Abstract The physics of two-dimensional (2D) materials is always intriguing in their own right. For all of these elemental 2D materials, a generic characteristic feature is that all the atoms of the materials are exposed on the surface, and thus tuning the structure and physical properties by surface treatments becomes very easy and straightforward. The discovery of graphene have fostered intensive research interest in the field of graphene like 2D materials such as silicene and germanene (hexagonal network of silicon and germanium, respectively). In contrast to the planar graphene lattice, the silicene and germanene honeycomb lattice is slightly buckled and composed of two vertically displaced sublattices.The magnetic properties were studied by introducing mono- and di-vacancy (DV), as well as by doping phosphorus and aluminium into the pristine silicene. It is observed that there is no magnetism in the mono-vacancy system, while there is large significant magnetic moment present for the DV system. The optical anisotropy of four differently shaped silicene nanodisks has revealed that diamond-shaped (DS) silicene nanodisk possesses highest static dielectric constant having no zero-energy states. The study of optical properties in silicene nanosheet network doped by aluminium (Al), phosphorus (P) and aluminium-phosphorus (Al-P) atoms has revealed that unlike graphene, no new electron energy loss spectra (EELS) peak occurs irrespective of doping type for parallel polarization. Tetragonal graphene (T-graphene) having non-equivalent (two kinds) bonds and non-honeycomb structure shows Dirac-like fermions and high Fermi velocity. The higher stability, large dipole moment along with high-intensity Raman active modes are observed in N-doped T-graphene. All these theoretical results may shed light on device fabrication in nano-optoelectronic technology and material characterization techniques in T-graphene, doped silicene, and germanene.


According to conventional wisdom, family ownership, which signals a lack of social capital and trust in an economy, may impede innovation. This argument, however, fails to recognize that modern family firms can benefit from capitalist institutions that promote innovation. Using a comprehensive sample of U.S. family-owned public firms and patents for the period from 1998 to 2010, we show that family ownership plays multiple roles in promoting innovation and its influence can be attributed to reduced financial constraints, a greater commitment to long-term value, and improved corporate governance. Causality is confirmed through an instrumental variable analysis, a difference-in-difference analysis based on an exogenous regulatory shock and a matched sample analysis.


We describe a new species of Rhadinella from the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero, Mexico, a region where the genus was previously unknown. This diminutive species is a member of a group of snakes previously allocated in the Rhadinaea godmani group, and more recently transferred to the genus Rhadinella. These snakes may have conspicuous dark longitudinal striping on a pale brown to orange background or may have dark brown to blackish dorsal ground coloration, which mostly or completely obfuscates a pattern of longitudinal striping. The new species is mostly dark with barely discernible slightly paler or darker striping (depending on how striping is interpreted). The closest relative of the new species, on the basis of morphological similarities and biogeography, appears to be Rhadinella donaji which occurs to the east in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Oaxaca about 275 km from the type-locality of the new species.


In this work, Sn species are deposited onto the surface of a Bi2O3 material by a facile disproportionated reaction and the prepared catalyst shows a superior electrocatalytic performance towards CO2 reduction. The deposition of Sn atoms can donate electrons to the Bi2O3 material and increase its electrical conductivity. The SnM-Bi2O3 catalyst with the optimal Sn content delivers a high faradaic efficiency of 95.8% at -1.0 V for formate production. In addition, the partial current density of formate can reach 41.8 mA cm-2. The SnM-Bi2O3 catalyst also exhibits superior stability towards long-term electrolysis. The modification of Sn species not only helps to stabilize the reaction intermediate but also inhibits the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) pathway, achieving the synergetic enhancement of catalytic activity.


Processing and reviewing nightly test execution failure logs for large industrial systems is a tedious activity. Furthermore, multiple failures might share one root/common cause during test execution sessions, and the review might therefore require redundant efforts. This paper presents the LogGrouper approach for automated grouping of failure logs to aid root/common cause analysis and for enabling the processing of each log group as a batch. LogGrouper uses state-of-art natural language processing and clustering approaches to achieve meaningful log grouping. The approach is evaluated in an industrial setting in both a qualitative and quantitative manner. Results show that LogGrouper produces good quality groupings in terms of our two evaluation metrics (Silhouette Coefficient and Calinski-Harabasz Index) for clustering quality. The qualitative evaluation shows that experts perceive the groups as useful, and the groups are seen as an initial pointer for root cause analysis and failure assignment.


Abstract. The violation of traffic rules is, nowadays, the most important cause of accidents. Passing an intersection or a red light can be fatal for a driver and lead to serious damage. In fact, when the driver encounters a signal change from green to yellow, he or she is required to make a decision to stop or to go based on many factors. Making the wrong decision will result in a red-light violation or an abrupt stop at the intersection. Researchers typically focus on the connection between driving behavior and decision-making because of its importance in controlling aggressive drivers' behavior. This work aims to compare the potential of machine learning techniques to classify driver behavior at intersections and follows a data preparation process to expect interesting performance results. A comparative study was therefore conducted to explore the various data source and algorithms employed to classify driver behaviors at intersections and to address the most important techniques used. Two experiments were also developed in this paper. The first experience attempts to classify driver behavior in intersections into (1) stopping and (2) going at intersections. The second experience was based on stopping observations when approaching intersections. We classified these drivers into two categories: those who stop beyond the line (1) are considered dangerous or unsafe stops, and those who stop before the line (2) are considered safe stops. As a result, XBboost archive the best performance with 92.19% of accuracy and 94.38% of precision in the first experience and RF gives the best performance in the second experience with an accuracy of 99.38%.


This report presents the development of a testing protocol to measure the potential for stress cracking of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geogrids used for soil reinforcement. The developed data demonstrate that local stress cracking in the unoriented transverse node of HDPE geogrids can occur as a result of construction-induced damage. Undamaged geogrids are not prone to stress cracking at load levels below their 100-year limiting creep load.


The importance of mother tongue(s) (also referred to as vernaculars or indigenous languages or African languages) in the cognitive, linguistic, personal and educational development of children cannot be overemphasized. Indeed it is out of this recognition that the UNESCO declared 2006, the Year of African Languages. In spite of this, the language policy in Kenya before and after independence has been tilted in favour of English and to some extent Kiswahili, at the expense of mother tongue(s).The big question posed in this paper is: When will the mother tongue(s) in Kenya take their rightful position in the education system? This paper aims at analysing the language policy as far as mother tongue education (MTE) is concerned in Kenya within an historical perspective. Of particular concern is the significance of mother tongue in the school system, the wider community and the nation.The paper addresses some of the persistent problems and challenges that hinder the teaching of indigenous languages in Kenya. Suggestions of possible strategies that can be used to revitalize mother tongue education in Kenya are highlighted.


Episodic memory formation relies on at least two distinct capabilities: 1) our ability to process a vast amount of sensory information, and 2) our ability to bind these sensory representations together to form a coherent memory. The first process is thought to rely on a reduction in neocortical alpha/beta power, while the second is thought to be supported by hippocampal theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling. However, most studies investigating human episodic memory use paradigms where the two cognitive capabilities overlap. As such, empirical support for the distinction of the two associated neural phenomena is lacking. Here, we addressed this by asking seventeen human participants (11 female, 6 male) to complete a sequence-learning paradigm that temporally separated information representation from mnemonic binding, while MEG recordings were acquired. We found that a decrease in neocortical alpha/beta power during the perception of the sequence correlated with enhanced memory performance. Similar power decreases during mnemonic binding, however, had no bearing on memory formation. In contrast, an increase in hippocampal theta/gamma phase-amplitude coupling during mnemonic binding correlated with enhanced memory performance, but similar coupling during sequence perception bared no relation to later memory performance. These results demonstrate that alpha/beta power decreases and hippocampal theta/gamma phase-amplitude coupling represent two temporally dissociable processes in episodic memory, with the former relating to information representation while the latter relates to mnemonic binding.


Heart failure due to coronary artery disease is a major public health problem. Medical treatment ameliorates symptoms and prognosis, although mortality remains high. Heart failure occurs when a sizeable number of myocytes do not contract. This may be due to irreversible myocyte loss (infarct) and/or dysfunctional but viable myocytes (hibernating), which can resume function following coronary artery bypass surgery. The presence of hibernating myocardium can be predicted by noninvasive nuclear imaging using both single photon (SPECT) and positron emission tomography, and also by stress echocardiography. A number of uncontrolled studies have demonstrated a promising role for coronary artery bypass surgery in patients with heart failure in whom a substantial amount of hibernating myocardium is present. These findings, particularly the magnitude of the benefits reported, justify the need for a randomized trial in this patient population.


The effectiveness of excision of pre-ulcerative Buruli lesions in field situations was assessed in a prospective study in an endemic focus in rural Ghana. All 50 patients, clinically diagnosed as having pre-ulcerative Buruli lesions, had their lesions excised followed by primary suturing. The patients were then followed up until the wound healed and thereafter for a year or until recurrence. The median duration for complete healing after excision was 31.5 days while the 1-year recurrence rate was 16%. None of the patients had any form of deformity after healing in contrast with the usual consequences of other forms of treatment. Our findings suggest that excision of pre-ulcerative Buruli lesions is effective in preventing deformities but less so for preventing recurrence of lesion.


Abstract—The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the laser and partial vibration stimulation on the mice tibia with morphological characteristics. Twenty female C57BL/6 mice (12 weeks old) were used for the experiment. The study was carried out on four groups of animals each consisting of five mice. Four groups of mice were ovariectomized. Animals were scanned at 0 and 2 weeks after ovariectomy by using micro computed tomography to estimate morphological characteristics of tibial trabecular bone. Morphological analysis showed that structural parameters of multi-stimuli group appear significantly better phase in BV/TV, BS/BV, Tb.Th, Tb.N, Tb.Sp, and Tb.pf than single stimulation groups. However, single stimulation groups didn't show significant effect on tibia with Sham group. This study suggests that multi-stimuli may restrain the change as the degenerate phase on osteoporosis in the mice tibia.


