Brassica juncea has great application potential in phytoremediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soil because of its excellent Cd accumulating and high biomass. In this study, we compared the effects of Cd under 48 h and 7 d stress in roots of Brassica juncea using metabolite profiling. The results showed that many metabolic pathways and metabolites in Brassica juncea roots were altered significantly in response to Cd stress. We found that significant differences in levels of amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, flavonoids, alkaloids, and indoles were induced by Cd stress at different times, which played a pivotal role in the adaptation of Brassica juncea roots to Cd stress. Meanwhile, Brassica juncea roots could resist 48 h Cd stress by regulating the biosynthesis of amino acids, linoleic acid metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, glycerophospholipid metabolism, ABC transporters, arginine biosynthesis, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, and alpha-linolenic acid metabolism; however, they regulated alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, ABC transporters, and linoleic acid metabolism to resist 7 d Cd stress. A metabolomic expedition to the response of Brassica juncea to Cd stress will help to comprehend its tolerance and accumulation mechanisms of Cd.


By 2010, the population of the Jakarta Metropolitan Region had risen to 28 million, a rapid increase from 16 million in 1990. Urban areas are both the engines of economic and productivity growth and the centres of trade and innovation, so urbanization provides numerous opportunities for Jakarta and Indonesia as a whole. At the same time, rapid urbanization poses critical challenges, including those of job creation, urbanization of poverty, provision of social services, and environmental degradation. Without addressing these challenges in an integrated and coherent manner, urban areas risk becoming zones of inequality, misery, and degeneration. This paper analyzes trends in urbanization in Jakarta and details a number of policy initiatives aimed at supporting development and decent work in such areas as promotion of decent jobs, skills upgrading, and social protection.


High penetration of Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) into existing power grid can attribute complex issues as they are very sensitive to the grid faults. In addition, Fault Ride Through (FRT) is one of the main requirements of the grid code for integrating Wind Farms (WFs) into the power grid. In this work, to enhance the FRT capability of the DFIG based WFs, a Bridge-Type Flux Coupling Non-Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (BFC-NSFCL) is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed BFC-NSFCL is evaluated through performance comparison with that of the Bridge-Type Fault Current Limiter (BFCL) and Series Dynamic Braking Resistor (SDBR). Moreover, a dynamic nonlinear controller is also proposed for controlling the operation of the BFC-NSFCL. Extensive simulations are carried out in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment for both symmetrical and unsymmetrical temporary as well as permanent faults. Based on the simulation results and different numerical analysis, it is found that the proposed nonlinear controller based BFC-NSFCL is very effective in enhancing the FRT capability of the WF. Also, the BFC-NSFCL outperforms the conventional BFCL and SDBR by maintaining a near-seamless performance during various grid fault situations.


Let R be a commutative ring with unity. The notion of maximal non λ-subrings is introduced and studied. A ring R is called a maximal non λ-subring of a ring T if R ⊂ T is not a λ-extension, and for any ring S such that R ⊂ S ⊆ T, S ⊆ T is a λ-extension. We show that a maximal non λ-subring R of a field has at most two maximal ideals, and exactly two if R is integrally closed in the given field. A determination of when the classical D + M construction is a maximal non λ-domain is given. A necessary condition is given for decomposable rings to have a field which is a maximal non λ-subring. If R is a maximal non λ-subring of a field K , where R is integrally closed in K , then K is the quotient field of R and R is a Prüfer domain. The equivalence of a maximal non λ-domain and a maximal non valuation subring of a field is established under some conditions. We also discuss the number of overrings, chains of overrings, and the Krull dimension of maximal non λ-subrings of a field.


From 28 to 30 January 1992 measurements were carried out at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to compare the 1 V Josephson junction array voltage standard system of the NPL and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The voltages produced by the two systems were compared both directly and via a highly stable transfer standard and were found to differ by only (0.7+or-1.3) parts in 1010 (1 sigma type-A uncertainty). Comparisons using commercial Zener diode-based reference standards agreed within the limits imposed by the stability of the Zener standards.


The application of new mathematics using fuzzy logic has been successful in several areas of petroleum engineering. This paper reviews the state-of–the–art of fuzzy logic applied to reservoir evaluation, especially in the area of petrophysical properties prediction and lithofacies prediction from well logs. In this paper, we will also review some fuzzy methods that have been successfully applied to case studies. Besides using fuzzy logic in establishing the model itself, fuzzy logic is also used in some cases as pre–processing or post–processing tools. This paper will act as a guide for petroleum engineers to take advantage of these advanced technologies as well as those undertaking research in this field.


Objective: Saline infusion test (SIT) requires 2 l of isotonic saline for intravenous infusion over 4 h to suppress plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC). To shorten the procedure time and minimize the volume load, we study the performance of SIT at 1, 2 and 4 h for diagnosing primary aldosteronism. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. PAC was measured before and 1, 2 and 4 h after saline infusion at a rate of 500 ml/h in patients suspected to have primary aldosteronism. Primary aldosteronism was diagnosed based on 4 h PAC, adrenal imaging and/or adrenal venous sampling (AVS). Results: Of the 93 patients, 32 had primary aldosteronism. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the 1, 2 and 4 h PAC were not statistically different. All of the nonprimary aldosteronism group had a 1 h PAC lower than 15 ng/dl and all of the primary aldosteronism group had a 1 h PAC higher than 5 ng/dl. Nearly 30% of the nonprimary aldosteronism and primary aldosteronism groups had a 1 h PAC between 5 and 15 ng/dl (equivocal range) and could be discriminated by using percentage suppression of 1 h PAC from baseline. Using 1 h PAC of more than 15 ng/dl together with percentage suppression of 1 h PAC from baseline of less than 60 when 1 h PAC was 5–15 ng/dl, primary aldosteronism could be detected with a sensitivity of 93.7% and specificity of 96.7%. Conclusion: The 1 h SIT has a similar diagnostic performance to the standard SIT. Using 1 h PAC together with percentage suppression from baseline when 1 h PAC is equivocal, primary aldosteronism can be diagnosed with good accuracy.


The purpose of this study was to examine whether in vivo drug distribution to the brain can be reconstructed by integrating P-glycoprotein (P-gp)/mdr1a expression levels, P-gp in vitro activity, and drug unbound fractions in mouse plasma and brain. For 11 P-gp substrates, in vitro P-gp transport activities were determined by measuring transcellular transport across monolayers of mouse P-gp-transfected LLC-PK1 (L-mdr1a) and parental cells. P-gp expression amounts were determined by quantitative targeted absolute proteomics. Unbound drug fractions in plasma and brain were obtained from the literature and by measuring brain slice uptake, respectively. Brain-to-plasma concentration ratios (Kp brain) and its ratios between wild-type and mdr1a/1b(−/−) mice (Kp brain ratio) were obtained from the literature or determined by intravenous constant infusion. Unbound brain-to-plasma concentration ratios (Kp,uu,brain) were estimated from Kp brain and unbound fractions. Based on pharmacokinetic theory, Kp brain ratios were reconstructed from in vitro P-gp transport activities and P-gp expression amounts in L-mdr1a cells and mouse brain capillaries. All reconstructed Kp brain ratios were within a 1.6-fold range of observed values. Kp brain then was reconstructed from the reconstructed Kp brain ratios and unbound fractions. Kp,uu,brain was reconstructed as the reciprocal of the reconstructed Kp brain ratios. For quinidine, loperamide, risperidone, indinavir, dexamethasone, paclitaxel, verapamil, loratadine, and diazepam, the reconstructed Kp brain and Kp,uu,brain agreed with observed and estimated in vivo values within a 3-fold range, respectively. Thus, brain distributions of P-gp substrates can be reconstructed from P-gp expression levels, in vitro activity, and drug unbound fractions.


Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of antibiotic consumption on development of antimicrobial resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in University Clinical Center of Sarajevo. In our retrospective study Acinetobacter baumannii isolated in period from July 1st 2009 to December 31st 2012. Isolates were detected from different clinical samples including urine, wound swab, blood, bronchial aspirate and other samples which were collected from patients situated on various hospital wards. Clinical isolates belonged to one per patient in a given period of time. Results: Antimicrobial resistance was interpreted according to CLSI breakpoints. Consumption of antibiotics was analyzed according to recommendations of the ESAC-Net and current Acinetobacter baumannii classification. Pearson's correlation showed a positive correlation between gentamicin consumption and emerging of resistance (p = 0.023). Conclusion: Increase in the antimicrobial use was followed with an increase in resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates. Monitoring of antibiotic resistance and consumption is of a great importance in order to reduce the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistant organisms in the health care settings.


The objective of this study is to report two cases of foreign bodies in teats of cows with milk flow disorders. Foreign bodies and the causes of the milk flow disorders were diagnosed and treated by using teat endoscopy. In the first case, a teat dilator was found in the teat along with inflammation of the teat cistern lining. The milk flow disorder was caused by teat canal skin which had ruptured and inverted into the teat cistern. In the second case, a wax teat insert was found in the teat cistern. The milk flow disorder was caused by a narrowed inner opening of the teat canal. In both cases the milk from the affected quarters showed signs of subclinical mastitis. The foreign bodies were removed through the teat canal by using forceps. The causes of the milk flow disorders were treated surgically. Antibiotics were administered into the affected teats and a sterile silicone implant was inserted into the teat canal. The teat was bandaged and rested for several days. On re-examination four weeks later, milk flow and milk quality were significantly improved. Our findings indicate that the alterations in the teat canal area were the cause of the milk flow disorders rather than the foreign bodies. We conclude that in teats with milk flow disorders, a diagnosis should be made first and then a causal treatment initiated. Teat dilators and wax inserts without heads may slip into the teat and act as foreign bodies. Teat dilators may be deleterious to udder health.


