The beneficial effects of long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3 PUFAs) in cardioprotection are widely known and generally accepted. In this literature review, we have focused on the known and postulated mechanisms of action of omega-3 PUFAs and their metabolites on various components of the haemostatic system, in particular on blood platelets and endothelium. We have also made an attempt to provide a comprehensive review of epidemiological studies with particular regard to clinical trials. Notably, the results of these studies are contradictory, and some of them failed to report the beneficial effects of taking or supplementing omega-3 PUFAs in the diet. A potential explanation, in our opinion, could be the need to use higher doses of omega-3 PUFAs and a proper ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs. An additional problem which is difficult to solve is the use of a proper neutral placebo for interventional studies. Despite some controversies regarding the beneficial effects of supplementation of omega-3 PUFAs in cardiovascular disease, our review suggests that a promising aspect of future studies and applications is to focus on the anti-thrombotic properties of these compounds. An argument supporting this assumption is the recent use of omega-3 PUFAs as a supporting tool for the treatment of COVID-19 complications.


With the rapid scale up of antiretroviral therapy, there is a dramatic decline in HIV related morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Several new safe antiretroviral, and newer class of drugs and monitoring assays are developed recently. As a result the treatment guideline for the management of HIV disease continue to change. This review focuses on evolving science on Indian policy - antiretroviral therapy initiation, which drugs to start with, when to change the initial regimen and what to change.


Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction: Narratives of the German Reformation: C. Scott Dixon. 2. What was Preached in German Towns in the Early Reformation?: Bernd Moeller. 3. What was the Reformation Doctrine of Justification?: Berndt Hamm. 4. The Reformation of the Common Man, 1521-1542: Thomas A. Brady Jr. 5. Reformation and the Communal Spirit: Peter Blickle. 6. The Reformation and the Modern Age, an attempt: Richard Van Dulman. 7. Forced Confessionalization? Prolegomena for a Theory of the Confessional Age: Wolfgang Reinhard. 8. Success and Failure in the German Reformation: Gerald Strauss. 9. The Reformation, Popular Magic and the Disenchantment of the World: Robert W. Scribner. Index.


Two years ago, archaeologists dated a remote rock shelter called Jinmium in the Northern Territory of Australia at 116,000 to 176,000 years old, which would have made it by far the earliest trace of humans in Australia and its circular carvings the oldest known rock art in the world. But now the results are in from a painstaking effort to redate Jinmium, and in this week9s issue of
 Nature , a research team reports that Jinmium9s age is a completely unremarkable 10,000 years. The new dates are said to "nail the coffin shut" on the claim that humans have been in Australia two to three times longer than previously thought.


Description of two cases of extensive subperiosteal haematoma of the heel in a patient with haemophilia A and in a patient with haemophilia B. These haema‐tomata gave rise to extensive destruction of the calcaneus. Discussion of the means by which recovery was obtained.


The content of this paper is a snapshot of a current project looking at producing a real-time sensor-based building assessment tool, and a system that personalises workspaces using multi-agent technology. Both systems derive physical environment information from a wireless sensor network that allows clients to subscribe to real-time sensed data. The principal ideologies behind this project are energy efficiency and well-being of occupants; in the context of leveraging the current state-of-the-art in agent technology, wireless sensor networks and building assessment systems to enable the optimisation and assessment of buildings. Participants of this project are from both industry (construction and research) and academia.


Abstract : For years, simulations have been used by analysis and planning staffs to develop and rehearse operation plans, analyze results, and develop doctrine. Typically, combat simulations are used most heavily during the planning stages of an operation. However, simulations are increasingly being used during operations to perform course of action analyses (COAA) and develop real-time forecasts of future conditions on the battlefield. Recent efforts by the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO) to improve the interoperability of C4I systems with simulations has provided a powerful means for rapid simulation initialization and analysis during exercises, and made simulations more useful and responsive as the exercises are executed. These DMSO efforts involve technology development to support the integration of operational C4I systems, such as those in the Global Command and Control System (GCCS), with simulations such as the Integrated Theatre Engagement Model (ITEM) and the Joint Warfare Simulation (JWARS). This paper will describe the FY03 GCCS-ITEM-Intelligent Agent Federation project and its support for agent-based plan monitoring, discuss project results, and present its conclusions. It will also describe phase I (FY03) of the JWARS-GCCS Integration project, presenting initial results as well as preliminary conclusions. Finally, it will describe the FY04 Simulation-to- C4I Connectivity project, which is integrating the results of these two projects, leveraging the agents developed for the GCCS/ITEM federation, and extending them with additional monitoring capabilities to support the use of JWARS as an embedded tool for the C4I operator. In this integrated project, interfaces between operational C4I systems, simulations and intelligent agents are designed to exploit web-service technologies and the standardized information exchanges described by the NATO and Multilateral Interoperability Programme Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM).


Thermodynamics of 39 oligonucleotides with internal G.T mismatches dissolved in 1 M NaCl were determined from UV absorbance versus temperature profiles. These data were combined with literature values of six sequences to derive parameters for 10 linearly independent trimer and tetramer sequences with G.T mismatches and Watson-Crick base pairs. The G.T mismatch parameters predict DeltaG degrees 37, DeltaH degrees , DeltaS degrees , and TM with average deviations of 5.1%, 7.5%, 8.0%, and 1.4 degrees C, respectively. These predictions are within the limits of what can be expected for a nearest-neighbor model. The data show that the contribution of a single G.T mismatch to helix stability is context dependent and ranges from +1.05 kcal/mol for AGA/TTT to -1.05 kcal/mol for CGC/GTG. Several tests of the applicability of the nearest-neighbor model to G.T mismatches are described. Analysis of imino proton chemical shifts show that structural perturbations from the G.T mismatches are highly localized. One-dimensional NOE difference spectra demonstrate that G.T mismatches form stable hydrogen-bonded wobble pairs in diverse contexts. Refined nearest-neighbor parameters for Watson-Crick base pairs are also presented.


Abstract This study was an exploratory examination of the influence of mothers' teaching behaviors, strategies, and child-rearing attitudes on their children's ability to delay gratification. In an externally imposed delay of gratification situation, 30 mothers from a rural university community taught their children strategies that could help them refrain from touching a brightly wrapped present when the mothers left the room. Results showed that mothers of children who did not delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with a permissive parenting style, whereas mothers of children who did delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with an authoritative parenting style. The results of this study are discussed with respect to the development of children's self-control and self-regulatory abilities.


Gravity terrain corrections impose some limitations on the accuracy of gravity surveys. Several numerical techniques have been developed in recent years, which have reduced these errors and at the same time have made the process of gravity data reduction for local and regional studies less tedious. We present here a method to perform gravity terrain corrections with reasonable accuracy. The topography is fitted as a set of Gaussian basis functions, in a manner suitable for implementation in a personal computer. The automated straightforward application of Hammer's chart to this surface has yielded good estimates of terrain corrections, by comparing results from an analytic solution and a field example.


Although tobacco use has been known as one of the biggest risk factors on periodontal health, little is known about the effect of smoking cessation on it. The aim of this study was to investigate the change of concentration of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-8, MMP-9 and interleukin (IL)-1꺬 in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of 11 quit-smokers for 1 year after smoking cessation. Eleven male subjects to maintain quit-smoking for 1 year participated the oral examination, GCF and saliva collection without periodontal treatments at baseline, after 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 1 year. To confirm quit-smoking, nicotine and cotinine concentrations in saliva were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. MMP-8, MMP-9 and IL-1꺬 concentrations in GCF of upper anterior teeth area were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Change of MMP-8 in GCF during smoking cessation showed fluctuation with decrease (5 subjects) or increase (2 subjects) or maintenance tendency (4 subjects). Changes of MMP-9 were decrease (6 subjects), or increase (2 subjects), or maintenance (3 subjects). Change of IL-1꺬 also showed fluctuation with decrease (5 subjects) or increase (3 subjects) or maintenance tendency (3 subjects). The subjects with increase tendency had the relatively smaller amount concentration of MMP-8 and MMP-9 at the baseline. It was unclear smoking cessation without periodontal treatment could affect MMP-8, MMP-9, and IL-1꺬 in GCF. Fluctuation of periodontal biomarkers during smoking cessation might result from feedback interaction between environmental factors and periodontal cells.


This study aimed to evaluated the surface water quality for agriculture and consumption in the Amphawa District. The surface water quality parameters in this study included water temperature, turbidity, conductivity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD, nitrate, suspended solids, phosphorus, total dissolved solids (TDS), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd). The water samples were collected from small excavation, Lychee, Pomelo and Coconut orchards for 3 seasons from January to December 2011. The surface water quality from small excavation, Lychee, pomelo and coconut orchards were met the type III of surface water quality standard. The concentration of heavy metal and did not differ significantly at 0.05 level, except dissolved oxygen. The surface water was suitable for consumption by the usual sterile and generally improving water quality through the process before and was suitable for agriculture. Keywords—Water Quality, Surface Water Quality.


Purpose To study the agreement on disease prevalence between survey data and national health register data among people aged over 90. Patients and Methods The survey data were from the Vitality 90+ Study conducted among 1637 community dwellers and persons in long-term care aged 90 and over in Tampere, Finland. The survey was linked with two national health registers, including hospital discharge data and prescription information. The prevalence of 10 age-related chronic diseases was calculated for each data source and the agreement between the survey and the registers was estimated using Cohen's kappa statistics and positive and negative percent agreement. Results The prevalence of most diseases was higher in the survey than in the registers. The level of agreement was highest when the survey was compared with information combined from both registers. Agreement was almost perfect for Parkinson's disease (ĸ=0.81) and substantial for diabetes (ĸ=0.75) and dementia (ĸ=0.66). For heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis, depression, and hip fracture, the agreement ranged from fair to moderate. Conclusion Self-reported information on chronic diseases shows acceptable agreement with health register data to warrant the use of survey methods in population-based health studies among the oldest old. It is important to acknowledge the gaps in health registers when validating self-reported information against register data.