The issue of responsibility for health activities is increasingly serious and urgent, also because of the "countermeasures" that result in diagnostic and therapeutic practices now known in the category of defensive medicine. The regulatory framework, after the law so called "Balduzzi" who proposed to tackle the problem, has recently  found new legislation in the law so called "Gelli Bianco", to which this paper is intended, in which - moving from the illustration of the main areas of intervention of the reform - it is intended to frame the new provisions in a systematic context. In particular, the effort of the legislative intervention, which sets itself the clear objective of achieving a reconciliation between the needs of protecting the patient and the guarantee of serenity and certainty of the health worker, is evaluated as a paradigm of a tendency towards accentuation support, if not replacement, of the responsibility of the healthcare facility compared to that of the individual doctor. The orientation therefore appears to be aimed at forms of "collectivization" or "publicizing" of health risk, in a regulatory framework - and in jurisprudential interpretation - which is also evolving, and potentially a harbinger of further developments and in any case adjustments in the course of work, in this first phase of implementation of the reform.


The active East African Rift System forms a belt of anastomosing faults extending 4,000 km south-southwest from the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the Zambezi River. The presence of certain ancient features, including the Great Dyke of Rhodesia and an alignment of Bushveld-type igneous complexes, indicates that the system formerly extended as an infracrustal lineament another 1,500 km south-southwest down the eastern half of Africa to the Orange River. The rift system is entirely intracontinental, and formed in the ancient African Precambrian platform with whose 3-b.y. geological history it is intimately associated. The Cenozoic rift faults follow mobile belts moulded upon ancient shields and formed during at least seven major orogenic cycles affecting pre-Silurian "assemblages" comprising complex rock groups characterized by structural and metamorphic similarities but including units of greatly differing ages. An analysis of major structural features moulded on the Tanganyika Shield indicates that the belts may have originated at about 2.7 b.y. by dextral transcurrent movement between the ancient shields, but horizontal movement was subsequently impeded by cratonization and replaced by vertical displacement. The nature of the rifted belts indicates control by mantle mechanisms and repeated reactivation, so the term perennial deep lineament is proposed. Comparison with other intra-continental rift systems and preliminary geophysical results in East Africa strongly suggest lithospheric states similar to those underlying the mid-ocean ridges, implying high heat flow restricted to the lineaments in a generally cool continental environment. Geological mapping proves, however, that no formation of new oceanic crust has taken place in spite of the great age of the lineaments. Profuse rift volcanism of continental type affects the northern part of the eastern rift lineament, but this restricted volcanic sector contrasts strongly with the major nonvolcanic portion of the rift system. The lack of spreading of the rifts may be due to the compression of the African Plate between the spreading Mid-Atlantic and Mid-Indian Ocean Ridges. Long fault lineaments are features of the earth9s crust, and a review shows that intra-continental rift valleys of East African type occur where such lineaments must cut through particularly resistant cratonized massifs, forming wide zones of fracturing and shearing with blastomylonites, flaser gneisses, and migmatites in the plastic infracrust. The mobile belts of the system may thus be compared with orogenies in which plastic deformation and migmatization at deep levels are succeeded by isostatic uplift, but the linear Cenozoic arches thus produced in East Africa are affected by typical rift valley faulting at the brittle surface levels and are thus genetically associated with infracrustal Precambrian structures and continued high heat flow while reflecting supracrustal mechanics. The lineaments do not always follow fold belts but may cut obliquely across their grain. Although the most superficial rift faulting is steeply normal and antithetic, observations suggest that the deeper faults are vertical, and it is proposed that subsurface plasticity and expansion due to heat flow is a causative factor in the sinking of strips of cool surface rock in a shield environment.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28- T lymphocyte balance in predicting the gastrointestinal hemorrhage (GH) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

METHODS
Forty-nine IBD patients, including 30 with ulcerous colitis (UC) and 19 with Crohn's disease (CD), were enrolled to test peripheral blood CD8+CD28+ and CD8+CD28- T cells using flow cytometry. All the patients were followed up for one year. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to test the efficiency of CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28- T lymphocyte balance to predict GH. The differences in lasting time of remission (LTR) under different factors were compared using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and the correlation between CD8+ T lymphocytes and the factors were analyzed.

RESULTS
The utilization rates of immunosuppressant, steroids, and biological agent (BA) were significantly higher in CD patients than in UC patients (P=0.003, 0.043 and 0.002, respectively). The frequencies of CD8+CD28+T cells were obviously higher in UC patients than those in CD patients (t=3.022, P=0.004). CD8+CD28+T cells, CD8+CD28- T cells, and especially CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28- ratio (area under curve of 0.977, P=0.000; cut-off value of 1.14 [13.95%/12.24%] with a sensitivity of 93.3% and a specificity of 91.2%) showed good efficiencies in predicting GH (P<0.01). The mean and median of LTR of IBD patients who did not receive BA or surgical treatment were significantly longer (Χ2=9.730, P=0.002; Χ2=15.981, P=0.000). CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28- ratio was significantly related to both BA (P=0.009) and surgery (P=0.038).

CONCLUSION
Both decreased CD8+CD28+T cells and elevated CD8+CD28-T cells are closely correlated with GH, and their ratio can predict the occurrence of GH with a high sensitivity and specificity and is correlated with BA and surgery at the cut-off value of 1.14.


This paper presents a case study of information engagement based on microblog posts gathered from Sina Weibo and Twitter that mentioned the two major Chinese-language user-generated encyclopaedias. The content analysis shows that microblog users not only engaged in public discussions by using and citing both encyclopaedias, but also shared their perceptions and experiences more generally with various online platforms and China's filtering/censorship regime to which user-generated content and activities are subjected. This exploratory study thus raises several research and practice questions on the links between public discussions and information engagement on user-generated platforms.


We examine the optimal allocation of equity and debt across banks and industrial firms when both are faced with incentive problems and firms borrow from banks. Increasing bank equity mitigates the bank-level moral hazard but may exacerbate the firm-level moral hazard due to the dilution of firm equity. Competition among banks does not result in a socially efficient level of equity. Imposing capital requirements on banks leads to the socially optimal capital structure of the economy in the sense of maximizing aggregate output. Such capital regulation is second-best and must balance three costs: excessive risk-taking of banks, credit restrictions banks impose on firms with low equity, and credit restrictions due to high loan interest rates.


Delay and energy efficiency are two important parameters to evaluate the wireless sensor networks (WSN) quality. In the WSN, the interference will affect the packets transmission. When a sensor needs to send a packet, we choose the parameter signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) as the threshold to decide whether send or not. SIR thresholds selection show SIR could manage the tradeoff between the average delay and energy consumption. We propose fuzzy logic system (FLS) in the optimization of SIR threshold selection. Average delay and distance of a node to the source node are selected as antecedents for the FLS. The output of FLS provides adjusting factor for the SIR threshold. Simulation result show the fuzzy optimization could achieve a better network efficiency, reduce the average delay and extend the network lifetime.


Purpose To describe the incidence, clinical courses, and risk factors for mortality of lower respiratory tract diseases (LRDs) caused by common respiratory viruses (CRVs) in stem cell transplantation (SCT) recipients. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 1038 patients who received SCT between January 2007 and August 2011 at a single center in Korea. Results Seventy-one CRV-LRDs were identified in 67 (6.5%) patients. The human parainfluenza virus (HPIV) was the most common causative pathogen of CRV-LRDs at 100 days [cumulative incidence estimate, 23.5%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.3–43.7] and 1 year (cumulative incidence estimate, 69.2%; 95% CI, 45.9–92.5) following SCT. The 30-day overall mortality rates due to influenza-LRDs, respiratory syncytial virus-LRDs, HPIV-LRDs, and human rhinovirus-LRDs were 35.7, 25.8, 31.6, and 42.8%, respectively. Co-pathogens in respiratory specimens were detected in 23 (33.8%) patients. The overall mortality at day 30 after CRV-LRD diagnosis was 32.8% (22/67). High-dose steroid usage (p=0.025), a severe state of immunodeficiency (p=0.033), and lymphopenia (p=0.006) were significantly associated with death within 30 days following CRV-LRD diagnosis in a univariate analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that high-dose steroid usage [odds ratio (OR), 4.05; 95% CI, 1.12–14.61; p=0.033] and lymphopenia (OR, 6.57; 95% CI, 1.80–24.03; p=0.004) were independent risk factors for mortality within 30 days of CRV-LRDs. Conclusion CRV-LRDs among SCT recipients showed substantially high morbidity and mortality rates. Therefore, the implement of an active diagnostic approaches for CRV infections is required for SCT recipients with respiratory symptoms, especially those receiving high-dose steroids or with lymphopenia.


When studying zoosporic fungi in the waters of northeastern Poland tbe authors found new sites of a rare fungus - Sommerstorffia spinosa Arnaudow. Its growth was observed in water samples collected from limnologically different reservoirs, from the spring Jaroszowka, the oligotrophic type (Lake Biale), through mesotrophic (Lake Wigry) to the polytrophic type (pond Fosa with high content of hydrogen sulphide under ice cover). This fungus was also found in the river Biala, which flowing through Bialystok gets polluted by municipal wastes. Moreover, the successive stages of S. spinosa development in the aquatic environment are described.


