Introduction Utilization of technology in secondary schools is varied and depends on the training and interest of the individual instructors. Even though technology has advanced way beyond its utilitarian roots of being viewed solely by educators as a useful machine for teachers to key exams and worksheets on, there are still many secondary educators who still only view it as such. These educators have not recognized the growing role that technology is taking on in today's classrooms of being a cognitive tool that when partnered with learning theory can help educators enhance learning and maximize the learning potential of their students. As a teacher education professor, I was experiencing this lack of acceptance of technology's new role in my students. When I asked them if they utilized technology in their classrooms, they would say that, of course they do. Then, when I would ask them how they utilized it, they would say, to type exams, worksheets, and have their students type papers. They do not utilize it as a cognitive tool to enhance learning. Concerned with this phenomenon, I proposed to find and research teachers who did recognize and utilize technology as a cognitive tool to enhance learning for their students. My search resulted in an investigation of instructors who believed in and implemented Brain-Based Learning with technological support and had positive results. The primary question guiding this study was, "How is Brain-Based Learning with technological support being implemented by selected teachers in their classrooms?" The corollary questions included: What is the nature of the environment, that is, the classroom, in a Brain-Based Learning environment utilizing technology? What is the role of the instructor in a Brain-Based Learning classroom utilizing technology? What is the role of the students in a Brain-Based Learning classroom utilizing technology? What are the roles of the school administrator and technology coordinator in the Brain-Based Learning classroom utilizing technology? and What are the problems encountered by teachers when utilizing Brain-Based Learning with technological support in the classrooms and how can these problems be overcome?


Diagnosis. Rostrum rounded, with out median spine; lamellae large, projecting over rostrum, with broadly rounded lateral margins and sharp "beak-like" inner margins; a triangular projection mediad to pteromorphae along dorsosejugal suture: differing from E. spinatus in the lack of translamellar spine and from E. rostratus in the rounded rostrum and sharply pointed lamellar cusps, and from both in having a projection mediad of humeral processes on dorsosejugal suture and all legs monodactylous. The trivial name comes from the Greek meaning "curving beak" and refers to the sharply pointed lamellar cusps. Description. Dark reddish-brown color; prodorsum about twothirds as long as hysterosoma and approximately as long as broad; rostrum rounded with small lateral projections; rostral hairs simple, inserted in anterolateral margins of rostrum; lamellae over three times as long as broad of nearly equal width throughout, lamellar cusps ending in sharp incurved anterior medial tips resembling a beak; lamellar hairs simple, as long as width of lamellae, incurved, extended beyond tip of lamellae and inserted near anterolateral edge; interlamellar hairs missing in type specimen, their insertions mediad of pseudostigmata; pseudostigmata heavy, cup-shaped, with roughened edges, directed anterola terally; sensillus club-shaped, shorter than the distance between the pseudostigmata, about twice as long as lamellar hairs, with a finely setose tip; no exobothridial hairs observed on type specimen. Hysterosoma rounded, with roughened anterolateral pteromorphs projected anteriorly; a triangular projection mediad of pteromorphs along dorsosejugal suture; surface with a light rectangular pattern; nine pairs of short, marginal setae observed, each seta set on a raised tubercle; areae porosae or muscle attachment scars along lateral margins of hysterosoma (Fig. 1).


This article investigates the challenges of interdisciplinary teaching that crosses the fields of postcolonial literary studies and international relations. Interdisciplinary courses demand that teachers be able to comprehend, translate, and represent different disciplines' theories and epistemologies, and their interactions, in a flexible and syncretic manner.


The Legislation of Austerity Romesh Thapar THE story that is going the rounds is that the Union Cabinet is now animated by discussion. The members don't quite know what to discuss or what palliatives to offer but, like a bunch of naughty boys who've been dented the right to speak up, they are talking as never before almost every evening, at 6 p m. It must be an exciting exercise, although nothing tangible seems to be emerging. That uncomfortable feeling remains with us that we are being led by people who do not understand the complex crisis that is building and who have a fatalistic faith in monsoon rains


The increasing number of orbital debris objects is a risk for satellite operations due to space activities over past 50 years since launched Sputnik. The GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit), where COMS-1 is being operated since last June 2010, has more and more risks that collide with space debris or another satellites. In this paper, as a preliminary study about GEO satellite collision probability and operations environment, collision probability between COMS-1 and RADUGA 1-7 that is one of Russian military communication satellites is investigated and analyzed. Indeed, the space environment including space debris of COMS-1 is presented. As a result, it is noted that collision probability between two satellites using NORAD TLEs on 14th Jan. 2011 was 2.8753E-07 in case that position uncertainty was assumed 10km. Particularly, the largest proportion of space debris around COMS-1`s mission orbit is meteoroids.


Recent studies have shown that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) aggravates anxiety in patients with maintenance hemodialysis (MHD), but it is still unclear how long this adverse effect will last. This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the elevated anxiety symptoms of MHD patients 1 year after the outbreak. Assessment of elevated anxiety symptoms was performed on patients with MHD during early COVID-19 (February 17-February 29, 2020) and 1-year follow-up (March 1-March 13, 2021), and a total of 100 patients had completed face-to-face questionnaires at the first and 1-year follow-up. At the beginning of the outbreak, 40% of the patients with MHD had anxiety symptoms [self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) score ≥ 50], and 11% (SAS score: 60–69) and 2% (SAS score ≥ 70) of the patients had moderate and severe anxiety symptoms, respectively. Multivariate analysis shows that possibility of unaccompanied transfer, possibility of family members or themselves being infected in a hospital, added body temperature monitoring during dialysis, and increased medical procedures are the risk factors in elevated anxiety symptoms during early COVID-19. At the 1-year follow-up, the incidence of anxiety symptoms in the same group of patients declined to 28%, and all the patients had mild anxiety symptoms (SAS score: 50–59), which is significantly lower than that of the early COVID-19 pandemic with statistically significant difference (p = 0.003). Increased protective measures taken by the medical staves were the only risk factor in elevated anxiety symptoms during the 1-year follow-up. This study shows that COVID-19 has a direct impact on the deterioration of anxiety symptoms in patients with MHD. With the changes of the requirements for COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as the enhancement of propaganda and education of the pandemic and psychological care, the severity and risk factors of anxiety symptoms in the patients with MHD are changing. Thus, targeted interventions are suggested to improve the psychological endurance of the patients with MHD.


Near‐surface problem is a common challenge faced by land seismic data processing, where often, due to near‐surface anomalies, events of interest are obscured. One method to handle this challenge is near‐surface layer replacement, which is a wavefield reconstruction process based on downward wavefield extrapolation with the near‐surface velocity model and upward wavefield extrapolation with a replacement velocity model. This requires, in theory, that the original wavefield should be densely sampled. In reality, data acquisition is always sparse due to economic reasons, and as a result in the near‐surface layer replacement data interpolation should be resorted to. For datasets with near‐surface challenges, because of the complex event behaviour, a suitable interpolation scheme by itself is a challenging problem, and this, in turn, makes it difficult to carry out the near‐surface layer replacement. In this research note, we first point out that the final objective of the near‐surface layer replacement is not to obtain a newly reconstructed wavefield but to obtain a better final image. Next, based upon this finding, we propose a new thinking, interpolation‐free near‐surface layer replacement, which can handle complex datasets without any interpolation. Data volume expansion is the key idea, and with its help, the interpolation‐free near‐surface layer replacement is capable of preserving the valuable information of areas of interest in the original dataset. Two datasets, i.e., a two‐dimensional synthetic dataset and a three‐dimensional field dataset, are used to demonstrate this idea. One conclusion that can be drawn is that an attempt to interpolate data before layer replacement may deteriorate the final image after layer replacement, whereas interpolation‐free near‐surface layer replacement preserves all image details in the subsurface.


Modeling complex energy materials such as solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) realistically at the atomistic level strains the capabilities of state-of-the-art theoretical approaches. On one hand, the system sizes and simulation time scales required are prohibitive for first-principles methods like density functional theory (DFT). On the other hand, parameterizations for empirical potentials are often not available and these potentials may ultimately lack the desired predictive accuracy. Fortunately, modern machine learning (ML) potentials are increasingly able to bridge this gap, promising first-principles accuracy at a much reduced computational cost. However, the local nature of these ML potentials typically means that long-range contributions arising, e.g., from electrostatic interactions are neglected. Clearly, such interactions can be large in polar materials like electrolytes, however. Herein, we investigate the effect that the locality assumption of ML potentials has on lithium mobility and defect formation energies in the SSE Li$_7$P$_3$S$_{11}$. We find that neglecting long-range electrostatics is unproblematic for the description of lithium transport in the isotropic bulk. In contrast (field-dependent) defect formation energies are only adequately captured by a hybrid potential combining ML and a physical model of electrostatic interactions. Broader implications for ML based modelling of energy materials are discussed.


Considerable research investigates the immigrant advantage—the academic benefit first- and second-generation students experience relative to native-born peers. However, little work examines how school-based linguistic status may influence this advantage. Contradictory patterns exist: Research identifies both an immigrant advantage and a language minority disadvantage in college going. Although not all immigrant youth are language minorities, many do speak other languages. U.S. educators group immigrant students into three discrete linguistic categories: native English speakers, language minorities not in English as a second language (ESL), and English learner (EL) students. We employ multivariate methods to investigate immigrant college going by linguistic status using the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results suggest an immigrant advantage only among immigrant groups not in ESL and evidence of undermatching—wherein students choose postsecondary options for which they are over-prepared—among high-achieving EL students. Disentangling the immigrant advantage might improve EL students' college going, stemming this loss of human capital.