As file systems reach the petabytes scale, users and administrators are increasingly interested in acquiring high-level analytical information for file management and analysis. Two particularly important tasks are the processing of aggregate and top-k queries which, unfortunately, cannot be quickly answered by hierarchical file systems such as ext3 and NTFS. Existing preprocessing-based solutions, e.g., file system crawling and index building, consume a significant amount of time and space (for generating and maintaining the indexes) which in many cases cannot be justified by the infrequent usage of such solutions. In this paper, we advocate that user interests can often be sufficiently satisfied by approximate-i.e., statistically accurate-answers. We develop Glance, a just-in-time sampling-based system which, after consuming a small number of disk accesses, is capable of producing extremely accurate answers for a broad class of aggregate and top-k queries over a file system without the requirement of any prior knowledge. We use a number of real-world file systems to demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy, and scalability of Glance.


The adaptive immune system has a protein called CARD11 that is critical for signaling in Tand B-lymphocytes. The protein transmits signals from antigen receptors to the transcription factor NFB. CARD11 is often mutated in a form of lymphoma. An autoinhibitory domain controls CARD11's signaling activity; when a receptor engages with CARD11, the autoinhibitory domain becomes phosphorylated and allows CARD11 to form a complex to relay signals to NFB. But researchers have been puzzled by the mutations that keep CARD11 permanently on because they often block the action of the autoinhibitory domain but do not seem to occur within the autoinhibitory domain itself. In these two Papers of the Week, a team led by Joel L. Pomerantz at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine demonstrated that the autoinhibitory domain of CARD11 does not function as a single unit. Instead, it has an array of four redundant repressive elements that cooperate through intramolecular interactions to keep CARD11 inactive when it is not engaged by a receptor. An element can be 11 to 53 residues long. CARD11 only becomes constitutively active when at least three of the repressive elements are disabled.


This one-year study investigated spatial and temporal variations in the abundance and biomass of the pink shrimp species, Farfantepenaeus paulensis and Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis, in the Conceição Lagoon, southern Brazil (September 2003–August 2004). The influence of salinity, water temperature, and rainfall on shrimp distribution was evaluated. Shrimps were caught monthly at three areas within the Conceição Lagoon (Canto, CA; Centro, CE; and Costa, CO). A total of 744 shrimps were sampled, with F. brasiliensis being the dominant species. The two penaeid species were present throughout the year and significant differences were observed between seasons, with F. paulensis being more abundant during the summer and F. brasiliensis in the autumn, suggesting differential migration timing to the sea, differences in recruitment time and an ontogenetic temporal partitioning. Farfantepenaeus paulensis exhibited a homogeneous spatial distribution, whereas F. brasiliensis was more abundant in CE and CO, suggesting that habitats in this coastal lagoon are heterogeneous. Among the abiotic factors, temperature and salinity seemed to be important variables in defining seasonal and spatial patterns, respectively, of the abundance of F. brasiliensis.


Author(s): Roth, Cassia Paigen | Advisor(s): Derby, Lauren; Summerhill, William R | Abstract: In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, women across the Americas experienced increased public scrutiny of their reproductive lives. Modernizing states began criminalizing practices like abortion, while urbanization, immigration, and changes in women's workforce participation pushed fertility control into the public consciousness. The Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro presents one crucial case study for understanding how the uneven process of modernization affected women's reproduction, and, in turn, how women negotiated these changes. Early-twentieth-century Brazil experienced a shift from familial to state patriarchy during which women's sexual honor—and reproduction—became public goods. During this time, the professionalization of obstetrics, changes in criminal law relating to abortion and infanticide, and the expansion of the city's police force intersected with the inadequate development of health services and continued poor reproductive health outcomes.This dissertation examines legal and medical policies towards women's reproductive lives under the 1890 Penal Code (1890-1940), which bridged Brazil's first foray into democratic governance (the First Republic, 1889-1930) and the early period of Get?lio Vargas's populist regime (1930-1937). It argues that women's reproductive lives became the object of increased state attention in post-abolition Rio de Janeiro. As the state began to take over patriarchal power from the family, women's reproductive capabilities—their ability to conceive and raise future citizens—became central to state formation processes. Fertility control—which allowed women to break with patriarchal understandings of women's proper sexual behavior, their gendered roles as mothers, and their subordination to male decision-making processes—was a direct threat to both individual and state patriarchy. In regards to reproduction, juridical-medical efforts to modernize Brazilian society worked in a paradoxical manner. The state intervened in women's reproduction through the surveillance of fertility control but did not expand obstetric services or improve reproductive health outcomes. Ultimately, the state created a culture of condemnation around poor women's pregnancy and childbirth that extended beyond elite discourses into the popular imagination. This project contends that state control over women's bodies clashed with the everyday embodied experience of poor reproductive health.


Introduction Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is among the most common adverse reactions following anaesthesia and surgery. Recent clinical studies have reported that the average incidence is about 30%, while in patients specifically undergoing neurosurgery, the incidence can be as great as 73%. Studies also suggest that its occurrence increases the risk of intracranial haematoma and haemorrhage. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intradermal thumbtack needle buried Neiguan (pericardium 6 (P6)) point therapy in the prevention of PONV in patients undergoing craniotomy under general anaesthesia. Methods and analysis This is a single-centre, three-arm, randomised controlled trial. 180 participants are randomly assigned to either an acupuncture, intradermal thumbtack needle or control group in a 1:1:1 ratio. The P6 of the acupuncture group is punctured at both sides perpendicularly to a depth of 20 mm. Needles are retained for 30 min and stimulated every 10 min to maintain the de qi. The therapy includes two treatments; the acupuncture is administered immediately after and 24 hours after surgery. For the intradermal thumbtack needle group, the intradermal thumbtack needle is quickly inserted into the skin and embedded at P6 acupoints bilaterally. Patients and their families are asked to press the needlepoint with the onset of nausea, vomiting, bloating, pain and other reported discomforts. The needle is replaced after 24 hours. The therapy is administered immediately after and 24 hours after surgery. For the control group, no intervention is carried out. The incidence of PONV within 48 hours after craniotomy across the three groups is observed. Other observations include: (1) assessment of nausea score (severity of nausea) and pain score (visual analogue scale) 0–2, 2–6, 6–24 and 24–48 hours after craniotomy under general anaesthesia; (2) assessment of total rescue antiemetic dosage 0–48 hours after craniotomy under general anaesthesia; (3) length of hospital stay and (4) patient satisfaction score with PONV management. We will perform all statistical analysis following the intention-to-treat principle. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval has been granted by the Bioethics Subcommittee of the West China Hospital, Sichuan University: the approval number is 2018 (number 231). Results will be expected to be published in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number ChiCTR1800017173


Political parties are official organizations created by people who have interests and goals to control the government, by placing their members in the government through an election mechanism. The election process is inseparable from political parties, because political parties can channel the aspirations of the people, where the people can participate in it and have a strong influence on the election. The main function of political parties is to seek power, gain power and maintain it. In the 2017 Musi Banyuasin Local Election, the pairs of Dodi Reza and Beni Hernedi were carried out by 11 (eleven) political parties namely PDIP, Golkar, Democrat, Hanura, Nasdem, and PKB. As the party supporting the pair Dodi Reza and Beni Hernedi in the 2017 Musi Banyuasin Regional Election, political parties should fight in giving victory to the candidate pair that they carry by carrying out the functions of political parties as well as possible. Issues that will be discussed in this study include how the function of political parties in winning sub-regional elections and how the functions of political parties supporting the pair Dodi Reza and Beni Hernedi are assessed from the results of votes in the 2017 Musi Banyuasin Regional Election.This type of research is field research, while the type of research is qualitative, where the research procedure produces a description, which describes and describes matters relating to the problem of the function of political parties. The rationale that the researchers used in this study is the framework of thinking from Miriam Budiardjo to explain the function of political parties. The results of this study indicate that the function of political parties carried out by the party supporting the pair Dodi Reza and Beni Hernedi has not run optimally, this is evident from the high level of abstentions in the Musi Banyuasin elections in 2017.


HUS and TTP have the same fundamental pathologic lesion, thrombotic microangiopathy, induced by many possible causes, all of which initially induce endothelial cell damage. This damage triggers a cascade of biochemical events that ultimately leads to the formation of thrombi in the microcirculation. HUS and TTP share hematologic and vascular abnormalities and are sometimes similar in their clinical manifestations, some authors believe they should be considered a single condition and be termed HUS/TTP. On the contrary, others consider that HUS could be defined as a disorder marked by microvascular lesions limited to the kidney, whereas TTP has generalized lesions. The causative factor(s) resulting in either HUS or TTP have not been completely elucidated, and further studies are required for precise differentiation between HUS and TTP.


This paper presents a SiGe BiCMOS transmitter for large bandwidth Polar Modulation and PWM signals. For flexibility, the transmitter presented in the paper has an externally controllable class of operation. Fabricated in a SiGe BiCMOS process (QUBIC4G), the measured saturated output power of the transmitter is 27 dBm and the measured PAE is 62%. It features an IMD3 of -30 dBc up to 25 dBm peak envelope power and fulfills the spectral mask for WLAN 802.11.a signals.


Objective: To translate, cross-culturally adapt and validate the content of the Treatment Summary and Survivorship Care Plan (TSSCP-S) for Brazilian breast cancer survivors.

Methods: Methodological, quantitative study performed according to the steps of translation, compatibility and back-translation, construction of consensus of opinions in a group of experts for content validation, according to the Delphi technique and user evaluation.

