UNLABELLED
To assess effects of enalapril and Accupro on clinical status left ventricular remodeling and systolic function in patients with heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy.

STUDY STRUCTURE
Randomized, open, controlled, duration -- 6 months.

PATIENTS
31 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (mean age 46+/-2 years).

TREATMENT GROUPS
Standard therapy (glycosides, diuretics, peripheral vasodialtors) -- 9 patients. Standard therapy plus enalapril (10-20 mg/day) - 11 patients; standard therapy plus accupro (slow titration from 5 to a maximum 20 mg/day)-- 11 patients.

CRITERIA OF EVALUATION
NyHa functional class, 6 -- minute wall test, echocardiographical parameters of left ventracular systolic function, while some parameters of remodeling deteriorated. Standard therapy did not change clinical status or left ventrical systolic function, while some parameters of remodeling deteriorated. Enalapril improved clinical status, left ventricular systolic function and affected favorably left ventricular remodeling. Accupro compared with enalapril produces greater influence on left ventricular remodeling. Our study suggests that intrinsic differences exist between quinaprilat and enalaprilat that determine the ability to improve endotelium vasodilation, their different affinity to tissue ACE.


The Characterization of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) Network was designed to describe the national network of State and local agencies that provide WAP services to qualifying low-income households. The objective of this study was to profile the current WAP network. To achieve the objective, two national surveys were conducted: one survey collected data from 49 State WAP agencies (including the coterminous 48 States and the District of Columbia), and the second survey collected data from 920 (or 81 percent) of the local WAP agencies.


Banana streak viruses (BSV) infect bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) worldwide. BSV became a major constraint for banana breeding programmes and germplasm exchanges since the discovery a couple of decade ago of the presence of infectious BSV integrations (eBSV) in the genome of Musa balbisiana (B genome) which can under certain stress conditions released spontaneously fonctional and infectious BSV. To date, BSV is known to only infect banana but for several reasons working with banana is very time consuming and not an easy task (space needed, long life cycle, no mutant database available, transient and stable transformations are difficult and laborious...). To overcome most of those problems and to both understand the mechanisms underlying the regulation of eBSV activation as well as eBSV non-activation and gain knowledge in the BSV biology, we tried to establish infection of Arabidopsis thaliana (At). We stably transformed two different ecotypes of At via agrobacterium using a more than a full length BSV viral genome clone containing twice the promoter region because of the poly A signal is in front of the promoter. T2 transformants did not show any abnormal phenotype neither BSV symptoms. RT-PCR experiments showed that viral transcription was very weak if not undetectable amongst more than 30 independent transformants. One hypothesis to explain this absence of transcription could be due to methylation of the viral genome. Using the cleavage activity of the McrBC methylation-dependent enzyme which recognizes 5-methylcytosines (a hallmark of plant DNA methylation) we demonstrated for all independent transformants tested (4 in total) than the viral construct was always methylated hampering potentially the BSV transcription. To validate and explore this hypothesis, we are crossing selected transformants with mutants affected at different stage of the epigenetic pathway. (Resume d'auteur)


General declaration of a married couple together in front of friends and relatives placebo based on loyalty and love each other and support each other for life. A social relationship between two adults, confirmed, married couple defines the roles assigned to that commitment, mutual rights and obligations (Sanaee, 2015). Marriage is the most important and the most excellent practice to achieve social and emotional needs human security (sarookhani, 2010). Intimate relationship, platform support and shelter for humans in the real world challenges and is located in an intimate relationship, arelationship type oftreatment (Sanaee, 2015).In traditional societies to industrial societies, marriage is more important, but in a new era for women's employment and economic independence of women, the process is delayed marriage and cohabitation (Sheikhi, 2001). Now marriage in our society tend to fade and age of marriage is rising On the other hand, there are all kinds of marriages, such as "temporary marriage", "formal marriage," "marriage concubine""White Wedding" and the rate of divorce for both formal and emotional rose (Rostami, 2015)."White marriage" is a phenomenon that has been observed in recent years in our country, as "Cohabitation" or "cohabitation" is also used for (Rostami, 2015). The "white marriage" is derived from the French equivalent, which means a marriage is unfinished or incomplete. Cohabitation without marriage is a man and a woman. That is the way that men and women to live without marriage or concubine flow between them trends under one roof. Usually this happens with the knowledge of parents and families takes place on both sides And the two lived together as a couple, not a house, friendly and Usually this happens with the knowledge of parents and families takes place on both sides And the two lived together as a couple, not a house, friendly and But in Iran due to the fact that society is an Iranian-Islamic community is not defined in any of such phenomena of this kind of life is done secretly. For this reason, we do not have statistics on the number of this kind of marriage.Having a healthy social relationship is the most important component of a healthy personality. All theories about the importance of social communication have argued that in some theories, such as "theory of personal relations Sullivan" view personal relationships form the foundation of it. Self-esteem, basic needs and social connections are important components of social identity (Miller, Teblom, Bround, & Fillisiyo, 1995). The most disturbing one of the most complex and inferiority complex personality problems. Children who feel they are depraved and backwardness less effort for success and doing things to the last beat (Parsa, 2001). One of the important human traits to achieve human goals ahead, self-esteem. Having a strong will and self-confidence, decision-making powers and ingenuity, creativity, sanity and mental health is directly related to self-esteem and sense of self-worth (Salahshour, 2000). Needs are not static structures, So there needs to further define that greatly influenced the theoretical framework for researchers who study required to pay; Therefore, it is natural that the needs, there are many classifications (Nasiri & Samani, 2008). In the late last century, "identity" is one of the unifying framework for intellectual debate is as it seems that everyone have something to say about it, Sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, psychologists and philosophers are all so involved in this issue (Jenkins, translation Yarahmadi, 2002). The modern world has created enormous changes in different areas and if the members of a society is not in line with changes These changes can result in important sectors of society such as family, have long-term implications and negative effects. One of the issues many problems in the family marriage phenomenon is white According to the marriage and celibacy in youth activism and the emergence of a phenomenon called white marriage in society, It is necessary to investigate the factors underlying this field of research to be done to counselors and family therapists can provide solutions for it to operate. …


Background: The activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signal pathway and downstream expression of IL-1β may play a pivotal role in neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction. We previously reported that a single lipopolysaccharide (LPS) dose induces prolonged neuroinflammation which is associated with astrocytic NF-κB signal pathways in aged rats. Blockade of the pathway by pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) in astrocytes could markedly suppress them, which may provide innovative ideas for clinical improvement for postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Methods: Rats were randomly assigned to vehicle, LPS, LPS+PDTC groups (n = 8 per group, per time point). 1) vehicle control (0.9% NaCl i.p.), 2) LPS (2 mg/kg i.p), 3) LPS + PDTC (LPS and PDTC50 mg/kg i.p.). After injection, whole brain tissues acquired at a series of time points (days 1, 3,7, 15 and 30) was prepared to carry out immunofluorescence, isolated hippocampal tissues were used for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). NF-κB p65, p-IκBα and IL-1β were detected respectively by immunofluorescence and IL-1β protein levels were determined by ELISA. A separate cohort of rats (n=8-10/group) were tested in a Morris water maze (MWM) for spatial learning and memory. Results: The PDTC treatment suppressed the LPS-induced canonical NF-κB signaling pathway- nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 and IκBα phosphorylation, positive expression of GFAP and IL-1β in hippocampal astrocytes of aged rats by immunofluorescence and reduced cognitive dysfunction by MWM test; The LPS-induced IL-1β protein increase in hippocampus of aged rats was attenuated by PDTC with ELISA. Conclusion: These findings suggest that NF-κB signaling pathway and downstream IL-1β in senescent astrocytes may play important roles in age-related neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction and provide potential discovery tool and therapeutic methods with PDTC for verifying the NF-κB signal pathway and treating cognitive impairment, especially POCD. (Funded by National Clinical Research for Geriatric Disorders of China, and Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals' Ascent Plan.)     Citation: Min-Hui Kan, Hui-Qun Fu, Long Fan, Yan Wu, Tian-Long Wang. Activation of NF-κB Signal Pathway and Downstream IL-1β Expression in Hippocampal Astrocytes of LPS-Induced Aged Rats. J Anesth Perioper Med 2017; 4 : 149-61. doi: 10.24015/ JAPM.2017.0051 This is an open-access article, published by Evidence Based Communications (EBC). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format for any lawful purpose. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 History of Ideas Chapter 3 Translatio Imperii and Translatio Religionis: The Geography of Salvation in Russian and American Messianic Thinking Chapter 4 The Religious Westernism of Ivan Gagarin Chapter 5 Guizot in Russia Chapter 6 Alexander Herzen's "Russian Socialism" Chapter 7 The Problem of "Russia and the West" in Russian Historiography (with special reference to M.I. Rostovstev and P.N Miliukov) Chapter 8 William James through a Russian Prism: The Case of the Moscow God-Seekers Part 9 Regimes and Political Practice Chapter 10 Crosscurrents of French, Austiran, and Russian Security Policing, 1750-1990 Chapter 11 Poland between East and West: Law, Order, and Political Policing in the Kingdom of Poland, 1815-1914 Chapter 12 Terror in Pravda1917-1939: All the News that was Fit to Print Chapter 13 Modern Times: the Soviet Union and the Interwar Conjuncture Chapter 14 Persistence of the Ethic of Soviet Socialism in Late Twentieth Century Russia Part 15 The Contemporary Scene: Politics and Intellectuals Chapter 16 Russia, Europe, and "Western Civilization" Chapter 17 A Critique of the Concept of Globalization Chapter 18 Scenes from the Polish Hell Chapter 19 Poland, Europe, and Russia Chapter 20 Foxes into Hedgehogs: Berlin and Tolstoy Chapter 21 Martin Malia and the Understanding of Russia


The application of the phasor measurement units and the wide expansion of the wide area measurement units make the time delay inevitable in power systems. The time delay could result in poor system performance or at worst lead to system instability. Therefore, it is important to determine the maximum time delay margin required for the system stability. In this paper, we present a new method for determining the delay margin in the power system. The method is based on the analysis in the s-domain. The transcendental time delay characteristics equation is transformed to a frequency dependent equation. The spectral radius is used to find the frequencies at which the roots cross the imaginary axis. The crossing frequencies are determined through the sweeping test and the binary iteration algorithm. A single machine infinite bus system equipped with automatic voltage regulator and power system stabilizer is chosen as a case study. The delay margin is calculated for different values of the power system stabilizer (PSS) gain, and it is found that increasing the PSS gain decreases the delay margin. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been proved through comparing it with the most recent published methods. The method shows its merit with less conservativeness and fewer computations.


