INTRODUCTION
The open abdomen is a widespread therapeutic resource; however, it is also a source of complications, of which the enteroatmospheric fistulas (EAFs) pose one of the greatest problems. The objective of this study was to describe the implemented strategy for handling enteroatmospheric fistulas, and secondarily, to analyze the differential results based on a change in the conservative local treatment specifically designed for the stated complication.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From March 2002 to March 2014, patients treated for EAF were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (G1: 2002 - 2007), treated with an occlusive vacuum device (SIVACO), similar to that used for other enterocutaneous fistulas, and Group 2 (G2: 2008 - 2014), covered in a specific modality for EAF. Results of conservative and surgical treatment were described and then the two groups were statistically compared.

RESULTS
Study participants comprised 62 patients. Twelve cases (19.4%) healed with conservative treatment. This was statistically related with a baseline albumin level >3 g/dL, single lesions with no visible mucosa and baseline output <700 mL/d. In G1, the output fall was higher, while G2 required fewer wound dressing changes and enteral nutrition was feasible in a significantly higher number of patients. Forty-seven patients underwent reconstructive surgery. The mortality-associated variables were preoperative hypoalbuminemia and 2 or more anastomoses. Overall mortality was 8% (5 patients). In the multivariate model, only initial output (<700 mL/d) was an independent predictor for spontaneous closure, whereas 2 or more anastomoses and hypoalbuminemia were negative independent predictors.

CONCLUSION
Systematic management of enteroatmospheric fistulas, following a rigorous protocol and a two-step specific treatment, resulted in a practical approach and yielded good results in healing and mortality.


Both reflective and dissipative silencers have their respective frequency range of good and poor acoustic performances. Reflective types of muffler in general produce more back pressure than the dissipative ones. So, to take advantage of both types of mufflers and to overcome their limitations, they may be combined to give the required performance over a broad range of frequency of interest. In the present paper the combination (or hybrid) muffler is analyzed using a transfer matrix based approach by means of a two-dimensional wave modeling. The present approach can be used to analyze axi-symmetric circular lined plenum chambers also. The effectiveness of the inherent bulk reaction assumption of the present analysis is illustrated. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the effects of different thicknesses and placements of the absorptive lining. The contributions of reflective and absorptive portion of combination muffler to attenuation are investigated from the designer's point of view.


Autonomous systems deployed in human environments must have the ability to understand and anticipate the motion and behavior of dynamic targets. More specifically, predicting the future positions of agents and planning future actions based on these predictions is a key component of such systems. This is a challenging task because the motion behavior of each agent not only depends on its own goal intent, but also the presence and actions of surrounding agents, social relations between agents, social rules and conventions, and the environment characteristics such as topology and geometry. We are specially interested in the problem of human motion trajectory prediction in real-world, social environments where potential interactions affect the way people move. One such environment is a basketball game with dynamic and complex movements driven by various social interactions. In this work, we focus on player motion trajectory prediction in real basketball games. We view the problem of trajectory prediction as a sequence prediction task where our goal is to predict the future positions of players using their past positions. Following the success of recurrent neural network models for sequence prediction tasks, we investigate the ability of these models to predict motion trajectories of players. More specifically, we propose a graph-based pooling procedure that uses relation networks and incorporates it with long short-term memory networks. We study the effect of different graph structures on the accuracy of predictions. We evaluate the different variations of our model on three datasets; two publicly available pedestrian datasets of ETH and UCY, as well as a real-world basketball dataset. Our model outperforms vanilla LSTM and Social-LSTM baselines on both of these datasets.


While high-intensity focused ultrasound has been used for some time in the management of uterine fibroids, its effectiveness and safety in managing adenomyosis is less well established. A literature review was performed of all eligible reports using this modality as a treatment for adenomyosis. Relevant publications were obtained from the PubMed electronic database from inception through March 2016. Eleven articles, including information from 1,150 treatments and follow-up data from 990 patients, were reviewed. High-intensity focused ultrasound appears to be effective and safe in the management of symptomatic adenomyosis, and can be considered as an alternative uterine-sparing option for women with this condition.


Knowledge, power, and participation are absolutely central to the understanding of any policy. But it is the area of environmental policy issues where, from the 1970s onwards, an impressive knowledge base has become available across various disciplines and research traditions. The process of rethinking scientific and political rationality is evident in developments within converging fields such as political science, including international relations, public administration and implementation studies; the utilization of knowledge tradition in the policy sciences; the sociology of science and technology; technology and integrated environmental assessment; and philosophy of science. The study of environmental policy issues tends to bring about a convergence between research areas in political science that have stood apart for most of the twentieth century. The implications for political theory have drawn attention especially since the nuclear power issue provoked a flow of publications in the 1980s. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.


Objective: The object of this study is to investigate optimal BP target and adequate management of BP in prevalent dialysis patients group. Design and Method: The data were retrieved from End-stage Renal Disease-Clinical Research Center (ESRD-CRC) which dialysis patients were prospectively enrolled from 2009 to 2014. Total 2,299 prevalent dialysis patients were analyzed. Eligible patients were assigned to four groups according to distribution of systolic BP (SBP, group as SBP <120, 120–140, 140–160, and >160 mmHg, respectively). The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Results: Among the study subjects, there were 360, 862, 719, and 358 patients in each SBP groups. The mean SBP in each group was 106.9, 128.6, 146.4 and 170.9 mmHg, respectively (P < 0.001). Baseline characteristics among the groups did not show significant differences except number of AHAs (1.5 ± 1.4, 1.8 ± 1.5, 2.1 ± 1.4, and 2.3 ± 1.3 in each group, P < 0.001). During a median follow up of 4.5 years, all-cause mortality was significantly higher in SBP <120 mmHg group (hazard ratio [HR] 1.44, confidential interval [CI] 1.06–1.94, P = 0.019), and the tendency with higher risk was revealed in >160 mmHg group (HR 1.33, CI 0.94–1.81, P = 0.074) compared to groups, whose BP ranged from 120 to 160 mmHg. Multiple Cox analysis revealed that SBP <120 and >160 mmHg group had significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality after adjustment for multiple confounding factors (HR 1.84, CI 1.27–2.66, P = 0.001; HR 1.69, CI 1.16–2.45, P = 0.006). However, the number of AHAs being taken was not associated with survival rate in subgroup analysis with each BP group. Conclusions: This study showed that lowest (<120) or highest (>160 mmHg) SBP group had significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality, irrespective of number of AHAs. BP control with optimal target is significantly associated with better survival rate. Further study is warranted to determine optimal blood pressure target in dialysis patients.


BACKGROUND
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the prevalent dementia in the elderly, involves many related and interdependent pathologies that manifest simultaneously, leading to cognitive impairment and death. Amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation in the brain triggers the onset of AD, accompanied by neuroinflammatory response and pathological changes. The CXCR4/CXCL12 (SDF1) axis is one of the major signal transduction cascades involved in the inflammation process and regulation of homing of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) within the bone marrow niche. Inhibition of the axis with AMD3100, a reversible antagonist of CXCR4 mobilizes endogenous HSCs from the bone marrow into the periphery, facilitating the recruitment of bone marrow-derived microglia-like cells into the brain, attenuates the neuroinflammation process that involves release of excitotoxic markers such as TNFα, intracellular Ca2 +, and glutamate and upregulates monocarboxylate transporter 1, the major L-lactate transporter in the brain.

OBJECTIVE
Herein, we investigate if administration of a combination of AMD3100 and L-lactate may have beneficial effects in the treatment of AD.

METHODS
We tested the feasibility of the combined treatment for short- and long-term efficacy for inducing endogenous stem cells' mobilization and attenuation of neuroinflammation in two distinct amyloid-β-induced AD mouse models.

RESULTS
The combined treatment did not demonstrate any adverse effects on the mice, and resulted in a significant improvement in cognitive/memory functions, attenuated neuroinflammation, and alleviated AD pathologies compared to each treatment alone.

CONCLUSION
This study showed AMD3100's beneficial effect in ameliorating AD pathogenesis, suggesting an alternative to the multistep procedures of transplantation of stem cells in the treatment of AD.