Carbon (dioxide) capture and storage (CCS) is one of the solutions for decarbonising society whereby CO2 is captured, transported, and injected into geological formations. It can be transported to offshore locations through pipelines or ships. Which method provides for a better deal for investors depends to an extent on the financial risk associated with these two methods, which in turn is linked with exposure to liability. This paper compares the potential liability arising from the carriage of CO2 by ships and by pipelines in the UK offshore context. The two modes of transport are governed by significantly different regimes, even though they concern the same material. It is argued that the transport of CO2 by ships and by pipelines poses similar risks and therefore they should have a similar liability regime. This would afford pipeline operators the economic advantages available to shipowners and incentivise investment in the transport phase of CCS.


Inspired by several recent developments in regularization theory, optimization, and signal processing, we present and analyze a numerical approach to multi-penalty regularization in spaces of sparsely represented functions. The sparsity prior is motivated by the largely expected geometrical/structured features of high-dimensional data, which may not be well-represented in the framework of typically more isotropic Hilbert spaces. In this paper, we are particularly interested in regularizers which are able to correctly model and separate the multiple components of additively mixed signals. This situation is rather common as pure signals may be corrupted by additive noise. To this end, we consider a regularization functional composed by a data-fidelity term, where signal and noise are additively mixed, a non-smooth and non-convex sparsity promoting term, and a penalty term to model the noise. We propose and analyze the convergence of an iterative alternating algorithm based on simple iterative thresholding steps to perform the minimization of the functional. By means of this algorithm, we explore the effect of choosing different regularization parameters and penalization norms in terms of the quality of recovering the pure signal and separating it from additive noise. For a given fixed noise level numerical experiments confirm a significant improvement in performance compared to standard one-parameter regularization methods. By using high-dimensional data analysis methods such as principal component analysis, we are able to show the correct geometrical clustering of regularized solutions around the expected solution. Eventually, for the compressive sensing problems considered in our experiments we provide a guideline for a choice of regularization norms and parameters.


A fundamental component of many transportation engineering applications is the identification of the route between a given origin and destination. Typically, some type of shortest-path algorithm is used for this task. However, shortest-path algorithms are only applicable when a single criterion, such as minimizing travel time, is used for path selection. When multiple criteria, such as the mean and variance of travel time, are used for path selection, then alternative-path identification methods must be found. The present objective is to develop an algorithm that can identify multiple and reasonable routes in transportation networks so that multiple-criteria decision-making techniques can be used in route selection. First, the definitions of single and multiple routes from a transportation engineering perspective are examined. It is indicated that although the traditional k-shortest-path algorithms can find routes with similar route travel times, the routes may be too similar with respect to the links used and consequently are not appropriate for certain transportation applications. A definition of a reasonable path is developed on the basis of transportation engineering rather than purely mathematical considerations. Two k-reasonable-path algorithms are then illustrated. These algorithms can be used to identify multiple and reasonable routes in transportation networks. Lastly, the two heuristic algorithms were tested on a network from Bryan to College Station, Texas, and the results were compared with the results obtained with a traditional k-shortest-path algorithm. It was found that the reasonable-path algorithms can identify routes that are similar in route travel time but significantly different in terms of the links used.


Changes in precipitation could have crucial influences on the regional water resources in arid regions such as Xinjiang. It is necessary to understand the intrinsic multi-scale variations of precipitation in different parts of Xinjiang in the context of climate change. In this study, based on precipitation data from 53 meteorological stations in Xinjiang during 1960–2012, we investigated the intrinsic multi-scale characteristics of precipitation variability using an adaptive method named ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD). Obvious non-linear upward trends in precipitation were found in the north, south, east and the entire Xinjiang. Changes in precipitation in Xinjiang exhibited significant inter-annual scale (quasi-2 and quasi-6 years) and inter-decadal scale (quasi-12 and quasi-23 years). Moreover, the 2–3-year quasi-periodic fluctuation was dominant in regional precipitation and the inter-annual variation had a considerable effect on the regional-scale precipitation variation in Xinjiang. We also found that there were distinctive spatial differences in variation trends and turning points of precipitation in Xinjiang. The results of this study indicated that compared to traditional decomposition methods, the EEMD method, without using any a priori determined basis functions, could effectively extract the reliable multi-scale fluctuations and reveal the intrinsic oscillation properties of climate elements.


The 45°-mirror terminated polymer waveguides fabricated on a silicon substrate are demonstrated for on-chip out-of-plane optical interconnects. The silicon 45° microreflectors are fabricated on an orientation-defined (100) silicon substrate by using anisotropic chemical wet etching. On using a photolithography process, we observe two vertically bending paths at the input and output ports of polymer waveguide on a silicon substrate with 45° microreflectors. The transmission efficiency of -3.77 dB is measured for a 0.5-cm polymer waveguide combined with the 45° microreflectors. The optical loss occurring at the 45°-mirror is -0.27 dB. The channel-to-channel crosstalk for the 250-μm pitch is less than -40 dB. The wider alignment tolerance up to ±15 μm would facilitate the active-device assembly on a silicon substrate.


In this study, a novel 2-vinylpyridine functionalized magnetic nanoparticle (Mag-PVP) was successfully prepared. The prepared Mag-PVP was characterized by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FT-IR), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and was used for the adsorption of bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous solutions. Mag-PVP, which is composed of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and poly divinylbenzene-2-vinylpyridine (with a thickness of 10 nm), exhibited magnetic properties (Ms = 44.6 emu/g) and thermal stability. The maximum adsorption capacity (Qm) of Mag-PVP for BPA obtained from the Langmuir isotherm was 115.87 mg/g at 20 °C, which was more than that of Fe3O4 nanospheres. In the presence of NaCl, the improved adsorption capacity of Mag-PVP was probably attributed to the screening effect of Mag-PVP surface charge and salting-out effect. In the presence of CaCl2 and humic acid (HA), the adsorption capacity of BPA decreased due to competitive adsorption. The adsorption of BPA by Mag-PVP increased slightly with the increase in pH from 3.0 to 5.0 and obtained the largest adsorption amount at pH 5.0, which was probably attributed to hydrogen bonding interactions. Moreover, in actual water, Mag-PVP still showed excellent adsorption performance in removing BPA. The high adsorption capacity and excellent reusability performance in this work indicated that Mag-PVP was an effective adsorbent for removing BPA from aqueous solutions.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to consider how professional sports players and their sporting clubs and associations publicly manage the disclosure of mental health issues that result in a players enforced absence from competition. The paper focuses on official or authorised press statements, press conferences (and transcripts thereof), social media posts and official websites, to consider public discourses and media coverage of mental health in professional sport. The research is informed by the principles and methods of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Presented here are two retrospective 'mental injury' timelines from two professional sports players in the UK (namely Sarah Taylor, cricketer and Aaron Lennon, footballer), starting with the initial announcement that the player will not be participating and ending with the announcement of their reintegration into their team's routine match day activities. Several important findings have emerged, including whether the original announcement was (in)voluntary; the categorisation of mental health conditions employed; the details made public in press statements and what is added in subsequent press conferences and interviews; and the open-ended return time-frames. At stake is how a player's (patient) confidentiality clashes with the need to reliably and accurately inform the public, via the media, in these cases.


Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the most common cause of acute renal failure in children, is caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infection. This infection leads to renal and other organ microvascular thrombosis. Endothelial injury has been recognized as the trigger event in the development of microangiopathic process. Evidence suggests that leukocyte as well as platelet activation participate in endothelial damage. Intrinsic abnormalities of the complement system may also play a role in HUS.


Abstract W51 Main/South is one of the brightest and richest high-mass star-forming regions (SFR) in the complex W51. It is known to host many ultra-compact HII (UCHII) regions thought to be the site of massive young stellar objects. Maser emission from various species is also found in the region. We have performed MERLIN astrometric observations of excited-OH maser emission at 6.035 GHz and Class II methanol maser emission at 6.668 GHz towards W51 to investigate the relationship between the maser emission and the compact continuum sources in this SFR complex. Here we present the astrometric distributions of both 6.668-GHz methanol and 6.035-GHz excited-OH maser emission in the W51 Main/South region. The location of maser emission in the two lines is compared with that of previously published OH groundstate emission. The interesting coherent velocity and spatial structure observed in the methanol maser distribution as well as the relationship of the masers to infall or outflow in the region are discussed. It appears that the masers are excited by multiple objects potentially at different stages of evolution.


: New and exciting programs are being developed in hospital pharmacy. Pharmacists have responded effectively to the cost-containment challenges imposed by the DRGs, and they are continually seeking new methods for improving and modernizing pharmaceutical services to the patient.


Modern breeding methods such as genetic transformation or in vitro mutation are valuable tools to improve fruit trees and overcome traditional breeding problems such as long juvenile period, high level of self-incompatibility and heterozygosity which are usually associated with Cydonia oblonga (quince). Adventitious shoot regeneration is the prerequisite step in using modern breeding methods in horticultural crops. The aim of the present investigation was to optimize adventitious shoot regeneration in quince (cv. Isfahan, known as 'KVD2'). Different explant types (whole leaf, leaf basal section, leaf apical section and petiole), different concentrations of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) (0, 1, 2 μM) in combination with thidiazuron (TDZ) (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40 μM) and two culture media [Nitsch and Nitsch (NN) and Murashige and Skoog (MS)] were compared. To detect genome size changes, ploidy level and 2C DNA amounts of the regenerated shoots and the original plants were measured by flow cytometry. The results indicated the maximum frequency of regeneration (46%) was obtained from the whole leaf explants cultured on NN medium containing 40 μM TDZ and 1 μM NAA. The highest mean number of shoots (7.46) was obtained on MS medium containing 5 μM TDZ and 1 μM NAA. Flow cytometry analysis showed that regenerated shoots and donor shoots both were diploids and their 2C DNA amounts had not changed throughout the regeneration process.