Results: The translated and cross-culturally adapted plan was evaluated by ten professionals, including nurses, physicians, psychologists, nutritionists and physical therapists with a degree, scientific production, knowledge and time working on the subject. Consensus was obtained in two rounds. The instrument presented a content validity coefficient of 83.3% in the second round of Delphi. In the evaluation of content, clarity, usefulness, cultural and socioecological responsiveness domains, agreement was 93.3%. The sociodemographic and clinical profile of users was heterogeneous, contributing to the necessary cultural adjustments, with a final consensus of 93.9%.

Conclusion: The care plan was translated into Brazilian Portuguese, cross-culturally adapted and its contents were validated considering national health policies.


— Research shows that consumers share different content in online and offline settings. In offline settings, consumers tend to communicate primarily rational content with strangers and emotional content with people they know. In addition, previous findings indicate that consumers in collectivistic cultures (interdependent self-construal) display more emotional content than consumers in individualistic cultures (independent self-construal). Our results reveal considerable differences between online and offline content of communications and differences according to the self-construal of Austrian and Thai consumers. Out of this, theoretical and managerial implications emerge.


We investigate the stability of a three spin state mixture of ultracold fermionic 6Li atoms over a range of magnetic fields encompassing three Feshbach resonances. For most field values, we attribute decay of the atomic population to three-body processes involving one atom from each spin state and find that the three-body loss coefficient varies by over 4 orders of magnitude. We observe high stability when at least two of the three scattering lengths are small, rapid loss near the Feshbach resonances, and two unexpected resonant loss features. At our highest fields, where all pairwise scattering lengths are approaching a_{t}=-2140a_{0}, we measure a three-body loss coefficient L_{3} approximately 5x10;{-22} cm;{6}/s and a trend toward lower decay rates for higher fields indicating that future studies of color superfluidity and trion formation in a SU(3) symmetric Fermi gas may be feasible.


Epilepsy and pregnancy registries have been operational for more than 10 years, have accrued considerable experience, and collected an impressive amount of data. As findings have been published, it has become important to understand how observations from the different registries are comparable, especially since their methodologies differ somewhat. In September 2008, representatives of the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register, the North American AED Pregnancy Registry (NAAPR), and the European and International Registry of Antiepileptic Drugs in Pregnancy (EURAP) met for a workshop. Their objectives were to exchange information on their methodologies and to discuss areas where harmonization might be possible. This report summarizes these discussions.


Given any digraph $D$ without loops or multiple arcs, there is a natural construction of a semigroup $\langle D\rangle$ of transformations. To every arc $(a,b)$ of $D$ is associated the idempotent transformation $(a\to b)$ mapping $a$ to $b$ and fixing all vertices other than $a$. The semigroup $\langle D\rangle$ is generated by the idempotent transformations $(a\to b)$ for all arcs $(a,b)$ of $D$.
In this paper, we consider the question of when there is a transformation in $\langle D\rangle$ containing a large cycle, and, for fixed $k\in \mathbb N$, we give a linear time algorithm to verify if $\langle D\rangle$ contains a transformation with a cycle of length $k$. We also classify those digraphs $D$ such that $\langle D\rangle$ has one of the following properties: inverse, completely regular, commutative, simple, 0-simple, a semilattice, a rectangular band, congruence-free, is $\mathscr{K}$-trivial or $\mathscr{K}$-universal where $\mathscr{K}$ is any of Green's $\mathscr{H}$-, $\mathscr{L}$-, $\mathscr{R}$-, or $\mathscr{J}$-relation, and when $\langle D\rangle$ has a left, right, or two-sided zero.


The synthesis of NFC technology accompanying mobile payment is a state-of-the-art resolution for payment users. In view of rapid development in electronic payment system there is rise in fraudulent activity in banking transactions associated with credit cards and card-not-present transaction. M-Commerce aid the consumers and helps to bestow real-time information in payment system. Due to the familiarization of m-commerce there is cogent increase in the number of fraudulent activities, emerging in billions of dollar loss every year worldwide. To absolute the security breaches, payment transactions could be confined by considering various parameters like user and device authentication, consumer behavior pattern, geolocation and velocity. In this paper we formally assay NFC-enabled mobile payment fraud detection ecosystem using score-based evaluation method. The fraud detection ecosystem will provide a solution based on transaction risk-modeling, scoring transaction, business rule-based, and cross-field referencing. The score-based evaluation method will analyze the transaction and reckon every transaction for fraud risk and take pertinent decision.


ABSTRACT The present work focuses on the problem of velocity and position estimation. A solution is presented for a class of oscillating systems in which position, velocity and acceleration are zero mean signals. The proposed scheme considers that the dynamic model of the system is unknown. Only noisy acceleration measurements, that may be contaminated by zero mean noise and constant bias, are considered to be available. The proposal uses the periodic nature of the signals obtaining finite-time estimations while tackling integration drift accumulation.


The design of high-performance servers has always been a challenging art. Now, server designers are being asked to explore a much larger design space as they consider multicore heterogeneous architecture and the limits of advancing silicon technology. Bringing automation to the early stages of design can enable more rapid and accurate trade-off analysis. In this paper, we introduce an Early Chip Planner which allows designers to rapidly analyze microarchitecture, physical and package design trade-offs for 2D and 3D VLSI chips and generates an attributed netlist to be carried on to the implementation stage. We also describe its use in planning a 3D special-purpose server processor.


In this paper, we propose a QP-free infeasible method without a penalty function and a filter for constrained nonlinear optimization problems. This iterative method is based on the solution of nonsmooth equations which are obtained by the multipliers and some NCP function for the KKT first-order optimality conditions. Locally, each iteration of this method can be viewed as a perturbation of a mixed Newton-quasi Newton iteration on both the primal and dual variables for the solution of the KKT optimality conditions. We do not use the a penalty function and a filter on line searches. This method is implementable and globally convergent. Without the second order correction we prove that the method has superlinear convergence rate under some mild conditions.


The preeminent objective of this paper is to ascertain the impact of financial statements on shareholders' investment decision making in Nigeria. We employed the use of well-structured questionnaire to elicit the perception of shareholders regarding the importance of financial statements for investment decision making and also their discernment of the adequacy of the content of financial statements. The two hypotheses formulated in the course of the study, were tested by the use of ANOVA test and the Likelihood Ratio Test, and otherwise referred to as G-test or maximum likelihood statistical significance test. The results of the empirical tests show that Stockholders do possess the requisite technical and professional skills to analyze IFRs financial Statement. And that Stakeholders in financial reporting in Nigeria do rely on the Financial Information disclosed in financial statements for investment decision making. We recommended inter alia that stakeholders should in addition to the accounting figures in the financial statement, compute ratio, trend and common size analysis in order to secure deeper information. Secondly, investors should not be unaware of the possibility of the use of creative accounting techniques by directors, in painting a distorted picture of the state of health of the reporting entities. Additionally, investors should be mindful of the fact that financial statements are historical in nature. Since the past do not always paint a perfect picture of the present or future, investors should in addition to financial statements analysis, investigate the internal and external environment of the reporting entities before arriving at a final investment decision.


Hazardous chemicals used in electronic and electrical consumer products can re-enter commerce when these products are recycled. The objectives of this study were to 1) identify the possible sources of unexpected chemicals and elements in consumer products, including the use of recycled E-waste plastics and 2) demonstrate bromine detection with nondestructive spectroscopy as an indicator of brominated flame retardants contaminating new products via recycled waste streams. More than 1500 consumer products of diverse types purchased in 2012-2014 were examined using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for correlations between bromine and other elements. New electronic products were much more likely than new non-electronics to contain greater than 1000 ppm bromine, consistent with intentionally added flame retardants, while non- electronic products were more likely to contain between 5 and 100 ppm bromine, suggesting unintentional contamination. A typical suite of elements present in E-waste was found in a majority of plastic products. Two product categories, vinyl floor tiles and beaded necklaces/garlands, were explored in more detail. Specific flame retardant chemicals in bead samples were identified by mass spectrometry and their distribution in beads was studied using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Five brominated chemicals typically used as flame retardants, including BDE-209, were identified in 50 of 50 Mardi Gras beads analyzed.


Among various image fusion methods, intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) technique is capable of quickly merging the massive volumes of data. For IKONOS imagery, IHS can yield satisfactory "spatial" enhancement but may introduce "spectral" distortion, appearing as a change in colors between compositions of resampled and fused multispectral bands. To solve this problem, a fast IHS fusion technique with spectral adjustment is presented. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can provide better performance than the original IHS method, both in processing speed and image quality.


Introduction Accurately determining the supply and demand of hospital beds for new admissions can help prevent adverse patient outcomes. Quantitative analysis of modern electronic medical record data can help predict supply and demand for unoccupied staffed hospital beds (SEDs) and aid in eliminating human approximations, standardizing daily work through concrete and objective data. The purpose of this study was to reduce variability and human error in predicting the number of SEDs needed. Methods In this study,the authors analyzed bed calculator data from a medium-sized, suburban medical center to evaluate the efficacy of a unique bed calculator prediction tool to determine the need for SEDs. The calculator aggregates multiple key reference factors available through the bed calculator system into a cohesive linear regression model. Results Compared with human estimation, the authors found that the bed calculator is able to predict the number of SEDs needed more effectively. That being said, there was no significant difference in the average boarding times pre- and postintervention, indicating that the bed calculator did not result in decreased boarding times for patients. Discussion These findings establish the efficacy of the bed calculator and its ability to align bed supply and demand. Because patient boarding times depend on the system's patient flow management, future studies should focus on how to improve various streams of communication and coordination.


