Single-scattering theory is shown to be insufficient for the estimation of effective propagation constant in foliage at high microwave and millimetre-wave frequencies. Clusters of broad leaves and needles are treated as a unit scatterer whose ensemble forward scattering is used in Foldy's approximation to estimate attenuation rate in foliage. It is shown that single-scattering approximation overestimates forward scattering as high as 3-4 dB at 35 GHz.


Three cases of surgically proven benign renal cysts are presented that demonstrated high density on computed tomography. The lesions shared the common characteristics of hyperdensity, nonenhancement with intravenous contrast material, round shape, and sharp margination. It is suggested that these criteria may indicate that such lesions are potentially benign, which may prompt a more conservative surgical approach.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effect of transforming growth factor beta3 (TGF-beta3), bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), and dexamethasone (DEX) on the chondrogenic differentiation of rabbit synovial mesenchymal stem cells (SMSCs).

METHODS
SMSCs were isolated from the knee joints of 5 rabbits (weighing, 1.8-2.5 kg), and were identified by morphogenetic observation, flow cytometry detection for cell surface antigen, and adipogenic and osteogenic differentiations. The SMSCs were cultured in the PELLET system for chondrogenic differentiation. The cell pellets were divided into 8 groups: TGF-beta3 was added in group A, BMP-2 in group B, DEX in group C, TGF-beta3 + BMP-2 in group C, TGF-beta3 + DEX in group E, BMP-2+ DEX in group F, and TGF-beta3 + BMP-2 + DEX in group G; group H served as control group. The diameter, weight, collagen type II (immuohistochemistry staining), proteoglycan (toluidine blue staining), and expression of cartilage related genes [real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) technique] were compared to evaluate the effect of cytokines on the chondrogenic differentiation of SMSCs. Meanwhile, the DNA content of cell pellets was tested to assess the relationship between the increase weight of cell pellets and the cell proliferation.

RESULTS
SMSCs were isolated from the knee joints of rabbits successfully and the findings indicated that the rabbit synovium-derived cells had characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells. The diameter, weight, collagen type II, proteoglycan, and expression of cartilage related genes of pellets in groups A-F were significantly lower than those of group G (P < 0.05). RT-qPCR detection results showed that the relative expressions of cartilage related genes (SOX-9, Aggrecan, collagen type II, collagen type X, and BMP receptor II) in group G were significantly higher than those in the other groups (P < 0.01). Meanwhile, with the increase of the volume of pellet, the DNA content reduced about 70% at 7 days, about 80% at 14 days, and about 88% at 21 days.

CONCLUSION
The combination of TGF-beta3, BMP-2, and DEX can make the capacity of chondrogenesis of SMSCs maximized. The increase of the pellet volume is caused by the extracellular matrix rather than by cell proliferation.


Both multilayer period thickness expansion and compaction were observed in Mo/B4C multilayers upon annealing, and the physical causes for this were explored in detail. Using in situ timedependent grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry, period changes down to picometer-scale were resolved. It was shown that the changes depend on the thickness of the B4C layers, annealing temperature, and annealing time. Although strong stress relaxation during annealing was observed, it was excluded as a cause for period expansion. Auger electron spectroscopy and wide angle X-ray diffraction measurements revealed the growth of interlayers, with associated period changes influenced by the supply of B and C atoms to the growing compound interlayers. For multilayers with a Mo thickness of 3 nm, two regimes were recognized, depending on the deposited B4C thickness: in multilayers with B4C 1.5 nm, the supply of additional Mo into the already formed MoBxCy interlayer was dominant and led to densification, resulting in period compaction. For multilayers with B4C 2 nm, the B and C enrichment of interlayers formed low density compounds and yielded period expansion.


Introduction: Unexpected eruption and global dissemination of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has tested the healthcare systems of both developed and developing countries. Objective: To analyze the spectrum of novel coronavirus infection in a tertiary care setup. Materials and Methods: All oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal samples (n=7057) were collected in a viral transport medium (VTM) for qualitative analysis by a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine. Positive and negative controls were applied with each batch. Positive cases were stratified into mild, moderate, severe, and asymptomatic, according to the guidelines of the National Institute of Health, Pakistan. Descriptive statistical tests were applied including percentage, chi-square tests, mean, median, and mode. P < 0.05 was counted as statistically significant. Results: Average positive test rate was 18.97% (n=1339). The maximum positivity rate (26%) of COVID-19 infection was observed in June 2020. Most of the cases (60%) belonged to Rawalpindi District, were male (n=844, 63.03%), and belonged to age group (20-40 years) and mean of 36 and age range from 2-85 years. Forty-nine percent of COVID-19 infected patients were asymptomatic and only 9.8% progressed to severe disease. Overall, the mortality rate was 159(11.87%) in RT-PCR confirmed cases. Conclusion: Average positive test rate was 18.97%. The majority of the participants belonged to the young age group (20-40 yrs.) with a range from 2 to 85 years. Forty-nine percent positive COVID-19 infected patients were asymptomatic while 9.8% had severe disease.


Size distribution is an important structural aspect in order to rationalize relationship between structure and property of materials utilizing polydisperse nanoparticles. One may come to mind the use of dynamic light scattering (DLS) for the characterization of the size distribution of particles. However, only solution samples can be analyzed and even for those, the solution should be transparent or translucent because of using visible light. It is needless to say that solid samples are out of range. Furthermore, the size distribution only in the range of several tens of nanometers can be characterized, so DLS is useless for particles in the range of several nanometers. Therefore, the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique is much superior when considering the determination of the size distribution in several nanometers length scale for opaque solutions and for solid specimens. Furthermore, the SAXS technique is applicable not only for the spher- ical particle but also for platelet (lamellar) and rod-like (cylindrical) particles. In this chapter, we focus on the form factor of a variety of nanostructures (spheres, prolates, core-shell spheres, core-shell cylinders and lamellae). Also getting started with a monodisperse distribution of the size of the nanostructure, to unimodal distribution with a narrow standard deviation or wide-spreading distribution and finally to the discrete distribution can be evaluated by the computational parameter fitting to the experimen- tally obtained SAXS profile. In particular, for systems forming complicated aggrega-tions, this methodology is useful. Not only the size distribution of ' a bunch of grapes ' but also the size distribution of all ' grains of grapes in the bunch ' can be evaluated according to this methodology. This is very much contrasted to the case of the DLS technique by which only ' a bunch of grapes ' is analyzed but ' grains of grapes in the bunch ' cannot be. It is because the DLS technique in principle evaluates diffusion constants of particles and all of the grains in the same bunch of grapes diffuse as a whole. Thus, the methodology is important to highlight versatility and diversity in real materials, especially in soft matter, both in the liquid and in the solid states.


Food composition studies are not only basic, but also essential for many purposes in nutrition, food science, and dietetics. This article reviews the Food Composition Revolutions, improving the reporting of food composition data, causes of variation between actual and measured diets, and future directions in food composition. Food composition experts, nutrition professionals, physician, health educators, epidemiologists and editors of journals must pay more attention to all of these above.


The amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's disease (AD) contains numerous proteins, some of which may be relevant to the pathogenesis of the disease. The serine protease inhibitor α1‐antichymotrypsin is specifically localized in AD plaques. It is shown here that α1‐antichymotrypsin and several other serine protease inhibitors (serpins) inhibit the toxicity of amyloid peptides on primary cortical nerve cell cultures as well as a clonal cell line. This inhibition of toxicity is not mediated via the serpin enzyme complex receptor, the transferrin receptor, or by interference with the polymerization of amyloid fibrils. Since a variety of synthetic serine protease inhibitors mimic the effects of serpins on amyloid toxicity, it is likely that the antiprotease activities of serpins are responsible for their biological effects.


