Unregulated private wells are understudied potential sources of community‐acquired Legionnaires' disease. Here we conducted a comprehensive survey of 44 homes supplied by private wells in Wake County, North Carolina, quantifying Legionella spp. DNA, Legionella pneumophila DNA, and total bacterial 16S rRNA genes via real‐time polymerase chain reaction in hot and cold drinking water samples, along with culturable L. pneumophila via IDEXX Legiolert in cold drinking water samples. Legionella spp. DNA, L. pneumophila DNA and culturable L. pneumophila were detected in 100, 65·5 and 15·9% of the 44 homes, respectively, and culturable levels were comparable to some municipal surveys applying the same methods. Total coliforms and Escherichia coli were monitored as representative faecal indicators and were found in 20·4 and 0·0% of homes. Within certain sample types, Legionella spp. and L. pneumophila gene copy numbers were positively associated with total bacteria (i.e. total 16S rRNA genes) and water softener use, but were not associated with faecal indicator bacteria, inorganic water parameters or other well characteristics. These findings confirm that occurrence of Legionella and L. pneumophila is highly variable in private wells.


DU�2X "O(MCUZSBc4A4P4?(BUC4P(Z4(NMXCO4Y4ZC4PCaZSBC4ZOMANUP4�G4m4( C((X inserts by an unbalanced inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering system (AC ICM-10). Cylindri- cal titanium and aluminum targets separated by a cylindrical metal with 80 mm height were used for the deposition. The targets were sputtered in an argon and nitrogen gases with constant flow rates and with a radio frequency power of 5 kW at 0.27 Pa of working pressure. The tool insert positioned at a distance of 185 mm from the upper end of the deposition chamber and at the same horizontal distance from the chamber walls. Thin film coating was characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy and con- firmed to be of the Ti-Al-N type. Machining tests were carried out on a quenched-tempered steel (Cr4.2Mo4) using a lathe turning machine with different cutting speeds and feed rate and depth of cut were kept constant. Uncoated and coated carbide tool inserts were subjected to the same cutting conditions and the tool orientation were kept constant during all machining tests. Work piece surface roughness and the resulting cutting forces were measured and reported for each machining trial. Present results show that the X-ray diffraction showed the presence of a (200) NaCl crystal structure of the deposited films. The coated inserts exhibit lower wear rate and longer lifetime than those uncoated with high and low cutting speeds. Also, the coated inserts show significantly lower surface roughness than the uncoated.


Research aim: This paper aims at finding an explanation as to why a government budget operates as a ritual, as has been observed in the Sri Lankan Government budgeting practice and many Less Developed Country (LDC) accounting studies.Design/ Methodology/ Approach: Designed to be a historical study, this study illustrates the government budgeting practice referring to the Sri Lanka Railway Department (SLRD), benefitting from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) using data from archival sources, content analysis of documents, published materials and interviews.Research finding: This research finds that accounting and control practices dysfunction when they do not support the aligned interests of the underlying actor-network.Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This paper focuses on the 'aligned interest' of an actor-network, tracking changes of human and non-human actors of a ruling network over three ruling regimes within 1815 to 2019, illuminating the use of ANT in analysing how accounting practices develop over time.Practitioner/ Policy implication: This research reveals to practitioners in the LDC context, a reason for budgeting to operate as a ritual, helping them to formulate necessary action. To the policymaker, this research reveals that for successful performance, the overall policy framework must address the underlying dominant interest.Research limitation: This research focuses on a single aligned interest in an actor-network. However, some public sector institutions operate with multiple interests. Further studies are needed to understand how accounting and control practices in such a context.Keywords: Government budgeting, Actor-Network Theory, Colonial legacies in accounting, LDC accounting and controls, Political interest in public sector accountingType of article: Research paperJEL Classification: H61, H72, H83, M48Received: 3 May 2020Revised: 6 September 2020, 1 October 2020Accepted: 9 October 2020Published online: 29 January 2021


Molecularfilms present an elegant way for the uniform functionalization or doping of graphene.Here, we present an in situ study on the initial growth of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) on epitaxial graphene on Ir(111).We followed the growth up to a closedmonolayer with low energy electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction (μLEED). Themolecules coexist on graphene in a disordered phasewithout long-range order and an ordered crystalline phase. The local topography of the graphene substrate plays an important role in the nucleation process of the crystalline phase. Graphene flakes on Ir(111) feature regions that are undermore tensile stress than others.We observe that theCuPcmolecules formordered domains initially on those graphene regions that are closest to the fully relaxed lattice.We attribute this effect to a stronger influence of the underlying Ir(111) substrate formolecules adsorbed on those relaxed regions.


In recent years a strategy of high quality education has been established in education policy, stimulating the adoption of transparent education quality assessment system, the basic component of which is internal / external audit. In practice, though, it is observed that teachers lack motivation to participate in internal audit activities, therefore, danger arises for implementation of strategic educational provision. That stimulated a research in 2006, aiming at revelation and analysis of motivating factors for teachers' participation within activities of internal audit. A quantitative design (survey) was chosen for the research. The sample was composed in two regions of the country by employing the method of cluster sampling. Altogether 589 teachers participated in the research. Quantitative data were analyzed by employing methods of factor and correlation analysis, Chi-square and Anova tests were chosen to identify differences. During the research, fi ve factors that motivated teachers' participation in the internal audit activities were identifi ed: 1) a wish to self-assess the situation of education in one's school; 2) the principal's demonstrated trust in teachers; 3) the opportunity of choice provided to the teachers; 4) the opportunity for self-expression provided to the teachers; and 5) fi nancial incentives. The teachers with longer term of teaching experience were more motivated to participate in the internal audit activities by the trust demonstrated by the school principal than their less experienced colleagues. Financial incentives for the participation in the internal audit activities and the opportunity of choice tended to motivate women more than men. In the analysis of the teachers' attitudes to internal audit, three groups of attitudes were singled out: 1) internal audit was a meaningless and boring activity, imposed upon teachers, that did not improve the quality of the school performance; 2) internal audit meant extra work for teachers; and 3) internal audit was indispensable for the school performance, however, it had organizational shortcomings. The majority of the teachers tended to view internal audit as extra work (93%). During the research, we established an essential relationship between the negative view of internal audit and the direct motives of the participation in the internal audit activities: the direct motivation to participate in the internal audit of those teachers who took a negative view of the said audit was weaker. The more teachers participate in the activities of internal audit the stronger their negative attitude towards it becomes. Increase of this negative attitude may witness inadequate reward for the job performed. Teachers' expectations are mostly related to fi nancial remuneration for participation in activities of internal audit — such expectations are typical of 1/3 of the respondents. On the other hand, our research also established the relationship between a negative view of internal audit and indirect motives of the participation in the internal audit activities. The teachers who took a negative view of internal audit less frequently tended to indicate that they were motivated to participate in the internal audit activities by the wish to deserve the principal's trust or the need for self-expression and choice. Another managerial problem as established in the research was the organizational dimension: 46% of the respondents stated that internal audit was indispensable, however, it had organizational shortcomings. Results of the research allow to conclude that teachers' motivation to participate in activities of internal audit is mostly related to the management of the process. Adequate remunaration and more effi cient organization of internal audit as well as the management of the personnel (teachers) ought to improve teachers' motivation to participate in the activities of internal audit.


Teaching Computer Forensics to postgraduate students is a challenging topic. Creating an assignment that is both realistic and also helpful to students when pursuing careers in this competitive area is also a demanding task for the lecturer. In our course, the final challenge for the students is to undertake a graded task, based around a case study, analyse evidence that is key to an investigation, write a report and then present their findings in a role play scenario. The evidence that has been created is a bit-wise copy of a "suspect's" USB stick. A number of different techniques have been used to create these evidence files. Some evidence was made relatively easy to find, while others were much more challenging. To add an extra dimension to the assessment we involved final year Law students from the School of Humanities, Law Department, to act as jury members and also to help to cross-examine the students while they presented their findings in the role of an Expert Witness. This emphasised the additional skill requirements of being able to present forensic evidence under cross-examination in a court environment, as well as giving practical focus to the way in which the evidence was gathered. It created at the same time a valuable exercise for the legal students in the context that evidence presented in courts is increasingly computer-based evidence. This paper discusses the preparation of the evidence files, the process of evaluating the results of the students work and concludes with an overview of the student experience.


Drawing on interviews with 33 young people between the ages of 14 to 17 attending three English schools we examine their experiences of a personalised education system. The policy climate in England has for some time been one of intense and persistent reforms. The Labour Party took office in 1997 and advanced 'personalised learning' as a central reforming concept that made use of individual targets, data and pupil voice in the learning process. We identify that while the opportunities for productive voices are evident, the young people's experience of it is inconsistent. Notably, the use of targets and data has often made them invisible and mute, and this affects how they understand the purposes of schools and their place within a school. Outcome data are a necessary and proper concern of schools. However, we suggest that the conceptualisation of learning, and the relational processes involved, are being damaged through the interpretation of voice as a means of delivering instrumental data sets. We argue this point using a conceptualisation of social practice and ethics drawn from Alasdair MacIntyre.