Localisation of multiple active speakers in natural environments with only two microphones is a challenging problem. Reverberation degrades the performance of speaker localisation based exclusively on directional cues. This paper presents an approach based on audio-visual fusion. The audio modality performs the multiple speaker localisation using the Skeleton method, energy weighting, and precedence effect filtering and weighting. The video modality performs the active speaker detection based on the analysis of the lip region of the detected speakers. The audio modality alone has problems with localisation accuracy, while the video modality alone has problems with false detections. The estimation results of both modalities are represented as probabilities in the azimuth domain. A Gaussian fusion method is proposed to combine the estimates in a late stage. As a consequence, the localisation accuracy and robustness compared to the audio/video modality alone is significantly increased. Experimental results in different scenarios confirmed the improved performance of the proposed method.


The prevailing challenges in live unlabeled high-resolution imaging of native organoids stem from technical issues like complex sample handling and optical scattering in three-dimensional architectures. In this study, we introduce low-coherence holotomography as an advanced, label-free, quantitative imaging modality, designed to overcome related technical obstacles for long-term live imaging of 3D organoids. We successfully captured high-resolution morphological intricacies and dynamic events within mouse small intestinal organoids at a subcellular resolution. Furthermore, this method provides a unique advantage in differentiating between viable and non-viable organoids, thereby expanding its potential applications in organoid-based research.


We review the mechanical theory of dislocation and disclination density fields and its application to grain boundary modeling. The theory accounts for the incompatibility of the elastic strain and curvature tensors due to the presence of dislocations and disclinations. The free energy density is assumed to be quadratic in elastic strain and curvature and has nonlocal character. The balance of loads in the body is described by higher-order equations using the work-conjugates of the strain and curvature tensors, i.e., the stress and couple-stress tensors. Conservation statements for the translational and rotational discontinuities provide a dynamic framework for dislocation and disclination motion in terms of transport relationships. Plasticity of the body is therefore viewed as being mediated by both dislocation and disclination motion. The driving forces for these motions are identified from the mechanical dissipation, which provides guidelines for the admissible constitutive relations. On this basis, the theory is expressed as a set of partial differential equations where the unknowns are the material displacement and the dislocation and disclination density fields. The theory is applied in cases where rotational defects matter in the structure and deformation of the body, such as grain boundaries in polycrystals and grain boundary-mediated plasticity. Characteristic examples are provided for the grain boundary structure in terms of periodic arrays of disclination dipoles and for grain boundary migration under applied shear.


One of the inhibitors are derived from natural papaya extract. The utilization ofnatural products extracts as corrosion inhibitors for corrosion inhibitors chemical synthesis of the most dangerous, expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Thisstudy aims to determine the value of the corrosion rate of the steel using inhibitorsof papaya leaf extract and compare the corrosion rate between using inhibitors andwithout inhibitors on steel in seawater as a corrosion media, as well as determinethe inhibition efficiency. Methods of testing performed in this study, the method oflosing weight by using a variation of the longer soaking time (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24,28, 32, 36, and 40 days). Percent yield of papaya extract obtained in the amount of10.612%. The results showed that the effect of soaking time on the corrosion rate,which by using inhibitors of corrosion rate is slower than without inhibitor. Great-est value of the corrosion rate by using the inhibitor at 4 days of soaking 28,4.10-6gram/mm2.day and lowest value of the corrosion rate of 6,8.10-6 gram/mm2.day onsoaking of 36 days, while the biggest value of the corrosion rate with without in-hibitor that is equal 31,1.10-6 gram/mm2.day on soaking 4 days and the lowest valueof the corrosion rate on soaking 8,5.10-6 gram/mm2. at 40 days. Inhibition effi-ciency increases with increased soaking time and achieve optimum value of inhibi-tion efficiency of 21.59% at 36 days immersion. Keywords : corrosion inhibitor, maceration, natural extract ingredients (papaya),the rate of corrosion


ABSTRACT Early 19th-century educators established school gardens with the same intent as today: to create a meaningful learning environment that connects students with food and nature. What has been more varied and less explored are the social, health, and political contexts behind the ebb and flow of support for school garden over the past 150 years, with this kind of exploration about the last few decades being particularly absent. This article demonstrates how school gardens are a mainstay in the United States as a result of their fluidity and unique ability to attach to important social, health, and political issues.


This study explores K-12 teachers' perceptions of the benefits and barriers to technology integration by either teachers or students in K-12 instruction. The sample was composed of 68 students enrolled in online classes in the graduate studies in education department of a small private liberal arts institution in the southeast. Data was collected using an anonymous, online survey. Open and axial coding was used to identify themes in barriers and benefits in both student and teacher technology use. Even with the emphasis on providing 1:1 technology, availability of technology was most frequently identified barrier, while increased engagement was the most frequently identified benefit. Content instructional issues or teacher knowledge were not as stronger identified barriers or benefits.


The cylindrical vessels are used for storing fluids at high pressure. If the magnitude of the internal/external pressure is closer to the yield strength of the material used, then no thickness of the material will prevent the failure of the vessel. Hence shrink-fitted compound cylinders are used, which can store the fluids at higher pressure closer to the yield stress of the material. Optimally designed compound cylinder has equal maximum hoop stress in both - the inner and outer cylinders. The value of this hoop stress is closer to the value of yield stress of the material used. There are many parameters in the design of compound cylinder. Out of them only a few are important. Three important parameters are chosen for optimization – interface diameter, interference and outside diameter, keeping other parameters such as material, internal diameter, etc constant. The optimization is highly nonlinear and if the number of parameters is large, solution time will be more. Compound cylinders have historically been designed such that the maximum shear stress is equal in each cylinder.  This is the optimum condition for yielding of the cylinder, since both cylinders yield at the same pressure. If compound cylinders are subjected to fatigue, this is not the case. A better design criterion is to equate the maximum tensile stress in each cylinder, since the maximum tensile stress controls fatigue crack propagation. I have used maximum tensile stress (Hoop stress) criterion to arrive at the optimum design of compound cylinder. This paper describes the method of determining the optimum dimensions of both the cylinders made of specified material and to withstand a specified internal pressure so that the volume (and weight) is minimum. The results obtained are verified by using ANSYS finite element analysis packages.

 Key words: Optimum design, compound cylinder, maximum tensile stress, finite element analysis (FEA).


Data assimilation is the process of integrating observational data and model predictions to obtain an optimal representation of the state of the atmosphere. As more chemical observations in the troposphere are becoming available, chemical data assimilation is expected to play an essential role in air‐quality forecasting, similar to the role it has in numerical weather prediction. Considerable progress has been made recently in the development of variational tools for chemical data assimilation. In this paper we implement, and assess the performance of, a localized 'perturbed‐observations' ensemble Kalman filter (LEnKF). We analyse different settings of the ensemble localization, and investigate the joint assimilation of the state, emissions and boundary conditions. Results with a real model and real observations show that LEnKF is a promising approach for chemical data assimilation. The results also point to several issues on which future research is necessary. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society


It is well known that plate radiation below the critical frequency is very poor, and therefore many stage floors dissipate low-frequency energy transmitted from double-bass and cello end pins rather than providing a tuning-fork/tabletop effect. However, if the stage floor is well damped, so that the transverse amplitudes fade out quickly around the point of excitation, a significant net radiation can be experienced also for low frequencies, due to the piston/baffle effect. Measurements performed in the Lindeman Hall of the Norwegian Academy of Music, in Oslo, Norway, showed that vibrational amplitudes in the stage floor faded out at a nearly equal pace in all directions around the excitation points, leaving nearly circular, quasi isotropic patterns for most frequencies of interest. In the audience area no tendency of spectral roll off was seen in the low-frequency end down to 30 Hz, which may represent the lowest fundamental of modern double basses. Transfer functions from stage floor to audience (intensity vs. power, and sound pressure vs. transverse velocity) were calculated for a number of seats in the hall.


The application of modern molecular tests such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) to human malignancies has led to better understanding of tumor biology and the design of targeted molecular therapies. In the research setting, important genomic alterations in tumors have been discovered with potential therapeutic implications but data regarding the impact of this technology in a real world oncology practice is limited. As a result, we decided to review the results of NGS in 144 advanced-stage cancer patients referred to the oncology practices of Lifespan-affiliated centers in Rhode Island. Most cancers revealed genomic alterations in genes commonly mutated in cancer. However, several unexpected genomic alterations were discovered in certain cancers with potential therapeutic intervention. Most cancers contained "actionable" genomic alterations despite being of advanced stage. Our experience demonstrates that application of NGS in the clinical setting contributes both to increasing the therapeutic armamentarium as well as our understanding of tumor biology.


OBJECTIVE
To study the correlation of EphA2 protein expression with vesculogenic mimicry (VM), clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in choroidal melanoma (CM).

METHODS
It was a retrospective case series study. Between January 1992 and December 2005, 56 cases of human CM with clinicopathologic data from the Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University were studied. HE stainings were performed to observe the microcirculation patterns in tumor tissue specimens. VM was found in 26 of the 56 cases using CD31/periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) double staining and transelectron microscopy. All cases were divided into two groups: VM-positive and VM-negative. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on paraffin sections of the 56 cases of CM specimens to investigate the expression of EphA2. According to tumor cells positive rate and staining intensity of the results of evaluation, the specimens were divided into low expression and high expression groups.χ(2)-test and t-test were used to analyzed the enumeration data and measurement data, respectively. Survival analysis was used to further elucidate its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics, VM and prognosis. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyzed the influence factors of prognosis.

