OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the clinical feasibility of adopting splenic enhancement for timing and triggering the acquisition of late hepatic arterial phase images during multiphasic liver MDCT for assessment of hypervascular tumors.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Forty-eight patients (33 men, 15 women; median age, 59 years; chronic liver disease, 23 patients; portal venous hypertension, 17 patients) with a total of 81 hypervascular liver tumors underwent liver MDCT by random assignment to one of two scanning protocols. Scanning delay for the late hepatic arterial phase was determined by assessment of time-to-peak splenic enhancement (splenic-triggering protocol) or aortic enhancement (aortic-triggering protocol). Acquisition timing, vascular attenuation, liver attenuation and homogeneity, signal-to-noise ratio, tumor-to-liver contrast, and tumor-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio were compared. Two blinded independent observers used Likert scales to score timing adequacy (3-point scale), diagnostic confidence (5-point scale), and per lesion conspicuity (4-point scale) for hypervascular tumor detection.

RESULTS
The splenic- and aortic-triggering protocols had significant differences in mean late hepatic arterial phase imaging timing (splenic, 36 ± 6 seconds; aortic, 32 ± 3 seconds; p = 0.010). Images obtained with the splenic-triggering protocol had significantly better observer-based judgment of adequacy (splenic, 2.04; aortic, 1.58; p = 0.002). Mean attenuation and signal-to-noise ratios from liver and portal vein were significantly higher with the splenic- than with the aortic-triggering protocol (p < 0.0001). The splenic-triggering protocol was associated with significant improvement in homogeneity of liver attenuation (p < 0.0001). Although the splenic-triggering protocol was associated with significantly higher lesion conspicuity than was the aortic-triggering protocol (p = 0.022), there was no significant difference in tumor detection rate.

CONCLUSION
Our results provide a clinical foundation for and proof of principle that the adoption of splenic enhancement renders an optimal temporal window for late hepatic arterial phase imaging during MDCT of the liver for assessment of hypervascular tumors.


Temporal action proposal generation is an important and challenging task in video understanding, which aims at detecting all temporal segments containing action in-stances of interest. The existing proposal generation approaches are generally based on pre-defined anchor windows or heuristic bottom-up boundary matching strategies. This paper presents a simple and efficient framework (RTD-Net) for direct action proposal generation, by re-purposing a Transformer-alike architecture. To tackle the essential visual difference between time and space, we make three important improvements over the original transformer detection framework (DETR). First, to deal with slowness prior in videos, we replace the original Transformer en-coder with a boundary attentive module to better capture long-range temporal information. Second, due to the ambiguous temporal boundary and relatively sparse annotations, we present a relaxed matching scheme to relieve the strict criteria of single assignment to each groundtruth. Finally, we devise a three-branch head to further improve the proposal confidence estimation by explicitly predicting its completeness. Extensive experiments on THUMOS14 and ActivityNet-1.3 benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of RTD-Net, on both tasks of temporal action proposal generation and temporal action detection. Moreover, due to its simplicity in design, our framework is more efficient than previous proposal generation methods, without non-maximum suppression post-processing. The code and models are made available at https://github.com/MCG-NJU/RTD-Action.


The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has approximately 120 genes for the ribosomal RNAs (rDNA) which are organized in tandem within chromosomal DNA. These multiple-copy genes are homogeneous in sequence but can undergo changes in copy number and topology. To determine if these changes reflect unusual features of rDNA metabolism, we have examined both the replication of rDNA in the mitotic cell cycle and the inheritance of rDNA during meiosis. The results indicate that rDNA behaves identically to chromosomal DNA: each rDNA unit is replicated once during the S phase of each cell cycle and each unit is conserved through meiosis. Therefore, the flexibility in copy number and topology of rDNA does not arise from the selective replication of units in each S phase nor by the selective inheritance of units in meiosis.


Surface electromyography (sEMG) can be used to detect motor epileptic seizures non-invasively. For clinical use, a compact-size, user-friendly, safe and accurate sEMG measurement system can be worn by epileptic patients to detect and characterize a seizure. Such devices must be small, wireless, power-efficient minimally invasive and robust to avoid movement artefacts, friction, and slipping of the electrode, which can compromise data integrity and/or generate false positives or false negatives. This paper presents a highly versatile device that can be worn in different locations on the body to capture sEMG signals in a freely moving user without movement artefact. The system can be safely worn on the body for several hours to capture sEMG from wet Ag/AgCl electrodes, while sEMG data is wirelessly transmitted to a host computer within a range of 20 m. We demonstrate the versatility of our sensor by recording sEMG from five different body locations in a freely moving volunteer. Then, simulated seizure data was captured while the device was placed on the extensor carpi ulnaris. We show that sEMG bursts were successfully recorded to characterize the seizure afterward. The presented sensor prototype is small (5 cm x 3.5 cm x 1 cm), lightweight (46 g), and has an autonomy of 12 hrs from a small 110-mAh battery.


The airtightness of ventilation ductwork is an important element of the global performance of ventilation systems. Nevertheless, it is too often neglected in practice. Today, the new French Thermal Regulation (RT2000) encourages taking it into account as the energy losses calculation includes an additional part which is directly related to the additional air flow through ductwork leakages. If we want to improve the results and the practice, we have to take into consideration the whole ventilation installation : the ducts and accessories, of course, but also the connections between ducts and air terminal devices, the connections between ducts and fan units, the characteristics of these fans, CTA, etc. We also have to take into account the reality of the building site. This paper shows how to implement a methodology for measuring, on site, the global airtightness of ventilation installations. It is based on real applications on commercial and residential buildings, in France. It shows the feasibility of the method and, notably, the difficulties which were encountered for the investigations in multi-family buildings. Measurements results are given and compared to the standard classes. They show the poor quality of airtightness on the most of installations which were tested. These results are in agreement with previous studies. In parallel, this work enables to identify some of the causes of the low airtightness of ventilation systems.


A wide range of manufacturing processes are used to supply yttria stabilized zirconia powders for plasma sprayed TBC applications. From previous studies it is known that the difference in coating properties can potentially result from variations in powder feedstock as a consequence of particle inflight behavior and particle impact. An additional strong contribution to splat variation results from changes in the particle in flight behavior. In order to understand the variation in particle condition as a consequence of different powder morphologies, a detailed diagnostic analysis was carried out for plasma densified (PD), fused and crushed (FC) and agglomerated & sintered (A&S) powders. In this study a "3D multiple sensors" based integrated approach was used to evaluate these differences. Direct feed back sensors were used for optimization and combined with sophisticated diagnostics for in-depth studies. To obtain comparable results, three batches of commercial powders were sized to the same specification. For a given set of spraying parameters the recorded spray stream characteristics such as plume position, particle temperature, size and velocity deviated strongly for the given morphologies. By optimizing injection, the different powders can be made to follow nominally similar trajectories. This study reveals the sensitivity of each powder to process parameters and the variability in particle state that can result from it. Some techniques are suggested to optimally inject the different powders and to achieve similar particle states for these morphologies


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Introduction: The Nef-M1 peptide competes effectively with the natural ligand of CXCR4, SDF-1α, to induce apoptosis and inhibit growth in colon and breast cancers. Its mechanistic role in tumor angiogenesis, a key step involved in tumor growth and metastasis, is unknown. In this study, we evaluated the antiangiogenic effect of Nef-M1 and examined its role in the AKT and Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways in colon cancer.

Experimental Design: We studied HT29 and SW480 colon cancer cells in vitro and tumor xenografts developed from HT29 cells were propagated in severe combined immunodeficient mice in vivo. The mice were treated intraperitoneally with the Nef-M1 peptide or sNef-M1 (scramble peptide as control) starting at the time of tumor implantation. Sections from tumors were evaluated for tumor angiogenesis, as measured by microvessel density (MVD) based on immunostaining of endothelial markers (CD31 and FVIII-RAg). MVD was determined by light microscopy in areas of invasive tumor containing the highest numbers of microvessels per area. Individual microvessel counts were made on a 200x field within the areas of most intense tumor neovascularization. Western blot analyses were performed on lysates of both colon cancer cell lines and HT-29 tumors to assess the effect of Nef-M1 on the AKT, and MAPK signaling pathways.

Results: Immunostaining analyses indicated that control tumors had well established vascularity, but Nef-M1 treated tumors had poor vascularization. In addition, the average MVD was reduced in Nef-M1 treated tumors (n=5) compared to sNef-M1 control tumors (n=12) (p<0.05). In Nef-M1 treated tumors, the average microvessel size was significantly decreased from 2.28μm2 to 1.16μm2. Western blot analyses of lysates of colon cancer cells and tumors revealed that Nef-M1 effectively suppressed the activation of p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) MAP kinases. AKT activation was also inhibited in Nef-M1 treated samples of colon cancer cells and tumor xenografts. This inhibition was accompanied by down-regulation of phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase-3β (p-GSK-3β), a downstream target of p-AKT.

Conclusions: Our data suggest that Nef-M1 inhibits tumor angiogenesis by attenuating AKT and MAPK signaling pathways and that, by targeting chemokine receptor CXCR4 mediated pathways, it may be a novel therapeutic agent for colon cancers. This work was supported by NIH/NCI Workforce Diversity Grant R21-CA171251.

