony structures in the nose, posing a challenge to quantification. Yet, the direct interaction of the olfactory system with environmental signals strongly suggest that selection shapes its immense diversity. In neotropical bats, where reliance on plant-visiting evolved from an insectivorous ancestor, we discovered clear dietary differences amongst species, but only after considering morphological and molecular data simultaneously, emphasizing the power of a coupled analysis.


Pregnancy and the prospect of parenthood are transitional stages in development which can lead to a crisis in certain individuals. This paper presents the treatment given to a 35-yearold man diagnosed as having Hypochondria and Mixed Adjustment Disorder with anxiety and depression, whose symptoms began when he got to know he was about to become a father. Therapy was given in a course of 18 sessions with the following main objectives: to tackle the feelings triggered by the new situation, to control this situation cognitively, and to develop new strategies to deal with the situation and make a suitable use of bis external resources. To achieve these objectives, some cognitive-behaviourist techniques were applied. The results assessed after the treatment, by means of pretests and post-tests, clearly showed that symptoms had subsided and the patient's personal resources had been strengthened and optimised.


Objective of the study was to confirm efficacy of intervention by means of a rabbit. We studied and recorded reactions of pupils and personnel in the presence of a rabbit in a comprehensive-type kindergarten. We selected a group of 39 clinically healthy pupils, 2.5to 4-year-old, who were attending the kindergarten and used relevant weighted questionnaires for pupils and teachers. In the presence of the animal, pupils' ability of socializing, communicating and expressing emotions increased significantly. Teachers also found the results of the intervention particularly positive. It is concluded that rabbit intervention in a public kindergarten is feasible, low cost and does not require specialized personnel. The rabbit is a popular animal, familiar to children, hence the intervention was successful and effective as similar interventions with dogs, providing the chance to children to learn and become accustomed to animals.


60 children with hemorrhagic vasculitis were examined in order to detect ultrasound and biochemical markers of endothelial dysfunction, depending on the degree of activity and the form. Serum monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) concentration was determined using enzyme-linked immunoassay, the content of nitric oxide by its stable metabolites NO2, NO3 and S-nitrosothiol, von Willebrand factor using aggregometry, intima-media complex thickness of the common carotid artery and endothelium-dependent dilation of the brachial artery were evaluated. Levels of von Willebrand factor and MCP-1 significantly increased, depending on the degree of hemorrhagic vasculitis activity. Statistical data show a significant decrease in the concentration of nitric oxide metabolites in the blood serum of children with mixed form and nephritic syndrome. Intima-media complex thickness of the common carotid artery was increased in children with severe hemorrhagic vasculitis, and in children with a mixed form with renal syndrome. We have detected a pathological reaction of endothelium-dependent dilation of the brachial artery regardless of the degree of activity and the form of hemorrhagic vasculitis, this fact evidences direct involvement of the endothelium in the pathological process.


Children's nurses frequently encounter children who have bronchiolitis and the severity of the illness can vary from mild to severe. This article is designed to enable children's nurses to understand the pathophysiology of the illness and how to provide a high quality of care. The article aims to enhance the reader's clinical assessment and management of a child with bronchiolitis. There are also suggestions on maintaining and enhancing family-centred care and improving ward practice with strict barrier nursing procedures.


Scaffolding proteins customize the response of signaling networks to support cell development and behaviors. We investigated how the bacterial scaffolding protein PodJ regulates the histidine kinase PleC involved in the asymmetric cell division of Caulobacter crescentus. We reconstituted the PleC-PodJ signaling complex through both heterologous expression in E. coli and in vitro studies. In vitro PodJ phase separates as a biomolecular condensate that recruits and inhibits PleC kinase activity. By constructing an in vivo PleC-CcaS chimeric histidine kinase reporter assay, we have demonstrated how PodJ leverages its intrinsically disordered region (IDR) to bind and regulate PleC-CcaS signaling. Moreover, we observed that full-length PodJL regulates PleC-CcaS signaling, while a truncated PodJs could not regulate signaling activity. These results support a model where PodJ biomolecular condensate formation regulates the localization and activity of the cell fate determining kinase PleC.


When viewing 3-D scatterplots in immersive virtual environments, one commonly encountered problem is the presence of clutter, which obscures the view of any structures of interest in the visualization. In order to solve this problem, we propose to render the 3-D glyphs such that they always cover the the same amount of screen space. For perceptual reasons, we call this approach constant visual angle glyphs, or CVA glyphs. The use of CVA glyphs implies some desirable perceptual consequences, which have not been previously described or discussed in existing literature: CVA glyphs not only have the prospect of dealing with clutter, but also the prospect of allowing for a better perception of the continuous shapes of structures in 3-D scatterplots. In a formal user evaluation of CVA glyphs, the results indicate that such glyphs do allow for better perception of shapes in 3-D scatterplots compared to regular perspective glyphs, especially when a large amount of clutter is present. Furthermore, our evaluation revealed that perception of structures in 3-D scatterplots is significantly affected by the volumetric density of the glyphs in the plot.


Recent research has high-lighted the role that the government budget constraint plays in determining the consumer price level. According to the fiscal approach to price determination, prices adjust so that the discounted value of future real government primary surpluses equals the current real value of public debt. An important implication is that the probability of a crisis involving default on public debt may directly affect consumer prices. This paper examines the interaction of prices and sovereign insolvency crises using simple, continuous-time models of the government budget constraint. JEL Nos.: E40, E63, F34, H63.


We model a successive-generation economy in which parents, motivated by family altruism, decide to finance or not their offspring's human capital accumulation on the basis of their altruistic motive, their own income and the equilibrium ratio between skilled labor and unskilled labor wages. The question we ask is how the growth process shapes the wage inequality and the split of the population in two classes. We study the transitional dynamics of human capital accumulation and of income inequality. First, we prove the existence of equilibrium paths. Then we show that there exists a continuum of steady-state equilibria. We prove the convergence of each equilibrium path to one of the steady-state equilibrium and describe the evolution of income inequality between skilled and unskilled workers and income in-equality among the skilled workers. The former inequality is persistent in the long run while the latter is not. We also look at the relationship between inequality and output on the set of steady states and find that this relations hip is ambiguous. Finally, we develop an endogenous-growth version of the model. In this version of the model the relationship between inequality and the rate of growth is also ambiguous.


Runx2 and Osterix are the key transcription factors initiating and regulating the early osteogenesis and late mineralization of bone. To investigate whether the expression of these osteogenic genes in human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs) was regulated by physical stimulation, far infrared (FIR) was applied to this present work. hBMSCs were cocultured and physically separated with the their adjacent cell, human osteoblasts (hOBs) in a transwell system. Both cells were placed onto 200-mg FIR ceramic powders packed into a plastic bag for uniform FIR irradiation. 0-, 30-, 60-, and 120-min treatment of FIR irradiation were performed inside an incubator. Each group was fully wrapped by foils to prevent FIR interruption. The electrophoretic RT-PCR data showed that hBMSCs exhibited higher gene expression of Runx2, Osterix and collagen type I under 120-min/day FIR treatment at day 14. Histochemical staining results also revealed that FIR-treated hBMSCs expressed more ALP and calcium deposits after 28-day exposure. It suggested that appropriate physical stimulus may be an alternative tool for the control of osteogenic differentiation in hBMSCs in vitro. Keywords—bone marrow stromal cells, far-infrared irradiation, Osterix, Runx2


To observe the expressions of monocyte chemoattractant protein -l (MCP-l), kidney injury molecule -l (KIM-l) and cystatin C (Cys C) in different periods of rat ischemic acute kidney injury (iAKI). The rat renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) model was prepared, including the sham-operation (Sham) group and the I/R group. The specimens were collected at different time points after iAKI. The expressions of MCP-1, KIM-1 and Cys C of the I/R group were increased earlier than Scr and Urea (I/R group vs. Sham group; P < 0.01). The serum MCP-1 of the I/R group was earliest increased (MCP-1 vs. KIM-1, Cys C and Scr, P < 0.01). Followed by KIM-1 and Cys C; and in the urine samples, the KIM-1 expression was the most sensitive (KIM-1 vs. MCP-1, Cys C and Scr, P < 0.01). The immunohistochemical results showed the kidney of the Sham group almost had no expression, while that of the I/R group significantly expressed MCP-1, KIM-1 and Cys C (I/R group vs. Sham group; P < 0.01). MCP-1, KIM-1 and Cys C had important predictive values towards AKI, and MCP-1 and KIM-1 were superior to Cys C. Different biomarkers had different sensitivities: MCP-1 was earliest increased in serum while lasted shortly, KIM-1 was earliest increased in urine and kept increasing, thus the detection of urinary KIM-1 might be much more suitable in clinics.


