BACKGROUND/AIM
The need for sensitive biological markers to detect and prove recent drinking has been the focus of many research groups. The aim of our study was to investigate the alterations of biological markers in a population of alcohol dependent individuals during the detoxification period.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Fifty-two alcohol-dependent individuals were admitted for alcohol detoxification on an inpatient basis. Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were obtained at admission and on a 15-day basis. Comparisons between measures were made with t-test.

RESULTS
All biochemical parameters associated with alcoholism, with the exception of MCV, were statistically significantly decreased during the detoxification process (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
CDT is an excellent marker of alcohol overconsumption during evaluation, as well as during the detoxification treatment. IL-6 could serve as an additional marker to CDT, a point needing further investigation.


We present an approach to acquisition of range images of objects with non-uniform albedo using a structured light sensor. The main idea is to systematically vary the intensity of the light projector and to form high dynamic scale radiance maps. The range images are then formed from these radiance maps. We tested the method on the objects which have surfaces with very different reflectance properties. We demonstrate that the range images obtained from the high dynamic scale radiance maps are of much better quality, than those obtained directly from the original images of a limited dynamic scale.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common cause of dementia. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive loss of memory in addition to cortical atrophy. Despite decades of research and therapeutic trials in AD, an effective treatment is yet to be developed. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as promising tools for the treatment of AD, and clinical trials have been completed or are in progress. MSCs secrete various cytotropic factors that may exert beneficial effects in AD. The route of administration is an important factor to enhance MSC based treatment effects for AD. Among various routes, the intracerebroventricular route may possess several advantages such as the activation of neurogenesis, compared to other routes for AD treatments. In this review, we will focus on recent pre-clinical and clinical advances in MSC-based treatment of AD, specifically in relation to enhancement of endogenous neurogenesis.


exists and all the rows of Q are the same. SIA matrices are defined differently in books on probability theory; see, for example, [1] or [2]. The latter definition is more intuitive, takes longer to state, is easier to verify, and explains why the probabilist is interested in SIA matrices. A theorem in probability theory or matrix theory then says that the customary definition is equivalent to the one we have given. The latter is brief and emphasizes the property which will interest us in this note. We define S(P) by


A widened subarachnoid space might be pathologic, potentially pathologic, or simply a normal developmental variant. However, the definition of a normal subarachnoid space width in infants remains unclear, especially on computed tomography (CT) images. To determine the physiological subarachnoid space width among infants aged 1-24 months, its upper limit, and changes with age, we measured the cerebrospinal fluid width on 538 CT images. Measurements were obtained at fixed planes and fixed positions to prevent variance and increase comparability between patients. We observed an asymmetry in the cerebrospinal fluid width of the temporal region. The width increased in all positions until 4-6 months of age, after which it began to decrease, reaching a relatively stable range in infants aged 13-24 months. We suggest considering the 95th percentile of the cerebrospinal fluid width as the upper limit. The correlation between age and the subarachnoid space width should be considered during clinical diagnosing.


Job satisfaction has long been an important and interesting area in organizational research. More recently, considerable attention has been focused on the concept of job satisfaction and factors that affect it. A major reason for the tremendous interest in this work attitude is that it has been consistently found to be related to important employee behaviors, such as turnover, absenteeism, and job performance. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of human resource practices such as pay, promotion and training on job satisfaction. The sample of this study consisted of 150 employees of both private and public sector service organizations in the vicinity of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A questionnaire was used to gather data regarding above mentioned variables and demographic characteristics of the respondents. Data then analyzed with the help of SPSS using regression analysis and Independent Sample T Test. A positive and significant relationship was found between job satisfaction and factors like compensation, training and promotion. The study can be helpful for the employers to design their human resource strategies according to the changing socio-economic environment in the country.


The Bliss Rapids Snail (Taylorconcha serpenticola ) is a threatened species that ranges along a short reach of the middle Snake River in southern Idaho. Additional Taylorconcha populations of uncertain taxonomic status have recently been discovered in other portions of the Snake River basin (Owyhee River, lower Snake River). We investigated the phylogenetic relationships and population structure of these snails, together with two outgroups, using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of mitochondrial DNA and the first internal transcribed spacer region between the 18S and 5.8S ribosomal DNA. These data show no sharing of haplotypes or genotypes among T. serpenticola and the Owyhee-Lower Snake populations, with both depicted as monophyletic units within the Taylorconcha clade. Both of these datasets and morphological evidence suggest that the Owyhee-Lower Snake populations are a distinct species, which we describe herein (T. insperata new species). Application of an available COI molecular clock suggests that Taylorconcha arose in the late Miocene, when ancestral Snake River drainage was impounded in an extensive lacustrine system ('Lake Idaho') in western Idaho. The shallow population structuring of T. insperata suggests that the lower Snake River was only recently colonized subsequent to incision of Hells Canyon, draining of Lake Idaho, and development of a through-going river in the late Neogene. The absence of significant genetic structure in T. serpenticola, which is attributed to the unstable course and flow regime of the middle Snake River during the Quaternary, suggests that this species can be treated as a single management unit.


Emanuel KIENZLE : Der Lobpreis von Stddten und Landern in der alteren griechischen Dichtung. Pp. 107. Kallmunz : printed by M. Lassleben, 1936. Paper. THIS doctoral thesis concerns itself mainly but not exclusively with poetry earlier than the end of the fifth century, and both the approach to and the arrangement of this material are based upon the late rhetorical work of Menander, the Aialpcffts TWV in&eiKTiKCbv. In the introductory pages Dr. Kienzle lays due emphasis upon the connexion between rhetoric and poetry, and assesses the importance of Aristides' work, which forms the model for Menander, in the study of the iyKtb/uov and of its shadow tma/os as applied to city and country. For this purpose epithets are of primary importance: ' das Epitheton hat nicht nur die Aufgabe zu beschreiben, sondern auch lobend hervorzuheben. Wenn wir also einen Topos des Enkomions ganz erfassen wollen, miissen wir von den Epitheta, besonders den epischen, ausgehen'. Hence in the main section of the work (pp. 2093) a lengthy examination follows, grouped under such headings as Situation, Climate, Fertility, History, Character of Inhabitants, Government and Laws. There is much of interest here, especially when the author deals with the more personal aspects. But he has not escaped the fundamental difficulty of such a study, that the application 'of the mechanical methods of late rhetorical handbooks unduly subordinates the poetic element. Something of this is indeed admitted—'Eine scharfe Abgrenzung des Enkomions gegenuber der Ekphrasis ist oft nicht moglich ' (p. 2). We may go further in our doubts as to the possibility of distinguishing on these lines between the poetic, the rhetorical, and even the political.


This paper provides an overview of methods that examine changes in measured vibration response to detect, locate, and characterize damage in structural and mechanical systems. The basic idea behind this technology is that modal parameters (notably frequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping) are functions of the physical properties of the structure (mass, damping, and stiffness). Therefore, changes in the physical properties will cause detectable changes in the modal properties. The motivation for the development of this technology is first provided. The methods are then categorized according to various criteria such as the level of damage detection provided, model-based vs. non-model-based methods and linear vs. nonlinear methods. This overview is limited to methods that can be adapted to a wide range of structures (i.e., are not dependent on a particular assumed model form for the system such as beam-bending behavior and methods and that are not based on updating finite element models). Next, the methods are described in general terms including difficulties associated with their implementation and their fidelity. Past, current and future-planned applications of this technology to actual engineering systems are summarized. The paper concludes with a discussion of critical issues for future research in the area of modal-based damage identification.


A 15-year review is made of contour restoration by the custom silicone inlay technique. Eighty-three patients have undergone surgery since 1962. The indications, preparation of moulage and implant, surgical technique, and care of complications are described. The custom silicone technique has proved successful, precise, and relatively free of complications. Tolerance of uncomplicated implants has been permanent.


This study aims to examine the influence of several factors (human resources quality, information technology utilization, internal control systems and organizational commitments) on the quality of the financial information of local government in Manokwari. Type of data uses in this research is primary data which have been obtained from questionnaires which are directly distributed to the respondents who are the head and the staffs of accounting division on financial and asset management services area (BPKAD) of Manokwari. The number of population and study sample was 46 people. Sampling using sampling methods saturated. This research data analysis method is multiple linear regression. Results of this study can be conclude that the human resources quality, internal control systems and organizational commitments have a significant positive effect on the quality of local government financial reporting information, while the use of information technology utilization does not have an effect on the quality of local government financial reporting information. Suggestion for the further research is to expand the independent variables that affect the quality of the financial information of local government.


Edible coatings have largely been stemmed out as prospective preservation stratagem to extend shelf life of fruits; additionally these may serve to impart certain textural, nutritional and functional attributes. Recent era has witnessed the use of these novel coatings as a tool to fortify various foods. Purposely, the current research was an endeavor to fortify fresh apricots with zinc (40 ppm ZnO) using sodium caseinate based edible coatings to address zinc defi- ciency. Accordingly, the zinc fortified coated apricots were prepared and fed to experimental rabbits for a period of six weeks. The sera and organs (liver, kidney & heart) zinc levels de- picted a significant increase in zinc content of rabbits. From the findings, it was ascertained that 27.33, 22.47 & 16.25% zinc levels in liver, kidney & heart, respectively were enhanced in zinc fed group (G1) as compared to control (G0). Likewise, serum zinc level in G1 was elevated up to 13.70%. Conclusively, it is summarized that edible coating is a promising strategy to for- tify food stuffs with extended shelf life and efficient delivery of zinc fortificant in the living subjects.