Citation Format: Venkat R. Katkoori, Marc D. Basson, Upender Manne, Harvey L. Bumpers. Nef-M1, a peptide antagonist of CXCR4, inhibits tumor angiogenesis by attenuating AKT and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in colon cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1027. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1027


STR, juvenile (infantile) acne usually occurs between the neo-natal period and 6 >ears of ape and is generally considered to be a variant of adolescent acne. It is a rare disease of" unknown cause but has been ascribed to transplacental transmission of maternal androgens, drugs such as pbenytoin ingested by tbe mother during prefrnanc\, follicular (Kclusion by oil\ applications to tbe skinor androgen producing tumours. It occurs more frequently in boys and is usually restricted to tbe face. It responds Io tbe usual topical measures sucb as benzoy! peroxide and retinoic acid, as wotl as oral erytbromycin. Mild scarring [rcquentls results. Tbe children are usually quite bealtby and investigations only disclose plasma or urinary androgens at tbe upper limit of normal.' Adolescent acne bas been claimed to occur more frequently in sucb patients subsequently.^ It was decided lo investigate a small series of patients lo test the accuracy of tbe above postulates. Eleven patients (seven boys and four girls) were seen between 1970 and lyS.V all were recalled in December 1987 and 10 attended a personal interview. All patients' lesions were confined to the face and consisted ofVipen and closed comedones, papules, pustules and cysts. Tbeir 24-h urinar\ ;mdrogen output was witbin normal limits in tbe four patients measured. All patients responded to treatment with topical retinoic acid, henzoyi peroxide and oral erythromycin over a spaceof6montbs. No maternal ingestion of drugs took place over tbe relevant pregnancies and no oily applications had been placed on the skin. At fbllow-up six patients were post-pubertal and five were prepubertat. One boy bad severe nodular cystic acne wbicb bad been improved by Roaccutane, anotber boy had mild papulo/pustular acne and one girl had mild seborrhoeic eczema all were post-pubertal. It may be concluded that juvenile acne is not usualiv asstHjiated wiib systemic disea.se, clears on tbe usual ibcrap> and does not necessarily predispose to severe adolescent acne. To elucidate tbe patbology of juvenile acne furtber, sebaceous gland biopsies and sebum excretion measurements would bave to be carried out. Tbore are practical and etbical difficulties in tbe way of sucb procedures.


Long-term care during the Corona pandemic - Main results from a nationwide online survey in nursing homes in Germany Abstract. Background: As a highly vulnerable group, people in need of long-term care are particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to their care-dependency, measures of social distancing can only be carried out to a very limited extent. In addition, the social and health consequences of reduced contacts are particularly high for nursing home residents.

AIM
The study aims to describe the extent to which nursing homes are affected, the human and material resources of nursing homes, the organizational handling of the situation, and their requests for public support.

METHODS
More than 7,000 nursing homes were invited to participate in an online survey with quantitative and qualitative elements. Data analysis applies descriptive statistics.

RESULTS
824 nursing homes participated in the survey. One in five nursing homes has at least one confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 among its residents and / or employees. The initial lack of protective equipment has now decreased, but the facilities still have to cope with additional corona-related care needs with reduced staff. Nursing homes have banned contacts between residents and relative to an extent that now has to be reduced again. Nursing homes demand the provision and external financing of protective equipment as well as the systematic and regular testing of nursing staff and the provision of uniform guidelines for action throughout Germany.

CONCLUSIONS
As about half of all deceased people with COVID-19 have been living in nursing homes, the support of nursing homes in their attempt to restrict the pandemic requires highest attention.


Abstract In this article, a number of due changes in both a discrete ordinates neutron transport model and a companion void fraction evaluation scheme are introduced. These changes are due to the explicit consideration of a weakly divergent neutron beam, i. e. a neutron beam consisting of a monodirectional component with normal incidence, which is modeled by a Dirac delta distribution, and an angularly continuous component, which is modeled by a smooth function of the angular variable. Computational tests are performed in order to illustrate the numerical consistency of the evaluation scheme for weakly divergent beams with respect to the order of angular quadrature, as well as its low sensitivity to experimental inaccuracies in the detector responses.


In this paper, combined with merits of a user-centric PGP trust model in PKI technology and SPKI authorization certificate, the trust authority model in a P2P distributed environment design is realized according to the characteristics of P2P networks and P2P network service model.


Dynamic simulation programs for energy modelling have reached a high level of detail and accuracy in representing the main phenomena that determine energy performances of buildings. Many of these programs have been subjected to numerous validation studies which have demonstrated their capability of representing reality adequately if the correct inputs are available. However, that is rarely the case and often many input variables are unknown or subject to high uncertainty making predictions quite different from reality. To overcome this issue, probabilistic models can be used, in order to learn from field data and use such updated knowledge to improve physical models. This work proposes a framework to apply such concept and shows some interesting and promising results for two simple preliminary case studies.


ABSTRACT Aluminium is an omnipresent part of everyday life. It is widely used in industry and furthermore in products like cosmetics, sun creams or it can be applied for instance as aluminium foil by consumers during food preparation in households. However, over the last decades the toxicity of aluminium for humans has been heavily discussed and is still not completely clarified. Therefore, food aluminium concentrations were investigated in different untreated foodstuff as well as a possible aluminium transfer from aluminium foil to food. The results show that untreated food is not significantly contaminated. Furthermore, short time contact to aluminium foil increases the food aluminium concentration only marginally. Nevertheless, as soon as the food is in contact to aluminium foil and at the same time in contact with metals (alloys) with a higher standard electrode potential than aluminium (−1.66 V) high aluminium contaminations were observed.


We compared the radiographic and scintigraphic findings in the third carpal bone of horses performing different work disciplines and investigated their relationship with lameness. Horses had undergone carpal radiography including acquisition of a dorsoproximal-dorsodistal oblique (DPr-DDiO) image of the distal row of carpal bones and/or scintigraphic examination of the carpi. Cause of lameness, breed, age, and work discipline were recorded. Increased opacity in the third carpal bone was graded, ratio of radiopharmaceutical uptake calculated objectively, and increased radiopharmaceutical uptake graded subjectively. Relationships between radiographic, scintigraphic, and clinical findings were assessed statistically. Increased opacity in the third carpal bone (P = 0.003) and ratio of radiopharmaceutical uptake (P = 0.015) were associated with the work discipline. Increased opacity in the third carpal bone was associated with both increased radiopharmaceutical uptake grade (P = 0.002; rs = 0.59) and ratio of radiopharmaceutical uptake (P = 0.013; rs = 0.46). Increased radiopharmaceutical uptake and increased opacity in the third carpal bone were not always observed concurrently. Lameness related to the middle carpal joint was associated with increased opacity (P < 0.001), ratio of radiopharmaceutical uptake (P = 0.037), and increased radiopharmaceutical uptake grade (P < 0.001). Radiographic and scintigraphic abnormalities were observed in horses performing all disciplines, indicating that high-speed exercise may not be the only factor determining the development of osseous disease in the third carpal bone. Both increased opacity and increased radiopharmaceutical uptake were more likely to be seen in horses with lameness related to the middle carpal joint than in horses with other sources of pain.


Poisoning efficiency is a crucial factor in poisoning-based backdoor attacks. Attackers prefer to use as few poisoned samples as possible to achieve the same level of attack strength, in order to remain undetected. Efficient triggers have significantly improved poisoning efficiency, but there is still room for improvement. Recently, selecting efficient samples has shown promise, but it requires a proxy backdoor injection task to find an efficient poisoned sample set, which can lead to performance degradation if the proxy attack settings are different from the actual settings used by the victims. In this paper, we propose a novel Proxy-Free Strategy (PFS) that selects efficient poisoned samples based on individual similarity and set diversity, effectively addressing this issue. We evaluate the proposed strategy on several datasets, triggers, poisoning ratios, architectures, and training hyperparameters. Our experimental results demonstrate that PFS achieves higher backdoor attack strength while x500 faster than previous proxy-based selection approaches.


Based on the physics of scattering mechanisms of MOSFET inversion layer carriers at different temperatures and vertical electric fields, a new unified mobility model of wide temperature (77 - 400 K) and range is proposed for IC simulation. Measurement data taken in a wide range of temperatures and electric fields are compared with the simulation results of a MOSFET current model implementing this new mobility equation. Excellent agreement between the simulation and measurement data is found.


: Riboflavin deficiency decreases the activity of rat hepatic microsomal enzymes, addition of riboflavin and flavin mononucleotide stimulates their activity. At the same time thiamine deficiency induces xenobiotic metabolic enzymes and excessive addition of thiamine, thiamine diphosphate in particular, suppresses their activity. Flavin mononucleotide and thiamine diphosphate considerably modify the pharmacological effect of the agents which are actively metabolized by the hepatic microsomal system. Thiamine diphosphate enhances the pharmacological activities of orthophen, indomethacin, and tramal while flavin mononucleotide slightly diminishes them.