Recently, pulsed Doppler has become available on high resolution vaginal ultrasound probes for studying ovarian blood flow. Doppler studies of ovarian blood flow are based on: semiquantitative analysis of Doppler flow waves recorded over the ovarian artery at its entry into the ovary; color Doppler mapping of intraovarian vessels. Semiquantitative analysis of the ovarian artery Doppler flow waves suffers from frequent difficulties at properly identifying the ovarian artery, particularly in multiparous women. Mapping of intraovarian vessels however, appears a most promising feature of vaginal Doppler for studying ovarian blood flow, provided that the proper ultrasound equipment is used. Specifically, transvaginal color Doppler mapping of intraovarian vessels allows for a positive visual detection of the onset of the ovulatory process prior to the actual follicular rupture. Thus, color Doppler mapping of ovarian vessels permits an improved and simplified approach for timing intercourses and inseminations in infertility patients. In controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) used for in vitro fertilization (IVF), mapping of intraovarian vessels by color Doppler offers a fascinating new insight into normal and pathological responses of ovarian follicles to hCG. Finely, color Doppler appears a very promising asset to transvaginal ultrasounds for sorting suspicious ovarian cysts from their benign counter parts. In conclusion, we think that vaginal Doppler should be considered as a marvelous refinement of ultrasounds rather than as a truly new diagnostic tool. Yet vaginal color Doppler carries the potential for markedly improving the sensitivity and the specificity of vaginal ultrasound, particularly for diagnosing benign from potentially malignant ovarian conditions.


This report describes the changes in intraocular pressure, visual fields, and visual acuity after 108 trabeculectomy operations for various types of glaucoma. Postoperative follow up ranged from 1 1/2 to 3 years and the consequences of any complications were assessed. Trabeculectomy was found to be a relatively safe and effective procedure and may be recommended at an early stage in glaucoma management rather than as a last resort.


SUMMARY: Five spontaneous erythromycin resistance mutations arising independently in a pneumococcal strain have been studied. Three distinct levels of resistance are represented by these mutants (0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 μg. erythromycin per ml.). The mutations conferring resistance can be transferred to the sensitive parental strain through transforming DNA preparations. The transfer is discrete, in that the full level of resistance of the donor strain is always conferred upon the recipient. The length of time required for phenotypic expression of a mutation acquired by transformation depends on the particular marker.
A mutation in a given strain may either be replaced by or combine with a different mutation transferred from a donor DNA preparation. In the case of combination, the DNA of the recombinant is capable of transferring each of the mutations as well as the entire complex of mutations possessed by the recombinant. The frequency of transfer of the complex demonstrates the degree of linkage of the separable mutations. A group of mutations in a given recombinant strain may either display antagonistic, synergistic or non-synergistic effects on the phenotype.
Reverse mutations towards erythromycin-sensitivity generally involve alteration at the originally mutated sites, or at very closely linked sites.


Molecular tagging velocimetery measurements from an earlier investigation are used to study the wall-pressure and the flow structures responsible for its generation in the flow field resulting from the impingement of an axisymmetric vortex ring on a flat wall. The velocity-field data are used to obtain the spatial distribution of the pressure sources, and the result is employed in conjunction with the solution to Poisson's equation to yield the wall-pressure information. The outcome reveals a characteristic wall-pressure signature that is produced repeatedly whenever the primary vortex ring interacts with the wall to form vortex rings with opposite sense of vorticity. The details of the signature are analyzed and related to specific flow features and their mutual interaction at different phases of the generation/evolution cycle of the new rings. Finally, the flow mechanisms leading to the generation of substantial positive and negative wall pressure in the characteristic signature are clarified.


For two years the writer has employed a spray of pure hot vaseline, medicated with menthol, iodoform and ol. eucalyptus, singly or in combination, in the treatment of laryngeal and pulmonary phthisis, with results which warrant him in describing the method with some detail and in asking a trial of it at the hands of other practitioners. The employment of fluid cosmoline is best avoided, because it is frequently irritating and somewhat gummy, while the translucent, semi-solid product of the Chesebrough Mfg. Co. is pure, unchangeable and perfectly bland. In order to conveniently warm and spray this vaseline the atomizer figured above was devised, which being charged, is held over a lamp or other source of heat until the contents are thoroughly liquefied and the nozzle has become as warm as can be conveniently borne by the patient, an essential point which is believed to contribute much towards a successful


Nurturing relationships with major donors is a priority for nonprofits, and "relationship fundraising" is the dominant paradigm. This grounded theory study addressed practical needs and a dearth of research by analyzing how fundraisers develop relationships. In a first-of-its-kind study, we interviewed 20 pairs of higher education fundraisers and major donors (n = 40) from multiple U.S. institutions. We discovered five tiers of relationships from a basic connection, personalized association, confident relationship, purposeful partnership, to a consequential bond. Fundraisers initiated the progression until the final tier; the theoretical model shows their intentionality in the relationships' development. Major gifts occurred in all tiers. The model illustrates how fundraisers build relationships, explores donors' expectations, and affirms the relational nature of major gift fundraising. It provides some of the only empirical evidence regarding major donors, and the relationship fundraising philosophy touted in practitioner literature. The analysis reveals connections to theories from social psychology and relationship marketing.


Field data were analyzed from a simultaneous deployment of two 3D-ACM WAVE instruments; one on a fixed seabed frame in the nearshore zone, and the other further offshore on a taut-wire mooring. An intercomparison of measurements of vertical and horizontal wave-orbital currents with pressures was used to evaluate the velocity sensor response under field conditions. Results using the fixed frame have validated the measured horizontal wave-orbital velocities, but found the vertical velocities to be less coherent with the pressure time-series. The influence of the instrument mooring system on the velocity measurements was investigated. The oscillation of the taut-wire mooring was found to influence the magnitude of the measured horizontal wave-orbital velocities and induce a phase lag between velocity and sea-surface elevation. Examination of other data from similar taut-wire moorings indicates a systematic relationship between the length of the mooring cable and the measured phase lag, consistent with the behavior of the mooring system considered as a forced, linearly damped oscillator. A comparison was made between the spectra of wave direction derived from both velocity and pressure data with that derived solely from velocity data. The results show a high coherence for the fixed mooring, but significant directional variability in the higher frequencies (>0.13 Hz) on the taut-wire mooring we employed, which we attribute to the mooring oscillation. The analysis further indicates that on taut-wire moorings, the spectra of wave direction should be resolved solely from velocity data. Using these findings, directional wave spectra were produced for the nearshore and offshore sites from 233 coincident events over a two-month period, and these data are presented in a time-averaged spectral format.