Mathematical and physical modeling have been extensively used to study the fluid flow phenomena taking place in continuous casting tundishes. Tracer dispersion studies are commonly carried out to characterize the overall fluid flow behavior within the tundish. It is shown in this paper that the buoyancy forces introduced by using a tracer whose density is different from that of the fluid in the tundish may have a significant effect on the fluid flow behavior within the tundish. A three-dimensional mathematical model for solving fluid flow equations incorporating the buoyancy force has been developed to study the fluid flow behavior in continuous casting tundishes. Water modeling experiments have also been carried out to verify the mathematical model.


The amount of genetic differentiation between the African wild cat (Felis lybica) and the domestic cat (F. catus) in southern Africa is not known, but there is concern that interbreeding between the two may have been sufficiently extensive to threaten the status of the wild cat as a genetically distinct population. Eight hypervariable microsatellite loci were therefore used to determine the genetic relationships within and among wild and domestic cat populations. Measures of genetic differentiation, including FST and RST, confirmed significant differentiation between the wild and domestic cat populations and no significant differentiation between two widely separate domestic cat populations. Our data indicate that the level of genetic introgression is lower than previously thought. This enhances the conservation status of the African wild cat and demonstrates the need for the implementation of feral cat control in and around game reserves and rural areas.


We present a spectral and imaging analysis of the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the Seyfert 2 galaxy ESO138-G001, with the aim of characterizing the circumnuclear material responsible for the soft (0.3-2.0 keV) and hard (5-10 keV) X-ray emission. We confirm that the source is absorbed by Compton-thick gas. However, if a self-consistent model of reprocessing from cold toroidal material is used (MYTorus), a possible scenario requires the absorber to be inhomogenous, its column density along the line of sight being larger than the average column density integrated over all lines- of-sight through the torus. The iron emission line may be produced by moderately ionised iron (FeXII-FeXIII), as suggested by the shifted centroid energy and the low K{\beta}/K{\alpha} flux ratio. The soft X-ray emission is dominated by emission features, whose main excitation mechanism appears to be photoionisation, as confirmed by line diagnostics and the use of self-consistent models (CLOUDY).


The QT interval (QT) variability has been recently computed to infer cardiac control of rats. It has been suggested that QT variability markers in rats have the same physiological meaning as in humans. However, some evidences indicate a different dependence of QT on the previous RR interval (RR). Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the relation of the QT to the preceding RR in humans and in rats. Electrocardiogram was recorded in supine position (REST) and during tilt test (T90) in 23 healthy subjects and in 9 Wistar (WI) and 14 wild-type Groningen (WT) rats during the dark period. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient r computed between RR and QT was calculated for each subject or animal within each experimental condition. In humans we found that r was positive and decreased from REST to T90. Conversely, r was negative in rats and did not differ between WI and WT. The r absolute value was significantly higher in humans than in rats. Our results showed that trends toward longer RRs lead to longer QTs in humans but shorter QTs in rats and that the strength of the QT-RR association is lower in rats. We conclude that attention should be paid when using the rat model in translational studies assessing the QT-RR relation.


Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones associated with multiple physiological functions, especially energy balance. Leptin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone discovered in 1950 and ghrelin which was found in 1999, is a peptide hormone produced and secreted in the stomach. A number of previous studies showed that these hormones could be associated with different types of mood disorders. The results of previous studies, nevertheless, are confounded by diverse sample selection and different methodologies. A search for related articles in the PubMed database was attempted. The search covered studies, reports, reviews and editorials published in the last ten years. Older references served as auxiliary sources for comparison purposes. However, due to the different results of the studies, there is a need for more investigation in order to establish the exact biochemical mechanisms that are responsible for these diseases and ghrelin's and leptin's effects on mood.


ABSTRACT A high prevalence of maltreatment, abuse, neglect and the onset of subsequent trauma has been well-documented among both young people with disability and young people residing in foster and kinship care. However, no uniform policies or guidelines currently exist for the delivery of trauma-informed models of care to build the capacity of foster and kinship carers in responding to and supporting the complex needs of children and young people in their care with disability who may have been exposed to trauma. While no evidence of the application of trauma-informed models of care for this cohort exists, some evidence of trauma-informed models of care to support people with disability beyond the scope of out-of-home care has recently emerged. The authors discuss this emerging work and recognise an opportunity to leverage this evidence to guide the practices of foster and kinship carers. Clearly, there is an opportunity to work towards improving the development and wellbeing of children and young people with disability in foster and kinship care through the development, implementation, and evaluation of a tailored trauma-informed model of care that is co-designed and grounded in the underlying theoretical principles of disability and trauma.


Due to the existence of analogue signals, testing the mixed signal circuits is a complex and complicated one. D/A converters are one of the most important types of these circuits. In this paper, a method is presented to determine the points where faults are occurred in a 4-bit resistive ladder D/A converter, using fuzzy rules. For the purpose of implementing fuzzy rules, neural networks have been utilized. Also for improvement the fault coverage of this test method the LVQ neural network has been used. Firstly, the circuit has been simulated using ORCAD9 and then training patterns have been elicited. Continually, network simulation and training have been implemented via MATLAB6.1trade.


In this paper, we advocate edge caching in Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN) to facilitate the ever-increasing mobile multimedia services. In our framework, central offices will cooperatively allocate cloud resources to cache popular contents and satisfy user requests for those contents, so as to minimize the system costs in terms of storage, VM reconfiguration, content access latency, and content migration. However, this joint resource allocation, content placement and request routing is nontrivial, since it needs to be continuously adjusted to accommodate system dynamics, such as user movement and content slashdot effect, while taking into account the time-correlated adjustment costs for VM reconfiguration and content migration. To this end, we build a comprehensive model to capture the key components of edge caching in C-RAN, and formulate a joint optimization problem, aiming at minimizing the system costs over time, and meanwhile satisfying the time-varying user requests and respecting various practical constraints (e.g., storage and bandwidth). Then, we propose a novel online approximation algorithm by resorting to the regularization, rounding and decomposition technique, which can be proved to have a parameterized competitive ratio with a polynomial running time. Extensive trace-driven simulations corroborate the efficiency, flexibility and lightweight of our proposed online algorithm, for instance it achieves an empirical competitive ratio around 2 – 4, gains over 30% improvement compared with many state-of-the-art algorithms in various system settings.


Meiosis in monosomic substitutions (20''W+1'W+1'R) was studied. Occasionally 4 univalents were observed. The rye univalent divided more often than the wheat univalent at anaphase I, as a result of which the rye chromosome lagged more frequently at anaphase II. Telocentric chromosomes and isochromosomes were transmitted more frequently in male gametes than in the female gametes. Chromosome mosaics were also observed.


Background Loss of elastin is a feature of emphysema. After secretion from cells, tropoelastin assembles into functional insoluble elastin. In our previous study, despite the increased expression of tropoelastin by the COPD fibroblasts this did not translate into increased elastin deposit, which was accompanied by an increased production of versican 1 (V1). We hypothesized that down-regulation of V1 could improve elastin repair. Methods Pulmonary fibroblasts CCL-210 were cultured and treated with or without cigarette smoke (CS). Expression of mRNA for tropoelastin and V1 were measured by qPCR. Supernatant protein levels for V1 and soluble elastin were measured by ELISA. Insoluble elastin in lysates was measured by Fastin Elastin assay. Specific siRNA was used to knockdown V1 expression. Results CS inhibited elastin mRNA expression at 3 days and 14 days after treatment (p<0.01); levels of tropoelastin and insoluble elastin were both decreased as compared to untreated cells at 14 days (p<0.01). mRNA and protein levels of V1 were increased after CS insult (p<0.01), which was diminished by V1 siRNA. V1 siRNA did not alter the decreased tropoelastin after CS treatment, but attenuated the decreased elastin deposit.

![Figure][1]

Conclusions V1 played a role in the impaired elastin deposit in pulmonary fibroblasts after CS exposure. Specific knockdown of V1 can alleviate the elastin loss.

 [1]: pending:yes


The Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center (LADC) consisting of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), the University of New Orleans (UNO), and the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center (NRL-SSC), with guidance and technical assistance from the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), was formed to do ambient noise and marine mammal acoustic measurement and analysis. Three Environmental Acoustic Recording System (EARS) buoys, designed and produced by NAVOCEANO, were deployed by LADC in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in the summer of 2001. These bottom-moored omni-directional hydrophone recording systems were modified by NAVOCEANO to sample almost 12 kHz, so that the vocalizations of sperm whales could be recorded. The Sperm Whale Acoustic Monitoring Program (SWAMP) was conducted during that summer by the Minerals Management Service and its collaborators. The EARS buoys recorded during the entire 36 days of SWAMP from 17 July through 21 August of 2001. The EARS buoy hydrophones, 50m above the bottom, were placed on a downslope line, ending at the largest concentration of sperm whale sightings in the northern GoM, in 600m, 800m, and 1000m water depths. The moorings were instrumented with self-recording environmental sensors to obtain time series data of temperature, conductivity, and pressure at specified depths spanning the water column. Four cruises were made to deploy and recover the buoys and to collect a suite of environmental measurements, including CTD and XBT casts and a chirp sonar survey for bottom properties to support propagation modeling. In between the first and second cruises, Tropical Storm Barry moved through the area and changes in the oceanographic properties were observed. Each EARS buoy recorded a bandwidth of 5859 Hz for 36 days. These data clearly reveals sperm whale vocalizations, passing ships, and seismic airguns. Marine mammal vocalizations and airgun signatures have been isolated and are being analyzed. Spectral levels for ten minute averages of ambient noise on four different days show moderate shipping levels except during the passage of the tropical storm. A plateau in the noise spectrum from 200 to 1000Hz on one day is due to the presence of sperm whales. Spectrograms show sperm whale clicks and creaks and the seismic airgun signal is very clear.


