Hydroquinone modified hyper-cross-linked resin (HJ-Y15) was prepared from macroporous crosslinked chloromethylated polystyrene and the adsorption behaviors of HJ-Y15 for salicylic acid were studied from aqueous solution. The results indicated that the surface of HJ-Y15 was modified by formaldehyde carbonyl, quinone carbonyl, and phenolic hydroxyl groups. Freundlich model was suitable for characterizing the isotherms and the adsorption was shown to be an exothermic, spontaneous, and more ordered process. The pseudosecond-order rate equation was appropriate for describing the kinetic curves and the intraparticle diffusion was the rate-controlling step. Hydrogen bonding between formaldehyde carbonyl groups of HJ-Y15 and carboxyl groups of salicylic acid was one of the primary driving forces for the adsorption. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


Background The Sunnybrook facial grading scale is a comprehensive scale for the evaluation of facial paralysis patients. Its results greatly depend on subjective input. This study aimed to develop and validate an automated Sunnybrook facial grading scale (SBface) to more objectively assess disfigurement due to facial paralysis. Methods An application compatible with iOS version 11.0 and up was developed. The software automatically detected facial features in standardized photographs and generated scores following the Sunnybrook facial grading scale. Photographic data from 30 unilateral facial paralysis patients were randomly sampled for validation. Intrarater reliability was tested by conducting two identical tests at a 2-week interval. Interrater reliability was tested between the software and three facial nerve clinicians. Results A beta version of the SBface application was tested. Intrarater reliability showed excellent congruence between the two tests. Moderate to strong positive correlations were found between the software and an otolaryngologist, including the total scores of the three individual software domains and composite scores. However, 74.4% (29/39) of the subdomain items showed low to zero correlation with the human raters (κ<0.2). The correlations between the human raters showed good congruence for most of the total and composite scores, with 10.3% (4/39) of the subdomain items failing to correspond (κ<0.2). Conclusions The SBface application is efficient and accurate for evaluating the degree of facial paralysis based on the Sunnybrook facial grading scale. However, correlations of the software-derived results with those of human raters are limited by the software algorithm and the raters' inconsistency.


Cassava has an important role as a potential caloric source for the community. Cassava has been known as a plant with wide range adaptability, thus it is very potential to be cultivated in areas with highly variated agro-ecological conditions such as temperate regions, marginal land, and dryland. This research aimed to study the chemical properties of suboptimal dryland in Panji, Kendit and Kapongan Subdistrict, Situbondo Regency for the development of cassava cultivation. The research was carried out by doing surveys and taking soil samples of suboptimal dryland in Subdistricts of Panji, Kendit, and Kapongan. Each subdistrict had 5 locations chosen as site obtaining soil samples. The soil samples were taken at a depth of 20 cm, each soil sample was put into a plastic clip, then was labeled and brought to the Soil Fertility Laboratory for analysis of soil chemical properties. The soil chemical properties analyzed were pH H2O, cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic carbon, total Nitrogen, available Phosphate, and available Kalium. The results showed that the organic carbon, total Nitrogen, and available Phosphate became a limiting factor which belonged to the category of very low to low, with organic carbon of 0.801.44%, total Nitrogen of 0.12-0.17% and available Phosphate of 15.2115.97 ppm. Nevertheless, the soil chemical properties of suboptimal dryland are quite suitable for cassava, however other inputs are needed to the soil by fertilizing the organic matter, Nitrogen, and Phosphate.


The complexes of various Rh precusors with ferrocenyl chiral ligand (R,S)-Cy2PF-PPh2 were found effective catalysts for the asymmetric hydroalkynylation reaction of norbornadiene derivatives. When RhCl3·3H2O was employed, good yields (up to 98%) and high enantioselectivities (up to >99.9% ee) could be obtained for the reactions of a broad scope of substrates.


Modern systems of intelligent sensors commonly use radio data transmission. Hand movement acquisition with the use of inertial sensors requires the processing and transmission of a relatively large amount of data, which may be associated with a significant load on the network structure. Network traffic limitation, without losing the quality of monitoring parameters from the sensor system, is therefore important for the functioning of the radio network which integrates both the teletransmission sensor system and the data acquisition server. The paper presents a wearable solution for hand movement acquisition, which uses data transmission in the Wi-Fi standard and contains 16 MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) sensors. An adaptive algorithm to control radio data transmission for the sensor system has been proposed. The algorithm implemented in the embedded system controls the change of the frame length, the length of the transmission frame and the frequency of its sending, which reduces the load on the network router. The use of the algorithm makes it possible to reduce the power consumption by the sensor system by up to 19.9% and to limit the number of data transferred by up to about 91.6%, without losing the quality of the monitored signal. The data analysis showed no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) between the signal reconstructed from the complete data and processed by the algorithm.


This article discusses the accounts of a group of upper-middle-class white men of Rio de Janeiro about their sexual access to domestic workers (empregada) during their adolescence. After a brief discussion of the specific characteristics of whiteness in Brazil, the interviewees' sexual experiences are discussed in relation to Freyre's description, in Casa-Grande e Senzala, of the sexual relationship of the white slave master's son with the mulata slave. This sexual relationship was recognized by the interviewees as a symbolically dense site for understanding their own experiences with empregadas even if the empregada's skin color is considered less relevant than her class. I argue that these sexual relationships contribute to shaping the interviewees' experiences of whiteness. In particular, interviewees' silence about empregadas' skin color is also a silence about their own skin color and part of the larger silence surrounding whiteness understood as a site of class and color privilege.


A critical component in the conduct of a prenatal developmental toxicity study is the evaluation of fetal skeletal development. As the developing rodent fetus is typically evaluated at gestation day 20, at a time when ossification of the skeleton is incomplete, a thorough assessment of skeletal development would include both ossified and cartilaginous structures. Current methods to double-stain the fetal skeleton using Alizarin Red S and Alcian Blue are typically described for small sample sizes or using time allotments for each processing step that are unsuitable for industry. In an industrial setting, there is a need for an effective means to double-stain fetal skeletons on a large scale (i.e., hundreds of fetuses simultaneously). This article describes a method used in our laboratory to stain both fetal bone and cartilage using solutions and procedures on an industrial scale.


Somatosensory and motor evoked potentials (EPs) have been recorded in 38 patients with cervical spondylosis, documented by MRI. All were symptomatic, 23 presented with myelopathy. Somatosensory evoked potentials were abnormal in 66p.cent as well as motor evoked potentials. The N13 potential, generated by the posterior dorsal horn of the cervical spinal cord, was abnormal in 63p.cent of patients and was the only disorder detected in 12p.cent. Together, somatosensory and motor evoked potentials were abnormal in 82p.cent of patients. There was no correlation between EPs findings and radiological data. Similary, MRI and clinical data were agreeing in only 50p.cent of patients. When a spondylotic myelopathy is suspected, SEPs proved more sensitive to detect somatosensory dysfunctionning than clinical testing and radiological data were discordant with clinical status in 50p.cent of cases. In order to obtain a high sensitivity, both somatosensory and motor evoked potentials should be recorded on all limbs with a special attention to segmental cervical and cervico-medullary responses. EPs data help to identify patients with cervical cord dysfunction and thus contribute to the therapeutic decision for surgery.


For idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) patients with end-stage right heart failure who received maximal medical therapy, balloon atrial septostomy (BAS) is recommended by most guidelines as a palliative therapy or a bridging treatment before lung transplantation. In this report, we described a 32-year-old woman with idiopathic PAH, who received maximal PAH-specific medical treatment, including intravenous prostacyclin, but still suffered from refractory right heart failure. The markedly enlarged right atrium (RA), high mean RA pressure of 23 mmHg, low systemic arterial oxygen saturation of 86% and concomitant pancytopenia all increased the patient's risk for BAS. We used intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) guidance to facilitate trans-septal puncture, and performed graded BAS four times within 7 months to stabilize the patient. Our case showed that with dedicated PAH treatment, an experienced structural heart interventionist and ICE guidance, BAS could be done safely even in a patient in unfavorable clinical and hemodynamic condition.


Antihypertensive treatment may, for the same effect on hypertension, have a very different influence on the cerebral blood flow and the autoregulation curve. For instance, sodium nitroprusside, a potent vasodilator, risks to be poorly tolerated from the cerebral standpoint, when the sympathetic system is not inhibited. Diazoxide has no direct vasodilating effect on the cerebral vessels but, because of its marked hypotensive action must be used in divided doses. Hydralazine, a strong vasodilator, must be avoided in case of cerebral edema and hypertensive encephalopathy. Diuretics and beta-blockers, on a long-term basis, do not significantly modify the cerebral blood flow while alpha-methyl-dopa would increase it and facilitate a return to normal of the autoregulation curve. Captopril has demonstrated experimentally, interesting properties: in anaesthetized rats, it shifts the autoregulation curve to the left, i.e. toward lower pressures and it reduces the autoregulation curve to the left, i.e. toward lower pressures and it reduces the autoregulation limits; in awaken subjects, the decreased lower limit is also observed, explaining the good central tolerance of marked blood pressure reductions; on the contrary, its effects on the upper limit of the plateau are, unquestionably, counterbalanced by the effects of sympathetic stimulation concomitant with sudden blood pressure rises. As for calcium inhibitor, they do not seem to influence the long-term autoregulation of the cerebral flow.