Rewilding is a buzzword in conservation. The thinking is that if we reintroduce keystone species such as the beaver, lynx, bear and wolf (in the UK), they will function as ecosystem engineers, making the environment suitable not just for themselves but for other species, too. Reintroducing such extirpated species is thought to aid sustainability as wewill no longer have to manage nature, because it will manage itself. One major obstacle to this approach is that in the UK most land is used for agriculture and, for obvious reasons, landowners with grazing animals tend to object to the reintroduction of large predators such as the wolf. A Journey in Landscape Restoration: Carrifan Wildwood and Beyond studiously avoids the term 'rewilding' and instead prefers 'landscape restoration'. Scotland has been at the forefront of large-scale ecological restoration in Europe, at least in theory if not in practice (e.g. Brown et al., , Scottish Geographical Journal, , –). This book describes how a single valley is being returned to its natural state and serves as a guide on how the lessons learnt could be applied more widely. Around  years ago, Carrifan was a typical, over-grazed valley in the southern uplands of Scotland, until it was acquired by the Borders Trust, a charity aiming to restore the region's natural landscapes. The book describes the journey of Carrifan's restoration, in three parts: an introduction, a description of the changes observed as a result of restoration actions, and lessons learnt and how these could be applied elsewhere, particularly in southern Scotland. The first part comprises a short section on the project's beginnings, followed by a detailed description of how nature changed over the following  years. To restore the Carrifan landscape, sheep grazing was gradually removed and more than , native trees and shrubs were planted. This led to a recovery of native vegetation, with upland heath and tall herbs recolonizing the area, woodland plants spreading and species new to the valley being recorded. Quantitative surveys showed a shift from an avian community dominated by species adapted to open countryside, particularly the meadow pipit, to a more diverse array of species, including woodland birds. The following chapters deal with changes to vegetation communities, and taxa such as higher plants, bryophytes, fungi and invertebrates. The final section reflects on how the experiences at Carrifan can be applied elsewhere. The authors emphasize how involving the local community, and the community of naturalists and scientists, has been key to the success of the project. Buoyed by the experience at Carrifan, the Borders Trust has since acquired other sites in the region and is taking a landscape-scale approach to joining up sites owned or managed by the Trust and other conservation organizations. This is not an academic book; only a single chapter contains references. Chapters are kept short, and each is authored by different people involved in the project. The book is well written and amply illustrated with high quality photographs. The few maps and graphs are clear and readily understandable by the lay reader, and boxes are used to good effect for explanation, without disrupting the flow of the main text. The book may have benefited from being pitched more at the informed naturalist, with up to half a dozen readily accessible references per chapter, although this is a minor point. The introduction mentioned that a pollen analysis was conducted in the valley, and a summary pollen diagram would have been useful to show how it informed the selection of trees for planting (if it did). The underlying premise—to take an overgrazed upland valley, remove the sheep, plant trees and monitor what happens—seems straightforward. However, as the book makes clear, it is more complex than this. In addition to acquiring the land itself, you need volunteers who have the time, energy and expertise to plant thousands of trees, erect fences and monitor changes over long periods, and in rough terrain. An additional challenge is posed by unwanted grazers such as roe and sika deer, in the absence of apex predators to control them. The success of Carrifan is testament to the vision and leadership of both Philip and Myrtle Ashmole, but this project would not have achieved its goals without the energy and perseverance of volunteers, and the involvement of naturalists, scientists and the local community.


Current mobile terminals are installed with multiple RF circuits that cover all frequency bands assigned for the system. In order to make efficient use of frequency spectrum and to reduce circuit scale of terminals, reconfigurable RF filters are necessary to flexibly change RF frequencies. This paper proposes a new two-stage reconfigurable bandpass filter (BPF) having eight-frequency (three-bit) selection capability. It consists of branch-line switched type variable resonators. A prototype on a printed circuit board with high dielectric constant substrate has been fabricated and evaluated in 2 GHz bands. It shows very close performances to the design results with respect to insertion loss, center frequency and bandwidth. Low insertion loss of less than 1 dB is achieved among the eight frequencies.


Multidrug-resistant pathogens such as Burkholderia cenocepacia have become a hazard in the context of healthcare-associated infections, especially for patients admitted with cystic fibrosis or immuno-compromising conditions. Like other opportunistic Gram-negative bacteria, this pathogen establishes virulence and biofilms through lectin-mediated adhesion. In particular, the superlectin BC2L-C is believed to cross-link human epithelial cells to B. cenocepacia during pulmonary infections. We aimed to obtain glycomimetic antagonists able to inhibit the interaction between the N-terminal domain of BC2L-C (BC2L-C-Nt) and its target fucosylated human oligosaccharides. In a previous study, we identified by fragment virtual screening and validated a small set of molecular fragments that bind BC2L-C-Nt in the vicinity of the fucose binding site. Here, we report the rational design and synthesis of bifunctional C- or N-fucosides, generated by connecting these fragments to a fucoside core using a panel of rationally selected linkers. A modular route starting from two key fucoside intermediates was implemented for the synthesis, followed by evaluation of the new compounds as BC2L-C-Nt ligands with a range of techniques (surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry, saturation transfer difference NMR, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray crystallography). This study resulted in a hit molecule with an order of magnitude gain over the starting methyl fucoside and in two crystal structures of antagonist/lectin complexes.


Objective:The objective of this study was to assess male and female undergraduate student's HPV knowledge and intentions to receive the HPV vaccination.
Design: Cross-sectional survey. Method: A sample of 210 undergraduate students from the Midwestern USA completed a survey questionnaire assessing various aspects related to their attitudes toward the HPV vaccine.
Results: Results show that intentions and behaviours of the HPV vaccine differed between male and female undergraduate students. The study also found that intentions to receive the HPV vaccine were also very low among this population.
Conclusion: The results of this study should encourage the developmental and implementation of campus-wide health education initiatives that discuss the HPV vaccine and benefits for men and women.


Despite claims by some family sociologists on the universality of the nuclear family, we find in Hutterite colonies a pattern of family life which defies classification. Though the husband is the recognized head of the household, each marriage forms an auxiliary unit of the colony, not a fullfledged conjugal family. The family, being subservient to the church, loses its economic functions and part of authority, training, and discipline over children, all of which weaken its influence. Through religious sanction, however, the family tends to have successful and stable relationships. This is postulated as the way to maintain the colony's cohesion and stability.


The use of general and universal laws in historiography has been the subject of debate ever since the end of the nineteenth century. Since the 1970s there has been a growing consensus that general laws such as those in the natural sciences are not applicable in the scientific writing of history. We will argue against this consensus view, not by claiming that the underlying conception of what historiography is—or should be—is wrong, but by contending that it is based on a misconception of what general laws such as those of the natural sciences are. We will show that a revised notion of law, one inspired by the work of Sandra D. Mitchell, in tandem with Jim Woodward's notion of "invariance," is indeed applicable to historiography, much in the same way as it is to most other scientific disciplines. Having developed a more adequate account of general laws, we then show, by means of three examples, that what are called "pragmatic laws" and "invariance" do in fact play a role in history in several interesting ways. These examples—from cultural history, economic history, and the history of religion—have been selected on the basis of their diversity in order to illustrate the widespread use of pragmatic laws in history.


In this paper the problem of matching Forward Kinematics (FK) motion of a 3 Dimensional (3D) joint chain to the Inverse Kinematics (IK) movement and vice versa has been addressed. The problem lies at the heart of animating a 3D character having controller and manipulator based rig for animation within any 3D modeling and animation software. The seamless matching has been achieved through the use of pseudo-inverse of Jacobian Matrix. The Jacobian Matrix is used to determine the rotation values of each joint of character body part such as arms, between the inverse kinematics and forward kinematics motion. Then moving the corresponding kinematic joint system to the desired place, automatically eliminating the jumping or popping effect which would reduce the complexity of the system.


A new method for solving a convex optimization problem with box constraints is presented. The objective function has a positive-definite quadratic term and a piecewise-linear term. The method is derived from a range space method for QP problems. The approach is particularly efficient if the piecewise-linear term has few breakpoints. Numerical comparisons with an efficient implementation of a null-space active-set algorithm (LSSOL) are also presented.<<ETX>>


This research examined meat consumption patterns among different income groups in Imo State, Nigeria. A combination of purposive and simple random sampling techniques was used to select the markets and 200 respondents. The result of cross price elasticity of meat and fish showed that they were substitute with cross price elasticity value of 0.206. The income elasticity of meat showed that it is a normal commodity with a coefficient of 0.984, while the own price elasticity of meat reveal that it is elastic with a value of 0.769. The result of the multiple regression analysis with linear functional form as lead equation showed that quantity of meat consumed at low and medium income levels were influenced by age, annual income, price and household size of the respondents. The R 2 were 0.6149 and 0.5938 for low and medium income groups and were statistically significant at 1.0% risk level. However, the result of the multiple regression analysis with the double log as lead equation showed that quantity of meat of high income group is influenced by age, income, price, household size, and sex of respondents. R 2 value was 0.8529 and is statistically significant at 1.0% risk level. It was recommended that meat consumers should endeavor to maintain equilibrium in the consumption of both red and white meat because of increased nutritive value and low cholesterol content of white meat. Keywords: meat consumption, preferences, elasticity, income levels.