SUMMARY. Communication in science has evolved from a process dependent on print-on-paper to one increasingly reliant on electronic media as databases have replaced indexes and journals have shifted to electronic formats. This migration from print to electronic has transformed the roles of virtually all participants in the system of scientific communication. Scientist-authors, publishers, and librarians have all assumed new duties as the Internet and the World Wide Web have blurred boundaries and realigned responsibilities. This paper examines some of these changes in detail with reference to a communication model developed during a print-based time by sociologists William Garvey and Belver Griffith. An updated model of the current scientific communication system will be presented that incorporates developments that have changed the very nature of research and publishing and have altered, as well, the ways that libraries and librarians interact with scientists and publishers. The challenges associated with these changes are identified and discussed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website:


A hog found infected with Trichinella spiralis at slaughter was traced to its farm of origin, where an epidemiological investigation found the infection prevalent in swine and rats. Garbage-feeding was not responsible for maintaining the high prevalence of infection on this farm, although it may have been responsible historically for the introduction of the infection. Poor husbandry, malnutrition, and intercurrent disease resulted in frequent death and the availability of porcine carcasses for cannibalism. Tissue samples from partly devoured carcasses contained T. spiralis larvae, implicating cannibalism as a major vehicle for the spread of T. spiralis in the herd. Rats also fed on these carcasses, and their rate of infection increased markedly during the first 5 mo of observation. Experimental investigation indicated that rats could also be important in maintaining a high prevalence of infection in swine. For the purpose of our investigation, the farm was depopulated of swine and restocked with parasite-free, sentinel pigs confined in 3 groups exposed to increasing degrees of contact with rats. Pigs exposed to large numbers of rats acquired infections rapidly, whereas pigs with strongly limited rat exposure failed to acquire infection during a 12-mo period. These results indicate that, when rats are available to swine and the prevalence of T. spiralis infection in the former is high, predation (or scavenging) on rats may be as effective as cannibalism in maintaining a high prevalence of porcine T. spiralis infection.


A 3-D modeling of FEA (finite element analysis) design provides for high-speed synchronous with PMs (permanent magnets) applied in aerospace application will be examined under design considerations of n = 12,000 rpm, short-duty operation, and etc. for an ARWM (aerospace retraction wheel motor). First, lumped-elements will be fine-tuned following numerical method results is reported steady-state and transient solutions. Besides, the equations of thermal modeling such as Re, Nu, Gr and Pr numbers in order to calculate heat-transfer coefficient of convection on the rotor and stator surfaces in the air-gap have calculated. This section illustrates the temperature distribution of each point in a clear view. By CFD (fluid dynamic analysis) analysis, the fluid dynamics were modeled, pressure and velocity streamlines of cooling-flow have analyzed. An optimization algorithm was derived in order to have optimized number of water-channels as well. Second, calculation of nodal and tangential forces which deal with mechanical stresses of the ARWM have represented. The paper discusses an accurate magnetic-field analysis that addresses equivalent stress distribution in the magnetic core through using the transient FEA to estimate motor characteristics. The whole model shear and normal mechanical stresses and total deformation of the ARWM has been investigated by transient FEA. The end-winding effects were included by the authors.


We investigate the identification problems of a class of linear stochastic time-delay systems with unknown delayed states in this study. A time-delay system is expressed as a delay differential equation with a single delay in the state vector. We first derive an equivalent linear time-invariant (LTI) system for the time-delay system using a state augmentation technique. Then a conventional subspace identification method is used to estimate augmented system matrices and Kalman state sequences up to a similarity transformation. To obtain a state-space model for the time-delay system, an alternate convex search (ACS) algorithm is presented to find a similarity transformation that takes the identified augmented system back to a form so that the time-delay system can be recovered. Finally, we reconstruct the Kalman state sequences based on the similarity transformation. The time-delay system matrices under the same state-space basis can be recovered from the Kalman state sequences and input-output data by solving two least squares problems. Numerical examples are to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Religiousity is an expression of embraced system of trust that feels its values, so it created an option to react and behave in decision making. Islamic bank is a bank implements Islamic values which are arranged in Fatwa Dewan Syariah Nasional. In Islamic banking world, religiousity is one of many factors for customers to choose Islamic bank to save their money on. This research aims to discover how much is religiosity of students which are also costumers of Islamic bank. This is a qualitative research. Subjects for this research are 7 students which are customers of Islamic bank. This research uses primary and secondary data. Primary data is taken from interview with subjects and secondary data taken from older researches and theory books. This research shows that students religiosity which are costumers of Islamic bank is great. This is proven by metering five dimensions of religiousity, which are dimension of ideology, dimension of rituality, experience dimension, dimension of intellectuality, and consequence dimension. Keywords: Religiousity, Islamic Bank.


Tagging linear fluorescence signals by ultrasound has been proposed to achieve improved spatial resolution at known imaging depths. An alternative way to enhance imaging resolution is the use of nonlinear optical methods such as second-harmonic imaging microscopy and two-photon excitation fluorescence. Extending further along these lines, we have studied the fundamental aspects of the effect of ultrasound irradiation on two nonlinear optical effects. In contrast to the focused transducers that are traditionally used in the study of ultrasound -mediated fluorescence that cause a small fluorescence modulation, we have made use of a simple, flat disc-shaped transducer to generate standing waves in the sample cell. Upon ultrasound irradiation, a prompt increase of the hyper-Rayleigh scattering signal with 35% was observed. The signal enhancement shows a clear correlation with the standing wave pattern, as characterized by laser beam deflection scanning measurements. The viability of different possible mechani...


One of the utilization of information technology development in the world of education in private universities (PTS) is by utilizing and implementing web-based academic information system (SIA). This study aims to examine the contribution of technology and infrastructure (IT), design (DS), human resources (SD) and culture (BD) in web-based SIA development at PTS in Palembang. The research method used was quantitative method, while the technique of data collection using questionnaire method. Data analysis method in this study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Population in this research were nPTS in Palembang which have web based SIA, they were Universitas Bina Darma and STMIK Palcomtech. While the respondents were students, lecturers and staff. The results of the research showed that technology and infrastructure, design, human resources and culture contribute to the development of web-based SIA at PTS in Palembang.
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Acinetobacter baumannii is a nonfermenting Gram-negative bacillus. A. baumannii resistance is a significant obstacle to clinical infection treatment. The existence of persister cells (persisters) might represent the reason for therapy failure and relapse, and such cells may be the driving force behind rising resistance rates. In this study, A. baumannii ATCC 19606 was used as a target to explore the essential features of A. baumannii persisters. Antibiotic treatment of A. baumannii cultures at 50-fold the minimum inhibitory concentration resulted in a distinct plateau of surviving drug-tolerant persisters. The sensitive bacteria were lysed with ceftazidime, and the nonreplicating bacteria were isolated for transcriptome analysis using RNA sequencing. We analyzed the transcriptome of A. baumannii persisters and identified significantly differentially expressed genes, as well as their enriched pathways. The results showed that both the GP49 (HigB)/Cro (HigA) and DUF1044/RelB toxin/antitoxin systems were significantly increased during the persister incubation period. In addition, the activities of certain metabolic pathways (such as electron transport, adenosine triphosphate [ATP], and the citrate cycle) decreased sharply after antibiotic treatment and remained low during the persister period, while aromatic compound degradation genes were only upregulated in persisters. These results suggest the involvement of aromatic compound degradation genes in persister formation and maintenance. They further provide the first insight into the mechanism of persister formation in A. baumannii.


Dengue virus (DENV) has caused infectious disease which puts roughly 40% of world population at risk. An antiviral drug against DENV infection remains unavailable up until now. This research aims to find a drug candidate, which can inhibit β-OG binding site by a screening of 308 commercial cyclic peptides virtually. Through molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation, it is discovered that cyclo (-D-Trp-Tyr) ligand has good affinity with β-OG binding pocket. Ligand forms a stable complex with envelope protein in 310 K and 312 K. Cyclo(-D-Trp-Tyr) ligand is revealed to be a potential inhibitor of β-OG binding pocket. Thus, it is feasible for further development as an antiviral drug against DENV infection.


Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGANs) extend the standard unconditional GAN framework to learning joint data-label distributions from samples, and have been established as powerful generative models capable of generating high-fidelity imagery. A challenge of training such a model lies in properly infusing class information into its generator and discriminator. For the discriminator, class conditioning can be achieved by either (1) directly incorporating labels as input or (2) involving labels in an auxiliary classification loss. In this paper, we show that the former directly aligns the class-conditioned fake-and-real data distributions P (image|class) (data matching), while the latter aligns data-conditioned class distributions P (class|image) (label matching). Although class separability does not directly translate to sample quality and becomes a burden if classification itself is intrinsically difficult, the discriminator cannot provide useful guidance for the generator if features of distinct classes are mapped to the same point and thus become inseparable. Motivated by this intuition, we propose a Dual Projection GAN (P2GAN) model that learns to balance between data matching and label matching. We then propose an improved cGAN model with Auxiliary Classification that directly aligns the fake and real conditionals P (class|image) by minimizing their f-divergence. Experiments on a synthetic Mixture of Gaussian (MoG) dataset and a variety of real-world datasets including CIFAR100, ImageNet, and VGGFace2 demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed models.


According to the Poisson theorem, gravity and magnetic fields arising from geologic bodies that share common sources, with a uniform magnetization-to-density ratio (MDR) and a uniform magnetization direction, are related by a linear transformation that allows each field to be calculated from the other. Provided that these conditions on the sources are met, when the gravity and magnetic data are available over an area, the Poisson theorem can be used to infer the MDRs and magnetization directions of sources from their associated gravity and magnetic anomalies. These conditions are partially met in many geologic structures but are expected in iron ore deposits, usually associated with strongly magnetic and highly dense formations. Due to the importance of iron ore as a global commodity, most mineral provinces of the world have been investigated by accurate gravity and magnetic sensors, providing a reliable database, but they have not yet been explored with joint interpretation based on Poisson's relationships. We have interpreted a gravity-magnetic survey covering the Serra Sul of the Carajás Mineral Province, Brazil, where world-class iron deposits are found. We have adapted a formulation formerly developed to estimate the MDR and the magnetization inclination (MI) from profile data to process gridded data sets. Due to faulting and folding, the same density and magnetic structure may assume different strike directions, requiring corrections to improve MDR and MI estimates. Because the geomagnetic field inclination in the studied area is very low (−6.7°), a procedure for stable computation of the components of the anomalous magnetic field vector is applied. The inferences for Serra Sul MDR suggest minor variations for the entire 30 km long formation containing the mineralized bodies, the strong remanent magnetization showing reverse polarity for banded iron formation segments of the Carajás Serra Sul.