Primary cutaneous aggressive epidermotropic T‐cell lymphoma (PCAETCL) is a very rare lymphoma characterized by rapidly growing necrotic cutaneous lesions with an epidermotropic CD8+ T‐cell neoplastic infiltrate observed histopathologically. It is associated with a very poor outcome, despite aggressive multi‐agent chemotherapy. We report a 49‐year‐old human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected patient who developed PCAETCL with associated marked vascular injury leading to diffuse purpuric and necrotic lesions complicated by recalcitrant hemophagocytic activation syndrome. The lymphoma strongly and diffusely expressed CD158k/KIR3DL2 at the protein and transcript level and NKp46 transcripts, in addition to CD8 and cytotoxic proteins. We observed a diffuse CD158k/KIR3DL2 protein expression in another case of PAETCL, not associated with immunodeficiency, which was used as a positive control. PCAETCL can develop in HIV‐infected patients and may present in vasculitis‐like fashion. The possible role of immunosuppression and/or HIV in oncogenesis can be postulated, as patients infected with HIV may develop anti‐HIV cytotoxic CD8+ lymphoproliferations. The frequency of CD158k/KIR3DL2 and NKp46 expression in PCAECL remains to be studied in a series of cases, and may represent interesting targets for future treatments.


Deep Learning has revolutionized the whole discipline of machine learning, heavily impacting fields such as Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and other domains concerned with the processing of raw inputs.
Nonetheless, Deep Networks are still difficult to interpret, and their inference process is all but transparent. Moreover, there are still challenging tasks for Deep Networks: contexts where the success depends on structured knowledge that can not be easily provided to the networks in a standardized way.

We aim to investigate the behavior of Deep Networks, assessing whether they are capable of learning complex concepts such as rules and constraints without explicit information, and then how to improve them by providing such symbolic knowledge in a general and modular way.

We start by addressing two tasks: learning the rule of a game and learning to construct the solution to Constraint Satisfaction Problems. We provide the networks only with examples, without encoding any information regarding the task. We observe that the networks are capable of learning to play by the rules and to make feasible assignments in the CSPs.

Then, we move to Argument Mining, a complex NLP task which consists of finding the argumentative elements in a document and identifying their relationships. We analyze Neural Attention, a mechanism widely used in NLP to improve networks' performance and interpretability, providing a taxonomy of its implementations. We exploit such a method to train an ensemble of deep residual networks and test them on four different corpora for Argument Mining, reaching or advancing the state of the art in most of the datasets we considered for this study.

Finally, we realize the first implementation of neural-symbolic argument mining. We use the Logic Tensor Networks framework to introduce logic rules during the training process and establish that they give a positive contribution under multiple dimensions.


Text-based passwords continue to be the prime form of authentication to computer systems. Today, they are increasingly created and used with mobile text entry methods, such as touchscreens and mobile keyboards, in addition to traditional physical keyboards. This raises a foundational question for usable security: whether text entry methods affect password generation and password security. This paper presents results from a between-group study with 63 participants, in which each group generated passwords for multiple virtual accounts using a different text entry method. Participants were also asked to recall their passwords afterwards. We applied analysis of structures and probabilities, with standard and recent security metrics and also performed cracking attacks on the collected data. The results show a significant effect of text entry methods on passwords. In particular, one of the experimental groups created passwords with significantly more lowercase letters per password than the control group ($t(60) = 2.99, p = 0.004$). The choices for character types in each group were also significantly different ($p=0.048, FET$). Our cracking attacks consequently expose significantly different resistance across groups ($p=0.031, FET$) and text entry method vulnerabilities. Our findings contribute to the understanding of password security in the context of usable interfaces.


Summary. Realization of metrological testing information-measuring complex road laboratories to automate the geometry of the road requires the development of theoretical foundations and methods of their implementation. As the main research method adopted the method of comparing the accuracy of the results obtained with it, with similar results obtained based on survey. In this survey data taken in the main, because they have the highest accuracy. An algorithm for statistical processing of measurement results areas of forest roads using test-measuring system. The paper presents an algorithm for determining the geometric variables on the example of two roads: the angle of rotation, the length of the curve. The authors have developed a formula that allows to assess the accuracy of measurement of the angles of rotation axis of the road on the road with the help of rounded to reflect changes in laboratory error depending on averaging the results (number of shuttle drives ) and to determine the optimal number of driveways. Also in the article formula is proposed to evaluate the accuracy of determining the length of the curve curvature using road laboratory. Error in measuring the length of a curve is proposed to determine the position errors start and end points of curvature. When traveling laboratory "round-trip " by rounding can obtain an average length of a curve to be more precise definition of this unit of length for each passage. The method developed can be applied to determine all the remaining geometric variables of the road.


A series of environmental pH-responsive block copolymers PEG-polyurethane with tertiary amine groups in the main chain and free carboxyl groups in the side chain were synthesized, including poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), 1,4-bis (hydroxyethyl) piperazine, 1,6-diisocyanato hexamethylene, and 2,2-dimethylolpropionic acid. The chemical structure, molecular weight, and pH-dependent capacity of pH-responsive PEG-polyurethane were examined by 1H-NMR, FTIR, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and an acid-base titration. Moreover, the fluorescent dye fluorescein isothiocyanate was conjugated with PEG-polyurethane by the similar polymerization method and the obtained polymer was measured by ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and fluorescent spectroscopy. The results indicated that the pH-responsive PEG-polyurethane showed a pH-buffering phenomenon and fluorescent imaging in a range of pH values. As a result, we demonstrated its potential application for optical imaging; however, it is believed that more applications in the areas of biomedicine will be possible owing to its free carboxyl acid terminal residues in the stimuli-responsive polymer. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 129: 846-852, 2013


The sigmoid colon volvulus is a common cause of intestinal obstruction in Africa. This work aimed to describe the treatment of sigmoid volvulus in N'djamena, Chad. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study realized in the General Surgery Ward of the Hopital General de Reference Nationale of N'Djamena, Chad during the period from 1/1/2010 to 31/12/2014. The records of patients operated during that period were the source of the studied data collection. The study parameters were: age, gender, physical findings and functional signs, para clinical examinations, the presence or not of colonic necrosis, the type of treatment, length of hospital stay, morbidity and mortality. Results: Sixty six cases were retained. The sigmoid volvulus constituted 9% of the operated intestinal obstruction during the study period. They were 64 men (96.7%) and 2 women (3.03%) or a sex ratio of 32/1. The clinical signs were: abdominal pain (91.2%), abdominal distension ( 88.6), and a cessation of stools and gas. (73.6%) Moreover, vomiting was found in 58 % and fever in 29,% of cases. The mean time to diagnosis was 37.7 hours (range 6 hours and 101h). The necrosis rate was 16.6% or 11 cases. The operative techniques were: resection - colostomy according Hartmann in 33 cases (50%); resection followed by immediate colo-colonic anastomosis in 23 cases (34.85%), and a simple untwisting in 10 cases (15.15%). Morbidity was 13.6% represented by two anastomotic leaks in the group of resection anastomosis, 4 parietal wall suppurations, and two medical complications. The average hospital stay was 11.2 days (range 5 days and 58 days). Mortality was 5.4%, and all concerned three patients over 60 years and with comorbidities. Conclusion: In the management of sigmoid volvulus, the Hartmann procedure is the safest method in our context. Ideal colectomy may be propsed in selected cases. The simple untwisting of the colon by laparotomy is not recommended, because of frequent relapses.


The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of presepsin as a diagnostic marker of sepsis in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Presepsin was measured by a rapid method based on a chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (PATHFAST). The clinical usefulness of presepsin to diagnose sepsis and septic shock was studied and compared with procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and total leucocytic count. This study was conducted on 53 individuals divided into 3 groups. Group I included 28 adult ICU patients with at least two diagnostic criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) as patient group, Group IIa 15 patients admitted to ICU for any medical cause but with no evidence of infection were enrolled as patient control group and further 10 apparently healthy subjects as healthy control group. Patients were further subdivided retrospectively according to the final diagnosis into: patients with sepsis 16 (57.1%) and septic shock 12 (42.9%), from which 17 (59.3%) improved while 11(39.3%) did not survive. The presepsin values were significantly higher in patients with sepsis than the control groups. The area under ROC curve (AUC) for discriminating sepsis from non septic conditions for presepsin was greater than the AUC of PCT, CRP or TLC. This suggests that presepsin has high specificity and sensitivity for sepsis diagnosis. In conclusion, presepsin can be used as a useful biomarker for the diagnosis of sepsis. It is readily available, cost-effective and able to distinguish septic patients in a complex population.


Leaf morphological traits (LMTs) of forest trees have been observed to vary across space and species. However, long-term records of LMTs are scarce, due to a lack of measurements and systematic leaf archives. This leaves a large gap in our understanding of the temporal dynamics and drivers of LMT variations, which may help us understand tree acclimation strategies. In our study, we used long-term LMT measurements from foliar material collections of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Norway spruce (Picea abies), performed every second year from 1995 to 2019 on the same trees within the Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research Program LWF. The 11 study plots (6 beech, 4 spruce, and 1 mixed) are distributed along gradients of elevation (485–1,650 m a.s.l.), mean annual precipitation (935–2142 mm), and mean annual temperature (3.2–9.8°C). The investigated LMTs were (i) leaf or needle mass, (ii) leaf area or needle length, and (iii) leaf mass per area or needle mass per length. We combined this unique data set with plot variables and long-term data on potential temporal drivers of LMT variations, including meteorological and tree trait data. We used univariate linear regressions and linear mixed-effects models to identify the main spatial and temporal drivers of LMT variations, respectively. For beech LMTs, our temporal analysis revealed effects of mast year and crown defoliation, and legacy effects of vapor pressure deficit and temperature in summer and autumn of the preceding year, but no clear long-term trend was observed. In contrast, spruce LMTs were mainly driven by current-year spring conditions, and only needle mass per length showed a decreasing long-term trend over the study period. In temporal models, we observed that LMTs of both species were influenced by elevation and foliar nutrient concentrations, and this finding was partly confirmed by our spatial analyses. Our results demonstrate the importance of temporal analysis for determining less recognized drivers and legacy effects that influence LMTs, which are difficult to determine across space and species. The observed differences in the temporal drivers of beech and spruce LMTs suggest differences in the adaptation and acclimation potential of the two species.