(A) at least 50 weight percent (wt%) propylene, and made from a polymer containing at least 5 wt% ethylene, and / or one or more unsaturated comonomers (B), comprising at least one layer, excellent films, having a machine direction (MD) tear properties were. (A) at least 50 weight percent (wt%) propylene, and made from a polymer containing at least 5 wt% ethylene, and / or one or more unsaturated comonomers (B), comprising at least one layer, component (B) representative unsaturated comonomers, C4~20arufa- olefins, C4-20 dienes, styrenic compounds. Preferably, the film has at least one lower haze value than about 10, (ii) greater than approximately 65 45 ° gloss, and greater dart value greater than about 100 g / mil, (i). In one preferred embodiment, the layer has the following characteristics, a Than copolymers similar at point comprises a copolymer characterized by having a number of gamma state crystal X-ray diffraction shows the pattern, at least one of.


【The paper provides the approach to apply formal methods to the development and certification criteria of defense safety/security-critical software. RTCA/DO-178B is recognized as a do facto international standard for airworthiness certification but lack of concrete activities and vagueness of verification/certification criteria have been criticized. In the case of MoD Def Stan 00-55, the guidelines based on formal methods are concrete enough and structured for the defense safety-related software. Also Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level includes the strict requirements of formal methods for the certification of high-level security software. By analyzing the problems of DO-178B and comparing it with MoD Def Stan 00-55 and Common Criteria, we identity the important issues In safety and security space. And considering the identified issues, we carry out merging of DO-178B and CC EAL7 on the basis of formal methods. Also the actual case studies for formal methods applications are shown with respect to the verification and reuse of software components.】


Previously we found that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are impaired in procedural-based category learning when category membership is defined by a nonlinear relationship between stimulus dimensions, but these same patients are normal when the rule is defined by a linear relationship (Maddox and Filoteo, 2001; Filoteo et al., 2005a,b). We suggested that PD patients' impairment was due to a deficit in recruiting "striatal units" to represent complex nonlinear rules. In the present study, we further examined the nature of PD patients' procedural-based deficit in two experiments designed to examine the impact of (1) the number of categories, and (2) category discontinuity on learning. Results indicated that PD patients were impaired only under discontinuous category conditions but were normal when the number of categories was increased from two to four. The lack of impairment in the four-category condition suggests normal integrity of striatal medium spiny cells involved in procedural-based category learning. In contrast, and consistent with our previous observation of a nonlinear deficit, the finding that PD patients were impaired in the discontinuous condition suggests that these patients are impaired when they have to associate perceptually distinct exemplars with the same category. Theoretically, this deficit might be related to dysfunctional communication among medium spiny neurons within the striatum, particularly given that these are cholinergic neurons and a cholinergic deficiency could underlie some of PD patients' cognitive impairment.


The determination of a coronary stenosis and its severity in current clinical workflow is typically accomplished manually via physician visual assessment (PVA) during invasive coronary angiography. While PVA has shown large inter-rater variability, the more reliable and accurate alternative of Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA) is challenging to perform in real-time due to the busy workflow in cardiac catheterization laboratories. We propose a deep learning approach based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) that automatically characterizes and analyzes coronary stenoses in real-time by automating clinical tasks performed during QCA. Our deep learning methods for localization, segmentation and classification of stenosis in still-frame invasive coronary angiography (ICA) images of the right coronary artery (RCA) achieve performance of 72.7% localization accuracy, 0.704 dice coefficient and 0.825 C-statistic in each respective task. Integrated in an end-to-end approach, our model's performance shows statistically significant improvement in false discovery rate over the current standard in real-time clinical stenosis assessment, PVA. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time an automated machine learning system has been developed that can implement tasks performed in QCA, and the first time an automated machine learning system has demonstrated significant improvement over the current clinical standard for rapid RCA stenosis analysis.


This study aims to determine how the strategies carried out during distance learning (PJJ) during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak of PAI IAIN Salatiga undergraduate students. Then the impact of the advantages or positives from the implementation of distance learning (PJJ), as well as the inhibiting factors. This research uses a qualitative approach. Primary data were collected using google form and secondary data from articles or journals, books and literature related to this research. From this research, it is known that the strategy for implementing distance learning (PJJ) in Salatiga is to take advantage of technological developments such as: zoom meetings, whatsapp groups, google forms, google classroom, google meet, and youtube. As for the positive or supporting impacts, namely: a) knowing the various applications and developments in science and technology, b) anticipating the rate of spread of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, c) PJJ is more lenient in time without requiring to come to the campus, it is enough to learn from their respective homes, d) material well and can spend more time with family. While the inhibiting effects are: a) lack of understanding in understanding the material, b) lack of maximal in lectures due to signal constraints, c) lack of interaction from student to lecturer or student to other students, d) most of them give assignments without the delivery of material first.


In the nineties, the number of currency crises has been high, both in the industrial world and among emerging countries. An important characteristic of many of these crises is that they started in one country but very soon affected others as well. Currency crises seemed to be contagious. In this article, it is investigated whether the interdependence of capital flows to Asian countries was affected by the crisis in Thailand. It will be shown that the transmission of capital flows to Indonesia and Korea was affected by the Asian crisis, whereas for the Philippines no significant change in the interdependence could be detected.


The extensive use of smartphones in our everyday lives has created new modes of appropriation and behavior in public spaces. Recognition of these are essential for urban design and planning practices which help us to improve the relationship between humans, technologies, and urban environment. This study aims to research smartphone users in public space by observing their altering visual attention and walking behavior, and, in this way, to reveal the emergent "new figures". For this purpose, Korenmarkt square in Ghent, Belgium, was observed for seven days in 10-min time intervals. The gaze and walking behavior of smartphone users were encoded as geo-located and temporal data, analyzed and mapped using statistical and spatial analysis methods. Developing and implementing new methods for identifying the characteristics of smartphone users, this study resulted in a nuanced characterization of novel spatial appropriations. The findings led to a better understanding and knowledge of the different behavior patterns of emergent figures such as "post-flâneurs" and "smartphone zombies" while uncovering their altering visual interactions with and movements in the public space. The results evoked questions on how researchers and designers can make use of spatial analysis methods and rethink the public space of the future as a hybrid construct integrating the virtual and the physical.


In this work we would like to address the issue of shock formation in black hole accretion discs. We provide a generalized two parameter solution scheme for inviscid, multi-transonic, isothermal accretion and wind around Schwarzschild black holes, by mainly concentrating on accretion solutions which may contain steady, standing dissipative shocks. By 'dissipative' shock, we mean a shock solution which conserves flow temperature in expense of energy dissipation at shock location. We use the vertically integrated 1.5 dimensional model to describe the disc structure where the equations of motion are written on the equatorial plane of the central accretor, assuming the flow to be in hydrostatic equilibrium in the transverse direction. Unlike previous works in this field, our calculation is not restricted to any particular kind of post-Newtonian gravitational potentials, rather we use all available pseudo-Schwarzschild potentials to formulate and solve the equations governing the accretion and wind only in terms of flow temperature T and specific angular momentum λ of the flow. Accretion flow is assumed to be non-dissipative everywhere, except possibly at the shock location, if any. We observe that a significant region of parameter space spanned by {λ, T} allows shock formation. Our generalized formalism assures that the shock formation is not just an artifact of a particular type of gravitational potential, rather inclusion of all available black-hole potentials allows a substantially extended zone of parameter space allowing for the possibility of shock formation. We thus arrive at the conclusion that the dissipative standing shocks are essential ingredients in rotating advective accretion flows of isothermal fluid around a non-spinning astrophysical black hole. We clearly identify all possible shock solution which


OBJECTIVES
We share our center's experience with the use of transcatheter valvular therapies in the setting of failed bioprostheses.

BACKGROUND
As medicine continues to advance, the lifespan of individuals continues to increase, and current surgical valvular therapies begin to degrade prior to a person's end of life. It is important to evaluate the efficacy and durability of transcatheter valves within failed surgical bioprostheses.

METHODS
Baseline characteristics, periprocedural complications, and long-term outcomes were collected and assessed in patients who received transcatheter valves for failing surgical aortic valve bioprostheses and mitral valve and ring bioprostheses from March 2011 to July 2018.

