The trivial name 'phytoplasma' has been adopted to collectively name wall-less, non-helical prokaryotes that colonize plant phloem and insects, which were formerly known as mycoplasma-like organisms. Although phytoplasmas have not yet been cultivated in vitro, phylogenetic analyses based on various conserved genes have shown that they represent a distinct, monophyletic clade within the class Mollicutes. It is proposed here to accommodate phytoplasmas within the novel genus 'Candidatus (Ca.) Phytoplasma'. Given the diversity within 'Ca. Phytoplasma', several subtaxa are needed to accommodate organisms that share <97.5% similarity among their 16S rRNA gene sequences. This report describes the properties of 'Ca. Phytoplasma', a taxon that includes the species 'Ca. Phytoplasma aurantifolia' (the prokaryote associated with witches'-broom disease of small-fruited acid lime), 'Ca. Phytoplasma australiense' (associated with Australian grapevine yellows), 'Ca. Phytoplasma fraxini' (associated with ash yellows), 'Ca. Phytoplasma japonicum' (associated with Japanese hydrangea phyllody), 'Ca. Phytoplasma brasiliense' (associated with hibiscus witches'-broom in Brazil), 'Ca. Phytoplasma castaneae' (associated with chestnut witches'-broom in Korea), 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' (associated with aster yellows), 'Ca. Phytoplasma mali' (associated with apple proliferation), 'Ca. Phytoplasma phoenicium' (associated with almond lethal disease), 'Ca. Phytoplasma trifolii' (associated with clover proliferation), 'Ca. Phytoplasma cynodontis' (associated with Bermuda grass white leaf), 'Ca. Phytoplasma ziziphi' (associated with jujube witches'-broom), 'Ca. Phytoplasma oryzae' (associated with rice yellow dwarf) and six species-level taxa for which the Candidatus species designation has not yet been formally proposed (for the phytoplasmas associated with X-disease of peach, grapevine flavescence dorée, Central American coconut lethal yellows, Tanzanian lethal decline of coconut, Nigerian lethal decline of coconut and loofah witches'-broom, respectively). Additional species are needed to accommodate organisms that, despite their 16S rRNA gene sequence being >97.5% similar to those of other 'Ca. Phytoplasma' species, are characterized by distinctive biological, phytopathological and genetic properties. These include 'Ca. Phytoplasma pyri' (associated with pear decline), 'Ca. Phytoplasma prunorum' (associated with European stone fruit yellows), 'Ca. Phytoplasma spartii' (associated with spartium witches'-broom), 'Ca. Phytoplasma rhamni' (associated with buckthorn witches'-broom), 'Ca. Phytoplasma allocasuarinae' (associated with allocasuarina yellows), 'Ca. Phytoplasma ulmi' (associated with elm yellows) and an additional taxon for the stolbur phytoplasma. Conversely, some organisms, despite their 16S rRNA gene sequence being <97.5% similar to that of any other 'Ca. Phytoplasma' species, are not presently described as Candidatus species, due to their poor overall characterization.


The relationship of extractives-free (EF) lignin content, lignin monomeric composition as syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio by thioacidolysis, and neutral sugars constituting hemicellulose by hydrolysis with trifluoroacetic acid was examined. This was performed in the same trunk by their within-tree variations, which mean the investigation with the same genes, in Eucalyptus camaldulensis and E. globulus. As results, each species had a high negative correlation between EF-lignin content and lignin S/G ratio although the difference between species and/or individuals was observed in the trend of within-tree variations of the wood properties. The relationship between EF-lignin content and lignin S/G ratio is considered to be caused from the difference in the fiber morphology from the relationship between lignin and EF-basic density which may relate to the fiber morphology. Furthermore, the relationship between the lignin monomeric composition derived from b-O-4 bonds and the hemicellulose composition is concluded to exist since common trend was observed between two species as higher lignin S/G ratio with the increase in xylan and or with decrease in arabinogalactan (galactan). We also discuss and suggest that the hemicellulose composition can influence on the lignin monomeric composition.


When using quantum chemical descriptors in quantitative structure‐activity relationship (QSAR) studies, there is always a challenge between accuracy of calculation and the complexity and time of computation. Very recently, we proposed the use of substituents electronic descriptors (SEDs) instead of the electronic properties of whole molecule as new and expedite source of electronic descriptors. For instance, SED parameters can be calculated with the highest degree of accuracy in very low computation time. In this article, we used SED parameters in QSAR modeling of six different biological data sets including (i) the dissociation constants for a set of substituted imidazolines, (ii) the pKa of imidazoles, (iii) inverse agonist activity of indoles, (iv) the influenza virus inhibition activities of benzimidazoles, (v) inhibition of alcohol dehydrogenase by amides, and (vi) the natriuretic activity of sulfonamide. For poly‐substituted molecules, SED parameters produce a vector of electronic descriptors for each substituent, and thus a matrix of SED parameters is obtained for each molecule. Consequently, a three‐dimensional (3D) array is obtained by staking the descriptor data matrices of molecules beside each others. In addition to simple unfolding of the SED parameters, molecular maps of atom‐level properties (MOLMAP) approach, as a novel data analysis method, was also applied to transfer 3D array of SED into new two‐dimensional parameters using Kohonen network, following by genetic algorithm‐based partial least square (GA‐PLS) to connect a quantitative relationship between the Kohonen scores and biological activity. Accurate QSAR models were obtained by both approaches. However, the superiority of three‐way analysis of SED parameters based on MOLMAP approach with respect to simple unfolding was obtained. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2009


A new equivalent circuit model of organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) is proposed. As the single-diode model is able to approximate OLED behavior as well as the multiple-diode model, the new model will be built based on it. In order to make sure that the experimental and simulated data are in good agreement, the constant resistor is exchanged for an exponential resistor in the new model. Compared with the measured data and the results of the other two OLED SPICE models, the simulated I—V characteristics of the new model match the measured data much better. This new model can be directly incorporated into an SPICE circuit simulator and presents good accuracy over the whole operating voltage.


Author(s): Ing-Randolph, Avis | Advisor(s): Lee, Eunice E. | Abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that an active-passive group music intervention will decrease anxiety among individuals diagnosed with mild to moderate dementia in assisted living facilities (ALFs) as compared to a control group engaged in care as usual. This study also described the feasibility and acceptability of active-passive group music interventions delivered by a Registered Nurse (RN) without a university or college degree in music intervention techniques to individuals with mild to moderate dementia in an ALF. The study used a quasi-experimental cross-over design with a simplified cluster randomization strategy; simplified because there were only two sites. Thirteen participants were invited, 8 from one facility and 5 from the other. The sample comprised of participants ranging from age 74 thru 98 with Global Deterioration Stages ranging from 2-5. The majority of participants were female, White and were college educated. Music was considered moderately important to very important. Music was used to effect anxiety levels. Altogether 12 intervention sessions were offered or 6 for each arm. There was a 4 week wash-out period. Four RAID measures were taken during each arm at baseline. Specific Aim 1: Insignificant decreases to anxiety existed by group, however, a trend showing decreases to anxiety levels existed over time (p=0.002): Intervention Group 1 = 18.00 at point 1 to 14.83 at point 4; Intervention Group 2 = 17.20 at point 1 to 10.80 at point 4. During control periods, RAID were: Group 1= 13.33 at point 1 to 10.83 at point 4; and Group 2 = 13.60 at point 1 to 10.40 at point 4. Specific Aim 2: With music education, the use of RNs to deliver group music interventions and supervise music interventions in healthcare is promising.


UNLABELLED
The serum iron level drops in many diseases and after bone fractures or elective surgical operations. The aim of this study was to determine if the degree of stress hypoferremia depends on severity of the operation. Serum iron concentration and TIBC was measured during two weeks in 37 patients. The first group consisted of 29 patients operated for ingunal hernia or cholelithiasis. It was laparoscopic cholecystectomy or classical or laparoscopic hernia repair. These types of operations were considered as mild surgical stress. The second group consisted of 8 patients with colon cancer, who had segmental colon resection. This operation was considered as severe surgical stress. The patients with colon cancer had significantly lower preoperative serum iron level. After operations, profound but temporal drop in serum iron concentration was observed in both groups of patients. TIBC drops but not so significantly. The diagrams illustrating changes of iron concentration after operations looked similar in both groups.

CONCLUSION
The changes of iron concentration after abdominal operations are independent of the severity of surgical stress.


Abstract Becoming the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is currently the most ambitious European goal. Heat pumps are the example of the key technology, which could help to achieve the aim by heating, cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) preparation in an ecological and energy-efficient way. This article characterized a heat pump market in Europe between 2009 and 2020 with a special regard to France, Spain, Poland and Lithuania, for which a more detailed study was presented. The analysis was performed primarily on the grounds of statistics data provided by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA), which determined the number of heat pumps sold based on standard questionnaires from national heat pump associations, statistical offices and research institutes. The highest number of heat pump sold in analysed period of time was recorded in France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Spain. Poland was in the middle of the list, while Lithuania was one of the last countries. Considering the number of heat pumps sold per 1000 households, Norway was the clear leader, followed by Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Lithuania was placed 12th, while Poland was only 18th. In terms of the type of lower and upper heat source, air-to-water and air-to-air heat pumps were the most popular choices, while ground source heat pumps were the least popular. The development of the heat pump market has been influenced by social, environmental, economic and technological factors.


A new methodology of transformation from IEC 61131-3 PLCs to IEC 61499 function blocks is proposed in this paper. The aim of this process is to recreate IEC 61131-3 programs in the IEC 61499 format automatically. The original PLC cyclical execution is fulfilled in the IEC 61499 function blocks. Definitions of IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 ontology model are provided. Also the ontology mapping between those two standards is also achieved by using the SQWRL. A small airport baggage handling system implemented in the IEC 61131-3 PLC is converted to the IEC 61499 function block as a demonstration.