BACKGROUND
The globe artichoke is an important vegetable, widely consumed in the Mediterranean Basin, and is spreading also to other parts of the world. The mineral profile of globe artichoke has been very little investigated. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the content of some essential macrominerals (Na, K, Ca, Mg) and microminerals (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn) in nine genotypes of globe artichoke in relation to different head parts (bracts and receptacle), locations and seasons.

RESULTS
The mineral profile was significantly affected by genotype, head fraction, location and season. Great variation was found among studied genotypes. 'Blanc Hyerois', Harmony F1', 'Madrigal F1' and 'Violetto di Provenza' showed high levels of both macro- and micromineral content. In particular, these, as well as other genotypes, had a higher content in the receptacle (edible part) than in the bracts. The globe artichoke had a high level of K and mainly, compared to some vegetables, low Na/K ratio, which is important in preventing hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained partially improve the lack of data in the literature and this knowledge could be used to develop different crop managements and/or breeding programmes to improve the mineral composition, and thereby enhance human nutrition and health.


Abstract Australia's so-called "Dead Heart," its hot arid interior landscape, can be brought into irrigated agricultural production with the importation of extracontinental freshwater supplies originating in Papua New Guinea. Despite Queensland's La Niña-caused historic and costly 2010 to 2011 river flooding induced, in great part by tropical cyclone Yasi, its westernmost torrid region is classed as arid, currently almost without any irrigation agriculture present. Freshwater importation from Papua New Guinea's Fly River via an undersea pipeline mostly skirting the Torres Strait could increase the value of Queensland's little-used dryland Outback and, perhaps, establish new overseas markets in Asia for exported agricultural products. An induced perennial Diamantina River could replenish groundwater recharge regions (Great Artesian Basin) and convert Lake Eyre to a permanent lake of slightly brackish water. Irrigated eucalyptus tree plantations might serve, in part, to counter some Earthly global warming. The Torres Strait Islanders will benefit economically as well as other social groups on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. Here we examine closely some of the technical aspects of a Papua New Guinea-Queensland (PNG-QLD) Undersea Freshwater Pipeline Macroproject (UFPM) installation. We offer a choice of two routings for the PNG-QLD UFPM (Case A) while at the same time making clear our informed preference.


Homeownership counseling encompasses several educational activities. Early approaches focused on reducing the risk of default and foreclosure among participants in government-assisted mortgage programs, but more recent approaches have focuesd on increasing homewonership opportunities among low-income and minority households. Unfortunately, little is known about the effectiveness of these approaches in terms of the number of new homeowners and the mitigation of default risk. To address that gap, this article presents a theoretical and methodological framework to evaluate counseling efforts.A successful counseling program is defined as one that assists a household with a low long-term probability of ownership in buying a home and reducing its default risk. We conced that the methodological requirements for evaluating counseling are somewhat restrictive. However, if we establish an evaluation procedure using these goals as a framework, we can more accurately determine the effects of counseling on the sustainability of low-income homeownership.


We present a patient with primary central nervous system B-cell lymphoma. He had suffered from slowly developing weight loss and presented to us with disorientation, seizures, and a supranuclear gaze disturbance. The patient was dismissed with the primary diagnosis of autoimmune encephalitis of the brainstem and put on oral corticosteroids. Four months later, his health status had deteriorated, and at that time diagnostic methods pointed to a cerebral lymphoma. Stereotactic biopsy with subsequent immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed a highly malignant B-cell lymphoma of the CNS, despite prolonged corticosteroid treatment. The patient was treated with whole brain radiotherapy.


Abstract This research examines the relationship between consumer anthropomorphism and personal value. A hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed that after marketplace variables (purchase price, frequency of use, and self-acquisition) were considered, the sole second-level factor, anthropomorphism, had a positive and significant influence on personal value for four products. Results demonstrate that anthropomorphism can account for the personal value of a product beyond the influence of common marketplace factors. Additionally, a series of paired t-tests found that the magnitude of anthropomorphism is related to product complexity. This finding suggests that the effectiveness of product managers to prime or otherwise influence consumer anthropomorphism may depend upon what product is being anthropomorphised. Implications of these findings for marketers are provided.


Emotions are integral to human mobility. However, research on the expression of emotions in the letters of early immigrants is often neglected. This study on emotional expressions in early Norwegian-American immigrant letters, exchanged between 1838 and 1848, is a case in point. This article explores the dynamics in emotional expressions in the early letters of Norwegian-American immigrants. It shows how immigrants expressed their emotions in the letters addressed to their family members, neighbours and friends. This article also investigates the presence of emotional calls in the immigrant letters, which successfully pulled more people from Norway to America. Unlike many other early immigrant groups, Norwegian immigrants in America were satisfied with their migration experience and expressed more positive emotions in their home-going letters than negative ones. Considering the lack of research on the emotional aspects of migration, this paper recommends conducting more studies on this area.


The PLUS system is designed to efficiently track moving object locations on a road network and execute continuous spatial queries in support of location-based services. PLUS implements a novel lazy position update mechanism that significantly reduces the communication overhead and server indexing load related to frequent location updates in moving object and moving query scenarios. The contribution of this demo is to present how the lazy position update scheme can achieve message-efficiency under various conditions which can be interactively set via user-selectable parameters in a graphical user interface.


In this exploratory investigation, I attempted to demonstrate how a final-exam test question in a History of English course linked to a classroom activity opened up a hermeneutic passageway toward greater self-understanding of cross-cultural factors in language learning. The procedure involved provision of an in-class video presentation accompanied with a text (script) of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from the video series The Power of Myth. I holistically analyzed Taiwanese university students' interpretations of the story and their efforts to think of stories from Chinese literature and history that make similar moral points. Results showed that most students were able to find some common values shared in both Western and Chinese literary culture traditions. At the same time, they practiced a variety of language learning skills and creatively engaged in reading. To a certain degree, students were able to construct their own textual interpretations although individual variations existed as to the extent students were able to provide autonomous readings of the text.


The current trend toward machine-scoring of student work, Ericsson and Haswell argue, has created an emerging issue with implications for higher education across the disciplines, but with particular importance for those in English departments and in administration. The academic community has been silent on the issuesome would say excluded from itwhile the commercial entities who develop essay-scoring software have been very active. Machine Scoring of Student Essays is the first volume to seriously consider the educational mechanisms and consequences of this trend, and it offers important discussions from some of the leading scholars in writing assessment.Reading and evaluating student writing is a time-consuming process, yet it is a vital part of both student placement and coursework at post-secondary institutions. In recent years, commercial computer-evaluation programs have been developed to score student essays in both of these contexts. Two-year colleges have been especially drawn to these programs, but four-year institutions are moving to them as well, because of the cost-savings they promise. Unfortunately, to a large extent, the programs have been written, and institutions are installing them, without attention to their instructional validity or adequacy.Since the education software companies are moving so rapidly into what they perceive as a promising new market, a wider discussion of machine-scoring is vital if scholars hope to influence development and-or implementation of the programs being created. What is needed, then, is a critical resource to help teachers and administrators evaluate programs they might be considering, and to more fully envision the instructional consequences of adopting them. And this is the resource that Ericsson and Haswell are providing here.


We consider Bayesian point and interval estimation for a risk ratio of two proportion parameters using two independent samples of binary data subject to misclassification. In order to obtain model identifiability, we apply a double sampling scheme. For the identifiable model, we propose a Bayesian method for statistical inference for a two proportion risk ratio. Specifically, we derive an easy-to-implement closed-form sampling algorithm to draw from the posterior distribution of interest. We demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm for Bayesian inference via Monte Carlo simulation studies and using a real data example.


Background: Death reporting is a delicate task. The ways in which it is carried out can have a significant impact on both the recipient and the notifier, especially in the event of a sudden, violent, and traumatic death. Empathetic, sensitive, and attentive communication with survivors can represent a first opportunity to support the bereavement process. The acquisition of specific skills for the delivery of the death notification is necessary for the professional who carries out the communication to increase self-efficacy, knowledge, and perception of competence in this area. Objective: To map what the literature has produced on the theme of best practices for the notification of unexpected, violent, and traumatic deaths and to provide guidance for the formulation of appropriate best practices and the development of effective educational programs. Methods: A review was conducted using the PRISMA Scoping Review extension on English language literature published between 1966 and 2022. Results: Starting from the initial 3781 titles, 67 articles were selected. From a thematic point of view, the analysis of the contents made it possible to identify five dimensions: (1) general guidelines in relation to various professional figures; (2) specific protocols; (3) guidelines for notifying death to children; (4) guidelines for notification of death by telephone; and (5) recommendations and suggestions for death notification training programs. Discussion: Death notification is configured as a process, divided into sequential phases. The act of notification constitutes the central phase during which communication is carried out. The communication of death is context-specific; therefore, it should require the creation of specific protocols for the various professions involved in the task, along with targeted theoretical and practical training. Conclusions: The importance of defining specific guidelines for the various professionals and standardized programs of theoretical and practical training emerges. The implementation of future sectoral studies will allow evaluations of the effectiveness of these protocols and programs.


