CONTEXT
Tobacco is the single largest cause of preventable death among adults globally, as it is in India. Despite this alarming situation, there is very minimal inclusion of tobacco in formal education systems, including the medical discipline, in India.

AIMS
The present study analyzed the extent of integration of tobacco control related content in Masters of Public Health (MPH) curricula of various institutes in India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted during January 2011 to May 2011 in all colleges of the country offering a MPH course. The colleges were enlisted using various internet search engines (Google Scholar, Pubmed, Medline), other published literature and snowball technique. A 50 items semi-structured questionnaire was designed, posted and e-mailed (followed by hard copy) to the Person-In-Charge of the MPH program.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Descriptive statistics were used to profile the tobacco control content in respective institutions. All data entry and analysis was conducted using SPSS (version 16) for windows.

RESULTS
The duration of the MPH course was two years in all institutes and had accreditation with some affiliated body. Tobacco related diseases were covered under 'non communicable diseases' section by every institute. However, a mere 41.4% of institute's had faculty who had received specialized training in tobacco control. More coverage was given to health risks and effects of smoking as compared to cessation interventions (5 A's), symptoms of withdrawal and pharmacological treatments. Only 25% of institutes were in process of introducing tobacco courses into their curricula. Lack of expertise and administrative barriers were cited as perceived major problems in inclusion of tobacco control in MPH curricula.

CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded that tobacco control is not receiving adequate attention in public health curricula in India. There is a need for coordinated efforts in the area of tobacco control so as to reduce morbidity and mortality from tobacco induced diseases.


Philosophical biography has become a highly visible genre. Every year several important biographies of major (and minor) philosophers are published. But the philosophical significance of this genre is seldom discussed. Is the content of such biographies trivia without relevance for the understanding of the philosophers' work? In this article, it is argued that, to the contrary, biography is extremely pertinent to the interpretation of philosophical thought, To understand the philosophers' work, we have to understand not only what they say but also what they do. What is the philosopher's agenda? Why is he or she arguing his or her case in that particular way? What is the point of this or that argument? Why should the philosopher use a certain argument and avoid another (which, from a purely logical point of view, might have served as well or better)? Why is he impressed by certain counter-arguments but not by others? In many cases, we can only answer such questions by studying the philosopher's biography. Only when we understand his situation, when we become familiar with the major questions of his day and get to know his friends and enemies, do we understand his concerns. We can then explain why he intervened in contemporary discussions in the way he did, why he used certain arguments and avoided others. We can understand what he set about to do, that is, what his philosophical project was. Some examples from recent philosophical biographies are analyzed to show in which way the interpretation of a philosopher's life may determine the interpretation of his thoughts.


Using surface force balance measurements we have established that polystyrene chains bearing three zwitterionic groups have a higher end-group sticking energy than equivalent chains bearing a single zwitterionic group. In a good solvent, polystyrene chains end-functionalized with three zwitterionic groups form brushes of a higher surface coverage than those bearing a single zwitterion. The increase in surface coverage is slow compared with the initial formation of the brush. Measurements of the refractive index allow us to directly quantify the variation of surface coverage, permitting comparison with models for the kinetics of brush formation based on scaling theory and an analytical self-consistent field. We find qualitative support for associating the kinetic barrier with the energy required for an incoming chain to stretch as it penetrates the existing brush.


AbstractNew models for the prediction of laminar and turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids in open channels of different cross-sectional shapes are proposed. These models are compared with three previously published models for laminar flow and five previously published models for turbulent flow using a recently extended experimental database for non-Newtonian flow in open channels of different cross-sectional shapes. Flow of three different fluids (aqueous carboxymethylcellulose solutions and kaolin and bentonite suspensions) was investigated in open channels of four different cross sections (rectangular, semicircular, trapezoidal, and triangular) at slopes varying from 1 to 5°. The new laminar model gave a closer fit to the data than those from the previously published models. However, the presence of the yield stress still presents a problem that makes flow prediction in laminar flow for such fluids not very accurate. The new model for turbulent flow gave the best fit to the flow data compared with the...


The ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign has so far targeted less than 3% of the world population, and even in countries where the campaign has started many citizens will not receive their doses for many months. There is clear evidence that previous shortages of COVID-19 related goods (e.g., masks and COVID-19 tests) and services pushed customers, and vendors, towards illicit online trade occurring on dark web marketplaces. Is this happening also with vaccines? Here, we report on our effort to continuously monitor 102 dark web marketplaces. By February 26, we found 33 listings offering a COVID-19 vaccine, seven of which offering officially approved vaccines. The number of currently active listings is 11, including one listing selling the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, one listing the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, and 9 listings selling vaccines of unspecified type. Illicit trade of uncertified COVID-19 vaccines poses a concrete threat to public health and risks to undermine public confidence towards vaccination.


With the arrival of technology, during the last two decades, numerous changes have been made in the field of restorative dentistry. This article reviews the various biomimetic materials and its biological properties in the field of restorative dentistry and endodontics. Biomimetic materials, with their biocompatible nature and excellent physico-chemical properties are widely used nowadays. They can function as long lasting esthetic and restorative materials, cements, root repair materials, root canal sealers and filling materials, which have the advantages of enhanced biocompatibility, high strength, sealing ability and antibacterial properties. New biomimetic materials have demonstrated the ability to overcome some of the significant limitations of earlier generation materials. Although in vitro studies, the uses of biomimetic materials in restorative dentistry endodontic have given encouraging results, randomized and double-blind clinical studies of sufficient length with these materials are needed to confirm long-term success following their use.


Author(s): Zhang, Meng | Advisor(s): Wong, R. Bin | Abstract: This dissertation studies the history of the long-distance timber trade along the Yangzi River during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This voluminous trade is an important aspect of the economic, environmental, and frontier history of Qing China, but has yet to receive much examination in the literature. In addition to published materials, my study employs contracts, palace memorials, legal cases, guild records, and genealogies collected from several Chinese archives. The cultivation, trade, and taxation of timber lend the focal points for me to address a number of central debates regarding state building, environmental transition, and business paradigms in Chinese history. I examine the evolution of the relationship between the state and merchant groups, the enforcement mechanisms that sustained the expansion of long-distance trade networks, the economic and environmental impacts of core-periphery integration, and the property rights regime that enabled market-oriented reforestation.This study provides the first reconstruction of the overall structure of the South China timber trade with hand-collected data and situates the story of timber in a broader perspective. It demonstrates the way in which merchants and the state negotiated the institutional foundations for their relationship, and how such institutional arrangements co-evolved with and reshaped the trade environment for two centuries. The project's scrutiny of the mechanisms of contract enforcement rejects the dichotomy of formal and informal institutions derived from European experiences and argues that formal and informal institutions existed along a continuum instead of in separate spheres in China's late imperial and Republican history. It also explores the impacts of the state and market expansion into the internal ethnic frontiers in the Southwest. By examining the local population's active participation in the timber trade and tree planting, this study highlights their economic agency and revises the one-sided story from earlier works that unsophisticated natives were deprived of their resources by in-migrating Han colonizers. The property rights regime on timberlands adopted here and elsewhere across South China effectively solved the liquidity problem associated with the long-term nature of tree growth and proved successful in promoting commercialized reforestation in a rural household-based economy.


In this study, we propose to identify morphological and hydraulic characteristics related to overbank flows in the water level time‐series available at many gauged stations. The results obtained at 13 river stations (the catchment sizes vary from 10 to 1700 km2 with contrasted geology, land use and rainfalls regime) show that overflow mechanisms at the river‐reach scale can be systematically identified in the water level frequency distribution estimated with the peaks‐over‐threshold (POT) method. A first level (Lts1) was in the range of the incipient flooding onto the floodplain. Even if the definition of this level is variable in terms of flooded area at the reach scale, this method can be useful in providing a first estimation of the bankfull level for many gauged stations, without complex and costly field surveys. A second level (Lts2) was systematically detected on average 38 cm above the topographic flat floodplain elevation. The Lts2 inflection in the water‐level frequency distribution is assumed to reflect a composite effect of catchment hydrology and local hydraulics and channel geometry, without possibility to make a clear distinction between both processes at the moment. The local or reach scale effect would probably play an essential role in the frequency distribution as flood attenuation at catchment scale may explain the inflection Lts2 at only three sites. In light of the knowledge acquired in laboratory flumes with compound channels, most of the time Lts2 level would correspond to the level of resumption of flow both in the main channel and the floodplain. Once this method is validated in various physiographic contexts, it should apply to many hydrometric stations for both synchronic (e.g. regional analysis) and diachronic analysis (e.g. evolution over time of the bankfull discharge) to evaluate anthropic impacts on river morphology. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Mobile ad-hoc networks are the most uncertain type of networks. Uncertainty occurs due to the mobile nature of the nodes, continuous consumption of energy and bandwidth results in unpredictable state of nodes. In this situation making an efficient, reliable and stable route selection is a challenging task and an open research problem aiming to provide continuous data transfer between source and destination node. Multipath routing protocol ensures reliable communication by providing multiple paths between source and destination nodes. To choose the best one among different alternative paths is the problem addressed by this paper. For this purpose fuzzy logic (multi valued logic) has been used. Fuzzy logic is a soft computing technique which is able to make precise and accurate decision in multi variable, uncertain and imprecise situation. Here, firstly Multipath Priority Based Route Discovery Mechanism (MPRDM) has been used to generate multiple paths between the two nodes participating in the communication. MPRDM calculates individual priority value for every RREP packet and assigns it to the different obtained routes. Further, in this paper fuzzy logic has been used for designing fuzzy route selection controller for Fuzzy Logic Based Stable Route Selection mechanism (FLSRSM) which calculates stability value of different routes based on priority value, average mobility and residual energy along the paths FLSRSM is able to make selection of best stable path based on the highest value of stability metric. This mechanism has been used to propose fuzzy based priority ad-hoc on demand multipath distance vector stable routing protocol (FPAOMDV) that provide stability, reliability and selects the route that has sufficient amount of energy to hold continuous data transfer. In Simulation results on NS2, the proposed protocol outperforms other compared routing protocols in terms of delay, throughput, PDR and overhead.