The operating environments of factories and manufacturing units have changed dramatically due to globalization, population, and customization. The existing factories are converted into smart units using information and communications technology (ICT). These smart factories can produce, control, repair, and manage themselves. The manufacturing processes are efficiently optimized using the monitoring and analysis methods of ICT. In this experimental study, we carried out a survey on the system solution providers and consumer companies to determine the field conditions and requirements necessary for assembling a smart factory. Using the results of this survey, we effectively devised smart factory solutions and implemented them on the existing conditions in various factories.


The effect of the mode of admission on the level of performance of students in NCE Biology was investigated in this study. The study made use of seven years records between 1997 and 2004 when students could be admitted through preliminary studies or by direct entry through JAMB if qualified. The results of the students were analyzed according to their respective mode of admission. Data collected were analyzed with t, f, and Chi square tests as applicable. It was observed that student intake continue to increase from year to year with more females admitted than males within the period under study. Students admitted directly into NCE programme performed significantly better than those that pass through pre-NCE. It was also observed that the mean CGPA reduces as student intake increases. It is recommended that pre-NCE students should be made to write JAMB and Post-JAMB examination to qualify. Keywords : Direct Entry, mode, Pre–NCE, Pre–Male, Pre–Female, Direct Male, Direct Female, Grade Point Average


Several phospholipase C (PLC) isoforms have been found in male and female mammalian gametes, and splicing isoforms of PLCδ4 are predominantly expressed in testis. Here we report that male mice in which the PLCδ4 gene had been disrupted either produced few small litters or were sterile. In vitro fertilization studies showed that insemination with PLCδ4−/− sperm resulted in significantly fewer eggs becoming activated and that the calcium transients associated with fertilization were absent or delayed. PLCδ4−/− sperm were unable to initiate the acrosome reaction, an exocytotic event required for fertilization and induced by interaction with the egg coat, the zona pellucida. These data demonstrate that PLCδ4 functions in the acrosome reaction that is induced by the zona pellucida during mammalian fertilization.


Background: Valvular heart diseases are one of the most common pathologies of heart. Modalities of treatment available for valvular disease are balloon valvuloplasty, valvotomy and replacement by prosthetic valve. Hence the morphometry of tricuspid valve is important. Materials and methods: For this study we dissected 120 formalin fixed hearts and studied tricuspid valvular complex. We found that there were a lot of variations in the number and dimensions of cusps in tricuspid valve. Results: Normal tricuspid valve with three cusps was found only in 51.66% of hearts. Bicuspid, tricuspid valve was present in seven hearts. The number of accessory cusps ranged from one to four. Most of the anterior cusp, posterior cusp and septal cusp was found to be triangular in shape. The anterior cusp was found to be largest in length, followed by septal cusp. The average height of all anterior, posterior and septal cusps was almost same. Conclusion: This data will be of immense value to cardiothoracic surgeons and also for manufacture of modern type of prosthesis of tricuspid valve.


With the publication of these two books, James Cortada offers a follow-up to his first Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computing (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990), an extension of this earlier work and its second installment. A Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computer Applications, 1950-1990 reflects the growing appreciation among scholars that what a computer does is at least as important as how it was developed. In this light, Cortada's guide is a significant step toward organizing a rapidly expanding body of literature.


We investigate the electronic excitation of solids in strong fields by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The excitation probability exhibits a strong modulation as a function of laser intensity when the initial states fill in the whole valence band. To have a clear insight into the modulation, we further study the electronic excitation from a single eigenstate in solids. A series of resonance-like enhancements of excitation probability are produced by changing the laser intensity and wavelength. We attribute the resonance-like enhancements to the channel-closing effects in solids. It is shown that the excitation probability exhibits enhancements when the value of channel is odd for intracycle interference and an integer for intercycle interference. This is different from the atom that the enhancement occur in the integer channels. We also reveal that the channel-closing effects can be observed by solid high-order harmonic generation.


OBJECTIVE
Local photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel cancer therapy in veterinary ophthalmology. A prospective pilot study seeking to demonstrate proof of principle and safety for the treatment of equine periocular squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) was therefore conducted. We hypothesized that surgical excision with adjunctive local PDT is an effective and safe treatment for equine PSCC.

PROCEDURES
Nine horses (10 eyes) with PSCC were treated with surgical resection, local infiltration of resulting wound beds with 2-[1-hexyloxyethyl]-2-devinylpyropheophorbide-a (HPPH) and irradiation with 665-nm wavelength diode laser. Regular follow-up ophthalmic examinations were performed.

RESULTS
Surgical resection and PDT yielded disease-free intervals of 25-68 months in our study horses as of January, 2008. These results were obtained following a single treatment in seven horses and two treatments in one horse. In one horse, carcinoma in situ developed 2.5 months after partial surgical excision and PDT, requiring local excision under standing sedation.

CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary results suggest that surgical resection and adjunctive local PDT is a safe and effective novel treatment for PSCC in horses. More research is needed before PDT for the treatment of equine PSCC can be adequately compared with other current modalities. Important to future investigations regarding PDT, tumor recurrence rate, length of hospitalization, number of treatment episodes required to effect tumor remission, and total treatment costs should be examined in a controlled manner. Our present results and experiences suggest that this treatment may be useful in the treatment of equine PSCC.


(By T. E. GORDON, M.B., F.R.C.S.I., Surgeon to the Hospital.) TEIE patient, a man, aged 40, was admitted under my care in the Adelaide Hospital in May, 1898. I had treated him for secondary syphilis four years previously. On May 1gth I performed a radical cure for an irreducible, right-sided, inguinal hernia. I excised a very large mass of omentum and ligatured its broad base, which appeared to be quite healthy, with rather thick interlocking catgut sutures. The course of the case after operation was all that could be wished. The temperature never reached even 990, and the appearance of the scar now is sufficient evidence that there was no sepsis. On June 7th he left 'the hospital apparently well. A few days later he had slight pain in the left side, and attacks of similar pain recurred at progressively shorter intervals, until during the week before readmission he had never more than a few hours freedom. His bowels were very constipated, and he took much aperient medicine. When the bowels acted the pain became less. He felt better when lying down than when walking about. He only 'once vomited, and that after a dose of castor oil. The urine was high coloured, but otherwise normal. On examining the abdomen there was found an obvious fulness of the left flank, which further investigation showed to be due to the presence of a large tumour. In front this was not perfectly defined, but it reached to within 2 inches of the umbilical line. Below it could be felt as far as the level of the anterior iliac spine. Above it passed beneath the the costal margin, and posteriorly it had a rounded margin occupying the costo-iliac space. A dull note was obtained everywhere on percussion over the tumour. It did not move with respiration, and only a very limited movement could be given to it from without. The diagnosis was obscure; whether the tumour was splenic or renal, and whether inflammatory or sarcomatous. The man had been in India, but had not suffered from malaria, and, with the exception of syphilis, had been in excellent health since his return home in I882. Moreover, the tumour was not in all respects like an enlarged spleen, and it was at this time almost absolutely fixed. (Professor Scott examined the blood, and found it practically normal). Against its being connected with the kidney were the facts that the urine was normal, that the mass did not fill up the costo-iliac space after the manner of a renal tumour, and that there was no overlying line of resonance. To help in deciding whether or not the tumour was a sarcoma, the excisedomentum was examined. It contained hard nodules, 'sections of which were kindly prepared by Dr. Peacocke. The structure of these nodules was clearly not sarcomatous. On the other hand, I found it difficult to believe that an' inflammation could give rise to the enormous mass present without giving rise to other and more distinct evidence, and, besides this, the case, after operation, ran a typically aseptic course. I decided to wait and watch the progress of tumour and patient. On August 15th it was found that he had lost 3 st. in weight since his illness cdmmenced. The tumour remained.about1 the same, excepting that it was somewhat larger in the flank. Pitting could be produced on its surface by deep pressure,, that did not? however, cause pain. His appetite and general. state were fairly good. 'There was no fever.' On October 3rd the 'swelling was much reduced in size; it was more mobile and was very hard, so that,pitting could not be produced. The abdomen was noW being massaged. He left hospital during the first week of October. On December 6th he looked and felt quite well.; The tumour had almost disappeared. On pressure in the left flank below the ribs when he took a deep breath, a tumour could be felt to desceni upon the finger. A week or two later, when I showed the man to the Biological Club, no distinct trace of the tumour could be detected. Reviewing the facts of the case, it appears most probable that the tumour was inflammatory in nature, and was in some, way the result of the operation. A considerable length of somewhat coarse catgut was used to ligature the large mass of omentum, and it is quite possible that this contained some irritant-probably not of the nature of septic organismswhich was sufficient to excite an extensive andpossibly asepticinflammation. It was suggested that a heemorrhagefrom the omental stump would account for the condition, but the history of the case affords no grounds for such a hypothesis.


Comparison of the velocities of glucose and fructose absorption with the maltose hydrolysis in isolated and functioning portions of the small intestine revealed the quantitative characteristics of the latter portion to be superior of the isolated one. The data on the water balance in the perfused portion of the small intestine was obtained.