It is common for residual lifetimes to be either discarded or treated as if they were right-censored data estimating two-parameter Weibull distributions. The exact maximum likelihood (ML) estimators for dealing with sampled data with residual lifetimes are formulated. Monte Carlo simulation is used to compare the performance of ML estimators for various approaches to the treatment of residual data. Two types of LS (least squares) estimators are also evaluated: LSMR (LS median rank) estimators and LSNPML (LS nonparametric ML) estimators. For ML estimators, the exact method performs better than the approximate ones. Of the two types of LS estimators, the better one is sensitive to the true value of the shape parameter. The exact ML estimation procedure is therefore preferred over the LS procedures even though the former is not always better. >


Organizations increasingly embrace the digital transformation (DT): organizational change shaped by the widespread diffusion of technology. This results in specific demands in terms of employee behavior. Organizations need to adapt to technology-driven work methods and proactively set out to reap the benefits of new technology. Shaping employee behavior conjures a significant challenge for organizations. While aligned HR configurations shape employee behavior, the number of interrelated HR practices to select from is vast. Currently, no tool aids professionals with the design of an HR configuration that shapes DT behaviors. DITInLine is a serious game that captures this challenge; it invites professionals to design an HR configuration that shapes the DT behaviors of employees. Departing from the state of the art HRM literature, it presents professionals with a set of granularly defined HR practices that can combinedly be implemented during the game. The game provides feedback on the impact of their decisions. Professionals are challenged to combine those HR practices into a strategy-aligned HR configuration that shapes the employee behaviors most effectively. After each round, feedback on the HR configuration design is provided to the players. By providing an abstract representation of the HR and DT challenges that organizations face, DITInLine constitutes a valuable tool for professionals tasked with designing aligned HR configurations. DITInLine forces managers to be explicit about their HR decisions. It provides a risk-free environment for them to experiment with HR practices and gauge the effects of their decisions, potentially enabling learning. From a research perspective, the HR choices of these professionals are made explicit. It enables studying HR decisions. Furthermore, the serious game introduces a promising level of detail, providing a falsifiable theoretical framework on the impact of HR for DT.


Drug interactions involving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can cause serious morbidity and mortality if not anticipated and managed appropriately. These interactions are most easily incorporated into daily practice if the mechanisms of interaction are understood. To a large extent, these interactions occur through alterations of the pharmacokinetic parameters of one of the drugs. Both inhibition and induction of hepatic enzyme systems such as the cytochrome p450 system contribute to this problem. Some pharmacodynamic interactions are important to recognize as well, although the mechanisms are less well understood. Interactions among AEDs can lead to toxicity or to loss of antiepileptic activity. The most important interactions involve inhibition of the clearance of an AED, because this inhibition can quickly lead to toxicity. Some non-AEDs can also inhibit the clearance of AEDs, similarly leading to rapid development of toxicity. A less acute problem is the potential loss of activity of non-AEDs when the clearance rate has been increased because of enzyme induction caused by the AEDs. Understanding these principles, incorporating important interactions into daily practice, and applying appropriate therapeutic drug monitoring where appropriate will reduce morbidity and mortality from drug interactions.


Initiation of an in vitro response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) requires the production of a nonspecific soluble mediator which is present in the culture supernatants of antigen-stimulated thymus-derived (T) cells. This factor was shown to act early in the immune response and probably directly affects bone marrow derived (B) cells. However, the stimulation of the PFC response caused by the factor depends upon the presence of some intact T cells. These T cells can still function after 1300 rads of ionizing radiation. The factor does not simply cause proliferation of small numbers of surviving T cells, and is exhausted from the medium when cultures of B cells with the active supernatant are stimulated with antigen.
 Further evidence for two functions for T cells during the antibody response in culture has been obtained by studying the ability of cultures of B and A cells to respond when the two T cell functions are provided sequentially. For example, if B cells are preincubated in vitro for 24 hr with an active supernatant, they can give subsequent PFC responses either in vivo or in vitro when mixed with irradiated normal (unprimed) T cells. Investigation of the need for intact T cells has shown that this requirement, unlike the nonspecific factor, represents an antigen-specific function for T cells. This specificity has been demonstrated with irradiated T cells from mice tolerant to SRBC. In the presence of the active supernatant and a suitable B cell source these irradiated T cells can reconstitute the response to horse erythrocytes but not SRBC.


A sensitive and rapid method involving an improved approach called the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) purification method and isotope dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was established to determine six N-nitrosamines (NAs) in soy sauce. Samples were firstly extracted by ethyl acetate. Then the extraction solution was concentrated by slow nitrogen gas blowing and subsequently purified using the QuEChERS-based purification method. Separation of six target NAs was performed on an INNOWAX polar capillary chromatographic column. All of the samples were detected by selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode of GC-MS and N-nitrosodimethylamine-d6 (NDMA-d6) and N-nitrosodipropylamine-d14 (NDPA-d14) were used as internal standards. The developed method was validated in terms of the linearity, limit of detection (LOD), matrix effects, specificity, accuracy and precision. Results indicated that this method is of good specificity with almost negligible matrix effects. Linear relations of six NAs were favourable in the range of 2.0–200 μg L−1 and the correlation coefficients were greater than 0.9994. The LODs were lower than 1 μg kg−1 (0.4–0.9 μg kg−1) and the limits of quantitation (LOQs) of the method were within the range of 1.2–3.0 μg kg−1. The mean recoveries for negative light and dark soy sauce samples at three spiked concentration levels were in the range of 80.2–112% with overall relative standard deviation (RSD) values (n = 6) of 2.5–6.8%. The validated method was simple and rapid, with good repeatability, and was successfully applied to determine the concentrations of NAs in soy sauce.


Background: Thyroid nodules are a common finding in clinical practice. Although ultrasonography is an accepted method for evaluating and following these nodules, Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) is the procedure of choice for assessing the risk of malignancy. This study aims to determine the correlation between sonographic features of thyroid nodules based on Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) classification and the cytology results obtained by FNA of thyroid nodules.Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 147 patients with thyroid nodules underwent FNA under the guide of ultrasonography based on TIRADS classification, and their sonographic features were recorded. The pathologic findings were also obtained according to the Bethesda system. Finally, the association between sonographic features and cytology results were analyzed.Results: 147 patients with a mean ± SD age of 49.8 ± 13.7 years were assessed. 16 (10.9%) nodules were malignant, and 131 nodules (89.1%) were benign. The association of TIRADS categories with the risk of malignancy is as follows: TIRADS 1 (0%), TIRADS 2 (16.9%), TIRADS 3 (10.5%), TIRADS 4 (16.7%), and TIRADS 5 (0%). The location of thyroid nodules and their bloody lamellae were significantly correlated with the risk of malignancy (P value< 0.05). However, the association between the risk of and gender, calcification, hardness, halo sign and nodules' echogenicity were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Although there are trusted classifications for categorizing the thyroid nodules, there is still uncertainty in utilizing them as an accepted method of choice for managing the thyroid nodules, as various sonographic features are shared between benign and malignant ones.


ABSTRACT This short reflective piece revisits Tom O'Regan's article "Some Reflections on the 'Policy Moment'" from 1992. Tom's intervention in the cultural policy debate which raged at that time was magisterial, wide ranging and inclusive. He saw the argument for policy to frame engaged scholarly activity as limiting the social relevance of the humanities and social sciences. Whereas the traditional 'inclusive and abstract' injunction to be relevant was fashioned in such a way as not to prescribe the form of engagement, the policy injunction limits relevance to what 'can be made actionable, publicly endorsed, institutionally sanctioned and found useful by government tribunals, policy-makers and other actors directly involved in the policy process'. This narrowing, he argued, misrecognises the multifaceted nature of policy formation and debate. I reflect on how Tom's position, and that of Meaghan Morris, has influenced me subsequently through a brief discussion of various scholarly personae that the engaged scholar can adopt.