on p. 20 that the ' Hattians' of the preimperial age were the ' Hittites ' known to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament is hazardous : the name of the Stag-god (written with the ideograms for ' protecting deity ') is possibly Tuwata (E. Laroche in Syria, xxxi, 1954, 116) : the celebrated guardian of the King's Gate at Bogaz-koi is quite different in appearance and guise from the mounted god with the pointed hat and the ' legs' symbol in no. 2Q, and still more from him in no. 25, and it is hardly likely that the first is Sarrumma. The crudely barbarous statue of Idrimi (nos. 100, 101) is interestingly discussed on pp. 83 ff., but the inclusion of this really overstrains any acceptance of the term ' Hittite '. It would now be dated in (perhaps early in) the fifteenth century, and if there is really a stylistic likeness between this and the seated goddess of Tell Halaf (nos. 88, 89), this would cast doubt upon the late dating of the goddess (eighth century) which Mr. Vieyra favours. Since a slip of Addenda and Corrigenda has been pasted on to the table of


SUMMARY Effects of 2 dietary levels (0.6 and 1.0 ppm) of T-2 toxin, and the possible protective capacity of a mycotoxin-inactivating feed additive (Detoxa Plus) were investigated in growing White Pekin ducklings in a 49-d trial comprising 6 treatment groups of 10 ducks/group. The experimental design consisted of 1 negative and 1 positive control and 4 test groups, as follows: group 1, negative control (no T-2 toxin and no feed additive added to the feeds); group 2, positive control (no T-2 toxin added, but the feeds were supplemented with feed additive at 2 kg/t); group 3, feeds were complemented with 0.6 ppm of purified T-2 toxin (no feed additive added); group 4, feeds were complemented with 0.6 ppm of T-2 toxin and 2 kg/t of the feed additive was provided; group 5, feeds were complemented with 1.0 ppm of T-2 toxin (no feed additive added); group 6, feeds were complemented with 1.0 ppm of T-2 toxin and 2 kg/t of the feed additive was provided. From wk 4 until the end of the trial, the daily BW gain of group 3 ducks was inferior to that of control ducks, and the differences in means were statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) at wk 4 and 7. The final BW of this group was also significantly lower than that of the control (P ≤ 0.001). The BW gain of ducks in group 5 was also depressed by the toxin treatment. The adverse effect of 0.6 ppm of T-2 toxin was fully counteracted by the feed additive in terms of daily BW gain, cumulative daily BW gain, and BW at exsanguination. The T-2 toxin at both treatment levels depressed the blastogenic response of lymphocytes to nonspecific mitogens (concanavalin A and phytohaemagglutinin), which was counteracted by the feed additive at the lower dietary concentration of T-2 toxin. No such effect was observed with 1.0 ppm of T-2 toxin. Metabolic blood parameters and hematological data showed no consistent treatment effects. We conclude that this feed additive is able to counteract the adverse effects of T-2 toxin at dietary concentrations that might be encountered under field conditions.


Purpose
Treatment of intersectionality in empirical studies has predominantly engaged with individual categories of difference. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there is utility in exploring intersectionality at the intersection of individual and institutional levels. As such the authors move beyond the polarised take on intersections as either individual or institutional phenomenon and tackle intersectionality as a relational phenomenon that gains meaning at the encounter of individuals and institutions in context. Therefore, the authors explicate how intersectionality features as forms of solidarity and hostility in work environments. As such the authors posit that not only individuals but also the institutions should change if inclusion is aimed at societal and organisational levels.

Design/methodology/approach
A thematic analysis on qualitative interview data of a purposive- and snowball-selected sample of 11 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer working adults in Turkey was used.

Findings
This paper finds evidence to support the existence of a multidimensional model of intersectionality, where conflicting and complementary individual and institutional intersections create four intersectional typologies in the form of intersectional hostility, intersectional struggle, intersectional adjustment and intersectional solidarity.

Originality/value
The extant literature offers rich insights into individual intersectionality but sheds very little light on institutional intersectionality and its interaction with individual intersectionality. This paper attempts to fill in this gap by investigating intersectional encounters as interactions between the individual and institutional intersections.


Creating personas from actual online user information is an advantage of the data-driven persona approach. However, modern online systems often provide big data from millions of users that display vastly different behaviors, resulting in possibly thousands of personas representing the entire user population. We present a technique for reducing the number of personas to a smaller number that efficiently represents the complete user population, while being more manageable for end users of personas. We first isolate the key user behaviors and demographical attributes, creating thin personas, and we then apply an algorithmic cost function to collapse the set to the minimum needed to represent the whole population. We evaluate our approach on 26 million user records of a major international airline, isolating 1593 personas. Applying our approach, we collapse this number to 493, a 69% decrease in the number of personas. Our research findings have implications for organizations that have a large user population and desire to employ personas.


Background: Mesenteric cysts continue to intrigue the surgeons and radiologist alike. Patients and Methods: Our records were reviewed to identify mesenteric cysts, diagnosed in the period from February 2014 to September 2016. Results: We identified one male and four females, with a median age of 44 years. Abdominal pain was the presenting feature in all patients. ultrasound was done in four cases, where the cyst was missed in one case, and no clue to its nature was given in the remaining three, while computed tomography suspected the diagnosis in four patients and failed in one. Laparoscopic excision was attempted in only one patient, but eventually, all patients underwent open surgical excision. In four patients, the cyst was removed intact, while in the fifth, a minor wall break occurred, resulting in limited spillage of cyst contents. Histopathological examination showed simple mesothelial cyst in three cases, a pseudocyst in the fourth case and a cystic lymphangioma in the fifth. All patients tolerated surgery well, and up to the time of writing this paper, no recurrence was reported. Conclusion: Mesenteric cysts, with its numerous types, continue to intrigue the concerned physicians. Regardless of the approach, excision of the intact cyst should be the aim, most conveniently by open surgery. Although laparoscopy could be employed, this should be entertained with caution, to avoid cyst rupture or leaving part of the wall behind, thus predisposing to recurrence.


The article establishes how school managers address the challenge of teacher attrition. This was done by assessing its effects on the functionality of and closely examining measures put in place to sustain teacher retention in public secondary schools in Zambia. This study employed action research strategies of inquiry utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection to a total of 33 participants. Data was mainly analysed using thematic analysis, a process involving coding and categorising major themes emerging from the study findings and in relation to the objectives of the study. Findings of the study seem to suggest that teacher attrition led to poor staffing levels and poor student achievement. Moreover, school managers lacked sufficient support and ability to address the challenges arising from teacher attrition. Further, school managers should use the participative management approach and continuous professional development through proper valuation of teachers' continuous professional development needs as strategies to enhance teacher motivation and retention. Another significant finding in this study was that the participants had limited understanding on the role school managers' played in staff retention. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that school managers that lack basic understanding of what they are expected to do cannot be perceived as effective in addressing teacher attrition. The empirical investigation also underscored a series of practical challenges faced by school managers in Chongwe, Kafue and Lusaka districts.


The many problems of diagnosing IUGR are compounded by a lack of ability to detect the dysmature infant from the constitutionally small infant even at birth. Antenatal attempts at detecting IUGR must start with the accurate establishment of gestational age. This can be only accomplished by routine early ultrasound measurement of BPD for all pregnant patients. Subsequently, management is aimed at screening out a group at high risk for having a growth-retarded fetus. Clinical means are poor but SFH measurements or a repeat ultrasound in the third trimester can be expected to detect about 85% of IUGR patients. Diagnosis of IUGR is made by detailed measurement of growth parameters on a serial basis. The use of the H/A ratio chart allows the antenatal division of IUGR into asymmetric and symmetric, such that appropriate investigation and management can be undertaken. The study of flow velocity waveforms obtained by pulsed Doppler ultrasound might in the future help to provide a more rational basis for referring patients to intensive antenatal fetal monitoring.


Fish is one of the animal protein sources consumed by people because it is relatively easy to obtain and affordable. The abundant of the fish needs some ways to preserve it, one of them is by making bekasam. Bekasam is fish fermented product which is procesed with the addition of rice and salt. One of the function of the salt is to select microorganisms that produce proteolytic enzymes.The purpose ofthis study was to know influance of different salt concentrations to ward the quality of fish bekasam.The research was conducted in August 2015 in Chemistry Laboratory of Biology Education Study Program, Teaching Training and Tarbiyah Faculty UIN Raden Fatah Palembang. The research method was an experimental laboratoryusing a CRD with 4 treatments and 3 replication. The treatments were salt concentrationK 0 (10% b/v), K 1 (20% b/v), K 2 (30% b/v) and K 3 (40% b/v). The test parameters observed were theacidity and hedonic test (color, smell and taste). The parametric data for the acidity was analyzed by ANOVA test, while nonparametric data(hedonic) used the organoleptic test. The results showed that based on ANOVA, the different salt concentration gave a very significant different influance (P=0,01) toward the acidity value, that F count > F table is 26,16 > 7,59. Based on research result, the acidity of each K 0 , K 1 , K 2 and K 3 was 1,13 N, 1,00 N, 1,02 Nand  0,42N.Treatment of 10% salt concentration resulted the highest  acidity 1,13 N.While from hedonic test showed that bekasam with 20%salt concentration was the most preferred


Exposure to prolonged or excessive noise has been shown to cause a range of health problems. In this study, flexible sandwich composites (FSCs) with excellent sound absorption and mechanical properties were designed and fabricated by a one-step foaming process. The compound fabric as composite panel and fabric sequence contacted with PU foam has been designed and optimized for excellent cushioning and sound absorption properties. In comparisons of three processing methods for fabricating compound fabrics as reinforced panels of FSCs, punching/hot pressing was found to be the most effective method. Through experiments, the L (low-melting polyethylene terephthalate nonwoven fabric, LPNF) -W (warp-knitted spacer fabric, WKSF) -F (flexible polyurethane foam, FPF) composites had the best performance, reaching the sound absorption coefficient of 0.997 (1000 Hz), 107.77 KPa in compression modulus, 6541 N in maximum impact contact force and 44.68% in impact energy absorption. Morphological study revealed that the transition region formed by FPF and WKSF played a vital role in the L-W-F structure. In that region, small cavities and complex porous paths were observed that effectively improved the sound absorption and cushioning properties by dissipating the stress wave and sound wave level-to-level.


