Purpose We sought to evaluate the efficacy and safety of plasmin injection in the capsular bag during the cataract operation for the prevention of posterior capsule opacification. Methods Thirty-seven anterior capsular flaps taken from phacoemulsification surgery were immersed in either 1 µg/mL plasmin (plasmin group, n = 27) or phosphate-buffered saline (control group, n = 10) for 2 minutes and photographed after fixation and nuclear staining to compare the numbers of residual lens epithelial cells. In the animal experiments, the plasmin solution was injected into the capsular bag and remained for 5 minutes during hydrodissection or after lens extraction. The degree of posterior capsular opacity of the rabbits at 2 months were photographed by slit lamp biomicroscopy. In HLE-B3 cell culture, the cell detachment rate, proliferation, and apoptosis after the plasmin digestion were analyzed. Results The residual lens epithelial cell numbers on the capsule after plasmin treatment were 168 ± 190.7/mm2 in the 1 µg/mL plasmin group, which was significantly lower than that of the control (1012 ± 798.8/mm2; P < 0.0001). In a rabbit model, the treatment of plasmin resulted in a significantly clearer posterior capsule compared with that of the control group at 2 months postoperatively. Conclusions This study suggested that plasmin injection can induce effective lens epithelial cell detachment, which could be a promising adjunctive treatment to further improve the success rate in posterior capsule opacification prevention. Translational Relevance Plasmin injection for lens epithelial cell detachment could significantly decrease the number of residual lens epithelial cells. This approach could be a promising treatment incorporating the current treatment approach to further improve the success rate in posterior capsule opacification prevention.


In a prospective study of 54 patients with acute psychiatric disorders, interferon and antibodies in serum and CSF were measured to 19 microbes by the complement fixation (CF) test and to 7 viruses by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The CF test revealed a fourfold or greater change (p less than .001) in serum antibody titers in 20 patients, and EIA showed a twofold or greater change in CSF titers in 7 patients. Pathological serum/CSF antibody ratio by EIA was observed in 8 patients. The results suggest that viral infections and inflammatory processes have significance in the etiopathogenesis of acute psychiatric disorders.


The study was conducted to determine the effects of molasses and storage periods on the chemical composition, microbial and fermentation characteristics of silage produced from guinea grass and cassava leaves mixture. Guinea grass was harvested at 2 months regrowth from an established pasture and cassava tops collected immediately after root harvest consisting of only the tops with the green stem and its leaf canopy. The forages were wilted and thoroughly mixed in the ratio of 70:30 (guinea grass: cassava leaves); mixed with molasses at the rate of 0, 2, 4 and 6 % and ensiled for 30 and 60 days respectively for fermentation. The DM, CP, NDF, HCN and tannin contents of the ensiled guinea grass and cassava leaves significantly reduced as the level of molasses addition and storage period increased. The acetic acid fermentation was high in the 0, 2, 4 and 6% molasses addition with values ranging from 40.2 to 42.4 g/kg DM while the lactic acid content was only 18.4 to 30.3 g/kg DM at the 0% molasses addition. However, lactic acid fermentation increased significantly as both the storage periods and molasses addition increased from 0 to 60 days. The highest bacterial count (8.4 log cfu/g) was recorded at the 0% molasses addition and this significantly reduced as molasses addition increased from 0 to 6% and as the ensiling periods elongate from 0 to 60 days. However, a sharp decline in fungi count was observed with increase in the percentage of molasses added. The bacteria isolated from the silage were Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus spp., Enterobacter spp., Proteus spp., Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus buchneri . It is concluded that ensiling mixture of guinea grass and cassava leaves with molasses increased lactic acid and suppressed the production of acetic and butyric acids with drastic reduction in microbial load. Keywords : Guinea grass, cassava, storage period, molasses, fermentation, chemical composition


The Matanuska Valley is located in the forearc terrane of the Alaska-Aleutian volcanic arc. A period of extensive faulting occurred in the western Matanuska Valley during the Neogene. Faulting was a response to intraplate strain caused by subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the convergent margin. The Neogene fault system consisted of three sets of faults: two sets of north-trending strike-slip faults and a set of east-northeast–trending reverse faults. Three fault sets were required to accommodate the general three-dimensional deformation. Crustal shortening in a north-northwest direction was accompanied by lateral and vertical extension. The direction of maximum horizontal shortening strain has apparently been constant since the Neogene, although there is no evidence for extensive faulting of Quaternary deposits in the area we have studied. The western Matanuska Valley is located only 50 km above the Benioff zone, and the predicted maximum principal shortening direction is north-northwest, on the basis of the slip-vector azimuth between the North American and Pacific plates and the nature of surficial ground displacements during the 1964 (M = 8.4) subduction zone earthquake. Focal mechanisms for earthquakes in the vicinity of the Benioff zone and in the lower part of the North American plate indicate west-northwest extension and north-northeast shortening. This means that the strain field at depths below 20 km may differ significantly from the near-surface strain field.


The perfoliate pondweed Potamogeton perfoliatus constitutes large mono-specific macrophyte patches in many Central European lakes. Correlative evidence from the field suggests that Potamogeton is under an increasing grazing pressure during its short vegetation period from May to September due to seasonal outbreaks of the aquatic moth Acentria ephemerella. We used a mesocosm experiment to determine the influence of Acentria herbivory on Potamogeton shoot development and resting bud production and to study the defence strategies of this macrophyte. Herbivory resulted in a reduction of the Potamogeton vegetation period by more than two months, thereby reducing the average resting bud size and the overall resting bud biomass seven-fold. This suggests that, besides its severe immediate effects, herbivory will affect Potamogeton growth and dynamics also during the subsequent season. As a response to herbivory Potamogeton retranslocated nutrients (phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N)) from leaves towards resting buds and changed its allocation strategy in the size versus number of resting buds. This change in the number versus size trade-off might allow the plant to produce a minimum resting bud size necessary for successful sprouting in the next spring. Acentria larvae had a high P content implying P limitation of larval growth especially within the herbivory


The Buddhist religion has a long and rich tradition of biographical literature. This literature has functioned to unify distinct and often contradictory elements of Buddhist ritual, practice, and doctrine, adjusting these elements to specific historical situations. Scholarship on the function of literary characters in making narrative worlds coherent supports this argument: when readers engage characters, they draw together textual and non-textual data to construct beings that are similar to themselves. This connection of a specific situation with a larger whole, a connection that is at the same time an organization, can be observed in how Buddhist biographies are built. Biographies of Shakyamuni, for example, contain many traces of changes motivated by local conditions. The body of Shakyamuni is used to authorize these changes: the local is situated at the heart of Buddhism. Biographies of Chinese Buddhist saints attest to the same process, as can be seen in the shifting representation of Indian saints in China or the literary transformations of the Patriarchs of the Chan school. While these changing representations reflect changes in historical Buddhist communities, they can also produce attitudes and regulate behaviors. The debate on the portrayal and effects of women and animals in Indian Buddhist texts provides an illustration of this, as does scholarship on how saintly ideals regulate behavior. The case of Buddhist autobiography, a genre at times so closely connected to biography that it is nearly indistinguishable from it, provides a final example of how identity is structured in Buddhist biography.


The primarily action-oriented nature of obligations in regimes designed to address marine pollution from land-based activities makes establishing whether or not states are complying with their obligations difficult. At the same time, a lack of knowledge about and understanding of the marine environment and effectiveness of responses to pollution make noncompliance likely. These threats might undermine the legitimacy of any regime. However, they do not appear to do so here. Instead, they prompt action to improve on all counts. This effect appears to be largely a result of the tacit recognition of the distinction between willful, norm-generating and operational noncompliance by those party to the regimes, with each type of noncompliance generating a different response.


This paper provides an argument for the advantage of a preference for identity-consistent behaviour from an evolutionary point of view. Within a stylised model of social interaction, we show that the development of cooperative social norms is greatly facilitated if the agents of the society possess a preference for identity consistent behaviour. As cooperative norms have a positive impact on aggregate outcomes, we conclude that such preferences are evolutionarily advantageous. Furthermore, we discuss how such a preference can be integrated in the modelling of utility in order to account for the distinctive cooperative trait in human behaviour and show how this squares with the evidence.


The anabolic steroid and antimicrobial growth promoters may be regarded as the first generation of animal growth promoters or performance enhancers. There is major investment in the development of new techniques to improve the efficiency of farm animal production. These techniques are reviewed under the headings of growth hormone (somatotrophin) and related techniques, immunological techniques, the beta-adrenergic agonists and the direct genetic manipulation of farm animals.


A field study was conducted at experimental farm of the Regional Research Station, Punjab Agricultural University, Gurdaspur during rabi season of 2014-15 to find out the effect of different sources of organic manures and their combinations on weed growth and wheat grain yield. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with eight treatments namely, control (T1), recommended dose of NPK+ weedicide (T2), farmyard manure + poultry manure (T3), farmyard manure + bagasse ash (T4), farmyard manure + rice husk ash (T5), poultry manure + bagasse ash (T6), poultry manure + rice husk ash (T7), and bagasse ash + rice husk ash (T8). The results indicated that maximum dry weight of grassy weeds (2.65 g/m2) and broad leaf weeds (2.10 g/m2) was recorded in treatment where poultry manure was used in combination with farmyard manure whereas minimum dry weight of grassy (1.15 g/m2) and broad leaf weeds (1.00 g/m2) was obtained in treatment where these were controlled chemically. The minimum grain yield was obtained in control treatment where neither organic manure was added nor weeds were controlled by using herbicide. Among different combinations of organic manures, it was found that wherever poultry manure was used in combinations, higher yields were obtained due to higher plant height, maximum number of effective tillers/m2, maximum spike length in comparison to other manure combinations. Within the treatment combinations, rice husk ash combinations resulted in higher yield and also effectively controlled the weeds as compared to bagasse ash combinations.


Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) provide effective thermal barrier to the components of gas turbine engines by allowing higher operating temperatures and reduced cool‐ ing requirements. Plasma spraying, electron-beam physical vapor deposition, and sol‐ ution precursor plasma spray techniques are generally used to apply the TBCs on the metallic substrates. The present article addresses the TBCs formed by different proc‐ essing techniques, as well as the possibility of new ceramic, glass-ceramic, and com‐ posite materials as TBCs. Promising bond coat materials for a TBC system have been also stated.


We consider the problem of constructing an optimal machining line as a sequence of workstations performing specific sets of operations. The line is required to satisfy the given precedence order on operations, inclusion, exclusion and accessibility constraints. The cycle times of workstations are computed taking into account the processing and sequence dependent set-up times of operations and must not exceed the given bound. For solving the problem, we propose a reduction of this machining line design problem to a set partitioning type problem. This approach implies generating all possible workstations and, for each workstation, solving a scheduling problem in order to find the sequence of operations which minimises the total set-up time. To do this, a dynamic programming algorithm is developed. Several preprocessing procedures are suggested to reduce the number of workstations. A set of exact algorithms are proposed to solve the obtained set partitioning type problem: a constraint generation, a branch and cut, and a parallel branch and cut algorithms. Our experimental investigation demonstrated that the proposed method achieves a significant improvement in CPU times over those required by a previous study that is based on a different model formulation, and also, that the proposed method is able to solve large-sized problem instances.


Delaunay Triangulation(DT) is one of the important geometric problems that is used in various branches of knowledge such as computer vision, terrain modeling, spatial clustering and networking. Kinetic data structures have become very important in computational geometry for dealing with moving objects. However, when dealing with moving points, maintaining a dynamically changing Delaunay triangulation can be challenging. So, In this case, we have to update triangulation repeatedly. If points move so far, it is better to rebuild the triangulation. One approach to handle moving points is to use an incremental algorithm. For the case that points move slowly, we can give a faster algorithm than rebuilding it. Furthermore, sequential algorithms can be computationally expensive for large datasets. So, one way to compute as fast as possible is parallelism. In this paper, we propose a parallel algorithm for moving points. we propose an algorithm that divides datasets into equal partitions and give every partition to one block. Each block satisfay the Delaunay constraints after each time step and uses delete and insert algorithms to do this. We show this algorithm works faster than serial algorithms.


Introduction: The association between ABO blood groups and intracranial aneurysms is not well-known. Many co-morbid factors are associated with intracranial aneurysms. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of different blood group in patients with intracranial aneurysm and to look for associations between risk factors and these groups. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study includes 1,491 cases who underwent surgical operations for intracranial aneurysms from 1993-2014. We have evaluated the information related to clinical history, ABO blood groups and associated risk factors in the patients both ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms by chart review of the cases. Results: In our study, out of 1,491 cases, the most common ABO blood groups were group O (668 cases, 44.80%) and Group A (603 cases, 40.44%), and Rh(+) in 1,319 (88.4%) and Rh(-) in 147 (11.6%). Blood Group A (43% vs. 36%) and Group B (16.2% vs. 8.6%) were significantly higher in Caucasian and African Americans respectively. However, in general population, there was no significant difference in blood groups between Caucasians and African Americans. Rh(-) factor was significantly higher in Caucasians compared to African Americans. Incidence of smoking was significantly higher in aneurysm patients with O group compared to others. In addition, incidence of hypercholesterolemia was significantly higher in aneurysm patients with A group compared to others. Conclusion: The racial disparity in the distribution of blood groups, and risk factor association with blood groups in the development of intracranial aneurysm needs to be considered. The findings from our study may be useful in identifying patients at increased risk. Further study may be required to establish the risks from multiple centers studies around the world.


In today's world of constrained budgets, one of the problems the military faces is the challenge of trying to maintain organic maintenance capabilities. Historically, the US Air Force has desired to achieve an autonomous capability to maintain the equipment it uses. This has been achieved, traditionally, by setting-up three levels of maintenance: organizational; intermediate (back-shop); and depot. The I-level back-shops often utilize militarized automatic test equipment (ATE) and test program sets (TPSs) to test today's complex aircraft line replaceable units (LRUs). And even though this is still a cost-effective maintenance philosophy, it has become costly to develop militarized ATE. The Department of Defense (DoD) has been very active in trying to reduce the total ownership cost of ATE in the government inventory. One approach is to utilize commercial, instead of Mil-Spec, ATE. However, utilizing commercial ATE at an USAF back-shop is not without its tradeoffs and challenges as it represents a significant deviation from the way the USAF maintenance squadrons are accustomed to "doing business." This paper documents the current success story of replacing the legacy C-17 I-level ATE with a commercial ATE.


Due to accumulation of reserves and their appropriate accounting and recording, business enterprises are allowed to increase assets, quickly respond on the occurrence of unpredicted costs and liabilities, and comply with the principle of business continuity. The classification of reserves as objects of accounting is the key to the sound recording and enclosure of information about them in the financial statements of a business enterprise. The research objective is to analyze and sum up classification criteria and types of reserves, and to develop recommendations on improvements in the classification of reserves for business accounting purposes.
Approaches of Ukrainian authors to the classification of business reserves as an object of accounting are investigated. It is revealed that the researchers propose a wide range of the classification criteria. The most widespread classification criteria are compulsory accumulation, accumulation sources, and accumulation purpose. But the proposed criteria are diverse to the extent that the system approach to the recognition, valuation and recording of reserves cannot be applicable. The author's approach to the classification of reserves by various criteria is proposed as a way to resolve the problems of constructing an accounting system for reserves as accounting objects and provide an appropriate information support for business enterprises. The types of reserves and classification criteria proposed by the author on the basis of the research can give multifaceted characteristics of the studied object, and can be used as a framework for accounting and recording of transactions related with accumulation and utilization of reserves.


A theoretical estimation is made of properties of the superdiamagnetic fluid and composite suspensions (colloidal solutions of particles of superconducting material dispersed in liquid solvent at T<Tc) that were previously proposed by the authors. It is shown that the superdiamagnetic fluid has an anomalously high initial diamagnetic susceptibility. It is further shown that such a fluid can be regarded as a model system for the investigation of phase transitions. The magnetisation curve of a composite suspension (in which a magnetic fluid serves as solvent) is investigated; the behaviour of this curve can be either para- or diamagnetic, depending on the applied magnetic field.


BackgroundPatients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) often have a poor prognosis. Overall survival (OS) prediction through the early diagnosis of cancer has many benefits, such as allowing providers to design the best treatment plan for patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic factors in NSCLC patients, construct a nomogram, and develop machine learning models to predict the OS. We also conducted feature importance analysis to understand how relevant factors of NSCLC patients impact their OS.ResultsMultiple machine learning models were adopted in a retrospective cohort of patients from 2010 to 2015 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Independent prognostic factors for NSCLC were determined using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. We modeled OS and vital status as the outcomes and constructed and validated a nomogram to predict the OS of NSCLC. Furthermore, we applied logistic regression, random forest, XGBoost, decision tree, multilayer perceptron, and LightGBM to predict the patients' vital status. We tested the prediction ability of the models and evaluated their performances using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. A total of 34,567 patients selected from the SEER database that met our criteria were included in this study. The nomogram visualized the OS prediction results of the Cox regression model. Among the classifiers, XGBoost had the best prediction performance, with an area under the curve of 0.733.ConclusionsThe results demonstrated that machine learning-based classifier models are capable of predicting the outcomes of patients with NSCLC. And Cox regression model-based nomogram interpreted the results well and supports potential medical applications.


Climate-smart development is a rapidly growing area in Morocco, and indeed much of the world. It has simultaneously been proven to boost economic development and contribute to more sustainable economic development by reducing emissions and energy costs, creating jobs, and increasing economic opportunity. A World Bank Group (WBG) team, together with the support of Cluster Solaire's and the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN), undertook a climate entrepreneurship ecosystem diagnostic in Morocco. The purpose was to shed light on the complexities of the country's climate entrepreneurship ecosystem. The overarching aim of this report is to inform different ecosystem stakeholders in Morocco on how to spur and sustain high-growth, green entrepreneurship and innovation activity. At the same, this report also aims to increase the awareness of and support to green entrepreneurs, as well as contribute substantively to the design of the aforementioned International Finance Corporation (IFC)-supported activity.


