There are familiar examples of computable structures having various computable Scott ranks. There are also familiar structures, such as the Harrison ordering, which have Scott rank ω 1 +1. Makkai [12] produced a structure of Scott rank ω 1 , which can be made computable [10], and simplified so that it is just a tree [4]. In the present paper, we show that there are further computable structures of Scott rank ω 1 in the following classes: undirected graphs, fields of any characteristic, and linear orderings. The new examples share with the Harrison ordering, and the tree in [4], a strong approximability property.


Previous studies have shown that in laboratory settings, Pseudomonas aeruginosa generally kills Staphylococcus aureus. However, these bacteria are often found coinfecting the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, which has been associated with worse patient outcomes. ABSTRACT Respiratory infections with bacterial pathogens remain the major cause of morbidity in individuals with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF). Some studies have shown that CF patients that harbor both Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in their lungs are at even greater risk for more severe and complicated respiratory infections and earlier death. However, the drivers for this worse clinical condition are not well understood. To investigate the interactions between these two microbes that might be responsible for their increased pathogenic potential, we obtained 28 pairs of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa from the same respiratory samples from 18 individuals with CF. We compared the survival of each S. aureus CF isolate cocultured with its corresponding coinfecting CF P. aeruginosa to when it was cocultured with non-CF laboratory strains of P. aeruginosa. We found that the S. aureus survival was significantly higher in the presence of the coinfecting P. aeruginosa compared to laboratory P. aeruginosa strains, regardless of whether the coinfecting isolate was mucoid or nonmucoid. We also tested how a non-CF S. aureus strain, JE2, behaved with each P. aeruginosa CF isolate and found that its interaction was similar to how the CF S. aureus isolate interacted with its coinfecting P. aeruginosa. Altogether, our work suggests that interactions between S. aureus and P. aeruginosa that promote coexistence in the CF lung are isolate-dependent and that this interaction appears to be driven mainly by P. aeruginosa. IMPORTANCE Previous studies have shown that in laboratory settings, Pseudomonas aeruginosa generally kills Staphylococcus aureus. However, these bacteria are often found coinfecting the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, which has been associated with worse patient outcomes. To investigate the interactions between these two bacteria, we competed 28 coinfection pairs obtained from the same lung samples of 18 different CF patients. We compared these results to those we previously reported of each CF S. aureus isolate against a non-CF laboratory strain of P. aeruginosa. We found that S. aureus survival against its corresponding coinfection P. aeruginosa was higher than its survival against the laboratory strain of P. aeruginosa. These results suggest that there may be selection for coexistence of these microbes in the CF lung environment. Further understanding of the interactions between P. aeruginosa and S. aureus will provide insights into the drivers of coexistence and their impact on the host.


ABSTRACT Previously, it was shown that an aconitase (citB) null mutation results in a vast overaccumulation of citrate in the culture fluid of growing Bacillus subtilis cells, a phenotype that causes secondary effects, including the hyperexpression of the citB promoter. B. subtilis aconitase is a bifunctional protein; to determine if either or both activities of aconitase were responsible for this phenotype, two strains producing different mutant forms of aconitase were constructed, one designed to be enzymatically inactive (C450S [citB2]) and the other designed to be defective in RNA binding (R741E [citB7]). The citB2 mutant was a glutamate auxotroph and accumulated citrate, while the citB7 mutant was a glutamate prototroph. Unexpectedly, the citB7 strain also accumulated citrate. Both mutant strains exhibited overexpression of the citB promoter and accumulated high levels of aconitase protein. These strains and the citB null mutant also exhibited increased levels of citrate synthase protein and enzyme activity in cell extracts, and the major citrate synthase (citZ) transcript was present at higher-than-normal levels in the citB null mutant, due at least in part to a >3-fold increase in the stability of the citZ transcript compared to the wild type. Purified B. subtilis aconitase bound to the citZ 5′ leader RNA in vitro, but the mutant proteins did not. Together, these data suggest that wild-type aconitase binds to and destabilizes the citZ transcript in order to maintain proper cell homeostasis by preventing the overaccumulation of citrate.


ONE OF THE VERY RARE OVERVIEWS OF OPPOSITION IN THE ARAB states was published by Professor Lisa Anderson in 1987. The very title set the tone: 'Lawless Government and Illegal Opposition' (emphases mine), as well as the opening quotation, 'A government which is not beholden to any law ceases to be legitimate', by the famous Sayyid Qutb, one of the prophets of radical Islam (as it came to be named) who was executed by Nasser's government. Opposition was meant to combat a tyrant (a lawless government meaning an unjust government, unjust because disregarding the laws and the religious Law) and to restore Justice, Law and Order. Admittedly, Professor Anderson's purpose was much broader: she would stress the close relationship between the exercise of political power, and particularly the modern state as the organizational framework of political life (the independent variable, so to speak) and, on the other hand, opposition as a response or reaction to the state and the government.


As computer simulations of complex physical interactions grow, so do the time and expense required to operate them. Mirroring the development of such full-scale models has been the related field of surrogate modeling or metamodeling. Surrogate models take a variety of forms, but their shared goal is to provide a numerical output similar to that of a fully complex physical model while minimizing the computational time and cost required to calculate the result. With an eye toward introducing those unfamiliar with the practices and pitfalls of surrogate modeling to the topic and with a focus on its applications to water resources research, Razavi et al. prepared a systematic review of the surrogate modeling literature.


An optical arrayed waveguide of triangular index profile structure is analyzed using fast fourier transform-beam propagation method (FFT-BPM) that emphasis its performance for radiation and make an effort as photonic antenna for optical wireless communication. The optical waveguide of triangular index profile with metal alloy strip inserted in the centre is analyzed to form photonic antenna. The BPM is an extensively used tool for computer simulation of light propagation in optical waveguide structures, has been developed for analyzing optical waveguides with different refractive index profiles. This paper presents simulation model of multiple straight forward multibeam capability and shows comprehensive radiation alongside the accessible planar triangular structure. The consequences confirm that it is promising to curtail radiation loss under sturdy mode coupling conditions. This method can be realized for modeling of laser beam propagation in non-homogeneous atmosphere.


The design, synthesis and anti HIV-1 replication inhibition of 3-(cyclopropylethynyl)-3-hydroxy-indolin-2-ones, analogues of efavirenz (Sustivatrade mark), are described. Different substituted isatins were used to generate final products that contain pharmacophoric features for RT inhibition, such as the oxoindole and cyclopropylethynyl groups. The suitability of the indolin-2-one ring in the planned compounds in replacement to the benzoxazinone ring of efavirenz was proven, since compound 15 presented a greater activity than efavirenz against HIV-1 replication and was not significantly cytotoxic.


Certain substances, 2-bromolysergic acid diethylamide, dimethyltryptamine (3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)indole), 2-methyldimethyltryptamine (3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-2-methylindole), and 5-benzyloxydimethyltryptamine (5-benzyloxy-3-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)indole), antagonize the effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine on the rat fundus strip more than those of tryptamine. These substances have been tested for their ability to inhibit the oxidation of tryptamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine by suspensions of guinea-pig liver and rat fundus. 2-Bromolysergic acid diethylamide has virtually no inhibitory activity and it is doubtful if the others produce any significant inhibition of amine oxidase in the concentrations which antagonize the effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine more than those of tryptamine. It seems that the differential character of the blocking action of these compounds should be ascribed either to interference with the transport of tryptamine (but not 5-hydroxytryptamine) through the cell wall, coupled with the block of a receptor common to both tryptamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine, or to the existence of separate tryptamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors.The amine oxidases of the guinea-pig liver and rat fundus appear to be a mixture of at least two types of enzyme, one of which has a higher affinity for 5-hydroxytryptamine than the other and is more susceptible to inhibition by 2-methyldimethyltryptamine.


Anthropomorphic phantoms can serve as anatomically structured tools for assessing clinical computed tomography (CT) imaging systems. The aim of this project is to create highly customized 3D inkjet-printed, contrast-enhanced physical liver phantoms for use in improving CT imaging system analysis. The capability of using voxelized print to create physical phantoms with texture was previously presented by our lab. Building on that technology, we show the feasibility of producing iodine enhanced liver phantoms with varying textures, at resolutions higher than clinical CT using inkjetprinting. We use a desktop inkjet-printer, with custom inks to print these paper phantoms. Sodium bromide (NaBr) ink is used to represent unenhanced tissue, and potassium iodide (KI) represents contrast-enhanced tissue. We have shown the feasibility of using 3D inkjet-printing to create unique, contrast-enhanced liver phantoms for use in CT. In the future, we plan to expand our methods and tools to create tissue-equivalent physical phantoms for other anatomical structures in the abdominal region.


Plasma-polymerized allylamine (PPAAm) coatings of titanium enhance the cell behavior of osteoblasts. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate a PPAAm nanolayer on zirconia after a storage period of 5 years. Zirconia specimens were directly coated with PPAAm (ZA0) or stored in aseptic packages at room temperature for 5 years (ZA5). Uncoated zirconia specimens (Zmt) and the micro-structured endosseous surface of a zirconia implant (Z14) served as controls. The elemental compositions of the PPAAm coatings were characterized and the viability, spreading and gene expression of human osteoblastic cells (MG-63) were assessed. The presence of amino groups in the PPAAm layer was significantly decreased after 5 years due to oxidation processes. Cell viability after 24 h was significantly higher on uncoated specimens (Zmt) than on all other surfaces. Cell spreading after 20 min was significantly higher for Zmt = ZA0 > ZA5 > Z14, while, after 24 h, spreading also varied significantly between Zmt > ZA0 > ZA5 > Z14. The expression of the mRNA differentiation markers collagen I and osteocalcin was upregulated on untreated surfaces Z14 and Zmt when compared to the PPAAm specimens. Due to the high biocompatibility of zirconia itself, a PPAAm coating may not additionally improve cell behavior.