There is a growing body of malware samples that evade automated analysis and detection tools. Malware may measure fingerprints ("artifacts") of the underlying analysis tool or environment and change their behavior when artifacts are detected. While analysis tools can mitigate artifacts to reduce exposure, such concealment is expensive. However, not every sample checks for every type of artifact-analysis efficiency can be improved by mitigating only those artifacts most likely to be used by a sample. Using that insight, we propose MIMOSA, a system that identifies a small set of"covering"tool configurations that collectively defeat most malware samples with increased efficiency. MIMOSA identifies a set of tool configurations that maximize analysis throughput and detection accuracy while minimizing manual effort, enabling scalable automation to analyze stealthy malware. We evaluate our approach against a benchmark of 1535 labeled stealthy malware samples. Our approach increases analysis throughput over state of the art on over 95% of these samples. We also investigate cost-benefit tradeoffs between the fraction of successfully-analyzed samples and computing resources required. MIMOSA provides a practical, tunable method for efficiently deploying analysis resources.


A one-year study was carried out among the poisoning cases admitted in the emergency wing of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital attached to Government Medical College, Amritsar during the period from 10-5-1997 to 9-5-1998. Out of 10,664 admitt emergencies, 3.19% were poisoning cases. Male to female ratio was nearly 3:1. Majority (45.59%) of the victims were in the age group of 21-30 years, 69.12% were married and 51.47% belonged to urban area. At the time of admission 61.47% cases were conscious, 26.17% were partially conscious and 12.36% were unconscious. Majority (76.47%) of the victims committed suicide, in 20.88% cases manner of death was accident and homicide was reported in 1.76% cases. Commones poison was aluminium phosphide (38.23%) followed by organophosphorus compounds (17.64%). The study observed increasing trend of suicide by aluminium phosphide and organophosphorus compounds, whereas other poisons for committing suicide were less commonly used.


BACKGROUND
United States Army Forward Surgical Teams (FSTs) consist of twenty personnel and are the Army's smallest surgical units. Currently, they provide the majority of resuscitative surgical care for combat casualties in Afghanistan where the mission of the FST has been further extended to include "split-based operations." The effectiveness of these 10-person teams is unknown and outcome data has not been previously reported in the literature. This article evaluates the effectiveness of one split FST during a 14-month period in remote Afghanistan.

METHODS
The primary endpoint was died of wounds (DOW) outcomes among United States Forces, Coalition Afghani Forces, and local national citizens. Mortality was evaluated separately for patients who received a blood transfusion. Secondary endpoints of the study included number of blood products transfused, Injury Severity Score (ISS), and mechanism of injury.

RESULTS
Seven hundred sixty-one patients were treated and 327 patients underwent an immediate surgery. The average ISS was 12.05, and the DOW percentage was 2.36%. There were 61 patients with an ISS of greater than 24 (mortality = 23.0%), and 47 patients with an ISS of 16 to 24 (mortality = 2.13%). Nine of 121 patients transfused (7.4%) died. A total of 27 patients required massive blood transfusion and on average received 12.6 units of fresh frozen plasma and 18.2 units of packed red blood cell (ratio 1:1.49). Seven of 27 patients who received massive blood transfusion (25.9%) died.

CONCLUSIONS
Small two-surgeon surgical teams can achieve acceptable DOW rates when compared with other larger surgical units currently operating in the Global War on Terror.


In this paper, we report that an electromotive force (EMF) can be induced in a rope of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) when water droplets fall on this rope. The magnitude of this EMF depends sensitively on the slant angle of the SWNTs. Most interestingly, both the magnitude and the direction of the induced EFM can be modulated by applying a current to the SWNTs. The concepts of electrical slip and no-slip are proposed and can be quantitatively described by "electrical slip resistance". This kind of generator does not need any magnet, rotor, etc and shows quite a different operating mechanism and design compared with a conventional large scale hydroelectric power generator.


ABSTRACT Acquisition and analysis of hydrological series are essential activities for hydrological studies in watersheds. However, they require time and are usually complex and susceptible to human errors. In order to minimize these problems, computational tools are often used for hydrological analysis, although there are few of them in Brazil. This technical note aims to provide a structured document with information on the motivation, development, conception, main functionalities, and applications of the System of Hydrological Data Acquisition and Analysis (SYHDA). SYHDA is a software intended for acquisition and analysis of hydrological data (rainfall and streamflow) and was fully idealized to enable the user to deal with the country's leading hydrology databases. It has several modules that include analysis by descriptive statistics and graphical tools, seasonality analysis of streamflows, non-parametric tests, and at-site and regional probabilistic modeling. SYHDA has been used in numerous scientific studies, which give grounds to affirm that it demonstrates a great potential to be used in both everyday and complex activities demanded by the scientific and technical community of hydrology and related areas.


This paper deals with the issue of model reference adaptive control strategy to control the injection molding machine. Prior to controller design, a pair of transfer functions are derived for the injection and dwelling process based on mathematical models of components. As external disturbances to examine the robustness of the proposed controller, nozzle clogging and contraction of molded objects are considered and realized by proportional valve. The overall simulation system, consisting of hydraulic components, controller and sensors, is implemented using the components of commercial software SimulationX. The simulation results confirm the proposed scheme"s efficiency and robustness.


An approach towards heterogeneous neuroscience dataset integration is proposed that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and a knowledge-based phenotype organizer system (PhenOS) to link ontology-anchored terms to underlying data from each database, and then maps these terms based on a computable model of disease (SNOMED CT®). The approach was implemented using sample datasets from fMRIDC, GEO, The Whole Brain Atlas and Neuronames, and allowed for complex queries such as "List all disorders with a finding site of brain region X, and then find the semantically related references in all participating databases based on the ontological model of the disease or its anatomical and morphological attributes". Precision of the NLP-derived coding of the unstructured phenotypes in each dataset was 88% (n = 50), and precision of the semantic mapping between these terms across datasets was 98% (n = 100). To our knowledge, this is the first example of the use of both semantic decomposition of disease relationships and hierarchical information found in ontologies to integrate heterogeneous phenotypes across clinical and molecular datasets.


Salicylohydroxamic acid(SHA), N-methylsalicylohydroxamic acid(MSHA), and N-methylphthalohydroxamic acid(MPHA) were prepared and their acylation reactions with p-nitrophenyl acetate were studied in aqueous ethanol at 30 °C. Both the acidity and nucleophilicity of the hydroxamic acid group were affected by the functional ortho-substituents(–OH, –COOH). In particular, the undissociated hydroxamic acid group in the MPHA monoanion possessed nucleophilic reactivity. This was brought forth by the general base assistance of the adjacent carboxylate group, as confirmed by the presence of the solvent isotope effect of kH⁄kD=2.5. Only the hydroxamate anion acted as the nucleophile in all other cases.


With the exhaustion of the IPv4 addressing space quickly approaching, it has become a high priority for service providers, enterprises, IP appliances manufacturers, application developers, and governments to begin their own deployments of IPv6. A seamless migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is hard to achieve. Therefore several mechanisms are required which ensures smooth, stepwise and independent change to IPV6. Not only is the transition, integration of IPv6 is also required into the existing networks. The solutions (or mechanisms) can be divided into three categories: dual stack, tunneling and translation. Dual-stack is a preferred, most versatile way to deploy IPv6 in existing IPv4 environments. IPv6 can be enabled wherever IPv4 is enabled along with the associated features required to make IPv6 routable, highly available, and secure. In some cases, IPv6 is not enabled on a specific interface or device because of the presence of legacy applications or hosts for which IPv6 is not supported. Inversely, IPv6 may be enabled on interfaces and devices for which IPv4 support is no longer needed. In this project the Dual-Stack transition mechanism is implemented in GNS3 (Graphical Network Simulator), using CISCO routers. The operation of this network is viewed with the help of Wireshark (Packet analyzer). The topology combines both, Dual-Stack and tunneling technologies, which can be observed by capturing the packets in the router interfaces.


Irrational beliefs affect individuals' emotions and behaviors from the first stages of their lives and this effect continues throughout their lives. The aim of this study was to investigate irrational beliefs in adults in terms of various variables. This study is a descriptive study performed in survey design. . The study working group is consisted of the adults living in Samsun, Turkey. In the study, it was concluded that irrational beliefs do not differentiate significantly according to gender. This study was reached, 235 adult individuals aged between 27 and 50. 132 (56.17%) participants were female and 103 (43.83%) were male. The irrational beliefs of the participants were examined according to gender, age and education level. The data were collected by the Rational Beliefs Scale and personal information form. SPSS package program was used for data analysis. Data were analyzed by t test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Analysis. According to study, there is a significant difference in the irrational beliefs of the adults according to their education level, and the irrational belief levels of the secondary and high school graduates has been found to be significantly higher than the individuals who received undergraduate and higher education. In the literature, similar studies with the same results has been come across and as well as non-similar studies. It is recommended that qualitative studies including in-depth interviews should be conducted in order to determine exactly which factors are affecting irrational beliefs the most. Anahtar Sözcükler: Irrational beliefs, Education, Age, Adults.


