Cancer leads to over seven million deaths each year. The current therapeutic approaches have failed to completely treat cancer, and it is essential to seek out new effective anticancer drugs. Because of nontoxic properties, relatively low cost, and phytochemical compounds, medicinal plant extracts have been evaluated for anticancer effects. The present study investigated antiproliferative, apoptosis-inducing, and total phenolic content of the flower bud extract of dried Syzygium aromaticum L. on human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. Ethanolic extract of dried flower buds was prepared and total phenolic and flavonoid content determined. In vitro antiproliferative activity of the extract in Hela and normal human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) was evaluated using MTT assay. To determine apoptosis induction, HeLa cells were incubated with one time IC50 concentrations of extract, stained with both annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate and propidium iodide, and flowcytometrically analyzed. Total phenolic and flavonoid content was 225.6±4 mg GAE/g and 29.3±2.35 mg RUT/g, respectively. Antiproliferative activity results showed that cell viability significantly decreased in dose-and time-dependent manner after extract treatment (p<0.05). The extract IC50 against HeLa cell was less than that against HDFs. Flow cytometry results showed that the extract induced Hela cell apoptosis (apoptosis ratio: 66.77%). The ethanolic extract of dried S. aromaticum flower bud had the greatest phenolic content, and suppressed the proliferation of HeLa cells probably by inducing apoptosis. Further studies may identify the main anticancer ingredients of this extract.


High content of calcium compounds in soil limits cultivation possibilities of the majority of cultivars of rhododendron. In the research presented an attempt was made to determine the influence of a high level of calcium salts CaCl2, CaSO4, Ca(NO3)2 and CaCO3, pH and an increased level of auxins in a medium, on the development of microcuttings of R. 'Catawbiense Grandiflorum'. On the basis of the results of the research it is justifiable to state that it was the anions of some salts used that had an adverse effect on the development of rhododendron cultures, not calcium cations. Significant differences were noted in the uptake of calcium, magnesium and sodium ions by the microcuttings depending on salts used in the media. The pH value of the medium higher than optimum significantly affected the degree of chlorosis of the microcuttings analyzed. Supplementing the media with additional auxin – IBA was stimulating for the plant growth especially in the medium containing CaCO3. Additional key words: pH, IBA, magnesium, sodium Address: P. Giel, K. Bojarczuk, Polish Academy of Science, Institute of Dendrology, Parkowa 5, 62-035 Kórnik, Poland, e-mail: email@example.com


Fish is the main source of ω-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5ω-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:5ω-3), which have positive effects on human health and can be beneficial in human diet context. Studies involving fatty acyl desaturase (Fads) and elongase of very long chain fatty acids (Elovl) enzymes that convert C18 PUFA to C20/22 LC-PUFA have been performed in some fish species. However, very little is known about LC-PUFA biosynthesis in tuna species. This study investigated the Δ6 Fads gene performance in the SBT cell line. The Δ6 Fads nucleotide sequences from various fish species were identified and retrieved to compare them with the SBT Δ6 Fads nucleotide sequence. The Δ6 Fads gene was performed using real time PCR (RT-PCR) and then was compared it with β-actin gene performance as a reference housekeeping gene. By performing multiple sequence alignments and comparing the highly conserved regions among fish Δ6 Fads sequences, the SBT Δ6 Fads nucleotide sequence was determined to be ≥ 75% identical to the other fish Δ6 Fads sequences. The results showed that when the SBT Δ6 Fads and β-actin cDNAs were performed in a standard PCR system and the products were analysed by electrophoresing them on a 2% (w/v) agarose gel, the target genes that were obtained were similar to the expected sizes. The observed band size for the Δ6 Fads PCR product was 207 bp and for the β-actin PCR product was 98 bp. The presence of the observed bands indicated that the primer pairs that were designed and used were successfully amplified the target genes. The results of this study might provide relevant information to support further investigating of the desaturase and elongase gene expression that might contribute to a better understanding of ω-3 LC-PUFA in fish.


Purpose: After the advent and development computer technology, Pre- vs. Post-Coordination has been considered as an important issue in information storage and retrieval. From the 1950's to present, pros and cons comparison of keyword system and controlled vocabulary is concerned.
Methodology: With the review of related literature, a key question about the future of subject headings in the Third Millennium was concerned and appropriate strategies were proposed.
Findings: Subject headings as a pre-coordinated system provide context, suggestibility, browsability and precision, capabilities which do not exist in post-coordinated system. Thus it can play a critical role in information organization in the Third Millennium. However, the list of subject headings has disadvantages, such as complexity of subject assignment rules, the cost of pre-coordination, and difficulty in understanding of subject strings by users, issues that should be resolved. Appropriate strategies for the future of subject headings are: more automation for subject assignment with smart technology, simplifying subject assignment rules, and developing a new search engine with new display abilities, such as ontology and information visualization.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical effect of vascularized and non-vascularized full-length phrenic nerve transfer on treating brachial plexus injury.

METHODS
From August 1999 to March 2000, full-length phrenic nerve transfer to musculocutaneous nerve was conducted with the technique of Video-Assisted-Thoracic-Surgery in 15 patients (M 13, F 2) that all suffered from avulsion. Three kinds of procedures were carried out. The first was retaining initial point of phrenic nerve and dissecting full-length distal nerve (group A). The second was keeping cervical segment and isolating thoracic segment of phrenic nerve (group B). The last was vascularized phrenic nerve transfer (group C). All these phrenic nerves were sutured to musculocutaneous nerves. The results of electrophysiology and function of biceps brachii muscle were compared.

RESULTS
The length of the dissecting full-length distal nerves in group A, group B and group C compared with that of conventional operation increased by 17.8 +/- 1.1 cm, 10.2 +/- 1.0 cm and 8.8 +/- 0.5 cm respectively. There was significant difference when group A was compared with group B and group C, when group B was compared with group C. All three procedures had no significant difference and led to the same function recovery of biceps brachii muscle to grade II about 6 months later.

CONCLUSION
There is no difference in treating effect between vascularized and non-vascularized full-length phrenic nerve transfer, when the recipient bed has normal vascularity.


BACKGROUND
The economic burden of heart disease is heavy and growing. As advanced technologies for treating heart disease become available, decision makers need to be able to assess the relative value of such options against existing standards of care.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the clinical and economic benefits of a percutaneous ventricular assist device (pVAD) versus an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) observed during the 90-day duration of the PROTECT II clinical trial, and to supplement these findings with a simulation of the longer-term value of this technology through the use of a Markov model to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of a pVAD relative to an IABP, in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs).

METHODS
Hospital bills were collected for patients enrolled in the PROTECT II trial who received hemodynamic support for high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) provided by a pVAD (Impella 2.5) versus a conventional IABP during a 90-day episode of care (EOC). Length of stay, charges, and costs were analyzed for the index admissions, intensive care unit confinements, readmissions, and overall EOC. In addition, a probabilistic Markov model was used to project these parameters and their impact on a patient's quality of life for up to 10 years in relation to a pVAD versus an IABP.

RESULTS
Hospital costs for the index admission were lower for the IABP compared with the pVAD ($33,684 vs $47,667; P <.001), whereas readmission length of stay and costs were lower for the pVAD versus the IABP (5 days vs 7 days; and $11,007 vs $21,834, respectively; P <.001). The total 90-day hospital charges were similar for the pVAD and the IABP ($172,564 vs $172,758, respectively; P = .785); however, the total 90-day EOC cost was lower for the IABP than for the pVAD ($44,032 vs $53,171, respectively; P <.001). The median hospital days for the entire EOC were 7 days for the pVAD versus 9 days for the IABP (P = .008). Critical care stays were considerably shorter for a pVAD than for an IABP on readmissions (3.88 days vs 7.00 days; P = .145). Reduction in major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events resulted in a projected gain of 0.26 QALYs over 10 years, yielding an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $39,389/QALY.

CONCLUSIONS
For high-risk patients with advanced heart failure undergoing PCI, the new pVAD reduced major adverse events, critical care and readmission length of stay, and readmission cost over the 90-day EOC, and was determined to be cost-effective over the long-term. These findings can assist decision makers in forming value-based judgments with regard to new hemodynamic support strategies.


We performed surface modification of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) through chromic acid etching with the aim of improving the performance of UHMWPE's composites with poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers. In part I of this study, we evaluated the effects of chemical modification on the surface properties of UHMWPE with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and contact angle measurements. The thermal properties, rheology, and sintering behavior of the modified UHMWPE were compared to those of the base material. XPS and FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups on the surface of the modified powders. The substitution of polar groups into the backbone of the polymer decreased its contact angles with water and hexadecane and increased its surface energy, as evidenced by contact angle measurements. The modified UHMWPE was more crystalline than the base resin and less prone to thermal degradation. Although the rheological properties were virtually identical, the modified powders sintered more readily, presumably due to their higher surface energy, which suggested enhanced processability by compression molding. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006


ABSTRACT This study develops a framework of customer-restaurant brand identification and tests a full and partial mediation model of brand identification to understand the way in which customers develop brand identification in the restaurant sector. The models are tested via customer data using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The findings suggest that brand identification by customers is influenced by four antecedents: brand prestige, symbol attractiveness, self-congruence, and brand experience. The study confirms that brand identification fully mediates the effect of self-congruence on brand loyalty. The effects of brand prestige, symbol attractiveness, and brand experience on brand loyalty are partially mediated by brand identification. This study contributes to the branding strategies of global restaurants to secure a competitive edge.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a weekly schedule of low dose-intensity docetaxel monochemotherapy for patients with anthracycline-resistant metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in poor physical status.

METHODS
Thirty MBC patients who were previously exposed to anthracycline treatment received docetaxel alone at a dose of 30 mg/m2 on D1, D8 and D15, repeated every 4 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles.