ABSTRACT Chen, L. and Zhou, X., 2020. Tourism product packaging design based on marine culture in coastal cities. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 128-131. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With the implementation of the "One Belt, One Road" strategy, my country's coastal cities have been given important missions by the times. This article aims to study the impact of marine culture on the interactive design of urban tourism products in the context of the Internet. Through sorting out the characteristics of marine cultural tourism and blue ocean technology, and through investigation and research on the existing smart tourism interactive products in coastal cities, the exploration and application of urban tourism interactive products in marine culture and technology are analyzed. The design methods and development rules of marine cultural intelligent tourism interactive products under the Internet environment are summarized with Fujian as an example to summarize the application of design elements in tourism product packaging.


Remote sensing systems such as a constellation of satellites periodically observe regions on the surface of the earth to collect visual imagery and other sensory data that is both spatial and temporal. Efficiently scheduling sensing activities on a constellation of satellites is a natural problem that arises while managing these systems. Given a set of satellites, a set of sensing activities with their priorities and timing constraints, the objective of the problem is to assign activities to the satellites over a given time period such that at most one activity is assigned to a satellite at any time and the quality of information collected by the satellites is maximized. This problem is computationally challenging to solve and is NP-Hard. In this research, heuristics are first developed to find feasible solutions based on a greedy approach and by dividing the given time period into smaller blocks of time. To determine the quality of a feasible solution, an integer linear programming approach is also developed. Numerical results show that good feasible solutions can be obtained in the order of seconds on a standard computer for a constellation of up to eight satellites and thousand activities using the proposed algorithms.


With contemporary classrooms becoming increasingly diverse, educational authorities, teachers and school administrators are looking to teaching and learning strategies that cater for a variety of learning profiles. A paradigm that is gaining ground in many educational circles is differentiated instruction. This model proposes a rethinking of the structure, management and content of the classroom, inviting participants within the learning context to become engaged in the process, to the benefit of all. While the model has been accepted and set to work, there remains room for theoretical support to give it momentum. A recent, comprehensive analysis of the literature in this area examines this model, within the context of increasing academic diversity. This paper therefore seeks to synthesise the research supporting a shift to a new exemplar for modern education, and in so doing shed light on the rationale supporting differentiated instruction.


In ferromagnetic alloys with shape memory large reversible strains can be obtained by rearranging the martensitic domain structure by a magnetic field. Magnetization through displacement of domain walls is possible in the presence of high magnetocrystalline anisotropy, when martensitic structure rearrangement is energetically favorable compared to the reorientation of magnetic moments. In ferromagnetic Heusler alloys Ni2+xMn1–xGa the Curie temperature exceeds the martensitic transformation temperature. The fact that these two temperatures are close to room temperature offers the possibility of magnetically controlling the shape and size of ferromagnets in the martensitic state. In Ni2+xMn1–xGa single crystals, a reversible strain of ~6% is obtained in fields of ~1 T.


A variety of systems focus on detecting the actions and activities performed by humans, such as video surveillance and health monitoring systems. However, published labelled human action datasets for training supervised machine learning models are limited in number and expensive to produce. The use of transfer learning for the task of action recognition can help to address this issue by transferring or re-using the knowledge of existing trained models, in combination with minimal training data from the new target domain. Our focus in this paper is an investigation of video feature representations and machine learning algorithms for transfer learning for the task of action recognition in videos in a multi-class environment. Using four labelled datasets from the human action domain, we apply two SVM-based transfer-learning algorithms: adaptive support vector machine (A-SVM) and projective model transfer SVM (PMT-SVM). For feature representations, we compare the performance of two widely used video feature representations: space-time interest points (STIP) with Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Histograms of Optical Flow (HOF), and improved dense trajectory (iDT) to explore which feature is more suitable for action recognition from videos using transfer learning. Our results show that A-SVM and PMT-SVM can help transfer action knowledge across multiple datasets with limited labelled training data; A-SVM outperforms PMT-SVM when the target dataset is derived from realistic non-lab environments; iDT has a greater ability to perform transfer learning in action recognition.


We report a new approach to investigate metal-semiconductor interface formation. Photoemission spectroscopy was applied in order to investigate the clean surface of a Sn0.97 Cr0.03Te crystal and to observe its changes under sequential deposition of small amounts of Cr atoms. In order to analyse the Cr 3d contribution to the valence band, the Fano-type resonance tuned to the Cr 3p-3d transition was used. The experiment was designed to follow the Sno.97Cr0.o3Te/Cr interface formation process. At the clean Sn0.97Cro.o3Te surface, the Cr 3d states contribution to the valence band was found to be positioned 0.8 eV below the Fermi level. After the Cr deposition processes the contribution shifted to a higher binding energy and another contribution 5.8 eV below the Fermi level was also observed. PACS numbers: 79.60.-i, 68.35.Fx


This paper presents a new architecture for designing non-linear, critically decimated, perfect reconstruction filter banks. It is believed that such filters have a wide range of applications including that of still image and image sequence compression. Example filters are presented, for still image compression using a quincunx system. These filters are shown to out-perform other linear and non-linear methods, both in terms of subjective and objective image quality.


The major obstacle in the design of materials with low lattice thermal conductivity is the difficulty in efficiently scattering phonons across the entire frequency spectrum. Using first principles calculations, we show that driving PbTe materials to the brink of the ferroelectric phase transition could be a powerful strategy to solve this problem. We illustrate this concept by applying tensile [001] strain to PbTe and its alloys with another rock-salt IV-VI material, PbSe; and by alloying PbTe with a rhombohedral IV-VI material, GeTe. This induces extremely soft optical modes at the zone center, which increase anharmonic acoustic-optical coupling and decrease phonon lifetimes at all frequencies. We predict that PbTe, Pb(Se,Te) and (Pb,Ge)Te alloys driven close to the phase transition in the described manner will have considerably lower lattice thermal conductivity than that of PbTe (by a factor of 2-3). The proposed concept may open new opportunities for the development of more efficient thermoelectric materials.


Shipley et al. (Reports, 3 November 2006, p. 812) predicted plant community composition and relative abundances with a high level of accuracy by maximizing Shannon's index of information entropy (species diversity), subject to constraints on plant trait averages. We show that the entropy maximization assumption is relatively unimportant and that the high accuracy is due largely to a statistical effect.


Five fractions of human seminal plasma were isolated on Sephadex G-100 column. The in vitro effect of whole human seminal plasma and its fractions on the lymphocyte transformation induced by phytomitogen was studied. A significant inhibition of lymphocyte response to mitogen was observed with whole seminal plasma fractions I and III at a concentration of 100-200 micrograms/ml. However fraction II stimulates the in vitro human lymphocyte transformation induced by phytomitogen at a concentration of 200 micrograms/ml. Maximum amount of inhibition by whole seminal plasma and its fractions I and III was achieved by preexposure of lymphocytes to these antigens. Pre-exposure of lymphocytes to these antigens, followed by washing, does not result in suppression of lymphocyte response to mitogen. These observations suggest that the antigens of the whole seminal plasma or of fractions I, III, and II act by simple competition with mitogen for the receptor sites on the lymphocyte membrane. Therefore, the human seminal plasma may play an immunoregulatory role against the auto- or isosensitization towards spermatozoal antigens.


This thesis analyses representations of urban violence in Colombia within four cultural products published/released in the time period 1990 to 2005 . The cultural products belong to genres commonly regarded as distinct, and divided between 'fiction' and 'non-fiction' – a novel, film, 'testimonio' and documentary. Methodologically, the analysis focuses on each cultural product as a whole – the text itself and its marketing paratext. In this focus on the cultural product as a whole, it also considers the role of the audience in the consumption of the cultural products and their themes. The theme the thesis specifically engages with is the representation of violent actors, and focuses in particular on their status as fourth world inhabitants. The fourth world is a theoretical category developed by Manuel Castells to describe spaces which are excluded from global networks and flows of information, resulting in 'black holes', such as favelas, inner city 'ghettos' and slums, in which inhabitants are unable to gain access to services and regular employment. The thesis looks at the development of myths surrounding these spaces and their inhabitants, and the role played by cultural products in constructing and perpetuating divisive myths. It posits a growing globally homogenised representation of the fourth world inhabitant as violent and destructive, creating a binary between fourth and first world inhabitants to which the representations in these particular Colombian cultural products are linked. Overall, the thesis argues that the representation of violent actors in Colombia, and in particular the city of Medellin in this time period, illustrates that the distinction between fiction and non-fiction has collapsed, due to the strength of myths surrounding fourth world figures.


Abstract
Introduction and Objectives: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a frequently seen chronic rheumatoid disease in childhood, which may cause disability and severely affect quality of life (QoL). The aim of present study was to assess relationships between disease activation and socio-cultural status of family, QoL, anxiety level, and depression level in patients with JIA and their parents.
Methods: The study included 100 patients with JIA. The socio-demographic data were obtained from all patients. Child- and parent-reported PedsQL, Beck depression inventory (BDI), Kovacs' Child Depression Inventory (CDI), SCARED child version, CHAQ discomfort and disability scales were applied and JADAS-27 score was calculated in a cross-sectional manner. Then, we compared the characteristics of patients with the scales' results.
Results: JADAS-27, BDI, and CHAQ discomfort scores were higher and child- and parent-reported PedsQL scores were lower in patients with active disease than patients on remission (p<0.05). The SCARED score was higher in girls than boys. The CHAQ disability score was high in children aged 8-12 years (p<0.05). JADAS-27 and CHAQ disability scores were significantly low in patients with better compliance to treatment. Parental statements about changes in mental health after diagnosis were consistent with results of depression and anxiety scales of children.
Conclusions: Quality of life is adversely affected in children with JIA, which may result in depression and anxiety. In management of JIA, one of our goals should be maintaining QoL. Further comprehensive studies in relationships between QoL and depression, anxiety, socio-demographic parameters, disease activation and social circle of patient are needed.


