Abstract Perennial-based pasture swards potentially offer land managers the capacity for recharge control in temperate cropping zone environments to satisfy the dual role of fostering increased agricultural productivity and reduced deep drainage. This study evaluated the productivity, persistence and herbage quality of lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), phalaris (Phalaris aquatica L.), chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), perennial veldt grass (Ehrhata calcycina Sm.), grazing brome (Bromus stamineus E. Desv.), plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.), Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana Kunth), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea syn. Lolium arundinaceum Schreb. syn. Schedonorus phoenix (Scop.) Holub.) and cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) in two contrasting environments in the cropping zone of southern New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The performance of two cultivars with contrasting levels of summer activity of each of the latter two species was also assessed. Lucerne was the most productive species evaluated, producing 54–85% more herbage than phalaris, the next most productive species. Lucerne was also the most persistent species with a higher basal frequency than all other species during the experimental period and, averaged across samplings, had the highest crude protein (22.3%) in the leaf and stem of any species. Chicory herbage had the highest dry matter digestibility (76.7%) and ash content (15.1%) and lowest neutral (35.4%) and acid detergent fibre contents (21.8%) compared with the other species. The more summer-dormant cultivars of cocksfoot (cv. Kasbah) and tall fescue (cv. Fraydo) were both found to be more persistent than their semi-summer-active counterparts (cvv. Currie and Demeter, respectively), demonstrating the importance of summer dormancy for the persistence of both species in these environments. Tall fescue cv. Fraydo was equally persistent yet produced only 42–51% of the cumulative biomass of phalaris over 5 years, indicating that tall fescue is not a viable species in these drought-prone environments, nor were plantain and grazing brome due to their inferior productivity and persistence. The study highlighted the lack of viable perennial pasture options currently available in cropping zone environments of southern NSW other than lucerne, phalaris and the summer-dormant cultivar of cocksfoot, Kasbah. Chicory and perennial veldt grass, with further breeding and selection under Australian environmental conditions, could have the potential to be viable perennial pasture options for the cropping zone of southern NSW.


The paper addresses the main problems of students with hearing disabilities when studying natural sciences at a technical university of a general type in the inclusive conditions. They are associated both with a low level of the school chemistry course knowledge and with their peculiarities of perception of educational materials in chemistry in connection with a defect. To overcome the difficulties, we have set a task to develop special competencies in students with hearing impairments, which contribute to their mastery of the university's chemistry course at the level meeting the requirements of independently established university educational standards (IEES). The authors have developed and introduced in the educational process at BMSTU technological, organizational, and pedagogical decisions that contribute to forming these competencies in students with hearing impairments. The adaptive course "Cognitive technologies of supporting the discipline "Chemistry" is being implemented in parallel with the basic discipline "Chemistry" and on its material. This course is being taught at BMSTU in an accessible environment of multimedia laboratories providing special educational conditions for such students. The offered cognitive information and communication technologies contribute developing of special competencies (SC) in students with hearing disabilities. SC are compensatory and at the same time personally adaptational, they are included in the matrix of BMSTU competencies which are necessary for mastering by this category of students within inclusive programs. SC contribute to getting by students professional competencies defined by the IEES. The adaptive course showed a positive effect on performance indicators in chemistry of hearing impaired students. This is achieved by creating conditions that equalize the level of training of hearing impaired students in the educational process with the level of training of ordinary students. These technologies can be effectively used in the process of forming special competences in students with hearing disabilities when teaching them general technical and special disciplines at various levels of higher education. They can be applied to students with other disabilities within inclusive education environment as well.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Tuberculous cold abscesses or gumma are an unusual form of tuberculosis. We report a case of gumma as initial diagnosis of disseminated tuberculosis.

METHOD
This case was studied in 2012 in Barcelona ( Spain). Source data was compiled from the electronic clinical records, hospital reports and additional diagnostic testing.

RESULTS
Immunocompetent inmate, born in Cape Verde, living in Spain since the age of four. Positive tuberculin skin test. Initial examination without interest, but a palpable mass in lower back. Fine needle aspiration of the abscess was positive (PCR and Lowenstein) for M. tuberculosis. Computed tomography showed lung cavitary nodes in apical part and lung upper right side. After respiratory isolation, antituberculous therapy and an excellent evolution, the patient was discharged from hospital with disseminated tuberculosis diagnosis.

DISCUSSION
It is advisable to monitor the injuries since, although rare, it may be secondary to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, mainly in inmuno-compromised populations and in immigrants coming from hyper-endemic tuberculosis areas.


Indian iron ore mining industry disposes large amount of ultra fines containing high gangue minerals, thereby lead to loss of iron values and environmental pollution. Selective flocculation studies have been thought of for beneficiation of ultra fines. Response of different types of starches to iron ore ultra fines generated by the hydro-cyclone in Joda Iron Ore Washing Plants, Orissa, India has been studied. The starches used are: (i) maize starch (MS), (ii) potato starch (PS) and (iii) causticized potato starch (CPS). The order of selectivity as flocculant towards iron bearing minerals is observed as MS<PS<CPS. This can be attributed to the different C-H chain morphology of the starches. MS has more amylopectin than PS. Amylopectin adsorbed strongly onto all oxides minerals as carbonyl groups attached to C-2 and C-3 atoms of starch form surface complex with surface atom of all oxide minerals whereas amylose has a more adsorption tendency to hematite only. Amylose has less number of end groups than amylopectin, thus exhibiting lesser adsorption density than amylopectin. The selective adsorption characteristics of PS to hematite further improves by modification. Iron content and the iron recovery of the concentrate depend on flocculant dosage as well as settling time. A good concentrate is obtained suitable for pellet feed with Fe content in the concentrate increased from 57.8 mass% to 66.3 mass% and with an iron recovery of 66.5% by this process using CPS as a flocculating agent under optimized conditions. The tailing generated is suitable for building materials like tiles.


This paper explores the development of a new doctrine that is the " Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid " in both the market sphere and the field of the politics of development (international organization). In this new model, free enterprise, private investment and more fundamentally markets, are strongly upheld as the potential driving force in the fight against poverty in Southern countries. Market expansion is thought as a momentum to include the poorest in society through a logic of economic and financial "inclusion" (Budinich, Reott, & Schmidt, 2007). The paper is developed as follows : firstly, we come back to the doctrine of BoP Markets to examine how it emerges from and gives rise to an institutional work sustaining its circulation from the Business Schools to the MNC (MultiNational Companies) and even to the International Organizations involved in economic development. Then, we analyse how this managerial doctrine defends a re-ordering of economic values in order to resolve the dissonance between market and poverty. Finally, we examine how it performs the practices of Western MNC and generates a set of experiments around BoP products and markets which convey new political and moral properties.


The vector space model (VSM) is one of the most widely used information retrieval (IR) models in both academia and industry. It was less effective at the Chinese ad hoc retrieval tasks than other retrieval models in the NTCIR-3 evaluation workshop, but comparable to those in the NTCIR-4 and NTCIR-5 workshops. We do not know whether the lower level performance was due to the VSM's inherent deficiencies or to a less effective normalization of document length. Hence we evaluated the VSM with various pivoted normalizations of document length using the NTCIR-3 collection for confirmation. We found that VSM's retrieval effectiveness with pivoted normalization was comparable to other competitive retrieval models (for example, 2-Poisson), and that VSM's retrieval speed with pivoted normalization was similar to competitive retrieval models (2-Poisson). We proposed a novel adaptive scheme that automatically estimates the (near) best parameters for pivoted document-length normalization based on query size; the new normalization is called adaptive pivoted document-length normalization. This scheme achieved good retrieval effectiveness, sometimes for short (title) queries and sometimes for long queries, without manually adjusting parameter values. We found that unique, adaptive pivoted normalization can enhance fixed pivoted normalizations for different test collections (TREC-5 and TREC-6). We also evaluated the VSM with the adaptive pivoted normalization using the pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) and found that this type of VSM performs similarly to the competitive retrieval models (2-Poisson) with PRF. Hence, we conclude that the VSM with unique (adaptive) pivoted document-length normalization is effective for Chinese IR and that its retrieval effectiveness is comparable to that of other competitive retrieval models with or without PRF for the reference test collections used in this evaluation.


Many students underperform on exams due to experiencing high test anxiety. We report on a study comparing a novel intervention of seeking support from one's social network to the more common approaches of expressive writing and studying task-relevant materials for simulated open-ended test questions. We measured in-the-moment (state) anxiety before and after each intervention, and correctness of the solutions. We also surveyed students to learn about their perceptions of the interventions. Our results showed that social support decreased the anxiety of high test-anxious students by 21% with the reduction in anxiety correlating with the number of messages received. Social support also allowed high test-anxious students to score at the level of low test-anxious students. Expressive writing showed a similar effect, but increased the anxiety of low test-anxious students by 61%. Studying task materials had no effect on anxiety and high test-anxious students performed worse than low test-anxious students. Despite benefiting from social support, we found that students were uncomfortable soliciting support from their online social network. Realizing the benefits of this approach may therefore require different formulations of social support in practice.