Background/Aim: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) induces a clinical state of immunodeficiency with a higher incidence of infections and higher mortality due to infectious complications compared with the normal population. The definite mechanism responsible for the host defense alterations is not well understood. The aim of the study was to investigate intracellularly the relationship between cytokine synthesis and oxidative stress in peripheral blood lymphocytes in children with ESRD. Methods: Twenty-one children (age 11.7 ± 5.8 years) with ESRD treated with hemodialysis (HD; n = 10) and peritoneal dialysis (PD; n = 11) were studied. Nine healthy children of comparable age formed the control group. To determine intracellular oxidative stress we used dihydrorhodamine-123 (DHR), which after oxidation to rhodamine-123 (RHO) emitted a bright fluorescent signal. Intracellular oxidation of DHR in T lymphocytes reflected intracellular oxidative stress. The intracellular synthesis of cytokines (IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-6) was also measured. Both parameters were detected at a single-cell level by flow cytometry. Lymphocyte subsets were evaluated using the monoclonal antibodies conjugated with fluorochromes. Results: We found that in T lymphocytes the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI), which reflected intracellular oxidative stress, was increased in ESRD patients compared to the controls (CD3+: 34.77 ± 11.55 vs. 22.55 ± 4.97, p < 0.01; CD3+CD8+: 34.31 ± 12.17 vs. 20.77 ± 4.89, p < 0.01; CD3+CD4+: 36.06 ± 6.98 vs. 24.44 ± 7.68, p < 0.001). HD patients showed slightly higher MFI compared to PD patients in CD3+ cells (39.32 ± 11.70 vs. 30.63 ± 10.20, NS), in CD3+CD8+ cells (37.90 ± 14.32 vs. 31.06 ± 9.34, NS) and in CD3+CD4+ cells (40.10 ± 2.28 vs. 29.33 ± 7.06, p < 0.001). The intracellular synthesis of IL-2 was higher in ESRD patients compared to the controls, both in CD3+ cells (31.34 ± 9.80 vs. 20.49 ± 15.26%, p < 0.05) and in CD3+CD4+ cells (36.10 ± 8.69 vs. 24.03 ± 16.95%, p < 0.05). The intracellular synthesis of IFN-γ, IL-4 and IL-6 was significantly lower in the ESRD group compared to the controls. Interestingly, in patients treated with HD, negative correlations between the degree of intracellular oxidative stress and intracellular cytokine synthesis in CD3+ lymphocytes were found. Conclusion: Our results show that patients with ESRD, especially those treated with HD, present increased oxidative stress in T lymphocytes, which may lead to decreased cytokine synthesis and abnormal immune response.


Abstract: Activities of cyanide metabolizing enzymes were measured in various subcellular fractions and regions in the central nervous system. Brain rhodanese and liver β‐mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase showed a slight decrease in activity after death. The activity of β‐mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase was negligible in the rat brain, compared with that of rhodanese. A small amount of thiocyanate was produced from cyanide and β‐mercaptopyruvate in the human brain, probably due to contamination with red blood cells. Rhodanese activity was widely distributed in all the areas of nervous tissue examined. In the rat the olfactory bulb showed the highest rhodanese activity, and high activity was also observed in the thalamus, septum, hippocampus, and dorsal part of the midbrain. Rhodanese activity was low in various parts of the cerebral cortex. The distribution pattern of rhodanese in post‐mortem human brain was essentially similar to that in rat brain. The thalamus, amygdala, centrum semiovale, colliculus superior, and cerebellar cortex showed high rhodanese activity in the human brain. Rhodanese activity was detected in the spinal cord. Anterior horn showed the highest rhodanese activity in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar cord. Most rhodanese activity in the rat brain was recovered in the mitochondrial fraction with the highest specific activity. Rhodanese activity was lower in spinal cords obtained from autopsied cases with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis than in those of control subjects. A significant decrease in rhodanese was observed in the posterior column of the cervical or thoracic cord, but the activity in the anterior horn did not differ significantly between the two groups.


Lost circulation (LC) is commonly encountered in drilling and cementing operations and can be a costly problem that increases nonproductive time (NPT). Various methods can be applied to control losses—from applying best operational practices to incorporating LC control materials in treatment fluids and cement slurries. Among the cementing challenges, the loss of circulation can also be associated with poor zonal isolation and becomes more critical when zones between reservoirs should be covered to avoid sustained casing pressure (SCP) in the future and to extend the life of the well.
 The application for this tailored spacer was the first one globally. Challenges addressed in the largest offshore field loss zone in the UAE included a high likelihood for losses during initial cementing, narrow equivalent circulating density (ECD) gradient, uncertainty in bringing cement to surface in the casing operation, and zonal isolation between reservoirs, formation, and caprock. As part of the best cementing practices, the design and tailoring of the spacers should be considered. Correct use allows the cement to cover zones of interest with less contamination, and cement properties can develop and interact efficiently with the formation.
 Using a tailored spacer fluid system engineered to effectively and efficiently help prevent LC and maintain wellbore stability while preparing the wellbore to receive cement is discussed. The tailored spacer system uses additive synergies to help prevent LC in porous and fractured formations and enables control of rheological hierarchy and wellbore fluid displacement efficiency. The spacer was designed to optimize cementing operations where losses are observed and, in this case, incorporate additional LC materials to help prevent severe losses and achieve the desired top of cement (TOC). The tailored spacer system was pumped ahead of the cement slurry, to reduce permeability across the formation, with superior properties that help prevent fluid loss of the cement to the permeable formations.
 Enhancing the cement bond and allowing an effective mud removal differentiate it from a conventional spacer. Using this spacer system enabled cementing goals to be achieved. Cement was brought to the surface, casedhole logs exhibited excellent cement bonding, and no SCP was registered, helping eliminate the need for unwanted remedial operations to secure the zonal isolation, which saves rig time.


This article surveys the development of observational understanding of the interior rotation of the Sun and its temporal variation over approximately forty years, starting with the 1960s attempts to determine the solar core rotation from oblateness and proceeding through the development of helioseismology to the detailed modern picture of the internal rotation deduced from continuous helioseismic observations during solar cycle 23. After introducing some basic helioseismic concepts, it covers, in turn, the rotation of the core and radiative interior, the "tachocline" shear layer at the base of the convection zone, the differential rotation in the convection zone, the near-surface shear, the pattern of migrating zonal flows known as the torsional oscillation, and the possible temporal variations at the bottom of the convection zone. For each area, the article also briefly explores the relationship between observations and models.


The Suape Industrial Port Complex is one of the main Brazilian public ports that has caused several geomorphological changes in Ipojuca and Suape estuarine-lagoonal-bays since its construction. The present study deals with the first status on the Suape port ecosystem, recorded from 41 sediment samples throughout the Massangana/Tatuoca and Ipojuca/Merepe estuarine systems. Species diversity values are higher in the seaward part of the bays and decreases toward the inner parts. The dominance of Ammonia tepida in the inner portions of the bays is indicative of environmental instability and pollution of coastal waters. Eggerella spp., unusual in Brazilian fauna, was present only in the innermost portion of the Tatuoca estuary, in the dredged channel, where heavy metal impacts have been reported. Amphistegina gibbosa, Triloculina oblonga, and Quinqueloculina lamarckiana are represented on the outside of the bays and are indicative of high hydrodynamic marine environments. The Ipojuca and Merepe rivers presented the highest ecological index, possibly attributed to the marine and terrestrial/mangrove influence for the region. We infer that geomorphological transformation caused by the Suape Port installation modified and established environments with distinct characteristics, mainly in the Suape Bay dredged area, indicative of possible eutrophication of this environment. The new data may be useful for determining environmental conditions and establishing new ways to monitor the consequences of anthropogenic interference and dredging in the Massangana/Tatuoca and Ipojuca/Merepe estuarine systems.


In the telecommunication system which is based on the existing PSTN(public switched telephone network), feature interaction has been an important research issue in order to provide seamless services to users. Recently, rapid proliferation of IP-based network and the various types of IP media supply services, the feature interaction from the perspective of application services has become a significant aspect. This paper presents conflict detection and resolution algorithms for designing and operating a variety of services that are provided through IP-based network. The algorithms use explicit service interactions to detect conflicts between a new service and registered services. They then apply various rules to reduce search space in resolving conflicts. The algorithms are applied to a wide range of realistic service provision scenarios to validate that it can detect conflicts between services and resolve in accordance with different rule sets. By applying the algorithms to various scenarios, it is observed that the proposed algorithms can be effectively used in operating an IP-based services network.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Gliomas are highly vascularized tumors, and preclinical data have suggested that glioma growth critically depends on the generation of tumor associated blood vessels. Among multiple factors controlling the complex process of angiogenesis, VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) and its associated signaling cascade are considered of central importance. Glioma cells are a major source of VEGF, and high levels of VEGF generation have been reported to correlate with high grade malignancy and poor prognosis. Antiangiogenic therapy has been recently added to the battery of treatments to newly diagnosed malignant gliomas. However, preclinical data from our laboratory and others, as some clinical results, shown concomitantly elicit tumor adaptation and progression to stages of greater malignancy, with heightened invasiveness. These results warrant preclinical investigation. Here, we present evidence of accumulation of Tie2-expressing monocytes (TEMs) in the brain tumor/normal interphase regions in tumor-bearing animals treated with anti-VEGF agents. Immunohistochemistry using F4/80 or Iba1 antibodies revealed an increase number of microglia/macrophages in central and peripheral tumoral areas after antiangiogenesis treatment. Moreover, the recruitment of these tumor-associated microglia/macrophages (TAMs) was associated with an overrepresentation of TEMs. Almost 50% of Tie2-positive cells co-localized with microglia/macrophages after bevacizumab or prolonged VEGF-Trap/Aflibercept therapies. To determine the role of TEMs in the invasive phenotype of gliomas upon antiangiogenic therapies, we use monocytes isolated from buffy coats and sorted positively for Tie2 expression, and monocytic cultures polarized to M2 phenotype and forced to express Tie2. We found that TEMs express high level of MMP2, MMP9, CD44, and CXCR4, molecules related with extracellular matrix remodeling, using q-PCR, ELISA, FACS analysis and double immunofluorescence. Gelatin zymography, as well as collagenase assay confirmed the upregulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 activity. Of interest, knocking down Tie2 by siRNA suppresses MMP9 activity emphasizes a role of Tie2 signaling in the regulation of MMP9. Additionally, in vitro invasion assay showed a pivotal role of TEMs in development of an invasive phenotype in glioma cells. Together, our results suggest a novel mechanism of escape of GBMs to anti-VEGF therapies and the necessity of targeting the TEM population in combination with anti-VEGF therapies to improve clinical outcome.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1020. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1020


A literature review suggests that height has always been a part of the assessment of suitability in police culture, and this may be linked to myths about a tall person's better physical skills and suitability for police work. In contrast to the above-mentioned assumptions, this study shows that short police students of both sexes generally perform better in physical tests than tall police students. Despite this, short women assess their physical skills as poorer than do tall women. This discrepancy is discussed, and several factors seem to explain this phenomenon. Police culture seems to link being tall with physical ability. The value placed on height can be explained by the fact that tall men represent and symbolise the police best. A contributing explanation to the discrepancy could be that height creates a natural physical authority among tall police officers, which short female officers are missing. Another explanation of the discrepancy may be that height and long arms can be beneficial in situations in which the police have to use physical force. However, it is argued that the police rarely use physical force, and that several other factors seem to reduce the importance of height in this area.


