This work presents a novel collection method for gunshot residues (GSR) using a sampling procedure based on ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) solution as a complexing agent on moistened swabs. Detection was via a sector-field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HRICP-MS). The proposed collection and analytical method allowed detection of antimony (Sb), barium (Ba) and lead (Pb) after .38 shot tests. at detection limits of less than 1 microg L(-1) in four different areas of the hands of volunteers. This paper includes a discussion concerning hand areas near the thumb and forefinger as being more suitable for GSR collection as well as a comparison between differences observed using 2% diluted EDTA. 2% nitric acid solution, and simple deionized water as collecting solutions, proving the superior efficiency of EDTA in GSR recoveries.


This article examines distributional implications of the restructuring of international coffee markets that has occurred since the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 and market liberalization in coffee producing countries under structural adjustment programs. It is argued that increased financial investment on international commodity exchanges, together with market liberalization, have given rise to opportunities and challenges for actors in the coffee industry. Given the heterogeneity of market actors, these tend to exacerbate inequalities already present in the structure of production and marketing of coffee. JEL classification: L11, O13, G19


Purpose: Complications from RA can involve the thoracolumbar spine and cause severe spine instability and sagittal deformity. We present a surgical strategy to restore sagittal balance in a patient with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed. Results: We report the case of a 53-year-old woman with RA and severe back pain. She had dynamic instability of her lumbar spine with spondylolithesis at L3-L4 and L4-L5 as well as hypermobility at the C1-2 level without rheumatoid pannus. On 36-inch standing films, she had a sagittal vertical axis (SVA) of 219 mm. She underwent anterior and posterior instrumented fusion to restore her sagittal imbalance, which resulted in excellent relief of her back pain and marked improvement in ambulation and function. Conclusion: Patients with RA can develop severe sagittal deformity that could be the source of back pain. In patients with advanced RA, chronic inflammation could lead to ligament laxity that can result in spinal deformity under axial load. This deformity is amenable to reconstruction without the utilization of an osteotomy, which can produce excellent pain relief and restoration of function.


Lung fluke, Paragonimus westermani of Paragonimus species usually are accompanied by a persistent cough, hemoptysis, and chest pain. Extrapulmonary paragonimiasis caused by ectopic parasites in aberrant locations such as the abdominal wall, abdominal organs, and brain has been reported and the most commonly involved extrapulmonary organ is the brain. We present a case of 56-year-old male patient with intra-abdominal paragonimiasis who underwent laparoscopic excision of abdominal granuloma caused by parasite infection. An intra-abdominal mass associated with eosinophilia might be related to parasite infection. A laparoscopic approach is the most appropriate treatment modality in such benign abdominal pathology.


In this study a procedure to stress intensity factors calculation for imitation models made of titanium alloy is described. In service fatigue cracks are detected in a disk and blade "dovetail type" attachment. On the base of this attachment dimensions and with taking into account the biaxial loading conditions of rotating compressor disk the two geometries of imitation model of gas turbine engine compressor disk are developed. To accurate verification of biaxial loading conditions, the first imitation model of constant thickness is used. In order to fully reproduce the geometry of the compressor disk and conditions of mixed mode crack growth, the second imitation model with reduced cross section is proposed. The fatigue crack growth experiments of imitation models were carried out at room temperature on a biaxial testing machine. Two different stress ratio values are applied several times to each imitation model in order to fix the experimental crack front positions. The elastic and plastic stress intensity factors used for the representation of the experimental results are computed by using full-size 3D Finite Element analysis of the imitation models with surface quarter elliptical and through-thickness cracks.


E-learning is becoming globally widespread and more common. The usefulness of interactive systems in e-learning lies not in performing the processing task itself but in communicating requests and results between the system and its user. Therefor the E-Learning can offer great chances to students with disabilities that can access its application through an alternative channel using Human- Computer interaction (HCI) methods. This paper tries to review the various methods of (HCI) used for mobility disabilities and implement one of these methods using Electrooculography (EOG) signals to write using a virtual keyboard.


This paper proposes nondestructive current measurement for surface mounted power MOSFET on VRM board using the micro-magnetic probing technique to facilitation discussion of the self-turn-on phenomenon. A notable feature of the proposed technique is that the sensor part is much smaller than that of conventional methods because this method measures the intensity of a partial magnetic field caused by wire bonding inductance, whereas the conventional method employs a loop coil structure around the current flow. The small sense part enables measurement of the VRM board itself just by setting the magnetic probe on the MOSFET package. A calibration technique is introduced to reproduce current waveform and we confirm that the obtained current waveform agrees with that obtained by the conventional Current Transformer. Using the proposed technique, we successfully detect shoot through current waveform for high-side power MOSFET during self-turn-on phenomenon in VRM board. We also sense non-uniform current flow among 3 parallel low-side power MOSFETs caused by board layout location. This study demonstrates the capability of sensing VRM board transient current and indicates the importance of board GND layout distribution behavior in determining highly accurate trade-off between switching loss and self-turn-on loss.


Two white light emitting diodes(LEDs) were fabricated by using two kinds of yellow phosphor, YAG:Ce and (Sr,Ba) 2 SiO 4 :Eu, and their spectroscopic properties were analyzed as a function of temperature from room temperature to 80℃. The asymmetric double sigmoidal function was applied to both blue and yellow peaks of the emitting spectrum to obtain the center wavelength, the amplitude, the half width, and the skewness parameters. According to this analysis, the center wavelength of the blue peak shifted to longer wavelength while that of the yellow peak shifted to shorter wavelength. In addition, some of the skewness parameters were found to increase upon heating, which indicates that spectrum asymmetry becomes enhanced at higher temperatures. The changes in the color coordinates and the luminous efficacy were larger for the case of silicate-based white LED. These results suggest that the silicate-based white LED is inferior to the YAG-based white LED from the viewpoint of color stability, efficacy and color rendering index.


"In 1960, Leopoldo Zea proposed that the Mexican Chancellery should contain an area specialized in cultural promotion", reminds us the Mexican writer and diplomat Alejandro Estivill in this work, in which he reflects on the evolution of the country's cultural-policy that started with a strong sense of propriety over the different expressions and a nationalist pride concerning its historical heritage. This policy benefited from the strong cultural network that Mexico shared with Latin-America.


This study aims to determine the effect of additives of corn flour and corn forage fraction (Zea mays L.) in making silage on the content NDF ADF. This research was carried out on Street Kaliberantas No. 19 Alai Parak Kopi Padang and analyze in the Ruminant Nutrition Laboratory Faculty of Animal Science Andalas University Padang. This research was conducted by experiment method using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with a factorial pattern with 2 factors namely factor A is Forage corn which consists of 2 fractions namely : a1= Upper Fraction, a2= Lower Fraction. Factor B is the content of corn flour additives which consists of 3 levels namely b1= 4%, b2= 8%, b3=12% with 4 replications. The measure Variable is Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) dan Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF). The result showed that the additives up to 12% to Silage using forage corn had a significant effect (P<0,05) on the NDF content, while the ADF content had no significant effect (P>0,05) on silage.


The Gc, Hp, and Tf polymorphisms were studied in the population of South Yemen. The gene frequencies were in agreement with those of other populations in the Middle East. There was an indication of local variations due to ethnic heterogeneity, e.g. a relatively high frequency of TfD in 1 of the 5 subpopulations studied.


A policy reform such as trade liberalisation can accelerate structural change in an economy, causing an exogenous shift in relative factor demands. For some developing countries, the result may be an increase in skills demand associated with the adoption of newly available foreign technology and lower-cost imported capital goods. This demand shift may be permanent or only temporary, but in either case the skills supply should eventually increase in response to higher returns. One concern, however, is that with an initially highly skewed distribution of education the skilled labour supply adjustment may be prolonged; likewise any transitional increase in skill-based wage inequality.


Advice on Heart Transplants C. N. Barnard, F.A.C.S ................... 363 Enuresis Again R. C. MacKeith, F.R.C.P.; T. H. Gillison, M.R.C.P. .............................. 363 Immunological Destruction In Vitro of Cytomegalovirus Infected Cells P. Diosi, M.D., and Camela David, M.B..... 364 Diabetes Mellitus and Refined Carbohydrates Reverend H. C. Trowel, F.R.C.P........... 365 Insulin and Glucose in Treatment of Cardiogenic Shock R. P. Buckesfeld, DR.MED., and others...... 365 Prolonged Action of Pindolol W. H. Aellig, and K. Saameli ...... ........ 365 Acute Water Intoxication from Compulsive Drng M. Linquette, M.D., and others ...... ...... 365 Artificial Insemination by Donor J. J. Slome, M.B., D.P.H ................... 365 Achilles Tendon Reflex in Hypothermia and Myxoedema D. L. McLelan, M.R.C.P ................. 366 Malignant Hyperpyre W. G. Bradley, D.M ..................... 366 Treatment of Depression in General Practice A. D. Clift, M.D., and others ...... ........ 366 Efficacy of Measles Vaccination J. K. Anand, M.B., D.P.H ................. 367 Adverting of Antibiotics F. J. Borchardt, M.B.; J. P. Anderson, F.R.C.P.ED. ............................ 367 Prescribing Mandrax H. J. S. Matthew, F.R.C.P.ED ............... 367 "The No Touching Epidemic" J.-U. Walther, cAND.MED.; A. J. Richards, M.R.C.P. .............................. 367 Medical Staff Dining-rooms S. Gerrard, M= ....................... 368 Latent Morbidity after Abortion A. Hordern, F.R.C.PSYCH ............. 368 Australia Antigen in Reference Sera R. Vranckx . .368 Effects of Antibiotics on Oestrogen Metabolism M. J. Tikkanen, M.D., and others ......... 369 Drowning Accidents in Childhood E. H. Smith, M.R.C.P ..................... 369 Rural Dispensing Donau, H. Shepherd .............. 369 Doctors and Overpopulation F. Difford, M.B ......................... 369 Consultants' Superannuation C. D. Needham, F.R.C.P ................. 369 Salary Structure for Specialists in Community Medicine E. B. Lewi%, F.F.A.R.C.S ................... 370