Background The spectrum of foreign bodies is various based on specific environment and eating habits in each area. This study was designed to identify the type of foreign bodies, associated symptoms and management of children with ingestion or aspiration of objects. Materials and Methods This descriptive retrospective study reviewed the medical charts of all children under 18 years of age with suspected foreign body aspiration or ingestion who were admitted to Namazee Hospital affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences over a 5-year period from 2003 to 2018. The data recorded in the checklists were analyzed using SPSS software version 22.0. Results Over the fifteen-year study period, 369 children in the age range of 28 days to 18 years with FB ingestion or aspiration were included in this study. Of 264patients (43.9% girls, 56.1% boys) with a mean age of 3.73± 3.30 years who had referred with foreign body ingestion, an identifiable object was recognized in 245 (92.8%) patients. The most common ingested object was coin (40.9%) followed by disc batteries (15.9%). Foreign bodies had been aspirated in 105 patients (32% girls, 68% boys) with a mean age of 3.1± 2.8 years. The majority of the aspirated objects were seeds (28.6%). Conclusion This study showedthe most common ingested FBs were coin and is more commonly located in the esophagus; however, the common aspirated FBs were seeds and lodged preferentially in the right bronchial tree.


This dissertation explores the issue of tribal-state relations within the larger context of American Federalism. In order to do this, the dissertation considers the history of federal Indian policy and the nature of traditional notions of federalism. In addition, it analyzes the results of a survey sent to state Indian Affairs Offices in thirty eight states. The survey poses three basic categories of questions. The survey reveals a number of findings. First, the tribal-state relationship is often both qualitatively and quantitatively different from state to state. Second, state officials generally are optimistic about the future of the tribal-state relationship in their states. Third, a number of states are now engaging in the practice of state recognition of non-federally recognized tribes. Fourth, state governments use a variety of bureaucratic structures and arrangements to accomplish their tribal-state relationships. These findings are considered not only for their individual merits, but also in terms of their impacts upon American Federalism.


Beta-hemolytic group A streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes) is the most common bacterial agent associated with the upper respiratory tract infections in humans. The most frequently group A streptococcus-associated disease is pharyngitis. Males and females are equally affected by group A streptococcus. There is seasonal increase in the prevalence of group A streptococcus-associated pharyngitis. Streptococcal pharyngitis is most prevalent in winter and early spring with higher incidence of disease observed in crowded population such as school children. Early diagnosis and treatment of group A streptococcal pharyngitis has been shown to reduce the severity of symptoms and further complications such as rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis. The conventional methods used for identification of group A streptococci depend on isolation and identification of the organism on blood agar plates. These methods usually require 18-24 hours of incubation at 37 degrees C. Such delay in identifying the group A streptococcus has often made physicians to administer therapy without first disclosing the etiological agent. Development of immunologic tests, capable of detecting the group A streptococcal antigen directly from the throat swabs, produced rapid test results employed for better treatment of patients. STREP A test is a rapid immunochromatographic test for the detection of group A streptococci from throat swabs or culture. The accuracy of the test does not depend on the organism viability. Instead, group A strep antigen is extracted directly from the swab and identified using antibodies specific for the group A carbohydrates. We compared rapid test with conventional throat swab in 40 children, who met Centor criteria for streptococcal pharyngitis (absence of cough, high fever, purulent pharyngitis, enlarged and painful cervica lymph nodes). Overall congruence of rapid test and culture was 94%. Test is easy to perform and it is recommended as the first diagnostic test for management of children with streptococcal pharyngitis. In children with negative test, but with characteristics highly suggestive of streptococcal infection, throat culture should be performed.


The enormous increase in recent years in the amount of information available online has led to a renewed interest in a broad range of IR-related areas that go beyond plain document retrieval. Some of this new attention has fallen on a subset of IR tasks, in particular on entity retrieval tasks. This emerging area differs from traditional document retrieval in a number of ways. Entities are not represented directly (as retrievable units such as documents), and we need to identify them "indirectly" through occurrences in documents. This brings new, exciting challenges to the fields of Information Retrieval and Information Extraction. In this thesis we focus on one particular type of entity: people.


OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify variables that could predict the quality of gait in patients with transtrochanteric femoral fractures after treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hospitalized patients diagnosed with transtrochanteric femoral fractures were selected between September/2005 and August/2006 and followed-up for 6 months after the trauma date. An observational prospective study was conducted to assess the quality of gait 3 and 6 months after fracture in 31 patients (13 males and 18 females). The mean age was 76±2,7. RESULTS: Seven patients (22,6%) passed away during the follow-up period. The patients with associated fractures or with four or more co-morbidities showed a worse quality of gait after 6 months. Patients without orthopaedic complications or who got partial weight load prior to 30 days showed a better performance. CONCLUSION: The quantification of predictive gait indexes allows us to propose new treatment approaches consistently to the different realities showed by each group of patients.


Ordering the selection of training data using active learning can lead to improvements in learning efficiently from smaller corpora. We present an exploration of active learning approaches applied to three grounded language problems of varying complexity in order to analyze what methods are suitable for improving data efficiency in learning. We present a method for analyzing the complexity of data in this joint problem space, and report on how characteristics of the underlying task, along with design decisions such as feature selection and classification model, drive the results. We observe that representativeness, along with diversity, is crucial in selecting data samples.


Collaboration between departments is often needed to deliver high quality services to customers. Results of interviewing 27 managers from an engineering consulting firm and 43 employees of a utility company using the critical incident method- indicate that experimental findings on cooperation and competition generalize to organizational settings. Employees who believed their goals were cooperative interacted effectively, made progress on the task, and strengthened their work relationships. Employees also used the organization's tasks, rewards, and values to conclude that their goals were cooperative or competitive. Results identify major dimensions of interaction between departments and specify consequences of effective and ineffective collaboration between departments.


Can species richness and rarity be predicted from space? If satellite‐derived vegetation indices can provide us with accurate predictions of richness and rarity in an area, they can serve as an excellent tool in diversity and conservation research, especially in inaccessible areas. The increasing availability of high‐resolution satellite images is enabling us to study this question more carefully. We sampled plant richness and rarity in 34 quadrats (1000 m2) along an elevation gradient between 300 and 2200 m focusing on Mount Hermon as a case study. We then used 10 Landsat, Aster, and QuickBird satellite images ranging over several seasons, going up to very high resolutions, to examine the relationship between plant richness, rarity, and vegetation indices calculated from the images. We used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), one of the most commonly used vegetation indexes, which is strongly correlated to primary production both globally and locally (in more seasonal and in drier and/or colder environments that have wide ranges of NDVI values). All images showed a positive significant correlation between NDVI and both plant species richness and percentage tree cover (with R2 as high as 0.87 between NDVI and total plant richness and 0.89 for annual plant richness). The high resolution images enabled us to examine spatial heterogeneity in NDVI within our quadrats. Plant richness was significantly correlated with the standard deviation of NDVI values (but not with their coefficient of variation) within quadrats and between images. Contrary to richness, relative range size rarity was negatively correlated with NDVI in all images, this result being significant in most cases. Thus, given that they are validated by fieldwork, satellite‐derived indices can shed light on richness and even rarity patterns in mountains, many of which are important biodiversity centres.


Alkaline proteases are important group of enzymes because of their use in many industrial applications such as in detergent materials for the removal of the protein stains on clothes. The aim of this study is to investigate the kinetic parameters of the fermentation process inspected for alkaline protease production by using a localBacillus clausii. In this way, it is carried out under fed-batch operations of fermentation in erlyne. Designing full factorial is used for optimizing appetite composition for the three factors of sponge carbon glucose, yeast extract (organic nitrogen), salt solution (including K2HPO4, MgSO4.7H2O), and trace element solution (TES) each at two levels and designed by eight tests in total. All experiments were carried out in duplicates to decrease the possibility of errors occurring in the research. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the high coefficient of the determination (R2) value is 0.99, thus ensuring a significant adjustment of the suggested polynomial model with the experimental data. The results showed that protease production was controlled because of catabolic inhibition in the initial glucose concentration and the amount of enzyme activity which is important for protease production which increased in the end of the stationary phase that was often accompanied by sporulation phenomena. The results on comparison and inspection in batch cultures with glucose demonstrated that different values revealed that the alkaline protease was highly produced in a few hours after complete consumption of glucose. Also, mineral salts and yeast extract induce the protease production as increasing protease is a changing approach of bacteria catabolitic from development to extra cell enzyme production. Meanwhile, results showed that the detergent type do not have any effect on protease activity. Therefore, the production enzyme can be used as detergent powders.

 Key words: Alkaline protease, Bacillus clausii, fed-batch fermentation, sporulation, kinetic parameters, full factorial, detergent.