An improvement in the optical and structural properties of green emitting InGaN/GaN Multi Quantum Wells (MQWs) was obtained by using antimony (Sb) as a surfactant during InGaN growth. Keeping the growth conditions for InGaN constant, Sb was introduced during InGaN growth while varying the [Sb]/([In]+ [Ga]) flow ratio from 0 to 0.16%. The analysis results suggest that using the optimum [Sb]/([In]+[Ga]) ratio (0.04%-0.1%) during InGaN growth greatly improves the optical and structural properties of the MQWs without incorporating much Sb into the growing film and that the emission wavelength is also maintained with a slight blue shift. Under the optimum conditions of 0.05% Sb addition, the PL intensity was increased by as much as 3.3 times compared to the sample without Sb addition. The root mean square (RMS) roughness was reduced from 2.2 nm to 1.9 nm and the pit density was decreased from 2.0 x 10(10) cm(-2) to 1.2 x 10(10) cm(-2) when the amount of Sb was increased from 0% to 0.05%.


This study presents a retrospective evaluation of 57 patients who underwent a percutaneous epiphysiodesis for leg length discrepancy. Of these patients, 68.5% presented with a good result with a final leg length discrepancy of less than 1.5 cm, 14% with a fair result with a discrepancy of between 1.5 and 2 cm, and 17.5% showed a poor result with a leg length discrepancy of more than 2 cm. The percutaneous epiphysiodesis was found to be a safe and reliable technique. There were very few technical errors. The causes of failure were analyzed and compared with a previous study from the same department. Error in timing remains the main problem.


Abstract Motivation RNA expression at isoform level is biologically more informative than at gene level and can potentially reveal cellular subsets and corresponding biomarkers that are not visible at gene level. However, due to the strong 3ʹ bias sequencing protocol, mRNA quantification for high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing such as Chromium Single Cell 3ʹ 10× Genomics is currently performed at the gene level. Results We have developed an isoform-level quantification method for high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing by exploiting the concepts of transcription clusters and isoform paralogs. The method, called Scasa, compares well in simulations against competing approaches including Alevin, Cellranger, Kallisto, Salmon, Terminus and STARsolo at both isoform- and gene-level expression. The reanalysis of a CITE-Seq dataset with isoform-based Scasa reveals a subgroup of CD14 monocytes missed by gene-based methods. Availability and implementation Implementation of Scasa including source code, documentation, tutorials and test data supporting this study is available at Github: https://github.com/eudoraleer/scasa and Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5712503. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


The relevant articles in the Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor and different physicians' clinical experience regarding acupuncture for post-stroke aphasia were summarized. The etiology, pathogenesis and acupuncture treatment principles for post-stroke aphasia were explored from the perspectives of "treatment based on kidney" "kidney-qi internal exhaustion" of syndrome differentiation of zang-fu and "kidney meridian as core with equal importance to multiple meridians" of syndrome differentiation of meridians, which is aimed to provide reference for clinical treatment.


Summary Objectives A shortfall exists of female doctors in senior academic posts in the United Kingdom. Career progression depends on measures of esteem, including publication in prestigious journals. This study investigates gender differences in first and senior authorship in six peer-reviewed British journals and factors that are associated with publication rates. Design and main outcome measures Data was collected on United Kingdom first and senior authors who had published in the British Medical Journal, Lancet, British Journal of Surgery, Gut, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Archives of Diseases in Childhood. Authorship and gender were quantified for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2004 (n=6457). In addition, selected questions from the Athena Survey of Science Engineering and Technology (ASSET2006), web-based doctor's self-report of publications were also analysed (n=1162). Results Female first authors increased from 10.5% in 1970 to 36.5% in 2004 (p<0.001) while female senior authors only increased from 12.3% to 16.5% (p=0.046). Within individual journals, the largest rise was in British Journal of Obstetric and Gynaecology with 4.5- and 3-fold increases for first and senior authors, respectively. In contrast, female senior authors marginally declined in Gut and Lancet by 2.8% and 2.2%, respectively. ASSET2006 identified that female respondents who were parents were less likely to have publications as sole (p=0.02) and joint authors (p<0.001) compared to male respondents. Female respondents with care responsibilities for parents/partner also had less publications as lead authors compared to those without carer responsibilities (p<0.001). Conclusion The increase in UK female first authors is encouraging. In contrast, there is considerable lag and in some specialties a decline in female senior authors. Factors that could narrow the gender gap in authorship should be sought and addressed.


A new species of Teinostoma (Tornidae) is described from an under-investigated section of the anchialine cave system Cenote Crustacea, situated on the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Teinostoma brankovitsi n. sp. is the first anchialine gastropod reported from the Yucatan Peninsula and the first record of the family from an anchialine cave. Specimens were found in chalky sediments riddled with orange bacterial patches, c. 450 m from the inland entrance pool, in complete darkness. Teinostoma brankovitsi has a circular, multispiral operculum with a central nucleus and does not have tentacles on the foot or opercular lobe. Specimens possess a taenioglossate radula with a central tooth broadly V-shaped and a serrated cutting area with two basal denticles. The diagnosis of Teinostoma is emended based on


In PWM inverter system, the high dv/dt and di/dt due to the fast switching of IGBT could bring serious EMI issues. Based on the study of mechanisms on common mode conducted electromagnetic interference (CM EMI) associated with a single phase PWM inverter, the origin and propagation path of CM EMI noise are highlighted. Compared with buck converter, a simple equivalent circuit is proposed to study the CM EMI. The parameters of passive element are measured by experiment and Fourier transform of the voltage source in equivalent circuit is performed. Frequency domain analysis is used to rapidly obtain the noise spectra in 10KHz-30MHz frequencies. The simulated CM EMI spectra are compared with the actual experiments to verify the validity of the proposed model.


There is a substantial controversy in the economics literature over the magnitude of the expenditure elasticity for food grain in China that is caused, to a large extent, by whether time-series or cross-section data are used in the analysis. A set of reasonable elasticities for a complete demand system is estimated by using a panel of county level data in Guangdong Province for the last ten years. The results show that food grain has a small positive income elasticity, implying that food grain is not an inferior good in China. The reason that consumption per capita has not increased during a period of rapid economic growth in income is that the relative prices of the food and non-food substitutes for food grain have decreased.


Abstract : Lately, there has been an extensive interest in the possible uses of neural networks for nonlinear system identification and control. In this paper, we provide a framework for the simultaneous identification and control of a class of unknown, uncertain nonlinear systems. The identification portion relies on modeling the system by a neural network which is trained via a local variant of the Extended Kalman Filter. We will discuss this local algorithm for training a neural network to approximate a nonlinear feedback system. We also give a dynamic programming-based method of deriving near optimal control inputs for the real plant based on this approximation and a measure of its error (covariance). Finally, we combine these methods in a hierarchical algorithm for identification and control of a class of uncertain, unknown systems. The complexity of the whole algorithm is analyzed.


Previous studies have shown that a chemically reactive analog of prazosin, SZL-49, reduces the alpha-1 adrenoceptor population by a maximum of 60% (Kusiak et al., 1989). These data support the idea that alpha-1 receptor subtypes exist and only one is sensitive to alkylation by SZL-49. In the present study male rats were injected (i.p.) with SZL-49 (0.5-30 mg/kg) and the effects on [3H]prazosin binding, systemic arterial blood pressure and the pressor response to phenylephrine were assessed 24 hr later. SZL-49 treatment decreased the number of [3H]prazosin sites without affecting receptor affinity. The maximal reduction in binding sites was 60% (32 fmol/mg). At doses of 0.5-, 1-, 5- and 10-mg/kg SZL-49 reduced the receptor number to the same level (83 fmol/mg control; 47-60 fmol/mg treated). Injection of SZL-49 had no effect on resting blood pressure. However, drug treatment (0.5 mg/kg and greater) shifted the phenylephrine dose-response curve to the right. The maximal 1-, 5- and 10-mg/kg SZL-49, the ED50 for phenylephrine was approximately the same. Therefore, over a 20-fold range of SZL-49 concentrations no further reduction in receptor number or phenylephrine ED50 was observed. These data support the idea that S2L-49-sensitive and resistant alpha-1 receptors exist in vivo. The alkylation resistant receptor is capable of maintaining resting blood pressure. Furthermore, both receptors appear to be involved in mediating the increase in blood pressure observed with phenylephrine.


Th is paper evaluates the eff ects of two diff erent feeds on production results and economic performance in the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming. Th e fi rst group (O-1) was fed with a standard complete pelleted feed, and the second group (O-2) was fed with combined feed consisting of 75 % pellets and 25 % of sardines. Better results were obtained with the O-2 group, while the O-1 group achieved results characteristic for local farming conditions and feed quality. Experimental group O-2 had signifi cantly higher (p<0,01) growth rate when compared to group O-1. Considering current feed and fi nal product (fi sh) prices in the market, better results in terms of cost-eff ectiveness were obtained (E>0,00) in O-2 group of trout fed with the combined meal.


O.Henry was a popular short story writer during the early twentieth century in the United States. He was known for writing stories set in New York City. He excelled in irony and surprise endings. His stories are still popular today.


The purpose of the proposed research is to ensure that the value of the dis-tinction is adjusted to each application by using various supplements to sepa-rate and clean up biological objects. The work presents the results of studies of the phase diagram of the biphasic system composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG)/sodium citrate-water and the effect of inorganic salts (sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, sodium nitrate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride, potassium iodide, potassium bromide) on the separating ability of this biphasic system. Analysis of the data presented shows that the change in the parame-ters of the phase diagram and different values of the separating ability (for PEG—sodium citrate-water system n* = 9.3) of the biphasic system, depends on the nature of the additives. The utilized inorganic salts change the structure of water clusters. Following the change, the biphasic system component relative hydrophobicity rises, which results in phase separation. The displace-ments of the binodal of the phase diagram in the direction of the origin of coordinates, an increase in the area of the heterogeneous region of the diagram upon the introduction of the studied salts indicate that these salts have a structuring effect on the aqueous medium. Biphasic in the presence of some salts.