Summary form only given. Planar dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) have a large number of industrial applications because of simple structure and no need for cumbersome impedance matching systems. However, planar DBD still have some disadvantages such as the limit of gap distance and the non-uniformity due to the characteristics of microdischarge intercepting electrodes. Therefore the DBD jet has been introduced. Other known atmospheric pressure plasma jet devices can generate very short plumes in the millimeter range. Recently Laroussi et al. developed a new plasma jet with long plume in the centimeter range. However, this type has difficulty in making large area plasma plume. Teschke et al. showed the possibility of long and large area plasma plume using coplanar DBD structure. Using coplanar DBD structure, we developed novel parallel DBD jet. The plasma source consisted of two coplanar DBD, which were made of two thin copper strips and alumina plate with 1 mm thickness. Each coplanar DBD was positioned as facing alumina plane with 1 mm gap. The helium was flowed into the gap with flow rate in the 10-40 l/min. A high voltage with frequency ranging from 1-30 kHz and amplitude up to 10 kV was supplied between two copper strips of each coplanar DBD. Experimental results showed the long and large plasma plume in the centimeter range. The length of the plume depended on the helium flow rate and the magnitude of the applied voltage


Low dose infusions of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) have significant biological effects in young adults. In view of the accumulating evidence of age-related changes in ANP physiology, we investigated the effects of a 2-h low dose infusion of ile12-ANP (1.5 pmol/kg/min) in eight healthy, supine, normotensive elderly men in a single blind, random order, placebo-controlled study. Calculated MCR of ANP was 3.3 +/- 0.4 L/min, disappearance half-life 4.1 +/- 0.4 min, and volume of distribution 21 +/- 4 L. The ile-ANP infusions induced the expected significant (3-fold) increases in plasma ANP immunoreactivity in association with enhancement of both plasma and urine cyclic guanosine monophosphate. Despite this, there were no measurable natriuretic effects or changes in blood pressure, and the activities of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and sympathetic nervous systems were unchanged. These findings suggest an abnormality in the post-cyclic guanosine monophosphate effector of ANP among elderly normotensive men.


Aim: to study the ventilation-perfusion ratio (V/Q), apex-base gradient of ventilation (U/L-V) and perfusion (U/LQ) and alveolar-capillary permeability (ACP) in bronchial asthma (BA) patients on the basis of scintigraphy data. Materials and methods: 30 people aged 18-60 took part in the study: patients diagnosed with BA (20) and healthy non-smoking volunteers (20). The scintigraphic studies were performed by means of Omega 500 gamma camera (Technicare, USA-Germany). The subject of the research was an examination of ACP in the right (RL) and left (LL) lungs in the process of radiopharmaceutical derivation, static conditions, during the 1st, 10th and 30th min after 99mTc DTPA inhalation. Results: BA patients: V/Q in both RL and LL was not higher than 1.0 and amounted to 0.98 (0.92-1.04) in the RL and 0.98 (0.95-1.01) in the LL. These parameters did not differ from those of healthy volunteers (p=0.72 and p=0.65). U/L-V amounted to 0.55 (0.33-0.77) in the RL and 0.57 (0.45-0.69) in the LL. It was lower than that of healthy people (p=0.03 and 0.04). U/LQ amounted to 0.82 (0.66-0.98) in the RL and 1.1 (0.84-1.36) in the LL. This parameter was higher than that of healthy people (p=0.004, p=0.02). ACP in the RL amounted to 10.19% (6.49-14.19%) and 27.21% (22.99-31.41%) during the 10th and 30th minutes of the study, respectively; it was increased during the 30th minute (p=0.001). ACP in the LL amounted to 9.68% (8.49-10.87%) and 27.87 (24.26-31.48%) during the 10th and 30th minutes of the study, respectively; it was increased during the 30th minute of the study (p=0.002). Conclusions: The study findings may serve as additional scintigraphic criteria for bronchial asthma diagnostics.


This article examines the link between social capital and community development. The purpose is to increase the understanding of social capital and its role and function in the neighborhood revitalization process within first-suburbs (also known as inner-ring suburbs). In doing so, it briefly outlines the challenges of the first-suburbs, in light of suburban decline. It also addresses the role and function of social capital as a community development tool within the first-suburbs. Finally, this piece provides case study examples describing the context in which first-suburban communities mobilize and use their social capital to implement community development initiatives, with the focus on the Greater Cincinnati region.


The mechanism of lung fibrosis after asbestos exposure is unknown. Observations suggest that neutrophils may play a role in the development of the lung injury in asbestosis. They are attracted to the lungs by macrophages mediators and there they phagocyte asbestos fibres. A cytotoxic effect of asbestos exerted on polymorphonuclear leucocytes releases proteolytic enzymes such as collagenase and elastase. Besides, asbestos produces highly reactive oxidants in neutrophils responsible for an additional damage of tissues. However, the role of polymorphonuclear leucocytes in pathogenesis of asbestosis still remains controversial.


In the last 10 years alone, several new occupational lung diseases have been described. Progress in improving measurements of exposures and risk factors for exposure-related diseases has turned to molecular epidemiology and genomics methods in recent years. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of studies investigating genetic associations and biomarkers in occupationally related diffuse lung diseases. Specifically, identifying common variant genetic polymorphisms that may have low penetrance (modest relative risk), but impart a high population-attributable risk of disease when exposure occurs, has been a recent research focus. Candidate gene methodology is currently the most popular approach, but genome-wide association studies are now more feasible for studying gene-environment interactions. The results of these studies will better define populations at particularly high risk of disease after exposure, but it is important to realize that the mainstay of prevention for occupationally related diffuse lung disease remains prevention and control of airborne exposures.


An improved Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) technique features high count rate, low differential nonlinearity and multi-detector capability. The system has four completely parallel TCSPC channels and achieves an effective overall count rate of 20 MHz. By an active routing technique, up to eight detectors can be connected to each of the TCSPC channels. We used the system to record optical mammograms after pulsed laser illumination at different wavelengths and projection angles.


After several decades of research, the development of an effective feature extraction method for texture classification is still an ongoing effort. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for texture classification using a new cluster-based feature extraction method that divides the matrices of computed two-dimensional wavelet coefficients into clusters. The features that contain the information effective for classifying texture images are computed from the energy content of the clusters, and these feature vectors serve as input patterns to a neural network for texture classification. The results show that the discrimination performance obtained with the proposed cluster-based feature extraction method is superior to the performance obtained using conventional feature extraction methods, and robust to the rotation and scale invariant texture classification.


Assuming a non-satiable risk-averse investor, the standard approach to portfolio selection suggests discarding of all inei cient investment in terms of mean return and its standard deviation ratio within its rst step. However, in literature we can nd many alternative dispersion and risk measures that can help us to identify the most suitable investment opportunity. In this work two new dispersion measures, ful lling the condition that "more is better than less" are proposed. Moreover, their distinct characteristics are analysed and empirically compared. In particular, starting from the de nition of dispersion measures, we discuss the property of consistency with respect to additive shifts and we examine two dispersion measures that satisfy this property. Finally, we empirically compare the proposed dispersion measures with the standard deviation and the conditional value at risk on the US stock market. Moreover, within the empirical example the so called "alarm" is incorporated in order to predict potential fails of the market.


This paper is an experimental study on the effects that bulge shape
 influenced to tensile strength, yield strength, elongation after
 fracture of gas pressure welded joints.
The principal parameters in this paper are the kind of reinforcing
steel bars (SD30A and SD40), nominal diameters (D19, D25 and D32),
 bulge diameters (1.2D, 1.5D and 1.6D) and bulge winths (1.0D,1.2D and 1.5D).
The tests to carried out are tension test, bending test, metallograpy
 and hardness test.
The object of the tension and bending test shall be investigated to the
 mechanical properties and ductility according to the variety of bulge
 diameter and bulge width.
It si observed to the state of metallography and distribution of hardness
 in the joining interface of gas pressure welded joints and heat affected
 zone.


A review essay on books by (1) L. Donaldson, American Anti-Management Theories of Organization. A Critique of Proliferation (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1996); & (2) C. J. Lammers, A. A. Mijs, & W. J. Van Noort, Organisaties vergelijkenderwijs: ontwikkeling en relevantie van het sociologisch denken over organisaties (Comparing Organizations: Development and Relevance of Sociological Thought about Organizations, 1997). Donaldson's critical discussion of the premises, development, & applications of organizational ecology, neoinstitutional theory, resource dependence theory, & organizational economics is deemed informative & insightful, & his efforts to demonstrate each theory's inadequacies by an analysis of its own empirical foundations are lauded; however, his attempt to integrate these "anti-management" theories is considered a failure. Lammers, Mijs, & Van Noort's seventh edition of Lammers's classic work is more general & less empirically thorough than Donaldson's work, resulting in a more positive outlook on the present state & future of organizational sociology. Although its attempt to elaborate the action model implied in the contingency approach is deemed only partly successful, the book is judged an excellent reference work & student manual. S. Paul


Mothers' expansions were examined for their role in structuring conversational contributions and facilitating spontaneous imitations and productions of two-term semantic relations not previously used by their children. The subjects were four 2-year-old boys in late Stage 1 of linguistic development and their mothers. The investigation consisted of two studies. Study 1, a descriptive analysis of mother-child conversation, showed a contingent relationship between mothers' expansions and their children's use of spontaneous imitations. Study 2, an experimental procedure using a multiple baseline treatment design, showed that an increase in the mothers' expansions was systematically related to an increase in the children's initial spontaneous imitations of two-term semantic relations. Results also indicated that following the increase in spontaneous imitations, spontaneous productions of the two-term relations increased and were maintained, whereas spontaneous imitations subsequently decreased.