Abstract In a recent study we examined correlations between language function and regional glucose metabolism from FDG positron computed tomography. Caudate metabolism correlated with PICA speaking and comprehension factors, as well as BDAE mean writing and reading scores. To identify the language function implicated with caudate metabolism in these eleven patients, twenty subtests making up these two PICA factors and mean BDAE scores were correlated to caudate metabolism. Also a principal components analysis on the twenty subtests identified three factors, only one of which correlated with caudate metabolism. Evidence was found that the caudate has a functional relationship to recognition or motor planning of simple and overlearned materials. This involved simple syntax, low levels of abstraction, identification or sequencing of phonetic and semantic material. This role appeared related to but independent of Broca and frontal lobe function, and may involve the focusing of cortical functions, by allowing ...


The microstructure and grain boundary structure of nanocrystalline Cu powders and a compact prepared by the inert-gas condensation technique have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The as-prepared particles are round in shape and have no distinct surface facets. Annealing twins (coherent Z3 boundaries) have been observed in the as-prepared Cu particles as well as in the compact. Pores are commonly found at grain boundaries, triple grain junctions and some in the interior of grains in the compact. In addition to twin boundaries, a number of special grain boundaries have been observed. These special grain boundaries have low-index interface planes, and sometimes have misorientation angles close to coincidence site lattice (CSL) orientations.


Background: The actual results of treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI)have not significantly improved even though much effort has been invested to restructure and reorganize emergency systems in western industrial nations. Current treatment concentrates on immediate revascularization by means of fibrinolytic treatment or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) : the role of coronary bypass surgery in AMI is still not clearly defined.
Methods. Between January 2000 and November 2007, 277 consecutive patients with angiographically confirmed multivessel disease and AMI received coronary bypass surgery within 48 hours of diagnosis. The data were retrieved from a
prospective cardiovascular hospital database.
Results. The overall in-hospital mortality was 14.8%, 24.1% in patients with cardiogenic shock (CS), and 6.3% without CS. Forty eight percent of 277 patients were in preoperative CS, 35.9% required an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), and 26.8% were treated with inotropes or vasopressive medication. The median time from AMI to surgery was 10±4 hours. All patients received complete revascularization (overall number of grafts: 3.2±0.9; arterial grafts: 1.1±0.6; venous grafts: 2.1±0.9). After multivariate modelling, the following predictors of the elevated in-hospital mortality have been identified : preoperative use of inotropes and vasopressive
medication (Odds Ratio (OR) 5.4, P<0.001), postoperative renal failure requiring continuous veno-venous hemodialysis (CVVHD) (OR 5.9, P<0.001), and peripheral vessel disease (OR 7.0, P<0.001). The median interval to discharge was 10 days.
Conclusion. The obtained in-hospital mortality in patients with AMI and cardiogenic shock appeared superior after bypass surgery compared to actual results reported for PCI or medical treatment. In patients without CS, mortality was not essentially different from nationwide annual reports even in the first 48 hours after AMI.


This paper presents a method for optimizing statistical multi-response problems. The method
is based on fuzzy goal programming and it enjoys a strong mathematical foundation. In this
method, the decision maker's comments are considered objectively. The LINGO programming
environment is used to test the developed method. The method performance is evaluated by
comparing the results with those of other existing methods.


The categorization of meanings against lexical items that have multiple meanings or that undergo an expansion of meaning often poses problems to language users. This is because language users are often confused and unsure of the true meaning of a lexical item based on the context of its use. Studies on lexical semantics have been extensively conducted but most of the studies conducted focus on the meaning of adjectives, idioms and verbs only. Studies linking word meaning to sexual crime using newspaper data are still considered new and still lacking in number. This study, which uses Prototype Theory, will utilize digital newspaper data, namely Harian Metro, which is expected to fill the existing gaps. This prototype theory is proven to help unravel the cognitive processes involved as the reader tries to understand the true meaning of the word meaning that describes this obscene sexual crime. This study also proves that the use of cognitive semantics by utilizing prototype theory as well as the concept of lexical mapping has helped the process of utterance comprehension take place. All these cognitive processes are used in helping the reader understand the true meaning of a word. This study proves that the lexical used to describe the obscene crime is easily understood by the reader but there are other features that can be used by the author to describe the obscene sexual crime. This aims to further facilitate the reader's understanding of obscene sexual crimes. Overall, the results of this study found that the lexical used is appropriate to the concept of the crime of obscenity.


Army participation in the LEED® for Homes Pilot Program is intended to facilitate preparations and transition from SPiRiT to LEED® for Homes as soon as it is ready for adoption. The pilot program will coincide with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) development of the LEED® for Homes evaluation tool. The Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff (Installation Management) Housing Division has overall responsibility for the transition and has selected Norfolk District, Center of Standardization for Family Housing to facilitate and coordinate participation in the LEED® for Homes Pilot Program. A team consisting of Army personnel experienced in Army Family Housing (AFH) and/or sustainability conducted site visits to AFH at Fort Lee, VA and Fort Huachuca, AZ. Both installations have a history of successful AFH projects and current projects under construction that used SPiRiT as a sustainability rating tool. LEED® for Homes was applied to each AFH project. Further, each credit was evaluated for applicability to Army projects and its ease of application using current design guidelines. Where appropriate, feedback was provided to the USGBC regarding issues, concerns, or clarifications on particular credits. The team also defined several Innovation and Design credits that could universally apply to AFH projects. DISCLAIMER: The contents of this report are not to be used for advertising, publication, or promotional purposes. Citation of trade names does not constitute an official endorsement or approval of the use of such commercial products. All product names and trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners. The findings of this report are not to be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. DESTROY THIS REPORT WHEN NO LONGER NEEDED. DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE ORIGINATOR. ERDC/CERL TR-07-45 iii


We study a dilute gas of interacting fermions at temperature T = 0 and chemical potential µ ∈ R . The particles are trapped by an external potential, and they interact via a microscopic attractive two-body potential with a two-body bound state. We prove the emergence of the macroscopic Gross-Pitaevskii theory as first-order contribution to the BCS energy functional in the regime of vanishing micro-to-macro scale parameter


Disulfiram (DSF) is one of the recommended aids in the management of selected patients with alcohol dependence. Hypertension (HTN) as an adverse effect of DSF therapy is less understood. In our prospective case series of 7 subjects with co-morbid alcohol and nicotine dependence, a temporal, dose-dependent, and reversible grade 1-3 HTN within 1-6 weeks of initiation of DSF therapy (125-500 mg/day) with no other detectable causes of HTN was noted. Challenges and strategies surrounding diagnosis and treatment along with mean change and percentage rise in blood pressure are described. Literature review and clinical description of case series may suggest neurobiological role in its causation. HTN may be a clinically significant, dose-dependent, and reversible adverse effect of DSF therapy, especially in co-morbid alcohol and nicotine-dependent patients. Awareness amongst clinicians may render better health care delivery to subjects with alcohol dependence.


Inula royleana (Compositae) is a stout herb growing in western Himalayas at an altitude of 7-1100 ft. Roots of this species are known to exhibit hypotensive activity and stimulate tone and peristalic moments of intestines. Earlier investigations on the roots of this species have revealed the presence of alkaloids and diterpenes. In this communication we report the isolation of three sesqui terpene lactones designated as IR-1, mp-78-790 IR-3, mp-171-1720 and characterized by spectroscopic and chemical methods as alantolactone, isoalantolactone, 11, 13 dihydroisoalantolac tone and sitosterol mp-136-37.


Convolutional neural networks have demonstrated their powerful ability on various tasks in recent years. However, they are extremely vulnerable to adversarial examples. I.e., clean images, with imperceptible perturbations added, can easily cause convolutional neural networks to fail. In this paper, we propose to utilize randomization to mitigate adversarial effects. Specifically, we use two randomization operations: random resizing, which resizes the input images to a random size, and random padding, which pads zeros around the input images in a random manner. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed randomization method is very effective at defending against both single-step and iterative attacks. Our method also enjoys the following advantages: 1) no additional training or finetuning, 2) very few additional computations, 3) compatible with other adversarial defense methods. By combining the proposed randomization method with an adversarially trained model, it get a normalized score of 0.921 in a public challenge on defending against adversarial examples, which is far better than using adversarial training alone with a normalized score of 0.830.


Objectives The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the available evidence on the use of minimal invasive surgery (MIS) in the management of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Background MIS is currently performed to stage and treat EOC at different stage of presentation. We will evaluate risks and benefits of minimally invasive surgery for early stage EOC treatment, then potential advantages provided by staging laparoscopy in identifying patients suitable for primary cytoreductive surgery (PDS) will be discussed. Finally we will investigate the growing role of MIS in the treatment of advanced EOC after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and in the treatment of EOC recurrence. Methods An electronic database search was performed on PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar for relevant studies up to December 2022. Conclusion LPS represents a feasible surgical procedure for the staging and treatment in early, advanced and EOC relapse in selected patients treated in high-volume oncological centers by surgeons with adequate experience in advanced surgical procedures. Despite the increasing use of MIS over the last few years, randomized clinical trials are still needed to prove its effectiveness.