With a second wave of Trusts now operating, there is an ever-increasing need for manpower information to be both accurate and clearly-presented for internal use. Explains the approach used by North Herts NHS Trust--a first-wave Trust, to making the function more proactive, and increasing its value to managers.


The article deals with the attitude of the largest Russian Slavist Vladimir Ivanovich Lamansky (1833-1914) to the history and cultural heritage of Byzantium. It is noted that although the term "Byzantism" characterises the philosophical-historical doctrine of K.N. Leontiev, a number of statements developed in K.N. Leontiev's concept were expressed earlier by V.I. Lamansky. It is suggested that Lamansky had an influence on Leontiev's views, especially on Byzantium. The development of Lamansky's views on Byzantium from his first monograph "On the Slavs in Asia Minor, Africa and Spain" up to his last unfinished book "The Slavonic Hagiography of St. Cyril as a Religious Epic and a Historical Source" is shown. The article points out the similarity between V.I. Lamansky's doctrine on the difference of ages of peoples and cultures and the organiccist conceptions of N.Y. Danilevsky and K.N. Leontiev. Lamansky's interpretation of the mutual relations between Slavs and Greeks, and the relationship between Slavs and the Eastern Roman Empire is considered. It is noted that the main influence of Byzantium was connected to the development of state conceptions of the Slavs and acceptance of Orthodoxy. The special significance of Orthodoxy lay in the recognition of the rights of national languages (divine service in native languages and the development of writing systems), which led to a better acquaintance of Orthodox peoples with Christian doctrine. V.I. Lamansky's opinion on the causes of the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire is given: oblivion of the universal meaning of Christianity, Hellenization, and spread of nationalism. V. I. Lamansky's understanding of the meaning of the empire, i.e. the united Christian kingdom which Russia is heir to, is revealed. The article concludes that Lamansky's interest in the study of Byzantium resulted from his own historiosophic doctrine of three civilizational worlds (Romano-Germanic, Greek-Slavic and Asian).


There has been much discussion about the contributions of qualitative research to social work knowledge, but the experiences of social work faculty engaged in qualitative research are rarely discussed. Social work is at the early developmental stage in China, which makes the country a useful laboratory to examine this question. The current study aimed to understand experiences of Chinese qualitative social work faculty and how their methodological orientation affected their career trajectories. Nine semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed. Thematic data analysis revealed three major themes: suitability, methodological challenges and structural barriers. Findings indicate that qualitative social work research has an optimistic future in China, but methodological challenges and structural barriers create invisible disadvantages. This study highlights the need for rigorous qualitative research training, including apprenticeship; translation of more qualitative learning materials into Chinese; and support for the purchase, training and use of qualitative software packages. The results also point to the need for institutional review boards or other ethical oversight mechanisms. More importantly, there must be greater consensus regarding what constitutes scientific rigour, which projects should be funded, what are evaluative criteria for publication, and whom to hire and promote.


This paper analyzes some situations of gender discrimination in sport, specifically in both professional and amateur football, rowing and ski jumping.


Treatment of mice with the benzodiazepine derivative Ro11-3128 1-2 days post-infection with Schistosoma mansoni leads to arrest of virtually all schistosomula at the skin stage, and results in the development of protective immunity to challenge infection. A characteristic feature of Ro11-3128 treatment in vitro is the formation of exudates and membranous blebs at the schistosomular surface; other drugs tested, such as Ro15-5458 and oxamniquine which are also effective against the skin stages but relatively ineffective in inducing protection, do not induce this reaction. Here, we have examined whether such in vitro treatment causes enhanced presentation of schistosomular antigens by host antigen-presenting cells (APC) using an in vitro assay with activated peritoneal adherent cells as APC and T cells from S. mansoni antigen-sensitized mice. We have shown that viable mechanically transformed schistosomula (MS) can be processed and presented with similar kinetics to soluble antigen. However, in vitro drug treatment leads to enhanced presentation of MS. Experiments in which membranous blebs and antigen released by Ro11-3128-treated parasites during in vitro culture were separated from the remaining intact schistosomula, demonstrated significant stimulatory activity in the soluble and particulate-released antigen fractions. Filtration, antigen transfer experiments and SDS-PAGE analysis of the released material further suggested that most of the activity resided in the particulate fraction. Thus, quantitative and qualitative changes to antigen presentation by Ro11-3128 treatment early after infection may underlie the immunoprotective efficacy of Ro11-3128-abbreviated infections.


The use of synthetic materials such as polypropylene mesh for hernia repair in
animals has been known for some time, but has not spread enough among veterinary
surgeons. Because the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has similar characteristics to
polypropylene (PP) for surgical use in humans, this study was planned in order to assess
its suitability for use as a synthetic implant to resolve quickly and efficiently hernias in
animals with the significantly lower cost care advantage. In order to compare the
systemic and organic effects of this materials (PP and PE), an experimental study was
conducted in rats (Rattus norvegicus albinus) in accordance with national and
international regulations regarding the ethical use of experimental animals. 18 Wistar
rats were surgically implanted of 1 cm ² PP mesh into the left flank (control) and of 1
cm ² HDPE mesh in the right flank (experimental). They were sacrificed at day 14 (n =
5), 28 (n = 5), 42 (n = 4) and 56 (n = 4) post-implantation and cutted out the mesh and
surrounding tissue for histological processing with hematoxyline and eosine. All
animals healed favorably and none of them showed signs of systemic disease or
rejection of the implant. There were no significant differences (p <0.05) in response to
PP or HDPE for the following cells: neutrophils, plasma cells, lymphocytes, mast cells,
eosinophils and basophils. For fibroblasts, significant differences (p <0.05) between PP
and HDPE at 14 days were found; but afterwards they remained equal in the
inflammatory response. Whith regard to macrophages, the only statistically significant
difference (p <0.05) was found in the final stage of the period (56 days). Our results
indicate that a chronic inflammatory reaction was similar in both treatments (PP and
HDPE); therefore, no impediment was found to replace the use of PP by HDPE in the
surgical repair of hernias. We subsequently proceeded to the resolution of clinical cases
of hernias using HDPE as a substitute for PP. Initially, the dissection of the perineal
region of 256 formalin-fixed canine cadavers and 18 fresh canine carcasses was
performed to recognize each of the anatomical structures. 46 male dogs with perineal
hernia and 1 dog with inguinal hernia, and a cat with post-castration abdominal hernia
were surgically treated. Routine analysis was performed and patients were stabilized 9.-SUMMARY
225
before proceed to surgery in order to achieve the synthesis of hernia using HDPE mesh.
All animals evolved favorably, showing a moderate swelling the first few days. In
postoperative controls, one patient with local infection at the periphery of the mesh,
which was quickly resolved with the cleaning up of the area and antibiotics, was
recorded. Not recurrence, or fistula, or rejection of the implant were recorded, in terms
of controlling 3 years on average with a range from 6 months to 7 years; and no sign or
symptom that contraindicate, so far, the use of this material was observed; so we
conclude that the HDPE mesh integration into the tissues was complete in all surgically
treated cases, and it remained in situ for a long term. Considering that the higher
prevalence of perineal hernia is seen in the elderly animals, and the risks to which the
animal faces, derived from the anesthetic and surgical times; the efficiency and speed
that demonstrates our technique of placing the mesh makes it ideal for treatment of this
disease. For all the above reasons, the use of HDPE mesh is recommended for surgical
treatment of canine perineal hernia and, although mostly applied to perineal hernias in
our study, as these are the most difficult to solve, the use of high density polyethylene
may be extended to any other hernias, applied in correcting defects and injuries in
various surgical procedures, and used in other animal species. We conclude, on the basis
of the excellent results obtained in both laboratory animal testing and in clinical cases,
that the use of HDPE mesh is a good alternative and could replace polypropylene, for
surgical treatment of hernias.