A bigraft, composed of a 30-microm internodal distance expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) arterial graft segment and a preclotted polyethylene terephthalate arterial graft segment, was used to study the healing process of two different materials in the same dog. Healing was followed by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and correlated with ELISA analyses of selected growth factors and matrix proteins. The FTIR analyses of the ePTFE explants from 1 and 3 h; 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 days; and 4 and 8 weeks showed that the ePTFE grafts did not heal (endothelialize), but appeared to remain in overlapping inflammation and proliferation stages of wound healing. Although FN was found in the fibrin layer coating the luminal surface of the ePTFE, VEGF was not present. The inability of VEGF to complex with FN may be the result of FN binding sites being blocked or hidden by the conformation of the fibrin clot that forms on ePTFE. Also, TGF-beta was not present beyond the initial clot formation at 3 h postimplantation. The absence of these two growth factors may be an important factor in the lack of healing of 30-microm ePTFE grafts, because both were found to be present during the early stages of healing for the preclotted polyester grafts that did endothelialize.


In the past decade, a new body of scholarship has emerged—expressed mostly in articles and anthologies—to help document and interpret the varied experiences of migration and settlement by Latina/o communities in the Southeast United States, a region also referred to as the U.S. South. The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State by anthropologist Hannah Gill is one of the first full-length books and represents a recent development from this growing literature. Reflecting her research from 2003 to 2009, the purpose of the book, as the author highlights in the preface, is to provide an introduction for "mainstream audiences" who are unfamiliar and "interested in gaining a better understanding of Latino migration experiences" (x). As such, she effectively accomplishes her goal and does so in three ways.


Overprotection can manifest itself in conversation when a spouse 'speaks for' a person with aphasia. This tendency can have an effect on a person with aphasia's participation in conversation. To study this phenomenon and establish if there are relationships between overprotection, 'speaking for' behaviors and participation in conversation, eighteen couples completed questionnaires on overprotection and were video-recorded in an interview situation. Main results demonstrated significant and moderate relationships between (1) overprotection as reported by spouses and their 'speaking for' behaviors in conversation and (2) spouses' 'speaking for' behaviors and minor participation in conversation by person with aphasia.


The stability and response of histochemical phenotypes of altered hepatic foci (AHF) were studied both in the presence and following the withdrawal of 0.05% phenobarbital (PB) treatment in rats previously given a single dose of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) 20-24 h following partial hepatectomy (PH). AHF were scored by their expression of three biochemical markers: gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), adenosine triphosphatase and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6P). AHF demonstrated significant heterogeneity with respect to the marker alterations. The use of three markers in the present study confirmed the findings of our earlier study, which showed the maximal response of GGT+ AHF to PB administration following PH/DEN initiation and the stability of GGT+/AHF induced by the PH/DEN/PB regimen after the withdrawal of PB. In the regimen employed, the GGT marker alone scored the great majority of the AHF detected by all three markers. The frequency distribution of histochemical phenotypes remained relatively constant in AHF during continuous PB administration and in AHF promoted by PB followed by a 6-month period of feeding a diet containing no PB. These findings suggest that individual AHF remain phenotypically stable throughout the PB promotion phase, i.e., do not progress from one phenotype to another. In every marker class, the mean volume of AHF increased during continuous PB administration. These data illustrate the enhancing effect of PB on the growth of the AHF. The size of AHF continued to increase following the withdrawal of PB in the 3-month PB treatment group, but not in the animals treated for 4 months. A mechanism that may account for the differences in these two treatment groups is discussed.


Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria pose a serious global health risk for humans and animals, while the role of wildlife in the dynamic transmission processes of antimicrobial resistance in environmental settings is still unclear. This study determines the occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli in the free-living great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) of the North and Baltic Sea coasts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. For this, resistant E. coli were isolated from cloacal or faecal swabs and their antimicrobial resistance pheno- and genotypes were investigated using disk diffusion tests and PCR assays. The isolates were further assigned to the four major phylogenetic groups, and their affiliation to avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) was tested. Resistant E. coli were isolated from 66.7% of the 33 samples, and 48.9% of all the resistant isolates showed a multidrug resistance profile. No spatial differences were seen between the different sampling locations with regard to the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance or multidrug resistance. Most commonly, resistance percentages occurred against streptomycin, followed by tetracycline and sulfonamides. More than half of the isolates belonged to the phylogenetic group B1. Of all the isolates, 24.4% were classified as APEC isolates, of which almost 82% were identified as multidrug-resistant. These results add information on the dispersal of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in wild birds in Germany, thereby allowing conclusions on the degree of environmental contamination and potential public health concerns.


Tis paper focuses the distinction between verbal and adjectival passive sentences. For that differentiation to be accounted for, a previous proposal considering a specifc functional node for eventive passives - passiveP (LIMA JUNIOR; AUGUSTO, 2015) is retrieved. It is arguably assumed that the approach based on passiveP, besides maintaining a uniform analysis to active and passive sentences (as VoiceP in Collins (2005)), deals well with intervention issues, and is prosperous in addressing parametric variation and language acquisition facts. As far as the tripartite distinction among the dii¬€erent types of passives is concerned (EMBICK, 2004; DUARTE; OLIVEIRA, 2010), it is proposed that a main bipartite distinction between eventive and adjectival passives may be retained, which is here attributed to the presence of passiveP. Concerning stative and resultative passives, an agreement operation between the auxiliary verbs and the participle (LUNGUINHO, 2011) is assumed to allow for dii¬€erent readings to be obtained. A fourth group of passive-like sentences, involving participles, which have lost their connection with their original verbs, is also syntactically distinguished and treated as actual copular constructions.


Objectives The aims of this study were to study the biological and clinical significance of 3 main proteins of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, ERK1/2, P38, and MKK4, in a series of patients having pancreatic adenocarcinomas treated by surgery. Methods We examined the immunohistochemical expression of 3 MAPK proteins, ERK1/2, P38, and MKK4 in 99 surgically resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas. Tumor protein expression was studied with regard to pathological characteristics and to postsurgical recurrence-free and overall survivals. Results MKK4 expression was related to tumor cell proliferation, evaluated by the Ki67 index (P < 0.01). ERK1/2 expression was related to a shorter recurrence-free survival on both univariate and multivariate analysis (P < 0.01; odds ratio, 8.39; 95% confidence interval, 2.68–26.26) independently of lymph node metastases and tumor size, and to a shorter overall survival (P = 0.01) on univariate analysis. In patients without postsurgical treatment, both ERK1/2 and P38 tumor expression correlated with a shorter recurrence-free survival (P < 0.01 and P = 0.02, respectively). Conclusions The results of our study suggest that in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the MKK4 protein was directly related to high cell proliferation, and that tumor ERK1/2 and P38 expression correlated to shorter postsurgical recurrence-free and overall survivals.


This textbook, apart from introducing the basic aspects of applied mathematics, focuses on recent topics such as information data manipulation, information coding, data approximation, data dimensionality reduction, data compression, time-frequency and time scale bases, image manipulation, and image noise removal. The methods treated in more detail include spectral representation and frequency of the data, providing valuable information for, e.g. data compression and noise removal. Furthermore, a special emphasis is also put on the concept of wavelets in connection with the multi-scale structure of data-sets. The presentation of the book is elementary and easily accessible, requiring only some knowledge of elementary linear algebra and calculus. All important concepts are illustrated with examples, and each section contains between 10 an 25 exercises. A teaching guide, depending on the level and discipline of instructions is included for classroom teaching and self-study.