Objectives: We performed a single-blind, prospective, randomized, controlled clinical study to compare the rates of postoperative morbidity in adults undergoing thermal welding tonsillectomy versus cold dissection tonsillectomy. Methods: Thirty-two adults with recurrent tonsillitis who were scheduled for elective tonsillectomy were randomized to either thermal welding or cold dissection tonsillectomy groups. The main outcome measures included intraoperative blood loss, intensity of postoperative pain expressed on a 10-cm visual analog scale (with 0 representing no pain and 10 representing the worst possible pain), day of cessation of significant pain (ie, a pain score of at least 7), and presence of postoperative hemorrhage estimated on a 3-point scale (with 0 representing no bleeding, 1 representing minor bleeding, and 2 representing major bleeding). Additional outcome measures included total analgesic requirements, last day of receipt of analgesics, presence of nausea and/or vomiting, and wound healing after 10 days of surgery. Results: The rate of intraoperative blood loss was significantly lower in the thermal welding group (p < .0001). Patients who had thermal welding tonsillectomy also showed a general trend toward lower pain scores, and this difference was statistically significant from the first to the fourth postoperative days (p < .05). Cessation of significant pain also occurred 3 days earlier in this group (p < .05). No significant difference was observed regarding pain medication, nausea and/or vomiting, postoperative hemorrhage, or wound healing. Conclusions: Thermal welding tonsillectomy is a relatively safe and reliable method with significantly less postoperative morbidity than cold dissection tonsillectomy.


Methods that enable the sensitive and label-free detection of protein biomarkers are well placed to make potentially signifi-cant contributions to diagnostics and derived personalized healthcare. In supporting this goal a myriad of (electrochemical) methodologies have been developed; recently electrochemical capacitance spectroscopy (ECS) emerged as an impedance-derived approach which, in employing surface-confined redox-transducers, circumvents problems associated with the use of solution-phase redox-probes. Herein, we expand this scope by utilizing phytic acid-doped polyaniline (PANI-Pa) as a novel redox-charging polymer support enabling the reagentless assaying of C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum with good sensitivi-ty. The construction of the sensory interface via electropolymerisation allows facile tuning of the polymers´ surface coverage and redox (capacitive) properties which in turn modulate both assay selectivity, fouling and sensitivity. Significantly, this methodology is readily extendable to a wide range of electrode materials and analytes.


Abstract Background and Purpose: The modern environment requires that organizations (profit and non-profit) continually harmonize their organizational models with changes in their respective environments and with their own visions and strategies for further development. The organizational structure of Emergency Medical Services (hereinafter EMS) is currently a very topical issue in Slovenia, given that a project to establish a new organization of EMS is currently underway at the national level. By examining the case of one region in Slovenia, this article presents an analysis of factors that impact on the number and types of EMS activities and depicts a forecast of future trends for the requirement of EMS. The analysis presents the initial phase of a strategic planning process for the mentioned activity and consequently, a starting point for the formation of an organizational EMS model. Methodology: This article presents an analysis of factors that impact on the formulation of an EMS model on the basis of research carried out for one geographical region of Slovenia. For the previous period, data was collected from 2002 to 2014. The software tool used for the analysis was STATA 13.0. For the purpose of forecasting a five-year period trend we used statistical package RStudio and Hyndman's Forecast package given that this package contains algorithms for forecasting univariate time series including exponential smoothing using automated spatial models and ARIMA modelling. Results: The research has confirmed a correlation between social/environmental factors and the rate of increase in the demand for EMS. A population's age structure has been identified as the key social factor that increases the need for EMS. On the basis of this finding, this article presents a model for forecasting growth trends in the scope of EMS activities. Conclusion: The research study has identified some important elements that are imperative to take into consideration when formulating an EMS network at the prehospital level. Population ageing has emerged as a key social factor. In the accordance with forecasted trends, an increase in the burden placed on EMS activities may also be anticipated in the future.


As high-quality water supply becomes limited in many regions of the world, alternative water sources are being used for irrigating urban landscapes. Therefore, salt- tolerant landscape plants are needed. Two greenhouse experiments were conducted to screen the salt tolerance of Zinnia marylandica ('Zahara Coral Rose', 'Zahara Fire', 'Zahara Scarlet', 'Zahara Starlight', 'Zahara White', and 'Zahara Yellow') and Z. maritima 'Solcito'. In Expt. 1, plants were subirrigated with nutrient or saline solutions at electrical conductivity (EC) at 1.4 (base nutrient solution, control), 3.0, 4.2, 6.0, or 8.2 dSm -1 for 4 weeks, whereas in Expt. 2, plants were surface-irrigated with the same nutrient or saline solutions for 4 weeks. In Expt. 1, all plants, regardless of cultivar, died by the end of the treatment at EC 6.0 and EC 8.2 as a result of high salinity in the root zone. Plants became shorter and more compact as EC of irrigation water increased. Shoot dry weight of all cultivars in EC 4.2 was reduced by 50% to 56% compared with that of the control. Shoot Na + and Cl - accumulated excessively as salinity increased in the irrigation water, whereas Ca 2+ ,M g 2+ , and K + did not change substantially. In Expt. 2, mortality varied with cultivar and treatment. Similar to Expt. 1, growth reduction resultingfromelevated salinityacrosscultivarswasfound.Therefore,itisconcluded that zinnia cultivars used in this study are sensitive to salinity and should not be planted in areas with high soil salinity or when alternative waters with high salinity may be used for irrigation.


This paper describes an experiment that will search for J/sup PC/ hybrid mesons at the Brookhaven MPS-II facility. Such explicitly exotic states are allowed in QCD, and are predicted to be in an accessible mass region by several models. The experiment will investigate the production of exotics in the reaction ..pi../sup /minus//p ..-->.. ..pi../sup /minus//f/sub 1/p. Expected rates and experimental sensitivity to possible hybrid states are discussed. 3 refs. 3 figs.


Recently, ultrasensitive stimuli-responsive materials have received extensive attention due to their high sensitivity and wide applications. Herein, we report a novel approach to design ultrasensitive responsive materials by rationally introducing the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect into supramolecular polymer gels. According to this approach, by rationally introducing self-assembly moieties and a fluorophore, the obtained gelator DNS can act as an AIEgen; it showed strong AIE after aggregating into the supramolecular polymer gel GDNS. More interestingly, because the aggregation of DNS led to amplification of the detective signal, the AIE-based supramolecular polymer gel GDNS could ultrasensitively detect the heavy metal ions Hg2+, Cu2+, and Fe3+ by a signal amplification mechanism; the lowest detection limits reached 10-11 M. In addition, the xerogel of GDNS could adsorb and separate Hg2+, Cu2+, and Fe3+ from aqueous solution with favourable adsorption properties, and the adsorption rates ranged from 94.70% to 99.37%. Furthermore, the gel GDNS could act as a convenient test kit for Hg2+, Cu2+, and Fe3+ as well as a smart fluorescent display material.


In this article, the issues related to vehicular traffic in big cities and heightened harmful substance emissions stemming from it were described. In the research part, the effect of air leakage in the SI engine intake manifold on substance emissions was investigated. The manifold was customized to simulate air leakage in each of its air ducts. Same ratio of leakage was assumed for each duct, and substance emissions were measured in full range of engine rotational speeds. A difference in exhaust gas composition was shown for each researched variant, being the result of varying cylinder filling ratio due to simulated air leakage.


Interest for hyperthermia was sparked when attending elective placement at a leading radiotherapy department in Germany, which is using hyperthermia as a standard adjunct to a variety of radiotherapy treatments in a large number of patients. Upon further research of this treatment modality it became apparent that it is commonly used in mainland Europe and North America, but not available at all in the United Kingdom (UK). Clinically induced hyperthermia is the heating of tissue to 40-45 degrees Celius. Hyperthermia alone has cytotoxic properties and used together with radiotherapy, a variety of synergistic effects make hyperthermia a strong radiosensitiser especially when used for bulky tumours. The aim of this project was to investigate in the form of a literature review if the use of hyperthermia together with radiotherapy has proven to be an effective multimodality treatment for cancer. A literature search was conducted using a range of sources including journals, books and electronic databases. The search strategy was based on the PICO model and identified literature was screened for relevance and the chosen papers critically appraised for their quality and validity based on predetermined evaluation tools. The evidence gained from the literature, points towards a benefit from the addition of hyperthermia to radiotherapy in some cancers. Improved survival, local control and palliation were seen in most trials, if not always statistically significant. The treatment related acute and long-term side-effects for hyperthermia were of an acceptable level. Whilst the heating techniques were notably improved in the more recent trials, further improvements especially regarding thermometry need to be made. Unfortunately, the trials and reviews evaluated were of sometimes rather poor quality and small sample sizes mean that the evidence is limited and that more, larger randomly controlled trials need to be conducted, closely following recognized guidelines to establish the potential of hyperthermia in conjunction with radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer.


Introduction Palatine tonsil disease often coexists with dermatological diseases. Correct diagnosis of inflammation of the palatine tonsil tissue and removal of the diseased palatine tonsils results in remission of the disease. Aim To determine similarities and differences in the immunohistochemistry profile of the palatine tonsil tissue between tonsillitis and hypertrophy, including location of the immunohistochemistry reactions in specific histological sites. Material and methods A prospective analysis of 50 palatine tonsils that had undergone tonsillectomy due to tonsillitis (30 cases) and hypertrophy (20 cases) was performed. The collected material underwent immunohistochemistry staining for: IL-1, IL-10, CD25, CD40, and CD69, and subsequently phenotypic expression of the obtained results was performed including their histological location. Results Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the tonsillitis and hypertrophy groups were found for almost all IHC reactions in the epithelium covering the tonsils for CD-25, CD-69, IL-1, IL-10. Furthermore, significant differences between these groups were found for IL-10 reaction in the subepithelial inflammatory infiltrate and follicular centres of lymphatic follicles as well as for CD-69 reaction between the follicles. When all the locations were summarized, significant (p < 0.05) differences were found for all IHC reactions except for CD-40. Conclusions The investigated markers and cytokines: CD25 and CD69, and IL-1 and IL-10 are more abundant in tonsillitis than in hypertrophy of the palatine tonsils.