With the intensive development of modern technologies and competition for the execution of orders there is a need in the shortest possible time to find and implement optimal solutions for the management of the entire production cycle. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account a large number of initial data that have an impact on production and on the entire socio-economic system of the enterprise. Providing intellectual support to the decision-maker in the management of especially enterprises with a large range of small-scale production is now especially important. The authors developed and built a mathematical model of the description of the management system and management decision-making in enterprises with a single and small-scale production. Within the framework of this task, the optimization criterion is selected and the limitations in the system are determined. Developed algorithms and software to implement computer modeling and obtain optimal values for decision-making on the production and management of the enterprise in particularly difficult conditions.


We continue the construction and the analysis of essentially non-oscillatory shock capturing methods for the approximation of hyperbolic conservation laws. We present an hierarchy of uniformly high-order accurate schemes which generalizes Godunov's scheme and its second-order accurate MUSCL extension to an arbitrary order of accuracy. The design involves an essentially non-oscillatory piecewise polynomial reconstruction of the solution from its cell averages, time evolution through an approximate solution of the resulting initial value problem, and averaging of this approximate solution over each cell. The reconstruction algorithm is derived from a new interpolation technique that, when applied to piecewise smooth data, gives high-order accuracy whenever the function is smooth but avoids a Gibbs phenomenon at discontinuities. Unlike standard finite difference methods this procedure uses an adaptive stencil of grid points and, consequently, the resulting schemes are highly nonlinear.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

High-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplastic (CIN2/3) lesions represent a heterogeneous disease both with respect to clinical behaviour and chromosomal aberrations detected. We hypothesized that the extent of chromosomal aberrations reflects the duration of their existence. To test this hypothesis, chromosomal profiles were determined of CIN3 lesions of women with a known 5 year history of high-risk human papillomavirus virus (hrHPV) infection, in which duration of prior hrHPV infection was considered a proxy for duration of CIN3 lesion existence. Eight women had a <5 year preceding hrHPV infection (CIN3<5yrPHI) and 24 had a PHI lasting ≥5 years (CIN3≥5yrPHI). For comparison, 6 CIN3 lesions adjacent to squamous cell carcinomas (CIN3-SCC), their corresponding SCCs, and 6 CIN1 lesions were included. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis of the chromosomal profiles revealed two clusters. One was characterized by relatively quiet genomic profiles including all CIN1, 75% of CIN3<5yrPHI and 37.5% of CIN3≥5yrPHI. Samples in the second cluster, displaying multiple aberrations, included 62.5% CIN3≥5yrPHI and all except one CIN3-SCC and all SCCs. The number of genomic aberrations increased according to lesion grade and also with longer duration of PHI. The increase in aberrations in CIN3≥5yrPHI compared to <5yrPHI was highly significant (p=0.002), suggesting that CIN3≥5yrPHI represent more severe lesions. In conclusion, a longer duration of preceding hrHPV infection is associated with an increased number of chromosomal aberrations. Hence, CIN3 lesions with a longer duration of existence are more prone to have an increased short-term risk of cervical cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2718. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2718


Network motif is defined as a frequent and unique subgraph pattern in a network, and the search involves counting all the possible instances or listing all patterns, testing isomorphism known as NP-hard and large amounts of repeated processes for statistical evaluation. Although many efficient algorithms have been introduced, exhaustive search methods are still infeasible and feasible approximation methods are yet implausible. Additionally, the fast and continual growth of biological networks makes the problem more challenging. As a consequence, parallel algorithms have been developed and distributed computing has been tested in the cloud computing environment as well. In this paper, we survey current algorithms for network motif detection and existing software tools. Then, we show that some methods have been utilized for parallel network motif search algorithms with static or dynamic load balancing techniques. With the advent of cloud computing services, network motif search has been implemented with MapReduce in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), and with Storm, but without statistical testing. In this paper, we survey network motif search algorithms in general, including existing parallel methods as well as cloud computing based search, and show the promising potentials for the cloud computing based motif search methods.


Although the consequences of ignoring a nested factor on decisions to reject the null hypothesis of no treatment effects have been discussed in the literature, typically researchers in applied psychology and education ignore treatment providers (often a nested factor) when comparing the efficacy of treatments. The incorrect analysis, however, not only invalidates tests of hypotheses, but it also overestimates the treatment effect. Formulas were derived and a Monte Carlo study was conducted to estimate the degree to which the F statistic and treatment effect size measures are inflated by ignoring the effects due to providers of treatments. These untoward effects are illustrated with examples from psychotherapeutic treatments.


A flurry of recent work has examined the interaction between system design and power optimization, with the promise of energy savings. We find that the power consumed by current commodity hardware can be well-approximated by a model with two components: a large always-present constant power and a linear power-performance tradeoff. As a result, many proposed optimizations currently have limited value and the best possible approach is the so-called "race to sleep" model of computation. We survey several recently-released computer systems in support of this conclusion and briefly examine the most important targets for future work.


The aim of this study was to estimate the repeatability of morphometric characteristics of counted milk fat globules number of globules/milliliter, average diameter, frequency distribution of globules according to different size analyzed in 3 different phases of lactation (10, 30 and 90 days from parity). Milk samples were taken from 25 Massese ewes homogeneous for age and diet; all the animals came from a single herd located in the province of Pisa (Tuscany). All individual samples were taken from the morning milking and were refrigerated until use, placed in a Burker chamber and observed by fluorescent microscope and image analyzer system. The repeatability of morphometric characteristics of milk fat globules tested in the three phases of lactation was estimated by Pearson's correlations (r) while the average repeatability has been tested across the method of intra-correlation-class. Fat globules tend to change over the course of lactation, and as production progresses, favours an increase in the percentages of small and medium globules and a decreased percentage of the large globules. Only fat globules of 5-6 μm (class 5, 15% of the total globules) and medium diameter show good repeatability during lactation (0.41 and 0.31 respectively).


The study covered influence of occupational factors on health state in 2 groups of workers engaged into facing (59 plasterers and 74 house painters) and matched in age, sex and length of service. Work of plasterers and house painters appeared to encounter risk of occupational sensomotor system disorders specified not only by type and hardness, but also prevalent direction of local muscular load.


The aim of this study is to explore the students' perceptions of using video recording to improve speaking accuracy and fluency of thirty-five pre-service teacher at University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka Jakarta. This study employed mixed method to analyze the data. A pre-test and post-test were obtained as the instruments and analyzed quantitatively by using paired t-test. It is used to determine the students' speaking ability before and after implementing video recording in speaking class. In qualitative method acquired a structured interview to gain their perceptions on using video recording. The results revealed a significant increase in students' speaking abilities, particularly in their accuracy and fluency. The students also show a good perception in the use of video recording in speaking classes. They stated that video recording is an interesting thing that can be used to train their speaking skills. Therefore, it is suggested that video recording might be an alternative medium for teachers or lecturers in teaching speaking.


Inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is the most common disorder of skeletal muscle in aged humans. It shares biochemical features with Alzheimer's disease, including congophilic deposits, which are immunoreactive for beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) and C'-terminal betaAPP epitopes. However, the etiology of myofiber loss and the role of intracellular Abeta in IBM is unknown. Here we report correlative evidence for apoptotic cell death in myofibers of IBM patients that exhibit pronounced Abeta deposition. HSV-1-mediated gene transfer of Abeta(42) into cultured C2C12 myotubes resulted in a 12.6-fold increase in dUTP-labeled and condensed nuclei over nonexpressing myotubes (P < 0.05). The C'-terminal betaAPP domain C99 also induced myotube apoptosis, but to a significantly lesser extent than Abeta. Apoptosis specific to Abeta-expressing myotubes was also demonstrated through DNA fragmentation, decreased mitochondrial function and the loss of membrane phospholipid polarity. Myotubes laden with Abeta(42), but not other transgene products, developed cytoplasmic inclusions consisting of fibrillar material. Furthermore, injection of normal mouse gastrocnemius muscle with HSV-encoding Abeta cDNA resulted in TUNEL-positive myofibers with pyknotic nuclei. We conclude that Abeta is sufficient to induce apoptosis in myofibers both in vivo and in vitro and suggest it may contribute to myofiber loss and muscle dysfunction in patients with IBM.