Members of the ribonuclease III family are the primary agents of double-stranded (ds) RNA processing in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Bacterial RNase III orthologs cleave their substrates in a highly site-specific manner, which is necessary for optimal RNA function or proper decay rates. The processing reactivities of Escherichia coli RNase III substrates are determined in part by the sequence content of two discrete double-helical elements, termed the distal box (db) and proximal box (pb). A minimal substrate of E.coli RNase III, μR1.1 RNA, was characterized and used to define the db and pb sequence requirements for reactivity and their involvement in cleavage site selection. The reactivities of μR1.1 RNA sequence variants were examined in assays of cleavage and binding in vitro. The ability of all examined substitutions in the db to inhibit cleavage by weakening RNase III binding indicates that the db is a positive determinant of RNase III recognition, with the canonical UA/UG sequence conferring optimal recognition. A similar analysis showed that the pb also functions as a positive recognition determinant. It also was shown that the ability of the GC or CG bp substitution at a specific position in the pb to inhibit RNase III binding is due to the purine 2-amino group, which acts as a minor groove recognition antideterminant. In contrast, a GC or CG bp at the pb position adjacent to the scissile bond can suppress cleavage without inhibiting binding, and thus act as a catalytic antideterminant. It is shown that a single pb+db 'set' is sufficient to specify a cleavage site, supporting the primary function of the two boxes as positive recognition determinants. The base pair sequence control of reactivity is discussed within the context of new structural information on a post-catalytic complex of a bacterial RNase III bound to the cleaved minimal substrate.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co-occurs with substance use (SU) and/or substance use disorder (SUD). Individuals with concurrent ADHD and SU/SUD can have complex presentations that may complicate diagnosis and treatment. This can be further complicated by the context in which services are delivered. Also, when working with young people and adults with co-existing ADHD and SU/SUD, there is uncertainty among healthcare practitioners on how best to meet their needs. In February 2022, the United Kingdom ADHD Partnership hosted a meeting attended by multidisciplinary experts to address these issues. Following presentations providing attendees with an overview of the literature, group discussions were held synthesizing research evidence and clinical experience. Topics included: (1) A review of substances and reasons for use/misuse; (2) identification, assessment and treatment of illicit SU/SUD in young people and adults with ADHD presenting in community services; and (3) identification, assessment and treatment of ADHD in adults presenting in SU/SUD community and inpatient services. Dis-cussions highlighted inter-service barriers and fragmentation of care. It was concluded that a multimodal and multi-agency approach is needed. The consensus group generated a table of practice recommendations providing guidance on: identification and assessment; pharmacological and psychological treatment; and multi-agency interventions.


Concepts of Chemistry are complex in nature and are hard to comprehend. To teach these complex concepts effectively, a modern constructivist instructional model can be a more appropriate choice. This study aimed to compare the academic achievement of students on posttest and retention test, taught through the 5E instructional model at the higher secondary level. The research design was pretest-posttest equivalent groups design. The sample consisted of 60 randomly selected students from the accessible population and was divided into two equivalent groups based on their pre-test score. The experimental group's students were instructed through the 5E instructional model and the control group students were taught through the traditional lecture method for five weeks. Data was analyzed applying t-test at .05 level of significance. Data analysis showed that the experimental group outscored significantly than control groups on post-test as well as on retention test exhibiting the effectiveness of the 5E instructional model. It was concluded that although the 5E model requires more resources and time especially at the higher secondary level, however, it is recommended that this model must be used to teach Chemistry at the higher secondary level for improving academic achievement and better retention of knowledge.


OBJECTIVES
Psychiatric disorders are increasingly recognized among children and adolescents in Bangladesh. Psychiatric disorders are more common in children with chronic and acute pediatric disorders. Our study was designed to determine the psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents attending pediatric outpatient departments of tertiary care hospitals.

METHODS
This cross-sectional study was carried out from July 2012 to February 2013 in pediatric outpatient departments of three prime tertiary level hospitals of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A purposive sampling technique was used. A total of 240 male and female children aged 5 to 16 years old were included in the study. We used a semi-structured questionnaire to obtain sociodemographic and other relevant clinical information about the children and their families from their parents or caregivers and a validated parent version of the Bangla Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) for measuring psychopathology.

RESULTS
The mean age of the children was 9.0± 2.6 years. The majority (71%) of children were in the 5-10 year age group. The male/female ratio was 1.2:1. Among the respondents, 18% were found to have a psychiatric disorder. Behavioral disorders, emotional disorders, and developmental disorders were found in 9.0%, 15.0% and 0.4% respectively. Hyperkinetic disorder was the single most frequent (5.0%) psychiatric disorder.

CONCLUSIONS
A significant number of children were found to have psychiatric disorders. Our study indicates the importance of identification and subsequent management of psychiatric conditions among the pediatric population.


BACKGROUND
Occupational hygiene panels are increasingly being used to rate retrospective occupational exposures to chemicals in community-based studies. This study aimed to assess the validity, reliability and feasibility of using such an expert panel in a brain tumour case-control study.

METHODS
A panel of five experts was recruited to rate exposure to 21 chemicals for 298 job descriptions to investigate the level of agreement. Validity was assessed by comparing the ratings of the experts for 49 of the jobs with objective quantitative exposure data which existed for these jobs. Repeatability was assessed by comparing the results for 50 resubmissions.

RESULTS
Specificity was high for reporting that exposure occurred (all above 90%), but sensitivity was variable with values between 48% and 79%. Weaker validity was found for rating exposure level and exposure frequency. The raters showed the greatest inter-rater agreement for exposure to three of the 21 chemicals considered (kappa = 0.64 for cutting fluids, kappa = 0.57 for welding fumes and kappa = 0.42 for lubricating oils). Intra-rater reliability, based on the 50 resubmitted jobs, was fair to good (kappa = 0.46, 0.73).

CONCLUSIONS
The potential effect of exposure misclassification from using expert panels was quantified and found to be a significant source of bias. The optimum situation occurred where three of the five raters concurred, where an odds ratio of 2.2 was observed for a true odds ratio of 4.0. Future studies which plan to use expert panels should screen the experts for their suitability by validating their performance against jobs with known exposure data.


Background: To determine the influence of lateral decubitus position on cement distribution of unilateral percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) in patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF).Methods: A retrospective review was performed on patients who underwent PKP for OVCF at the Spine Department of our hospital between January 2016 and January 2020. Unilateral PKP were performed by the same senior spinal surgeon team under local anesthesia. Patients were divided into two group according to positions with injecting cement. Complete symptom and radiographic evaluation information were gathered from each patient since the initial presentation. Then, the radiographic and symptomatic indexes between two groups were compared.Results: There were 190 patients included in this study. Ninety-four patients used to receive cement injection in lateral decubitus position while 96 patients were in prone position. A significantly longer surgical time (28.7±4.5 min vs. 26.8±4.3min) and more cement volume (6.14±0.66ml vs. 5.69±0.69ml) were found in lateral decubitus group. And visual analogue scale (VAS) scores were significantly lower (p <0.05) in lateral decubitus group one week after surgery. Compared with prone group, lateral decubitus group showed a significantly higher proportion of grade III cement distribution (18.2% vs. 7.3%, p<0.05) and a significantly lower cement leakage rate (13.8% vs. 26%, p<0.05).Conclusion: It is possible that lateral decubitus position can improve cement distribution, relieve acute pain more and decrease leakage incidence in OVCF patients with unilateral PKP,although it might be slightly time-consuming. It was recommended that position could be switched to lateral decubitus position during cement injection for unilateral PKP, especially when extraversion angle was small.


This paper presents a novel concept of simultaneously measuring pressure and temperature using a silica optical fibre extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI) pressure sensor incorporating a fibre Bragg grating (FBG), which is constructed entirely from fused-silica. The novel device is used to simultaneously provide accurate pressure and temperature readings at the point of measurement. Furthermore, the FBG temperature measurement is used to eliminate the temperature cross-sensitivity of the EFPI pressure sensor.


e14218 Background: Characterization of the spatial distribution and abundance of proteins and mRNAs with morphological context within tissues enables a better understanding of biological systems in many research areas, including immunology and oncology. However, it has proven difficult to perform such studies in a highly multiplexed manner. To address this unmet need, we have developed a novel optical-barcode based microscope and tissue-sampling platform designed to simultaneously analyze hundreds of proteins or mRNAs on a single FFPE section from distinct tissue spatial regions. Methods: Using colorectal cancer FFPE sections we spatially resolve protein and mRNA expression of immune-oncology targets and present a series of modalities and associated applications for the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler platform. Results: Microsatellite stable (MSS) or instable (MSI) colorectal tumors will be characterized to evaluate active and suppressive immune mechanisms in both immune dense regions and tumor versus stroma by utilizing segment profiling. Regions from the invasive margins and tumor centers will be investigated with contour profiling to define different immunosuppressive and activated immune phenotypes. Evaluation of tumor versus stroma will also identify pathways related to each compartment that are different between MSI and MSS tumors. These techniques can be used to discover drug mechanism of action or immune activation status, as well as to facilitate prediction of treatment response and disease progression or investigation of specific rare cell populations' molecular profiles. Conclusions: This study will demonstrate multiplexed pathway-level protein and gene expression analysis from discrete regions within a colorectal tumor (tumor center and immune invasive margin), enabling systematic interrogation of immune activity in FFPE samples. Further studies could eventually lead to the identification of unique localized immune characteristics to guide combination therapeutic approaches.


This study was designed to develop an objective method of strength measurement of muscles controlling the wrist joint in normal subjects. Forty subjects (20 male, 20 female) with a mean age of 22 years, were tested isokinetically at and . Results were as follows, 1) Peak torque for wrist flexors, extensors were significantly different for both speeds, but wrist ulnar deviator, radial deviator peak torques were not, 2) Mean values for all muscle groups controlling the wrist were not significantly different for both speeds in the female group, 3) All mean values at both and were significantly different between males and females, 4) Means and standard deviations of wrist joint angle of movement at peak torque were determined.


Thousands of bridge structures utilize grouted high-strength, post-tension strands. Problems with grouting techniques and grout materials has resulted in bridges with deficient grout including voids, segregated grout, chloride contaminated grout and soft grout. These problems have promoted corrosion and failure of post-tension tendons, some within 6 to 17 years of service. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has spent more than $55 million (USD) repairing 11 post-tension bridges to date. A cost-effective corrosion mitigation technique has been developed to minimize the corrosion of post-tension bridges which have grouting issues. This paper describes the development and implementation of this technique including application to grouted tendons of the Ringling Bridge (Sarasota, FL) and the I-95 / I-295 Interchange in Jacksonville, FL.