The celebrity effect is the well-documented phenomenon in which people ascribe an enhanced worth to artefacts owned by famous individuals. This effect has been attributed to a belief in psychological contagion, the transmission of a person's essence to an object via contact. We examined people's judgments of the persisting worth of celebrity-owned artefacts following transformations of their parts/material and found that the celebrity effect was evident only for post-transformation artefacts that were composed of parts/material that had direct physical contact with the celebrity. Insofar as the celebrity effect arises from psychological contagion, the findings suggest that the essence imparted to a celebrity-owned artefact is conceived as akin to a residue deposited in/on the object rather than a germ capable of spreading in an indirect manner to new parts/material added to the object. The results illuminate the nature of psychological contagion and offer insight into how best to preserve the value of historically important artefacts.


Purpose: AKT is a serine/threonine kinase which is important in tumorigenesis. Several molecules involved in AKT pathway are dysregulated in various kinds of human cancers. Patients and Methods: Ninety-three patients (53 males and 40 females), ages ranging from 19 to 77 years (median, 57 years), with localized soft-tissue sarcomas arising in the trunk and extremities, were analyzed. Immunoperoxidase procedure (avidin-biotin complex method) was done on paraffin-embedded sections with anti–phosphorylated AKT (Thr308), anti–phosphorylated p44/42 extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) (Thr202/Tyr204), anti–phosphorylated forkhead in rhabdomyosarcoma (FKHR) (Ser256), and anti-Ki 67 antibodies. Expression levels of phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT), phosphorylated ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2), and phosphorylated FKHR (p-FKHR) were categorized as either weaker (level 1) or equal to or stronger (level 2) compared with those in the endothelial cells of the same specimens. Percentage of cells showing intranuclear staining with Ki-67 was shown as the Ki-67 labeling index (LI). Cases were divided into two groups: level 1, Ki-67 LI < 20%; level 2, Ki-67 LI ≥ 20%. Results: Twenty-six (28.0%), 6 (6.5%), and 46 (44.1%) of the tumors showed level 2 expression for p-AKT, p-ERK1/2, and Ki-67 LI, respectively. Tumors with level 2 p-AKT expression showed a higher ratio of level 2 p-FKHR expression (P < 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed p-AKT expression and Ki-67 LI to be independent prognosticators for overall survival, and p-AKT expression for disease-free survival. Conclusion: p-AKT expression level is a significant prognosticator in soft-tissue sarcoma.


HBx is a multifunctional viral oncoprotein that plays an essential role in the viral life cycle and hepatocarcinogenesis. HBx degradation occurs through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). ABSTRACT Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, and the viral X protein (HBx) is an etiological factor in HCC development. HBx is a high-turnover protein, but knowledge of the role of deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) in maintaining HBx homeostasis is very limited. We used a 74-DUB library-based yeast two-hybrid assay and determined that a novel DUB, valosin-containing protein-interacting protein 1 (VCPIP1), interacted with HBx. VCPIP1 and its C-terminal amino acids 863 to 1221 upregulated the HBx protein expression, with or without HBV infection. Mechanistically, VCPIP1 stabilized HBx protein through a ubiquitin-independent pathway, which was validated by the HBx ubiquitination site mutant plasmid. Coimmunoprecipitation assays demonstrated the potency of VCPIP1 in recruiting 26S proteasome regulatory subunit 6A (PSMC3) and forming a ternary complex with HBx through mutual interaction. In vitro, purified His-tagged PSMC3 protein rescued HBx degradation induced by the 20S proteasome, and in vivo VCPIP1 synergized the mechanism. Functionally, HBx specifically binding to VCPIP1 significantly enhanced the transcriptional transactivation of HBx by activating NF-κB, AP-1, and SP-1 and inhibited hepatoma cell clonogenicity in Huh7 and HepG2 cells. Moreover, we further demonstrated that overexpression of VCPIP1 significantly affected the HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) transcription in HBV-infected HepG2-NTCP cells. Altogether, our results indicate a novel mechanism by which VCPIP1 recruits PSMC3 to bind with HBx, stabilizing it in a ubiquitin-independent manner, which might be critical for developing DUB inhibitors in the future. IMPORTANCE HBx is a multifunctional viral oncoprotein that plays an essential role in the viral life cycle and hepatocarcinogenesis. HBx degradation occurs through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). However, whether novel compartments of the DUBs in the UPS also act in regulating HBx stability is not fully understood. Here, for the first time, we defined VCPIP1 as a novel DUB for preventing HBx degradation by the 20S proteasome in a ubiquitin-independent manner. PSMC3, encoding the 26S proteasome regulatory subunit, directly stabilized HBx through physical binding instead of a common approach in protein degradation, serving as the key downstream effector of VCPIP1 on HBx. Therefore, the ternary binding pattern between VCPIP1, HBx, and PSMC3 is initiated for the first time, which eventually promotes HBx stability and its functions. Our findings provide novel insights into host-virus cross talk by targeting DUBs in the UPS.


Poly(propyl ether imine) (PETIM) dendrimers of one to three generations are used as dendritic cores to identify the influence of varying connector types that connect the dendritic core with peripheral mesogens on the emerging liquid crystalline (LC) properties. The LC properties vary in these dendritic liquid crystals, even when the dendrimer generations and thus the number of peripheral mesogenic moieties remain identical. PETIM dendrimer generations one to three, ester and amide connectors varying with succinates, phthalates, and succinamides, are studied herein. Cholesteryl moieties are installed at the peripheries through the above connectors to induce mesogenic properties. These modified dendritic liquid crystals reveal a layered mesophase structure in most ester and amide connector-derivatives, whereas a third-generation phthalate ester dendrimer favors a rectangular columnar mesophase structure. A transition from layered to a rectangular columnar structure results by a mere change in the connector varying between a succinate or succinamide or phthalate, within one particular dendrimer generation and without altering the underlying dendrimer core or the number of mesogenic moieties. The study demonstrates that in dendritic liquid crystals with essentially identical chemical constitutions, a change in the connector type connecting the mesogen with the dendrimer core is sufficient to change the mesophase structures. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017


Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are associated with impairments in endothelial function and to determine whether use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can moderate observed associations among women without prior CVD. Methods Flow-mediated dilation was assessed by brachial ultrasound after reactive hyperemia in 193 postmenopausal women enrolled in the prospective Healthy Women Study. Measures of psychosocial characteristics had been completed at study entry, when the women were premenopausal (mean = 13.6 years earlier), and at a separate postmenopausal follow-up exam near the time of the ultrasound (mean = 1.5 years earlier). Results Factor analyses of the psychosocial characteristics yielded two factors: Type A/anger and anxiety/depression. Anxiety/depression scores at the study entry and follow-up exams and Type A/anger scores at the study entry exam were associated with less vasodilation (p values < 0.05). Type A/anger scores at the follow-up exam were associated with less vasodilation among women not using HRT (p < .05). Conclusions Psychosocial risk factors for CVD are associated with impaired brachial artery dilation among postmenopausal women. HRT use may mask some associations between psychosocial risk factors and endothelial dysfunction among postmenopausal women.


Abstract

Technology is always designed for an assumed user in an assumed context. In commercial aviation, these design assumptions are clearly spelt out in that both crew and equipment are certificated for a specific operation as stated in the aircraft flight manual. Despite this well defined user context, the designed-for and the real contexts often differ enough so that adaptations of working procedures or technology are necessary or even unavoidable in order to meet the local constraints and demands that rule in the real context of normal operations.

Previous research has demonstrated that technology often results in qualitative changes at work, such as in the ways practitioners view their jobs and organisational changes. A special instantiation of new technology is the automation of tasks previously performed by humans. Automation tends to produce adaptation in a system by changing the very task it was designed to replace, thereby forcing the humans in the system to take on new roles. But it is not only the roles that change; practitioners also adapt the technology to fit their specific needs. Predicting human performance by allocating functions either to human or to machine agents in a system according to a fixed scheme is thus not useful for system design.

Work practice is best studied in the context in which the work takes place. To investigate how the operational context shapes the practical use of RNAV, HUD and datalink, these technologies were studied during their launching phase with a European air operator using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A fourth quantitative study was conducted on how pilots adapted procedure requirements to verbalise the aircraft's flight guidance automation modes (FMA callouts) to balance them against other competing cockpit tasks. The findings from the operationally formulated research questions were related to predictions of adaptations using a theoretical framework of cognitive systems engineering. By observing the humans involved and their technology as complementary units in a joint cognitive system, it was possible to study how pilots and air traffic controllers worked to maintain control over a joint process. It also made it possible to concentrate on the performance of the system as a whole.

Adaptation of work procedures was observed to occur spontaneously in the launching phase, in spite of the highly regulated work environment in an aircraft cockpit. System adaptation took different forms, depending on the introduced technology. A common observation in all these studies was that practitioners sought to reduce complexity in their work environments by (1) minimising the available choices and/or by (2) increasing the predictability of system outcome by updating all agents to a common understanding of the situation. In some instances, these strategies were supported by redesigning the standard operating procedures to capitalise on human perceptual strengths such as pattern-matching for monitoring. Technology redesign was observed with RNAV to simplify pilot monitoring of system performance. The adaptive strategy of reducing cognitive load by visualising the controlling constraints yielded better than expected system performance with HUD and RNAV approaches. In no instance was new automation added to the system without changes in procedures or practices.


Sustainable, low-cost composite materials with improved performance typically contain, in addition to plastics, mineral fillers and fibers. Similar composite materials can also be produced by replacing fillers and fibers with side streams from paper mills using paper for recycling as their raw material. These side streams can be of different qualities and thus various end uses exist. The strength and water adsorption properties of such composites provide many opportunities for their application. Further, their environmental benefits are clear, since the use of these side streams reduces the need to landfill them. The study was also supported by chemical analysis of the side streams. This approach can also bring in additional revenue from the same raw material stream, improving overall resource and economic efficiency. POLYM. COMPOS., 2017. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers


The experience in treating 5 patients with acute epiglottitis at our Clinic, from 1986-1989, has been presented. The importance of setting an on-time diagnosis and the application of Urbason therapy has been pointed out. We have indicated the specification of this disease, which is a potentially fatal epiglottidean and supraglottic inflammation. All of these cases were successfully solved by suitable antibiotic and Urbason therapy without preliminary tracheotomy or intubation.