RESULTS
Of the 30 evaluable patients, 2 (6.7%) achieved a complete response, and 9 (30.0%) a partial response, with an overall objective response rate of 36.7% (95% CI: 20.5%-53.9%). The most common adverse event was hematologic toxicity. After an average follow-up of 15.0 months, the median time to progression (TTP) was 8. 5 months and the median overall survival (OS) had not reached yet at the end of follow-up.

CONCLUSION
The weekly low dose-intensity docetaxel monochemotherapy is effective and well-tolerated in patients with anthracycline-resistant metastatic breast cancer in poor physical status.


Purpose of reviewPersons with HIV are frequently coinfected with hepatitis C virus. We review recent data on the epidemiology and natural history of hepatitis C in HIV-infected persons. Recent findingsOne-quarter of persons with HIV in Europe and the USA also have hepatitis C, but its prevalence in other areas is under 10%. Outbreaks of acute hepatitis C among men having sex with men have been described in Europe. Hepatitis C is the cause of more than three-quarters of liver-related deaths in HIV-seropositive individuals; however, liver-related morbidity and mortality are declining or stable in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. The association between hepatitis C virus coinfection and non-liver-related morbidity and mortality is still controversial. HIV-induced immune depression is strongly associated with worse liver disease, but it still does not support an earlier initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in coinfected subjects. SummaryScreening and management of hepatitis C virus coinfection should be mandatory in persons with HIV, especially in Europe and the USA, where prevention of blood exposure should also be pursued in patients with sexual risk behaviour. The results of ongoing randomized controlled trials are needed before recommending earlier initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in coinfected persons.


"1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die" is a visual testament to the beauty, grace, and fortitude of the world's greatest architectural achievements. Beginning in the ancient and Near East, the book explores middle age Byzantine and Gothic examples such as Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, goes on to St Paul's Cathedral, London and continues through the Chrysler Building, New York City, with its art deco metal pinnacle, to splendid contemporary innovations such as Norman Foster's Reichstag parliament building, Berlin and Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. The book is not only concerned with size - it also includes some of the world's most remarkable domestic buildings, such as the Mongolian yurt and houses of the American pioneers, as well as railway buildings, chapels, casinos, concert halls, gentlemen's clubs, and museums, cherished often for the way they represent and capture a particular moment in history in their details and atmosphere. "1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die" is the complete companion to the outstanding architecture of the world. It offers a fascinating mixture of familiar landmarks and little-known gems.


I am about to treat of a subject of interest to one and all—by some it would be called an era pre-historic—to point out to you how the earlier races who inhabited this island defended themselves from the rains and frost of this unequal climate, how they banded themselves together in tribes for mutual security and family life. I am about to speak of their dwellings, at a time when the wild beasts roamed through the vast forests of this part of the country; when the deer, and the wild boar, and herds of British cattle wandered in droves amongst heaths, woods, and marsh-lands. Professor Phillips' "Yorkshire," the highest authority we have, states as follows, p. 187: "We find the great Irish elk, the red deer, the fallow deer, the bos longifrons, the common ox, the goat, the sheep, the horse, the boar." Yet the tribes who inhabited these sea-coast districts were far from savages. They traded with their neighbours, bartered their commodities, they worked and smelted iron, they had metal rings for money, they had chariots and darts. Of the tribes of Britain one of the most important, if not the most important, were the Brigantes; the regions peopled by them stretched from shore to shore from the German Ocean to the Atlantic by east and west; the limit of their northern boundary we do not attempt to define, but their southern boundary would be most probably near by where now we meet. The "Maxima Caesariensis" of ...


A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to determine the knowledge and attitude of postmenopausal women towards menopause and symptoms experienced by them. A total of 1056 women of 40-87 years of age were interviewed on the basis of a semi-structured questionnaire. The study was conducted in different non-government primary health care service centres as well as out patient department of tertiary government hospitals and private hospitals in Dhaka city from February to August 2008. The collected data were analyzed by using the SPSS 11.0 version. 994 (94.13%) had natural menopause and surgical menopause was evident only in 62 (5.87%) cases. 33.52% women were quite illiterate and 44.70% were of poor socioeconomic condition. 45.27% knew about the age of menopause and 34.75% knew the possible health effects of menopause. 82.58% of women considered it as a natural process and 17.42% perceived it as a disease. 26.14% were happy having no menstruation but 54.92%, being unhappy, wanted to have menses again and 18.94% had no opinion. Most common physical symptoms reported were backache (82.77%), bodyache (65.25%), insomnia (45.27%), vasomotor symptoms like hot flushes (36.84%) and night sweats (32.39%) and frequent mental symptoms were mood changes (34.85%), loss of memory (19.70%) and depression (19.51%). 32.47% were bothered by those symptoms but only 18.23% consult the physician. Only 3.67% were taking HRT. The overall scenario is frustrating, though the people were from a more facilitated environment of a mega city like Dhaka, and that may be due to low literacy rate and poverty. Key words: menopause; awareness; menopausal symptoms; reproductive health. DOI: 10.3329/jdmc.v18i1.6303 J Dhaka Med Coll. 2009; 18(1) : 33- 36


Self-gating of free breathing pulmonary MR images remains challenging due to inconsistent tidal breathing and bulk motion especially in neonatal patients. We evaluate several conventional and advanced retrospective motion compensation techniques in neonatal subjects with lung disease of prematurity. Registration-based techniques show a significant improvement in signal to noise ratio and contrast to noise ratio relative to other motion compensation methods. There were no significant changes in sharpness across the cohort. We conclude that registration-based techniques could be used to improve image quality without loss of sharpness.


ABSTRACT In this study we examined the psychometric properties of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0 12-item version) in a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) sample. Materials and Methods: Treatment-seeking adults (n = 131) with MTBI recruited from outpatient clinics in Vancouver Canada, were assessed 1- and 3-months following clinic intake. Dimensionality, reliability, and differential item functioning of the WHODAS 2.0 were examined with Rasch analysis. Associations between change in WHODAS 2.0 scores and symptom, work and perceived improvement outcomes were examined. Results: Adequate fit to the Rasch model was achieved for 1-month follow-up assessment WHODAS 2.0 scores without altering the response format or item content [X2 (24, n = 130) = 21.2, p = .6]. The best model fit for 3-month follow-up assessment scores was achieved when two items (problems with dressing and washing) were combined [X2 (22, n = 115) = 20.9, p = .5]. Associations were evident between changes in WHODAS total Rasch scores and other outcome indicators such as return to productivity and percieved improvement. Conclusions: The WHODAS 2.0 (12-item version) is a psychometrically sound measure of functional outcome for adults seeking treatment following MTBI. Our table of ordinal to interval score conversions is recommended for future research examining MTBI outcomes.


Based on the method of fuzzy least set,the model of examination paper analysis and diagnose is discussed.Experiment shows that this method was much better methods.


The mitogenic effects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae endotoxin, fractionated envelope componenents, and intact cells were examined on unsensitized mouse splenic lymphocytes in vitro. The stimulatory effect of these substances was measured by increased [3H]thymidine incorporation in spleen cell cultures. Intact cells, purified lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and cell envelope preparations were highly stimulatory and the stimulation index was dose dependent. Fractionated components of the envelope demonstrated variable stimulation when tested at identical LPS concentrations, reflecting the mitogenic activity of the protein moieties. The stimulatory dose responses for purified N. gonorrhoeae and Escherichia coli LPS were compared and mitogenicity was higher with gonococcal LPS at all concentrations tested. Alkaline detoxification or succinylation of N. gonorrhoeae LPS results in loss of ability to induce blast transformation. The mitogenicity of cell-surface components of N. gonorrhoeae is discussed in terms of LPS and protein content.


It has been appreciated for many years that the presence of moisture in the soil surrounding underground cable was of assistance in dissipating the heat generated within the cable. But little was definitely known, however, of the exact changes in the thermal conductivity of soils caused by the presence of moisture. The following article shows that moisture plays a predominant part. The relative thermal conductivity of various types of perfectly dry soils, such as sand, clay, gravel, etc., covers a range from only one to two, while the addition of moisture increases the range to five times or more that of dry soils. The article also includes a bibliography on the heating of underground cables, giving reference to 59 papers on the subject in English, French and German.


Building on the notion of an intangible resource, this research conceptualizes resilience as an intangible resource that can be ascribed to countries (governments and media) and explores its sources. After presenting the conceptual framework, the study uses cross-national comparable data from Eurobarometer to (a) determine whether a factor called "resilience to misinformation" can be composed of citizens' attitudes and behaviors toward misinformation and be conceptualized and operationalized as an intangible asset, and (b) determine the extent to which other intangible assets regarding the media (legitimacy and trust) help predict resilience to misinformation. Based on statistical techniques, findings show that (a) it is possible to conceptualize "resilience to misinformation" as an intangible asset comprised of several items related to citizens' awareness of misinformation, acknowledgment of the negative impact, and the development of skills to identify misinformation; (b) this intangible asset can be analyzed in relation to intangibles that derive from media performance, such as media legitimacy and trust in the media; and (c) media's intangible assets seem to be more predictive of "resilience to misinformation" than sociodemographic variables. Based on the findings, this research proposes a conceptualization of "resilience to misinformation" as an intangible resource in the public sector. In addition, it highlights recommendations for the mainstream media on how to manage their intangible value while contributing to resilience to misinformation.


We develop a simple functional programming language aimed at manipulating infinite, but first-order definable structures, such as the countably infinite clique graph or the set of all intervals with rational endpoints. Internally, such sets are represented by logical formulas that define them, and an external satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver is regularly run by the interpreter to check their basic properties.
The language is implemented as a Haskell module.