This study reports on the utilisation of the Driver Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) to examine the self-reported behaviours of a sample of Australian fleet drivers (N = 416). Surveys were posted to drivers who agreed to participate in the study. Univariate analyses of the four DAQ subscales revealed that respondents were least concerned about speeding, followed by risky overtaking manoeuvres. In contrast, attitudes regarding the seriousness of close following behaviours and drink driving were significantly higher. Additional analyses revealed the speeding factor was associated with self-reported traffic offences, and was predictive of demerit point loss at a multivariate level, even after controlling for driving exposure (i.e., kms driven each year). This paper will further highlight the major findings of the study as well as possible implications regarding the predictive utility of self-reported questionnaires to investigate driving behaviours.


As angiogenesis is required for tumor growth and metastasis, suppressing angiogenesis is a promising strategy in limiting tumor progression. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A, a critical pro-angiogenic factor, has thus become an attractive target for therapeutic interventions in cancer. In this study, we explored the underlying mechanisms of a novel anthraquinone derivative DDA in suppressing angiogenesis. DDA inhibited VEGF-A-induced proliferation, migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). DDA also reduced VEGF-A-induced microvessel sprouting from aortic rings ex vivo and suppressed neovascularization in vivo. VEGF-A-induced VEGFR1, VEGFR2, FAK, Akt, ERK1/2 or STAT3 phosphorylation was reduced in the presence of DDA. In addition, NRP-1 siRNA reduced VEGF-A's enhancing effects in VEGFR2, FAK and Akt phosphorylation and cell proliferation in HUVECs. DDA disrupted VEGF-A-induced complex formation between NRP-1 and VEGFR2. Furthermore, systemic administration of DDA was shown to suppress tumor angiogenesis and growth in in vivo mouse xenograft models. Taken together, we demonstrated in this study that DDA exhibits anti-angiogenic properties through suppressing VEGF-A signaling. These observations also suggest that DDA might be a potential drug candidate for developing anti-angiogenic agent in the field of cancer and angiogenesis-related diseases.


Increasing urban development in coastal areas is leading to reduction and fragmentation of natural habitats and a proliferation of artificial structures, such as seawalls. These new structures provide a novel habitat for several organisms, but recent studies have shown differences between the composition of populations in assemblages inhabiting them and those present on natural rocky shores. Preliminary observations also suggested that populations of limpets may differ in size and reproductive output between seawalls and natural rocky shores in Sydney Harbour (Australia). To test hypotheses about the influence of artificial habitat on populations of marine invertebrates, we examined the densities, size and reproductive output of the pulmonate limpet Siphonaria denticulata at midshore intertidal levels on several seawalls and natural rocky shores in Sydney Harbour. Populations on seawalls were mainly composed of juveniles and small adults; large adults were generally found only on rocky shores. There were also significantly fewer and smaller egg masses on seawalls. Experimental manipulations suggested that differences in reproductive output are related to the maximal size that adults attain in each habitat. Populations on seawalls make a smaller contribution to the total reproductive output in any given area, and, thus, it can be predicted that replacement of natural habitats with seawalls may have negative effects on the maintenance of local populations. Populations of organisms living in different habitats in similar densities may show important differences in biological performance. Thus, differences in reproductive output between habitats, even at the same densities, will potentially influence dynamics of populations of limpets.


Abstract This article tracks the emergence of the concept of competitiveness. A historical review of the achievements of foreign and Bulgarian authors is presented, as well as a grounded critical assessment of the different aspects of the category under consideration. An aggregate assessment of the achievements at the present stage is provided. Few directions for new developments and challenges of competitiveness research are outlined.


Food intake is regulated by short-term satiety factors (gastric distension, amino acids, peptide hormones), as well as factors involved in long-term appetite regulation (leptin, insulin). Integration of the various signals takes place in the central nervous system (CNS). Appetite suppression in uremia is multifactorial and may include effects of uremia per se and of various comorbidity and psychosocial factors. Uremic anorexia is associated with elevated levels in plasma and CNS of short-term satiety factors (cholecystokinine, glucagon, serotonin, middle molecules) and factors that influence long-range regulation of appetite (leptin, insulin), but it is still unsettled to what extent these factors cause or contribute to appetite loss in uremic patients. Proinflammatory cytokines most probably also have a role in appetite suppression and malnutrition in patients with chronic renal failure.


Substituted 3-(phenylamino)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-diones were identified from a high throughput screen as inducers of human ATP binding cassette transporter A1 expression. Mechanism of action studies led to the identification of GSK3987 as an LXR ligand. GSK3987 recruits the steroid receptor coactivator-1 to human LXRalpha and LXRbeta with EC(50)s of 40 nM, profiles as an LXR agonist in functional assays, and activates LXR though a mechanism that is similar to first generation LXR agonists.


Ten inbred line of corn (Zea mays L.) lever used and entered in crosses as a factorial mating system by lines (Agr-183, Zp505, Zp670 and Zp-197)as male parents (m) and lines (Ik-58 , Cml494 , Pio-46 ,H-s , Pio-47and Pio-25) as female parents . The lines and its single crosses were planted in Yiaichi region in Kirkuk governorate using (R.C.B.D) with three replicates in two seasons , spring and autumn 2015 , the results of statistical analysis showed significant differences in the means of studied traits for the parents and the crosses , the crosses were distinguished which entered as apparent Pio-25 in most studied traits , the cross (Pio-25×Zp-197) was gave high yield of grains (522652 gm/plant) and surpassed in giving the most effect in general combining ability gave (32.25 gm) and also higher specific combining ability . The additive variance values were showed that controlled in trits number of ears, number of the rows in the car and number of kernels in the row. reflected on the increase of heritability values in broad and narrow sense , and genetic expected advanced as a percentage for these traits , the degree of dominance was less than one , while the values of dominance variance were controlled in genetic kerenles yield , the degree of dominance was more than one , which reflected on the genetic expected advance which was


In rat embryo cell cultures infected with X14 or H-1 parvovirus and in mock-infected cell cultures the activity of some enzymes involved in purine nucleotide interconversion and in "adenylate cycle" was determined. The enzymatic activities have been assayed on 100,000 x g supernatant by spectrophotometric methods, measuring the absorbance variation in U.V. and by radiometric methods, resolving the radioactive products of reaction by TLC on PEI cellulose. The results indicated a decrease of the enzymatic activities that degrade purine nucleosides and nucleotides in infected cells compared to the controls. Some different behaviour patterns showed the enzymes involved in base salvage pathway; adenine phosphoribosyltransferase did not show a significant modification of activity, whereas hypoxanthine (guanine) phosphoribosyltransferase increased slightly in X14 virus-infected cells. The behaviour of the above mentioned enzymatic activities may be considered as a mechanism of purine nucleotide saving, coupled to an active salvage pathway for the synthesis of nucleotides required for the viral replication.


Coconut sap consists of around 85 % water, 14% sugar and a small amount of protein, amino acids, organic acids, minerals, dyes, and fats. It has the potential to be a fermentation medium. Fermented coconut sap is expected to be a raw material for seasoning product similar to salty-sweet soy sauce. Soy sauce is made from fermented soybeans or a mixture of soybeans and wheat. Soybeans and wheat are allergens, so many consumers who are healthy-living oriented avoide to consume them. The fermented coconut sap  is free of soybeans and wheat.  It was made through a one-step of moromi fermentation. The temperature (35, 45 and 55 ° C) and sea salt concentrations (25 and 35%) were used in this study to determine its effect on microbiological, physico-chemical and organoleptic characteristics of fermented coconut sap. The results showed that  the  moromi fermentation took place the number of microbes (TPC) increased from 91 + 46 cfu/g  until the peak of growth of (1.18+0.48) x104 cfu/g on the day 35th and decreased into (1.54 + 0.19) x103 cfu/g on the 48th day; the pH level decreased from 6.37+0.84 to 4.22+0.75, the total dissolved solids increased from 39.35+0.90 % to 48.83+1.88%; reducing sugar increased from 0.13+0.01 mg/l to 1.64+0.45mg/l; colour changes from clear-yellowish to dark-brown; and the dominant volatile compounds were 2-pentanone, and 4-hydroxy-4-methyl. The treatment of differences in salt content did not affect the nature of fermented juice while temperature significantly affected the reducing sugar, colour, and TPC. Organoleptic test results showed that the fermented coconut sap at 55oC and the addition of 25% sea salt was the most preferred one.

Keywords: coconut sap, fermented coconut sap, moromi,  sea salt, temperature


International donors continue to prefer vertical programming over systems strengthening despite the universal health agenda. This study explored Dutch policy and practice towards health systems within sexual and reproductive health and rights-focused partnerships between the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civil society, through a document analysis, 13 in-depth interviews and a stakeholder workshop. The findings revealed that partnerships supported the Ugandan health system in unstructured ways and had difficulties finding synergies. To ensure sustained outcomes and respond to the renewed urgency of strong health systems in the face of crises, donors should incorporate systems strengthening as an explicit goal.


The bistability and snap through capability of an unsymmetric laminate consisting of only Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) are investigated. The non-linear analysis predicts two cylindrically stable configurations when strain anisotropy is piezoelectrically induced within a [0MFC/90MFC]T laminate. This is achieved by bonding two MFCs in their actuated states and releasing the voltage post cure to create in-plane residual stresses. The minimization of total potential energy with the Rayleigh-Ritz method are used to analytically model the resulting laminate. A finite element analysis is conducted in MSC Nastran using the piezoelectric-thermal analogy approach to verify the analytical results. The effects of adhesive properties, bonding cure cycles, MFC layup, and its geometry on the curvatures, displacements, and bifurcation voltages are characterized. Finally, the snap through and reverse snap through capabilities with piezoelectric actuation are demonstrated. This adaptive laminate functions as both the actuator and the primary structure and allows large deformations under a non-continuous energy input. Its snap through capability allows full configuration control necessary in morphing applications.