English Abstract: This study examines the progress of digitalization in the Asia- Pacific region, compares and analyzes the digital transformation policies of major economies in the region using text mining techniques, and demonstrates the effect of the digital gap on economic performance by dividing the regional economic development stage by individual country. Also, an empirical analysis was performed on how the difference in access to digital technology and intensity of use has an impact not only on the overall economic performance of a country but also labor market performance through the mechanism of individual human capital accumulation. The analysis results suggest APEC and its member economies focus their capabilities on digital inclusion policies. And the results propose a direction for strengthening APEC's fu ction as an international cooperation platform for digital inclusion in the region, and a cooperation plan for strengthening digital cooperation in Korea. Chapter 2 compares the progress of digitalization in each stage of economic development in the Asia-Pacific region and the digital competitiveness of significant economies in the region, and examines the status of digital economy cooperation in APEC fora. The digital gap between high- and low-income member economies of APEC is examined using ICT indicators published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). According to the results of our comparative analysis of digital competitiveness in 10 major developing economies in the region, using the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, etc., there was a digital gap by income group within APEC in terms of the quality of ICT infrastructure utilization and companies' ICT utilization. But, fortunately, the gap appears to be shrinking in terms of ICT accessibility. After adopting the APEC Action Agenda for the Digital Economy and APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap for the first time in APEC's core agenda in 2017, the number of digital economy-related cooperation projects within the APEC fora has steadily increased. In Chapter 3 text mining techniques are used to compare and analyze critical areas of digital transformation policy pursued by major developing economies such as Malaysia and Vietnam and leading APEC members in the digital sector such as Korea and the United States, China, and Japan. While certain differences exist, digitally leading countries tend to focus on basic and applied research, talent attraction, and development. In contrast, digitally developing economies focus on public sector reform and infrastructure creation. The results also confirm that both digitally developed and developing economies' groups have focused on using digital transformation as a tool for economic growth rather than improving digital inclusion and international cooperation. Also, these policies have been implemented within each country rather than as a form of international cooperation. Chapter 4 analyzes the impact of progress on digitalization in the Asia-Pacific region on economic growth and income inequalities. For this, we measure the degree of digitalization at the country level by ICT accessibility (e.g., the sum of fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 people and mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people) and ICT use intensity (e.g., the ratio of fixed broadband subscriptions to individuals using the internet). We first study the relation between digitalization and economic growth using country-level panel data. We construct two samples for comparison: one the total sample, which consists of 114 economies globally, and the other the APEC sample, which consists of 17 out of the 21 APEC member economies for which data was available. According to the estimation results, economies with larger ICT accessibility have higher economic growth rates for both samples. We also find that ICT use intensity increases economic growth rates for both samples. We also study the relation between digitalization and income inequality using country-level panel data. We construct two samples for comparison: one the total sample, which consists of 134 economies globally, and the other the APEC sample, which consists of 18 out of 21 APEC member economies for which data was available. According to the estimation results, ICT accessibility tends to reduce Gini coefficients for both samples. Regarding the effects of ICT use intensity, the results are reversed: ICT use intensity tends to raise the Gini coefficient for both samples. But the estimates are not statistically significant for the APEC sample. We further study if the effects of digitalization on income inequalities are different across income levels. For high-income economies, ICT accessibility and ICT use intensity negatively affect income inequalities, while for low-income economies, ICT accessibility tends to improve income inequalities. In Chapter 5, e study how digitalization affects labor market outcomes using individual workers' survey data. In particular, we investigate how individual workers' digitalization affects the probability of being employed and wages. For this, we produce the survey data of individual workers in Korea and Vietnam. We select Korea, which belongs to the high-income group in the APEC economies and Vietnam, which belongs to the low-income group. We measure the level of individual workers' digitalization classifying individual workers' ICT accessibility, ICT use intensity, and interaction between ICT use intensity and human capital. According to the estimation results, workers who use ICT more intensively are more likely to be employed and to receive higher wages for both Korea and Vietnam samples. However, the statistical relationships are weak in the Vietnam sample. The different results between Korea and Vietnam samples may be because there are more ICT skill-related jobs in Korea than in Vietnam. Here, workers' ICT use intensity is measured by the ratio of working hours spent using the internet (or computer or mobile phone) to total working hours. We also measure ICT use intensity qualitatively by constructing an index based on information about workers' various ICT-related activities such as obtaining data and information via the internet, looking for and applying for a job via the internet, internet banking experience, etc. We find that workers with higher ICT use quality index are more likely to be employed and have higher wages for the Vietnam sample. These results imply that the variables that measure ICT use intensity qualitatively capture better the labor market impacts rather than quantitative approaches. Regarding the effects of ICT accessibility, we find that the results are different between the two samples. For the Korean sample, ICT accessibility does not much affect labor market outcomes, while ICT accessibility improves the probability of being employed for the Vietnam sample. This result is mainly due to the difference in ICT accessibility between Korea and Vietnam: Almost all workers in the Korea sample can access ICT-related devices such as mobile phones and computers and the internet. The analyzed results above indicate that APEC and its member economies should focus their policy capabilities on digital inclusion to minimize the side effects of the national and individual digital divide which can appear as digitalization progresses. Chapter 6 presents three criteria to be considered when APEC sets the direction to strengthen its function as an international cooperation platform for digital inclusion in the region. First, considering convergence is a prevalent feature of the digital economy, the collaboration within APEC fora should be emphasized in digital inclusion cooperation across various subjects and areas. Second, in consideration of APEC's economic status as the world's most extensive regional cooperation body, cooperation among the APEC economies should be emphasized so that the different interests of the economies in various economic development stages on digitalization and digital inclusion can be synchronized and balanced. Third, considering APEC has consistently emphasized public-private cooperation, unlike other international organizations and regional councils, the triangular cooperation channel between government, private enterprises, and experts within APEC should be effectively utilized on digital inclusion. Under these three principles, in strengthening the APEC's function as a platform for digital inclusion, we present five cooperation initiatives for Korea, as a leading economy in the digital sector, to establish itself early on in the agenda for digital inclusion within APEC and become a rule-setter in the area. First, we propose that APEC build a collaborative culture among APEC fora by improving project evaluation criteria. Considering the issues have cross-cutting and convergence features, this improvement could induce APEC to address more digital inclusion issues and endo se more joint projects on digital inclusion. Second, Korea could propose a project on discovering effective digital inclusion policies within APEC economies and sharing their success stories. For example, based on its experiences with the Digital New Deal policy, Korea could play a leading role in proposing research projects on holding workshops or publishing books about best policies and practices regarding digital inclusion. Third, Korea can position itself as an early mover in digital inclusion agenda in the healthcare sector by proposing or cooperating with other APEC economies on digital healthcare projects, considering the importance of digital healthcare in the post-pandemic world. For example, building and improving on the "K-Quarantine" online platform in cooperation with other economies interested in the platform could be a promising approach. It would be possible for Korea tobeneficially share its strong experience and rich data in combating COVID-19 with other APEC me


Tensor Kronecker products, the natural generalization of the matrix Kronecker product, are independently emerging in multiple research communities. Like their matrix counterpart, the tensor generalization gives structure for implicit multiplication and factorization theorems. We present a theorem that decouples the dominant eigenvectors of tensor Kronecker products, which is a rare generalization from matrix theory to tensor eigenvectors. This theorem implies low-rank structure ought to be present in the iterates of tensor power methods on Kronecker products. We investigate low-rank structure in the network alignment algorithm TAME, a power method heuristic. Using the low-rank structure directly or via a new heuristic embedding approach, we produce new algorithms which are faster while improving or maintaining accuracy, and which scale to problems that cannot be realistically handled with existing techniques.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of computer technology in developing critical thinking skills of teachers and middle school students. The influences of years of teaching experience and educational degrees held by the teacher upon teacher gains and student gains were also investigated. In addition, this study examined the relationship between achievement test scores and critical thinking scores. The sample consisted of 20 classroom teachers and 449 fifth and sixth grade students at a middle school in rural Piedmont North Carolina. Ten teachers and 239 students were in classrooms with computers, while the control group of 10 teachers and 210 students did not have computers. A t test for gain scores (posttest scores minus pretest scores) of the computer group with the control group indicated a significantly greater gain (p<.0001) for computer students than non-computer students. Teacher gains were not significant.


Abstract  Enantionithine birds are the most blooming branch of early birds and have distinct diversities. A large number of enantionithine birds have been reported from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in western Liaoning, China. Recently, we discovered a new eoenantiornithid bird from the Jiufotang Formation in Dapingfang Town, western Liaoning. A new eoenantiornithid bird, Dapingfangornis sentisorhinus gen. et sp. nov., is erected based on this complete skeleton with a skull. The new bird is distinguished from other known Mesozoic birds in a medium to small size, a distinct thorn‐like process on the nasals, a sternum with a long and a short lateral processes. The thorn‐like process on the nasal has not been discovered among known fossil birds, thus the discovery also provides new materials on the diversities of early birds.


Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered a key modality for the future as it offers several advantages, including the use of non-ionizing radiation and having no known side effects on the human body, and has recently begun to serve as a key component of multi-modal neuroimaging. However, two major intrinsic problems exist: slow acquisition and intrusive acoustic noise. Parallel MRI (pMRI) techniques accelerate acquisition by reducing the duration and coverage of conventional gradient encoding. The under-sampled k-space data is detected with several receiver coils surrounding the object, using distinct spatial encoding information for each coil element to reconstruct the image. However, this scanning remains slow compared to typical clinical imaging (e.g. X-ray CT). Compressed Sensing (CS), a sampling theory based on random sub-sampling, has potential to further reduce the sampling used in pMRI, accelerating acquisition further. In this work, we propose a new CS SENSE pMRI reconstruction model promoting joint sparsity across channels and enhancing mutual incoherence to improve reconstruction accuracy from limited k-space data. For fast image reconstruction and fair comparisons, all reconstructions are computed with split-Bregman and variable splitting techniques. Numerical results show that, with the introduced methods, reconstruction performance can be crucially improved with limited amount of k-space data.


Joint signal representations (JSRs) of arbitrary variables generalize time-frequency representations (TFRs) to a much broader class of nonstationary signal characteristics. Two main distributional approaches to JSRs of arbitrary variables have been proposed by Cohen (see Time-Frequency Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1995 and Proc. SPIE 1566, San Diego, 1991) and Baraniuk (see Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoust., Speech Signal Processing, ICASSP'94, vol.3, p.357-60, 1994). Cohen's method is a direct extension of his original formulation of TFRs, and Baraniuk's approach is based on a group theoretic formulation; both use the powerful concept of associating variables with operators. One of the main results of the paper is that despite their apparent differences, the two approaches to generalized JSRs are completely equivalent. Remarkably, the JSRs of the two methods are simply related via axis warping transformations, with the broad implication that JSRs with radically different covariance properties can be generated efficiently from JSRs of Cohen's method via simple pre- and post-processing. The development in this paper, which is illustrated with examples, also illuminates other related issues in the theory of generalized JSRs. In particular, we derive an explicit relationship between the Hermitian operators in Cohen's method and the unitary operators in Baraniuk's approach, thereby establishing the relationship between the two types of operator correspondences.