This study reports the development of a pattern recognition search engine for a World Wide Web-based database of gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectra (GC-EIMS) of partially methylated Alditol Acetates (PMAAs). Here, we also report comparative results for two pattern recognition techniques that were employed for this study. The first technique is a statistical technique using Bayesian classifiers and Parzen density estimators. The second technique involves an artificial neural network module trained with reinforcement learning. We demonstrate here that both systems perform well in identifying spectra with small amounts of noise. Both system's performance degrades with degrading signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When dealing with partial spectra (missing data), the artificial neural network system performs better. The developed system is implemented on the world wide web, and is intended to identify PMAAs using submitted spectra of these molecules recorded on any GC-EIMS instrument. The system, therefore, is insensitive to instrument and column dependent variations in GC-EIMS spectra.


Radical prostatectomy is one of the standard treatment of localised prostate cancer. It is considered that cure is obtain if PSA value is undetectable (< 0,1 ng/mL) for at least 5 to 7 years post surgery. 8 to 9 men out of 10 are currently cured by prostatectomy if the cancer is detected at organ confined stage, with PSA < 10 ng/mL. Major technical progress related to patient setting, surgical approach, instrumentation, periprostatic fascial exposure and surgical strategy clearly decreased perioperative morbidity and late effects (erectile dysfunction and incontinence). Laparoscopic approach was described mainly by French teams since 1997 and represents a validated alternative to the gold standard suprapubic open approach.


In this paper we derive a subspace-based state-space identification method for continuous-time systems. By using δ-operator we transform the continuous-time system to a discrete-time δ-operator state-space model which converges to the original continuous-time model as the sampling period goes to zero. Then we obtain the estimates of system matrices by applying some well-known subspace identification methods such as MOESP to the discrete-time δ-operator state-space model. We give two numerical examples to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. A beneficial comparison with the other methods such as q-, ω-and λ-operator methods is included.


Sachverhalt and Gegenstand are dead. Wittgenstein announces their passing in Philosophische Untersuchungen and he of all people should know when the brainchildren of his youth were no more. But it is surprising that he does not accord them more generous obsequies than a fragmented, offhand obituary. Their existence was a logical necessity in his erstwhile scheme of things, not a dispensable phenomenon of the contingent world: Even if the world is infinitely complex, so that every fact consists of infinitely many Sachverhalte and every Sachverhalt is composed of infinitely many Gegenstände, even then there would have to be Gegenstände and Sachverhalte (T 4.2211)


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: While urethroplasty is the most effective treatment for urethral stricture, the majority of outcomes are reported from a surgeon perspective and there is limited data describing patient reported outcomes after urethroplasty. Our objective is to comprehensively describe patient reported outcomes after urethroplasty. METHODS: 357 patients from 2011-2018 were enrolled in a prospective single-center study comprehensively assessing patient reported outcomes after urethroplasty including satisfaction, urinary function, quality of life, erectile function, ejaculatory function, penile appearance/curvature, genitourinary pain, and post-void dribbling. Patient satisfaction was determined using a 5-point Likert scale. Voiding function was assessed with the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). Erectile function was assessment with the International Index of Erectile Function 5 (IIEF-5) and erectile dysfunction was defined as a ≥5-point change in IIEF-5. Ejaculatory function was scored using a hybrid of the ejaculatory component of the brief sexual function inventory. The remaining measures were assessed using literature derived 3 or 5 point Likert scales. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize findings while both parametric (paired t-test, Chi-square) and non-parametric (Wilcoxon) tests were used to compare pre- and post-operative findings. RESULTS: Of the 357 patients enrolled, mean age was 49.7 years with a mean stricture length of 4.4cm. Stricture location was most commonly bulbar (59.7%) followed by penile (19.9%) and posterior (13.7%). The most common stricture etiology was idiopathic (40.3%), iatrogenic (14.0%), trauma (13.2%) or lichen sclerosus (12.3%). Patients underwent a variety of urethroplasty techniques, including buccal mucosa graft onlay (42.6%), anastomotic (30.0%) or staged (11.2%) reconstruction. 92.0% of patients were stricture free on follow-up cystoscopy and 80.0% of patients reported being satisfied with the results of surgery while 7.3% of patients were unsatisfied. Voiding function was globally improved after urethroplasty including urinary quality of life (4.7 vs. 1.6; p<0.0001), IPSS (19.3 vs. 6.0; p<0.0001), post-void dribbling (2.7 vs. 2.5; p=0.04) and sitting to void (2.4 vs. 1.9; p<0.0001). Additionally, genitourinary pain scores improved postoperatively (2.2 vs. 1.6; p<0.0001). Overall, erectile function remained unchanged (17.7 vs. 17.2; p=0.46) but 12.0% of patients reported new onset erectile dysfunction. The incidence of ejaculatory function remained unchanged (p=0.13) but 7.1% of patients reported worsening of ejaculatory function postoperatively. The majority of patients reported minimal change in penile length or curvature but 6.7% and 3.1% of patients complained of bothersome loss of penile length or curvature respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Urethroplasty globally improves voiding function and genitourinary pain associated with urethral stricture. While sexual function is preserved for the majority of patients, a small proportion of patients describe new onset erectile dysfunction, penile shortening or curvature and should be counselled accordingly. Source of Funding: University of Alberta Department of Surgery Summer Studentship, Northern Alberta Urology Foundation


bridge" (pp. 263, 297). By showing how and why the Studebaker Company was able to move successfully into automobile production, he refutes the judgment often made by historians that the carriage industry collapsed due to a failure to adapt to progress. No review, however positive, would be complete without a list of quibbles. Why are there no horses in a book about horse-drawn vehicles? This is analogous to writing a book about the automobile industry without discussing the internal combustion engine. How were horses and the horse population changing during this time and why? How were vehicles designed with respect to variations in kind, size, and strength of the animals pulling them? Which leads to my next quibble: Kinney's assumes that horse-drawn transportation competed with railroads, street railways, and bicycles. Railroads actually stimulated a dramatic increase in the use of horse-drawn transportation, horses pulled most streetcars until the 1890s, and bicycles did not compete with one of the largest uses of horse-drawn vehicles, namely urban and hinterland hauling. I would like to know more about how railroads complemented and fostered the carriage industry. More broadly, I wish that Kinney had engaged with the major questions of technological history, showing how the carriage industry fit into the technological environment of the nineteenth century by tracing the relationships between carriage and wagon making and factors such as road development, urban and rural change, capital availability, raw materials markets, and government regulations. In summary, The Carriage Trade offers an interesting, wellresearched, carefully constructed argument. This account of a littleknown industry is a valuable resource that does much to advance our understanding of how industrialization affected work processes, labor relations, business organization, and consumption.


During several decades, considerable attention has been paid to speaking assessment procedures. Probably, the reason for this relevance lies in the difficulties in dealing with oral assessment and in determining the adequate type of assessment (Campbell, Mothersbaugh, Brammer & Taylor, 2001; Stoynoff, 2013; Schwartz & Arena, 2013). The main aim of this article is to analyze to what extent students' oral competences (such as their English competence and fluency) affect their peers' English oral production. More precisely, we intend to study effective procedures to assess oral production in ESP contexts. In order to assess our students, we have designed a speaking-based rubric as the main instrument (called 'Speaking Diagnostic Test'), based on previous research (Wilson, 2006; Spandel, 2006). A total number of 10 participants were selected in the 1st year course at Universitat Jaume I (Spain). In order to carry out our investigation two different instruments were used for data collection: (1) A 'Student Questionnaire' to reflect students' preferences towards taking an oral exam with their peers; and a (2) 'Speaking Diagnostic Test' so as to assess students' oral production in English concerning the following variables: fluency, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, coherence, and communicative ability. The results obtained from both questionnaires will help us identify to what extent students' preferences in working with other classmates influence their English oral production and therefore to what extent these results could lead to the reformulation and modification of the assessment methods.


Background: One metabolic equivalent (MET) is the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest and is equal to 3.5 ml O2·kg-1·min-1. METs are often used to provide simple, practical, and easily understood values that reflect the energy cost of physical activity. It is plausible that the increase in body mass and absolute submaximal oxygen uptake during gestation has the potential to affect the MET of pregnant women. Objective: The aim of this study was to measure the MET during the second trimester of pregnancy and to compare this with non-pregnant women. In addition, the measured MET values were compared to those proposed by the Compendium of Physical Activities (CPA). Design: Ten pregnant and ten non-pregnant women participated in this study. Ventilatory variables and heart rate (HR) were measured during four conditions on two different days: Condition 1 - sitting, Condition 2 - lying, Condition 3 - treadmill walking and Condition 4 - cycling. The women performed two conditions on each testing day; one resting condition followed by one exercising condition. The data were analysed using a two-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Bonferroni's tests were used when significant differences were detected. Results: The MET was not significantly different between pregnant and non-pregnant women either at rest or during exercise (p > 0.05). While cycling, the MET obtained by indirect calorimetry (IC) was significantly higher than the CPA predicted MET, regardless of group (pregnant cycling p = 0.002 and non-pregnant cycling p 0.05). In general, (combined pregnant and non-pregnant data), VE and HR were significantly higher during seated rest, when compared with supine rest and all ventilatory variables, HR and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were significantly higher during cycling, when compared with walking (p > 0.05). Conclusion: METs were unaffected by pregnancy at rest or when undertaking either walking or cycling exercise during the second trimester of pregnancy. The MET of cycling was significantly underestimated by the CPA, when compared to IC, in both groups.