This paper describes our models for the Moldavian vs. Romanian Cross-Topic Identification (MRC) evaluation campaign, part of the VarDial 2019 workshop. We focus on the three subtasks for MRC: binary classification between the Moldavian (MD) and the Romanian (RO) dialects and two cross-dialect multi-class classification between six news topics, MD to RO and RO to MD. We propose several deep learning models based on long short-term memory cells, Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU) and Hierarchical Attention Networks (HAN). We also employ three word embedding models to represent the text as a low dimensional vector. Our official submission includes two runs of the BiGRU and HAN models for each of the three subtasks. The best submitted model obtained the following macro-averaged F1 scores: 0.708 for subtask 1, 0.481 for subtask 2 and 0.480 for the last one. Due to a read error caused by the quoting behaviour over the test file, our final submissions contained a smaller number of items than expected. More than 50% of the submission files were corrupted. Thus, we also present the results obtained with the corrected labels for which the HAN model achieves the following results: 0.930 for subtask 1, 0.590 for subtask 2 and 0.687 for the third one.


INVESTIGATIONS ABOUT THE NEUROMOTOR CONTROL OF THE RECTUS ABDOMINIS MUSCLE Author: PAULO HENRIQUE MARCHETTI Adviser: Prof. Dr. MARCOS DUARTE The rectus abdominis is an important muscle of the abdominal wall; it is responsible for the stabilization and function of the spine, as to athletic activity as daily activity. However, we do not have enough knowledge about the neuromotor control of this structure in voluntary activities, like abdominal exercises and how different tasks alter the segmental activation of the different parts of the abdomen. The aims of the present dissertation were to investigate the neuromotor control of the rectus abdominis in different voluntary tasks by four experiments. The aim of the first experiment was to describe morphologic characteristics of the rectus abdominis, in particular its transverse cross section, using the visible human project (NLM). The aim of the second experiment was to define motor points to each portion of the rectus abdominis. The aim of the third experiment was to investigate the neuromotor control of the each portion of the rectus abdominis in isometric low intensity tasks. And, the fourth experiment investigated the behavior of the different portions of the rectus abdominis in different isometric tasks on neuromuscular fatigue. The present experiments showed that the rectus abdominis muscle has an extremely complex structure in its architecture, defined by different portions without connection one each other and it is defined by a lot of portions that connect by tendinius aponeuroses. It could be considered that the control of the different portions, by your anatomic characteristics, have different nerves to each portion that facilitates the motor control. We found at least one nerve to each portion. But it is possible that exist different neuromotor control to each portion, so the next experiments related to low intensity of Easy PDF Creator is professional software to create PDF. If you wish to remove this line, buy it now. the muscular activation showed a central control shared by all portions and the gain associated to each task. The result of the fatigue experiment showed differences on spectral analysis and changes in neuromuscular control by the tasks, but did not present differences on temporal analysis. In conclusion, there is selective activation to each muscular portion; however, it could not be activated only one portion of the rectus abdominis to a specific task. Therefore, it can be that the alteration of the task has an important value on each muscular portion, but it does not know if this gain has any value to strength and hypertrophy.


The Cope rearrangement of 2,3-divinyloxiranes, a rare example of epoxide C–C bond cleavage, results in 4,5-dihydrooxepines which are amenable to hydrolysis, furnishing 1,6-dicarbonyl compounds containing two contiguous stereocenters at the 3- and 4-positions. We employ an Ir-based alkene isomerization catalyst to form the reactive 2,3-divinyloxirane in situ with complete regio- and stereocontrol, which translates into excellent control over the stereochemistry of the resulting oxepines and ultimately to an attractive strategy towards 1,6-dicarbonyl compounds.


We consider the supply chain for containerized items that arrive at a port in the U.S. whose final destination is also in the U.S. Ports are important entities in global supply chains. As such, when a port cannot operate because of a crisis, such as a natural or man-made disaster, it is critical that freight flow is not disrupted. We develop a simulation model that can be used to make effective re-routing decisions so that the time for freight to reach its final destination is not significantly increased in a crisis. The simulation model will evaluate and report the performance of the supply chain under different re-routing strategies. The output can be analyzed to find the best re-routing strategy that minimizes congestion and delays during crisis conditions. The model can also be used by various decision makers such as port managers, ocean carriers, or transportation companies for strategic decision making.


Abstract This paper presents the results of determination of different forms of sulphur in two Yugoslav soft brown coals, Kolubara (KOL) and Kostolac (KOST). The forms of sulphur were determined as sulphate, monosulphide, pyrite and organic sulphur containing compounds by step-wise oxidation with perchloric acid. The tests were carried out in an inert atmosphere in Bethge's apparatus. KOL and Kost were quite different in sulphur content, KOL containing 0.71 wt% of sulphur and KOST 3.11 wt%, as well as in the distribution of each type of sulphur compound. Pyrite was dominant in KOST (1.89 wt%) and organic sulphur in KOL (0.47 wt%). The analytical method applied was simple and good reproductivity of results was shown. It was important that all types of sulphur were determined in a single and small sample, using the same oxidizing agent.


Monopulse antennas extensively used in high performance airborne tracking and guidance applications. Their performance is extremely critical for the mission particularly under sea environment. This is because for low flying targets. Strong fluctuations results in elevation plane channel due to multipath reflections and the output voltage becomes erroneous. This paper presents the design and development of asymmetric beam shape monopulse antenna to tackle the said problem. Experimental results show this technique can be used to reduce the effects of multipath.


The heterogenic nature of troponin T (TnT) isoforms in fast skeletal and cardiac muscle suggests important functional differences. Dynamic features of rat cardiac TnT (cTnT) and rat fast skeletal TnT (fsTnT) reconstituted cardiac muscle preparations were captured by fitting the force response of small amplitude (0.5%) muscle length changes to the recruitment-distortion model. The recruitment of force-bearing cross-bridges (XBs) by increases in muscle length was favored by cTnT. The recruitment magnitude was approximately 1.5 times greater for cTnT- than for fsTnT-reconstituted muscle fibers. The speed of length-mediated XB recruitment (b) in cTnT-reconstituted muscle fiber was 0.50-0.57 times as fast as fsTnT-reconstituted muscle fibers (3.05 vs. 5.32 s(-1) at sarcomere length, SL, of 1.9 microm and 4.16 vs. 8.36 s(-1) at SL of 2.2 microm). Due to slowing of b in cTnT-reconstituted muscle fibers, the frequency of minimum stiffness (f(min)) was shifted to lower frequencies of muscle length changes (at SL of 1.9 microm, 0.64 Hz, and 1.16 Hz for cTnT- and fsTnT-reconstituted muscle fibers, respectively; at SL of 2.2 microm, 0.79 Hz, and 1.11 Hz for cTnT- and fsTnT-reconstituted muscle fibers, respectively). Our model simulation of the data implicates TnT as a participant in the process by which SL- and XB-regulatory unit cooperative interactions activate thin filaments. Our data suggest that the amino-acid sequence differences in cTnT may confer a heart-specific regulatory role. cTnT may participate in tuning the heart muscle by decreasing the speed of XB recruitment so that the heart beats at a rate commensurate with f(min).


By employing the concept and the properties of frequency measures of sequences,the frequently oscillatory behavior of the solutions for the nonlinear partial difference equation with positive and negative coefficients is discussed.Some new ω degree oscillatory criteria are established.Only using the concept of "frequency measure" of the level sets of the involved parameter sequences in equation,the sufficient conditions of the solutions to be ω degree frequent oscillatory are presented,thus how frequent the solutions oscillate is well described.


AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 14-18, 2007; Los Angeles, CA

4868

We have recently reported that the induction of NO or the use of NO donors can reverse tumor cell resistance to death ligands via inhibition of NF-κB and the transcription repressor Yin Yang 1 (YY1) activities and upregulation of death receptors (Baritaki et al., 2007). The underlying molecular mechanisms of these NO-induced effects are not well defined. The metastatic suppressor gene Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP), has been reported to inhibit NF-κB activity (Yeung et al., 1999,2000). Therefore, we hypothesized that NO may induce RKIP expression leading to inhibition of NF-κB and YY1 and upregulation of DR5, leading to sensitization to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. The involvement of RKIP and its interplay with YY1 and DR5 in the NO-induced sensitization to TRAIL was investigated using the resistant prostate tumor cells PC3 and the Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cell line Ramos. Treatment of tumor cells with the NO donor DETA/NONOate (1000 uM) resulted in significant sensitization to TRAIL-induced apoptosis and concomitantly induction of RKIP mRNA and protein levels. In contrast, YY1 promoter activity and YY1 expression (both in transcript and protein levels) were significantly reduced after DETA/NONOate treatment. Since we have recently shown that YY1 negatively regulates DR5 transcription and expression, tumor treatment with DETA/NONOate also resulted in upregulation of DR5. The role of YY1 in the regulation of DR5 and sensitization to TRAIL was corroborated by the use of YY1 siRNA which resulted in sensitivity to TRAIL. The direct role of RKIP in the NO-based tumor cell sensitization to TRAIL was confirmed by significant inhibition of NO-induced cell sensitization to TRAIL following treatment of tumor cells with RKIP siRNA. The above findings provide evidence that NO-induced sensitization to TRAIL is mediated, in large part, via induction of RKIP expression and subsequently, inhibition of NF-κB and YY1 activities and upregulation of DR5 expression. Preliminary findings in tissues nude mice bearing PC3 tumor xenografts and treated with DETA/NONOate showed upregulation of DR5 expression and inhibition of YY1 by IHC. These findings suggest that for successful anti-cancer immunotherapeutic approaches there is a need to use sensitizing agents that can upregulate RKIP/DR5 or inhibit NF-κB/YY1. Such sensitizing agents, like NO donors, may reverse TRAIL-resistance when used in combination with TRAIL/anti-DR4 or DR5 monoclonal antibodies.