Population growth, industrialization and other natural processes effects on air-pollution levels and climatic change. Atmospheric turbidity factors are an important parameter for assessing the air pollution. The main objective of this research is to study atmospheric turbidity factors on Pokhara (28.180° N, 83.970° E and 800 m asl), Nepal for a period of one year (2017). The daily data of aerosol optical depth (AOD) are derived from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) of NASA. Daily, monthly and seasonal variation of atmospheric turbidity index are analyzed. The annual average of Angstrom exponential (α), Angstrom coefficient of turbidity (β) and Linked turbidity (LT) are found 1.2 ± 0.2, 0.19 ± 0.17 and 6.7 ± 3.4 respectively. The annual average of visibility is found 3.2 ± 2.5 km. Result of this research work is beneficial for the further identification, impact and analysis of atmospheric turbidity at different places with same geographical condition.


The present paper contributes to the modeling of unsteady flow analysis of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). Double multiple streamtube (DSMT) model was applied for the performance prediction of straight bladed fixed pitch VAWT using NACA0018 airfoil at low wind speed. A moving mesh technique was used to investigate two-dimensional unsteady flow around the same VAWT model with NACA0018 airfoil modified to be flexible at 150 from the main blade axis of the turbine at the trailing edge located about 70 % of the blade chord length using fluent solving Reynolds average Navier-strokes equation. The results obtained from DMST model and the simulation results were then compared. The result shows that the CFD simulation with airfoil modified has shown better performance at low tip speed ratios for the modeled turbine.


The aim of this chapter is to discuss the current prosthetic management of the partially dentate patient by means of fixed implant restorations in the scope of the ITI(R) Dental Implant System. For that purpose, the related statements defined by the participants of the prosthodontic section of the 1997 ITI Consensus Conference in Vitznau, Switzerland, will be presented, completed by explanatory comments where appropriate. Distinct conceptual differences will be made between the esthetic zone (areas of the dental arches where esthetic considerations are of primary concern) and the non-esthetic zone (regions of the jaws where esthetic aspects do not represent a priority), and between single tooth replacement and multiple unit implant restorations. Furthermore, it is underlined that current clinical concepts should be based on both predictable treatment outcome and cost-effectiveness. In this context, a straightforward surgical and prosthetic protocol is generally preferred in posterior locations of the oral cavity, using a nonsubmerged implant placement comprising an easily accessible implant shoulder location, and subsequently cemented implant restorations, basically according to a traditional prosthodontic approach. In esthetically demanding indications, where normally a distinctly submucosal implant shoulder location is advocated, screw-retained restorations are preferred, based on prefabricated prosthetic components (e.g. machined cast-on copings) to assure optimum surface properties and contour, and to achieve adequate marginal adaptation.


Increased trading activity involving counterfeit goods was worrying and had become a main intimidation towards the economy. Fast innovative advancements, growth in sportswear industry and increased in government effort in promoting healthy lifestyle have helped foster the development of this issue. Relationship between consumers purchasing intention towards counterfeit sportswear, attitude towards counterfeit sportswear, subjective norms and perceived behavior control were analyzed in the context of Malaysia using Theory of Planned Behavior as the underpinning theory with moderate impact of moral judgement. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires that were distributed to 454 respondents at shopping malls and night markets in Klang Valley. This paper used Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression analysis to study the purchasing behavior towards counterfeit sportswear. Results showed that except for perceived behavior control which shows insignificant relationship, all other independent variables were significantly and positively related to the dependent variable. Moral judgement was found to be insignificant as a moderator between all the independent variables on intention to purchase counterfeit sportswear but nonetheless was useful to be a predictor variable. This study could help related parties such as the government agencies, genuine marketers and product producers to understand better why consumers prefer counterfeit sportswear products..


Islamic Revivalism is not a brand-new phenomenon, but, with increasing files of exponents, it promotes a variety of discussions on how and when it started, what is the mainstream ideology, what are the foremost goals of its activists, etc. Summing up all the analysis and propositions, it could be stated that the phenomenon of Islamic Revivalism (which started, the latest, with the Iranian revolution) designates all-out efforts aimed at the wholesale re-islamization of polities through direct political and/or military actions. As the definition suggests, the goal of revivalists (a proper Islamic state with three key elements: Islam, Sharia, Islamic ruling system) is the same but the approach to reaching it might not be indiscrete. Therefore, Sunni Islamic revivalists, who are the main object of the research, are divided into three groups: islamists (the most moderate Muslim revivalists with political goals), fundamentalists (who might radically impose religion on politics, though do not necessarily will claim to have a political project), and radical Muslims (who are committed to violence and seek for their goals on any terms).


Background:Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-sparing regimens have not yet been systematically evaluated in children. The nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors nevirapine and efavirenz lower plasma levels of protease inhibitors in adults and children. Therefore, coadministration of lopinavir/ritonavir with nevirapine and efavirenz necessitates a 30% increase in the dose of lopinavir/ritonavir in adults. In children, the extent of the pharmacokinetic interaction between efavirenz and lopinavir/ritonavir has not yet been studied. Objective:To investigate the pharmacokinetics of increased-dose (300/75 mg/m2 twice-daily) lopinavir/ritonavir with normal-dose (14 mg/kg once-daily) efavirenz in HIV-1-infected children. Methods:Steady-state pharmacokinetics of lopinavir and efavirenz were determined and compared with historical data. Results:Fifteen children of median age 11.8 (range, 5.7-16.3) years were included. Area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC0-12), peak levels (Cmax), and trough levels (Cmin) of lopinavir were similar to historical data in adults and children. Medians (interquartile range) were 92.3 (43.5-138.5) mg/L·h, 12.5 (6.9-16.7) mg/L, and 5.7 (1.3-8.0) mg/L, respectively. Efavirenz pharmacokinetics approximated previous data in adults and children. Conclusion:The increased dose of 300/75 mg/m2 twice-daily lopinavir/ritonavir compensates for the enzyme-inducing effect of efavirenz in HIV-infected children.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize the hydration products of white mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA).

METHODOLOGY
Mineral trioxide aggregate, white Portland cement and bismuth oxide were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and Rietveld XRD. The cements were tested un-hydrated and after hydration and curing for 30 days at 37 degrees C. Analysis of hydrated cement leachate was performed weekly for five consecutive weeks from mixing using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy after which the cements were viewed under the scanning electron microscope to evaluate the cement microstructure. Quantitative energy dispersive analysis with X-ray was performed and atomic ratios were plotted.

RESULTS
Both Portland cement and MTA produced calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) and calcium hydroxide (CH) on hydration. The tricalcium aluminate levels were low for MTA which resulted in reduced production of ettringite and monosulphate. On hydration the bismuth level in the hydrated MTA decreased; bismuth oxide replaced the silica in the C-S-H and was leached out once the C-S-H decomposed with time. Both MTA and Portland cement released a high amount of calcium ions which decreased in amount over the 5-week period.

CONCLUSIONS
The hydration mechanism of MTA is different to that of Portland cement. In MTA the bismuth oxide is bound to the C-S-H and is leached out from the cement with time as the C-S-H decomposes. MTA produces a high proportion of calcium ions from CH a by-product of hydration and also by decomposition of C-S-H. The release of calcium ions reduces with time.


Using biocompatible peptide hydrogel as a scaffold, we prepared three-dimensional synthetic skin that does not contain animal-derived materials or pathogens. The present study investigated preparation methods, proliferation, and functional expression of fibroblasts in the synthetic dermis and differentiation of keratinocytes in the epidermis. Synthetic dermis was prepared by mixing fibroblasts with peptide hydrogel, and synthetic skin was prepared by forming an epidermal layer using keratinocytes on the synthetic dermis. A fibroblast-rich foamy layer consisting of homogeneous peptide hydrogel subsequently formed in the synthetic dermis, with fibroblasts aggregating in clusters within the septum. The epidermis consisted of three to five keratinocyte layers. Immunohistochemical staining showed human type I collagen, indicating functional expression around fibroblasts in the synthetic dermis, keratinocyte differentiation in the epidermis, and expression of basement membrane proteins. The number of fibroblasts tended to increase until the second week and was maintained until the fourth week, but rapidly decreased in the fifth week. In the synthetic dermis medium, the human type I collagen concentration increased after the second week to the fifth week. These findings suggest that peptide hydrogel acts as a synthetic skin scaffold that offers a platform for the proliferation and functional expression of fibroblasts and keratinocytes.


PURPOSE
Different detector properties influence their responses especially in field sizes below the lateral electron range. Due to the finite active volume, the detector density and electron perturbation at other structural parts, the response factor is in general field size dependent. We aimed to visualize and separate the main effects contributing to detector behavior for a variety of detector types. This was achieved in an experimental setup, shielding the field center. Thus, effects caused by scattered radiation could be examined separately.

METHODS
Signal ratios for field sizes down to 8 mm (SSD 90 cm, water depth 10 cm) of a 6MV beam from a Siemens Primus LINAC were recorded with several detectors: PTW microDiamond and PinPoint ionization chamber, shielded diodes (PTW P-60008, IBA PFD and SNC Edge) and unshielded diodes (PTW E-60012 and IBA SFD). Measurements were carried out in open fields and with an aluminum pole of 4 mm diameter as a central block. The geometric volume effect was calculated from profiles obtained with Gafchromic EBT3 film, evaluated using FilmQA Pro software (Ashland, USA).