Abstract Objective Walking outdoors has many benefits which can improve quality of life for people living with dementia. However, due to the risk of getting lost, many people with dementia are denied the opportunity to be outdoors. There has been increased interest in using global positioning systems (GPS) to facilitate independent outdoor mobility for people with dementia, but this interest has been accompanied by ethical debate focussing on the rights of an individual with dementia to maintain privacy and autonomy. The objective was to establish what people, those with dementia, those who provide support for people with dementia and wider society perceive to be the issues around GPS use. Method: An adapted qualitative systematic review was conducted between November 2018 and December 2018. Medical, social and technological databases were searched for papers with no date restriction. Initial search terms displayed nine hundred and sixty citations. Titles and if necessary abstracts were read to determine which studies might be potentially relevant. Forty papers were identified as potentially relevant and their abstracts and references examined. This produced a further four potential studies. Following application of the exclusion criteria thirty papers were eliminated.Fourteen were accepted, appraised and thematically analyzed. Results: The ethical debate was reflected in the opinions of the study respondents. There was a willingness to relinquish some privacy for safety but people with dementia were not prepared to sacrifice their autonomy—believing they alone should decide whether GPS was appropriate. Conclusion: GPS was felt to have the potential to facilitate independent outdoor walking, but systems need to be tailored to the individual. There is also a need to contradict negative societal perceptions of the ability of people with dementia to live a fulfilled life which is in danger of diminishing GPS's potential to improve quality of life for people with dementia. Implications for Rehabilitation Whilst dementia is a disabling and incurable disease, taking advantage of technological developments such as GPS can diminish its negative impact. Appropriate development and use of GPSs offers the potential to enable people with dementia to explore the outdoors independently with subsequent improvement in self-confidence, independence and autonomy. Professionals working with people with dementia need to be aware of the GPS technology available and the ethical issues involved to support the use of GPS.


Synchronous online learning has played the prime role in controlling the spread of the COVID-19 throughout the world. Despite the technological advancement, the immediate shift towards the synchronous online learning has challenged availability and accessibility to the quality learning due to the over-reliance on the class-room based teaching and learning. Thus, this study focuses on investigating the impact of factors affecting adoption to synchronous online learning amidst the COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. As the consequence, institutions can pay attention on the essential factors to enhance the adoption to synchronous online learning.  In this study, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has extended with the external variable of perceived self-efficacy and tested its impact on all other core constructs of TAM. This study used online questionnaire to collect the data from undergraduates of Sri Lankan state universities. Consequently, the study received 382 valid responses. For the data analysis, IBM SPSS statistics 25 and SmartPLS 4 were used and hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM. The study has identified five variables namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, perceived self-efficacy and behavioral intention to use. Based on the statistical evidence, all the proposed relationships were supported except attitude and perceived usefulness towards behavioral intention to use. Notably, this study has both theoretical and practical implications. To the best of author's knowledge, this study firstly attempted to investigate the adoption synchronous online learning with the extended version of TAM using PLS-SEM. Most of the previous studies explored the online learning in general. Furthermore, the findings can be used to establish policies to make synchronous online learning more effective, specifically if the any pandemic occurs in future.
Keywords: Synchronous online learning; TAM; Sri Lanka; Adoption to synchronous online learning; Intention to use


Seven phenoxo–O and carbonyl–O bridged dinuclear rare earth complexes have been assembled utilizing 3-methoxysalicylaldehyde-2-aminobenzoylhydrazone (H2L) and three β-diketone ligands (Hdbm = 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-propanedione, Hacac = acetylacetone, Hbeac = 1-phenyl-1,3-butanedione): [RE2L(HL)(acac)3]·3CH3CH2OH (RE(III) = Eu (1), Tb (2), Dy (3), Ho (4), Er (5)), [Yb2L2(dbm)2(CH3OH)2]·CH3OH (6), [Dy2L(HL)(beac)3] (7). Complexes 5 and 6 show the characteristic emission peaks of the corresponding Er3+ and Yb3+ ions, respectively. Studies on the magnetic properties of the complexes reveal that complexes 3 and 7 exhibit slow magnetic relaxation behaviors, typical of SMM behaviors, resulting in an energy barrier of 140 K for 3 and 75 K for 7. Meanwhile, this research demonstrates that the magnetic properties can be modulated by subtle changes in the coordination environment resulting from the changes in the co-ligand substituents.


The physical origin of the X-ray emission in powerful quasar jets has been a long-standing mystery. Though these jets start out on the sub-pc scale as highly relativistic flows, we do not have any direct measurement of their speeds on the kpc scale, where the vast distances from the core necessitate in situ particle acceleration. If the jets remain highly relativistic on kpc scales, then the X-rays could be due to inverse-Compton upscattering of CMB photons. However, the IC/CMB explanation predicts a high level of gamma-ray emission, which should be detectible by the Fermi/LAT. We have searched for and ruled out this emission at a high level of significance for the well-known sources 3C 273 and PKS 0637-752, suggesting the X-rays are synchrotron, though of unknown origin. These recent results with Fermi also suggest that the kpc-scale jets in powerful quasars are significantly slower than have been presumed under the IC/CMB model. I will discuss the surprising implications of these findings for the energetics and radiative output of powerful quasars as well as their impact on their environment.


Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. Finally, we will try to provide a general approach to planning and implementing wireless sensor networks to support the arrays of sensors needed to operate plants, conduct scientific experiments, and test components.


In the first part of this paper we propose an extension of Cimmino's reflections algorithm to inconsistent least squares problems. For proving convergence of the extended algorithm we first make a convergence analysis of the classical method that reveals other interesting aspects which don't appear in the convergence analysis made in the original paper by G. Cimmino. In the second part of the paper we introduce in both original and extended Cimmino algorithms constraining procedures and prove convergence of mixed algorithms in both cases to constrained classical or least squares solutions, respectively. In the third part of the paper we present numerical experiments on some algebraic image reconstruction models, with particular attention to tomographic particle image reconstruction, which illustrate the performance of both extended and constrained algorithms.


Abstract. Integrated system approach becomes key pillar for sustainable intensification of agri-food systems while ensuring ecological functions under changing climate, diet and demography. The digitization of the agroecosystems become most essential entry point for any sustainable developmental entities whether it is plant genetics for breeding better varieties, crop diversification and intensification, efficient use of farm inputs, agronomic practices, stable economic return, to ecosystem services management. The functional production systems become more important than single commodity production systems. Recent advances in Earth Observation System (EOS), Open-Access (AO), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Information, and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Cloud Computing Platforms (CCP) along with smartphone-enabled Citizen Science (CS) increasingly make Big-Data analytics much smarter, interoperable and much useful than ever before, and create valuable baseline information for decision making. This has opened tremendous opportunities to address the knowledge gaps at multiple levels (e.g., data, yield, ecology, economy, resilience) for demand-driven ecological interventions across the scale (e.g., space, time and package). Ongoing efforts in big-data driven digital augmentation aim at quantifying functional production dynamics and drivers to target site-specific sustainable developmental interventions and scaling the ecological intensification such as intensification of pulses in cereal-based systems (rice fallows), adoption of conservation agriculture, bridging the yield gaps, geo-localization of the research and impact reporting. Here we present some of the ongoing efforts in EOS Big Data for digital augmentation for accelerating agroecological intensification in different agroecologies and regions in the drylands.


Canine kidneys were subjected to 0, 15 or 30 min of warm ischaemia followed by 24 hours preservation by perfusion. Changes in perfusate concentration of acid radicles, lactate, free fatty acid and lactice dehydrogenase were assessed at 1 hour and 24 hours. With the exception of LDH concentration at 1 hour, no single parameter was capable of detecting kidneys which were so damaged as to be non-life supporting.


Contour irregularity was mathematically evaluated using two different analytical shape factors: (1) "form factor" (FF), a conventional type of shape analysis formula defined by the formula 4 pi A/P2, and (2) the "PErimeter Ratio Before and After Smoothing" (PERBAS). PERBAS values are obtained by first "smoothing" a contour that contains one or more concavities; surface projections are connected using straight lines and include only tangent lines that do not interest the nucleus, resulting in a convex wrap. Perimeters before and after smoothing were obtained using a MOP-3 computerized image analyzer. Using a series of computer-generated images, it was determined that FF was more sensitive than PERBAS to simple deformations of shape (i.e., having no contour concavities) whereas PERBAS was more specific for surface "roughness" (i.e., contour having at least one concavity). As an application to cancer diagnosis, 6 cases of Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) and 14 cases of Burkitt's-like lymphoma (BLL) were compared for nuclear contour roughness using both shape factors. The BLL group could be distinguished from the BL group on the basis of mean PERBAS values (P = .029), but not on the basis of mean FF values (P = .093). The BL group had a mean PERBAS value of 1.051 +/- 0.023 and a mean FF value of 0.790 +/- 0.068. The BLL group had a mean PERBAS value of 1.093 +/- 0.054 and a mean FF value of 0.723 +/- 0.094. Mean FF and PERBAS values, plotted in a bivariate graphic display, established morphometric shape domains. BL cases occupied a significantly smaller shape domain than did the BLL cases, indicating a greater heterogeneity among nuclear shapes in the latter group. Shape discrimination, in general, was greatly increased when both shape factors were used; this has a great potential for determining cancer diagnosis and patient prognosis.