We investigate the parallel mutation-selection model with varying population size, which is formulated in terms of individuals undergoing the evolution processes of reproduction and mutation, to derive evolutionary entropy. Under the framework of the steady-state thermodynamics for evolutionary dynamics, the excess growth (the difference between the maximum growth rate and the total growth rate) can be interpreted as the evolutionary entropy defined in terms of the probability distributions characteristic of evolutionary dynamics. The Clausius inequality states that the excess growth is always less than or equal to the entropy difference in evolutionary dynamics. Analytically, by using the genome sequence length L=3, we derive the growth after evolutionary dynamics with the finite number of environmental changes and calculate the entropy difference during this evolutionary dynamics, and we verify the Clausius inequality. Furthermore, by taking the infinite limit of the number of environmental changes, we verify that the equality holds for the quasistatic environmental change. By using the derived evolutionary entropy, we propose the thermodynamic relation between the free fitness and evolutionary entropy, where the free fitness is the maximum growth rate possible. Numerically, we use the Gillespie-type simulations, which provides direct realizations of the master equation governing evolutionary dynamics, to verify the Clausius inequality and we find that the simulation results are in good agreement with the analytic results.


Objective To investigate the knowledge of organ donation and brain death, attitude toward living and deceased organ donation, and opinion on organ donation, the influencing factors of relevant issue were evaluated in this cross-section study. Methods An original questionnaire was distributed to 6000 respondents (age ≥ 18 years and lived in Tianjin for more than 5 years) who were randomly selected in Tianjin City from November 2015 to January 2016. With the adoption of stratified sampling method and random cluster sampling method, 5868 valid questionnaires (98.7%) were recovered. Results Totally 5868 respondents participated in this study with acceptable knowledge of organ donation but poor acquaintance of legislation situation and brain death. Approximately 74.9% of them expressed the willingness to donate their organs, while 23.4% of them opposed to organ donation. 42.0% of the assentients would donate their own organs to anyone who meet the medical criteria, while 57.0% of them required organ donation designation. A total of 2502 respondents (42.6%) held an open-minded attitude to complete organ-donation consent form when they received the driver's license. Besides, 57.1% of respondents considered that economic compensation should be offered and the main sources of the compensation should be government funding and special public welfare fund. Multivariate logistic regression model revealed that the age of 40~59 years (OR=1.680 [1.046-2.699], P=0.032; OR=1.741 [1.044-2.903], P=0.034, respectively), annual household income ≥ 20000 yuan (OR=0.656 [0.513-0.839], P=0.001), have the willingness to donate blood (OR=0.324 [0.275-0.383], P<0.001), knowledge of correct conception of brain death (OR=0.823 [0.688-0.984], P=0.033) were the influencing factors of the attitude toward organ donation. Conclusions Public knowledge of organ donation, brain death and available laws were poor. Besides, a tendency that the traditional culture was less common was found. References 1. Gibbons RD, Meltzer D, Duan N. Waiting for Organ Transplantation. Science. 2000;287: 237-238. 2. Bedi KK, Hakeem AR, Dave R, Lewington A, Sanfey H, Ahmad N. Survey of the Knowledge, Perception, and Attitude of Medical Students at the University of Leeds Toward Organ Donation and Transplantation. Transplant Proc. 2015;47: 247-260. 3. Huang J, Millis JM, Mao Y, Millis MA, Sang X, Zhong S. Voluntary organ donation system adapted to Chinese cultural values and social reality. Liver Transplantation. 2015;21: 419-422. 4. The Lancet. Organ donation in China. The Lancet. 2009;374: 758. 5. Zhang L, Zeng L, Gao X, Wang H, Zhu Y. Transformation of organ donation in China. Transplant International. 2015;28: 410-415. 6. Huang J, Millis JM, Mao Y, Millis MA, Sang X, Zhong S. A pilot programme of organ donation after cardiac death in China. The Lancet. 2012;379: 862-865. 7. Zhang Anyong CY, Wu Weifeng. Analysis on causes of cadaver donation obstacles and counter measures. Chinese Medical Ethics. 2009;22: 101-102, 147. 8. Zhang H, Zheng J, Liu W, et al. Investigation and Strategic Analysis of Public Willingness and Attitudes Toward Organ Donation in East China. Transplant Proc. 2015;47: 2419-2424. 9. Luo AJ, Xie WZ, Luo JJ, Ouyang W. Public Perception of Cadaver Organ Donation in Hunan Province, China. Transplant Proc. 2016;48: 2571-2576. 10. Ríos A, López-Navas AI, Navalón JC, et al. The Latin American population in Spain and organ donation. Attitude toward deceased organ donation and organ donation rates. Transplant International. 2015;28: 437-447. 11. Kobus G, Malyszko JS, Małyszko J. Do Age and Religion Have an Impact on the Attitude to Organ Transplantation? Transplant Proc. 2016;48: 1354-1359. 12. Karim A, Jandu S, Sharif A. A survey of South Asian attitudes to organ donation in the United Kingdom. Clinical Transplantation. 2013;27: 757-763. 13. Aijing L, Wenzhao X, Wei W, Qiquan W, Xuantong D. Public Opinion on Organ Donation After Death and Its Influence on Attitudes Toward Organ Donation. Ann Transplant. 2016;21: 516-524. 14. Pan X, Liu L, Xiang H, Ding C, Ren L, Xue W. Current attitudes toward organ donation after cardiac death in northwest China. Chin Med J (Engl). 2014;127: 835–838. 15. Huang J. Ethical and legislative perspectives on liver transplantation in the People's Republic of China. Liver Transplantation. 2007;13: 193-196. 16. Tumin M, Tafran K, Mutalib MATA, et al. Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Public Attitudes Toward a Presumed Consent System for Organ Donation Without and With a Priority Allocation Scheme. Medicine. 2015;94: e1713. 17. López-Falcony R, Ramírez-Orozco R, Ortiz-Aldana FI, et al. Attitudes Toward Organ Donation and Transplantation in Guanajuato, Mexico. Transplant Proc. 2016;48: 556-558.18. Georgiadou E, Sounidakis N, Mouloudi E, et al. Attitudes and Behavior Toward Organ Donation in Greece. Transplant Proc. 2012;44: 2698-2701. 19. Traino HM, Molisani AJ, Siminoff LA. Regional Differences in Communication Process and Outcomes of Requests for Solid Organ Donation. American Journal of Transplantation. 2017 doi: 10.1111/ajt.14165.


In alfalfa nodules induced by Rhizobium meliloti strain L5-30 the compound L-3-O-methyl-scyllo-inosamine (3-O-MSI) is synthesized. This compound is also catabolized specifically by this strain. Its biological properties are therefore similar to the Agrobacterium opines. To answer the question whether opine-like compounds ("Rhizopines") play a role in a plant symbiotic interaction, we isolated the genes for the catabolism of 3-O-MSI (moc genes) and for the induction of its synthesis in the nodule [mos gene(s)]. moc and mos genes were shown to be closely linked and located on the Sym plasmid of L5-30, suggesting that they have co-evolved and may be important in symbiosis. These genes have been cloned into a broad host-range vector that can be mobilized into other R. meliloti strains where they are expressed. The location of the mos genes in the bacteria extends the opine concept, initially developed for a plant pathological interaction, to a symbiotic one.


Black maternal health and well-being has become a necessary focal point for health researchers due to higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity for Black women. However, what is often absent from this scholarship within medical sociology is Black Feminist Theory as a framework for understanding Black women's health and well-being. Drawing on Black feminist and maternal health scholarship, I argue that integrating Black feminist approaches in maternal health research expands our understandings of what processes and mechanisms are impacting the health and well-being of Black mothers, while also highlighting the importance of maternal health research that solely centers Black women. Specifically, I focus on three concepts of Black Feminist Theory as it relates to Black maternal health research: (1) examining Black women's standpoint as credible, (2) acknowledging the historical context of multiple systems of oppression against Black women, and (3) incorporating a perspective that acknowledges both disadvantages, as well as empowerment, in the lives of Black women. I end this review with a discussion of future directions for sociological research in maternal health, including the importance of acknowledging how Black mothers are both impacted by, and resisting, social structures that may add nuance to our current understandings of Black maternal health and well-being.


Objective: To estimate the risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes in HIV-infected pregnant women, who receivedantiretroviral therapy, compared with the non-infected pregnant women. Method: A retrospective cohort study recruited 512 women who delivered at Saraburi hospital between 1 st January1999 and 31 st December 2011. We compared 206 HIV–infected pregnant women who receivedantiretroviral drug with 206 non-infected pregnant women in terms of pregnancy outcomes. Both groupswere delivered after 20 weeks gestation, and matched each group by age, gravidity and number of parity. Results: Compared with the non-infected women, HIV-infected pregnant women who received antiretroviral drughad a statistically signifi cant increase in adverse pregnancy outcomes including preeclampsia (adjustedOR = 2.85, 95%CI 1.05-7.72), preterm birth (adjusted OR = 1.78, 95%CI 1.01-3.15), maternal anemia(adjusted OR = 3.57, 95%CI 2.32-5.48), postpartum hemorrhage (adjusted OR = 3.97, 95%CI 1.23-12.82)and low infant birth weight (adjusted OR = 3.33, 95%CI 1.38-8.04). Conclusion: HIV-infected pregnant women who received antiretroviral therapy were at higher risk for adversepregnancy outcomes. For decrease of serious complication, clinicians should be aware for risks. High riskobstetrical care is required. Key words: Antiretroviral drug, Human immunodefi ciency virus, Preterm birth, Maternal anemia, Postpartum hemorrhage