African American English (AAE) has been studied more heavily, by far, than any other forms of American English. Nevertheless, much of the emphasis has been placed on morphosyntactic variants and its phonetic characteristics are poorly known. We examined several variables to see how AAE differs phonetically from European American English (EAE) varieties in North Carolina. Forty interviews were drawn from the North Carolina Language and Life Project corpus at North Carolina State University from three North Carolina counties: Hyde, Robeson, and Warren. Speakers included ten older and ten younger African Americans and ten older and ten younger European Americans, balanced among the three counties and by sex. The interviews were all conversational. Tokens were measured with the Praat software using methods appropriate to the particular variable.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect and mechanism of interleukin-8 expression induced by wood smoke particles (WSP) in primary human airway epithelial cells.

METHODS
Primary human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) were collected through fiberbronchoscopic brushing and incubated with different concentration of WSP (0, 12.5, 25.0, 50.0, 100.0 μg/ml). Levels of IL-8 protein in cell culture supernatant were measured using enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay. The specific inhibitors for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and p38 kinase signaling pathways were employed to pretreat HBEC, respectively, prior to incubation with 100 μg/ml WSP to investigate the mechanism of IL-8 expression induced by WSP.

RESULTS
The expression of IL-8 was significant increased in a dose-dependent manner after exposure HBEC to different concentration of WSP for 24h. The levels of IL-8 expression were (4546.67±1421.42) ρg/ml in (PD153035+WSP) group and (2803.33±865.00) ρg/ml in (SB203580+WSP) group respectively, which were significant decreased compared with the level of (12896.67±1373.11) ρg/ml in WSP group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
WSP could induce IL-8 expression by means of EGFR and p38 signaling pathways.


We have recently developed a microscopic cluster model of nucleus-nucleus bremsstrahlung, which takes implicitly account of a part of the meson-exchange current effects, by applying an extension of the Siegert theorem valid for arbitrary photon energy. This model is applied to the α + α bremsstrahlung. The differences between the bremsstrahlung cross sections obtained in the non-Siegert and Siegert approaches are displayed and discussed. The theoretical bremsstrahlung cross sections are compared with experimental measurements. Whereas the agreement with quite old experimental data is fair, a rather important discrepancy between the theoretical results and the more recent experimental data is noticed. Some paths to investigate this disagreement are proposed.


The concrete electrical resistivity is a prominent parameter in structural health monitoring, since, along with corrosion potential, it provides relevant qualitative diagnosis of the reinforcement corrosion. This study proposes a simple expression to reliable determine resistivity from the concrete electrical resistance (RE) provided by the corrosion sensor of the Integrated Network of Sensors for Smart Corrosion Monitoring (INESSCOM) we have developed. The novelty here is that distinct from common resistivity sensors, the cell constants obtained by the proposed expression are intended to be valid for any sensor implementation scenario. This was ensured by studying most significant geometrical features of the sensor in a wide set of calibration solutions. This embedded-sensor approach is intended to be applicable for RE measurements obtained both using potential step voltammetry (PSV, used in the INESSCOM sensor for corrosion rate measurement) and alternating current methods. In this regard, we present a simple protocol to reliably determine RE, and therefore resistivity, from PSV measurements. It consists in adding a very short potentiostatic pulse to the original technique. In this way, we are able to easy monitor resistivity along with corrosion rate through a single sensor, an advantage which is not usual in structural health monitoring.


Background: Dental imaging is a helpful aid in the diagnosis of maxillofacial lesions. The dentists have to access benefits against its hazards and be aware of different radiation protection techniques.
 Objectives: To assess knowledge, approach and perceptions (KAP) of undergraduate Saudi dental students towards biological hazards of dental x- ray and appropriate radiographic protection techniques. To compare KAP between preclinical and clinical undergraduate students.
 Materials and Methods: The study participants included 57 dental undergraduate students (preclinical and clinical years), whose curriculum includes x- ray physics. The information was collected via an online 21 structured multiple choices questionnaires. Statistical analysis: Mann–Whitney U tests at a 5% significance level were used to analyze the difference between the different answers of the 2 groups tested.
 Results: Among 57 samples enrolled in the study 42 were in preclinical and 15 were in clinical dental years. Over all correct response was ranged from 22%-76% in the preclinical group & from 33.3%-72.7 in the clinical group. A clear consensus was noticed among the 2 groups evaluated for all questions with insignificant differences between all answers of the survey.
 Conclusion: The Knowledge, approach and perception (KAP) level regard to biological hazards effect of x- ray was noted to be low to medium in both groups. Concern the different protection protocols the KAP was found to be ranged from medium to high general knowledge also in the 2 groups. This outcome necessitates continual teaching to ensure maximum safety.


Modems for leased telephone lines have in the last few years reached data rates which come close to the theoretical limit given by Shannon's capacity theorem. In this paper an overview of the key signal-processing algorithms used in leased-line modems is presented. The transmission of several bits per symbol with uncoded modulation is reviewed, and the use of trellis-coded modulation (TCM) with two-dimensional signal constellations is discussed. It is shown that the coding gains offered by TCM are vital to reliable operation at 14.4 kb/s and above. Algorithms for compensating intersymbol interference and carrier-phase errors are then presented, and the limitations of conventional equalizers addressed. The adaptation of the receiver to the unknown characteristics of a telephone line is discussed, and rapid-training algorithms allowing very short startup times are given. Attention then focuses on recent work which combines the functions of equalization and symbol decoding. This leads to a modem receiver comprising a whitened-matched filter and a reduced-state maximum-likelihood sequence decoder. The performance of such a receiver in the presence of severe channel distortion is compared with that of a conventional receiver using separate equalization and TCM decoding.<<ETX>>


The dielectric properties and ac electrical conductivity of Al/polyindole (Al/PIN) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were investigated by using admittance spectroscopy (capacitance–voltage [C-V] and conductance–voltage [G/ω-V]) method. These C-V and G/ω-V characterizations were performed in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 10 MHz by applying a small ac signal of 40 mV amplitude from the external pulse generator, whereas the dc bias voltage was swept from (−10 V) to (+10 V) at room temperature. The values of dielectric constant (e′), dielectric loss (e″), dielectric loss tangent (tanδ), real and imaginary part of electrical modulus (M′ and M″), ac electrical conductivity (σac), and series resistance (Rs) of the Al/PIN SBDs were found to be quite sensitive to frequency and applied bias voltage at relatively low frequencies. Although the values of the e′, e″, tanδ, and Rs of the device were observed to decrease with increasing frequencies, the electric modulus and σac increased with increasing frequency for the high forward bias voltages. These results revealed that the interfacial polarization can more easily occur at low frequencies and that the majority of interface states (Nss) between Al and PIN, consequently, contribute to deviation of dielectric properties of the Al/PIN SBDs. Furthermore, the voltage-dependent profile of both Rs and Nss were obtained from the C-V and G/ω-V characteristics of the Al/PIN SBDs at room temperature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


court's jurisprudence?its legal reasoning, its balancing techniques, its principled applica tion of expertise in both the law and the substance of the issue area being regulated?in turn enables, but also constrains, by channeling future litigation activity. The result is a diffusion of legal norms throughout the regime and the gradual accommodation of the language of law with the language of policy. A third component of our framework is more speculative: to map what a supranational rule of law community might look like. We are particularly interested in how links between supranational and national levels of governance are forged and tightened. Vertically, we already see highly structured interjudicial dialogues between supranational and national courts, and the beginnings of a kind of mutual recognition of each level's authority. We also see that governments and legislators participate in the embedding of the regime's norms within the national legal system, for example, by transposing these norms into national law. Horizontally, we see that as the regime's legal norms diffuse and take on more formalization and clarity, a move to harmonize law and administration is occurring in the interest of reciprocity and?with respect to transnational society?in the interest of equality before the law. When we have reached the stage (and we are moving in that direction) where political and judicial authorities at both the national and supranational levels begin to coordinate their behavior and become concerned with guaranteeing what is in effect equal protection under the regime's laws across the regime's territory, we are in the presence of a suprana tional rule-of-law community.


Shared scooter programs often generate complaints about improper parking as a hazard to pedestrians and as unappealing clutter on sidewalks, yet previous research has found relatively low rates of misparking. What do people think constitutes misparking, and how much misparking do they think occurs? Can interventions further reduce misparking? We conducted field experiments in Washington DC and Auckland, New Zealand. We find evidence for the efficacy of three interventions. The introduction of in-app message reminders and the implementation of sidewalk decals both lowered rates of misparking. The largest improvement in misparking was brought about by the introduction of lock-to, thanks to a large shift from parking in the furniture zone to bike racks.In addition, we assess perceptions of scooter misparking with an intercept survey in the same cities and polls of transportation professionals at four conferences. Both the public and transportation professionals overestimate misparking of scooters and underestimate misparking of bicycles and cars. We find that respondents equate parking compliance with pedestrian accessibility and tidiness. Our results suggest that intuitive parking solutions that align with rider and non-rider understandings of orderly parking, such as bike racks or on-street parking corrals, improve rider compliance and may reduce public dissatisfaction with shared scooter parking.


