Current knowledge of antimatter has been a roadblock for the real understanding of antimatter. Antimatter is generated with high energy devices like particle colliders and proton guns. But those devices are definitely not needed because particle is its antiparticle, it all depends on particle's spin vector. ToEbi and Antimatter Theory of Everything by illusion (ToEbi) [1] gives deeper knowledge and effective method for antimatter utilization. Key component in annihilation process is the spin vector orientation between particles. Based on ToEbi, particle and its antiparticle push each other away (II Law of ToEbi). That information alone opens huge opportunities. Spin phenomenon extends itself on stellar objects as well. Different spin directions between galaxies explains why Universe has an increasing expansion rate, in other words, no need for dark energy. Because of different spin directions particle and its antiparticle won't contact and annihilate too easily. Weak spots are particle's spin axis poles. In normal conditions, particles with same spin direction won't annihilate when put together poles head-on. Particles just change their spin vector orientations due to the movement of FTEP flux from particles. Spin vectors point to the same direction hence the FTEP flux flows to the same direction and pulling force won't be generated. In case of different spin directions, things change drastically. Different spin directions mean that particles will generate denser FTE between them. In other words, they will generate pulling force. Inadequate supportive repulsion on spin axis poles leads to annihilation of the particles. During annihilation process two things occur. At first, small distance (possibly physical contact in ToEbi sense) between particles causes a change to their spin vector orientations, which ultimately leads to repulsive interaction. At second, due to conservation of energy, if particle loses some of its mass, at the same time, it increases its spin frequency (due to stored kinetic energy). Phenomenon is observable for example in electron annihilation process. Electron loses mass all the way down to Planck constant value (without its units) but increases its spin frequency accordingly. Another option for a particle, during the annihilation process, is to store used collision energy in a form of increased mass.


Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS), or simply OR, is a profession that provides decision support solutions to industry and generates theoretical findings for the advancement of the discipline. The OR practitioner can be a person who works in industry or an academic professional who works as a consultant. Regardless of where they are based, it is the responsibility of the OR practitioner to provide a solution to help improve a client's business operations. The purpose of this research was to take a systems view of OR practitioner work to highlight the critical factors for successful implementations. Emphasis was placed specifically on the procedures used to produce OR based optimization software solutions that are intended for sustained use by the client organization. The key goal of this research was to describe the skills sets necessary for OR practitioner work today, with implications for changes in OR education to better prepare students for work in industry. An extensive literature review, questionnaire study and interview study were conducted to capture the factors academic and industry practitioners believe to be critical for project and implementation success. Descriptive models of practitioner work were created and validated to illustrate what is currently done in practice and why implementations are still challenging today. The results indicate that the majority of the total project time on these projects was spent on model development, model validation and client software development, all of which overlapped and were performed concurrently. Project management skills, knowledge and experience (project, modeling, & software), interpersonal skills, and data availability/integrity were the key influencers of the overall OR project process. Service quality factors were also important. The findings indicate that further emphasis on non-modeling skills is required by OR educational programs to better prepare students for consultant work.


Gene expression atlases have transformed our understanding of the development, composition and function of human tissues. New technologies promise improved cellular or molecular resolution, and have led to the identification of new cell types, or better defined cell states. But as new technologies emerge, information derived on old platforms becomes obsolete. We demonstrate that it is possible to combine a large number of different profiling experiments summarised from dozens of laboratories and representing hundreds of donors, to create an integrated molecular map of human tissue. As an example, we combine 850 samples from 38 platforms to build an integrated atlas of human blood cells. We achieve robust and unbiased cell type clustering using a variance partitioning method, selecting genes with low platform bias relative to biological variation. Other than an initial rescaling, no other transformation to the primary data is applied through batch correction or renormalisation. Additional data, including single-cell datasets, can be projected for comparison, classification and annotation. The resulting atlas provides a multi-scaled approach to visualise and analyse the relationships between sets of genes and blood cell lineages, including the maturation and activation of leukocytes in vivo and in vitro. In allowing for data integration across hundreds of studies, we address a key reproduciblity challenge which is faced by any new technology. This allows us to draw on the deep phenotypes and functional annotations that accompany traditional profiling methods, and provide important context to the high cellular resolution of single cell profiling. Here, we have implemented the blood atlas in the open access Stemformatics.org platform, drawing on its extensive collection of curated transcriptome data. The method is simple, scalable and amenable for rapid deployment in other biological systems or computational workflows. Graphical abstract Recursive approach to generating a multi-scaled atlas. Top panel: The method integrates data from all cell types in the Stemformatics database, and shows clear division of samples into global categories of stromal, pluripotent or blood (inset) cell types. Bottom panel: Integration of only the blood cell subsets provides a blood atlas. Projection of external samples (green) onto the blood atlas. Samples are coloured by curated annotations derived from the original studies, and can be viewed at Stemformatics.org


In this paper, we extend a previous work by J. Park and propose a uniform framework to reconstruct left ventricle (LV) geometry/motion from tagged MR images. In our work, the LV is modeled as a generalized prolate spheroid, and its motion is decomposed into four components-global translation, polar radial/z-axis compression, twisting, and bending. By formulating model parameters as tensor products of B-splines, we develop efficient algorithms to quickly reconstruct LV geometry/motion from extracted boundary contours and tracked planar tags. Experiments on both synthesized and in vivo data are also reported.


A novel Gram-stain-negative bacterium, designated as SCSIO 06110T, was isolated from a deep-sea sediment of the West Pacific Ocean. Cells were 0.5-0.8 µm in width and 3.0-4.0 µm in length, spore-forming, rod-shaped with peritrichous flagella. Positive for catalase and urease, negative for oxidase and nitrate reduction. Growth occurred at 15-37 °C, pH 6-9 and 1-5 % (w/v) NaCl, with optimum growth at 28 °C, pH 7 and 3 % (w/v) NaCl. MK-7 was the only menaquinone. The strain possessed diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified phospholipids. Iso-C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C14 : 0 were the major fatty acids. The novel isolate clustered with genera in the family Paenibacillaceae, but formed a separated branch with the closest relative Chengkuizengella sediminis J15A17T (91.1 % sequence similarity) when compared in a phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences. The DNA G+C content of strain SCSIO 06110T was 38.5 mol%. Based on the polyphasic data presented, a new genus, Longirhabdus gen. nov., is proposed in the family Paenibacillaceae with the type species Longirhabdus pacifica sp. nov. and the type strain SCSIO 06110T (=DSM 105158T=CGMCC 1.16550T).


Generalization, i.e., the ability of addressing problem instances that are not available during the system design and development phase, is a critical goal for intelligent systems. A typical way to achieve good generalization is to exploit vast data to train a model. In the context of heuristic search, such a paradigm is termed parameter tuning or algorithm configuration, i.e., configuring the parameters of a search method based on a set of "training" problem instances. However, compared to its counterpart in machine learning, parameter tuning could more often suffer from the lack of training instances, and the obtained configuration may fail to generalize. This paper suggests competitive co-evolution as a remedy to this challenge and proposes a framework named Co-Evolution of Parameterized Search (CEPS). By alternately evolving a configuration population and an instance population, CEPS is capable of obtaining generalizable configurations with few training instances. The advantage of CEPS in improving generalization is analytically shown. Two concrete instantiations, namely CEPS-TSP and CEPS-VRPSPDTW, are also presented for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and the Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup-Delivery and Time Windows (VRPSPDTW), respectively. Computational results on the two problems confirm the advantages of CEPS over state-of-the-art parameter tuning methods.


: The report deals with the data on cancer morbidity in the city of Alma-Ata in 1975-1979. The data on both primary disability in cancer patients and their rehabilitation are presented.


This paper introduces a novel approach to address the problem of Physical Robot Interaction (PRI) during robot pushing tasks. The approach uses a data-driven forward model based on tactile predictions to inform the controller about potential future movements of the object being pushed, such as a strawberry stem, using a robot tactile finger. The model is integrated into a Deep Functional Predictive Control (d-FPC) system to control the displacement of the stem on the tactile finger during pushes. Pushing an object with a robot finger along a desired trajectory in 3D is a highly nonlinear and complex physical robot interaction, especially when the object is not stably grasped. The proposed approach controls the stem movements on the tactile finger in a prediction horizon. The effectiveness of the proposed FPC is demonstrated in a series of tests involving a real robot pushing a strawberry in a cluster. The results indicate that the d-FPC controller can successfully control PRI in robotic manipulation tasks beyond the handling of strawberries. The proposed approach offers a promising direction for addressing the challenging PRI problem in robotic manipulation tasks. Future work will explore the generalisation of the approach to other objects and tasks.


In response to oxidative stress, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) placenta releases less 8-isoprostane and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha. The effect of oxidative stress on other cytokines and antioxidant gene expressions are unknown. The aim of this study is to further explore the antioxidant status and effect of oxidative stress in GDM tissue. Human placenta, omental and subcutaneous adipose tissue from women with and without GDM were exposed to hypoxanthine (HX)/xanthine oxidase (XO). Cytokine release was analysed by ELISA and cytokine and antioxidant gene expression by RT-PCR. Catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase (GSR) mRNA expression was higher in GDM (n=18) compared with normal (n=23) placenta. There was no difference in glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase mRNA expression. Antioxidant gene expression was unaltered between normal (n=18) and GDM (n=10) adipose tissue. HX/XO treatment significantly stimulated cytokine release (13/16 cytokines) and cytokine mRNA expression, and decreased antioxidant gene expression (CAT and GSR) in human placenta from normal pregnant women. In GDM placenta, HX/XO only significantly increased the release of 3/16 cytokines, while there was no effect on antioxidant gene expression. In normal and GDM adipose tissues, HX/XO increased proinflammatory cytokine and 8-isoprostane release, while there was no change in antioxidant gene expression. GDM placenta is characterised by increased antioxidant gene expression, and is less responsive to exogenous oxidative stress than tissues obtained from normal pregnant women. This may represent a protective or adaptive mechanism to prevent damage from further oxidative insult in utero as indicated by increased tissue antioxidant expression.