Periodic operation, as a process intensification measure for trickle beds, is still tepidly greeted by industry despite numerous benefits underlined in the literature. This state of aloofness is partly ascribed to the paucity of experimental data acquired under elevated temperature and pressure, which, in practice, most catalytic reactions are subjected to. Currently, the hydrodynamics of trickle bed periodic operation at elevated temperature and pressure remains by and large an uncharted territory. This study specifically approaches from a hydrodynamic perspective the pros and cons of slow-mode induced pulsing for Newtonian and non-Newtonian power-law liquids at elevated temperature and moderate pressure. Four morphological features of the liquid holdup periodic pattern were analyzed: shock wave breakthrough, shock wave decay times, shock wave plateau, and shock wave breakthrough amplitude. The shock wave decay and breakthrough times were found to shorten, while correspondingly the shock wave plateau to lengthen, with increasing pressure and temperature. Conversely, the breakthrough amplitude of the shock wave underwent palpable collapse the higher the temperature (and/or pressure). The collapse of the bursting pulses with increasing temperatures and pressures was the result of the reduction of base and pulse liquid holdup levels, delivery of liquid cargo from pulse to baseline flow, and occurrence of dispersive hydrodynamic effects with a tendency to flatten the pulses. Qualitatively, similar effects of temperature and pressure were equally observed whether Newtonian or non-Newtonian liquids were used. The less sensational contrasts prevailing between base and pulse holdups might question the opportunity for implementing induced pulsing strategies in high-temperature, high-pressure tall trickle beds. © 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2006


Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a plant that is considered as a weed that can damage ecosystems. In order to increase the added value of water hyacinth, this plant is used as one of the alternative sources in producing carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) since it has high cellulose content. The stages of CMC production include alkylation, carboxymethylation, neutralization, purification and drying. The first two stages were performed by reacting cellulose fibers with NaOH and sodium monochloroacetat (ClCH2COONa) in a solvent medium. The mixture of isobutyl-isopropyl alcohol was used as solvent in this research. Then, the neutralization process is conducted by using acetic acid, purified with 96% ethanol, and drying stage by heating in an oven at temperature of 60 C. Variations of variables in this research include the concentration of NaOH of 5%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 35%, and the ratio of composition isobutyl-isopropyl alcohol 1572 Asep Handaya Saputra et al. solvent at 20 ml:80 ml, 50 ml:50 ml, and 80 ml:20 ml. Carboxymethylation reaction temperature was set at 55 C. CMC produced were characterized by measuring the value of (Degree of Subtitution) DS, purity and functional group analysis using FTIR. Based on the results, the CMC with the highest DS value is achieved at the condition of mixed composition isobutyl-isopropyl alcohol 20 ml: 80 ml and the concentration of NaOH at 10%.


Many animals have evolved associations with symbiotic microbes that benefit the host through increased growth, lifespan, and survival. Some interactions are obligate (essential for survival) while others are facultative (usually beneficial but not essential). Not all individuals host all facultative symbionts in a population, and thus there is probably a trade‐off between the cost of hosting these symbionts and the benefits they confer to the host. Plant‐sucking insects have been one of the most important models to test these costs and benefits experimentally. This research is now moving beyond the description of symbiont effects towards understanding the mechanisms of action, and their role in the wider ecological community. We present a quantitative and systematic analysis of the published evidence exploring this question. We found that whitefly and true bugs experience benefits through increased growth and fecundity, whereas aphids experience costs to their fecundity but benefits through increased resistance to natural enemies. We also report the lack of data in some plant‐sucking groups, and explore variation in effect strengths and directions across aphid host, symbiont and plant species thus highlighting the importance of considering the context dependency of these interactions.


The automatic recognition and classification of speech under stress has applications in behavioural and mental health sciences, human to machine communication and robotics. The majority of recent studies are based on a linear model of the speech signal. In this study, the nonlinear Teager Energy Operator (TEO) analysis was used to derive the classification features. Moreover, the TEO analysis was combined with the Discrete Wavelet Transform, Wavelet Packet and Perceptual Wavelet Packet transforms to produce the Normalised TEO Autocorrelation Envelope Area coefficients for the classification process. The classification was performed using a Gaussian Mixture Model under speaker-independent conditions. The speech was classified into two classes: neutral and stressed. The best overall performance was observed for the features extracted using TEO analysis in combination with the Perceptual Wavelet Packet method. The accuracy in this case ranges from 94% to 96% depending on the type of mother wavelet


Introduction:Scaling up routine HIV testing represents a key component of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Barriers to routine HIV testing have limited widespread adoption. Although many patients visit specialty care providers, few efforts to increase routine HIV testing in specialty care settings have been made. We report on use of a survey of barriers to routine testing coupled with academic detailing-type educational sessions to increase routine testing at specialty clinics in Chicago's main safety-net health system. Methods:We devised a survey to assess specialty provider knowledge, attitudes, and barriers to routine HIV testing. We administered this at 3 specialty clinics. Each clinic's survey responses informed content for academic detailing-type presentations to each clinic's medical providers. We provide descriptive statistics summarizing survey responses. We report changes in the HIV testing rates and use logistic regression to examine associations between time period and odds of testing at each clinic. Results:Specialty clinic providers demonstrated varying knowledge regarding routine HIV testing guidelines—with trauma providers having the least knowledge. Concerns regarding arranging follow-up for patients with positive results was the most cited barrier to testing. Two of the 3 specialty clinics experienced significant increases in routine HIV testing, whereas the third specialty service, which uses more rotating residents, had downtrending routine testing rates. Discussion:The increase in routine HIV testing in 2 of 3 specialty services suggests that academic detailing-type interventions can improve routine testing uptake in public safety-net specialty care settings and may represent a useful component to incorporate into system-wide scale-up efforts.


Background: Military service is a crucial period in the lives of young people and during this period soldier facing with multiple psychosocial problems. Objectives: The present study aimed to explore structural analysis of the relationships between depression, drug abuse, social support and the risk of suicidal ideation among Military Medical University soldiers in Iran. Methods: In the present correlational research, a sample of 176 soldiers, from three units, was selected using randomly stratified sampling. Data were collected through the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) and the Possibility of Drug Abuse Scale (LDAS). Structural equation modeling was used to test the fit of the model, identify direct and indirect effects of the psychosocial correlates. Data were analyzed using the SPSS and AMOS software (Verson22). Results: out of the whole subjects, 28.4% had suicidal ideation and 65.3% had degrees of depression (mild to severe). A significant reverse relationship was observed between social support and suicidal ideation (p<0.05). The strongest relationship was detected between drug abuse and suicidal ideation. The final structural model indicated that 74% of the variance in suicidal ideation was explained by the three examined variables of depression, social support and drug abuse. Conclusions: The overall results showed that the risk of suicidal ideation, depression and drug abuse are relatively significant in Military Medical University soldiers requiring taking serious actions by the authorities and other relevant organizations in order to improve the psychosocial health status of these soldiers.


Many software development organizations are adopting object-oriented methodologies as their primary paradigm for software development. The object-oriented method appears to increase programmer productivity, reduce the overall cost of the software and, perhaps most importantly, creates software that promotes reuse and subsequently is easier to modify. Consistent with the change in industry, many universities and industry training organizations are currently in the process of integrating object orientation into their curriculum. There are several approaches including horizontal integration (integrating a small dose of the object orientation into many courses) and vertical integration (having a large dose of the concepts in a single course). In 1996, the Systems Analysis department of Miami University, USA, opted for the latter approach and added a new course to its curriculum. It is a course that is intended to provide some in-depth exposure to object-oriented design and implementation. It should be of particular value to faculty in computer science and information systems departments (both at the 4-year and 2-year institutions) as well as those in industry training organizations who are looking for ways to incorporate the object orientation into their curriculum. In this paper, the authors describe the choices their department made, what worked well, and what needs to be improved.


The third-generation code division multiple access (3G CDMA) mobile communication networks are designed to transmit voice and data over wireless channels. Fundamental problems need to be solved for such mobile communication networks to operate efficiently. One of the problems is finding optimal scheduling algorithms for file transmission over the fading downlink channel from a base station to mobile users. Here, the problem is solved in the case of transmission of a given number of files. Optimal algorithms that minimize the delay and the transmission time are found. Also, specific nonoptimal algorithms are considered and compared numerically with the optimal ones. We consider a slotted downlink with channels to the mobile users that are dependent in the same slot but independent for different slots. Additionally, some generalizations are presented.


In a complex reservoir with a significant degree of heterogeneity, it is a challenge to characterize the reservoir using different seismic attributes based on available data within certain time constraints. Prestack seismic inversion and amplitude variation with offset are among the techniques that give excellent results, particularly for gas-bearing clastic reservoir delineation because of the remarkable contrast between the latter and the surrounding rocks. Challenges arise when a shortage of seismic or well data presents an obstacle in applying these techniques. A further challenge arises if it is necessary to predict water saturation (Sw) using the seismic data because of the independent nonlinear relationship between Sw and seismic attributes and inversion products. Prediction of Sw is necessary not only for characterizing pay from nonpay reservoirs but also for economic reasons. Therefore, extended elastic impedance has been performed to produce a 3D volume of Sw over the reservoir interval. Then, a 3D sweetness volume and spectral decomposition volumes were used to grasp the geometry of the sand bodies that have been charged with gas in addition to their connectivity. This could help illustrate the different stages in the evolution of the Saffron channel system and the sand bodies distribution, both vertically and spatially, and consequently increase production and decrease development risk.


The quality of float solution deeply influences the performance of CDGPS because the theories being used in the integer ambiguity resolution method are derived under the assumption of AWGN. But in real world, the properties of noises are far from AWGN, especially when multipath are concerned. It results in the bias in float solution which affects the success rate of integer ambiguity and the precision of position in CDGPS. This paper designs an augmented Kalman filter using shaping filter and Kalman filter for the performance improvement of CDGPS on multipath. The experimental results with real measurements show that the correct integer ambiguity is always found while the success rates of WLSQ and ordinary Kalman filter are 5% and 18%, respectively. Eventually, the position accuracy is also improved by using the proposed algorithm.