Introduction, objective: Endobronchial ultrasound -guided transbronchial needle aspiration ( EBUS TBNA ) is a method used in the diagnosis and/or staging of pulmonary diseases. Premedication drugs for sedation are different among centers. Besides the midazolam sedation, use of propofol to suppress the cough reflex and loss of consciousness, provide an acceptable safety profile. In this study we aimed to compare the diagnostic yield and complication of EBUS-TBNA using two method of sedation during the procedure. Materials and Methods: 224 patients who underwent EBUS-TBNA between January 2010 and December 2013 were included into the study. Propofol combined with midazolam administered to 144 patients. Only midazolam ( 0.05 to 0.1mg / kg) was given to 88 patients for sedation. Complications and pathological results were recorded.Results:The mean age of 224 cases were 55.8 ±11.6 years. Diagnostic yield was 77.1% in the group receiving propofol plus midazolam, while 83.8 % were found in the midazolam group.

View this table:

Table 1:Diagnostic yield of EBUS TBNA procedure in propofol added and not added groups

No significant difference was seen between two groups (p =0.156).There were not seen any complication in midazolam group, howewer hypoxia and hypotension were seen in propofol added group. Conclusion:Propofol did not appear to contribute additional diagnostic yield in EBUS-TBNA procedure . Propofol is helpful to process to be comfortable, but side effects such as hypoxia and hypotension may be seen rarely.


Rossby wave trains triggered by tropical convection strongly affect the atmospheric circulation in the extratropics. Using daily gridded observational and reanalysis data, we demonstrate that a technique based on linear response theory effectively captures the linear response in 250-hPa geopotential height anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere using examples of steplike changes in precipitation over selected tropical areas during boreal winter. Application of this method to six models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), using the same tropical forcing, reveals a large intermodel spread in the linear response associated with intermodel differences in Rossby waveguide structure. The technique is then applied to a projected tropicswide precipitation change in the HadGEM2-ES model during 2025–45 December–February, a period corresponding to a 2°C rise in the mean global temperature under the RCP8.5 scenario. The response is found to depend on whether the mean state underlying the technique is calculated using observations, the present-day simulation, or the future projection; indeed, the bias in extratropical response to tropical precipitation because of errors in the basic state is much larger than the projected change in extratropical circulation itself. We therefore propose the linear step response method as a semiempirical method of making near-term future projections of the extratropical circulation, which should assist in quantifying uncertainty in such projections.


Contrast‐induced nephropathy (CIN) is a major complication of imaging in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The publication of an academic randomized controlled trial (RCT; n = 83) reporting oral (N)‐acetylcysteine (NAC) to reduce CIN led to > 70 clinical trials, 23 systematic reviews, and 2 large RCTs showing no benefit. However, no mechanistic studies were conducted to determine how NAC might work; proposed mechanisms included renal artery vasodilatation and antioxidant boosting. We evaluated the proposed mechanisms of NAC action in participants with healthy and diseased kidneys. Four substudies were performed. Two randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, three‐period crossover studies (n = 8) assessed the effect of oral and intravenous (i.v.) NAC in healthy kidneys in the presence/absence of iso‐osmolar contrast (iodixanol). A third crossover study in patients with CKD stage III (CKD3) (n = 8) assessed the effect of oral and i.v. NAC without contrast. A three‐arm randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled parallel‐group study, recruiting patients with CKD3 (n = 66) undergoing coronary angiography, assessed the effect of oral and i.v. NAC in the presence of contrast. We recorded systemic (blood pressure and heart rate) and renal (renal blood flow (RBF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR)) hemodynamics, and antioxidant status, plus biomarkers of renal injury in patients with CKD3 undergoing angiography. Primary outcome for all studies was RBF over 8 hours after the start of i.v. NAC/placebo. NAC at doses used in previous trials of renal prophylaxis was essentially undetectable in plasma after oral administration. In healthy volunteers, i.v. NAC, but not oral NAC, increased blood pressure (mean area under the curve (AUC) mean arterial pressure (MAP): mean difference 29 h⋅mmHg, P = 0.019 vs. placebo), heart rate (28 h⋅bpm, P < 0.001), and RBF (714 h⋅mL/min, 8.0% increase, P = 0.006). Renal vasodilatation also occurred in the presence of contrast (RBF 917 h⋅mL/min, 12% increase, P = 0.005). In patients with CKD3 without contrast, only a rise in heart rate (34 h⋅bpm, P = 0.010) and RBF (288 h⋅mL/min, 6.0% increase, P = 0.001) occurred with i.v. NAC, with no significant effect on blood pressure (MAP rise 26 h⋅mmHg, P = 0.156). Oral NAC showed no effect. In patients with CKD3 receiving contrast, i.v. NAC increased blood pressure (MAP rise 52 h⋅mmHg, P = 0.008) but had no effect on RBF (151 h⋅mL/min, 3.0% increase, P = 0.470), GFR (29 h⋅mL/min/1.73m², P = 0.122), or markers of renal injury. Neither i.v. nor oral NAC affected plasma antioxidant status. We found oral NAC to be poorly absorbed and have no reno‐protective effects. Intravenous, not oral, NAC caused renal artery vasodilatation in healthy volunteers but offered no protection to patients with CKD3 at risk of CIN. These findings emphasize the importance of mechanistic clinical studies before progressing to RCTs for novel interventions. Thousands were recruited to academic clinical trials without the necessary mechanistic studies being performed to confirm the approach had any chance of working.


Reliable model systems are critical for investigating the genetic and molecular drivers of disease pathogenesis. Although the number of cell line model systems for multiple myeloma is extensive, recent studies showed patient tumors and cell lines clustering separately based on gene expression profiles. Furthermore, the hyperdiploid karyotype, present in approximately 50% of myeloma patients, is also extremely underrepresented in established human myeloma cell lines (HMCLs): only one of 59 HMCLs contains this phenotype. These data suggests that the average HMCL does not accurately represent the average myeloma patient and questions the validity of using HMCLs as model systems. However, most HMCLs were established from patients with pleural effusions or plasma cell leukemia, which are highly progressed and rare forms of myeloma. To assess how cell lines correlate with patient material, we performed a copy number abnormality (CNA) comparison between four myeloma primary tumors and their corresponding HMCLs. Here, we show that established HMCLs maintain the majority of the CNAs, contain a ten-fold greater frequency of 7q gains compared to patients, and that KP-6 is the second hyperdiploid HMCL known to date. CNAs were identified using array comparative genomic hybridization (Agilent 244k) with data analyzed at a resolution of 26kb. On average 59% (46.7-77.3) of the CNAs were shared between the tumors and their cell lines, 17% (8.5-25.9) were unique to the patient samples, and 24% (13.6-36.6) were only detected in the HMCLs. To put these differences in context we also compared the diagnostic material from which JMW-1 was established with a progression sample collected 9 months later after 3 cycles of VAD followed by an autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplant. The patient diagnostic and relapse tumors showed 58% similarity based on CNAs while the diagnostic and relapse tumors contained 8% and 34% unique events respectively. These results indicate that established HMCLs are no more divergent from their primary cells as is the same patient9s relapse material. Overall the HMCLs studied appear highly representative of the patient from which they were derived, with most differences attributed to an enrichment of subclonal populations present in the primary tumor admixture. Of particular interest, ubiquitous 7q gains were an unexpected unifying event across all patient tumors and their HMCLs. We then analyzed the 729 baseline myeloma tumors with copy number data from the MMRF CoMMpass study against our panel of 59 similarly characterized HMCLs. We observed that HMCLs contained a 10-fold increase in the occurrence of 7q gains with respect to non-hyperdiploid patients with 7q gains (35/59 in HMCLs and 19/344 in patients). Because 97% of HMCLs are non-hyperdiploid and 7q gains are extremely rare in this population, over-representation of 7q gains in cell lines suggests that this event may promote extra-medullary growth and the establishment of cell lines. Profiling of patient tumors for gains on 7q may therefore increase the probability of establishing a new HMCL and help expand our model systems for understanding this disease. Further studies are required to understand the potential biological significance of this event in vitro . We also identified the KP-6 cell line as a novel hyperdiploid HMCL established from an extramedullary site of an advanced hyperdiploid patient. The presence of trisomies for at least four of the odd-numbered chromosomes is characteristic of a hyperdiploid myeloma patient. From the patient9s tumor, clear trisomies were observed on chromosomes 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, and 21 and the HMCL established from this hyperdiploid patient maintains full trisomies of chromosomes 15, 19, and 21, with partial p-arm trisomies on chromosomes 7, 11, and 17. Since this is only the second bona fied hyperdiploid myeloma cell line to date, KP-6 promises to play a major role in our ability to understand the pathogenesis and progression of this prominent patient population. Overall, our research indicates that, based on CNAs, HMCLs are as representative of the primary tumor as is the same patient9s tumor at a later time point. Additionally, HMCLs contain a 10-fold overabundance of 7q gains. Finally, we showed that KP-6 is the second hyperdiploid HMCL known to date. Taken together, these results suggest that HMCLs are reliable model systems for investigating the underlying biology of multiple myeloma. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel & Roncallo, 2008 (n. syn.) is synonymized with R. laticauda Thorell, 1876, based on a review of morphological variations of characters listed by Roncallo and Teruel (2008). The biogeographic assumption presented by Teruel & Roncallo (2008) as an argument to justify the description of R. caribensis is refuted.


Opportunistic routing and network coding are a new paradigm that achieves high throughput in the face of universally lossy wireless links in mobile ad hoc networks. How to combine the both techniques is an interesting research. In this paper, we propose an efficient multicast protocol based on the opportunistic routing and network coding. Additionally, we also provide an ETX (expected number of transmissions) based cost metric formula of the multicast sub-group. Simulation results shows that the performance of the novel presented multicast routing protocol outperforms the conventional multicast routing protocol in ad hoc wireless networks.


CONTEXT
In 2014, laughter yoga (LY) achieved the intermediate level, tier 2, under the Title III-D Evidence-based Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Program through the Administration on Aging (AOA). Further research is needed to qualify LY under the criteria for the highest tier, tier 3, to assure continued funding for LY classes at senior centers.