The bean Phaseolus vulgaris is widely consumed by the Congolese population, because it is rich in protein and has a good nutritional quality. Beetles of the subfamily Bruchinae are pests of bean seeds in the field and storage in the Republic of Congo (RC). Their attacks cause a reduction in seed weight, leading to a decrease in the nutritional and commercial value of the seeds. The purpose of our study was to identify the post-harvest diversity of bean bruchids in two bean producing regions in the Congo (Niari and Bouenza) using molecular taxonomy (12S rRNA marker). The bean weevil, Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say), and cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius), were identified. Acanthoscelides obtectus, recognised as the main pest of beans, was found in all ten localities sampled, whereas C. maculatus, recognised as the main pest of pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan) and chickpeas (Cicer arietinum), was found in two of the ten. Better knowledge of the diversity of bruchids present in the RC will make it possible to propose effective control methods with little impact on environmental and human health.


The biochemical processes of DNA repair, replication and recombination compete for the same substrate, the DNA molecule. This competition is natural, as each process requires the same template. In order to resolve possible conflicts between these processes, when they take place on a particular stretch of DNA, certain crosstalk is expected. The complexity is additionally increased by the existence of another DNA dependent process, which occurs in all phases of the cell cycle: transcription. This thesis aims to investigate the link between transcription inhibition and homologous recombination, especially in the context of UV-induced DNA damage. The results show that the transcription inhibitor 5,6-dichloro-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB) induces homologous recombination. The DNA damage caused by UVC irradiation is repaired mainly via nucleotide excision repair, however, it is also known to trigger recombinational repair. In the presence of UV-induced damage, transcription inhibition by DRB potentiates the induction of homologous recombination as a necessary mechanism of cell survival. The thesis also focuses on the toxicity mechanisms of the chemotherapeutic compound 6-thioguanine (6TG). The work in the thesis suggests application of 6TG as a treatment for hereditary forms of breast cancer, with genetically altered BRCA1 or BRCA2 functions. Most importantly, the treatment with 6TG is applicable to breast cancers, which have developed resistance to another class of chemotherapeutic drugs, poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Repair of the DNA damage induced by 6TG treatment is investigated further with a particular focus the pathway of DNA damage avoidance involving DNA polymerase η. The function of DNA polymerase η seems to be an important factor for the outcome of DNA repair after 6TG exposure. The deficiency of DNA polymerase η is also investigated in connection with normal replication and the repair of UV-induced DNA damage. In summary, the work in the thesis sheds more light onto the fundamental connections between DNA replication, recombination, transcription, repair and damage avoidance. On a more practical side, the information obtained about these fundamental connections is used to suggest a possible therapy for several forms of breast cancer.


Social comparison has been shown to contribute to the negative attitudes that most Western women have towards their bodies. However, minimal research has addressed the relationship between social comparison and body appreciation, which entails holding favourable opinions towards the body, accepting the body along with its deviations from societal beauty ideals, respecting the body by engaging in healthy behaviours, and protecting the body by rejecting unrealistic media appearance ideals. This study tested whether feeling loved and accepted by God would weaken the inverse relationship between social comparison and body appreciation among a sample of 186 female undergraduates. Results showed that frequent body-related comparisons were related to lower body appreciation, but this relationship was conditional upon the quality of women's perceived relationship with God. Results suggest that future research should explore interventions designed to create improved secure attachment relationships between clients and God.


BACKGROUND
The goals of this prospective longitudinal study were to monitor levels of psychosocial stress in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compared to healthy control subjects and to examine the relationship between measures of psychosocial stress and fluctuations in tic, obsessive-compulsive (OC), and depressive symptom severity.

METHODS
Consecutive ratings of tic, OC and depressive symptom severity were obtained for 45 cases and 41 matched healthy control subjects over a two-year period. Measures of psychosocial stress included youth self-report, parental report, and clinician ratings of long-term contextual threat. Structural equation modeling for unbalanced repeated measures was used to assess the temporal sequence of psychosocial stress with the severity of tic, OC and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS
Subjects with TS and OCD experienced significantly more psychosocial stress than did the controls. Estimates of psychosocial stress were predictive of future depressive symptoms. Current levels of psychosocial stress were also a significant predictor of future OC symptom severity, but not vice versa. Current OC symptom severity was a predictor of future depressive symptom severity, but not vice versa. Current levels of psychosocial stress and depression were independent predictors of future tic severity, even after controlling for the effect of advancing chronological age.

CONCLUSIONS
The impact of antecedent psychosocial adversity is greater on future depressive symptoms than for tic and/or OC symptoms. Worsening OC symptoms are also a predictor of future depressive symptoms. Advancing chronological age is robustly associated with reductions in tic severity.


A finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed for investigating the design and the tissue interaction of actively steerable needles with a rotational tip joint in soft tissue, based on the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) mesh. The new model is algorithmically simple in that the proposed CEL strategy allows needle insertion simulations along non-predetermined paths in soft tissue without the re-mesh at every direction change of the needle tip. For the features, various steering motions can be simulated and studied for different needle designs in a simpler approach by changing the needle geometry and boundary conditions. The developed FEA model, using the thoroughly measured material properties, was validated for predicting insertion path and estimating the tissue interaction forces inside two different gelatin tissue phantoms. Further, using the validated model, the effect of tip geometry on tissue was briefly investigated. Given bevel angles, it was found that the ratio of tip length to the diameter dominates the tissue damage gradient. The results demonstrate that the proposed model effectively examines the steering and tissue insertion of actively steerable needles and investigates the tip design to minimize the tissue damage by the needle steering.


This study investigated the following research question: How do sixth-graders respond to a media literacy lesson that was designed to, among other goals, introduce the concept of the presence of commercial interest in media production, particularly regarding the prevalence of media violence? Forty-seven responses were analyzed thematically using constant comparison. Students' responses illustrate their critical thinking and understanding about producers' intent in including violence in media, although recognizing the commercial interest behind media violence still seems to be a challenge. Findings also suggest the task of striking a balance between instilling critical thinking skills and acknowledging children's personal media experiences.


Introduction/Background Recognition of high-grade severe cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+) during pregnancy is a matter of concern in areas where pregnant women are covered with well-arranged screening, but generally cervical screening is rather opportunistic due to low awareness among population about its vital significance (like in Ukraine). According to guidelines during pregnancy CIN2+ are left untreated with next check-up when puerperal period comes to the end, unless invasive cancer is suspected. But if CIN2+ was misconstrued as low-grade lesion and a patient was not properly alerted, she may fail to come for check-up. Reliable tools for recognition CIN2+, especially those destined to progress are very important for cervical triage during pregnancy Methodology Study comprised 85 HPV16,18-positive pregnant women, all of them underwent colposcopy. Every cervical sample was tested for expression of p16INK4A, Ki-67, HPV L1, DNA methylation of L1 region of HPV 16 and 18. Results were collated with colposcopy conclusion verified by biopsy. Results Colposcopy revealed 47,1% patients with occult LSIL and 39,4% with occult HSIL (normal PAP-smear). Hypermethylation of L1 region was detected in all cases of CIN2+, being much more significant in CIN3. L1 gene methylation matches colposcopy in capacity to recognize CIN2+ (positive PV >95%) but less affected by human mistake. L1 gene methylation proved to be much more informative for distinguishing LSIL from mimics than p16INK4A. Alarming expression of p16INK4A, Ki-67 was spotted sporadically and its sensitivity for CIN2+ fell behind sensitivity of L1 gene methylation. Conclusion DNA methylation of L1 region of HPV 16 and 18 can improve workflow for hrHPV-positive pregnant women triage because of its high sensitivity and specificity for CIN2+. It is plausible, that CIN3 lesions destined to progress were consistent with higher level of methylation comparatively to those of indolent entity, but further study is necessary in order to confirm that assumption. Disclosure Nothing to disclose


The growth rate of a pyrimidine-requiring strain was controlled by limiting the concentration of exogenous orotic acid. As the steady state, pyrimidine-limited growth rate was decreased, the intracellular pyrimidine pools and the total nucleic acid per unit mass of culture also decreased. The ratio of deoxyribonucleic acid to protein remained constant, whereas the ratio of ribonucleic acid to protein decreased 30% over a threefold variation in growth rate (50- to 150-min doubling times). The intracellular uridine triphosphate and cytosine triphosphate pools also decreased (although not coordinately), and the pyrimidine biosynthetic enzymes were derepressed. Cell size was unaffected by pyrimidine-mediated variation of the growth rate.