The 1.5 Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516 presents a strong time variability in X-rays. We re-analyzed the nine observations performed in 2006 October by XMM-Newton and Chandra in the 0.3 to 10 keV energy band. An acceptable model was found for the XMM-Newton data fitting the EPIC-PN and RGS spectra simultaneously; later, this model was successfully applied to the contemporary Chandra high-resolution data. The model consists of a continuum emission component (power law + blackbody) absorbed by four ionized components (warm absorbers), and 10 narrow emission lines. Three absorbing components are warm, producing features only in the soft X-ray band. The fourth ionization component produces Fe xxv and Fe xxvi in the hard-energy band. We study the time response of the absorbing components to the well-detected changes in the X-ray luminosity of this source and find that the two components with the lower ionization state show clear opacity changes consistent with gas close to photoionization equilibrium. These changes are supported by the models and by differences in the spectral features among the nine observations. On the other hand, the two components with higher ionization state do not seem to respond to continuum variations. The response time of the ionized absorbers allows us to constrain their electron density and location. We find that one component (with intermediate ionization) must be located within the obscuring torus at a distance 2.7 × 1017 cm from the central engine. This outflowing component likely originated in the accretion disk. The three remaining components are at distances larger than 1016–1017 cm. Two of the absorbing components in the soft X-rays have similar outflow velocities and locations. These components may be in pressure equilibrium, forming a multi-phase medium, if the gas has metallicity larger than the solar one (≳ 5 Z☉). We also search for variations in the covering factor of the ionized absorbers (although partial covering is not required in our models). We find no correlation between the change in covering factor and the flux of the source. This, in connection with the observed variability of the ionized absorbers, suggests that the changes in flux are not produced by this material. If the variations are indeed produced by obscuring clumps of gas, these must be located much closer in to the central source.


Prevalence, how many people have ever had at least one lucid dream; and frequency, how often does an individual experience these dreams are two ways of conceptualizing lucid dreaming incidence. Seven surveys have attempted to ascertain the prevalence of lucid dreaming in both student (Palmer, 1979; LaBerge, in press; Gackenbach, Rokes, Sachau & Synder, 1984) and adult (Palmer, 1979; Kohr, 1980; Blackmore, in press; Gackenbach, 1978; Gackenbach, Curren, LaBerge, Davidson & Maxwell, 1983) samples. Among the latter estimates of having had at least one lucid dream range from 100% (Gackenbach et al., 1983) to 47% (Blackmore, in press). Both sample characteristic considerations and understanding of the concept clarify the picture. Kohr (1980), Gackenbach (1978) and Gackenbach et al. (1983) were all dealing with highly motivated adult samples. That is, people who have an unusually high interest in dreaming and/or lucid dreaming. Thus their estimates tend to run high (Kohr, 70%; Gackenbach, 76%; Gackenbach et al., 100%). In the Palmer (1979) and Blackmore (in press) surveys, adults were randomly chosen from the telephone directory in the case of the former and from the electoral register in the case of the latter. Consequently, their estimates are considerably more conservative: Palmer, 55% and Blackmore, 47%. However, there is no indication that they attempted to verify that their respondents understood the concept.


Self-viability is a vigorously explored theme inside the instructive discipline and is an essential mark of extensive-term execution and adequacy. Our public preparing gadget needs great fledgling educators possessing awesome feelings of viability and genuine instructing limit. The exhibited understudy educator execution appraisal is being utilized the nation over as a method for evaluating the preparation of student instructors for a hit calling in tutoring. Since self-adequacy is most intensely associated with early audits, it's crucial to comprehend the researcher's self-viability. This ganders found that the connection between self-viability and achievement rating toward the finish of the test, understudies inside the public authority resources of Rawalakot is standard. Self-adequacy in sure understudies changed into saw to diminish later inward accommodation while given remarks on advancement and execution. All people had been demonstrated to increment in self-adequacy from the beginning of the student as far as possible accurate to form fundamentally dependent on the writing evaluation. Understudy mentor execution is contrarily related to the other in self-viability from the start to the stop of understudy training. These outcomes show that the more the exchange self-viability from the start of the instructing as far as possible, the reduction a researcher performs at the achievement. This likewise proposes that when the other in self-adequacy is less, satisfaction execution is extra.


While implementation research has studied the behaviors of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) extensively, we have very little knowledge about the role of managers in affecting SLB behaviors during implementation of policy reforms. This report examines the role of managers in the implementation of a major – but contested – public school reform in Denmark. Testing change management theory, we find substantial effects of managerial communication about the change on the implementation of the reform in teaching practices – this concerns both communication of visions and plans for implementation and conversations with employees individually about their future role. However, several other change management aspects have no effect or very slight effects on implementation. We also find substantial implementation effects of managers' professional leadership when they are involved in teaching, i.e. when they observe classroom teaching, provide feedback and discuss methods. The study finds even stronger implementation effects of distributed leadership/professional learning communities of teachers. Finally, manager qualifications matter – not formal but informal qualifications, as perceived by teachers. The management practices that are close to teachers seem to have the strongest impact on their implementation practices. Whereas the study finds strong and robust impacts of some management practices on implementation of the reform, it does not find any certain effects on school performance in terms of pupil learning and well-being. It might be too early to identify such impacts. The study uses school fixed-effect analyses based on annual panel surveys of school managers and teachers in a sample of schools, combined with administrative registry data from 2014 to 2016.


The production of Portland cement, resulting in the release of CO 2 gas, excessive energy and natural resource consumption, has led to search for alternative materials with similar physical and mechanical properties to the Portland cement of the scientific community. Geopolymers as alternative to conventional cement have a great potential for use in terms of their mechanical and durability properties. For this reason, it is necessary to investigate the usability of a new material alternative to cement, to reduce the environmental impact and for the disposal of Electric Arc Furnace Slag (EAFS), which is produced in large quantities in the primary target world and in Turkey and which causes storage space bottleneck. For this purpose, the mechanical and microstructure of the activated EAFS exposed to different curing conditions at three different sodium concentrations with a silicate module was investigated. When the results are examined, it is obvious that the strength increases with the increase of the sodium concentration. In addition, the literature on which alkali activation of EAFS has been added for the first time.


An equation is proposed for the accurate and user‐friendly estimation of the lower flammability limit (LFL) of C/H, C/H/N, C/H/O, C/H/O/N, and monohalogenated organic pure compounds in air at atmospheric pressure in the 25–400° C temperature range. The equation derived in this study used 40 chemicals (LFLs) for the derivation and over 200 for the validation. Comparisons between experimental data and estimated data show that the average absolute deviation is <10%, and that deviations ≥20% are exceptions. This derived equation was validated and then used to identify erroneous LFLs in the literature. We found that LFLs are in error for 10 compounds out of the 300 examined. The equation developed in this paper is compared with that developed by Britton and both equations are found to be generally consistent. Advantages and disadvantages of both equations are discussed. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2005


In this paper, we implement a reliable algorithm to obtain exact solutions for Fokker‐Planck equation and some similar equations. The approach rests mainly on two dimensional differential transform method which is one of the approximate methods. The method can easily be applied to many linear and nonlinear problems and is capable of reducing the size of computational work. Exact solutions are obtained easily without linearizing the problem. Some illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.


Cost and time performance are considered to be the most important aspects in the construction industry. The exceptional conditions that took place in Iraq since the beginning of the third millennia had a huge vicious impact on the cost and time performance of local construction projects. This may represent the principal motivation for the local authorities to enact some four successive legislations in order to control the performance of the construction industry. In this research, an evaluation is made to the cost and time performance of local construction projects and their variation due to the multiple changes in the internal factors that affect project performance, and changes in the surrounding events include legislative, economic, and security environment during the period that lasted from 2003 to 2014. Data is collected from 30 governmental projects to conduct the evaluation. A comprehensive questionnaire is performed to estimate a quantitative value for the impact of several factors that concern both the owner and the contractor, with special consideration to their variation through the successive legislation periods. These estimates are, in turn, utilized in a system dynamics model, in which the project development process is simulated. The final cost and duration changes in the project are accumulated in the form of stocks to give an indication of the cost and time performance of the project. The developed model returned a progressive reduction of 10.9% for the change in project cost and 135.37% for the change in project schedule throughout the eleven years period.


With the advent of information technology and shortening of the distances between various destinations in the world, the mega projects are generally planned on universal work culture and manned by multinational teaming. This paper throws light on work culture, its ingredients and essentials. The practical cases of mega projects like planning, design and construction of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam are reviewed in this work as they represent the theme of this paper. >


The boundaries of replication research would be greatly extended by the establishment of an origin-dependent in vitro DNA replication system. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a prime candidate from which to develop such a system, as it initiates replication from specific, well conserved, short origin sequences. The first step towards producing a yeast cell free replication system was the development of a method to assemble pre-replicative complexes (pre-RCs) onto short repeat sequences of the origin ARSl, immobilised on Dynabeads. I have extended this research to use plasmids with ARSl origins. The plasmids are competent for pre-RC assembly (ORC, Cdc6p, MCM) and this is specific for origin sequences with an A element, the element known to be essential for replication in vivo. Formation of the complexes is also time dependent and once the MCM complex has been loaded, it can stay associated even in the absence of the MCM loader Cdc6p. This is in accordance with in vivo data and suggests that the system will be useful to elucidate in vivo mechanisms of replication. I have also explored the kinetics of pre-RC assembly using different nucleotides and competitor ARSl DNA. Different steps in pre-RC assembly have different nucleotide requirements and the loading of substantial levels of the MCM complex requires the hydrolysis of ATP. Loaded MCM complexes are stable on DNA, even in the presence of competitor ARS1 plasmid. I have further investigated the nucleotide requirements using mutants of Cdc6p with changes in an ATP interaction region. Recombinant Cdc6p was produced in E. coli and purified by means of a poly-histidine tag. Cdc6p or mutant cdc6p was also expressed as a second copy in yeast cells and extracts were produced containing these proteins. Experiments with rCdc6p or the yeast extracts produced comparable results. I have successfully established in vitro loading of pre-replicative complexes at ARS 1 origins on plasmid DNA and begun to investigate the requirements of this system.