Introduction: ANGPTL3 has emerged as a key regulator of lipoprotein metabolism in humans. Loss-of-function mutations in both ANGPTL3 alleles cause familial combined hypolipidemia characterized by low plasma levels of triglycerides (TG), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), and LDL cholesterol (LDL-C). While known effects of ANGPTL3 in inhibiting lipoprotein lipase and endothelial lipase contribute to the low TG and HDL-C, respectively, the basis of the low LDL-C remains unclear. Our aim was to explore the role of ANGPTL3 in modulating the plasma LDL-C. Methods: We investigated the role using RNAi-mediated gene silencing in five mouse models and human hepatocytes. We validated the results by deleting ANGPTL3 gene using CRISPR genome editing system in human hepatocytes. Results: RNAi-mediated ANGPTL3 silencing in mouse livers resulted in very low TG, HDL-C and LDL-C, similar to the human phenotype. The effect was observed in WT and obese mice, while in hCETP-apolipoprotein (Apo) B-100 transgenic mice, the silencing decreased LDL-C and TG, but not HDL-C. In humanized mice model deficient in LDLR, ANGPTL3 silencing had minimum effect on LDL-C, suggesting the effect being linked to LDLR. This observation is supported by an additive effect on LDL-C between ANGPTL3 and PCSK9 siRNAs. ANGPTL3 gene deletion induced cellular TG and ApoB-100 accumulation with elevated LDLR and LDLR-related protein 1 expression. Consistent with this, ANGPTL3 deficiency by gene deletion and silencing reduced nascent ApoB-100 secretion and increased LDL/VLDL uptake. Conclusions: Reduced secretion and increased uptake of ApoB-containing lipoproteins may contribute to the low LDL-C observed in mice and humans with genetic ANGPTL3 deficiency.


Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a relatively common functional gastrointestinal disease with a disturbance of intestinal bacteria. Bile acids, gut microbiota, and the host have close and complex interactions, which play a central role in modulating host immune and metabolic homeostasis. Recent studies suggested that the bile acid–gut microbiota axis played a key role in the development of IBS patients. In order to investigate the role of bile acids in the pathogenesis of IBS and present potentially relevant clinical implications, we conducted a literature search on intestinal interactions between bile acid and gut microbiota. The intestinal crosstalk between bile acids and gut microbiota shapes the compositional and functional alterations in IBS, manifesting as gut microbial dysbiosis, disturbed bile acid pathway, and alteration of the microbial metabolites. Collaboratively, bile acid conducts the pathogenesis of IBS through the alterations of the farnesoid‐X receptor and G protein‐coupled receptor. Diagnostic markers and treatments targeting the bile acids and its receptor showed promising potential in the management of IBS. Bile acids and gut microbiota play a key role in the development of IBS and make attractive biomarkers for treatments. Individualized therapy aiming at bile acids and its receptor may provide significant diagnostic and requires further investigation.


Background: Obesity is associated with an increased risk for many chronic illnesses and disability. Objective: To assess the relationship between obesity and delayed return to work and workers' compensation claim costs for both minor and significant injuries. Method: There were 1107 workers who filed a workers' compensation claim with the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation in 2011 that were followed up to the end of the first quarter of 2014. Result: Adjusting for sex, age, marital status, and attorney involvement, the odds ratio of an obese versus normal weight claimant returning to work after a severe injury was 3.58 (95% confidence interval, 1.26 to 10.14) and claim expenses $100,000 or more, 3.19 (95% confidence interval, 1.18 to 8.62). Conclusions: Obesity was associated with increased time lost from work and costs among workers' compensation claimants sustaining severe, but not minor injuries.


The report gives results of a study to clarify the processes that control sulfur capture by dry sorbents injected directly into a pulverized-coal-fired system, and to develop methods for generalizing data from one test furnace to another and from test facilities to fired application. Most experiments were conducted in a 1 million Btu/hr down-fired furnace to determine the effects of: fuel type, sorbent type, injection location, peak flame temperature, SO/sub 2/ concentration, and burner zone stoichiometry. Conclusions of the study include: (1) the concentration of SO/sub 2/ in the natural-gas-fired tests had a slight effect on sulfur capture, increasing capture at Ca/S = 2 from 26% at 500 ppm to 40% at 3500 ppm SO/sub 2/; (2) the concentration of mineral matter in the system had a very strong impact on capture at all SO/sub 2/ concentrations and Ca/S ratios tested; (3) injecting the sorbent downstream from the main flame resulted in improved utilization in coal flames; and (4) the effect of sorbent type on capture with a given fuel was dependent on the firing conditions - including sorbent injection location and thermal conditions (the hydrated limes seemed to be most sensitive to thermal conditions and the Vicron limestone leastmore » sensitive). Dolomite gave the highest capture with all of the fuels tested.« less


Background Type I interferons have pleiotropic effects on host cells, including inhibiting telomerase in lymphocytes and antiviral activity. We tested the hypothesis that long-term interferon treatment would result in significant reduction in average telomere length in peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Methods/Principal Findings Using a flow cytometry-based telomere length assay on peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from the Hepatitis-C Antiviral Long-term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) study, we measured T cell telomere lengths at screening and at months 21 and 45 in 29 Hepatitis-C virus infected subjects. These subjects had failed to achieve a sustained virologic response following 24 weeks of pegylated-interferon-alpha plus ribavirin treatment and were subsequently randomized to either a no additional therapy group or a maintenance dose pegylated-IFNα group for an additional 3.5 years. Significant telomere loss in naïve T cells occurred in the first 21 months in the interferon-alpha group. Telomere losses were similar in both groups during the final two years. Expansion of CD8+CD45RA+CD57+ memory T cells and an inverse correlation of alanine aminotransferase levels with naïve CD8+ T cell telomere loss were observed in the control group but not in the interferon-alpha group. Telomere length at screening inversely correlated with Hepatitis-C viral load and body mass index. Conclusions/Significance Sustained interferon-alpha treatment increased telomere loss in naïve T cells, and inhibited the accumulation of T cell memory expansions. The durability of this effect and consequences for immune senescence need to be defined.


During the difficult years in an enslaved Serbia under Turkish rule, there were no favourable circumstances for the development of the psaltic art, and neither can one talk about any centre of psaltic art, something that might have been for the Serbs what the Great Church of Constantinople was for the Greeks. Church music was learnt only orally, and one can speak hardly at all about musical training during this period. On account of the lack of musical MSS, we cannot be sure which genre of ecclesiastical melody the Serbians brought with them to the cities of Sremski Karlovci, Szentendre, Komoran etc., or to the newly founded monasteries of Fruska Gora, which under the new circumstances would become centres for a renaissance of Serbian spirituality. The opinions of the first scholars of Serbian church music disagree when it comes to the origins of ecclesiastical melody before and just after the period of the great migrations. The majority of them, correctly, supported the idea that church music before the 18th century derived from the Byzantine tradition, with certain special characteristics deriving from the use of the Church Slavonic language. There existed also, nevertheless, the baseless opinion that before the uprooting there was a special Serbian melodic tradition, which one might have heard in Serbian churches and monasteries, since the so called Srbulje – liturgical books written in an older Serbian form of the Church Slavonic language – were used. However, later, and rather more analytical, studies of later Serbian church music proved its close relationship with the melodic tradition that was recorded using the New Method, something that confirms precisely the present author's opinion that we are dealing with a unified Orthodox psaltic tradition. The indisputable contribution of Greek teachers to the formation of Serbian psaltic music is confirmed by the surviving information concerning the first organized schools of Byzantine music, as well as from the Greek musical codices preserved in several places in Serbia, which were, as I shall demonstrate, certainly also used on the analogia by Serbian psaltai.


This study considers the crop production and economic implications of projected climate change on Turkish agricultural sector. The analysis is carried out using a paired biophysical and economic analysis focusing on five major crops in Turkey including, wheat, barley, corn, sunflower, and cotton. Results show that unde r climate change, crop yield changes are negatively affected by 3.8% to 10.1%. Economically total welfare decreases with producers' welfare increasing and consumers' being the losers. The total annual economic loss is $0.1 million, with producers gaining $0.1 m illion and consumers losing $0.2 million.


Background/Purpose: Exercise provides benefits to the body, include to the musculoskeletal function. The dose of exercise that exceeds the body's adaptability will cause the elevation of the body's cortisol through the Hypothalamus Piyuitary Adrenal (HPA) Axis. High level of glucocorticoids can disrupt the balance of the body functions resulting in pathologics, one of them is the bones. Previous study revealed that administration of glucocorticoids enhance the osteoclastogenesis by inhibiting osteoprotegerin, so that the resorption process increase, causes the decrease of bone density. Throughout our lives, the bones will experience the remodelling process, which is the formation process by osteoblasts and resorption by osteoclasts. In the process of formation, osteoblasts produce osteocalcin, whereas at the resorption, osteoclasts release Cross-linked Telopeptide (C-telopeptide). Based on the description above, research that describes the mechanism of decreased bone density due to high intensity exercise through the changes in levels of osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin and C-telopeptide, was conducted. Methods: The experimental animals used were 20 fenales rats (Rattus norvegicus strain Wistar), which is divided inti two groups, the control and the treatment group. The treatment group was given high intensity swimming exercise, with a load of 18% body of weight within 90% of the maximum time, performed two times per set with a frequency of 3 times per week, for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the experimental animals were anesthetized and the blood was drowned to examine the levels of osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin and c-telopeptide. Data were analyzed using t-2 free sample test (independent t-test) to determine differences between control and treatment groups and path analysis. Results: T-test result in this study showed a significant difference in the osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin and c-telopeptide (p<0,05). Path analysis results showed a correlation between increased high intensity exercise with decreased level of osteoprotegerin with the standardized direct effect -0.66; elevated levels of C-telopeptide with a value of -0.6733 standardized direct effect, and decreased level of osteocalcin with the standardized indirect effect -0.40. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the cahnges in levels ofosteoprotegerin, osteocalcin and C-telopeptide in bone density decreased due to high intensity exercise, in female rats (Rattus novergicus).