Background The etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is complex. Its pathobiology is characterized by enhanced inflammatory activities; however, the exact ASD pathobiology remains unclear. Some cases of ASD are difficult to diagnose using existing psychological assessments because the careful exclusion of other psychiatric disorders is challenging. To distinguish between the appropriate targets for interventions and research, the demand for identifying efficient diagnostic biomarkers is increasing. This study aimed to find an inflammatory indicator beneficial for the diagnosis of ASD.Methods Cytokine mRNA expression, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), was measured in the differentiated M1 and M2 macrophages of ASD patients (n = 29) and typically developed (TD) individuals (n = 30). TNF-α expression was also measured in the monocytes of ASD patients (n = 7) and TD individuals (n = 6).Results TNF-α expression in M1 macrophages and TNF-α expression ratio of M1/M2 macrophages were markedly higher in ASD patients than in TD subjects; however, this difference was not observed in M2 macrophages (M1: p < 0.01; ratio of M1/M2: p < 0.0001; M2: p > 0.05), suggesting that this indicator could be a useful tool for diagnosing ASD (M1: sensitivity = 34.5%, specificity = 96.7%, area under the curve (AUC) = 0.74, positive likelihood ratio (PLR) = 10.34; ratio of M1/M2: sensitivity = 55.2%, specificity = 96.7%, AUC = 0.79, PLR = 16.55). However, there was no significant difference in the TNF-α expression in monocytes between ASD and TD individuals (p > 0.05).Conclusion These findings suggest that TNF-α expression in differentiated macrophages represents a novel adjunctive tool for the diagnosis of ASD.


This book traces the development and growth of the black working class under apartheid from the 1940s and describes the various phases of political struggle which have led to the present upheavals. South African politics have been transformed by the emergence of a new, independent black working-class movement - and the strong vioce of black working women. "Beyond Apartheid" examines the current debates on the role of workers in a democratic movement.


The COVID pandemic has challenged patient-centeredness, an increasingly valued approach in the pursuit of high-quality care. This research aimed to explore barriers and facilitators for patient-centered care (PCC) in the context of the COVID pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven ex-hospitalized COVID patients and ten health care professionals (HCPs) who have cared for this patient group. A phenomenological design was used with a photo-elicitation method to capture participants' lived experiences. Findings indicate that COVID entailed multiple and interrelated barriers across all dimensions of PCC. COVID care practices like intubation and isolation also negatively impacted patients' physical comfort, ability to communicate, and emotional well-being. Despite HCPs' motivation to improve patients' well-being, they were hampered by serious barriers, including a lack of time and challenges in care coordination. Due to these difficulties, the question can be raised whether PCC during a communicable disease pandemic is feasible. Nevertheless, as shown in this study, key facilitators such as digital communication tools and a holistic and personal care approach demonstrate that rendering PCC remains vital and should be aimed for and that this could be informed by the lived experiences of HCPs and patients.


The fluids of 44 dental cysts, 19 dentigerous cysts, 36 odontogenic keratocysts, and 12 ameloblastomas have been investigated. The incidence of epithelial cells, inflammatory cells, cholesterol crystals and bacteria was recorded in smears. There was a high incidence of epithelial cells in odontogenic keratocysts and not in other lesions. Cholesterol crystals had a similar incidence in all lesions. The proportion of the soluble proteins and total protein content was determined from cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Dental cysts contained an average of 51.19% albumin, 17.52% beta globulin, 22.04 % gamma globulin, and 6.30 g/100 ml protein. Dentigerous cysts contained an average of 61.35% albumin, 13.98% beta globulin, 12.70% gamma globulin and 5.40 g/100 ml protein. Odontogenic keratocysts contained an average of 78.03% albumin, 7.51% beta globulin, 7.91% gamma globulin, and 2.09 g/100 ml protein. Ameloblastomas contained an average of 67.38% albumin, 12.83% beta globulin, 12.60% gamma globulin and 4.86 g/100 ml protein. The immunoglobulin content was determined by single radial immunodiffusion. Dental cysts contained an average of 488.9 mg/100 ml IgA, 2535.4 mg/100 ml IgG, and 135.6 mg/100 ml IgM. Dentigerous cysts contained an average of 308.4 mg/100 ml IgA, 1618.2 mg/100 ml IgG, and 155.6 mg/100 ml IgM. Odontogenic keratocysts contained an average of 135.6 mg/100 ml IgA, 491.9 mg/100 ml IgG, and 54.1 mg/100 ml IgM. The significance of these findings in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of these lesions is discussed.


In his Intervention Theory and Method, Argyris postulated that an interventionist has three primary tasks: to generate valid information, to foster free choice, and to achieve internal commitment. There appear to be logical and empirical inconsistencies, however, between these primary tasks and (a) the proposition that change is not a primary task, (b) the method of validation, (c) the existence of both incompatible choices and prohibited choices, (d) the proposition that an effective system achieves its objectives and maintains viability, and (e) the demonstrable identification of Argyris with top management. In the present article, these inconsistencies are analyzed, and some of their theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


Abstract The catalytic Friedel–Crafts alkylation of indoles with nitroalkenes to furnish 2-indolyl-1-nitroalkane derivatives at room temperature with moderate to excellent yields is reported using nanocrystalline titanium(IV) oxide (nano-TiO2) catalyst. In all cases, a single regioisomer was obtained. After completion of the reaction, the catalyst was recovered by centrifugation and activated under a nitrogen flow for 1 h at 250°C for further reuse. The nano-TiO2 can be reused for four cycles with a slight decrease of activity under the same reaction conditions.


We describe the design and evaluation of CamWorks, a system that employs a video camera as a means of supporting capture from paper sources during reading and writing. The user can view a live video image of the source document alongside the electronic document in preparation. We describe a novel user interface developed to support selection of text in the video window, and several new techniques for segmentation, restoration and resolution enhancement of camera images. An evaluation shows substantially faster text capture than with flatbed scanning.


In this paper, we focus on the building of an invariant distribution function associated to a non-stationary sample. After discussing some specific problems encountered by non-stationarity inside samples like the "spurious" long memory effect, we build a sequence of stationary processes permitting to define the concept of meta-distribution for a given non-stationary sample. We use this new approach to discuss some interesting econometric issues in a non-stationary setting, namely forecasting and risk management strategy.


Abstract The formation of hypochlorous and hypobromous acids by heme peroxidases is a key property of certain immune cells. These products are not only involved in defense against pathogenic microorganisms and in regulation of inflammatory processes, but contribute also to tissue damage in certain pathologies. After a short introduction about experimental approaches for the assessment of the halogenating activity in vitro and in cell suspensions, we are focusing on novel applications of fluorescent dye systems to detect the formation of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) in leukocytes. Special attention is directed to properties and applications of the non-fluorescent dye aminophenyl fluorescein that is converted by HOCl, HOBr, and other strong oxidants to fluorescein. This dye allows the detection of the halogenating activity in samples containing free myeloperoxidase and eosinophil peroxidase as well as in intact granulocytes using fluorescence spectroscopy and flow cytometry, respectively.


We present a monopole antenna for optical frequencies (~600 THz) and discuss near-field measurements with single fluorescent molecules as a technique to characterize such antennas. The similarities and differences between near-field antenna measurements at optical and radio frequencies are discussed in detail. Two typical antenna properties, polarization selectivity and resonances, are studied for the optical monopole by direct near-field measurements and finite integration technique calculations. The antenna is driven by the local field of a sub-wavelength aperture. This gives rise to a dependence of the antenna response on the orientation of the local field vector, in an analogous way to the polarization selectivity of linear wire antennas. The antenna resonances are studied by varying the antenna length. Typical monopole resonances are demonstrated. The finite conductivity of metals at optical frequencies (in combination with the antenna radius) causes the wavelength of the surface charge density oscillation (surface plasmon polariton) along the antenna to be shortened in comparison to the free space wavelength. As a result, resonances for the optical monopole antenna occur at much shorter relative lengths than for conventional radio monopole antennas


Present paper explains the role of digital information services in newspaper libraries. The introduction to digital information has added a new dimension to information technology, which gave birth to new concept of digital information services. Corporate libraries have different users with different requirements. The methodology used for this paper is a literature survey and observation. It discusses how the effective and efficient use of new technologies helps us to improve the library's image. Digital information services provide a wide array of services to assist members of the library with organising material or making them more widely available. Today the trend is quickly shifting towards computerization. Library whether big or small tries in to provide better or more accurate services to its end users at minimum cost and time.


This research adds to the growing body of literature in consumer socialization by examining intergenerational influence on brand preferences and consumption orientations in parents and young-adult offspring. Two factors suggested in past research to affect intergenerational influence are investigated: conformity to peers and communication effectiveness. A new rigorous method is introduced to demonstrate intergenerational similarity in mother/daughter dyads, distinct from an incipient level of similarity that may occur by chance. Results indicate that communication effectiveness is positively related to intergenerational agreement in all six consumption domains studied, whereas daughter's conformity motivation is related only to prestige sensitivity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background Working with death and dying can lead to heightened risk of burnout and stress for the workforce (staff and volunteers), and increased difficulty with personal bereavement (Goodrich, Harrison & Cornwell, 2015; Hill, Dempster, Donnelly et al., 2016; Huggard & Nichols, 2011). Informed by our 2016/17 staff survey, person-centred care observational studies (Haraldsdottir, Donaldson, Barclay et al., 2018; St Columba's Hospice, 2015) and drawing on the skills of the workforce, and literature (Goodrich, Harrison & Cornwell, 2015; Tsiris, Davis & San, 2014) we looked at health and wellbeing from emotional safety perspective (Huggard & Nichols, 2011), in order to establish an evidence based holistic approach tailored to St Columba's Hospice. Aims To scope the organisation's existing support systems, to encourage self-care across the workforce, and to explore new ways to improve health and wellbeing at work across the organisation. Methods We mapped our existing support systems, initiatives, and policies/procedures, categorising them into: meaningful work; feeling valued; living healthy lives; maintaining healthy?minds; and, hospitable working environment. We held a workforce awareness campaign, invited feedback/ideas, and established a short term working group. Gaps in current practice and policy were identified and an action plan developed. Results We learnt that most staff were unaware of what was already in place, and many had not considered some areas relevant to their health and wellbeing at work. The organisation made changes across each category, encouraged the workforce to take personal responsibility and ensured that the hospice operated with integrity through prioritising emotional safety and adjusting policies and entitlements. The process has encouraged organisational change in terms of becoming a more compassionate employer (ACAS, 2014; National Council for Palliative Care, 2014), empowered staff to establish a subsidised weekly yoga class, and supported the founding of a volunteer-led hospice choir. Conclusion There are particular challenges for hospice care in establishing emotional safety throughout the organisational structure, support systems and within available resources. However, it is possible to operate with integrity, enable the workforce to have longevity and encourage maintenance of good health and wellbeing in hospice care.