RESULTS
Volume corrections were 1.7% at maximum. After correction, in small open fields, unshielded diodes showed a lower response than the diamond, i.e. diamond detector over-response seems to be higher than that for unshielded diodes. Beneath the block, this behavior was amplified by a factor of 2. For the shielded diodes, the overresponse for small open fields could be confirmed. However their lateral response behavior was strongly type dependent, e.g. the signal ratio dropped from 1.02 to 0.98 for the P-60008 diode.

CONCLUSION
The lateral detector response was experimentally examined. Detector volume and density alone do not fully account for the field size dependence of detector response. Detector construction details play a major role, especially for shielded diodes.


Tibetan websites are important for studying the Tibetan language and Tibetan culture. The domain names and character encodings of Tibetan websites are complex. Three key technologies of collecting Tibetan websites are discussed in this paper. Firstly, using high frequency syllables in different Tibetan character encoding to searcher the web pages may be in Tibetan as many as possible. Then, using Tibetan syllable dot and the properties of HTML to judge the language of web pages is in Tibetan or not. Thirdly, according the relationships between the URL of Tibetan web page and the URL of Tibetan website, the URLs of Tibetan websites are gotten. About 100 Tibetan websites in three Tibetan character encodings (Unicode, BZD and Tongyuan) are collected by these methods. These key technologies are also useful for collecting websites in other minority language.


As technology scales down, the leakage power of SRAM based cache becomes a more critical source of power dissipation, particularly for large last level cache where leakage power is dominant. The emerging non-volatile spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM) is a candidate to substitute SRAM due to its low leakage power and high thermal stability. However, considerable high energy and long latency of write operations in STT-RAMs are barriers to their commercial adoption. To address this problem, we propose a hybrid non-uniform cache architecture (NUCA) by combining SRAMs and STT-RAMs with different operating voltage/pulse width settings. Operating at low voltage increases the probability of failure. To alleviate this, we propose a technique that reduces STT-RAM write access energy by lowering voltage while ensures correctness by either retrying the failed writes or increasing effective pulse width. Simulation results indicate overall 20-30% power gain for various workloads in hybrid cache architecture. This comes with less than 2% performance loss.


Abstract Although the underdeveloped embryo, and thus morphological (MD) or morphophysiological (MPD) seed dormancy, is basal in angiosperms, it also occurs in advanced groups. A synthesis of the literature, combining phylogeny and the kind of seed dormancy in the highly evolutionarily advanced order Dipsacales, shows that MPD (or MD) occurs throughout all clades except the most advanced one, Valerina. Seeds of taxa in the Valerina clade have fully developed embryos and physiological dormancy (PD) or are non-dormant (ND); thus, PD and ND are derived conditions in Dipsacales. Assuming that types of seed dormancy have not changed since the Early Tertiary, the fossil record suggests that MPD (or MD) was present in extant genera of Dipsacales by the Palaeocene, but PD (or ND) not until the Miocene. Molecular dating indicates that the ages of dipsacalean lineages with MPD and PD are older than those indicated by the fossil evidence.


The NS1 protein of influenza A virus is a major virulence factor that is essential for pathogenesis. NS1 functions to impair innate and adaptive immunity by inhibiting host signal transduction and gene expression, but its mechanisms of action remain to be fully elucidated. We show here that NS1 forms an inhibitory complex with NXF1/TAP, p15/NXT, Rae1/mrnp41, and E1B-AP5, which are key constituents of the mRNA export machinery that interact with both mRNAs and nucleoporins to direct mRNAs through the nuclear pore complex. Increased levels of NXF1, p15, or Rae1 revert the mRNA export blockage induced by NS1. Furthermore, influenza virus down-regulates Nup98, a nucleoporin that is a docking site for mRNA export factors. Reduced expression of these mRNA export factors renders cells highly permissive to influenza virus replication, demonstrating that proper levels of key constituents of the mRNA export machinery protect against influenza virus replication. Because Nup98 and Rae1 are induced by interferons, down-regulation of this pathway is likely a viral strategy to promote viral replication. These findings demonstrate previously undescribed influenza-mediated viral–host interactions and provide insights into potential molecular therapies that may interfere with influenza infection.


This paper presents a novel algorithm designed to efficiently adapt scalable video using MPEG-21. The algorithm is able to take the optimal decision among all possible video adaptations. It takes into account information about network, user terminal and user preferences. This information is gathered together by means of MPEG-21 DIA descriptors. The decision on the optimal adaptation is achieved through the application of the Viterbi algorithm. The results prove that the presented decision-taking engine offers an optimal and efficient solution for personalized scalable video adaptation in heterogeneous environments.


AC optimal power flow (AC-OPF) problems need to be solved more frequently in the future to maintain stable and economic power system operation. To tackle this challenge, a deep neural network-based voltage-constrained approach (DeepOPF-V) is proposed to solve AC-OPF problems with high computational efficiency. Its unique design predicts voltages of all buses and then uses them to reconstruct the remaining variables without solving non-linear AC power flow equations. A fast post-processing process is also developed to enforce the box constraints. The effectiveness of DeepOPF-V is validated by simulations on IEEE 118/300-bus systems and a 2000-bus test system. Compared with existing studies, DeepOPF-V achieves decent computation speedup up to four orders of magnitude and comparable performance in optimality gap, while preserving feasibility of the solution.


This study examines the relationships among receiver apprehension, teacher clarity, and teacher immediacy in the instructional context. The relationships between state receiver apprehension and student motivation, affect, and cognitive learning are examined, as are the relationships of teacher clarity and immediacy with receiver apprehension. Analyses reveal that, although state receiver apprehension is significantly related to negative instructional outcomes, clear and immediate teaching may be able to negate this relationship. The importance of being both a clear and immediate teacher are discussed in terms of state receiver apprehension and other instructional outcomes.


Mango fruit leather is becoming popular for their taste, chewy nature and nutritive value. A study was undertaken to find out the effect of incorporating of defatted soy flour to process nutritionally enriched mango leather with alphonso mango pulp(TSS 16o Brix) and defatted soy flour (protein 52%) with addition of sugar and lime juice . The different levels of incorporation such as 10, 15, 20 and 25 percentage were studied along with drying characteristics by using microwave drier. A 750W, 2450MHz microwave oven was used to dry the sample from 30 to 15 % moisture content at five different power levels (4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 W/g using 50g of sample) with power cycle of 30s on / 30s off. All combination of these variables was tested in triplicate. The dried fruit leather was evaluated for quality parameters viz., dehydration behavior, texture, colour, water activity and sensory properties. The results showed that mass reduction of the sample was rapid at higher microwave power level and drying time was very short (one minute) at higher power level whereas it was longer at lower power level. With increase in the soy flour concentrations at higher micro wave power level the colour values for lightness and yellowness increased. The water activity level was within the safer limit. The sensory evaluation showed that 10 to 15% of soy at microwave power level of 2 and 4 were highly significant in terms of colour, texture, flavour and taste.


In this paper, we have reviewed and analysed different image retrieval systems. The purpose of this survey however, is to provide an overview of the functionality of temporary image retrieval systems in terms of technical aspects: querying, relevance feedback, features, matching measures, indexing data structures, and result presentation. We have reviewed different techniques like text based retrieval, content based retrieval, image annotation to get images captured by digital camera. The classification techniques such as k-KNN,SVM,Decision stump, Manifold Ranking, Hash Encoding Algorithm followed by a suitable relevant feedback model via cross domain learning , GMISVM , Laplacian Regularized Least Squares(LapRLS), Search Result Clustering(SRC)Algorithm , Biased Discriminative Euclidean embedding (BDEE)to refine the image retrieval result of consumer photos. After thorough study, this review also claims that most systems uses low level features and only few uses high level semantically meaningful features and the image retrieval results affect due to this semantic gap. The semantic gap is often regarded as a major problem in the field of image retrieval research. The comparative chart presents the details of different image retrieval system and addresses the factors to be considered for evaluation of results.


Abstract The aim of the present paper is to study and account for the scopal interaction between modal verbs and sentential negation in historical Low German. A number of proposals concerning the scope of negation in clauses with modal verbs for other languages (mainly English) will be evaluated against the empirical findings from historical Low German. It will be argued that syntactic accounts of this interaction are not empirically adequate, and that a lexical account will have to be complemented by a pragmatic one in order to account for the behaviour and development of some modal verbs.


This article presents some findings of a recent study carried out for the Home Office by the Migration Research Unit (MRU) in the Department of Geography at UCL. The study was concerned with patterns and trends in international migration to and from the United Kingdom since 1975, with a particular focus on those in employment, and drew on many sources. The statistics analysed here derive from the International Passenger Survey, including hitherto unpublished tables provided by the Office for National Statistics on migration of the employed by citizenship. They indicate remarkable consistency in some aspects of migration flows and major change in others.


During the E-learning Distance Interactive Practical Education project, 13 partners from 11 European countries joined together to build a power engineering and motion control remote laboratory, which would offer 18 complete online courses with remote experiments and high-quality documentation, to students from the universities of all participating partners. The major benefit of this project is the possibility of sharing expensive equipment and lessening the burdens of technical and organizational problems. This paper outlines the project's goals, organization, and, as an example, realization of one of the project's modules. The described module is a mechatronics motion control course, which explains the most important aspects of motion control design, from modeling, simulations, control design, experimental validation, and comparison between various controllers. The technical solutions, educational strategy, and realization details are given for the module. The pilot testing of the module was performed to assess the module and find out what the students' personal attitude concerning e-learning and remote experiments. The results of testing are presented and discussed.