The results of a toxicity analysis showed differences from those of the existing experimental data. Therefore, HPLC-ICP-MS was used to analyze the soluble arsenic content at different valences in realgar prepared with water grind processing, which were collected from 3 companies. The results showed that the free arsenic of the 3 companies did not exceed the limit of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. However, if the free arsenic was calculated based on the total value of As(Ⅲ) + As(Ⅴ), free arsenic of 1 company exceeded the limit of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The method of determining free arsenic in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. was ancient Cai's arsenic detection method, which had a certain limitation and failed to effectively avoid the toxicity of remaining arsenics except for trivalent arsenic. Then, we examined the effects of water and temperature on the content and form of soluble arsenic in realgar. The results showed that the content of soluble arsenic increased with the rise of water content, and the form of soluble arsenic did not change, there were only As (Ⅲ) and As (Ⅴ); With the simple temperature factor, there was an increasing trend in the content of soluble arsenic in the samples, the maximum increment was As (Ⅲ) 2.489 mg•g⁻¹ and As (Ⅴ) 0.546 mg•g⁻¹; When water and temperature played an synergistic effect, the increase of soluble arsenic in the samples significantly changed, the maximum increment was As (Ⅲ) 23.690 mg•g⁻¹, As (Ⅴ) 0.468 mg•g⁻¹, respectively. Through comprehensive analysis, we believed that the quality of realgar was susceptible to water content and temperature. Both of the single effect of water content and the synergistic effect of water and temperature can significantly change the content of soluble arsenic in realgar, and the water content was a high-risk factor. In the current Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015 version, the free arsenic detection method had limitations, hence new techniques shall be introduced; At the same time, realgar does not have a water content inspection item in the current pharmacopoeia, which shall be added. However, due to the limit of water content, more in-depth studies are required.


This paper discusses the performance of dynamic voltage control devices at the inverters of very weak AC power systems. The types of compensation considered are: (a) static VAr compensators (SVC); (b) synchronous compensators (SC); (c) a mix of the two; and (d) fixed capacitors. Although the primary purpose of these compensators is to control voltage at the AC bus, their dynamic performance during system disturbances is a very important factor. The investigation includes the behavior of the various voltage control options under AC and DC disturbances. The paper shows that the SVC has the fastest response for load rejection type of overvoltages, but can cause serious problems with recovery during undervoltages caused by single phase faults. The CIGRE benchmark model for HVDC control studies has been modified and used in this study. In particular the effect of local load has been included. >


The extent to which water is present within apolar cavities in proteins remains unclear. In the case of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), four independent structures solved by x-ray crystallography indicate that water is not present in the central apolar cavity. In contrast, results from NMR spectroscopy suggest that water has high occupancy within the cavity but is positionally disordered, making it undetectable by standard crystallographic methods. A theoretically based crystallographic-phase refinement technique also suggested that there was the equivalent of two fully occupied water molecules within the apolar cavity. To resolve these discrepancies we sought to obtain an experimentally phased electron density map that was free of possible bias caused by mathematical modeling of the protein or the solvent. By combining native diffraction data with multiple wavelength anomalous data from a platinum derivative, accurate phases were obtained. Using these experimental phases, we estimate that occupancy of the apolar cavity in IL-1β by solvent is close or equal to zero. Polar cavities in the protein that contain ordered solvent molecules serve as internal controls.


The authors study the effect of power-law localisation on the dielectric constant of a noninteracting disordered electron gas. If the envelope of the eigenstate goes as 1/rs, then the authors find a divergent epsilon 1 when s to d/2, where d is the dimensionality. The AC conductivity in this limit is sigma approximately omega 2-ds/. If the states are not pure power law states and psi approximately r-se-r xi /, their results still apply for high frequencies where the characteristic length is smaller than xi and the 1/rs component of psi dominates. It is argued that this power-law correction to psi may explain qualitatively the AC conductivity and its temperature dependence just below the Anderson transition in Si:P. For omega to 0, the authors find epsilon 1(0) approximately xi 2 independent of whether or not a minimum metallic conductivity exists.


In the last quarter century, wage inequality has increased dramatically in the United States. At the same time, the US has become more integrated into the world economy prices of final goods have changed, the capital stock has more than doubled has become steadily more educated. This paper estimates a flexible, empirical equilibrium model of wage determination in an attempt to sort out the connections between these trends. Aggregate data on prices and quantities of imports, outputs, and factor supplies are constructed from disaggregate sources. The econometric analysis concludes that wage inequality has been partly driven by changes in relative factor supplies and relative final goods prices. In contrast, imports have played a negligible direct role.


Genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity in growth rates along latitudinal gradients may benefit our understanding of latitudinal compensating mechanisms in life history patterns. Here we explore latitudinal compensatory growth mechanisms with respect to photoperiod in northern and southern populations of two damselfly species, Coenagrion puella and C. pulchellum. In addition we compared size of field-collected adults from southern and northern populations. Eggs from females in copulating tandems were collected at two or three localities for each species in each geographic region. Eggs were transported to the laboratory and the experiment started when the eggs hatched. The role of photoperiod on the expression of larval growth rate was evaluated under controlled laboratory conditions. Both species had lower growth rate when reared in the northern photoperiod, which is counter to expectations if species use photoperiodic cues to trigger compensatory growth. Instead, both species displayed countergradient variation in growth rates, which probably enable northern populations to compensate for the shorter growth season in the north. The smaller size of field-collected adults from northern populations also supports the view that these species compensate for the shorter growth season by investing in growth and development but accomplish this at the expense of decreased final size.


Classification-based tracking strategies often face more challenges from intra-class discrimination than from inter-class separability. Even for deep convolutional neural networks that have been widely proven to be effective in various vision tasks, their intra-class discriminative capability is still limited by the weakness of softmax loss, especially for targets not seen in the training dataset. By taking intrinsic attributes of training samples into account, in this paper, we propose a position-sensitive loss coupled with softmax loss to achieve intra-class compactness and inter-class explicitness. Particularly, two additive margins are introduced to encode the position attribute for decision boundary maximization, which is also utilized with the proposed loss to supervise the fine-tuned features on the pre-trained model. With the nearest neighbor ranking measurement in the feature embedding domain, the whole scheme is able to reach an optimized balance between the feature-level inter-class semantic separability and instance-level intra-class relative distance ranking. We evaluate the proposed work on different popular benchmarks, and experimental results demonstrate that our tracking strategy performs favorably against most of the state-of-the-art trackers in the comparison of accuracy and robustness.


Background: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement is a procedure frequently done in the intensive care unit. The use of a traditional endoscope can be difficult in cases of esophageal stenosis and theoretically confers an increased risk of infection due to its complex architecture. We describe a technique using the bronchoscope, which allows navigation through stenotic esophageal lesions and also minimizes the risk of endoscopy-associated infections. Methods: Prospective series of patients who had PEG tube placement guided by a bronchoscope. Procedural outcomes including successful placement, duration of the entire procedure, time needed for passage of the bronchoscope from the oropharynx to the major curvature, PEG tube removal rate, and mortality were collected. Procedural adverse events, including infections and long-term PEG-related complications, were recorded. Results: A total of 84 patients underwent bronchoscope-guided PEG tube placement. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube insertion was completed successfully in 82 (97.6%) patients. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement was performed immediately following percutaneous tracheostomy in 82.1%. Thirty-day mortality and 1-year mortality were 11.9% and 31%, respectively. Overall, minor complications occurred in 2.4% of patients, while there were no major complications. No serious infectious complications were identified and no endoscope-associated hospital acquired infections were documented. Conclusions: The use of the bronchoscope can be safely and effectively used for PEG tube placement. The use of bronchoscope rather than a gastroscope has several advantages, which include the ease of navigating through complex aerodigestive disorders such as strictures and fistulas as well as decreased health-care utilization. In addition, it may have a theoretical advantage of minimizing infections related to complex endoscopes.


An all-silicon quantum computer architecture using 29 Si nuclear spins qubits buried in the spin-free matrix of 28 Si has been suggested [1]. It requires an array of micro-magnets which impose a large magnetic field gradient along the chain of the 29 Si nuclear spins qubits, which allow for the NMR frequency difference between two neighboring 29 Si qubits. In this work, we report on the successful fabrication of an array of NiFe (Ni45%-Fe55%) micro-magnet stripes (the cross-section 1.2x1 µm 2 ) formed directly on natural Si wafers using reactive ion etching (RIE) with the NH3-CO-Xe gas mixture. The magnetic field gradient calculation with the finite element method with the geometry of the fabricated NiFe stripes predicts the gradient of 0.4T/ µm at the distance 100nm away from the micro-magnet when the stripes are placed in the static magnetic field of 6T for the NMR measurement. The magnetic property of fabricated NiFe stripes was also measured with SQUID, and confirmed that saturation magnetization hadn't been deteriorated through RIE process.


The family investigated showed the presence of multiple genetic disorders among their members. The presumable defective genes were related to coagulation factor X, familial hypercholesterolemia, mitral valve prolapse, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The parents were offspring of two siblings, and their children comprised a nonidentical twin. While the proband demonstrated factor X deficiency, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and primary hypercholesterolemia, her parents and her elder sister were considered heterozygous for factor X. In addition, her mother had elevated plasma cholesterol levels, and her father primary hypercholesterolemia as well as mitral valve prolapse. The twin sister, heterozygous for factor X deficiency, displayed mitral valve prolapse. The clustering of defective genes in this family was considered to represent 'coincidental' occurrences rather than being linked to each other.