A method for the metal-free reduction of carboxylic amides using oxalyl chloride as an activating agent and hydrogen as the final reductant is introduced. The reaction proceeds via the hydrogen splitting by B(2,6-F2-C6H3)3 in combination with chloride as the Lewis base. Density functional theory calculations support the unprecedented role of halides as active Lewis base components in the frustrated Lewis pair mediated hydrogen activation. The reaction displays broad substrate scope for tertiary benzoic acid amides and α-branched carboxamides.


: Traditional industrial research is mostly based on the analytical paradigm of quantitative structure, ignoring patterns of industrial agglomerations. Based on the points-of-interest (POI) data of Gaode Map, this study constructed a firm- cluster- system (FCS) industrial analysis framework combining firm- cluster- system scales. From the perspective of industry classification criteria, it analyzed the geographic nesting hierarchy from micro to macro scales and divided the urban cultural industry POI into five categories: culture and arts industry, press and publishing industry, radio and television industry, sports and fitness industry, entertainment and leisure industry. Using the urban area of Jinan City as the case area, this study integrated nuclear density analysis, industrial landscape ecology model, geographic proximity index, and social network analysis methods to reveal the characteristics of cultural industry POI clustering, industrial cluster landscape, and industrial system network by using the 500 m honeycomb grid. The conclusions of this study are as follows: 1) By establishing a classification system of cultural industries based on POI data and innovatively using the location quotient model to develop research means from industrial POI to industrial landscape, the perspective of cultural industry spatial research has been expanded. 2) Jinan's cultural industry has the characteristics of continuous concentration and scattered aggregation, and there are regional heterogeneity in landscape morphological characteristics. Different industrial types are intertwined to form an ecological network, and there is a coupling relationship at the system level. The entertainment and leisure industry in Jinan has the advantage of group quantity, but the radio and television industry play the role of key species. The findings of this paper provide a basis for industrial regulation and policy optimization at different levels. This research deepens the theory and methods of industrial location analysis and expands the application of geographic big data.


Small signal stability causes small perturbations in the generator that can cause instability in the power network. It is generally known that small signal stability are directly related to the generator and load properties. This paper examines the effects of generator input variations on power system oscillations for a small signal stability study. Eigenvaules and eigenvectors are used to examine the stability of the power system. The dynamic power system's mathematical model is constructed and thus calculated using load flow and small signal stability toolbox on MATLAB. The power system model is based on a 3-machine 9-bus system that was modified to suit this study. In this paper, Participation Factors are a means to gauge the effects of variation in generation with other parameters on the network are also incorporated. Keywords—Eigen-analysis, generation modeling, participation factor, small signal stability.


ABSTRACT A critical feature of a potential antimicrobial target is the characteristic of being essential for growth and survival during host infection. For bacteria, genome-wide essentiality screens are usually performed on rich laboratory media. This study addressed whether genes detected in that manner were optimal for the identification of antimicrobial targets since the in vivo milieu is fundamentally different. Mutant derivatives of a clinical isolate of Acinetobacter baumannii were screened for growth on human ascites, an ex vivo medium that reflects the infection environment. A subset of 34 mutants with unique gene disruptions that demonstrated little to no growth on ascites underwent evaluation in a rat subcutaneous abscess model, establishing 18 (53%) of these genes as in vivo essential. The putative gene products all had annotated biological functions, represented unrecognized or underexploited antimicrobial targets, and could be grouped into five functional categories: metabolic, two-component signaling systems, DNA/RNA synthesis and regulation, protein transport, and structural. These A. baumannii in vivo essential genes overlapped poorly with the sets of essential genes from other Gram-negative bacteria catalogued in the Database of Essential Genes (DEG), including those of Acinetobacter baylyi, a closely related species. However, this finding was not due to the absence of orthologs. None of the 18 in vivo essential genes identified in this study, or their putative gene products, were targets of FDA-approved drugs or drugs in the developmental pipeline, indicating that a significant portion of the available target space within pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria is currently neglected. IMPORTANCE The human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is of increasing clinical importance, and a growing proportion of isolates are multiantimicrobial-resistant, pan-antimicrobial-resistant, or extremely resistant strains. This scenario is reflective of the general problem of a critical lack of antimicrobials effective against antimicrobial-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter sp., and Escherichia coli. This study identified a set of A. baumannii genes that are essential for growth and survival during infection and demonstrated the importance of using clinically relevant media and in vivo validation while screening for essential genes for the purpose of developing new antimicrobials. Furthermore, it established that if a gene is absent from the Database of Essential Genes, it should not be excluded as a potential antimicrobial target. Lastly, a new set of high-value potential antimicrobial targets for pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria has been identified. The human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is of increasing clinical importance, and a growing proportion of isolates are multiantimicrobial-resistant, pan-antimicrobial-resistant, or extremely resistant strains. This scenario is reflective of the general problem of a critical lack of antimicrobials effective against antimicrobial-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter sp., and Escherichia coli. This study identified a set of A. baumannii genes that are essential for growth and survival during infection and demonstrated the importance of using clinically relevant media and in vivo validation while screening for essential genes for the purpose of developing new antimicrobials. Furthermore, it established that if a gene is absent from the Database of Essential Genes, it should not be excluded as a potential antimicrobial target. Lastly, a new set of high-value potential antimicrobial targets for pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria has been identified.


With the vast amount of extra money now going into the National Health Service, even hardened sceptics are beginning to say that some things are getting better. But in return for the extra investment, the Government has demanded accountability of a sort that sits uneasily with medical traditions of personal care, self-regulation and trust. Whether the public welcomes or bemoans the changes in their relationships with doctors is not yet clear, but many doctors are showing themselves unhappy. The demise of medical 'professionalism' is a main theme of Raymond Tallis's Hippocratic Oaths,1 and the subtitle, Medicine and its Discontents, warns the reader not to expect a consumerist view. The central character is scientific medicine, born innocent and enthusiastic. Challenges emerge and we feel that her love affair with the NHS may be doomed; but we end with a gleam of hope. Professor Tallis brings to his task the dual skills of a physician and a philosopher. In reviewing the work I too can claim double expertise though of a lower order—that of a senior house officer working in the NHS who has lately become a 'patient'.

Tallis begins by tracing the story of scientific medicine—a happy one in terms of cures and prevention but at the same time sad because of the 'loss of innocence' that comes from exposure of the large areas beyond its reach. Trials and research bring new discontents, with dilemmas over obtaining valid consent and the wayward attention of the media. Tallis focuses on communication as one area where patients are particularly dissatisfied; bad doctors, as he illustrates with some alarming cases, can be good communicators and vice versa. He also deals with the change to a more litigious society, and the repercussions of a culture that requires doctors to avoid blame. As one commentator on the book put it, the modern Hippocrates might say (though possibly more elegantly) 'first cover your arse'.2 Whatever the evils of medical paternalism, there was merit in the old culture whereby doctors could be merciful in the information they gave patients and their relatives and make decisions for them without fear of recrimination. Tallis is outraged that society's demand for rectitude and accuracy does not extend to the media and gives lengthy attention to the misdemeanours of journalists, especially in the MMR affair—the factual errors, the sensationalism, the way the convictions of a single distressed parent received more column inches than a scientific study in thousands. 'The media,' he concludes, 'had collectively made it impossible for the complex voice of true, as opposed to folk, expertise to be clearly heard and understood'. Another victim of his scorn is the target culture now imposed by Whitehall and enforced by local managers, with distortion of clinical priorities, and the mantra of 'patient-centred care' that generates in many doctors the irritation previously induced by 'evidence-based medicine'. In the final section, entitled Medicine's Destination, Tallis examines the notion that the success of medicine is leading to its failures. Increasing life expectancy brings increased demands on the health service by older people—or does it? This is one of the more optimistic chapters. But he soon returns to the gloomy thoughts that caused him to write the book. Will doctors become mere civil servants, doing the will of the Department of Health and abandoning their personal commitment to the individual?