Contrary to popular media tropes of the 'young, lone, male refugee' arriving at Europe's borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of young refugee women arriving since 2015. While many wish to engage in post-compulsory (15+) education, in order to gain valuable skills and enjoy new freedoms, various factors make it difficult to do so. Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork – involving semi-structured interviews with refugee youth (aged 15-25) and other stakeholders – this paper details young refugee women's expressions of collective and relational agency as they navigate educational constraints. These constraints primarily stem from tensions in micro-level relationships with family, peers and teachers which result from, or are exacerbated by, the conditions of 'unsettlement'. Young refugee women's navigational tactics involved finding and shaping alternative learning opportunities, educating peers and leveraging collective strength. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for gender-sensitive educational initiatives.s.


Remediation of aquatic environments polluted by toxic heavy metals has become a focus of interest for many chemical and environmental engineers throughout the world. In the present study, rice straw was employed as a low-cost agricultural waste material for the removal of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions from single and binary solutions. Isothermal biosorption experiments were conducted at 303.15 K using a column at various flow rates and bed heights. The breakthrough curves for single metal systems were fitted with the Thomas, Yoon-Nelson, bed-depth-service-time (BDST) and dose-response models. A new semi-empirical model based on the classical Thomas equation has been developed for simulation of the breakthrough curves for binary metal systems. This modified Thomas model, combined with sorption-inhibiting coefficients determining competitive sorption behavior, was found to represent the breakthrough data very adequately. The exhausted biosorbent bed was readily regenerated using an acid elution method involving a 0.05 mol l−1 HCl solution, and was reused for five consecutive sorption–regeneration cycles without significant loss of adsorption capacity. The used biosorbent also showed economic promise in the packed bed treatment of actual electroplating wastewater containing Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions.


This paper studies the problem of predicting the distribution over multiple possible future paths of people as they move through various visual scenes. We make two main contributions. The first contribution is a new dataset, created in a realistic 3D simulator, which is based on real world trajectory data, and then extrapolated by human annotators to achieve different latent goals. This provides the first benchmark for quantitative evaluation of the models to predict multi-future trajectories. The second contribution is a new model to generate multiple plausible future trajectories, which contains novel designs of using multi-scale location encodings and convolutional RNNs over graphs. We refer to our model as Multiverse. We show that our model achieves the best results on our dataset, as well as on the real-world VIRAT/ActEV dataset (which just contains one possible future).


A quantitative assay was established to analyze in vitro thymic lymphoid-stromal cell complex formation. Major parameters of this assay were the number of thymic lymphocytes, incubation time, the age of the thymocyte donor, and the source and amount of serum used. The majority of complex-forming lymphocytes from normal young adult mice were found to have a blastlike morphology, indicating their possible origin from the subcapsular zone of the thymus. Changes of complex-forming cells during thymus development seemed to support this concept. The complex formation occurred in two steps: adherence of the lymphocytes to stromal cells and subsequent crawling of the lymphocytes under stromal cell cytoplasm. The first step was competitively inhibited by a serum activity and the second was noncompetitively inhibited by chemicals affecting cytoskeleton. In this assay, the behavior of normal complex-forming thymocytes was shown to be similar to that previously demonstrated for leukemia thymocytes with respect to morphology of the complex as well as the effects of certain inhibitors. This assay should provide the means both to analyze the nature of this cell interaction and to explore the relationship between thymocyte differentiation and a step in thymic leukemogenesis.


We investigate the performance of a mismatched fixed-rate lossy code which is designed for a source different from the "true" source. The notion of rate-distortion discrepancy between two pmf's is shown to provide a lower bound for the expected excess rate due to mismatch for every fixed-rate code. This notion is used to study the problem of optimal rate allocation for the descriptions of source statistics and data in a two-stage universal vector quantisation scheme.


The mammary gland is an important organ for lactation in dairy goats. Mammary gland development and lactation functions are primarily regulated by natural hormones and certain crucial regulatory factors. Nedd4 family-interacting protein 1 (Ndfip1) can specifically bind to neural precursor cell-expressed, developmentally downregulated protein 4 (Nedd4) family members to participate in ubiquitination, which in turn regulates a range of biological processes in the body. However, the effects of Ndfip1 expression regulation at the post-transcriptional level on the development of mammary gland cells have not been previously reported. To study the regulation of Ndfip1 at post-transcriptional level, the overexpression and interference vectors of Ndfip1 were constructed, and co-transfected into the primary mammary gland epithelial cells cultured in vitro with miR-143 mimics and inhibitor. Dual luciferase reporter gene system, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, cholecystokinin octapeptide assays, and flow cytometry were used to identify their regulation and function. As a result, Ndfip1 was targeted and regulated by miR-143, which influences the development of mammary gland epithelial cells in dairy goats cultured in vitro. This study will lay an experimental foundation for further understanding the functions of Ndfip1 and miR-143.


Background: Oral malodor is a major periodontal complaint, but the best method for assessing the halitosis grade is still undefined. The primary objective of the study was to detect the halitosis grade in the exhaled breath using the three distinct techniques and to compare the readings with different clinical indices to find out the best method of halitosis grading. Materials and Methods: A total of 90 patients with chronic periodontitis having oral malodor were included in the study. The subjective assessment of the exhaled breath (halitosis grading) was done by three different methods; using a handheld portable Tanita FitScan sulfide monitor, by Halitox toxin assay, and by organoleptic (Sniff test) method. The findings were then compared with the clinical parameters of poor oral hygiene like plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), gingival bleeding index (BI), and pocket depth (PD) to detect the best method of halitosis grading. Results: The mean age of the patients included was 38.23 ± 8.83 (mean ± standard deviation) years. The median value of halitosis grading as obtained by Tanita FitScan was 3.0 (95% confidence interval as 2 and 4) which was then compared with clinical indices (PI, GI, BI, and PD) and the results were statistically significant (P < 0.05), whereas the other two techniques of halitosis grading gave insignificant results. Conclusion: The results confirmed that the halitosis grading done using Tanita FitScan sulfide monitor is more appropriate with respect to clinical indices when compared with the other two techniques.


These two volumes complete the discussion of the books of the New Testament by Abbe E. Jacquier, of Lyon, France. This work is especially strong on the linguistic side and shows familiarity with the papyri discoveries. Volume III. has 8 good, though brief, sketch of recent development in the study of the language of the New Testament. The author is a Roman Catholic scholar of distinction. He accepts all of the books as genuine, but he does not assume it. He gives clear and able arguments for his positions. His arguments are not, however, always of equal merit. It has a delightful style, as Frenchmen often have. I have much enjoyed reading these volumes. They are fresh, able, helpful. A. T. RoBERTSON.


Robot-assisted healthcare offers benefits for repetitive, intensive and task specific training compared to traditional manual manipulation performed by physiotherapists. However, a majority of existing rehabilitation devices use rigid actuators such as electric motors or hydraulic cylinders which cannot guarantee the safety of patients; novel soft robots combining soft and compliant actuators with stiff skeletons offer a better alternative. This book focuses on the development of these soft robotics for rehabilitation purposes. Topics covered include an introduction to soft robots and the state of the art of their use in healthcare; concept and modelling of a soft rehabilitation actuator - the Peano muscle; design of the reactive Peano muscle; soft wrist rehabilitation robot; development and control of a soft ankle rehabilitation robot (SARR); design, modelling and control strategies of a gait rehabilitation exoskeleton (GAREX); and conclusions and future work. This book presents novel applications of mechatronics to provide better clinical rehabilitation services and new insights into emerging technologies utilized in soft robots for healthcare, and is essential reading for researchers and students working in these and related fields.


Thermal barrier coating (TBC) is used to protect substrates and extend the operating life of gas turbines in power plant and aeronautical applications. The major causes of failure of such coatings is spallation, which results from thermal stress due to a thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the top coating and the bond coating layers. In this paper, the effects of the material properties and the thickness of the top coating layer on thermal stresses were evaluated using the finite element method and the equation for the thermal expansion coefficient mismatch stress. In addition, we investigated a design technique for the top coating whereby thermal resistance is exploited.


Adaptive and reconfigurable service provisioning is a promising research direction for NGN service technologies. It will lay the foundation of a converged network environment, in which users can feel free to enjoy various advanced services. In this paper we propose a new Adaptive Service Provisioning Architecture(ASPA) applicable to NGN. The architecture is composed of five subsystems enriching the current NGN service provisioning with novel capability of adaptation to user environment, network environment and service environment. Detailed modular structure of each subsystem is presented with emphasis on the description of adaptation capabilities. Finally an application example is provided to illustrate the rational of ASPA.


This article considers whether functional shapes may be registered under s 41(6) of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) based on the generation of factual distinctiveness under a trade monopoly. The ultimate conclusion is that the trade monopoly itself should not preclude registration. The article then considers the policy implications of registering functional product shapes as trade marks. It argues that many of the policy concerns relating to the registration of such shapes are overstated and/or are not reflected in the Trade Marks Act 1995, and suggests legislative reform which should prevent the registration of the most undesirable trade mark monopolies.