RESULTS
VM channels were found in 26 of the 56 CM cases and VM-negative 30 cases. VM-positivity was related to cell type, tumor size and recurrence and metastasis, and the differences were statistically significant (χ(2) = 4.612, 5.346, 5.213; P = 0.036, 0.021, 0.027). The results showed that EphA2 was up-regulated in the VM-positive group compared with the group of VM-negative group. The positive rates of EphA2 expression in the VM-positive group and VM-negative group were 92.3% (25/26) and 70.0% (21/30), respectively, with a significant difference between the two groups (t = 2.247, P = 0.009). The EphA2 protein was expressed in epithelioid (10/12), mixed (11/15) and spindle (41.40%) cell types, with a significant difference among these histological types (χ(2) = 6.513, P = 0.010). The expression rate of EphA2 protein were significantly higher in large (54.55%, 18/33) than small (45.45%, 15/33) tumors, and the expression of EphA2 in metastatic and recurrence patients (10/11) were significantly higher compared with controls (31.11%, 14/45) (χ(2) = 4.556, 8.211;P = 0.016, 0.005). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed the presence of VM resulted in a poor prognosis (t = 9.263, P = 0.000). The Cox proportional hazards model indicated that the EphA2 overexpression and the presence of VM were independent predictors of a poor prognosis (χ(2) = 12.041, P = 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between them (r = 0.412, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The results of this study demonstrate that EphA2 may play a critical role in the formation process of VM in CM, implicating EphA2 as a valuable marker for the prediction of recurrence, metastasis and prognosis in CM patients.


Abstract: Slender member is subjected to axial load and biaxial bending moment and fails due to buckling. This buckling is caused due to slenderness effect also known as 'P∆' effect. This buckling gives rise to excessive bending moment occurring at a point of maximum deflection. This additional bending moment is considered in second order analysis. The objective of the research reported in this paper is to formulate bending moment equation by using beam column theory and to study the behaviour of solid circular section and hollow circular section of bridge pier. The optimization in area of cross section is done by providing a combination of solid and hollow circular section in place of a solid circular section of pier within permissible limits. A comparative study on behaviour for all three conditions is been carried out. Keywords: slender column, buckling, 'P∆' effect, beam-column, second order analysis, bridge pier.


Recent years have seen a surge of interest in applying the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu in international studies as part of a more general sociological turn observable in both international and European studies. However, different from earlier attempts at deploying Bourdieusian sociology in the context of international law, economics, and politics, most of this new Bourdieu-inspired constructivist political science research only marginally addresses what in many ways was the cardinal point of Bourdieu's work: his attempt at devising a reflexive sociology. This article's basic claim is that the most significant contribution Bourdieusian sociology can make to international (and European) studies is not achieved by adaptation or transplantation of key concepts (field, habitus, and so on) to a set of research objects that remain by and large predefined by other disciplines. Instead, I contend that it is by deploying the underlying sociological practice of Bourdieusian sociology to international objects in terms of conducting a reflexive sociology of the international. To substantiate my claim, I make three more specific arguments. In the first section, I argue for the need for "objectivizing" the research object in terms of "double reflexivity" with respect to both object and researcher. In the second part, I suggest that key Bourdieusian notions are precisely tools for this scientific operation by providing a relational and integrative approach. In the third part, I compare this approach with a cross section of research on international human rights and thereby suggest how it provides a different reading of the international.


Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have a number of potential applications in bone healing and in the treatment of other bone disorders. Potential applications include the following:

accelerating normal bone healing

increasing the prevalence of the union of fractures and potentially increasing the strength of the callus formed in initial fracture healing

increasing the effectiveness of autologous or allogeneic bone grafting to improve fracture healing, heal bone defects, or treat nonunions

accelerating the rate of consolidation and increasing the prevalence of union in distraction osteogenesis

replacing autogenous bone graft in treating deficiencies in bone union to eliminate the cost and morbidity of harvesting autologous bone

increasing the rate of consolidation and strength of bone union in reconstructive procedures such as spine arthrodesis and other arthrodeses

inducing bone formation in pathological bone defects

increasing bone mass disorders such as postmenopausal and disuse osteoporosis

In clinical trials of BMPs, investigators thus far have chosen spine arthrodesis, fracture nonunions, and high-risk acute fractures as models for evaluating the BMPs. Spine arthrodeses have been chosen because they are commonly performed; pseudarthrosis is fairly frequent and can lead to failure of the procedure, and the need for harvesting large amounts of autologous bone graft adds significantly to the morbidity of these procedures. In addition, adequate autologous bone is usually not available, especially in children. Fracture nonunions have been chosen because they represent the failure of the normal biologic process of healing, the previous standards of care procedures have failed, and the morbidity and disability from nonunions is high. High-risk fracture models such as open fractures of the tibia have been chosen because the prevalence of nonunion is high …


Skateboarding has gained great popularity in the past few decades and has recently been declared an Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020. Although attempts to describe the most common injuries in this sport have been made, there is consensus on the need of a tool for the standardized col lection of sport habits and skateboarding injury data from skateboarders. The purpose of this study was to create and validate the "Questionnaire of Sport Habits and Injury Record in Skateboarding" through the 3round modified Delphi method. The steering group was assembled by the authors of the present study. A panel of 20 experts meeting the following criteria was gathered: Sport and Exercise Science graduates with experience in completing original research using questionnaires or previous participation in questionnaire validation studies; and/or skateboarding coaches or professional skateboarders with more than 10 years of experience. The steering group designed a first questionnaire that was reviewed, modified and rated using a Likert scale (1 to 5) by the experts in each round. Items were excluded when the median of the experts' scores was lower than 3. Consensus was reached after the comple tion of the 3 rounds. The accepted 15 items that form the questionnaire are grouped into the following dimensions: Habits, Skateboarding Practice Hab its and Injury Record.


Statistically significant linear correlations between geographic variations in salt consumption and mortality from gastric, but not duodenal ulcer, are reported. It is suggested that dietary consumption of salt is a risk factor in mortality from gastric ulcer.


Abstract Background/Objective: To report a rare complication of heterotopic ossification of the vocal cords after spinal cord and multiple organ injuries. Study Design: Case report. Setting: Acute rehabilitation in the Department of Neurologic Rehabilitation. Results: A 55-year-old patient sustained spinal cord injury and multitrauma after falling from a height. Approximately 3 months later, after weaning from mechanical ventilation, plugging of the cannula resulted in severe stridor indicating upper airway obstruction. A computed tomography scan showed bilateral vocal cord fixation in a para-median position, with hyperossification of the vocal processes of the arytenoids. Direct laryngoscopy revealed interarytenoid ossification, and sawing through the ossification resulted in remobilization of the vocal cords enabling decannulation. Conclusions: Heterotopic ossification of the vocal cords was found to be an early complication of acute spinal cord injury and multiple trauma. This rare complication should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients showing signs of upper airway obstruction.


M\"obius inversion, originally a tool in number theory, was generalized to posets for use in group theory and combinatorics. It was later generalized to categories in two different ways, both of which are useful. We provide a unifying abstract framework. This allows us to compare and contrast the two theories of M\"obius inversion for categories, and advance each of them. Among several side benefits is an improved understanding of the following fact: the Euler characteristic of the classifying space of a (suitably finite) category depends only on its underlying graph.


A 62-year-old white male employed for 43 years in the polishing room of a cotton textile mill was admitted to a tertiary care center with progressive dyspnea and productive cough that had not responded to therapy for tuberculosis. In spite of aggressive antibiotic therapy and respiratory support, the patient died as a consequence of respiratory failure. Small rounded and irregular opacities had been noted on the chest radiograph. Review of job-site spirometry demonstrated a worsening restrictive pattern over a 4-year period prior to his death. Additional occupational history revealed long-term exposure to kaolin in the polishing room, and pathologic examination of lung tissue confirmed extensive fibrosis and substantial quantities of kaolin. Kaolinosis is a disease typically found among individuals involved in mining or processing this material rather than in user industries. This case illustrates the importance of obtaining a complete occupational history in reaching a diagnosis. The clinicopathologic aspects of kaolinosis are also reviewed.


ABSTRACT Communication used by everyone, wherever and anytime. In addition, communication can be conducted in an organization, both in organization to an enterprise, the government and forth. In an organization people will communicate. As leaders of communication, communication leaders on the community and other. Communication important to a organization because communication is instrumental for members of an organization to can work together in doing activity of management, which is to reach organizational goals that went forth before. Research is called communication organization in raise awareness of the community towards village development aimed at to see how communication organization in raise awareness of the community towards village development to villagers / nagori kampung Lalang of subdistrict Ujung Padang  of the District Simalungun. The kind of research used in this research is research deskriftif with a qualitative approach was adopted. The source of information as many as 10 ( ten ) the. The source of information having a profusion of being divergent as the head of the village, village officials, teachers, tens of thousands of workers, from self employed, and farmers. Engineering data collection was to interview and analyzing through three rounds, the reduction of data, data, and withdrawal conclusions and verification. The result of this research organization is communication the village in building public awareness of rural development is good. The community has been having awareness of the building village. They have participated in rural development by the village. Keyword : Communication, Communication organization, The Village Chief


Purpose of reviewAccurate and early identification of high-risk surgical patients allows for targeted use of perioperative monitoring and interventions that may improve their outcomes. This review summarizes current evidence on how information from the preoperative, operative, and immediate postoperative periods can help identify such individuals. Recent findingsSimple risk indices, such as the Revised Cardiac Risk Index or American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status scale, and online calculators allow risk to be estimated with moderate accuracy using readily available preoperative clinical information. Both specific specialized tests (i.e., cardiopulmonary exercise testing and cardiac stress testing) and promising novel biomarkers (i.e., troponins and natriuretic peptides) can help refine these risk estimates before surgery. Estimates of perioperative risk can be further informed by information acquired during the operative and immediate postoperative periods, such as risk indices (i.e., surgical Apgar score), individual risk factors (i.e., intraoperative hypotension), or postoperative biomarkers (i.e., troponins and natriuretic peptides). SummaryPreoperative clinical risk indices and risk calculators estimate surgical risk with moderate accuracy. Although novel biomarkers, specialized preoperative testing, and immediate postoperative risk indices show promise as methods to refine these risk estimates, more research is needed on how best to integrate risk information from these different sources.