Hippocratic Oaths has been greeted elsewhere with acclaim for the strength of the analysis and the quality of the writing, but it has also been criticized, notably by the former President of the General Medical Council Sir Donald Irvine, for medicocentricity: 'That an inward looking profession, obsessed with its own tribalism, collectively failed to make self-regulation work properly and so protect all patients from avoidable harm, is quietly ignored.'3 Though there is some justice in this remark there is in truth not much space between Tallis and the patient. What does the book say to a person such as me, proceeding up the lower rungs of the medical ladder? I am reluctant to accept that professionalism, in its best sense, is a lost cause. Evidently my seniors feel the same way, because the Royal College of Physicians has appointed a working party to define professional values in medicine and recommend on how these values can be maintained and strengthened.4 Maybe this working party is the beginning of the rebellion demanded by Tallis in order 'to lead medicine to the better future that science will make possible'. As a junior doctor I find that the worst threat to professional satisfaction is not management interference but pressure on time; I would love to spend more time sitting with the patient and talking through the illness and fears it generates. Unfortunately, patients quite often perceive that doctors have neither the time nor the energy to care; it is easy to see where tensions arise. What of my own experiences as a patient? They were overall good, though nobody could enjoy learning that life henceforth will be shaped by 'fate' or factors outside their control. Which is the point; medicine is not fluffy pillows and kind words. For most people, coming in contact with hospital medicine means at the very least a significant life change. Having worked in the NHS I had realistic expectations with regard to waiting, the uncertainties of diagnosis, and the time pressures on doctors. What I valued above all was being diagnosed and treated by individuals I could trust—by doctors who laid out the facts and uncertainties as known, told me the plan for the next stage and did not dress it up in a fancy box tied with a bow or distract me with talk of all the possible things that could go wrong or continuously ask me how I was feeling. Who cares if I had to wait, or the doctor was interrupted, or even appeared busy—as long as I had confidence in what they told me. Their role was to diagnose and treat, not provide a shoulder to cry on. 'I am lucky', I told my father (a paediatrician); but he pointed out that I was not lucky—my experience should be the norm. This is the sort of professionalism that Tallis and I, and even Sir Donald Irvine, would fight to preserve as medicine adapts continuously to social change.

Hippocratic Oaths should now replace Samuel Shem's House of God as the book to be read by everyone who thinks of going into medicine. Wise and humane, it will be enjoyed by anyone with a social conscience. As I struggle to reconcile my clinical commitments with the European Working Time Directive, I take heart that a strong defence is now being mounted for what is best in the professional ethic.


Li3V2(PO4)3/C (LVP/C) coated with various amounts of SiO2 has been synthesized, and the effect of surface modification by SiO2 on the performance of LVP has been systematically investigated with X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), magnetic susceptibility, Raman spectroscopy, and electrochemical measurements. Based on the analysis of XRD, XPS, and TEM, it is confirmed that SiO2 coating on the surface of LVP particles does not change the monoclinic structure of LVP. The XAS, XPS, and magnetic susceptibility results indicate that the valence of V in both the pristine and SiO2-coated LVP are close to +3. Furthermore, our results reveal that the electrochemical performance of LVP/ C can be significantly improved by the SiO2 coating, which is due to the enhanced structural stability and reduced charge-transfer resistance.


Not only are the boundaries of interpretive research as yet undefined, but criteria for judging the quality of such research are even more fluid and emergent. Developing criteria are nominated and cautions in applying them are discussed. The author also suggests two critical insights: The most promising of these criteria are relational, and they effectively collapse the distinction between quality (rigor) and research ethics.


We introduce a new measure for unsupervised hypernym detection and directionality. The motivation is to keep the measure computationally light and portatable across languages. We show that the relative physical location of words in explanatory articles captures the directionality property. Further, the phrases in section titles of articles about the word, capture the semantic similarity needed for hypernym detection task. We experimentally show that the combination of features coming from these two simple measures suffices to produce results comparable with the best unsupervised measures in terms of the average precision.


The temperature and field dependence of the magnetization were measured on a single crystal of the antiferromagnet UIrGe in pulsed fields up to 51 T, and the specific heat in steady fields up to 18 T. At low temperatures, metamagnetic transitions are observed at critical fields Bc of 21 T and 14 T, applied along the b- and the c-axis, respectively. At 2 K, the magnetization jumps at Bc are 0.36 μB/U along the b-axis and 0.28 μB/U along the c-axis. The a-axis is the hardest magnetization direction with a weak linear magnetic response. Both along the b- and the c-axis, Bcdecreases with increasing temperature. Consistent with the magnetization, the sharp anomalies observed in the specific-heat obey the same dependence.


... After the war arctic oceanographic investigations became more specific in character. The growing national interest in the North and the demand for information on the circulation, ice cover, ice movement, navigability, and the productivity of the waters led to the organization of a number of oceanographic cruises the result of which has been a vast accumulation of oceanographic observations within a very short time. The Fisheries Research Board of Canada has been instrumental in conducting a large proportion of this work beginning with the cruise of H.M.C.S. Magnificent and Haida to Hudson Bay in 1949. The same year the fisheries research vessel Calanus began investigations in Ungava Bay, and in 1951 and 1952 the motor vessel Cancolim of the Defence Research Board carried out oceanographic observations in the western Arctic. The surveys conducted from the icebreaker Labrador since 1954 have covered a large area of the eastern Arctic and have resulted in the first sequence of oceanographic observations to extend from Baffin Bay in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. ...


Excessive white adipose tissue (WAT) expansion and lipid load is associated with the onset of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. In addition, lipid storage may "overflow" into the liver triggering the apparition of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Two major components linking white adipose tissue (WAT) dysfunction and NAFLD to insulin resistance are the deregulation of cellular redox homeostasis and the onset of chronic, low-grade inflammation. NADPH oxidases (NOX-es) produce oxidant molecules that control redox homeostasis and cytokine signaling in inflammatory cells. In particular, NOX4 is essential for the signal transduction of the transcription factor, Stat6 that mediates anti-inflammatory actions of IL-4 and IL-13. In order to elucidate the in vivo interaction between NOX4 and Stat6 and to assess their relevance in the onset of "obese" WAT and NAFLD, we created mice with double knock-out for NOX4 and Stat6 (DKO) and compared their metabolic phenotype to littermates with single NOX4 deletion (NOX4KO) upon a 13-week high-fat diet feeding (60 % of calorie from fat). DKO and NOX4KO mice displayed similar food intake. By contrast, DKO mice displayed less body weight gain than NOX4KO mice due to lower energy efficiency leading to reduced WAT accumulation. DKO mice shifted lipid deposition away from the WAT and enhanced lipid storage in the liver. DKO mice displayed similar fed and starved glucose levels with no alterations in glucose tolerance assessed by intra-peritoneal glucose tolerance tests. Gene expression analysis confirmed a less inflammatory state of both WAT and liver of DKO mice. Our results demonstrate that anti-inflammatory signaling is modulated by NOX4-derived signals in vivo in mice, and that NOX4 and IL-4/IL-13 interaction is a critical component in the regulation surplus lipid storage distribution between WAT and the liver.