Optical properties of chromiumoxide Cr2O3 thin filmswhich were prepared by the spray pyrolysis method have been experimentally characterized, the films were deposited onto a glass substrate at a temperature of 450 °C by spray pyrolysis technique. The as-prepared film was annealed at a temperature 550 °C. Transmittance spectra were used to determine the optical constants of the films, and the effects of the annealing temperature on the optical constants were investigated. Transmittance measurements show that the absorption edge suffers a red shift and the optical constants of Cr2O3 films increases as the annealing temperature increased to 550 °C. The single–oscillator parameters were also determined. The change in dispersion was investigated before and after annealing. The optical energy gap decreased from 3.08 to 2.95 eV after annealing.Analysis revealed that the transition is indirect allowed one.


The effects of temperature and pH on the growth and sporangial production of isolates from each of the four known races of Phytophthora clandestina Taylor, Pascoe & Greenhalgh were investigated. Mycelial growth occurred at temperatures from 10 to 30°C and pH 3.5 to 9.0 with highest growth rates of all isolates being at 25°C with a pH of 6.0–6.5. Sporangial production was greatest between 20 and 25°C and pH 5.0–7.0 with all races. However, sporulation occurred over a temperature range from 10 to 30°C and from pH 4.0 to 9.0 with all isolates. There were no consistent differences between the four pathogenic races of P. clandestina in their relative growth rate or extent of sporangial production over a range of temperatures and pH values.


BACKGROUND: It is reported that prevalence of overweight and obesity have increased in all age groups, but little is known about prevalence of overweight and obesity in preschool children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to survey the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity in 3-6 year-old Tehranian children in 2009-2010. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on a total of 756 (378 boys and 378 girls) preschool children aged 3-6. Subjects were selected through stratified sampling from 5 geographic regions of Tehran (east, west, north, south, and center). Body weight and height were measured directly. Underweight, overweight and obesity was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) ≤ 5th percentile (underweight), 5th to 85th percentile (normal weight), 85th to 95th percentile (overweight), and > 95th percentile (obesity); based on recommendation of Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2000. RESULTS: Findings showed that the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity was 4.77%, 9.81% and 4.77% in boys and 4.77%, 10.31% and 4.49% in girls, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed a relatively high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Tehranian preschool children that is a serious problem. This result can be used in clinical setting and preventive programs.


Implanted medical devices (IMDs), in particular neuro-stimulators, drug delivery chips and cochlear implants are undergoing miniaturization. Some of these miniaturized IMDs are "active" in the sense that they require a power source for operation. In most cases, the ideal power source needs to be an implanted battery of dimensions similar to that of the device. The state-of-the-art of battery miniaturization is reviewed with emphasis on novel Li and Li-ion two- and three-dimensional thin-film microbatteries. It is shown that three-dimensional thin-film batteries may provide a solution to the power requirements of miniaturized IMDs.


Abstract Hypothermia due to anaesthetic-induced impairment of thermoregulatory control and exposure to a cool environment is common in surgical patients. Peripheral vasodilation due to neuroaxial blockade may aggravate hypothermia. There is few data on perioperative hypothermia in patients undergoing thoracic surgery under combined general and regional anesthesia. We reviewed all thoracic surgical patients between 2006 and 2011 to determine the incidence and extent of hypothermia with or without an epidural anesthesia and evaluated its effect. Around 339 patients underwent lung resection procedures with intraoperative forced-air warming: 197 with general and epidural anesthesia (GA + EPI), 199 with general anesthesia alone (GA). Statistical analyses were performed to determine the association between hypothermia (T < 36°C) and transfusion requirements, length of stay (LOS) in the intensive care unit (ICU), hospital LOS, and in hospital mortality. The overall incidence of hypothermia was 64.3%. Multivariate regression analysis revealed three significant risk factors for the development of hypothermia: long induction time (P = .011), small body surface area (P = .003), and application of more fluid intraoperatively (P < .001). Factors determining the extent of hypothermia were: receiving an open thoracotomy (P = .009), placement and use of an epidural catheter (P = .002), and a lower body mass index (BMI) (P < .001). Additional epidural anesthesia reduced core temperature by 0.26°C (95% CI −0.414 to −0.095°C, P < .05). There was no difference in transfusion requirements, ICU LOS or mortality between both groups. Hospital LOS was longer in patients with hypothermia. More than half of all thoracic patients suffered from hypothermia. A long induction time, small body surface area, and large intraoperative fluid application were independent risk factors for the development of perioperative hypothermia. Additional epidural anesthesia to general anesthesia did not increase the incidence of hypothermia but decreased body core temperature to an—albeit not clinically significant—degree. Patients scheduled for thoracic surgery will probably benefit from an additional period of prewarming prior to induction to reduce the high incidence of perioperative hypothermia.


In oncological drug development, animal studies continue to play a central role in which the volume of subcutaneous tumours is monitored to assess the efficacy of new drugs. Tumour volume is currently estimated by measuring length and width with callipers and then estimating the volume of the tumour as if it were a regular spheroid. However, this method is subjective, insufficiently traceable, and is subject to error in the accuracy of volume estimates as tumours frequently are irregular. This paper explores the extent of inconsistencies in calliper measurements by conducting a statistical review of a large dataset consisting of 2,500 tumour volume measurements from 1,600 mice by multiple operators across 6 mouse strains and 20 tumour models. We also explore the impact of six different tumour morphologies on volume estimation and the detection of treatment effects using a computational tumour growth model. Finally, we propose an alternative method to callipers for estimating volume – BioVolume™, a 3D scanning technique. BioVolume simultaneously captures both stereo RGB (Red, Green and Blue) images from different light sources and infrared thermal images of the tumour. It detects the tumour region automatically and estimates the tumour volume in under a second. BioVolume has been tested on a dataset of 297 scans from over 120 mice collected by four different operators. This work demonstrates that it is possible to record tumour measurements in a rapid, minimally invasive, morphology-independent way, and with less human-bias compared to callipers, whilst also improving data traceability. Furthermore, the images collected by BioVolume may be useful, for example, as a source of biomarkers for animal welfare and secondary drug toxicity / efficacy.


Background and objectives In Bahrain, maintaining life support at all costs is a cultural value considered to be embedded in the Islamic religion. We explore end-of-life decision making for brain dead patients in an Arab country where medical cultures are dominated by Western ideas and the lay culture is Eastern. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted from February to April 2018 with 12 Western-educated Bahraini doctors whose medical practice often included end-of-life decision making. Discussions were about who should make withdrawal of life support decisions, how decisions are made and the context for decision making. To develop results, we used the inductive method of thematic analysis. Results Informants considered it difficult to engage non-medical people in end-of-life decisions because of people's reluctance to talk about death and no legal clarity about medical responsibilities. There was disagreement about doctors' roles with some saying that end-of-life decisions were purely medical or purely religious but most maintaining that such decisions need to be collectively owned by medicine, patients, families, religious advisors and society. Informants practised in a legal vacuum that made their ethics interpretations and clinical decision making idiosyncratic regarding end-of-life care for brain dead patients. Participants referred to contrasts between their current practice and previous work in other countries, recognising the influences of religious and cultural dimensions on their practice in Bahrain. Conclusions End-of-life decisions challenge Western-trained doctors in Bahrain as they grapple with aligning respect for local culture with their training in the ethical practice of Western medicine.


We present a case of carpal tunnel syndrome caused by systemic tumoral calcinosis. A 54-year-old woman experienced hand numbness that persisted for nine months. She had no family history or medical problem. A plain radiograph of her right wrist showed a calcified mass on the volar side of the wrist joint. The patient also experienced pain in her contralateral wrist joint and both right and left shoulders, which had calcification on radiography around the joint. Her condition was diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome caused by systemic tumoral calcinosis and a resection biopsy was performed. Histopathological analysis of the biopsied specimen showed basophile deposition inside the fibrous connective tissue. At 14 months after the treatment, she no longer had pain or numbness in her fingers and there was no recurrence of the mass. This patient's condition is considered as a case of nonfamilial, systemic primary tumoral calcinosis. Since incomplete resection leads to a recurrence of the lesion, a follow-up radiography examination is needed to monitor symptom recurrence.


The effect of the morphology and the martensite volume fraction on the microhardness, the tensile, the friction and the wear behavior of API X52 dual phase (DP) steel has been investigated. Three different heat treatments were used to develop dual phase steel with different morphologies and with different amounts of martensite: Intermediate Quenching Treatment/Water (IQ); Step Quenching Treatment (SQ) and direct quenching (DQ). Tribological tests are conducted on DP steels using a ball-on-disc configuration under normal load of 5 N and at a sliding speed of 4 cm/s were used to study the friction and wear behavior of treated samples. Results show that the ferrite–martensite morphology has a great influence on the mechanical properties of dual phase steel. The steel subjected to (IQ) treatment attain superior mechanical properties compared to the SQ and the DQ treatments. On the other hand, it is also found that the friction coefficient and the wear rate (volume loss) decrease when the hardness and the martensite volume fraction increase. The steel with fine fibrous martensite provide good wear resistance.