Water, food and nutrition are three of the main factors that regulate the distribution and abundance of wildlife species in a given area.  In Baja California Sur, Mexico, the bighorn sheep is one of the most appreciated species for its ecological and economic value within the peninsular desert ecosystem; however, many aspects of its biology, ecology and population status remain unknown.  The objective of the present study was to evaluate the diet composition of the bighorn sheep, analyzing the seasonal use and availability patterns of the plant species consumed. Using two food selection indices, we tested the hypothesis that the bighorn sheep opportunistically selects plant species from its habitat in the southern zone of Sierra El Mechudo, Baja California Sur, Mexico.  The vegetation was characterized by means of 50 linear transects measuring 100 m x 5 m (500 m 2 ).  The diet of the bighorn sheep was evaluated through the microhistological analysis of feces.  We calculated the percentage of in-vitro dry-matter digestibility and the digestible energy of forage consumed by sheep.  The similarity of seasonal vs. annual diet was determined through a cluster analysis.  From two food selection indices (Ivlev's electivity, Bonferroni), we estimated the proportion of use of plant species consumed by sheep to determine food preferences.  In the habitat, we identified 21 families with 63 species in 2010 and 22 families with 50 species in 2011.  Shrubs were the dominant forms. The analyses of faeces identified 47 species, consisting of 27 shrubs (62.1 %), 12 forbs (26.9 %), six trees (10.6 %), one succulent (0.2 %) and one unidentified species (0.1 %).  The cluster analysis showed seven similar groups.  Ivlev's and Bonferroni indices showed the selection of Bourrieria sonorae , Melochia tomentosa and Caesalpinia placida by bighorn sheep in 2010; in 2011, it selected Bursera epinnata , Caesalpinia placida and Larrea tridentata . Non-significant differences between seasons were observed regarding the composition of plant species in the diet.  Shrubs were the dominant life forms, followed by trees and succulents.  Shrubs were the preferred food foraged by sheep, accounting for 62.1 % of the diet; this finding is consistent with values reported for Arizona and California.  Non-significant differences were observed in the percent in-vitro dry matter digestibility and digestible energy of the plant species foraged by sheep.  However, we found that sheep grazed preferentially on four plant species, three shrubs and one tree, of high food quality.  In this study, the bighorn sheep behaved like a specialist; therefore, we rejected the hypothesis that this species forages opportunistically on plant species.  Studies on the diet of the bighorn sheep are valuable to develop management plans for the species and its habitat, since these provide information to better understand the extent of vegetation use and whether distribution sites are suitable and meet with the requirements for the conservation of the species and its populations.


Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have been proved as an efficient way to improve health care quality. However, the inflexibility in integrating multiple clinical practice guidelines (multi-CPGs), the mass input workload of patient data, and the difficulty in system sharing become barriers of CDSSs implementation. In this paper, we proposed a framework of CDSS for chronic disease based on ontology and service-oriented architecture (SOA) to improve these defects. We used ontology for knowledge base construction on multi-CPGs integration to overcome their differences as well as reduce the input procedure of patient data by ontology reasoning. Furthermore, we built the CDSS on an SOA structure to provide flexibility in system and data sharing, such that patients could get suggestions from the same system for self-management of chronic disease. A typical case was used to validate the CDSS functions and accuracy. Two clients were developed to illustrate the SOA superiority.


The present trial examined the effectiveness of brief interventions for smokers who joined the Hong Kong Quit to Win Contest to quit smoking. A block randomized controlled trial allocated 1003 adult daily smokers to three groups: (i) The TEL group (n = 338) received a 5-min nurse-led telephone counselling; (ii) The SMS group (n = 335) received eight text messages through mobile phone and (iii) The CONTROL group (n = 330) did not receive the above interventions. Participants with biochemically verified abstinence at 6-month follow-up could receive cash incentive. The primary outcome was the self-reported 7-day point prevalence (PP) of tobacco abstinence at 6-month follow-up. The abstinence rate in the TEL, SMS and CONTROL group was 22.2, 20.6 and 20.3%, respectively (P for TEL versus CONTROL = 0.32; P for SMS versus CONTROL = 0.40). When abstinence at 2-, 6- and 12-month follow-up was modelled simultaneously, the TEL group had a higher abstinence than the CONTROL group (Adjusted OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.01-1.88, P = 0 .04). In the Quit to Win Contest, the brief telephone counselling might have increased abstinence, but the text messages had no significant effect. Further studies on intensive intervention and interactive messaging services are warranted.


The doubly differential cross sections for the emission of two Lyman-α photons in photoexcitation of H2 have been measured as a function of incident photon energy in the range of 30–44 eV with a photon–photon coincidence technique. A cross section curve that is free from ionization and thus is attributed entirely to the doubly excited states of H2 has been obtained for the first time. A simple theoretical calculation based on the reflection approximation and semiclassical treatment of the decay dynamics in the Q21Πu(1) state of H2 has reproduced well the experimental cross section curve. It has been shown that this method, the (γ, 2γ) method, is an excellent tool for investigating spectroscopy and dynamics of doubly or multiply excited molecules.


A 2.4 GHz radio frequency receiver front end with an on-chip transformer compliant with IEEE 802.11b/g standards is presented.Based on zero-IF receiver architecture,the front end comprises a variable gain common-source low noise amplifier with an on-chip transformer as its load and a high linear quadrature folded Gilbert mixer.As the load of the LNA,the on-chip transformer is optimized for lowest resistive loss and highest power gain.The whole front end draws 21 mA from 1.2 V supply,and the measured results show a double side band noise figure of 3.75 dB,-31 dBm IIP3 with 44 dB conversion gain at maximum gain setting.Implemented in 0.13μm CMOS technology,it occupies a 0.612 mm~2 die size.


Intraluminal pressure elevation can cause degenerative disorders, such as ileus and hydronephrosis, and the threshold is fairly low and constant, 20–30 cm H2O. We previously devised a novel two-chamber culture system subjecting cells cultured on a semipermeable membrane to increased culture medium height (water pressure up to 60 cm H2O). Here, we cultured several different cell lines using the low static pressure-loadable two-chamber system, and examined cell growth, cell cycle, and cell morphology. Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) columnar epithelial cells were growth-suppressed in a manner dependent on static water pressure ranging from 2–50 cm H2O, without cell cycle arrest at any specific phase. Two other types of columnar epithelial cells exhibited similar phenotypes. By contrast, spherical epithelial and mesenchymal cells were not growth-suppressed, even at 50 cm H2O. Phalloidin staining revealed that 50 cm H2O pressure load vertically flattened and laterally widened columnar epithelial cells and made actin fiber distribution sparse, without affecting total phalloidin intensity per cell. When the mucosal protectant irsogladine maleate (100 nM) was added to 50-cm-high culture medium, MDCK cells were reduced in volume and their doubling time shortened. Cell proliferation and morphology are known to be regulated by the Hippo signaling pathway, but a pressure load of 50 cm H2O did not alter the expression levels of Hippo signaling molecules in columnar epithelial cells, suggesting that this pathway was not involved in the pressure-induced phenotypes. RNA sequencing of MDCK cells showed that a 50 cm H2O pressure load upregulated keratin 14, an intermediate filament, 12-fold. This upregulation was confirmed at the protein level by immunofluorescence, suggesting a role in cytoskeletal reinforcement. These results provide evidence that cell morphology and the cytoskeleton are closely linked to cell growth. Pathological intraluminal pressure elevation may cause mucosal degeneration by acting directly on this linkage. Summary We provide evidence that columnar epithelial cells are growth-suppressed by pressure loads as low as 30 cm H2O, in association with cell-shape flattening and cytoskeletal alterations.


While GIS‐based geovisualization techniques have been fruitfully employed in a wide range of fields, they have not been applied to explore human hybrid activity‐travel patterns (i.e. the patterns of people's activities and/or travel in both the physical and virtual worlds). This study develops two geovisualization approaches using 3D and 2D GIS techniques to address the difficulties faced by past studies. First, the notions of information cube and hybrid 3D space‐time paths are developed to accommodate cyberspatial activities in exploratory data analysis. Second, a new representation of 2D space‐time paths that incorporates parallel coordinate plots is developed for exploring the multiple attributes of people's Internet and physical activities. These two methods were implemented using ArcObjects and the Visual Basic for Applications environment in ArcGIS. They were used to visualize a complex Internet‐activity diary dataset collected in Columbus (Ohio, USA). The study shows that the 3D and 2D geovisualization methods developed allow us to uncover important patterns in hybrid human activity‐travel behavior.


The final stage in the IBM DeepQA pipeline involves ranking all candidate answers according to their evidence scores and judging the likelihood that each candidate answer is correct. In DeepQA, this is done using a machine learning framework that is phase-based, providing capabilities for manipulating the data and applying machine learning in successive applications. We show how this design can be used to implement solutions to particular challenges that arise in applying machine learning for evidence-based hypothesis evaluation. Our approach facilitates an agile development environment for DeepQA; evidence scoring strategies can be easily introduced, revised, and reconfigured without the need for error-prone manual effort to determine how to combine the various evidence scores. We describe the framework, explain the challenges, and evaluate the gain over a baseline machine learning approach.


Image-guided percutaneous interventions are common procedures used for diagnosis or therapeutic purposes. The clinical demand for such interventions is growing since they are minimally invasive. To increase the quality of the operations and provide optimal accuracy and safety to patients, puncture robots may be very helpful. This paper presents a new robotic architecture designed to perform abdominal and thoracic punctures under computer tomography (CT) or MRI guidance. Innovations concerning the robotic architecture, materials, and energy sources are described. Segmentation and registration algorithms have been developed to localize the robot on images coming from CT or MRI devices, and a specific control loop is used to verify the movements and the positioning of the robot. The results of the initial experiments made under CT and MRI environments are presented.