A theoretical model with extensible yarns for plain-woven fabrics is developed to determine the calculation of Poisson ratios.The stress ratio( warp: weft),as one of parameters corresponding to Poisson ratio variations, is introduced to complement the theoretical model. To evaluate the reliability of the theoretical analysis,a series of biaxial tensile tests of a plain-woven fabric with nine stress ratios are conducted carefully,and the theoretical results are compared with the experimentally measured values. The effects of other influencing factors, including geometric and mechanical parameters of yarns,on Poisson ratios are analyzed thoroughly.This solution method could be applied without difficulty to estimations of Poisson ratios and realistic designs for plain-woven fabrics.


for Seminar on 10 April 2015 Engineering electron transfer among bacteria for improved bioenergy and biofuels. Nikhil S. Malvankar. Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI Fellow, Departments of Physics and Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Living cells are required to get rid of a large number of electrons left behind in metabolism when nutrients convert into energy. Aerobic organisms inhale oxygen to dump these excess electrons. However, bacteria, that are important in the production of bioenergy and biofuels, don't afford the luxury of soluble, ingestible electron acceptors. Cells devise unique strategies using membrane proteins to export electrons outside their body, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. Electron transfer in proteins generally occurs via tunneling or hopping mechanism and the possibility of electron delocalization or metal-like conductivity has been considered previously impossible. In this talk, I will present our recent work on protein nanofilaments, pili, of electricity-producing Geobacter sulfurreducens that challenge this long-standing belief. Using nanoelectrodes and scanning probe microscopy-based imaging approach to quantify electron transfer in native proteins, we have found out that pili propagate charges in a delocalized manner similar to carbon nanotubes [1], enabling cells to generate electricity [2] and produce methane via cell-to-cell electron exchange [3]. Structural and molecular studies revealed that conductive pili possess unique arrangement of aromatic amino acids that facilitate intermolecular electron delocalization. I will present strategies to engineer electron transfer in environmentally as well as clinically important systems for energy, environmental and biomedical applications. [1] Malvankar et al. Nature Nanotechnology, 9, 1013 (2014) [2] Malvankar et al. Nature Nanotechnology, 6, 573 (2011) [3] Summers, Forgarty, Leang, Franks, Malvankar and Lovley Science, 330, 1413 (2010)


A system of interacting particles under a overdamped motion is known to be a model able to describe flux front penetration in disordered type-II superconductors. Was shown recently, that a coarse-grained representation of this system leads to a nonlinear Fokker-Planck formalism, corresponding to a Tsallis statistic with q=0, that is appropriate to describe the stationary state. In this work, we repeat same approach making a molecular dynamic simulation confirming that the temporal evolution of this system is also described by the same theory. We present the probability distribution for particle velocity and particle position, that is in agreement with the analytical solution of nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation related. We found that horizontal distribution for velocity and position follow equal entropic index q=0, for all time. For vertical velocity distribution, a sequence of q-Gaussian under evolution are found until the equilibrium state.


In this paper, the effect of different cracks on the platinum electrode region of an IPMC actuator which occurs due to its continuous bending is modelled. The IPMC actuator is modelled in a cantilever configuration using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3 a finite element method solver. The thickness of Nafion (polymer) membrane and (platinum) electrode 267 μm and 20 μm (each side) and the full length of IPMC is 36 mm long and width is 6 mm. Experimental results showing the deflection and frequency of IPMC with the same dimensions are noted and the simulation results for the same beam dimensions are validated with the experimental results. Studies are carried out on (a) different shapes of cracks (V, U, and rectangular shape) on electrode region, (b) depth and position of the cracks on the electrode, (c) the effect of presence multiple cracks on the top and bottom electrode. The change in the IPMC's resonance frequency and tip deflection for various cracks is studied and compared with the IPMC with no cracks. IPMC with U-shaped cracks has the highest deflection of 2.88 mm when cracks are located on single side and rectangular cracks have the highest deflection of 3.06 mm when cracks are located on both sides of IPMC as compared to 2.5 mm without any cracks on the electrode. These studies reveal that the U shaped single crack and rectangular double sided cracks largely affect the IPMC actuation behaviour thus altering its deflection values. The effect of location of cracks suggests that cracks near the free end of IPMC affect the deflection more compared to that near fixed end.


Ectoine and 5-hydroxyectoine are widely synthesized microbial osmostress protectants. They are also versatile nutrients but their catabolism and the genetic regulation of the corresponding genes are incompletely understood. Using the marine bacterium Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3, we investigated the utilization of ectoines and propose a seven steps comprising catabolic route that entails an initial conversion of 5-hydroxyectoine to ectoine, the opening of the ectoine ring, and the subsequent degradation of this intermediate to l-aspartate. The catabolic genes are co-transcribed with three genes encoding a 5-hydroxyectoine/ectoine-specific TRAP transporter. A chromosomal deletion of this entire gene cluster abolishes the utilization of ectoines as carbon and nitrogen sources. The presence of ectoines in the growth medium triggers enhanced expression of the importer and catabolic operon, a process dependent on a substrate-inducible promoter that precedes this gene cluster. EnuR, a member of the MocR/GabR-type transcriptional regulators, controls the activity of this promoter and functions as a repressor. EnuR contains a covalently bound pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, and we suggest that this co-factor is critical for the substrate-mediated induction of the 5-hydroxyectoine/ectoine import and catabolic genes. Bioinformatics showed that ectoine consumers are restricted to the Proteobacteria and that EnuR is likely a central regulator for most ectoine/5-hydroxyectoine catabolic genes.


We have reexamined the levels of myelin basic protein (MBP) and proteolipid protein (PLP) in the brains of mice bred to carry both the shi/shi and jp/Y hypomyelination defects. The genotype of each putative double mutant was confirmed by direct DNA analysis: shi/shi by Southern blot analysis, and jp/Y by restriction enzyme analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified fragments. MBP and PLP levels were assessed by immunoblotting. All putative double mutants were found to be shi/shi. However, examination of the PLP locus revealed both jp and wild-type genotypes, the latter produced by an expected crossover. Animals proven to be shi/shi*jp/Y had no detectable MBP or PLP; those proven to be shi/shi*+/Y (the crossover) had no MBP but had PLP. These results differ from an earlier report of both MBP and PLP in the brains of presumed shi*jp animals.


Cooperation between users and designers requires mutual learning about the information system to be developed, and research has provided guidelines and techniques for how to achieve it. However, for designers working in contexts where they experience a wide knowledge gap between themselves and prospective users, attaining mutual learning (ML) in these settings can be challenging. This study demonstrates an action research project carried out at a rural clinic in Tanzania to develop and implement an electronic medical record system. In that setting, techniques such as hands-on training, prompted reflections and extensive support after implementation helped the nurses (system users) to learn how to use the system. Similarly, these techniques helped the designers to learn about the clinical work. Large parts of the ML therefore took place during and after the system implementation when there was a real system to mutually learn from.


Woman has always been matter of concern in literature. Through various shades of life the authors try to present her true picture. Diasporic writings are no exception of it. Jhumpa Lahiri authentically depicts not only predicaments of immigrants in adopted land but also presents, though unconsciously, pitiable situation of diasporic woman. Through this paper, I attempt to analyze position of woman in diaspora. Her female characters are the worst sufferers. This paper throws light how woman suffers from identity loss in a land which is adopted by her husband? How she struggles to assimilate in a foreign land?  How she remembers her relatives and pines for her motherland's meal and cling to Indian attire and tradition? Most of the female characters are housewives who always remain at home performing household works. Though they migrated in another country but their role is the same: to give birth, to sweep floor, to cook, to serve her husband and children. They are still subjugated, dependent neglected and silent sufferer. Keywords: Adopted land, identity loss, worst sufferer, subjugated, neglected.


The objective of this study has been to verify the frequency of the episodes of Joint Attention in a free play situation, in relation to the gender of the child, looking at the type of verbalizations utilizated by the mothers to mantain or redirect the attention of the child in context. Individual children characteristics such as gender were pointed as responsible for variation in the interaction style. Participated in this study sixteen mothers-child dyads equally distribuited in terms of gender. The dyads were recorded in natural environment for 20 minutes, in a free play situation.


Juan Andres' treaty Confusion o confutacion de la secta Mahometica y del Alcoran is a meaningful example of how the typically medieval topics of anti-Islamic polemics are adapted into the Early Modern literally moulds. The interest in confuting Islam with the aid of the Qur'ān had been fuelling the literature of religious controversy long before Juan Andres converted to Christianity and took up the quill to rebut his old faith. Nevertheless, his analysis of the content of the Qur'ān differs from the ones conducted before him. Moreover, the Quranic quotations inserted in Juan Andres' polemical text happen to coincide with the Latin translation of the Qur'ān commissioned by Egidio da Viterbo and its glosses. Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to revindicate Juan Andres' autonomy and independence from Medieval polemics; secondly, to highlight the similarities and correspondence between Juan Andres' Confusion o confutacion and Egidio da Viterbo's Latin translation of the Qur'ān.


The effects of argon gas flow rate on the oxygen concentration in Czochralski (CZ) grown silicon crystal were examined. To analyze the influence of the argon gas flow rate in CZ growth process, a 200 mm length silicon single crystal was grown. Different argon gas flow rates are considered. The melt flow pattern, temperature and oxygen concentration distributions in the melt and crystal-melt interface are calculated. The results show that the transport of oxygen impurity is quite dependent on the flow motion in the melt. As the argon gas flow rate increases, there is no fundamental change in flow motion of the melt and the oxygen concentration decreases to a minimum value. When the argon gas flow rate increases further, the flow pattern under the melt-crystal interface starting changes and the oxygen concentration has increased after. Therefore, there is an optimum value for the argon gas flow rate for obtaining the lowest oxygen concentration in the melt.