The time intervals defined by the simultaneous recording of an electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, indirect carotid pulse curve, and apexcardiogram made it possible to compare the left ventricular (LV) dynamics in a group of 33 cases of complete right bundle-branch block with left axis deviation (RBBB-LAD) with two control groups, one consisting of 30 cases of complete right bundle-branch block without left axis deviation (RBBB without LAD) and the other of 30 cases of left axis deviation (LAD) alone.The LV dynamics of RBBB-LAD differed from those of both control groups of RBBB without LAD and of LAD alone by a significantly late onset of LV ejection in the former, resulting from both late onset and slow rise of LV contraction. On the other hand, the delayed LV activity was not significantly different between the group of RBBB-LAD and a previously studied group of complete left bundle-branch block.Normal limits for these intervals were looked for to make it possible to diagnose a late LV activity in the individual patient, and so provide a further argument in the discussion for an eventual cardiac pacing in doubtful cases.Finally, it was not felt possible to use these intervals to try to localize the site of the conduction disturbance, whether in the bundle branch or in the ventricular wall itself.


Although a large number of novel supramolecular topologies featuring half-sandwich [Cp*Rh] units have been reported, investigations into the properties of these architectures are astoundingly rare. In addition, the bidentate ligands employed to prepare these species have remained relatively homogeneous (i.e., symmetrical bis(pyri-4-dyl) ligands). To address these paucities in the field, the novel unsymmetrical ligand L2 and the rarely reported pyri-3-dyl ligand L3, all bearing aromatic phenazine groups (an N-heterocyclic analog of anthracene), were synthesized in addition to the common symmetrical pyri-4-dyl L1. [3]Catenane, [2]catenane, and Borromean rings assemblies were constructed successfully by the self-assembly of L1 with different building blocks. Afterward, ligand L2 was applied to prepare two novel molecular-tweezer-like compounds. Lastly, a twisted [2]catenane (relative to the [2]catenane constructed using L1) and a sandwiched metallarectangle were obtained using L3. π-π stacking interactions were observed to play a significant role in stabilizing these topologies, which also promoted nonradiative migration and triggered photothermal conversion in both the solution and the solid state. In the solution state, a clear rule of thumb was derived whereby the NIR photothermal conversion efficiency increased as the π-π stacking increased, and a very high photothermal conversion efficiency (35.5-62.4%) was observed. In addition, this family of half-sandwich-based assemblies also exhibited good photothermal conversion properties in the crystalline and noncrystal powder states. This research provides a novel method to synthesize excellent NIR photothermal conversion materials featuring half-sandwich [Cp*Rh] units and points to potential applications in the near future.


This paper explores changes in organizational structure and distinguishes between units' origins. Unit reconfiguration is the addition of units to, deletion of units from, and recombination of units within the firm. This study compares the reconfiguration of internally developed vs. acquired units, explores what forms of unit recombination are common, and observes whether firms pursue recombination before divestiture. Theoretical support is drawn from the dynamic capabilities perspective, research on modular organizational systems, and strategy–structure literature. The findings are that acquired and internally developed units serve different roles in the process of change, and that firms perceive reconfiguration to be beneficial.


Reading and speechreading are both visual skills based on speech and language processing. Here we explore individual differences in speechreading in profoundly prelingually deaf adults, hearing adults with a history of dyslexia, and hearing adults with no history of a literacy disorder. Speechreading skill distinguished the three groups: the deaf group were better speechreaders than hearing controls, who were better than the group with a history of dyslexia. The dyslexic group, while within range of hearing controls in terms of reading, nevertheless showed a residual deficit in speech/language processing when tested with silent speech. Within‐group correlations suggested different associations between speechreading subtasks, reading and language skills. In particular, in the deaf and dyslexic groups, but not in the hearing controls, speechreading skill correlated with reading ability.


The availability of large, electronically encoded text corpora and the use of computers in recent decades have made Natural Language Processing (NLP) a flourishing research area. A wealth of standard techniques has been developed to serve use cases like document retrieval, identification of a finite vocabulary and synonyms, and the collocation of terms. Similarly, social networking among musicians in internet forums and the advent of automatic chord extraction have led to the establishment of chord databases, if on a smaller scale. Comparatively little research has been carried out on these growing corpora of chords. We suspect that one reason for this lack of research lies in the difficulty to decide if chords or other harmonic elements can be treated like lexemes in a text corpus. More simply, the question is: What is a word in terms of harmony? In this paper we propose a bottom-up approach. In order to find harmonic units whose distributions resemble distributions of words we consider chord elements differing in (a) length of chord sequence (counted in chord symbols), and (b) chord alphabet. Using lengths from 1 to 4 and two different chord alphabets we obtain a parameter space of size 8. For each of the parameter settings we compute statistical summaries of the resulting frequency distribution of the harmonic unit. As results, we report the parameter settings for two different chord corpora (2500+ songs each) that generate a frequency model corresponding most closely to the Brown Corpus, a general text corpus of American English.


The United States and Russia have put years of cold war rivalry in space behind them and agreed to merge some of their space programs. The joint statements on space, aeronautics, and scientific cooperation were signed on September 2 by Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin.

NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin is optimistic that this new agreement will mark the beginning of a new era of peace and cooperation among nations. "Our ability to study the Earth, to improve our talents as space explorers, and to ply the sea of space is improved dramatically by this new cooperative adventure," he said.


As there has recently been growing interest in Alternative Medicine, Oriental Medicals have been trying to incorporate Alternative Medicine into Oriental Medicine evolutionarily. The purpose of this study is to make a comparative study of the historical background and present condition, the view of life, the principle of therapeutics, and the various therapeutics in Alterative Medicine and Oriental Medicine from the viewpoint of Oriental Medicine. The conclusion of this study is; 1. Although Alternative Medicine has become influential mainly in the effort of finding a solution the limit of western medicine, the clinical effect of Alternative Medicine should be verified continuously. 2. Alternative Medicine includes all of the therapeutics such as Traditional Medicine, Naturopathy, Complementary Medicine and Selective Medicine whose characters are different from Western Medicine and Oriental Medicine can be regarded as a sort of Alternative Medicine. 3. The holistic, systematic view of life of Alternative Medicine, from which viewpoint human considered as a harmonious vital existence, is a sort of recurrence to the view of Hipporcrates. 4. From the viewpoint of Alternative Medicine, a disease is not partial but holistic disorder and is treated by utilizing natural products as a medicine based on the principle that pursues harmonious and balanced psychosomatic function. This principle of therapeutic is the same as Oriental Medicine is based on. 5. Alternative Meficine may be classified largely five category, ① Eastern Therapy, ② Manipulative Therapy, ③ Natyral Therapy, ④ Active Therapy, ⑤ Therapy Involving External Powers. 6. Besides Alternative Medicine which is used in clinical trestment, Massage, Homeopathy, Bach Flower remedies, Meditation, and other Music Therapy and Color Therapy is relatively accordant with therapeutics in Oriental Medicine and should be more actively accepted in clinics and improved.


Inhibitory coupled bursting Hindmarsh—Rose neurons are considered as constitutive units of the Macaque cortical network. In the absence of information transmission delay the bursting activity is desynchronized, giving rise to spatiotemporally disordered dynamics. This paper shows that the introduction of finite delays can lead to the synchronization of bursting and thus to the emergence of coherent propagating fronts of excitation in the space-time domain. Moreover, it shows that the type of synchronous bursting is uniquely determined by the delay length, with the transitions from one type to the other occurring in a step-like manner depending on the delay. Interestingly, as the delay is tuned close to the transition points, the synchronization deteriorates, which implies the coexistence of different bursting attractors. These phenomena can be observed by different but fixed coupling strengths, thus indicating a new role for information transmission delays in realistic neuronal networks.


Detailed serial cardiovascular and respiratory physiologic studies were carried out in 80 patients with cirrhotic liver disease, including 45 cirrhotic patients who underwent portal decompressive surgery on an urgent or elective basis. In surgical cases, death could be predicted from the first postoperative day's pattern of response. Predictors of death were an increase in percent of pulmonary shunt due to a redistribution of the increased pulmonary blood flow, and a disproportionate fall in vascular tone, which permits an increased cardiac ejection fraction even when significant myocardial depression occurs. The etiology of the vascular tone defect seems related to the rise in levels of the false neurotransmitter octopamine, which are shown to increase as oxygen consumption falls in the patho-physiologic hyperdynamic B state, presumably due to a block in the oxidative metabolism of aromatic amino acids.


Abstract  A solitary polyp of the urethra is a rare benign fibroepithelial growth and has often been described in boys. Its occurrence in girls is exceptional. In the present paper, two children with solitary polyps of the urethra are presented and discussed. The first case was an 18‐month‐old boy with a posterior urethral polyp arising from the posterior urethra and extending to the bladder. It was excised by cystostomy because of an unsuccessful endoscopic removal attempt. The second case was a 2‐year‐old girl with an interlabial mass arising from the posterior wall of urethra and protruding from the external urethral meatus. It was excised transurethrally.


Backgrounds: Deaths from pesticides poisoning has increased annually, but no studies have been reported. Especially paraquat is suspected to be a major material in pesticide poisoning deaths. In Korea, simple epidemiology of pesticides poisoning is not well known. So, there is no effective method to prevent pesticides poisoning. We tried to investigate the present status of pesticides poisoning with data from Korea National Statistical Office and suggest an effective counterplan. Methods: We analysed death cause data derived from Korean Statistical association, deaths causes being pesticides poisoning in the year 2002. Also, we investigated data from internet, mainly from Korea National Statistical Office home page. Results: Total 2,875 persons died after pesticides poisoning in 2002 year. Average age is 54.2 year, standard deviation being 17.7 year. Many victims (about 41%) died during the herbicides' non-necessary period (January~ March, October~December) Conclusion: Herbicides sale should be restricted only during herbicides' necessary period, and so called a pesticides safety supervisor system shall effectively prevent herbicides poisoning.