In this article, sequential circuit reset and initialization problem is presented. A method and algorithm is proposed for finding shortest length reset sequences using circuit emulating software prototypes. Using a software prototype gives the benefit and possibility of early test case generation. A reset sequence is able to switch circuit to a know state, regardless of the initial state. In this work, finding a reset sequence consists of using a software prototype which emulates an actual circuit. The proposed method and algorithm use randomly generated sets of circuit states and input signals, finding the best reset candidate and the validation of solution. ISCAS'89 benchmark sequential circuits were used for experiments. The results are provided within the article. It shows, that this method can achieve better, or at least "as good as" results compared to other algorithms, even though this method operates under more difficult conditions.


We report a novel method to prepare efficient CuSe counter electrodes for quantum dot sensitized solar cells. The CuSe films are deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide substrates using a two-step solution-based method. The unique morphology and excellent catalytic property of the CuSe films are characterized thoroughly. Employing this novel counter electrode, the CdSe quantum dot sensitized solar cells exhibit the best power conversion efficiency of 5.77%, outperforming the reference devices applying Cu2S counter electrodes. The preparation method is transferable to fabricate other metal selenide functional electrodes, promising a broader application in solar cells. (c) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.


It is shown that the usual interpretation of "suppressor" effects in a multiple regression equation assumes that the correlations among variables have been generated by a particular structural (causal) model, namely, Conger's (1974) two-factor model. A distinction is drawn between the technical definition of "suppression," which is more fittingly labelled enhancement, and suppression as the appropriate interpretation of a regression equation exhibiting enhancement when that equation has been generated by the two-factor model. It is demonstrated that a number of models can generate enhancement but cannot sensibly be interpreted in terms of the measuring, removing, or suppressing of irrelevant or invalid variance. How a regression equation is interpreted thus depends critically on the structural model deemed appropriate.


Objective: To describe and compare the influence of spirituality/religiosity and HumanizaSUS on the clinical practice of health professionals working in Family Health Units. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study, in which all 10 graduate health professionals of the Family Health Units of Jiquiriçá, Bahia, were interviewed. The interviews were carried out by means of a questionnaire adapted from the multicenter study SEBRAME (Spirituality and Brazilian Medical Education), in addition to a questionnaire specifically developed to approach HumanizaSUS. Results: Of the interviewees, 40% (n=4) said they do not have any religion but believe in God; 30% (n=3) are Evangelical/Protestant, 20% (n=2) are Catholic, and 10% (n=1) say they have no religion and do not believe in God. Most professionals (n=6; 60%) reported moderate intensity of influence of religiosity/spirituality on the clinical practice. Most (n=9; 90%) of the professionals know HumanizaSUS, and 50% (n=5) declared they apply the orientations and guidelines of the program. Conclusion: The spirituality/religiosity was more influential in the clinical behavior of the professionals interviewed than HumanizaSUS. Descriptors: Humanization of Assistance; Family Health Strategy; Spirituality; User Embracement; Holistic Health.


Natural killer T (NKT) cells are a population of autoreactive cells that mediate both protective and regulatory immune functions. NKT cells comprise several subsets of cells, but it has been unclear whether these different NKT cell subsets possess distinct functions in vivo. New studies now demonstrate that subsets of NKT cells are indeed functionally distinct and that the specific functions of these cells may be dictated in part by organ-specific mechanisms.


recruited as three volunteers from the first set of experiments were not happy to swallow an intraduodenal tube. Fluctuations in basal SMABF between different test days do, in our review, reflect acceptable physiological variations. As all determinations were performed by the same investigator (CS), the fluctuations cannot be attributed to an interobserver variabiality. (3) We have measured postprandial secretin, cholecystokinin, and gastrin concentrations for many years.8-'0 We did not measure these in the present study, because we felt that the plasma concentrations did not add any new pertinent information. We acknowledge the references stated with regard to glucagon values found postprandially. Even if the glucagon dose employed induced an increase at the upper limit of physiological glucagon concentrations, we still believe that our conclusions are valid and this is underlined by the lack of change in SMABF observed in our study with this dose of glucagon. We cannot comment on the unpublished data discussed in the letter, as they are not available yet. In summary, we have presented data on specific mechanisms regulating postprandial mesenteric artery blood flow using the echoDoppler flowmetry. Quantitative studies of postprandial hyperaemia are important for the understanding of normal physiological processes. We therefore hope that future research by various groups (as the group of Dr Wells) will be able to shed more light into the physiology and pathophysiology of intestinal blood flow regulation. CORNEL SIEBER Hepatic Hemodynamic Laboratory I 11/J, VAMC and Yale Medical School, West Haven, CT 06516, USA CHRISTOPH BEGLINGER Division ofGastroenterology and KURTJAEGER Division ofAngiology, University Hospital, CH4031 Basel, Switzerland


Polyclad species diversity, although generally well known for European North Atlantic waters, is nearly unknown for the Iberian Peninsula. The "Ría de Arousa", located on the Atlantic coast of Galicia (Spain), is a place where many positive biological factors for species biodiversity converge. Therefore, it is an ideal location to study polyclad diversity. This research, which describes new records and new species, contributes to the knowledge of the distribution of Polycladida (Platyhelminthes), particularly of the suborder Acotylea, in the Atlantic waters of the Iberian Peninsula. The new records include the re-descriptions of Cryptocelis compacta Lang, 1884, Stylochus neapolitanus (Delle Chiaje, 1841-1844) and Discocelis tigrina (Blanchard, 1847), while the two newly described species are Hoploplana elisabelloi n. sp. and Armatoplana celta n. sp.


ABSTRACT The United States (US) Africa Command (AFRICOM) was launched in 2007, ostensibly to foster African security. Rather than focusing on traditional military operations, AFRICOM also embraces non-military activities such as humanitarian aid and African development. This begs the question as to what type of power (hard or soft) the US intends to wield through AFRICOM. Several US official statements have emphasised the soft power attributes of this military project. To this end, this article seeks to respond to two fundamental questions. First, is AFRICOM a soft power project? Second, how, if at all, has AFRICOM enhanced perceptions of the US in Africa? The article concludes that sceptical and negative perceptions of AFRICOM inhibit its soft-power objective of winning the hearts and minds of the African people.


An implantable artificial kidney can markedly improve the quality of life of renal disease patients. Our group has developed an implantable multilayered dialysis system consisting of microfluidic channels and dialysis membranes. Long-term evaluation is necessary for implant devices where biofouling is a critical factor, culminating in the deterioration of dialysis performance. Our previous work revealed that surface conditions, which depend on the manufacturing process, determine the amount of biofouling, and that electrolytic etching is the most suitable technique for forming a channel wall free of biofouling. In this study, we investigated the electrolytic etching conditions in detail. We conducted in vitro experiments for 7 d and evaluated the adhesion of biomaterials by scanning electron microscopy. The experiments revealed that a surface mirror-finished by electrolytic etching effectively prevents biofouling.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the epidemiological status of visceral leishmaniasis in Hamangou coal mine area of Korla City of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

METHODS
Based on a hint of possible existence of patients, a retrospective survey was carried out house by house to find cases with suspected signs/symptoms of the disease. Meanwhile, a survey on current status was conducted, including physical examination (liver and spleen palpation) to those less than 15 years-old, leishmanin skin test and rk39 immunochromatographic strip test for part of the residents. Bone marrow smears were examined for the cases with clinical signs/symptoms and positive rk39 strip test. Sandflies were collected using routine methods in and around the area, identified, and dissected to find infection of promastigotes.

RESULTS
Leishmanin skin test was performed in 185 people with a positive rate of 21.1% (39/185), 39 out of 140 local residents who have lived there for more than 6 years showed positive (27.9%), while all residents who have lived less than 6 years and children under 5 years old were negative. Of the 81 children under 15 years old with a negative skin test, one showed positive for rk39 strip test, and leishmania body was found in the bone marrow smear of this case, so confirmed as visceral leishmaniasis. 12 sandflies were identified as Phlebotomus alexandri, and natural infection with promastigotes was found in one sandly.

CONCLUSION
The investigation confirms that visceral leishmaniasis is endemic in the Hamangou coal mine area.