Synthetic analogs of enterochelin (enterobactin) were tested for their ability to support the growth of Escherichia coli K-12 under iron-limiting conditions. The cyclic compound MECAM [1,3,5-N.N'; N"-tris-(2,3-dihydroxybenzoyl)-triamino-methylbenzene] and its N-methyl derivative Me3MECAM promoted growth, whereas the 2,3-dihydroxy-5-sulfonyl derivatives MECAMS and Me3MECAMS were inactive. The same results were obtained with TRIMCAM [1,3,5-tris(2,3-dihydroxybenzoylcarbamido)-benzene] and TRIMCAMS (the 2,3-dihydroxy-5-sulfonyl derivative of TRIMCAM). However, the sulfonic acid-containing linear compound LICAMS [1,5,10-N,N', N"-tris(5-sulfo-2,3-dihydroxybenzoyl)-triaza-decane] supported growth. In contrast, LIMCAMC, in which the sulfonyl groups at the five position of LICAMS are replaced by carboxyl groups at the four position, was inactive. The uptake of the active analogs required the functions specified by the fepB, fesB, and tonB genes. Surprisingly, growth promotion of mutants lacking the enterochelin receptor protein in the outer membrane was observed. Only MECAM protected cells against colicin B (which kills cells after entering at the enterochelin uptake sites) and transported Fe3+ at about half the enterochelin rate.


To address the problem of low accuracy and poor robustness of in situ testing of the compressive strength of high-performance self-compacting concrete (SCC), a genetic algorithm (GA)-optimized backpropagation neural network (BPNN) model was established to predict the compressive strength of SCC. Experiments based on two concrete nondestructive testing methods, i.e., ultrasonic pulse velocity and Schmidt rebound hammer, were designed and test sample data were obtained. A neural network topology with two input nodes, 19 hidden nodes, and one output node was constructed, and the initial weights and thresholds of the resulting traditional BPNN model were optimized using GA. The results showed a correlation coefficient of 0.967 between the values predicted by the established BPNN model and the test values, with an RMSE of 3.703, compared to a correlation coefficient of 0.979 between the values predicted by the GA-optimized BPNN model and the test values, with an RMSE of 2.972. The excellent agreement between the predicted and test values demonstrates the model can accurately predict the compressive strength of SCC and hence reduce the cost and time for SCC compressive strength testing.


ABSTRACT The unsteady two-dimensional Navier–Stokes system of equations, for viscous incompressible fluids are solved using a global method of approximated particular solutions (MAPS) in terms of a Stokes formulation, where the velocity and pressure fields are approximated from a linear superposition of particular solutions of a non-homogeneous Stokes system of equations, with a multiquadric (MQ) radial basis function (RBF) as non-homogeneous term. Steady-state solution of the flow problems considered in this work can be unstable at high Reynolds numbers (Re), corresponding to bifurcation of solutions that result in the appearance of new stable steady-state or periodic solutions. The main objective of this work is to present a global meshless numerical scheme able to predict these bifurcation points and concurrent new stable or periodic solutions. This is well known to be a very difficult task for any numerical scheme. An implicit first-order time-stepping scheme is used to approximate the transient term and the obtained nonlinear system of algebraic equations is solved by a Newton–Raphson method with variable step. Two steady-state and two transient problems are considered to validate the numerical scheme: the lid-driven cavity and backward-facing step (BFS) flows (steady-state problems) and the decaying Taylor–Green vortex and two-sided lid-driven cavity flows (transient problems). The first two problems are solved up to Re=10,000 and 2300, respectively. Results obtained are compared with corresponding benchmark numerical solutions, showing excellent agreement. Obtained numerical solutions for the decaying vortices at Re=100 shown excellent agreement with the corresponding analytical results. The transient problem of a rectangular two-sided lid-driven cavity flow is solved at Re=700. The influence of the cavity length, l, in determining the different structures of the flow pattern is studied for values of , showing that the scheme is able to reproduce the previously reported change in the flow pattern when l=2. Finally, the global Stokes MAPS are used to carry out nonlinear stability analyses of three steady-state problems: the sudden expansion, lid-driven cavity and BFS flows. Stable and unstable steady-state solutions at Re values greater than critical are predicted with the proposed numerical scheme. Our numerical results are consistent with previously stability analysis reported in the literature.


Scholars evaluating national and local budget procedures in Central and Eastern Europe generally advocate a greater role for legislative bodies and citizens. Mature federations and decentralised countries in Western Europe are often cited as prime examples of participatory budgeting which is supposed to lead to greater fiscal discipline, a better allocation of public resources and higher administrative efficiency. This paper investigates the strengths and weaknesses of legislative activism in Switzerland, with special regard to its ability to answer the double challenge resulting from a push for new expenditures and lower taxes, on one side, and an attempt to maintain deficit levels close to zero, on the other. While the strong consensus orientation, the careful regulation of revenue and expenditure assignment, as well as the systematic use of voters' right to direct participation are perceived as key to the success of the Swiss democracy, this study also highlights how these features can limit the effective influence of the parliament on budgeting and planning. Central and East European countries may learn several lessons from the Swiss case, all of which are rather thought to add an input to long-term reforms rather than provide immediate solutions. The analysis points out some serious limitations of the hierarchical budgeting model as well as the consequences of a haphazard and opaque expenditure and revenue assignment. It reminds, however, that the dynamic process of post-socialist transition requires governments and parliaments to preserve a great deal of flexibility in the budget procedure. At the same time, new methods of public management and a greater transparency of public budgets are examples of tools that may be introduced on the medium term without the risk of slowing down the transition process.


The recent adoption of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has reinvigorated the discourse on indigenous rights. This essay reviews three books – Xanthaki's Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards: Self-Determination, Culture and Land; Gilbert's Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights Under International Law: From Victims to Actors; and Rodriguez-Pinero's Indigenous Peoples, Postcolonialism and International Law: The ILO Regime (1919–1989) – that illustrate the way in which indigenous rights have evolved at the supranational level. Moreover, in their different ways, these important books highlight the conditions of possibility for indigenous peoples at a critical stage in the development of indigenous rights in international law.


Disaster theories of the K-T extinctions, more specifically dinosaur extinctions, are presently engendering much controversy. They require ( inter alia ) that those extinctions were sudden and simultaneous worldwide and that they coincided with an allegedly causal disaster at the K-T boundary. This paper reviews the evidence for and against those temporal requirements. The other major requirement is of a biological nature, namely an indication of the manner in which the specified disaster might have extinguished the organisms concerned; yet this causal mechanism, whatever it might have been, apparently had no effect whatever upon other, very similar organisms. In any particular geographical region, the precise stratigraphic level at which dinosaurs became extinct can be determined only if there is a virtually unbroken succession of potentially dinosaur-bearing continental beds that pass up from the level of the highest dinosaur known to a level well above the K-T boundary. Unfortunately there are surprisingly few regions where such conditions prevail. The problem is further complicated by the difficulties of worldwide stratigraphic correlation and by the fact that specialists in different fields define the position of the K-T boundary on different criteria. Although some alleged discoveries of Palaeocene dinosaurs have long been discredited (the beds were not Palaeocene, or the bones were not dinosaurian), there does seem to be some evidence that dinosaurs died out at different times in different places, sometimes surviving whatever it was that produced the iridium anomaly and sometimes co-existing with Palaeocene palynomorphs and Tertiary-type mammals, or both. In such cases it does not seem unreasonable to postulate a Danian age for the animals in question.


Scale-out programs run on multiple processes in a cluster. In scale-out systems, processes can fail. Computations using traditional libraries such as MPI fail when any component process fails. The advent of Map Reduce, Resilient Data Sets and MillWheel has shown dramatic improvements in productivity are possible when a high-level programming framework handles scale-out and resilience automatically.
 We are concerned with the development of general-purpose languages that support resilient programming. In this paper we show how the X10 language and implementation can be extended to support resilience. In Resilient X10, places may fail asynchronously, causing loss of the data and tasks at the failed place. Failure is exposed through exceptions. We identify a {\em Happens Before Invariance Principle} and require the runtime to automatically repair the global control structure of the program to maintain this principle. We show this reduces much of the burden of resilient programming. The programmer is only responsible for continuing execution with fewer computational resources and the loss of part of the heap, and can do so while taking advantage of domain knowledge.
 We build a complete implementation of the language, capable of executing benchmark applications on hundreds of nodes. We describe the algorithms required to make the language runtime resilient. We then give three applications, each with a different approach to fault tolerance (replay, decimation, and domain-level checkpointing). These can be executed at scale and survive node failure. We show that for these programs the overhead of resilience is a small fraction of overall runtime by comparing to equivalent non-resilient X10 programs. On one program we show end-to-end performance of Resilient X10 is ~100x faster than Hadoop.


In this paper we examine the determinants of the allocation of Canadian bilateral aid over the period 1984-2000. We draw on models of donor behaviour that allow us to incorporate humanitarian, commercial and political considerations - the `trinity of mixed motives' - that affect Canadian aid. We find that allocations are moderately altruistic. Recipient country human rights and membership in the Commonwealth and La Francophonie also affect aid flows. Most strikingly, our results suggest that Canadian aid flows became less altruistic over this period and commercial motives became increasingly important.