In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm for localization of underground miners using RSSI and ZigBee. RSSI is widely used to measure the distance in wireless system. However, there are possible interferences that may affect the result of measurement, such as propagation, reflection, etc. In this paper, we develop an algorithm that can increase the accuracy of localization especially in underground applications. Gaussian distribution is used to remove the event with high effect but low possibility. After that, the statistical average is calculated. Then, three checking points are used to measure the parameters in a tunnel. Finally, the parameters are updated to the system in real time. The results show considerable improvement compared with other methods.


Abstract Not only do advanced artificially intelligent (AI) systems play an increasingly important role in modern society, but they also significantly enhance industrial and economic development. AI systems are already capable of generating outputs, which, had they been created by humans, would be eligible for patent protection. Polish patent regime has yet to determine how it will address inventive computational results. This paper aims at addressing a question whether AI-generated outputs can be considered patentable inventions under Polish legal framework and if so, who would be recognized as the inventor. The author draws conclusions de lege lata and briefly outlines de lege ferenda observations. The author argues that vesting the inventor status in one of the persons who contributed to the AI-generated result offers a reasonable incentive to actors involved in the innovation process and, at the same time, leaving aside vexed problem of computational personhood, does not undermine established legal paradigms, in particular the traditional notion of human creator (inventor).


We present the first magnetoluminescence study in the Voigt and Faraday configurations of mercury-containing superlattices (SL). In the Faraday configuration, the photoluminescence (PL) peak positions consist of the lowest allowed transitions between the conduction and heavy-hole valence bands after taking into account the masses as determined by measurements of the temperature-dependent SdH effect. Coulomb enhancement causes a modification of the magnetoluminescence data. The spontaneous emission intensity shows only a weak magnetic field dependence for moderate and high excitation levels. In the Voigt configuration, the PL peak positions are independent of the magnetic field due to the significantly increased masses parallel to the growth direction. The spontaneous emission intensity shows a step-like behaviour in the magnetic field for moderate excitation levels. This is attributed to changes in the spontaneous emission intensity perpendicular to the SL plane when the cyclotron diameter becomes equal to the thickness of one or two coupled wells.


Compared to our understanding of the functional maturation of executive functions, little is known about the neurofunctional development of perceptive functions. Time perception develops during late adolescence, underpinning many functions including motor and verbal processing, as well as late maturing higher order cognitive skills such as forward planning and future-related decision making. Nothing, however, is known about the neurofunctional changes associated with time perception from childhood to adulthood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we explored the effects of age on the brain activation and functional connectivity of 32 male participants from 10 to 53 years of age during a time discrimination task that required the discrimination of temporal intervals of seconds differing by several hundred milliseconds. Increasing development was associated with progressive activation increases within left lateralized dorsolateral and inferior fronto-parieto-striato-thalamic brain regions. Furthermore, despite comparable task performance, adults showed increased functional connectivity between inferior/dorsolateral interhemispheric fronto-frontal activation as well as between inferior fronto-parietal regions compared with adolescents. Activation in caudate, specifically, was associated with both increasing age and better temporal discrimination. Progressive decreases in activation with age were observed in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, limbic regions, and cerebellum. The findings demonstrate age-dependent developmentally dissociated neural networks for time discrimination. With increasing age there is progressive recruitment of later maturing left hemispheric and lateralized fronto-parieto-striato-thalamic networks, known to mediate time discrimination in adults, while earlier developing brain regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex, limbic and paralimbic areas, and cerebellum subserve fine-temporal processing functions in children and adolescents.


ABSTRACT Although prior evidence supports women's mating behaviors and preferences being related to ovarian hormonal levels, there is conflicting evidence about exactly which hormones predict sexual function best, which specific psychosexual facets are affected and how between-individual and within-individual differences relate to this question. In this study levels of estradiol and progesterone were measured (once daily for 15 days for each participant) for 97 women, who attended two testing sessions, in times of the cycle varying in conception probability (based on the luteinizing hormone (LH) test result). Women completed surveys on their sexual desire, arousal, sexual activity frequency and initiation. There was a significant difference between peri-ovulatory and luteal values for all sexual function variables. Between-subject progesterone negatively predicted sexual activity frequency only. Within-subject estradiol positively and progesterone negatively predicted sexual desire. The findings provide support for hormonal underpinnings of sexual desire and sexual activity frequency fluctuations during the menstrual cycle. The findings did not yield support for hormonal influences on sexual arousal and initiation of sexual encounters. The main findings are consistent with the excitatory and inhibitory effects of estradiol and progesterone, respectively, on measures of women's sexual motivation.


With eight-year-old pear-jujube trees with uniform and good growth as the research object, different concentrations of iron and zinc fertilizers were sprayed to the leaves, and the changes in the contents of vitamin C, total flavonoids, enzyme, as well as the removal rates of hydroxyl radicals, 1,1-diphenyl-2-trinitrophenylhydrazine (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide by polyphenols in pear-jujube were studied, so as to explore the effects of iron and zinc fertilizers on antioxidant activity of pear-jujube in loess hilly region. The results showed that different treatments affected the content of vitamin C and significantly increased the content of total flavonoids in pear-jujube. In the treatment of 0.6% FeSO4+0.3% ZnSO4 (L3), the contents of vitamin C and total flavonoids were both highest, 2.86 mg/g and 3.02 mg/g, 21.8% and 105.4% higher than CK (P<0.05). Different fertilization treatments effectively reduced the activities of ascorbate oxidase and polyphenol oxidase in pear-jujube. The activity of ascorbate oxidase was lowest in the treatment of 0.6% FeSO4+0.3% ZnSO4 (oxidized ascorbic acid 0.069 mg/(g·min) FW), 75.1% lower than CK); and the activity of polyphenol oxidase was lowest in the L3 treatment (oxidized ascorbic acid 0.146 mg/(g·min) FW, 42.0% lower than CK). Polyphenols of pear-jujube could effectively remove hydroxyl radicals, DPPH· and hydrogen peroxide. This was more significant in L3 treatment, of which the antioxidant activity was the best.


A case of anthracosis of the esophagus is reported. The patient was a previously healthy 69‐year‐old Japanese woman. A black and slightly elevated lesion was detected in her esophagus by upper gastroesophageal fiberoscopic examination. Endoscopically, the lesion looked like malignant melanoma. Thoracic esophagotomy was then performed. Histological examination revealed a pigmented lesion beneath the mucosal epithelial layer. The lesion consisted of an aggregation of histiocytes containing an abundance of tiny black pigments. A few mature lymphocytes and plasma cells were also evident in the periphery of the lesion. Histologically, these findings looked like lymph nodes in the pulmonary hilus; however, no lymph nodal structure was evident in the esophageal wall. Traction diverticula were also noted in the pigmented lesion. The patient has remained well without disease for 9 months since the surgery. Although anthracosis is a rare condition in the esophagus, the present case gave warning to pathologists and clinicians that it does indeed occur. Endoscopists and pathologists should differentiate anthracosis from malignant melanoma because the treatment and outcome are quite different for each.


Hjorth in his classic monogram "Eczematous Allergy to Balsams" emphasized that sensitization to balsam of Peru is most important since secondary allergens such as "fragrances" are ubiquitous. The application of a topical medication containing balsam of Peru to the skin of an infant, particularly in the occluded diaper area, seems a great way to sensitize the infant not only to balsam of Peru but also to our fragrant environment.


In the advertising world, everything from billboards, to taxi signs to supermarket displays are going digital. Interactive floor advertising in malls is all the rage, especially in Western and Far East countries. Retailers across the world have been investing on gesture controlled interactive visual display systems to stand out from the crowd and turn their retail locations into a destination for customers. They use it as a means for sophisticated marketing solutions, such as, product advertising, retail merchandising, point-of-sale promotions, campaigning etc, resulting in transformation of retail customer experience. Such interactive elements not only help drive traffic to the desired location and keep visitors there for longer, but also help drive core business philosophies and return on investments.

Well, all these are quite appealing to anyone in the retail business to bounce and invest with a hope to harvest, but, it has not gained as much coerce as one would expect with Indian retailers. So, it would be prudent to find their perception towards adopting this innovative marketing strategy. It is intended that the findings of this research, about the perceptions of adopting gesture controlled interactive advertising and digital displays, will be useful to retailers, consumer packaged goods organizations, distributors, mall owners, advertising agencies etc. It would help them to assess their current marketing strategies and to gain knowledge of pros and cons of incorporating this innovative form of advertising. These findings could also be used for any corrections to the investments already made in this area. The rest of the content in this report details out the research conducted in this regard followed by a conclusion.

The first chapter introduces to the research topic, justifies & highlights the problem poser and the goal of the work presented in the dissertation. It also highlights the significant contributions from the investigation. The second chapter presents a critical appraisal of the previous work published in the literature pertaining to the topic of the investigation. The chapter three discusses the problem statement, overall methodology used in order to achieve the objectives of this research, present the sample characteristics, development of measurement instrument, pilot study, research variables, data collection procedure and finally the scope and limitations of the study.
The fourth chapter is the penultimate chapter of the dissertation and includes a thorough evaluation of the investigation carried out. It focuses on the detailed analysis of the data obtained from the field from different retailers. Finally, the fifth chapter provides a brief report of the work carried out forms the first part of the Chapter. Conclusions derived from the logical analysis is presented and clearly enumerated. Suggestions from current findings and scope for future work are also stated in the last part of the Chapter.

Key words: Retail, Interactive Advertising, Gesture Control, Digital Display.