The study of the competition between equilibrium disturbing and equilibrium restoring mechanisms, reveals that the various equilibrium departures as found in different plasmas, have much in common. They can be seen as disturbances of bilateral relation; relations effectuated by forward and corresponding backward processes in the sense of detailed balancing. The deviations from the equilibrium form of the atomic state distribution function and the electron energy distribution function of atomic plasmas, which are the result of the escape of photons and electron-ion pairs, can be given in a simple equation in which the escape per balance time plays a leading role. The same idea can be used to construct a characterisation method that relates external control parameters to average values of internal plasma properties such as the electron density, electron temperature and the gas temperature. The global discharge model presented here includes gas heating and is applicable to atomic plasmas for which convection can be neglected.


A new infinite three-dimensional framework structure of the title compound [H6MoVI8O27]·3C4N2H10 has been synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions and charac-terized by elemental analyses,IR,fluorescent spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.C12H36Mo8N6O27 crystallizes in the triclinic system,space group P 1 with a = 8.820(3),b = 9.534(3),c = 10.993(4) ,α = 99.985(17),β = 106.65(2),γ = 101.650(14)o,V = 840.6(5) 3,Mr = 1463.99,Z = 1,Dc = 2.892 g/cm3,μ = 2.993 mm-1,F(000) = 702,the final R = 0.0676,wR = 0.1920 and S = 1.074 for 2196 observed reflections with I 2σ(I).The title compound exhibits a novel infinite three-dimensional(3D) framework composed of a [H6MoVI8O27] subunit and three dissociated piperazine fragments.The complex exhibits two strong fluorescent emission bands at ca.417 and 440 nm(λex = 378 nm) in the solid state at room temperature.


Data security is a very important and crucial part of Cloud storage. Day by day, thousands of operations function over the Cloud, verify logs generated from all transactions is very difficult. The attacker may temper or remove targeted logs or attack traces on the system with stealthy techniques. It is required to maintain the security of the log to trace back all the transactions to identify such tempering and loss of logs. Temper-proof log storage is a challenging issue on the Cloud. To overcome the issue, we propose strong and secure log storage using Blockchain technology and IPFS. Detecting log tempering and tracing is challenging due to large log volumes. We recommend the usage of Blockchain technology due to its inherent feature of immutability to address the issue of log tempering. We present LChain which provides immutable storage of logs with tracing. Blockchain technology helps yp create immutable logs but also offers non-repudiation and scalability. Smart contracts are used for efficient searching and enhancing computational power.


Pharmacological characteristics of the voltage-dependent calcium channel (VDCC) of the pancreatic B-cell were studied using omega-conotoxin (omega CgTX) and dihydropyridine (DHP) calcium channel blockers. High glucose and potassium (K+) depolarization were employed as the stimulant of insulin release. omega CgTX (greater than 50 nM), a blocker of neural, but not muscular, Ca2+ channels, partially blocked (27%) the second, but not the first, phase of glucose-induced insulin release without a significant effect on K+ depolarization-induced insulin release. The DHP Ca2+ channel blocker nifedipine inhibited both phases of glucose-induced insulin release (ED50 = 200 nM) and completely abolished both phases of response at 10 microM. In contrast, the DHP Ca2+ channel blocker only partially suppressed (75% at 10 microM) K+ depolarization-induced insulin release with an ED50 of 100 nM. We conclude that pancreatic B-cell possesses at least two classes of VDCCs; one is DHP sensitive, and the other DHP insensitive. Partial suppression of the second phase of glucose-induced insulin release by a high concentration of omega CgTX may be due to its toxic effect on the secretory machinery other than VDCC.


Approaches to stabilize niosomal drug delivery system without affecting its properties of merits have resulted in the development of the promising drug carrier, proniosomes. Proniosomes is dry formulation using suitable carrier coated with non ionic surfactants and can be converted into niosomes immediately before use by hydration. These proniosome-derived niosomes are as good as or even better than conventional niosomes. The focus of this review is to bring out different aspects related to proniosomes preparation, characterization, entrapment efficiency, in vitro drug release, applications and merits.


BACKGROUND Acute pancreatitis is the most common serious complication of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) that can occasionally be fatal. Multiple drugs have been examined for the prevention of this side effect, with generally uncertain results. This study is an effort to prevent this complication by the use of oral N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). METHODS A total of 100 patients who were candidates for ERCP were divided randomly into two groups. In the NAC (N) group, patients received 1200 mg NAC with 150 cc water orally 2 h before ERCP. In the placebo (P) group, 150 cc water was prescribed as a placebo. We measured serum amylase and lipase levels before and 24 h after ERCP. The prevalence of pancreatitis and duration of admission in each group were determined and compared. RESULTS In group N there were 5 (10%) cases of pancreatitis, whereas in group P there were 14 (28%) cases, which was significant (risk reduction ratio: 2.8; p=0.02).The average admission time was 1.16±0.55 days in group N and 1.18±0.44 days in group P, which was not significant. CONCLUSION There were significant differences in the prevalence of acute pancreatitis between the two groups. In addition, the number of need to treat (NNT) consisted of five cases for NAC. With regards to the above results and the safety profile of NAC, it could be used as a therapeutic agent for the prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis. We recommend that the results of this study be verified by additional clinical trials.


In 2000, the world community adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a number of which are health-related (child and maternal mortality; HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; poverty; hunger; safe water; sanitation; and essential drugs), and began a process of global cooperation to achieve set targets within fifteen years. Since that time, there has been much discussion of current progress, future achievements and roadblocks to success. Virtually every international organization has weighed in on the debate. Achieving the MDGs for health requires democratic systems that are inclusive an publicly accountable and that ensure free and independent media and civil society, transparent policy-making and separation of powers. At the international level, global actors and conventions can help establish better policies, laws and institutions and achieve consensus on global norms and ethics. It is thus imperative to establish a system of global governance that is inclusive, fair and transparent, one that offers opportunities for participation of all countries and individuals so the benefits of the global economy and technology -- especially technology for health -- are distributed more equitably and aid in securing fundamental freedoms for all.


We investigated the effect of small inspiratory resistive loads on the breathing patterns of patients with COPD admitted to the ICU for acute respiratory failure. Patients were in stable clinical condition three days after weaning from the acute-phase ventilation. Healthy nonsmokers served as controls. Breathing patterns were recorded for 20-min periods during unloaded breathing (R0), then with small inspiratory resistive loads (R1 = 2.5 cmH2O L/s and R2 = 5.2 cmH2O L/s) applied in random order. Respiratory parameters were memorized in real time and blood gases measured continuously with a transcutaneous PO2/PCO2 monitor and compared periodically with arterial blood gases. Minute volume (VE) and respiratory rate decreased with no modification in blood gas values. In the COPD patients, R1 was too small to be perceived; when R2 was applied, no increase in TI was observed, and VT and VT/TI decreased. The VE could not be maintained despite a shortening of expiratory time. The COPD patients did not have significant increase of occlusion pressure (P0.1). Mean blood gas values did not change during the testing, but the coefficient of variation of tcPCO2 increased. During the critical period following weaning from artificial ventilation, COPD patients did not respond in the same manner as normal subjects to inspiratory resistive loads, but did not have modified gas exchange during the 20-min period.


The knowledge gradient (KG) algorithm is a popular policy for the best arm identification (BAI) problem. It is built on the simple idea of always choosing the measurement that yields the greatest expected one-step improvement in the estimate of the best mean of the arms. In this research, we show that this policy has limitations, causing the algorithm not asymptotically optimal. We next provide a remedy for it, by following the manner of one-step look ahead of KG, but instead choosing the measurement that yields the greatest one-step improvement in the probability of selecting the best arm. The new policy is called improved knowledge gradient (iKG). iKG can be shown to be asymptotically optimal. In addition, we show that compared to KG, it is easier to extend iKG to variant problems of BAI, with the $\epsilon$-good arm identification and feasible arm identification as two examples. The superior performances of iKG on these problems are further demonstrated using numerical examples.


Objectives Blockade of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) with systemic antagonists attenuates osteoarthritis (OA) pain behaviour in rat models, but on-target-mediated hyperthermia has halted clinical trials. The present study investigated the potential for targeting TRPV1 receptors within the OA joint in order to produce analgesia. Methods The presence of TRPV1 receptors in human synovium was detected using western blotting and immunohistochemistry. In a rat model of OA, joint levels of an endogenous ligand for TRPV1, 12-hydroxy-eicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE), were quantified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Effects of peripheral administration of the TRPV1 receptor antagonist JNJ-17203212 on afferent fibre activity, pain behaviour and core body temperature were investigated. Effects of a spinal administration of JNJ-17203212 on dorsal horn neuronal responses were studied. Results We demonstrate increased TRPV1 immunoreactivity in human OA synovium, confirming the diseased joint as a potential therapeutic target for TRPV1-mediated analgesia. In a model of OA pain, we report increased joint levels of 12-HETE, and the sensitisation of joint afferent neurones to mechanical stimulation of the knee. Local administration of JNJ-17203212 reversed this sensitisation of joint afferents and inhibited pain behaviour (weight-bearing asymmetry), to a comparable extent as systemic JNJ-17203212, in this model of OA pain, but did not alter core body temperature. There was no evidence for increased TRPV1 function in the spinal cord in this model of OA pain. Conclusions Our data provide a clinical and mechanistic rationale for the future investigation of the therapeutic benefits of intra-articular administration of TRPV1 antagonists for the treatment of OA pain.