RESULTS
From our cohort of 1048 patients, we identified 45 individuals (4.3%) who underwent transcatheter replacement of a failed bioprosthetic valve or ring. Mean age at presentation was 80.8 ± 10.7 years and 75.5 ± 9.3 years, mean STS score was 9.3 ± 5.1 and 13.3 ± 8.7, and mean time to failure was 12.0 ± 5.2 years and 7.3 ± 4.5 years for aortic and mitral positions, respectively. At 1 year, time to event analysis suggested a 16.4% mortality rate for aortic replacement and 12.8% mortality rate for mitral replacement.

CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrate outcomes from one of the largest single-center United States based cohorts of transcatheter replacements of failed surgical bioprostheses. Our center has demonstrated that it is feasible to pursue the replacement of failed surgical bioprostheses in the aortic and mitral positions with transcatheter valves given appropriate patient selection.


The turbulence echo intensity observed by a wind-profiling radar is closely related to the vertical gradient of refractive index squared (M 2 ), which largely depends on the vertical humidity gradient in a moist atmosphere. We have developed a radar remote-sensing technique for determining humidity profiles by using the turbulence echo characteristics. The sign of M is determined so that the precipitable water vapor determined by the radar agrees with that derived from the GPS measurements. In this study we have combined the results collected with two co-located radars; the MU (Middle and Upper atmosphere) and Lower Troposphere Radar (LTR) operating at 46.5 MHz and 1.3 GHz frequencies, respectively, and humidity profiles determined at 0.3-7.5 km. The echo power profiles (signal-to-noise ratio, SNR) with the two radars are connected smoothly in a height range between 1.5 and 1.95 km, by considering reduction of the receiver sensitivity for the MU radar due to leakage of the transmission signal. The retrieved humidity profiles show detailed time-height variations, which agree well with the simultaneous Raman lidar and radiosonde measurements.


&NA; In this article, Donna Wagner discusses using quality indicators as a means of improving quality in home healthcare. Stressing the need for an organization to have a thorough foundation in total quality management as its working context, the article demonstrates how to use quality indicators as part of a quality improvement program. Monitoring quality indicators in a home health agency will provide specific information on aspects of care that the agency has identified as measures of quality. This cost‐effective monitoring can be a means of incorporating QI activities into daily work patterns.


Confocal laser endomicroscopy technology can obtain cell-level images in real time and in situ, which can assist doctors in real-time intraoperative diagnosis, but its non-invasiveness makes it difficult to relocate the optical biopsy site. The confocal probe localization algorithm can automatically calculate the coordinates of the probe tip, that is, the coordinates of the optical biopsy site. In this paper, a confocal probe localization algorithm based on region growing and endoscope size prior was proposed. The algorithm detected the probe region by region growing on the probe edge image, then searched for tip points based on a given probe axis, and iteratively optimized it. Finally, based on the single-degree-of-freedom motion characteristics of the probe, the three-dimensional coordinates of the tip of the probe were calculated by using the prior information of the size of the endoscope, which solved the scale uncertainty problem of the monocular camera. The confocal probe localization algorithm was tested on the dataset collected in this paper. The results showed that our algorithm no longer relied on the color information of the probe, avoided the influence of uneven illumination on the gray value of the probe pixels, and had a more robust location accuracy and running speed. Within the length of the probe extending out of the endoscope from 0 to 5 cm, the pixel error could be as low as 11.76 pixels, and the average relative position error could be as low as 1.66 mm, which can achieve the real-time and accurate localization of the confocal probe.


An experiment aimed at reducing a lost child by a solution for the lost child early stage when I used a prevention of lost child policy and the personal information that I posted position information on because a lot of lost children were protected conducted an investigation at a Japanese beach. As a result, it became clear for a prevention of lost child policy to lead to decrease of a lost child. In addition, it was a solution, and stable solution was enabled in comparison with conventional correspondence in a short time for the lost child early stage.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


OBJECTIVES
Describe the change in mobile technology used by an urban Latino population between 2011 and 2014, and compare findings with national estimates.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients were surveyed on medical history and mobile technology use. We analyzed specific areas of mobile health capacity stratified by chronic disease, age, language preference, and educational attainment.

RESULTS
Of 2144 Latino patients, the percentage that owned a cell phone and texted were in-line with Pew estimates, but app usage was not. Patients with chronic disease had reduced access to mobile devices (P < .001) and lower use of mobile phone functionalities.

DISCUSSION
Prior research suggests that Latinos can access mHealth; however, we observed lower rates among Latino patients actively seeking heath care.

CONCLUSION
Published national estimates do not accurately reflect the mobile technology use of Latino patients served by our public safety-net facility. The difference is greater for older, less educated patients with chronic disease.


Context S100A8/S100A9 inflammatory proteins are suggested to be involved in pancreatic cancer (PaCa) progression. S100A8/A9 expression in the neoplastic pancreas correlate with SMAD4 mutational status suggesting possible interactions with TGF-b1. Objective To ascertain whether S100A8/S100A9 differently affect Akt, mTOR and NF-kB signalling in PaCa cells with different aggressiveness and whether these molecules interact with TGF-b1. Methods Western blotting analyses were used to assess the effects of S100A8, S100A9 and S100A8/A9 on Akt (Ser473, Thr308), mTOR (Ser2448) and NF-kB (p-IkB-a) in BxPC3, Capan1 and MiaPaCa2 PaCa cells lines. S100A8, S100A9, S100A8/A9 were incubated with equimolar concentrations of calcium and TGF-b1 for 24 h at 37°C. Following MALDI-TOF-MS analyses were performed. Results In BxPC3 Akt Thr308 was phosphorylated by S100A8/A9, while in Capan1 and MiaPaCa2 S100A8/A9, S100A8 and S100A9 phosphorylated both Akt sites. In Capan1 and MiaPaCa2, not in BxPC3, S100A8, S100A9 and S100A8/A9 caused significant Ser2448 phosphorylation. S6RP, downstream effector of mTORC1, was phosphorylated (Ser235/236) only in S100A8 treated MiaPaCa2. A strong NF-kB activation was induced by S100A8 in BxPC3, by S100A9 and S100A8/A9 in Capan1. NF-kB was inhibited by S100A8 and S100A8/A9, while it was activated by S100A9 in MiaPaCa2. In the presence of TGF-b1 S100A8/A9 effects on Akt Thr308 and Ser473 phosphorylation were significantly modified, suggesting the existence of interactions between TGF-b1 and S100A8/A9. In the presence of calcium ions S100A8 and S100A9 formed, as expected, homo- (21663 m/z and 28346 m/z) and hetero- (25153 m/z) dimers (MALDI-TOF-MS). An absolute new finding was the identification of hetero-complexes formed by S100A9 and TGF-b1 (39803 m/z). Conclusion S100A8/A9 proteins in pancreatic cancer might favour cancer cell growth by inducing Akt, mTOR and NF-kB. In the less invasive BxPC3 cells S100A8 activates NF-kB. In more aggressive Capan1 and MiaPaCa2 cells S100A8, S100A9 and S100A8/A9 activate mainly Akt and mTORC1, not NF-kB pathways. TGF-b1 was demonstrated to be a new binding partner of S100A9 and this will open new fields of investigation on these interesting and complex inflammatory proteins in the PaCa setting.


The effects of hyaluronan (HA) on the release of arachidonic acid (AA) from phospholipids induced by bradykinin in synovial fibroblasts of osteoarthritic patients were examined. HA inhibited [14C]AA release from prelabeled synovial cells stimulated with and without bradykinin 1 hr after incubation with HA and thereafter. The inhibitory effects of HA on [14C]AA release were dependent on the concentration and molecular weight of HA. However, inhibition of [14C]AA release by HA was not merely due to the viscosity of HA. The [14C]AA release induced by calcium-ionophore A23187 was also inhibited by HA with a high molecular weight. In addition, HA did not affect [14C]AA uptake by the cells. Our results suggest that HA with a high molecular weight elicits anti-inflammatory effects, at least in part, by inhibiting AA release in inflamed joints.


A measuring resonator in the form of a dielectric sphere is proposed for the measurement of low dielectric losses in the millimetre-wave range in liquids. The dielectric sphere resonator (DSR) was made from sapphire crystal with extremely low dielectric losses in the millimetre-wave range. Owing to this super-high-quality oscillations of `whispering gallery' type are excited in a DSR. The spatial distributions of the electric and magnetic field strengths of E- and H-type oscillations both inside the sphere and in the surrounding liquid are considered. The expression connecting the measured quality of the DSR and the dielectric loss angle of the liquid is found. The condition for the choice of optimal parameters of the resonator for the measurement of the dielectric losses in various liquids is obtained also. The DSR method for the measurement of low dielectric losses in the millimetre-wave range in liquids is described.