A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the possible effect of previous radiotherapy on the healing of subsequently performed microvascular anastomoses between irradiated recipient vessels and normal flap vessels in rabbits. Radiotherapy was given preoperatively to a single anterior neck field using a Cobalt 60 unit, 1.25 MeV, SSD 80 cm in a fractionated dose corresponding to 5,000 rad/5 weeks. An experimental model using paired data was established using two epigastric free island flaps in each animal: one anastomosed to the irradiated vessels (carotid artery and jugular vein) and the other anastomosed to the normal opposite femoral vessels. Results did not show any marked difference in the healing pattern during the first 3-week period postoperatively except for a higher rate of thrombosis, when irradiated recipient vessels were used in end-to-end anastomoses, while no difference in healing pattern or rate of thrombosis were found using telescoped arterial anastomoses.


| A wide range of crystalline solids cannot be prepared as single crystals of suitable size and/or quality for structure analysis using conventional single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. In such circumstances, it is essential that structural information can be obtained from powder diffraction. This article highlights some recent developments in the field of ab-initio crystal structure determination from X-ray powder diffraction data. Relevant fundamental aspects of different steps of structure determination procedure from powder data are described with particular emphasis to the challenging structure solution stage. Examples from our recent work are given to illustrate the potential of X-ray powder diffraction methodologies in determining crystal structures of several metal-organic complexes, organic compounds and pharmaceutical materials using diffraction data collected on a laboratory powder diffractometer.


Web Searching results from existing web search engines like Google are usually imprecise as they often yield matches to too many irrelevant web pages, making it difficult for some users to find the information they are looking for. But in contrast, many users are still able to effectively use these web search engines in their daily activities. Hence the intend of this paper is therefore to examine factors and their interactive effect influencing the web searching abilities of web engines users specifically for academic staff in the computing disciplines. The study presents the results of a questionnaire based survey of 61 academic staff drawn from Information Technology and Computer Science departments from four Higher Education Institutions in the KwazuluNatal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The data analysis shows an association between the academic staff members' searching aptitude and their demographic attributes such as academic qualifications, staff positions, and their years of research experience. They also show that there is a correlation between web searching ability and lecturing experience, and between searching ability and English language proficiency. The novel finding of this study compared to existing literature is the impact of lecturing experience on searching ability.


The effect of Astragalus membranaceus (AM) on Ca2+ influx across the myocardial plasma membrane and coxsackie virus B3(CVB3)-RNA replication in cultured neonatal rat heart cells infected with CVB3 was investigated. It was found that the Ca2+ influx could be inhibited significantly (P < 0.01) by AM after infection of heart cells for 48 h. In addition, when the cultured heart cells infected with CVB3 and treated with AM for 48 h, the Ca2+ influx of infected heart cells also could be inhibited by AM (P < 0.05) and the amounts of CVB3-RNA in myocytes were significantly decreased than that in infected control group (P < 0.001). These phenomena suggested that AM could exert the effects of decreasing the secondary Ca2+ damages, and improving the abnormal myocardial electric activity, and inhibiting replication of CVB3-RNA in myocardium. Thus, it is a rational choice to treat patients with AM in viral myocarditis.


Renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology cancer biologist Robert Weinberg is staking part of his considerable reputation on a bold theory that has divided the cancer field. Weinberg and others contend that tumors contain a small number of cells that are distinctive because they resemble the stem cells that give rise to normal tissues. These cancer seeds, able to resist chemotherapy and spring back months or years after treatment, may explain the tragic relapses people often experience. Give patients a drug that targets these cancer stem cells, the thinking goes, and the disease can be kept under control. Verastem Inc., a company Weinberg co-founded, is one of several that are launching a new round of clinical trials to find out whether the theory actually works. Beyond the promise of changing cancer care, the financial stakes are huge. But as many in the field acknowledge, it may be difficult to draw definitive conclusions from these trials.


Modeling and simulation have been around for years and its application to study several different systems and processes have proven its practical importance. Various research has sought to optimize its performance and capabilities, but few address the issues of generating realistic inputs for simulating into the future. In this paper, some issues in the commonly used simulation flow were identified and deep learning was introduced to enhance realism by learning historical data progressively, so as to generate realistic inputs to a simulation model. We focus on improving the input generation phase and not the model of the system itself. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that realizes the possibility of integrating deep learning models directly into simulation models for general-purpose applications. Experiments showed that the proposed methods are able to achieve higher overall accuracy in generating input sequences as compared to current state-of-art.


Background: Previous analyses of patients with IPF receiving pirfenidone showed that continued treatment following a ≥ 10% absolute or relative decline in percent predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) or hospitalization during the first 6 months of treatment provided a benefit during the subsequent 6 months. Objective: To further explore the potential benefit of continued pirfenidone treatment in patients with IPF who had a worsening of 6MWD within the first 6 months of treatment. Methods: A pooled analysis included all patients randomized to pirfenidone 2403 mg/d or placebo in the ASCEND and CAPACITY studies (N = 1247). All patients who had a 6MWD decline ≥ 15% within the first 6 months of study treatment were selected. FVC, 6MWD, mortality and hospitalization outcomes were assessed during the subsequent 6-month period. Results: A total of 116/623 (18.6%) and 141/624 (22.6%) patients in the pooled pirfenidone and placebo groups, respectively, demonstrated a 6MWD decline ≥ 15% within the first 6 months of treatment. Outcomes during the subsequent 6 months of continued treatment in these patients are shown in the Table. Conclusions: These results suggest that continued treatment with pirfenidone may confer a significant benefit to patients with IPF who experienced a 6MWD decline ≥ 15% within the first 6 months of treatment.


Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a primary immunological disease with variable severity, ranging from mild forms of infections to chronic progressive complications. The hallmark of this disorder is hypogammaglobulinemia due to an unknown molecular defect in immune regulation. The primary clinical manifestations are recurrent infections that may lead to structural damage of affected organs. Adequate intravenous immunoglobulin (Ig) therapy has dramatically changed the prognosis of this disorder, and the advent of home subcutaneous Ig therapy has further improved the quality of life of these patients. Aberrant T-cell functions predispose to autoimmune, inflammatory and lymphoproliferative complications, as well as malignancies in a variable percentage of CVID patients. Immunosuppressive anti-inflammatory therapies and chemotherapy are used, although always in conjunction with adequate replacement Ig therapy and adjunct antimicrobial prophylaxis. Any organ can be involved and therefore a multidisciplinary approach to the management of this disorder is essential.


Abstract The current paper investigated the impact of student evaluation of teaching (SET) on University academic staff members' experiences and their professional development. Explored were issues of practicality, relevance and sheer impact on the quality of the teaching. The data was collected by means of questionnaires with academics in the university. The design was a survey, which sampled 50 lecturers, with a 70% response rate. A Cronbach's alpha of 0.89 was achieved for reliability of the instrument. The Findings revealed that SET results influence mainly the content of the course, its structure, teaching style and methods employed. It is also recommended that lecturers should undergo at least one form of external evaluation of his/her teaching every year.


We report a photoluminescence (PL) and transient reflection spectroscopy study of the exciton dynamics in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). PL saturation in monolayer MoSe2 occurs at an excitation intensity more than two orders of magnitude lower than in monolayer MoS2. Transient reflection shows that nonlinear exciton-exciton annihilation is the dominant exciton decay process in monolayer MoSe2 in contrast to the previously-reported linear exciton decay in monolayer MoS2. In addition, the exciton lifetime in MoSe2, which is greater than 125 ps, is more than an order of magnitude longer than the several-ps exciton lifetime in MoS2. We find that the dramatically different exciton decay mechanisms and PL saturation behaviors of the MoSe2 and the MoS2 monolayers can be explained in terms of the difference in their exciton lifetimes.


ABSTRACT In Australia, local government authorities play an essential role in diverting waste from landfill, including through domestic waste recycling. To date, the effectiveness of these recycling operations in Australia has not been thoroughly investigated. This study assessed recycling performance in the state of Victoria through a survey of all 79 municipal councils. This survey identified key challenges affecting successful domestic waste management, primarily relating to contamination in recycling streams, stemming from residents' inability to differentiate between recyclable and non-recyclable materials. Councils were concerned about inconsistent waste management practices between councils, and highlighted that revising Australian Standard AS4123.3 to standardise bin lid colours could reduce community confusion. Many councils faced information gaps, which could be resolved by including more performance indicators in the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework. Drivers of recycling performance were also considered through multiple regression, using data from the survey, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and other government sources. This analysis supported the councils' identification of high service costs and residents' inability to differentiate between recyclable and non-recyclable materials as key issues. An extension of this quantitative approach to other Australian jurisdictions exposed significant data gaps, indicating the need for a more consistent national data collection policy.


I examined the relative detection efficiency of three measurements--skin resistance response (SRR) amplitude, respiration line length (RLL), and human respiration response evaluation (RRE)--in a guilty knowledge experiment. Thirty-two subjects were presented with lists of personal information in which only one of five items was correct. Subjects were instructed to try to avoid detection of the relevant items in the polygraph test. All three measurements discriminated better than chance between relevant and neutral items, with the objectively measured SRR and RLL superior to the subjective RRE. When SRR and RLL were compared for their relative efficiency, the former yielded better detection. The differentiation was even better with a measure that combined the SRR and the RLL. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings and practical implications.