When a sonar beam sweeps across a field of scatterers and insonifies a different set of scatterers in each ping, the echoes can fluctuate significantly from ping to ping. For a homogeneous spatial distribution of scatterers in which there are a large number of scatterers in each sonar resolution cell, the echoes tend to be Rayleigh distributed. However, the echoes can be strongly nonRayleigh when there is a small number of scatterers in the sonar resolution cell-a condition that can occur with a narrow beam sonar. For scatterers randomly distributed in the sonar beam, the corresponding random weighting associated with the beampattern also significantly contributes toward a non-Rayleigh distribution when the number of scatterers is small. In this paper, a general formulation for echo statistics is developed by combining equations derived by Ehrenberg etal. [Proc. Conf. Eng. Ocean Environ., vol. 1, pp. 61-64,1972 and J. Acoust. Soc. Amer., vol. 69, pp. 955-962, 1981] and Barakat [Optica Acta, vol. 21, pp. 903-921,1974] to account for a directional sonar beam involving an arbitrary finite number of scatterers, each with an arbitrary echo probability density function (pdf), each randomly located in the beam, and each correspondingly randomly weighted by the beampattern. Theoretical predictions are made, along with numerical simulations for validation, for a range of cases including: 1) a range of number of scatterers each randomly located in the beam and 2) several different echo pdfs of the scatterers. Here, a "single scatterer" could be a patch of scatterers whose overall dimensions are much smaller than the resolution cell of the sonar beam and multiple scatterers could be multiple small patches. Although the application is intended for volumetric patches, the formulation could be applied to areal patches under appropriate conditions. The formulation applies directly to the geometry of the short-range direct-path sonar in which there are no reflections due to boundaries such as the seafloor and sea surface.


Physiologists have demonstrated that a large percentage of smooth muscle and glandular tissues, as well as some of the other tissues of the body, have a dual nerve supply. There are fibers from both the parasympathetic (vagus) and the sympathetic system. It is generally accepted that the impulses which reach these tissues through one set of nerves produce an antagonistic reaction as compared to the effects produced by the impulses of the opposite set of nerves. This opposition of two types of reactions produced by two sets of nerves has therefore led to the attempt to apply this information to clinical problems. There have been much clinical theorizing and some serious attempts to establish a physiologic basis for the explanation of functional disorders. The conception of vagotonia and sympathicotonia1was based on the premise that in health there was an equilibrium or balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic division


REDEFINE will examine what China's rise means for how we understand global development and, specifically, Europe's place in it. REDEFINE aims to use the insights from international development to interrogate Chinese engagement in the heart of Europe and, by doing so, reorient the Eurocentric debates in the social sciences around how we define and delimit development, who drives these processes, and what it means for societies and communities affected by such investments.


Redox reactions of structural Fe affect many surface and colloidal properties of Fe-containing smectites in natural environments and many industrial systems, but few studies have examined the clay-water interface under oxidizing and reducing conditions. Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to investigate the effects of structural Fe oxidation state and hydration on layer Si-O stretching vibrations in Na-nontronite. Aqueous gels of unaltered, reduced, and reoxidized smectites were equilibrated at different swelling pressures, Pi, and water contents, m(w)/m(c), using a miniature pressure-membrane apparatus. One part of each gel was used for the gravimetric determination of m(w)/m(c); the other was transferred to an attenuated total reflectance cell in the FTIR spectrometer, where the spectrum of the gel was measured. The frequencies of four component peaks of Si-O stretching, nu(Si-O), in nontronite layers and of the H-O-H bending, nu(H-O-H), in the interlayer water were determined by using a curve-fitting technique. Reduction of structural Fe shifted the Si-O vibration to lower frequency and desensitized the Si-O vibration to the hydration state. A linear relation was found between nu(Si-O) and nu(H-O-H) for nontronite in each of its various oxidation states. These observations were interpreted to mean that structural Fe oxidation state has a significant impact on interfacial processes of the aqueous colloid system of Fe-rich phyllosilicates. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.


The Taurus Lightweight Manned Spacecraft (LMS) was developed by students of the University of Maryland's Aerospace Engineering course in Space Vehicle Design. That course required students to design an Alternative Manned Spacecraft (AMS) to augment or replace the Space Transportation System and meet the following design requirements: (1) launch on the Taurus Booster being developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation; (2) 99.9 percent assured crew survival rate; (3) technology cutoff data of 1 Jan. 1991; (4) compatibility with current space administration infrastructure; and (5) first flight by May 1995. The Taurus LMS design meets the above requirements and represents an initial step towards larger and more complex spacecraft. The Taurus LMS has a very limited application when compared to the Space Shuttle, but it demonstrates that the U.S. can have a safe, reliable, and low cost space system. The Taurus LMS is a short mission duration spacecraft designed to place one man into low earth orbit (LEO). The driving factor for this design was the low payload carrying capabilities of the Taurus Booster--1300 kg to a 300 km orbit. The Taurus LMS design is divided into six major design sections. The human factors system deals with the problems of life support and spacecraft cooling. The propulsion section contains the abort system, the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS), the Reaction Control System (RCS), and power generation. The thermal protection systems and spacecraft structure are contained in the structures section. The avionics section includes navigation, attitude determination, data processing, communication systems, and sensors. The mission analysis section was responsible for ground processing and spacecraft astrodynamics. The systems integration section pulled the above sections together into one spacecraft and addressed costing and reliability.


After the first experimental observations compatible with the presence of the electron cloud effect in the DAΦNE positron ring, a systematic study has been performed regarding the electron cloud build-up. To assess the effects of the electron cloud, simulations of the cloud build up were carried out using ECLOUD [1]. The obtained numerical results are compared with experimental observations.


We investigate the characters of some finite-dimensional representations of the quantum affine algebras $U_q(\hat{g})$ using the action of the copy of $U_q(g)$ embedded in it.
First, we present an efficient algorithm for computing the Kirillov-Reshetikhin conjectured formula for these characters when $g$ is simply-laced. This replaces the original formulation, in terms of "rigged configurations", with one based on polygonal paths in the Weyl chamber. It also gives a new algorithm for decomposing a tensor product of any number of representations of $sl(n)$ corresponding to rectangular Young diagrams, in a way symmetric in all the factors. This section is an expanded version of q-alg/9611032 .
Second, we study a generalization of certain remarkable quadratic relations that hold among characters of $sl(n)$ (the "discrete Hirota relations") whose solutions seem to be characters of quantum affine algebras. We use show that these relations have a unique solution over characters of $U_q(g)$.


The genesis of the essence and foundations of the legal regulation of financial control in Russia since the market reforms of the 1990s and to the present time has been considered. The current regulatory framework and general characteristics of the system of external state and municipal financial control in the Russian Federation have been introduced. The main provisions of the Federal law dated 7 February 2011 No 6-FZ «On general principles of organization and activity of control and accounting bodies of the Russian Federation and municipalities» have been considered. The main tasks, remaining at the present stage of development of the system of state financial control in the Russian Federation have been disclosed.


Previous investigations have revealed that special constellations of feedback loops in a network can give rise to saddle-node and Hopf bifurcations and can induce particular bifurcation diagrams including the occurrence of various codimension-two points. To elucidate the role of feedback loops in the generation of more complex dynamics, a minimal prototype for these networks will be taken as purely periodic starting model which will be extended by an additional species in different feedback loops. The dynamics of the resulting systems will be analyzed numerically for the occurrence of chaotic attractors. Especially, the consequences of codimension-two bifurcations and the role of homoclinic orbits in view of the emergence of Shil'nikov chaos will be discussed.


High dose of ionizing radiation could cause bone-marrow aplasia and delay wound healing. Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been demonstrated to play roles in wound healing and to affect the functional activities of mature immune and hematopoietic cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of NGF on survival and wound healing in mice with combined radiation and wound injury. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that the expression of NGF decreased significantly at postwounding days 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 in wounded tissues combined with total body irradiation of 5 Gy. NGF significantly increased the survival and migration of skin fibroblasts with the irradiation of 15 Gy in in vitro experiments. Intraperitoneal and topical applications of NGF increased the survival rate, peripheral white blood cells and bone-marrow nucleated cells; they also promoted wound healing and increased the cell number of fibroblasts and blood capillaries in granulation tissues. These results showed evidence that NGF could increase wound healing and promote survival in irradiated animals. This dual effect of NGF may provide a new tool for the treatment of radiation-combined injuries.


Managing glucose levels in human blood is extremely important for the treatment of diabetes. Here, an innovative sensory strategy has been developed to monitor the enzymatic activities of glucose and glucose oxidase by using confined liquid crystal (LC) birefringent droplet patterns. Acidic products released during the glucose oxidation process lead to a slight decrease in the pH of aqueous systems that can be monitored by pH-sensitive LC materials. Of the existing pH-sensitive LC materials, dodecanoic acid-doped 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl is inexpensive and easily adjusted to satisfy the 7.4 ± 0.05 pH requirement of human blood. Moreover, the orientational alignment of capillary-confined pH-responsive LCs can be disrupted at the aqueous/LC interface following a slight decrease in the critical pH of aqueous reaction systems, which results in an optical signal that can be observed with the naked eye by using polarizing optical microscopy. Based on the stable LC droplet patterns generated by the cylindrical confinement system, the functionalized LCs can selectively detect glucose at concentrations as low as 0.1 pM. This study further advances the previously reported LC-based glucose monitoring systems by reducing production costs and instituting a smarter LC sensory design. This improved system shows potential for the use in clinical bioassay applications.