Purpose: To analyse the parameters of in vivo pharmacokinetics such as absorption, distributionin , and excretion of adriamycin patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and investigate the stagnation of adriamycin, in the liver.Materials and Methods: Five patients in whom hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed and who were admitted for transhepatic chemoembolization were involved in this study. Fifty mg of adriamycin was mixed with 2.5 mL of water-soluble contrast material and 12 -15 mL of lipiodol, and the emulsion was injected into a selected tumor-supplying artery using a 3-F catheter. Between 1 minute and 72 hours after chemoembolization, peripheral blood samples were then obtained, and from these the blood concentration curve of adriamycin was calculated and applied to a two-compartment model. Using the model, several pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated.Results: The volume of the central and the peripheral compartment was 45 L and 4090.6 L, respectively. 75.14% of adriamycin was delivered to the liver directly, and the absorption rate constant was 2.448/hr. Distribution clearance was 969.3 L/hr, and excretion and metabolic clearance was 136.4 L/hr.Conclusion: Using a two-compartment model, the in vivo pharmacokinetics of adriamycin after hepatic arterial chemoembolization were successfully analyzed. On the basis of the parameters determined, it may be concluded that in these five patients, adriamycin remained in the liver in much greater quantities and for longer. Index words : Liver neoplasms Liver neoplasms, chemotherapeutic embolization Chemotherapy, regional


Subunit 9 of the ATPase complex is a membrane-associated protein subunit involved in the proton-translocating Fo portion of the ATPase in mitochondria. In higher plants, the atp9 gene is in the mitochondrial genome. RNA editing has been demonstrated for severa1 plant atp9 genes, including Oenothera (Schuster and Brennicke, 1990), wheat (Begu et al., 1990; Nowak and Kiick, 1990), sorghum (Salazar et al., 1991), and petunia (Wintz and Hanson, 1991). RNA editing involves the alteration of mRNA sequence relative to the DNA template. Such changes can arise from specific base substitutions, insertions, or deletions; however, only substitutions have been reported in plant mitochondria (for a recent review, see Bonnard et al. [1992] and refs. therein). A common substitution in a wide variety of plant mitochondrial mRNAs is a Cto-U base change. Such substitutions may function in conservation of the protein sequence (Covello and Gray, 1989; Gualberto et al., 1989). RNA editing also appears to occur in transcripts from the soybean (Glycine max t.) afp9 gene. Sequence analysis of soybean afp9 cDNA clones revealed two nucleotides that differed from the previously sequenced genomic clone (Grabau et al., 1990) through C-to-T nucleotide substitution (Table I). The sites are located at nucleotide positions 20 and 50 of the coding sequence, which correspond to amino acids 7 and 17, respectively. Both of these changes involve C-to-U substitutions that convert Ser codons (UCA) to Leu codons (UUA) in the mRNA. Eleven cDNA clones were sequenced from three separate DNA amplifications and a11 contained the same two nucleotide differences relative to the genomic sequence, suggesting that editing in soybean is complete, as has been reported for Oenothera (Schuster and Brennicke, 1990) and another dicotyledon, petunia (Wintz and Hanson, 1991). In contrast, some clones containing only a subset of the total edited nucleotides (partia1 editing) have been found in monocotyledons (Begu et al., 1990; Salazar et al., 1991). Direct amino acid sequencing of wheat ATP9 provided evidente that edited mRNAs function in translation into the protein product (Graves et al., 1990).


Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-hexanediol diacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) [poly(NIPAAm-co-HDDA-co-EDMA)] monolithic column was prepared via in situ polymerization reaction. In order to investigate the porous properties of the monoliths prepared, the morphology was characterized by the scanning electron microscopy; the chemical group of the monolithic column was confirmed by a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method. The surface area was 39.1 m2/g by the nitrogen adsorption-desorption experiment. With methanol as the mobile phase, the permeability of the monolithic column was calculated as 3.2330 × 10-14 m2 Then it was used as the stationary phase of high performance liquid chromatography. The results indicted that poly(NIPAAm-co-HDDA-co-EDMA) monolithic column was good to separate small molecules by controlling the temperature. Column efficiency for p-chloronitrobenzene was 4,680 plates/m. Repeatability was defined by determining run-to-run and column-to-column variation of the retention times of aromatic compounds, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD = standard deviation/mean × 100%), and the values were <0.58% and 3.1%, respectively.


The road design problem is usually split into the horizontal alignment, the vertical alignment, and the earthwork scheduling problems. Optimizing the vertical alignment assumes a predetermined horizontal alignment and changes the height of the road at different points to minimize overall construction costs, while maintaining the design requirements. The problem gets complicated because of the natural blocks like rivers, mountains, etc., in the road construction area. Existing vertical alignment models deal with the blocks before the beginning of road construction, which sometimes results in a non-optimal solution. A substantial portion of the total construction cost comes from the earthwork operations. As a result, some existing models only find the optimal earthwork schedule for a predetermined vertical alignment. This research extends a recent mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model that considers blocks when optimizing earthwork operations. We propose a novel model of vertical alignment that considers blocks. In the model, we propose a novel way of incorporating side-slopes of the road to improve the accuracy of the model. Our numerical results show a considerable improvement in the accuracy of the model without introducing significant computational burden. Finally, we propose another novel model using concepts from the network flow algorithms that gives more that 75% speedup for 87% of the problems for our test set of 280 problems.


Thyroid hormones play an important role in growth and development. Therefore, we investigated the effects of neonatal hypo- and hyperthyroidism on pituitary GH content in the rat. In control rats, pituitary GH content increased from 4.16 +/- 0.34 at 2 days to 43.7 +/- 4.2 microgram/gland (mean +/- SE) at 15 days of age, with a t 1/2 of increment of 3.48 +/- 0.40 days. Between 18-60 days of age, pituitary GH content increased from 56.9 +/- 4.0 to 300 +/- 28 microgram/gland, with a t 1/2 of 18.2 +/- 1.5 days. The administration of T3 had no significant effect on the pituitary GH content of these animals. In neonatal hypothyroid rats, pituitary GH content was significantly lower than that of controls at 2 days of age (P < 0.01) and decreased from 8 days on, with a t 1/2 of 3.71 +/- 0.25 days. However, 24 h after the administration of T3 (100 microgram/100 g BW), pituitary GH content was significantly increased in these animals. Similarly, the administration of T3 (0.4 microgram/100 g BW) to 14-day-old hypothyroid rats restored the pituitary GH content to 70-80% of normal after 5 days of therapy. Conversely, hyperthyroidism induced in 14-day-old normal or hypothyroid rats resulted in a significant decrease in their pituitary GH contents after 5 days of treatment. Therefore, the present results indicate that during the neonatal period, thyroid hormones play a primary role in the control of GH accumulation in the pituitary. Furthermore, the lack of increase in pituitary GH content after the administration of T3 during development might suggest that the rate of formation of GH is already maximum during this period of life in the rat, or, alternatively, that the pituitary nuclear T3 receptors are near full saturation during development. Finally, a generally similar effect of T3 on pituitary GH response was observed in the neonatal rat as well as in the adult animal.


Background This study was conducted to evaluate the hemodynamic performance and the incidence of prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) after aortic valve replacement (AVR) using bovine pericardial valves (Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Magana and Magna Ease). Methods In total, 216 patients (mean age, 70.0±10.5 years) who underwent AVR using stented bovine pericardial valves and had follow-up echocardiography between 3 months and 2 years (mean, 12.0±6.6 months) after surgery were enrolled. The implanted valve sizes were 19, 21, 23, and 25 mm in 32, 56, 99, and 29 patients, respectively. Results On follow-up echocardiography, the mean transvalvular pressure gradients for the 19-mm, 21-mm, 23-mm, and 25-mm valves were 13.3±4.4, 12.6±4.2, 10.5±3.9, and 10.2± 3.7 mm Hg, respectively. The effective orifice area (EOA) was 1.25±0.26, 1.54±0.31, 1.81±0.41, and 1.87±0.33 cm2, respectively. These values were smaller than those suggested by the manufacturer for the corresponding sizes. No patients had PPM, when based on the reference EOA. However, moderate (EOA index ≤0.85 cm2/m2) and severe (EOA index ≤0.65 cm2/m2) PPM was present in 56 patients (11.8%) and 9 patients (1.9%), respectively, when using the measured values. Conclusion Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Magna and Magna Ease bovine pericardial valves showed satisfactory hemodynamic performance with low rates of PPM, although the reference EOA could overestimate the true EOA for individual patients.


As researchers continue to architect massive-scale systems, it is becoming clear that these systems will utilize a significant amount of shared hardware between processing units. Systems such as the IBM Blue Gene (BG) and Cray XT have started utilizing flat (i.e., scalable) networks, which differ from switched fabrics in that they use a 3D torus or similar topology. This allows the network to grow only linearly with system scale, instead of the super linear growth needed for full fat-tree switched topologies, but at the cost of increased network sharing between processing nodes. While in many cases a full fat-tree is an over estimate of the needed bisectional bandwidth, it is not clear whether the other extreme of a flat topology is sufficient to move data around the network efficiently. In this paper, we study the network behavior of the IBM BG/P using several application communication kernels, and we monitor network congestion behavior based on detailed hardware counters. Our studies scale from small systems to 8 racks (32,768 cores) of BG/P and provide insights into the network communication characteristics of the system. As researchers continue to architect massive scale systems, it is becoming clear that these systems will utilize a significant amount of shared hardware between processing units. Systems such as the IBM Blue Gene (BG) and Cray XT have started utilizing flat (i.e., scalable) networks, which differ from switched fabrics in that they use a 3D torus or similar topology. This allows the network to grow only linearly with system scale, instead of the super linear growth needed for full fat-tree switched topologies, but at the cost of increased network sharing between processing nodes. While in many cases a full fat-tree is an over estimate of the needed bisectional bandwidth, it is not clear whether the other extreme of a flat topology is sufficient to move data around the network efficiently. In this paper, we study the network behavior of the IBM BG/P using several application communication kernels, and we monitor network congestion behavior based on detailed hardware counters. Our studies scale from small systems to 8 racks (32,768 cores) of BG/P and provide insights into the network communication characteristics of the system.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to assess the effects of preoperative shaving of the pubic region on post-operative bacteriuria after endoscopic urological surgery.

MATERIALS AND METHOD
The study was carried out distributing the patients undergoing endoscopic urological surgery in a controlled randomized way in two groups. In a group the pubic region was shaved, according to the habitual techniques, while the other group was not shaved; the rest of the preparation was the same for both groups. Urine samples were collected for their culture before the administration of the prophylactic antibiotic and a week after the removal of the Foley catheter, yet without antibiotic treatment. Special attention was paid to the postoperative incidences, mainly, those of infectious nature.