Sequence alignment of the 897 bp amplicon obtained from a diseased sunn hemp ( Crotalaria juncea L.) plant DNA revealed a complete 771 bp coat protein (CP) gene flanked by 3' regions of the AV2 and AC3 genes. Southern hybridization using (α-32P) dCTP labeled (CP) gene probe of Indian tomato leaf curl virus (IToLCV) demonstrated the association of begomovirus with the leaf curl disease of sunn hemp. Phylogenetic data suggested that, the AV2, CP and AC3 genes have closest genetic relationship with begomovirus isolates from India, China and Bangladesh, respectively. In silico recombination analysis elucidated a 297 nucleotides hot spot (346 to 643 nucleotides) within AV2 overlapping region of CP gene, amenable to genetic rearrangements, with lineage from tomato leaf curl virus Bangalore (ToLCuVB) and Indian cassava mosaic virus-Ind (ICMV) as major and minor parents, respectively. Thus, it is concluded that the recombinant CP genes related to begomoviruses are evolved from the Indian isolates, causing broad host specificity and molecular diversity among the related begomoviruses across the geographical limits of Southeast Asia. Keywords: Begomovirus , sunn hemp, coat protein, recombination, phylogenetic analysis, in silico analysis


Regenerating natural language explanations for science questions is a challenging task for evaluating complex multi-hop and abductive inference capabilities. In this setting, Transformers trained on human-annotated explanations achieve state-of-the-art performance when adopted as cross-encoder architectures. However, while much attention has been devoted to the quality of the constructed explanations, the problem of performing abductive inference at scale is still under-studied. As intrinsically not scalable, the cross-encoder architectural paradigm is not suitable for efficient multi-hop inference on massive facts banks. To maximise both accuracy and inference time, we propose a hybrid abductive solver that autoregressively combines a dense bi-encoder with a sparse model of explanatory power, computed leveraging explicit patterns in the explanations. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed framework can achieve performance comparable with the state-of-the-art cross-encoder while being ≈ 50 times faster and scalable to corpora of millions of facts. Moreover, we study the impact of the hybridisation on semantic drift and science question answering without additional training, showing that it boosts the quality of the explanations and contributes to improved downstream inference performance.


The blood preservative introduced by Loutit and Mollison (1) consisting essentially of a sodium citrate-dextrose mixture of relatively low pH, has proved superior to previously employed preserving fluids. The original formula and many subsequent modifications have a rather high volume. This produces considerable dilution of the plasma proteins. The purpose of this study, begun in June 1944, was to obtain an A.C.D. solution of lower volume, so as to maintain an optimal concentration of plasma proteins, maintain or improve the capacity to preserve erythrocytes, and at the same time insure maximal stability of the resulting plasma. The first solution tested was one proposed by Rapport, as follows: Sodium citrate (trisodium dihydric) 1.66 grams Citric acid (monohydric) 0.59 gram Distilled water 100 ml.


In isolated rat diaphragm strips, halothane augments the tension produced daring caffeine-induced contractures in a dose-related manner. Potassium-induced contracture tension is augmented in the presence of halothane to a concentration of 0.75 per cent, and decreased at halothane concentrations of more than 1 per cent. The time to peak tension for potassium-induced contractures is diminished by all halothane concentrations. T-tubular disruption by hypertonic glycerol does not alter anesthetic-induced augmentation of caffeine-induced contractures. It is postulated that halothane augments calcium-release processes in sarcoplasmic reticulum. Membrane events or excitation-contraction coupling steps may be also altered by halothane.


Recent progress in the synthesis, characterization, and biological compatibility of nanostructured ceramics for biomedical implants is reviewed. A major goal is to develop ceramic coating technology that can reduce the friction and wear in mating total joint replacement components, thus contributing to their significantly improved function and longer life span. Particular attention is focused on the enhancement of mechanical properties such as hardness, toughness, and friction coefficient and on the bioactivity as they pertain to the nanostructure of the material. The development of three nanostructured implant coatings is discussed: diamond, hydroxyapatite, and functionally graded metalloceramics based on the Cr-Ti-N ternary system. Nanostructured diamond produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques and composed of nano-size diamond grains have particular promise because of the combination of ultrahigh hardness, improved toughness over conventional microcrystalline diamond, low friction, and good adhesion to titanium alloys. Nanostructured processing applied to hydroxyapatite coatings is used to achieve the desired mechanical characteristics and enhanced surface reactivity and has been found to increase osteoblast adhesion, proliferation, and mineralization. Finally, nanostructured metalloceramic coatings provide continuous variation from a nanocrystalline metallic bond at the interface to the hard ceramic bond on the surface and have the ability to overcome adhesion problems associated with ceramic hard coatings on metallic substrates.


Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is used to biopsy of enlarged lymphnodes in the mediastinum and hili for staging of patients with lung cancer and definitive diagnosis of lymphadenopathy. EBUS-TBNA has been reported as less-invasive examination compared with mediastinoscopy and as high sensitivity and specifity in the diagnosis. To study the usefulness of EBUS-TBNA in diagnosis of lymphadenopathy in the mediastinum and hili, we analyzed the 90 cases of EBUS-TBNA which were performed in our hospital from August 2007 to July 2010. There were 90 cases of undiagnosed lymphadenopathy in the mediastinum and hili. They were 53 cases of suspected metastasis of lung cancer, 37 cases of suspected sarcoidosis. In the cases of suspected metastasis of lung cancer, the sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA was 85.4%, and the specificity was 100% and the accuracy was 86.5%. In the cases of suspected sarcoidosis, the sensitivity was 92%, the specificity was 90% and accuracy was 92.3%. Furthermore, we made diagnosis of EGFR gene mutation and EML4-ALK fusion gene by the specimen obtained by EBUS-TBNA. As adverse effects, one case of lymphadenitis was observed, but mediastinitis was not induced. We conclude that EBUS-TBNA is a powerful instrument for diagnosis and staging of lung cancer and for diagnosis of sarcoidosis and other inflammatory and granulomatous diseases with lymphadenopathy manifested in the mediastinum and hili, and that EBUS-TBNA is safe and less-invasive.


A number of writers have described the growth of scientific literature, particularly since World War II, as an "explosion." Often these descriptions are accompanied by concerns of the future of communications among scientists faced with the sheer volume of the currently printed word. Advisedly, such alarms may be sounded, for the volume of research writings is huge and the possibility of any individual keeping up with it, even with the assistance of others, is quite remote. I shall not write about tens of thousands of periodicals or hundreds of thousands of articles, but rather I shall sample a few reasonably welldocumented journal populations to see if there have been any changing patterns in scientific publication during the 19th and 20th centuries. To make such a study it would be most desirable, of course, to identify by topic and publication date and to tabulate all of the individual research articles written during the period. With great cost in time and money, it is conceivable that such data could be assembled by means of an inventory of the contents of numerous abstracting and indexing services that have existed throughout the two centuries. Such time and money are not available. Our next best indication of the possible changing patterns of scientific publication is to be found in tabulations of birth dates and general topics of the periodicals which form the basic packages of scientific communication. Even in the case of such periodicals,


NOTCH DRIVES PROLIFERATION AND RADIATION RESISTANCE OF CANCER STEM CELLS IN ADENOID CYSTIC CARCINOMA. Michael T. Chang, Alex Panaccione, Beatrice E. Carbone, Christopher A. Moskaluk, Sergey V. Ivanov, Wendell G. Yarbrough. Section of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the salivary gland is an indolent but highly lethal neuroinvasive tumor with a propensity for radiation resistance, recurrence, and metastasis. Molecular understanding of this rare tumor has been hampered by the absence of validated in vitro models and a limited number of xenografts. Therapeutic options for ACC are limited to surgery and radiation and are associated with an unacceptably low rate of cure. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are an attractive therapeutic target, and understanding their role in ACC may advance therapy. Our objectives were: 1) to establish and validate ACC cell cultures, 2) to determine if CSC exist in ACC, and if so, isolate and characterize these cells in ACC, and 3) to identify new therapeutic targets for ACC. To culture ACC and to isolate and initially characterize CSC from ACC, we modified a ROCK inhibitor-based cell culture technique, identified CD133 (PROM1) as a cell surface marker of CSCs, and used immunomagnetic cell sorting to separate and characterize RNA and protein expression in these cells. We found that CD133+ cells expressed NOTCH1 and SOX10, formed spheroids, and initiated tumors in nude mice more readily than CD133cells. Depletion of NOTCH1 and SOX10 in cultured ACC induced death of CD133+ cells, indicating their essential roles in maintenance of stemness. An inhibitor of Notch activation, DAPT, selectively depleted CD133 cells in vitro, sensitized CD133 cells to radiation, and inhibited growth of ACC tumor in vivo. These results establish the presence of a previously uncharacterized population of CD133 cells with neural stem properties in ACC whose survival is dependent on NOTCH1 and SOX10. Sensitivity of ACC cells to Notch inhibition offer new opportunities for targeted therapy in this orphan tumor.