In multi-task learning (MTL), multiple related tasks are learned jointly by sharing information according to task relations. One promising approach is to utilize the given tree structure, which describes the hierarchical relations among tasks, to learn model parameters under the regularization framework. However, such a priori information is rarely available in most applications. To the best of our knowledge, there is no work to learn the tree structure among tasks and model parameters simultaneously under the regularization framework and in this paper, we develop a TAsk Tree (TAT) model for MTL to achieve this. By specifying the number of layers in the tree as H, the TAT method decomposes the parameter matrix into H component matrices, each of which corresponds to the model parameters in each layer of the tree. In order to learn the tree structure, we devise sequential constraints to make the distance between the parameters in the component matrices corresponding to each pair of tasks decrease over layers, and hence the component parameters will keep fused until the topmost layer, once they become fused in a layer. Moreover, to make the component parameters have chance to fuse in different layers, we develop a structural sparsity regularizer, which is the sum of the l2 norm on the pairwise difference among the component parameters, to learn layer-specific task structure. In order to solve the resulting non-convex objective function, we use the general iterative shrinkage and thresholding (GIST) method. By using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) method, we decompose the proximal problem in the GIST method into three independent subproblems, where a key subproblem with the sequential constraints has an efficient solution as the other two subproblems do. We also provide some theoretical analysis for the TAT model. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets show the effectiveness of the TAT model.


Protein hydrolysates from two forms of salmon frames named "chunk" and "mince" were produced and characterized. Both samples were subjected to hydrolysis using alcalase and papain at 1%-3% (w/w protein) for 0-240 min. Hydrolysate prepared with either protease at 3% for 180 min had the solid yield of 24.05%-26.39%. Hydrolysates contained 79.20%-82.01% proteins, 6.03%-6.34% fat, 9.81%-11.09% ash, and 4.02%-5.80% moisture. Amino acid profile showed that all hydrolysates had glutamic acid/glutamine (113.45-117.56 mg/g sample), glycine (77.86-86.18 mg/g sample), aspartic acid/asparagine (76.04-78.67 mg/g sample), lysine (61.97-65.99 mg/g sample), and leucine (54.30-57.31 mg/g sample) as the predominant amino acids. The size distributions determined by gel filtration chromatography varied, depending on proteases and the form of frame used for the hydrolysis. Different hydrolysates showed varying antioxidant capacities. Thus, protein hydrolysates from salmon frame could be used as a nutritive supplement in the protein deficient foods. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Frames of salmon are by-products from salmon fish processing industries. The frames contained the remaining meat, hence they can be used for the preparation of protein hydrolysates. Generally, hydrolysates from fish by-products have been regarded as a promising food supplement, because they are rich in amino acids. Additionally, hydrolysates possess antioxidant activity, which is of health benefit. To produce the hydrolysate with less time consumption, the use of frame chunk instead of minced frame can be of better choice. Thus, frame of salmon, especially in chunk form, could be used as a raw material for production of protein hydrolysate using alcalase. The hydrolysate produced from salmon frame could serve as an alternative nutritive supplement to tackle the nutrition inadequacies in foods.


In this article I take as a starting point the very possibility of thinking the so called cultural heritages in ethnographic terms, analyzing them as a "fait social total", following this rich concept elaborated by Marcel Mauss. I propose to explore the descriptive and analytical power of the category "patrimony" (heritage), showing its multiple social and symbolic dimensions, and discussing its modern semantic features. By means of this procedure I hope to focus on some of its defining aspects which are expressed by such categories as "resonance", "materiality", and "subjectivity", thus possibly bringing a possible contribution to the theoretical and political debates about the uses of the anthropological concept of culture.


Anandamide(ANA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol(2-AG), two lipid mediators existing in the central nervous system and various peripheral tissues, have been shown to exert their diverse biological effects through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, and are therefore defined as endogenous cannabinoids. Recently, ANA and 2-AG have been shown to be generated by macrophages and platelets, respectively, by the stimulation with lipopolysaccharide(LPS) in vitro and in vivo in rats. We showed the endocannabinoids are increased in septic shock patients. Furthermore, the increased endocannabinoids are efficiently adsorbed onto polymyxin B immobilized column resulting the improvement of hypotensive shock. On the other hand it has been showed that activated protein C (APC) can ameliorate endotoxin induced-shock and -disseminated intravascular coagulation in experimental animals and patients, although the mechanisms governing its action are unknown. In the present study we found that APC inhibited the generation of ANA and 2-AG in vitro by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated macrophages and platelets, respectively. Furthermore, APC significantly decreased the levels of ANA and 2-AG in the sera from rats preinfused with APC followed by LPS infusion. Consistent with the decrease of them, diminishment of hypotension and an increase in survival rate were confirmed in the APC pretreatment group. These findings demonstrate that APC can inhibit the generation of ANA and 2-AG in vitro and in vivo , and thereby suppress their induced hypotension. This action of APC may explain its efficiency in the treatment of septic shock in humans and experimental animals.


To investigate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) distribution within tissues during life, we observed length heteroplasmy in a polycytosine tract of the mitochondrial HV2 region by size‐based separation of PCR products, using a mutagenic primer which was designed to avoid stutter production. Blood, brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscle and hair shaft samples were collected during autopsies of 25 individuals. Here, we demonstrate differences in the level of mtDNA length heteroplasmy both within and between individuals and tissues. We also show that mtDNA is distributed randomly in varying proportions in various somatic tissues during growth, resulting in an imbalance in the composition of mtDNA pools among tissues. This mtDNA distribution appears not to be strictly random, and can be explained by the random somatic segregation of nucleoids. On the other hand, significant qualitative/quantitative mtDNA peak pattern variations in hair shafts are thought to be a result of the different developmental origins of hairs. Each hair shaft may have a restricted or clonal set of mtDNA molecules derived from a discrete group of stem cells.


Restoration of gait symmetry following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is crucial to minimize the risk of joint degeneration. To achieve this, it is essential that the chosen measurement method can accurately assess knee kinematics and detect the changes in multi-planes of motion. However to date, limited study is available on repeatability of the multi-planes knee angle measurements particularly among male patients post ACLR. The purpose of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability of knee kinematic measurements using three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis system during gait in post ACLR patients. Eight patients with mean (SD) age 28.89 (4.0) years, 5.82(4.07) months post ACLR were recruited from a tertiary hospital of Kuala Lumpur. All patients undergone two sessions of knee joint angles measurement during gait at four hours interval, for the injured and the non-injured knees. Angles in the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes during initial contact phase of gait that derived from the two measurement sessions were compared.  The results showed high test-retest reliability of the measurement in sagittal and transverse planes; the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.97(95% CI: 0.84-0.99) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.83-0.99) respectively, and moderate test-retest reliability for the measurements in frontal planes, with ICC 0.44 (95% CI: -0.32-0.86). The study findings suggest that multi-planes knee angle measurements during initial contact phase of gait could reliably be measured using a 3D motion analysis system. Further research may focus on knee kinematics measurements at other phases of gait. Keywords : biomechanics, reliability, walking, knee, anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction


Nacrtak A study of the effect of bogie wheel track and slash reinforcement on the sinkage (as rut depth) and soil compaction (as bulk density) of silt loam soil was carried out in spring and autumn at two harvesting sites in Russia. A Ponsse ELK forwarder loaded with 16 m3 of timber, fitted and unfitted with bogie tracks, was repeatedly driven on forest soil for 1–10 passes. The degree of sinkage and soil compaction was measured at two soil moisture contents: moist (W = 80%) and wet (W = 93%) after each pass. A John Deere 1410 forwarder loaded with 16 m3 of timber, and fitted and unfitted with bogie tracks, was driven on forest soil covering a 15 kg/m2 slash layer for 1–10 passes. The degree of soil compaction was measured at moist soil (moisture content W = 88%). The results indicated that on forest silt loam soil the bogie track decreases sinkage in comparison with a conventional wheel with a tire: the maximum rut depths reached were 0.48 m vs. 0.71 m (–0.23 m) on wet and 0.22 m vs. 0.40 m (–0.18 m) on moist soils by the 10th pass (160 m3 of extracted timber), respectively. The track influence on soil compaction varied and was mixed. Bulk density increased up to 1.30 g/cm3 vs. 1.24 g/ cm3 (+0.06 g/cm3) on moist soil and it was almost the same on wet soil by the 10th pass, respectively. The slash reinforcement constrained rut-forming and soil compaction after all forwarder passes. Cubic regressions between average rut depth and bulk density and cumulative volume of extracted timber were derived for forest silt loam soil with different moisture contents. Bogie track and particularly slash reinforcement are necessary for environmentally sensitive wood harvesting by the CTL system on soft soils.


A new stepwise directional synthetic route to single-oligomer p-phenylenevinylenes (OPVs) has been developed. The first step in the reaction sequence is the condensation of a functionalized benzaldehyde with a novel monomer having a methyl phosphonate ester group in one end and an acetal-protected aldehyde at the other end of a stilbene core. Oligomerization then proceeds stepwise by alternating reaction of the previous aldehyde-terminated OPV fragment with the monomer and deprotection of the acetal. Thus, a series of OPVs with 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 phenylene vinylene units has been prepared that has an electron-donating methoxy group at one end and an electron-accepting aldehyde group at the other end. Some examples where a dimethylamino group replaced the methoxy group were also prepared. The oligomer with seven phenylene vinylene units was then further derivatized at the aldehyde position to create a series of OPVs with a range of substituents from strongly electron-accepting nitrophenyl to electron-donating methoxyphenyl. Photovoltaic cells were assembled with the synthesized OPVs as the photoactive layer. Illumination under simulated sunlight (AM1.5) gave short circuit currents (Isc) in the range 0.015-0.5 mA cm(-2) and typical open circuit voltages (Voc) of 0.4-0.8 V. The maximum efficiency obtained was approximately 0.1%.