The article by Sorensen et al. (1987) is interesting. While I agree that the size of the AChE molecule relative to AFP is the probable explanation for only the latter being found in maternal serum, there is evidence that molecules sized 300 Kd can cross the materno-fetal membrane. I reported a woman with atypical cholinesterase whose amniotic fluid did not contain a non-specific cholinesterase band, showing that the normal non-specific band on the AChE gel test is of maternal origin (Super et al., 1986). The band concerned has an even higher molecular weight than AChE. Some years ago, we added amniotic fluid from anencephalic pregnancies to maternal blood and set out to try to find the acetylcholinesterase which we knew to be present, by performing iso-electric focusing in maternal plasma, serum, and red cell membranes (Super and Swindlehurst, unpublished observations). With the methods used, we were not able to demonstrate it and I wondered at the time whether it had attached to sites on the red cell membrane. Our methods at the time were too insensitive to show this. Would Sorensen et al. like to comment on these thoughts? If they agree, perhaps they would devise experiments using red cell membranes. An accurate maternal blood AChE test could allow for earlier neural tube defect detection than is presently possible.


. The usage of integrated indicators is an essential characteristic for development program implementation of Russian higher education, including the competitiveness improvement program. The competitiveness improvement program is a project of the Government of the Russian Federation aimed at significantly increasing the competitive position of leading Russian universities in the global market for educational services and research programs (Project 5-100). Different groups of program participants face different positive and negative aspects of this management tool. One of the risks bound up with focusing on indicators is often called the mismatch of the indicator system focused on the international model of universities, and the role of universities as drivers for the regions' development and sectors of the Russian economy. This risk requires a systematic assessment. The purpose of this study was to systematize the events of changing and using the indicator system in the program at various levels of management, taking into account the general context in which the program is implemented, to compare them with the indicators of individual universities and create an information basis for further comparison with university practices. Two universities of the 5-100 program, which have a strong tradition of working with both basic and high-tech industries, were selected as reference universities for a preliminary analysis. An important part of this study apparatus was the historical comparison method of changes in the indicator system in dynamics.


This paper proposes a method to extract and manage customer preference information used to create My-page, which is a customer service of Internet Service Providers. To provide useful information for customers on My-page, it is essential to accurately grasp the transitions of customer preferences as well as market trends. Customer preference information has conventionally been managed with two-dimensional vectors with customer and preference category axes. In this paper, we propose a method that manages customer preference information with three-dimensional vectors with customer, preference category, and time axes, which enables us to accurately grasp the transitions of customer preferences and market trends. The information volume in three-dimensional vectors is enormous compared with that in two-dimensional vectors. The proposed method addresses this problem by storing only positions and values of the points where information changes over time. This reduces the storage for two-dimensional vectors information per unit time to less than 5% of the original volume. Some kind of knowledge dictionary is required to extract customer preference information. Our proposed method dynamically updates the knowledge dictionary to accomplish a distributed system that performs information extraction at each access point. This enables us to reduce 60% of the CPU usage on the marketing server that is used for managing customer preference information.


The anti-hypertensive efficacy and safety of extended-release (ER) felodipine (5, 10 or 20 mg) and amlodipine (5 or 10 mg) once daily were compared in patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension in a double-blind, double-dummy, randomised, comparative study. A total of 118 patients were allocated to a 12-week, double-blind treatment with either felodipine ER (n = 57) or amlodipine (n = 61). The anti-hypertensive effect was evaluated by measuring office blood pressure (BP) at baseline and after 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks, together with 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) at baseline, on day 1 of treatment and at the end of the study. The mean office BP changes from baseline to week 12 were -13.4 (+/- 15.7)/-11.8 (+/- 6.9) mmHg for felodipine ER (mean daily dose 11.2 mg) and -15.3 (+/- 17.0)/-12.9 (+/- 7.3) mm Hg for amlodipine (mean daily dose 7.4 mg). All BP reductions were significant (P < 0.01) with respect to time, but differences between treatment groups were not significant. The mean ambulatory BP changes from baseline to end of the study were -11.6 (+/- 5.2)/-10.0 (+/- 2.0) mmHg for felodipine ER and -16.3 (+/- 4.4)/-9.6 (+/- 3.0) mm Hg for amlodipine, both significant (P < 0.01). The fall in ambulatory SBP was significantly greater (P < 0.001) in the patients treated with amlodipine compared with felodipine ER whereas there was no difference between the groups with respect to ambulatory DBP. Both drgs were well tolerated with a withdrawl rate of 12% equally distributed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Regeneration from cerulein-induced pancreatitis is accompanied by a transient synthesis and deposition of extracellular matrix components in the rat pancreas. To study the involvement of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1), one of the most potent modulators of the extracellular matrix, in the process of pancreatic regeneration we examined the expression of this gene on the transcript and protein level in pancreata of rats sacrificed 0 hours, 24 hours, 2, 3, 5, 7 days after a 12 hour infusion of maximal doses of cerulein (10 microg kg(-1) h(-1)). TGFbeta1 protein increased twofold after 24 hours and 48 hours and returned to control values 7 days after induction of pancreatitis, while TGFbeta1-mRNA reached maximal values (3-fold over controls) after 2 days. The largest amount of TGFbeta1 mRNA was found in pancreatic acinar cells and in stromal cells. To verify the functional implication of TGFbeta overexpression in regulating extracellular matrix remodeling during regeneration from acute pancreatitis, rats were treated with 3 injections of neutralizing antibody against TGFbeta1 given 30 min before, and 24 hours and 48 hours after the start of infusion. In rats treated with maximal doses of cerulein and TGFbeta antibodies, pancreatic hydroxyproline content and expression of collagens I and III and of TGFbeta1 were significantly reduced. These results provide evidence that transforming growth factor beta1 among other cytokines is involved in the regulation of extracellular matrix remodeling in the rat pancreas during regeneration from cerulein-induced acute pancreatitis. In addition, there is evidence in the literature that application of recombinant TGFbeta after recurrent episodes of acute cerulein-induced pancreatitis promotes pancreatic fibrosis (3). Thus, TGFbeta is a regulator of extracellular matrix remodeling in the pancreas, and may be an important promoting factor in the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis. This hypothesis is supported by data in the literature showing enhanced TGFbeta expression in human chronic pancreatitis (2) and development of fibrosis and inflammation in pancreata of transgenic mice overexpressing TGFbeta1 (3).


Von Willebrand factor (vWf), an endothelial product that arises in plasma in conditions associated with vascular damage and acute phase reaction, was evaluated in paired samples of plasma and synovial fluid obtained from 54 patients with inflammatory joint effusion, 19 patients with osteoarthritis, and from the plasma of 19 controls. Synovial fluid levels of vWf were detected in 36 of the patients. The mean value of vWf in the inflammatory joint effusion group was 18.27 +/- 3.03%, significantly higher than the mean value of 7.7 +/- 4.4% found in the osteoarthritis group (p less than 0.01). The significant difference between these groups was maintained when vWf was expressed as a ratio of albumin. vWf was correlated with synovial fluid levels of alpha-1-antitrypsin (r = 0.83, p less than 0.01) and with the white cell count (r = 0.74, p less than 0.01), but not with the levels of immunoglobulins or C3. vWf in the synovial fluid may reflect the local degree of inflammation.


ABSTRACT This study examines price formation of the internationally traded salmon futures exchange. Analyzing data from 2006 to 2015, the study identifies the co-integration relationship between the spot market price and 1–6-, 9- and 12-month futures contract prices. With exception of the 12-month maturity futures price, the unbiasedness hypothesis is shown to hold, thus evidence of risk neutrality and efficiency among the co-integrated pairs. Further, it is evident that the spot price provides leadership role in the price discovery function for the 1-, 2- and 6-months futures contract. On the contrary, the 3-, 4-, 5-, 9- and 12-months futures contracts provide the expected leadership role in the price discovery function, a case that supports a matured market that can be considered a necessary price risk management tool. The mixed finding is an indication of a maturing or near matured futures market. Analysis of the term structure of futures volatilities reveal that the shorter the length of the futures contract, the more volatility there is. This is because salmon prices exhibit short-term cyclical and seasonal patterns like other agricultural commodities. As such, salmon producers will be better off hedging in far month futures contracts, ceteris paribus.


Alteration in normal hippocampal (HPC) function attributed to reduced parvalbumin (PV) expression has been consistently reported in schizophrenia patients and in animal models of schizophrenia. However, it is unclear whether there is an overall loss of interneurons as opposed to a reduction in activity-dependent PV content. Co-expression of PV and the constitutively expressed substance P (SP)-receptor protein has been utilized in other models to ascertain the degree of cell survival, as opposed to reduction in activity-dependent PV content, in the HPC. The present study measured the co-expression of PV and SP-receptors in the dentate and dorsal and ventral CA3 subregions of the HPC in the methylazoymethanol acetate (MAM) rat neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia. In addition, these changes were compared at the post-natal day 27 (PND27) and post-natal day 240 (PND > 240) time points. Brains from PND27 and PND > 240 MAM (n = 8) and saline (SAL, n = 8) treated offspring were immunohistochemically processed for the co-expression of PV and SP-receptors. The dorsal dentate, dorsal CA3 and ventral CA3 subregions of PND27 and PND > 240 MAM rats demonstrated significant reductions in PV but not SP-receptor expression, signifying a loss of PV-content. In contrast, in the ventral dentate the co-expression of PV and SP-receptors was significantly reduced only in PND > 240 MAM animals, suggesting a reduction in cell number. While MAM-induced reduction of PV content occurs in CA3 of dorsal and ventral HPC, the most substantial loss of interneuron number is localized to the ventral dentate of PND > 240 animals. The disparate loss of PV in HPC subregions likely impacts intra-HPC network activity in MAM rats.


Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) carry an increased risk of skin cancer development, but limited data exist on the development pattern of cutaneous malignancies in non-White SOTRs. The authors conducted a retrospective chart review of non-White SOTRs at Mayo Clinic who underwent transplantation and subsequently developed skin cancer. This article describes the characteristics and outcomes of non-White patients who developed skin cancer following solid organ transplantation and aims to provide further information that may prove useful in the development of guidelines and interventions to improve patient outcomes. Abstract Objective Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) have an increased risk of skin cancer development, but limited data exist on the development pattern of cutaneous malignancies in non-White SOTRs. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of non-White patients who developed skin cancer following solid organ transplantation. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of non-White SOTRs at the Mayo Clinic who underwent transplantation between November 1987 and April 2020 and subsequently developed skin cancer. Results We identified 32 non-White SOTRs who developed skin cancer in the posttransplant period. Among these, 46.9% were Hispanic/Latinx, 25% were American Indian/Alaskan Native, 21.9% were Asian, and 6.3% were Black/African American. Four patients had a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer pretransplant. In regard to skin cancer type, 21 (65.6%) patients developed squamous cell carcinoma, 15 (46.9%) developed basal cell carcinoma, 5 (15.6%) developed melanoma, and 2 (6.3%) developed sebaceous carcinoma. The median time from transplant to first posttransplant skin cancer was 7.8 years. Conclusions Our study provides further characterization of the development of skin cancer in non-White SOTRs following transplant and identifies a variety of relevant pre- and posttransplant factors. Despite a long follow-up period, the number of patients identified remained low, which is consistent with the literature, indicating a low incidence of skin cancer development in non-White SOTRs. Continued investigation may allow for a more precise identification of risk factors and their degree of significance.


We present a framework combining hierarchical and multi-agent deep reinforcement learning approaches to solve coordination problems among a multitude of agents using a semi-decentralized model. The framework extends the multi-agent learning setup by introducing a meta-controller that guides the communication between agent pairs, enabling agents to focus on communicating with only one other agent at any step. This hierarchical decomposition of the task allows for efficient exploration to learn policies that identify globally optimal solutions even as the number of collaborating agents increases. We show promising initial experimental results on a simulated distributed scheduling problem.


Hemitruncus arteriosus (HA) is an uncommon congenital cardiac malformation in which one pulmonary artery branch originates from the ascending aorta. A 2-month-old male was referred to our hospital for failure to thrive, cyanosis, and tachypnea. A chest radiograph demonstrated moderate cardiomegaly and peribronchial thickening. Echocardiography demonstrated right atrial and ventricular enlargement and increased gradient (25 mm Hg) in the right pulmonary artery. Cardiac magnetic resonance angiography was performed and clearly revealed typical imaging findings of a right HA which had complex cardiac and vascular anatomy. This case report presents cardiac magnetic resonance angiography findings of HA.


Terrorism with religious ideological background today is a serious global threat. The modern infrastructure and the communications of movement allowed terrorist organizations to be able to attack everywhere in the world. The issue that is a point of interest of this paper is the current situation of returning the foreign terrorist fighters to their home country or third countries and the security consequences that may arise if they are not treated properly. For a more detailed perception of this problem through the case analysis – an operative police action related to the foreign terrorist fighters, the functional aspects of the criminal prosecution bodies of the Republic of North Macedonia will be better perceived and studied. Also, a special emphasis will be placed on the strategy for the fight against violent extremism and the financing of terrorist fighters.


To the Editor.— Although it is generally believed, as stated by Nino et al (240:1173, 1978), that "foreign objects should always be removed from the spinal canal," demonstration that removal of bone or lead fragments is actually of benefit remains unproved. Many patients, especially those with partial cord function, will show improvement without surgery. While I agree with Nino and associates, that late deterioration of cord function may be associated with syringomyelia or fibrous scarring, I know of no evidence that early surgery will prevent such worsening. Also, one should keep in mind the possibility that the presence of copper (a jacketing on many bullets) can lead to progressive cyst formation and deterioration in the CNS. 1 Many of us with much experience in the management of gunshot wounds of the spine have certainly seen patients made worse or even die after laminectomy. Therefore, I would urge conservatism and disagree


The vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) is well-suited for applications with renewable energy devices. This paper presents a practical analysis of the VRB for use in a microgrid system. The first part of the paper develops a reduced order circuit model of the VRB and analyzes its experimental performance efficiency during deployment. The model parameters of the various VRB system components were estimated from experimental field data. The parasitic losses of the circulation pumps power consumption were predicted during different operating situations. The second part of the paper addresses the implementation issues of the VRB application in a photovoltaic-based microgrid system. Commercially available chargers designed for lead-acid battery systems were shown to be non-optimal for VRB systems and a new dc-dc converter control was proposed to provide improved charging performance. The system model was validated with field-obtained experimental data.


Abstract Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are sensitive to rare gamma-ray photons, buried in the background of charged cosmic-ray (CR) particles, the flux of which is several orders of magnitude greater. The ability to separate gamma rays from CR particles is important, as it is directly related to the sensitivity of the instrument. This gamma-ray/CR-particle classification problem in IACT data analysis can be treated with the rapidly-advancing machine learning algorithms, which have the potential to outperform the traditional box-cut methods on image parameters. We present preliminary results of a precise classification of a small set of muon events using a convolutional neural networks model with the raw images as input features. We also show the possibility of using the convolutional neural networks model for regression problems, such as the radius and brightness measurement of muon events, which can be used to calibrate the throughput efficiency of IACTs.


The paper analyses which function and API should a general particle system model have that can simulate many special effects in 3D real-time graphic environment. A general data structure of particle system that can be used in many kinds of 3D engine is designed. This general particle system model has been successfully used to simulate some special effects such as water beam, rain, snow etc. base on OpenGL.


Background: Ever since the beginning of the universe mankind had struggled constantly for their livelihood, Moradabad is branded as the "Brass city" of India, which comprises of a large number of populations working in different industries. Objective: To assess and compare the oral health status of workers employed in brass industries with non industrial workers of Moradabad city. Material and Methods: A total of 500 workers from each group aged 30-50 with 5 years working experience were selected through random sampling. Type III examination was performed by recording who oral health assessment form. To compare the proportion chi-square test was used. Mean values were compared using students t-test. SPSS version 15.0 was used for statistical analyses. Results: The prevalence of dental caries as Mean DMFT score was significantly higher in Non Industrial Group i.e. 3.57±2.74 while it was 2.88±2.14 in brass workers. Periodontal diseases were higher among production workers that belong to brass industries. The prevalence of Oral Mucosal Lesions was significantly higher among Production Workers. Bleeding was more pronounced in general population but calculus and pockets were seen more in brass workers. The requirement of prosthetic status was also more prevalent among industry subjects. Conclusion: The Oral health status of Brass Industry Workers was relatively poor with poor periodontal health when compared to General Population. Further studies of oral occupational disease should be conducted in order to check or confirm previous reports and to discover possible manifestations arising in new industries. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijosh.v3i2.6312


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether agonist anti-platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (anti-PDGFRalpha) antibodies are present in the serum of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma).

METHODS
Sera were obtained from healthy subjects and scleroderma patients. An electrochemiluminescence binding assay was performed for detection of serum autoantibodies to PDGFRalpha, PDGFRbeta, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and colony-stimulating factor receptor 1 (CSFR1). Serum immunoglobulin was purified by protein A/G chromatography. To assess Ig agonist activity, PDGFRalpha-expressing cells were incubated with pure Ig and the level of receptor phosphorylation determined in an enzyme-linked immunoassay, as well as by Western blotting. Ig agonist activity was also assessed in a mitogenic assay and by MAP kinase activation in a PDGFRalpha-expressing cell line.

RESULTS
Sera from 34.3% of the healthy subjects and 32.7% of the SSc patients contained detectable autoantibodies to PDGFRalpha and PDGFRbeta, but not EGFR or CSFR1. Purified Ig from these sera was shown to retain PDGFR binding activity and, at 200-1,000 microg/ml, exhibited no agonist activity in a cell-based PDGFRalpha phosphorylation assay and did not stimulate a mitogenic response or MAP kinase activation in a PDGFRalpha-expressing cell line. Two purified Ig samples that were unable to bind PDGFRalpha did exhibit binding activity to a nonglycosylated form of PDGFRalpha.

CONCLUSION
Although approximately one-third of sera from scleroderma patients contained detectable autoantibodies to PDGFR, these antibodies were not specific to scleroderma, since they were also detected in a similar percentage of samples from normal subjects. PDGFRalpha agonist activity was not demonstrated when purified Ig from these sera was tested in cell-based assays.


Abstract In this paper, based on a quarterly dataset of G7 countries with the application of a nonlinear ARDL model we test for the presence of a short-run and long-term asymmetry in the relationship between government spending and economic activity. The main aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between government spending and economic activity in two separate scenarios, first, in periods when government spending increases and, second, in periods when government spending decreases. Our key findings are, first, the linear model that produces a positive relationship between government consumption and economic activity. Second, in the nonlinear model, more than half of the short-run and long-run coefficients are statistically significant. Third, short-run and long-run asymmetry are detected in four out of seven cases with recognized short-run asymmetry also in the remaining three cases based on graphical analysis. Finally, a negatively inclined short-run asymmetry is detected. The results thus imply a stronger output effect in periods of declining dynamics in government consumption. Future research should be focused on broadening the sample countries and model by adding additional variables.


Porcelain gallbladder (PG) is a rare entity. It's frequently associated with cholecyst lithiasis (90%). Diagnosis is established based on imaging assays (simple abdominal radiography, ultrasound and/or abdominal CT). Pathologically is an extensive process of calcification of the gallbladder wall. The literature mentioned strongly PG association with cancer of the gallbladder. Therefore laparoscopic cholecystectomy was formally contraindicated. We present two cases of PG laparoscopically operated and with this occasion we review particular aspects of diagnosis and treatment of the disease.