An effective Hamiltonian technique is used to investigate the effect of applying curled electric fields on physical properties of stress-free BiFeO(3) dots being under open-circuit electrical boundary conditions. It is discovered that such fields can lead to a control of not only the magnitude but also the direction of the magnetization. Such control originates from the field-induced transformation or switching of electrical vortices and their couplings with oxygen octahedral tilts and magnetic dipoles. This control involves striking intermediate states and constitutes a novel phenomenon that can be termed a "magnetotoroidic" effect.


Vertical export of particulate trace elements (pTEs) is a critically underconstrained aspect of their biogeochemistry. Here, we combine elemental analyses on large (>53 μm) particles and 234Th measurements to determine downward export fluxes from the upper layers (40–110 m) of pTEs (Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, P, Ti, V, Zn) and mineral phases (lithogenic, Feand Mn-oxides, calcium carbonate, and opal) in the North Atlantic along the GEOVIDE transect (Portugal–Greenland–Canada; GEOTRACES GA01 cruise). The role of lithogenic particles in controlling TE fluxes is obvious at proximity of the Iberian margin where the highest pTE export fluxes were estimated (up to 3912 μg/m2/d for pFe). However, high lithogenic and pTE fluxes are also observed up to 1700 km off this margin in the west European and Icelandic basins (up to 931 μg/m2/d for pFe). The lowest pTE export fluxes are determined in the Labrador Sea (as low as 501 μg/m2/d for pFe). High Mnand Fe-oxide fluxes are estimated at the open ocean stations, suggesting that authigenic particles are an important vector of pTEs. All along the transect, biogenic particles also drive the pTE export fluxes, as shown by the similar pTE/POC ratios between exports and phytoplankton quotas. The shortest residence times (dissolved + particulate) are generally observed where lithogenic particles control the pTE fluxes (as low as 2 days for Fe) whereas pTEs seem to be longer retained when the contribution of biogenic particles become greater (residence times up to 147 days for Fe).


Focusing a high intensity laser pulse, onto a thin foil target generates a plasma and energetic proton and ion beams from the target rear and front sides, propagating along the target normal. Such laser produced collimated and energetic protons beams are of high interest because of the wide range of applications: ion based fast ignitor schemes, probing of electromagnetic fields in plasma, isotopes production or hadron therapy. The 100 TW class laser system at the Advanced Laser Light Source facility, is used with an intensity close to 10 W/cm, to study protons acceleration with femtosecond laser pulses, ultra thin foil target and high contrast laser pulse ratio. To characterize the plasma expansion, we monitor it with an imaging technique using a femtosecond laser probe. In this configuration we were able to reach a proton critical energy of 12 MeV and to work with target foil thickness as small as 15 nm.


A multi‐focus image fusion method, which is based on bidimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD) and improved local energy algorithm, is presented in this paper. First, the source image is decomposed by BEMD. Then maximum criterion combined with weighted average fusion rule based on local energy is applied to bidimensional intrinsic mode function components of the corresponding frequency segment. If the phase of the bidimensional intrinsic mode function coefficients decomposed by BEMD on two source images is the same, the local energy maximum criterion is used in the frequency coefficients of the fused image; else, if the corresponding phase is opposite, bidimensional intrinsic mode function coefficients of the fused image is determined by a weighted average method based on local energy. Finally, the fusion result is obtained by the inverse BEMD transformation on the fusion coefficient. Simulation shows that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms traditional methods such as the maximum criterion, weighted average, and wavelet fusion rules. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


and stimulating. If, however, it purports to be a serious sociological study, it is open to a number of criticisms, both methodological and stylistic. As the author herself realises at the outset, the sample of women responding to the questionnaire is not a random sample, and the opinions collected come from women who are for the most part active in church affairs, well educated and more articulate than the average. Over and above this recognised shortcoming, the study is an untidy one. It lacks a clear and explicit statement of aims, and the topics on which opinions were solicited are often vague and unrelated in any way beyond having received some mention in the documents or proceedings of Vatican II. As a piece of research it is far from objective. The writer does not hesitate to lard her occasionally florid prose with value-laden terms and to give verbal applause to opinions which are superficially daring, challenging, or original. An example of this which occurs early in the book is the approval of the 'spunky nun' who commented on the 'men's club character of Mother Church'


The immune status against tetanus in relation to vaccination was investigated among healthy populations in 3 selected provinces in Turkey (n=2094). In-house ELISA supplemented with the particle agglutination test was performed for this purpose. An exact correlation was found between vaccination status and immunity against tetanus. The immunity was high among children and sharply decreased with age among adults. The primary vaccination for children increased the immunity, reaching a geometric mean titer (GMT) of 6.2 IU/ml at the fourth dose. There was a reduction of immunity during the next y, followed by an increase with a booster injection at primary school age. Among adolescents and adults, the GMTs after the last vaccination fell off exponentially with a slope of −0.068 log10 IU/ml per y. Extrapolation of the regression line predicted that the minimum protective level (≥0.01 IU/ml) would be maintained for approximately 30 y on average after the last vaccination. Diyarbakir, 1 of the selected provinces, had lower immunity than the other 2 provinces with poor immunization. Adult females tended to show slightly higher GMTs than males, probably due to the neonatal tetanus elimination program. Reinforcement of immunization against tetanus for adults is recommended.


The exodus of Iraqi doctors fleeing the escalating violence—including targeted threats, kidnappings, and murder of medical staff—is threatening the country's strained health infrastructure, say humanitarian relief experts.

"Health facilities are stretched to the limit as they struggle to cope with daily emergencies caused by mass casualties," said Angelo Gnaedinger, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Mr Gnaedinger told a recent conference in Geneva on the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons in Iraq and in neighbouring countries, "Patients and medical staff are threatened or targeted. As a result, medical personnel are fleeing the country in large numbers, leaving health facilities short of staff."

A report by the ICRC published this month on the situation of civilians in Iraq says, "According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, more than half the doctors have left the country."

At the end of last year, 18 000 of the 34 000 doctors had left the country, according …


Healthy Families Arizona is a voluntary, home visitation program, aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect. This secondary prevention program is targeted to the parents of newborns with risk factors that make them vulnerable to child abuse and neglect, and at risk of parent/child relationship and child development problems. The risk factors that qualify parents for the program include parental history of abuse and neglect; substance abuse; mental health problems; poor coping skills; a lack of social support; unrealistic developmental expectations of infants and toddlers, difficulty with bonding and attachment; attitudes favorable toward harsh discipline; anger management issues; and a lack of resources to meet basic needs. Modeled on the Healthy Families America program, Healthy Families began in Arizona in 1991 with two sites. Administered by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Healthy Families Arizona has realized considerable growth over the years, and is now available to families statewide. As with any considerable investment in cost and effort, the question of return is central to ongoing support of the Healthy Families Arizona program. Does the Healthy Families Arizona program (a) reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect; (b) lead to better health and development for children, and (c) does it enhance parent/child relationships? The longitudinal evaluation of Healthy Families Arizona was designed to answer these questions.


. ImageCLEFs plant identification task provides a testbed for the system-oriented evaluation of tree species identification based on leaf images. The aim is to investigate image retrieval approaches in the context of crowdsourced images of leaves collected in a collaborative manner. This paper presents an overview of the resources and assessments of the plant identification task at ImageCLEF 2011, summarizes the retrieval approaches employed by the participating groups, and provides an analysis of the main evaluation results.


In response to arguments made by Professors Levvis, Patterson and Eisele, I attempt to clarify a few of the main themes of my book, Law's Premises, Law's Promise. Professor Levvis' paper gives me the opportunity to contrast the status of propositions held true by disputants in legal debate with propositions held fast as bedrock convictions about the nature of reality and experience. Professor Patterson's arguments allow me to show how legal decision making as a deliberative or interpretative practice rests, as all practices do, on a foundation of shared understanding (of mutually "knowing one's way about"). And Professor Eisele's remarks stimulate a discussion of the relation of conceptual analysis and the analysis of practices.


At present, the incidence and mortality of lung cancer demonstrate an increasing trend. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for ~80–85% of all lung cancer cases. Therefore, developing novel and more effective treatments is of great importance. The use of combination therapies, where several anticancer agents are used together, is a promising strategy. Recent studies demonstrate that metformin, which has been utilized for treating diabetes mellitus for >50 years, has antitumor effects in numerous types of cancer including NSCLC. Its antitumor effects can be direct and indirect, and it is able to synergize with other physical therapies including targeted anticancer therapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The present review discusses how metformin affects cellular energy metabolism in NSCLC, the mechanism of its antitumor action and its synergy with other therapies. Information and analysis are provided in the present review to stimulate further studies on metformin as an adjunct anticancer treatment.


Student learning improves when faculty use learning-centered teaching practices, and a symbiotic relationship exists between technology and learning-centered education. One technological tool, the tablet PC, offers university faculty a powerful way to enhance student learning. The seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education offer a framework for learning-centered education, and this paper illustrates the seven principles through research data focused on innovative and pedagogically appropriate uses of tablet PCs. Examples include assessment research data from MIT, DePauw, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Pace University, University of Michigan and Virginia Tech.


Abstract : To be able to execute the full spectrum of aerospace operations, the United States Air Force has transitioned to an Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF). Much of the discussion about the AEF concept has focused on changes in the way the Air Force is organized and provides forces to joint-service force commanders. The AEF construct concerns rapidly deploying, employing, and sustaining aerospace power around the globe, from a force structure that is predominantly located within the Continental United States (CONUS). These AEF global force projection goals present significant challenges to the current combat support (CS) structure. The AEF's requirement to respond quickly means that force and support packages must be tailored quickly to meet the operational needs of the specific contingency. The deployment and sustainment of CS resources must be coordinated to arrive at forward operating locations (FOLs) so that initial and sustained operations can take place without interruption. Most of the resources needed to support operations (munitions, housekeeping, and so forth) are not part of the deploying units. Scarce resources must be allocated to units with the highest priorities, often from different regions of the world. Thus, initiating and sustaining AEF operations require planning and control of a global network of CS resources from organic and industrial sources.