The Message Passing Interface (MPI-1 and MPI-2) provides portability, and a degree of high performance in message passing. A careful review of the design shows many opportunities for performance have been missed, and that these omissions can be corrected. Especially relevant are mechanisms for taking advantage of program characteristics { common to many regular data-parallel and coarse-grain data-ow utilizations of MPI { that allow for better runtime optimizability. This paper describes classes of deeciencies and their solutions , through upward compatible strategies that allow \Fast MPI" implementations to exceed the performance of regular MPI implementations on the same platform. A simple approach to retaining portability is also ooered. The most important contribution is the utilization of message passing \temporal locality" in the speciication of middleware behavior and services between the application and the mid-dleware.


Abstract: A 55‐year‐old, right‐handed male patient wtih a past history of a stroke followed by a difficulty of speech and hearing fell and manifested a left hemiplegia. He could neither comprehend spoken language and melody nor repeat them, though he spoke with paraphasia and understood written language and nonverbal sound. An electroencephalogram, pneumoencephalogram and cerebral angiogram suggested the existence of old infarcts in the left temporal lobe and a probable new one in the right cerebrum. A diagnosis of this case was made as pure word deafness which might be caused by a reimpairment of the language function possibly transferred to the nondominant, right hemisphere following the early stroke.


The microstructures of general crumb rubber(CR), dynamic desulfurized crumb rubber(DDCR) and high speed agitation desulfurized crumb rubber(HSADCR) modified bitumens were investigated by a fluorescence microscope, and the physical properties of these three modified bitumens were studied.The results show that the dynamic desulfuration can improve the swelling capacity of crumb rubber in bitumen by destroying the sulfuratized bond of the crumb rubber,but the reunion of rubber particles during dynamic desulfuration also makes the swelling and the DDCR in bitumen difficult, so properties of the DDCR modified bitumen are not superior to the general crumb rubber modified bitumen.However,high speed agitation desulfuration can not only improve the swelling capacity of crumb rubber in bitumen,but also avoid the reunion of rubber particles,so some properties of bitumen can be improved by the modification of HSADCR.


Study Design. A study on acute low back pain (LBP) in consecutive working patients in a multicenter study in general practice. Objective. LBP costs are enormous in all countries. New guidelines are difficult to introduce. On the basis of a new, specially developed LBP scale, the aims were to predict the duration of sick leave (SL), and to examine if the guidelines concerning bed rest (BR) and referral to radiographical examination were followed. Summary of Background Data. Pain intensity and heavy work influence the course of SL. A finger-to-floor distance test assesses the mobility of the spine, and both the finger-to-floor distance test and the straight leg raising test (SLRT) can be used to predict the course of LBP. BR or waiting time for treatment or referral will prolong SL. The expectations of patients and general practitioners are strong outcome predictors as is information about the prognosis. Methods. A user-friendly 10-item questionnaire was specifically developed. The scale included the background date. From a predefined scale the patients were subgrouped into 3 categories in relation to SL: (1) "no SL" or "a few days of SL," (2) "1 week of SL," and (3) "more than 2 weeks of SL." The Fisher exact test was used to compare categorical variables. Results. Twenty-three doctors examined 207 working patients. A total of 114 patients (56%) completed the follow-up questionnaire. The 10-item scale showed a good correlation between the total score at the first general practitioner visit and predictable time of SL according to the 3 periods. The frequency of BR and referral to radiographical examination was low, and perhaps this was a consequence of using the scale. Conclusion. The specially developed short and user-friendly 10-item LBP scale was a good predictor of the duration of SL. A low rate of BR and radiographical examination may even be the result of using the scale. Level of Evidence: N/A


The rail/wheel rolling contact affects the microstructure in the surface layer of rail. Recently, continuum damage mechanics allows us to describe the microprocesses involved during the straining of materials and structures at the macroscale. Elastic and plastic strains, the corresponding hardening effects are generally accepted to be represented by global continuum variables. The purpose of continuum damage mechanics is to introduce the possibility of describing the coupling effects between damage processes and the stress-strain behavior of materials. In this study, the continuum damage mechanics caused by elastic deformation was briefly introduced and applied to the fatigue damage of the rails under the condition of cyclic loading. The material parameter for damage analysis was first determined so that it could reproduce the life span under the compressive loading in the vicinity of fatigue limit. Some numerical studies have been conducted to show the validity of the present computational mechanics analysis.


Impact force indentification plays an extremely important role to monitor structure health, where impacts can damage the structure, such as moving vehicle and industrial machines. Direct identification is not efficient and difficult due to environmental constraints and complex machines movements. Therefore, a lot of indirect methods were proposed in past studies. ANNs is one of the methods, which has drawn attention by researchers in recent years due to its unique advantages compared with other indirect identification techniques. It can analyze complex relationship of nonlinear input-output by learning from datasets without any mathematical model. Past studies mainly used conventional network Multilayes Perceptron (MLP) for impact indentification and it was already successfully applied in soem fields. But there are some disadvantages for MLP, such as local minima and slow learning speed. Radial Basis Neural Network (RBFN) was proven more error-tolerant and better than MLP using input feature peak arrival time (PAT). iN the previous study, more accure input feature (i.e minimum arrival time (MAT)) was proposed to compare the accuracy of RBFN and MLP. In the study, the effort to find better neural network algorithms in the application of impact force indetification continues. Another two Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) are proposedto study their effectiveness in solving impact indentification problem. This is because GRNN can avois local minima like MLP. Inaddition, it has similiar architecture with RBFN. MLP & RBFN use gaussian function as activation fuction, but GRNN has one extra special linear layer, where outputs are considered in this layer, thus GRNN's performance in impact force indetification is expected to be good. Moreover, GRNN evaluates each output independently from the other outputs. It may be ore accurate than MLPwhen there are multiple outputs. In addition, ANFIS uses hybrid learning algorithm. It is mixed with least mean square and gradient descent method, which cause many advantages, such as much better learning ability and less computational time. Therefore, this study will compare the accuracy and the effectiveness of ANFIS and GRNN with the conventional RBFN and MLP algorithms throught experimental verification. The result showed that the proposed neural networks GRNN and ANFIS were effective to identify impact force. The most appropriate neural network for impact force localization was GRNN, which improved the accuracy by 66.11% than previous algorithm RBFN. In addition, the most proper neural network for impact force quantification was ANFIS, which improved the accuarcy by 42.35% than the commonused neural network MLP.


Objective To explore the clinical features of patients with polymyositis(PM)and dermatomyositis(DM)to provide evidence for clinical diagnosis,treatment and prognostic evaluation.Methods Data of 71 eases of PM/DM concerning the initial symptoms,subsequent manifestations,muscle enzymes,eleetromyogram,muscle biopsy and prognosis were analyzed retrospectively and compared.Results Patients with PM were more likely to have fever,myalgia and muscle weakness at the onset,while skin lesions were the initial signs in most of DM patients irrespective of duration of the disease.The elevation of muscle enzymes was more common in PM compared with DM,and the changes in CK among PM/DM patients were of statistical significance before and after treatment(P0.05).The pathological study showed diffuse muscle fiber atrophy predominating in PM and perimysium atrophy in DM.Age and pulmonary infection were important factors related to prognosis.Conclusion Differences in the clinical features and pathology between PM and DM is noted by this study.


Summary Micro/nano structures formed via self-assembly of biological macromolecules, such as DNA and RNA, have potential applications as building units in micro/nano/biodevices. The self-assembled structures of biological macromolecules can be manipulated by applying electric field. Here we demonstrate such manipulation by using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Starting from randomly distributed CG DOPE lipids and polarizable water molecules, we studied the selfassembled structures in different hydration levels of lipid (the number of water molecules per lipid) and different strength of external electric fields. When the hydration level of lipid was 24 water per lipid (w/l) or 36 w/l, the self-assembled structures were lamellar bilayers. When the external electric field of 0.5 V/nm was applied on systems with different hydration levels of 24, 32 36 or 40 w/l, the self-assembled structures were inverted cylinders for the system with the hydration level of 24, 32 or 36 w/l and bilayer with pleats for the system with the hydration level of 40 w/l. When the hydration level was fixed at 36 w/l and different external electric field of 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 or 0.7 V/nm was applied, bilayer structures could form only when the external electric field was 0.0 and 0.1 V/nm. Interestingly, the bilayer structure was curved and mirror symmetry when the external electric field was 0.1 V/nm. The curved membrane was stable during the following 150 ns after its formation at about 40 ns. Longer simulations were not performed because of the computational power limitation. The imperfect mirror-symmetric membrane also formed in the simulation with the external electric field of 0.3 V/nm, but quickly it changed to a inverted cylinder structure.


Objectives
The feline gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome is capable of fermenting fibers. We evaluated specialized dietary plant fibers on feline GI microbiome composition & metabolism.

Methods
46 healthy adult cats were fed control food (CF) for 4 wks & test food (TF) for 8 wks (CF: 4129 kcal/kg, 1.6 g total dietary fiber, TDF; 0.7 g soluble fiber, SF; & 0.9 g insoluble fiber, INSF, per 100 kcal; TF: 4010 kcal/kg, 3.2 g TDF, 0.3 g SF, 2.9 g INSF per 100 kcal). All foods were complete balanced dry products & met 2017 AAFCO maintenance guidelines. CF fiber sources: cracked pearled barley, corn, dried beet pulp, fructooligosaccharides (FOS) & psyllium seed husk; TF: corn, ground pecan shells, cracked pearled barley, whole grain oats, dried beet pulp, pea fiber, flaxseed, dried citrus pulp, pumpkin, cranberry pomace, FOS & psyllium seed husk. Feces were collected after 4 wks of CF & after 4 & 8 wks of TF, cleaned of litter, homogenized, & frozen at -70C within 1 hour of defecation. Cats had free access to water, natural daylight & enrichment from toys, other cats & people. The study was reviewed & approved by the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. Fecal microbiome 16 s rRNA sequencing was performed using Illumina MiSeq & processed by Mothur. Predicted microbial functions were determined by PICRUSt & analyzed using PERMANOVA. The copy number corrected OTU counts were analyzed using negative binomial mixed models. Fecal short chain fatty acids (SCFA) were analyzed using liquid-liquid extraction & gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. Results significant at P < 0.05 are reported.