 I. Szanto: None.

 Insuleman Foundation (ISZ-1); Foundation for the Innovation in Research in Cancer and Biological Sciences


This essay explores what it means to be human in an age of infomedia. Appropriating Niklas Luhmann's systems theory/media theory in dialogue with other resources, I propose a post-Luhmannian paradigm of (1) extended media/meaning that conceives the world as world multimedia systems processing variegated meanings, and (2) an embodied, contextualized soft posthumanist anthropology that conceives the human as emergent collective phenomena of distinct meaning making by body-mind-society-technology media couplings. I argue: (1) Homo sapiens is Homo medialis distinct with mediatic communication that emerged to cope with contingencies. (2) Evolution is the mediatization/codification of the world that culminated with the outcome of Homo medialis uniquely equipped to process transcendent meanings and to mediatize the world via diverse media—Mediatized Co-Mediatizer or Codified Co-Codifier. (3) This anthropic universe is possibly the most "meaningful" (full of meaning possibilities) of all possible worlds. (4) Social fragmentation could be an optimization; science-and-religion is an infomedium optimizing religion's manifest and science' latent observation of divine manifestations.


Rotating-frame relaxation rates, R(1)(rho), are often measured in NMR studies of protein dynamics. We show here that large systematic errors can be introduced into measured values of heteronuclear R(1)(rho) rates using schemes which are usually employed to suppress cross-correlation between dipole-dipole and CSA relaxation mechanisms. For example, in a scalar-coupled two-spin X-H spin system the use of (1)H WALTZ16 decoupling or (1)H pulses applied at regularly spaced intervals leads to a significant overestimation of heteronuclear R(1)(rho) values. The problem is studied experimentally and theoretically for (15)N-(1)H and (13)C-(1)H spin pairs, and simple schemes are described which eliminate the artifacts. The approaches suggested are essential replacements of existing methodology if accurate dynamics parameters are to be extracted from spin-lock relaxation data sets.


Mice were irradiated continually by a Co60 source with a daily dose of 478.5 mGy (50 R), 957.0 mGy (100 R), and 4785.0 mGy (500 R) up to a total dose of 9570.0 mGy (1,000 R). The restoration of the erythrocyte, leukocyte and thrombocyte numbers in the peripheral blood was observed at different times from 0 to 60 days after finishing irradiation. From all examined cell elements the earliest time of restoration could be observed in thrombocytes, regeneration of erythrocytes and granulocytes followed some time later. Their reparation was completed until the 28th day after finishing irradiation. The longest diminution was found in the number of lymphocytes even on the 60th day remained significantly lower with a dose of 4785 mGy than in control animals.


Using longitudinal administrative data from a large elite research university, this paper separately analyzes the determinants of persistence for life and physical science majors. My results confirm much of the previous research on major persistence in the sciences, but I document that many findings are solely driven by persistence patterns in the physical sciences. For example, I show that the previously documented gender gap in science major persistence is due entirely to a large gap in the physical sciences. Despite large differences in persistence patterns between physical and life science, persistence in both fields is similarly influenced by grades. I provide suggestive evidence that students in both fields are "pulled away" by their high grades in nonscience courses and "pushed out" by their low grades in their major field. In the physical sciences, analyses using within course and cohort variation show that peer quality in a student's introductory courses has a lasting impact on the probability of persisting.


The HLA-DR locus of the major histocompatibility complex encodes class II molecules which participate in immune responses through regulation of T cell interaction with antigen presenting cells. Previous association studies between HLA-DR antigens and the autoimmune disease, systemic sclerosis (or scleroderma), have yielded conflicting results. Some investigators have reported an association between this disease and HLA-DR1, while others have demonstrated an association with HLA-DR5. In this study, we used restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the HLA-DR locus to compare allelic frequencies of HLA-DR1 and HLA-DR5 in scleroderma patients with diffuse disease and healthy control subjects. No significant difference in the allelic frequency of either antigen was observed between the groups. These results suggest that HLA-DR1 and HLA-DR5 antigens are unlikely to contribute significantly to disease susceptibility in scleroderma.


Preparation of La1-xSrxFe1-yCoyO3-δ (LSFC) coatings by plasma spraying at low pressure (200 Pa) using different plasma spray parameters is reported and discussed. Deposition with Ar-He plasma leads always to formation of coatings containing a mixture of LSFC perovskite, SrLaFeO4, FeCo and metal oxides. Coatings deposited at higher oxygen partial pressures by addition of oxygen into the vacuum chamber contain more than 85% perovskite and only few percent Fe3O4 and/or CoO. The microstructures of the investigated LSFC coatings depend sensitively on the oxygen partial pressure, the substrate temperature and the deposition rate.


The influence of radial transport of electrons during radiofrequency current drive in a plasma and in the presence of an electric field is discussed. A response function technique is utilized to calculate radial diffusion during lower hybrid wave current drive. The consequences of the combined influences of radial diffusion and electric field acceleration are discussed


In his 'Reverie and Radio' (1951), Gaston Bachelard suggests that the technological medium in question has not only given rise to a new institution of speech but a "new reality" for the subject of this speech: on account of the potentially universal extension of its network and the synchronic nature of its dispatch, the discursive dimension radio cultivates has established a new polis, the space of which he will call the "logosphere." At the same time, radio is for Bachelard capable of offering a new schematization of individuated experience - "Radio really does represent the total, daily realization of the human psyche" – above all, because it is a device that can facilitate "reverie," freeing the unconscious of the strictures in which it is customarily bound.
In 'The Radio Voice,' on the contrary, Adorno understands this same cluster of functions and attributes belonging to radio as a more refined means of subjugation: for him radio distributes speech hierarchically, it cultivates a voice that cannot be conversed with, that must ultimately be submitted to, compromising the listener's autonomy: "The supremacy of authoritarian central institutions over the privacy of the citizens is not only promoted by radio: it is in part the historical presupposition of the existence of radio as well. The radio voice is the executor, the agency of those authorities."
This paper will stage a confrontation between these divergent interpretations of radio and the politics of speech implied in each case. It will do so with a third text in mind, Brecht's 'Radio as a Means of Communication,' which suggests that the functions ascribable to this particular technology are not once and for all set, but can themselves be re-determined, with a view to intervening in reality itself.


The roles of enteric viruses and food antigens as possible triggers in human insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus and the evidence that mucosal‐associated homing receptors are important in both human and experimental diabetes prompted us to undertake an immunohistochemical study of intestinal specimens from patients with IDDM. We studied jejunal morphology and immunohistochemistry in 26 patients with IDDM, 13 of whom had the HLA‐DQB1*0201 gene and therefore a higher risk of coeliac disease. The findings were compared with those in specimens from age‐matched controls. Villous structure and the density of the intraepithelial lymphocytes were normal in every biopsy specimen. The extent of positivity with anti‐DR and ‐DP antibodies in the villous epithelium was significantly greater in the specimens from patients than in those from controls (P = 0.0002 in both comparisons). The crypts were also more positive: for DR P = 0.0001, and for DP P = 0.002. The densities of T cells, CD4+, CD8+, and T cell receptor α/β+ and γ/δ+ cells in the epithelium and lamina propria were similar in patients and controls, but the patients had significantly more α4/β7 integrin+ cells in the lamina propria (P = 0.006). No difference was seen between HLA‐DQB1*0201‐positive and ‐negative patients. These findings reflect a stage of inflammation in the structurally normal intestines of patients with IDDM and suggest secretion of inflammatory Th1‐type cytokines in the intestine.