Studies have been done in seven hatchenis in in Mahawil district/Babil  from the period  15/3 to 15/5 to identify the body and reproductive characteristics between common carp brood stock which was imported in 2009 containing this shiny line of scales that exists dorsal fin of carp and which is without shiny line of scales was imported in 1982. Body characteristic results showed significant difference P ‹ 0.05 between two brood stock  according to body depth/standard length feature,  so they reached an average of this feature in common carp shiny line of scales 0.003 ± 0.389 higher than those containing no shiny line reached 0.002 ± 0.369, whereas no significant differences was shown between two brood stock for fish weight and head length/ standard length. Reproductive characteristic study showed significant difference P ‹ 0.05 for shiny line brood stock for each  total eggs weight(gm) , eggs number /gm eggs , eggs weight/kg fish and fertilization percentage characteristic , which reached an average of  26.62 ± 520.28, 4.46 ± 764.60, 94.76 ± 159.2, 0.33 ± 82.91 respectively, higher than of those without shiny line brood stock which reached average of 21.32 ± 461.42, 4.44 ± 711.15, 4.42 ± 147.73 respectively, whereas significant difference was shown in egg diameter  characteristic for containing no shiny line brood stock which reached 0.01 ± 1.411 where brood stock of shiny line reached average of 0.01 ± 1.38 and no significant differences were showed between two brood stock in eggs number/ kg fish. That an increase of crossbreeding between different lines for common carp of brood stock do in improve somatic  and reproductive characteristics  of inbreeding and prevents deteriorating.


Abstract Collisionally induced chain isomerization of CH3OCH2CH2OCH3 around its three central torsional angles is characterized in a supersonic slit jet by probing compound-seeded carrier gas expansions with focussed 5–25 W cw 532 nm radiation as a function of carrier gas, nozzle temperature and distance. Spontaneously Raman scattered photons are collected and dispersed down to 100 cm–1. They reveal important contributions from three chain conformations in the expansion. Isomerization around the outer torsional angle is found to be feasible, whereas the central OCCO angle remains largely conserved under most expansion conditions. The spectroscopic results are used for a critical assessment of quantum-chemical predictions for the energy sequence of the three low-lying conformations. The stretched global minimum energy structure of this polyether building block is consistent with a statistical model of the dominant unimolecular relaxation pathways.


This paper comes from a research whose pretension was to inquiry about the international competitive level of both leather Colombian sector and manufacturing shoes sector through the application of some indicators, using statistical information about international commerce, to establish certain relations to explain the relevance of those products in the markets of Andeans Nations Community (ANC), that were selected to be compared.


The first paper on this subject was published by me in conjunction with Dr. Robert B. Osgood 1 in May, 1905. A second paper now seems justified, since as the result of a larger experience many features of the subject are better understood, and it is possible to write with greater definiteness than was the case two years ago. In the first place, in the consideration of the subject, it is to be remembered that the pelvic articulations are true joints and that in normal health, entirely irrespective of age or sex, motion is a definite part of their function. In the next place, it should be remembered that because of the character of these articulations, being flat bone surfaces brought together with oblique or vertical axes, their stability is dependent on the tone and character of the muscles and ligaments. This being the case, and it being recognized that


Objective: The goal of the present study was to assess the prevalence of cigarette smoking and its relationship to other risk taking behaviors, perceived familial support and religiosity among college students in Tabriz, Iran. Method: In this study, 1837 randomly selected students participated and completed a self-administered questionnaire inquiring demographic characteristics, risk taking behaviors, Aneshensel and Sucoff's 13-items one-dimensional perceived Parental support scale and 28 - items Kendler's general religiosity scale. Results: In general, 15.8 % of the students were cigarette smokers. The results indicated that being male (OR = 3.21), living alone or with friends (OR = 2.00), having a part-time job (OR = 1.98), alcohol consumption during the past 30 days (OR = 3.67), hookah use (OR = 5.23), substance abuse (OR = 1.69), familial support (OR = 0.97) and religiosity (OR = 0.98) have statistically significant relationships with cigarette smoking. Conclusion: Our study represents the co-occurrence of risky behaviors. Cultural context in the traditional communities seems to show the crucial role of familial support and religiosity traits with the female gender as predictive factors to not smoke cigarette and perform other risky behaviors.


The commutator subgroup G ? can indicate if a finite group G is a CLT (Converse Lagrange's Theorem) group or an NCLT (Non-Converse Lagrange's Theorem) group. We give general results and some examples of their application to groups of small order.


This study develops a late spring-early summer rainfall forecasting model using an artificial neural network (ANN) for the Geum River Basin in South Korea. After identifying the lagged correlation between climate indices and the rainfall amount in May and June, 11 significant input variables were selected for the preliminary ANN structure. From quantification of the relative importance of the input variables, the lagged climate indices of East Atlantic Pattern (EA), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), East Pacific/North Pacific Oscillation (EP/NP), and Tropical Northern Atlantic Index (TNA) were identified as significant predictors and were used to construct a much simpler ANN model. The final best ANN model, with five input variables, showed acceptable performance with relative root mean square errors of 25.84%, 32.72%, and 34.75% for training, validation, and testing data sets, respectively. The hit score, which is the number of hit years divided by the total number of years, was more than 60%, which indicates that the ANN model successfully predicts rainfall in the study area. The developed ANN model, incorporated with lagged global climate indices, could allow for more timely and flexible management of water resources and better preparation against potential droughts in the study region.


The motion of flame has been extensively investigated by experimental methods. The theoretical aspect of one mode of propagation has been studied by D. L. Chapman and by Jouguet. Their observations are limited to the phenomenon known as detonation. For the slower and more usual propagation of flame there is a well-known formula due to Mallard and Le Chatelier. It refers to the horizontal propagation of flame through a still mixture under such circumstances that the pressure produced by the combustion is freely vented into the atmosphere. That is to say, the explosive mixture is ignited at the open end of a horizontal tube, the tube being closed at the other end to shield the mixture from any external currents. This formula was intended as a tentative and general description, without detailed analysis, of the initial, uniform motion of the flame. It is based on the assumption that the transmission of flame depends on a balance between the conduction of heat from layer to layer and the cooling. In Mallard's original formula|| the velocity of the flame was held to be inversely proportional to the square root of the cooling due to the wall of the tube; but this relation disappears in the final, joint result of these authors, who wrote their formula V = K T - t / t -θƒ(T. t ), or, tentatively, V=K.L/ c .T - t / t -θ, which becomes V = K . L .Q/ c 2( t -θ),


A phase II study of mitoxantrone (MIT) was performed in 21 patients with hematologic malignancies refractory to combination chemotherapy including anthracyclines. MIT was administered intravenously at doses of 8 to 13 mg/m2 on day 1 for 12 malignant lymphoma patients, and 1 to 3.3 mg/m2 on day 1 through 5 for 7 acute leukemia patients and 2 malignant lymphoma patients. Four malignant lymphoma patients (2 each of Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) achieved partial response lasting 19, 14, 8+, and 4 weeks, respectively. Although no definite response was obtained in acute leukemia patients, a marked cytoreduction was observed in 2 patients. Myelosuppression was a major toxicity, however, life-threatening toxicities were not observed in this study.


Using intersection and self-intersection of loops, Turaev introduced in the seventies two fundamental operations on the algebra $\mathbb{Q}[\pi]$ of the fundamental group $\pi$ of a surface with boundary. The first operation is binary and measures the intersection of two oriented based curves on the surface, while the second operation is unary and computes the self-intersection of an oriented based curve. It is already known that Turaev's intersection pairing has an algebraic description when the group algebra $\mathbb{Q}[\pi]$ is completed with respect to powers of its augmentation ideal and is appropriately identified to the degree-completion of the tensor algebra $T(H)$ of $H:=H_1(\pi;\mathbb{Q})$.
In this paper, we obtain a similar algebraic description for Turaev's self-intersection map in the case of a disk with $p$ punctures. Here we consider the identification between the completions of $\mathbb{Q}[\pi]$ and $T(H)$ that arises from a Drinfeld associator by embedding $\pi$ into the pure braid group on $(p+1)$ strands; our algebraic description involves a formal power series which is explicitly determined by the associator. The proof is based on some three-dimensional formulas for Turaev's loop operations, which involve $2$-strand pure braids and are shown for any surface with boundary.


Effects of cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor agonists and antagonists on intracellular calcium ¿[Ca2+]i¿ of isolated porcine chief cells were determined by FURA2 fluorometry. CCK-8 increased [Ca2+]i with an EC50 of 6 nmol/l. The CCKB receptor preferring agonists gastrin-17-I, desulfated CCK-8 and CCK-4 had only small stimulatory effects (< 12% of maximal CCK-8 effect, EC50's in the low nanomolar range) and did not inhibit the CCK-8 response, suggesting that they were acting at CCKB but not, as partial agonists, at CCKA receptors. A71378 had its main stimulatory effect in low and a slight additional effect in high concentrations (EC50 80 pmol/l and > 1 mumol/l), respectively, while A72962 had its main stimulatory effect in high concentrations (EC50 > 1 mumol/l). The CCK receptor antagonists L364.718, L365.260, CBZ-CCK27-32 and dibutyryl cGMP inhibited CCK-8 (100 nmol/l) response concentration-dependently with IC50's of 540 pmol/l, 2mumol/l, 3 mumol/l and 250 mumol/l, respectively. These results suggest that CCK effects on [Ca2+]i of porcine chief cells are mainly (> 80%) mediated via CCKA receptors, which differ from guinea-pig and rabbit chief cell receptors by a higher distinction capacity between selective CCKA and CCKB, receptor agonists (A71378 versus A72962) and antagonists (L364.718 versus L365.260) and by the apparent lack of activation by desulfated CCK-8 and gastrin-17-I. Isolated porcine chief cells therefore appear to be a favourable "in vitro" system to characterize CCKA receptor specific compounds.