Cellular immunity is of primary importance in resistance to virus infection. In this study, 75 rabbits were immunized with live BCG, 75 rabbits were immunized with Staphylococcus aureus, and 75 rabbits were injected with saline. Two weeks after immunization the corneal epithelium of both eyes was infected with McKrae strain herpes virus, and five weeks after immunization the rabbits were skin tested with old tuberculin or staphylococcus to ascertain their immune status. The corneas were observed under the slit lamp for recurrent epithelial herpes from day 52 through day 84 after immunization. During the second week of observation the group immunized with BCG had statistically significantly fewer recurrences than the saline-injected control group. The data for the BCG group during the remainder of the observation period, and for the SPL immunized group, were not statistically distinguishable from the control group. These experiments indicate that nonspecific immune stimulation provides little protection against recurrent herpetic infection. It is possible that manipulation of dosage and timing could enhance this effect.


Vasculitides are a broad group of diseases that can involve any kind of vessel in any organ. These can be classified according to the size of the affected vessels. The most used classification categorizes them in small, medium, and large vessel vasculitis. Large vessel vasculitis can be further divided in Takayasu arteritis and giant cell arteritis which can sometimes be indistinguishable, even with biopsy. Radiology plays an important role identifying distribution patterns and disease extension18. Fluorine-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET-CT shows increased vessel wall FDG uptake in patients with active large vessel vasculitis. Multiple studies show that FDG PET-CT helps to identify the anatomic structures with the disease, as well as evaluate its progression with a high sensibility and specificity in non-treated patients with large vessel vasculitis.


The thermal denaturation (melting) of DNA molecules is a thermodynamic and conformational order-disorder transition from a double-stranded to a single-stranded state. Modeling DNA melting at the atomistic level is severely hampered due to the time and length scales of this transition. We propose a coarse-grained model where DNA strands are represented as oligomer chains of N beads using the single-site bond-fluctuation model on a cubic lattice. This approach incorporates physically relevant characteristics such as the sequence and orientation dependence of base-stacking and base-pairing interactions, as well as the semiflexibility of the chains. We perform parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations of dilute solutions of short DNA strands in the canonical ensemble. Due to the strong short-ranged and anisotropic nature of the interactions, we employ various biased trials to improve the phase-space sampling. Feedback optimization of the temperature distribution and multihistogram reweighting techniques were used to obtain accurate estimates of the transition temperature. This procedure allows the direct calculation of thermodynamic and conformational properties across the thermally induced order-disorder transition. We explore how the interaction heterogeneity, broad stacking transition and chain stiffness may induce specific heat capacity effects, shift the location of the melting temperature and broaden the transition. Overall, the phenomenological behavior predicted is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.


Context. The prediction of the spins of the compact remnants is a fundamental goal of the theory of stellar evolution. Aims. Here, we confront the predictions for white dwarf spins from evolutionary models, including rotation with observational constraints. Methods. We perform stellar evolution calculations for stars in the mass range 1. ..3 M� , including the physics of rotation, from the zero age main sequence into the TP-AGB stage. We calculate two sets of model sequences, with and without inclusion of magnetic fields. From the final computed models of each sequence, we deduce the angular momenta and rotational velocities of the emerging white dwarfs. Results. While models including magnetic torques predict white dwarf rotational velocities between 2 and 10 km s −1 , those from the nonmagnetic sequences are found to be one to two orders of magnitude larger, well above empirical upper limits. Conclusions. We find the situation analogous to that in the neutron star progenitor mass range, and conclude that magnetic torques may be required to understand the slow rotation of compact stellar remnants in general.


Purpose The specific mechanisms and biomarkersunderlying the progression of stable coronary artery disease (CAD) to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remain unclear. The current study aims to explore novel gene biomarkers associated with CAD progression by analyzing the transcriptomic sequencing data of peripheral blood monocytes in different stages of CAD. Material and Methods A total of 24 age- and sex- matched patients at different CAD stages who received coronary angiography were enrolled, which included 8 patients with normal coronary angiography, 8 patients with angiographic intermediate lesion, and 8 patients with AMI. The RNA from peripheral blood monocytes was extracted and transcriptome sequenced to analyze the gene expression and the differentially expressed genes (DEG). A Gene Oncology (GO) enrichment analysis was performed to analyze the biological function of genes. Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to classify genes into several gene modules with similar expression profiles, and correlation analysis was carried out to explore the association of each gene module with a clinical trait. The dynamic network biomarker (DNB) algorithm was used to calculate the key genes that promote disease progression. Finally, the overlapping genes between different analytic methods were explored. Results WGCNA analysis identified a total of nine gene modules, of which two modules have the highest positive association with CAD stages. GO enrichment analysis indicated that the biological function of genes in these two gene modules was closely related to inflammatory response, which included T-cell activation, cell response to inflammatory stimuli, lymphocyte activation, cytokine production, and the apoptotic signaling pathway. DNB analysis identified a total of 103 genes that may play key roles in the progression of atherosclerosis plaque. The overlapping genes between DEG/WGCAN and DNB analysis identified the following 13 genes that may play key roles in the progression of atherosclerosis disease: SGPP2, DAZAP2, INSIG1, CD82, OLR1, ARL6IP1, LIMS1, CCL5, CDK7, HBP1, PLAU, SELENOS, and DNAJB6. Conclusions The current study identified a total of 13 genes that may play key roles in the progression of atherosclerotic plaque and provides new insights for early warning biomarkers and underlying mechanisms underlying the progression of CAD.


The development of jet engine components requires a detailed quantification of different uncertainty sources to improve the quality and robustness of the design. In order to get a better understanding of the entire interdisciplinary jet engine design process, the detailed uncertainty quantification of the performance parameters is of vital importance. This paper demonstrates a new approach how to represent the uncertainties in a jet engine performance model caused by the manufacturing and assembly process. In earlier research studies, the manufacturing process was modeled with a probabilistic approach, i.e. by assuming a multivariate normal distribution for the corresponding parameters. Within the scope of this paper, the uncertainty of the components' flow capacity and efficiency is quantified based on a limited set of data. Due to the extreme scarcity of the data set, it is proposed to use methods from the field of non-probabilistic uncertainty quantification. In this paper, three different approaches to derive the variation of the components' flow capacity and efficiency are compared with each other. In contrast to probabilistic methodologies, all approaches are able to represent the lack of data without making any additional assumptions regarding the underlying type of distribution. As a result, each of the methodologies describes the uncertain parameters by probability-boxes. After clarifying the theoretical background, the results obtained from the different approaches are discussed in detail. It figured out that the propagation method for probability-boxes plays a crucial role for the uncertainty quantification.


The resistance of particleboards, made from wood, bamboo and rice husk, to fungi and termites was evaluated. Panels were composed of 100% wood (Eucalyptus grandis), 100% bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), 100% rice husk (Oryza sativa), 50% wood and 50% bamboo; and 50% wood and 50% rice husk. Panels exposed to the decay the brown-rot fungus (Gloeophyllum trabeum and the white-rot fungus (Trametes versicolor), and, in a choice feeding trial, to termites (Nasutitermes corniger). The rice husk particleboards had the highest resistance of all samples and the bamboo particleboards had the lowest resistance. T. versicolor fungi produced a larger mass loss in the particleboards than did G. trabeum.


Background/Aims: The use of self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) is a safe and efficacious method for palliating malignant gastric outlet obstruction. However, few reports have assessed clinical outcome after the insertion of SEMS for malignant gastric outlet obstruction caused by stomach cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of uncovered SEMS in patients with malignant gastric outlet obstruction caused by stomach cancer. Methods: We evaluated 62 patients with gastric outlet obstruction caused by stomach cancer treated by the implantation of uncovered SEMS. A total of 62 patients (43 males, 19 females) were treated between August 2000 and March 2007. A scoring system was used to grade the ability to eat. Results: Stent implantation was successful in 61 (98.4%) patients. Relief of obstructive symptoms was achieved in 49 (80.3%) patients. The mean survival duration was 143 days. The mean stent patency time was 103.5 days. An improvement in the ability to eat using the scoring system was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: Endoscopic placement of uncovered SEMS is a safe and effective treatment for the palliation of patients with inoperable malignant gastric outlet obstruction caused by stomach cancer. (Korean J Gastrointest Endosc 2008;36:57-63)


This study aims to quantify carotenoids and tocopherols in human milk from healthy 19 Chinese women, and to explore their associations with region, lactation stage, and maternal 20 socio-economic and obstetric factors. Human milk was obtained from 509 healthy mothers and the 21 compounds of carotenoids and tocopherols were analyzed by high-performance liquid 22 chromatography after mild saponification and solvent extraction. Socio-economic and obstetric 23 characteristics of the mothers and their dietary intakes through a single 24-hour dietary recall were 24 evaluated. The median content of each component [μg/100mL, median (interquartile range)] in 25 colostrum and mature milk was, respectively, β-carotene 8.0 (4.7-15.2) and 1.8 (1.4-2.7), 26 β-cryptoxanthin 6.2 (2.4-12.9) and 1.8 (1.1-3.4), lutein 5.7 (2.9-10.2) and 3.4 (1.5-6.0), lycopene 6.3 27 (4.0-9.9) and 1.4 (1.1-2.0), zeaxanthin 1.0 (0.6-1.5) and 1.0 (0.6-1.4), α-tocopherol 645 (388-1176) and 28 211 (131-321), γ-tocopherol 68 (48-121) and 77 (45-120). The levels of all those vitamins presented 29 regional differences, and decreased as lactation stage increased except for zeaxanthin and 30 γ-tocopherol. Associations of carotenoid contents with maternal education, delivery mode, and 31 present body mass index were found in multivariate analyses. These results suggest that some 32 region, lactation stage, obstetric and socio-economic factors are associated with human milk 33 concentrations of carotenoids and tocopherols in healthy Chinese mothers. 34


We can easily argue that all graduates of science and engineering degree programs should have the opportunity to develop good computing skills by the time they complete their studies. However, the depth and range of skills needed varies considerably-even in a single discipline such as physics. Moreover, the interests, backgrounds, and abilities of students taking physics courses vary widely, whereas the number of teachers with scientific computing skills is often limited. Providing appropriate courses for such diverse student groups is thus a challenge.