Object-oriented metrics plays an import role in ensuring the desired quality and have widely been applied to practical software projects. The benefits of object-oriented software development increasing leading to development of new measurement techniques. Assessing the reusability is more and more of a necessity. Reusability is the key element to reduce the cost and improve the quality of the software. Generic programming helps us to achieve the concept of reusability through C++ Templates which helps in developing reusable software modules and also identify effectiveness of this reuse strategy. The advantage of defining metrics for templates is the possibility to measure the reusability of software component and to identify the most effective reuse strategy. The need for such metrics is particularly useful when an organization is adopting a new technology, for which established practices have yet to be developed. Many researchers have done research on reusability metrics [2, 9, 3, 4]. In this paper we have proposed four new independent metrics Number of Template Children (NTC), Depth of Template Tree (DTT) Method Template Inheritance Factor (MTIF) and Attribute Template Inheritance Factor (ATIF), to measure the reusability for object-oriented systems.


In this study, the possible impact of different prices of carbon on farm profitability in two dairy farm businesses with different feeding systems was analysed. The feeding systems evaluated were a ryegrass pasture-based system (RM) and a complementary forage-based system (CF). The carbon charge was imposed on the systems as they currently operate and without the farmers making strategic changes in response to the tax. The study is a first-look approach in order to gauge the order of magnitude of a carbon charge on dairy systems if they were to continue to operate essentially under the same system following the impost of a cost of carbon emissions, and to gauge the likely size of incentives to respond. The main finding of this study was that net present value (NPV) of operating profit for each system over the five years was reduced by a price on carbon. The carbon charge of $15/t CO2-eq reduced the present value of the operating profits over the five years of operation by around 7% and 6% in the RM and the CF systems respectively. The carbon charge of $25/t CO2-eq reduced the present value of the operating profits over the five years of operation by around 11% in the RM and 10% in the CF systems. Farmers continually face rising costs of production, and respond accordingly. A price on carbon emissions, if ever applied to agriculture, would invoke responses to further increase productivity and possibly to seek offsets if genuine opportunities occurred.


Adalimumab, an anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody, is effective in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the response is highly variable between patients. Good responders have significantly higher adalimumab serum concentrations than non-responders.1 In a recent issue of the Annals , Pouw et al 2 have proposed a therapeutic cut-off concentration for adalimumab that is predictive of clinical response at a population level but, as for other TNF-α antagonists, no individualised target concentration has been defined to adjust the dose in RA.3

In a post hoc analysis we measured adalimumab concentrations in 127 samples from 30 patients with RA who received 40 mg adalimumab subcutaneously every other week.4 Concomitantly to blood sampling, disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) was recorded at baseline and at 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 24 weeks and 52 weeks after treatment initiation. Then, we studied the relationship between adalimumab concentration and DAS28 with a direct Emax inhibition pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model, using Monolix V.3.1 (INRIA, Saclay, France). Emax models are often used to describe the concentration-response relationship, where the 'quantity' of response is monotonically related to drug concentration.5 With such a model, the relationship reaches an asymptote for high adalimumab concentrations when DAS28 reaches its minimal value. Estimated baseline DAS28 and adalimumab IC50, that is, adalimumab concentration leading to 50% decrease of baseline DAS28, were 5.7 (coefficient of variation=10%) and 11.8 mg/L (coefficient of variation=75%), respectively. Therefore, for a patient with a median baseline DAS28=5.7, with an adalimumab concentration of 11.8 mg/L, the baseline DAS28 would be decreased twofold (figure 1). The adalimumab target concentration necessary to achieve a …


Activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt cell survival pathway in many cancers makes it an appealing target for therapeutic development. However, because this pathway also has an important role in the survival of normal cells, tactics to achieve cancer selectivity may prove important. We recently showed that the cancer-selective proapoptotic protein Par-4 is a key target for inactivation by PI3K/Akt signaling. Additionally, we found that Par-4 participates in mediating apoptosis by PTEN, the tumor suppressor responsible for blocking PI3K/Akt signaling. As a central player in cancer cell survival, Par-4 may provide a useful focus for the development of cancer-selective therapeutics.


Objectives: Measure modification can impact comparability of scores across groups and settings. Changes in items can affect the percent admitting to a symptom. Methods: Using item response theory (IRT) methods, well-calibrated items can be used interchangeably, and the exact same item does not have to be administered to each respondent, theoretically permitting wider latitude in terms of modification. Results: Recommendations regarding modifications vary, depending on the use of the measure. In the context of research, adjustments can be made at the analytic level by freeing and fixing parameters based on findings of differential item functioning (DIF). The consequences of DIF for clinical decision making depend on whether or not the patient's performance level approaches the scale decision cutpoint. High-stakes testing may require item removal or separate calibrations to ensure accurate assessment. Discussion: Guidelines for modification based on DIF analyses and illustrations of the impact of adjustments are presented.


ABSTRACT The oolites form on the ground around sand grains by precipitation from the water sprayed over the ammonia-cooling tower at the ice plant in Seymour, Texas. This untreated water is hard, chiefly from calcium and magnesium bicarbonates, and precipitation is largely due to loss of carbon dioxide. The oolites show two distinct concentric zones, in some of which four to nine laminae can be distinguished. No trace of radial structure was noted.


Summary This paper explores arguments for and against increasing social workers' legal powers in adult protection (safeguarding) in England, where there is no direct power of entry. It draws on a research study conducted in 2016–17 involving an international literature review, interviews with social workers (n = 22), managers (n = 15), older and disabled people (n = 6) and carers (n = 5) and a survey of adult safeguarding managers (n = 27). The paper contextualises findings by exploring concepts of vulnerability and autonomy. Findings Most participants were in favour of increased powers for social workers undertaking safeguarding enquiries. A power of entry was seen to strengthen the legal basis of safeguarding and provide legitimacy for social workers to act. However, many participants expressed reservations, arguing that cases could generally be resolved with good social work, there would be a risk of negative impact on adults at risk and their families, the power of entry conflicted with social work practice and values and it could negatively affect social work relationships. Such arguments indicate a nuanced view of autonomy and vulnerability, which allow for doubt about the autonomy of people with capacity in certain circumstances. Applications The paper suggests the need for investment in the processes of implementation of risk management if increased legal powers are introduced. There could be a value in encouraging social workers to make explicit their assumptions about the definitions of vulnerability and its impact on autonomy and to explore the subjective experience of vulnerability in their judgements about intervening in these kinds of situations.


The application of silver in electronics, jewelry, catalytic and other industries often produces a large amount of silver-containing wastewater, which causes serious impact to the surrounding environment and human health, while silver has a certain economic value attached to it. Therefore, how to effectively treat and recover Ag(?) from the silver-containing wastewater is a hot topic of concern at present. In order to seek an efficient and environmentally friendly adsorbent, this paper compared the adsorption efficiency of purified, thermally modified, acid modified and thermally-acid modified Bentonite on silver, selected an economical and reasonable purified clay as a carrier, and then completed the preparation of modified Bentonite as well as the optimization of conditions with sodium silicate as a surfactant and 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane as a modifier. The experiments showed that under the conditions of sodium silicate dosage of 15% of Bentonite, Bentonite and modifier dosage of 1:1, solution pH of 9, temperature of 45 °C and modification time of 5 h, the synthesized sulfhydryl modified Bentonite has good adsorption performance on Ag(?), and its adsorption capacity can reach 293.7 mg·g-1.


Efficient usage of available capacity in wireless mesh networks is critical. Capacity is wasted due to the exposed terminal problem. In this paper, we propose a solution to mitigate the exposed terminal problem in static IEEE 802.11-based mesh networks, thereby improving the spatial reuse of the medium and increasing network throughput. Our solution is complementary to previously-proposed solutions that adjust the carrier-sense range for improved spatial reuse. The proposed solution consists of two phases. In the first phase, exposed links in the mesh topology are detected through an offline training process. Coordination of simultaneous transmissions over exposed links is then done in the second phase through the use of request-to-send- simultaneously (RTSS) and clear-to-send-simultaneously (CTSS) messages, which are added to the MAC protocol. Our solution preserves the distributed nature of the MAC protocol and does not require time synchronization between nodes. We present a simulation-based evaluation that demonstrates that the proposed solution effectively improves capacity usage and network throughput in representative topologies and traffic scenarios.