Shattercane [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a serious weed problem. Few methods are available to assess the impact of shattercane competition on crop growth and yield. This study evaluated model sensitivity to variations in light, water, and plant density and assessed the applicability of tbe SORKAM model for simulating forage sorghum (used to represent shattercane) growth and development. Sensitivity analysis of SORKAM to photosynthetically active radiation (50, 75, and 100% of actual); water (50, 75, and 100% of actual precipitation, and no water stress); and plant densities of 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 96 plants m -2 was performed. 'Rox Orange' forage sorghum (used to represent shattercane) was grown at three densities, under irrigated and dryland environments over a 3-yr period. Experiments were conducted on Eudora (coarse-silty, mixed, mesic Fluventic Hapludoll) and Kahola silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic Cumulic Hapludoll) soils, in Manhattan, KS. The sensitivity analysis showed that SORKAM responded to a broad range of light, water, and plant density environments, with significant light by water interaction for biomass, and light by density interaction for biomass, leaf area index (LAI), and tillering. The SORKAM model simulated growth of Rox Orange from inputs of weather, soil, and plant data were compared with measured values. There was good agreement between simulated and measured LAI through 60 d after planting (r 2 = 0.82, intercept not significantly different from 0, and slope = 0.83). Accurate estimation of LAI during this period of vegetative growth is important, because LAI determines the competition between a crop and shattercane for light and water. Agreement of measured and simulated biomass was good for low plant densities (slope and intercept not significantly different from 1 and 0 with high r 2 = 0.78), with progressively greater underestimation at higher densities. Tiller number was generally underestimated, with no apparent correlation to model under- or overestimation of LAI or biomass. The sensitivity analysis and comparison of measured and simulated LAI indicates that the SORKAM model can be used to assess Rox Orange (shattercane) competition.


Unprotected aromatic amines can be used as directing groups in metal-catalyzed C-H alkynylations of alkenes. By using low amounts of an IrIII catalyst in combination with alkynylbenziodoxolones as electrophilic alkyne-transfer reagents, highly desirable 1,3-enynes were isolated in excellent yields of up to 98 % with Z stereoselectivity. A broad substrate scope as well as the high synthetic utility of the 1,3-enynes render this new method an efficient approach for the synthesis of five- and six-membered heterocycles. Further derivatizations of the 1,3-enynes to highly substituted quinolines through AuI - and N-bromosuccinimide-mediated exo-dig cyclizations were demonstrated.


In our paper we analyse algorithms that solve the optimal path search problem including the protection as well. We investigated the special case when multiple full mesh demand sets (forming VPNs) have to be built. We addressed the pro-active path based shared protection scheme and investigated heuristic algorithms to calculate the pair of paths. We formulated the problem generally without specialising to any particular network technology, i.e. the proposed methods can be used for various networks (e.g. ATM, MPLS, GMPLS, etc.). The service demands of VPNs are characterised by the bandwidth requirements of node-pairs (pipe-model). The input is the capacity matrix of the physical network and the traffic demand matrices of the VPNs. Our aim was to find efficient ways to protect the working paths. We analysed three different shared protection algorithms. All of them use Dijkstra's shortest path calculation, but with different edge weights. The demands are routed one-by-one, therefore the order in which they are processed matters. To eliminate this factor we used the simulated allocation scheme. We present numerical results from simulations on sample networks regarding the reserved capacity, the number of reserved edges, and the average path lengths.


Heart disease, particularly ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in Cuba, also showing a high prevalence. The benefits of physical exercise in primary and secondary prevention of this disease have been pointed out, also the favorable effects of physical training in relation to quality of life, morbidity and mortality of patients with cardiovascular diseases. To design an exercise regimen it is necessary to take into account the "fundamental principles of physical training": type of exercise, intensity, duration, frequency and individualization. The main objective of a program of exercise is to increase the quality and quantity of life of patients, allowing them to return to community life as normally as possible, active and productive. To test the effectiveness of this program, periodic assessments can be made by the appropriate health care level specialists. One of the main benefits expected from the implementation of this exercise program is that a vast majority of patients may be reinstated earlier and in better condition to their work or social activities. It is also expected an improvement in functional capacity, symptom relief, reduction in the consumption of prescribed drugs, decreased anxiety and the usually observed depression in these patients. It will be observed, an important preservation of the role of the patient in their family and social life, all of which will produce significant socio-economic benefits.


Core/shell Y(OH)CO3:Eu3+/YBO3:Eu3+ composites with a well-defined spherical shape and narrow size distribution were fabricated through a simple hydrothermal process for the first time. Y(OH)CO3:Eu3+/YBO3:Eu3+ composites can be obtained via Y(OH)CO3:Eu3+ colloidal spheres partly reacted with H3BO3, with the morphology well-retained. Under UV excitation, the core/shell Y(OH)CO3:Eu3+/YBO3:Eu3+ phosphor emits the typical orange-colour light originating from the 5D0→7FJ transitions of the YBO3:Eu3+ shell. The spherical particles might have potential application for high resolution screens, displays and flat panels.


Here, we have developed a new methodology to obtain a pure population of well-defined and new kinetically trapped structures directly in water, inaccessible by other self-assembly techniques. We have exemplified this method through the synthesis of stacked toroidal micelles trapped into a nanorattle with multiple and orthogonal surface chemical functionality. These unique polymer nanorattles result from a water-surrounded inner core (or yolk) of stacked toroidal micelles encapsulated by a shell of stacked toroids. The nanorattles were monodispersed and could be freeze-dried and rehydrated without a change in the nanorattle structure. Confirmation of the kinetically trapped nanorattle structure was through the release of the individual stacked toroids using a plasticizer. Our approach provides a strategy for the synthesis of unique nanostructures that have the potential to be coupled with biological molecules and probes capable of performing multiple tasks and functions.


2021 Wildfires are occurring more frequently and with greater severity domestically and around the globe. Across a series of studies, researchers at the University of Idaho set out to identify how and when climate variability affects wildfire frequency and behavior. They studied wildfire on scales ranging from local to ecoregional to global. In one study, researchers investigated the relationship between burn severity and climate across the globe based on prior observations (Study A, Abatzoglou et al. 2018). Similarly, researchers investigated the relationship between burn severity and climate based on prior observations, but this time with a focus on the western United States, where there has been an observed increase in catastrophic wildfires over recent years (Study B, Abatzoglou et al. 2017). In a related study, researchers trained their eyes on the future and the repercussions for fire weather globally as the climate continues to change (Study C, Abatzoglou et al. 2019).


We study the excess entropy and the corresponding non-gravitational feedback energy ($E_{feedback}$) in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) by considering a sample of 38 galaxy clusters using Chandra X-ray and NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS)/Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) radio observations. We find moderate correlation of the feedback energy and brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) radio luminosity ($L_R$) with the various cluster thermal properties. We show conclusively that the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is more effective in transferring feedback energy to the ICM in less massive clusters. We find that within $0.3r_{500}$, the feedback energy correlates with cluster temperature as $E_{feedback}\propto T_{obs}^{0.98\pm0.37}$. Moreover, for radio detected BCG sample we find that BCG radio luminosity at 1.4 GHz scales with gas mass as $L_R\propto m_{g,obs}^{ 1.76\pm0.71}$ and with X-ray luminosity as $L_R\propto L_{X,obs}^{0.94\pm0.35}$. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results with regard to feedback in clusters.


A comprehensive analysis to features of unit 650t/h Ship unloader for the gear winding drum of my corporation was did, and study of breakdown occurring when that was operated was also did. We used a new type of coupling, at the same time, improved structure of winding drum, standardized operation skills and enhanced measures to improve safety and reliability of the device.


'To a handful of individuals invested with the disproportionate powers conferred by totalitarian war, millions of Germans, Italians and French owe the devastation of beautiful historic towns, and thousands of families in enemy occupied countries the death, injury, or mental derangement of young, helpless, and cherished members. These memories alone of grief and unspeakable horror, are likely to prove an implacable obstacle to the building of a better world.' Vera Brittain, Seed of Chaos.

This study will seek to explain why the British Royal Air Force embarked on a policy of systematic destruction of German cities during the Second World War. The first chapters will focus on the origins of the policy of 'area' bombing, showing how the idea became popular after the German raids against British cities during the First World War, and the widespread feeling in the years thereafter that a more 'humane' form of warfare must replace the stalemate of the trenches. The second half of this study incorporates case studies to support an investigation of the various merits and failings of the tactic in operation. Hamburg, Nuremberg, D-Day and Dresden are considered in an attempt to address the second part of the question - why was the area bombing campaign continued until the end of the war? The later chapters will show how area bombing tactics evolved to remain effective and explore some less straightforward reasons for continuing the offensive including economics and civilian apathy. This topic has recently become very popular among historians and what follows is a brief review of the existing literature which was consulted during the preparation of this study.


In this paper we have analyzed the policies they have developed two major national parties in Spain, PP and PSOE, to bring women into political life, and achieve a balance between men and women. In this way, we can ascertain the real impact of the same and the role they have played so far in the matches under study, with the sole purpose of knowing this type of strategies have been a simple marketing campaign, or whether otherwise have gone further. This is really decided whether affirmative action is effective or not.