Background/Aims. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can form immune complexes which may result in various types of glomerulonephritis (GN). However, proteinuria can occur because of other kidney diseases besides HBV-related GN (HBV-GN). The aim of this study is to elucidate the causes of proteinuria and report on the clinical outcomes of HBV-GN. Methods. We reviewed the medical records of patients positive for serum hepatitis B surface antigen who underwent renal biopsies due to proteinuria at a tertiary medical center in Korea. Results. A total of 55 patients were included. HBV-GN was diagnosed in 20 (36.4%) of the patients by confirming the presence of immune complexes (12 of 13 membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, 7 of 8 membranous glomerulonephritis, and 1 of 13 immunoglobulin A nephropathy). Twenty-one patients had other types of GN. A total of 13 (65%) HBV-GN patients were treated with antiviral agents for a median of 11 months. However, the degrees of proteinuria were not significantly reduced in the antiviral intervention group when compared to the control group. Conclusions. Proteinuria can be caused by various glomerular diseases and HBV-GN accounts for one-third of total GN cases. Well-designed prospective study is needed to assess whether antiviral therapy against HBV infection may improve the prognosis of HBV-GN.


The prevalence of fractures seen on chest radiographs among alcoholics varies in various series from 36.0% to 8.7% while that for controls remains below 5%. The aim of our study was to find out whether the selection of the alcoholic subjects could account for this four-fold variation. We therefore chose two groups of alcoholics, group 1 consisting of 76 mainly unmarried or divorced lower class alcoholics who had attended the emergency department while intoxicated, and group 2 consisting of 108 mainly married middle class alcoholics with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. The control group consisted of 98 randomly chosen hospital patients. There was no significant difference between group 1 and group 2 in the prevalence of fractures detectable with chest radiography (25% and 21.3% respectively). 8.2% of the controls also had fractures. The fracture prevalence did not correlate with socioeconomic group. Married alcoholics had significantly less thoracic fractures than unmarried, divorced or widowed alcoholics as a group. The sensitivity and specificity of the fractures visible on chest radiograph as a marker for alcoholism is not sufficient to warrant its use in clinical or research work.


The simplest Computer Vision algorithm can tell you what color it sees when you point it at an object, but asking that computer what it is looking at is a much harder problem. Camera and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors generally provide streams pixel of values and sophisticated algorithms must be engineered to recognize objects or the environment. There has been significant effort expended by the computer vision community on recognizing objects in color images; however, LiDAR sensors, which sense depth values for pixels instead of color, have been studied less. Recently we have seen a renewed interest in depth data with the democratization provided by consumer depth cameras. Detecting objects in depth data is more challenging in some ways because of the lack of texture and increased complexity of processing unordered point sets. We present three systems that contribute to solving the object recognition problem from the LiDAR perspective. They are: calibration, registration, and object recognition systems. We propose a novel calibration system that works with both line and raster based LiDAR sensors, and calibrates them with respect to image cameras. Our system can be extended to calibrate LiDAR sensors that do not give intensity information. We demonstrate a novel system that produces registrations between different LiDAR scans by transforming the input point cloud into a Constellation Extended Gaussian Image (CEGI) and then uses this CEGI to estimate the rotational alignment of the scans independently. Finally we present a method for object recognition which uses local (Spin Images) and global (CEGI) information to recognize cars in a large urban dataset. We present real world results from these three systems. Compelling experiments show that object recognition systems can gain much information using only 3D geometry. There are many object recognition and navigation algorithms that work on images; the work we propose in this thesis is more complimentary to those image based methods than competitive. This is an important step along the way to more intelligent robots. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Computer and Information Science First Advisor Kostas Daniilidis


Parental deployment to a war zone brings many changes to family life. Changes in family roles and routines unsettle children and interfere with their educational engagement. Defence School Transition Aides (DSTAs) are employed in qualifying Australian schools to assist students from Australian Defence Force (ADF) families to manage transitions associated with a parental deployment to a war zone. Reported here are findings from a study that explored parents', teachers' and DSTAs' perspectives of school-based support designed to assist students to cope with their changed circumstances when a parent is deployed. Results indicate that an appreciation of students' worries by school personnel eased their distress. DSTAs facilitated processes whereby peers with deployed parents supported each other. Alerting teachers to an intended deployment was also found to be important as it allowed them to be alert to student behaviour changes and prepare ahead for possible student support needs. DSTAs reminded parents through school newsletters to pass on pertinent deployment-related information to the school so that a coordinated school–family approach for supporting students could be enacted. Further research is required to investigate the educational significance of student support offered by culturally aware key adults and student peers during major life transitions.


In a recent publication we have studied theoretically the sensitivity of the mixing-current technique to detect nanomechanical motion by coupling the oscillator to a single-electron transistor in the incoherent tunnelling regime: ħΓ≪kBT, where Γ is the tunnelling rate, T is the electronic temperature, ħ and kB are the Planck and the Boltzmann constant, respectively. In this work we consider the same problem when the detection device is a quantum dot in the coherent tunnelling regime (ħΓ≫kBT). In order to reach the best sensitivity we find that one should enter the strong coupling regime, as described in the recent publication (Micchi et al 2015 Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 206802) where a mechanical bistability is described. In this regime the electronic detection device strongly modifies the effective potential of the oscillator and the non-linearities determine the form of the displacement fluctuation spectrum. We find theoretical upper bounds to the sensitivity for the detection of the oscillation amplitude of the oscillator. It turns out that it is convenient to work as close as possible to the bistability.


The clinical effectiveness of cyclosporine is limited by changes in resorption and metabolism of cyclosporine and by possible drug interactions. This study examined the influence of five gastrointestinal agents on duration and resorption of cyclosporine and dosage/level relations: cimetidine, famotidine, pirenzepine, aluminum hydroxide, and omeprazole. These gastrointestinal agents were studied in 64 rat experiments, in which the impact of each single drug and of drug combinations on cyclosporine resorption and metabolism was tested. A standardized dosage of cyclosporine was given orally, and the duration was calculated for the maximum whole blood level of cyclosporine to be achieved; the dosage/level quotient was calculated. Cimetidine, famotidine, pirenzepine, and combination treatment prolonged duration of cyclosporine resorption. Furthermore, cimetidine, famotidine, and omeprazole lowered the dosage/level quotient, thus leading to higher cyclosporine levels with the same dosage; pirenzepine increased the dosage/level quotient. For clinical comparison, 163 heart transplant patients who had received standard triple-drug immunosuppressive therapy were analyzed. The time interval until a therapeutic cyclosporine level was achieved and the dosage/level quotient were once again calculated. Similar to the results in the animal experiments, cimetidine and famotidine significantly delayed the resorption of cyclosporine; cimetidine, famotidine, and omeprazole lowered the cyclosporine dosage/level quotient, thus leading to higher cyclosporine levels with the same dosage. Aluminum hydroxide did not lead to any changes in the resorption or metabolism of cyclosporine. Most examined gastrointestinal agents, and particularly H2-blocking drugs, led to significant prolongation of cyclosporine resorption and cyclosporine level alterations. The initial prolongation of cyclosporine resorption was successfully avoided by intravenous administration of cyclosporine for the first 4 postoperative days in 40 consecutive patients.


Abstract Didactyl tracks of theropod affinity are reported in this study based on a small sample of footprints in sandstones within the Middle Jurassic (Aalenian-Bajocian) Dansirit Formation in the Baladeh area, Alborz Mountains, Iran. These tracks superficially resemble footprints attributed to small deinonychosaurian dinosaurs known mainly from the Cretaceous of Asia. The relative length of the traces of digits III and IV is atypical for deinonychosaurids, especially dromaeosaurids, but could potentially be attributed to a troodontid-like trackmaker. The possibility of small Middle Jurassic deinonychosaurian trackmakers cannot be ruled out on the basis of the age of these traces. However, reports of pre-Cretaceous tracks of deinonychosaurian or deinoychosaur-like affinity remain rare and problematic. To date previous reports of pre-Cretaceous didactyl tracks pertain to a variable range of footprint morphologies, some of which predate known deinonychosaurian body fossil occurrences.


We recently identified a gene expression cassette of 97 unique genes that were consistently differentially expressed between low and high grade breast carcinomas. The majority of these genes were overexpressed in high grade tumors and, as expected, they were associated with cell cycle progression and proliferation. Interestingly, by applying this gene expression cassette to several datasets, we demonstrated that intermediate grade tumors were composed of a mixture of well- and poorly- differentiated tumors with statistically distinct clinical outcome similar to those of low and high grade carcinomas. Furthermore, these proliferation-related genes appear to be a common denominator of several existing prognostic gene expression signatures. This recapitulates their prognostic power far beyond the estrogen receptor (ER) status and highlights the importance of proliferation genes in breast cancer biology. Importantly, their weight seems to be far more important in ER-positive than in ER-negative disease.


Youth organizations are one of the important actors in the village development process in various fields, one of which is in the arts and culture. Tamansuruh Village is no exception, this village has a lot of arts and culture such as pencak somping, gandrung dances which are used as entertainment for villagers and painting arts. However, nowadays young people prefer western culture such as k-pop or tik tok. From that problem, the KKN team returned to their hometown to make an easy training based on local arts and culture, namely training in high print art with the cukil technique. The activity was carried out on June 29, 2021 at the Wonosari Shelter, Tamansuruh Village, while the methods used were in the preparation, implementation, and evaluation stages. Activities carried out include the preparation of tools and materials, presentation of materials and the practice of making high-quality printed works of art using the cukil technique. With this activity, it is hoped that it can increase the creativity of youth organization and can create works of art that have economic value.