Abstract We test for relationships between anti-Muslim attitudes and opinion and competing religious identity and religious belief variables in an evangelical Christian constituency. Original survey data from a statewide sample of 508 likely voters in Oklahoma are subjected to a robust regression analysis to determine (1) indicators of holding Christian nationalist beliefs and (2) the relationship between belief measures of Christian nationalism, evangelical Christian identity, and subsequent anti-Muslim sentiment. Christian nationalism is more prevalent among self-identified evangelicals. Christian nationalist beliefs and strong belief in Biblical literalism are significantly related to negative and restrictive views of Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiments in the form of general disapproval and the desire to limit Muslim worship are shaped more by beliefs than identities or behaviors. Evangelical self-identification does not help us disentangle domestic opinion regarding Muslims as well as measures that disentangle beliefs from identity.


BACKGROUND Many international oncology professional and patient advocacy groups recommend that a minimum of 5% of eligible new patients should be entered into a clinical trial. Unfortunately, physician and patient related barriers translates to a much lower accrual rate in reality. We performed a prospective single arm pilot study evaluating the efficacy of implementing various physician and patient related strategies in enhancing clinical trial accrual. METHODS All patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer seen at the breast surgery clinic were eligible for the study. Patients were offered information packages by their surgeons on non-surgical clinical trials that they might be eligible for, prior to their initial oncologist visit. Oncologists were informed of the information given to the prospective patient consultation via email and chart flagging. Patient were then given a questionnaire assessing the feedback on this method of introducing clinical trials. The primary outcome was the number of patients consenting to clinical trials. Secondary outcomes included the number of patients actually enrolling in clinical trials, screen failure rate, and overall patient satisfaction with this method of potentially enhancing accrual to clinical trials. RESULTS 36 patients consented to this pilot study. 51% of oncologists mentioned the clinical trials to the patients. For those patients with which clinical trials were discussed, 72% went on to consent for a trial of which 31% were ultimately found to be ineligible (screen failure rate). The overall 14% clinical trial enrolment was significantly higher than our historical average of 7%. 100% of the patients found that the information package very helpful and was noted to reduce anxiety (39%) and empower (31%) the patients. 19% of the patients felt that this information should have been offered by the oncologist during the initial consultation as opposed to the surgeon prior to the oncology visit. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study could have a major impact on the way that cancer centres across the world approach patients for clinical trial options. Physicians remain an important barrier to trial accrual. The results of this study demonstrate that combined patient and physician centered approach to clinical trial enrolment may be the most effective. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-13-01.


The cataleptogenic neuroleptics haloperidol and metoclopramide reduce contralateral head turning in cats upon stimulation of the putamen and enhance these reactions from the caudate nucleus. At the same time administration of the drugs interferes with the formation of the circling. The atypical neuroleptics clozapine and sulpiride decrease unidirectionally the thresholds of contralateral head turning from both parts of the neostriatum, facilitating the coordinated locomotion. It is assumed that discrepancy in the activity of the putamen and caudate nucleus may be one of the causes neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal side effects in view of different dopaminergic organization of the structures under consideration.


Over the past few years three dimensional Quantum Electrodynamics (QED3) has attracted a lot of attention, because it may be an effective theory for the underdoped and non-superconducting region of the phase diagram of high Tc cuprate compounds. We present results from lattice simulations of the non-compact version of the theory in order to address the issue of whether chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken when the number of fermion flavours Nf is less than a critical value Nfc. Our results provide strong evidence that QED3 is chirally symmetric for Nf ≥ 1.5, implying that a pseudogap phase separates the superconducting phase from the antiferromagnetic phase.


Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been one of the most influential recent developments in computer vision, particularly for categorization. There is an increasing demand for explainable AI as these systems are deployed in the real world. However, understanding the information represented and processed in CNNs remains in most cases challenging. Within this paper, we explore the use of new information theoretic techniques developed in the field of neuroscience to enable novel understanding of how a CNN represents information. We trained a 10-layer ResNet architecture to identify 2,000 face identities from 26M images generated using a rigorously controlled 3D face rendering model that produced variations of intrinsic (i.e. face morphology, gender, age, expression and ethnicity) and extrinsic factors (i.e. 3D pose, illumination, scale and 2D translation). With our methodology, we demonstrate that unlike human's network overgeneralizes face identities even with extreme changes of face shape, but it is more sensitive to changes of texture. To understand the processing of information underlying these counterintuitive properties, we visualize the features of shape and texture that the network processes to identify faces. Then, we shed a light into the inner workings of the black box and reveal how hidden layers represent these features and whether the representations are invariant to pose. We hope that our methodology will provide an additional valuable tool for interpretability of CNNs.


Alternative healing is an idea whose time has come, and 1993 was the critical year for that recognition. So believes internist David Edelberg, founder of the Chicago Holistic Center. There patients can see one of four allopathic physicians as well as practitioners in 37 additional therapies, including acupuncture, infant massage, homeopathy, nutrition counseling, and Ayurvedic medicine.


The clinical diagnosis of acute deep thrombophlebitis of the lower extremities is notoriously grossly inaccurate, even in experienced hands. Phleborheography (PRG) is one of the noninvasive diagnostic methods developed to make diagnosis accurate, noninvasive, and easily reproducible. The records of the first 272 patients studied by this method at South Fulton Hospital were examined, beginning June 1977 and ending August 1979. In those patients who had PRG and radiologic phlebography, the two methods were compared. Phlebography was considered as the standard for comparison. There were 36 patients who had both studies performed. Of the 36 patients studied, the PRG and the x-ray studies agreed in 34. Both were normal in 21 patients; and in 13 patients both were abnormal and in agreement. The studies did not agree in two of the 36 patients. There were none where the PRG was normal and the x-ray abnormal, and two where the PRG was abnormal and the x-ray normal. The diagnostic accuracy of a normal PRG in this study was 100 per cent, with no false-negatives. There were two false-positives with an accuracy of 87 per cent. The overall accuracy was 94 per cent. There were no complications.


The diversity of eutherian reproductive strategies has led to variation in many traits, such as number of offspring, age of reproductive maturity, and gestation length. While reproductive trait variation has been extensively investigated and is well established in mammals, the genetic loci contributing to this variation remain largely unknown. The domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris is a powerful model for studies of the genetics of inherited disease due to its unique history of domestication. To gain insight into the genetic basis of reproductive traits across domestic dog breeds, we collected phenotypic data for four traits - cesarean section rate (n = 97 breeds), litter size (n = 60), stillbirth rate (n = 57), and gestation length (n = 23) - from primary literature and breeders9 handbooks. By matching our phenotypic data to genomic data from the Cornell Veterinary Biobank, we performed genome wide association analyses for these four reproductive traits, using body mass and kinship among breeds as co-variates. We identified 14 genome-wide significant associations between these traits and genetic loci, including variants near CACNA2D3 with gestation length, MSRB3 with litter size, SMOC2 with cesarean section rate, MITF with litter size and still birth rate, KRT71 with cesarean section rate, litter size, and stillbirth rate, and HTR2C with stillbirth rate. Some of these loci, such as CACNA2D3 and MSRB3, have been previously implicated in human reproductive pathologies. Many of the variants that we identified have been previously associated with domestication-related traits, including brachycephaly (SMOC2), coat color (MITF), coat curl (KRT71), and tameness (HTR2C). These results raise the hypothesis that the artificial selection that gave rise to dog breeds also shaped the observed variation in their reproductive traits. Overall, our work establishes the domestic dog as a system for studying the genetics of reproductive biology and disease.


The subject of this paper is to consider internal migration phenomena in Poland in the years 2008-2011 with application of the gravity model. The period of time covers world financial and economic crisis which hinders economic growth in Poland and impedes internal migration flows. In the investigation 16 Polish voivodships were considered. The values of migration flows (for a permanent residence), related to inter- and intraregional flows constitute a dependent variable. As explanatory variables GDP per capita and registered unemployment rate, for which separate gravity models were specified, including also geographical distance, were selected. Estimation results provide an evaluation of an intensity and direction influence of explanatory variables on migration phenomena. Voivodships about relatively good economic situation are the centres of population inflow (particularly from neighbouring regions) and their net migration is positive. Territorial mobility of population of poor regions is very low.


Abstract In the scope of using Halticoptera arduine (Walker; Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) in a classical biological control program in East Africa, laboratory bioassays were conducted to evaluate the acceptability and suitability of the three economically important Liriomyza leafminer species to the exotic parasitoid. Searching time, number of oviposition attempts, F1 parasitoid developmental period, parasitism rates, sex ratio, host mortality, and body size indices were assessed. H. arduine parasitized and developed successfully in the three Liriomyza species reported in East Africa. Female parasitoids took on average between 10.45 ± 0.83 to 15.80 ± 0.91 (means ± SE) seconds to encounter their first host and made significantly more oviposition attempts on Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard; Diptera: Agromyzidae) than Liriomyza sativae (Blanchard; Diptera: Agromyzidae) and Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess; Diptera: Agromyzidae) (P = 0.0006). Parasitoid development period from egg to adult ranged between 19.32 ± 0.96 and 22.86 ± 0.27 d. Parasitism rate ranged from 27.96 ± 3.86 to 44.10 ± 4.56 in the three host species and was significantly higher in L. huidobrensis than in L. sativae (P = 0.0397). H. arduine did not induce significant nonreproductive host mortality in any of the three Liriomyza hosts. A female-biased parasitoid sex ratio was observed in L. huidobrensis, a balanced sex ratio in L. sativae and a male-biased in L. trifolii. Parasitoids progeny were significantly larger on L. huidobrensis for both tibia and wing length than L. sativae and L. trifolii (P = 0.0109 and P = 0.0192, respectively). The implication for the environmentally friendly management of Liriomyza leafminers in East Africa is discussed.