Objectives This study aimed at investigating the psychological functioning of Saudi children with poly-articular joint disease and its association with disease activity and disability. Methods One hundred and twenty Saudi children aged 6-16 years, with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and more than 4 joints involved were recruited. All Children were classified according to the revised World Health Organization ILAR classificationAll Children underwent a clinical examination. Clinical information was extracted from the hospital records. Disease activity was measured by:1- active joints count,2- visual analogue score and 3- serological markers of inflammation, such as Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-Reactive protein (CRP) were measured. We chose a cut-off level of ESR more than 30 mm/h and CRP more than 30 mg/dl as a significant level of inflammation. Parents were asked to sign a consent form and the children provided verbal consent. The Childhood HAQ (childhood health assessment questionnaire) was completed by both the children and their parents.Children also completed questionnaires for; 1- depression (Birleson Depression Inventory; BDI), 2- anxiety (Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale; RCMAS)and 3- peer, emotional and behavioral problems (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire); (SDQ). Results The sample studied showed that, Self-reported psychological functioning (depression, anxiety, and behavior) was not different from the normal population. No differences in psychological functioning were found between Saudi children with or without raised inflammatory markers (ESR/CRP). Parent-reported emotional difficulties on the (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) SDQ, were somewhat elevated. There were no significant correlations between psychological functioning and physician-measured disease activity score or the number of active joints at the time of all aspects of psychological function (depression, anxiety and behavior) correlated significantly with physical function; (all p<0.01). Conclusions Children with poly-arthritis are not at significantly elevated risk of psychological difficulties. Poor psychological problems were associated with more severe physical disability but not with the level of disease activity. References Petty RE, Southwood TR, Baum J, et al.Revision of the proposed classification criteria for juvenile idiopathic arthritis. J. Rheumatol. 1998;25. Ravelli A, Viola S, Ruperto N, et al Correlation between conventional disease activity measures in juvenile chronic arthritis. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 1997;56. Brewer EJJ, Giannini EH Standard methodology for Segment I, II, and III Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group studies. J. Rheumatol. 1982;9. Giannini EH, Ruperto N, Ravelli A, et al Preliminary definition of improvement in juvenile arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 1997;40. Tennant A, Kearns S, Turner F, et al Measuring the function of children with juvenile arthritis. Rheumatology. 2001;40. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Length-weight relationship, growth parameters and mortality rates of Anadara granosa in the intertidal zone of Balik Pulau, Penang Island, West Coast of Malaysia were investigated based on monthly length-frequency data (December 2011 to November 2012). A total of 548 individuals ranging from 11.25 to 33.13 mm size were subjected to analysis. Logarithmic relationship between the length and weight was Log W = 2.328 Log L − 2.537 (R2 = 0.922) for combined sexes. From this equation it was clear that the exponent 'b' value for A. granosa showed a negative allometric growth (b < 3). A von Bertalanffy growth function with an asymptotic length (L∞) of 35.40 mm and a growth constant (K) of 1.1 year−1 was established from length frequency distributions. The t0(−0.140) was estimated by substituting the L∞and K in the Pauly's equation. The sizes attained by A. granosa were 10.13, 14.36, 17.89, 20.82, 23.56 and 25.29 mm at the end of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months, respectively. The estimated growth performance index (Ø) was 3.13 while the estimated lifespan of the cockles was about 2.72 years at the study area. The estimated value of total mortality based on length-converted catch curve was Z = 3.02 year−1. The natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) rates were 1.84 and 0.48 year−1, respectively. The exploitation level (E) of A. granosa was 0.20, which indicated slight fishing pressure on the stock.


Radial basis function networks (RBFNs) have been widely used in solving partial differential equations as they are able to provide fast convergence. Integrated RBFNs have the ability to avoid the problem of reduced convergence-rate caused by differentiation. This paper is concerned with the use of integrated RBFNs in the context of control-volume discretisations for the simulation of fluid-flow problems. Special attention is given to (i) the development of a stable high-order upwind scheme for the convection term and (ii) the development of a local high-order approximation scheme for the diffusion term. Benchmark problems including the lid-driven triangular-cavity flow are employed to validate the present technique. Accurate results at high values of the Reynolds number are obtained using relatively-coarse grids.


CONTEXT
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common condition that is treated by physicians with varying levels of clinical experience, but whether the level of experience affects outcome remains uncertain.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between the average annual volume of cases treated by admitting physicians and mortality after AMI.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
Retrospective cohort study using linked administrative databases containing patient admission information for 98 194 patients treated by 5374 physicians between April 1, 1992, and March 31, 1998, in Ontario, Canada.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Mortality risk rates for 30 days and 1 year post-AMI, adjusted by physician volume and patient, physician, and hospital characteristics.

RESULTS
The 30-day mortality rate was 13.5% and the 1-year mortality rate was 21.8%. A strong inverse relationship between the average annual volume of AMI cases treated by the admitting physician and mortality after an AMI was observed. The 30-day risk-adjusted mortality rate was 15.3% for physicians who treated 5 or fewer AMI cases per year (lowest quartile) compared with 11.8% for physicians who treated more than 24 AMI cases annually (highest quartile; P<.001). The 1-year risk-adjusted mortality rate was 24.2% for physicians who treated 5 or fewer AMI cases per year (lowest quartile) compared with 19.6% for physicians who treated more than 24 AMI cases annually (highest quartile; P<.001).

CONCLUSION
Patients with AMI who are treated by high-volume admitting physicians are more likely to survive at 30 days and 1 year.


The clinical, biochemical and morphological features of a massive hepatic hypertrophy is reported. It occurred in a young female patient with multiple injuries who had undergone right liver resection for traumatic liver rupture and right nephrectomy for rupture of the right renal artery. Subsequently, the patient developed deficiency of several organs, together with a septic state which led to her death 3 months after the trauma. The factors responsible for this massive hepatic hypertrophy (3,950 g) are discussed.


Potaki (Basella alba) commonly known as Malabar spinach, is a soft stemmed perinneal vine. It is an edible vine in the family Basellaceae. It is found in tropical Asia and Africa where it is widely used as a leaf vegetable. It is known under various common names like Vine spinach, Climbing spinach, Creeping spinach, Buffalo spinach and Ceylon spinach among others. It grows well under full sunlight in hot, humid climates and in areas lower than 500 metres above sea level. Typical of leaf vegetable, Malabar spinach is high in vitamin A, C and Iron. It is low in calories by volume, but high in protein per calorie. The succulent mucilage is particularly rich source of soluble fiber. In the Indian system of medicine, the plant has immense potential in androgenic activity, antioxidant, nephroprotective, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity. The plant has been known to be a demulcent, a diuretic and an emollient action. The entire plant is used in Chinese medicine where it is claimed to reduce fever and neutralise poison. To cure human disease, medicinal plants have been a major source of therapeutic agents since ancient times. The revival of interest in natural drugs started in last decade mainly because of the wide spread belief that natural medicine is healthier than synthetic products. As per WHO, 80% of the population in the world relays on the traditional medicine for treatment of various disease. Therefore evaluation of rich heritage of traditional medicine is essential. In this regard one such plant is Basella alba.


During mid January to early February 2006, a series of explosive eruptions occurred at the Augustine volcanic island off the southern coast of Alaska. By early February a plume of volcanic ash was transported northward into the interior of Alaska. Satellite imagery and Puff volcanic ash transport model predictions confirm that the aerosol plume passed over a polarization lidar (0.694 μm wavelength) site at the Arctic Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For the first time, lidar linear depolarization ratios of 0.10–0.15 were measured in a fresh tropospheric volcanic plume, demonstrating that the nonspherical glass and mineral particles typical of volcanic eruptions generate strong laser depolarization. Thus, polarization lidars can identify the volcanic ash plumes that pose a threat to jet air traffic from the ground, aircraft, or potentially from Earth orbit.


Results of morphometric analysis of the mound-building mouse (Mus spicilegus) evaluated in this study originate from field trapping in the eastern part of Slovakia during the years 2003–2008. Twenty-four cranial and dental variables and the zygomatic index (A/B) of 80 skulls (43 males, 37 females) were measured and evaluated with respect to the sex of the mice. Despite the fact that the overlap of skull measurements in adult males and females was high, sexual dimorphism was confirmed for several skull and dental traits. On average, the values for adult females of M. spicilegus were higher than males, with the exception of dental traits and the zygomatic index. Significant differences between adult males and females were found for the mean values of ten skull and dental parameters (LB, LCb, FL, LD, LMd, LaZ, LM1, LM1, LaM1 and LaM1). The values for the zygomatic index (A/B) overlapped between both sexes, but the higher average values in adult males were statistically significant. The results showed that the variability of the species confirmed in this paper was probably caused only at the regional level and did not differ from the findings reported by several authors for species from neighboring countries.


BACKGROUND
We previously demonstrated that urine interleukin (IL)-9 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α can distinguish acute interstitial nephritis (AIN) from other causes of acute kidney injury. Here we evaluated the role of these biomarkers to prognosticate kidney function in patients with AIN.

METHODS
In a cohort of participants with biopsy-proven, adjudicated AIN, we tested the association of histological features and urine biomarkers (IL-9 and TNF-α) with estimated glomerular filtration rate measured 6 months after diagnosis (6 m-eGFR) controlling for eGFR before AIN and albuminuria. We also evaluated subgroups in whom corticosteroid use was associated with 6 m-eGFR.

RESULTS
In the 51 (93%) of the 55 participants with complete data, median (interquartile range) eGFR before and 6 m after AIN were 41 (27-69) and 28 (13-47) mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively. Patients with higher severity of interstitial fibrosis had lower 6 m-eGFR, whereas those with higher tubulointerstitial infiltrate had higher 6 m-eGFR. IL-9 levels were associated with lower 6 m-eGFR only in the subset of patients who did not receive corticosteroids [6m-eGFR per doubling of IL-9, -6.0 (-9.4 to -2.6) mL/min/1.73 m2]. Corticosteroid use was associated with higher 6 m-eGFR [20.9 (0.2, 41.6) mL/min/1.73 m2] only in those with urine IL-9 above the median (>0.66 ng/g) but not in others.