This paper presents the prototyping of new methods by which functionally graded materials can be specified and produced. The paper presents a case study exploring how machine learning can be used to train a model in order to predict fabrication files from formalised design requirements. By using knit as a model for material fabrication, the paper outlines the making of new cyclical design methods employing machine learning in which simpler prototypical materials acts as input for more complex graded materials. A case study - Ombre - showcases the implementation of this workflow and results and perspectives are discussed.


The Chinese Plan has provided an important model for the global fight against COVID-19 since its outbreak. The present study describes the structural characteristics of China's COVID-19 patent cooperation network at the province, city, and applicant levels by using social network analysis based on data from the Incopat global patent database since 2020, which helps to clarify the current technology accumulation in this field in China, and provide patent information support for the scientific efforts to fight against COVID-19. The findings are as follows: First, the inter-regional cooperation level in China's COVID-19 patent cooperation network shows a decreasing trend from eastern to central to western regions. At the inter-applicant cooperation level, kinship-based cooperation is the strongest, business-based cooperation has the widest scope, while proximity-based cooperation exists throughout these two main models of cooperation. Second, coastal provinces and cities occupy a core position in the network, and play an important role in utilizing structural holes and bridging. Patent applicants with high centrality are mostly firms. Research institutes and universities mainly play the role of bridges. Third and lastly, there is no large number of cliques at the province and city levels. However, there is a tendency for cliques to develop at the applicant level. Hence, actions are needed to prevent the development of information barriers.


Injection of the benzodiazepine (BDZ) chlordiazepoxide (CDP) into the medial septum (MS) produced a dose-dependent retrograde working memory deficit in a delayed non-match-to-sample radial-arm maze task. CDP (30 nmol; 10 micrograms) decreased the number of correct choices and increased the number of errors without altering latency to make arm choices. The effects of CDP were site specific; injection into regions proximate to the MS, including the lateral septum, the anterior cingulate, and the nucleus basalis magnocellularis, did not affect any index of performance. The second experiment demonstrated that CDP impaired working memory only when rats were injected either 0 or 60 min, but not 15, 30, or 45 min, following training. The MS appears (a) to contribute to both early (encoding/ maintenance) and late (retrieval/utilization) phases of working memory and (b) to be a critical site of action for BDZ-induced deficits in spatial working memory.


The life histories of Plecoglossidae and Osmeridae fish collected from Japanese fresh, brackish, and seawaters were studied by examining the strontium (Sr) to calcium (Ca) ratios in their otoliths. The Sr:Ca ratios in the otoliths changed with the salinity of the habitat. The fish living in a freshwater environment showed consistently low Sr:Ca ratios throughout the otolith. The fish were identified as a standard freshwater type. In contrast, fish collected from the intertidal zone showed higher otolith Sr:Ca ratios than those in the standard freshwater type, and the ratios fluctuated along the growth phase. In the present study, in addition to the representative migration pattern reported previously, other migration patterns were found to show consistently high Sr:Ca ratios throughout the otolith in several Osmeridae fish. Those results indicate that these fish have a flexible migration strategy with a high degree of behavioural plasticity and an ability to utilize the full range of salinity throughout their life history.


Radiation therapy is an important and effective adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. Numerous health conditions may affect medical decisions regarding tolerance of breast radiation therapy. These factors must be considered during the decision-making process after breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy for breast cancer. Here, we review currently available evidence focusing on medical conditions that may affect the patient–provider decision-making process regarding the use of radiation therapy.


Aims: The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of self-reported halitosis, oral hygiene practices and related diseases among Libyan students and employees. Methods: Six hundred self-administered structured questionnaires were used to investigate self-perception of halitosis and oral hygiene practices among a group of Libyan volunteers. Chi square test was used to detect significant differences between frequencies and to test correlation between self-perception of halitosis and measures of oral hygiene. Results: Forty three percent of the subjects were males and 57% were females. Forty four percent of the males and 54% of the females revealed self-perception malodour. Malodour was reported with the highest frequency (68%) during wake up time. Malodour was perceived by 31.7% of the females and 23.4% of the males during the hand-on-mouth test (p=0.04). Significantly more females (89.9%) than males (75.7%) practiced brushing (p<0.001). Fifty one percent of the males and 49.6% of females had dental caries. Smoking was significantly (p<0.001) more prevalent among males (17%) than among females (1%). Brushing was practiced by 85% of non-smokers and 68% of smokers (p=0.004). About 71% of the subjects who practiced brushing reported malodour during wake up time in comparison to subjects who did not practice brushing (p=0.041). Conclusions: The prevalence of self-perceived malodour among the Libyan volunteers in this study is within the range of other studies. There is a great demand to reduce the incidence of dental caries and periodontal diseases.


In this work, we introduce a novel algorithm for solving the textbook question answering (TQA) task which describes more realistic QA problems compared to other recent tasks. We mainly focus on two related issues with analysis of TQA dataset. First, it requires to comprehend long lessons to extract knowledge. To tackle this issue of extracting knowledge features from long lessons, we establish knowledge graph from texts and incorporate graph convolutional network (GCN). Second, scientific terms are not spread over the chapters and data splits in TQA dataset. To overcome this so called `out-of-domain' issue, we add novel unsupervised text learning process without any annotations before learning QA problems. The experimental results show that our model significantly outperforms prior state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, ablation studies validate that both methods of incorporating GCN for extracting knowledge from long lessons and our newly proposed unsupervised learning process are meaningful to solve this problem.


The problem of study is a critical evaluation of the Big Spring, Texas, Elementary Schools using The Handbook for Self-appraisal and Improvement of Elementary Schools published in September, 1945, under the direction of Edgar Ellen Wilson, Director of Elementary Education in Texas. The parts in this evaluation under consideration are the children, the teacher, and the program of school life, eliminating the other headings under which a school may be placed.


Membrane integrity is critical for cell survival, defects of which cause pathological symptoms such as metabolic diseases. In this study, we used ethanol sensitivity of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to identify genetic factors involved in membrane integrity. In C. elegans, acute exposure to a high concentration (7% v/v) of ethanol changes membrane permeability, as measured by propidium iodide staining, and causes paralysis. We used the timing of complete paralysis as an indicator for alteration of membrane integrity in our genetic screen, and identified ptr-6 as a gene that confers ethanol resistance when mutated. PTR-6 is a patched-related protein and contains a sterol sensing domain. Inhibition of two PTR-encoding genes, ptr-15 and ptr-23, and mboa-1, encoding an Acyl Co-A: cholesterol acyltransferase homolog, restored ethanol sensitivity of the ptr-6 mutant, suggesting that these ptr genes and mboa-1 are involved in the maintenance of membrane integrity and permeability. Our results suggest that C. elegans can be used as a model system to identify factors involved in metabolic diseases and to screen for therapeutic drugs.


Brazzein is the smallest sweet-tasting protein and was isolated from the wild African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana. The brazzein molecule consists of 54 amino-acid residues and four disulfide bonds. Here, the first crystal structure of brazzein is reported at 1.8 Å resolution and is compared with previously reported solution structures. Despite the overall structural similarity, there are several remarkable differences between the crystal and solution structures both in their backbone folds and side-chain conformations. Firstly, there is an additional α-helix in the crystal structure. Secondly, the atomic r.m.s.d.s between the corresponding C(α)-atom pairs are as large as 2.0-2.2 Å between the crystal and solution structures. Thirdly, the crystal structure exhibits a molecular shape that is similar but not identical to the solution structures. The crystal structure of brazzein reported here will provide additional information and further insights into the intermolecular interaction of brazzein with the sweet-taste receptor.


Long-range transport of Frenkel excitons is crucial for achieving efficient molecular-based solar energy harvesting. Understanding of exciton transport mechanisms is important for designing materials for solar energy applications. One major bottleneck in unraveling of exciton transport mechanisms is the lack of direct measurements to provide information in both spatial and temporal domains, imposed by the combination of fast energy transfer (typically ≤1 ps) and short exciton diffusion lengths (typically ≤100 nm). This challenge requires developing experimental tools to directly characterize excitation energy transport, and thus facilitate the elucidation of mechanisms. To address this challenge, we have employed ultrafast transient absorption microscopy (TAM) as a means to directly image exciton transport with ∼200 fs time resolution and ∼50 nm spatial precision. By mapping population in spatial and temporal domains, such approach has unraveled otherwise obscured information and provided important parameters for testing exciton transport models. In this Account, we discuss the recent progress in imaging Frenkel exciton migration in molecular crystals and aggregates by ultrafast microscopy. First, we establish the validity of the TAM methods by imaging singlet and triplet exciton transport in a series of polyacene single crystals that undergo singlet fission. A new singlet-mediated triplet transport pathway has been revealed by TAM, resulting from the equilibrium between triplet and singlet exciton populations. Such enhancement of triplet exciton transport enables triplet excitons to migrate as singlet excitons and leads to orders of magnitude faster apparent triplet exciton diffusion rate in the picosecond and nanosecond time scales, favorable for solar cell applications. Next we discuss how information obtained by ultrafast microscopy can evaluate coherent effects in exciton transport. We use tubular molecular aggregates that could support large exciton delocalization sizes as a model system. The initial experiments measure exciton diffusion constants of 3-6 cm2 s-1, 3-5 times higher than the incoherent limit predicted by theory, suggesting that coherent effects play a role. In summary, combining ultrafast spectroscopic methods with microscopic techniques provides a direct approach for obtaining important parameters to unravel the underlying exciton transport mechanisms in molecular solids. We discuss future directions to bridge the gap in understanding of fundamental energy transfer theories to include coherent and incoherent effects. We are still in the infancy of ultrafast microscopy, and the vast potential is not limited to the systems discussed in this Account.