Abdominoplasty has evolved as a very effective and satisfactory procedure, especially when combined with liposuction and the repair of diastasis recti. However, local complications, including hematoma and seroma formation, flap necrosis, and hypertrophic scars, continue to plague this procedure. The authors present a relatively simple and reproducible technique that allows extensive liposuction in conjunction with abdominoplasty; they think this technique reduces the incidence of local complications. This technique, the use of progressive tension sutures, has been used in their practice for more than 15 years. A retrospective review of 65 consecutive abdominoplasty patients demonstrates a very low local complication rate when compared with historical controls. In this series of both full and modified abdominoplasty patients who were followed for an average of 18 months, the authors had no hematomas, seromas, or skin flap necrosis.


AIM
This study evaluates F-18-FDG PET of the thyroid in Graves' disease.

METHODS
Thirty patients were investigated the day before radioiodine therapy, 15 patients 3-10 days after radioiodine therapy. Twenty patients with cancer of the head or neck and normal thyroid function served as controls.

RESULTS
F-18-FDG uptake was higher in Graves' disease patients than in controls. Negative correlations of F-18-FDG uptake with half-life of radioiodine and absorbed radiation dose due to radioiodine therapy were found along with a positive correlation to autoantibody levels.

CONCLUSION
Thus F-18-FDG PET is likely to give information on the biological activity of Graves' disease as well as on early radiation effects.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy can be diagnosed with confidence before it is clinically apparent, and excluded with certainty where it may have seemed clinically obvious. This has been made possible by the demonstration of a grossly raised level of serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) (Ebashi et al., 1959; Dreyfus, Schapira, and Demos, 1960). Highest levels (up to 100 times normal) are found early in the disease and tend to decline with age and progressive loss of muscle bulk, though remaining raised. A peak is probably reached at about 1-2 years, but high levels are already present soon after birth. Heyck, Laudahn, and Carsten (1966) recorded a high level of CPK (and other enzymes) in an infant 9 days of age from a family at risk, but no one has yet documented a raised enzyme level in the cord blood of a proven case of Duchenne dystrophy. Diagnosis can be further confirmed, even in the preclinical stage, by electromyography and muscle biopsy. A grossly raised CPK by itself is no index of severity or prognosis, since equally high levels can occur in the milder X-linked Becker type of dystrophy. In families at risk for Duchenne dystrophy early diagnosis can thus be made or excluded in male infants. Zellweger and Antonik (1975) have recently carried this a stage further by suggesting a screening programme for all newborn male infants. This may seem meddlesome in a condition where no effective treatment is available, and earlier diagnosis may simply prolong the parental agony, but Zeliweger and Antonik argue that it is justified on two grounds-the prevention of further cases in the family by genetic counselling, and the early institution of 'supportive therapy'. Such a screening programme would depend on a simple and reliable method for assessing CPK on either cord blood or a capillary sample from the newborn infant. One of the problems that has bedevilled the whole standardization of CPK in relation to clinical diagnosis has been the large number of different methods for the assay, with widely varying degrees of reliability. This has been further compounded in recent years by the proliferation of prepacked 'kits'. Two of the most widely used and reliable methods have been those of Hughes (1962) and Rosalki (1967). Another problem is the different range of normal levels in the newborn, compared with older children. In a study of 95 cord blood samples, Griffiths (1968), using the method of Ennor and Rosenberg (1954), found levels about three times higher (both the median and 95th centile) than that of older children and thought that in view of the overlap to within the dystrophic range, assay of cord blood was unlikely to be a useful method of detecting preclinical cases of muscular dystrophy. Griffiths found no apparent correlation of the CPK levels with obstetrical complications or fetal hypoxia, whereas Rudolph and Gross (1966) had observed a striking influence of perinatal factors on the CPK level. They undertook serial studies on 31 mothers (venous) and infants (venous and/or capillary) and on an additional 32 isolated infants, using the method of Tanzer and Gilvarg (1959). There was no correlation between the individual maternal and neonatal CPK levels and the infants showed a wider range than the mothers and a consistently higher mean level at each time period tested. There was a peak level in the infants at 24 hours. Capillary samples were on average about 10% lower than the parallel venous samples taken in 10 infants. The level at 24 hours was significantly higher in uncomplicated vertex deliveries than in those born by uncomplicated caesarean section, and a considerable rise was found after breech delivery, secondary uterine inertia with oxytocin stimulation, or emergency caesarean section after a trial of labour. There was no correlation between CPK and oneminute Apgar score, suggesting that the rise probably reflects perinatal muscle trauma rather than any other mechanism. Bodensteiner and Zellweger (1971), using a modification of the Hughes method, found a consistently raised CPK in normal neonates and infants, with a peak during the first 24 hours, but remaining slightly above adult levels throughout the first year of life. Like Rudolph and Gross (1966), they also


Cancer treatments adversely affect cognition in general and memory in particular. The current study focused on developing and investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of a group program for breast cancer survivors suffering from cognitive problems post cancer treatment. This intervention was designed to provide participants with specific memory and stress-reducing strategies. Three breast cancer survivors participated in this program, which included five 2-hour weekly sessions and one 1-hour follow-up session 1 month later. Assessment included self-report and objective measures. No statistical analyses were performed: all presented results are descriptive. The data hint that the intervention is associated with enhanced quality of life, satisfaction with memory abilities, and some increases in both the quality and quantity of effective memory and stress-reducing strategies of participants. Although the intervention is feasible, there were challenges to recruitment. Further research regarding content and delivery methods for cognitive interventions for breast cancer survivors is warranted.


From year to year some of us, people of planet Earth, Earthlings, attacks intensify on the veto right in the UN Security Council. They consciously or unconsciously ignore its metaphisical, ontological and existential statuses established in 1945 by the founders of the United Nations as a result of the multimillion sacrificial struggle of all Humanity against nazism. Perhaps this is due to a misunderstanding of the metaphysics of international relations, the enduring existential significance of the veto for the viability of the entire UN system in the nuclear-ecological information era, or because of the veiled, formal-procedural veto status enshrined in the UN Charter. The authors of the attacks substantiate their conclusions by the "non-democracy", "ineffectiveness" of the UN Security Council, "unfair privileges" of the five permanent members of the Security Council ("P1945"), a significant increase in the number of UN member states after 1945, the fate of the League of Nations, "geopolitical realities". According to the attackers, the veto in the UN Security Council makes the decision-making process "unequal and abortive", which does not contribute to maintaining peace and preventing civil wars, genocide, violation of human rights and aggression in international relations. Some politicians and experts propose not only to limit the veto right of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, but to completely deprive them of this right, which, as we know, are nuclear powers and bear the main responsibility for international security, the preservation of peace and life itself on planet Earth. Taking into account 75-years experience in the use of the veto right in the UN Security Council, with the aim of strengthening the historical, metaphysical, existential and procedural-legal significance of the veto right, its fundamental role in resolving the most complex international problems in the context of the constantly increasing threats and risks of our times during the reform of the UN Security Council with the increased number of members of the Security Council, the UN Charter must establish two essential levels of the veto right: 1. Absolute (unconditional, eternal) veto — "VETO1945": 2. Conditional (limited) veto.


This paper formulates a theory of collusion with learning-by-doing and multiproduct competition and tests it with data from an explicit cartel. The model shows that collusion is harder to sustain on a new product generation, where learning is high, than an old generation, where learning is low. Collusion on the old generation shifts demand toward the new generation, raising its output. Empirical analysis exploits variation between cartelization and competition in the DRAM market to identify counterfactual quantities and prices. Consistent with the model, cartel firms cut output of older generations by up to 50% and increased output of newer generations manifold.


Invasion of tumour cells into the normal brain is one of the major reasons of treatment failure for gliomas. Although there is a good understanding of the molecular and cellular processes that occur during this invasion, it is not possible to detect the extent of the tumour with conventional imaging. However, there is an understanding that the degree of invasion differs with individual tumours, and yet they are all treated the same. Newer imaging techniques that probe the pathological changes within tumours may be suitable biomarkers for invasion. Imaging methods are now available that can detect subtle changes in white matter organisation (diffusion tensor imaging), tumour metabolism and cellular proliferation (using MR spectroscopy and positron emission tomography) occurring in regions of tumour that cannot be detected by conventional imaging. The role of such biomarkers of invasion should allow better delineation of tumour margins, which should improve treatment planning (especially surgery and radiotherapy) and provide information on the invasiveness of an individual tumour to help select the most appropriate therapy and help stratify patients for clinical trials.


In this paper we introduce a new algorithm for image and video texture synthesis. In our approach, patch regions from a sample image or video are transformed and copied to the output and then stitched together along optimal seams to generate a new (and typically larger) output. In contrast to other techniques, the size of the patch is not chosen a-priori, but instead a graph cut technique is used to determine the optimal patch region for any given offset between the input and output texture. Unlike dynamic programming, our graph cut technique for seam optimization is applicable in any dimension. We specifically explore it in 2D and 3D to perform video texture synthesis in addition to regular image synthesis. We present approximative offset search techniques that work well in conjunction with the presented patch size optimization. We show results for synthesizing regular, random, and natural images and videos. We also demonstrate how this method can be used to interactively merge different images to generate new scenes.


The term 'off‐label use' is generally taken to mean the prescription of a drug without approved official authorization. The present article deals with ethical problems associated with the off‐label use of antipsychotic drugs for the treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in Japan. Before the introduction of the Law of Protection of Private Information, the off‐label use of antipsychotics was an almost open secret in Japan. Indeed, users of mental health care make strong requests that they receive the best and newest treatment available. Here, a huge gap exists between what psychiatrists consider 'best' and what the health service authority approves. For the sake of patients' interest, psychiatrists cannot help prescribing a drug for an unapproved indication or in a dose outside the usual range, otherwise they are unable to effect a therapeutic outcome. Although thioridazine and vegetamin are officially approved for the treatment of geriatric psychosis in Japan, they are not used commonly compared with atypical neuroleptics. Clinicians' preference for atypical agents over conventional neuroleptics is based on ethical motivation regarding the safe use of the drug rather than profitability. The failure to follow the information on the drug label should not necessarily preclude a psychiatrist from making a good clinical judgment in the interest of the patient. Even so, the psychiatrist should be aware that the patient retains the right to redress for possible medical malpractice. Japanese psychiatrists should take into account the evidence concerning the effectiveness of the drug for any unlicensed indication when they prescribe it off‐label. They should also inform patients of the fact that the prescription is off‐label and of any risks and benefits involved in the prescription of that particular drug. Whenever there is evidence of benefit, a trial of the drug should always be performed under careful clinical monitoring.