Using information about the channel at the transmitter can improve the performance of multiinput multioutput (MIMO) communication systems. When perfect channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter, data can be multiplexed and optimized over independent spatial channels. However, when the available channel information is imperfect or partial, crosstalk between the spatial channels is inevitable, complicating the design of the transmitted data. This paper presents a novel practical bit and power loading algorithm, spatial loading based on incomplete channel estimates (SLICE), that enables the use of partial CSI for spatial multiplexing. An approximation for the bit error rate (BER) of the spatial channels is derived that facilitates the loading. Numerical experiments demonstrate performance improvements compared with methods that do not consider the partial information available


Improving drug solubility is necessary for formulations of poorly water-soluble drugs, especially for oral administration. Amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to improve the physical stability and solubility of drugs. Therefore, this study aims to characterize interaction between a drug and polymer in ASD, as well as evaluate the impact on the physical stability and dissolution of alpha-mangostin (AM). AM was used as a model of a poorly water-soluble drug, while polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and eudragit were used as polymers. The amorphization of AM-eudragit and AM-PVP was confirmed as having a halo pattern with powder X-ray diffraction measurements and the absence of an AM melting peak in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve. The solubility of amorphous AM increased in the presence of either eudragit or PVP due to amorphization and interactions of AM-polymer. Furthermore, FT-IR spectroscopy and in silico studies revealed hydrogen bond interactions between the carbonyl group of AM and the proton of eudragit as well as PVP. AM-eudragit with a ratio of 1:1 recrystallized after 7 days of storage at 25 °C and 90% RH, while the AM-PVP 1:4 and 1:10 samples retained the X-ray halo patterns, even under humid conditions. In a dissolution test, the presence of polymer in ASD significantly improved the dissolution profile due to the intermolecular interaction of AM-polymer. AM-eudragit 1:4 maintained AM supersaturation for a longer time compared to the 1:1 sample. However, a high supersaturation was not achieved in AM-PVP 1:10 due to the formation of large agglomerations, leading to a slow dissolution rate. Based on the results, interaction of AM-polymer in ASD can significantly improve the pharmaceutical properties of AM including the physical stability and dissolution.


Bioassay-guided fractionation of the chloroform-soluble extract of the leaves of Vitex negundo led to the isolation of the known flavone vitexicarpin (1), which exhibited broad cytotoxicity in a human cancer cell line panel. In an attempt to increase the cytotoxic potency of 1, a series of acylation reactions was performed on this compound to obtain its methylated (2), acetylated (3), and six new acylated (4-9) derivatives. Compound 9, the previously unreported 5,3'-dihexanoyloxy-3,6,7,4'-tetramethoxyflavone, showed comparative cytotoxic potency to compound 1 and was selected for further evaluation. However, this compound was found to be inactive when evaluated in the in vivo hollow fiber assay with Lu1, KB, and LNCaP cells at the highest dose (40 mg/kg/body weight) tested, and in the in vivo P-388 leukemia model (135 mg/kg), using the ip administration route.


Intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes express the &agr; E subunit of integrin &agr;E&bgr;7, which is detected by antibodies to CD103. Accordingly, within T-cell neoplasms, CD103 reactivity has most frequently been reported in enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphomas, which are postulated to arise from intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes. However, prior studies of CD103 expression in T-cell neoplasms have been limited by the requirement for fresh or frozen tissue, given the historic lack of an antibody to CD103 for use in paraffin-embedded sections. Thus, a thorough assessment of CD103 expression in a broad spectrum of T-cell neoplasms as categorized by the current classification system has not yet been performed. This study uses a newly described antibody to define the profile of CD103 immunoreactivity in paraffin sections of a wide variety of T-cell neoplasms (184 cases). Overall, 22 T-cell neoplasms (12%) were CD103 positive, including 7 of 15 gastrointestinal lymphomas (3.8% of total cases; 46% of gastrointestinal cases). In intestinal cases, CD103 positivity did not correlate with morphology, presence or absence of enteropathy, or immunohistochemical profile. A history of celiac disease was not documented in any case. Frequent but inconsistent reactivity was also noted for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma with 4 of 10 cases (40%) positive. In the remaining T-cell neoplasms representing most entities within the current World Health Organization classification, CD103 reactivity was sporadically observed in 11 of 159 cases (6.9%). CD103 positivity is an unusual feature in T-cell neoplasms and tends to occur in gastrointestinal lymphomas and adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma but is not a consistent characteristic of these neoplasms.


Most patients with multiple myeloma treated with current therapies, including immunomodulatory drugs, eventually develop relapsed/refractory disease. Clinical activity of lenalidomide relies on degradation of Ikaros and the consequent reduction in IRF4 expression, both required for myeloma cell survival and involved in the regulation of MYC transcription. Thus, we sought to determine the combinational effect of an MYC-interfering therapy with lenalidomide/dexamethasone. We analyzed the potential therapeutic effect of the combination of the BET bromodomain inhibitor CPI203 with the lenalidomide/dexamethasone regimen in myeloma cell lines. CPI203 exerted a dose-dependent cell growth inhibition in cell lines, indeed in lenalidomide/dexamethasone-resistant cells (median response at 0.5 μM: 65.4%), characterized by G1 cell cycle blockade and a concomitant inhibition of MYC and Ikaros signaling. These effects were potentiated by the addition of lenalidomide/dexamethasone. Results were validated in primary plasma cells from patients with multiple myeloma co-cultured with the mesenchymal stromal cell line stromaNKtert. Consistently, the drug combination evoked a 50% reduction in cell proliferation and correlated with basal Ikaros mRNA expression levels (P=0.04). Finally, in a SCID mouse xenotransplant model of myeloma, addition of CPI203 to lenalidomide/dexamethasone decreased tumor burden, evidenced by a lower glucose uptake and increase in the growth arrest marker GADD45B, with simultaneous downregulation of key transcription factors such as MYC, Ikaros and IRF4. Taken together, our data show that the combination of a BET bromodomain inhibitor with a lenalidomide-based regimen may represent a therapeutic approach to improve the response in relapsed/refractory patients with multiple myeloma, even in cases with suboptimal prior response to immunomodulatory drugs.


It was shown that gamma-irradiation of water-ethanol and water-n-propanol solutions of DNA with doses of 10-30 Gy leads to a fall of the specific volume of the macromolecule upon the cooperative transition at a critical concentration of alcohol in solution at which the destroying of water structure by a nonelectrolyte occurs.


Abstract Social power has many facets. This paper aims to illuminate some of these. First of all, it considers the general conceptual framework in which the concept of power is embedded. The author then elaborates on an analysis of the elementary concept of social power resulting in a proposal how to define power. Furthermore, the article deals with complex networks of power relations, namely constellations and structures of power. Another section focuses on some special aspects of the dynamics of power structures. Finally, the author discusses the problem of legitimation of power.


This paper will compare lexical entries of Manhan Tongwen Quanshu(滿漢同文全書, MH) and Daqing Quanshu(大淸全書, DQ) to investigate the features of lexical entries shown in MH. As many scholars have mentioned, these two dictionaries have a lot in common. However, they still show differences in a number of ways. First, aspect of lexical entries show differences; the order of twelve heads(Juwan juwe uju), the item arranging method, the containing standards of lexical entries and the method of Chinese interpretation, etc. Especially we can see the compiler of MH as a person who was well up in Manchu language by examining in the order of twelve heads and the method of Chinese interpretation. And the compiler of MH corrected errors of Chinese interpretation of DQ by referring DQ's. Secondly, the features of the lexical entries are as follows: 1) A considerable number of entries in MH present vowel o in place of vowel ū appears in DQ and other dictionaries. Among them, tango and raho appear fairly regularly. The reason for this phenomena is MH's compiler thought [ọ] which is a phonetic realization of ū as phoneme /o/, and applied it to the notation. 2) MH sometimes shows forms including si in Manchu. This is because /si/ is palatalized in Manchu which MH's compiler was speaking. 3) The floating i and iye appears in MH, and this shows the opposite features to the standard dialect. 4) In terms of grammatical aspect, MH barely uses genitive i, and uses appropriate grammatical markers in sentence entries.


Conduction velocity (CV) of single α‐motor fibers was measured using a combination of microneurogrphic and spike‐triggered averaging techniques on 7 healthy subjects (aged 25 to 42). Two tungsten microelectrodes were inserted percutaneously into the median nerve at the wrist and 4 to 6 cm more proximally. Motor unit activities recorded from thenar muscles during voluntary isometric contraction with a third microelectrode, were isolated with a window discriminator, and used to trigger an averager. CVs were calculated by dividing the interelectrode distance by the conduction time between unitary activities in the proximally and distally averaged neurograms. The CVs of 100 units ranged between 34 and 66 m/s, with the peak at around 50 m/s. The relationship between CVs and recruitment orders was compared within sets of 2 or 3 units recorded simultaneously. Statistical analysis using a χ2 test revealed that slower motor units tended to be recruited earlier than faster units (P < 0.001).