Pregnancy in adolescents, especially in a group of unmarried pregnant teenagers remains the important issue that needs health care personnel to be aware of ongoing attention, particularly in terms of mother and baby health problems including physical, psychological, emotional and social. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the experience of being unmarried pregnant teenagers following their own views. Seventeen participants were purposively selected. They were: 15 to 18 years of age, being first pregnancy, having gestational age between 32 to 36 weeks, and living in the upper north of Thailand. The data were collected by using in- depth interview and were analyzed using content analysis method. The study found that pregnant teenagess perceived that pregnancy without marriage resulted in feeling worthless and ending up a teenager life. The pregnant teenagers responded to their pregnancies with negative emotional states and sought alternative ways for the next step of life. They were concerned on health conditions of their babies inside wombs and a role of being a mother. They prepared themselves for taking care of the babies and prepared things for the babies. In addition, the pregnant teenagers were planning for: child care, their works, and a return to the education system. The findings of this study can be used as an evidence for development of appropriate services and to respond to the needs of unmarried pregnant teenagers.


PurposeRisk is part of corporate activity and a consequence of the businesses' demands, the market and the changes in companies and their surroundings. The way that risk is managed is different between family and non-family businesses. The paper aims to compare the different risk types experienced in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic among family and non-family businesses and to analyze whether operational, legal, strategic and image risks influence financial risks.Design/methodology/approachThe nature of the study is quantitative and based on a questionnaire survey that analyses the perception of risks by 1,090 family businesses and 557 non-family businesses.FindingsThe results show the existence of statistically significant differences in the perception of financial and legal risks between family and non-family businesses, where the former being the businesses that give more importance to these risks. The perception of operational, legal, strategic and image risks have a positive influence on the perception of financial risk in family and non-family businesses.Originality/valueThe results obtained in the study are important because they allow an understanding about the differences in risk management between family and non-family businesses, which can lead to greater corporate sustainability and increased financial performance.


This research was aimed at determining the influence of nitrogen sources and levels on the amount and concentration of nutrients extracted from the shoots of carqueja six months after planted. The amount and concentration were correlated to the essential oil and dry matter production. The experiment was conducted at Experimental Station of Canguiri (UFPR), with experimental design in random blocks with seven treatments and four repetitions. The treatments consisted of 4, 8 and 16 grams of nitrogen (N) per plant of urea and manure sources, and a control without N application. The fertilization was done two times with an interval of two months. There was no statistical difference between content and extraction of nutrients for treatments for these soil fertility conditions. Similar results were observed for dry matter and essential oil production. The nutrient extraction for aerial parts presented the decreasing sequence K > N > Ca > S > Mg > P for macronutrients and Mn >Fe > B > Zn > Cu for micronutrients.


Abstract This article illustrates the use of near-source S -wave polarization analyses for constraining some rupture parameters of large earthquakes, in the particular case of the 1979 Imperial Valley mainshock. The ten SMA1 strong-motion records closest to the source have been studied in the 1 to 3-Hz frequency range. The records were first corrected following the analysis of Zollo and Bernard (1989), from some anisotropy that produced strong S splitting at a few sites. The rotation of the S polarization with time at most of the sites was then interpreted in terms of the northwestward propagation of the rupture. We assumed a constant focal mechanism on the fault plane (vertical strike slip). The polarization data and the absolute times at some stations allowed the identification of a set of subsources. Their location in space and time (assuming a depth of 8 km) provided a mean rupture velocity of 3.1 km/sec (±0.25 km/sec), i.e., 90% of the shear velocity. The high-frequency radiation (3 Hz) during most of the rupture thus is very likely to have been generated about 1 sec before the beginning of the low-frequency radiation (0.5 to 1 Hz) studied by Archuleta (1984). The final rupture model fits the S -polarization history well at most sites; it also constrains the anisotropy characteristics of the sediments under some sites, in particular EM0, where it is consistent with the alignment of vertical cracks in the NS stress field. Applying such a method to other earthquakes requires a careful selection of the distance and frequency range. In particular, the effect of perhaps pervasive ubiquitous anisotropy in the upper crust must be taken into account, which may require the analysis of aftershock records at the same sites.


Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the CACNA1A gene. The neurodegeneration that occurs in CAG repeat diseases is considered to share a common mechanism that may result in the gain of a toxic function related to the expanded polyglutamine tracts. However, the phenotypic expression in homozygotes for CAG repeat diseases has been controversial, and is not clearly related to a gain of functional mechanism. We identified a Japanese family with two sisters who were homozygous for the SCA6 with identical CAG repeat expansion (25/25). They showed an earlier age of onset (27 years in both) than their father (44 years), a heterozygote with an expanded allele showing the same CAG repeat length as the homozygotes (25/14). Interestingly, the two sisters showed differences in disease progression and severity, although the age of onset and CAG repeat length were identical. These findings strongly suggest that the gene dosage influences the age of onset, but other unknown factors are also important in the phenotypic expression of homozygous SCA6.


Neural networks are increasingly used as a general purpose approach to learning algorithms over graph structured data. However, techniques for representing graphs as real-valued vectors are still in their infancy. Recent works have proposed several approaches (e.g., graph convolutional networks), but as we show in this paper, these methods have difficulty generalizing to large graphs. In this paper we propose Graph2Seq, an embedding framework that represents graphs as an infinite time-series. By not limiting the representation to a fixed dimension, Graph2Seq naturally scales to graphs of arbitrary size. Moreover, through analysis of a formal computational model we show that an unbounded sequence is necessary for scalability. Graph2Seq is also reversible, allowing full recovery of the graph structure from the sequence. Experimental evaluations of Graph2Seq on a variety of combinatorial optimization problems show strong generalization and strict improvement over state of the art.


Abstract Purpose This register-based study aimed to evaluate trends in adolescent psychiatric inpatient care using nationwide data from three consecutive decades. Methods The study population (N 17,112) comprised all Finnish citizens aged 13–17 receiving their first-ever psychiatric inpatient treatment between 1980 and 2010 in Finland. Information on inpatient care in the psychiatric hospital was obtained from the Hospital Discharge Register and the Care Register for Health Care, which contains data on all patients discharged from all Finnish inpatient psychiatric health services. Results Inpatient admissions remained relatively stable until the early 1990s, after which a steady increase was seen, peaking in 2008 and more marked among females than males. In males, there was an increase in inpatient care episodes for externalizing disorder or mood disorder, and in females for mood disorder. Duration of first inpatient care decreased over time, but level of functioning on admission remained stable or even deteriorated. Females, patients first admitted in the 1980s or diagnosed with schizophrenia were more likely to be re-hospitalized during adolescence. Conclusions We reported an increase in adolescent psychiatric inpatient care from the latter half of the 1990s up to 2010, which could be explained by societal and policy changes. In particular, as the study period progressed a significant increase was seen in admissions of females and a global reduction of length of stay (LOS) with no concomitant increase in re-hospitalizations.


The present paper proposes an automated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) analytical test system, which consists of a LIBS measurement and control platform based on a modular design concept, and a LIBS qualitative spectrum analysis software and is developed in C#. The platform provides flexible interfacing and automated control; it is compatible with different manufacturer component models and is constructed in modularized form for easy expandability. During peak identification, a more robust peak identification method with improved stability in peak identification has been achieved by applying additional smoothing on the slope obtained by calculation before peak identification. For the purpose of element identification, an improved main lines analysis method, which detects all elements on the spectral peak to avoid omission of certain elements without strong spectral lines, is applied to element identification in the tested LIBS samples. This method also increases the identification speed. In this paper, actual applications have been carried out. According to tests, the analytical test system is compatible with components of various models made by different manufacturers. It can automatically control components to get experimental data and conduct filtering, peak identification and qualitative analysis, etc. on spectral data.


There is an elegant species of Siratus found in the western Atlantic off the coast of Brazil which, although closely related to Chicoreus (Siratus) senegalensis (Gmelin), is a valid species. It is a lighter, higher spired, more spinose shell than C. sene galensis and it also attains a larger size. One specimen in the writer's collection is over 95 mm in height, whereas the largest specimen seen of C. senegalensis is 65 mm. This species was named Murex calcar by Kiener (1843) but that name is twice preoccupied, by J. de C. Sowerby (1823) and by Scacchi (1835). Because the form is found near the city of Rio de Janiero it is here renamed Chicoreus (Siratus) carioca, the name for the inhabitants of that fair city. Murex calcar was described by Kiener without an indication of locality but recently commercial collectors have taken the shell in quantity off the northeastern coast of Brazil. As no type locality has ever been selected, Ilha Grande, State of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, the locality of the specimen here figured is designated as the type locality.