The dual-luminescence mechanism of the tetrasubstituted imidazole core (TIC) compound was theoretically explored by considering the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process in the present study. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods have been employed to gain the geometrical conformations, electronic transitions, frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) and various spectra in different electronic states. An intramolecular hydrogen bond O–H⋯N was observed for the TIC in the S0 state. Upon electronic excitation, the TIC molecule is predominantly excited to the S1 state as well as to an isosbestic point in the S2 state. There is a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) during the S0 → S1 (π–π*) transition and an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) during the S0 → S2 (π–π*) transition. The intramolecular hydrogen bond becomes stronger in the S1 state than in the S0 state. This leads to a strong fluorescence emission at 461 nm. However, the calculated potential curves showed that the intramolecular hydrogen bond O–H⋯N transforms into O⋯H–N in the S2 state after the ESIPT reaction. A keto form of TIC is generated which gives rise to the other fluorescence emission at 575 nm through an ultrafast internal conversion (IC) process. This study aims to provide theoretical insights into the development of efficient chemosensors which are switched on through the ESIPT process.


Epidural analgesia has become increasingly popular as a form of labour analgesia in Ireland. However obtaining true inform consent has always been difficult. Our study recruited 100 parturients who had undergone epidural analgesia for labour, aimed to determine the information they received prior to regional analgesia, and to ascertain their preferences regarding informed consent. Only 65 (65%) of patients planned to have an epidural. Knowledge of potential complications was variable and inaccurate, with less than 30 (30%) of women aware of the most common complications. Most women 79 (79%) believed that discomfort during labour affected their ability to provide informed consent, and believe consent should be taken prior to onset of labour (96, 96%). The results of this study helps define the standards of consent Irish patients expect for epidural analgesia during labour.


Perinatal ischemia is a common clinical problem with few successful therapies to prevent neuronal damage. Delta opioid receptor (DOR) activation is a versatile, evolutionarily conserved, endogenous neuroprotective mechanism that blocks several steps in the deleterious cascade of neurological events during ischemia. DOR activation prior to ischemia or severe hypoxia is neuroprotective in spinal motor networks, as well as cortical, cerebellar, and hippocampal neural networks. In addition to providing acute and long‐lasting neuroprotection against ischemia, DOR activation appears to provide neuroprotection when given before, during, or following the onset of ischemia. Finally, DORs can be upregulated by several physiological and experimental perturbations. Potential adverse side effects affecting motor control, such as respiratory depression and seizures, are not well established in young mammals and may be mitigated by altering drug choice and method of drug administration. The unique features of DOR‐dependent neuroprotection make it an attractive potential therapy that may be given to at‐risk pregnant mothers shortly before delivery to provide long‐lasting neuroprotection against unpredictable perinatal ischemic events.


Over the past decade there has been a steady increase in the per capita consumption of alcohol in the UK (Chick, 1982). Numerous studies from many parts of the world have demonstrated a clear correlation between mortality from cirrhosis of the liver and the average quantity of alcohol drunk in that locality (Seeley, 190; Stone etnl. 1968; Rankin et al. 1975; Morgan, 1981). Population studies have shown that the prevalence of potentially hazardous drinking in a population increases in proportion to the average consumption (Rankin et al. 1975; Chick, 1982), and the frequency and mortality from alcohol-related diseases changes in parallel. The calculated incidence of alcoholic cirrhosis in patients presenting to Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham, increased fivefold over the time-period 1959-1976. The incidence of cirrhosis from other causes remained essentially unchanged (Sanders et al. 1981a, 6 ) .


BACKGROUND
Severe sepsis, septic shock and bacteremia are critical illnesses, and patients with these conditions require close monitoring and immediate medical treatment. Any delay in diagnosis may lead to an increase in mortality in such critically ill patients. Serum procalcitonin (PCT) has emerged as a highly accurate biomarker for differentiating sepsis from other non-infectious triggers.

OBJECTIVE
In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of PCT in obtaining early diagnosis and efficient prognosis for such patients at the Emergency Department of Rajavithi Hospital.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A prospective study was performed of 110 adult patients who attended the emergency service department between August 1 2013 and October 31 2013. The effectiveness of PCT as a specific blood test analysis tool for detecting and classifying the severity of patients with sepsis was investigated, and sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive values (NPV), positive predictive values (PPV) and positive likelihood ratio (LR+) were used to differentiate infected patients.

RESULTS
One hundred and ten patients were enrolled and classified into 3 categories as follows: severe sepsis (n = 34, 30.9%), septic shock (n = 13, 11.8%), and bacteremia (n = 23, 20.9%). At a PCT level of ≥ 2 ng/dL, it was feasible to categorize patients as having severe sepsis (p < 0.001; RR 3.58; 95% CI 2.18-5.89), septic shock (p = 0.001; 5.73; 2.06- 15.93) or bacteremia (p < 0.001; 3.91; 1.98-7.73). Moreover, the PCT value yielded the following diagnostic performances for patients with: severe sepsis (PPV 70.8%; NPV 80.2%; LR+ 5.0; sensitivity 50.0%; specificity 90.8%); septic shock (33.3%; 94.2%; 3.6; 61.5%; 83.5%); and bacteremia (50.0%; 87.2%; 3.7; 52.2%; 86.2%).

CONCLUSION
PCT can be usefully employed as a promising chemical biomarker to differentiate the severity of infections in critically ill patients. Used together with clinical data, the PCT value of ≥ 2 ng/dL is efficient in categorizing such patients as having severe sepsis, septic shock or bacteremia.


High temperature heater is required to supply high temperature air to the intake of hypersonic propulsion system in order to simulate high velocity flying condition during the ground test. Various high temperature heaters were reviewed, categorized, and analyzed in this paper. Heaters were categorized in 4 groups; In-Stream Combustion Heater, Electric Arc Heater, Storage Heater, and Heat Exchange Heater. Each group has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the heater should be selected considering its purpose.


Background: Although endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided transbronchial biopsy (TBB) has been shown to increase the diagnostic yield over conventional bronchoscopic techniques, an important issue regarding the optimal number of biopsy specimens required has not been thoroughly investigated. Objectives: We sought to examine whether the number of biopsy specimens taken was associated with the diagnostic yield of EBUS-guided TBB and, if this was the case, to determine the optimal number of specimens required for the maximum diagnostic yield in peripheral pulmonary lesions. Methods: The medical records of patients undergoing EBUS-guided TBB for the diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary lesions from 2008 to 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. The association of clinical and radiological features, including the number of biopsy specimens, with the diagnostic yield was analysed. Results: A total of 384 patients were included for analysis. The overall diagnostic yield of EBUS-guided TBB was 73%, and the only factor influencing the diagnostic yield was the position of the probe. Patients in which the EBUS probe was placed within the lesions had a significantly higher yield (85%) than those in which the probe was adjacent to or outside the lesions (38%; p < 0.001). When the number of biopsy specimens was determined based on their adequacy, it was an insignificant factor in predicting the diagnostic yield. Conclusions: Probe position independently predicts the diagnostic yield of EBUS-guided TBB. In real-world practice, the optimal number of biopsy specimens should be decided on a case-by-case basis.


The behavior of crossbreed cows, milked in the presence or absence of their calves, was analyzed. The trial was conducted on the Dairy Cattle Sector of UESB School of Animal Science in Itapetinga BA Brazil. Twenty crossbreedHolsteinx Gir cows were distributed in a randomized block design with 10 replications for each treatment for the experimental period of 31 days, during lactation. Results were analyzed by nonparametric chi-square test at 5% significance, except the variables time at the milking sector and milk production which were evaluated by analysis of variance and F test at 5% probability. Although cows with the presence of calves during milking had higher reactivity, behavioral activities and more time in the milking sector, milk production was not affected.


The primary purpose of study is to determine the social factors influencing girls primary education in the rural area of Sindh. The scope of study was limited to primary school teachers. Twelve hypotheses were formulated for the study, the hypotheses were related to demographic variables of type of control, sex, age, marital status, experience, medium of instruction, basic facilities, academic and professional qualification. The thirteenth hypothesis was concerned to item-by-item analysis of questionnaire and focused on the sixty dimensions of social factors influencing girls primary education in rural area of Sindh. The population of study consists of approximately 35000 teachers of girl primary schools in rural area of Sindh. Stratified random sampling was used incorporating three principles of classification: type of control, sex and location of schools. The total sample size consisted of 384 teachers drawn from 125 schools. Two research instruments a custom-made questionnaire of sixty items and an interview schedule of ten questions were used.

Out of twelve hypotheses, one hypothesis was rejected and eleven were accepted. The major social factors which are influencing the girls primary education were identified like, poverty, shortage of female teachers, early marriage system, illiteracy among the parents, feudalistic structure of the society, religious obstacles, harsh attitude of teachers, absenteeism among teachers, inadequately trained and poorly paid teachers, transportation, female teachers safety concern, caste and race disturbance, social inequality, irrelevant curricula, negative social attitude greatly inhibit female participation in education. Major recommendations have been given to the concerned authorities for the betterment of girls primary education in rural area of Sindh.


The present Animal Protection Act (APA) provides two options for the seizure of animals because of welfare reasons. The seizure of animals based on section 16 a, sentence 2, no. 2 APA is only possible if the later redelivery to the owner is intended. The definitive seizure can be based on section 19 APA when a criminal or disciplinary procedure is carried out. The general statutes of preventing danger in the federal states are not applicable.