Introduction: Padang City Sanitation Working Group reported that 34.32% of households in Padang City use unsafe latrines with septic tanks that still do not meet the standards which potentially causes the wastewater from the septic tanks to contaminate the water of the wells. This study was conducted to analyse the effects of the septic tank condition on the microbiological quality parameters of the well-water, namely total coliform and Escherichia coli in Koto Tengah District, Padang. Methods: This study uses a quantitative research method. The data were collected by questionnaires, observation, interviews, and laboratory tests. Water sampling was collected by using the purposive sampling method where the water is taken from 20 wells originating from 10 coastal and 10 non-coastal areas. Results and Discussion: Total coliform was found in all samples, while Escherichia coli was found in two samples from coastal and five from non-coastal regions. The septic tank condition had a strong correlation with the total coliform concentration (r= -0.531) and affected the total coliform concentration in the well-water by 30.8%. However, the Escherichia coli concentration was not related and not affected by the condition of the septic tank (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in the concentration of the microbiological parameters in the coastal and non-coastal areas. Conclusion: The microbiological quality of the well-water did not comply with the quality standards to be used as water sources for the community. The total coliform concentration in the well-water was shown to have a close relationship with the septic tank's condition.


Nucleoside monophosphate phosphohydrolases or 5 (cid:1) -nucle-otidases (members of EC 184.108.40.206 and EC 18.104.22.168) dephosphoryl-ate non-cyclic nucleoside monophosphates to nucleosides and inorganic phosphate. Seven human 5 (cid:1) -nucleotidases with different subcellular localization have been cloned (Table I). Sequence comparisons show high homology only between cytosolic 5 (cid:1) -nucleotidase IA (cN-IA) 1 and B and between cytosolic 5 (cid:1) (3 (cid:1) )-deoxynucleotidase (cdN) and mitochondrial 5 (cid:1) (3 (cid:1) )-de-oxynucleotidase (mdN). However, the existence of common mo-tifs suggests a common catalytic mechanism for all intracellular 5 (cid:1) -nucleotidases. Some 5 (cid:1) -nucleotidases are ubiquitous (ecto-5 (cid:1) -nucleotidase (eN), cN-II, cdN, and mdN); others dis-play tissue-specific expression (cN-I and cN-III). Here we summarize recent advances on the structure and cellular functions of the cloned 5 (cid:1) -nucleotidases. We also pro-pose a revised nomenclature, agreed upon with other colleagues active in the nucleotidase field.


Background: The study of functioning of ecosystems is significant with understanding the composition and distribution of plant resources at spatial and temporal scales. For comprehensive plant survey, the traditional methods are not accurate and it's not possible at inaccessible areas. The remote sensing techniques with GIS and GPS are more helpful in acquiring the information in less time with more frequency at multiple altitudes. Objective: This study was proposed a remote sensing, image processing and GIS based an integrated geospatial model for identifying the rare plant resources using DJI Inspire 2 drone images. Methods: The drone images were pre-processed with band alignment, ortho-rectification and mosaicking and then enhanced using histogram equalization technique. The enhanced image was classified and analysed to generate the final distribution map. Results: The perfect zones of rare plant resources were identified from the enhanced image and the supervised classification has resulted accurate grouping of the plant resources. The weighted overlay analysis with soil data provided efficiently categorized the plant resources zones. Conclusion: The developed geospatial model was more efficient method for identification of plant resources. With additional developed remote sensing and image processing techniques, this model can provide automatic detection of plant resources based on spectral reflectance of the plants at different bands. To achieve this, the high resolution multi-spectral drone images are more appropriate. .


Particle beam position and profile monitor based on registration of the light radiated by residual gas atoms is being developed by collaboration JINR – Forschungszentrum Jülich. Proposed device and first experiments have been performed at Nuclotron (JINR) and COSY (FZJ) accelerators are presented in this report.


In this article we reflect on the political power of critical participatory action research (CPAR) with young people, regarding the transformations in micro and macro social plans and the process of knowledge production with the participants. We seek to problematize breakpoints of CPAR in relation to the traditional model of scientific research, considering four procedures: (dis) institutionalization, (dis) disciplining, the meeting between researchers and young people and the production of other possibilities of life. We understand that by considering the meanings produced by young people, recognizing them as agents of their individual and social histories, we are countering the still hegemonic vision of youth as potentially dangerous, irresponsible and depoliticized. The intervention research we advocate establishes an interface with scientific policies for the production of prudent knowledge, based on the intersectional feminist critique and the studies on subalternization processes. We will discuss three studies carried out with young people in different contexts, but similar in terms of their conditions of existence, marked by social exclusion, violence and discrimination of gender, race, place of residence and social class.


Network management on multi-tenant container-based data center has critical impact on performance. Tenants encapsulate applications in containers abstracting away details on hosting infrastructures, and entrust data center management framework with the provisioning of network Quality-of-Service requirements. In this paper, we propose a network-aware multi-criteria container scheduler to jointly process containers and network requirements. We introduce a new Mixed Integer Linear Programming formulation for network-aware scheduling encompassing both tenants and providers metrics. We describe two GPU-accelerated modules to address the complexity barrier of the problem and efficiently process scheduling requests. Our experiments show that our scheduling approach accounting for both network and containers outperforms traditional algorithms used by containers orchestrators.


The dust dynamics in an aspiration shelter equipped with various thin mechanical screens is considered. To calculate the trajectories of dust particles, the differential equation of their motion was used, the velocity field of the air flow was calculated by the method of boundary integral equations. The influence of different mechanical screens on the maximum diameter of dust particles is determined. It is shown that when using curved mechanical screens it is possible to significantly reduce dust extraction in the suction network.


This paper presents a learning environment where a mining algorithm is used to learn patterns of interaction with the user and to represent these patterns in a scheme called item descriptors. The learning environment keeps theoretical information about subjects, as well as tools and exercises where the student can put into practice the knowledge gained. One of the main purposes of the project is to stimulate collaborative learning through the interaction of students with different levels of knowledge. The students' actions, as well as their interactions, are monitored by the system and used to find patterns that can guide the search for students that may play the role of a tutor. Such patterns are found with a particular learning algorithm and represented in item descriptors. The paper presents the educational environment, the representation mechanism and learning algorithm used to mine social-affective data in order to create a recommendation model of tutors. Ketwords — Collaboration, Learning Environment, Recommender Systems, Social-Affective Data.


Temperature measurement is becoming increasingly important in integrated circuits and microsystems; nevertheless, existing techniques for the integration of high accuracy, high precision temperature sensors are not optimal for deep sub-micron CMOS processes. Here we describe a low voltage, low power, compact, high accuracy, high precision temperature sensor for deep sub-micron CMOS systems; our approach takes advantage of charge balancing and charge sharing for low current consumption, does not use resistors for compactness, and takes advantage of both PTAT and autozero techniques for high accuracy and high precision; the circuit can be operated at low supply voltages. As a proof of concept, we report transistor level simulations in a standard 0.13 mum process; the sensor only sinks about 6 muA from a 1.2 V supply voltage, achieving a power dissipation as low as 7.2 muW.


In this study the impact of the use of the terms complementary medicine and alternative medicine on participants' responses to surveys about the use of, and beliefs about, these therapies was explored. Two identical surveys were prepared, one of which referred to alternative medicines and the other which referred to complementary medicine. A telephone survey was used to gather responses from a random sample of individuals living in 3 geographically close metropolitan cities in Australia. Respondents were those aged over 18 years who consented to participate in the study. Forty five percent of respondents indicated using complementary medicines while 34% used alternative medicine; similarly 40% had visited a complementary medicine practitioner while 29% had visited an alternative medicine practitioner. However neither of these comparisons was statistically significant. Questions related to beliefs about these therapies, sources of information and benefits for specific conditions showed few, if any, differences between the two groups. While the results of this study do not demonstrate that there are significant differences in responses to questionnaires depending on whether the terms complementary medicine or alternative medicine are used, the data does suggest that this is an area that requires more exploration.


The hydrolysis of BANA by subgingival plaque samples is associated with the presence of either Treponema denticola, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and/or Bacteroides forsythus. A protocol in which pure cultures were incubated for 15 min at 55 degrees C detected about 5 x 10(5) CFU of P. gingivalis and 1 x 10(6) CFU of T. denticola. Clinical studies indicated that the BANA test in this configuration will detect about 10(4) organisms in vivo as compared with the 10(5) to 10(6) organisms found with in vitro grown cells. The BANA test can be made less sensitive by decreasing the time and/or temperature of incubation, which could improve the specificity of the test. In the present study we determined the incubation parameters that would give optimal specificity when the plaque samples were removed from sites of gingival health. Twenty-six approximal plaque samples were taken from each of 90 clinically healthy subjects and incubated with the BANA substrate on PerioScan cards (Oral-B Laboratories) for 5 and 15 min at 35 degrees, 45 degrees, and 55 degrees C. Subjects were randomly assigned to the various temperatures. Wooden toothpicks were inserted interproximally in all sites anterior to distal of the first molars and then each side of the toothpick was wiped onto the PerioScan card. The specificity of the BANA test relative to clinical health was 96% when the cards were incubated for 5 min at 35 degrees C, but decreased to 50-70% when the cards were incubated for 15 min at 35 degrees C or for 5 and 15 min at 45 degrees C and 55 degrees C.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Using the whole-cell clamp technique, we show that L-type calcium channels are activated in early sea urchin blastomeres during M-phase and subsequently inactivated in S-phase. This cyclical channel behaviour occurs in the absence of the nucleus suggesting cytoplasmic regulation independent of the centrosome cycle. Puromycin at 100–400 micromolar does not prevent inactivation of the current showing that this phase, at least, does not require protein synthesis. Cytochalasin B at 2 microgram/ml inhibits the cyclical activity in both M and S phases, while 100 microgram/ml of colchicine inactivates the L-type current in M-phase and activates a large T-type calcium current in S-phase, suggesting that channel behaviour is regulated by cytoskeletal elements. Since, fragmentation experiments show the calcium channels to be clustered in the apical membrane, and some L-type calcium channel inhibitors induced a significant delay in the cell cycle, the channel may play a role in regulating cytokinesis possibly by contributing to local intracellular calcium gradients.