ABSTRACT If companies rely strongly on internal R&D and existing networks their ability to introduce radical innovations may suffer. Opening up to new idea sources may provide a solution. Incumbent companies, however, often suffer from the tendency to reject radical ideas from unusual sources. This study investigates how social integration mechanisms (SIMs; coordination, socialisation, and systems mechanisms) influence an incumbent steel company's absorptive capacity (AC). A micro-level analysis of two radical ideas from unusual sources contributes to AC and radical innovation literatures by exploring relationships between SIMs and four AC capabilities (acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation). The findings suggest that AC capabilities are context-specific with respect to innovation novelty and idea source. The results emphasise the negative sides of socialisation and formalisation mechanisms, and the positive effects of coordination mechanisms on the AC capabilities in such high uncertainty contexts.


Recently issues about cyber-war have gained relevant attention, especially because of gravity of damages that could be caused by cyber attacks to strategic targets, mining security of citizens. Examples of targets might include national civil and military airports, command and control systems of civil and military transportation means electronic military systems for national defense, national infrastructures for water and electricity distribution, industries and also hospitals or firefighters informatics systems. The risk of cyber attacks for the mentioned systems and infrastructures has grown because of the introduction of general-purpose and open (not proprietary)communication protocols, widely interconnecting systems and services. With this regard, it is of great importance the problem of evaluating the impact that cyber attacks could generate and to select effective countermeasures to protect military and civil heterogeneous and interconnected systems. In this paper the Mixed Holistic Reductionist (MHR) model is proposed as a conceptual methodology to evaluate the impact of a set of cyber attacks to military and civil infrastructures of strategic interest. The reductionist approach allows modeling of heterogeneous systems using the simplest elements and then coming to assess the interaction of basic components. The holistic paradigm instead allows to analyze complex systems by evaluating their behavior in complex and thus as a monolithic unit. This model allows combining the holistic method with the reductionist, trying to maintain the benefits of both paradigms. The two methods are linked together through an additional layer which is an intermediate level of abstraction, usually represented by the services of any infrastructure. Services are defined as logical objects, in order to obtain useful functionality to the customer, or other infrastructure. The validity of MHR model has been already tested within the context of Critical Infrastructure protection. In particular, it has been implemented in CISIA, a system-interdependency simulator, developed by "Roma Tre"University. In this work, the effectiveness of the model is studied with regard to government infrastructure protection from cyber attacks and, with this regard, an explicative case study is presented.


Diabetic wounds are instantaneously prone to the bacterial infections that can delay healing process. An efficient wound dressing material is critical to a fast healing of wounds in diabetic patients. The present study focuses on the synthesis of the yeast extract (YE)-immobilized and copper (Cu) nanoparticle (NP)-dispersed carbon nanofibers (CNFs) as a potential diabetic wound dressing material. The biological assays, namely, platelet aggregation, hemolysis, cells viability, and proliferation of macrophage cells show the prepared biomaterial to be noncytotoxic. Chemical tests performed on the material show a significant consumption of glucose, whereas the antibacterial tests show the material to be efficiently inhibiting the E. coli and S. aureus strains, ascribed to the antibacterial characteristics of the immobilized YE and the dispersed Cu-NPs, respectively, in the CNFs. To analyze the in vivo wound healing property, a 1 cm circular full thickness skin wound was created in diabetic Wistar rats. The wounds with dressings showed enhanced healing rate compared to those in the control animals (without dressing). Maximum healing (wound closure) was observed in the Cu-CNF-YE (95%) group, followed by Cu-CNF (94%), activated carbon micronanofibers (ACF-CNF) (87%), and control animals with only 74% healing. The method of preparing Cu-CNF-YE metal-enzyme-fabric described in this study is facile, and the composite can be applied as an effective dressing material for diabetic wounds.


Deep learning methods for image quality assessment (IQA) are limited due to the small size of existing datasets. Extensive datasets require substantial resources both for generating publishable content and annotating it accurately. We present a systematic and scalable approach to creating KonIQ-10k, the largest IQA dataset to date, consisting of 10,073 quality scored images. It is the first in-the-wild database aiming for ecological validity, concerning the authenticity of distortions, the diversity of content, and quality-related indicators. Through the use of crowdsourcing, we obtained 1.2 million reliable quality ratings from 1,459 crowd workers, paving the way for more general IQA models. We propose a novel, deep learning model (KonCept512), to show an excellent generalization beyond the test set (0.921 SROCC), to the current state-of-the-art database LIVE-in-the-Wild (0.825 SROCC). The model derives its core performance from the InceptionResNet architecture, being trained at a higher resolution than previous models ( $512\times 384$ ). Correlation analysis shows that KonCept512 performs similar to having 9 subjective scores for each test image.


Abstract Trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) are chemical compounds which pose a serious threat for human health. Their specific properties make it possible that these substances may linger in soil and water for many years. These are the reasons why wells with water designed for drinking purposes have been subject of monitoring since 2006. This paper presents the results of monitoring research conducted in the soil-water environment within the framework in third phase of an ecological audit of land. The ecological audit of land made it possible to identify the cause and degree of the degradation, and helped formulate rationale for remedy decisions pertaining to the land (remediation/reclamation). The objective of the paper was to determine the pollution status of the soil-water environment and, subsequently, monitor (in years 2008-2010) the contents of the hazardous substances, namely trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene, within the area of the potential impact of metallurgical plant located in borders of the Main Underground Water Reservoir Wierzbica-Ostrowiec (GZWP 420) in in voivodeship Świętokrzyskie.


The paper is devoted to the study of asymptotic behavior of solutions for nonlocal elliptic problems in weighted spaces. We deal with the most difficult case when the support of nonlocal terms intersects with boundary of a plane bounded domain. In this situation, a general form of the asymptotics is investigated, and coefficients in the asymptotics are calculated.


Background: Cardiac biomarkers play a major role in the identification of patients at risk of early death in AL amyloidosis, and a staging system based on amino-terminal pro-natriuretic peptide type-B (NT-proBNP) and troponins (cTn) is used for prognostic stratification. Adrenomedullin is produced by several tissues including the heart, and portends a poor prognosis in heart diseases. We investigated the ability of midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) to predict early death in AL amyloidosis. Methods: One-hundred and thirty consecutive patients with newly-diagnosed AL amyloidosis were prospectively enrolled. The impact on survival of NT-proBNP, cTnI and MR-proADM was evaluated. Results: The concentration of MR-proADM correlated with systolic and diastolic function, but did not reflect the amount of amyloid deposited in the heart. Moreover, MR-proADM was associated with non-cardiac markers of advanced disease. The staging system based on NT-proBNP and cTnI identified high-risk subjects, but could not discriminate good-risk and intermediate-risk patients. Conversely, a staging system based on MR-proADM and cTnI identified 3 groups with significantly different survivals. Conclusions: Midregional-proADM is a powerful prognostic marker in AL amyloidosis, which may not only reflect cardiac dysfunction but also widespread systemic disease, and can be combined with cTn for detecting patients at risk of early death.


We describe a child with onset of command auditory hallucinations and behavioral regression at 6 yr of age in the context of longer standing selective mutism, aggression, and mild motor delays. His genetic evaluation included chromosomal microarray analysis and whole-exome sequencing. Sequencing revealed a previously unreported heterozygous de novo mutation c.385G>A in ATP1A3, predicted to result in a p.V129M amino acid change. This gene codes for a neuron-specific isoform of the catalytic α-subunit of the ATP-dependent transmembrane sodium–potassium pump. Heterozygous mutations in this gene have been reported as causing both sporadic and inherited forms of alternating hemiplegia of childhood and rapid-onset dystonia parkinsonism. We discuss the literature on phenotypes associated with known variants in ATP1A3, examine past functional studies of the role of ATP1A3 in neuronal function, and describe a novel clinical presentation associated with mutation of this gene.


Analysis of existing environmental conditions in certain area represents the basis of its further protection, quality improvement and planning of future activities according to sustainable development, potentials and weaknesses of that area and certain needs of local population. There are few different sources of environmental pollution in the municipality of Loznica, and some of them have "important" influences on closer or wider environment. This paper represents environmental state according to conditions of separate elements (air, water, soil), problems of noise and waste, and in the end proposes certain mitigation measures. Also, this work shows categorization of the environment from the "pollution" point of view and indicates spaces that could be imperiled in coming period.


In order to follow the changes which occur in tumours during treatment with radiation, and the effects of radiosensitizing or radioprotecting drugs, apparatus and techniques have been developed to record automatically changes of oxidation-reduction potential on eight different electrodes. Simultaneous records of pH and oxygen tension changes were used as controls in some experiments. The changes of oxygen tension were followed by applying a known small voltage to one electrode and measuring the current which flowed. Calibration of oxygen-tension measurements was attempted by the use of model experiments.