One of the most remarkable aspects of the Iranian Revolution was the spread of the idea of workers' control and the formation of councils. A development that may be unparalleled in the Middle East, councils (called shora in Farsi, the principal Iranian language) were formed in the factories, countryside, schools, hospitals, army bases, government offices, press, radio and television, to ensure people's control and advance the revolution. The workers' and peasants' councils in particular bore striking resemblances to the soviets that emerged in Russia in the period immediately preceding the October Revolution.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


This paper gives an account of investigations which have been carried out in continuation of word already described by G. I. Taylor and the present writer (1933). In our former paper we developed a method for calculating the air flow and pressure in the neighbourhood of a cone and gave the results of numerical calculations which had been made for cones having semi-vertical angles of 10, 20 and 30°. These calculations were checked by obtaining surface pressure measurements on cones in a high-speed wind channel and by obtaining photographs of conically headed bullets in flight. The results of both experimental investigations were in satisfactory agreement with our calculations. In addition the photographs showed that, at speeds for which no mathematical solution was found possible, the shock wave was no longer conical and was detached from the apex of the cone. Part I of the present paper deals with the results of further photographic investigations which were arranged for when our earlier programme was nearing completion. At that time the Research Department, Woolwich, were developing a method of taking photographs of medium-sized projectiles in Flight, and it appeared that such photographs would give a more satisfactory means of checking the calculations than had been possible with the photographs of small bullets. With this object in view the Ordnance Committee requested that photographs should be obtained showing two-pounder projectiles in flight. The results obtained from these new photographs are reviewed below, and a brief description is given also of the experimental methods used at the Research Department.


Innovative floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) platforms that deviate from the conventional semi-submersible, spar, and tension leg platforms (TLP) have become increasingly common due to the need to tap into the high wind energy potential located in deeper waters. One example is the hanging-mass concept, in which a suspended counterweight stabilizes a positively buoyant floater. This work presents a two-dimensional, nonlinear, multi-body model used to assess the influence of the counterweight mass and the suspension line stiffness on the system's global performance, using linear stability analysis and time-domain simulations to conduct a parametric study. For example, the counterweight mass has a strong influence on the amplitude of rotational degrees-of-freedom. Corresponding natural periods may occur within the linear wave energy range for suitable counterweight sizes due to this strong influence leading to undesirable motions. High-frequency multi-body modes are also dependent on both the line stiffness and counterweight mass, which may result in high relative motion amplitudes and slack lines in certain conditions. Finally, the parametric study results contribute to preliminary hanging-mass FOWT design recommendations.


— Finite impulse response (FIR) filters have the advantage of linear phase, guaranteed stability, fewer finite precision errors, and efficient implementation. In contrast, they have a major disadvantage of high order need (more coefficients) than IIR counterpart with comparable performance. The high order demand imposes more hardware requirements, arithmetic operations, area usage, and power consumption when designing and fabricating the filter. Therefore, minimizing or reducing these parameters, is a major goal or target in digital filter design task. This paper presents an algorithm proposed for modifying values and the number of non-zero coefficients used to represent the FIR digital pulse shaping filter response. With this algorithm, the FIR filter frequency and phase response can be represented with a minimum number of non-zero coefficients. Therefore, reducing the arithmetic complexity needed to get the filter output. Consequently, the system characteristic i.e. power consumption, area usage, and processing time are also reduced. The proposed algorithm is more powerful when integrated with multiplierless algorithms such as distributed arithmetic (DA) in designing high order digital FIR filters. Here the DA usage eliminates the need for multipliers when implementing the multiply and accumulate unit (MAC) and the proposed algorithm will reduce the number of adders and addition operations needed through the minimization of the non-zero values coefficients to get the filter output.


Abmigration, the switch between flyways, is thought to be frequent in dabbling ducks, and supposedly results from high female philopatry combined with winter pairing: a male pairing in winter with a female from another flyway may follow her to her breeding area and thus abmigrate. On this basis, the frequency of abmigration should be much higher amongst males than amongst females, should increase with time since ringing, and be higher if environmental conditions force birds from different flyways into the same geographical area in winter (in this case the Iberian peninsula in the case of cold spells). Analysing more than 9000 recoveries of Teal ringed in the Camargue, southern France, showed that even with the most conservative flyway definition, 15% of Camargue (Mediterranean flyway) individuals (both males and females) were subsequently recovered in the North-west European flyway. Moving a flyway boundary closer to the Camargue (i.e. to the south-east) increased this percentage to c. 32%. None of the predicted patterns were supported by the data: there was no systematic sex difference in abmigration rate; abmigration showed no consistent increase with time from ringing, and was not significantly more frequent after cold spells. These results suggest that there is permeability between these two flyways for all classes of individuals, which might better be considered as a continuum. This should be taken into account in the development of management and conservation policies for Teal in Europe.


Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE) is the device in which plates are pressed together between two end covers. It consists of series of thin parallel plates that are corrugated both to increase turbulence and to increase mechanical rigidity. These heat exchanger plays significant role in condensing and evaporating system. The research work mainly deals with obtaining heat transfer data for two phase (steam to water) configuration in corrugated PHE. Calculations for heat transfer coefficient, heat duty, pressure drop is done analytically which is then validated with HTRI software. Heat duty calculated analytically was found to be 269.39kW, while from HTRI software 271.9kW. This study represents the influence of geometric parameters on thermal hydraulic performance of PHE. Numerical simulation is carried out with an objective to explore CFD tool to study flow pattern and heat transfer augmentation of furrows in corrugated walls encountered in commercial Plate Heat Exchanger.


The effect of silica treatment (5 mg intravenously) on tumour growth was studied with regard to three types of immunosuppression induced by: lentil lectin (LCA), spleen cell extract (SE) (active enhancement), and alloantiserum (AAS) (passive enhancement). Two experimental tumours were used, which differ in their sensitivity to humoral antibodies. CBA mice were challenged with Sa 1 (A) tumours and BALB/c mice with EL-4 (C57BL/6) lymphomas. The results indicate that silica treatment caused a time-dependent promotion of tumour growth. In passive enhancement, tumour growth promotion by silica treatment was obtained in both tumour systems. When silica was given along with LCA or SE, the two combined treatments had no enhancing effect on Sa 1 targets and enhancing effects on EL-4. The different behaviour of the two graft-recipient combinations is discussed in the light of the inherent properties of both experimental tumours and of the donor-recipient relationships.


Since tuberculin may be adsorbed on to the glass surfaces with which it comes into contact, a stabilizer is added to the diluent used for preparing tuberculin dilutions. Tween 80 is widely employed for this purpose, but suffers from the disadvantage that it causes the reactions to become softer and less well-defined.The present paper describes an investigation into the possibility of replacing Tween 80 by gelatin, which is also known to be an effective stabilizer of tuberculin. In this study, groups of army recruits were each given two Mantoux tests simultaneously, one with a human or avian PPD preparation containing 0.005% Tween 80 and the other with a preparation of the same PPD (human or avian) containing 0.1% gelatin. The dilutions in each pair of tests were of the same strength.The results showed that gelatin, though eliciting firmer and larger reactions than Tween 80, was not a suitable substitute for the latter, either in the human PPD used to detect specific tuberculin sensitivity or in the avian PPD used to detect non-specific tuberculin sensitivity, since it increased the size of the reactions to a greater extent in persons with low-grade sensitivity than in those with strong sensitivity.


BACKGROUND
 Nursing workforce shortage has emerged as a global problem. Foreign nurse importation is a popular strategy to address the shortage. The interactions between nursing staff on either side of the Taiwan Strait continue to increase. Since both nurses in Taiwan and nurses in China have adopted nursing information systems to improve health care processes and quality, it is necessary to investigate factors influencing nursing information system usage in nursing practice.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study examined the effects of cultural and other related factors on nurses' intentions to use nursing information systems. The findings were expected to serve as an empirical base for further benchmarking and management of cross-strait nurses.

 METHODS
 This survey was conducted in two case hospitals (one in Taiwan and one in China). A total of 880 questionnaires were distributed (n=440 in each hospital).

 RESULTS
 The results showed effort expectancy had a significant effect on the intention to use nursing information systems of nurses in China (P=.003) but not nurses in Taiwan (P=.16).

 CONCLUSIONS
 Findings suggest nursing managers should adopt different strategies to motivate cross-strait nurses to use nursing information systems. Promoting effort expectancy is more likely to motivate nurses in China than in Taiwan. This discrepancy is probably due to the less hierarchical and more feminine society in Taiwan.


For cognitive radio networks, it has been proven that cooperative spectrum sensing is more reliable and efficient as far as detecting spectrum holes in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) is concerned. It does this by combining sensing information of multiple cognitive radio users. Cooperative spectrum sensing has been known to greatly improve the detection range and capability through exploitation of the inherent spatial diversity in cooperative relaying strategies. In implementing cooperative relay based energy detection, data fusion and decision fusion are the two major approaches have been identified in literature. Although the notion of cooperative relay based data fusion has been well discussed in literature, in this paper, we study different aspects of fusion and the different schemes that can be implemented in fusion center. Also a brief introduction about malicious attacks that a cooperative cognitive radio network can suffer from and methods to combat them are given at the end of the paper.


Humans have been genetically enhancing the plants and animals around them for 30,000 years through the practice of selective breeding (Zimmer, 2013). Previous advances in technology have allowed scientists to directly insert genes from one organism into another to produce traits beneficial to the organism (Cohen et al, 1973) through the process of transformation. However, it is still difficult and time-consuming to create genetically modified organisms in plants as almost all current methods require regeneration from tissue cultures (Zhao et al, 2017). Recently, a new method, pollen magnetofection, has been proven to be able to produce transgenic seeds without using regeneration techniques. This method allows exogenous DNA to be directly inserted into pollen spores via a magnetic nanoparticle, producing transformed seeds and bypassing the need for regeneration. Pollen magnetofection greatly reduces the time needed to create transgenic plants while maintaining pollen/seed viability and can be used to genetically modify almost all flowering plants, including most crops (Zhao et al, 2017).