Analytical Verilog-A compatible 2D model including quantum short channel effects and confinement for the potential, threshold voltage and the carrier charge sheet density for symmetrical lightly doped double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) is developed. The proposed models are not only applicable to ultra-scaled devices but they have also been derived from 2D Poisson and 1D Schrodinger equations including 2D electrostatics, in order to incorporate quantum mechanical effects. Electron and hole quasi-Fermi potential effects were considered. The models are continuous and have been verified by comparison with COMSOL and BALMOS numerical simulations for channel lengths down to 7 nm at 1 nm oxide thicknesses; very good agreement within ±5% has been observed for silicon thicknesses down to 3 nm.


Cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the main causes of mortality and permanent disability in patients. Chronic brain ischemia (CBI) is a slowly progressive dysfunction of the brain with gradually increasing defects in its functioning, which is accompanied by energy deficiency. Early use of energy correctors, one of the representatives of which is ethylmethylhydroxypyridine succinate (EMHPS), is recommended to preserve the viability of nervous tissue in patients with CBI. A number of experimental, clinical, and randomized studies have shown that medicinal preparation (MP) containing EMHPS improve brain metabolism and blood supply, improve microcirculation, and reduce platelet aggregation. The main mechanisms of action are: antioxidant and membranotropic effects, the ability to reduce glutamate excitotoxicity, modulate the functioning of receptors and membrane-bound enzymes, restore neurotransmitter balance, and increase the energy status of the cell. The liberal MP EMHPS included in the standards of medical care for patients with stroke, angina pectoris, acute myocardial infarction. The presented data from the results of numerous studies and our own observation indicate that it is possible to correct cognitive, motor, coordination, and adaptive capabilities while taking EMGPS. Used for today the scheme of appointment of EMHPS in patients with CBI: starting from 500 mg once a day intravenously (i/v) in drip for 14 days, followed by a transition to oral reception (o/r) at a dose of 250 mg 3 times a day, a course of 60 days.


The article is devoted to the history of formation, development and functioning of military counterintelligence in the Murmansk region during 1917-1920. On the basis of concrete historical material the author shows the main principles of local counterespionage bodies staffing and their employees' financial position.


One of the main problems of both synchronous and asynchronous EEG-based BCIs is the need of an initial calibration phase before the system can be used. This phase is necessary due to the high non-stationarity of the EEG, since it changes between sessions and users. The calibration limits the BCI systems to scenarios where the outputs are very controlled, and makes these systems non-friendly and exhausting for the users. Although it has been studied how to reduce calibration time for asynchronous signals, it is still an open issue for event- related potentials. Here, we analyze the differences between users for single-trial error-related potentials, and propose the design of classifiers based on inter-subject features to either remove or minimize the calibration time. The results show that it is possible to have a classifier with a high performance from the beginning of the experiment, which is able to adapt itself without the user noticing.


It is well known that there is a close association between allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma, and AR is a strong risk factor for the onset of asthma. AR duration is significantly associated with a possible bronchial involvement. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of possible spirometric abnormalities and bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR) in a large group of patients with recent onset of AR.


We report a multiplex technique for identification of single fluorescent molecules in a flowing sample stream by correlated measurement of single-molecule fluorescence burst size and intraburst fluorescence decay rate. These quantities were measured simultaneously for single fluorescent molecules in a flowing sample stream containing a dilute mixture of fluorescent species:  Rhodamine 6G and tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate. Using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of our experiment, we calculate single-molecule detection efficiencies and confidence levels for identification of these species and identify major sources of error for single-molecule identification. The technique reported here is applicable to distinguishing between fluorophores with similar spectroscopic properties and requires only a single excitation wavelength and single fluorescence emission detection channel.


Recent research has advanced two degree-of-freedom (DoF), simultaneous, independent and proportional control of hand-wrist prostheses using surface electromyogram signals from remnant muscles as the control input. We evaluated two such regression-based controllers, along with conventional, sequential two-site control with co-contraction mode switching (SeqCon), in box-block, refined-clothespin and door-knob tasks, on 10 able-bodied and 4 limb-absent subjects. Subjects operated a commercial hand and wrist using a socket bypass harness. One 2-DoF controller (DirCon) related the intuitive hand actions of open-close and pronation-supination to the associated prosthesis hand-wrist actions, respectively. The other (MapCon) mapped myoelectrically more distinct, but less intuitive, actions of wrist flexion-extension and ulnar-radial deviation. Each 2-DoF controller was calibrated from separate 90 s calibration contractions. SeqCon performed better statistically than MapCon in the predominantly 1-DoF box-block task (>20 blocks/minute vs. 8–18 blocks/minute, on average). In this task, SeqCon likely benefited from an ability to easily focus on 1-DoF and not inadvertently trigger co-contraction for mode switching. The remaining two tasks require 2-DoFs, and both 2-DoF controllers each performed better (factor of 2–4) than SeqCon. We also compared the use of 12 vs. 6 optimally-selected EMG electrodes as inputs, finding no statistical difference. Overall, we provide further evidence of the benefits of regression-based EMG prosthesis control of 2-DoFs in the hand-wrist.


This research explored the relationship between job satisfaction and job-related stress with turnover intention amongst the employees of Sime Darby Motor group of companies. It was conducted to achieve two main objectives: (i) to investigate the influence of job satisfaction on employees' intention to leave; and (ii) to investigate the influence of job-related stress on employees' intention to leave. This research involved the distribution of questionnaires to randomly-selected employees in the head office as well as seven other companies and their branches across Malaysia in the month of April 2016. The study used instruments based on Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) to measure job satisfaction, adaptation of Tate, Whatley and Clugston (1997) to measure job-related stress and adaptation of Mobley, Horner and Hollingsworth (1978) to measure intention to leave. All data have been processed using the SPSS v22. The results of factor analysis, correlation analysis and subsequent regression analysis show that self-actualisation, rewards and engagement factors of job satisfaction as well as role-clarity and work-family conflict factors of job-related stress have significant relationship to intention to leave. Thus the study recommends that both job satisfaction and job-related stress have significance influence on employee's intention to leave. For future research, it is suggested to compare the predictive validity of the model across wider population and different industries. The study can be improved by exploring moderating effects of generational cohorts in order to generalize a more reliable results.


This study aims to develop a better understanding of how online health community (OHC) members with different health literacy (HL) levels benefit from their participation, through the analysis and comparison of their resource integration (RI) processes. It investigates through a RI lens how the vulnerability of community members – captured as their level of HL – affects the benefits they derive from participation.,Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to investigate the effects of healthcare service users' vulnerability. Data were collected about their profiles and levels of HL. Furthermore, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted.,The study demonstrates how low levels of HL act as a barrier to the integration of available online health resources. Participation in OHCs appears less beneficial for vulnerable users. Three types of benefits were identified at the individual level, namely, psychological quality-of-life, physical quality-of-life and learning. Benefits identified at the community level were: content generation and participation in the development of the community.,This study has implications for the understanding of how service users' activities affect their own outcomes and how the vulnerability of users could be anticipated and considered in the design of the community.


A case is reported of a transfusion syndrome in a triplet pregnancy with intrauterine death of two of the fetuses. This is an exceptional occurrence in a triplet pregnancy and raises the problem of the management of multiple pregnancies associated with the death of one or more of the fetuses. The problem of the method of delivery and the complications arising in triplet dizygotic pregnancies is discussed.


Heavy-duty trucks are in idle operation during long periods of time, providing the vehicles with electricity via the alternator at standstill. Idling trucks contribute to large amounts of emissions and high fuel consumption as a result of the low efficiency from fuel to electricity. Truck manufacturers are working to develop equipment using auxiliary power units to supply the trucks with electricity, which operate independently of the main engine. Fuel cell-based auxiliary power units could offer high efficiencies and low noise and vibrations. The hydrogen required for the fuel cell can be generated in an onboard fuel reformer. This thesis is devoted to hydrogen generation from dimethyl ether, DME, by autothermal reforming focusing on the application of fuel cell auxiliary power units. In the search for alternative fuels, DME has lately been identified as a promising diesel substitute. The first part of the thesis gives an introduction to the field of DME reforming with a literature survey of recent studies within the area. Included are also results from thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. In the following parts of the thesis, experimental studies on autothermal reforming of DME are presented. A reformer constructed to generate hydrogen to feed a 5 kWe polymer electrolyte fuel cell is evaluated with emphasis on trying to work close to a practically viable process, i.e. without external heating and using gas mixtures resembling real conditions. Additional experiments have been conducted to investigate the use of catalytic oxidation of dimethyl ether as a heat source during startup. The results of these studies are presented in Paper I. In the second experimental study of this thesis, which is presented in Paper II, Pd-based monolithic catalysts are evaluated at small scale for use in autothermal reforming of DME. A screening of various catalyst materials has been performed followed by a study of the influence on the product composition of varying operating parameters such as oxygen-to-DME ratio, steam-to-DME ratio, and temperature.