Results
At 4 & 8 wks, TF significantly increased acetic & propionic acids, decreased isobutyric, 2-methylbutyric, & isovaleric acids. The genera Peptococcus, Succinivibrio & Enterococcus were significantly decreased vs. CF at 4 & 8 wks while Blautia, Bacteroides, & Turicibacter were significantly increased vs. CF at 4 & 8 wks. Predicted microbial functions representing arginine, benzoate, butyrate, phenylalanine, propionate, tryptophan & tyrosine metabolic pathways were significantly different from CF at 4 wks.

Conclusions
TF shifts feline GI microbiome composition & metabolism toward saccharolytic fermentation & decreases putrefactive metabolites, characteristics which may benefit feline GI health.

Funding Sources
This study was funded by Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc.


Migration of non-volatile and volatile compounds from 'microwave and roasting bags' (MRB), made of Nylon 6,6 (and some Nylon 6), into chicken meat, skin, and juices during roasting (200 degrees C/2 h) in a conventional oven was determined. For measurement of migration of non-volatile compounds, cooked chicken was freeze-dried, extracted with methanol after addition of 2-azacyclononane (internal standard) and the extract cleaned-up using liquid-solid adsorption chromatography (silica gel). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the reverse phase mode using a linear gradient of methanol in water was used to quantify seven Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6 cyclic monomers and oligomers of molecular mass up to 678 daltons. Migration into chicken was 7.48 micrograms/g (8.26 mg/bag; 3.94 micrograms/cm2), 16% of the total non-volatile compounds contained in the MRB material. Individual migrants were also quantified. Migration of one volatile compound, 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone, into the roast chicken parts was measured. Extraction with diethyl ether, using a modified Likens-Nickerson system of concurrent steam distillation-solvent extraction with an internal standard (cyclohexanone) was performed for 10 h. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in the selected ion mode (SIM) was used for quantification. An average of 14.0 (+/- 4.36) micrograms/bag (or micrograms/chicken) migrated, being 0.08% of the total 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone present in MRB. Loss of volatile compounds to the atmosphere is believed to have occurred since there was another, more volatile compound (cyclopentanone), present in MRB, at levels higher than 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone, but this was not detected in roast chicken. In general, the transference of MRB components into roast chicken can be considered not to present a hazard.


Benzhydroles and nitriles upon gold-catalysed conversion deliver symmetrical ethers and/or N-substituted carboxylic amides. While with most phosphane ligands tested, the dominating product is always the ether, with the trimesitylene ligand the amides are the major products. The reaction conditions are much milder than those reported previously. Mechanistic control experiments with a chiral alcohol prove the intermediacy of carbenium ions, further studies with not readily ionisable alcohols indicate that for the benzhydroles the carbenium ions and gold(I)-hydroxy complexes are intermediates.


Styryl voltage-sensitive dyes (e.g., di-4-ANEPPS) have been widely and successfully used as probes for mapping membrane potential changes in cardiac cells and tissues. However, their utility has been somewhat limited because their excitation wavelengths have been restricted to the 450- to 550-nm range. Longer excitation/emission wavelength probes can minimize interference from endogenous chromophores and, because of decreased light scattering and lower absorption by endogenous chromophores, improve recording from deeper tissue layers. In this article, we report efforts to develop new potentiometric styryl dyes that have excitation wavelengths ranging above 700 nm and emission spectra extending to 900 nm. Three dyes for cardiac optical mapping were investigated in depth from several hundred dyes containing 47 variants of the styryl chromophores. Absorbance and emission spectra in ethanol and multilamellar vesicles, as well as voltage-dependent spectral changes in a model lipid bilayer, have been recorded for these dyes. Optical action potentials were recorded in typical cardiac tissues (rat, guinea pig, pig) and compared with those of di-4-ANEPPS. The voltage sensitivities of the fluorescence of these new potentiometric indicators are as good as those of the widely used ANEP series of probes. In addition, because of molecular engineering of the chromophore, the new dyes provide a wide range of dye loading and washout time constants. These dyes will enable a series of new experiments requiring the optical probing of thick and/or blood-perfused cardiac tissues.


The reactivity of the P4 butterfly complexes [{Cp'''Fe(CO)2}2(μ,η1:1-P4)] (A, Cp''' = C5H2tBu3) and [{Cp*Cr(CO)3}2(μ,η1:1-P4)] (B, Cp* = C5(CH3)5) towards the N-heterocyclic carbene IMe (1,3,4,5-tetramethyl-imidazol-2-ylidene) is reported. The reaction of A affords [P(IMe)2][Fe(CO)2Cp'''] (1) or [P(IMe)2][{Cp'''Fe}2(μ,η3:3-P3)] (2), the latter possessing a P3-allylic moiety. In contrast, the reaction of B yields [P(IMe)2][Cr(CO)3Cp*] (3) and [{Cp*Cr(CO)2}(η2-P2IMe2)][Cr(CO)3Cp*] (4), featuring a novel metal-bridged P2 dumbbell.


A computing cluster that interconnects multiple compute nodes is used to accelerate distributed reinforcement learning based on DQN (Deep Q-Network). In distributed reinforcement learning, Actor nodes acquire experiences by interacting with a given environment and a Learner node optimizes their DQN model. Since data transfer between Actor and Learner nodes increases depending on the number of Actor nodes and their experience size, communication overhead between them is one of major performance bottlenecks. In this paper, their communication performance is optimized by using DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit). Specifically, DPDK-based low-latency experience replay memory server is deployed between Actor and Learner nodes interconnected with a 40GbE (40Gbit Ethernet) network. Evaluation results show that, as a network optimization technique, kernel bypassing by DPDK reduces network access latencies to a shared memory server by 32.7% to 58.9%. As another network optimization technique, an in-network experience replay memory server between Actor and Learner nodes reduces access latencies to the experience replay memory by 11.7% to 28.1% and communication latencies for prioritized experience sampling by 21.9% to 29.1%.


The EUT radiometer system has one antenna of a beam waveguide type consisting of a multifrequency scalar horn and four reflectors. The 20/30 GHz radiometers operate according to the Dicke principle, the 12 GHz radiometer follows the total power principle. The temperature of the electronic circuits has been kept constant at a temperature of 310 ± 0.01 K.


The aliphatic partial structure common to the beta-receptor antagonists leads to similar products of their biotransformation. The main qualitative and quantitative differences of the metabolism of the compounds of this class, however, rest in the nature of their aromatic or heterocyclic substituents. The physico-chemical properties of the beta-blockers appear to be predominantly responsible for the extent of metabolic degradation and for the distribution in the body, especially for the binding to proteins. As a consequence of their different biological disposition the clinically relevant systemic bioavailabilities of the various beta-blockers from oral doses differ drastically. Practolol maintains an extreme position among all other compounds: It is most hydrophilic, it is not bound to proteins, it is metabolized least, but cleared renally in unchanged form to 85% of the dose. Despite its extremely high systemic bioavailability, relatively high daily doses were required for therapy. The receptor sensitivity for practolol has been rated 2 to 3 powers of 1- lower than of propranolol. Comparative pharmacokinetic assessment of beta-receptor antagonists requires quantitative analytical data in clinically representative groups of patients. This has been demonstrated by respective studies with oxprenolol. The intra- and inter-individual systemic bioavailability, the differential analysis of plasma and erythrocytes, the multiexponential elimination kinetics, and their possible dependence on the dose have been studied as clinically relevant pharmacokinetic characteristics. The continuing attempt of the pharmaceutical industry to optimize the properties of beta-blockers also has taken advantage of the slow release principle in oral dosage forms as shown by the example of oxprenolol. The beta-receptor antagonists belong to one of the youngest classes of pharmaceuticals. Pharmacokinetic and metabolic data for the different representatives of this class have been generated in different laboratories with different approaches and different techniques. Therefore, full comparative documentation is still incomplete.


Extracting cybersecurity entities such as attackers and vulnerabilities from unstructured network texts is an important part of security analysis. However, the sparsity of intelligence data resulted from the higher frequency variations and the randomness of cybersecurity entity names makes it difficult for current methods to perform well in extracting security-related concepts and entities. To this end, we propose a semantic augmentation method which incorporates different linguistic features to enrich the representation of input tokens to detect and classify the cybersecurity names over unstructured text. In particular, we encode and aggregate the constituent feature, morphological feature and part of speech feature for each input token to improve the robustness of the method. More than that, a token gets augmented semantic information from its most similar K words in cybersecurity domain corpus where an attentive module is leveraged to weigh differences of the words, and from contextual clues based on a large-scale general field corpus. We have conducted experiments on the cybersecurity datasets DNRTI and MalwareTextDB, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Background In accordance with the national trend there was a perceived increased incidence of anogenital and pharyngeal gonorrhoea presenting to the sexual health (SH) department at a district general hospital (DGH) in the year March 2013–2014. Aims and objectives To establish the incidence of gonorrhoea in our SH patient population (March 2013–2014). To ensure that the SH department was compliant with BASHH standards for the management of gonorrhoea. Methods Retrospective audit of all confirmed cases of gonorrhoea presenting to SH at one DGH in the period March 2013–2014. Results 79 patients were identified; all were audited. There was a high level of adherence to BASHH standards but concern regarding partner notification. Partner notification was initiated in 86% of cases, 95% were patient led. Patient led referral resulted in poor evidence of partner notification. 71% of all cases reported more than 1 sexual partner in the previous 3 months yet 57% of the total cases notified just 1 contact. 4 patients reported 10 or more contacts; only 1 patient was recorded as having notified 10 or more partners. Discussion/conclusion Poor partner notification may be contributing to increasing gonorrhoea prevalence. It has been suggested that patients from different demographics may preferentially use different, specific communication methods for partner notification. By working with patients to individually tailor notification methods based on demographic background, notification rates may be improved. This is an approach under consideration by SH at this DGH.