The present research's aims are to compare the group cognitive-behavioral treatment effect and group cognitive therapy based on mindfulness on the fat people's stress, anxiety, depression and weight loss. For this purpose, 24 numbers of the fat women which have been simultaneously suffered from three disorders which are simultaneous with fatness including stress, anxiety and depression and those who had accepted the researcher's call for treatment, have been selected and they were randomly placed in two groups including experimental cognitive-behavioral group and cognitive therapy group based on mindfulness and one witness group. Then, cognitive-behavioral group and cognitive therapy group are based on mindfulness were under 8 two-hour group session (each group for two months). The members of witness group received no treatment. All three groups were tested at the beginning and the end of the sessions and the results were computed by the software SPSS and Covariance analysis statistical method. The applied methods in this research included: Body mass indicator, clinical interview and DASS test. The results: Both applied therapy methods have been effective in the reduction of scores of participants' stress, anxiety, depression and weight and they were led to these variables' values decrease.


Churn happens when a customer leaves a brand or stop using its services. Brands reduce their churn rates by identifying and retaining potential churners through customer retention campaigns. In this paper, we consider the problem of classifying micro-posts as churny or non-churny with respect to a given brand. Motivated by the recent success of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) in word representation, we propose to utilize RNNs to learn micro-post and churn indicator representations. We show that such representations improve the performance of churn detection in microblogs and lead to more accurate ranking of churny contents. Furthermore, in this researchwe show that state-of-the-art sentiment analysis approaches fail to identify churny contents. Experiments on Twitter data about three telco brands show the utility of our approach for this task.


Context. The determination of the local standard of rest (LSR), which corresponds to the measurement of the peculiar motion of the Sun based on the derivation of the asymmetric drift of stellar populations, is still a matter of debate. The classical value of the tangential peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the LSR was challenged in recent years, claiming a significantly larger value. Aims. We present an improved Jeans analysis, which allows a better interpretation of the measured kinematics of stellar populations in the Milky Way disc. We show that the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) sample of dwarf stars is an excellent data set to derive tighter boundary conditions to chemodynamical evolution models of the extended solar neighbourhood. Methods. We propose an improved version of the Stromberg relation with the radial scalelengths as the only unknown. We redetermine the asymmetric drift and the LSR for dwarf stars based on RAVE data. Additionally, we discuss the impact of adopting a different LSR value on the individual scalelengths of the subpopulations. Results. Binning RAVE stars in metallicity reveals a bigger asymmetric drift (corresponding to a smaller radial scalelength) for more metal-rich populations. With the standard assumption of velocity-dispersion independent radial scalelengths in each metallicity bin, we redetermine the LSR. The new Stromberg equation yields a joint LSR value of V� = 3.06 ± 0.68 km s −1 , which is even smaller than the classical value based on Hipparcos data. The corresponding radial scalelength increases from 1.6 kpc for the metal-rich bin to 2.9 kpc for the metal-poor bin, with a trend of an even larger scalelength for young metal-poor stars. When adopting the recent Schonrich value of V� = 12.24 km s −1 for the LSR, the new Stromberg equation yields much larger individual radial scalelengths of the RAVE subpopulations, which seem unphysical in part. Conclusions. The new Stromberg equation allows a cleaner interpretation of the kinematic data of disc stars in terms of radial scalelengths. Lifting the LSR value by a few km s −1 compared to the classical value results in strongly increased radial scalelengths with a trend of smaller values for larger velocity dispersions.


The preprocessing pipelines in Natural Language Processing usually involve a step of removing sentences consisted of illegal characters. The definition of illegal characters and the specific removal strategy depend on the task, language, domain, etc, which often lead to tiresome and repetitive scripting of rules. In this paper, we introduce a simple statistical method, uniblock, to overcome this problem. For each sentence, uniblock generates a fixed-size feature vector using Unicode block information of the characters. A Gaussian mixture model is then estimated on some clean corpus using variational inference. The learned model can then be used to score sentences and filter corpus. We present experimental results on Sentiment Analysis, Language Modeling and Machine Translation, and show the simplicity and effectiveness of our method.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal neuromuscular disorder caused by loss of dystrophin. Upregulation of utrophin (UTRN), a dystrophin paralogue, is a promising therapeutic avenue. Here, we present a CRISPR-Cas9-mediated strategy to increase utrophin expression by disrupting microRNA (miR) binding sites (BS). Using a Cas9/gRNA ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex we disrupted several miR BS in DMD myoblasts and selected the Let-7c BS has crucial for UTRN repression. Interestingly, Cas9/gRNA indels were as efficient as the complete removal of Let-7c BS in upregulating UTRN expression, without any major off-targets. In three-dimensional human DMD cultures, Cas9/gRNA-mediated editing resulted in significant utrophin upregulation and functional improvements of calcium dysregulation and muscle contraction. Finally, Let-7c BS disruption in mdx animals by systemic rAAVs mediated delivery of Cas9 and gRNA resulted in utrophin upregulation and amelioration of the muscle histopathological phenotype. These findings provide the foundations for a universal (mutation-independent) gene editing therapeutic strategy for DMD. One Sentence Summary CRISPR-Cas9 has the potential to upregulate utrophin to treat all DMD patients.


Purpose: To study the efficacy and safety of amniotic membrane transplantation as an adjunctive therapy after surgical excision of primary pterygium and to compare the clinical outcome with that of conjunctival autograft. Methods: Eighty-six eyes of 78 patients with primary pterygium were operated on by a single surgeon (N.T.). All patients were randomized to undergo amniotic membrane or conjunctival autograft transplantation as an adjuvant therapy after pterygium excision. Forty-four eyes in 39 patients were treated with amniotic membrane transplantation (AM group), and 42 eyes of 41 patients were treated with conjunctival autograft (CG group). Patients were followed up at 1 week, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperation. The main outcome measurement was a recurrence rate after surgery. Results: The mean follow-up was 14.40 ± 5.4 months in the AM group and 12.35 ± 3.13 months in the CG group. There were 18 recurrences (40.9%) in the AM group and two (4.76%) in the CG group, which was significantly different among both groups (P < 0.007). The cumulative proportion that were recurrence-free at 12 months was 0.6 ± 0.15 for the AM group and 0.95 ± 0.07 for the CG group (P = 0.0003, Log-rank test). The cumulative nonrecurrence rate at 6 and 12 months in all patients stratified by age and sex was not significantly different (P = 0.28 and P = 0.9, Log-rank test). No major complications were observed in either group. Conclusion: The surgical results of primary pterygium excision followed by amniotic membrane and conjunctival autograft transplantation were compared. It was found that amniotic membrane transplantation for pterygium surgery has an unacceptably high recurrence rate.


Background: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in microRNAs (miRNA) have been shown to be related with susceptibility to several human cancers. We evaluated the associations of rs3746444 in pre-miRNA hsa-mir-499 with the risk of gastric cancer (GC) in the Chinese population. Patients and Methods: The rs3746444 (A>G) SNPs were genotyped in 201 GC and 213 non-cancer subjects in a case-control study by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. Results: There was no significant overall difference in the genotype distributions of rs3746444 (A>G) SNPs between cases and controls. In the logistic regression analyses, no significantly increased risk of GC was found to be associated with variant genotypes. Conclusion: The rs3746444 (A>G) SNP is not associated with susceptibility to GC in the Chinese population.


PURPOSE
In this study, we compared the endocrine and cytokine reaction of the patients which laparoscopic and conventional appendectomy was done for acute appendicitis.

MATERIALS AND METHOD
50 patients who were operated for acute appendicitis in Ankara Atatürk Research and Training Hospital between the dates December 2013 and February 2014 were enrolled and grouped as either laparoscopic or conventional. Serum ACTH, IL-6 and CRP levels were obtained at induction of anesthesia and postoperative 6th hour.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of gender, co-morbidities, and perforation rate. Preoperative ACTH levels were similar for both groups while it is significantly lower in postoperative period for laparoscopy group. Moreover, IL-6 levels were also higher in postoperative period for conventional period compared to laparoscopy group. Despite preoperative CRP value of the laparoscopic group was significantly higher than the conventional group, postop values showed no statistical difference. The mean operation time of the laparoscopic appendectomy group was significantly higher than the conventional group.

CONCLUSION
Laparoscopic appendectomy causes less metabolic and cytokine response than conventional surgery. ACTH and IL-6 levels could be assessed to evaluate metabolic outcome of surgical intervention.

KEY WORDS
ACTH, Appendectomy, Conventional appendectomy, IL-6, CRP, Laparoscopic appendectomy, Perforation.


Many countries are turning their attention to the use of explicit financial incentives to drive desired improvements in healthcare performance. However, we have only a weak evidence-base to inform policy in this area. The research challenge is to generate robust evidence on what financial incentives work, under what circumstances, for whom and with what intended and unintended consequences.


Hall effects on the steady hydromagnetic flow due to non-coaxial rotations of a porous disk and a fluid at infinity with slip condition at the boundary has been studied. An exact solution of the governing equations has been obtained. The combined effects of Hall current, slip condition and suction or blowing are examined. It is found that both the primary velocity and the secondary velocity decrease with increase in Hall parameter. The heat transfer characteristic has also been studied on taking viscous and Joule dissipation into account. It is found that the critical Eckert number for which there is no flow of heat either from the disk to the fluid or from the fluid to the disk increases with increase in either Hall parameter or slip parameter.