The article highlights approaches to calculating indicators characterising the production activities of oil and gas enterprises in the Russian Federation on the basis of the Federal State Statistics Service's reports. The production activities struc-ture's heterogeneity has been noted. The issues of reassessing the importance of core and ancillary economic activities in the oil and gas sector are raised. The importance of assessing the intersectoral redistribution of value added is poin-ted out. Prospects for the performance assessment development of output, intermediate consumption and value added are highlighted an outlook by enterprise group analysis. The principles and criteria for assigning enterprises to the group are indicated. The output indicators of the largest companies in the oil and gas sector of the Russian Federation are considered. A methodology for step-by-step calculating the output, intermediate consumption and value added indicators for large enterprises is provided. The authors concluded that calculating the indicators of output, intermediate consumption and value added for the factor mo dels construction is expediency.


This paper presents a model predictive current control applied to a proposed single-phase five-level active rectifier (FLAR). This current control strategy uses the discrete-time nature of the active rectifier to define its state in each sampling interval. Although the switching frequency is not constant, this current control strategy allows to follow the reference with low total harmonic distortion (THDF). The implementation of the active rectifier that was used to obtain the experimental results is described in detail along the paper, presenting the circuit topology, the principle of operation, the power theory, and the current control strategy. The experimental results confirm the robustness and good performance (with low current THDF and controlled output voltage) of the proposed single-phase FLAR operating with model predictive current control.


Justicia gendarussa Burm.f contains several flavonoids a of them is 'gendarusin A' that has the ability as antifertility with mechanism is to prevent spermatozoa penetration by inhibiting the activity of hyaluronidase spermatozoa enzyme. Hyaluronidase is one of the enzymes found on the outside of the spermatozoa that plays a role for the penetration of the cumulus oophorus by hydrolyzing hyaluronic acid in the process of fertilization. This study aim to find out the effect of 70% fractionated ethanol extract of Justicia gendarussa Burm.f leaf at dose of sub chronic toxicity study on the activity of rat's hyaluronidase spermatozoa enzyme. The methode used was microplate assay. Hyaluronidase activities can be detected from residues of hyaluronic acid that were not hydrolyzed by hyaluronidase and precipitated with 10% cetilpiridinium cloride that gave the absorbance in the λ 595 nm. Moreover, in this study, Bradford method is utilized in order to find the specific activity of hyaluronidase enzyme. Specific activity of hyaluronidase enzyme can be known from catalytic activity per miligram of protein. In the experiment process, it was showed that the average catalytic activity of the hyaluronidase spermatozoa enzyme on group of rats which were not given 70% ethanol extract of Justicia gendarussa Burm.f is as 0,778.10 unit/1 million spermatozoa, while on group of rats which were given 70% ethanol extract of Justicia gendarussa Burm.f with 40 mg , 200 mg, and 1000 mg doses respectively are as 0,746.10 unit /1 million spermatozoa, 0,696.10 unit/1 million spermatozoa, and 0,685.10 unit/1 million spermatozoa. To conclusion, based on the results of the study, there is a decrease of catalytic activity and the average of rat spermatozoa.


ii32, 2012 29. McIntyre CW, Eldehni MT, Odudu A: Prospective randomized controlled trial of individualized dialysate cooling to provide brain and cardiac protection in haemodialysis patients [Abstract]. J Am Soc Nephrol 24:4B, 2013 30. Murry CE, Jennings RB, Reimer KA: Preconditioning with ischemia: a delay of lethal cell injury in ischemic myocardium. Circulation 74:1124–1136, 1986 31. Crowley LE, McIntyre CW: Remote ischaemic conditioning-therapeutic opportunities in renal medicine. Nat Rev Nephrol 9:739–746, 2013 32. Park J, Ann SH, Chung HC, Lee JS, Kim SJ, Garg S, Shin ES: Remote ischemic preconditioning in hemodialysis: a pilot study. Heart Vessels 2013 Mar 27. [Epub ahead of print] 33. Wali RK, Wang GS, Gottlieb SS, Bellumkonda L, Hansalia R, Ramos E, Drachenberg C, Papadimitriou J, Brisco MA, Blahut S, Fink JC, Fisher ML, Bartlett ST, Weir MR: Effect of kidney transplantation on left ventricular systolic dysfunction and congestive heart failure in patients with end-stage renal disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 45:1051–1060, 2005 34. Assa S, Gansevoort RT, Westerhuis R, Kobold AC, Voors AA, de Jong PE, Bakker SJ, Franssen CF: Determinants and prognostic significance of an intra-dialysis rise of cardiac troponin I measured by sensitive assay in hemodialysis patients. Clin Res Cardiol 102:439–445, 2013 35. Breidthardt T, Burton JO, Odudu A, Eldehni MT, Jefferies HJ, McIntyre CW: Troponin T for the detection of dialysis-induced myocardial stunning in hemodialysis patients. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 7:1285– 1292, 2012 36. Breidthardt T, Burton JO, Odudu A, Eldehni MT, Jefferies H, McIntyre CW: N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and its correlation to haemodialysis-induced myocardial stunning. Nephron Clin Pract 123:118–122, 2013


Interventional cardiology provides indisputable benefits for patients but uses a substantial amount of ionising radiation. The diagnostic reference level (DRL) is the tool recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection to optimise imaging procedures. In this work, a review of studies dealing with radiation dose or recommending DRL values for interventional cardiology since 2010 is presented, providing quantitative and qualitative results. There are many published papers on coronary angiography (CA) and percutaneous coronary intervention. The DRL values compiled for different continental regions are different: the DRL for CA is about 35 Gy cm2 for Europe and 83 Gy cm2 for North America. These differences emphasise the need to establish national DRLs considering different social and/or economic factors and the harmonisation of the survey methodology. Surveys with a large amount of data collected with the help of dose management systems provide more reliable information with less chance of statistical bias than those with a small amount of data. The complexity of procedures and improvements in technology are important factors that affect the radiation dose delivered to patients. There is a need for additional data on structural and electrophysiological procedures. The analysis of paediatric procedures is especially difficult because some studies present results split into age bands and others into weight bands. Diagnostic procedures are better described, but there is a great variety of therapeutic procedures with different DRL values (up to a factor of nine) and these require a dedicated review.


Modern multicore computers often adopt a multisocket multicore architecture with shared caches in each socket. However, traditional work-stealing schedulers tend to pollute the shared cache and incur more cache misses due to their random stealing. To relieve this problem, this paper proposes an Adaptive Cache-Aware Bi-tier work-stealing (A-CAB) scheduler. A-CAB improves the performance of memory-bound applications by reducing memory footprint and cache misses of tasks running inside the same CPU socket. A-CAB adaptively uses a DAG partitioner to divide an execution Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) into the intersocket tier and the intrasocket tier. Tasks in the intersocket tier are scheduled across sockets while tasks in the intrasocket tier are scheduled within the same socket. Experimental results tell us that A-CAB can improve the performance of memory-bound applications up to 74.4 percent compared with the traditional work-stealing.


While Cicero's use of Greek has been the subject of a number of studies, scholars have generally ignored his use of politikos . Most assume that Cicero simply utilized the Platonic definition of the word. However, an investigation of Cicero's use of politikos and its derivatives reveals a much more nuanced meaning, one that is particularly suited to the political situation of the late republic. As opposed to being a ruler, as in Plato, the Ciceronian politikos holds no permanent position within the state, and his only purpose is to resolve temporary crises in the functioning of the state.


Decades of improving data and extensive theoretical research have led to a popular model of gamma-ray bursts. According to this model, a catastrophic event in a stellar system results in the formation of a compact central engine, which releases a fraction of a solar rest-mass energy within seconds in the form of ultra-relativistic jets. Dissipation of the jets energy leads first to prompt gamma-ray emission and later to a long lasting afterglow. Here I summarize the introduction that I gave to the debate "where do we stand?" in the conference "The Shocking Universe" held in Venice. This is a very brief summary of my view of the facts that we are (almost) certain about, models that are popular but may need rethinking, and main open questions.