Recent development in wireless communication has necessitated a high demand for radio resources. This has led to the development of cognitive radio technology in which radio equipments are now capable of identifying spectrum opportunity in their environment and take advantage of spectrum unused by licensed primary radio users for communication. One of the derivatives of the emerging technology is the ad hoc cognitive radio networks where control of the network resources is distributed among the users. In order to improve co-ordination in ad hoc cognitive radio networks, there is a need for selection of an appropriate leader that will guarantee quality of service (QoS), spectrum allocation and aggregation and synchronization of cognitive radios. In this paper we proposed a novel leader election algorithm that is robust for distributed ad hoc cognitive radio networks.


CONTEXT
- Medication resins, including Kayexalate, sevelamer, and bile acid sequestrants, can be encountered in gastrointestinal tract specimens. Their classic histologic appearances have been well documented, but pathologist recognition of the resins is 75%, patient history is not always available, and atypical morphologic findings are sometimes present.

OBJECTIVE
- To offer a succinct overview of resins in the gastrointestinal tract, including typical and atypical appearances, in order to serve as a quick reference guide.

DATA SOURCES
- The study comprises published literature, survey data, and our personal experiences.

CONCLUSIONS
- Classic morphology is the benchmark for identifying these resins, but color, location, and fish scale pattern can deviate from the norm, making proper identification a challenge. Patient history should be sought whenever possible, and ancillary staining is an option when necessary. Additionally, the presence of resins should prompt the pathologist to search for potentially related diagnoses (namely, causes of diarrhea in patients on bile acid sequestrants and diagnoses associated with renal failure in patients on Kayexalate or sevelamer).


Although the mechanisms underlying wound healing are largely preserved across wound types, the method of injury can affect the healing process. For example, burn wounds are more likely to undergo hypertrophic scarring than are lacerations, perhaps due to the increased underlying damage that needs to be cleared. This tissue clearance is thought to be mainly managed by immune cells, but it is unclear if fibroblasts contribute to this process. Herein, we utilize a 3D in vitro model of stromal wound healing to investigate the differences between two modes of injury: laceration and laser ablation. We demonstrate that laser ablation creates a ring of damaged tissue around the wound that is cleared by fibroblasts prior to wound closure. This process is dependent on ROCK and dynamin activity, suggesting a phagocytic or endocytic process. Transmission electron microscopy of fibroblasts that have entered the wound area reveals large intracellular vacuoles containing fibrillar extracellular matrix. These results demonstrate a new model to study matrix clearance by fibroblasts in a 3D soft tissue. Because aberrant wound healing is thought to be caused by an imbalance between matrix degradation and production, this model, which captures both aspects, will be a valuable addition to the study of wound healing.


The unevenly distributed development can trigger a social and political conflict in local areas. The development that always supported the capitalists also created a gap, the corruption among the officials could never stop. The reformation that initially gave a hope to the people, yet it never comes true. The obvious success of reformation is only the freedom to talk, to gather, and to ally. However, the success has become a boomerang. This results in the pesimism among the intelectuals that reflects in some books. The situation has been worst by some natural disasters. Some people assume that it is closely related to the human behaviour. Both positive and negative political and social situation are unable to detach from the effect in global level, self-image, and mentality.


BACKGROUND
Chronic cough, which may be of asthmatic or nonasthmatic origin, is an important clinical issue. Airway inflammation, and remodeling demonstrated by subbasement membrane thickening has been associated with cough variant asthma (CVA) as well as with nonasthmatic chronic cough (NAC). CT studies have shown airway wall thickening in patients with asthma who wheeze. We examined airway wall thickness by CT in adult patients with chronic cough and examined its pathophysiologic implication.

METHODS
Nonsmoking, steroid-naïve patients with CVA (n = 27), NAC (n = 26), and healthy control subjects (n = 15) were studied. Airway dimensions were assessed by a validated CT technique, in which we measured airway wall area (WA) corrected by body surface area (BSA), the ratio of WA to outer wall area (percentage of wall area [WA%]), absolute wall thickness (T)/ square root BSA, and airway luminal area/BSA of a segmental bronchus. Correlations between CT parameters and clinical indexes such as disease duration and cough sensitivity were examined.

RESULTS
In patients with CVA, WA/BSA, WA%, and T/ square root BSA were all significantly greater than those in control subjects. In patients with NAC, WA/BSA and T/ square root BSA were significantly greater than in control subjects. The increase of WA/BSA and T/ square root BSA of NAC patients was less than that of CVA patients. In a subset of patients with NAC, WA% correlated with capsaicin cough sensitivity (n = 9, r = 0.75, p = 0.034).

CONCLUSIONS
Walls of central airways are thickened in patients with CVA, and also to a lesser degree in patients with NAC. Airway wall thickening in NAC may be associated with cough hypersensitivity.


Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a myocardium disease characterized by phenotypic features of myocardial scarring due to fibrofatty myocardial replacement often associated with global or regional ventricular dysfunction. For years after arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) was first described, the left ventricle (LV) was generally considered normal or minimally involved. In recent years, however, LV involvement has been recognized. It usually presents with early-on arrhythmias more than heart failure symptoms compared to dilated cardiomyopathy. It can be right ventricular, biventricular, or left ventricular. The underlying pathophysiology involves either desmosomal or non-desmosomal mutations. Phospholamban (PLN) mutation is one of those and is associated with more severe arrhythmias and SCD. Primary prevention with ICD implantation should be considered in these patients, even the ones with an ejection fraction greater than 35%. In addition, if such patients progress to Stage D heart failure, they need to be evaluated for advanced heart failure therapies.


A tracheal bronchus is a rare congenital anomaly, suggesting abnormal bronchial development. The prevalence of tracheal bronchus in children who undergo bronchoscopy is estimated to be between 0.2% and 3%. When associated with recurrent infection, lobes of the lung must be removed to avoid further lung injury. In such cases, perioperative one-lung ventilation and airway management remain a huge challenge for anaesthesiologists. The case of this rare airway anatomic abnormality in a paediatric patient with two bronchial openings into the right upper lobe, and with a history of recurrent pneumonia, is reported. In addition to a normal opening, a distinct opening in the upper lobe of the right lung was observed, that originated directly from the trachea, superior to the carina. The entire right lung was deflated by left-lung ventilation using a single lumen tracheal tube, and the patient underwent right upper lobe resection. No anaesthesia complications were observed during recovery. In this case, timely identification of the tracheal bronchus and successful collapse of the right lung were key points in the anaesthesia management of this patient.


We compared the capacity of cultured human endothelial cells (EC) vs B lymphoblastoid cells (BLC) from the same donor to stimulate allogeneic CD8+ T cells to differentiate into CTL, assaying for allorestricted cytotoxicity, T cell growth, IFN-gamma secretion, and perforin expression. The input cell number affected specificity and potency of the resulting CTL. At low input (<10(5) cells/ well), anti-EC CTL were rarely detected. At high input (>10(6) cells/well), anti-EC CTL developed that displayed unrestricted, low-titer killing and an unstable phenotype. At intermediate input (1.0-2.5 x 10(5) cells/well), classical class I MHC-restricted, CD8+, and perforin-positive anti-EC CTL developed with reproducible frequencies. However, under all conditions EC were less efficient stimulators than BLC from the same donor. Anti-EC CTL did not kill BLC, whereas anti-BLC CTL killed BLC and EC from the same donor with comparable efficiency. When CD8+ T lymphocytes were grown in the presence of EC and BLC together, the differentiation of anti-BLC CTL was completely suppressed, while the anti-EC response was intact. The inhibition of the allogeneic anti-BLC CTL response was independent of T cell-EC contact, and proliferation of CD8+ T cells was inhibited by EC-conditioned medium. We conclude that EC are competent but less efficient activators of CTL differentiation than are BLC and that EC actively regulate differentiation and/or expansion of allospecific CTL.


Food allergy affects 6-8% of young children and ~2% of adults in the U.S., and is the leading cause of life-threatening anaphylactic reactions treated in hospital emergency departments. CCRL2 is an atypical attractant receptor expressed on vascular endothelial cells and mast cells that binds and concentrates chemerin on the cell surface. In vitro, this serves to significantly enhance adhesion of CMKLR1+ cells. We previously showed that CCRL2 is required for maximal tissue swelling and leukocyte infiltration in passive cutaneous anaphylaxis. We therefore hypothesized that CCRL2 plays a pathogenic role in experimental peanut-induced anaphylaxis (PIA). Wild-type (WT) or CCRL2 KO mice were sensitized by repeated oral inoculation with peanut protein and cholera toxin over four weeks, and challenged with systemic injection of peanut protein. CCRL2 was required for maximal peanut-specific immunoglobulin secretion, leukotriene B4 release, and vascular leakiness. Circulating chemerin levels were also significantly increased in the CCRL2 KO mice. Although circulating histamine levels were significantly elevated in CCRL2 KO mice compared with WT, clinical signs of anaphylaxis were significantly reduced. CCRL2 may therefore represent a novel drug target for preventing or treating food allergy in the clinic.


In nature, many cells possess cilia that provide them with motor or sensory functions, allowing organisms to adapt to their environment. The development of artificial cilia with identical or similar sensory functions will enable high-performance and flexible sensing. Here, we investigate a method of producing artificial cilia composed of various polymer materials, such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyurethane, poly(methyl methacrylate), polyvinylpyrrolidone, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and poly (allylamine hydrochloride), using a field effect spinning (FES) method. Unlike wet- or electro-spinning, in which single or multiple strands of fibers are pulled without direction, the FES method can grow fiber arrays vertically and uniformly on a substrate in cilia-like patterns. The lengths and diameters of the vertically grown artificial cilia can be controlled by the precursor polymer concentration in the solution, applied electric current and voltage, and shape and size of the needle tip used for FES. The red, green, and blue emission characteristics of the polymer-quantum dot-based self-emitting artificial cilia prepared in polymer-inorganic nanoparticle hybrid form were determined. In addition, an artificial cilia-based humidity sensor made of the polymer-polymer composite was fabricated.