Small globular fossils known as Olivooides and Markuelia from basal Cambrian rocks in China and Siberia, respectively, contain directly developing embryos of metazoans. Fossilization is due to early diagenetic phosphatization. A nearly full developmental sequence of Olivooides can be observed, from late embryonic stages still within an egg membrane, to hatched specimens belonging to several ontogenetic stages. Earlier cleavage stages also occur, but cannot be identified to taxon. Olivooides shows similarities to coronate scyphozoans and to their probable Paleozoic representatives, the conulariids. Markuelia eggs contain looped embryos of a segmented worm with short, conical processes covering the body.


Two kinds of dissolved organica matter (DOMc and DOMr) prepared from Ruditapes philippinarum and Phragmites communis, which are the common species in aquatic ecosystems, were used to study the characteristic of mercury (Hg) adsorption onto sediment collected from Jiaozhou bay. The results exhibited that Langmuir equation and Freundlich equation both better fitted to the Hg isothermal adsorption process onto sediment in all treatments. The addition of the two kinds of DOM had the obvious stimulative action to Hg adsorption onto sediment compared with that in the control groups. Moreover, DOMc had a slightly higher promotion action at Hg adsorption to sediment than that by DOMr. Compared with the control groups, the maximum of adsorption in two samples were elevated by 116% and 117% in DOMc treatment, and 110% and 109% in DOMr treatment, respectively. And then, the organic matter and pH were the important factors influencing Hg adsorption ability to sediment. In general, the organism in aquatic ecosystem could increase Hg adsorption quantity into sediment by the action of their DOM, with the result of the decrease of biological effectiveness of Hg. And this increased the amount of Hg in sediment to a certain extent, which increased the Hg risk in the water body.


PURPOSE
To introduce a novel laser-based optical-CT scanner for the readout of three-dimensional (3D) radiation dosimeters.

METHODS
The scanner employs a diode laser, a cylindrical lens, a motorized linear rail, a rotation stage, and a charge-coupled device camera. The scanner operates in a translate-rotate fashion and may be set up in two configurations depending on the orientation of the cylindrical lens. The attenuation coefficient versus dose response was determined for a normoxic N-vinylpyrrolidone based polymer gel dosimeter. Cylindrical dosimeters, 2 cm diameter, were homogenously irradiated to known doses up to 60 Gy using a 6 MV linear accelerator. For a test irradiation, a 5 cm diameter dosimeter was irradiated along its cylindrical axis using a rectangular 1 cm x 1 cm irradiation beam. The dose readout of this scanner was compared to the corresponding readout of a common wide illumination and area detector optical-CT scanner.

RESULTS
The attenuation coefficient versus dose response of the laser-based system was found to be linear up to 60 Gy (r2 = 0.997) compared to the wide field illumination based optical-CT scanner, which exhibits linearity up to 32 Gy (r2 = 0.996). The noise in the reconstructed attenuation coefficient maps was +/- 7.2 x 10(-2) mm(-1) versus +/- 9.5 x 10(-3) mm(-1) for the laser-based system and the wide field illumination system, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
We have developed a novel laser-based optical-CT scanner, which is capable of generating fast 3D dosimetric data using a scattering polymer gel dosimeter. Our data demonstrate that the dose readout of this scanner preserves the advantage of existing laser-based optical-CT scanners in providing measurements, which are minimally affected by scattered light. For accurate reconstruction of the attenuation coefficients, noise reduction techniques need to be applied.


Under the periodic boundary condition, dynamic bifurcation and stability in the modified Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation with a higher-order nonlinearity μ(ux)puxx are investigated by using the centre manifold reduction procedure. The result shows that as the control parameter crosses a critical value, the system undergoes a bifurcation from the trivial solution to produce a cycle consisting of locally asymptotically stable equilibrium points. Furthermore, for cases in which the distances to the bifurcation points are small enough, one-order approximations to the bifurcation solutions are obtained.


Notice that we have dropped the hypothesis that both k and K be Galois over the rationals. To see how Theorem 1 generalizes Yokoi's result, remember that if G has prime order p, then multiplication by p annihilates all the cohomology groups. Thus in this case the cohomology groups are determined up to isomorphism by their order. The technique used to prove Theorem 1 can be used to prove other results of a similar nature. In the same situation as above let us consider Uk, the units of K, as a Z[G] module. Then we have


Within 60 to 90 days of spinal cord hemisection or hemisection, Gelfoam, water implantation in the lesion site, ventral horn neurons 0 to 5 mm proximal to the site of lesion form varicosities along the dendrite. The varicosities form on peripheral dendrites at 10 days and progressively involve the entire dendritic shaft by 60 to 90 days. Following spinal cord hemisection and Gelfoam puromycin implantation the neurons in the ventral horn are resistant to varicosity formation. Sixty days after hemisection puromycin-treated neurons form a few varicosities on occasional peripheral dendrites with no further involvement of the dendrite by 90 days postlesion. The neuroglial reaction to hemisection is not altered by puromycin treatment. The correlation of inhibition of protein synthesis and resistance to dendritic varicosity formation is discussed.


Abstract Although widely debated, some of the defining professional characteristics of planners appear to be competencies in co-ordination, mediation and multidisciplinary working. Despite this, there is little pedagogical reflection on how interprofessional skills are promoted in planning programmes. This paper reflects on the experience of bringing together undergraduate students from medicine and planning to explore the concept of Healthy Urban Planning in a real life context of an urban motorway extension. This reveals a number of unexpected outcomes of such collaboration and points to the value of promoting interprofessional education, both as a way of increasing interest in some of the key challenges now facing society and in order to induce greater professional reflection amongst our students.


Activity recognition is becoming an increasingly important task in artificial intelligence. Successful activity recognition systems must be able to model and recognise activities ranging from simple short activities spanning a few seconds to complex longer activities spanning minutes or hours. We define activities as a set of qualitatively interesting interactions between people, objects and the environment. Accurate activity recognition is a desirable task in many scenarios such as surveillance, smart environments, robotic vision etc. In the domain of robotic vision specifically, there is now an increasing interest in autonomous robots that are able to operate without human intervention for long periods of time. The goal of this research is to build activity recognition approaches for such systems that are able to model and recognise simple short activities as well as complex longer activities arising from long-term autonomous operation of intelligent systems. The research makes the following key contributions:

1. We present a qualitative and quantitative representation to model simple activities as
observed by autonomous systems.

2. We present a hierarchical framework to efficiently model complex activities that comprise of many sub-activities at varying levels of granularity.

Simple activities are modelled using a discriminative model where a combined feature space, consisting of qualitative and quantitative spatio-temporal features, is generated in order to encode various aspects of the activity. Qualitative features are computed using qualitative spatio-temporal relations between human subjects and objects in order to abstractly represent the simple activity. Unlike current state-of-the-art approaches, our approach uses significantly fewer assumptions and does not require any knowledge about object types, their affordances, or the constituent activities of an activity. The optimal and most discriminating features are then extracted, using an entropy-based feature selection process, to best represent the training data.

A novel approach for building models of complex long-term activities is presented as well. The proposed approach builds a hierarchical activity model from mark-up of activities acquired from multiple annotators in a video corpus. Multiple human annotators identify activities at different levels of conceptual granularity. Our method automatically infers a 'part-of' hierarchical activity model from this data using semantic similarity of textual annotations and temporal consistency. We then consolidate hierarchical structures learned from different training videos into a generalised hierarchical model represented as an extended grammar describing the over all activity. We then describe an inference mechanism to interpret new instances of activities. Simple short activity classes are first recognised using our previously learned generalised model. Given a test video, simple activities are detected as a stream of temporally complex low-level actions. We then use the learned extended grammar to infer the higher-level activities as a hierarchy over the low-level action input stream. We make use of three publicly available datasets to validate our two approaches of modelling simple to complex activities. These datasets have been annotated by multiple annotators through crowd-sourcing and in-house annotations. They consist of daily activity videos such as 'cleaning microwave', 'having lunch in a restaurant', 'working in an office' etc. The activities in these datasets have all been marked up at multiple levels of abstraction by multiple annotators, however no information on the 'part-of' relationship between activities is provided. The complexity of the videos and their annotations allows us to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.


One of the objectives of trusted computing is to provide remote attestation method that is able to confirm the status of remote platform or application. Existing property-based attestation is based on the strong-RSA assumption and the required key length is too long. What's more, a considerable number of RSA-length operations having to be performed which lead to low computational efficiency. Bilinear parings-Based Attestation model, which based on elliptic curve discrete logarithm bilinear paring, can shorten the required key length and reduce bandwidth usage at the same premise of safety performance requirements, as well as ensure platform configurations not to be exposed to the platform while improving operating efficiency. On the other hand, the model includes many trusted computing platform parameters in order to resist replay attacks, and take use of information hiding technology to hide certificates and effectively preventing anyone with a source of certificate misuse of the certificate.