Jill McGowan was convinced that a programme of breathing retraining--the Buteyko Method - could reduce the medication needs of people with asthma. So she gave up her nursing job and sold her house and car to finance research. Training requires five 90-minute sessions. The 30-minute exercise programme has to be repeated six times a day initially. Introduction of the method to the NHS could have a major impact on asthma management with potentially huge savings on cost.


This article describes a case of the gastrointestinal food allergy (allergic gastroduodenitis), which was confirmed by biopsy of the mucosa of esophagus, stomach and duodenum, in a child with atopic dermatitis.


This paper describes the design of a novel multi-stable compliant mechanism capable of large angle deflections. The multi-stable COmpliant Rolling-contact Element (CORE), reduces friction, allows for large angular displacements, and requires no external force to remain in its multiple equilibrium positions. This paper develops and discusses seven methods to create multi-stable mechanisms from the CORE. These seven methods have different characteristics and advantages.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


The most effective antimalarial agents among the N4-monosubstituted 2-acetylpyridine thiosemicarbazones recently described by us have a cyclohexyl or a phenyl substituent and produce cures in Plasmodium berghei infected mice at a dose of 160 and 320 mg/kg, respectively. We report here on a related series of N4,N4-disubstituted 2-acetylpyridine thiosemicarbazones. Several members of this group bearing alkyl or cycloalkyl substituents at N4 show activity superior to the most active monosubstituted 2-acetylpyridine thiosemicarbazones. However, the greatest improvement in potency was seen when the N4-nitrogen atom was incorporated into a six- or seven-membered ring, such as the piperidine, piperazine, or azabicyclo[3.2.2]nonane systems, to give compounds with curative properties at a dose level as low as 20 mg/kg.


In this article, the European dilemmas of the year "2009" are focused from an unusual angle: from Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The premise is that this nontraditional approach allows a better appreciative of Europe, understood as a complex region, diverse and united under constant dynamic approaches and separations of the individual interests of each country, whether or not a member of the Union. It is clear that the EU is an achievement for the whole continent, however, are questions and unresolved issues, in addition, some of these relate to the future of enlargement of the Union and NATO, and it seems not always problems can be understood well enough if you look at and analyze exclusively from Brussels.


We used land-cover maps and active fire detection based on satellite imagery to evaluate the rates and spatial distribution of peatland deforestation in Southeast Asia from 1990 to 2010. Over this time period, the proportion of forest cover in the peatlands of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo fell from 77% to 36%. After two decades of extensive deforestation (31 000 km2; 4.9% yr−1) strongly associated with fire activity, Sumatra has been left with just 28% of its historical forested peatlands. If peatland deforestation is allowed to continue at current rates, the Southeast Asian peat swamp forests will disappear by around 2030. This will have serious consequences for the local communities that rely on the environmental services provided by peat swamp forests, will lead to the extinction of peat swamp forest species endemic to this region, and will contribute to global carbon emissions.


A group of 66 patients with purulent-septic surgical pathology on the background of type 2 diabetes mellitus (in the compensation phase) and atherosclerosis of vessels in lower extremities (in the decompensation phase) have been studied. The status of all patients has been determined by the syndrome of systemic inflammation reaction (rated 12.4 +/- 2.2 on the APACHE II scale). Group I (n = 30) included 19 men aged 53.7 +/-7.7 and 11 women aged 54.4 +/- 9.1, which were administered reamberin (single daily dose of 500 ml for three days after operation). Group II (n = 36) included 24 men aged 56.1 +/- 9.2 and 12 women aged 51.9 +/- 8.8 with analogous pathology and general status, which received infusion therapy without reamberin. It is established that the administration of reamberin in patients with purulent-septic surgical pathology on the background of type 2 diabetes mellitus and atherosclerosis of vessels in lower extremities is patho-. genetically justified and allows the reperfusion syndrome upon various operations to be prevented and the critical state in post-operation regime to be eliminated.


In the Unbalanced Growth Theory of Hirschman, which is one of the economic development models, while the sectors with high inter-sectoral relations are important, the sectors in which dependence of production on imports is low are valued in the export-based industrialization model, and in addition to economic development, environmental protection is targeted for sustainable development. The global trade chain that has been broken due to the COVID-19 confronts us with the fact that there is no single reality. The study is based on Giddens effort to create a crossroad to determine which model should be applied to achieve economic development in the post-pandemic period. In this context; by making Input-output analysis, coefficients of total forward linkages, import dependency coefficients of the sectors' production and environmental-energy emission coefficients per unit are calculated. The data the most recently published by WIOD was used. Through the obtained coefficients, the key sectors of Hirschman and Rasmussen are determined, the key sectors are ranked from the sector with the lowest dependence on imports to the sector with the highest and are matched, the similarity of the production chain between periods with the Leontief similarity analysis and Mann Whitney-U test are determined with environmental-energy use emissions per unit. In the post-pandemic period, the sectors in crossroad which will be created for economic development in Turkey will also be the key to economic development. These sectors; manufacture of textiles, wearing apparel and leather products, manufacture of paper and paper products, manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, manufacture of computer and electronic and optical products.


The authors present a neural predictive system for on-line writer-independent character recognition. The data collection of each letter contains the pen trajectory information recorded by a digitizing tablet. Each letter is modeled by a fixed number of predictive neural networks (NN), so that a different multilayer NN models successive parts of a letter. The topology of each letter-model only permits transitions from each NN to itself or to its neighbors. In order to deal with the great variability proper to cursive handwriting in the omni-scriptor framework, they implement a holistic approach during both learning and recognition by performing adaptive segmentation. Also, the recognition step implements interactive recognition and segmentation. The approach compares neural techniques combined with dynamic programming to its extension to the hidden Markov model (HMM) framework. The first system gives quite good recognition rates on letter databases obtained from 10 different writers, and results improve considerably when one considers the extension of the first system to the durational HMM framework.


Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁ ) is a potent hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic mycotoxin in human beings. It is accumulated in animal tissues and injured cell through variable metabolic pathway. This study was conducted to determine the effect of antioxidant vitamins on liver function enzymes and hepatic damage of AFB₁ treated mice. The 6 weeks old male ICR mice were randomly separated 6 groups, vehicle solvent or vitamin C(10 mg/kg/day) and vitamin E(63.8 mg/kg/day) were administered by interaperitoneal(i.p.) injection and 1 hr later, vehicle solution(DMSO) or AFB₁(0.4 mg/kg) were injected. The results obtained as follow ; The levels of liver function enzymes such as GOT, GPT, LDH, and alkaline phosphatase, in sera of mice were remarkably elevated by treatment with AFB₁ only. However, those enzymes were significantly alleviated by co-treatment with antioxidant vitamins(p<0.01). Especially the levels of LDH and ALK phosphatase were similar to those of control groups(p<0.01). The transmission electron microscopy(TEM) image of intracellular microrganelles on the liver cell of mice was also degenerated extremely by treatment with AFB₁, but vitamin C and vitamin E gave good effects on cellular deformation. The intracellular microrganelles such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus and nucleic membrane were nearly disappeared the cellular deformation by antioxidant vitamins co-administration. With above results, we could estimated that antioxidant vitamins blocked AFB₁ induced hepatic cell damage.


Uterine activity in vitro was measured isometrically by integrating tension against time, and contractions were recorded on a kymograph using a servo-recorder. Ouabain caused a persistent contraction both of the spontaneously contracting and of the electrically stimulated uterus, the response depending upon the presence of calcium. After ouabain had induced a contraction of the spontaneously active uterus, relaxation to the baseline after washing out the ouabain was succeeded by a period of inactivity. Since the uterus could respond as usual to stimulation during this period, ouabain appeared to be selectively depressing spontaneous contractions. High concentrations of progesterone suppressed uterine activity and the response to ouabain. Ouabain reduced the susceptibility of the uterus to depression by anoxia.


A HVAC(Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) is adapted to increase the comfort of the cabin environment for train. The train HVAC duct system has very long duct and many outlets due to the shape of a train set. the duct cross section shape is limited by a roof structure and equipments. Therefore, the pressure distribution and flow uniformity is an important performance indicator for the duct system. In this study, the existing blow down type HVAC duct system for a train was supplemented to improve the flow uniformity by applying a design method combining design of experiment (DOE) with numerical analysis. The design variables and the test sets were selected and the performance for each test set was evaluated using CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics). The influence of each design variable on the system performance was analysed based on the results of the performance evaluation on the test sets. Furthermore, the optimized model, whose the flow uniformity was improved was produced using the direct optimization(gradient-based method). Finally, the performance of the optimized model was evaluated using numerical analysis, and it was confirmed that its flow uniformity has indeed improved.


Racial discrimination in restaurant service is often depicted as an economically rational response to servers' concerns about perceived inadequate tipping by black and/or Hispanic customers. However, drawing from sociological and criminological theories that critique the limits of economic models of human behavior, we argue that discrimination against black and Hispanic diners may be inhibited by servers' moral concerns about discrimination. Further, such moral restraints might also buffer the influence of economic motives regulating discrimination. Ordinal logistic regression models of survey data collected from a sample of U.S. restaurant servers (N = 872) are employed to assess whether race-based perceptions of customers' tipping behaviors and moral restraints interact to predict the prevalence and frequency of servers' self-reported discrimination against black and Hispanic diners. Results suggest that servers' economically motivated, race-based beliefs about the tipping practices of black, Hispanic, and white customers are associated with self-reported discrimination. Specifically, we find that servers who harbor negative attitudes toward the tipping practices of customers of color (i.e., blacks or Hispanics) or positive attitudes toward whites' tipping behaviors are also more likely to report withholding effort from their black and Hispanic patrons. However, servers with strong moral restraints are more likely to refrain from discriminating against black and Hispanic diners, or do so less frequently, despite expressing concerns about inadequate tipping practices among black and Hispanic vis-à-vis white clientele.