RESULTS
They were included a total of 449 patients, of which 149 were removed from the study by different causes. Of these, 149 were shaved and 151 were not it. In the group of unshaved patients a 19.5% of postoperative bacteriurias was observed, while in the other group it was of 16.6%. Differences in both groups were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that there is no an increase of postoperative bacteriurias in the unshaved patients undergoing endoscopic urological surgery, compared with the group of patients shaved with disposable bladders.


The transient inhibitory effect on thyroid secretion produced by high doses of iodide was investigated with respect to changes in the level of in vivo iodination of membrane tubulin. Iodinated tubulin, characterized by gel electrophoresis, immunoprecipitation, and peptide mapping, was shown to be associated with a thyroid membrane fraction, and totally absent from cytoplasmic proteins. The administration of an acute dose of 5 mg KI, although it inhibited thyroid secretion (as shown by an increase in TSH), did not have a significant effect on the level of iodination of membrane tubulin. Thus, the observed inhibition of thyroid secretion is probably unrelated to the level of iodination of tubulin. Although its function is not known at present, iodinated tubulin is probably involved in membrane-related phenomena.


Background and aims Important miRNAs are involved in the modulation of immune functions and can be found in the intra- and extracellular environments, in circulation attached to RNA-binding molecules or packed in form of microparticles (MP). Given this, MP could have an important role in intercellular communication, modulation and expression of miRNAs in their target cells. To establish whether MP of SLE patients can modulate the expression of miRNAs (miRNA 126, miRNA 146a) and their target molecule (interferon response factor 5, IRF5) in the monocyte cell line U937. Methods MP obtained from serum of SLE and other autoinmune diseases (OAD) patients, and healthy controls were used as stimulus in the cell line U937 to evaluate their effect over: 1) The expression of membrane markers through flow cytometry, 2) content of miRNAs 126 and 146a through PCR and 3) expression of their target molecule, IRF5 by Western Blot. Results We observed, a decrease in HLA-DR, CD18, CD119 and an increase of IL-6 in U937 stimulated with MP from healthy controls, patients with active and inactive SLE, as well as patients with OAD. Additionally, a positive effect over the expression of miR126 and a negative effect over the expression of miR146a were observed. IRF5 as a target of miRNA146, did not change after MP treatment independent of MP origin. Conclusions Our results suggested that MPs may have a regulatory effects, inducing a decreased expression of membrane molecules and miRNAs-146 levels, without effect in IRF5. In addition, MPs increased levels of cytokines and miRNA-126, latter is related with the demethylation.


The present study aimed to characterize the carbohydrates and proteins fractions and to estimate the energetic value of native and adapted forages and agro industry by-products produced in Brazilian Northeast. To obtain the carbohydrates fractions, according with CNCPS system, were calculated the total carbohydrates, its fractions B2, C and the soluble neutral detergent components. For the determination of nitrogenous fractions, were analyzed the non-protein nitrogenous compounds, soluble and insoluble nitrogen in borate-phosphate buffer, protein nitrogen insoluble in neutral detergent and acid detergent. To the estimative of TDN, were used the equations proposed by NRC (2001). The by-products analyzed carbohydrates fractions varied from 19.35 to 58.52%; 9.95 to 61.44% and 15.35 to 70.06, for A+B1, B2 and C, respectively. In the forages, the fractions A, B1, B2, B3 and C of nitrogenous compounds presented variation from 9.84 to 42.33%; 1.58 to 11.47%; 48.63 to 80.10%; 0.70 to 6.13% and 0.43 to 2.86%, respectively. The estimated TDN of the forages varied from 48.30 to 65.42%, while for the by-products varied from 31.41 to 128.9%. The fractionation of nitrogen compounds and carbohydrates are simple methodologies and should be common practices in laboratories of feed evaluation.


In this classic book, Michael Taussig explores the social significance of the devil in the folklore of contemporary plantation workers and miners in South America. Grounding his analysis in Marxist theory, Taussig finds that the fetishization of evil, in the image of the devil, mediates the conflict between precapitalist and capitalist modes of objectifying the human condition. He links traditional narratives of the devil-pact, in which the soul is bartered for illusory or transitory power, with the way in which production in capitalist economies causes workers to become alienated from the commodities they produce. A new chapter for this anniversary edition features a discussion of Walter Benjamin and Georges Bataille that extends Taussig's ideas about the devil-pact metaphor.


We propose a style of hand postures to trigger commands on a laptop. The key idea is to perform hand-postures while keeping the hands on, beside, or below the keyboard, to align with natural laptop usage. 36 hand-posture variations are explored considering three resting locations, left or right hand, open or closed hand, and three wrist rotation angles. A 30-participant formative study measures posture preferences and generates a dataset of nearly 350K images under different lighting conditions and backgrounds. A deep learning recognizer achieves over 97% accuracy when classifying all 36 postures with 2 additional non-posture classes for typing and non-typing. A second experiment with 20 participants validates the recognizer under real-time usage and compares posture invocation time with keyboard shortcuts. Results find low error rates and fast formation time, indicating postures are close to current typing and pointing postures. Finally, practical use case demonstrations are presented, and further extensions discussed.


With these test results, lightweight synthetic Plasma® 12 × 12 rope has now proven its performance capabilities in large sizes suitable for use in the most demanding of operations. The "real-size data" created is significant in positioning high modulus synthetic ropes as a viable alternative to steel wire rope and chain in ultra-high strength applications. The tests conducted in May essentially validated the Cortland design and manufacturing processes, thereby enabling Cortland to publish a finalized product strength chart with confidence. Given the high modulus rope application success in smaller diameter applications, combined with the new interpretative knowledge gained during this testing, it is anticipated that a more rapid conversion from wire rope to synthetics in several critical lifting applications may be viewed in a more favorable light. Furthermore, Cortland has not reached the upper limit of the sizes that can be produced and will continue to test new sizes and materials.


BACKGROUND
In the present study, the improvement of diabetic microangiopathy and retinopathy was evaluated in 38 diabetic patients treated with a novel curcumin phospholipids delivery form (Meriva®).

METHODS
Diabetes was diagnosed at least 5 years before inclusion and all patients had signs of retinal oedema and of peripheral microangiopathy. Meriva® was administered at the dosage of 2 tablets/day (each tablet containing 500 mg Meriva® corresponding to 100 mg curcumin) for a period of at least 4 weeks in addition to the standard management plan, while a comparable group of subjects (n = 39) followed the standard management plan alone.

RESULTS
All subjects (treatment and controls) completed the follow-up period, there were no dropouts and Meriva® showed an optimal tolerability. At 4 weeks, microcirculatory and clinical evaluations indicated an improvement of microangiopathy. In terms of peripheral microangiopathy, in the Meriva® group, there was a significant improvement in the venoarteriolar response (p<0.05) and a decrease in the score of peripheral oedema (p<0.05), a sign typically associated with the failure of the venoarteriolar response. At the retinal level, high-resolution, duplex scanning, used to measure retinal flow, showed improvements in the Meriva® treated patients. The evaluation of retinal oedema (Steigerwalt's scale) showed an improvement associated with improved visual acuity (Snellen scale). There were no clinical or microcirculatory effects in controls.

CONCLUSION
These preliminary observations, indicate the value of curcumin, when administered in a bioavailable form as with Meriva®, in the management of diabetic microangiopathy and retinopathy.


This experimental study focuses on investigating the feasibility of using shape memory alloy (SMA) spiral to conduct emergency repairs on severely damaged reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers. The studied repair technique can be implemented in less than 24 hours and hence can be used to rapidly restore the functionality of lifeline bridges that are severely damaged by an earthquake. The proposed repair technique can also ensure the safety and structural integrity of important bridges against strong aftershocks. Unlike other repair techniques such as composite jackets, which utilize the concept of passive confinement, this proposed technique relies on the concept of concrete active confinement to enhance the strength and ductility of severely damaged concrete. Research has shown that active confinement is a more superior confinement technique to passive confinement; however, with conventional materials, its fast application on-site in case of an emergency could be a challenge. This study presents an easy and fast method to apply active confinement using SMAs. The thermally activated shape recovery feature of SMAs is used to apply the active confining pressure at the damaged locations. To examine the proposed technique, two 1/3-scale RC columns which were severely damaged are repaired using SMA spirals and retested. The damage sustained by the two columns is localized primarily at the column base (i.e. at the plastic hinge zone), which is typical in seismically damaged slender columns. The damages in both columns are in the form of concrete cover spalling, concrete core crushing, and buckling and rupture of at least one of the longitudinal rebars. The repaired columns are tested under quasi-static cyclic loading. The results are compared with those of the as-built columns. The experimental results show that the repaired columns have fully restored their lateral stiffness, strength and hysteretic energy dissipation capability. The results of this study clearly illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique for emergency repair applications.


Sixty recently weaned Large White pigs of both sexes were used to study the effects of feeding different concentrations of propolis in isonitrogenous diets (18% CP) on animal performance and disease prevention. The treatments (diets) were: T1 - 500 ppm of ethanol extract of propolis EEP; T2 – 1 500 ppm of EEP, T3 – 4 500 ppm of EEP, T4 – with neither EEP, growth promoter nor coccidiostat (negative control); and T5 - 500 ppm of copper sulphate and 120 ppm of oxytetracycline (positive control). The experimental design was completely randomized with four replications. The treatments had no significant effects on liveweight gain, feed consumption or feed conversion ratio, the overall means being 10.55 kg, 24.4 kg, and 2.313 kg/kg, respectively; but there was a tendency toward poorer perfromance in the animals of T4.


7511 Background: Preclinical studies suggest the autocrine growth loop involving VEGF and its receptors is a relevant therapeutic target for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). We evaluated AZD2171, a potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of VEGFR1/2 in MPM.