Objective : 1)      To understand the importance of nanotechnology in maxillofacial surgery. 2)      To impress the importance of adaptingnanotechnology in making the surgeries and diagnosis easy and more effective. Design: Various databases, including MEDLINE and EMBASE, were searchedto identify published articles related to nanotechnology and dentistry as well as in maxillofacial surgery. An exhaustive search was conducted and four reviewers independently completed inclusion assessment, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment for all studies identified. Conclusion: The review foundlittle evidence ofany recent research papers conducted aboutnanotechnology in dentistry or maxillofacial surgery. However , our study stress upon the need ofthe health care professionals like dental surgeons, specially oral and maxillofacial surgeons to be aware of the importance ofadapting new trends in nanotechnology. Maxillofacial surgeons need to takemore efforts and the supporting associations or societies need to provide more resources in the field of research to help the oral and maxillofacial surgeons be at par with the advanced world of nanotechnology and nanosurgery.


GaAs MISFET's with a low-temperature-grown (LTG) GaAs gate insulator and ion-implanted self-aligned source and drain n/sup +/ regions are demonstrated. The resistivity and breakdown field of the LTG GaAs insulator were not changed appreciably by implantation and 800/spl deg/C activation annealing. The gate leakage current remained very low at a value of approximately 1 /spl mu/A per /spl mu/m/sup 2/ of gate area at 3 V forward gate bias. Because of the reduced source and drain resistance, the drain saturation current and the transconductance of self-aligned MISFET's increased more than twofold after ion implantation.<<ETX>>


The main aim of the present investigation was to examine conditional reasoning skills in college students whose educational past had emphasized verbatim learning. A successive independentsamples design was utilized to explore the effects of instruction that explicitly targeted critical thinking principles in either freshman students or sophomores. Conditional reasoning scores of freshman students were not higher than those of sophomores, even when the impact of either GPA or self-efficacy was statistically controlled. Furthermore, the students in our sample performed as well as students with a similar educational past, whereas both scored below students whose education had deemphasized verbatim learning. In addition to past educational practices, differences in performance arose from processing load. Not surprisingly, self-efficacy and processing load (as determined by a test read in the second language), but not GPA, predicted conditional reasoning scores. We conclude that demanding cognitive computations, such as those of a conditional reasoning test taken in a second language, not only reflect the test-taker's knowledge, but also are sensitive to processing load, and past educational practices, as well as self-efficacy since confidence in one's abilities translates into effort and persistence.


Biological membranes rarely exist as free-floating structures but are often confined and supported by various cellular assemblies such as the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. It has already been shown that biological and polymeric substrates can modulate the morphology and response to various stimuli of supported lipid bilayers significantly. The interaction between such structures and the membrane are obviously important yet remain poorly understood even in minimal or synthetic systems.
The work of this thesis utilises a variety of fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques to investigate the behaviour and structure of supported lipid bilayers, in particular how interfacial features of their support substrate influence and modulate their morphology and biophysical properties. First, surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane is systematically explored, in particular how the interfacial properties of such a polymer substrate can be modified to create fully and partially plasma-treated interfaces that stably support lipid bilayers. Lipid patch formation on such substrates is then investigated, revealing that the membrane undergoes significant morphological reorganisation after vesicle fusion has completed forming a lipid patch. The underlying mechanisms can be altered by substrate interactions following different pathways for fully and partially plasma-treated PDMS substrates. Furthermore, partially plasma-treated substrates are demonstrated to be capable of specifically depleting cholesterol from supported lipid membranes, while stably supporting the other remaining phospholipid species. Studies of cholesterol depletion of lipid patches possessing liquid-ordered and disordered domains reveal a disruption in domains structure, with the partitioning of fluorescent dyes into regions from which they were previously excluded. This structure perturbation was found to be reversible upon the reinsertion of cholesterol into the bilayer.
Many of the discussed mechanisms are only observed in the presence of a substrate, emphasising the importance of substrate interactions in both functional biomembranes and the development of supported membrane technologies


Intro: Primary Sjogren's syndrome is
a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. Although ocular and oral dryness are the
hallmarks of this syndrome, renal involvement when present most commonly has
the histological appearance of tubointerstitial nephritis and less often glomerular involvement. We report, a unique case of renal manifestations of primary
Sjogren's syndrome with a proven histological focal proliferative and
crescentric necrotizing glomeru-lonephritis. Case: A 30 years old man with
Kimura disease presented with four months of subjective fevers, migrating
skin erythema, dry mouth, and dry eyes. On further workup the patient was found
to have a positive ANA, positive anti-SSA, and was evaluated by ophthalmology
who found keratoconjunctivitis sicca. The patient was started on
hydroxychloroquine in combination with prednisone. On follow up, the patient
was found to be hypertensive with acute kidney injury, a creatinine of 3.65,
proteinuria and hematuria. Renal ultrasound was unremarkable. Cytoplasmic ANCA was positive and kidney biopsy
was performed revealing non
pauci-immune focal proliferative and necrotizing glomerulonephritis with
cellular crescents and mesangial dense deposits by electron microscopy. Conclusion:
To our knowledge, the association between biopsy proven focal proliferative and
necrotizing glomerulonephritis with primary Sjogren's syndrome has never
been previously described in the literature, nor has there been a reported case
of association between Kimura disease, ANCA serology and primary Sjogren's
syndrome.


The aim of this study was to determine the composting kinetics for mixture of poultry manure and wheat straw based on the volatile solids content. Experimental data was fitted with the first-order and the nth-order kinetic model. The nth-order kinetic model showed better prediction performance than the firstorder kinetic model. For the first-order kinetic model, maximum and mean differences between experimental and simulation results for the content of volatile solids were 5.43% and 3.00%, for the first reactor, and 4.68% and 2.12% for the second reactor, respectively, for the nth-order kinetic model, maximum and mean differences were 4.92% and 1.68%, for the first reactor, and 4.09% and 1.42% for the second reactor, respectively.


The paper aims at a conceptual contribution to the normative economic analysis of rural de-velopment (RD) policies. RD is regarded as a problem of interaction between individuals; (lacking) structural change or the (missing) integration of externalities are therefore recon-structed as coordination rather than allocation problems. A social dilemma is taken as the paradigmatic core of normative institutional economics: how can potential gains from coop-eration be realised by way of institutional policy? Starting from a critique of the hitherto dominating welfare economics conception, three principles for institutional policy are de-rived: (1) the realisation of gains from cooperation as the normative, regulative idea, (2) in-centive-compatible self-regulation as the principle of individual action, and (3) institutional-ised competition as the institution-related principle. An application to rural credit markets demonstrates how these principles can be used to structure institutional policy of RD.


UPDATED-22 February 2018. In this paper, we describe a novel electronic musical interface, consisting of a strand-like object that can be physically transformed by bending to create various shapes and signifiers. Users are encouraged to explore a visual language in a musical context, as each new shape portrays a different musical instrument with unique sonic behavior. We apply concepts from research in the area of cross-modal perception as guidance for mapping shapes and signifiers to corresponding sounds.


Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction a rare violation of the motor skills of the gastrointestinal complex, similar to mechanical obstruction, but without a mechanical obstacle. The development of chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction is caused by a disturbance on the part of the smooth muscles and the nervous system of the gastrointestinal system. Common symptoms include constipation, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, bloating. Violation of peristalsis leads to food stagnation in the hinges of the small intestine, their dilation, the development of bacterial insemination syndrome. Eating disorders, bacterial contamination syndrome (CDDs) lead to impaired suction syndrome, cahexia. Treatment is aimed at providing adequate nutrition, the use of drugs that activate motor skills, suppress the growth of microbes in the small intestine, the implementation of intestinal decompression. Surgical treatment: resection of the affected segment of the gut. In the refractory course of the disease intestinal transplantation.


Although being one of the most popular strengthening techniques in reinforced concrete beams, the use of steel plates bonded to the soffit raises problems of ductility. This study aims at investigating the influence of the use of perforated steel plates instead of solid steel plates on the ductility of reinforced concrete beams. A total of nine reinforced concrete beams were tested. In addition to an unplated beam, eight beams with perforated steel plates of two different thicknesses (3 mm and 6 mm) were subjected to monotonic loading. Effect of bonding the plates to the beams with anchor bolts and with additional side plates bonded to the sides of the beam with and without anchors is also investigated. The use of bolts in addition to epoxy was found to greatly contribute to the ductility and energy absorption capacity of the beams, particularly in specimens with thick plates (6 mm) and the use side plates in addition to the bottom plate was found to be ineffective in increasing the ductility of a concrete beam unless the side plates are attached to the beam with anchors bolts. The thickness of the plate was found to have little effect on the bending rigidity of the beam.


Hip Resurfacing Arthroplasty (HRA) is a treatment option for the patients with the advanced hip disease; it is considered as the most technically difficult techniques of all procedures recommended for osteonecrosis of the hip. Technically, the currently applied HRA surgeries lead to unstable and inconsistent results. Surgeons rely a lot on the manual technique and conventional tools as well as their skills to determine the right drilling angle for locating the implant system. Although the robotic and surgical planning systems are available for HRA, the drilling line is still defined geometrically and intra-operatively, not fully considering about the biomechanics aspects of the implant and bone structure. In this paper, an optimal surgical aid system for HRA is proposed. With the integration of the state of the art biomedical modelling, pre-operative planning and personalised surgical tools, knowledge based and expert system, as well as biomechanics modelling and analysis, the precision, safety and speed of surgery are improved, the complexity of surgery is reduced, and therefore the survival rate of the implant is increased. Especially, the proposed system provides a cheap and practically feasible solution with the integration of expertise from both engineering and medicine for improving the treatment quality of the patients.