Two types of congenital facial paralysis may be recognised. In the first and more common variety the paralysis affects one side of the face only, and is seldom total; nor is it as a rule accompanied by ocular palsies or other congenital malformations. Cases of unilateral facial palsy have been recorded by Stephan', Bernhardt2, Schultze 3, Minor4, Marfan and Delille5, Souqucs and Heller6, Apert7, Goldreich8, Falloux9, Bonnet-Roylo, Delherm", Wilbrand and Saenger". In the second type, with which this paper is concerned, the paralysis is bilateral and usually total; in the majority of cases certain of the external muscles of the eye are involved and other congenital malformations may be present. The clinical features of this type appear to have been first described by Graefe'3 in 1880. His patient was a sane epileptic with facial diplegia (incomplete on the right side), paralysis of both external recti, and total loss of smell and taste. When, as in this case, the paralysis is incomplete, the muscles which escape are almost invariably those in the neighbourhood of the mouth and chin. Of this type are the cases described by ProcopoviciI4, Mbbius 15, Batten 16, Taylor 1 7, Fry 18, and Woltmann'9. Complete paralysis of the sixth and seventh pairs has been reported by Harlan2 °, M6bius2 ', Decroly22, Fryer2 3, Schapringer24, Kahlmeter25, Kirby2 6, Chisolm2 7, Cabannes2 8, and Leszynsky 29. The anatomical relationship of these nerves within the braintstem explains why they are so frequentlv implicated together, but it is also possible for the third and fourth cranial nerves to be involved, as in Recken'sso case, where partial facial diplegia was accompanied by a complete external ophthalmoplegia, or again as in a case reported by Mobius3l where the inferior recti were paralysed. Less frequently three or four cranial nerves are concerned. Thuis, paralysis of the motor fifth has been recorded by Schapringer24, and by Fry and Kassak32; paralysis of the facial and hypoglossal nerves by Woltmann'9 and Schmidt33; and paralysis of the sixth, seventh and twelfth by Kirby26 and Batten'6. With the solitary exception of-the case of Graefe, referred to above, there are no records of disturbance of the sensory cranial nerves, and it is important to note that although the extrinsic ocular muscles are often affected those concerned with pupillary reactions invariably escape. The congenital malformatiomis which may be encountered are very diverse. Double epicanthus has been described by Schrapinger24, bilateral absence of 317


We construct unitary evolution operators on a phase space with power of two discretization. These operators realize the metaplectic representation of the modular group SL(2,Z_{2^n}). It acts in a natural way on the coordinates of the non-commutative 2-torus, T_{2^n}^2$ and thus is relevant for non-commutative field theories as well as theories of quantum space-time. The class of operators may also be useful for the efficient realization of new quantum algorithms.


This report describes the approach behind our winning solution to the 2022 Epic-Kitchens Action Recognition Challenge. Our approach builds upon our recent work, Multiview Transformer for Video Recognition (MTV), and adapts it to multimodal inputs. Our final submission consists of an ensemble of Multimodal MTV (M&M) models varying backbone sizes and input modalities. Our approach achieved 52.8% Top-1 accuracy on the test set in action classes, which is 4.1% higher than last year's winning entry.


After our note (December 22, 1972, p. 104) on levodopa preparations had gone to press, some manufacturers announced lower prices. On December 22nd the basic NHS cost of 100 g levodopa in 500 mg tablets (Berkdopa and Larodopa) was £5.90. The manufacturers of Brocadopa and Veldopa are considering similar price reductions.


Background The aim of the study was to evaluate the differences in clinical profile, laboratory parameters, and ophthalmological signs, and symptoms between patients with high IgG4 Graves orbitopathy and patients with normal IgG4 Graves orbitopathy. Methods This was a prospective observational study. We recruited adult patients with Graves Orbitopathy(GO) referred to our clinic for further diagnostics and treatment. Eventually, 60 patients with GO were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent ophthalmological assessment, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the orbits, and laboratory tests, including IgG4 serum concentration measurement. High IgG4 GO was diagnosed if the IgG4 concentration exceeded 135 mg/dl. We used both the clinical activity score (CAS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the activity of GO. Eventually, active GO was defined according to MRI results. Results Among 60 GO patients, 15 (25%) patients had elevated IgG4 levels. Patients in the high IgG4 group had a higher prevalence of active GO by MRI than patients with normal IgG4 (100% vs. 64.44%, P=0.006). They also had a higher eosinophile count in peripheral blood, a lower bilirubin level, a more frequent lower eyelid retraction, and a lower prevalence of glaucoma. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in CAS. Patients with active GO, had higher median IgG4 level [89.95 (55.48; 171.1) vs 43.45 (32.48; 49.68) mg/dl, P<0.001]. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for IgG4 as a marker of active GO revealed the following results: AUC 0.848 for the cut-off value of 54.2 mg/dl, sensitivity 79.5%, specificity 87.5%, positive predictive value 94.6%, negative predictive value 59.1%. Conclusions We demonstrated that IgG4 is a marker of GO activity. Certain differences in the clinical profile of patients with high IgG4 GO, and normal IgG4 GO were observed. More data is needed to establish whether patients with high IgG4 GO are GO patients with particularly active disease or actually represent a distinct clinical entity related to IgG4-Related Disease.


We report the first case of Menkes' disease in Korea, occurring in a 1 1/2 year old boy with characteristic clinical, arteriographic and pathologic features. Postmortem examination revealed widespread neuronal destruction and abnormally tortuous and elongated large arteries including cerebral, visceral and limb vessels. Microscopically, many of the hairs formed were twisted (pili torti), of varying caliber (monilethrix), and fractured (trichorrhexis nodosa). In the radioactivated analysis of scalp hair, copper elements was not found. The abnormal vessels were characterized by fragmentation and disruption of the internal elastic lamina with intimal proliferation. The neuronal destruction was widespread in the cerebral gray matter and in the cerebellum, and there was associated gliosis. The changes in the cerebellum were particularly severe, with neuronal loss in the internal granular cell layer. Many Purkinje cells were lost, and the remainder showed unusual dendritic sprouts from the cell body and grotesque proliferation of dendritic tree. In other organs, mild chronic peribronchitis, and scattered foci of immature glomeruli in renal cortex were noted.


Purpose Treatment guidelines recommend insulin progression (switching from basal to a premixed insulin regimen, adding bolus doses, and/or increasing dosing frequency) to achieve A1C targets as type 2 diabetes progresses, but fewer patients are being progressed than would be indicated based on their disease status. This systematic review proposes 2 questions regarding insulin progression among patients with type 2 diabetes: (1) What are the patient, provider, and health system barriers to insulin progression? (2) Do insulin progression barriers differ between insulin-naive and insulin-experienced patients? Methods We conducted a systematic review in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library databases through July 2011. Results Of 745 potentially relevant articles, 10 met inclusion criteria: 7 evaluated patient and 2 evaluated provider barriers, and 1 was an intervention to reduce barriers among physicians. Patients with prior insulin experience had fewer barriers arising from injection-related concerns and worries about the burden of insulin progression than did insulin-naive patients. Physician barriers included concerns about patients' ability to follow more complicated regimens as well as physicians' own inexperience with insulin and progression algorithms. The cross- sectional nature, narrow scope, and failure of all studies to examine patient, provider, and health systems barriers concurrently limited both barrier identification and an assessment of their impact on progression. Conclusions Patient and physician experience with insulin and diabetes/insulin education were associated with fewer perceived barriers to insulin progression. Future studies should use multilevel longitudinal designs to quantify the relative impact of potential patient, provider, and health system factors on progression and health outcomes.


This study aimed to analyze the clinical efficacy of different resections in treating non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), including partial cystectomy, transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) and holmium laser resection of bladder tumor. Two hundred and sixteen patients were recruited with NMIBC who were available for follow-up visits in hospital, including 62 cases treated with partial cystectomy, 90 cases treated with TURBT and 64 cases with holmium laser resection. Analysis was made on the cases with tumor relapse in the two years, on operation time, blood loss, time for indwelling urinary catheter, hospital stay and complications after operation. Results were compared to the clinical efficacy of these operation patterns. It was found that the two-year relapse rate for TURBT group, partial cystectomy group and Holmium laser resection group was 41%, 31%, and 33% respectively, and the difference had no statistical significance (p>0.05). Both the TURBT group and holmium laser resection group had shorter operation time, hospital stay and time for indwelling urinary catheter as well as much less blood loss when compared with the partial cystectomy group; the difference had statistical significance (p<0.001). In terms of complications, the TURBT group was likely to induce obturator nerve reflex and bladder perforation while the partial cystectomy group was likely to induce bladder spasm. Therefore, this study presumes that holmium laser resection and TURBT are much safer and quicker for recovery and obviously superior to the partial cystectomy.


Dodder (Cuscuta spp.) species are obligate parasitic flowering plants that totally depend on host plants for growth and reproduction and severely suppress hosts' growth. As a rootless and leafless plant, excised dodder shoots exhibit rapid growth and elongation for several days to hunt for new host stems, and parasitization could be reestablished. This is one unique ability of the dodder to facilitate its success in nature. Clearly, excised dodder stems have to recycle stored nutrients to elongate as much as possible. However, the mechanism of stored nutrient recycling in the in vitro dodder shoots is still poorly understood. Here, we found that dodder is a carbohydrate-rich holoparasitic plant. During the in vitro dodder shoot development, starch was dramatically and thoroughly degraded in the dodder shoots. Sucrose derived from starch degradation in the basal stems was transported to the shoot tips, in which EMP and TCA pathways were activated to compensate for carbon demand for the following elongation according to the variations of sugar content related to the crucial gene expression, and the metabolomics analysis. Additionally, antioxidants were significantly accumulated in the shoot tips in contrast to those in the basal stems. The variations of phytohormones (jasmonic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, and abscisic acid) indicated that they played essential roles in this process. All these data suggested that starch and sucrose degradation, EMP and TCA activation, antioxidants, and phytohormones were crucial and associated with the in vitro dodder shoot elongation.


This paper presents properties of Exclusive-OR Sum-of-Products expressions (ESOPs) for multiple-output functions and a simplification algorithm for ESOPs. First, lower bounds on the number of products in minimum ESOPs for multiple output functions are derived. Then, algorithms to simplify ESOPs and to prove their minimality are presented. Experimental results for arithmetic functions and randomly generated functions for up to ten variables are shown.


Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the integration of research, clinician experience, and patient values; however, most studies focus on research and clinician experience and ignore patient values. Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are experienced routinely by both adults and children and are often mistreated with antibiotics, despite findings from multiple research studies indicating that antibiotics do not decrease the severity or duration of ARIs. Several studies indicate that clinicians tend to prescribe antibiotics for ARIs when they perceive that patients want them; however, little is known about actual patient values related to ARI management and even less is known about rural patient values. The aim of this study was to learn more about the values, beliefs, and attitudes held by rural individuals and families regarding ARI management. Focus group interviews were conducted with 42 individuals from five rural communities in Wyoming. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) "cowboy up," (b) access, (c) self and family knowledge, and (d) community as family. These themes have important implications for rural health care providers and EBP.


In bacteria, genes are often expressed from multiple promoters to allow for a greater spectrum of regulation. Transcription of rRNA genes in Escherichia coli uses two promoters, rrn P1 and rrn P2. Under the conditions examined previously, the P1 and P2 promoters were regulated in response to many of the same changes in nutritional conditions. We report here that rrn P2 promoters play unique roles in rRNA expression during transitional situations. rrn P2 promoters play a dominant role in rRNA synthesis as cells enter into and persist in stationary phase. rrn P2 promoters also play a role in the rapid increases in rRNA synthesis that occur during outgrowth from stationary phase and during the initial stages of rapid shifts to richer media. We demonstrate that rrnB P2 directly senses the concentrations of guanosine 5′‐disphosphate 3′‐diphosphate (ppGpp) and the initiating nucleoside triphosphate (iNTP), thereby accounting, at least in part, for the observed patterns of regulation. Our work significantly extends previous information about the regulators responsible for control of the rrn P2 promoters and the relationship between the tandem rRNA promoters.


Human rabies continues to be an important public health problem. Our understanding of the disease has been acquired from studies in experimental animal models. There are many unanswered questions in rabies pathogenesis, although there has been recent progress. Rabies virus-infected neurons may not function normally due to degenerative changes involving neuronal processes, including both dendrites and axons. Street rabies virus infection may not be cleared from the central nervous system because immune effectors cannot be delivered into brain tissues as a result of poor blood-brain barrier permeability. No effective therapy is available for human rabies. Therapeutic (induced) coma has failed repeatedly. An improved understanding of rabies pathogenesis may offer new insights for the development of novel therapies for human rabies.


In Ethiopia, camel and shoat production are common pastoralism practices in three major pastoralist regions of Afar, Somali, and Borena. This review was aimed to indicate the recent trend and future prospect of camel and small ruminant production and the possible modifiers and the pros and cons of the practices in the pastoral area of Ethiopia. The data was collected from different researches conducted each year. The data was also organized in terms of the number of camel and shoat per household each year (2010-2020) and analyzed using trend and forecasting analysis model by SPSS software. There has been an increment of camel Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU) per household from 2.78, 13 and 9 to 37, 28, and 28 between the years 2010-2020 in Borena, Afar and Somali respectively and will increase to 45, 45, and 35 by 2030, respectively. In the whole pastoralist regions, the number of camels TLU per household has increased from 2.8 to 31 between the years 2010-2020 and will increase to 50 TLU per household by 2030. Moreover, the number of goats and sheep has increased from 1.4 and 0.91 TLU per household to 2.45 and 2.46, respectively between the years 2010-2020 and the predicted model indicates that it will increase to 2 and 3.4 TLU per household by 2030. Climate change, drought and adaptation responses were the major drivers. Climate change coping and livelihood income improvements were the pros of the trend, while the reduction of cattle population and impact on the conservation of valuable indigenous cattle were the cons of the practice.


PURPOSE
Reported incidence of postoperative opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) range from 0.5 to 41% and is not reliably predicted by traditional risk factors. This study tests a new methodology to investigate ventilatory chemosensitivity as a new potential risk factor and explore OIRD distribution across sleep and wakefulness.

METHODS
Preoperative patient ventilatory chemosensitivity was quantified by hypercapnic ventilatory responses with (HCVRREMI, effect site concentration 0.7 or 2.0 ng/ml) and without (HCVRBL) remifentanil during hyperoxia and hypoxia. Postoperative opioid consumption was recorded during hospital stays. OIRD frequency was the primary outcome of the study, detected as incidences of respiratory rate < 60% of baseline, minute ventilation < 60% of predicted value, pulse oximetry SpO2 < 90% (breathing room air) or 92% (supplemental O2), transcutaneous PCO2 > 50 mmHg, and central and obstructive apnea/hypopnea. Sleep stages were recorded until the first postoperative morning to determine the OIRD sleep distribution as the secondary outcome.

RESULTS
The methodology was feasible in implementation and posed no obstacles to standard care. In the nine patients studied (2 females, mean age 65 ± 7.5 years), remifentanil depressed HCVR to a highly variable degree. High OIRD frequency was generally observed with lower HCVRREMI. OIRD predominantly occurred during light sleep.

CONCLUSION
This study supports ventilatory chemosensitivity as an important predictor of OIRD, lending a new perspective to classify risk for OIRD and detailing a methodology in which to pursue this investigation for future studies. (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT04047550).


This paper examines some global framework that IS in place to enhance eradication of poverty, protect environmental rights and fundamental rights. Poverty has become synonymous with the nation in particular and the international community in general. One of the ways to effectively tackle this menace head on is to globally accept and adopt the truism that poverty situation in any nation amounts to and projects the level of environmental and fundamental human rights abuses prevalent in such country. The narrative textual nature was adopted in addressing the issue under discussion. The fact remains that an honest quest and effective implementation and upholding of environmental and fundamental human rights principles will reduce the level of poverty evidenced all over the world to zero tolerance level. Fundamental human rights enforcement holds at its centre an approach that tends to balance the link between poverty, environmental and fundamental human rights. Available literature of the subject will be reviewed. Finally we suggest that the government and all environmental and human rights organizations and agencies should enforce implementation of human rights policies so as to fight poverty.


On the basis of the individual analysis of Plantago lanceolata L. nonhomogeneity of its natural population within the thirty-kilometer zone of Chernobyl (reproduction of 1989) has been revealed. It is displayed by lower levels of seed productivity of plants growing in the areas with a high level of radioactive contamination.


Background In routine rheumatology clinics, return visits can account for 75% of a rheumatologists case load reducing the time available for new patients or patients who require urgent care (1) In a systematic review of the literature rheumatology nurse led clinics proved to be an invaluable addition to the effective running of rheumatology clinics (2). Objectives 1)To Identify the feasibility of an independent nurse led rheumatology clinic, and 2) Assess nurse autonomy and barriers to same in the clinic setting. Methods Over a 4 week period in October 2011, return patients with inflammatory arthritis on DMARD's were allocated to the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) led clinic. Following the clinics patient review data was analysed to establish the number of patients that were managed autonomously by the CNSs and the barriers identified to same. Results From a total of 118 patients, 22 patient's (19%) were managed autonomously by the CNSs, 43 patients (37%) were managed by CNSs with medical sign off for renewal of prescriptions, x-ray and dexa scan requests, or referral to Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. Fifty three patient's (45%) required medical consultation for intra-articular joint injections, medication review or general medical queries. Conclusions There is the potential to expand the nurses scope of practice in the rheumatology clinic to include medication prescribing, x-ray, occupational therapy and physioth erapy prescribing along with the administration of intra-articular joint injections where appropriate. This could greatly alleviate the time pressures on rheumatologists in the clinic. A review of present local and national policies in consultation with local stakeholders is recommended References Kirwan JR, Snow SM, et al (1991)Which patients see a rheumatologist? British Journal Rheumatology. 30 pp 285-287. Van Eijk-Hustings, Y et al (2012)Eular recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis. Ann Rheum Disease; 71pp 13-19 Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The British government interned some 4,000 women in the panic situation of May‐June 1940. The tribunals had graded nearly all of them 'B' and a large proportion were in actual fact refugees from Nazi Germany. Most of them were eventually taken to Rushen camp on the Isle of Man. Here they were treated relatively easily and quickly organized self‐help groups and activities, as is seen from the many personal reminiscences quoted. As irrationally as they had been interned, so the women were released from July 1940 onwards.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Liver damage caused by drugs and other chemicals accounts for about 5% of all cases. Methotrexate (MTX), a folic acid analogue, is a first-line synthetic antimetabolite agent routinely used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has antioxidant activity. In this study, we evaluated biochemically and histopathologically the antifibrotic effect of PEG 3350 administered intraperitoneally to prevent methotrexate-induced liver damage in rats. Methods: A total of 30 male rats including 10 rats was given no drugs (normal group), and 20 rats received single-dose 20 mg/kg MTXfor induced liver injury in this study. MTX was given to 20 rats, which were divided in two groups. Group 1 rats was given PEG30 mg/kg/day (Merck) intraperitoneally, and Group 2 rats % 0.9 NaCl saline 1 mL/kg/day intraperitoneally daily for two weeks. Results: Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), liver MDA, serum tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), alanine aminotransferase and plasma pentraxin-3 levels and, according to tissue histopathology, hepatocyte necrosis, fibrosis and cellular infiltration were significantly better in MTX+PEG group than in MTX+saline group. Conclusions: PEG 3350 is a hope for toxic hepatitis due to other causes, since liver damage occurs through oxidative stress and cell damage, similar to all toxic drugs.