METHODS
MPM patients (pts) after platinum-based chemotherapy, with PS 0-2, measurable disease and adequate organ function were treated with oral daily dosing of AZD2171 45 mg. Study endpoints were response rate, progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), frequency/severity of toxicities, and correlation of clinical outcomes with tumor and serum biomarkers.

RESULTS
54 pts were registered between November 2005 and April 2008; 45 pts are eligible for response and 46 for toxicity analysis. Median age was 66.8 yrs; M/F: 37/9. Tumor response by RECIST was seen in 4/45 (9%) of pts; of these responders, 2 pts with bulky disease had 56% and 91% tumor shrinkage, respectively. 15/45 (33%) had SD; 21/45 (47%) had PD; 1/45 (2%) had early death. Thirty-five pts have died. For 46 pts, median PFS is estimated at 3 months; median OS is estimated at 10 months. For 46 pts, frequent grade 1-3 toxicities included anorexia (30%), diarrhea (63%), fatigue (60%), hypertension (67%), and proteinuria (28%). There were 8 grade 4 events: Cognitive disturbance, colitis, confusion, ileal perforation, hypertension, hyponatremia, hypotension, and renal failure.

CONCLUSIONS
AZD2171 has antitumor activity in MPM, with a DCR (CR/PR/SD) of 42% by RECIST, which has limitations in measuring response in pleural tumors. Notably, 2 pt tumors were exquisitely sensitive to this drug. Toxicities were consistent with those of the anti-angiogenic TKI class of drugs. Studies correlating outcome measures with tumor hypoxia- and angiogenesis-related gene expression and circulating endothelial cells are underway. Based on these data, we are proceeding in SWOG with a study of pemetrexed/cisplatin ± AZD2171 (S0905). This investigation was supported in part by the following PHS Cooperative Agreement grant numbers awarded by the National Cancer Institute, DHHS: CA32102, CA38926, CA14028, CA46441, CA105409, CA13612, CA45808, CA20319, CA86780, CA35090, CA67663, CA46282, CA42777, CA76448, CA04919, CA35176, CA63848, CA27057, CA16385. [Table: see text].


SUMMARY We use a principal component analysis to characterize the finite-frequency sensitivity of seismic observables to anisotropy. A general anisotropic medium may be described in terms of 21 independent elastic parameters, each of which has an associated 'primary' sensitivity kernel. Our principal component analysis ranks linear combinations of the primary kernels to ascertain the dominant anisotropic parameters associated with a particular seismic observable. The principal parameters are those to which a given data set is the most sensitive. We demonstrate the efficiency of the method for a single arrival associated with a particular source–receiver combination, and apply it to a small synthetic Love-wave data set with a simple source–receiver geometry. For direct body wave arrivals, such as P, S and SKS, and direct Love and Rayleigh surface waves, our principal component analysis finds the same small combinations of dominant anisotropic parameters previously identified based upon asymptotic methods. The analysis further confirms the importance of mode coupling in finite-frequency surface wave sensitivity kernels. Our approach can be directly incorporated into a tomographic inversion to automatically select the general anisotropic parameters which are best constraint, for example, without prescribing the model to be transversely isotropic with a particular symmetry axis. The computational overhead associated with the calculation of the 21 primary kernels and the subsequent principal component analysis is minimal relative to an isotropic calculation.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the relationship between child and parent report of asthma control using the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) and spirometry.

METHODS
This descriptive study included 648 children ages 5-11 years from a school-based asthma program . Not well controlled asthma was defined as forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and by FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) of 80% predicted or lower. Sensitivity and specificity of C-ACT scores for low FEV1 and FEV1/FVC levels were calculated. Logistic regression was used to obtain the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for C-ACT score categories by FEV1 level.

RESULTS
Mean child age was 8.2 years, mean C-ACT score was 20.3 (SD = 3.96), mean FEV1 was 94.3% (SD = 17.1), and mean FEV1/FVC was 81.3 (SD = 8.5). Children with an FEV1 of 80% or less had significantly lower C-ACT scores than those with an FEV1 greater than 80% (p=.023, t=-2.015, df = 167); 95% CI [. -1.79 to -.018]). . Sensitivity and specificity of a C-ACT score of 19 or less for an FEV1 of 80% predicted or lower were 44.9% and 66.4%. With a C-ACT score of 22 or less, sensitivity and specificity for low FEV1 were 67.7% and 30.9%. The AUC for a C-ACT score of 19 or less and FEV1 of 80% or lower was .444 while the AUC was higher at .507 for a CACT score of 22 or less.

CONCLUSION
The C-ACT is a useful screen but spirometry should be performed in children with persistent symptoms to assess current asthma control.


Purpose. The aim of this study was to explore what types of service provision patients with chronic pain wanted from their general practitioners (GP). Method. A small scale survey measured anxiety and depression and quantified the extent to which patients wanted four different types of help from their GP (explanation and understanding, medical treatment, psychological support and information). An opportunistic sample of 155 patients (30.3% male and 69.7% female) was recruited from three general practice surgeries in the northwest region of Northern Ireland. Ninety-one participants self-reported chronic pain and there were 64 in the no pain group. Results. Even after statistically controlling for anxiety and depression, individuals in the chronic pain group had a greater need for emotional/psychological support and explanation and understanding from their GPs. There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to the need for more information or medical treatment. Conclusions. A biopsychosocial approach should be employed in the management of chronic pain, however as this study shows, some primary care patients are still being treated within a biomedical framework. To address the unmet needs of this patient population, there is a need for clinical guidelines in the management of chronic pain in primary care settings. Limitations of the present research, with recommendations for future study are offered.


Purpose The purpose is to describe how local quantitative and qualitative data were used to assess the progress of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) interventions in Los Angeles County, California. Approach Data from the California Health Interview Survey informed the geographical concentration of program resources during the planning phase. At the end of the program, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were conducted to assess factors that facilitated SNAP-Ed implementation. Setting Los Angeles County, California. Participants Twenty-four project coordinators were interviewed. Intervention From 2016 to 2020, 24 organizations across Los Angeles County delivered nutrition education, reaching an estimated 2 million people. Two-hundred policy, systems, and environmental change interventions reached an estimated 1.2 million people. Method Semi-structured interview data were analyzed using a form of both inductive and deductive content analysis. A codebook was developed based on themes identified in these interviews. Each interview was coded by 2 team members; discrepancies (if they arose) were resolved by a 5-member group. Results Two facilitators—support for capacity building from a local health department and presence of community partnerships—were identified as critical factors that contributed to the success of SNAP-Ed implementation. Conclusion A local health department can increase SNAP-Ed intervention reach and uptake by assisting funded partners with further capacity building, helping them to develop feasible work plans, foster evaluation skills, and engage in sustainability planning.


Single-core MgB2/Cu and MgB2/Fe/Cu wires and tapes have been made by the powder-in-tube method with the use of commercial MgB2 powder (Alfa Aesar) involving hydrostatic extrusion and two-axial rolling processes. High-pressure post-treatments such as cold isostatic pressing, double hydrostatic extrusion and uniaxial pressing were applied. The grain connectivity, Ic(B) curves, pinning in MgB2 grains, upper critical field, deformation homogeneity, compact density and preferable alignment crystallites for the [001] (c-axis) direction were all improved and enhanced by application of various high-pressure treatments for the MgB2 compound and composites. Hydrostatically extruded MgB2 wires have been shown to be better than rolled wires and are very promising for possible application in windings.


Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of new cancer cases and the second most common tumor type in men globally. LMO3 has been stated to play a vital role in some cancers; however, the prognostic value of LMO3 in PCa remains vague. Here, we utilized various web databases to elucidate in detail the prognostic value and molecular functions of LMO3 in PCa. LMO3 expression was significantly decreased in PCa. Low LMO3 expression was associated with gender, age, and TNM grade and predicted a poor prognosis in PCa patients. Functional enrichment analysis suggested that LMO3 is engaged in the extracellular matrix and immune response. Moreover, LMO3 was positively correlated with immune infiltration levels and numerous immune markers. LMO3 may function as a prospective biomarker of immune infiltration in PCa.


4029 Background: Cetuximab is an IgG1, chimerized, monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to the epidermal growth factor receptor. Cetuximab improves survival when combined with radiation for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of the addition of cetuximab to concurrent chemoradiation for patients with esophageal and gastric cancer.

METHODS
Patients with adenocarcinoma or squamous cell cancer of the esophagus or stomach without distant organ metastases were eligible. Patients with locally advanced disease from mediastinal, celiac, portal and gastric lymphadenopathy were eligible. Surgical resection was not required. Clinical complete response was defined as no tumor on postreatment endoscopic biopsy. Patients received cetuximab, 400mg/m2 week #1 then 250 mg/m2/week for 5 weeks, paclitaxel, 50 mg/m2/week, and carboplatin, AUC =2 weekly for 6 weeks, with concurrent 50.4 Gy radiation.

RESULTS
Thirty-seven patients have been entered. The median age was 61 (range of 30-87). Thirty-four have esophageal cancer and 3 have gastric cancer. Of the patients with esophageal cancer, twenty-five have adenocarcinoma and nine have squamous cell cancer. Thus far, 30 patients have completed treatment and are evaluable for toxicity. There have been no grade 4 non-hematologic toxicities and 1 pt had grade 4 neutropenia (3%). Six patients (20%) had grade 3 esophagitis. Other grade 3 toxicities included dehydration (n=5), rash (n=9), and paclitaxel/cetuximab hypersensitivity reactions (n=2). Eighteen of 27 patients (67%) have had clinical complete response. Seven pts out of 16 (43%) who have gone to surgery have had a pathologic CR.

CONCLUSIONS
Cetuximab can be safely administered with chemoradiation for patients with esophageal cancer. Consistent with the data in head and neck cancer, cetuximab increases cutaneous toxicity but does not increase mucositis/esophagitis when combined with chemoradiation. Further evaluation is ongoing. [Table: see text].