CONCLUSIONS
Urine IL-9 was associated with lower 6 m-eGFR only in participants not treated with corticosteroids. Corticosteroid use was associated with higher 6 m-eGFR in those with high urine IL-9. These findings provide a framework for IL-9-guided clinical trials to test efficacy of immunosuppressive therapy in patients with AIN.


Pulmonary amyloidosis is a rather rare complication of multiple myeloma particularily the rare Ig D myeloma. It is often generalized and is seen in a late stage of the disease. We report a case of an Ig G myeloma complicated of a pulmonary amyloidosis in a 66-year-old man hospitalised for infectious pulmonary disease with a radiologic interstitial syndrome. Discovery of the multiple myeloma and of the amyloidosis was fortuitous.


The paper studies the effect of a single use of a textural fraction of dolomitic limestone (5.1 t per ha) on soil reaction (pH/KCl and pH/H2O) and the content of exchangeable Ca and Mg (in the soil layer of 0–30 cm or in F, H and A horizons) during a 6-year experiment under a mature Norway spruce stand and a 4-year experiment on a clear-felled area. The increase in pH culminated in the 3rd or in the 3rd–6th year of the experiment. Maximum effects were achieved applying the fine fraction of a particle size £ 1 mm. The coarse fraction of a particle size > 1 mm showed virtually negligible effects. The increase in Ca and Mg content culminated in the last 6th year of the experiment. Maximum effects were achieved applying fine fractions again. The effect of the coarse fraction was also virtually negligible. After 6 years, ma-ximum increase in all values under study occurred in the upper narrow F horizon while the increase rapidly dropped downwards.


Background: Plasmodium falciparum is an obligate intracellular parasite of humans that causes malaria. P. falciparum is a major public health threat to human life responsible for high mortality. Currently, the risk of multi-drug resistance of P. falciparum is rapidly increasing. There is a need to address new anti-malarial therapeutics strategies to combat the drug-resistance threat.Methods: We retrieved the P. falciparum essential proteins from the recently published studies. Pathogen essential proteins were initially scanned against human host and its gut microbiome proteome sets by comparative proteomics analyses. The human host non-homologs essential proteins of P. falciparum were additionally analyzed for druggability potential via in silico methods to possibly identify novel therapeutic targets.Results: The analyses identified six P. falciparum essential and human host non-homolog proteins that follow the key druggability features. These druggable targets have not catalogued so far in the Drugbank repository. These prioritized proteins seem novel and promising drug targets against P. falciparum due to their key protein-protein interactions features in pathogen-specific biological pathways and to hold appropriate drug-like molecule binding pockets. Conclusion: The prioritized protein targets may worthy to test in malarial drug discovery program to overcome the anti-malarial resistance issues. The in-vitro and in-vivo studies might be promising for additional validation of these prioritized lists of drug targets against malaria.


Music is often used to alleviate depression, an affective disorder. Yet, little is known about how listeners suffering from depression respond emotionally to music. The goal of this study was to investigate whether listeners show different patterns of emotional reactions to music depending on level of depression. In previous research, depression has been linked with negative biases in cognitive processes such as memory and attention. Here we indirectly investigated whether such biases may also influence psychological mechanisms involved in the arousal of emotions during musical experiences. Seventy-seven listeners (19–65 years old) took part in an experiment which compared depressed individuals with non-depressed controls. The participants listened to music stimuli designed to target specific induction mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory), and were asked to rate felt emotions. Based on previous studies on cognitive bias, we made predictions about how depression would affect reactions to each stimulus. The predictions received partial support: depressed listeners reported significantly lower levels of happiness in the memory condition and non-significantly higher levels of anxiety in the brain stem condition, than did controls. Conversely, no difference in reported sadness was found in the contagion condition. Observed differences were mainly attributable to the severely depressed listeners.


Access to Higher Education plays an integral role in social and economic development and transformation. In South Africa, not only access to quality teaching and learning is influenced by the limited number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), but also access to resources. For HEIs in developing countries alternative resources than a prescribed book should be used to facilitate the teaching and learning of the academic programmes. Open education resources (OERs), as a teaching and learning tool, can assist lecturers to achieve the learning outcomes and facilitate the development of innovative teaching and learning approaches. Furthermore, the use of OERs can create opportunities for students in HEIs to increase their engagement with the discipline specific content. However, there are also several barriers that can hinder students in HEIs to capitalize on these opportunities. This study investigated the perceived barriers of the use of OER at a South African HEI. A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed in order to determine the perceived barriers of first year students completing a business management module at a South African HEI. Overall, 287 completed questionnaires were included in the data analysis. The results indicated the main factors that act as perceived barriers were social barriers, coursework barriers and technology concerns. The HEI should consider allowing for social interaction when OER is integrated in coursework, with adequate face-to-face sessions to enhance the learning experience of students.


Medieval philosophers argue severely whether the world exists forever. Thomas Aquinas argues that the beginning of the world can not be demonstrated but is a truth knowable only through revelation. Bonaventura not only holds that we know by faith and revelation that the world has a beginning; he also asserts that reason can demonstrate it. The controversy between them fonts the first of Kant's four Antinomies.


Introduction Dysregulation and mutations in signaling genes of cancer cells characterize more than half of the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, and contribute to chemoresistance through regulation of cellular processes including apoptosis and DNA repair. We investigated if determination of single cell basal phosphorylation of signaling proteins reflected mutation of FLT3 and NPM1, cytogenetics, response to first course of chemotherapy or overall survival.

Methods We employed flow cytometric single cell analysis of phosphoproteins central to signal transduction pathways in myeloid cancer cells and analyzed peripheral blood leukocytes from 93 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Blood samples from consecutively diagnosed AML patients with high peripheral blood blast counts (>7x109/L, >70% blasts) were collected after informed consent was given and biobanked by cryo-preservation. AML samples was thawed and equilibrated for one hour in a defined serum-free medium (StemSpan SFEM medium, Stem Cell Technologies) which include insulin and transferrin. All samples were viability controlled and validated for growth factor response. Basal phosphorylation was determined using 17 phosphorylation specific antibodies: All staining panels contain the same 4 surface antibodies and a live dead discriminator; CD33(P67.6) PerCP-Cy5.5, CD38(HB7) PE-Cy7, CD34(581) PE, CD45(MEM-28) PE-Dynamics590 and phospho c-PARP(Asp214) Alexa Flour 700. Two phosphospecific antibodies were added to each panel with the respective direct conjugated dye Alexa Flour 488 and Alexa Flour 647; p38(pT180/pY182) and ERK2(pT202/pY204), SRC(pY418) and Akt(pT308), PDK1(pS241) and Akt(pS473), STAT1(pY701) and ribosomal protein S6(pS235/36), STAT3(pY705) and STAT5(pY694), CREB(pS133) and STAT3(pS727), ribosomal protein S6(pS240) and NFkB(pS529), 4EBP(pT37/pT45) and STAT6(Y641), without p-antibody and JNK(pT183/pY185). The lowest median signal for each phosphoprotein in AML cells and lymphocytes, respectively, were used as reference value for calculation of basal phosphorylation. Hierarchical clustering with the use of complete linkage were created using TM4, and Principal Component Analysis was carried out using Unscrambler X (CAMO Software).

Results Unsupervised clustering revealed two distinct signature clusters based on low or elevated phosphorylation level among AML cells. A similar cluster signature was absent in endogenous non-leukemic lymphocytes from the same patients. No correlations between basal phosphorylation and prognostic mutations (FLT3 or NPM1), cytogenetics or response to first course of chemotherapy were found. In AML patients treated with intensive chemotherapy (n=45) the cluster with low phosphorylation level (n=19) correlated with significant (p=0.007) shorter overall survival. Principal component analysis verified the cluster analysis and guided a reduction to only three phosphoproteins (STAT3, 4EBP1, ribosomal protein S6) with statistically significant (p=0.014) stratification of survival.

Conclusion Leukemic cells demonstrated a phosphorylation profile that reflected survival of the intensively treated patients, but surprisingly not correlated with mutational status of FLT3, NPM1, cytogenetics or first course remission status. This suggests that phosphoprotein determination in leukemic cells provide prognostic information so far not available with current diagnostics. The robust and relatively simple method of single cell signal profiling should be tested in clinical trials to examine its feasibility in therapy response prediction. More extensive mutational and epigenetic analyses are needed in search for the molecular origin of the low/high signal profiles.

(A) Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis based on three phospho protein analysis stratified in two distinct clusters of patients receiving standard intensive induction chemotherapy (n=45; daunorubicin + cytarabine or idarubicin + cytarabine (3+7) similar to HOVON AML protocols 103 and 102, respectively). (B) Kaplan-Meier plot was performed calculating P value with the use mantel-Cox log-rank test.