Body weight reduction leads to improvement of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but the contributions of body composition modification on its improvement have not been clarified yet. We performed a retrospective cohort study in a Japanese university hospital to clarify the effect of body fat reduction on the improvement of hepatic stiffness as well as hepatic steatosis. The skeletal muscle mass index (SMI, kg/m2), fat to muscle mass ratio, and the change in fat to muscle mass ratio after 1 year from baseline were calculated. Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP, dB/m) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM, kPa) were evaluated by elastography. Primary outcome was set as the association of the change of fat to muscle mass ratio after 1 year from baseline with the change of liver stiffness measurement. One hundred and seventeen patients (59 men and 58 women) completed the study. The average age was 63.5 years, and baseline CAP and LSM were 273.4 ± 53.5 dB/m and 6.3 ± 3.4 kPa, respectively. After 1 year, body mass index (BMI), SMI, and LSM decreased. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that change in fat to muscle mass ratio was associated with the change in CAP (ß = 0.38, p < 0.001) or LSM (ß = 0.21, p = 0.026). The reduction of fat to muscle mass ratio was associated with improvement in liver stiffness, but the reduction of BMI was not.


The literature contains many references to the appearance of fringe patterns on crystals, under examination in the electron microscope, which are attributed to bending of the crystal. An unusually detailed and extensive but still incomplete pattern is presented in an electron micrograph of a sodium chloride crystal sheet. The corresponding electron diffraction pattern was of the 'two-dimensional' type. Diffraction and fringe patterns were present throughout extensive rotation of the specimen. The fringe pattern is repetitive and cannot be explained by reasonable degrees of bending of the sheet. It is shown to be consistent with the loss of electrons by Bragg reflexion from a lamellar single crystal in a special state of shear strain. Ideally, the strain progresses uniformly in all radial directions but is considered to have been induced experimentally by the contraction of a membrane attached to one side acting in opposition to the natural rigidity of the crystal. For the ideal state of strain it is shown that the fringe pattern is an enlargement by a two-dimensional vernier coincidence process of the intersections of origin reflecting planes with the basal plane, the magnification being simply related to the shear strain. The pattern is identical geometrically with Neumann's linear crystallographic projection.


In this paper, we report a non-explosive separation device for a small satellite which utilize a shape memory alloy actuator. Based on previous research, we try to increase the reliability of the proposed device by changing some components. It enables the proposed device to activate under high preload. Also, we confirm it generates low shock which is main advantage of non-explosive separation device. Finally, vibration test which mimics launching environment and thermal vacuum test which mimics space environment are carried out respectively. After each environment test, we confirm the proposed device is successfully activated. Conclusively, we develop a non-explosive separation device which can activate with low shock under high preload after shock and environment tests(vibration and thermal vacuum tests).


Objective: Despite growing awareness of adverse mental health consequences, the scarce existing evidence on the link of disaster exposure and suicidality has remained inconclusive, and the differential suicidality risk associated with distinct levels of natural and man-made disaster exposure is unknown. We therefore investigated the lifetime prevalence and risk of suicidal behavior associated with natural and man-made disaster exposure in Australia. Method: We utilized data from a nationally representative mental health survey (n = 8,841). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses examined the lifetime risk of suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts associated with varied types and levels of disaster exposure. We focused explicitly on natural and man-made disasters while controlling for other types of trauma exposure, including established risk factors for suicidality. Results: Multivariate analyses indicated that those exposed to multiple natural (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.04, 4.71], p < .05) or man-made disasters (AOR 3.4, 95% CI = [1.20, 9.58] p < .05) were at significantly greater risk of making suicide attempts, whereas single natural or man-made disaster exposure was not associated with an increased risk of suicidal behavior. Conclusions: Our study findings establish the differential suicidality risk associated with natural and man-made disaster exposure in Australia and highlight the critical role of repeat disaster exposure across distinct disaster types. Suicidal behavior may warrant increasing attention in psychosocial recovery schemes, particularly in the context of disaster-prone areas and for population groups at elevated risk of repeat disaster exposure.


X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) are two main x-ray techniques in synchrotron radiation facilities. In this Note, we present an experimental setup capable of performing simultaneous XRD and XAS measurements by the application of a pixel-array area detector. For XRD, the momentum transfer in specular diffraction was measured by scanning the X-ray energy with fixed incoming and outgoing x-ray angles. By selecting a small fixed region of the detector to collect the XRD signal, the rest of the area was available for collecting the x-ray fluorescence for XAS measurements. The simultaneous measurement of XRD and X-ray absorption near edge structure for Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 film was demonstrated as a proof of principle for future time-resolved pump-probe measurements. A static sample makes it easy to maintain an accurate overlap of the X-ray spot and laser pump beam.


The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C8H14N6O2, contains two independent molecules. In one molecule, the amide-substituted N atoms of the tetrazine ring deviate from the plane [maximum deviation = 0.028 (1) Å] through the four other atoms in the ring by 0.350 (2) and 0.344 (2) Å, forming a boat conformation, and the mean planes of the two carboxamide groups form dihedral angles of 10.46 (13) and 20.41 (12)° with the four approximtely planar atoms in the tetrazine ring. In the other molecule, the amide-substituted N atoms of the tetrazine ring deviate from the plane [maximum deviation = 0.033 (1) Å] through the four other atoms in the ring by 0.324 (2) and 0.307 (2) Å, forming a boat conformation, and the mean planes of the two carboxamide groups form dihedral angles of 14.66 (11) and 17.08 (10)° with the four approximately planar atoms of the tetrazine ring. In the crystal, N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect molecules to form a two-dimensional network parallel to (1-1-1). Intramolecular N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds are observed.


ABSTRACT Participants in the maritime industry place much interest in the Forward Freight Agreements (FFA/FFAs), being an indispensable tool for hedging shipping freight risk. Our article innovates by directly comparing the FFA predictions with their actual future settlement prices as well as by examining contracts going forward as far as next calendar year. We combine straightforward comparison measurements with cointegration analysis to test for the accuracy and efficiency of the FFA projections. We find that FFAs display limited usefulness in predicting future freights, only slightly superior than simple naïve models. The shorter the contract period and the smaller the vessel the better the forecast. We also find FFAs being relatively good predictors of future market direction but missing the turning points of the market cycles.


Information processing depends upon the use of physical degrees of freedom. The use of physical degrees of freedom leads to fundamental limitations on information handling. Computihg must be dissipative. The sources of dissipation in turn generate noise. The computing process, however, can be made arbitrarily immune to this noise, at the expense of very slow computing. Computing requires electrically accessible cooperative phenomena in which the information bearing degree of freedom is spread out over many particles, associating a large thermal reservoir with the information bearing degree of freedom. The cooperative phenomena thus utilized in computing include not only the normally called "cooperative," but also the very similar behavior encountered in active dissipative bistable circuits. The analogy between active circuits and ordinary cooperative phenomena is discussed both at the macroscopic and the microscopic level. Active circuits exhibit phenomena which are equivalent to phase transitions, soft m...


The authors performed 3 studies to investigate the effects of social-cognitive variables on physical effort perseverance. Linear hierarchical regressions indicated that task-specific variables and perceived ability or competence accounted for the majority of perseverance variance in all 3 studies. The strongest single predictors in this cluster of variables were perceived competence, confidence, and readiness to invest effort. Physical self-health and ability accounted for a lesser portion of effort perseverance variance, with self-presentation confidence being the major single predictor in this cluster. The goal orientation cluster accounted for the least amount of effort perseverance variance. Together with task-specific confidence and the readiness to invest effort, as well as determination and commitment and competence, the findings support the contention that task-specific efficacious beliefs to a large extent determine persistence and endurance behaviors.


Purpose To examine the diagnostic performance of high-spatial-resolution (HSR) CT with 0.25-mm section thickness for evaluating renal artery in-stent restenosis. Materials and Methods A 0.05-mm wire phantom and vessel phantoms with renal stents with in-stent stenotic sections of varying diameters were scanned with both an HSR CT scanner equipped with 160-section multi-detector rows (0.25-mm section thickness) and a conventional CT scanner. The wire phantom was used to analyze modulation transfer function (MTF). With the vessel phantoms, the error rates were calculated as the absolute difference between the measured diameters and true diameters divided by the true diameters at the narrowing sections. For qualitative evaluation, overall image quality and diagnostic accuracy for evaluating stenosis in three stages were assessed by two radiologists. Statistical analyses included the paired t test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and McNemar test. Results HSR CT achieved 24.3 line pairs per centimeter ± 0.5 (standard deviation) and 29.1 line pairs per centimeter ± 0.4 at 10% and 2% MTF, respectively; and conventional CT was 12.5 line pairs per centimeter ± 0.1 and 14.3 line pairs per centimeter ± 0.1 at 10% and 2% MTF, respectively. The mean error rate of the measured diameter at HSR CT (8.0% ± 5.8) was significantly lower than that at at conventional CT (16.9% ± 9.3; P < .001). Image quality at HSR CT was significantly better than that at conventional CT (P < .001), but HSR CT was not significantly superior to conventional CT in terms of diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion Compared with conventional CT, high-spatial-resolution CT achieved spatial resolutions of up to 29 line pairs per centimeter at 2% modulation transfer function and yielded improved measurement accuracy for the evaluation of in-stent restenosis in a phantom study of renal artery stents. Published under a CC BY 4.0 license.


This study revolves around calculating the extent of appearance of both anonymously and named men and women as well as determining whether or not Yvonne Hirdman's gender theory is applicable on two versions of a Swedish educational history textbook called Epos: historia: for gymnasieskolans kurs A (2008) and Epos [historia] 1b (2012), published for two different curriculum. Our qualitative investigation of two parts of the book's content proves that the two principles of gender system are present in both books, although to a lesser extent in the latter version. Calculating the material, results have shown that anonymous men and women are almost equally presented in Epos 2012, which is not the case in the 2008 version. However, studying the extent of named men and women, we can determine that male characters are overrepresented in both versions, with a total of 80 % of all persons named in the books being of the male gender. To further problematize our material, we discuss how the student's identity, based on E.H. Erikson's theory of identity, could be affected by the subject matter content. We believe that it can be malicious to student's self-image, and that it is the teacher's responsibility to debate with the students about how the gender system's two principles are present in our society.