Dimer [P2Nb(ODipp)3]2 (Dipp = 2,6-iPr2C6H3) has been obtained via a novel "2(3−1)" synthetic strategy. The mononuclear diphosphorus complex P2Nb(ODipp)3 targeted for generation by formal P− abstraction from previously reported [Na(THF)3][P3Nb(ODipp)3] ostensibly undergoes irreversible dimerization to form the [P2Nb(ODipp)3]2 complex, and is alternatively trapped reversibly by 1,3-cyclohexadiene with in situ formation of C6H8P2Nb(ODipp)3. The molecular structure of [P2Nb(ODipp)3]2 has been determined by X-ray crystallography. Computational studies provide further insights into the bonding and reactivity of P2Nb(ODipp)3, [P2Nb(ODipp)3]2, and C6H8P2Nb(ODipp)3.


In this study, a dual channel transmission concept over a single array with different frequencies and angle of arrivals without time division is presented. A time modulation scheme is applied to an ordinary linear array and the difference between main and fundamental radiation which can be steered independently with different frequencies is exploited in order to achieve a dual channel. By this way, both the so-called wasted power may be used in communication, and an independently steerable dual beam array may be constructed which may be utilized especially in multi-terminal communication infrastructures such as satellite networks. Since it is one of the fundamental communication techniques that the advanced ones are constructed on, a dual channel FM receiver structure is presented as an illustrative example to show the proposed concept is utilizable.


A design theory is described for low-insertion loss fin-line filters that includes both higher order mode propagation and finite thickness of the dielectric substrate and the metallic fins. Design data for three-resonator type fin-line filters with several substrate thicknesses are given for midband frequencies of about 15, 34, and 66 GHz. The measured insertion losses in the passband are 0.25, 0.5, and 1.3 dB, respectively, for these three frequencies.


In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the restoration effect on the structural behavior of masonry arch bridges. Dandalaz masonry arch bridge located on the 4km east of Karacasu town of Aydin, Turkey is selected as a numerical example. The construction year of the bridge is not fully known, but the bridge is dated back to 15th century. Considering the current situation, it can be easily seen that the structural elements such as arch, side walls and timber blocks are heavily damaged and the bridge is unserviceable. Firstly finite element model of the bridge is constituted to reflect the current situation (before restoration) using building survey drawings. After, restoration project is explained and finite element model is
reconstituted (after restoration). The structural responses of the bridge are obtained before and after restoration under dead load, live load and dynamic earthquake loads. For both conditions, maximum displacements, maximum-minimum principal stresses and maximum-minimum elastic strains are given with detail using contours diagrams and compared with each other to determine the restoration effect. From the
study, it can be seen that the maximum internal forces are consisted under dynamic loads before and after
restoration. Also, the restoration projects and studies have important and positive effects on the structural
response of the bridge to transfer these structures to future.


The year is drawing to a close and with it we present to you the final issue of the South African Dental Journal for 2020. This year saw us face the terrible COVID-19 pandemic. As oral healthcare practitioners we have been challenged in many ways, and this placed many of us under extreme pressure. Unfortunately we are just starting to see a new rise, or second wave, in the numbers of positive COVID-19 cases being reported. This means that the pressure is not about to be released, and we continue to navigate these uncharted waters into 2021.
In February we were uncertain about the impact of COVID-19 on our healthcare systems and our country, however we have now seen the course and the progression of this disease in many countries, and we know the reach it has and the devastating infection it causes. In light of this I am reminding you of the required infection control processes and procedures that need to be in place to protect yourself, co-workers and your patients.


Growth and development rates are fundamental to all living organisms. In a warming world, it is important to determine how these rates will respond to increasing temperatures. It is often assumed that the thermal responses of physiological rates are coupled to metabolic rate and thus have the same temperature dependence. However, the existence of the temperature-size rule suggests that intraspecific growth and development are decoupled. Decoupling of these rates would have important consequences for individual species and ecosystems, yet this has not been tested systematically across a range of species. We conducted an analysis on growth and development rate data compiled from the literature for a well-studied group, marine pelagic copepods, and use an information-theoretic approach to test which equations best describe these rates. Growth and development rates were best characterized by models with significantly different parameters: development has stronger temperature dependence than does growth across all life stages. As such, it is incorrect to assume that these rates have the same temperature dependence. We used the best-fit models for these rates to predict changes in organism mass in response to temperature. These predictions follow a concave relationship, which complicates attempts to model the impacts of increasing global temperatures on species body size.


Abstract There is no data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in young Syrian boys. Therefore, the present study aimed to provide baseline and reference data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity among young Syrian boys using skin-fold thickness measurements and deuterium dilution (DD) as a reference method. The sample of 2470 healthy Syrian 18- to 19-year-old boys were enrolled in this study. SFTs were measured at the biceps (B), triceps (T), subscapular (SI) and suprailiac locations (SS) were done and validated using the DD technique as a reference method. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was drawn to determine appropriate cut-off points of the Σ2 limb SFT (T+B), Σ2 trunk SFT (SI+SS), Σ4 SFT (T+B+SI+SS) and Log Σ4 SFT for defining overweight and obesity. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity in young Syrian boys, based on biceps SFT, triceps SFT, subscapular SFT, suprailiac SFT, Σ2 limb SFT, Σ2 trunk SFT, Σ4 SFT, logarithm Σ4 SFT, and DDT were 35.3%, 32%, 31.6%, 14.8%, 32.9%, 26.6%, 28.1%, 24.1%, 46.5%, respectively. Strongly positive correlation was found between SFT and total body fat in adolescents. For diagnosing overweight on the basis of Σ2 limb SFT, Σ2 trunk SFT, Σ4 SFT and logarithm Σ4 SFT, we propose the following cut-off points: 17.25 mm, 23.50 mm, 39.25 mm and 1.60, respectively. To predict obesity, Σ2 limb SFT, Σ2 trunk SFT, Σ4 SFT and logarithm Σ4 SFT threshold were increased to 23.25 mm, 32.50 mm, 55.25 and 1.75, respectively. Basing on SFT clearly leads to underestimates of the prevalence of weight problems among young boys. SFT measurement screen missed 11.2 to 31.7% of overall overweight and obesity cases.


Abstract We propose the use of randomized (scrambled) quasirandom sequences for the purpose of providing practical error estimates for quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) applications. One popular quasirandom sequence among practitioners is the Halton sequence. However, Halton subsequences have correlation problems in their highest dimensions, and so using this sequence for high-dimensional integrals dramatically affects the accuracy of QMC. Consequently, QMC studies have previously proposed several scrambling methods; however, to varying degrees, scrambled versions of Halton sequences still suffer from the correlation problem as manifested in two-dimensional projections. This paper proposes a modified Halton sequence (MHalton), created using a linear digital scrambling method, which finds the optimal multiplier for the Halton sequence in the linear scrambling space. In order to generate better uniformity of distributed sequences, we have chosen strong MHalton multipliers up to 360 dimensions. The proposed multipliers have been tested and proved to be stronger than several sets of multipliers used in other known scrambling methods. To compare the quality of our proposed scrambled MHalton sequences with others, we have performed several extensive computational tests that use L 2 {L_{2}} -discrepancy and high-dimensional integration tests. Moreover, we have tested MHalton sequences on Mortgage-backed security (MBS), which is one of the most widely used applications in finance. We have tested our proposed MHalton sequence numerically and empirically, and they show optimal results in QMC applications. These confirm the efficiency and safety of our proposed MHalton over scrambling sequences previously used in QMC applications.


Over the last few decades, the rapid expansion of the Atlanta urban area has led to the increase of the number of sources of pollutions around the area and the level of pollution in the Chattahoochee River. This research analyzed the change in the distribution of sources of contamination over time and space, and evaluated their impact on environmental justice in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The results indicate contaminated areas increased from 2000 to 2019, spreading from the central metropolitan area to the south along the Chattahoochee River. The Box and whisker plots indicated existence of spatio-temporal variations in the water quality parameters, with Ca, Mg, Fe, SiO2, NO3, and Cl displaying a relatively large length of boxes and whiskers compared to other parameters. The results show a disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards regarding income, race, age, and sex, and no application of environmental justice principles to the study area. INDEX WORDS: Contamination, Surface water, Environmental justice, GIS DISTRIBUTION OF CONTAMINATION SOURCES IN THE ATLANTA METROPOLITAN AREA ALONG THE UPPER CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER BASIN: AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOCUS


The clinical impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) on health behavior change has remained controversial. The aim of this study is to clarify the short-term effects of DTC-GT on gynecological cancer screening uptake among middle-aged never-screened Japanese women in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). A total of 144 women aged 45–50 who had never undergone gynecological cancer screening were randomly selected to receive health education (control group), or health education and DTC-GT (intervention group), at a 1:1 ratio. We compared the gynecological screening uptake during the follow-up period. Furthermore, to estimate the impact of learning of an elevated genetic cancer risk in the intervention group, we conducted an analysis dichotomized by genetic risk category. A total of 139 women completed the one-year follow-up survey (69 in the control group and 70 in the intervention group). The follow-up period did not differ between control and intervention groups (the median follow-up period was 276 days and 279 days, respectively, p = 0.746). There were 7 (9.7%) women in the control group and 10 (13.9%) in the intervention group who attended breast cancer screening (p = 0.606), and 9 (12.5%) women from both groups attended cervical cancer screening (p = 1.000). Likewise, there were no significant differences in cancer screening uptake in the analysis stratified by risk category within the intervention group. In conclusion, there was no significant effect of DTC-GT on gynecological cancer screening uptake in this RCT setting. Increasing cancer screening attendance may require a combination of well-established intervention strategies and DTC-GT. Clinical Trial Registration: UMIN-CTR Identifier, UMIN000031709.