![Figure 1][1]

Figure 1
Phosphorylation status of STAT3(S727), 4EBP1(T37/Y45) and ribosomal protein S6 (S235/6), a diagnostic tool for estimating overall survival.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


Objective: Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common form of seizures disorder (3-4%) in childhood with good prognosis. Some evidences indicate that iron deficiency (ID) might play a role in initiation of FC. The aim of this case‐control study was to evaluate, the role for ID in pathogenesis of FC (febrile convulsion). We studied 35 FC children and 35 controls (febrile diseases without convulsion) Methods; In this case–control study, 70 chidren admitted in pediatrics department (2014-2016) were studied. Cases included 35 children with FC ( mean age: 2.191 ± 0946 years); 62.9% male,37.1% female .The Controls consisted 35 children with febrile diseases without convulsion (( mean age: 1.93 ± 1.433 years) 65.7% male,34.3% female.Two militter of peripheral blood collected within the first day of admission in hospital. The blood were tested for CBC, HB ,MCV,MCH,MCHC in 2 groups. The remaining blood in an acid‐propylene tube were centrifuged and serum was preserved in‐80°C.Serum ferritin was estimated by EIAS test for the cases and controls .Data were analyzed by SPSS 13.HB ,,MCVMCH,MCHC ,and serum ferritin level were compared between 2 groups using appropriate statistical tools . The Ferritin level cut-off in serum for differentiating between 2 groups was constructed by receiver-operating-characteristic curve(ROC). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, of test was calculated.Results: The mean age of cases were 2.191 ± 0946 vs 1.93 ± 1.433 years in controls .Mean Hemoglobin level (11.6 ± 079 vs 11.86± 071; p value= 0.2); MCV (75.8 ± 4.3 vs 77.62± 4.1,p value= 0.08); serum ferritin levels (54.57 ± 24 vs 58.31± 23, p value= 0.64) had not significant difference between 2 groups. The ferritin level 36ng/ml; had 74.3% sensitivity, 20% specifity, 56% PPV, 52% NPV, Positive likelihood Ratio: 1.3; Negative likelihood Ratio: 0.93 to discriminate 2 groups. In our opinion, ID could not lead to FC in all children, but in some cases with genetic basis; ID raises the threshold for seizures. Due to high prevalence of ID (26%) especially in your Iranian population, adding the Iron to diet might be helpful in decreasing FC in susceptible cases.Conclusion: The present study is the first to report the ferritin cut off level which discriminates the FC cases from non convulsive febrile children. Ferritin cut off (36ng/ml has an acceptable sensitivity (74.3% ) but poor specifity (20%) and just 56% PPV, and 52% NPV to differentiate the FC cases from non convulsive febrile children. In our opinion, ID could not lead to FC in all children, but in some cases with genetic basis; ID raises the threshold for seizures. Due to high prevalence of ID (26%) especially in your Iranian population, adding the Iron to diet, might be helpful in decreasing FC in susceptible cases.


This study examined the associations among gender, empathy, attitudes toward bullying, willingness to intervene, and bullying within peer groups in a sample of sixth and seventh-grade students (N = 346; M Age = 12.22 years). Peer groups were identified via social network analysis using NEGOPY (Richards, 1995) and peer-group predictors were evaluated with multilevel modeling. Male peer-group willingness to intervene results indicated significant between-group variation (i.e., high ICC). Perspective-taking was associated with greater willingness to intervene within male peer groups after controlling for initial levels of willingness to intervene. Greater bullying perpetration within one's peer group was highly predictive of less individual willingness to intervene. For females, willingness to intervene scores was not dependent on friendship group. This study suggests that bullying prevention programs that encourage students to intervene on behalf of victims might be efficacious for male students with friends who bully others at low rates.


Background

The leading cause of years lived with disability globally is low back pain (LBP). Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is responsible for the cost and disability associated with LBP, which is more devastating in low-income countries, particularly in rural Nigeria with one of the greatest global LBP burdens. No Igbo back pain specific measure captures remunerative/non-remunerative work outcomes. Disability measurement using these tools may not fully explain work-related disability and community participation, a limitation not evident in the World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0). This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt the WHODAS 2.0 and validate it in rural and urban Nigerian populations with CLBP.
Methods

Translation, cultural adaptation, test–retest reliability and cross-sectional validity testing. WHODAS 2.0 was translated forwards and backwards by clinical/non-clinical translators. Translations were evaluated by expert review committee. The questionnaire was pre-tested among twelve rural Nigerian dwellers having CLBP. Cronbach's alpha evaluating internal consistency; intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland–Altman plots investigating test–retest reliability; and minimal detectable change were examined in a convenient sample of 50 CLBP victims in rural and urban Nigeria. Spearman's correlation analyses with the back-performance scale, Igbo Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire and eleven-point box scale; and exploratory factor analysis in a random sample of 200 adults with CLBP in rural Nigeria determined construct validity. Ceiling and floor effects were investigated in all participants.
Results

Translation was straight forward. Patient instructions were translated. 'Waist pain/lower back pain' was added to 'illness(es)' to make the measure relevant for this study whilst allowing for future studies of other conditions. The Igbo phrase for 'family and friends' was used to better represent 'people close to you' in item D4.3. The Igbo-WHODAS had good internal consistency (α = 0.75–0.97); intra class correlation coefficients (ICC = 0.81–0.93); standard error of measurements (5.05–11.10) and minimal detectable change (13.99–30.77). Igbo-WHODAS correlated moderately with performance-based disability, self-reported back pain-specific disability and pain intensity, with a seven-factor structure and no floor and ceiling effects.
Conclusions

Igbo-WHODAS can be used clinically or for research as it is a psychometrically sound measure of self-reported disability.


Our study aimed to evaluate the AFB1 levels in packed rice marketed in Lebanon and determine the exposure to this toxin from the rice consumption. A total of 105 packed white, parboiled and brown rice bags were collected. ELISA was used to measure AFB1. A comprehensive FFQ was filled by 500 participants to determine the patterns of rice consumption and subsequently the exposure levels to AFB1 from the rice consumption in Lebanon. AFB1 was detected in all rice samples (100%). The average concentration ± standard deviation of AFB1 was 0.5±0.3μg/kg. Contamination ranged between 0.06 and 2.08μg/kg. Moisture content in all rice samples was below the recommended percentage (14%). Only 1% of the samples had an AFB1 level above the European Union (EU) limit (2μg/kg). Brown rice had a significantly higher AFB1 level than white and parboiled rice (p=0.02), while a significant difference was found between both collections for the same brands (p=0.016). Packing season, packing country, country of origin, presence of a food safety management certification, grain size, and time between packing and purchasing had no significant effect. Exposure to AFB1 from rice consumption in Lebanon was calculated as 0.1-2 ng/kg bodyweight/day.


Introducing a second metal species into atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalysts to construct diatomic sites (DASs) is an effective strategy to elevate their activities and stabilities. However, the common pyrolysis-based method usually leads to substantial uncertainty for the formation of DASs, and the precise identification of the resulting DASs is also rather difficult. In this regard, we developed a two-step specific-adsorption strategy (pyrolysis-free) and constructed a DAS catalyst featuring FeCo "molecular heterostructures" (FeCo-MHs). In order to rule out the possibility of the two apparently neighboring (in the electron microscopy image) Fe/Co atoms being dispersed respectively on the top/bottom surfaces of the carbon support and thus forming "false" MHs, we conducted in situ rotation (by 8°, far above the critical angle of 5.3°) and directly identified the individual FeCo-MHs. The formation of FeCo-MHs could modulate the magnetic moments of the metal centers and increase the ratio of low-spin Fe(II)-N4 moiety; thus the intrinsic activity could be optimized at the apex of the volcano-plot (a relationship as a function of magnetic moments of metal-phthalocyanine complexes and catalytic activities). The FeCo-MHs catalyst displays an exceptional ORR activity (E1/2 = 0.95 V) and could be used to construct high-performance cathodes for hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells and zinc-air batteries.


Objective: To explore the clinical efficacy of moxibustion to the treatment of allergic rhinitis. Methods: The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of moxibustion to the treatment of AR was retrieved who search alone by two researchers in 31 August , 2021. The final 24 articles were retained by two other researchers based on inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Results: Moxibustion is effective in the treatment of AR among which heat-sensitive moxibustion has the most significant effect (P<0.00001) , followed by governor vessel moxibustion(P<0.0008), again is thunder fire moxibustion(P=0.003), the worst effect was herb-partitioned moxibustion(P=0.70). In the symptom subgroup comparison, moxibustion is effective in controlling sneezing(P=0.03) and runny nose(P=0.05), and the best is heat-sensitive moxibustion(P<0.00001) whether it is sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose and nasal itching is the best. In the follow-up subgroup analysis, the efficacy of the follow-up of 3 months and 1 month was the same (P<0.00001) that the long-term efficacy of moxibustion for AR was better. In the IgE subgroup, moxibustion in the treatment of AR can make serum IgE down both after treatment(P<0.00001) and 6 months(P<0.0001). Conclusion: Moxibustion treatment of AR can not only improve the clinical symptoms of patients and control the attack, but also has a good long-term effect to prevent recurrence. Moxibustion treatment of AR heat-sensitive moxibustion effect is the best. Due to the limitations of this study, large-scale clinical high-quality randomized, a multi-center, controlled trial clinical study is needed in order to further verify our conclusions.


Film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) devices with carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes directly grown on a ZnO film by thermal chemical vapor deposition have been fabricated. CNT electrodes possess a very low density and high acoustic impedance, which reduces the intrinsic mass loading effect resulting from the electrodes¿ weight and better confines the longitudinal acoustic standing waves inside the resonator, in turn providing a resonator with a higher quality factor. The influence of the CNTs on the frequency response of the FBAR devices was studied by comparing two identical sets of devices; one set comprised FBARs fabricated with chromium/ gold bilayer electrodes, and the second set comprised FBARs fabricated with CNT electrodes. It was found that the CNTs had a significant effect on attenuating traveling waves at the surface of the FBARs' membranes because of their high elastic stiffness. Three-dimensional finite element analysis of the devices fabricated was carried out, and the numerical simulations were consistent with the experimental results obtained.


Port‐site metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is extremely rare, and only one case has been reported in the English‐language literature. Contamination with malignant cells along the needle tract during percutaneous biopsy or radiofrequency ablation is a well‐recognized cause of HCC recurrence. Here, we describe a case of port‐site metastasis after laparoscopic liver resection of HCC. The patient, who had undergone laparoscopic partial resection of the left lateral segment of the liver 18 months earlier, was diagnosed with HCC. CT showed a nodule in the abdominal wall where the laparoscopic port had been inserted during resection. Local excision was performed, and histological examination revealed HCC consistent with recurrence after laparoscopic resection. The experience described in this report highlights the risk of port‐site metastasis of HCC. Imaging for oncologic surveillance after laparoscopic resection must include all port sites.