Visual and auditory forms have some noticeable associations that can inspire similar cognitive and aesthetical experiences. This paper presents a study on the possibilities of applying low-level visual-auditory associations to music generation. A few methods are implemented to directly convert visual features extracted from images into musical elements (pitch, duration, and chord). Some initial results suggest a high potential of composing interesting music along this direction. Possible application of this study include getting new ideas for music composers and generating accompanying music in various contexts.


Although dysfunctional dendritic cells contribute to inadequate adaptive immunity in chronic hepatitis B (CHB), underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely undefined. In this study, we examined B7-H1 expression on circulating myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) in 46 CHB patients, 10 autoimmune hepatitis patients, and 10 healthy subjects as control. We found that B7-H1 expression is significantly up-regulated on circulating mDCs of CHB and autoimmune hepatitis patients compared with healthy individuals. The B7-H1 up-regulation was significantly correlated with an elevation of serum alanine aminotransaminase levels and plasma viral load. In addition, in vitro, both IFN-α and IFN-γ could strongly stimulate mDCs to express B7-H1. More importantly, elevated B7-H1 expression is also closely associated with the suppression of T cell immune function. In vitro blockade of B7-H1 signaling could not only down-regulate IL-10 and up-regulate IL-12 production by mDCs, but also enhance mDC-mediated allostimulatory capacity and cytokine production of T cells. Blockade of B7-H1 signaling could improve hepatitis B c Ag-pulsed monocyte-derived DC-induced IFN-γ production by autologous hepatitis B virus-specific T cells. These new findings suggested that chronic inflammation may contribute to B7-H1 up-regulation on mDCs in CHB patients, which potentially cause defective hepatitis B virus-specific T cell function and viral persistence. Our findings further support the notion that the blockade of B7-H1 may represent a novel therapeutic approach for this disease.


A questionnaire method has been used to collect the empirical data on the food processing enterprises. Data were collected for 36 out of 68 enterprises having ISO 9001 / 2 (April 2000). Value chain as a modeling power of competitive advantage, determinants of quality management system efficiency, participation of knowledge and skills in formation of firm competence were discussed.


The properties and prospects of application of fluoride nanoparticles are discussed. Pyrohydrolysis is considered as the key process determining the chemistry and technology of fluorides; its role increases on going to the nanosize region. The physical and chemical methods for the synthesis of fluoride nanoparticles, one- and two-dimensional nanoobjects as well as approaches to the preparation of nanocomposites (glass ceramics, heterovalent solid solutions with defect clusters, eutectoid composites, etc.) are analysed. Nanotechnology techniques used to produce heterogeneous nanoobjects are outlined.


We analyze the behavior of a monopolistic firm in general equilibrium when the firm's decision are taken through shareholder voting. We show that, depending on the underlying distribution, rational voting may imply overproduction as well as underproduction, relative to the efficient level. Any initial distribution of shares is an equilibrium, if individuals do not recognize their influence on voting when trading shares. However, when they do, and there are no short-selling constraints the only equilibrium is the efficient one. With short-selling constraints typically underproduction occurs. It is not market power itself causing underproduction, but the inability to perfectly trade the rights to market power.


This paper examines the impact of the Shari'ah filtering criteria on the composition in size and sectors of Dow Jones Islamic indexes relative to their conventional counterparts. Filtering criteria remove a large number of Shari'ah non-compliant firms, reducing the number of stocks included in the DJ Islamic indexes, and thus implying the relative under-diversification of the Islamic indexes. We show that all conventional and Islamic indexes are rather small-cap oriented, except for DJ Islamic Asia and Japan indexes which are more mid-cap oriented. Further, the Shari'ah compliant screens slightly modify the proportion of firm sizes. However, we find that filtering leads to higher concentration in some sectors, especially Basic Materials, Industrials and Technology focused in most DJ Islamic indexes, whereas the conventional indexes are rather Industrials, Consumer Goods and Services and Financials sector oriented. Finally, we compare the risk-adjusted performance on the Islamic and conventional size-and sector-indexes. We find that the Islamic size sub-indexes exhibit higher risk-adjusted performance than their conventional counterpart, and the Islamic sector sub-indexes outperform their non-Islamic counterpart for Basic Materials, Consumer Goods and Services, Health Care, Industrials, Technologies and Telecommunications. These differences in performance at the sector level can explain the higher performance of the DJIM than the DJGM at the aggregate level.


In this paper, an improved cohesive element is proposed for accurate quantification of delamination in laminar composites. The improved cohesive element employs a mixed Gaussian and sub‐domain integration scheme for cohesive stress integration. Level set description of crack front geometry is used to accurately track the evolving delamination crack front. The new element offers significant improvement in solution accuracy and numerical stability, as compared with conventional cohesive elements using either Gaussian integration or Newton–Cotes integration. The much enhanced numerical accuracy and stability permit the use of bonded structural element size as large as 1∼1.5 times the cohesive zone size without significantly compromising numerical accuracy and efficiency. This greatly alleviates the strict mesh size requirement imposed by conventional cohesive elements that require the bonded structural element size be smaller than \documentclass{article}\footskip=0pc\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\frac{1}{3}\sim\frac{1}{5}$\end{document} of the cohesive zone size. Furthermore, the new element offers the benefit of easy insertion of arbitrary initial crack geometry for a structured mesh. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Human heavy chain antibody genes elicited in Thai dengue patients during DENV2 secondary infection. Dengue is one of the most serious mosquito-borne viral diseases occurring in humans. From their complexity of 4 serotypes, the ideal vaccine for dengue should be able to stimulate cross-neutralizing antibodies. Recently, genetic-based immune response have been studied for guiding of vaccine design for several viral pathogens. Despite a recent approval of dengue vaccine, the information of genetics-based immune response against dengue virus (DENV) are still limited. Consequently, we aimed to determine the profiles of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene from DENV2 infected patients. The immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region genes (IGHV) were amplified from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of DENV2 secondary infected patients over the acute, convalescence and recovery phases. Antibody heavy chain genes were sequenced by next-generation sequencing (NGS), and analyzed to identify correlations with neutralizing and enhancing activities of the serum samples. IGHV1-69, 3-23, and 3-30 were frequently discovered in our Thai DENV2 infected patients. Our findings provided the new data on the human B cell response during secondary DENV2 infections in Thai dengue patients that provide a supportive information for dengue vaccine design and therapeutics development.


The response of quantitative traits in translocated populations has not been well explored. Evolutionary shifts in quantitative traits, such as life history characteristics, are of particular interest because of their obvious association with fitness. In a recent survey, Stockwell (1995) examined life history variation of four populations of western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) that were derived from a common ancestral population 55–58 years earlier. Three life history traits differed considerably among the four sites and appeared to be correlated with local environmental conditions. To test whether these differences were due to plasticity or rapid evolution, fish from the four sites were maintained under common‐garden conditions for two generations. After two generations a genetic basis was inferred for two of the three traits (size at maturity and fat content), but not for the third trait (offspring size). Thus, rapid evolution had occurred for two life history traits in these recently established populations. This case of rapid life history evolution may be due to genetic drift and/or natural selection. These data suggest that translocations may lead to rapid evolutionary responses of targeted taxa. Rapid evolutionary responses are of special concern for 'refuge' populations that are maintained as a hedge against extinction.


The paper describes the fast and efficient implementation of the charge density method for the computation of the electrostatic potential inside electron guns, taking into account space charge. The results obtained are in good agreement with published experimental measurements. The procedure can be easily extended to systems with diaphragms, saturated emission, and curved cathodes.


STUDY DESIGN
Prospective cohort/predictive validity study.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the predictive validity of selected clinical examination items and to develop a clinical prediction rule to determine which patients with neck pain may benefit from cervical thrust joint manipulation (TJM) and exercise.

BACKGROUND
TJM to the cervical spine has been shown to be effective in patients presenting with a primary report of neck pain. It would be useful for clinicians to have a decision-making tool, such as a clinical prediction rule, that could accurately identify which subgroup of patients would respond positively to cervical TJM.

METHODS
Consecutive patients who presented to physical therapy with a primary complaint of neck pain completed a series of self-report measures, then received a detailed standardized history and physical examination. After the clinical examination, all patients received a standardized treatment regimen consisting of cervical TJM and range-of-motion exercise. Depending on response to treatment, patients were treated for 1 or 2 sessions over approximately 1 week. At the end of their participation in the study, patients were classified as having experienced a successful outcome based on a score of +5 ("quite a bit better") or higher on the global rating of change scale. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were calculated for all potential predictor variables. Univariate techniques and stepwise logistic regression were used to determine the most parsimonious set of variables for prediction of treatment success. Variables retained in the regression model were used to develop a multivariate clinical prediction rule.

RESULTS
Eighty-two patients were included in data analysis, of whom 32 (39%) achieved a successful outcome. A clinical prediction rule with 4 attributes (symptom duration less than 38 days, positive expectation that manipulation will help, side-to-side difference in cervical rotation range of motion of 10° or greater, and pain with posteroanterior spring testing of the middle cervical spine) was identified. If 3 or more of the 4 attributes (positive likelihood ratio of 13.5) were present, the probability of experiencing a successful outcome improved from 39% to 90%.

CONCLUSION
The clinical prediction rule may improve decision making by providing the ability to a priori identify patients with neck pain who are likely to benefit from cervical TJM and range-of-motion exercise. However, this is only the first step in the process of developing and testing a clinical prediction rule, as future studies are necessary to validate the results and should include long-term follow-up and a comparison group.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Prognosis, level 2b.