Background: Implementing what is learned in the classroom into clinical practice is an important aspect of nursing. According to Koontz, Mallory, Burns, and Chapman (2010) the clinical environment is one of the most valuable experiences for the student nurse. Learning is an active and reflective process and simulation allows for the practice of procedures as often as needed to gain confidence and proficiency (Guise, Chambers, & Valimaki, 2012). Method: The project was a systematic review of literature that examined quantitative research studies that utilized a pretest and posttest study design to evaluate the effectiveness of simulation regarding critical thinking skills in the undergraduate student nurse and the new graduate nurse. Results: The systematic review of literature yielded 760 research studies. Fifteen of the 760 research studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the final statistical analysis process. Cohen's D was calculated using the pretest and posttest scores along with the standard deviation. The results of Cohen's D indicated that 4 of the 5 studies showed the experimental group had a moderate effect size over the control group. Conclusion: The analysis of the available quantitative research studies revealed simulation training to be an effective means of improving critical thinking skills among new graduate nurses and student nurses. Each study showed improvement in knowledge level. Compared to the control group the experimental group showed the same level of improvement or an increased level of improvement of up to 4% in critical thinking skills with the use of simulation training.


This short online course aims to help the students develop an understanding of what constructive feedback is and offers them an opportunity to practise giving such feedback in the context of texts related to science, engineering and technology.
The course is conceived as a preparation course for the EAST Project during which engineering students from Gaza were asked to act as critical friends offering content-oriented feedback to pre-sessional students at the University of Glasgow. We believe the course can be offered on its own, either in isolation or as part of a wider mentoring scheme for students who want to develop skills in 'leadership by example'[2]. The course can easily be adapted for any discipline - this would require changing the samples in tasks 5 and 6.
The course is intended to be delivered over two weeks and it is run online and asynchronously. In terms of design, it follows the framework of exploration - integration - application (Garrison and Arbaugh, 2007), with each stage being progressively more complex, challenging and open-ended. The students work in groups and the teacher monitors interactions and motivates them to stay on task and track in regard with deadlines via a closed Facebook group. The final task requires submitting an assessed assignment which the tutor gives feedback on. After that there is an extra week for reflection and evaluation. Timings for each activity are approximate and may need to be adjusted depending on the general progress of the course. See the course overview for details.
The main technology used is Google Docs and it is recommended that the students have gmail accounts. Although students without gmail accounts are still able to access and edit the materials, tracking their contributions will not be possible. When setting up the documents, attention has to be paid to shareability settings so that there is no barrier to access. Padlet is used for sharing personal experiences and reflections at the beginning and end of the course respectively. A closed Facebook group is used as a news and discussions forum and for collective feedback. A public blog may be used for documenting the process.
All the documents are created by the teacher; he or she creates an empty template for each group[3] and pastes the subsequent tasks into them on the task start date. This increases the teacher's workload but helps them monitor their students' progress and has a motivational effect on the students. An alternative approach would to be to ask the students to copy the template, and the task instructions could be provided in other ways, for example via Facebook, in order to decrease the workload.
The course can be enriched by synchronous sessions during which the teacher can provide collective feedback and the students have an opportunity to ask questions and express their concerns. Adding a video element, for example to introduce the whole course, individual tasks or to give feedback, may constitute an added value too.


The topic of friendship is enjoying a renewed interest among political theorists and philosophers. The three books reviewed here join several other recent works on friendship and the creation of a journal of friendship studies, Amity. Despite their shared focus on friendship, the three works under review complement rather than duplicate one another. A. Nehamas's work is designed for a general readership, with scholarly nuance being largely relegated to the notes. The books by P. E. Digeser and Ann Ward are more typical academic publications. While Ward focuses almost exclusively on Aristotle, Nehamas and Digeser treat him as the touchstone for all later discussions of friendship in the Western tradition. [R]


Background: Undernutrition and cardiac disease are interconnected in a vicious cycle. Children with cardiac disease suffer with different degree of undernutrition resulting in significant morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This study aimed to assess magnitude of undernutrition and associated factors among children with cardiac disease in University of Gondar hospital, northwest Ethiopia. Method: Hospital based quantitative cross-sectional study conducted among 269 children with cardiac disease visiting University of Gondar specialized hospital, northwest Ethiopia. Data was collected by using a pretested self-administered structured questionnaire and medical records of the patients. All participants who fulfill the inclusion criteria were included. The data analysed by using binary logistic regression model. Variables with p-value ≤ 0.2 in bivariate analysis were fitted to the final multivariable analysis and those variables with p-value ≤ 0.05 were considered as having statistically significant association to the outcome variable. AOR and 95% confidence interval was calculated to assess the strength of association between the variables. Result: Of the 269 study participants, 177(65.7%) of them were having undernutrition. 54.5% were underweight, 39.7% were stunted, and 53.9 % were wasted. The result showed that having pulmonary hypertension[AOR =3.82, (95%CI 1.80, 8.10)], NYHA/modified Ross class III and IV heart failure[AOR=4.64(1.69, 12.72)] and cardiac chamber enlargement [ AOR=2.91(1.45, 5.66)] were significantly associated with undernutrition. Conclusion: There is high burden of undernutrition among children with cardiac diseases in the study area. Nutritional management and dietary counseling besides early detection and treatment of the underlying heart disease improves the nutritional status of children with cardiac diseases.


A magnetic field corresponding to an acoustic signal is generated from an antenna, and by using a coil, can be again converted to an acoustic signal. It is possible to estimate where the invisible antenna is with the distribution of the received signal. The estimation is applied to
 a maintenance of a gas pipe on the situation that the distance from the entrance to a maintenance area is known, but piping route isn't. It is possible to identify maintenance areas of a gas pipe by inserting the antenna to it. The estimation has been done by listening to the received signal
 manually. However, it is difficult for people to identify accurate point because the difference in the volume for each places is subtle. To solve this problem, we visualized the distribution of the received signal, and estimated the magnetic field with only the acoustic signal. Then, we proposed
 a method to calculate where the invisible antenna is automatically by using symmetry of the distribution of the received signal.


The information revolution, coupled with the strategic leveraging of the Internet, has exposed a number of relatively open societies to the dangers of cybercriminal and cyberterrorist acts, especially in commercial business transactions. With the development of e‐commerce, this commercial dark side has become known as cybercrime and has taken on many forms that affect the perceptions of the way we shop online. Corporations should realize that these threats to their online businesses have strategic implications to their business future and take proper measures to ensure that these threats are eliminated or significantly reduced so that consumer confidence in the Internet as an alternative means of shopping is maintained. These counter measures, coined as cybersecurity, have been developed to ensure the safety of consumer privacy and information and allow for a carefree shopping experience. There is need for the development of models that will allow corporations to study the effects of cybercrime on online consumer confidence and to counter through leveraging the benefits associated with the latest developments in cybersecurity. With these two facets of e‐commerce impacting the online consumer, corporations must ensure that the security measures taken will ultimately prevail to assure that consumers will continue to use the Internet to satisfy their shopping needs.


The goal of this study was to examine the implications of unmitigated communion (a focus on others to the exclusion of the self) for adjustment to breast cancer and to explain any observed relations. Cognitive adaptation theory was the primary explanatory framework adopted. Unmitigated communion was cross-sectionally associated with poor mental and physical functioning among women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Prospectively, unmitigated communion predicted a decline in a couple of indicators of mental and physical functioning over 3 months. Unmitigated communion was inversely associated with indicators of cognitive adaptation: low self-esteem, poor body image, less optimism, and greater reliance on external control. Unmitigated communion also was associated with more negative interactions with network members and a decline in support over time. The decline in body image over time had the greatest potential to explain links of unmitigated communion to poor adjustment to disease.


1030 I. 1030 II. 1030 III. 1031 IV. 1031 V. 1032 VI. 1033 VII. 1034 VIII. 1034 1034 References 1034 SUMMARY: Copper (Cu) microRNAs are upregulated by Cu deficiency and mediate the post-transcriptional downregulation of transcripts that encode Cu proteins, suggesting a role directly related to Cu. However, expression and phenotypic analyses of copper microRNA mutants and over-expressors have suggested roles mainly in tolerance to abiotic stresses. To reconcile available data, a model is proposed which emphasizes the mobile nature of copper microRNA molecules in the regulation of Cu homeostasis. It is proposed that the Cu-microRNA regulatory circuits are further co-opted by plants to regulate both beneficial and pathogenic interactions with microbes. Further exploration of Cu-microRNA functions that account for the cell-to-cell mobility should give novel insight into plant microbe interactions and the integration of micronutrition and development.


A new type of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) suppression fiber has been developed whose dopant concentration and core radius are nonuniform along its length. The chromatic dispersion distribution is kept uniform along its length by varying the core radius in accordance with the /spl Delta/ value to enhance four-wave mixing (FWM) intentionally. The output power of the FWM signal with this fiber was about 15 dB higher than that with a conventional disperion-shifted fiber when the input power was 15 dBm, which is just above the SBS threshold power.