OBJECTIVES
The study intended to demonstrate further the benefits of LY and to qualify LY as tier 3 under Title III-D.

DESIGN
Using a quasi-experimental design, the research team conducted a preintervention/postintervention study in 3 phases.

SETTING
The study was done in a variety of community centers. Phase 1, a pilot phase, was limited to North Carolina, and phase 2 was conducted in multiple states. Phase 3 was held at the North Carolina Area Agency on Aging's annual Volunteer Appreciation meeting.

PARTICIPANTS
Participants in phases 1 (n = 109) and 2 (n = 247) enrolled in LY classes. Classes were advertised by fliers posted in community and in retirement centers. The ability of participants to participate in a class was based solely on their desire to participate, regardless of age, ability, health status, or physical impairment. Phase 3 (n = 23) was a convenience sample only. All phases were voluntary.

OUTCOME MEASURE
The pre- and posttests for all 3 phases were Likert-scale surveys, 10 questions on the Psychological Outcomes of Well-being (POWB) survey. Pulse and other physiological measurements were also assessed pre- and postintervention. Analysis included a t test on each of the 10 POWB and physiological measures for all phases.

RESULTS
All 10 POWB measures for phases 1 and 2 showed significant improvements between the pre- and postintervention testing (P < .001). Phase 3, the control, showed no significant improvement.

CONCLUSIONS
The initial study demonstrated that LY meets the criteria to qualify for tier 3 under the Title III-D Evidence-based Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Program and that a large number of Americans, regardless of age and physical ability, could benefit from LY.


This qualitative research synthesis paper employs an institutional document analysis methodology in place, time and context to crystallize and discover text meaning of the recent higher education reform in Albania. Feedback theory systems, educational institutions theory, institutional change theory, student integration model theory and rational choice theory are the integrated lenses in interpreting and conveying various contingencies and other contextual factors related to Albanian higher education reform. The synthesis found merit in addressing past and present climate in higher education, increased enrollment rates without infrastructure, abuse of educational system, lack of educational institutional autonomy, need to develop higher education institutions with different statuses, low purchasing power of Albanian students and lack of collaborative opportunities which were previously reported to constitute a need for a governmental reform.


The volatile oils from pepper berries (mature fresh green and dried black) and pepper leaves (Piper nigrum L.) were analysed by GC and GC/MS. β-Caryophyllene was the major compound in both pepper berry oils, followed by β-pinene, limonene, α-pinene and humulene. Green pepper oil contained more oxygenated compounds (22%) compared to dry pepper oil (6.3%). The main compounds of pepper leaf oil were α-bisabolol (24.3%), α-cubebene (20%), elemol (15%), bisabolene (15%) followed by α-guaiene(15%). Antimicrobial activity of the oils against Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Trichoderma spp, Aspergillus niger, Pencillium spp. and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was assessed by disc diffusion method. MIC was assessed by micro broth dilution method. The results showed significant activity for all the oils suggesting their use as natural antimicrobial agents.


Recent progresses in model-free single object tracking (SOT) algorithms have largely inspired applying SOT to multi-object tracking (MOT) to improve the robustness as well as relieving dependency on external detector. However, SOT algorithms are generally designed for distinguishing a target from its environment, and hence meet problems when a target is spatially mixed with similar objects as observed frequently in MOT. To address this issue, in this paper we propose an instance-aware tracker to integrate SOT techniques for MOT by encoding awareness both within and between target models. In particular, we construct each target model by fusing information for distinguishing target both from background and other instances (tracking targets). To conserve uniqueness of all target models, our instance-aware tracker considers response maps from all target models and assigns spatial locations exclusively to optimize the overall accuracy. Another contribution we make is a dynamic model refreshing strategy learned by a convolutional neural network. This strategy helps to eliminate initialization noise as well as to adapt to variation of target size and appearance. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, it is evaluated on the popular MOT15 and MOT16 challenge benchmarks. On both benchmarks, our approach achieves the best overall performances in comparison with published results.


The AVLS integrates several technologies in a manner that permits satisfaction of demanding requirements, and allows for significant growth and application customizing. Principal examples of this integration are the navigation subsystem, communication subsystem, and AVLS base station dispatch software. Each of these subsystems is described, and how they address the specific needs of the application is illustrated. The ability to tailor the system to other AVLS requirements is also discussed.<<ETX>>


The liver is an organ at particular risk for toxicity after radiotherapy for distal esophageal cancer. We report the case of a 58-year-old man with distal esophageal carcinoma, who underwent follow-up FDG-PET/CT 6 weeks after completion of preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The left hepatic lobe and caudate showed new, round areas of hypoenhancement on CECT and increased FDG-uptake, which resembled metastases. However an, as yet unreported, linear configuration of FDG uptake was noted and found to correlate with the anterior posterior-posterior anterior opposing field radiotherapy portal.


In this paper, a double integrator sliding mode controller (DISMC) via the mechanical sensorless maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method is suggested to extract maximum power from a wind energy conversion system (WECS). The controller is required to bring the system to the maximum power point reference generated by the MPPT method. However, the controller design for the WECS operated in a wide wind speed range is a challenging task due to its highly nonlinear behavior. In this study, to enhance the performance of the WECS, a voltage mode DISMC, which is not used before for the WECS, is offered. The dynamic performance of the proposed method, considering the different wind speed scenarios, is proved with the simulation studies. Additionally, the performance of the DISMC is compared with that of the conventional sliding mode controller for the same wind speed scenarios.


Glutamate acts in the hypothalamus promoting region‐, and cell‐dependent effects on feeding. Part of these effects are mediated by NMDA receptors, which are up regulated in conditions known to promote increased food intake and thermogenesis, such as exposure to cold and consumption of highly caloric diets. Here, we hypothesized that at least part of the effect of glutamate on hypothalamic control of energy homeostasis would depend on the control of neurotransmitter expression and JAK2 signaling. The expression of NMDA receptors was co‐localized to NPY/AgRP, POMC, CRH, and MCH but not to TRH and orexin neurons of the hypothalamus. The acute intracerebroventricular injection of glutamate promoted a dose‐dependent increase in JAK2 tyrosine phosphorylation. In obese rats, 5 days intracerebroventricular treatment with glutamate resulted in the reduction of food intake, accompanied by a reduction of spontaneous motility and reduction of body mass, without affecting oxygen consumption. The reduction of food intake and body mass were partially restrained by the inhibition of JAK2. In addition, glutamate produced an increased hypothalamic expression of NPY, POMC, CART, MCH, orexin, CRH, and TRH, and the reduction of AgRP. All these effects on neurotransmitters were hindered by the inhibition of JAK2. Thus, the intracerebroventricular injection of glutamate results in the reduction of body mass through a mechanism, at least in part, dependent on JAK2, and on the broad regulation of neurotransmitter expression. These effects are not impaired by obesity, which suggest that glutamate actions in the hypothalamus may be pharmacologically explored to treat this disease. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 1182–1189, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background: Procalcitonin, a precursor protein of the hormone calcitonin, is a sensitive marker for sepsis in human medicine, which is used for diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia in adults and neonates to initiate antibiotic therapy. Objectives: In this study, procalcitonin was evaluated as a potential biomarker for Rhodococcus equi associated pneumonia. Methods: In four foals procalcitonin was measured at four time-points (day 0 before antibiotic therapy, day 1, 3 and 5/6 during therapy) in plasma using an equine specific ELISA. Inclusion criteria for the study were a positive sepsis score, ultrasonographic evidence of pulmonary abscesses in addition >8 cm, a positive microbiology out of tracheobronchial secretion and positive response to antibiotic treatment (azithromycin 10 mg/kg BDW 24q PO and rifampicin 10 mg/kg BDW 12q PO) within a weak including improvement of clinical status and reduction of ultrasonographic score <8 cm. Results: Procalcitonin concentrations remained below the working range of the ELISA (25 - 1000 ng/ml) in all but one sample. Conclusions: Procalcitonin cannot be regarded a useful biomarker in pneumonia associated with Rhodococcus equi.


Exposure of pigs with a body mass of 25-30 kg to long-lasting motor noise (108 dB, 60-8000 Hz, 72 hours) results in a considerable increase of catecholamine concentration in the plasma. Coincidently there is a sharp continuous decrease of the 11-OHKS in the plasma during the whole period of exposure to noise. Immediately after stopping the acoustic irritation the concentration of plasma corticosteroids increases again. The electroencephalogram (EEG) giving evidence of inhibition signs during exposure to noise an adaptation effect of the information processing system is concluded. The increase of the PBJ during the period of acoustic stress points to an increased function of the thyroid gland but simultaneously it is considered to be an expression of the elevated adrenergic situation. By reason of the strong deviation of the three observed regulatory systems must be concluded that longer-lasting exposure to noise with the applied quality and intensity represents a stress situation for pigs having noise character as established for men. A possible influence on the productivity of the pork type pig by permanent acoustic stress is indicated.


Integrating an enterprise is defined as making the various parts of the business work closely together in harmonious and timely support of its goals. Four aspects of enterprise integration are described and discussed: an executive cockpit through which top executives can obtain timely, vital information about their business, wherever they are; concurrent engineering, with customer and supplier participation; interoffice interaction; and computer-integrated manufacturing, both intersite and intercompany. User requirements and the integrated services digital network (ISDN) technical solution(s) being developed in order to achieve these aspects of enterprise integration are examined.<<ETX>>


ABSEL scholars have been on a perpetual quest for ways to enhance simulation and experiential learning since 1974. Numerous techniques and perspectives have been tested and evaluated in order to achieve better implementation of simulation and experiential pedagogies. This paper, after a brief review of selected efforts by ABSEL scholars over the last three years, takes the position that a multi-disciplinary approach may now prove fruitful to not only integrate the diversity and variety of ABSEL scholarship, but also to move the field forward on a more inclusive and integrative basis. As a suggested step in this process, a triadic multi-disciplinary approach is introduced combining perspectives of: 1) educational processes as discourse (derived from the literature of qualitative research), 2) the dynamics of the state(s) of liminality (derived from the literature of sociology), and, 3) epideictic rhetoric (derived from the literature of rhetorical perspective). The paper concludes with suggestions for application and further model building.