Background: In July 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) instituted new resident work hour mandates, which are being shown to improve resident well-being and patient safety. However, there are limited data on the impact these new mandates may have on educational activities. Purposes: To assess the impact on educational activities of a day float system created to meet ACGME work hour mandates. Methods: The inpatient ward coverage was changed by adding a day float team responsible for new patient admissions in the morning, with the on-call teams starting later and being responsible for new patient admissions thereafter. I surveyed the residents to assess the impact of this new system on educational activities-resident autonomy, attending teaching, conference attendance, resident teaching, self-directed learning, and ability to complete patient care responsibilities. Results: There was no adverse effect of the day float system on educational activities. House staff reported increased autonomy, enhanced teaching from attending physicians, and improved ability to complete patient care responsibilities. Additionally, house staff demonstrated improved compliance with the ACGME mandates. Conclusions: The implementation of a novel day float system for the inpatient medicine ward service improved compliance with ACGME work duty requirements and did not adversely impact educational activities of the residency training program.


This paper presents a review of over a decade of research on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) conducted at Uppsala University. The paper presents, among others, an overview of the 200 kW VAWT located in Falkenberg, Sweden, as well as a description of the work done on the 12 kW prototype VAWT in Marsta, Sweden. Several key aspects have been tested and successfully demonstrated at our two experimental research sites. The effort of the VAWT research has been aimed at developing a robust large scale VAWT technology based on an electrical control system with a direct driven energy converter. This approach allows for a simplification where most or all of the control of the turbines can be managed by the electrical converter system, reducing investment cost and need for maintenance. The concept features an H-rotor that is omnidirectional in regards to wind direction, meaning that it can extract energy from all wind directions without the need for a yaw system. The turbine is connected to a direct driven permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), located at ground level, that is specifically developed to control and extract power from the turbine. The research is ongoing and aims for a multi-megawatt VAWT in the near future.


Liquid-crystal phases are typical examples of soft and complex materials that exhibit an abundance of different phenomena. In this paper we present some of our results contributing to the understanding of the physics of defects in nematic liquid crystals. The examples presented exhibit many features that are also of interest for other branches of physics. We describe nematic point defects, the annihilation dynamics of a defect and anti-defect pair, and the coarsening dynamics of a dense pattern of defects after a sudden symmetry-breaking phase transition.


SYNOPSIS. The sustainable use of wild species by local people is emerging as an important conservation strategy. The premise is the economic value of species will justify their own preservation as well as the habitats they occupy. However, the lack of natural history and demographic information for the majority of species being exploited or with potential uses presents challenging problems for implementing sustainable use programs. Each year in Argentina and Paraguay, an average of 1.9 million tegu lizards of the genus Tupinambis are exploited for their skins. In spite of the importance of tegus as a resource, their biology is poorly known and their populations have never been managed. The life history of Tupinambis , like that of other exploited lizards, is characterized by a relatively long life span, a large clutch size, several years of growth before reproduction, and high mortality of hatchlings. Importantly, the mortality of young-of-the-year and the proportion of females reproducing each year are both probably strongly influenced by interannual environmental variation.When these parameters were randomized in life table projections to simulate the effects of environmental stochasticity, the population growth rate was highly sensitive to environmental fluctuations. Monte Carlo simulations of different harvest strategies showed that estimates of population growth rates were overwhelmingly influenced by environmental variation and the number of years included in the growth rate estimate, even in the face of seemingly large changes in adult mortality that would result from population management. These results are both encouraging and cautionary for Tupinambis conservation. On the one hand these patterns can help explain how Tupinambis populations may have persisted in spite of high and variable harvest levels during many years, but conversely, stochastic effects make it difficult to evaluate the effects of conservation measures. Size and sex can be determined from harvested skins, and pilot studies suggest that analyses of the annual harvest can provide valuable information for evaluating long-term population trends.


Recent studies have reported that emotional words are processed faster than neutral words, though emotional benefits may not depend solely on words' emotionality. Drawing on an embodied approach to representation, we examined interactions between emotional, sensorimotor, and linguistic sources of information for target words embedded in sentential contexts. Using eye-movement measures for 43 native English speakers, we observed emotional benefits for negative and positive words and sensorimotor benefits for words high in concreteness, but only when target words were low in frequency. Moreover, emotional words were maximally faster than neutral words when words were low in concreteness (i.e., highly abstract), and sensorimotor benefits occurred only when words were not emotionally charged (i.e., emotionally neutral). Furthermore, emotional and concreteness benefits were attenuated by individual differences that attenuate and amplify emotional and sensorimotor information, respectively. Our results suggest that behavior is functionally modulated by embodied information (i.e., emotional and sensorimotor) when linguistic contributions to representation are not enhanced by high frequency. Furthermore, emotional benefits are maximal when words are not already embodied by sensorimotor contributions to representation (and vice versa). Our work is consistent with recent studies that have suggested that abstract words are grounded in emotional experiences, analogous to how concrete words are grounded in sensorimotor experiences.


This study reviewed a body of empirical research on Carole Pateman's democratic spillover thesis, which argues that democratic participation in the workplace spill over into political participation. The review revealed significant variance in defining and measuring of workplace democracy and participation among quantitative empirical studies on the spillover thesis. The review also discovered that majority of the reviewed studies omitted higher level participation as a predictor, and political efficacy, which is a mediating mechanism between workplace participation and political behaviors, in testing the hypotheses. Suggestions for future research and limitations are discussed.


Introduction. The issue of legal research of organizational and economic powers is constantly in the focus of researchers in the field of both economic and administrative law. There are different views on the emergence of organizational and economic powers. Some scholars believe that such powers arise exclusively in the process of managing economic activity, others - both in the process of management and in the process of regulating economic activity. In particular, the issues of organization and control of economic activity are added to such discussions. Accordingly, as a result of which processes the organizational and economic powers arise today are not so clearly defined at the legislative or doctrinal levels.
Topicality. Given this uncertainty regarding the processes during which organizational and economic powers arise, many questions and problems arise during their implementation. In particular, this problem is manifested in the separation of organizational and economic and power powers, especially when the subject is simultaneously endowed with the functions of power and organizational and economic nature in the process of managing economic activity. Accordingly, the analysis of the concepts of organization, management, regulation and control of economic activity in the context of the theory of economic and administrative law and the theoretical and legal perspective needs its justification and systematic scientific disclosure.
Summary of the main results of the research. The definition of these concepts at the legislative and doctrinal levels has been worked out. The concept of organization of economic activity is studied, which is proposed to be considered broadly (as an independent direction of activity aimed at rational combination in time and space of all elements of economic system of appropriate level: national (sectoral), local (regional), at the level of economic entities); and narrow meanings (as a management function that is implemented in the process of unification (distribution) of subjects, objects, means and is designed to create a new or reorganize or liquidate the existing system). It is established that economic management is an independent type of activity that is implemented in relation to social relations that arise, change and cease in connection with the implementation or realization of the intention to conduct economic activity on the basis of property relations on the basis of property, control relations. -subordination and delegated powers in order to effectively implement it. It is proposed to consider state regulation of economic activity at the macro and micro levels. It is investigated that control is one of the management function.
Conclusions. It is substantiated that organizational and economic powers arise in the process of business management and or regulation of economic activity (at the micro level). It is proposed to include in the Commercial Code of Ukraine the following definition of organizational and economic relations: "organizational and economic relations in this Code mean the relations between business entities and subjects of organizational and economic powers in the process of economic management and / or economic regulation. activities (at the micro level)".


A novel and efficient desymmetrizing asymmetric ortho-selective mono-bromination of bisphenol phosphine oxides under chiral squaramide catalysis was reported. Using this asymmetric ortho-bromination strategy, a wide range of chiral bisphenol phosphine oxides and bisphenol phosphinates were obtained with good to excellent yields (up to 92%) and enantioselectivities (up to 98.5 : 1.5 e.r.). The reaction could be scaled up, and the synthetic utility of the desired P-stereogenic compounds was proved by transformations and application in an asymmetric reaction.


From 1973 to 1987, Volkswagen's (VW) 140,000 hectare 'pioneer' cattle ranch on the Amazon frontier laid bare the limits of capitalist development. These limits were not only economic, with the core management of a multinational company engaged in the 'integration' of an extreme world periphery, but they were also legal and ethical, with the involvement of indentured labor and massive forest burning. Its physical limits were exposed by an unpredictable ecosystem refusing to submit to VW's technological arsenal. Antoine Acker reveals how the VW ranch, a major project supported by the Brazilian military dictatorship, was planned, negotiated, and eventually undone by the intervention of internationally connected actors and events.


Abstract Hydrated evaporite minerals have the ability to hold large amounts of H2O, making them a potential source of H2O in cold, low-PH2O environments such as the surface of Mars. Many of these hydrated evaporite minerals experience a reversible change in hydration state in response to changes in temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH). Such phases may thus have the potential to interact with the martian atmosphere on a daily or seasonal basis. The Na2Mg(SO4)2·nH2O system was previously thought to contain three hydrated phases: a decahydrate (n = 10), konyaite (n = 5), and blödite (n = 4). We examined this system using temperature- and RH-controlled X‑ray powder diffraction (XRD) methods, as well as temperature-controlled single-crystal X‑ray diffraction. When blödite was exposed to sub-freezing conditions, T ≤ -10 °C, a new phase was produced (n = 16, 52 wt%H2O). Similar low-temperature behavior has been documented in the MgSO4·nH2O system, through the presence of meridianiite (Peterson et al. 2007). The hydration and dehydration behavior of phases in the Na2Mg(SO4)2·nH2O system was evaluated with powder XRD from -30 to >25 °C and from ∼99 to near 0% RH, and single-crystal XRD data were collected for the n = 16 phase at -120 °C. The 16-hydrate is triclinic, space group P1̄, with unit-cell parameters a = 6.5590(12), b = 6.6277(14), c = 14.441(3) Å, α = 87.456(15)°, β = 79.682(15)°, γ = 65.847(13)°, and a unit-cell volume of 563.3(2) Å3. The existence of this new phase at low temperatures, its high hydration state, and its ability to form reversibly from blödite all suggest that if phases in this system exist on the martian surface, they will participate in the Mars H2O cycle.