The dynamic library of components is designed to store software goods based on Qingniao dynamic library, making use of two libraries which are front and background ones to combine with competition and elimination system. Not only does it include the similar funtions of general libraries now available, such as querying, appending, deleting and updating components, but also is competent to rearrange the front and background libraries by the present probability of reuse so that it is bound to largely shorten the retrieval time and incredibly improve the precision of component matching. The system is specially used in out-sourcing business to manage and reuse their software goods.


We show that Brownian motion of a one-dimensional domain wall in a large but finite system yields a omega(-3/2) power spectrum. This is successfully applied to the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process with open boundaries. An excellent agreement between our theory and numerical results is obtained in a frequency range where the domain wall motion dominates and the discreteness of the system is not effective.


Biometric verification systems have to address many practical requirements, such as performance, presentation attack detection (PAD), large population coverage, demographic diversity, and varied deployment environment. Traditional unimodal biometric systems do not fully meet the aforementioned requirements making them vulnerable and susceptible to different types of attacks. In response to that, modern biometric systems combine multiple biometric modalities at different fusion levels, such as sensor, feature, score and decision level. The fused score is decisive to classify an unknown user as a genuine or impostor. In this paper, we describe a new biometric fusion framework based on Subjective Logic (SL); a type of probabilistic logic that explicitly takes uncertainty and trust into consideration. We principally evaluate our proposed fusion framework using two modalities, namely iris and fingerprint. Furethermore, the individual scores obtained from various comparators are combined at score level by applying four score fusion approaches (minimum score, maximum score, simple sum, and subjective logic) and three score normalization techniques (min-max, z-score, hyperbolic tangent). The experimental results show that the proposed score level fusion approach (subjective logic) gives the best authentication accuracy even when particular biometric classifiers give distinct comparison scores.


Multisite nonprofit systems are organized in a variety of ways, ranging from central control to local control. Regardless of where a system falls along this organizational continuum, inevitable tensions emerge in the relationship between headquarters and the local organization. The purpose of this article is to understand the causes of these tensions and to offer management action that, regardless of the organizational structure, leads to greater system cohesion. Our exploration was facilitated by intense field research at five multisite systems: Outward Bound USA, Planned Parenthood, Habitat for Humanity, SOS Kinderdorf, and The Nature Conservancy.

Our investigation suggests that multisite system behavior may be mapped on two dimensions—one that exerts forces toward unit autonomy and the other influencing the degree of organizational affiliation. These forces are associated with a host of organizational functions that are the traditional domains of management to influence and shape and thereby enable a multisite nonprofit to simultaneously optimize the benefits of organizational affiliation and unit autonomy.


Commitments to truth and to "transparency," or public accountability, are two central normative aspects of professional journalism. This article considers ways in which both are challenged and complemented by popular communicators, particularly bloggers, in today's media environment. While all professions claim autonomy over articulation and enactment of their own norms, definitions of professional constructs are now open to reinterpretation, and oversight of professional behavior is increasingly shared.


This study aimed to identify the high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI) features of moyamoya disease (MMD) patients with anterior intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and attempted to reveal potential mechanisms of anterior ICH. Eligible adult MMD patients were consecutively included, and the morphological features of lenticulostriate arteries (LSAs), vessel wall structure of terminal internal carotid artery (ICA) and periventricular anastomosis were evaluated by HRMRI. 78 MMD patients containing 21 patients with anterior ICH, 31 ischemic patients and 26 asymptomatic patients were included. The mean value of total length of LSAs in anterior ICH group (90.79 ± 37.00 mm) was distinctively lower (p < 0.001) compared with either ischemic group (138.04 ± 46.01 mm) or asymptomatic group (170.50 ± 39.18 mm). Lumen area of terminal ICA was significantly larger (p < 0.001) in hemorrhagic group (4.33 ± 2.02 mm2) compared with ischemic group (2.29 ± 1.17 mm2) or asymptomatic group (3.00 ± 1.34 mm2). Multivariate analysis revealed the total length of LSAs (OR 0.689, 95%CI, 0.565–0.840; p < 0.001) and lumen area of terminal ICA (OR 2.085, 95%, 1.214–3.582; p = 0.008) were significantly associated with anterior ICH. Coexistence of reduced LSAs and relatively preserved lumen area of terminal ICA with an AUC of 0.901 (95%CI, 0.812–0.990) could be a potential predictor of anterior ICH in MMD patients.


Purpose

The purpose of this study was to extend the understanding of restaurant firms' overall debt and equity financing practices by considering what drives equity financing. More importantly, this study attempted to identify whether an optimal financial leverage point exists in the relationship between debt financing and equity financing for restaurant firms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used fixed-effects regression models with a sample of 1,549 unbalanced firm-year panel data to identify restaurant firms' financial practices and the impacts of financial constraints.

Findings

First, restaurant firms tend to issue long-term debt to pay back existing debt. However, the amount of debt does not exactly match the debt's maturity. Second, small restaurant firms' net debt financing, as well as net equity financing, has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with financial leverage. Finally, the effect of financial leverage on external financing significantly differs between small and large restaurant firms.

Practical implications

Restaurant firms routinely use both debt and equity financing interchangeably to manage their financial constraints and target debt ratio. Further, firm size is an important indicator of financial constraints, while equity financing plays an important role in managing an optimal target debt ratio.

Originality/value

This study is unique in that it considers determinants of restaurant firms' long-term debt financing as well as equity financing. This study also examines differences in long-term debt and equity financing practices between financially constrained and unconstrained firms.


The interaction between tumor cells and their microenvironment is an essential aspect of tumor development. Therefore, understanding how this microenvironment communicates with tumor cells is crucial for the development of new anti-cancer therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that inhibit gene expression. They are secreted into the extracellular medium in vesicles called exosomes, which allow communication between cells via the transfer of their cargo. Consequently, we hypothesized that circulating endothelial miRNAs could be transferred to tumor cells and modify their phenotype. Using exogenous miRNA, we demonstrated that endothelial cells can transfer miRNA to tumor cells via exosomes. Using miRNA profiling, we identified miR-503, which exhibited downregulated levels in exosomes released from endothelial cells cultured under tumoral conditions. The modulation of miR-503 in breast cancer cells altered their proliferative and invasive capacities. We then identified two targets of miR-503, CCND2 and CCND3. Moreover, we measured increased plasmatic miR-503 in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which could be partly due to increased miRNA secretion by endothelial cells. Taken together, our data are the first to reveal the involvement of the endothelium in the modulation of tumor development via the secretion of circulating miR-503 in response to chemotherapy treatment.


The 8th edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) is clear in its requirement for each institution to establish and maintain an occupational health and safety (OHS) program as an essential part of the overall program of animal care and use. For over 30 years, AAALAC International has utilized a variety of methods to evaluate this component of OHS programs as part of the accreditation process. AAALAC International began collecting data on site visit findings over 20 years ago using the Guide as a template for establishing the categories and subcategories to which findings are assigned. Data from 1656 findings associated with OHS were identified during calendar years 2014 through 2016. This information was used to provide an overview of the most frequently observed OHS findings that occurred during this time span. The 5 categories representing key OHS areas and the combined percentage of both mandatory findings and suggestions for improvement in each category included: workplace risk/safety assessment (37.3%); personnel protection (36.3%); personnel risk assessment (14.4%); hazard containment (9.4%); and medical services (2.6%). Information on the most commonly observed OHS findings and associated trends may be helpful to animal care and use programs when conducting internal reviews of their own OHS programs.


By Tim Blackman. . Published by The Policy Press, Bristol, 2006, pp 264, £21.99 (paperback). ISBN 101861346107.

In an effort to understand the multiple determinants of health and devise strategies for health improvement, neighbourhoods have become a burgeoning area of inquiry and intervention. While neighbourhood quality is posited to have a measurable impact on the health of its inhabitants, much work is needed to better define neighbourhoods, the pathways by which they influence health and how and where to intervene to improve them and, consequently, the health of their inhabitants. Blackman delves in to these issues in Placing Health: Neighbourhood Renewal, Health Improvement and Complexity . Focusing primarily on the United Kingdom, Blackman provides a review of the evidence on the place-health association. He …


Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of pozzolan on the durability of high-performance fiber concretes in two aggressive environments. For this, prismatic test pieces were made at (0%, 10%, 20%, and 40%) of pozzolan and immersed in two acids, hydrochloric and sulfuric. Then characterizations were carried out, such as the loss of mass, the depth of degradation and the mechanical resistance. The results obtained show that with the substitution rate of pozzolan, the loss of mass and the depth of degradation increase in the two acids, while the mechanical strength increases in hydrochloric acid and decreases in sulfuric acid.


Mycobacterium marinum infections (fish tank granuloma) are infrequently encountered and when they do arise, they can pose a diagnostic challenge for clinicians. They can present as non-healing wounds along with several other presentations that may not be typical, as patients can have other comorbidities that cause immunosuppression and invasive symptoms of the disease. Treatment regimens vary in length, and are based on the patient's response to treatment couple with resolution of symptoms. Rifampicin and ethambutol are effective treatment options, together with use of macrolides. A thorough history from patients must be taken as to establish contact with aquatic animals.