We demonstrate that one can improve the coded frame-error-rate of spatial multiplexing in block fading by randomly rotating the signal constellation. Unlike linear precoding, our method: 1) does not require coding over time and 2) brings a performance improvement at essentially no additional computational expense. A discussion of the results is provided.


The purpose of the paper is to find out the trade patten and characteristics of Korea`s fisheries products by figuring out the factors of affecting the volume of the export of Korean frozen fisheries products based on the data of frozen fisheries (HS0303), which make up of the large volume of Korea`s fisheries export using gravity model. The paper has performed regression analysis through using 624 panel data and the statistical program, STATA 12.0. In this study, we can get two results as follows: First, the total import volume of fisheries and transportation distance of trade partners have an influence on the Korea`s trade of frozen fisheries products. The time and fare of transportation have also an influence on the Korea`s trade of frozen fisheries products. Second, Korea`s trade of frozen fisheries products is also affected by the exchange rate of currencies and settlement of FTA which could be shown as important factors in the estimation of export function of general products.


Student attrition and low graduation rates are critical problems in computer science education. Disappointing graduation rates and declining student interest have caught the attention of business leaders, researchers and universities. With weak graduation rates and little interest in scientific computing, many are concerned about the USA's ability to meet current demands and to remain competitive, both in product development and technological advances. This study targeted student attrition in the first year of college by examining the impact of learning communities on freshmen computer science students. Factors including class size, technology in the classroom, and active learning environments were infused into the study groups to determine the impact on student success and persistence.


The genus Kobresia in Xizang (Tibet) is revised taxonomically on the basis of both herbarium and field observations. Thirty_six species and one subspecies are recognized. The names of six taxa are corrected, and the six correct names are K. esenbeckii, K. fissiglumis, K. gammiei, K. littledalei, K. myosuroides ssp. bistaminata and K. vaginosa. Thirteen previously recognised taxa, K. angusta, K. cercostachys var. capillacea, K. clarkeana, K. curticeps var. gyirongensis, K. deasyi, K. glaucifolia, K. hookeri, K. nudicarpa, K. prainii var. elliptica, K. seticulmis, K. stenocarpa, K. stenocarpa var. simplex and K. williamsii, are treated as synonyms. K. prainii var. elliptica, K. glaucifolia and K. stenocarpa var. simplex are new synonyms. K. handel_mazzettii is a new record to Xizang. Two species newly published, K. pseuduncinoides and K. woodii, should be added to the flora of Xizang. A new key to species and subspecies, and the information of the distribution sites of each taxon in Xizang are given.


In this thesis work, we design rigorous and efficient protocols/mechanisms for different types of wireless networks using a mechanism design [1] and game theoretic approach [2]. Our work can broadly be viewed in two parts. In the first part, we concentrate on ad hoc wireless networks [3] and [4]. In particular, we consider broadcast in these networks where each node is owned by independent and selfish users. Being selfish, these nodes do not forward the broadcast packets. All existing protocols for broadcast assume that nodes forward the transit packets. So, there is need for developing new broadcast protocols to overcome node selfishness. In our paper [5], we develop a strategy proof pricing mechanism which we call immediate predecessor node pricing mechanism (IPNPM) and an efficient new broadcast protocol based on IPNPM. We show the efficacy of our proposed broadcast protocol using simulation results.


From the synergistic integration and the multidisciplinary strengths of the BioNano Sensor Research Center, Gachon Bionano Research Institute, and Lee Gil Ya Cancer and Diabetes Institute, researchers, students, and faculties at Gachon University in collaboration with other institutions in Korea, Australia, France, America, and Japan have come together to produce a special issue on the diverse applications of nano-theranostics in nanomedicine. This special issue will showcase new research conducted by various scientific groups in Gyonggi-do and Songdo/Incheon, South Korea. The objectives of this special issue are as follows: 1) to bring together and demonstrate some of the latest research results in the field, 2) to introduce new multifunctional nanomaterials and their applications in imaging and detection methods, and 3) to stimulate collaborative interdisciplinary research at both national and international levels in nanomedicine.


An important activity in systems engineering is analyzing how a change in requirements will impact the design of a system. Performing this analysis manually is expensive, particularly for complex systems. In this paper, we propose an approach to automatically identify the impact of requirements changes on system design, when the requirements and design elements are expressed using models. We ground our approach on the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) due to SysML's increasing use in industrial applications. Our approach has two steps: For a given change, we first apply a static slicing algorithm to extract an estimated set of impacted model elements. Next, we rank the elements of the resulting set according to a quantitative measure designed to predict how likely it is for each element to be impacted. The measure is computed using Natural Language Processing (NLP) applied to the textual content of the elements. Engineers can then inspect the ranked list of elements and identify those that are actually impacted. We evaluate our approach on an industrial case study with 16 real-world requirements changes. Our results suggest that, using our approach, engineers need to inspect on average only 4.8% of the entire design in order to identify the actually-impacted elements. We further show that our results consistently improve when our analysis takes into account both structural and behavioral diagrams rather than only structural ones, and the natural-language content of the diagrams in addition to only their structural and behavioral content.


The contents of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate (GL) as well as GABA-aspartate- and alanine aminotransferase activities were measured in rat cerebellum, cerebral cortex and truncus cerebri 1, 3, 6, 24 and 48 hr following total-body gamma-irradiation (60Co) with a dose of 30 Gy. All the indices under study changed in a similar way in the cortex and truncus cerebri while in the cerebellum, GABA level increased and GABA-alpha-ketoglutarate aminotransfearse activity decreased 60 min after irradiation. The levels of GABA and GL in the cortex and truncus cerebri decreased immediately and increased 24 hr after irradiation. Activity of aminotransferases changed in a phase manner: changes in aspartate- and alanine aminotransferase activity were more pronounced than those of GABA-alpha-ketoglutarate aminotransferase activity and correlated with the glutamate level changes.


Notions of human rights and social justice have become so intertwined that today one can enroll in an academic program that leads to an MA degree in "Social Justice and Human Rights." The emergence of this interdisciplinary field of study, on the one hand, seems a perfectly natural recognition of the long-standing affinity shared by these two concepts. Yet, on the other, the merger also reasonably may strike one as an exceedingly amorphous frame of reference for advanced education, if only because both concepts are subject to myriad of, and sometimes contesting, definitions. For example, viewed from the perspective of Glenn Beck, such a program could be equated with the curriculum of a Marxist re-education camp if it dared move beyond a one-dimensional, religiously infused mission of helping the poor! At the same time, restricting the definition of social justice in this manner would appear to run against the spirit underpinning the very term. Likewise, human rights, almost from the outset, have been subject to competing visions that grapple, among other things, between the political and economic as well as the universalist and relativist.Inevitably, preliminary questions arise as to what definition of human rights and whose social justice is being held out as a baseline when engaging in this complex and often controversial area. But rather than be preoccupied with this definitional quagmire, I instead propose in this brief chapter the modest task of highlighting the relevancy of modern international human rights law as a transnational lingua franca for framing and promoting social justice advocacy on the ground.


Functional diagnostics is one of the most important areas of sports medicine, which plays an increasingly role in selection of athletes, optimisation of training, early diagnostics and prophylaxis of sports pathology. Functional condition of the body undergoes constant changes under the influence of a number of factors. The differences may be considerable and pose problems related to the recruitment of athletes to teams in game sports and in individual sports. Physical ability is determined by the quality of external breathing and cardiovascular functions and by peculiarities of metabolism related to the tissue breathing and transport of substrates. In qualitative assessment of these phenomena one must relate the parameters of the individual's functional conditions to the required or desired values, i.e. norms. On the other hand, there exist no norms for a comprehensive evaluation of the Lithuanian persons' physical capacity and breathing system and metabolic function capacity including residents going in for sports. It is not clear whether one may rely upon the nomograms drawn up by foreign authors because they may not be applicable to Lithuanian athletes for a number of possible reasons: differences in training methods, regional cultural environment (differences in energy requirements in daily life), nutritional aspects, even demographic peculiarities taking into account limited assimilation level and small number of inhabitants. It has been established that the maximum oxygen uptake indicators reflecting the body's dynamic potential are different in elite athletes when evaluated during a standard ergo metric test. The aerobic capacity is determined by all links in the oxygen transport chain, since both heart rate (HR) and breathing indicators (VE-ventilation volume, PEF-peak expiratory flow and RR-respiratory rate) are characterised by equally good correlation with the oxygen uptake indicators and high determination coefficients (all r > 0.95, R2 > 95%, p < 0.01).


OF THESIS PROVIDING A PERSISTENT SPACE PLUG-AND-PLAY AVIONICS NETWORK ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION The CubeLab is a new payload standard that greatly improves access to the International Space Station (ISS) for small, rapid turn-around microgravity experiments. CubeLabs are small (less than 16"x8"x4" and under 10kg) modular payloads that interface with the NanoRacks Platform aboard the ISS. CubeLabs receive power from the station and transfer data using the standard terrestrial plugand-play Universal Serial Bus (USB). The Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA) architecture is a modular technology for spacecraft that provides an infrastructure for modular satellite components to reduce the time to orbit and development costs for satellites. This paper describes the development of a bus capable of interfacing SPA-1 payloads in the CubeLab form-factor aboard the ISS. This CubeLab also provides the "discover and join" functionality that is necessary for a SPA-1 network of devices. This will ultimately provide persistent SPA capabilities on the ISS which will allow users to send SPA-1 devices to orbit for on-the-fly installation by astronauts.