Recent work on the fragment, prompted in part by the disruption of totalities in contemporary theories of writing and textuality, has returned the fragment to legitimacy in literary studies. Literary critics have begun to hail the fragment as the quintessential Romantic "form"-- one which, as D.F. Rauber claims, embodies Romantic ideals and aims more fully than any other. The fragment (in unmistakably high Romantic terms) is said to figure forth the infinite and the indeterminate in a finite, discrete, sequential medium--engaging, furthermore, in an organicist relation with the whole of which it partakes. The fragment, like the symbol or the organic part, is thought to be capable of indicating or implying the absent whole. By identifying itself with the organic part (or being so identified by readers), the fragment even usurps the ideal place of the whole by offering access to its essential nature--access that is, ironically, less materially compromised by the possibility of fragmentation than if it had become a complete whole. In this way the fragment comes to be seen as the most appropriate signifier of sublime, visionary excess--as the best possible representation of the impossibly ambitious work that the mind aspires to but is unable to sustain or carry out. This study examines the problem of the fragment in Romantic literature and poetic theory, and investigates the reconstruction of "Romanticism" through the phenomenon of the fragment in contemporary literary criticism. The Romantic canon is highly susceptible to reconstruction along "fragmentary" lines since so many of its central texts are fragments in at least one sense. In spite of the broad nature of the problem (a pervasive aesthetic and epistemological difficulty), this study brings two specific areas (romantic aesthetics and current literary criticism) to bear on three major, fragmentary, Coleridge texts: Biographia Literaria , "Kubla Khan," and "Christabel." In each case, arguments are made for or against the "unity" of the work. For Biographia Literaria , these turn on the viability of Coleridge's theory of imagination; in "Kubla Khan," on the relation of the preface to the poem; and in "Christabel," on its truncated two-part structure.


This paper deals with the problem of retrieving the optimal path between two points inside an unknown environment, utilizing a robot-scouter. The vast majority of the path planning frameworks for an unknown environment focuses on the problem of navigating a robot, as soon as possible, towards a pre-specified location. As a result, the final followed path between the start and end location is not necessarily the optimal one, as the objective of the robot at each timestamp is to minimize its current distance to the desirable location. However, there are several real-life applications, like the one formulated in this paper, where the robot-scouter has to find the minimum path between two positions in an unknown environment, which is going to be used in a future phase. In principle, the optimal path can be guaranteed by a searching agent that adopts an A∗-like decision mechanism. In this paper, we propose a specifically-tailored variation (CIA∗) of the A∗ algorithm to the problem in hand. CIA∗ inherits the A∗ optimality and efficiency guarantees, while at the same time exploits the learnt formation of the obstacles, to on-line revise the heuristic evaluation of the candidate states. As reported in the simulation results, CIA∗ achieves an enhancement in the range of 20-50%, over the typical A∗, on the cells that have to be visited to guarantee the optimal path construction. An open-source implementation of the proposed algorithm along with a Matlab GUI are available1.


Functional MHC class I molecules are expressed on the cell surface in the absence of beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)m) light chain that can interact with CD8(+) T lymphocytes. Whether their assembly requires peptide binding and whether their recognition by CD8(+) T lymphocytes involves the presentation of peptide epitopes remains unknown. We show that beta(2)m-free H-2D(b) assembles with short peptides that are approximately 9 amino acid residues in length, akin to ligands associated with completely assembled beta(2)m(+) H-2D(b). Remarkably, a subset of the peptides associated with the beta(2)m-free H-2D(b) has an altered anchor motif. However, they also include peptides that contain a beta(2)m(+)H-2D(b) binding anchor motif. Further, the H-2K(b)- and H-2D(b)-restricted peptide epitopes derived from SV-40 T antigen also assemble with H-2(b) class I in beta(2)m-deficient cells and are recognized by epitope-specific CD8(+) T lymphocytes. Taken together our data reveal that functional MHC class I molecules assemble in the absence of beta(2)m with peptides and form CD8(+) T lymphocyte epitopes.


To improve the damping capability of squeeze film dampers, oil hole feed rather than circumferential groove feed is a practical proposition. However, circular orbit response can no longer be assumed, significantly complicating the design analysis. This paper details a feasible transient solution procedure for such dampers, with particular emphasis on the additional difficulties due to the introduction of oil holes. It is shown how a trigonometric power series solution may be utilized to evaluate the oil hole pressure contributions, enabling appropriate tabular data to be compiled. The solution procedure is shown to be applicable even in the presence of flow restrictors, albeit at the expense of introducing an iteration at each time step. Though not of primary interest, the procedure is also applicable to dynamically loaded journal bearings with oil hole feed.


Purpose
Industrialized construction (IC) leverages manufacturing principles and innovative processes to improve the performance of construction projects. Though IC is gaining popularity in the global construction industry, studies that establish the best practices for implementing IC projects are scarce. This study aims to benchmark practical lifecycle-based best practices for implementing IC projects.

Design/methodology/approach
The study used a qualitative research design where nine IC cases from Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong were analysed to identify best practices. The methodological framework of the study followed well-established case study research cycle and guidelines, including planning, data collection, data analysis and reflection on findings.

Findings
The study identified and allocated key considerations, relevant stakeholders, best practices, typical deliverables and best indicators to the different construction lifecycle phases of IC projects. It also developed a lifecycle-based framework of the best practices for IC projects.

Practical implications
The study provides practitioners with practical insight into how best to effectively implement, manage and evaluate the performance of the IC project lifecycle phases. The proposed framework can serve as a practical diagnostic tool that enables project partners to evaluate the performance upfront progressively and objectively in each project lifecycle phase, which may inform timely corrective actions.

Originality/value
The study's novelty lies in developing a framework that identifies and demonstrates the dynamic linkages among different sets of best practices, typical outputs and best practice indicators across the IC project lifecycle phases.


The ammonia adsorption on the GaN (0001) surface has been investigated by using DFT/B3LYP method combined with the cluster model approach. The dissociative adsorp- tion of NH2 and H is found thermodynamically favored relative to the molecular NH3 adsorption by decreasing the total energy of 0.95 eV. The adsorption geometries of the molecular and dis- sociative NH3 are given in detail, among which the molecular NH3 bonds to the surface Ga with its lone electronic pair, and the N atom of NH2 adspecies forms the four-fold coordinated N by bridging two surface Ga atoms.


Dynamic traffic models require dynamic inputs, and one of the main inputs are the Dynamic OriginDestinations (OD) matrices describing the variability over time of the trip patterns across the network. The Dynamic OD Matrix Estimation (DODME) is a hard problem since no direct full observations are available, and therefore one should resort to indirect estimation approaches. Among the most efficient approaches, the one that formulates the problem in terms of a bilevel optimization problem has been widely used. This formulation solves at the upper level a nonlinear optimization that minimizes some distance measures between observed and estimated link flow counts at certain counting stations located in a subset of links in the network, and at the lower level a traffic assignment that estimates these link flow counts assigning the current estimated matrix. The variants of this formulation differ in the analytical approaches that estimate the link flows in terms of the assignment and their time dependencies. Since these estimations are based on a traffic assignment at the lower level, these analytical approaches, although numerically efficient, imply a high computational cost. The advent of ICT applications has made available new sets of traffic related measurements enabling new approaches; under certain conditions, the data collected on used paths could be interpreted as an empirical assignment observed de facto. This allows extracting empirically the same information provided by an assignment that is used in the analytical approaches. This research report explores how to extract such information from the recorded data, proposes a new optimization model to solve the DODME problem, and computational results on its performance.


Forty patients scheduled to undergo thoracotomy were randomly allocated to receive either transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation with intramuscular papaveretum (20 patients) or intramuscular papaveretum alone (20 patients) for postoperative pain relief. Total intramuscular analgesic requirements in the first 24 hours, time to satisfactory transfer to oral analgesia, antiemetic requirements and length of stay in hospital postoperatively were noted. Peak expiratory flow rate was compared pre‐and postoperatively in the two groups. Use of nerve stimulation did not significantly alter the requirements for analgesia although there was a reduction in postoperative nausea and vomiting in the nerve stimulation group. There was no difference between the two groups with respect to changes in peak expiratory flow rate.


A collection of Writing Across the Curriculum Strategies for use in college courses. Writing Assignments designed by (or primarily for) faculty in the Humanities


The study based on the conception of green accounting. We all know that in India green accounting is turning around the national and international level. It has an important role in social responsibility of business. It acts as a scanner of the effects of the organization on the environment, society and the economy of the nation. Green accounting provides value management and a combination of accounting and environment through which it facilitates the balance between the growth of both environment and economy. Responsibility regarding environmental development has turned out to be the most important area of responsibility towards society. This paper aims to analyze the effects in reference to the guidelines of green accounting and for implementing the approach of environmental design for upgrade the product. The findings can refer arrangements of green trends for the enterprises in the economy.


Solubility diagrams for tetrasodium, and trisodium, and disodium hypophosphate have been prepared, and compared with those from previous work. The tetrasodium salt shows an inversion of solubility at 66·5°, interpreted as a change in the stable phase from Na4P2O6, 10H2O at low temperatures to the anhydrous salt above 66·5°. The trisodium salt shows an inversion at 58·5°, attributed to a change from the low-temperature form, Na3HP2O6, 9H2O, to the anhydrous high-temperature form. The disodium salt has an inflection in the solubility curve at 80·5° corresponding to the change of Na2H2P2O6, 6H2O into the anhydrous salt.


In this work, the power management techniques implemented in a high-performance node for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) based on a RAM-based FPGA are presented. This new node custom architecture is intended for high-end WSN applications that include complex sensor management like video cameras, high compute demanding tasks such as image encoding or robust encryption, and/or higher data bandwidth needs. In the case of these complex processing tasks, yet maintaining low power design requirements, it can be shown that the combination of different techniques such as extensive HW algorithm mapping, smart management of power islands to selectively switch on and off components, smart and low-energy partial reconfiguration, an adequate set of save energy modes and wake up options, all combined, may yield energy results that may compete and improve energy usage of typical low power microcontrollers used in many WSN node architectures. Actually, results show that higher complexity tasks are in favor of HW based platforms, while the flexibility achieved by dynamic and partial reconfiguration techniques could be comparable to SW based solutions.