We present a deep convolutional GAN which leverages techniques from MP3/Vorbis audio compression to produce long, high-quality audio samples with long-range coherence. The model uses a Modified Discrete Cosine Transform (MDCT) data representation, which includes all phase information. Phase generation is hence integral part of the model. We leverage the auditory masking and psychoacoustic perception limit of the human ear to widen the true distribution and stabilize the training process. The model architecture is a deep 2D convolutional network, where each subsequent generator model block increases the resolution along the time axis and adds a higher octave along the frequency axis. The deeper layers are connected with all parts of the output and have the context of the full track. This enables generation of samples which exhibit long-range coherence. We use MP3net to create 95s stereo tracks with a 22kHz sample rate after training for 250h on a single Cloud TPUv2. An additional benefit of the CNN-based model architecture is that generation of new songs is almost instantaneous.


Mathematics for Visually Impaired Students (MATHVIS) is a researched and developed software application that is capable of uplifting the educational background of visually impaired students. This research focuses on providing access to education for all, including the visually impaired, using MATHVIS, which embraces game based learning methodology. The critical factor in the project is the use of sound to communicate with the visually impaired students. All voice instructions were provided along with soundtracks and a menu to enable selecting local languages such as Sinhala and English. The main emphasis of this paper is to discuss the current generation of MATHVIS, which has been extended in several ways, through intensive evaluation and testing. The evaluators selected from categories such as technical personnel, instructors and visually impaired students carried out in depth reviews of the application. This paper discusses the features of the application, evaluation carried out, the technology and learning pedagogy used to develop the application for visually impaired students. The paper also highlights how MATHVIS can be used to provide education for all, including the visually impaired.


During the last 25 years, monetary practice in most countries has increasingly been characterized by the attempt to achieve credibility of purpose while expanding the freedom of monetary authorities in controlling policy instruments. Thus, the world has moved toward monetary frameworks in which, through appropriate institutional devices, a better trade-off between credibility of goals and flexibility of instruments could be achieved. This attempt, surveyed in this paper, has taken many forms, depending on the countries economic, institutional, and cultural specificities.


Winter in the Arctic is not only cold and dark—it is also storm season, when hurricane-like Arctic cyclones traverse northern waters. Arctic cyclones predominantly occur in subpolar regions, around Iceland or the Aleutian Islands. Like all cyclones, Arctic cyclones are characterized by strong localized drops in sea level pressure. One expected consequence of global climate change is an Arctic-wide decrease in sea level pressure, which would serve to increase extreme Arctic cyclone activity, including powerful storms that can sometimes hit in the spring and fall.


Natural killer (NK) cells are capable of rapid and robust cytotoxicity, making them excellent tools for immunotherapy. However, their recalcitrance to standard transfection techniques has limited both mechanistic studies and clinical applications. Current approaches for NK cell manipulation rely on viral transduction or methods requiring NK cell activation, which can alter NK cell function. Here, we report that non-viral Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs) efficiently transfect primary human NK cells with mRNA without relying on NK cell activation. Compared to electroporation, CARTs transfect NK cells two orders of magnitude more efficiently, better preserve cell viability, and cause minimal reconfiguration of NK cell phenotype and function. Finally, we use CARTs to generate highly cytotoxic primary human chimeric antigen receptor NK cells, indicating potential therapeutic utility of this technique. To our knowledge, CARTs represent the first efficacious transfection technique for resting primary NK cells that preserves NK cell phenotype, and can drive new biological discoveries and clinical applications of this understudied lymphocyte subset.


This study focuses on understanding the relative effects of ammonium substituent groups (we primarily consider tetramethylammonium, benzyltrimethylammonium, and tetraethylammonium cations) and anion species (OH(-), HCO3(-), CO3(2-), Cl(-), and F(-)) on ion transport by combining experimental and computational approaches. We characterize transport experimentally using ionic conductivity and self-diffusion coefficients measured from NMR. These experimental results are interpreted using simulation methods to describe the transport of these cations and anions considering the effects of the counterion. It is particularly noteworthy that we directly probe cation and anion diffusion with pulsed gradient stimulated echo NMR and molecular dynamics simulations, corroborating these methods and providing a direct link between atomic-resolution simulations and macroscale experiments. By pairing diffusion measurements and simulations with residence times, we were able to understand the interplay between short-time and long-time dynamics with ionic conductivity. With experiment, we determined that solutions of benzyltrimethylammonium hydroxide have the highest ionic conductivity (0.26 S/cm at 65 °C), which appears to be due to differences for the ions in long-time diffusion and short-time water caging. We also examined the effect of CO2 on ionic conductivity in ammonium hydroxide solutions. CO2 readily reacts with OH(-) to form HCO(-)3 and is found to lower the solution ionic conductivity by almost 50%.


Although it is common in large Java programs to rethrow exceptions, existing exception-flow analyses find only single exception-flow links, thus are unable to identify multiple-link exception propagation paths. This paper presents a new static analysis that, when combined with previous exception-flow analyses, computes chains of semantically-related exception-flow links, and thus reports entire exception propagation paths, instead of just discrete segments of them. These chains can be used 1) to show the error handling architecture of a system, 2) to assess the vulnerability of a single component and the whole system, 3) to support better testing of error recovery code, and 4) to facilitate the tracing of the root cause of a logged problem. Empirical findings and a case history for Tomcat show that a significant portion of the chains found in our benchmarks span multiple components, and thus are hard to find manually.


This paper argues that the governance analytical framework (GAF) is a methodology having strong potential for investigation in social policy, particularly in the case of public health. It defines the concept of governance in a pragmatic way as being the processes of interactions between the actors involved in a public affair leading to decision-making or to formulating social norms. It is postulated that any society has governance processes and, unlike other approaches, that these can be observed and be analysed from a non-normative perspective. A methodology for analysing governance processes based on five main analytical units is presented here: problems/stakes, actors, norms, processes and nodal points. These logically articulated analytical units make up a coherent methodology aimed at being used as a tool for social policy research.


In a bid to improve the productive potentials of local turkeys in developing countries, a total of 240 unsexed day-old poults arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial layout into 4 treatments with two rearing systems (indoor and outdoor) and two plumage colours (white and black) were used for this study. Poults were brooded for 4 weeks followed by an acclimatization period of 2 weeks in the two different rearing systems before the commencement of the study which lasted 10 weeks. Each treatment consisting of 60 birds was further sub-divided into six replicates of 10 birds per replicate. Data obtained were subjected to Analysis of Variance in a Completely Randomized Design. Results on performance in the grower phase showed turkeys reared in indoor system recorded significantly (p<0.05) higher weight gain (29.39 vs. 105.19 g/bird/day) and daily feed intake (27.18 vs. 98.11 g/bird/day) compare to turkeys under outdoor system. In addition, weight gain was significantly (p<0.05) higher (29.16 g/bird/day) in turkeys with black plumage than (27.42 g/bird/day) recorded in turkeys with white plumage. However, in the finisher phase turkeys under outdoor system recorded significantly (p<0.05) higher weight gain than turkeys under indoor system. In the finisher phase, interaction effects showed best weight gain and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) (39.22 g/bird/day and 4.60) in whiteplumaged turkeys reared in outdoor system. Turkeys under outdoor system also had significantly (p<0.05) higher back and spleen percentages. However, proportions of thigh were significantly (p<0.05) higher in turkeys reared indoor. In addition, white-plumaged turkeys recorded significantly (p<0.05) higher (21.07%) cooking loss than 14.58% recorded in turkeys with black plumage. In conclusion, improved weight gain with best FCR at finisher phase as well as highest spleen portion and cooking loss in thigh meat was obtained in white-plumaged turkeys reared in outdoor system. Safiyu K.K. et al. Int. J. of Health, Animal science and Food safety 6 (2019) 01 -15 2


PURPOSE
Various types of urinary tract infection (UTI) occur in men. In this study we examined health care use trends, including epidemiological and economic factors, for UTI in men in the United States.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The analytical methods used to generate these results have been described previously.

RESULTS
Approximately 20% of all UTIs occur in men. Between 1988 and 1994 the overall lifetime prevalence of UTI was estimated to be 13,689/100,000 men. Orchitis rates, particularly in older men, are generally higher than those of cystitis or pyelonephritis. Approximately 10% of all inpatient care of men with UTI is for orchitis (12 to 14/100,000 population). Rates of outpatient hospital and physician office care for male UTI have increased in the last decade. Rates for emergency room care for UTI in elderly men (85 to 94 years old) were almost twice those in men younger than 85 years. The adjusted mean health care expenditure for privately insured men with UTI was 5,544 dollars in 1999 compared to 2,715 dollars for men without UTI. Total annual health care expenditures for men and women with UTI were 5,544 dollars and 5,407 dollars, respectively. Mean time lost from work was slightly higher for men. Based on composite data overall medical expenditures for men with UTI in the United States were estimated to be approximately 1.028 billion dollars in 2000.

CONCLUSIONS
Health care use and economic data on UTIs in men revealed a number of intriguing trends. These results raise various important questions for future research.


Background Nicotine is, to a large extent, responsible for smoking-mediated renal dysfunction. This study investigated nicotine's effects on renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis in vitro and it explored the mechanisms underlying its effects. Methods Human proximal tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells were treated with nicotine. Cell viability was examined by using the WST-1 assay. Intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) proteins were determined. The messenger ribonucleic acid and the protein expression associated with the nicotine acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in HK-2 cells was examined, and apoptosis was detected using flow cytometry, cell cycle analysis, and immunoblot analysis. Results The HK-2 cells were endowed with nAChRs. Nicotine treatment reduced cell viability dose dependently, increased ROS levels, and increased extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38 MAPK expression. Nicotine increased NF-κB activation, which was attenuated by N-acetyl-L-cysteine, and ERK and JNK inhibitors, but was not affected by a p38 MAPK inhibitor. Nicotine increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, which was attenuated by N-acetyl-L-cysteine, the NF-κB inhibitor, Bay 11–7082, and hexamethonium, a non-specific nAChR blocker. Flow cytometry revealed nicotine-induced G2/M phase arrest. While nicotine treatment increased the expression of phosphorylated cdc2 and histone H3, a marker of G2/M phase arrest, hexamethonium and Bay 11–7082 pretreatment reduced their expression. Conclusions Nicotine caused apoptosis in HK-2 cells by inducing ROS generation that activated the NF-κB signaling pathway via the MAPK pathway and it arrested the cell cycle at the G2/M phase. Nicotine-induced apoptosis in HK-2 cells involves the nAChRs.