The dimensions, shape, and color of wheat grain are important in plant breeding, although their manual measurement is difficult and time-consuming. While it is true that digital image analysis (DIA) with specific software has made it easier, some are semiautomatic, exclude color, and require the digitization of individual grains. The goal of this study was to compare the precision, accuracy, and efficiency of MacGran-IJ versus SmartGrain, GrainScan, and manual caliper measurement. The morphological characteristics of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grains were measured using DIA with MacGran-IJ, including color (in RGB and CIELab color spaces), size (mm2), lateral length (LLG, mm), ventral length (VLG, mm), lateral (LWG, mm) and ventral (VWG, mm) width, perimeter (mm), and circularity. Length, LWG, and VWG were measured with a digital caliper. The time (s) taken in each method was recorded. Size, LLG, VLG, and VWG were the same between methods for both species, but the LWG measurement obtained with vernier showed differences between the three programs (p ≤ 0.01), as well as low accuracy and precision. VWG obtained manually had R2 values of 0.92, 0.91, and 0.89 (p ≤ 0.01) for MacGran-IJ, SmartGrain, and GrainScan, respectively. The ventral and lateral color red of wheat grain differed between MacGran-IJ and GrainScan; the lateral part of the bread wheat grain showed differences for red, green, and blue (p ≤ 0.05). DIA in CIELab color required 11.57 s, and in RGB it needed 7.25 s (p ≤ 0.01). Manual measurement of 50 wheat grains required 1528.07 s, whereas SmartGrain took 101.84 s, MacGran-IJ 45.4 s, and GrainScan 54.11 s (H = 36.59, p ≤ 0.01). MacGran-IJ is an automated, simple, and efficient method for accurately measuring the size, length, and width of wheat grains using digitized images


Examining the available databases and existing tourism organizations can conclude that appear studies on accidents and their relationship with other variables. But in our case we want to assess this relationship in the performance of the hotel in relation to lower the accident rate. The Industrial Safety studies analyzing this accident causes (why they happen), their sources (committed activities), their agents (participants work means), its type (how the events occur or develop), all in order to develop prevention. In our case, as accidents happen because people commit wrongful acts or because the equipment, tools, machinery or workplaces are not in proper conditions, the preventive point of view we analyze through the incidence of workplace accidents hotel subsector. The crash occurs because there is a risk, so that adequate control of it would avoid despite individual factors. Absenteeism or absence from work was taken into account first by Dubois in 1977, as he realized the time lost in the nineteenth...


OBJECTIVE
Identifying patients who are medication nonpersistent (fail to refill in a timely manner) is important for healthcare operations and research. However, consistent methods to detect nonpersistence using electronic pharmacy records are presently lacking. We developed and validated a nonpersistence algorithm for chronically used medications.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Refill patterns of adult diabetes patients (n = 14,349) prescribed cardiometabolic therapies were studied. We evaluated various grace periods (30-300 days) to identify medication nonpersistence, which is defined as a gap between refills that exceeds a threshold equal to the last days' supply dispensed plus a grace period plus days of stockpiled medication. Since data on medication stockpiles are typically unavailable for ongoing users, we compared nonpersistence to rates calculated using algorithms that ignored stockpiles.

RESULTS
When using grace periods equal to or greater than the number of days' supply dispensed (i.e., at least 100 days), this novel algorithm for medication nonpersistence gave consistent results whether or not it accounted for days of stockpiled medication. The agreement (Kappa coefficients) between nonpersistence rates using algorithms with versus without stockpiling improved with longer grace periods and ranged from 0.63 (for 30 days) to 0.98 (for a 300-day grace period).

CONCLUSIONS
Our method has utility for health care operations and research in prevalent (ongoing) and new user cohorts. The algorithm detects a subset of patients with inadequate medication-taking behavior not identified as primary nonadherent or secondary nonadherent. Healthcare systems can most comprehensively identify patients with short- or long-term medication underutilization by identifying primary nonadherence, secondary nonadherence, and nonpersistence.


Firms often cooperate explicitly through activities such as research joint ventures, while competing in other markets. Cooperation in research and development can allow firms to internalize the external benefits of knowledge creation and increase the returns from research and development (R&D) expenditures. Such cooperation may spill over to facilitate collusion in the market, however, potentially lowering welfare and efficiency. This paper uses a laboratory experiment to examine if sellers successfully coordinate to fund a joint research project to reduce their costs, and how this collaboration affects their pricing behavior. The experiment includes control treatments with separate R&D cooperation and markets. Our results show that although participants usually cooperate when given an opportunity, cooperation is observed less frequently when they also compete in the market. Communication improves cooperation in all environments, particularly when the market is present. Nevertheless, the data provide no evidence of seller collusion in the market.


The complement system is old, yet it may still have something new to teach us. For many years, research has existed which shows that C3d, in addition to its established role as an adjuvant, could have an immunosuppressive activity. Being true, it suggests that a common mechanism may be used both by organisms and by their pathogens to prevent unwanted immune responses.


Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is a highly infectious and fatal pneumonia-type disease that poses a great threat to the public safety of society. A fast and efficient method for screening COVID19-positive patients is essential. At present, the main detection methods are nucleic acid detection of manual diagnosis and medical imaging (CT image/X-ray image), both of which take a long time to obtain the diagnosis result. This paper discusses the common processing methods for the problem of insufficient medical image data. Then, transfer learning and convolutional neural network were used to construct the screening and diagnosis model of COVID-19, and different migration models were analyzed and compared to select a better pre-training model, which was trained and analyzed under small data sets. Finally, it analyzes and discusses how to train a highly reliable model to quickly help doctors provide advice in the critical moment of epidemic prevention and control when only a small sample data set is available.


In current society, degenerative disc disease is a very common situation. It can cause nerve root compression, lumbar spinal stenosis, and lumbar instability. In order to relief patients' symptom, decompression and spinal fusion surgery were common practices by surgeons. In recent years, the concept of interspinous process Coflex device of non-fusion surgery is emerging to improve the complication of decompression surgery. The Coflex-F device is a minimally invasive lumbar fusion device that provides significant segmental stability with all the advantages of an interspinous implant. It can alternative to traditions pedicle screw fixation as an adjunct to spinal fusion. This study was divided into three researches with purposes to investigate the biomechanical behavior between the Coflex and Coflex-F devices using finite element model of the L1-L5 lumbar spine. The first research was to investigate the biomechanical differences between the Coflex and Coflex-F implanted into the L3-L4 segment in non-fusion surgery. The second was to investigate the biomechanical characteristics of TLIF and ALIF spinal fusion combined with Coflex-F and with pedicle screw fixation implanted into the L3-L4 segment in fusion surgery. The third was to investigate the biomechanical characteristics of TLIF combined with Coflex-F and with unilateral pedicle screw fixation and translaminar facet screw fixation implanted into the L3-L4 segment in minimally invasive lumbar fusion. A 400 N follower load and a 10 N-m moment were applied to the intact model to mimic physiological motions. The other implanted models to be compared with the intact model were also subjected to 400 N follower load and moments that produced overall motions equal to those of the above intact model (i.e. the hybrid test method). The result of the first research showed that, the Coflex implantation can provide stability in extension (ROM decreased 70%), lateral bending (ROM decreased 8%), and axial rotation (ROM decreased 4.3 %) at the surgical segment, and retain flexible in flexion (ROM increased 8%). It had no influence at adjacent segments except during extension (ROM increased 20~24%). The Coflex device can restraint extension motion, and provide more space for foramen and spinal canal. Therefore, The Coflex device may improve or relieve the stenosis. In addition, the Coflex-F implantation can provide stability in all motions, especially in flexion (ROM decreased 52%). It had influence at adjacent segments during flexion (ROM increased 17~18%) and extension (ROM increased 20~24%). Therefore, the Coflex-F device can be used to treat stenosis combined with mild degenerative disc disease. The result of the second research showed that, the ALIF combined with Coflex-F can provide more stability. The result of the third research showed that, the TLIF combined with Coflex-F cannot provide sufficient stability.


Declining fertility in both the developed and developing world has led to large and potentially welfare-enhancing changes in women's labor supply, education and investment in children in recent decades. However, it has been widely noted that the pace of this decline has stalled even while access to contraception has continued to expand, raising the question of whether increasing access to contraception is sufficient to lead to declining fertility. This paper provides evidence about the relationship between contraceptive access and fertility from a randomized controlled trial in Lusaka, Zambia, in which women of child-bearing age were provided with a voucher for free and immediate access to long-acting forms of contraception; this voucher was provided either to the woman individually, or the woman jointly with her spouse. Results show that there is a significant increase in contraceptive use, and a particularly large increase in experimentation with new contraceptive methods, but no decline in births in the shortor long-term compared to a control group who did not receive increased access to contraceptives.


The teaching of biblical inspiration is one of the basic understandings of the Bible in the Catholic Church. Reading and using the Bible does not guarantee the correct understanding of biblical inspiration. Therefore, this article intends to examine the understanding of biblical inspiration by the Christians and the church's teaching in the documents Dei Verbum and The Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scriptures. This study uses qualitative method with a field study and literature study. Through this study, an understanding was obtained that the Christians have not understood the teaching of biblical inspiration correctly based on the church's teaching, where inspiration signifies the cooperation between God and humans in writing the Scriptures. Thus the church needs to make a pastoral service to explain the church's teaching about biblical inspiration correctly.