Reproduction
In mammalian reproduction, oocyte development begins before birth. The germ cell is surrounded by granulosa cells of the primordial follicle. As luteinizing hormone from the pituitary gland triggers follicle ovulation, transcriptional changes enable cellular differentiation and, ultimately, oocyte release. Bianco et al. use the systems biology approach called FAIRE-seq to map regulatory elements before and after the ovulatory signal and identify the mechanisms controlling the mouse follicle. After hormone signaling, granulosa cells display modifications in distal regulatory elements. The orphan nuclear receptor, liver receptor homolog-1, is remodeled and reprogrammed in granulosa cells to direct global transcription during early ovulation for processes including cytoskeletal architecture and cell migration.

Cell Rep. 28 , 2443 (2019).


Background—Vascular tissues of humans and dogs contain chymase as an angiotensin II–forming enzyme. In this study, we investigated whether chymase-dependent angiotensin II formation plays a crucial role in the development of vascular proliferation in dog grafted veins. Methods and Results—The right external jugular vein of dogs was grafted to the ipsilateral carotid artery. As a control group, the right external jugular veins in dogs that had not received grafts were used. In the chymase inhibitor–treated group, the vein was infiltrated with 10 &mgr;mol/L Suc-Val-Pro-PheP(OPh)2 and was grafted to the carotid artery. In the placebo-treated group, ACE activity in the grafted veins was significantly lower than that in the control veins up to 7 days after the operation, whereas chymase activity was increased significantly. After 7 days, the mRNA levels of collagen I, collagen III, and fibronectin, all of which are induced by an increase of angiotensin II action, were significantly increased in the grafted veins, and the intima-media ratio of the grafted veins was also increased. In the chymase inhibitor–treated group, the chymase activity in the grafted veins 7 days after the operation was suppressed to 12.1%. The elevated mRNA levels of fibronectin, collagen I, and collagen III in the grafted veins were significantly suppressed by treatment with the chymase inhibitor, and the intima-media ratio was also decreased significantly. Conclusions—We demonstrate for the first time that chymase-dependent angiotensin II formation plays an important role in the development of vascular proliferation in the grafted veins.


This stunning and inspiring book of photography and first-person narratives celebrates the remarkable people who, against staggering odds, are overcoming social, economic, and personal differences to improve their local communities and better people's lives. From volunteer crime patrols in Delray Beach, Florida, to marine conservation along the North Pacific Coast of Alaska, from migrant farm workers building homes in the Rio Grande Valley to youth empowerment on Chicago's Southwest Side, these encounters with real life and real people show us that we all have a role to play in our own communities. Each community represents examples of change, inviting reflection on our own values, beliefs, and commitment to the place we call home. Bill Burke, Lynn Davis, Lauren Greenfield, Reagan Louie, Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed are among the world-renowned photographers who have contributed to the book. The accompanying CD is narrated by the individuals featured in the book. Local Heroes Changing Lives is the centerpiece of the Indivisible Project (www.indivisible.org) funded by the Pew Charitable Trust. Photography exhibition will tour to: Chicago, Akron, San Antonio, Tuscon, Raleigh, San Diego, Sarasota, Philadelphia, and Anchorage.


We show how to use an interactive theorem prover, HOL, together with a model checker, SPIN, to prove key properties of distance vector routing protocols. We do three case studies: correctness of the RIP standard, a sharp real-time bound on RIP stability, and preservation of loop-freedom in AODV, a distance vector protocol for wireless networks. We develop verification techniques suited to routing protocols generally. These case studies show significant benefits from automated support in reduced verification workload and assistance in finding new insights and gaps for standard specifications.


Using the step-down method for passive avoidance with punishment electroshock reinforcement, the experimental rats were divided according to their individual differences in the capacity for learning and retention into two groups: good learners (GL) and poor learners (PL). Stereotypy and catalepsy methods were used in order to clarify the role of the central dopaminergic (DA-ergic) transmitter mechanisms for the individual differences. Stereotypic motor behaviour was induced by applying the following DA-ergic agonists: apomorphine (2 mg/kg. i.p.), amphetamine (6 mg/kg, s.c.) and elymoklavine (2 mg/kg, i.p.). The stereotypic behaviour was recorded on a 5-point scale. A set of catalepsy tests was used to determine the cataleptic effect of the DA-ergic antagonist haloperidol (1 mg/kg, i.p.). Our experimental results showed that the intensity and duration of the stereotypy caused by the three agents were significantly increased in GL compared with PL. Catalepsy in the PL group appeared later than in the GL group, and its total duration was shorter. The data obtained suggest that in the GL group there is a marked tendency towards a higher level of sensitivity of the brain dopamine receptors, compared with the PL group.


Abstract To understand Gulf Stream meanders in the South Atlantic Bight, the growth of three-dimensional perturbations along two-dimensional frontal zones is examined by using linearized primitive equations. The Fourier–Galerkin method and the orthogonal collocation method are combined to formulate the spectral model. Emphasis is placed on the effects of cross-frontal topographic slope on the stability of the front, and on the characteristics of the most unstable modes. Attention is directed to the cross sections upstream and downstream of the Charleston Bump, which is a topographic feature near 31°N. The major results obtained from this linear study are that 1) the growth rate of the most unstable mode decreases and the associated phase speed increases after incorporating cross-front topographic gradients; 2) the most unstable solution found in the region downstream of the Charleston Bump has a slightly longer wavelength and slower phase speed than those found in the region upstream of the Bump.


Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) is a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) that is widely seen as a promising solution to traditional security threats. While SGX promises strong protections to bug-free software, decades of experience show that we have to expect vulnerabilities in any non-trivial application. In a traditional environment, such vulnerabilities often allow attackers to take complete control over the vulnerable systems. Efforts to evaluate the security of SGX have been focusing on side-channels. So far, neither a practical attack against a vulnerability in enclave code nor a proof-of-concept attack scenario has been demonstrated. Thus, a fundamental question remains: What are the consequences and dangers of having a memory corruption vulnerability in enclave code? To answer this question, we comprehensively analyze the exploitation technique against vulnerabilities inside enclaves. We demonstrate practical exploitation techniques, called Dark-ROP, which can completely disarm the security guarantees of SGX. Dark-ROP exploits a memory corruption vulnerability in the enclave software through return-oriented programming (ROP), but it differs significantly in a sense that the target enclave runs under a solid hardware protection. We overcome this problem by exploiting SGX-specific properties and obstacles by formulating a novel ROP attack scheme against SGX under practical assumptions. Specifically, we have built several oracles that tell the status of enclave execution to the attacker in order to enable launching of ROP attack while both code and data are hidden. Additionally, we exfiltrate the enclave's code and data into a shadow application to fully control the execution environment while satisfying all security requirements of SGX. This shadow application emulates the enclave under the complete control of the attacker, using the enclave (through ROP calls) only to perform SGX operations such as reading the enclave's SGX crypto keys. The consequences of Dark-ROP are alarming; the attacker can completely breach the enclave's memory protections and trick the SGX hardware into disclosing the enclave's encryption keys and producing measurement reports that defeat remote attestation. This result strongly suggests that traditional security mitigation should be taken more seriously than common directions that communities are actively taking for convince (e.g., Haven or Graphene), which essentially increase the trust computing base and the attack surface.


Abstract Objectives Carotid artery calcifications (CAC) and high carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) are associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) by unknown mechanisms in postmenopausal women. Leptin, adiponectin and estradiol may mediate these associations. Our aim was to study the relationships of the aforementioned factors to bone health (BMD) and carotid atherosclerosis (CAC and cIMT). Method Participants (n = 290, mean age 73.6 years) for this cross-sectional OSTPRE-BBA study (Kuopio Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention – Bone, Brain and Atherosclerosis) were randomly selected from the OSTPRE cohort in 2009. Femoral neck and total body BMDs, trunk and total body fat mass were measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and cIMT (mm) and CAC (no/yes) were measured with B-type ultrasound. Free estradiol, adiponectin and leptin were measured from serum samples. Results Circulating estradiol levels were associated with leptin (β = 0.131, p < 0.001), but not with adiponectin (p > 0.05), when adjusted for total body fat mass. There were no associations between estradiol tertiles and BMDs, or with cIMT or CAC. Adiponectin levels were inversely associated with femoral neck BMD (p = 0.019, β = −0.138) and total body BMD (p = 0.009, β = −0.142), adjusted for total body fat mass, age, current smoking and estradiol, but showed no relationship with CAC or cIMT. Leptin levels were not associated with BMDs or cIMT; but the odds ratio was 1.5 between the CAC and leptin quartiles (p = 0.014), adjusted for total body fat mass, age, statin use and calcium intake. Conclusion The adipokines are associated with vascular calcification and low BMD. Moreover, estradiol was not independently associated with BMD or CAC.


To further improve energy efficiency from the view of the whole network, a separation architecture has been proposed, where the control plane and data plane are separated and implemented by different base stations. Under this architecture, the data base stations (DBS) can be turned off adaptively according to the traffic load while signaling base stations (SBS) provide the guarantee of coverage. A key issue of this architecture is the design of effective BS sleeping mechanisms, which should guarantee the quality of service (QoS) and minimize network power consumption. In this paper, a probabilistic DBS sleeping mechanism is proposed and optimized under the separation architecture. Users within the sleeping DBSs are offloaded to SBSs for QoS guarantee. An optimization problem is formulated, where the sleeping probability and spectrum resource allocation are jointly optimized to minimize network power consumption. The optimal BS sleeping scheme is found to be threshold-based. When the ratio of sleeping DBSs is below a certain threshold which depends on the traffic load, the lightly-loaded DBSs should be turned off first; otherwise, only the heavily loaded DBSs go into sleep. Numerical results show nearly 30% energy can be saved under a typical daily traffic profile, and there exists a tradeoff between energy saving and network capacity.


The method of Saito (1984) is modified to measure potentials in three dimensions. Uniqueness and reconstruction are established for a class of potentials that includes surface measures of certain smooth 2-mainfolds.