HTLV-I is the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and is associated with tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy. Following integration into the host cell genome, HTLV-I replication is regulated by both host and viral mechanisms that control transcription. Low levels of viral transcription (basal transcription) occur before expression of the virally encoded Tax protein (Tax-mediated transcription). Members of the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element binding (CREB)/activating transcription factor 1 (ATF-1) family of transcription factors bind three 21-bp repeats (Tax-responsive element-1, or TRE-1) within the viral promoter and are important for basal and Tax-mediated transcription. Using mitogen stimulated and quiescent peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and Jurkat cells, we compared differences in basal transcription and amounts and binding of transcription factors with TRE-1. We demonstrate that amounts of transcriptionally active phosphorylated CREB protein (P-CREB) differ between activated PBMC and Jurkat cells. Following stimulation, P-CREB levels remain elevated in PBMC for up to 24 hours whereas CREB is dephosphorylated in Jurkat cells within 4 hours following stimulation. The differences in P-CREB levels between PBMC and Jurkat cells were directly correlated with basal transcription of HTLV-I in the two cell types. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we determined that the pattern of band migration differed between the two cell types. These data demonstrate that PBMC differentially regulate basal HTLV-I transcription compared with Jurkat T cells, and this differential regulation is due, in part to differential phosphorylation and binding of CREB/ATF-1 to TRE-1 in the HTLV-I promoter. We demonstrate the utility of using primary lymphocyte models to study HTLV-I transcription in the context of cell signaling and suggest that activated PBMC maintain elevated levels of P-CREB, which promote basal HTLV-I transcription and enhance viral persistence in vivo.


Ethanol decreases hepatic protein and albumin synthesis, and inhibits pancreatic water, bicarbonate, and protein secretion. Since these actions of ethanol are opposite to those reported for secretin, cholecystokinin-pancreozymin, and pentagastrin which may be mediated through increases in cyclic GMP, it appeared possible that the inhibitory actions of ethanol might be mediated through inhibition of guanylate cyclase, the enzyme that catalyzes the production of cyclic GMP. Ethanol inhibited soluble preparations of guanylate cyclase from rat liver, pancreas, stomach, and ileum. Maximal inhibition was observed at 5.0 and 2.5 percent ethanol. The inhibitory effects of ethanol on the guanylate cyclase-cyclic GMP system of these tissues provide a possible explanation for some of the diverse effects of ethanol on these tissues.


In her article "Redefinitions of India and Individuality in Adiga's The White Tiger" Kathleen Waller discusses Indian individualism as being supported by a democratic and secular society, but also stymied by traditions and socioeconomic realities which keep most of its people living in poverty. In The White Tiger, Adiga challenges Indian culture to create a society in which individuals are truly free. Waller argues that the relevance of Adiga's novel is that it is social structure and practices of hierarchy keep many people in the lower classes of Indian society and that this state of affairs is counter productive. Instead, Adiga's novel suggests that the situation of India's social structure and its entrenched hierarchy would have to be looked at and that through the erasure of constraint by society's class hierarchy Indian society could transform itself. Kathleen Waller, "Redefinitions of India and Individuality in Adiga's The White Tiger" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.2 (2012): Thematic Issue New Work in Comparative Indian Literatures and Cultures. Ed. M.G. Ramanan and T. Mukherjee


A double-dipole antenna backed by a ground plane has been fabricated for submillimeter wavelengths. The double-dipole antenna is integrated on a thin dielectric membrane with a planar detector at its center. Measured feed patterns at 246 GHz agree well with theory and demonstrate a rotationally symmetric pattern with high coupling efficiency to Gaussian beams. The input impedance is around 50 Omega and will match well to a Schottky diode or SIS detector. The double-dipole antenna served as the feed for a small machined parabolic reflector. The integrated reflector had a measured gain of 37 dB at 119 mu m. This makes the double-dipole antenna ideally suited as a feed for high-resolution tracking or for long-focal-length Cassegrain antenna systems. >


Assessing response to therapy allows for prospective end point evaluation in clinical trials and serves as a guide to clinicians for making decisions. Recent prospective and randomized trials suggest the development of imaging techniques and introduction of new anti-cancer drugs. However, the revision of methods, or proposal of new methods to evaluate chemotherapeutic response, is not enough. This paper discusses the characteristics of the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumor (RECIST) version 1.1 suggested in 2009 and used widely by experts. It also contains information about possible dilemmas arising from the application of response assessment by the latest version of the response evaluation method, or recently introduced chemotherapeutic agents. Further data reveals the problems and limitations caused by applying the existing RECIST criteria to anti-cancer immune therapy, and the application of a new technique, immune related response criteria, for the response assessment of immune therapy. Lastly, the paper includes a newly developing response evaluation method and suggests its developmental direction.


This article describes a novel system for quantitative and volumetric measurement of tissue elasticity in the prostate using simultaneous multi-frequency tissue excitation. Elasticity is computed by using a local frequency estimator to measure the three-dimensional local wavelengths of steady-state shear waves within the prostate gland. The shear wave is created using a mechanical voice coil shaker which transmits simultaneous multi-frequency vibrations transperineally. Radio frequency data is streamed directly from a BK Medical 8848 transrectal ultrasound transducer to an external computer where tissue displacement due to the excitation is measured using a speckle tracking algorithm. Bandpass sampling is used that eliminates the need for an ultra-fast frame rate to track the tissue motion and allows for accurate reconstruction at a sampling frequency that is below the Nyquist rate. A roll motor with computer control is used to rotate the transducer and obtain 3D data. Two commercially available phantoms were used to validate both the accuracy of the elasticity measurements as well as the functional feasibility of using the system for in vivo prostate imaging. The phantom measurements were compared with 3D Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE), where a high correlation of 96% was achieved. In addition, the system has been used in two separate clinical studies as a method for cancer identification. Qualitative and quantitative results of 11 patients from these clinical studies are presented here. Furthermore, an AUC of 0.87±0.12 was achieved for malignant vs. benign classification using a binary support vector machine classifier trained with data from the latest clinical study with leave one patient out cross-validation.


The gene specific induction and the incision step of the removal of 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) plus UVA-induced interstrand cross-links (ICL) was measured in repair mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Events were examined at the MAT alpha and HML alpha loci in mutants deficient in the repair of ICL, namely rad1, rad2 delta, rad52, pso2 and the rad16 mutant which is impaired in the removal of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers from the silent HML alpha locus. Previously, we observed in a wild-type strain (K107) preferential repair concerning the incision of 8-MOP photo-induced ICL. The present study indicates that the two mutants rad1 and rad2 delta show no repair in either locus, due presumably to their deficiency in the incision step of ICL repair. The rad52 mutant which is defective in recombination, is proficient in the preferential incision of ICL at the MAT alpha locus versus the HML alpha locus. The same is true for the pso2 mutant which also lacks the ability to perform complete repair of ICL. The rad16 mutant is unable to repair ICL in the silent locus HML alpha but is proficient in repair (i.e. the incision of ICL) in the transcriptionally active MAT alpha locus.


In the real wavelet analysis d-dimensional dilation operator may be written with the help of an integer-valued d× d matrix. We find the matrix representation of the dilation operator on the product of zero-dimensional locally compact Abelian groups.


It is known that sarcomas induced in mice with 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA) bear tumor-specific antigens which evoke specific immune responses when transplanted to isogenic animals. In this study, MCA-induced sarcomas were transplanted to isogenic C3H mice and the effect of immune suppression by whole-body X-irradiation on tumor growth was examined. The role of radiation dose, interval between irradiation and transplantation, and age was evaluated in animals irradiated before transplantation. The results obtained in animals irradiated before transplantation were compared with those in animals irradiated after transplantation.

Whole-body irradiation prior to transplantation resulted in marked acceleration of tumor growth. The degree of acceleration varied with the size of the dose—within certain limits; 200 rads given 24 hours before transplantation resulted in significant acceleration of growth compared to tumor growth in nonirradiated controls. The rate of growth further increased with a dose of 300 rads; additional increases in dose did not result in further acceleration of tumor growth. However, above 400 rads, a predictable increase in radiation mortality was encountered. The effect of irradiation with 400 rads on tumor growth varied inversely with the time between irradiation and tumor transplantation. The maximum effect was observed with a 24-hour interval; the degree of acceleration of tumor growth decreased as the interval was lengthened—some acceleration was still noted at a 4-month interval. No age related differences in effect were evident in the range 2–15 months of age; however, only a few animals older than 12 months were included in the study. In contrast to these findings, tumor growth was not accelerated when irradiation followed transplantation.


We report a combined experimental and theoretical analysis of Sb and In segregation during the epitaxial growth of InAs self-assembled quantum dot structures covered with a GaSbAs strain-reducing capping layer. Cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy shows strong Sb and In segregation which extends through the GaAsSb and into the GaAs matrix. We compare various existing models used to describe the exchange of group III and V atoms in semiconductors and conclude that commonly used methods that only consider segregation between two adjacent monolayers are insufficient to describe the experimental observations. We show that a three-layer model originally proposed for the SiGe system [D. J. Godbey and M. G. Ancona, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 15, 976 (1997)] is instead capable of correctly describing the extended diffusion of both In and Sb atoms. Using atomistic modeling, we present strain maps of the quantum dot structures that show the propagation of the strain into the GaAs region is strongly affected by the shape and composition of the strain-reduction layer.


Time-slices of eight global climate model (GCM) response simulations of the IPCC IS92a, CMIP2, SRES A2, B2 and A1B greenhouse gas scenarios have been downscaled using the HIRHAM atmospheric regional climate model (RCM). The area covers Central and Northern Europe, adjacent sea-areas and Greenland. The GCM data were provided from the Max Planck Institute, Germany (MPI), the Hadley Centre, U.K. (HC), the Bjerknes Centre, Norway (BCCR) and University of Oslo, Norway (UiO). The resulting ensemble covers a range of future climate realizations from different global models, different greenhouse gas scenarios and natural climate variability. In order to present trends in statistical parameters including extreme events and their return periods, the downscaled response data are combined as an ensemble of equally valid possible realizations. The combined statistics is obtained after adjustments accounting for (i) different set-ups of the respective GCMs in producing the control climate and (ii) the variable range of time between the control and scenario periods. We find that annual extreme events of daily precipitation and wind speed in the control climate become more frequent in the scenario period over large areas in Northern Europe. The variability in the regional result appears sensitive to the phase of the Scandinavian pattern.