Repaglinide is a commonly used antidiabetic drug to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, it does not always support a suitable dose regimen due to its low bioavailability and half-life. The purpose of this study was to develop and analyze repaglinide loaded control release liposomes to provide suitable dosage form to treat diabetes. Repaglinide loaded liposomes were prepared by modified ether injection method. According to the USP-II paddle method, in vitro dissolution studies of liposomes were performed for 8 hours in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). The stability study was executed according to ICH guidelines under three different environmental conditions for 14 days. Additionally, the presence and size of liposomal vesicles was confirmed by microscopic observation. The formulations containing phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol at a molar ratio of 1:0.4 revealed the highest drug entrapment efficiency of 73.1% with an optimum stirring rate of 300 RPM. The pegylated liposomes (PEG400/1500) prolonged the drug loading capacity for the formulations compared to non-pegylated liposomes. On the contrary, the addition of nigella oil caused a decrease in entrapment efficiencies of the liposomes. Most of the formulations followed zero order kinetic model and supper class II release mechanism. In vitro dissolution showed controlled release pattern of the liposomes and maximum drug release after 8 hours was 92.64%. Additionally, all the liposomal formulations were found to be more stable at refrigeration temperature (5 ± 2ºC) where pegylated liposomes were most stable over 14 days at three different environmental conditions. Visual observation under an optical microscope, the vesicular structure of liposomes was confirmed.
Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 22(1): 89-96, 2023 (June)


Schwannoma is a benign slow growing nerve sheath tumor which generally originates from cranial or spinal nerve roots. Peripheral nerve localisations are scarce. We report the case of a 76-year man who presented with a laterosternal chest wall mass located in the fourth intercostal space. Diagnosis of intercostal benign schwannoma was suggested by medical imaging and confirmed histologicolly upon surgical removal. Chest wall solitary schwannoma is exceptional. Our case is still more interesting by its peripheral localisation and late occurence following a chest trauma.


Global warming, paired with eutrophication processes, is shifting phytoplankton communities towards the dominance of bloom-forming and potentially toxic cyanobacteria. The ecosystems of shallow lakes are especially vulnerable to these changes. Traditional monitoring via microscopy is not able to quantify the dynamics of toxin-producing cyanobacteria on a proper spatio-temporal scale. Molecular tools are highly sensitive and can be useful as an early warning tool for lake managers. We quantified the potential microcystin (MC) producers in Lake Peipsi using microscopy and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and analysed the relationship between the abundance of the mcyE genes, MC concentration, MC variants and toxin quota per mcyE gene. We also linked environmental factors to the cyanobacteria community composition. In Lake Peipsi, we found rather moderate MC concentrations, but microcystins and microcystin-producing cyanobacteria were widespread across the lake. Nitrate (NO3−) was a main driver behind the cyanobacterial community at the beginning of the growing season, while in late summer it was primarily associated with the soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentration. A positive relationship was found between the MC quota per mcyE gene and water temperature. The most abundant variant—MC-RR—was associated with MC quota per mcyE gene, while other MC variants did not show any significant impact.


Principal cells of the hippocampus and of its only cortical input region, the entorhinal cortex exhibit place specific activity in the freely moving rat. While entorhinal cells have widely tuned place fields, hippocampal place fields are more localized and determine not only the rate but also the timing of place cell spikes. Several models have successfully attempted to explain this fine tuning making use of intrahippocampal attractor network dynamics provided by the recurrent collaterals of hippocampal area CA3. Recent experimental evidence shows that CA1 place cells preserve their tuning curves even in the absence of input from CA3. We propose a model in which entorhinal and hippocampal pyramidal cell populations are only connected via feedforward connections. Synaptic transmission in our system is gated by a class of interneurons inhibiting specifically the entorhino-hippocampal pathway. Theta rhythm modulates the activity of each component. Our results show that rhythmic shunting inhibition endows entorhinal cells with a novel type of temporal code conveyed by the phase jitter of individual spikes. This converts coarsely tuned place-specific activity in the entorhinal cortex to velocity-dependent postsynaptic excitation and, thus, provides hippocampal place cells with an input that has recently been proposed to account for their rate and phase coded firing. Hippocampal place fields are generated through this mechanism and also shown to be robust against variations in the level of tonic inhibition.


The selection of weak classifiers is critical to the success of boosting techniques. Poor weak classifiers do not perform better than random guess, thus cannot help decrease the training error during the boosting process. Therefore, when constructing the weak classifier pool, we prefer the quality rather than the quantity of the weak classifiers. In this paper, we present a data mining-driven approach to discovering compositional features from a given and possibly small feature pool. Compared with individual features (e.g. weak decision stumps) which are of limited discriminative ability, the mined compositional features have guaranteed power in terms of the descriptive and discriminative abilities, as well as bounded training error. To cope with the combinatorial cost of discovering compositional features, we apply data mining methods (frequent itemset mining) to efficiently find qualified compositional features of any possible order. These weak classifiers are further combined through a multi-class AdaBoost method for final multi-class classification. Experiments on a challenging 10-class event recognition problem show that boosting compositional features can lead to faster decrease of training error and significantly higher accuracy compared to conventional boosting decision stumps.


The $3000 of funding provided by this grant supported a well-attended (150 people) symposium at the annual Radiation Research Society meeting in Denver, Colorado, on October 19, 2005. The symposium was entitled, ''Chemistry and Biology of Radical-mediated Deoxyribose Oxidation in DNA'', and it focused on the chemistry of damage to deoxyribose caused by radiation and other oxidants, and the role of this chemistry in the biological consequences and responses of cells to chemical and physical insults. The talks highlighted the emerging evidence for a major role for deoxyribose oxidation in the toxic effects of ionizing radiation.


In Indonesia, waste is still a very serious problem. Garbage causes bad odors, air pollution, disease, and even flooding. Whenever and wherever each individual produces waste, waste can come from households and industries which have various types and forms. Public awareness to dispose of trash in the right place tends to be very lacking, laziness is increasingly formed when dustbins are not widely available, very dirty, the open and close system is still manual so that the hands can easily catch bacteria when interacting with the trash. This study aims to start from a small scope, namely implementing smart dustbins for the campus environment and educating the campus community so that their interest in disposing of garbage in the right place is higher. The recommended smart dustbin system has various types, namely mini-smart dustbin and super-smart dustbin. The waterfall method is used for the process of designing and implementing the system. Methods of data collection using observation, interviews, literature study, and questionnaires. The test results state that the smart dustbin system can function as expected. A total of 50 respondents were involved in evaluating the application of smart dustbin, with the result of an average score of 87.80% who stated strongly agree that the existence of this smart dustbin provides benefits and attracts interest in awareness of throwing garbage in the right place. Furthermore, it is recommended to improve the system and better cooperation by all campus communities which are a shared responsibility.


Recently, most research has been conducted to minimize damage from earthquakes by establishing an early warning system through the analysis of short seismic waves. In particular, deep learning is widely used as it allows to learn complex patterns for earthquake detection from seismic data without complex physical knowledge. In this letter, we propose an improved ConvNetQuake for earthquake event classification by adding learnable features related to the maximum amplitude of the seismic waveform. Since the maximum amplitude is a major factor representing the characteristics of an earthquake, we presented a deep learning structure that can apply this factor in the process of determining whether an earthquake occurs. In the proposed structure, the maximum amplitude is transformed into a feature learned through multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and then concatenates with features extracted through a convolutional neural network (CNN). On the STanford EArthquake Dataset (STEAD) dataset, the proposed method significantly increases the performance for an earthquake event classification than the previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) method by only adding a few parameters.


The bark beetle (Ips typographus) disturbance represents serious environmental and economic issue and presents a major challenge for forest management. A timely detection of bark beetle infestation is therefore necessary to reduce losses. Besides wood production, a bark beetle outbreak affects the forest ecosystem in many other ways including the water cycle, nutrient cycle, or carbon fixation. On that account, (not just) European temperate coniferous forests may become endangered ecosystems. Our study was performed in the unmanaged zone of the Krkonoše Mountains National Park in the northern part of the Czech Republic where the natural spreading of bark beetle is slow and, therefore, allow us to continuously monitor the infested trees that are, in contrast to managed forests, not being removed. The aim of this work is to evaluate possibilities of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-mounted low-cost RGB and modified near-infrared sensors for detection of different stages of infested trees at the individual level, using a retrospective time series for recognition of still green but already infested trees (so-called green attack). A mosaic was created from the UAV imagery, radiometrically calibrated for surface reflectance, and five vegetation indices were calculated; the reference data about the stage of bark beetle infestation was obtained through a combination of field survey and visual interpretation of an orthomosaic. The differences of vegetation indices between infested and healthy trees over four time points were statistically evaluated and classified using the Maximum Likelihood classifier. Achieved results confirm our assumptions that it is possible to use a low-cost UAV-based sensor for detection of various stages of bark beetle infestation across seasons; with increasing time after infection, distinguishing infested trees from healthy ones grows easier. The best performance was achieved by the Greenness Index with overall accuracy of 78%–96% across the time periods. The performance of the indices based on near-infrared band was lower.


New rhenium(
 I) bipyridyl amide crown ether receptors are prepared and shown to complex K
 +Cl
 – ion pairs in which crown ether complexation of the potassium cation co-operates in the binding of chloride anion.


In this study, an advanced Kinect sensor was adopted to acquire infrared radiation (IR) images for liveness detection. The proposed liveness detection method based on infrared radiation (IR) images can deal with face spoofs. Face pictures were acquired by a Kinect camera and converted into IR images. Feature extraction and classification were carried out by a deep neural network to distinguish between real individuals and face spoofs. IR images collected by the Kinect camera have depth information. Therefore, the IR pixels from live images have an evident hierarchical structure, while those from photos or videos have no evident hierarchical feature. Accordingly, two types of IR images were learned through the deep network to realize the identification of whether images were from live individuals. In comparison with other liveness detection cross-databases, our recognition accuracy was 99.8% and better than other algorithms. FaceNet is a face recognition model, and it is robust to occlusion, blur, illumination, and steering. We combined the liveness detection and FaceNet model for identity authentication. For improving the application of the authentication approach, we proposed two improved ways to run the FaceNet model. Experimental results showed that the combination of the proposed liveness detection and improved face recognition had a good recognition effect and can be used for identity authentication.