Geochemical investigations on gases and interstitial waters from ODP Site 768 (Sulu Trench/Philippines) demonstrate the application of molecular gas composition in combination with stable isotope analyses to the genetic classification of light hydrocarbons. C/C and D/H ratios of methane from gas pockets in cores and gases desorbed from frozen sediments by a vacuum/acid treatment suggest a microbial generation of methane by a CO2 reducing process in sediments with low sulfate concentrations. Isotope data and molecular composition of sediment gases liberated by the vacuum/acid treatment seem to be affected by a secondary desorpti° process during sampling. A comparison between the D/H ratios of methane from gas pockets and interstitial H2O points to an in-situ generation of methane down to a sub-bottom depth of approx. 720 m. Below this depth hydrogen isotope data indicate a migration of light hydrocarbons into pyroclastic sediments at this site. The occurrence of higher hydrocarbons (propane to pentane) in gases from gas pockets coincides with the vertical distribution of mature organic matter. Gases within the zone of mature organic matter are gases of a mixed microbial and thermal origin.


BACKGROUND
Erlotnib is the inhibitor of epidemic growth factor receptor and mainly used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the antitumor efficacy and toxicity of erlotnib in the treatment of Chinese elderly NSCLC patients with multimetastases.

METHODS
Tirty-three Chinese elderly NSCLC patients with multimetastases received 150 mg of erlotnib orally once daily until disease progressing or intolerable toxic developing.

RESULTS
Tirty patients were evaluable for therpeutic effect. Without complete regression being observed, 6 patients got partial resonse (PR, 20%), 16 stable disease (SD, 53.33%) and 8 progressive disease (PD, 26.68%). The total response rate was 20.0% and disease control rate including both tumor response and stable disease was 73.3%. On the pathology, compared with the patients with squamous cell carcinoma, those with adenocarcinoma had not significant longer median overall (13.592+/-1.914 months vs 9.846+/-1.598 months, P=0.301) and progression-free survival times (7.367+/-0.923 months vs 6.615+/-1.366 months, P=0.488), The median survival was sigificantly related with meningeal metastasis, metastasis of liver, pleural efusion using survival analysis. The main toxicities of erlotnib were skin toxicity (rash) and diarrhea with no need of further treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Erlotnib demonstrates significant antitumor activity and a favorable tolerability profile in Chinese elderly advanced NSCLC patients with multimetastases.


An analytical model for the trench gate MOSFET is presented. It consists of a more accurate model for the inversion channel region, which considers the effects of doping variation, transverse and longitudinal electric fields on electron mobility. In addition, it also accurately incorporates the feature of current transfer from the accumulation channel region into the n-drift region. The model presented and validated by numerical simulation results can be useful in the initial design of optimum device structures.


1. M. Phil Scholar, Department of Education, Riphah International University Faisalabad Campus, Punjab, Pakistan. 2. Assistant Professor (Visiting), Department of Education, Riphah International University Campus Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan 3. Chairman, Department of Education, Government College University Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: February 13, 2021 Accepted: May 01, 2021 Online: May 15, 2021 The current study was conducted to identify the causes of the low literacy rate and its impact on the community at the primary level. Two objectives were formulated (a) to explore causes of low literacy rate and (b) to discover the impact of low literacy rate on the community. All the teachers of primary schools working in the public sector and parents of the students were the population. A sample of 210 (200 teachers and 10 parents) was selected through the convenience sampling method fromTehsil Kamaliadistrict Toba Tek Singh of the Punjab province of Pakistan. An instrument based on a fivepoint Likert scale for teachers and an interview schedule for parents was used for data collection. Quantitative data revealed that overpopulation, lack of staff at schools, ineffective curriculum, lack of discipline at schools, corporal punishment, poverty, old teaching methods, social constraints/family disputes, and health and safety were the causes of illiteracy. Moreover, the study revealed that there had no political influence on low literacy. Similarly, qualitative data also confirmed that said indicators are the causes of low literacy. On the basis of the results of the study, it is recommended that government, as well as concerned authorities, should eradicate said causes to improve the literacy rate.


BACKGROUND
Many stimuli can successfully protect the heart against ischemia. We investigated whether gap junction uncoupling before ischemia was myoprotective. We also studied the function of the adenosine triphosphate-dependent potassium channel, which has been implicated in the mechanism of pharmacologic preconditioning, with respect to gap junction physiology.

METHODS
Twenty-eight rabbit hearts were placed on a Langendorff perfusion apparatus. Five were given a 5-minute infusion of 1 mmol/L heptanol (a gap junction uncoupler), 5 were given 10 micromol/L 2,3-butanedione monoxime (an electromechanical uncoupler), and 6 were given no drug. The left anterior descending coronary artery was then occluded for 1 hour and reperfused for 2 hours. Six hearts received 10 micromol/L glybenclamide before heptanol to evaluate the role of the adenosine triphosphate-dependent potassium channel. Six hearts underwent ischemic preconditioning with 2 cycles of 5 minutes of global ischemia and reperfusion. Action-potential duration of the ischemic zone, left ventricular developed pressure, and coronary flow were measured continuously. Infarct size was determined at the end of reperfusion.

RESULTS
Heptanol significantly reduced infarct size (from 46% +/- 2% to 22% +/- 5%, P <.01), an effect that was not prevented by glybenclamide. Butanedione monoxime decreased developed pressure but did not significantly reduce infarct size (46% +/- 5% vs 46% +/- 2%, P = not significant). There were no differences among groups with regard to developed pressure or action-potential duration.

CONCLUSION
Directly blocking gap junctions preconditions the heart. This protection is not a direct result of a decrease in developed pressure before a prolonged ischemic period nor is it achieved through a mechanism involving the adenosine triphosphate-dependent potassium channel.


Objective: To explore the effects of the application of membrane anatomy concept in sleeve gastrectomy on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in patients with obesity or metabolic diseases. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Clinical data of 88 patients with obesity or metabolic diseases who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University from September 2018 to June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Forty patients underwent sleeve gastrectomy with membrane anatomy concept as membrane anatomy group, and the other 48 patients underwent traditional sleeve gastrectomy as traditional operation group. There were no significant differences in baseline data between the two groups (all P>0.05). The PONV score of and the times of antiemetic drugs used during 0-6 h and 6-24 h after operation were compared between the two groups. Higher PONV represents more serious nause and vomiting, the score ≥5 is defined as clinical significant PONV. Results: All patients of the two groups successfully completed the operation, and there was no conversion to open, reoperation, and operation-related death. The intraoperative blood loss in the membrane anatomy group was significantly less than that in the traditional surgery group [median: 5.0 (5.0, 5.8) ml vs. 10.0 (5.0, 10.0) ml, Z=-3.265, P=0.001]. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of operative time, postoperative hospital stay, gastroesophageal reflux, pain score and postoperative complications (all P>0.05). There was no postoperative bleeding or gastric leakage in either groups. There were no significant differences in PONV score, incidence of clinically significant PONV and use of antiemetics 0-6 h after operation between two groups (all P>0.05). From 6 to 24 hours after operation, compared with traditional surgery group, the membrane anatomy group had lower PONV score (4.6±0.9 vs. 5.1±0.7, t=-2.192, P=0.007), lower incidence of clinically significant PONV [55.0% (22/40) vs. 83.3% (40/48), χ(2)=8.414, P=0.004] and less use of antiemetics [3 times: 10.0% (4/40) vs. 27.1% (13/48), Z=-2.880, P=0.004]. Postoperative follow-up ranged from 1 to 6 months (median 3), 32 cases in membranous anatomy group and 38 cases in the traditional operation group were followed up. One case in the traditional operation group received symptomatic treatment in the local hospital due to functional intestinal obstruction 1 month after surgery and was discharged after recovery. The remaining patients had no postoperative complications and were not readmitted to hospital. Conclusion: Sleeve gastrectomy based on membrane anatomy in the treatment of patients with obesity or metabolic syndrome can make surgical procedure more precise and meticulous, reduce the intraoperative bleeding and the incidence of PONV.


The courtiers Edmund and Edgar are critical to the action of King Lear, yet there -has been little scholarship which has treated these characters in depth. I argue that one way to comprehend them and their significance in the play's action is to analyze their behavior according to the standards of the Renaissance conduct books that were circulating in England at the beginning of the seventeenth century when the play was written. Baldassare Castigligone's The Book of the Courtier, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, and Desiderius Erasmus's The Education of a Christian Prince each sheds light on important themes in Renaissance courtiership and statecraft from three different world views. Though the brothers' applications of these theories is different and their goals vary, Edmund and Edgar both exhibit in their speech and behavior counsel from all three conduct books at various points in the play. My study aims to promote a greater understanding of these characters and foreground their importance to the play and its themes for the casual reader, the scholar, and the playgoer, as well as the director of the play.


Retinal ganglion cells in the turtle were extracellularly recorded to define the shapes of their receptive fields by small moving light spots. To better define the geometries, spectral-light adaptations and vitreal injections of 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (APB) were used to disrupt balances in field organization along dimensions of wavelength, ON and OFF responses, and center/surround areas. Three-dimensional data plots were fit by Gaussian, Gabor, and cardioid functions to show that the shapes of receptive fields are predicted by combinations of these multiplied functions. Results indicate that Gaussian functions describe simple symmetrical receptive fields that are center-only; Gabor functions describe center/surround color-opponent receptive fields that have a ring of spike activity in the periphery; and directionally selective receptive fields, in contrast, which are asymmetrical, are described by cardioid functions adjoined to Gaussian or Gabor functions. The advantage of linking multiplied functions is that receptive fields are unified by a model that predicts progressively more complex field geometries derived from particular stimulating conditions.