Background Effective communication between healthcare providers and patients and their family members is an integral part of daily care and discharge planning for hospitalised patients. Several studies suggest that team-based care is associated with improved length of stay (LOS), but the data on readmissions are conflicting. Our study evaluated the impact of structured interdisciplinary bedside rounding (SIBR) on outcomes related to readmissions and LOS. Methods The SIBR team consisted of a physician and/or advanced practice provider, bedside nurse, pharmacist, social worker and bridge nurse navigator. Outcomes were compared in patients admitted to a hospital medicine unit using SIBR (n=1451) and a similar control unit (n=770) during the period of October 2016 to September 2017. Multivariable negative binomial regression analysis was used to compare LOS and logistic regression analysis was used to calculate 30-day and 7-day readmission in patients admitted to SIBR and control units, adjusting for covariates. Results Patients admitted to SIBR and control units were generally similar (p≥0.05) with respect to demographic and clinical characteristics. Unadjusted readmission rates in SIBR patients were lower than in control patients at both 30 days (16.6% vs 20.3%, p=0.03) and 7 days (6.3% vs 9.0%, p=0.02) after discharge, while LOS was similar. After adjusting for covariates, SIBR was not significantly related to the odds of 30-day readmission (OR 0.81, p=0.07) but was lower for 7-day readmission (OR 0.70, p=0.03); LOS was similar in both groups (p=0.58). Conclusion SIBR did not reduce LOS and 30-day readmissions but had a significant impact on 7-day readmissions.


Measurements of the flow velocity within rockets and gas-turbines prove to be a difficult problem due to the high temperature, high pressure, and high noise levels encountered. Velocity measurements in such environments are required to understand the physics of the flow field to improve the design and efficiency of these engine types. The design of a water-cooled jacket intended for use in conjunction with an existing novel, miniature fiber-optic LDV probe to make velocity measurements in these extreme engine environments is the topic of this research. The jacket design uses off-the-shelf materials and machining techniques in order to reduce cost and simplify manufacturing. The jacket was designed and drawn using the 3D parametric modeling software called SolidWorks. The SolidWorks CFD add-in, FloWorks, was used to numerically simulate the insertion of the water-cooled jacket into the afterburner or augmentor section of an air-breathing gas-turbine engine operating at 2000 K static temperature. The augmentor diameter was chosen to be 18 inches based on the existing General Electric J-85 jet engine augmentor. Different configurations in which the combinations of jacket insertion distance, augmentor flow velocity Mach number, and alternate jacket tip designs were examined and analyzed in order to determine the operating conditions that will permit velocity measurements representative of the undisturbed freestream velocity. Computational results indicate that while a cooling water flow rate of 3 GPM allows for the successful operation of the jacket within the augmenter at Mach 0.7 and 2000 K, Mach numbers of 0.5 and below exhibit flow field disturbances that will allow for LDV measurements representative of the freestream. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries)


The life cycle of a successful technological innovation usually follows a well-known path: a slow inception, gradual assimilation of the technology, an increase in its frequency up to a certain peak, and then a decline. These different phases are characterized not only by varying frequency of use but also by degree of standardization and distinguishability. The Levallois method, a sophisticated Middle Paleolithic technology aimed at producing desired stone items of predetermined morphology, is one such innovation. It has been repeatedly suggested that the Levallois method originated within earlier Lower Paleolithic Acheulian industries, and this work contributes to this discussion. We analyze the reduction trajectory of prepared cores and predetermined blanks from the late Acheulian sites of Jaljulia and Revadim, adding important new evidence for the Lower Paleolithic origins of the Levallois method and its adoption and assimilation in the human stone-tool repertoire of this period in the Levant. Revadim and Jaljulia also provide a rare opportunity to study patterns in the early assimilation of technological innovations. These sites yielded rich lithic assemblages typical of the late Acheulian in the Levant. The assemblages include handaxes but are mostly dominated by flake production technologies and flake-tools. The early appearance of prepared cores at both sites signals, in our view, the inception of concepts related to the Levallois method, termed here proto-Levallois, in the late Acheulian Levant. Through a detailed analysis of prepared cores and their products, we are able to characterize the early stages of assimilation of this method, using it as a case study in a broader discussion of the adoption and assimilation of technological innovations during Lower Paleolithic times.


We measured in vivo forces in the flexor digitorum profundus and the flexor digitorum superficialis tendons during commonly used rehabilitation manoeuvres after flexor tendon repair by placing a buckle force transducer on the tendons of the index finger in the carpal canal during open carpal tunnel release of 12 patients. We compared peak forces for each manoeuvre with the reported strength of a flexor tendon repair. Median flexor digitorum profundus force (24 N) during isolated flexor digitorum profundus flexion and median flexor digitorum superficialis force (13 N) during isolated flexor digitorum superficialis flexion were significantly higher than during the other manoeuvres. Significantly higher median forces were observed in the flexor digitorum superficialis with the wrist at 30° flexion (6 N) compared with the neutral wrist position (5 N). Median flexor digitorum profundus forces were significantly higher during active finger flexion (6 N) compared with place and hold (3 N). Place and hold and active finger flexion with the wrist in the neutral position or tenodesis generated the lowest forces; isolated flexion of these tendons generated higher forces along the flexor tendons. Level of evidence: III (controlled trial without randomization)


Wheat protein content is an important indicator often employed in wheat sale price. Spectral indexes and concurrent winter wheat protein content (WWPC) samples were obtained across three years. Data from 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 were utilized to build the new ratio indexes and product indexes, and then selected grey relational method and partial least squares method were used to improve the estimation accuracy of WWPC, data from 2011/2012 was utilized to validate model. The results showed that the correlation coefficients between ratio indexes and WWPC were better than that between single indexesand WWPC. The r of single indexes and ratio indexes were 0.726 and 0.751, respectively, and the product indexes were used to improve the parts of single indexes. The estimation accuracy of WWPC was improved by using GRA-PLS, the determination coefficients (R2) of single indexes, ratio indexes and product indexes were 0.537, 0.631 and 0.521, respectively, and corresponding root mean square errors (RMSE) were 0.665%, 0.564% and 0.574%, respectively. The results indicated that it was feasible to estimate WWPC by building new ratio indexes and product indexes, and then applying the GRA-PLS.


SUMMARYIntroduction Leiomyosarcoma of the penis (LSP) is an extremely rare form of penile tumor. LSP can be divided into two subtypes: deep and superficial. The goal of this paper is to present a very rare case of LSP. Case outline On examination, the patient presented with a slowly "growing penile bump," for which an initial diagnosis of non-inflamed penile atheroma was given. Further diagnostic workup was omitted. Outpatient excisional biopsy was performed, and the tumor was sent for pathohistological examination, which revealed penile leiomyosarcoma. The patient has not received any further treatment. The most recent follow up was two and a half years after surgery, and the patient continues to do well without any complaints. Conclusion LSP is an extremely rare disease, which can be cured if it is diagnosed in its early stage. Pathohistological examination is necessary for diagnosing LSP.


This paper presents a study of the issues in integrating the pattern, fill, planarization and surface cleanup processes to design a shallow trench isolation (STI) flow suitable for 0.25 micrometers CMOS technologies. Technological choices and their effects on the characteristics of the STI technology are discussed. Experimental data is presented to illustrate how process choices at various stages of the STI flow are made to optimize the STI structure.


We study efficient protocol constructions against adaptive corruption in the universal composition framework. For standard cryptographic tasks, we propose a new framework to design efficiently two-party secure function evaluation protocols, and then apply it to oblivious transfer and obtain the first practical such constructions. Regarding reactive cryptographic tasks, we present a framework for designing blind signatures, and construct the first practical protocols for this task.


The paper proposes a critical analysis of the panopticon, the model of an ideal prison devised in the 18th century by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, and its function in modern management. The original prison was designed in such a way that it enabled a single prison guard to watch all the inmates at all times, while the latter could never tell whether they were currently being watched or not. The idea behind the panopticon gave rise to the concept of panopticism, a philosophy developed by the French thinker Michel Foucault, which he voiced in Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975/1995). Analyzing the mechanism of control through the ages, he ponders the resilience and adaptability of such concepts as discipline, training and hierarchical surveillance. According to Foucault, man is held captive by the control machine equipped with an apparatus for observation, recording and training. Today these very concepts, if slightly euphemized, constitute the cornerstone of scientific management. I intend to provide a critical analysis of the modern methods and techniques of control, which more often than not is executed nowadays by surveillance equipment and computer programs; hence my term of choice - "cybercontrol". In the presentation of the results of my qualitative research conducted at selected organizations I am going to rely on the conceptual apparatus of Critical Management Study (Alvesson, Willmott 1992, 2003). Exercising control is one of the fundamental functions of management. Organizational structures, processes, and rules enable managers to control the chaos which could otherwise easily substitute cooperation. Over the recent decades, however, the control mechanisms have escalated beyond any reasonable proportions, becoming the modern embodiment of the original panopticon (Taylor, 2015). There is a growing tendency to monitor all employee activity (including non-work-related behavior) by means of oppressive calculating equipment which records every computer click, every second of a telephone conversation, and the exact time spent away from one's desk. Some companies take the control issue further still, introducing elements which can only be described as a prelude to total control: for instance, the Swedish firm Epicenter makes its employees wear microchip implants equipped with a radio locator, which – according to the company's rhetoric - are to better safeguard their privacy. Last but not least, there are the global internet services and networks, such as Google, Facebook and numerous others, which exercise control over billions of users, gathering personal information about their age, gender and interests, and are even able to trace, by means of the GPS system, their exact location. The services also record all search histories, e-mails, calendars, photographs and other files which become, in fact, indelible traces billions of people leave behind on servers, for anyone to use and abuse. The inevitable question is, is the brave new project such as the Global Brain, with its attributes of omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence (Heylighen, 2014), yet another tool encouraging omnipotent control? And is not the struggle man today undertakes – raging, in the name of reclaiming his freedom, against the machine, our desperate attempt to save the virtues of humanism in the face of the imminent mutation of man into the cyborg?
Bibliography

Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (Eds.). (1992). Critical Management Studies. London ; Newbury Park: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (Eds.). (2003). Studying Management Critically. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Heylighen, F. (2013). Return to Eden? Promises and Perils on the Road to a Global Superintelligence. In B. Goertzel & T. Goertzel (Eds.), The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity. Retrieved from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/BrinkofSingularity.pdf
Taylor, S. S. (2015). "Controls and Constraints". Organizational Aesthetics, 4(1), 1–3.