Purpose: To investigate the structural features that influence the antinociceptive activity of thymoquinone and their structural analogues. Methods: The quinones were prepared by an oxidation procedure using molecular oxygen and catalysis with [CoII(salen)] from the respective phenols. The antinociceptive activity of para-benzoquinones (10 mg/kg, ip) was evaluated using formalin test in mice. Vehicle (5 % Tween 80) or morphine (10 mg/kg) were used as control group and standard drug, respectively. The amount of time spent licking the injected paw was considered as the nociceptive response. Results: Among the compounds tested, five para-benzoquinones showed antinociceptive activity. The 2-isopropyl-para-benzoquinone presented the highest potency in first and second phases and produced a near-maximal inhibition (p < 0.001) in the formalin test, similar to morphine (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our experimental results show that by appropriate structural modification of parabenzoquinones it may be possible to develop novel analgesic drugs. Keywords: Quinones, Antinociceptive activity, Analgesic, Central nervous system, Structure-activity relationship, Medicinal plant.


This paper evaluates several key approaches for their impact on the development of insensitive munition (IM) with special emphasis on the fuze. The effect of these approaches on the thermal vulnerability of a fuze is studied and evaluated by finite element analysis. These approaches include changing the proportion of the desensitizing agent, replacing the charge, changing the shell material, and adding the heat insulation coating. First, the cook-off test of a plastic-bonded explosive number-5 (PBXN-5) squib tube is simulated by abaqus and compared with the test results to validate the soundness of the proposed method. After this, comprehensive evaluations are conducted on each approach for its influence on the cook-off time. The results suggest that the weighting on the four proposed approach from high to low are insulation design, the insensitive charge, the shell material, and the proportion of the desensitizing agent, respectively.


Background: The demographic challenge Europe is facing due to long-term low fertility, accompanied by pronounced economic uncertainty, indicates the need for adequate policy response based on a thorough understanding of the economic uncertainty–fertility decisions–public policy nexus. Objective: We address the relationship between societal economic conditions, individual economic uncertainty, and short-term first-birth intentions of women and men in ten European countries, representing various institutional contexts before and after the Great Recession. Methods: We analyse European Social Survey data from 2004 and 2011. After addressing the macro-level association, we study the micro-level relationship in regard to perceived security of employment and income situation, based on multiple logistic regression models. Results: Societal economic uncertainty is negatively associated with short-term parenthood intentions, especially for men. Regarding subjective economic security, men's labour market position matters irrespectively of the institutional context, but women's labour market position matters at younger ages only and in particular welfare regimes (the Postsocialist and Familialistic regimes). Perceived income security is less important at higher ages for either gender and for women below age 30, especially in the aftermath of the crisis. Men in their early thirties show the lowest fatherhood intentions in a constrained situation. Contribution: Our findings highlight the continued importance of economic uncertainty for fertility plans, especially for men, who still seem to consider themselves as the primary earner in couples. For young employed women, a secure position is a precondition for first birth, but motherhood appears as attractive alternative to unemployment above age 30, except for Postsocialist and Universal clusters.


Generally speaking the level of education in a society reflects the prevailing conditions of its political economy or identified as one of the most important determinants of economic growth of the nation. Currently, the tribes lag behind not only the general population but also the Scheduled Caste population in literacy and education. The tribal education has been seen very pitiable condition due to the various factors, like; the remoteness, poverty, poor health condition, extra source of income and so on. The poor economic condition is great hindrance to successful education of the tribal people. The importance of education touches only the periphery of the tribal life. The objective of the paper is to analyse the status of tribal education in Mayurbhanj district in general and the studied village is a particular. The study is based on both primary and secondary data based. The primary data collected from Santhal tribes in Bantali Rakhasahi villages inside Bijatola Block area of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. There are 62 tribes in Odisha with 22.21% of the total population of the State. Mayurbhanj is one of the tribal dominated districts of Odisha, which has been declared as the fully scheduled district of the State. Out of 26 Blocks, the tribes are more concentrated in Bisoi, Bijatala, Baripada, Jamda, Joshipur, Khunta, Rairangpur, Sukruli, Suliapada and Udala, Blocks respectively.


Molecules containing divalent sulfur can participate in significant noncovalent interactions. Computing accurate noncovalent interaction energies using ab initio quantum chemical methods requires a proper description of electron correlation effects. Coupled-cluster theory with single and double substitutions and perturbative triple substitutions, CCSD(T), using extrapolation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit has become the method of choice for computing accurate interaction energies of noncovalently bound complexes. Here, interaction energies are computed for several biologically relevant hydrogen-bonded and dispersion-bound complexes that contain divalent sulfur. Eight-point estimated CCSD(T)/CBS dissociation curves along the noncovalent interaction vector are computed for each complex. As a comparison of high-accuracy ab initio methods, interaction energies are also calculated for each complex using the correlation-consistent Composite Approach (ccCA). We find that, on average, the two methods yield energies within 0.1 kcal mol(-1) of each other. The interaction energies provided here should be useful for developing and assessing the accuracy of more approximate ab initio, density functional theory, semiempirical, and classical force field approaches.


This paper, based on empirical study of private schools (n=35) and the families (n=105) in select localities (n=3), explores the nature and growth of diversified school market(s) in Alwar city of Rajasthan in India. It observes that the private schools execute range of strategies, both ethical and unethical at times, to influence parents to attract admissions. School strategies range from the most modern methods such as advertising through local television channels, Whatsapp and Facebook, roadside-billboards, wall-painting, door-to-door visits, etc., to the invoking of primordial affiliations such as kinship ties, caste and religious identities to reach out to parents. The schools also use promises like better English medium education, ensuring safety and security of the child, better discipline and providing coaching to prepare students to get admission into prominent government schools, engineering and medical institutes of the country as marketing strategies to flourish and sustain in competitive education market.


Apart from meningococcal disease in the sub-Saharan meningitis belt, the incidence and impact of life-threatening bacterial diseases in children across Africa have not been quantified. The clinical and epidemiological data on pneumococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and other forms of bacterial meningitis, as well as data on other severe bacterial infections throughout the continent were scrutinized. Pneumococci were the leading causative agents of nonepidemic meningitis and other bacteremic diseases, followed by Hib. Meningococcal diseases were less common. Mortality rates associated with pneumococcal, Hib, and meningococcal meningitis were 549 (45%) of 1211 patients, 389 (29%) of 1352 patients, and 104 (8%) of 1236 patients, respectively; sequelae occurred in 50%, 40%, and 10% of cases. At 0-4 years of age, the estimated incidences of Hib meningitis and all classic Hib diseases were 70 and 100 cases per 100,000 population per year, accounting for approximately 90,000 and 120,000 cases per year, respectively. Including older age groups and, especially, nonbacteremic Hib pneumonia in the estimates of Hib disease in Africa increased the overall numbers manifold; the numbers of pneumococcal infections were even greater. The only realistic way to combat these severe infections efficaciously would be through widespread vaccination, starting with Hib conjugates.


The subclass of compounds that have the nucleus 1,4-naphthoquinone is the most diverse of the class of quinones, which have a large number of substances and several that have useful applications ranging from medicinal chemistry to application in materials with special properties. The introduction of one or two substituents with the sulfur heteroatom in the naphthoquinone nucleus generates products containing alkyl and aryl groups that amplify certain biological properties against bacteria, viruses and fungi. There are several methods of preparing these compounds, mainly from low molecular weight naphthoquinones with two electrophilic sites capable of reacting with sulfides generating diversity and new classes of compounds, including new sulfur heterocycles and sulfur heterocycles fused with naphthoquinones. These compounds have been shown to be bioactive against several biological targets. This review will describe the methods of their synthesis and, when applicable, their biological activities.


A wide variety of complex systems generate asynchronous events, including nuclear power plants, computer networks, governments, relational database systems and operating systems. We present Multi-Event Dependency Detection (MEDD), novel al gorithm for acquiring event correlation rules from historical logs of asynchronous events. Given a new stream of events generated in real time, the rules enable two important activities: clustering sets of related events and predicting events that will occur in the future. The former activity supports data reduction so that human monitors can more easily understand the state of the system generating the events, and the latter activity facilitates prediction of future states of the system by reasoning about events that are likely to occur. MEDD'S utility is evaluated in experiments with event logs generated by a simulated computer network and encodings of Reuters news stories describing events in the Persian Gulf during 1996 and 1997.