The transfection recombinant transforming gene, tre, originated from discontinuous human genetic elements after transfection of NIH3T3 cells with genomic DNA from a Ewing's sarcoma cell line. Probes for the three normally discontinuous human elements involved in the transfection recombinant were subcloned and used in conjunction with a panel of rodent-human hybrid cells to determine their normal location in the human genome. The leftmost (5') element derives from the long arm of chromosome 5 (5q); the internal fragment derives from human chromosome 18 proximal to the bcl-2 gene; and the rightmost (3') element derives from the long arm of chromosome 17 (17q) distal to an acute leukemia breakpoint at 17q21. In situ hybridization of the same probes to human metaphase chromosomes confirmed localization of these sequences to regions 5q23----q31, 18q12, and 17q12----q22.


Background: Active and thoughtful participation of the bronchial asthma (BA)patients in treatment is a necessary condition to achieve and maintain control of asthma. The correlation between the adherence to treatment and quality of life (QL) in asthmatics is not covered enough. Aim : to study the influence of adherence to treatment on a one-year dynamics of QL in asthmatics. Methods : 30 patients including 12 with mild and 18 with moderate BA were examined. According to the data of the original questionnaire 15 patients had a high adherence to treatment (1st group) and 15 patients had a low one (2nd group). All patients received basic therapy. General (SF-36) and specific (AQLQ) QL, control of asthma (ACT) were identified. Results: The initial general and specific QL were significantly higher in the 1st group in all domains with the exception of MH domain by SF-36. A year after the initial examination in the 2nd group there was no improvement in QL. In the 1st group there were a significant improvement in SF domain (46.20±3.78 and 56.21±5.66) by SF-36 and in the domains "Symptome" (2.84±0.25 and 3.71±0.29 points) and "Activity limitation" by AQLQ (3.11±0.22 and 3.45±0.24 points). Besides, the level of ACT was significantly higher in the patients of this group in a year (10.80±1.42 and 14.20±1.30), whereas in the 2nd group it did not change. The patients with mild BA did not have any difference in a year dynamics. Significant improvement of QL in RE domain (48.88±10.72 and 89.74±23.05 points) was registered in patients with moderate asthma. Conclusion: High adherence to treatment in asthmatics has the biggest influence on the improvement of QL during a year.


This work presents BlinkLinMulT, a transformer-based framework for eye blink detection. While most existing approaches rely on frame-wise eye state classification, recent advancements in transformer-based sequence models have not been explored in the blink detection literature. Our approach effectively combines low- and high-level feature sequences with linear complexity cross-modal attention mechanisms and addresses challenges such as lighting changes and a wide range of head poses. Our work is the first to leverage the transformer architecture for blink presence detection and eye state recognition while successfully implementing an efficient fusion of input features. In our experiments, we utilized several publicly available benchmark datasets (CEW, ZJU, MRL Eye, RT-BENE, EyeBlink8, Researcher's Night, and TalkingFace) to extensively show the state-of-the-art performance and generalization capability of our trained model. We hope the proposed method can serve as a new baseline for further research.


Context. Measuring the diffuse Galactic γ-ray flux in the TeV range is difficult for ground-based γ-ray telescopes because of the residual cosmic-ray background, which is higher than the γ-ray flux by several orders of magnitude. Its detection is also challenging for space-based telescopes because of low signal statistics.
Aims. We characterise the diffuse TeV flux from the Galaxy using decade-long exposures of the Fermi Large Area Telescope.
Methods. Considering that the level of diffuse Galactic emission in the TeV band approaches the level of residual cosmic-ray background, we estimated the level of residual cosmic-ray background in the SOURCEVETO event selection and verified that the TeV diffuse Galactic emission flux is well above the residual cosmic-ray background up to high Galactic latitude regions.
Results. We study spectral and imaging properties of the diffuse TeV signal from the Galactic plane. We find much stronger emission from the inner Galactic plane than in previous HESS telescope estimates (lower bound). We also find a significant difference in the measurement of the Galactic longitude and latitude profiles of the signal measured by Fermi and HESS. These discrepancies are presumably explained by the fact that regions of background estimate in HESS have non-negligible γ-ray flux. Comparing Fermi measurements with those of ARGO-YBJ, we find better agreement, with the notable exception of the Cygnus region, where we find much higher flux (by a factor 1.5). We also measure the TeV diffuse emission spectrum up to high Galactic latitude and show that the spectra of different regions of the sky have spectral slopes consistent with Γ = 2.34 ± 0.04, which is harder than the slope of the locally observed spectrum of cosmic rays with energies 10–100 TeV, which produce TeV diffuse emission on their way through the interstellar medium. We discuss the possible origin of the hard slope of the TeV diffuse emission.
Conclusions. Fermi/LAT provides reliable measurements of the diffuse Galactic emission spectrum in the TeV range, which are almost background free at low Galactic latitudes. The diffuse flux becomes comparable to the residual cosmic-ray background at Galactic latitudes |b| > 50°. Its measurement in these regions might suffer from systematic uncertainty stemming from the uncertainty of our phenomenological model of the residual cosmic-ray background in the Pass 8 Fermi/LAT data.


We examine how an unassuming domestic technology-the fuel-efficient stove-came to be construed as an effective tool for reducing sexual violence globally. Highlighting the process of problematization, the linking of problems with actionable solutions, we show how US-based humanitarian advocacy organizations drew upon spatial, gender, perpetrator, racial, and interventionist representations to advance the notion that "stoves reduce rape" in Darfur. Though their effectiveness in Darfur remains questionable, efficient stoves were consequently adopted as a universal technical panacea for sexual violence in any conflict or refugee camp context. By examining the emergence and global diffusion of the rape-stove problematization, our study documents an important example of the technologizing of humanitarian space. We postulate fuel-efficient stoves to be a technology of Othering able to simplify, combine, decontextualize, and transform problematizations from their originating contexts elsewhere. When humanitarian advocates construe immensely complex crises as "manageable problems," the promotion of simple technical panaceas may inadvertently increase the burden of poverty for user-beneficiaries and silence the voices of those they claim to champion and serve.


A study on the dielectric characteristics of various cryogenic materials should be conducted to design an electrically reliable high-voltage superconducting apparatus. Especially, the dielectric characteristics of gaseous and solid insulation materials are important for designing current lead parts, and those of gaseous and solid insulation materials are indispensable for designing superconducting coil parts. A subcooled liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling system is the most promising, with respect to insulation, thermal stability, and current capacity, in the development of a high-voltage superconducting apparatus. In this paper, dielectric experiments on gaseous nitrogen ( GN2), LN2, and glass fiber reinforced plastic are conducted under ac and lightning impulse voltage for various pressures. Sphere-to-plane electrode systems are used to examine the dielectric characteristics of insulation materials according to field utilization factor (ξ). The experimental results are analyzed by a finite element method. The empirical formulae for calculating the electrical breakdown voltages of various cryogenic insulation materials at sparkover are presented.


BACKGROUND
To calculate a pooled estimate of relative risk (RR) of lung cancer associated with exposure to passive smoking in never smoking women exposed to smoking spouses. This study is an updated meta-analysis that also assesses the differences between estimated risks according to continent and study type using meta-regression.

METHODS
From a total of 101 primary studies, 55 studies are included in this meta-analysis, of which, 7 are cohort studies, 25 population-based case-control and 23 non-population-based case-control studies. Twenty previously published meta-analyses are also reviewed. Fixed and random effect models and meta-regression are used to obtain pooled estimates of RR and P-value functions are used to demonstrate consistency of results.

RESULTS
The pooled RR for never-smoking women exposed to passive smoking from spouses is 1.27 (95% CI 1.17-1.37). The RR for North America is 1.15 (95% CI 1.03-1.28), Asia, 1.31 (95% CI 1.16-1.48) and Europe, 1.31 (1.24-1.52). Sequential cumulative meta-analysis shows no trend. There is no strong evidence of publication bias.

CONCLUSIONS
The abundance of evidence, consistency of finding across continent and study type, dose-response relationship and biological plausibility, overwhelmingly support the existence of a causal relationship between passive smoking and lung cancer.


It came to our attention that in the paper of Tygel et al. (1996), formula (A-5) is incorrect. First, it is different from the cited equation (17) of Tygel et al. (1995). Second, the derivation of formula (17) in Appendix A of Tygel et al. (1995) is invalid for the purposes of Tygel et al., (1996) because in the 1995 paper, a rotation is treated, whereas in Tygel et al. (1996), a projection matrix is needed. Further investigation of the subject was needed to resolve these inconsistencies.


Theoretical investigations into the deflection angle caused by microlenses offer a direct path to uncovering principles of the cosmological microlensing effect. This work specifically concentrates on the the probability density function (PDF) of the light deflection angle induced by microlenses. We have made several significant improvements to the widely used formula from Katz et al. First, we update the coefficient from 3.05 to 1.454, resulting in a better fit between the theoretical PDF and our simulation results. Second, we developed an elegant fitting formula for the PDF that can replace its integral representation within a certain accuracy, which is numerically divergent unless arbitrary upper limits are chosen. Third, to facilitate further theoretical work in this area, we have identified a more suitable Gaussian approximation for the fitting formula.


We developed a fully digital implementation of the Silicon Photomultiplier. The sensor is based on a single photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) integrated in a standard CMOS process. Photons are detected directly by sensing the voltage at the SPAD anode using a dedicated cell electronics block next to each diode. This block also contains active quenching and recharge circuits as well as a one bit memory for the selective inhibit of detector cells. A balanced trigger network is used to propagate the trigger signal from all cells to the integrated time-to-digital converter (TDC). Photons are detected and counted as digital signals, thus making the sensor less susceptible to temperature variations and electronic noise. The integration with CMOS logic has the added benefit of low power consumption and possible integration of data post-processing. In this paper, we discuss the sensor architecture and present first measurements of the technology demonstrator test chip.