The evermore widespread use of microscopic traffic simulationin the analysis of road systems has refocused attention onsub models, including car-following and lane-changing models.In this research a microscopic model is developed whichcombines car-following and lane-changing models and describesdriver behaviour as a crash risk reduction process ofdrivers. This model has been simulated by a cellular automatasimulator and compared with the real data. It has been shownthat there is no reason to consider the model invalid for drivers'behaviour in the basic segments of freeways in Iran, duringnot-congested conditions. Considering that uncertainty of positionof vehicles is caused by their acceleration or deceleration, aprobability function is calibrated for calculating the presenceprobability of vehicles in their feasible cells. Multiplying thepresence probability and impact of crash, crash risk of cells iscalculated. As an application of the model, it has been shownthat when difference between vehicles brake deceleration increases,the total crash risk increases.


Glycopeptides, peptides containing sugar β-amino acids, have significant impact on medicinal chemistry research and pharmaceutical industr. In 1956, the discovery of one classic glycopeptide, vancomycin, broke the dawn of a new age for antibacterial research. Employing glycopeptides for the therapeutic purposes used to be regarded as proposals. Owing largely to the recent improvements in separation practices, characterization techniques, synthetic methods, and biological research, these proposals have been transformed into ongoing research projects in many laboratories around the world. Previously known as antibiotics, glycopeptides have been used as chemotherapeutic, antiviral, antitubercular, antifungal, antiproliferative and apoptotic agents. Nowadays they are even considered for the development of HIV and cancer vaccines. While several of them are in clinical trials, it could be expected that in the near future, treatment regimen of such difficult diseases might be reformed accordingly. Many interesting preliminary results are being produced in this emerging area. As witnesses and practitioners in this exciting area, however, we notice that the related communication in public domain is still limited due to the relatively small number of researchers involved. Thus, we feel the necessity to compile a timely issue about the special topic "Advances in Therapeutic Glycopeptides", covering state-of-the-art research papers and expert reviews from this area. We are glad that Protein & Peptide Letters is willing to realize the idea with us. The opening paper of this issue by Dr. Voglmeir and coauthor discusses three types of PNGases in respect of their general properties and applications of the commercially available PNGases in glycopeptide and glycoprotein analysis. Dr. Liu and coauthors describe current techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and mass spectrometry (MS), for the characterization of glycoproteins, with a focus on available therapeutic glycoproteins. Next three papers discuss the synthetic chemistry of glycopeptides. Dr. Zhu and coauthor describe a facile synthesis of differently protected cystathionines by the reaction of γ-bromohomoalanine with cysteine derivatives in an ethyl acetate/water biphasic system. Dr. Chen et al. report a neoglycopeptides synthesis by aqueous Suzuki-Miyaura reaction between glycosyl boronic acid and iodopeptides. Dr. Zeng et al. developed a novel strategy to prepare glycopeptide-based molecular imaging and therapy agents using fluorine-rich (fluorous) technology. The following review by Dr. Li et al. outlines a sample of mAbs currently approved for cancer treatment by the FDA, as well as antibody platforms in the research pipeline and clinic that have been engineered for greater tumor penetration, binding, and therapy efficacy. The asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) is a high-capacity C-type lectin receptor expressed on mammalian hepatocytes. Research in this field is summarized by Dr. Lu, Dr. Yin and coauthors. Recent progresses of cationic polysomes and liposomes as effective non-viral delivery system via ASGPR are also presented by these authors. Proteoglycans (PGs), a core protein and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) chain, play important roles in amyloid-beta protein as well as tau processing, and have potential significance in Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapy. Next, Dr. Zeng and coworkers summarized recent advances of the chemistry and biology of glycopeptides with antibiotic activity. The last review of this issue by Dr. Ding and coworker provide the progress of PGs and GAGs in AD and their therapeutic implication. In summary, experts from different fields of therapeutic glycopeptides have showcased new results and expressed their opinions in this special thematic issue of Protein & Peptide Letters. As the guest editors, we wish that this diverse collection of valuable intellectual contributions will positively influence this emerging area and gain broad readership. At the end, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all authors and referees for their invaluable contribution to this issue. We would also like to extend our appreciation to Editor-in-Chief, Professor Ben M. Dunn and the staffs of Protein & Peptide Letters, especially Ms Rukhshanda Rehman, for their excellent support and for providing us with the opportunity to pursue this exciting project.


ABSTRACT The transfer of ermA and ermC genes, the two most common resistance determinants of erythromycin resistance, was studied with Luria-Bertani broth in the absence of additional Ca2+ or Mg2+ ions. Fifteen human and five poultry isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, which were resistant to erythromycin but carried different genetic markers for erythromycin resistance, were used for conjugation. Since both the donors (Amps-Tetr) and recipients (Ampr-Tets) were resistant to erythromycin, the transconjugants were initially picked up as ampicillin- and tetracycline-resistant colonies. The resistance transfer mechanisms of the chromosomally located erythromycin rRNA methylase geneermA and the plasmid-borne ermC gene were monitored by a multiplex PCR and gene-specific internal probing assay. Four groups of transconjugants, based upon the transfer of theermA and/or ermC gene, were distinguished from each other by the use of this method. Selective antibiotic screening revealed only one type of transconjugant that was resistant to ampicillin and tetracycline. A high frequency of transfer (4.5 × 10−3) was observed in all of the 23 transconjugants obtained, and the direction of tetracycline and erythromycin resistance marker transfer was determined to be from poultry to clinical isolates. The transfers of the ermA and ermC genes were via transposition and transformation, respectively.


Rock and gabion types of chute structures are used in many natural and artificial channels. The excess kinetic energy downstream of this structure is dissipated through hydraulic Jump. One type of the hydraulic jump is the B-jump. A B-jump is defined as the jump having the toe section located on a positively sloping upstream channel and the roller length end on a downstream horizontal channel. Determination of hydraulic jump characteristics such as the sequent depth ratio, jump length and roller length which occur at the roughened bed chute can help to design a safe and economic stilling basin. In this study, to estimate sequent depth ratio on the rough bed, using Buckingham theorem and incomplete self similarity theory a general non-dimensional relation was developed. Also general equations were developed for estimating jump and roller lengths. Then tests were conducted for a wide range of relative roughness, flow discharge and Froude numbers. The results showed that relative roughness could reduce the sequent depth ratio, jump length and roller length.


The power grid of today is both aging and congested, and utilities face new challenges that put at risk the grid's ability to provide reliable power to industries that are becoming increasingly dependent on electric power. As more fossil fuels are used and higher levels of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere, the effects of global warming are impossible to ignore: melting icecaps and increased precipitation, which inevitably lead to meteorological disasters. In order to resolve these issues, smart grids which expand the use of renewable energy sources and make the power system more intelligent are required. With the verification of smart grid technologies in the Jeju demonstration project, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has introduced 8 new smart grid technologies: intelligent transmission and distribution (T&D) system, distributed generation system, intelligent demand management system, T&D information and communication technology (ICT) system, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for loss reduction, smart grid (SG) integration platform, broadband communication and a light emitting diode (LED) control system with power line communication (PLC).


Abstract A new general optimal approach is presented, for those cases where one and multidimensional Fourier transforms are used for pattern recognition. It consists in using both the real and imaginary components of Fourier transform as features. The use of the power spectral density and phase spectrum is shown to be a specific case of this general approach. Specific examples demonstrating the proposed approach are presented. This dealt with the recognition of Gaussian stationary zero mean signal. A specific case using the short-time Fourier transform, where a different feature vector is optimal is presented. The gain of usage optimal feature vector is shown by using Fisher's criterion.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Improvement has been reported following intra-articular (i.a.) injection of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in several species. These observations have led to the use of i.a. MSCs in equine practice with little understanding of the mechanisms by which perceived improvement occurs.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the effect of i.a. allogeneic umbilical cord blood (CB-) derived MSCs using a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced synovitis model. We hypothesised that i.a. CB-MSCs would reduce the inflammatory response associated with LPS injection.

STUDY DESIGN
Randomised, blinded experimental study.

METHODS
Feasibility studies evaluated i.a. LPS or CB-MSCs alone into the tarsocrural joint. In the principal study, middle carpal joint synovitis was induced bilaterally with LPS and then CB-MSCs were injected into one middle carpal joint. Lameness, routine synovial fluid analysis, and synovial fluid biomarkers were evaluated at 0, 8, 24, 48 and 72 h.

RESULTS
LPS injection alone resulted in transient lameness and signs of inflammation. In joints untreated with LPS, injection of 30 million CB-MSCs resulted in mild synovitis that resolved without treatment. Mild (grade 1-2) lameness in the CB-MSC-treated limb was observed in 2 horses and severe lameness (grade 4) in the 3rd, 24 h post injection. Lameness did not correlate with synovitis induced by CB-MSC injection. Simultaneous injection of LPS and CB-MSCs resulted in significant reduction in synovial fluid total nucleated, neutrophil and mononuclear cell numbers compared with contralateral LPS-only joints. No difference was detected in other parameters associated with synovial fluid analysis or in synovial fluid biomarkers. The incidence of lameness was only different from baseline at 8 h, where horses were lame in CB-MSC limbs.