Purpose: The presence of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) in metastatic carcinomas detected by CellSearch is associated with poor outcome. CellSearch uses an enrichment step based on the EpCAM antibody and enumerates CTC using antibodies targeting specific cytokeratins. Here we investigate the presence and role of CTC not detected by CellSearch in lung cancer patients. Methods: Blood discarded by CellSearch after EpCAM based enrichment was collected and enriched for CTC by filtration through microsieves and enumerated after fluorescent labeling. Additional anti-cytokeratin antibodies were added to the CellSearch test to increase the cytokeratin coverage. This approach was validated using different cell lines spiked into blood and tested on blood samples of 28 metastatic lung cancer patients. Results: The majority of spiked EpCAM+ cells could be detected with CellSearch whereas few cells were detected with low or no EpCAM expression (EpCAM-). Recovery of cells on microsieves depended strongly on cell size. One or more CTC were detected in 39% of the patient samples, this increased to 75% when adding the CTC detected in the discarded blood and to 82% with the use of additional cytokeratin antibodies. Presence of CTC was significantly associated with poor Overall Survival (OS) when detected by CellSearch without (p = 0.004) and with additional cytokeratins (p = 0.007), but not with EpCAM-CTC in the blood discarded by CellSearch (p = 0.271) or all CTC detected (p = 0.354) Conclusions: Expanding the cytokeratin coverage and including EpCAM-CTC, double the number of patients with CTC and the number of CTC detected with CellSearch. In contrast with EpCAM+ CTC, the presence of EpCAM-CTC in this group of patients was not associated with poor OS. The metastatic lung cancer patients included in this study were very diverse with respect to cancer type, line of therapy and quite small in numbers to make any definitive conclusions. Still, this pilot study warrants a larger study to confirm the findings. In addition an in-depth characterization of the EpCAM+ and EpCAM-CTC is needed to confirm that the EpCAM-, panCK+ CTC are indeed tumor cells and unravel the genetic difference with the EpCAM+, panCK+ CTC. Citation Format: Sanne de Wit, Guus van Dalum, Aufried T.M. Lenferink, Arjan G.J. Tibbe, Jeroen T.N. Hiltermann, Harry J.M. Groen, Cees van Rijn, Leon W.M.M. Terstappen. EpCAM+ and EpCAM- circulating tumor cells in metastatic lung cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 377. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-377


Study Design. This work compared administrative data obtained from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) databases with structured chart review. Objective. We set out to determine whether a decision tool using administrative data could discriminate acute from nonacute cases among the many patients seen for a low back pain (LBP)–related diagnosis. Summary of Background Data. Large health care systems' databases present an opportunity for conducting research and planning operations related to the management of highly burdensome conditions. An efficient method of identifying cases of acute LBP in these databases may be useful. Methods. This was a retrospective review of all consecutive Iraq and/or Afghanistan Veterans seen in a VA primary care service during a 6-month period. Administrative data were extracted from VA databases. Patients with at least 1 encounter that was coded with at least 1 LBP-related ICD-9 code were included. Structured chart review of electronic medical record free text was the "gold standard" to determine acute LBP cases. Logistic regression models were used to assess the association of administrative data variables with chart review findings. Results. We obtained complete data on 354 patient encounters, of which 83 (23.4%) were designated acute upon chart review. No diagnostic code was more likely to be used in acute cases than nonacute. We identified an administrative data model of 18 variables that were significant and positively associated with an acute case (C-statistic = 0.819). A reduced model of 5 variables including a lumbar magnetic resonance imaging order, tramadol prescription, skeletal muscle relaxant prescription, physical therapy order, and addition of a new LBP-related ICD-9 code to the electronic medical record remained reasonable (C-statistic = 0.784). Conclusion. Our results suggest that a decision model can identify acute from nonacute LBP cases in Veterans using readily available VA administrative data. Level of Evidence: N/A


Community radio has been defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as promoting non-profit ownership of stations and volunteer participation. The increasing commercialisation of community radio in Canada, evident in changing station practices and regulatory policies, has resulted in the erosion of volunteer run governance and programming. This article draws on community media, anti-oppression, and third-sector studies literature to investigate the experiences of volunteers from two stations, CHRY in Toronto and Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. Current Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulations define community radio 'by virtue of its place in the communities served.' This article concludes that reducing the engagement and empowerment of volunteers in community radio programming and governance limits the place of community radio in the community. The authors will also identify best practices that are needed to re-centre community radio within the community while ensuring a sustainable non-profit community broadcasting sector.


Sterol molecules are essential for maintaining the proper structure and function of eukaryotic cell membranes. The influence of cholesterol (the principal sterol of higher animals) on the lipid bilayer properties was extensively studied by both experimental and simulation methods. In contrast, the effect of ergosterol (the principal fungal sterol) on the membrane structure and dynamics is much less recognized. This work presents the results of comparative molecular dynamics simulation of the hydrated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer containing approximately 25 mol % of cholesterol or ergosterol. A detailed analysis of the molecular properties (e.g., bilayer thickness, lipid order, diffusion, intermolecular interactions, etc.) of both sterol-induced liquid-ordered membrane phases is presented. Presence of sterols in the membrane significantly changes its property, especially fluidity and molecular packing. Moreover, in accordance with the experiments, our calculations show that, compared to cholesterol, ergosterol has higher ordering effect on the phospholipid acyl chains. This different influence on the properties of the lipid bilayer stems from differences in conformational freedom of sterol side chains. Additionally, obtained models of lipid membranes containing human and fungal sterols, constituting the result of our work, can be also utilized in other chemotherapeutic studies on interaction of selected ligands (e.g., antifungal compounds) with membranes.


Digital Image Security is still or recent topic of research in computer science engineering. Images are sharing very frequently from one device to another device. Due to this functionality and features it is very complicated situation for all of the application users because users share their personal images publically. A very unsolvable problem is still there is no appropriate method for image security to identify ownership with the image sharing tool over the internet. The digital image watermarking is still appreciable and demandable techniques. Though it is still in research because it has to be utilizing with all the applications those work with images. This research is done to find the best digital watermarking technique to highly secure digital image form the illegal copies. The research work also done to analyze the possibilities of dual watermarking. Various standard research articles were studied and it is found that dual watermarking is possible with some situation. This research work motivates and offers different combinations on digital watermarking techniques in near future for efficient output of watermarking.


Technological advances, such as GPS devices and smartphones, have had numerous impacts in the realm of travel surveys. These advances bring both challenges and opportunities as we work to balance the potential to collect nearly unlimited amounts of data with the need to not overburden transport survey participants. This paper addresses the steps currently taken to manage this balance in the context of the Future Mobility Survey (FMS), a smartphone based travel survey being developed in the Singaporean context.


The present study had as its main objective to examine stability and change in mothers and fathers' childrearing practices, in particular the use of inductive, coercive and non-interference practices with 24, 36 and 72 month-old children. Twenty four mothers and fathers who had an only child and lived in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre/RS participated in the study. When the children were 24 and 72 months old, the participants were interviewed about their child-rearing practices. When the children were 36 months old, they and their families were observed during lunch time, with focus on child-rearing practices. Repeated measures of ANOVA indicated differences in maternal inductive practices between 24 and 36 months old and differences in non-interference practices both between 24 and 36 as well as 36 and 72 months old. Concerning the fathers, differences were found between inductive practices at 24 and 72 months old and among non-interference practices at 24 and 36 months old as well as at 36 and 72 months old. The results suggest that both stability and change are found in parents' child-rearing practices over the course of children's development. Changes are related to the fact that parents' expectations and behaviors reflect their children's new abilities and demands.


Objectives This study had three objectives: (1) describe the prevalence of occupational exposure among Chinese medical personnel in detail, (2) verify the partial mediating role of work environment satisfaction in the relationship between occupational exposure and job satisfaction, and (3) examine if stress symptoms moderate the relationship between occupational exposure and job satisfaction. Design A large cross-sectional online survey was conducted in July 2018 in China. Setting A survey was conducted in 54 cities across 14 provinces of China. Participants A total of 12 784 questionnaires were distributed, and 9924 healthcare workers (HCWs) completed valid questionnaires. The response rate was 77.63%. Outcome measures A confidential questionnaire was distributed to HCWs. The relationships among and the mechanisms of the variables were explored using descriptive statistical analyses, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analysis. Results The most common occupational exposures among HCWs in the past 12 months were psychosocial and organisational hazards (85.93%). Overall, physicians (93.7%) and nurses (89.2%) were the main victims of occupational exposure. Occupational exposure correlated negatively with work environment satisfaction and job satisfaction, and positively with stress symptoms. Moreover, work environment satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between occupational exposure and job satisfaction, and stress symptoms moderated the relationship between occupational exposure and job satisfaction. Conclusion The incidence of occupational exposure among HCWs is generally high. The high frequency of psychosocial and organisational hazards among physicians and nurses should be taken seriously and dealt with in a timely manner by hospital managers. The negative impact of occupational exposure on job satisfaction must be buffered by measures to reduce stress symptoms and enhance working environment satisfaction, ultimately improving the overall quality of life of HCWs and promoting comprehensive development of the medical team.


Internet of Things (IoT) is growing as one of the fastest developing technologies around the world. With IPv6 settling down, people have a lot of addressing spaces left that even allows sensors to communicate with each other while collecting data, leaving alone cars that communicate while travelling. IoT (Internet of Things) has changed how humans, machines and devices communicate with one another. However, with its growth, a very alarming topic is the security and privacy issues that are encountered regularly. As many devices exchange their data through internet, there is a high possibility that a device may be attacked with a malicious packet of data. In such cases, the security of the network of communication should be strong enough to identify malicious data. In other words, it is very important to create an intrusion detection system for the network. In our research, we propose a comparison between different machine learning algorithms that can be used to identify any malicious or anomalous data and provide the best algorithm for two data-sets. One dataset is on the environmental characteristics collected from sensors and another one is network dataset. The first data-set is developed from the data exchanged between the sensors in an IoT environment and the second dataset is UNSW-NB15 data which is available online.


Immediately after application glyphosate is mostly adsorbed in the upper 2 cm of soils, and is then transported and adsorbed after few days in deeper soil horizons with concomitant increasing content of its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) . This work confirmed previous studies, where Fe- oxides seem to play a major role in the adsorption of glyphosate and AMPA in soils:  the Chernozem featured lower contents of Fe d and Fe o , with consequently lower adsorption of glyphosate and AMPA as compared with the higher weathered Cambisol and Stagnosol.