Associations between excitable temperament and many economically relevant traits have been established, resulting in an increased focus on docility in breeding programs in cattle. Several methods have been proposed to quantify temperament during normal handling procedures, which appear to differ in their usefulness and accuracy of measure. The objective of this study was to determine the merit of using chute score (CS), exit score (ES), and exit velocity (EV) to evaluate temperament in a production setting, by assessing (i) the impact of experience and number of observers on interobserver reliability, and (ii) the repeatability of these measures. Over three consecutive years, a factorial design of two measurement protocols [frequent (F), infrequent (IN)], and three recording periods, each one month apart, was used. Each year, twenty commercial Bos taurus heifers, 2-wk post weaning, were randomly assigned to each protocol. Each day of observation, heifers were moved into a squeeze chute and their heads caught. A CS from 1 (docile) to 6 (aggressive) was assigned to loosely restrained cattle by as many as six observers of varying experience. When released from the chute, EV over a distance of 2 m was obtained, and an ES of 1 (docile) to 5 (aggressive) assigned by the same observers. Heifers were evaluated repeatedly over three months, with some heifers scored on as many as nine occasions. Inter-observer reliability was calculated using the irr package in R. Kendall's coefficient of concordance (KCC) and 53 intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated for the average of two, three, or four experienced observers for all nine days of the study. Observers were then divided by experience [experienced (E), inexperienced (IE)] and compared to a benchmark observer using these same statistics. Repeatabilities were calculated using ASreml fitting protocol, event, and their interaction as fixed effects, body weight as a covariate, and sire and year as random effects. While reliability decreased with increasing number of observers for both measures, agreement was consistently higher when assessing ES compared to CS. Both measures had reliabilities indicative of acceptable agreement (ICCCS ≥ 0.74, ICCES ≥ 0.90; KCCCS ≥ 0.79, KCCES ≥ 0.93). However, inexperience reduced reliability of CS assignments, with more variation in scores than in E observers. All methods were highly repeatable. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of subjective methods for quantifying temperament on site. Their lack of susceptibility to individual bias in distinguishing behaviors makes them useful criteria for evaluating temperament in cattle.


This paper communicates the theoretical analysis of continuous waste heat extraction from the other side of absorber plate. For theoretical analysis two conditions are determined one is the mass of water in the absorber and another one is mass flow rate of water around the absorber plate. Results indicated that the water temperature is reached maximum at 10 kg of mass and 5 kg/hr mass flow of water and the heat extracted from the absorber is higher at optimum mass flow of 5 kg/hr. Also, the higher temperature difference between the water and the collector cover is found during the off-shine period. The maximum achievable hourly productivity of 0.9 and 0.5 kg is found for the solar still with and without circulation respectively. The yield from present model with continuous heat extraction is increased from 3 to 5.5 kg/m2. As the approached method is more new to the society it may be determined by Agouz- Nagarajan- Sathyamurthy (ANS) model.


For all emergency response personnel involved in crisis situations it is essential to timely acquire all information critical to their task performance. However, in practice errors occur in the distribution of information between these collaborating actors leading to mistakes and subsequently more damage to the situation. In this paper we present a prototype system for dynamic information distribution able to support the information flow between collaborating crisis actors. The system has been evaluated by means of simulated experiments that use data from a real incident scenario. The results indicate that automated support by means of Machine Learning method works well. Especially, when actor work context features are included, then the performance on selecting and distributing relevant information is high. Furthermore, actors acquire relevant information much faster making group communication much more efficient.


The title compound, [Ru(CO3)(η6-C6H6){(C6H11)2P(CH2C10H7)}]·3CHCl3, was synthesized by carbonation of [RuCl2(η6-C6H6){(C6H11)2P(CH2C10H7)}] with NaHCO3 in methanol at room temperature. The RuII atom is surrounded by a benzene ligand, a chelating carbonate group and a phosphane ligand in a piano-stool configuration. The crystal packing is consolidated by C—H⋯O and C—H⋯Cl hydrogen-bonding interactions between adjacent metal complexes and between the complexes and the solvent molecules. The asymmetric unit contains one metal complex and three chloroform solvent molecules of which only one was modelled. The estimated diffraction contributions of the other two strongly disordered chloroform solvent molecules were substracted from the observed diffraction data using the SQUEEZE procedure in PLATON [Spek (2009 ▶). Acta Cryst. D65, 148–155].


We measured levels of protein, of complement-derived anaphylatoxins (C3a, C4a, and C5a), and of the lymphokines interleukin-2 and gamma interferon, in vitreous humor from 10 AIDS patients with vitritis and retinitis (group 1). We compared these measurements with levels in vitreous from 7 patients with vitritis but without AIDS (group 2), 10 patients with vitreous hemorrhages (group 3), and 20 patients with retinal detachments or epiretinal membranes without clinical evidence of vitreal inflammation (group 4). Vitreous humor from 10 AIDS patients had measurable levels of interleukin-2 in three of nine samples, gamma interferon in six of nine samples, C3a and C4a in all ten samples, and C5a in only one of ten samples. Vitreous humor from group 1 did not differ significantly from vitreous from group 2. On the other hand, vitreous from group 1 had significantly higher levels of gamma interferon, C3a, and C4a, and higher ratios of these anaphylatoxins to protein, in comparison to vitreous in groups 3 and 4. The results of this study suggest that vitreous humor from AIDS patients with retinitis contains activated complement and may contain interleukin-2 and gamma interferon. Viral retinitis is associated with the presence of lymphokines in vitreous humor. Additionally, anaphylatoxin and gamma interferon levels, but not interleukin-2 levels, correlate with vitreal inflammation. This is the first study to measure interleukin-2, gamma interferon, and C5a levels in human vitreous humor.


Detailed descriptions of effective intervention protocols for Asian smokers are uncommon which makes it difficult for others to successfully implement a protocol that has been proven to be effective. This article fills a gap by detailing such a protocol, specifically a telephone counselling intervention for Asian smokers. The protocol was tested in a large randomised trial with Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-speaking smokers and was shown to significantly increase quit rates. The article describes the approach used to develop the protocol and critical components of the intervention. In addition, the paper compares data on programme participation and satisfaction among Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-speaking smokers with those for English- and Spanish-speaking smokers from two studies conducted in the US and shows that the former are no less likely to engage in counselling and no less likely to be satisfied with the process.


Microbial transformation experiments were performed using 13-ketone-blocked daunomycinone derivatives which were converted into the corresponding carminomycinone derivatives by microbial O-demethylation.


This article asks whether there are lessons that can be drawn from the democratization of Iraq for the possible democratization of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the wake of the 2010–2011 Arab uprisings. The paper draws on the democratization program in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 to demonstrate that focusing on the promotion of a liberal democratic model in Iraq translated into a lack of operational flexibility, which let democracy assistance unable to cope with socio-economic demands, local realities and reactions to democratization. Taking into account a variation in the intensity of interventionism between Iraq and MENA, the article argues that there is sufficient similarities between both cases to point Western democracy promoters in the direction of models of democracy that offer a more comprehensive response to the current political transition in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya than the traditional focus on the promotion of liberal democracy does.


First experience with the paracervical block as an anesthetic method for the conization and plastic surgery of the cerviä is presented. The analgesic effect was good, except for one patient where general anesthesia was necessary. The authors recommend the multilocular application of the anesthetic, because the parametrial tissue in non-pregnant women has not the same density, hence a different uptake of the local anesthetic.


To understand the potential mechanisms of dietary protein on intestinal and host health, we studied the immunomodulatory effects of isocaloric diets with high or low crude protein (CP) contents on young adult Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. A total of 180 healthy male rats were randomly assigned to six groups (six replicate pens per treatment with five rats per pen) and fed diets with 10% CP, 14% CP, 20% CP (control), 28% CP, 38% CP, and 50% CP. Compared with the control diet, the rats fed the 14% CP diet significantly elevated lymphocyte cell counts in the peripheral blood and ileum, whereas the 38% CP diet significantly activated the expression of the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway in the colonic mucosa (p < 0.05). Moreover, the 50% CP diet reduced growth performance and fat deposition and increased the percentages of CD4+ T, B, and NK cells in the peripheral blood and the colonic mucosal expression of IL-8, TNF-α, and TGF-β. Overall, rats fed the 14% CP diet enhanced host immunity by increasing the numbers of immune cells, and the immunological state and growth of SD rats were negatively impacted by the diet containing 50% CP.


The primary aim of my research programme was to identify and explore the
efficacy of some of the factors (e.g. enactment, imagery) that could potentially
enhance prospective memory performance in traumatic brain injury patients and
healthy older adults. The beneficial effects of these factors were explored in the
Virtual Week task with the expectation that manipulations that improve
prospective memory performance on this task will enhance prospective memory
performance in everyday life. In Study 1, the Virtual Week prospective memory
task was administered to 30 traumatic brain injury participants and 30
demographically matched controls who either enacted or verbally encoded
prospective memory tasks. All participants also completed neuropsychological,
executive function and quality of life tests. The findings revealed that we are better
at remembering future intentions (prospective memory) after miming the
intention than after saying it aloud – for both traumatic brain injury patients and
healthy matched controls. However, miming only helps when we need to carry out
the action when a particular event occurs. In contrast, miming did not improve
prospective remembering for time-based tasks. Also, an indirect measure of
sustained attention was related to traumatic brain injury patients' event-based
prospective memory performance. In Study 2, the role of sustained attention in
prospective memory functioning was explored further. The effect of two types of
imagery on prospective memory performance was also examined. The Virtual
Week prospective memory task was administered to 30 healthy older-old and 30
younger-old adults who either imagined (via 1st person perspective and 3rd person
perspective) or verbally encoded prospective memory tasks. All participants also
completed cognitive and executive function tests. The findings revealed that
imagining tasks to be performed in future through a 3rd person perspective
enhanced prospective memory performance for all participants. This suggests that
the use of 3rd person imagery might be a powerful strategy to improve prospective
memory. Results further revealed that short-term visuospatial working memory
and reaction time plays a role in prospective memory performance for older-old
adults but not younger-old adults. Potentially, sustained attention enhances eventbased prospective memory performance in younger-old adults. The implications of these findings in relation to theories and rehabilitation strategies in both
traumatic brain injury patients and older adults are discussed.