This book is concerned with the role of economic philosophy ('ideas') in the processes of belief-formation and social change. Its aim is to further our understanding of the behaviour of the individual economic agent by bringing to light and examining the function of non-rational dispositions and motivations ('passions') in the determination of the agent's beliefs and goals. Drawing on the work of David Hume and Adam Smith the book spells out the particular ways in which the passions come to affect our ordinary understanding and conduct in practical affairs and the intergenerational and interpersonal transmission of ideas through language. Concern with these problems, it is argued, lies at the heart of an important tradition in British moral philosophy. This emphasis on the non-rational nature of our belief-fixation mechanisms has important implications: it helps to clarify and qualify the misleading claims often made by utilitarian, Marxist, Keynesian and neo-liberal economic philosophers, all of whom stress the overriding power of ideas to shape conduct, policy and institutions.


Utilizing different ratios of para to ortho H₂ in normal and para enriched hydrogen, we varied the population of para-H₃⁺ in an H₃⁺ dominated plasma at 77 K. Absorption spectroscopy was used to measure the densities of the two lowest rotational states of H₃⁺. Monitoring plasma decays at different populations of para-H₃⁺ allowed us to determine the rate coefficients for binary recombination of para-H₃⁺ and ortho-H₃⁺ ions: (p)α(bin)(77 K) = (1.9 ± 0.4) × 10⁻⁷ cm³ s⁻¹ and (o)α(bin)(77 K) = (0.2 ± 0.2) × 10⁻⁷ cm³ s⁻¹.


To provide against global warming and fossil fuel's drying up, many nations in the world are trying to develop and use renewable energy. Sweden is one of the best countries, which produce bioenergy from natural resource, especially from wood. Their rate of dependence on energy imports was dramatically decreased from 70% in 1970's to 30% in 2000's. Analysing their success story, producing bioenergy could be helpful to establish Korea's bioenergy production system and industrialization. Bioenergy policy in Sweden was first announced in 1997, which was included big budget support, estab- lishment of bioenergy production system. Electricity certification, tax exception and budget support for R&D and industrialization of bioenergy were successfully put to practice in the direction of low cost, high efficiency and no effects to human health, environment and climate. The Government authorities in Sweden organized excellent rules of tax exception for bioenergy sector or tax burden to the existing energy business company. Many privileges to the energy from biomass, wind power and water power were given by government. On the other hand, tax burden to the existing energy resource was imposed a duty. Using huge forest resource, they have an superior system for bioenergy production, which is elec- tricity and heat from thermal power generation. ENA ENERGI ENKoPING factory and it's energy town is a good example for the small scale energy self sufficiency. They use woodchips, sawdust, willow, bark for burning and produce electricity and heat.


Face alignment is a critical task in many multimedia and vision applications that use face-based algorithms. Recent research has focused on achieving efficient initialization to improve performance; however, the use of facial attributes and the extent of their correlation with initialization have not been fully exploited. This paper presents a lightweight method called expression- and pose-based adaptive initialization (EXPAI), in which facial attributes, that is, expression and pose information, are used as priors. This approach can significantly improve the face alignment performance. In addition, reliable expression and head pose information can be derived simultaneously in the same framework. First, an expression- and pose-based template dictionary is formed by augmenting the mean shape across three degrees of freedom, thereby substantially improving the robustness of the initial shape with respect to large head pose variations. Second, each the template corresponds to an image of interest, which is jointly determined using a shape-constrained multiclass classifier and binary classifiers, and is assigned a pretrained confidence coefficient. The initial shape that is thus generated for subsequent cascaded regression is more adaptive and enables higher accuracy. Furthermore, EXPAI enables initialization with significantly increased computational efficiency because of its independence from the original dataset. The experimental results obtained on the widely used 300-W dataset show that our method achieves very competitive performance compared with that of state-of-the-art methods. In particular, for the challenging subset of 300-W, EXPAI reduces errors by more than 14% compared with coarse-to-fine shape searching (CFSS), which currently exhibits the best performance among regression-based approaches. Furthermore, a speed increase of more than 10 times compared with CFSS is achieved.


This list of theses, which entirely or in part relate to the study of the United States, has been compiled by the Institute of United States Studies in the University of London from publications and information provided by Registries, graduate offices and individuals in universities and colleges of the United Kingdom. In addition to the name of the candidate and university, the list records, where known, title or field of study, the name of the supervisor (in brackets) and the degree sought or awarded. The successful completion of a thesis is indicated by an asterisk. The Institute is greatly indebted to the many correspondents who made it possible to compile this list. Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, notification of any errors or omissions should be addressed to The Secretary, Institute of United States Studies, 31 Tavistock Square, London WCiH 9EZ.


ABSTRACT This essay pays tribute to Lawrence Grossberg and his influence through a consideration of radical contextualism – an analytical process that: (1) understands reality as contingently relational, complex, and always open to alteration; and (2) attempts to narratively represent the messiness and complexity of empirical reality as rigorously as possible (with an explicit recognition of the limits of our ability to do so). The piece opens by reflecting briefly on these principles with respect to the genre of intellectual tribute – that is, to contextualize what it means to talk about Larry and his work within the framework of the advisor/advisee relationship. How do you combine the care of engagement with the ethics of argumentation to make a statement that is as personal as it is intellectual? From there, I situate radical contextualism within Cultural Studies as both an ethical-intellectual commitment and an analytical practice. The goal here is to discuss both the positive and negative potential of this process. I end by reflecting on how Larry's intellectual commitment to radical contextualism also works as a personal form of radical contextuality.


: In general population, chronic liver disease is a great public health problem. Liver fibrosis, a common pattern in the usual causes of chronic liver disease, involves the gathering of collagen and other macromolecules inside the extracellular matrix. Fibrosis tends to proceed, leading to liver dysfunction, portal hypertension, and eventually cirrhosis. Liver biopsy is the gold standard for the diagnosing of liver fibrosis, and unfortunately it is invasive, expensive, with sampling variability and probable complications (mortality rate is procedure-related: one in 10,00012,000). For patients with chronic liver disease, it is important to delineate the degree and grading of fibrosis progression. Ultrasonography (US) provides ideal noninvasive assessment for diffuse liver disease because of its low cost and wide availability. Conventional B-mode US is good for the diagnosis of advanced cirrhosis, but is insensitive for fibrosis. Elastography may be employed as a substitute diagnostic technique for fibrosis. The METAVIR scoring system assigns fibrosis to five stages of F0: no fibrosis, F1: portal and periportal fibrosis with no septum, F2: portal and periportal fibrosis with rare septa, F3: portal and periportal fibrosis with many septa, F4: cirrhosis). In elastography, a mechanical force (compression or vibration) is applied to the soft tissues, and a conventional imaging technique such as US or MR imaging is used to create a map of soft-tissue deformation. There are two types of elastography: static and dynamic elastography. Static elastography is now a more common type of elastographic imaging. In this method, a single and very small compressive force is used by pressing with the ultrasound probe, typically and then the displacement of tissue is calculated. Static elastography has been widely used with superficial organs. It is more difficult to apply in deeper organs, and also the qualitative figures have not been displayed to have value for detection of liver fibrosis by using a vibratory stimulus to produce shear waves (which slowly pass through tissues) to be tracked by ultrasound. The spreading rate of shear waves depends upon the shear modulus of tissues, which is usually proportional to the Youngs modulus directly. Hence, quantifying tissue stiffness is possible by using this method. The first ultrasound system to apply this method is the Fibroscan (by Echosens) which can evaluate liver fibrosis. Shear waves are sent into the liver by a piston at the center of the probe, and the shear waves velocity is used to assess the shear modulus. This tool has proved feasible for the noninvasive diagnosis of moderate and severe fibrosis, but mild changes are not detected. Development of other systems to apply acoustic radiation force imaging (ARFI) (such as the Siemens S2000) by pushing on organs with a high-powered ultrasound pulse is under way. Currently, there are three main techniques to evaluate liver stiffness: transient elastography (FibroScan by Echosens), acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging, and shear-wave (SW) elastography . Among these methods, transient elastography offers the capacity to estimate mean tissue stiffness noninvasively. Several recent studies have proved that the measurements of liver stiffness with transient elastography are well correlated with the METAVIR stages of fibrosis. In addition, transient elastography is helpful as it can be performed repeatedly. However, it is not a real-time technique because the sonographic images are not visible during the measurement. In patients with hepatosteatosis and increased body mass index (BMI), the reproducibility of transient elastography is substantially reduced as the modality of ultrasonography itself has restrictions for visualizing the liver clearly in these patients. Real-time sonoelastography is another method for the evaluation of tissue elasticity. It uses a B-mode ultrasound, combining with elastography with the conventional US scanner. This device estimates the relative hardness of the organs and displays this data as real-time color images. It can show tissue elasticity images and conventional B-mode images at the same time. There are many reports and approaches to evaluate liver stiffness without liver biopsy. Among them, the FibroScan appears useful.


At CHES 2000, Schindler introduced a timing attack that enables the factorization of an RSA-modulus if RSA implementations use the Chinese Remainder Theorem and Montgomery multiplication. In this paper we introduce another approach for deriving the secret prime factor by focusing on the conditional branch Schindler used in his attack. One of the countermeasures against Schindler's attack is the blinding method. If input data are blinded with a fixed value or short-period random numbers, Schindler's attack does not work but our method can still factorize the RSA-modulus.


OBJECTIVE
To test the reliability and validity of a questionnaire on knowledge-attitude-practice on serum lipids.