For the electrochemical reduction of CO2, CO is a crucial single-carbon product and a major intermediate to multicarbon products. Direct dimerization of CO is the most charming channel to C2 products, although the corresponding kinetic energy barrier causes a huge gap compared with other alternative pathways. The effective CO migration among multiple catalytic sites is predominant but has not been fully explored during the C-C bond formation and further protonation processes. Herein, the entirely planar global-minimum Ni2B5 monolayer with multikinds of catalytic sites is selected as an appropriate instance, on which CO can effectively migrate among different types of sites with the highest barrier of 0.64 eV. Most importantly, the computed ultralow barrier of direct *CO dimerization (0.17 eV), the limiting potentials for CH2CH2 (-0.13 V), and CH3CH2OH (-0.17 V) reach the optimal value until now, which all happen on the p-p type of dual-CO adsorption configurations after CO migration. Moreover, the hydrogen reduction side reaction is uncompetitive with the CO electrochemical reduction on all possible adsorption sites. This study demonstrates the significance of CO migration and opens a new avenue for CO reduction to high-density multicarbon products on the surface of catalysts possessing multikinds of catalytic sites.


This paper reveals the linguistic phenomenon of the Qur'an with the central theme of forms of communication in Surah as-Syu'ara'. The problems studied include stylistics from aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics in verses relating to forms of communication, which are limited to surah ash-Syu'ara'. In Surah ash-syu'ara' there are several verses that contain several communisms, so the author is interested in analyzing using stylistics to reveal the linguistic phenomena of these verses. This paper is expected to be a reference for the development of other linguistic studies that take the same object, namely the Qur'an. This writing proves and shows that there is a spectacular value charge in the language of the Qur'an which is known as the content of i'jaz al-Qur'an. The theory used is the stylistic theory which the author limits to only three things: preference for lafadz, preference for sentences or the preferred meaning in a sentence, and deviations or deviations from the general rules of grammar. the object of the study is the construction of various forms of communication in the surah ash-Syu'ara'.


A novel supersolid phase is predicted for an ensemble of Rydberg atoms in the dipole-blockade regime, interacting via a repulsive dipolar potential softened at short distances. Using exact numerical techniques, we study the low-temperature phase diagram of this system, and observe an intriguing phase consisting of a crystal of mesoscopic superfluid droplets. At low temperature, phase coherence throughout the whole system, and the ensuing bulk superfluidity, are established through tunnelling of identical particles between neighboring droplets.


The authors evaluated the reliability of admission history for assessing risk for HIV infection in alcoholic inpatients. Discard blood specimens were used and correlated with risk factors for HIV obtained from the admission record. Of 300 admissions, 31 (10.4%) tested seropositive for HIV. Of these 31 HIV-infected inpatients, 11 (35–5%) had no documented risk factors. Although history of injection drug use was associated with HIV infection (adjusted odds ratio = 506; P< 0.0001), history of male sex with males, crack-cocaine use, and heterosexual risk behaviors did not predict HIV seropositivity. Admission history was not reliable for assessing risk for HIV infection among inpatients on our alcohol rehabilitation unit.


Human face is an integral part for delivering an amount of nonverbal information to facilitate communication. One of the important is human age, but accurately extracting human age from his face is not easy. Facial aging process is different on early growth (child to adult) and adult aging (adult to senior). On early growth and development of the face, from birth to adulthood, the greatest change is the shape change. But on adult aging the most significant change is on the skin (textural change), the shape change still continue but much less dramatic compared to early growth. In our research we develop a two stage facial age classification system to classify human age into age classes. This paper is the first part of our two stage facial age classification. In this paper we develop facial age classification system for the early growth stage, we classify human age into six classes which are 0-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-10, 11-16, and 17+. Because the early growth have grater impact on shape change, we only use geometrical feature to classify the human face. We use Haar-like cascade to perform the face detection and then we use Active Shape Model to extract the geometrical features on human face. For the classifier we use Support Vector Machine(SVM) classifier with Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel. This system is developed with OpenCV library and C++ language. The results of classification based on geometrical features achieved an accuracy rate of 71.25% using FG-NET dataset. © 2015 Published by ISICO and/or peer-review under responsibility of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember


Brain metastasis from cervical carcinoma is rare with only about 100 cases documented in the literature and an incidence among cervical carcinoma patients of 0.6%. The median interval between diagnosis of cervical carcinoma and brain metastases is 18 months. The brain can be the only site of distant metastasis of cervical carcinoma ("isolated brain metastases") (46.8%) or brain metastasis can be part of a disseminated cervical carcinoma involving also other sites of the body (53.2%). Brain metastasis of cervical carcinoma affects most often the cerebrum (73%) and can be either single (one metastasis) (50.6%) or multiple (> or = two metastases) (49.4%). Treatment of brain metastases has evolved over the years from whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) alone to multimodal therapy including surgical resection (craniotomy) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) followed by WBRT +/- chemotherapy. The median overall survival after diagnosis of brain metastases is four months; however, a better survival is achieved with multimodal therapy (craniotomy followed by WBRT) compared to craniotomy alone or WBRT alone. The worst survival is observed in patients with no treatment. Although based on a very small number of patients, the best survival is noticed in patients having SRS either alone or in combination with other treatment modality.


Jeune syndrome is a rare autosomal-recessive skeletal disorder. Anesthetic management of these patients is often difficult because of thoracic and lung hypoplasia. A 5-month-old boy with Jeune syndrome was scheduled to undergo a tracheotomy. Despite 5-minute preoxygenation with continuous positive airway pressure, the patient's oxygen saturation rapidly dropped during the induction of anesthesia. The continuous positive airway pressure should have been titrated to effective tidal volume during preoxygenation to recruit the patient's functional residual capacity and to prevent desaturation. During tracheotomy, volume-controlled ventilation with a high respiratory rate and sufficient inspiratory time effectively improved the patient's respiratory status.


Particle plugging of wells in the near wellbore region can have an important influence on the initiation and propagation of thermally and hydraulically induced fractures during water injection. Fracturing in turn can significantly influence the rate of injectivity decline in water injection wells. Development of models that elucidate the role of plugging of the fracture face and surrounding formation on the growth of fractures, and the resulting injectivity behavior, is an important research need We present a model to predict the initiation and growth of a fracture in the near wellbore region due to the combined influence of injection pressure, changes in pore pressure, thermal stresses due to the injection of cold water, and an additional pressure drop due to particulate plugging. Fracture growth and fracture face plugging are modeled as dynamically coupled phenomena. The results indicate that wellbore plugging can significantly affect the initiation of a fracture. Further, plugging of the fracture face itself can have a major impact on the growth of the fracture, and the overall injectivity of the well. It is found that at a given injection rate, an increase in plugging leads to significant increases in fracture half-length. Results also demonstrate that a longer fracture does not necessarily imply an increase in injectivity, if there is significant permeability impairment due to plugging of the fracture face. The effectiveness of fracturing as a well-stimulation mechanism can be seriously diminished due to fracture face plugging in injection wells.


ABSTRACT Activated carbonaceous were prepared from high-carbon, abandoned straw biomass. With hydrogen sulfide gas as the target pollutant, single factor experiments were employed to assess the effects of activator type, activation temperature, activation time, and liquid-material ratio on the adsorption performance of the prepared carbonaceous adsorbent. The materials were characterized using elemental analysis, SEM, FTIR, and BET. The results showed -OH, -CH-, and -C = O groups exist on the surface of the prepared adsorbent, specific surface area can reach 1104.84 m2•g−1, total pore volume can reach 0.261 cm3•g−1 and, where the pore volume is greater than 80%, well-developed pore structures were present that facilitated adsorption. The experimental results showed the adsorption time could reach 198 min with optimal ZnCl2 activator concentration (30%), carbonization temperature (550°C), and liquid-to-material ratio (3:1). Compared with the existing activated carbon adsorbents, the adsorption effects and preparation cost of this absorbent are advantageous, and the absorbent has prospects for broad market application. Implications Activated carbons were prepared from high-carbon, abandoned straw biomass. With hydrogen sulfide gas as the target pollutant, single factor experiments were employed to assess the effects of activator type, activation temperature, activation time, and liquid-material ratio on the adsorption performance of the prepared carbonaceous adsorbent. The materials were characterized using elemental analysis, SEM, FTIR, and BET. Compared with the existing activated carbon adsorbents, the adsorption effects and preparation cost of this absorbent are advantageous, and the absorbent has prospects for broad market application.


Our hospital is the designated treatment base for intractable neurological diseases in the Kumamoto Prefecture. It is located in the center of the prefecture where the major 7.3-magnitude Kumamoto earthquake was recorded in 2016. In order to examine whether this earthquake affected the clinical symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease in this hospital, we investigated outpatients examined up to 4 weeks after the earthquake. The subjects were 26 consecutive patients without any changes in anti-Parkinson's disease treatment or their attending physician during the examination period. All of the items in Part III of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), which is a clinician-scored scale for monitoring and evaluating motor function, were confirmed with the subjects before and after the earthquakes. After the earthquakes, worsened symptoms were found in 7 patients and 7 patients felt better. On the UPDRS, worsened symptoms were most commonly found among the items examining "muscle rigidity" and "slowness of movement and decreased movement" among the 7 patients with exacerbated symptoms. After the earthquake, clinical symptoms worsened significantly in women (P = 0.0188), patients with mild symptoms (P = 0.0111), and those who suffered a high degree of personal loss, such as those whose homes were damaged, who were forced to take refuge, or who had to sleep in their car (P = 0.0184). The mental and emotional burden due to the earthquake might be particularly high in the group of patients with worsened symptoms, suggestive of a relationship between stress and the exacerbation of parkinsonian symptoms.