CONCLUSIONS
Allogeneic CB-MSCs reduced synovial fluid cell populations and stimulated mild self-limiting inflammation in the synovitis model. Continued evaluation of the effects of i.a. CB-MSC therapy on synovitis in horses is needed to evaluate anti- and proinflammatory properties of CB-MSCs. Immediate interests are dose, timing of treatment, and treatment frequency.


Anaerobic digestion processes offer several benefits over aerobic ones such as higher organic loading rates and energy production in the form of methane. Recently, production of valuable fermentation intermediates instead of methane has gained a significant interest due to low calorific value and storage difficulties of methane. Organic acids, which are produced via anaerobic fermentation, can be subsequently removed/recovered via separation processes such as solvent extraction, chemical precipitation, adsorption, and electrodialysis. Chemical precipitation is not feasible for the short-chain fatty acids due to their high solubility at varying pH values. Solvent extraction is feasible for organic acid removal, however yields highly polluted waste. Adsorption processes are expensive, non-specific and not as efficient as other separation techniques. Membrane processes such as electrodialysis seem to be the most promising separation technique for the organic acid removal, however, more research needs to be conducted on the optimization of electrodialytic processes to reduce problems such as polarization, membrane fouling, and back diffusion.


Given the key role played by honey bees in almost all terrestrial ecosystems, maintaining bee populations in adequate sanitary conditions is crucial for these essential pollinators to continue their work. From the beginning of the 21st century, beekeepers have reported a progressive increase in the overwintering mortality of honey bee colonies worldwide. Despite the failure to reach a consensus regarding the cause of this phenomenon, pathogens are thought to be strongly implicated. In the present work, we provide evidence of the negative effects of colony parasitization by Nosema spp. - primarily by N. ceranae- on the effectiveness of acaricide strips to treat Varroa destructor. The effectiveness of the Varroa mite strip treatment (Apivar(®) ) was greater in colonies in which Nosema spp. parasitization had been controlled. Several studies report that infection by Nosema spp. may affect the behaviour of worker bees. As the effectiveness of Varroa strip treatment depends on bees contacting the strips and their subsequent interaction within the colony, such behavioural and social alterations could interfere with the treatment and allow more severe effects to develop in the colonies infected by Nosema. These results should be considered when assessing acaricide treatments in field conditions due to the high prevalence of both pathogens worldwide.


Hierarchic Model of Consciousness, proposed in this work, is based on Hierarchic Theory of Matter and Field, developed by the author, its application to properties of water in microtubules (MT) and distant exchange electromagnetic interaction between MT. The evidence, based on our theory and Virial theorem, are considered, pointing to possibility of mesoscopic (intermediate between macroscopic and microscopic) molecular Bose condensation in any condensed matter. It is shown also, that conditions of nonlocality coincide with conditions of macroscopic Bose condensation, real in condensed matter and virtual in the Vacuum). In accordance to our Hierarchic Model of Consciousness (HMC), each specific kind of neuron ensembles excitation - corresponds to hierarchical system of three-dimensional (3D) standing waves of following interrelated kinds: thermal de Broglie waves (waves B), produced by anharmonic translations and librations of molecules;  electromagnetic (IR) waves; acoustic waves (thermal phonons) and vibro-gravitational waves. Corresponding complex hologram may be responsible not only for quantum neurodynamics regulation, but for morphogenetic field also.In our model we consider corresponding quantum collective excitations, resulted from coherent anharmonic translational and librational oscillations of water molecules in the hollow core of the microtubules. This water fraction is most organized and orchestrated fraction of condensed matter in cells. The mechanism suggested, needs the existence the following hierarchical stages of each elementary act of perception and memory, as a consequence of simultaneous excitation and depolarization of big enough number of interacting quantum mechanically and classically neurons, forming cooperative ensemble: 1.The change of the electric field tension in the neuron's body, as a result of membranes depolarization, 2.Opening the potential dependent Ca2+ channels and increasing the concentration of these ions in cytoplasm. Activation of Ca2+ -dependent protein gelsolin, which stimulate fast disassembly of actin filaments.


The National Cancer Nursing Education Project (EdCaN) suite of resources support integration of a nationally consistent approach to cancer care education and professional development of nurses at all levels of practice in a range of settings.


Radiosensitivity of male and female lymphocytes exposed to gamma radiation (60Co) in phase G0 of the mitotic cycle has been comparatively studied. The radiosensitivity was shown to be identical, within the limits of error, although with the recombination repair (the nonhomologous nature of X and Y chromosomes being taken into account) the number of chromosome aberrations in male cells must be 1.4 times larger than in female cells. This indicates an absence or (within the limits of error) an insignificant role of the recombination repair of double-strand DNA breaks.


relevant new data in the form of a national landslide inventory for Denmark. The new data collected and presented in the fills a gap in the European and international panorama of landslide mapping efforts and related resources. I commend collected data Abstract The abstract should focus strictly on the main topic of the article i.e. , the new national landslide inventory for Denmark. The abstract should address the content of the inventory, focusing on the method used to compile, validate, organize, and publish openly the new landslide information. Any other consideration on the global relevance of the landslide problem, the risk it poses, and the potential (future, and therefore currently not proven) use of the landslide information for different scopes, should be removed from the abstract.


Scytonemin is a 544-Da hydrophobic pigment that can absorb UV-A radiation. It is present in cyanobacterial sheaths and is thought to function as a UV protectant. In this study, scytonemin was purified from the terrestrial cyanobacterium Nostoc commune, and its radical-scavenging activity was characterized. The purified scytonemin quenched an organic radical in vitro and accounted for up to 10% of the total activity of an ethanol extract of N. commune. These results suggest that the extracellular UV-absorbing pigment scytonemin has multiple roles, functioning as a UV sunscreen and an antioxidant relevant to anhydrobiosis in N. commune.


Solar power being stochastic and asynchronous in nature, its integration with conventional power generation has so many challenges in damping of low-frequency oscillations. This study presents an investigation of low-frequency oscillation and damping of stochastic solar power integrated power system by a unified power flow controller (UPFC)-based dual optimal controller, which gains are optimised by a novel hybrid particle swarm optimisation and improved grey wolf optimiser. The dual controller simultaneously controls the modulation index of series and phase angle of shunt converters of UPFC, which co-operate with each other, optimising its efficacy and thereby implementing the advantages of both static synchronous series compensator and static synchronous compensator. A detailed Eigen value analysis has been performed with time domain simulations to study the damped oscillatory response of variable and random solar penetration with a power system along with the interaction of solar power with variable synchronous power generations. For a multi-machine system, a multi-input single output dual controller is proposed. A maximum sensor and time delay have been considered to design the controller providing a realistic approach. It is observed that random and heavy solar penetration has a more detrimental effect on system oscillations, which can be damped heavily with the proposed controller, in contrast to particle swarm optimisation, differential evolution, grey wolf optimiser, differential evolution particle swarm optimisation optimised lead-lag and dual controllers.


C57BL/6J naïve and immunized mice were intracorneally infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed to detect cathepsin gene expression and the results were further confirmed by immunoblot analysis. The enzymatic activities of cathepsins B, D and L were measured by peptidase assays. Immunohistochemical staining was carried out to localize the expression of the cathepsins. Cathepsins B, D and L were detected in the normal cornea by RT-PCR. A peptidase assay revealed activities of all three cathepsins under normal physiological conditions. In naïve mice, enzymatic activities of cathepsins B, D and L were all significantly enhanced when the corneas were infected with P. aeruginosa and the peak of the induction appeared around day 6 postinfection. Immunoblot analysis showed increased expression of cathepsins B, D and L. The infected corneal samples from immunized mice exhibited much lower induction of enzymatic activities compared to those from naïve mice. Immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of cathepsins in the normal cornea was restricted to the epithelial tissue while the induced expression of cathepsins was predominantly in the substantia propria. Our data revealed up-regulated enzymatic activities of cathepsins B, D and L in the naïve corneas infected with P. aeruginosa, which correlated well with the inflammatory response. Immunization of mice against P. aeruginosa attenuated the inducing effect on cathepsin expression caused by infection. The time sequence for induction of cathepsin proteins and enzymatic activities suggests a mechanism of host proteolytic degradation of the extracellular matrix resulting in corneal destruction after P. aeruginosa infection.


Shield measurements and four cycles of operating experience have shown the design and construction of radiation shields for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor and plant to be satisfactory. A number of minor shield deficiencies were found and corrected. Most of these were associated with interfaces between components, each of which was satisfactory by itself. Preliminary evaluation of the shield measurements indicates satisfactory agreement with design calculations. Operator doses to date have been quite small, especially when compared to light water reactor experience.


Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that inhibits beta cell function and promotes Fas-triggered apoptosis. IL-1beta is thought to act early in the initiation of the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells in type I diabetes. IL-1beta promotes beta cell impairment, in part, by activating NF-kappaB transcription factor-dependent signaling pathways. We have examined whether beta cells could be protected from the effects of IL-1beta by overexpressing an inhibitor of NF-kappaB activity, IkappaB, by adenoviral gene transfer to intact human islets in culture. Infection of islets with an adenoviral vector encoding a non-phosphorylatable, non-degradable variant of IkappaBalpha resulted in normal insulin responses to glucose in the presence of IL-1beta. Furthermore, nitric oxide production was prevented and, more importantly, Fas-triggered apoptosis was inhibited following IkappaBalpha gene transfer. These results suggest that blocking the NF-kappaB pathway might prevent cytokine-induced beta cell impairment as a means of facilitating islet transplantation.