A 26-year-old male seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection presented with atypical Hodgkin's disease. Subsequently, synchronous, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was identified in this patient. Atypical Hodgkin's disease appears to be an opportunistic neoplasm in patients seropositive for HIV infections and should be considered as an indicator disease for the definition of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).


.. Objectives: The persuasive evidence shows that proper Zinc (Zn) nutrition is important for human health. Hence an attempt was made to evaluate the serum Zn levels in children suffering from high respiratory infection in children aged 2-12years in Pakistan. Study Design: Case-control study. Setting: Jinnah Medical Teaching Hospital Peshawar with the collaboration of National Physical Standard Laboratory PCSIR Islamabad. Period: March 2017 to March 2019. Material & Methods: 60 children who were suffering from upper respiratory tract infection and were admitted in the Paediatric ward of Jinnah medical teaching hospital Peshawar. 60 normal controls of the same genders with an age range 2-12 years were selected for this study. Serum zinc levels were measured with atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Results: The serum zinc level was found to be low in 80% patients. Mean ±SD of serum zinc were 58.9 ±2.70μg/dl in diseased group and 100 ±2.22μg/dl in controls respectively. In patients serum zinc level was significantly lower than that of healthy controls (P<0.001). Conclusion: We may conclude that Zinc deficiency may play a role in the pathogenesis of upper tract respiratory infection since most diseased children have low serum Zn level.


ABSTRACT Light is essential for plant growth, but excessive light energy produces reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can seriously damage cells. Mutants defective in ATG (autophagy related) genes show light intensity-dependent leaf damage and ROS accumulation. We found that autophagy is one of the crucial systems in protecting plants from ROS-induced damage by removing oxidative peroxisomes. Damaged peroxisomes are targeted by the PtdIns3P marker and specifically engulfed by phagophores labeled by ATG18a-GFP. Under high-intensity light, huge peroxisome aggregates are induced and captured by vacuolar membranes. Research provides a deeper understanding of plant stress response to light irradiation.


The St. Catharines Orioles was the first all-black hockey team in Ontario and played in the Niagara District Hockey League in the 1930s. The history of the Orioles, like many other African-Canadian hockey histories, such as the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes (1890s-1920s) has been overlooked, erased, and ignored. This erasure is indicative of broader sociological issues of race and racism as the historic exclusion and (non)remembering of non-white athletes contributes to our understanding of sport history in the present. By neglecting to include athletes of colour in the mainstream history of sport, sports historians are contributing to the whitewashing of Canadian sport history. This study examines how the Orioles have been remembered and forgotten, considers what voices, perspectives, and identities are marginalized or silenced through hockey histories, and asks how historical discourses shape contemporary constructions of race and sport. In this study, I conduct archival research in the 1937-38 St. Catharines Standard to develop a history of the Orioles as it would have been known in the 1930s. With this history, I work from a historiographical perspective to consider how the Orioles have been racialized and excluded from sports history in the present. I analyse two secondary sources, The Sports History of St. Catharines (McNabb & Meighan, 1969) and St. Catharines: Canada's Canal City (Jackson & Wilson, 1992), as I identify when and how non-white individuals are included in the histories. Noting the omission of black contributions in these texts is relevant as neglecting to include the role of black citizens is an active form of (non)remembering that perpetuates whiteness through exclusion. This research contributes to our understanding of race and sport in the present and seeks to challenge "the enduring myth of Canada's benign racial history" (Joseph, et. al., 2012, p. 17) that denies the existence of racism in Canada and seeks to address the gap in (RE)PRESENTING THE ORIOLES historical and sport literature that not only lacks a comprehensive history of the Orioles but has consistently pushed black athletes to the periphery of sports history.


Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) are a major public health problem worldwide, since they are commonly implicated in nosocomial infections in various regions in the world. The aim of our study was to investigate genetic features and clonal relationship of VRE in the Military hospital of Tunisia. A total of 10 VRE strains were initially detected and identified by the Viteck II compact® (BioMérieux®) automated system, then confirmed by PCR using specific primers. These VRE strains were isolated during the period extended between September 2015 and January 2017 from anal and blood samples from patients hospitalized mainly in the neonatology service and intensive care unit. All these strains were identified as Enterococcus faecium and carried the vanA gene. Other acquired resistance genes were also detected by PCR: [ermB (n = 6); tetL (n = 6); tetM (n = 2); aac(6')-Ie-aph(2'')-Ia (n = 10); aph(3')-III-a (n = 9); ant(6)-Ia (n = 8)]. The insertion sequence IS16 was detected in all our tested strains. Esp virulence gene was detected in only one strain. The clonal relatedness of VRE strains screened by pulse-field gel electrophoresis and multi-locus sequence typing showed four clones: two related clones A1 (one strain) and A2 (one strain) ascribed to ST80 belonged to CC17, the other remaining two clones, named B (one strain) and C (seven strains), revealed two new sequences types assigned to ST1463 and ST1464 respectively. The emergence of novel clones of VRE in this hospital could be a warning of rapid evolution of these resistant bacteria, which calls for new surveillance strategies, strict hygiene and practices.


New technology makes it possible for existing hearing aids to communicate with each
other to make a true binaural fitting and give all of the experiences and advantages of
binaural hearing to the user. This project includes electro-acoustic measurements done on
one system available on the market. The questions to be answered by this paper were:
How does this new technology fit into the ANSI standards and how does the technology
affect the audibility? Measurements have been done on the hearing aids individually,
together and combined with the additional communication interface, the streamer.
Conclusions were that the standards are hard to apply on this new technology and that the
streamer adds some noise and distortion. This study is a first step and more research on
real subjects is called for. Qualitative data will be needed in order to rule out effects on
the audibility at an individual level.
1


Abstract This study examined exosomal hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA levels in chronic HBV infection (CHB). Patients were grouped according to the European Association for the Study of the Liver classification (1: HBV-DNA-positive CHB, normal alanine aminotransferase [ALT]; 2: HBV-DNA-positive CHB, elevated ALT; 3: HBV-DNA-negative HBeAb-positive CHB, normal ALT; 4: HBV-DNA-positive HBeAg-negative HBeAb-positive CHB, elevated ALT; 5: HBV-DNA-negative, HBcAb-positive; 6: HBV-negative, normal ALT). Exosomes were isolated, comparative analysis of exosomes and serum HBV-DNA. The HBV-DNA content was lower in exosomes than in serum for groups 1, 2, and 4 (all P < 0.05). In the groups negative for serum HBV-DNA (groups 3 and 5), the exosomal HBV-DNA levels were higher than the serum HBV-DNA levels (all P < 0.05). The exosomal and serum HBV-DNA levels were correlated in groups 2 (R 2 = 0.84) and 4 (R 2 = 0.98). The exosomal HBV-DNA levels were correlated with total bilirubin (R 2 = 0.94), direct bilirubin (R 2 = 0.82), and indirect bilirubin (R 2 = 0.81) in group 5 (all P < 0.05). In patients with CHB and negative for serum HBV-DNA, exosomal HBV-DNA was detectable and could be used to monitor the treatment effects. Exosomal HBV-DNA could be used in patients with a high suspicion of HBV infection but negative for serum HBV-DNA.


Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are financially constrained due to demand side and supply side factors. Most studies emphasize on the supply side constraints, paying less attention to the demand side constraints that arise from SME inherent characteristics. This paper aims at describing characteristics of SMEs and identifying attributes that hinder their access to external finance. To this end, survey of 102 randomly selected firms from the Ethiopian manufacturing sector was conducted. We find that most SMEs are characterized by having a few or no collateralizeable fixed assets. Examination of owner's willingness to admit a new partner as a means of expanding capital base revealed that most SME owners exhibit aversion towards selling ownership control. This shows that, contrary to conventional view, aversion towards relinquishing ownership interest increases with size. In terms of financial transparency, we found that most small firms are not accustomed to keeping books of accounts. In general, we found that firm characteristics and owner perceptions are partly responsible for SMEs limited access to external finance.