Many sports injuries result in surgery and prolonged periods of immobilization, which may lead to significant atrophy accompanied by loss of maximal strength and range of motion and, therefore, a weak-leg/strong-leg ratio (as an imbalance index ∆ ) lower than 1. Consequently, there are common rehabilitation programs that aim to enhance maximal strength, muscle thickness and flexibility; however, the literature demonstrates existing strength imbalances after weeks of rehabilitation. Since no study has previously been conducted to investigate the effects of long-duration static stretch training to treat muscular imbalances, the present research aims to determine the possibility of counteracting imbalances in maximal strength and range of motion. Thirty-nine athletic participants with significant calf muscle imbalances in maximal strength and range of motion were divided into an intervention group (one-hour daily plantar flexors static stretching of the weaker leg for six weeks) and a control group to evaluate the effects on maximal strength and range of motion with extended and bent knee joint. Results show significant increases in maximal strength (d = 0.84–1.61, p < 0.001–0.005) and range of motion (d = 0.92–1.49, p < 0.001–0.002) following six weeks of static stretching. Group * time effects (p < 0.001–0.004, η² = 0.22–0.55) revealed ∆ changes in the intervention group from 0.87 to 1.03 for maximal strength and from 0.92 to 1.11 in range of motion. The results provide evidence for the use of six weeks of daily, one hour stretching to counteract muscular imbalances. Related research in clinical settings after surgery is suggested.


Stable characteristics of rhesus monkey mothers, in terms of Confident and Excitable scores, were significantly positively correlated with the respective scores of their daughters but not their sons. With sons, mothers' Excitable scores were significantly negatively correlated with sons' Confident scores. Correlations of the maternal scores with earlier mother/infant interactions suggest how mothers' characteristics could have influenced infant characteristics. Mothers' Confident scores were negatively correlated with both rejecting and leaving their daughters. When a year old the daughters, on the other hand, left mothers relatively frequently and played a relatively low role in maintaining proximity. For both sons and daughters, mothers' Excitable scores were positively correlated with approaching and leaving their infants, as well as restricting at the age of weaning. Infants approached Excitable mothers relatively frequently, and year-old sons played a relatively high role in maintaining proximity with mother. In terms of attachment theory, Confident mothers appear to provide a "secure base" for their daughters, but reject their sons when very young. Excitable mothers appear to behave inappropriately to both sons and daughters, producing infants who may be "insecurely attached."


We introduce a novel algorithm for transforming character animation sequences that preserves essential physical properties of the motion. By using the spacetime constraints dynamics formulation our algorithm maintains realism of the original motion sequence without sacrificing full user control of the editing process. In contrast to most physically based animation techniques that synthesize motion from scratch, we take the approach of motion transformationas the underlying paradigm for generating computer animations. In doing so, we combine the expressive richness of an input animation sequence with the controllability of spacetime optimization to create a wide range of realistic character animations. The spacetime dynamics formulation also allows editing of intuitive, high-level motion concepts such as the time and placement of footprints, length and mass of various extremities, number of body joints and gravity. Our algorithm is well suited for the reuse of highly-detailed captured motion animations. In addition, we describe a new methodology for mapping a motion between characters with drastically different numbers of degrees of freedom. We use this method to reduce the complexity of the spacetime optimization problems. Furthermore, our approach provides a paradigm for controlling complex dynamic and kinematic systems with simpler ones.


Abstract Land use and land cover (LULC) terrain in Ghana has undergone profound changes over the past years emanating mainly from anthropogenic activities, which have impacted countrywide and sub-regional environment. This study is a comprehensive analysis via integrated approach of geospatial procedures such as Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) of past, present and future LULC from satellite imagery covering Ghana's Ashanti regional capital (Kumasi) and surrounding districts. Multi-temporal satellite imagery data sets of four different years, 1990 (Landsat TM), 2000 (Landsat ETM+), 2010 (Alos and Disaster Monitoring Constellation-DMC) and 2020 (SENTINEL), spanning over a 30-year period were mapped. Five major LULC categories – Closed Forest, Open Forest, Agriculture, Built-up and Water – were delineated premised on the prevailing geographical settings, field study and remote sensing data. Markov Cellular Automata modelling was applied to predict the probable LULC change consequence for the next 20 years (2040). The study revealed that both Open Forest and Agriculture class categories decreased 51.98 to 38.82 and 27.48 to 20.11, respectively. Meanwhile, Built-up class increased from 4.8% to 24.8% (over 500% increment from 1990 to 2020). Rapid urbanization caused the depletion of forest cover and conversion of farmlands into human settlements. The 2040 forecast map showed an upward increment in the Built-up area up to 35.2% at the expense of other LULC class categories. This trend from the past to the forecasted future would demand that judicious LULC resolutions have to be made to keep Ghana's forest cover, provide arable land for farming activities and alleviate the effects of climate change.


Play is the universal language of childhood and the time and opportunity to play is every child's right. The role of play as a vehicle for communication, a tool for distraction and its value in the holistic development of a normal child is without dispute. The role and value of play increases proportionately when a child is made more vulnerable through illness or disability. Despite this, providing time and opportunities to play can be overlooked or considered to be of little importance or relevance when the focus of the adult carers is the amelioration of clinical symptoms of the illness and on lessening the psychological impact the illness may have on the child. This paper outlines the role and the value of play as an integral component in the provision of palliative care for children with chronic, life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. It will show how providing appropriate equipment, sufficient time and relevant play opportunities not only improves the very sick child's psychological wellbeing, but also allows the child to cast aside the confines and restrictions imposed upon them by their illness and for a few golden moments to be nothing more than a child at play.


Combustion process is regarded as the most primitive and well-known chemical reaction. However, as the research on combustion increases, it becomes a fact that it is a very complex process with different parameters and features that cannot be studied at the same time and therefore, are not well known as such. In this study, cashew nut char, produced through pyrolysis at three different heating rates, is submitted to a combustion using a binary mixture of O 2 and He to study char reactivity and determine char combustion kinetic parameters. Reactivity is studied by using the critical temperature approach and peak separation software while kinetics is determined through the NETZSCH advanced software that allows the determination of the frequency factor, the activation energy and the reaction order. The results are compared to the similar data available from the literature for other biomasses. Cashew nut shells pyrolysis char was found to be more reactive than char from olive husks, grape residues and pine woods pyrolysis.


Understanding the timing of the peak of a disease outbreak forms an important part of epidemic forecasting. In many cases, such information is essential for planning increased hospital bed demand and for designing of public health interventions. The time taken for an outbreak to become large is inherently stochastic, and therefore uncertain, but after a sufficient number of infections has been reached the subsequent dynamics can be modelled accurately using ordinary differential equations. Here, we present analytical and numerical methods for approximating the time at which a stochastic model of a disease outbreak reaches a large number of cases and for quantifying the uncertainty arising from demographic stochasticity around that time. We then project this uncertainty forwards in time using an ordinary differential equation model in order to obtain a distribution for the peak timing of the epidemic that agrees closely with large simulations but that, for error tolerances relevant to most realistic applications, requires a fraction of the computational cost of full Monte Carlo approaches.


Hypersensitivity of a delayed type to leukocyte hepatitis virus (LHV) was established in patients with virus hepatitis. The results of the skin tests with the LHV antigen were positive in 15 out of 20 patients with active chronic hepatitis, in 17 out of 20 convalescents and in 3 out of 20 patients in the acute stage of virus hepatitis, and negative in 4 normal subjects and in 12 out of 14 patients with chronic hepatitis in the stage of stabilization. The results of the skin tests with the antigen of donor leukocytes were negative in 130 patients with hepatitis and normal subjects. In the leukocyte migration inhibition test, 1/4 of the patients with chronic hepatitis were found to be sensitized to the LHV antigen, in the absence of sensitization by this test to the HB antigen and the antigen in the plasma of hepatitis patient.


The formation of fruiting bodies in the monokaryotic fisc strain and a dikaryon of Coprinus macrorhizus was inhibited by growth in high-glucose media. In high-glucose media the characteristic burst of adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) accumulation during fruiting-body formation was absent. Enzymatic activity assays revealed that mycelia grown in high-glucose media contained relatively lower amounts of adenylate cyclase and cAMP-phosphodiesterase than mycelia grown in low-glucose media. The synthesis of inducible d-serine deaminase and tryptophanase was repressed in high-glucose media. A mutant (gluR) in which the glucose repression of fruiting-body formation is affected was isolated by selection in high-glucose media. The mutation caused the cAMP levels to be no longer affected by glucose and affected ability to synthesize the inducible d-serine deaminase and tryptophanase. The gluR mutant was partially dominant in dikaryons. It is suggested that cAMP may play important roles in inducing fruiting bodies and in controlling inducible enzyme synthesis in C. macrorhizus.


Exact and approximate analytical solutions are presented, describing expansion of a cloud of charged particles in one, two, and three dimensions (assuming the planar, axial, and spherical symmetries, respectively). The expansion occurs in a gas or dilute plasma, where the screening is unimportant, so that particles interact with each other via Coulomb repulsive forces. It is shown that, irrespective of dimensionality, the density distribution remains homogeneous across the cloud and the velocity increases linearly towards the cloud boundary. The density evolution obeys a universal dependence, asymptotically decreasing with time as t(-1). It is also shown that in the presence of an inhomogeneous external field the interparticle repulsion becomes negligible at an early stage of expansion and then the density decreases with time exponentially.