The objectives of the present study were to optimize the protocol of mouse immunization with Paracoccidioides brasiliensis antigens (Rifkind's protocol) and to test the modulation effect of cyclophosphamide (Cy) on the delayed hypersensitivity response (DHR) of immunized animals. Experiments were carried out using one to four immunizing doses of either crude particulate P. brasiliensis antigen or yeast-cell antigen, followed by DHR test four or seven days after the last immunizing dose. The data demonstrated that an immunizing dose already elicited response; higher DHR indices were obtained with two or three immunizing doses; there were no differences between DHR indices of animals challenged four or seven days after the last dose. Overall the inoculation of two or three doses of the yeast-cell antigen, which is easier to prepare, and DHR test at day 4 simplify the original Rifkind's immunization protocol and shorten the duration of the experiments. The modulation effect of Cy on DHR was assayed with administration of 2.5, 20 and 100 mg/kg weight at seven day intervals starting from day 4 prior to the first immunizing dose. Only the treatment with 2.5 mg Cy increased the DHR indices. Treatment with 100 mg Cy inhibited the DHR, whereas 20 mg Cy did not affect the DHR indices. Results suggest an immunostimulating effect of low dose of Cy on the DHR of mice immunized with P. brasiliensis antigens.


Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) is a fast-learning algorithm for a single-hidden layer feedforward neural network (SLFN). It often has good generalization performance. However, there are chances that it might overfit the training data due to having more hidden nodes than needed. To address the generalization performance, we use a heterogeneous ensemble approach. We propose an Advanced ELM Ensemble (AELME) for classification, which includes Regularized-ELM, L2-norm-optimized ELM (ELML2), and Kernel-ELM. The ensemble is constructed by training a randomly chosen ELM classifier on a subset of training data selected through random resampling. The proposed AELM-Ensemble is evolved by employing an objective function of increasing diversity and accuracy among the final ensemble. Finally, the class label of unseen data is predicted using majority vote approach. Splitting the training data into subsets and incorporation of heterogeneous ELM classifiers result in higher prediction accuracy, better generalization, and a lower number of base classifiers, as compared to other models (Adaboost, Bagging, Dynamic ELM ensemble, data splitting ELM ensemble, and ELM ensemble). The validity of AELME is confirmed through classification on several real-world benchmark datasets.


Limited and contrasting data are available about risk factors for severe reactions during double‐blind, placebo‐controlled food challenge (DBPCFC). Knowing these risk factors would help to improve safety precautions and choosing the best setting for challenge. We assessed whether we could determine predictors for positive and severe food challenge outcome (FCO) with regular available patient data in children suspected for peanut allergy.


Larval crowding represents a complex stressful situation arising from inter-individual competition for time- and space-limited resources. The foraging of a large number of individuals may alter chemical and bacterial composition of food, and in turn affect individual's traits. Here we used Drosophila melanogaster to explore these assumptions. First, we used a wide larval density gradient to evidence the impact of crowding on phenotypical traits. We confirmed that high densities increased development time and pupation height, and decreased viability and body mass. Next, we measured concentrations of common metabolic wastes (ammonia, uric acid) and characterized bacterial communities, both in food and in larvae, for three contrasted larval densities (low, medium and high). Ammonia concentration increased in food from medium and high larval densities, but remained low in larvae regardless of the larval density. Uric acid did not accumulate in food but was detected in larvae. Surprisingly, bacterial composition remained stable in guts of larvae whatever their rearing density, although it drastically changed in the food. Overall, these results indicate that crowding deeply affects individuals, but also their abiotic and biotic surroundings. Environmental bacterial community likely adapts to altered nutritional situations resulting from crowding, putatively acting as scavengers of larval metabolic wastes.


The primitive elements of skill theory proposes a set of approximately 2000 primitive information processing elements (PRIMs) (Taatgen, 2013) that compose all cognitive acts by combining and recombining to produce learning and transfer. By this theory, learning is transfer and transfer results from learning as the primitive elements combine to form new elements based on task demands and these more complex elements are reused later in learning (thereby producing increase in skill) and repurposed by different tasks (thereby producing transfer). We illustrate PRIMs in this paper by producing two models of the Balance Beam Task (BBT) and of the Take the Best heuristic (TTB). Although BBT and TTB do not, on the surface, possess much in common, when run in a transfer paradigm (TTB-to-BBT or BBT-to-TTB) each model harvests PRIMs created by its predecessor, thereby demonstrating positive transfer.


In this study, have been evaluated the effect of four citrus rootstocks [(Sour orange (Citrus aurantium), Bakraei (C. reticulate × C. limmetta), Mexican lime (C. aurantifolia) and Volkamer lemon (C. volkameriana)] Valencia orange leaf chlorophyll content and mineral elements concentration (N, P, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cl, Cu, and B) in completely randomized design with four replications. Budded Valencia orange on rootstocks were grown in pots containing calcareous soil (pH=8.2) in greenhouse. Results showed that rootstocks had significant effect on leaf chlorophyll content. Highest chlorophyll content was on Sour orange rootstock. Rootstock types had significant effect on leaf mineral concentrations except of Cl and Na. Leaf N concentration on Mexican lime and Sour orange rootstocks was lower than optimum range. Leaf Cu concentration on all rootstocks except of Sour orange and Cl concentration on all rootstocks were higher than optimum range. Scions on Volkamer lemon rootstock had highest Cl and lowest Na concentrations.


We measure the performance improvement that force feedback can provide in a virtual environment, through three experiments with, and without the assistance of haptic guidance. Performance measurements were undertaken with haptic, visual and auditory feedback alternatives. The first task investigated the use of haptic guidance mimicking reality, in the form of a simulated touchable surface of an object. The second investigated haptic guidance which waxed and waned as the user violated program rules by varying amounts. The third experiment investigated whether this latter artificial guidance would inhibit the user's free will by taking control out of their hands. The results showed that a significant improvement in both accuracy and speed was achieved by the introduction of haptics in all experiments. It also found that the haptic guidance did not take control away from the user and that they had significantly more control than with conventional warning methods. These experiments were not aimed at learning, or retention of skill, but on using haptics as an aid to improve performance during a task.


Developing fixed dose combinations requires comparison with component therapies, first over a wide range of doses, and then at a fixed dose over prolonged periods. When coupled with the need for dose ranging, the clinical development of combinations becomes very difficult when the in vitro performance of a given drug is affected by the presence of the other drug(s). We report interaction-free in vitro performance of a dual and a triple drug combination, and their component therapies, in simple metered dose inhalers (MDI) made by a novel cosuspension platform over a dose range starting from sub-microgram levels. Methods: Glycopyrrolate (GP, up to 18 µg/actuation) and formoterol fumarate (FF, fixed at 4.8 µg/actuation) MDIs, and their combination (GFF), were prepared by cosuspending drug crystals in hydrofluoroalkane with spray-dried distearoyl-phosphatidylcholine porous particles. Triple drug MDIs were made by cosuspending mometasone furoate (MF, up to 300 µg/actuation) with GFF. Dual combinations MF+GP and MF+FF were prepared as well. Aerodynamic particle size distribution (aPSD) was tested at 30 L/min, including upon storage at fixed temperatures. Results: The in vitro drug delivery and stability of each drug was unaffected by the presence of one or more drugs in dual or in triple cosuspension formulations. The aPSD was linearly dose proportional (r2 > 0.99) over the entire dose range evaluated. Conclusions: Pearl's novel cosuspension platform presents an opportunity to develop dual and triple combination regardless of drug type or dose due to the in vitro drug-drug interaction free delivery from its cosuspension formulations.


To maintain proteostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), terminally misfolded secretory proteins must be recognized, partially unfolded, and dislocated to the cytosol for proteasomal destruction, in a complex process called ER-associated degradation (ERAD). Dislocation implies reduction of inter-chain disulphide bonds. When in its reduced form, protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) can act not only as a reductase but also as an unfoldase, preparing substrates for dislocation. PDI oxidation by Ero1 favours substrate release and transport across the ER membrane. Here we addressed the redox dependency of ERAD and found that DTT stimulates the dislocation of proteins with DTT-resistant disulphide bonds (i.e., orphan Ig-μ chains) but stabilizes a ribophorin mutant (Ri332) devoid of them. DTT promotes the association of Ri332, but not of Ig-µ, with PDI. This discrepancy may suggest that disulphide bonds in cargo proteins can be utilized to oxidize PDI, hence facilitating substrate detachment and degradation also in the absence of Ero1. Accordingly, Ero1 silencing retards Ri332 degradation, but has little if any effect on Ig-µ. Thus, some disulphides can increase the stability and simultaneously favour quality control of secretory proteins.


To overcome the data sparsity issue in short text topic modeling, existing methods commonly rely on data augmentation or the data characteristic of short texts to introduce more word co-occurrence information. However, most of them do not make full use of the augmented data or the data characteristic: they insufficiently learn the relations among samples in data, leading to dissimilar topic distributions of semantically similar text pairs. To better address data sparsity, in this paper we propose a novel short text topic modeling framework, Topic-Semantic Contrastive Topic Model (TSCTM). To sufficiently model the relations among samples, we employ a new contrastive learning method with efficient positive and negative sampling strategies based on topic semantics. This contrastive learning method refines the representations, enriches the learning signals, and thus mitigates the sparsity issue. Extensive experimental results show that our TSCTM outperforms state-of-the-art baselines regardless of the data augmentation availability, producing high-quality topics and topic distributions.