We use source-encoded waveform inversion to image Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The encoding method is based on measurements of Laplace coefficients of stationary wavefields. By assigning to each event a unique frequency, we compute Fréchet derivatives for all events simultaneously based on one 'super' forward and one 'super' adjoint simulation for a small fraction of the computational cost of classical waveform inversion with the same dataset. No cross-talk noise is introduced in the process, and the method does not require all events to be recorded by all stations. Starting from global model GLAD_M25, we performed 100 conjugate gradient iterations using a dataset consisting of 786 earthquakes recorded by 9,846 stations. Synthetic inversion tests show that we achieve good convergence based on this dataset, and we see a consistent misfit reduction during the inversion. The new model, named SE100, has much higher spatial resolution than GLAD_M25, revealing details of the Yellowstone and Iceland hotspots, subduction beneath the Western United States, and the upper mantle structure beneath the Arctic Ocean.


The aim of preventive treatment of episodic and chronic migraine is to reduce the frequency and severity of seizures and thereby improve the quality of patients' lives. It is estimated that 38% of patients with migraine would benefit from preventive treatment. However, in clinical practice only approximately 13% of patients with migraine receive it. Intolerable side effects and lack of efficacy of pharmacological treatment are the main reasons of treatment discontinuation. It is suggested that calcitonin-gene-related-peptide (CGRP) plays a critical role in migraine pathophysiology. One of them is galcanezumab – a humanised monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to the CGRP peptide. Galcanezumab has demonstrated efficacy in EVOLVE-1, EVOLVE-2 and REGAIN trials. It significantly reduces migraine days per month versus placebo. Moreover, the quality of patients' lives treated with galcanezumab also improved. It has a favourable safety profile, similar to placebo groups. The most frequent adverse event in patients treated with galcanezumab was injection site pain. No toxic effects on the liver or negative influences on hemodynamic or laboratory parameters were reported. The discontinuation rates due to adverse events in patients treated with galcanezumab were low. In October 2019, lasmiditan was approved by FDA and EMA in prophylaxis treatment of migraine in adult patients. Currently, this medicine is not accessible in Poland.


Trauma and disease processes in the upper extremity frequently cause pain as well as impairment in movement, strength and in function. While perception of pain occurs normally in response to bodily insult, prolonged or severe pain may interfere with attempts to maximize physical function and the return the involved person to optimal occupational role. Whether participating as a member on a medical or vocational rehabilitation team, the occupational therapist must adequately assess the area, nature and behavior of pain prior to providing appropriate intervention and recommendations to other team members. A structured interview to assess pain furnishes the therapist with a format for evaluation that is thorough and methodical. The structure and process of the interview allows the therapist to collect subjective information which can be coupled with objective findings from standard upper extremity evaluation and/or observation of task performance. Data gathered will assist the therapist in discovering the etiology of pain, in evaluating the appropriateness of complaints as they relate to pathology and in making appropriate recommendations about the patient's future work roles.


Background: The restrictions to stop COVID-19 pandemic have had a negative impact in simulation, however, it is imperative to develop new strategies that facilitate healthcare education. Objective: To describe a simulation in healthcare based on the learning of Non-Technical Skills (NTS) and performed under the restrictions of COVID-19 Pandemic. Methods: Quasi-experimental study of an educational activity performed through simulation with anaesthesiology residents in November 2020. Twelve residents participated in two consecutive days. A questionnaire was filled related to the performance of NTS that encompasses leadership, teamwork and decision making. The complexity of the scenarios and the NTS results obtained between the two days were analysed. Advantages and challenges were documented when a clinical simulation is performed under COVID-19 restrictions. Results: The global performance of the teams improved when comparing first and second day


We examined the effects of copepod feeding on estuarine microbial plankton, including bacteria, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic and autotrophic nanoflagellates, microzooplankton and larger phytoplankton cells, to elucidate any short-term control or release phenomena. As an example of such potential effects, it was hypothesized that through omnivory Acartia tonsa would reduce both competitors (large phytoplankton) and predators (microzooplankton) of small autotrophic flagellates, allowing the latter to proliferate. Copepod addition and removal treatments were conducted in 24 l containers in triplicate. As expected, the copepods significantly decreased both microzooplankton and large phytoplankton populations, and blooms of ciliates and diatoms (the dominant phytoplank- ton group) were apparent in the copepod removal treatment. Effects were qualitative (species com- position changes) as well as quantitative. However, beyond this immediate impact, community level cascades in the microbial food web were not found, likely due to consumer recycling of resources and trophic level heterogeneity. Bacterioplankton responded positively to the addition of copepods, but negatively to the bloom of diatoms in the copepod removal treatment. These results suggest that the effects of copepods on the structure and function of estuarine microbial plankton communities may be more complex than simple linear effects would predict.


In May mature seasonally anoestrous ewes were implanted with melatonin which advanced the onset of cycles by about 1 month. The LH response to an opioid antagonist, WIN-3, was determined 5, 15, 25 and 60 days after melatonin implantation, by intravenous administration of WIN-3 (12.5 mg/dose) 4 times at 15-min intervals during both the 1st and the 5th hour of an 8-h treatment period. There was no effect of WIN-3 at 5, 15 and 25 days after melatonin implantation. At 60 days LH concentration and pulse frequency were significantly increased (P less than 0.05 and less than 0.01 respectively) in response to WIN-3 treatment, but only in those animals which had begun reproductive cycles, an effect known to be mediated by the presence of progesterone. We were therefore unable to find evidence to support the hypothesis that the influence of melatonin in advancing the breeding season may be via an opioidergic pathway.


This study aims to propose an intelligent operational advisory solution that guides the plant operation team to optimal HPPT/LPPT pressure settings that compensate for the variation in ambient temperature effect to maximize plant revenue. Traditional industry practice is to operate a gas-oil-separation-plant (GOSP) at fixed operating conditions ignoring the variation in the ambient temperature (Ta) leading to a loss in oil recovery and associated revenue. The variation of ambient temperature (Ta) highly affects the separation process, where ambient temperature varies greatly from summer to winter.
 To develop a correlation, a GOSP model was constructed by OmegaLand dynamic simulator using a typical Saudi Aramco GOSP design. Oil recovery values were determined by running the process simulation for a typical range of high-pressure production trap (HPPT), low-pressure production trap (LPPT), and ambient temperature (Ta). Then, an intelligent approach was built to determine the optimum pressure of LPPT and HPPT units for each ambient temperature condition using an artificial intelligence technique.
 Results show that liquid recovery decreases with an increase in ambient temperature at constant HPPT and LPPT pressures, indicating adjustment in HPPT or LPPT pressure responding to the temperature variations can improve the oil recovery. At constant LPPT pressure and ambient temperature, the oil recovery increases with an increase in HPPT pressure until it reaches the optimum value and then decreases with further increase in the HPPTpressure suggesting that there is an optimum HPPT pressure at which oil recovery is maximum. At fixed ambient temperature and fixed HPPT pressure, liquid recovery increases with increasing LPPT pressure until it reaches the optimum value, and then it decreases with further increase in the LPPT pressure suggesting that there is an optimum LPPT pressure at which oil recovery is maximum.


Machine learning models allow us to compare languages by showing how hard a task in each language might be to learn and perform well on. Following this line of investigation, we explore what makes a language "hard to pronounce" by modelling the task of grapheme-to-phoneme (g2p) transliteration. By training a character-level transformer model on this task across 22 languages and measuring the model's proficiency against its grapheme and phoneme inventories, we show that certain characteristics emerge that separate easier and harder languages with respect to learning to pronounce. Namely the complexity of a language's pronunciation from its orthography is due to the expressive or simplicity of its grapheme-tophoneme mapping. Further discussion illustrates how future studies should consider relative data sparsity per language to design fairer cross-lingual comparison tasks.


Examined is whether or not the background features of the typical Pacific University examination room affect the patient's visual behavior as shown in lateral phoria and duction tests performed at six meters. Far phoria and duction measurements were taken on 36 subjects under the following three conditions: 1) Cluttered Field the unstructured normal exam room background; 2) Empty Field a large, featureless screen obscuring that background; 3) Cluttered Field with Instructions with instructions for the subject to be aware of the normal exam room background. Significant changes in phorias and ductions were found when the subjects were instructed to be aware of the several objects in the field.


ABSTRACT The indirect fluorescent antibody technique has been applied to detect antibody levels in jirds (meriones unguiculatus) infected with Brugia malayi. Sonicated antigens were prepared from microfilariae and adult worms. Sonicated microfilariae were found to be satisfactory for this purpose. Cyanogen bromide-activated sepharose coated with soluble antigens prepared from microfilariae and adult worms was also used to detect antibodies to Brugia infections. The present observation show that these techniques can be usefully applied for detection of filarial infections. Antibody titres in infected jirds generally ranged from 1: 16 –1:256 and were not affected by treatment with diethylcarbamazine.