The article examines the question of whether memory of the distant past can matter today by drawing on a case study of contemporary British memory and myths of the Norman Conquest. The two main sources of data are a corpus of newspaper articles in which the Conquest is referred to, and a quantitative survey of the population of the United Kingdom. In a preliminary discussion myths of the Norman Conquest are described, and differences between recent and distant memory of a significant event are considered. Then the question of intercultural relations and distant memory is examined, in particular whether British memory of the Norman Conquest has an impact on international and intra-national relations today as expressed in attitudes towards the French, and towards foreigners in Britain. It is concluded that memory of past iconic events does have an impact, and that characteristics of distant memory such as multiple remediation, multi-directionality and affective mobility are important in explaining the role and influence of memory of the distant past regarding intercultural relations today.


The high intensity of X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) can damage solution-phase samples on every scale, ranging from the molecular or electronic structure of a sample to the macroscopic structure of a liquid microjet. By using a large surface area liquid sheet microjet as a sample target instead of a standard cylindrical microjet, the incident X-ray spot size can be increased such that the incident intensity falls below the damage threshold. This capability is becoming particularly important for high repetition rate XFELs, where destroying a target with each pulse would require prohibitively large volumes of sample. We present here a study of microfluidic liquid sheet dimensions as a function of liquid flow rate. Sheet lengths, widths and thickness gradients are shown for three styles of nozzles fabricated from isotropically etched glass. In-vacuum operation and sample recirculation using these nozzles is demonstrated. The effects of intense XFEL pulses on the structure of a liquid sheet are also briefly examined.


Background: The altered status of some essential trace elements and antioxidant minerals which observed in diabetic patients could have deleterious influences on the health of diabetics. Objectives: To estimate serum levels of Copper, Zinc and Cu/Zn ratio in type 1, type 2 diabetics and healthy subjects. Patients & Method: A case control designed study was carried out at the National Diabetes Center (NDC) / Al-Mustansirya University; on a total of 94 participants formed of 32 type 1 diabetics, 32 type 2 diabetics and 30 healthy control participants. Data collected about age and BMI; and blood samples examined for FPG, HbA1C and participants' samples of serum were examined for S.Cu, S.Zn by using atomic absorption technique and Cu/Zn ratio was calculated. Results: The mean FPG of type 1 and type 2 diabetics and BMI of type 2 diabetics show statistically significant difference from control group. Mean serum Copper of type 1 and type 2 diabetic's show statistically significant difference from control group. Simple linear correlation and regression analysis of the FPG level shows strong positive correlation to the Cu and Cu/Zn values in all study groups; and negative correlation to the Zn values in all study groups. Also, HbA1c shows strong positive correlation to the Cu and Cu/Zn values among type 1 diabetics and control groups; and negative correlation to the Zn values among type 1 diabetics and control groups. BMI and duration of diabetes shows no correlation with the Cu, Zn and Cu/Zn values among all the study groups. Conclusions: Serum Copper, Cu/Zn ratio increase significantly more than healthy control subjects; while serum Zinc shows insignificantly reduced less than healthy control participants, both in type 1and 2 diabetes. Simple linear correlation and regression model analysis shows strong positive correlation of serum Copper and Cu/Zn ratio as well as strong negative correlation of Zinc toward the FPG values in all studied groups; furthermore, toward HbA1c in type 1 diabetes and control group.


In monogenic disorders, the functional evaluation of rare, unclassified variants helps to assess their pathogenic relevance and can improve differential diagnosis and predictive testing. We characterized six rare APC variants in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis at the mRNA level. APC variants c.531 + 5G>C and c.532-8G>A in intron 4, c.1409-2_1409delAGG in intron 10, c.1548G>A in exon 11, and a large duplication of exons 10 and 11 result in a premature stop codon attributable to aberrant transcripts whereas the variant c.1742A>G leads to the in-frame deletion of exon 13 and results in the removal of a functional motif. Mutation c.1548G>A was detected in the index patient but not in his affected father, suggesting mutational mosaicism. A literature review shows that most of the rare APC variants detected by routine diagnostics and further analyzed at the transcript level were evaluated as pathogenic. The majority of rare APC variants, particularly those located close to exon-intron boundaries, could be classified as pathogenic because of aberrant splicing. Our study shows that the characterization of rare variants at the mRNA level is crucial for the evaluation of pathogenicity and underlying mutational mechanisms, and could lead to better treatment modalities.


The human brain is an insulin-sensitive organ that modulates whole-body glucose metabolism and adiposity. In case of brain insulin resistance, this regulation is disturbed. In the periphery, insulin sensitivity varies along the menstrual cycle, while the effects on brain insulin action are still unknown. We here investigated the impact of menstrual cycle on brain insulin sensitivity of the human hypothalamus and on brain-derived modulation of peripheral metabolism.
 In 26 naturally cycling women (age 19-29 years, BMI 18-24 kg/m2), brain insulin action was assessed in both the follicular and the luteal phase using nasal application of 160 U insulin. In fifteen women, we assessed hypothalamic insulin responsiveness by functional MRI combined with nasal insulin. In eleven women, brain-derived modulation of peripheral insulin sensitivity was studied by hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamps combined with insulin vs placebo spray.
 Only in the follicular phase, nasal insulin significantly decreased hypothalamic blood flow (p=0.02), indicating proper brain insulin action. In the luteal phase, insulin induced no such effect (p=0.6).
 During hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamps in the follicular phase, more glucose had to be infused after insulin compared to placebo spray. This difference remained significant after adjustment for circulating glucose and insulin (p<0.0001), which was not the case in the luteal phase (p=0.1). High estradiol/progesterone ratio, as present during the follicular phase, was linked to a stronger effect of insulin spray on glucose infusion rates than placebo.
 Brain insulin sensitivity is a regulated process that can rapidly adapt to changing physiologic requirements, as through the menstrual cycle. In the luteal phase, we detected hypothalamic insulin resistance, which likely contributed to the lacking modulation of peripheral insulin sensitivity through brain insulin delivery. Thus, brain insulin resistance could contribute to whole-body insulin resistance in the luteal phase.

 J.Hummel: None. M.Roden: Advisory Panel; Eli Lilly and Company, Consultant; TARGET PharmaSolutions, Inc., Research Support; Boehringer-Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Sanofi. H.Häring: None. A.Fritsche: Advisory Panel; Novo Nordisk, Lilly, Sanofi, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Speaker's Bureau; AstraZeneca, SYNLAB Holding Deutschland GmbH. A.Peter: None. R.Wagner: Advisory Panel; Daiichi Sankyo, Speaker's Bureau; Novo Nordisk, Sanofi. S.Kullmann: None. M.Heni: Advisory Panel; Boehringer-Ingelheim, Sanofi, Research Support; Boehringer Ingelheim Inc., Speaker's Bureau; Lilly, Bayer Inc., Sanofi, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Amryt Pharma Plc. C.Benkendorff: None. L.Fritsche: None. K.Prystupa: Other Relationship; Berlin-Chemie AG. A.Vosseler: None. S.Gancheva: Consultant; Novo Nordisk, Bayer Inc. S.Trenkamp: None. A.L.Birkenfeld: None. H.Preissl: None.

 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research


This report summarizes the results of a literature search conducted to determine engineering applications of various waste and recycled materials (WRMs). The results of a material availability and location survey conducted to determine the availability of WRMs within the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are also presented. Information of interest included the location, type, and quantity of WRMs present. Technical laboratory studies that have been used in the past to evaluate WRMs fail to take into account the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of using these materials. To overcome this problem, a WRM evaluation method was developed that considers the socioeconomic and environmental benefits in addition to the technical and economic aspects when evaluating WRMs for various engineering applications. An initial screening method was also incorporated to screen out materials having low or no utilization potential. Only those materials showing high potential will be subjected to extensive technical studies.


Spiking neural networks (SNNs) have recently demonstrated outstanding performance in a variety of high-level tasks, such as image classification. However, advancements in the field of low-level assignments, such as image reconstruction, are rare. This may be due to the lack of promising image encoding techniques and corresponding neuromorphic devices designed specifically for SNN-based low-level vision problems. This paper begins by proposing a simple yet effective undistorted weighted-encoding-decoding technique, which primarily consists of an Undistorted Weighted-Encoding (UWE) and an Undistorted Weighted-Decoding (UWD). The former aims to convert a gray image into spike sequences for effective SNN learning, while the latter converts spike sequences back into images. Then, we design a new SNN training strategy, known as Independent-Temporal Backpropagation (ITBP) to avoid complex loss propagation in spatial and temporal dimensions, and experiments show that ITBP is superior to Spatio-Temporal Backpropagation (STBP). Finally, a so-called Virtual Temporal SNN (VTSNN) is formulated by incorporating the above-mentioned approaches into U-net network architecture, fully utilizing the potent multiscale representation capability. Experimental results on several commonly used datasets such as MNIST, F-MNIST, and CIFAR10 demonstrate that the proposed method produces competitive noise-removal performance extremely which is superior to the existing work. Compared to ANN with the same architecture, VTSNN has a greater chance of achieving superiority while consuming ~1/274 of the energy. Specifically, using the given encoding-decoding strategy, a simple neuromorphic circuit could be easily constructed to maximize this low-carbon strategy.