A system and method are provided for analysing and communicating social data. A method performed by a computing device or server system includes obtaining social data and deriving at least two concepts from the social data. A relationship between the at least two concepts is determined. The method also includes composing a new social data object using the relationship and transmitting the new social data object. User feedback associated with new social data object is obtained, and the computing device or server system computes an adjustment command using the user feedback. Executing the adjustment command adjusts a parameter used in the method. After the adjustment command is executed, the method is repeated.


This study is understanding characteristics and analyzing contributions of the odor causing compounds of complex-odor & major specified odor materials, and contribution analysis, caused pre-treatment facilities(input and storage) and post-treatment facilities(heating and drying). The target of this study is feeds-production-facilities, located in Seoul, The averaged complex-odor compounds on the boundary line is 21 times higher, and it is 15 times higher than emission standards, In cracking & collection(pre-treatment facilities), the concentration of compounds is 4,881 times, 2,080 times in drying, and 1,442 times in putting & storing facilities. Ammonia occupies the largest portion of the results of monitoring specified odor compounds in input & storage facilities, followed Acetaldehyde > Hydrogen sulfide > Methyl mercaptan. In cracking & collection, Ammonia also occupies most of odor compounds, followed Methyl mercaptan > Acetaldehyde > Dimethyl disulfide > Dimethyl sulfide > Hydrogen sulfide. Acetaldehyde > Methyl mercaptan in drying facilities, On the boundary line, however, the concentration of specified odor compounds stays below emission standards. The result of contribution analysis is that methyl mercaptan has the highest contribution in input & storage, as well as cracking & collection facilities, followed Acetaldehyde > Hydrogen sulfide > Dimethyl sulfide > Dimethyl disulfide. In the drying facilities, the contribution shows Methyl mercaptan > Acetaldehyde > I-Valeraldehyde and Butyraldehyde. Therefore, to decrease odor in food waste treatment facilities, proper prevention facilities need to be installed and operated, according to characteristics of individual odor compounds, based on monitored data.


1. The effect of sodium salicylate on the urinary uric acid and allantoin excretion was studied in three dogs on a constant diet before and after renal denervation. 2. The excretion of allantoin was on a lower level postoperatively but showed a typical rise during salicylate medication. 3. The usual uricosuric effect of the salicylates was reversed after section of the renal nerves. Successive studies showed a decrease in this effect, probably associated with regeneration of nerve fibres. 4. A slight decrease in the extent of the total nitrogen rise was seen after operation. 5. There is a reversal of the relationship of chloride to water excretion during salicylate medication which is not altered by denervation. 6. The uricosuric action of the salicylates is apparently dependent upon the renal nerves and is in this respect like that of cinchophen.


This research entitles "A Semiotics Analysis Found on Music Vidio of You Belong with Me".The aim of this research was to investigate and analyze the verbal and visual signs and the meaning itself in the music video of "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift. The type of this research was qualitative research. In collecting data, the writer used the method of observation and documentation by classifying videos into pictures in the form of sequences.The results of this study indicate that the semiotic signs contained in this music video are in the form of visual displays contained in body language in the music video which tells about a male friend that Swift likes who actually has a lover, and verbal signs contained in the music video is a paper that contains writing that is used to communicate. Based on the result of the analysis,it can be concluded as there are two classifications,namely: verbal sign and visual sign. In verbal sign, it was found eight data. In visual sign, it was found seven data. The concept of music video of You Belong With Me describe someone who is in love with someone where that person has been with a lover who doesn't appreciate it at all. In the data found, verbal and visual sign explained about caring, disappointment, jealousy, and express feelings.


Iron-based amorphous alloys are desirable for many industrial applications due to their dual capacity to resist corrosion and wear. These alloys may also contain a significant amount of boron which makes them candidates for criticality control, for example, in high-level nuclear waste disposition applications. The Fe-based amorphous alloys can be produced in powder form and then deposited using a HVOF thermal spray process on any surface that needs to be protected. For the current testing coupons of 316L stainless steels were coated with the amorphous alloy SAM2X5 and then tested for corrosion resistance in the salt-fog chamber and in other industrial environments. Prototype cylinders were also prepared and environmentally tested. One cylinder was 30-inch diameter, 88-inch long, and 3/8-inch thick. The coating thickness was 0.015 to 0.019-inch thick. The cylinder was in good condition after the test. Along the body of the cylinder only two pinpoint spot sized signs of rust were seen. Test results will be compared with the behavior of witness materials under the same tested conditions.


Here we propose a technique that successfully reconstructs ocean bathymetry from the free surface velocity and elevation data. This technique is based on the principles of open-channel hydraulics, according to which a sub-critical flow over a seamount creates a free surface dip. The proposed method recognizes that such a free surface dip contains the signature of the bottom topography, hence inverts the free surface to reconstruct the topography accurately. We applied our inversion technique on re-analysis data and reconstructed the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea bathymetries of 1/12° resolution with approximately 90% accuracy.


We depend on the safe, reliable, and timely operation of cyber-physical systems ranging from smart grids to avionics components. Many of them involve time-dependent behaviours and are subject to randomness. Modelling languages and verification tools thus need to support these quantitative aspects. In my invited presentation at MARS 2022, I gave an introduction to quantitative verification using the Modest modelling language and the Modest Toolset, and highlighted three recent case studies with increasing demands on model expressiveness and tool capabilities: A case of power supply noise in a network-on-chip modelled as a Markov chain; a case of message routing in satellite constellations that uses Markov decision processes with distributed information; and a case of optimising an attack on Bitcoin via Markov automata model checking. This paper summarises the presentation.


Rigorous scientific assessment of educational technologies typically lags behind the availability of the technologies by years because of the lack of validated instruments and benchmarks. Even when the appropriate assessment instruments are available, they may not be applied because of time and monetary constraints. Work in augmented reality, instrumented mannequins, serious gaming, and similar promising educational technologies that haven't undergone timely, rigorous evaluation, highlights the need for assessment methodologies that address the limitations of traditional approaches. The most promising augmented assessment solutions incorporate elements of rapid prototyping used in the software industry, simulation-based assessment techniques modeled after methods used in bioinformatics, and object-oriented analysis methods borrowed from object oriented programming.


Immune response to microbial disturbance in the gut involves coordinated activity of gut epithelial cells, motile immune cells and other cells throughout the organism. Many of these functions are ancient among bilaterians, although it is not yet clear how they relate among animal phyla. As morphologically simple organisms that share an important genetic heritage with vertebrates, sea urchin larvae offer a novel, experimentally tractable system in which to characterize the gut-associated immune response. We have developed a model to characterize gene regulatory control of this response using the marine bacterium Vibrio diazotrophicus. When exposed to Vibrio in the surrounding seawater, bacteria accumulate in the gut and later invade the body cavity. Bacteria that enter the blastocoel are rapidly cleared by a coordinated response of phagocytic and granular immune cells. Peripheral immune cells migrate through the body cavity and accumulate at the gut. RNA-Seq data indicate that the most acutely upregulated gene in the early phase of response are two types of IL17 genes. Whole mount in situ hybridization and BAC-based fluorescent protein reporters indicate that these genes are expressed within gut epithelial cells. Notably, perturbation of IL17 receptor signaling results in reduced levels of tnfaip3 (a negative feedback inhibitor of IL17), nfkbiz (an IL17 target gene in vertebrates), the transcription factors cebpα and cebpγ and soul1 (SOUL domains are evolutionarily widespread and involved in immune responses). These results indicate that the highly regulated IL17 expression in the gut epithelium and signaling through IL17R1 form a central axis of larval gut-associated immunity.


Background Trauma is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Training and evaluation of physicians trauma skills and knowledge is more difficult in cross cultural settings due to language and educational custom barriers. Methods Over 18 months, 124 Egyptian physicians participated in a U.S./Egypt jointly developed 5 day training course taught in English, teaching assessment and management of trauma patients Sequential Trauma Education Programs. Participants were evaluated with four Objective Structured Clinical Evaluations (OSCE) composed of critical and noncritical elements and multiple choice examination (MC). Performance on the two testing modalities was compared. Students completed a post course survey evaluating the course. Results Of the 124 participants, 110 (88.7%) scored >70% on the MC. Of 115 participants with complete OSCE, 67 (58.3%) passed all critical OSCE components on first attempt. Overall correlation coefficient for the total scores on all four OSCEs and the complete MC was r=0.18. Using a Likert scale survey respondents (N=116) scored the OSCE higher than the MC in terms of usefulness in helping them learn the material (9.1 vs 8.3, p<0.001), accurately testing skills and knowledge (8.3 vs 7.7, p<0.005). 114 respondents, 57 preferred OSCEs, 9 preferred MC and 48 had no preference. Conclusions Poor correlation between OSCE and MC scores indicates that standard using a multiple choice exam may inadequately assess students in a cross cultural setting. Consideration must be given to alternate evaluation tools to optimise training.


Abstract Background Despite the excellent efficacy results of imatinib treatment in CML patients, resistance to imatinib has emerged as a significant problem. Genetic variations in genes involved in drug transportation might influence the pharmacokinetic and metabolism of imatinib. The genotype of a patient is increasingly recognized in influencing the response to the treatment. Aim To investigate the genotype frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) G2677T in CML patients undergoing imatinib treatment to determine whether different genotype pattern of these SNPs have any influence in mediating response to imatinib. Methods A total of 96 CML and 90 control samples were analyzed for the human multidrug resistance gene 1 (MDR1) gene polymorphism (G2677T) using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. Results Genotype distribution revealed a significant lower frequency of TT genotype in CML patients and non-significant difference in the GG, GT genotype frequencies between patients and controls (P = 0.004, 0.138, 0.210, respectively). GG genotype was significantly higher in chronic phase (P = 0.046), while GT genotype was significantly higher in Blastic crisis phase (P = 0.002). There was a significant difference in genotype frequency of G2677T among patients showing response and resistance to imatinib in chronic phase (P = 0.02). TT genotype was associated with complete hematological response (P = 0.01), complete cytogenetic response (P < 0.001), and better molecular response with a significant association (P < 0.001). GT genotype was associated with partial hematological response (P = 0.01) and minor cytogenetic response (P < 0.001). Optimal and suboptimal responses were observed for patients with TT genotype (P = 0.003). Failure of drug response was associated with GT genotype (P = 0.02); however, GG had no association with drug response. Multivariate analysis considered GT genotype as independent risk factor for resistance (P = 0.037), while TT genotype as protective factor against resistance to imatinib (P = 0.008). Conclusion Determination of MDR1 polymorphisms (G2677T) might be useful in response prediction to therapy with imatinib in patients with CML.