Among equiatomic alloys of the Cr-Mn-Fe-Co-Ni system, MnFeNi was shown to exhibit a strong anti-invar behavior but little is known regarding its mechanical properties. The objective of the present study is to investigate Hall–Petch strengthening by grain and annealing twin boundaries in MnFeNi. For this purpose, seven different grain sizes between 17 and 216 µm were produced. Mean grain sizes (excluding annealing twin boundaries) and crystallite sizes (including them) were determined using the linear intercept method. Overall, 25% of the boundaries were found to be annealing twin boundaries regardless of the grain size. In some cases, two twin boundaries can be present in one grain forming an annealing twin, which thickness represents one quarter of the mean grain size. Based on a comparison of the mean twin thickness of different alloys with different stacking fault energy (SFE), we estimated an SFE of 80 ± 20 mJ/m2 for MnFeNi. Compression tests of MnFeNi with different grain sizes were performed between 77 and 873 K and revealed a parallel shift of the Hall–Petch lines with temperature. The interaction between dislocations and boundaries was investigated by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in a deformed specimen. It was found that a large number of dislocations are piling up against grain boundaries while the pile-ups at annealing twin boundaries contain much fewer dislocations. This indicates that annealing twin boundaries in this alloy are less effective obstacles to dislocation motion than grain boundaries.


Quantitation of coronary artery dimensions in serial angiographic studies requires an awareness of the variety, complexity, and implications of radiographic imaging equipment used for coronary arteriography. Recognition of the geometric complexities inherent in angiographic imaging systems is important in understanding complex image rotations and ensuring identity of projections when serial comparison is desired. Tables, figures, and formulae are provided to permit translation of machine angles into patient reference angles and vice versa.


An in-vitro superfusion technique was used to study basal and depolarization-induced (32 mmol K+/l) release of LHRH from the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) of pullets at 8-25 weeks of age. Plasma LH concentrations and the incremental change (delta LH) after an i.v. injection of 1 or 15 micrograms synthetic ovine LHRH/kg body weight were also determined. Between 8 and 25 weeks of age, significant (P less than 0.01) increases in basal and depolarization-induced release of LHRH (93 and 330%, respectively) were accompanied by a significant (P less than 0.01) rise in the residual LHRH content of MBH tissue (152%), observations which suggest that the ability of the hypothalamus to synthesize and secrete LHRH increases as sexual maturation proceeds. However, plasma LH, which reached a maximum concentration of 2.05 +/- 0.43 micrograms/l at 15 weeks, fell significantly (P less than 0.05) to 1.14 +/- 0.05 micrograms/l at 25 weeks. Since delta LH in response to exogenous LHRH showed a marked and progressive decline between 12 and 20 weeks of age, the low plasma concentration of LH typical of the mature hen is probably attributable to a direct negative-feedback action of ovarian steroids on the anterior pituitary gland rather than to an impaired secretion of LHRH from the median eminence. It is suggested that a dramatic increase in the responsiveness of LHRH nerve terminals in the MBH to depolarization by 32 mmol K+/l between 20 and 25 weeks of age (mean age at onset of lay 21.9 weeks; range 19-25 weeks) may reflect the development of hypothalamic responsiveness to the positive feedback action of progesterone.


The present study investigates the determinants of internal audit outsourcing using survey data on 99 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, where 54.5 per cent fully rely on in-house facilities and 45.5 per cent outsource some or all of their internal audit function. Results from logistic regression analyses suggest that internal audit outsourcing is associated with perceived cost savings and the technical competence of the external provider. For a subsample of firms that have previously undertaken internal audit activities before outsourcing, contrary to expectations, the larger the organization the greater the propensity to outsource. In addition, smaller firms are found to be adopting internal audit for the first time, through outsourcing. These results suggest that internal audit outsourcing is an expanding business opportunity for professional accountants; but with 75 per cent of firms outsourcing to their external auditor, there are implications for external auditor independence.


The increasing evidence of the presence of organic pollutants in different aqueous matrices has led to the development of many analytical techniques. The isolation of these compounds from the aqueous matrices remains an integral component of these techniques. In this study, the performance of three different extraction methods, namely separatory funnel, magnetic stirring and solid-phase extraction methods commonly applied to organic pollutants in aqueous matrices was assessed. The extraction efficiencies of the target compounds BDE 28, 47, 100, 99, 154, 153 and 183 as well as BB 153 were evaluated using spiking experiments. More so, the performance of a modified clean-up technique was compared with the conventional glass column chromatographic technique. The results from these studies showed that the separatory funnel extraction technique gave the best recoveries. The percent recoveries of these compounds ranged from 72 to 89%, 65 to 84% and 26 to 122% for the separatory funnel, magnetic stirring and solid-phase techniques, respectively. The modified clean-up technique, which requires the use of fewer quantities of the adsorbent material and eluting solvent, gave comparable results with the conventional column technique. The combination of the best extraction method and the modified clean-up techniques was applied to different aqueous matrices, including river water, wastewater treatment effluent and landfill leachate samples.

 Key words: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), landfill leachate, effluent, river water, black river, Cape Town.


An approach for locating the dominant complex natural resonances (poles) of scatterers or radiators is described. Admittance values, calculated using Richmond's thin wire computer programs, at a regular grid of complex and real frequencies are fit by a rational function. Zeros of the resultant numerator and denominator polynomials then yield, respectively, the zeros and poles of the structure. The method is illustrated for resonances of straight and bent wire structures.


The aim of this introductory chapter is to bring to the attention of the readers the achievements made in the chemistry of carbon nanostructures and, mostly, in the chemistry of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and the most recent graphenes. Since the discovery of fullerenes in 1985 and their further preparation in multigram amounts, the chemistry and reactivity of thesemolecular carbon allotropes have been well established. Actually, this chemical reactivity has been used as a benchmark for further studies carried out in the coming carbon nanotubes (single andmultiple wall) and graphenes. Assuming that the fundamental chemistry of fullerenes is known and basically corresponds to that of typical electron-deficient alkenes, we havemainly focused on the chemistry of fullerene-containing polymers. In this regard, the combination of the unique fullerenes with the highly versatile polymer chemistry has afforded a new and interdisciplinary field inwhich the resulting architectures are able to exhibit unprecedented properties. The basic knowledge of this important topic of macromolecular chemistry of fullerenes nicely complements the following chapters devoted to their supramolecular chemistry. The chemistry of CNTs, on the other hand, is considerable less developed than that of fullerenes, and most of their studied reactions are generally based on those previously studied on fullerenes. Therefore, despite the recent reviews and books published on CNTs, we feel that an introductory chapter describing the most significant solubilization/derivatization covalent and noncovalent methods should be helpful and welcome by the readers, and particularly to those nonexperts in the field. This same objective has been pursued for the most recent and planar graphenes. The available literature on the chemistry of these one-atom thickness carbon allotropes is considerably less developed. Therefore, some useful chemical procedures reported so far for the functionalization and solubilization of graphenes – thus allowing its manipulation and application for the construction of devices – have also been included at the end of the chapter.


We must soon "run the world on renewables" but cannot, and should not try to, accomplish this entirely with electricity transmission. We need to supply all energy, not just electricity, from diverse renewable energy (RE) resources, both distributed and centralized, where the world's richest RE resources — of large geographic extent and high intensity — are stranded: far from end-users with inadequate or nonexistent gathering and transmission systems to deliver the energy. Electricity energy storage cannot affordably firm large, intermittent renewables at annual scale, while carbon-free gaseous hydrogen (GH2) and liquid anhydrous ammonia (NH3) fuels can: GH2 in large solution-mined salt caverns, NH3 in surface tanks, both pressurized and refrigerated. "Smart Grid" is emerging as primarily a DSM (demand side management) strategy to encourage energy conservation. Making the electricity grid "smarter" does not: 1. Increase physical transmission capacity; 2. Provide affordable annual-scale firming storage for RE; 3. Solve grid integration problem for large, time-varying RE; 4. Alleviate NIMBY objections to new transmission siting; 5. Reduce the high O&M costs of overhead electric lines. The "smarter" grid may be more vulnerable to cyberattack. Adding storage, control, and quality adjunct devices to the electricity grid, to accommodate very high renewables content, may be technically and economically inferior to GH2 and NH3 RE systems. Thus, we need to look beyond "smart grid", expanding our concept of "transmission", to synergistically and simultaneously solve the transmission, firming storage, and RE integration "balancing" problems now severely constraining our progress toward "running the world on renewables".Copyright © 2011 by ASME


A flexible manufacturing system is a high automated GT machine cell, consisting of a group of processing workstations (usually CNC machine tools), interconnected by an automated material handling and storage system, and controlled by a distributed computer system. The reason the FMS is called flexible is that it is capable of processing a variety of diffrent part styles simultaneously at the various workstations, and the mix of part styles and quatities of productions can be adjusted in response to changing demand patterns. To develop the concept of flexibility in an automated manufacturing system, consired a machine cell consisting of two CNC machine tools are loaded and unloaded by in industrial robots.


Abstract According to a popular scenario supported by numerical models, the mass assembly and growth of massive galaxies, in particular the Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs), is, below a redshift of 1, mainly due to the accretion of multiple gas–poor satellites. In order to get observational evidence of the role played by minor dry mergers, we are obtaining extremely deep optical images of a complete volume limited sample of nearby ETGs. These observations, done with the CFHT as part of the ATLAS3D, NGVS and MATLAS projects, reach a stunning 28.5 – 29 mag.arcsec−2 surface brightness limit in the g' band. They allow us to detect the relics of past collisions such as faint stellar tidal tails as well as the very extended stellar halos which keep the memory of the last episodes of galactic accretion. Images and preliminary results from this on-going survey are presented, in particular a possible correlation between the fine structure index (which parametrizes the amount of tidal perturbation) of the ETGs, their stellar mass, effective radius and gas content.