The present invention discloses a field snail mixed feed production method. Pumpkins, Chinese yams, fresh sweet potato vines, marsilea quadrifolia, soybeans, sesame seed cakes, sweet potato starch, bone meal, chrysanthemums and other materials which are wide in sources, low in price, and high in utilization rate are taken as raw materials; and then, the material weighing-out, paste making, extrusion-forming, and other techniques are performed, thereby producing the granular nutritious and health-care daily field snail feed which is rich in plant proteins, pectins, dietary fibers, various vitamins, etc., is good in elasticity, is soft once being thrown into water, is sweet, fragrant, palatable and nutritious, can promote growth, and has a function of preventing enteritis and other diseases which field snails are likely to suffer from. The feed is low in cost, convenient to process, store, and feed, and high in production to investment ratio.


Electrospinning technology was used to produced polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-copper salt composites with structural differences, and their virucidal activity against coronavirus was investigated. The solutions were prepared with 20, 13.3, 10, and 6.6% w/v PVP containing 3, 1.0, 0.6, and 0.2% w/v Cu (II), respectively. The rheological properties and electrical conductivity contributing to the formation of the morphologies of the composite materials were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM images revealed the formation of electrospun PVP-copper salt ultrafine composite fibers (0.80 ± 0.35 µm) and electrosprayed PVP-copper salt composite microparticles (1.50 ± 0.70 µm). Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) evidenced the incorporation of copper into the produced composite materials. IR spectra confirmed the chemical composition and showed an interaction of Cu (II) ions with oxygen in the PVP resonant ring. Virucidal composite fibers inactivated 99.999% of coronavirus within 5 min of contact time, with moderate cytotoxicity to L929 cells, whereas the virucidal composite microparticles presented with a virucidal efficiency of 99.999% within 1440 min of exposure, with low cytotoxicity to L929 cells (mouse fibroblast). This produced virucidal composite materials have the potential to be applied in respirators, personal protective equipment, self-cleaning surfaces, and to fabric coat personal protective equipment against SARS-CoV-2, viral outbreaks, or pandemics.


The function of social pedagogues at schools involves assessment and problem solution related to the different difficulties faced by schoolchildren, and accomplishment of preventive programmes targeted at solution of different issues (Job Description of Social Pedagogue approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, 2001). With reference to the above-mentioned official job description (2001) and according to Kvieskienė (2003), a social pedagogue seeks to overcome problems and issues faced by schoolchildren, working in a close collaboration with school administration personnel, other pedagogues and educators, psychologists, speech therapists, parents or legal representatives of schoolchildren, local community and community of the school. The specific nature and versatility of this activity requires the specialist to have many different competences enabling him/her to render high-quality services in a highly qualified manner. However, a continually changing risk level of the problematic situations faced by schoolchildren in their lives makes the social pedagogue alter his/her work techniques and methods accordingly, which in turn requires acquisition of new competences and development of existing ones. Consequently, the role of the social pedagogue is highly important when dealing with issues and conflicts faced by both schoolchildren as well as other members of the school community. It is therefore worth describing the competences of the social pedagogue.


This paper uses Colombian data at the firm level for the period 1999 to 2006 to provide microeconomic evidence on the existence and extent of downward nominal wage rigidity. To conduct the analysis, we use a rich panel of firms for white and blue collar workers, consisting of 1517 firms for the former and 781 firms for the latter. The presence of wage rigidity is determined by means of three statistic techniques used in recent literature, such as the analysis of the histograms of the distribution of wage changes, the LSW statistic and the Kahn test. The results suggest the existence of downward nominal wage rigidities; it is worth mentioning that rigidity is higher for blue collar workers than white collar workers, since the increase in the wages of the blue workers is generally done by taking into account the change in the minimum wage, which is why a higher rigidity would be expected.


<EN> As a response to the increasing sophistication of tax planners in identifying and exploiting the legal arbitrage opportunities and the boundaries of acceptable tax planning, policy makers across OECD, G20 and EU countries have taken steps to ensure that taxation duly takes place where economic value is generated and where the economic activity is actually carried out. In this context, the European Commission sees a strong need to obtain increased knowledge of the tax laws and practices of Member States of the European Union, which may expose particular jurisdictions to aggressive tax planning (ATP). The present study was commissioned with the aim to: 1. Identify model ATP structures; 2. Identify ATP indicators which facilitate or allow ATP; 3. Review the corporate income tax systems of the EU Member States by means of the ATP indicators, in order to identify those tax rules and practices (or lack thereof) that result in Member States being vulnerable to ATP. This study was carried out by Ramboll and Corit Advisory with the support of a network of independent national tax experts. It reviews and assesses the corporate income tax systems of all EU Member States. It identifies weaknesses of the national tax systems in the EU and sets the ground for additional analysis and new policy initiatives


It has been noted that in recent years disaster risk reduction investment, in particular such invest-ment prior to a disaster, is important in dealing with increasingly large-scale natural disasters that have serious socio-economic impacts. Especially, developing countries are in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis disasters, as the scale of economies in these countries is small and they do not foster a cul-ture of reducing disaster risks. As a result, disasters directly harm their economic underpinnings, in-hibiting their economic growth and sending them back into the poverty trap. Disaster risk reduction investment prior to a disastrous event is an extremely effective measure of preventing or ameliorat-ing such conditions. However, no definitive method, as a decision making tool, for evaluating the quantitative effects of disaster risk reduction investment has been established. Given this situation, we develop a model in this study that allows the quantitative evaluation of disaster risk reduction investment focused on developing countries. Moreover, we use data from Pakistan to confirm the efficacy of the model, as well as to confirm that disaster risk reduction investment contributes to economic growth and the alleviation of poverty in developing countries.


Si-containing transition-metal nitrides Ti0.5Si0.5N, Zr0.5Si0.5N and Hf0.5Si0.5N with conventional rock salt B1 structure exhibit superior hardness, strength and oxidation resistance. However, the potential phases of the ternary systems at various pressures remain unexplored. In this work, we firstly studied the potential structures of Ti0.5Si0.5N, Zr0.5Si0.5N and Hf0.5Si0.5N in pressures of 0–100 GPa. A hexagonal phase with P63/mmc symmetry was uncovered and verified to be quenchable in the ambient conditions. The structural, mechanical and electronic properties were systematically studied and compared with the well-known ordered B1 structure. We surprisingly found that Ti0.5Si0.5N within this hexagonal phase displayed much improved ideal indentation shear strength from about 10 GPa for a B1 structure to 30 GPa. The estimated hardness based on the empirical formula is up to 38 GPa, greatly exceeding that of the B1 structure. By the detailed electronic analysis, the underlying atomic mechanism for the outstanding mechanical properties was also studied.


Objective To observe the serum uvic acid (UA) levels in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and study the correlation of them.Methods Collect the blood sample 2 ml on an empty stomach,then a quantitative enzymaic assay acccordine to the manufactur's protocol was adopted to detect serum UA levels in 35 patients with MS and 35 normal.Results The serum UA levels is patients with MS was significantly lower in comparison with normal's (P0.05),and the serum UA levels of female MS patients was significantly lower than that of male MS patients (P0.05),the serum UA levels of MS patients did not change obviously with age(P0.05).Conclusion The serum UA levelin MS patients is low and it is related to the sex,and it have nothing to do with age.The lower serum UA lelvels is the independent dangerous factor.


Knowledges on chemical constituents and protein properties are fundamental prerequisites for the discussion of functional properties of food-grade soybean products. Chemical analysis was made on 43 commercial soybean products as well as on 3 gluten and 3 casein products. Principal component analysis was successfully applied for the classification of commercial products by their chemical constituents and protein properties. High correlation was observed between chemical composition and industrial processing method of soybean products. Correlation between water dispersible nitrogen and amount of native protein was unexpectedly low so that both should be taken independently as the indices for the discussion of functional properties.Flavor profiles of commercial soybean products were studied organoleptically and results were analyzed by using principal component analysis. Flavor of soybean products could be represented by two mutually independent characteristics. They are the so-called "Soybean Flavor" and "O...


Gariss is the most popular stable food for the camel herders who depend on Gariss for the sustainability of their livestock. The objective of the current study is to assess the traditional fermented camel milk (Gariss) prepared by nomadic camel woman herders in AlGadarif State in Butana. It is also meant to improve the quality of camel milk products through sharing knowledge. The samples (n= 19) were collected during rainy and dry seasons. The nomad's housekeepers were interviewed in the study area. The effect of different types of containers and the additives used during Gariss preparation and the compositional quality were all estimated. The survey reported the different types of spoilage and the variations in the shelf life of Gariss. When compared with the mean values of the Gariss samples collected during dry season, the result indicated that the values of the total solids and the pH of the samples collected during the rainy season were significantly higher (p<0.05), whereas the values of the fat, protein and ash were significantly lower (p<0.05). The container types had a significant (p<0.05) effect on the total solids, fat and ash content only. The Gariss prepared in Bukhsa showed the highest total solids content (13.15±0.54%) and that prepared in stainless steel showed the highest fat (4.65± 0.34%) content. However, when Gariss was prepared in plastic containers it showed the lowest pH value (3.59±0.16%), whereas samples from ''Siin'' (goat leather) was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the ash content (0.35± 0.09%). The present study concludes that the chemical composition of Gariss from the nomadic camel women herders is affected by seasons, types of additives and containers used. Hence more studies are needed to be done on the effect of the additive and containers on Gariss quality.