METHODS
Based on the data investigated with this questionnaire from 158 persons at the age of over 40 years and the test-retest data from 60 persons. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by homogeneity reliability and test-retest reliability. The validity was assessed through correlation analysis, factor analysis and analysis of variance et al.

RESULTS
The Cronbach's alpha coefficient were more than 0.7 and retest coefficients were more than 0.8. The Pearson correlate coefficients of all the items to their dimensions were more than 0.61. Factor analysis conformed to logic relation, and the cumulative variance were 64.111%. The persons KAP on serum lipids was different in education and gender.

CONCLUSION
This questionnaire could be good reliability and validity. It might be so reliable, valid and sensitive that could be applied to assess persons' knowledge-attitude-practice on serum lipids.


Global warming is considered to be the most severe threat to coral reefs globally, which makes it important for scientists to develop novel strategies that mitigate the impact of warming on corals and associated habitats. Artificial upwelling of cooler deep water to the surface layer may be a possible mitigation/management tool. In this study, we investigated the effect of simulated artificial upwelling with deep water off Bermuda collected at 50 m (24°C) and 100 m (20°C) on coral symbiont biology of 3 coral species (Montastrea cavernosa, Porites astreoides, and Pseudodiploria strigosa) in a temperature stress experiment. The following treatments were applied over a period of 3 weeks: (i) control at 28°C (ii) heat at 31°C, (iii) heat at 31°C+ deep water from 50 m depth, and (iv) heat at 31°C+ deep water from 100 m depth. Artificial upwelling was simulated over a period of 25 min on a daily basis resulting in a reduction of temperature for 2 h per day and the following degree-heating-weeks: 5.7°C-weeks for ii, 4.6°C-weeks for iii and 4.2°C-weeks for iv. Comparative analysis of photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll-a concentration and zooxanthellae density revealed a reduction of heat stress responses in artificial upwelling treatments in 2 of the 3 investigated species, and a stronger positive effect of 100-m water than 50-m water. These results indicate that artificial upwelling could be an effective strategy to mitigate coral bleaching during heat stress events allowing corals to adjust to increasing temperatures more gradually. It will still be necessary to further explore the ecological benefits as well as potential ecosystem impacts associated with different artificial upwelling scenarios to carefully implement an effective in situ artificial upwelling strategy in coral reefs.


INTRODUCTION
Danish (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and international guidelines were reviewed to determine to which extent they recommend the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) before spinal anaesthesia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A total of 50 Danish departments of anaesthesia and 30 societies of anaesthesiology were invited by e-mail to detail their guidelines on pre-anaesthesia ACE inhibitor and ARB use and the number of registered deaths due to hypotension. PubMed was searched for existing guidelines.

RESULTS
Seven of 31 responding departments in Denmark had issued guidelines. None of 11 responding societies except the French had issued guidelines. The French society recommended discontinuation of ACE inhibitors and ARBs for hypotension > 12 hours before surgery, but no discontinuation in case of heart failure. None of the societies reported deaths.

CONCLUSION
A minority of the responding Danish departments of anaesthesia and the French Society of Anaesthesiologists have issued guidelines on the use of ACE inhibitors and ARB, but extant literature is scant and equivocal, and no randomized trials have studied either the indications for or the adverse outcome of ACE inhibitors and ARB treatment.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the protective effect of neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) on heart function and myocardium in rats with sepsis and its mechanism.

METHODS
Healthy male Sprague-Dawly (SD) rats were divided into three groups according to random number table method, with 6 rats in each group. Sepsis model was established by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP group); rats in sham operation group (sham group) underwent the same procedure except ligation. Rats in NRG-1 pre-treatment group (NRG group) were intravenously injected with recombinant human NGR-1 (rhNRG-1) at the dose of 10 μg/kg through tail vein; rats in CLP group and sham group were treated with the same amount of saline. At 24 hours after CLP, hemodynamic method was used to evaluate the cardiac function, and myocardial morphology was observed with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of cardiac troponin T (cTnT), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in serum and macrophage migration inhibitor factor (MIF) in myocardial tissue.

RESULTS
(1) heart function: compared with the sham group, the mean arterial pressure (MAP), left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) and left ventricular pressure maximal rate of rise and fall (±dp/dt max) were significantly decreased in CLP group and NRG group, while the MAP, LVSP and ±dp/dt max in NRG group were significantly higher than those in CLP group [MAP (mmHg, 1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa): 125.78±8.15 vs. 113.05±5.85, LVSP (mmHg): 151.27±6.79 vs. 139.39±8.05, +dp/dt max (kPa/s): 4 389.59±332.38 vs. 3 706.85±451.31, -dp/dt max (kPa/s): 4 291.42±323.72 vs. 3 691.17±515.44, all P < 0.05]. (2) Myocardial injury: compared with the sham group, the levels of serum cTnT in CLP group and NRG group were significantly increased, while the levels of serum cTnT in NRG group were significantly lower than those in CLP group (ng/L: 206.37±67.28 vs. 344.13±80.95, P < 0.05), and the HE staining showed that myocardial pathological changes in NRG group were improved compared with the CLP group. (3) Inflammatory mediators level: compared with the sham group, the levels of serum TNF-α, IL-1β and myocardial MIF were significantly increased in CLP group and NRG group, while the indicators in NRG group were lower than those in CLP group [TNF-α (ng/L): 52.77±3.43 vs. 97.19±13.98, IL-1β (ng/L): 40.25±5.48 vs. 56.05±6.88, MIF (μg/L): 1.92±0.16 vs. 2.87±0.10, all P < 0.05].

CONCLUSIONS
NRG-1 can reduce circulating levels of inflammatory factors in rats with sepsis, adjust myocardial MIF level, and alleviate myocardial cell injury, thereby improving cardiac function, and play a role in myocardial protection.


Linkages between sector-specific policy and sector employment are explored using a nonstationary Markov chain analysis. When parameterization of transition probabilities between employment sectors includes policy variables, hypothesis tests can determine policy impact relative to other variables. This astructural approach eliminates bias inherent in structural models. Application of this technique to Oregon's forestry sector and national forest policy demonstrates that macroeconomic forces have statistically important effects on employment while national forest policy, measured as timber sold or timber cut, does not. This result raises questions about forest policy impact analysis and assumptions inherent in national forest policy implementation. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.


In the present work we examined the incretin role of gut glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) in the insulin over-response to meal ingestion found in states of hypersomatotrophism. In this context, we studied IRI secretion after i.v. infusion of glucose alone (0.6 g/kg/h) and also combined with GIP (0.4 microgram/kg/h) in dogs during the control period and after subcutaneous administration of bovine growth hormone (bGH, 1 mg/kg), in randomized experiments at fortnightly intervals. Plasma levels of immunoreactive b-GH (IR-bGH) showed a comparable elevation at 24 h from each bGH injection. Coinciding with this rise, fasting plasma glucose was within the normal range and basal plasma levels of immunoreactive GIP (IR-GIP) remained unchanged. When GIP was given, there was a significant increase in IR-GIP plasma levels after 10 min of infusion, to a plateau near 200 pmol/l; the values were not influenced by concurrent administration of glucose with or without prior treatment with bGH. In the control observations, glucose infusion caused an insulin response area (IRA, pmol.min.l-1) of 3150 +/- 733. When GIP was co-infused with glucose, the IRA was enhanced to 6203 +/- 1380, p < 0.005. After the administration of bGH, the infusion of glucose alone increased the IRA to 9580 +/- 1446 (p < 0.001) and to 15,906 +/- 2943 (p < 0.001) when GIP was co-infused with glucose. The data suggest that in this state of high circulating levels of growth hormone of short duration, the secretion of insulin in response to the stimulus of glucose alone and also combined with GIP is clearly enhanced. The findings therefore lend support for the explanation of the high insulin secretion evoked by food intake in growth hormone-treated dogs.


Aircraft noise has come under severe scrutiny due to growing number of airports and airline operations. The noise generated by high lift devices is now comparable to the turbofan engines due to increasing bypass ratios. A Gurney flap is a suitable starting point to study trailing edge flap aeroacoustics due to additional lift characteristics and a simple geometry. The thesis aims in using Time-Resolved Particle Image Velocimetry to understand the dynamics of flow as well as identifying structures responsible for the tonal noise in a Gurney flap. TR-PIV was used to obtain, at a high spatial and temporal resolution, the flow dynamics associated with a Gurney flap at low Mach and high Reynolds number. A part of the thesis focussed on validating the two modes of shedding as an additional lift increment mechanism in a Gurney flap in case of a fully developed turbulent boundary layer. Flow statistics showed an upstream recirculation region, upper and lower separating shear layers and a main recirculation region whose size varied with Gurney flap size and angle of attack downstream of the flap. The instantaneous velocity and vorticity fields showed the flapping motion of the von Karman wake and corresponding vortex roll-up and shedding process. The power spectral density of flow fluctuations as well as the acoustic spectra, however, did not indicate any second mode of shedding. The Strouhal numbers of the vortex shedding for various Gurney flaps were close to that of a bluff body in a flow. Stereoscopic PIV measurements showed the periodic vortex shedding to be highly correlated in the spanwise direction (correlation length of 4cm). The large spanwise correlation length indicates the use of serrations can be useful in breaking-down such coherent structures. The tonal peaks were clearly audible and correspond to the vortex shedding frequency. Causality correlation between pressure fluctuations generated in the far-eld and the near-field fluctuations indicate a high correlation with unsteady vertical velocity in the wake (associated with unsteady lift). It was found that the dynamics in the upstream recirculation region (cavity) was not responsible in the production of noise. Further, the results indicate the location of the actual source of noise to be the flap. The high values of correlation further downstream are due to the presence of an upstream source (the flap) and are not sources of sound themselves. Thus, TR-PIV in a way clears the ambiguity expressed by other researchers in the past in interpreting the high values of correlation to be sources of sound.