Biomass burning, a form of disturbance in soil ecosystem, is frequently carried out in farmland after harvest in China, which has potential influence on soil biological properties. To study the short-term effects of biomass burning on soil ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA), a field investigation utilizing poplar branch (PB) and corn stalk (CS) as feedstock for experimental biomass burning was conducted in farmland in Yanqing County, Beijing, China (116°12'E, 40°25'N). The shifts in abundance and community composition of AOB and AOA were investigated utilizing real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cloning and sequencing approaches based on amoA genes. Striking increase in potential ammonia oxidation rate and abundance of soil AOA and AOB after fire were observed, as well as community composition of AOA. For AOB, little changes in diversity but significant shifts in relative abundance of different Clusters were observed after fire. Phylogenetic analyses of the amoA gene fragments showed that all AOB clones from different treatments were affiliated with Nitrosospira species and grouped into 5 clusters (3a, 3b, 3c, A and B). Most of the clones were almost evenly distributed in Cluster 3a, 3b, A and B before burning. However, domination in the clones by Cluster 3a was observed after fire. All AOA clones fell within Soil cluster (soil origin). Although Group 1.1b was found dominant in the obtained AOA clones in all the treatments, the relative abundance of clones belonging to Group 1.1b decreased after fire. These findings could be fundamental to improve our understanding of the effect of biomass burning on soil AOB and AOA in agricultural ecosystems.


This study was conducted to clarify the cause of another transformation of the mall, as its transformation not only requires movement (rambling) or encounters of people, but it also requires various intelligent manipulations, and pursues space layout for amenity. In other words, the process of transformation of the mall involves transformation from a space that avoids encounters with social members and ritualizes movement (rambling), into the space of rambling (movement) that encourages encounters with different social members, and the purchase of goods while taking a walk. The second step of the transformation requires various intelligent manipulations, and creates amenity. Also, this process of transformation is interpreted using the concept of Romedi Passini's Wayfinding Theory, Amos Rapoport's Space Transformation Theory, Christian Norberg-Schulz's Setting-into-work, and the Semiosis of C.S. Peirce or C. Morris. ie. This particular study aims to examine the flow and causes of transformation in shopping malls following the foregoing discussions, applying the concept of 'true character of things' put forward by Karl Popper. Based on these series of discussions, this study examines the symbolic value of commercial buildings along with postmodernism from a completely different perspective.


Melissa N. Stein's Measuring Manhood tackles the complex intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and their attendant "sciences" across a century of US history. While the burgeoning elds of ethnology and sexology were equally prominent in Europe during this period, her focus on the US speci es the ways in which American "racial scientists" and sexologists differed from their European counterparts, as their research was often used to justify or bolster nationspeci c cultural norms and legislation. The concept of masculinity was not simply a matter of "manhood" in the narrow sense, but carried with it a glut of other associations: humanity, civilization, citizenship, intelligence, morality, whiteness, cisgender heterosexuality, and middleclass restraint. Stein manages to convey the complexity and reciprocity of these constructions in each chapter with careful argumentation and ample examples. Stein, Melissa N. Measuring Manhood: Race and the Science of Masculinity, 1830–1934. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ISBN 978–0– 8166–7303–2. US List $27 (paperback) The publication of Measuring Manhood: Race and the Science of Masculinity, 1830–1934 seems almost prescient at this juncture in the history of the United States. The increased visibility of state violence against African Americans, the re-emergence and rise of white nationalism and identitarianism, and anxieties around immigration and citizenship over the last few years provide a contemporary backdrop for the book's historical investigation of race and masculinity in the US. Melissa N. Stein's Measuring Manhood tackles the complex intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and their attendant "sciences" across a century of US history. While the burgeoning elds of ethnology and sexology were equally prominent in Europe during this period, her focus on the US speci es the ways in which American "racial scientists" and sexologists differed from their European counterparts, as their research was often used to justify or bolster nation-speci c cultural norms and legislation—chattel slavery and lynching, for instance. Stein notes that the 1830s provide the ideal turning point at which to begin her investigation: during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, European scientists "increasingly looked to the newly formed United States of America as a perfect laboratory for their theories about race," while American science was simultaneously "coming into its own" (11). Although Europe had "long seen a booming scienti c literature on race dating back to the early modern period," (10) American ethnologists were respected in Europe, and the transatlantic exchange of ideas in uenced ethnological thinkers across both continents; US racial scientists thus had a signi cant impact on European theories of racial difference. It is within this "perfect laboratory" that Stein traces the developments of scienti c racism with extensive historical research, drawing on both primary and secondary sources to elucidate the constructions of normal and abnormal manhood. Nonetheless, as the socio-political landscape became more contentious, the axioms of ethnology evolved over time with racial scientists adapting their theories and ndings to respond to the changing positions of African Americans and women in US society. Importantly, Stein foregrounds the pervasiveness of gender and sexuality within racescience discourses and their temporal shifts. Despite the assumption that racial disparity constituted an exclusive focus for many ethnological scientists, questions of racial difference, sex, gender, and reproduction were often invoked—either implicitly or explicitly—to maintain arguments about the superiority of Anglo-Saxon men, and the concomitant inferiority of African Americans, women, other non-white Europeans, and immigrants. For these racial scientists and sexologists, then, the stakes of their investigations were to prove and naturalize the gendered and racial hierarchies (and, by extension, inequalities) that were being challenged at various points by abolitionists, suffragist movements, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and occasionally from within the discipline of ethnology itself. The concept of masculinity was therefore not simply a matter of "manhood" in the narrow sense, but carried with it a glut of other associations: humanity, civilization, citizenship, intelligence, morality, whiteness, cisgender heterosexuality, and middle-class restraint. Stein manages to convey the complexity and reciprocity of these constructions in each chapter with careful argumentation and ample examples. The book moves chronologically, with each chapter honing in on a prominent racial scientists or a speci c problem. However, even though different racial scientists' concerns and anxieties shifted over the century, the different chapters often bleed into each other, re ecting the intellectual continuity and overlaps among each of the gures discussed. In "Races of Men," Stein begins her exploration of racial science and masculinity with antebellum ethnology. This rst chapter presents the pioneers of US ethnology as preoccupied with the question of original unity or diversity; in other words, did the different races emerge from one common ancestor, or were they in fact separate species? As Stein demonstrates from this question, antebellum ethnologists were thus focused on less "sex-speci c characteristics" like bones and skin; however, their inquiries were not gender-neutral, with racial scientists positing the white male as the default subject, and conceptualizing race in terms of "male lineages and patriarchal destinies" (29). However, in the second chapter, "An Equal Beard for Equal Voting," Stein shows how Civil War racial scientists' continued use of the white male body as normative became more overtly gendered, with beards and body hair signaling white men's aptitude for both manhood and citizenship. Furthermore, the trope of the hypersexual black man was legitimized by ethnologists and physicians at this time—establishing the discourse of African-American masculinity as excessive and unruly. It is thus interesting that by the turn of the century, the "abnormality" of black sexuality becomes a foil to white sexuality in a different context—that of "inverts" and homosexuals. In Chapter 3, "Inverts, Perverts, and Primitives," Stein elucidates the links among sexology, racial thought, and class politics from roughly 1890 to the 1920s. Black, immigrant, and working-class sexualities were already seen as degenerate; homosexuality and non-normative gender expressions in these groups were to be expected (albeit deplored) and interpreted as a moral failing on the part of individuals. For middle-class whites, however, "inversion" was typically framed as congenital—an af iction that could not be helped, although it did contribute to "race suicide." (214) Stein then turns our attention back to the stereotyping of African American men as oversexed in the fourth chapter, "Unsexing the Race." Here she tackles debates around lynching and castration This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) License, unless otherwise noted. ISSN 2469-4053  Bio during the same period as the previous chapter, further demonstrating the overlaps between sexual and racial sciences. Moreover, she highlights the "intersection between science and the street," (219) as scienti c and public discourses on race, biological essentialism, and black hypersexuality were largely indistinguishable from one another. In the nal chapter, "Walter White, Scienti c Racism, and the NAACP Antilynching Campaign," Stein focuses on the work of NAACP leader Walter White in the late 1920s. White's Antilynching Campaign leveraged strategic relationships with white scientists to challenge the public discourse undergirded by racial science and biological determinism at a pivotal and transitional moment. However, it should be noted that Stein also includes instances of people who challenged these discourses throughout the book—drawing attention to the dissenting voices that have existed alongside the mainstreaming of ethnology since its inception. She underscores that while ethnological theories were often treated as cutting-edge science, contemporary critics also resisted the pseudoscience of ethnology. Furthermore, Stein's own tone performs a similar function at various points throughout the book. For example, ethnologist Samuel Cartwright compared the sleeping habits of African Americans to infants, arguing that both groups "instinctively" cover their faces while sleeping. Here Stein remarks that one "presumes that Cartwright must have traveled extensively and suffered considerable insomnia to have had the opportunity to witness enough babies and African Americans in slumber to declare face covering to be universal among both" (76– 77). Moments like these provide a much-needed undercutting of the apparent gravitas of ethnological theory and the litany of examples of white men's supposed intellectual superiority. This book would make a strong addition to syllabi in history, cultural studies, gender and women's studies, masculinity studies, and ethnic studies classes, as well as discussions of biopolitics and medical-scienti c discourses in the US. Stein's writing is engaging, vivid, and uncluttered. There is no dense theoretical labyrinth to navigate before encountering the crux of her research: the co-construction of race and masculinity over a century of US history. In this way, Measuring Manhood is convincing and thoroughly engrossing from the rst chapter to the last.