The book "Darsu Al-Lughah Al-Arabiyah" is one of the books used by students to learn Arabic. This book contains various teaching materials, including the Qawaid Nahwu and reading. After making observations, researchers see that the grammar content in the reading is not in accordance with the grammar material that has been taught. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the content of reading texts and elements that contradicted grammar material as well as knowing the efforts made by the teacher to overcome this problem. This research is content analysis and data collection is done through observation, documentation, and interviews. The sample is the class II book "Darsu Al-Lughah Al-Arabiyah". The results of the study indicate that the content of the reading text in this book consists of grammar that has been learned and grammar that is not learned. Grammar has been studied totaling 77 examples, while those not studied are 144 examples and the efforts made by the teacher to overcome this problem are by conducting textbook assessments, observing the material in the book, providing references to other teaching materials , provide additional material, and equip themselves with a variety of knowledge and experience and so on.


ObjectiveTo highlight and discuss the considerations for the future development of equipment standards for Winter Paralympic sports. Data SourcesLiterature searches were performed (in English) during May 2011 using the key words "technology, winter sport, Olympic, and Paralympic" in the computerized databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. In addition, personal scientific observations were made at several Winter Paralympic Games. The retrieved articles were screened and assessed for relevance to the biological, biomechanical, and sport medicine aspects of equipment. Main ResultsThere are 3 key areas in which technology has influenced sports performance in Paralympic winter sports, namely, specialized prostheses, crutch skis or outriggers (in lieu of poles), and sport-specific wheelchairs (such as the sit-ski). From a sport medicine perspective, a crucial factor not considered in the standard laboratory test of mechanical efficiency is the influence of the human-equipment connection, such as the stump-to-prosthesis interface or the required human-to-wheelchair control. This connectivity is critical to the effective operation of the assistive device. When assessing the efficiency of this equipment, the not-so-obvious, holistic, compensatory factors need to be considered. ConclusionsAssistive equipment is fundamental for a person with a disability to participate and compete in winter sport activities. Although there have been improvements in the mechanical function of some assistive devices, the key issue is matching the residual function of the person with the assistive equipment. Equitable access to this technology will also ensure that the fundamental spirit of fair play that underpins the Paralympic Games is maintained.


After discontinuation of antihypertensive medications, patients may experience symptoms associated with catecholamine excess, with or without a rapid rise in blood pressure; this is referred to as antihypertensive drug withdrawal syndrome. Though most often associated with the discontinuation of clonidine, this syndrome has been reported to follow the withdrawal of many other antihypertensives. Proposed mechanisms for the syndrome, depending on the drug involved, include enhanced activity of (1) the sympathoadrenal system, (2) the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and (3) the thyroid hormones. The typical patient at risk is a younger person with severe hypertension, who has been on multiple drugs in high doses for a long period. Guidelines are provided for minimizing the occurrence of the syndrome and for treating the reaction, should it occur.


In this paper, we propose a method for recognizing postures and gestures by using foot pressure sensors, and we investigate optimal positions for pressure sensors on soles from the viewpoint of motion recognition accuracy. In experiments, the recognition accuracies of 22 kinds of daily postures and gestures were evaluated from foot-pressure sensor values. Furthermore, the optimum measurement points for high recognition accuracy were examined by evaluating combinations of two foot pressure measurement areas on a round-robin basis. As a result, when selecting the optimum two points for each user, the recognition accuracy was about 94.5% on average. The recognition accuracy of the averaged combinations of the best two combinations for all subjects was classified with an accuracy of about 91.9% on average. As a result of an evaluation to raise versatility, the average recognition accuracy in a three-point evaluation was 98.4%, which was almost the same with the recognition accuracy when using all 105 points. In anticipation of the applicability of this research result, two types of pressure sensing shoes were developed.


Abstract The amplitude of the fast uptake and the initial rate of the slow uptake increase with in creasing free calcium concentrations, up to 30 μᴍ. In that range, both processes are correlated to each other. At higher concentrations, the slow uptake is more inhibited than the fast uptake. The fast uptake shows a maximum amplitude which remains unchanged in the presence of phosphate. The slow uptake leads to a nearly complete depletion of the external calcium, and its rate is proportional to the phosphate concentration, even at physiological range. The sarcoplasmic ATPase liberates inorganic phosphate and the slow uptake


As an advanced sealing technology, the application of gas face seal in aero-engine is few, if possible, lower specific fuel consumption, higher thrust-weight ratio, and effective secondary flow control at minimal cost would be brought. A Relative Negative Pressure Zone (RNPZ) was found in the spiral groove gas face seal, and the evolution and action mechanism of RNPZ was investigated in detail, which may promote the above application. Three film thicknesses of spiral groove gas face seals at different rotational speeds and inlet pressures were numerically compared to obtain the pressure field in the groove area and the formation of RNPZ. Then, the radial and circumferential velocities in the groove were calculated to quantify the impact of the obstruction effect, viscous pumping, and shear effect, which revealed the evolution mechanism of the RNPZ stage by stage. At last, the action mechanism of RNPZ was clarified through the hydrodynamic performance analysis. It is found that the pressure field evolution in the gas face seal is in stage three under the high rotational speed and low inlet pressure conditions in an aero-engine. Under the same film thickness, RNPZ can suppress leakage to a certain extent in stage two, while in stage three, it increases the opening force and stiffness-leakage ratio. This work can provide theory and data to help with the subsequent optimization design of gas-face seals for aero-engine.


This is the third of four dialogues between the characters 'M' and 'L'. In the second dialogue, "Planetary Poiesis", the pair begin to discover how patterns of bifurcation in the cosmos have a deep kinship with patterns of bifurcation in human thought and language. However, the concept of arboreal poetics puts this idea under pressure, opening up further insights into the relationship between bifurcation and poiesis. Moreover, the term arboreal poetics (not unlike zoopoetics) has the potential to point in several directions at once. The aim here is to imagine several possible categories that can help map the vast terrain of the relationship between trees and poiesis.


Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) is a regenerative volumetric liver formation that can occur as a result of the reaction of hepatocytes to local vascular circulatory disorders and is one of the late complications in patients who received high-dose chemotherapy followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This article presents a description of two clinical cases of development of liver FNH in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma identified in the late stages from the end of specific treatment. A possible reason for the development of liver FNH in these patients could be the use of alkylating drugs (ifosfamide, threosulfan, busulfan, melphalan).


Southern temperate tree lines are found at low elevations compared with their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. They are also regarded as forming at warm temperatures, which has been attributed to taxon‐specific limitations. Using New Zealand tree lines as an example, we assess whether these tree lines are anomalously warm compared with the global mean.


The methoxypolyethylene glycols(MPEG) were employed to modify aliphatic polyisocyanates. The influences of the molecular weight and amount of MPEG and different synthesis processes on the content of isocyanate(NCO) groups, viscosity, water dispersibility of the resultant modified polyisocyanates and the properties of two-component waterborne polyurethane coatings were investigated. The water dispersible polyisocyanates bearing urethane groups and those containing allophanate groups were compared.


Noninvasive single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging with [99mTc]Tc-HYNFA via folate receptor (FR) targeting was proposed to assess the inflammation and therapeutic effect of systemic sclerosis (SSc) in model mice. The radiochemical yield and purity of [99mTc]Tc-HYNFA were over 95%, with a specific activity of about 9.36 ± 0.17 MBq/nmol. At the end of induction, the uptake ratios of bleomycin-injected regions on the back-to-muscle (R/M) and lung-to-muscle (L/M) derived from SPECT images were 7.27 ± 0.50 and 4.25 ± 0.15, respectively. The radioactivity uptakes could be blocked by excessive folic acid (FA), and R/M and L/M obviously decreased to 2.78 ± 0.57 and 2.51 ± 0.79, respectively. R/M (2.22 ± 0.71) and L/M (1.62 ± 0.28) decreased very close to those of the control mice group (R/M = 1.99 ± 0.36, L/M = 1.50 ± 0.14) when macrophages had been depleted in advance. After being treated with cyclophosphamide (CTX) or methotrexate (MTX), R/M and L/M decreased to 3.58 ± 0.52 and 2.03 ± 0.32 (CTX treatment) or 2.48 ± 0.64 and 1.83 ± 0.06 (MTX treatment). R/M and L/M were highly correlated with pathological changes. The trend of hydroxyproline content in lungs at the later non-inflammatory phase of each group was similar to the uptake values of the lung in the 4th week from the beginning of induction. [99mTc]Tc-HYNFA had an ideal uptake in SSc lesions. R/M and L/M had a high consistency with pathological changes. SPECT imaging-targeted FR could monitor the therapeutic effect of CTX and MTX. It is expected to be an effective means to evaluate SSc.


The physical mechanism for the production of fast gamma-ray variability in blazars remains debated. Plasmoids – magnetized quasi-circular structures of plasma formed self-consistently in reconnecting current sheets – are ideal candidates for the production of broadband variable non-thermal emission. Using state-of-the-art kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection and radiative transfer calculations, we generate artificial gamma-ray light curves thatwould be observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Our goal is to investigate if characteristic features of the theoretical light curves, such as the ultra-rapid gamma-ray flares predicted by the reconnection model, are detectable with the typical Fermi-LAT observations. A comparison with observed luminous and fast gamma-ray flares fromflat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) reveals thatmagnetic reconnection events lead to comparable flux levels and variability patterns, especially when the reconnection layer is slightly misaligned with the line of sight. Emission from fast plasmoids moving close to the line of sight could explain fast variability on the time scales of minutes for which evidence has been found in observations of FSRQs. Our results motivate improvements in the existing reconnection model for blazars as well as dedicated searches for fast variability in LAT data as evidence for magnetic reconnection events.


From the Department of Dermatology, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass. (S.L.M.); the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine (J.K.), the Department of Dermatology (B.T.M.), and the Division of Dermatopathology, Department of Pathology (V.L.), Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Departments of Dermatology (S.L.M., B.T.M.), Medicine (J.K.), and Pathology (V.L.), Harvard Medical School.