The Central Java government was planning to reoperate unused railway, considering the road traffic that was increasing rapidly in Central Java. Today, Central Java region has 663 km of unoperated railway. Most of it was located in the 4th operational region (DAOP IV). This research was planned to make a priority scales about railways which had some potensial to reopen and its properness financially. The activating priority scales which was used in this operation based on analytical demand and analytical supply. Analytical demand consists of the traffic rate and the amount of passenger's movements at the OD datas. Whereas, analytical supply consists of analytical techniques seen from field conditions such as terrain availability, tools or places conditions, and accessibility. The results shows that unoperated track between Semarang-Demak-Purwodadi-Blora-Cepu has the most potencial to reactivate again for passengers purpose. On the other hand, unoperated track which goes to Tanjung Emas Harbour also become the most potencial track to reactivate considering increasing activities in this harbour. Based on the analytical results, there were two passenger's scenarios for shifting the use of  train transport, optimisstic scenario and pessimistic scenario. The optimisstic scenario was estimated to had 5058 passengers/day. While, the pessimistic scenario was estimated to had 1759 passengers/day. In order to reactivate the unoperated track between Semarang-Demak-Purwodadi-Blora-Cepu, a new construction was needed. It was because some of the old constructions were vanished and the railway type was very tiny, which were R.25 and R.33 type. All of those things above made this project highly cost, not to mention tools and operational funds to spend for its. From the financial view, the analytical result shows that NPV value was positive, BCR > 1, so it was good enough to reactivated. But, looking at the FIRR results, Semarang-Purwodadi track is the best option, considering its value is 5,69%, while for Semarang-Demak track is only 3,49%, and for Semarang-Cepu track is only 3,47%.  For a better result, reactivation process of this track need to consider surrounding area within the track. Also, it needs better knowledge to understand commodity and region potential in order to raise the incomes.


In Directive 2013/48/ EU the standard for remedies applicable in cases the right of access to a lawyer has been violated was built on the European Court of Human Right's judgment Salduz v. Turkey (27 November 2008). Shortly before the deadline to implement Directive 2013/48/ EU , the Strasbourg Court handed down its judgment on Ibrahim and the others v. the UK (13 September 2016) significantly lowering this standard. In its ruling on 4 May 2016, the Supreme Court of Estonia interpreted the right of access to a case file upon arrest in conjunction with the Strasbourg case law, without considering that EU law might raise the standard. This article argues that the question whether to follow the Salduz- or Ibrahim- standard serves as a perfect opportunity for the European Court of Justice to clearly articulate that Strasbourg standards on defence rights form just a part of the foundation that EU standards consist of.


We report photoluminescence properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods (NRs) before and after hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment. The H2O2 treatment introduces oxygen related defects and thus enhances chemisorption processes in ZnO NRs. These effects amplify interactions between the gas species and adsorbed oxygen and thus can influence sensing properties of ZnO NRs.


Background &Aims: Family members' support during postnatal period is so important for women and neonates health. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of counseling with family member's on postnatal perceived stress in Iranian women.Methods: In this randomized clinical trial a group of 294 women and their husbands and family members randomly allocated into two intervention (149) and control (145) groups. Women in intervention group received involvement program. Both groups completed the Postnatal Perceived Stress Inventory, and a demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon tests and independent t-test. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Findings revealed a significant reduction in total postnatal perceived stress (t = 8.93, p<0.001) and in it's all subscales including fatigue (t= 6.55, p<0.001), relationship with baby (t=2.63, p<0.001), relationship with body (t= 6.43, p<0.001), feeding the baby (t= 2.16, p<0.001), future plan (t= 10.29, p<0.001) and in relationship with partner (t= 10.83, p<0.001). Conclusion: Involvement husband and family members could empower women to overcome stressors and reduce postnatal perceived stress.Keywords: Family Involvement, Postnatal Perceives Stress, Pregnancy


Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm for the multiple measurement vectors (MMV) is a greedy method to find the sparse matrix with few nonzero rows that represents the measurement vectors under the sensing matrix. This paper analyzes the recovery performance of OMP for MMV (OMPMMV) in the bounded noise scenarios, and provides the sufficient conditions that are related to the sensing matrix and sparse matrix for exact support recovery. We start with the intuitive sufficient conditions for exact support recovery, and then apply these conditions to scenarios of two types of bounded noise. The results show that under some conditions on the coherence of the sensing matrix and the minimum ℓ2 norm of any nonzero row vector from the sparse matrix, exact support recovery of sparse matrix can be guaranteed.


To identify the structure of network ties within Polish political elites; to study the features of network ties formation and the impact that both primary and labour socialisation periods and diaspora characteristics have on this process; to describe the structural features of the resultant network structures over different periods of time and analyse the structural dynamics of political elites for the purpose of forecasting major trends in the structural transformation of Polish political elites. In the course of the study, biographical data on the presidents, ministers, advisors, and party leaders of the Republic of Poland was collected and processed. The work follows the network analysis paradigm and identifies the dynamics of the key network parameters: distance, density, transitivity, and compactness. The author analyses the dynamics of representation in the structure of political territorial diaspora elites, business community members, and 'moral politicians'. The article identifies two periods of formation of political party networks in Poland: the first period (1993—2007) saw a transition from rather weakly integrated systems to high density and cohesion networks as early as the second electoral cycle, after which a gradual decrease in the key indices of network integration was registered. A new peak of network cohesion and integration was reached in 2007—2011; however, the death of some key members of political elites in a plane crash resulted in a decrease in the network integration indices to the level of 2001—2005. On the whole, the network structure of Polish political elite is characterised by unstable dynamics relating to the crisis events of the past. However, it is established that the elites have a pronounced diaspora core and an unstable periphery; the share of businesspeople directly participating in political processes is decreasing, whereas 'moral politicians' usually take an active part in the formation of political elites.


Article History Abstract In raising young learners' awareness of their own reading comprehension, educators can implement metacognitive strategy as one of the solutions. Therefore this study aims to know the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy in teaching reading to primary students. The grand theory employed in this study is the six sequential reading strategies proposed by Brown, Palinscar and Armbruster's (1984). The research method is pre-experimental study with three groups of third graders as the subjects. The researcher designed a reading assignment for each treatment, as well as a reading test as the research instrument. The pre-test and post-test data was analyzed using paired t-test. The data shows a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores among all three groups. Received: 01/23/2020


This chapter begins with the Socrates DigitalTM module calling the "Define Problem" process. This process identifies the problem area and gathers the problem-defining information from the user. This chapter provides pseudo-code for the subprocesses that make up the processes for Socrates DigitalTM. It has enough detail to implement the logic in any procedural and general-purpose computer programming language. This chapter shows that more questions follow after asking the user a question in many situations. The questions aimed at getting these answers are questions that target the quality of reasoning.


Abstract The molecular mechanisms of aging are unsolved fundamental biological questions. Caenorhabditis elegans is an ideal model organism for investigating aging. PUF-8, a PUF (Pumilio and FBF) protein in C. elegans, is crucial for germline development through binding with the 3′ untranslated regions (3′ UTR) in the target mRNAs. Recently, PUF-8 was reported to alter mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy by regulating MFF-1, a mitochondrial fission factor, and subsequently regulated longevity. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the PUF domain of PUF-8 with an RNA substrate. Mutagenesis experiments were performed to alter PUF-8 recognition of its target mRNAs. Those mutations reduced the fertility and extended the lifespan of C. elegans. Deep sequencing of total mRNAs from wild-type and puf-8 mutant worms as well as in vivo RNA Crosslinking and Immunoprecipitation (CLIP) experiments identified six PUF-8 regulated genes, which contain at least one PUF-binding element (PBE) at the 3′ UTR. One of the six genes, pqm-1, is crucial for lipid storage and aging process. Knockdown of pqm-1 could revert the lifespan extension of puf-8 mutant animals. We conclude that PUF-8 regulate the lifespan of C. elegans may not only via MFF but also via modulating pqm-1-related pathways.


To increase the report of Brazilian hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) data to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), the Data Managers Working Group (GTGD) of the Brazilian Society of Bone Marrow Transplants (SBTMO), and the Sao Paulo State Bone Marrow Association (AMEO) developed several strategies since 2016: training data managers (GDs) in national and international HSCT meetings, the development of a free online teaching course (EAD) in Portuguese on Transplant Essential Data (TED), online and presential training course for new data managers offered by AMEO, the approval by the National Committee of Ethics in Research (CONEP) of a national multicenter protocol to formalize sharing data of Brazilian transplants with the CIBMTR, and the first multicenter evaluation our HSCT results using the CIBMTR Data Back to Center. The contract between SBTMO and CIBMTR was signed in 2019 and GTGD of the SBTMO was officially created. These actions resulted in an increase from 24 to 41 transplant centers registered at the CIBMTR from 2016 to 2019. The process of increasing adherence and continuity of HSCT reports to the CIBMTR is complex and requires commitment of all professionals involved HSCT. The success of this process depends on education of the GD and the involvement of all HSCT directors.