Pollution control and mitigation are critical to protect the ecosystem and make everyone's life safer and healthier. Different pollution mitigation strategies and measures are implemented to remove pollutants, which broadly involve physical, chemical, and biological methods. Biological methods are found to be more sustainable, effective, and eco-friendlier than the other two methods. These methods mainly use microbes like bacteria, fungi, algae, and plants, and their products like enzymes and metabolic products to remove pollutants. Due to their unique photosynthetic ability and simple growth requirements, Algae can be grown using simpler components like CO2, sunlight, and media, making them a potential candidate to be used as a pollution mitigator. Algae can indicate and remove pollutants like CO2, SO2, NO2, and particulate matter from the air; these pollutants and particulate matter are either used for their growth or these are accumulated inside them.. Algal species have shown the efficient removal of heavy metals, organic pollutants, explosives, petroleum contaminants, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and plastics from different water sources. There is a lot of scope in using algae to remove organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater treatment plants. Algae hold great potential to remove radioactive pollutants from natural resources and involve removal mechanisms like biosorption and bioaccumulation. Algae can be used with different adsorbent materials to develop adsorption systems for the adsorption of radionuclides and heavy metals. This review elucidates different algal species, their cultural conditions, the removal efficiency of different types of pollutants from the air, water, soil, and their role in genetic engineering and the algae's potential for waste mitigation.


Magnetic fields generated in the Sun's interior by the dynamo mechanism drive solar activity over a range of time-scales. Direct sunspot observations exist for few centuries, reconstructed variations based on cosmogenic isotopes in the solar open flux and cosmic ray flux exist over thousands of years. While such reconstructions indicate the presence of extreme solar activity fluctuations in the past, causal links between millennia scale dynamo activity, consequent coronal field, solar wind, open flux and cosmic ray flux variations remain elusive; lack of coronal field observations compound this issue. By utilizing a stochastically forced solar dynamo model and potential field source surface extrapolation we perform long-term simulations to illuminate how dynamo generated magnetic fields govern the structure of the solar corona and the state of the heliosphere – as indicated by variations in the open flux and cosmic ray modulation potential. We establish differences in the nature of the large-scale structuring of the solar corona during grand maximum, minimum, and regular solar activity phases and simulate how the open flux and cosmic ray modulation potential vary across these different phases of activity. We demonstrate that the power spectrum of simulated and observationally reconstructed solar open flux time series are consistent with each other. Our study provides the theoretical foundation for interpreting long-term solar cycle variations inferred from cosmogenic isotope based reconstructions and establishes causality between solar internal variations to the forcing of the state of the heliosphere.


The rapid evolution of technology and a large number of smartphone users are transforming the way the masses access financial services. Fintech companies consistently innovate in developing customized products and services for users and SMEs to increase financial access and inclusiveness to achieve the Indonesian national financial inclusion target of 90 percent by 2024. Access to digital financial products via Fintech contributes to greater financial inclusion for SMEs, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted economic activities. Using an extended TAM model, this study explores the driving factors of Fintech adoption for Indonesian SMEs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data analysis of 415 respondents was conducted utilizing Smart-PLS 3.0 software. The findings confirm perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, government support, trust, and user innovativeness to have a direct positive effect on the intention of SMEs to adopt Fintech. The result also reveals that financial literacy indirectly correlates with Fintech adoption mediated by user innovativeness. This indicates that Fintech could contribute to bridging financial inclusion where SMEs with lower financial literacy can utilize financial products and services via Fintech. This is a positive contribution of Fintech for SMEs in developing economies. The present study suggests that policymakers could foster the expansion of Fintech business infrastructure to improve access to SME financial services.


Vitis vinifera L. (grape) is a plant that is cultivated extensively in the world and in our country because of it's economic importance. Grape fruit can be use as juice, molasses, wine and medicinal industry. Although there are many types of genetically potent grape varieties, today there is a growing demand for varieties with high yield and quality, especially resistant to stress factors. The aim of our research were comparison of MS and Gamborg nutrient mediums on in vitro grape callogenesis levels. In this research, petiole and shoot tip explants which taken from two years old V. vinifera Bozcaada Cavus Grape cv. seedlings were cultured on MS0 and Gamborg mediums for callogenesis. After healthy callus biomass have been obtained from different explant types of the grape on MS0, this callus cultures have been transferred to the MS mediums which supplemented with 1:1 mg/mL BAP:2,4-D together. Gamborg medium has been eliminated because of no callogenesis. The effects of combinations of plant growth regulators on the callus have been determined by the means of biomass levels. Subculture series was observed across four subcultures. As a result, MS medium which supplemented with BAP and 2,4-D together choosed for the callogenesis experiments and callogenesis induction has been increased %80 when we compare with MS0 medium. There are no research have been found on petiole and shoot tip explants of this cultivar which cultured on MS and Gamborg mediums for callogenesis. In our research, it has been demonstrated that different nutrient medium types and plant growth regulators have been efffective on callogenesis in different levels. Keywords: Vitis vinifera, in vitro culture, BAP (benzylaminopurine), 2,4 D (2,4 Dichloropheno xyacetic acid) DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/7-04-05


Today, one's disposes of large datasets composed of thousands of geographic objects. However, for many processes, which require the appraisal of an expert or much computational time, only a small part of these objects can be taken into account. In this context, robust sampling methods become necessary. In this paper, we propose a sampling method based on clustering techniques. Our method consists in dividing the objects in clusters, then in selecting in each cluster, the most representative objects. A case-study in the context of a process dedicated to knowledge revision for geographic data generalisation is presented. This case-study shows that our method allows to select relevant samples of objects.


During the first Francoism, the party and the church became the key institutions of the regime. They were largely responsible for social con-trol over the population. In the first years after the civil war, the "Spanish Traditionalist Falange and JONS", a result of the forcible unification of various political forces, took the leading role. The party carried out the task of familiarizing the Spaniards with the ideology of the new state. For this purpose, an extensive network of organizations was created, which was supposed to cover all the Spaniards. The adult male population was part of vertical trade unions, women were in the "Women's Section", children – in the "Youth Front". Nevertheless, the Party's success in indoctrinating the population was very modest and was reduced to an obligatory routine that had little effect on everyday life. The church had a much greater influence. The new authorities, in exchange for the support of the majority of Catholic prelates, gave the church broad powers to control the private lives of the Spaniards. Mar-riage was exclusively in the competence of the church. Divorce has almost completely disappeared from the life of the country. The church also gained wide influence on the education system, which resulted in conflicts with the Falange. After the World War II, the regime began to favor the church and organizations associated with it. Their representa-tives occupied a number of key positions in the government. Despite the fact that the party faded into the background, it retained all of its original functions.


Extremely robust quasi-one-dimensional quantum states are formed in the modulation-doped n-Alx Ga1-x As/ u-GaAs/ u-Alx Ga1-x As double-heterostructure with interfaces corrugated by periodical bending. Electrons accumulate strongly in a very narrow channel at the convex corner of GaAs region at the u-GaAs/ n-Alx Ga1-x As interface. Wave functions for holes are limited to a very narrow channel near the convex corner of the same GaAs region at the opposite interface, u-GaAs/ u-Alx Ga1-x As. The energy levels of the quasi-one-dimensional states are found to be insensitive to the variation of the well width d of u-GaAs at least wider than 90 Å. Furthermore, the energy level spacing is large, and electrons and holes wave functions are spatially separated from each other.


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in children mainly shows a milder course. In complicated cases, it is unknown whether inflammation is predictive of disease severity, as in adults. Moreover, cardiac involvement is anecdotally described. We report the case of a 2-month-old infant with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection presenting with fever, tachycardia and elevated interleukin-6, who was diagnosed with myocarditis and treated with immunoglobulins.


Purpose
To investigate the difference in intraocular vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration between pachychoroid neovasculopathy and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and its associations with responses to three monthly anti-VEGF injections as an initial treatment for the two conditions.

Methods
This study included nine eyes with treatment-naïve pachychoroid neovasculopathy and 21 eyes with treatment-naïve nAMD. Before the initial intravitreal anti-VEGF injection, aqueous humor samples were collected and the concentration of VEGF was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The concentration was compared between the two conditions, and its associations with responses to anti-VEGF therapy were investigated.

Results
The mean VEGF concentration in pachychoroid neovasculopathy was significantly lower than that in nAMD (63.4 ± 17.8 pg/ml and 89.8 ± 45.0 pg/ml, respectively; P = 0.035). The VEGF concentration was associated with the presence or absence of drusen (β = 0.503, P = 0.004). After anti-VEGF therapy, 6 (66.7%) of 9 eyes with pachychoroid neovasculopathy and 17 (81.0%) of 21 eyes with nAMD achieved dry macula (P = 0.640). Dry macula at 3 months and 12 months was significantly associated with a low VEGF concentration in pachychoroid neovasculopathy (P = 0.013 and P = 0.042, respectively), but not in nAMD (P = 0.108 and P = 0.219).

Conclusions
The mean VEGF concentration in pachychoroid neovasculopathy was lower than that in nAMD, suggesting that the way in which VEGF is involved in angiogenesis may differ between pachychoroid neovasculopathy and nAMD.