The sensitiveness of initiators to mechanical action has been examined in relation to heat, for lead azide, mercury fulminate, and in some cases lead styphnate, in order to see how far mechanical action could be equated with local heating. Previous information on mechanical sensitiveness has been extended by measuring friction sensitiveness with grit of varying hardness, and by varying the melting point and hardness of the rubbing surface. The percussion sensitiveness has been compared using as confining metals nickel and tin, as well as the brass normally used. The relation between sensitiveness to heat and sensitiveness to mechanical action has been investigated by determining the percussion sensitiveness of initiators partly sensitized by heating, and also by studying the delay to ignition as a function of the quantity of initiator accessible to the growth of the detonation wave. In these tests, lead azide was found to build up to limiting detonation conditions in considerably smaller quantities than mercury fulminate. It is found that grit does not appreciably sensitize initiators to friction unless it is harder than about 3.5 to 4 on Moh's scale, and unless the rubbing surfaces have a high hardness and melting point. It is confirmed that mercury fulminate is not appreciably sensitized by grit. Percussion sensitiveness depends to some extent on the confining metal used, being rather lower for the metals of lower melting point. Extension of previous observations confirms that if lead azide or mercury fulminate is heated during half the induction period at any one temperature, and then cooled, these heat sensitized initiators will detonate in approximately half the normal time at any other temperature. However, sensitization of initiators to heat in this way has only a secondary effect on their sensitiveness to percussion. These observations together with previous work indicate the following relationships between mechanical and thermal sensitiveness. (i) In grit sensitveness , the mechanical action involves mainly the formation of 9hot spots' between the grit and a hard surface. These hot spots acting on the initiator generate the detonation wave more easily with lead azide than with mercury fulminate, so that lead azide is more sensitive to grit than mercury fulminate. Other mechanical effects may be present in a subordinate degree. (ii) Percussion sensitiveness appears to be more complex, and may involve a tribo-chemical 'trigger' reaction as well as the formation of hot spots through friction. Tribo-chemical or other mechanical 9trigger reactions9 are only indirectly related to the sensitiveness to heat since they involve a more direct transfer between mechanical energy and activation energy, than is involved if the mechanical energy is first converted into heat.


This work is devoted to the problem of shame linked to disability in children. It has been inspired by patients - disabled infants and their parents. The shame evidently experienced during meetings with parents learning about their child's condition leads to many difficult questions. Shame is not a simple, isolated emotion. It is a complicated feeling, closely connected to various shame-related emotions and experiences. Shame leads to a sense of guilt and self-blame. Shame linked to a child's disability is a shame of 'lacking' and low self-esteem. Additionally it is feeling of nakedness, vulnerability and despoilment of intimacy; it makes parents feel forced to put their interior world on display and to show their weakness caused by their child's condition. Sometimes shame is an experience of humiliation, or hurt dignity caused by the looks of other people. It is also the shame of one's own difficult thoughts, desire to escape responsibility. It is being ashamed of experiencing shame. It is an emotion of ultimate suffering, often returning during whole life. One solution to the 'discomfort of birth' could be a lonely island. The issue is not that simple, however, and philosophy helps in this respect. A being is good and it has to be good. One cannot be someone, one is not. This is the difference between a being and a desire. There is love and acceptance, but there is also shame - even on a lonely island.


We present a time-resolved study of disintegration within atomic clusters ionized by a hard-x-ray pulse of moderate fluence. It was performed with electron and ion spectroscopy, and complemented by theoretical simulations. The expanding clusters were probed with a near-infrared (NIR) laser pulse over a range of pump-probe delays from -4 to 10 ps. In addition to an increasing number of singly charged atomic ions, originating from the ionization of Rydberg atoms formed through electron-ion recombination, we observe a decrease of oligomer yields. The latter is due to the interaction of oligomers with the NIR probe pulse, leading to their dissociation. At time delays between -1 and 2 ps, efficient absorption of the NIR laser energy occurs, even though the NIR intensity is too low to trigger tuneling ionization of Ar atoms. Our observations are similar to earlier observations of the fragmentation behavior of clusters excited by soft-x-ray pulses. This indicates that the relaxation dynamics of x-ray-excited nano-objects are universal over a wide range of excitation photon energies.


The pedagogical orientation to the families of children with behavioral deficiencies needs a differentiated approach, accorded to the particular characteristics of each family. To accomplish this task, the personnel in charge of family orientation in the Schools for children with affective-behavioral maladies, diagnose the families, to obtain the peculiarities of the familiar dynamics. After that, they need to obtain groups of similar families, in order to carry out a better orientation. The data of the familiar dynamics are mixed an incomplete, and the desired group number is not given. In this paper we extend the  0-compact sets structuralization to cluster the families according to their characteristics. We found five groups, each of them with distinctive familiar dynamics. With the five groups, the family orientation specialists designed a personalized strategy with a more coherent and adequate orientation.


Nd-Fe-B melt-spun ribbons with optimized composition for hot workability have been hot-compacted together with low melting DyCu, DyNiAl, NdCu, and NdAl powders to enhance coercivity. Annealing at 600 °C leads to an interdiffusion of Dy and Nd at the interfaces between the Nd-Fe-B flakes and the Dy-rich phase. This modifies the grain boundary phase and thus further enhances coercivity without decreasing remanence. The higher coercivity for DyCu compared to DyNiAl was attributed to the lower melting point obtained by differential scanning calorimetry. For NdCu and NdAl, annealing was found to be ineffective.


Precipitation is an extremely important variable for society. While intense and persistent rainfall are responsible for causing floods and landslides, its absence is also a factor of concern, such as droughts. For an efficient rainfall monitoring over a certain region, sub-daily measurements of this variable are required to understand the physical processes which modulate the so-called Precipitation Diurnal Cycle (PDC). Over Brazil, due to the low density of ground observational data, both from rain gauges networks (most of them available on daily basis) and weather radars, it is necessary to use satellite-based rainfall estimation products. However, the error for those techniques on sub-daily scale are still high. In this context, this study analyzes Artificial Intelligence techniques, specifically Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), for downscaling daily to a sub-daily scale precipitation data using multiple datasets. The main information from daily retrievals comes from a satellites-based technique corrected by rain gauges, called MERGE which was developed by INPE in Brazil. MERGE has an available dataset of 20 years. In order to better represent the characteristics of the diurnal cycle and the physical processes of the different regions of the country we applied two different types of ANN, the Deep Neural Network (DNN) and the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN). The target is a sub-daily rainfall with temporal resolution of 3 hours. Meteorological variables with physical relationship with the rain in previous studies were selected, like infrared brightness temperature from GOES satellite, hourly precipitation estimates from microwave sensors (IMERG), and environmental data (e.g. humidity, wind, etc) from ERA reanalysis. Also, we used topography and location information for the whole area. Each of the chosen variables was pre-processed, producing averages (or accumulated) values and other 3-hour temporal resolution measurements. Correlation between them and the accumulated observed rain at the same time were analyzed. The results were evaluated for different regions, seasons, and times. Results obtained by the ANNs are in a better agreement when compared to IMERG product (the reference). For results with less input data (e.g. without wind information), to save computer time, the DNN has the best performance, especially when trained with data from all regions. DNN obtained an MSE of 11.09 mm and RNN shows a value of 11.88 mm. However, the rain screening (areas with rainfall) is slightly better for IMERG, but with a superestimation of the precipitation. Also, DNN shows better results for all the different regions of Brazil as well as for the different seasons. BIAS for RNN is better for hours with low precipitation, while DNN and IMERG are better for rainy periods (18 and 21 GMT). However, BIAS differences between DNN and RNN are very small and MSE shows a slightly better values to DNN for all times. Therefore, DNN was chosen as the best ANN. Sensitivity tests will be carried out to determine the best DNN configuration without considering computational costs. For its improved version, with the inclusion of more meteorological variables, DNN performed better in all aspects, including rain screening, when compared to IMERG.


Clinicians regularly assess, diagnose and manage illnesses which are directly or indirectly linked to environmental exposures. Yet, various studies have identified gaps in environmental assessment in routine clinical practice. This review assessed clinicians' environmental health practices, attitudes and beliefs, and competencies and training. Relevant articles were sought using a systematic search strategy using five databases, grey literature and a hand search. Search strategies and protocols were developed using tailored mesh terms and keywords. 43 out of 11,291 articles were eligible for inclusion. Clinicians' attitudes and beliefs towards environmental health and routine clinical practice were generally positive, with most clinicians believing that environmental hazards affect human health. However, with the exception of tobacco smoke exposure, environmental health assessment was infrequently part of routine clinical practice. Clinicians' self-competence in environmental assessment was reported to be inadequate. Major challenges were the time required to complete an assessment, inadequate training and concerns about negative patients' responses. Clinicians have strong positive attitudes and beliefs about the importance of environmental health assessments. However, more concerted and robust strategies will be needed to support clinicians in assuming their assessment and counselling roles related to a wider range of environmental hazards.