We consider the phenomenological description of the two pion invariant mass spectrum in the $V' \to V \pi\pi$ decays. We study the parametrization of the amplitude involving both $S$ and $D$ wave contributions. From a fit to the two pion decays of the $ \Upsilon(nS)$ and $\Psi(nS)$ we determine the $f_0 (600)$ mass and width to be $m_{=528 \pm 32$ MeV and $\Gamma_{f_0}=413\pm 45$ MeV. The mass and width values we report correspond to the real and imaginary part of the S matrix pole respectively. Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures


In this paper, we propose a 3rd-order nonlinear IIR filter for compensating nonlinear distortions of loudspeaker systems. The 2nd-order nonlinear IIR filter based on the Mirror filter is used for reducing nonlinear distortions of loudspeaker systems. However, the 2nd-order nonlinear IIR filter cannot reduce nonlinear distortions at high frequencies because it does not include the nonlinearity of the self-inductance of loudspeaker systems. On the other hand, the proposed filter includes the effect of such self-inductance and thus can reduce nonlinear distortions at high frequencies. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed filter can realize a reduction by 3.2 dB more than the conventional filter on intermodulation distortions at high frequencies.


In the course of independent investigations in these Laboratories, studies have been made of the products resulting from the carbonation of the Grignard reagent derived from crotyl and methylvinylcarbinyl bromides.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, this work was carried out as part of an extensive program of research on the nature of the allylic Grignard reagent and its reactions with a variety of substances. The approach, therefore, was one which gave detailed attention to all of the products formed in the reaction. On the other hand, certain studies now in progress at Princeton University on the reactions of the isomeric olefinic acids R-CH=CH--CH_2CO_2H (I), R-CH-(CO_2H)-CH=CH_2 (II), led to an investigation of the carbonation of allylic Grignard reagents with particular attention being focused on the acidic components of the reaction mixture, since it appeared that a convenient method of the synthesis for at least one and perhaps both of the isomerides I and II would be available if the reaction proved successful.


Given the relevance of vitamin D in calcium metabolism homeostatic control, as well as its role as differentiation and cell proliferation modulator, it is important to study its circulating level in patients considered at risk, in order to develop prevention strategies. We studied 77 postmenopausal women with no history of osteoactive drug therapy, corticosteroid intake or diseases that could alter bone metabolism, attending the Menopause Center at the Hospital Provincial del Centenario, Rosario, Argentina. A medical history was taken, and a food consumption frequency questionnaire was applied in order to estimate daily calcium intake. To assess daily physical exercise, work and sports activities were investigated. Serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and 25(OH)D were measured, and a hip DXA scan was performed in every patient. An inappropriate level of 25(OH)D was observed in 86.3% of patients. The 25(OH)D average value was found within the insufficiency range (<30 ng/ml) whereas PTH average concentration fell within the normal range, and bone mineral density average value was found within the osteopenic category. A statistically significant negative logarithmic association was observed between serum PTH level and vitamin D status (p = 0.01). Mean 25(OH)D concentration among patients who had reported fractures was significantly lower than the corresponding to women who had not suffered this type of event. Patients with vitamin D deficiency had significantly wider mean Cobb angle; higher sum of wedge angles of T4 - T12 vertebral bodies mean values, and higher uncompromised vertebrae wedge angle values than non-deficient women. This study shows high hypovitaminosis D occurrence among these postmenopausal women.


This study aims to know the effect of time on the germinated waxy corn flour characteristics and to know which time that can produce a germinated waxy corn flour with the best characteristics. This research used a Complete Randomized Design with a different germination time as the treatment, which is 0 hour, 24 hour, 36 hour and 48 hour. The experimentation was repeated 4 times resulting 16 experimental units. The data obtained were analyzed using an analysis of variance and if the treatment had a significant effect, it was followed by a Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The results showed that the effect of time had a very significant effect on total rendement, L' value (brightness), b' value (green-yellow), protein content, water absorption capacity, swelling power, solubility of germinated waxy corn flour. This research also resulting a significant effect on moisture content and carbohydrate content, but resulting a non-significant effect on bulk density, a' value (blue-red), ash content, fat content, crude fiber content and oil absorption capacity. The best characteristic of the flour in this study was the waxy corn flour that has been germinated for 48 hours with 79.44% rendement, 0.50 g/ml bulk density, L':54.34, a': 6.90, b': 22,89 color, 7.15% water content, 1.56% ash content, 6.36% fat content, 9.66% protein content, 82.31% carbohydrates content, 2.39% fiber content, 1.55 ml/g water absorption, 1.81 ml/g oil absorption, 6.70 g/g swelling power, and 51.72% solubility.


Mangala Valles are unique among Martian outflow channels because they emanate from a point source determined by the interaction of tectonism, volcanism, and volatile migration. Present topography and morphology place constraints on the magnitude of the discharge into the channels, supporting a release of water which spanned from tens to thousands of days. The sequence of events associated with the release of volatiles in the southern (proximal) reaches of Mangala Valles indicates that structural features around the source area played a crucial role in determining the location of the apparent source of volatile release onto the Martian surface. Postulated locations for storage of the water released into the Mangala Valles system include aquifer systems in the highlands south of the release point, within the layered flows of the Tharsis plains, and a surface lake in the Daedalia Planum area. Hydraulic conductivity within the aquifer could have inhibited a sudden release of all the stored water, lengthening the total discharge duration toward the longer time frame indicated above. Topographic and structural constraints favor groundwater flow from the Tharsis region, which may have manifested itself at the Mangala source area as an artesian flow. Fluid release into the Mangala Valles system likely included sheet flows and episodic surges of water resulting from temporary ice dams within the channel system and may have included releases from more than a single location.


Chitosan is a natural biopolymer and has been widely used for bio- and medical-materials. In this letter, with protonic acid doping, chitosan-based biopolysaccharide proton conductors were prepared with a high proton conductivity of 6 x 10(-3) S cm(-1) at room temperature and were first used for fabricating synaptic transistors on paper substrates. Based on the movement of protons with pulse voltage response within the chitosan dielectrics in a coplanar-gate transistor configuration, the paper synaptic transistors could be successfully used as artificial synapses for emulating biological synaptic functions. Short-term plasticity behaviors, including paired-pulse facilitation, dynamic filtering and spatiotemporally correlated signal processing were mimicked. Our results strongly demonstrate that these biopolysaccharide gating synaptic transistors proposed here are not only important for building cheap and biologically friendly artificial neuron networks, but also are interesting for realizing intelligent biomaterials.


Abstract Objective: To determine whether the incidence of schizophrenia among people from non-white ethnic minorities is greater in neighbourhoods where they constitute a smaller proportion of the total population. Design: Ecological design including retrospective study of case records to calculate the incidence of schizophrenia in the ethnic minority population across electoral wards and multi-level analysis to examine interaction between individuals and environment. Setting: 15 electoral wards in Camberwell, South London. Participants: All people aged 16 years and over who had contact with psychiatric services during 1988-97. Main outcome measure: Incidence rates of schizophrenia according to Research Diagnostic Criteria. Results: The incidence of schizophrenia in non-white ethnic minorities increased significantly as the proportion of such minorities in the local population fell. The incidence rate ratio varied in a dose-response fashion from 2.38 (95% confidence interval 1.49 to 3.79) in the third of wards where non-white ethnic minorities formed the largest proportion (28-57%) of the local population to 4.4 (2.49 to 7.75) in the third of wards where they formed the smallest proportion (8-22%). Conclusion: The incidence of schizophrenia in non-white ethnic minorities in London is greater when they comprise a smaller proportion of the local population. What is already known on this topic An increased incidence of schizophrenia has been reported in several ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom Biological risk factors do not seem to explain this Reports from the United States have shown an association between the proportion of an ethnic minority living in an area and their admission rates for mental illness in general What this study adds The lower the proportion of non-white ethnic minorities in a local area the higher the incidence of schizophrenia in those minorities


It is crucial to stimulate Individual Creativity(IC) for organizations to be innovative, as well as higher education. The booming of information and communication technology (e.g., Slack) supports the opportunity to figure out whether higher education in e-learning environment has potential for enhancing participants' individual creativity. Besides, as an essential antecedent of IC, we believe that, despite transformational leadership still plays an important role in IC, the mechanism of how it works is changing. Hence, adopting a perspective of Social Exchange Theory (SET), we test the moderate effect of Transformational Leadership (TL) on IC through knowledge sharing (KS). We design an 8-week course where WeChat and Slack are required to use as auxiliary tools for teams to complete a project online. 2 rounds of survey have been done to collect data (at 4th week and 8th week). Results show that KS has a positive effect on IC, and TL has a significant moderate effect on the relationship between extrinsic motivation and KS. Implications for theory and practice, and limitations are also given.


The gap between social activities and technology is widening particularly with the advent of new and innovative methods of computing within a complex socio-technical divide. This gap has been partly attributed to the technical limitations arising from the complexity of the environment where these decision supports are needed. Procurement decisions are faced with several challenges such as selecting the right mix of product, price and method to procure it. However, how to marry this divide between decision support theory and the people this theory or technology actually support in practice has been the major challenge. In order to bridge this socio-technical divide, we have proposed the use of AHP technique to develop a framework for procurement decisions using University of Babylon, Iraq as a case study. The proposed decision support framework will attempt to address issued regarding information fusion by automatically integrating multiple information sources to enhance the decision making process through empirical and theoretical findings, the interdependencies that characterize the relationships between information fusion, and management decision making. A pre-implementation study was carried out in order to ascertain the usefulness of this framework in promoting user-centered decisions by explaining the various influences of different decision making on information systems and procurement processes in the University of Babylon, Iraq. The major contribution of this study would be to aid both practitioners and researchers in the decision making processes regarding procurement decisions such as Decision Support for Production Planning, Policy Making, ERP, Commerce and Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing systems. Decision Support System Framework for Procurement Decisions in University of Babylon (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313894495_Decision_Support_System_Framework_for_Procurement_Decisions_in_University_of_Babylon [accessed Jul 9, 2017].