Vehicle active safety control is bonded tightly with the accurate acquirement of vehicle states. This paper presents a cascaded scheme to realize high-performance estimation of vehicle states. To achieve the estimation with good performance, an adaptive sliding mode observer is designed for determining four longitudinal tire forces independently, and the Kalman filter is used for alleviating the inherent chattering effect. On this basis, lateral tire forces are calculated via a simplified formula based on the Dugoff tire model. Lastly, utilizing the obtained tire force information, the key states of vehicle motion are estimated through the smooth variable structure filter. Numerical experiments are conducted to testify the effectiveness of the presented estimation scheme. The results of performance comparison in different case studies show that the chattering effect can be suppressed to a great extent, and the accuracy, robustness and real-time performance to modeling uncertainty and unexpected measurements can be effectively guaranteed for vehicle state estimation by means of the proposed scheme.


The article deals with topical issues of contemporary moral and legal education of university students. A methodological analysis of the negative trends among young people, the moral degradation of the individual is conducted. Identified the interdetermination and interdependence of moral and legal education.


The third trimester of pregnancy is the most critical period for human brain development, during which significant changes occur in the morphology of the brain. The development of sulci and gyri allows for a considerable increase in the brain surface. In preterm newborns, these changes occur in an extrauterine environment that may cause a disruption of the normal brain maturation process. We hypothesize that a normalized atlas of brain maturation with cerebral ultrasound images from birth to term equivalent age will help clinicians assess these changes. This work proposes a semi-automatic Graphical User Interface (GUI) platform for segmenting the main cerebral sulci in the clinical setting from ultrasound images. This platform has been obtained from images of a cerebral ultrasound neonatal database images provided by two clinical researchers from the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Spain. The primary objective is to provide a user-friendly design platform for clinicians for running and visualizing an atlas of images validated by medical experts. This GUI offers different segmentation approaches and pre-processing tools and is user-friendly and designed for running, visualizing images, and segmenting the principal sulci. The presented results are discussed in detail in this paper, providing an exhaustive analysis of the proposed approach's effectiveness.


A new superstructure model of heat exchanger networks (HEN) with stream splits based on rangers of streams supply temperatures and heat capacity flow rates is presented. The simultaneous optimal mathematical model of flexible HEN synthesis is established too. Firstly, the streams with rangers of supply temperatures and/or the streams with the rangers of heat capacity flow rates are pretreated; Secondly, several rules are proposed to establish the superstructure model of HEN with splits and the simultaneous optimal mathematical model of ftexible HEN; Thirdly, the improving genetic algorithm is applied to solve the mathematical model established at the second step effectively, and the original optimal structure of HEN based on the maximum operation limiting condition can be obtained easily; Finally, the rules of heat exchange unit merged and the heat load of heat exchanger relaxed are presented, the flexible configuration of HEN satisfied the operation condition between the upper and down bounds of supply temperature and heat capacity flow rates can be obtained based on the original optimal structure of HEN by means of these rules. A case study demonstrates the method presented in this paper is effective


This paper described the verification of modeling technique of underground distribution line from comparison between field test and simulation. It needs more exact transient phenomenon analysis model to establish lightning protection of underground distribution line. Although, there were a lot of transient phenomenon researches, nobody could has verified the confidence of modeling from field tests in interior until now. So, simulation model verified field test is needed to analyse transient phenomenon of underground distribution system. The examination must be accomplished in many different condition before suggesting these verified analysis model. In this paper, the conditions were examined and the various data results on the different line composition was compared with the EMTP simulation, when the lightning impulse test was accomplished at underground distribution line. Also the value between field test and simulation was very closed and the method of modeling has demonstrated confidence, when the method is used to analyse domestic transient phenomenon of underground distribution.


ABSTRACT Background Physical inactivity among the general population is of great concern in public health. Objective This narrative review aims to identify promising physical activity (PA) public policies based on the best available evidence from the literature. Methods The study is a narrative synthesis of 'reviews of reviews' of public policies designed to increase physical activity among either (a) youths or (b) the community at large. We searched the literature for reviews of reviews of public policies of any country relevant to physical activity, physical inactivity, or sedentary behaviour published since 1 January 2000, in four databases. Results Based on 12 reviews of reviews published between 2011 and 2022, we identified seven potentially effective PA public policies. Six of the seven were youth-based public policies that would be implemented in schools. The seventh was a policy aimed at establishing and promoting walking groups. Conclusions Policymakers seeking to increase PA should consider focusing on school-based PA policies and community-based walking groups, as this is where the evidence base is greatest. To implement these policies, pilot studies to assess the efficacy of such programmes in local communities should first be conducted due to methodological limitations in the underlying literature and questions of generalisability and reproducibility.


The peak load in electricity consumption is increasing among household customers, resulting in reduced utilization time of the distribution grid. Demand side flexibility can be a cost-efficient alternative to grid investments, but to achieve customers' involvement, knowledge about their willingness to change how they use electricity is important. Two surveys have been performed (in 2017 and 2020) to map the potential for flexible demand among Norwegian household customers. The surveys show that independent of cost savings, 61% are willing to accept remote load control of their electric water heater, as long as this do not affect their comfort (not cold water), and 7 out of 10 are willing to manually shift electrical appliances (washing machines, dishwashers, clothes dryers,…) in a period with limited grid capacity. 56-63% will accept remote load control and 63-64% will contribute with manual response if they save 200 Euros/year.


This paper is a part of the study we lead on the dynamic damage and fracture of iron below and above α-e phase transition. According to the peak pressure level, one can observe some remarkable patterns which have been correlated with the α-e allotropic transformation. In order to explain these different features, a multiphase equation of state has been developed and implemented in the 1D version of the hydrocode Hesione. This equation of state (EoS) is based on Birch formalism for each solid phase and on the thermodynamic equilibrium assumption in the phase transitions. It accounts for complex mechanisms that can occur in the material during the shock-release path such as shock splitting, release shock wave... The numerical results we get with such an EoS explain the different damage patterns observed on recovered samples.


Abstract. The effects of aerosols on visibility through scattering and absorption of light and on climate through altering cloud droplet concentration are closely associated with their hygroscopic properties. Here, based on field campaigns in winter and summer in Beijing, we compare the size-resolved hygroscopic parameter (κgf) of ambient fine particles derived by an HTDMA (Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer) to that (denoted as κchem) of calculated by an HR-ToF-AMS (High-resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer) measurements using a simple rule with a uniform internal mixing hypothesis. We mainly focus on contrasting the disparity of κgf and κchem between summer and winter to reveal the impact of atmospheric processes/sources on aerosols hygroscopicity and to evaluate the uncertainty in estimating particles hygroscopicity with the hypothesis. We show that, in summer, the κchem for 110, 150 and 200 nm particles was averagely ~ 10 %–12 % lower than κgf, with the greatest difference between the values observed around noontime when aerosols experience rapid photochemical aging. In winter, no apparent disparity between κchem and κgf is observed for those > 100 nm particles around noontime, but the κchem is much higher than κgf in the late afternoon when ambient aerosols are greatly influenced by local traffic and cooking sources. By comparing with the observation from other two sites (Xingtai, Hebei and Xinzhou, Shanxi) of north China, we verify that atmospheric photochemical aging of aerosols enhances their hygroscopicity and may induce a coating effect which thereby leads to 10 %–20 % underestimation of the hygroscopic parameter if using the uniform internal mixing assumption. The coating effect is found more significant for these >100 nm particles observed in remote or clean regions. However, local primary sources, which result in an externally mixture of the fine particles with a large number of POA (Primary Organic Aerosol) in urban Beijing, makes the particle much less hygroscopic and cause 20–40 % overestimation of the hygroscopic parameter by the mixing rule assumption. In addition, we also note lower κchem than κgf for 80, 110 and 150 nm particles during the nighttime of winter, particularly in polluted days, probably due to a nighttime coating effect driven by condensation of secondary hygroscopic species on pre-existing aerosols in cold season. Our results suggest that it is critical to parameterize the impacts in model simulations to improve the evaluation of the aerosols indirect effect.


Sepsis has been recognized to be a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the dysregulation of the host response to infections. Our work aims to screen key biomarkers related to neutrophils in sepsis using bioinformatics analysis. For this purpose, the microarray datasets related to neutrophils in sepsis patients were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. According to the Bayesian test, the Limma package in R was used to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then, DEGs were uploaded to the DAVID online diagnostic tool for subsequent Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment on the selected DEGs. Next, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established based on the selected DEGs using the STRING website and the Cytoscape software. Furthermore, according to the function of the iRegulon plug-in in Cytoscape, our study further predicts and established regulatory networks related to transcription factors and regulatory genes. In addition, the miRWalk2.0 database was used to search for miRNA-DEG pairs, associated with the conduction of intersections of miRNAs predicted by TargetScan, Miranda, miRDB and RNA22 databases. Then, these miRNA-DEG pairs were also displayed in the form of a regulatory network through Cytoscape. Finally, two datasets were selected to verify the screened genes, regulatory factors, and miRNAs, to plot receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and compute the area under the curve (AUC) values. The results showed that AKT1, MMP9, ARG1, ETS1 targeting AKT1, and has-miR-124-3p targeting RPS6KA5 may have diagnostic value for patients with sepsis and septic shock. While further experimental studies are required to confirm their role in septic neutrophils.