Providing security to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems is one of the demanding and crucial tasks in recent days, due to the different types of attacks on the network. For this purpose, there are different types of attack detection and classification methodologies have been developed in the conventional works. But it limits with the issues like high complexity in design, misclassification results, increased error rate, and reduced detection efficiency. In order to solve these issues, this paper aims to develop an advanced machine learning models for improving the SCADA security. This work comprises the stages of preprocessing, clustering, feature selection, and classification. At first, the Markov Chain Clustering (MCC) model is implemented to cluster the network data by normalizing the feature values. Then, the Rapid Probabilistic Correlated Optimization (RPCO) mechanism is employed to select the optimal features by computing the matching score and likelihood of particles. Finally, the Block Correlated Neural Network (BCNN) technique is employed to classify the predicted label, where the relevancy score is computed by using the kernel function with the feature points. During experimentation, there are different performance indicators have been used to validate the results of proposed attack detection mechanisms. Also, the obtained results are compared with the RPCO-BCNN mechanism for proving the superiority of the proposed attack detection system.


Objective: To evaluate the procedural outcomes of patients having chronic total occlusion undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention at our clinical setup. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology & National Institute of Heart Diseases, Rawalpindi from Jul 2014 to Jun 2017. Material and Methods: A total of 536 patients who underwent for percutaneous coronary intervention- chronic total occlusion were included in our study. Patients with chronic total occlusion lesion ≥3 months were included in our study. All the patients underwent percutaneous coronary intervention of chronic total occlusion Vessel were selected by non probability sampling technique. Patient's clinical, demographic data and data regarding procedural outcome was recorded. Finally data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Out of 536 patients 468 (87%) were male while 68 (12%) were female. Mean age was 55.5 ± 11.6 Years from 36 to 81 Years. Two hundred and one (37.5%) patients were diabetic, 181(33.7%) were hypertensive and 224 (41.7%) were smokers. Mean LVEF% was 48.7 ± 7.1 (Mean ± SD). Most common vessel involved was RCA 248 (46.2%) followed by LAD 188 (35.0%). Only drug eluting stents (DES) were implanted in successful cases with average no of stents used per patient were 1.43 ± 0.7. Common reasons for failure of procedure was inability of balloon/microcatheter to cross the lesion, inability to cross through retrograde collaterals but the most common reason was the failure of wire to cross the CTO lesion. The overall procedural success was achieved in 73.1% patients. No deaths were reported during the procedures. Conclusion: The recanalization of CTO lesion was successfully done in 73% cases using PCI. Most common reason for unsuccessful revascularization was failure of guide wire to cross the lesion. With increasing experience and better equipment recanalization of CTO coronary lesions is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with persistent Angina even on optimal medical treatment.


Africa is an import oriented continent with a significant percentage of all electronics and electrical equipment imported, as new or second hand, from other developed nations. The explosion of the telecommunications industry in Africa is an indication of the potential market in this great continent, with an estimated market of 15 million subscribers to GSM technology in Nigeria alone. As Africa increases its participation as users (and most importantly as stakeholders) of technology, the importance of electromagnetic compatibility and bio-electromagnetics increasingly becomes an issue. The paper describes EMC, its potential impact and the need for regulation in an increasing industrialized Africa


BACKGROUND
Although a high prevalence of head and neck trauma has been reported in maltreated children and adolescents, most of these studies focused on record-based analyses, and only a few used control groups.

AIM
To assess the presence of dental trauma in maltreated children in comparison with children without a history of maltreatment.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional study with 68 maltreated children and 204 age, sex-, and school-matched control participants was conducted in Pelotas, a Southern Brazilian city. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected. Clinical examinations were performed to evaluate dental trauma (O'Brien Index) and dental caries (WHO criteria). Fisher's exact and chi-squared tests were used for intergroup comparisons of socioeconomic and clinical variables. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to obtain adjusted odds ratios (OR).

RESULTS
The prevalence of dental trauma was 23.53% (n = 16) among maltreated children and 14.22% (n = 29) in the comparative group. After adjustment, the occurrence of dental trauma showed association with child maltreatment, with an OR of 2.14 (95% confidence interval 1.03-4.44) for maltreated children in comparison with children in the comparative group (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS
Maltreated children presented with more dental trauma than those with no history of maltreatment.


Currently, the life expectancy for cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is less than 40 years due to decreasing lung function despite significant advances in the care and treatment of these patients. As patients live longer, the preservation of healthy lung tissue becomes of paramount importance to improve patient quality of life and increase life span. To do this, an understanding of the early disease processes is needed as is an ability to monitor the efficacy of therapeutic interventions early in life. CF lung disease, similar to other lung diseases, is a regional disease causing local dysfunction in the lung tissue and changes in lung anatomy. It is important for any monitoring or diagnostic tool to be sensitive to early regional disease which current methods (spirometry) are not. This lack of sensitivity to regional disease limits the ability of physicians and researchers to track the earliest stages of disease and assess treatment efficacy in these initial disease stages, ideally in infants and young children. Three dimensional imaging presents a unique solution to this problem by providing a non-invasive, volumetric investigation of the lung tissue. Computed tomography has long been the first choice in clinical lung imaging offering excellent resolution and fast imaging times but results in repeated exposure to ionizing radiation. Because the patient populations of interest are infants and children, avoidance of unnecessary, repeated radiation exposure during longitudinal monitoring is desirable. This combination of clinical and research need has led us to the exploration of rapid MRI techniques for lung imaging. We are interested in developing a novel, robust quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique that allows for 3D investigation of the lung tissue and is sensitive to early disease changes. Our hypothesis is that quantitative imaging will be able to detect changes in regional lung anatomy as an indication of early disease before disease is detected by standard methods. To accomplish this goal, we are proposing the implementation of multiple advanced quantitative MRI techniques including T1-mapping using Saturation-Recovery Look-Locker mapping and simultaneous multiple parameter mapping (combinations of T1, T2, T2*) using the recently developed Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting method. An ultra-short echo time acquisition will be used to ensure imaging of the rapidly decaying MRI signal in the lung is possible. Using a radial acquisition, we plan to include an undersampled acquisition to reduce imaging time and generate an imaging method that is rapid and insensitive to patient motion. Our goal is to initially apply these quantitative measures in a mouse model of cystic fibrosis to establish the ability of the imaging methods to be sensitive to regional disease in CF mice. We expect to see changes in the quantitative parameters in areas that correspond to diseased areas of the lung upon histological investigation. These quantitative measurements should give unambiguous indications of disease and allow identification of changes in lung anatomy early in the disease process. This work will lay the foundation for translation of clinical CF monitoring in a pediatric population. Translational studies such as these will hopefully provide a measurement of disease progression and provide a new opportunity to evaluate early disease therapeutics offering insight into the earliest manifestations of CF lung disease.


To the Editor. —For the most part, the updated recommendations by the American Heart Association (AHA)1for the prevention of bacterial endocarditis are thoughtful and comprehensive. Unlike the 1990 recommendations,2the subject of antibiotic prophylaxis for cutaneous surgery is at least briefly mentioned although not specifically discussed. In the current statement, endocarditis prophylaxis is not recommended for "incision or biopsy of surgically scrubbed skin."1Unfortunately, the meaning of "surgically scrubbed skin" is not clarified. Does this refer to "sterile" prepared skin as in the operating room setting or to "clean" prepared skin as in the outpatient office setting? Dermatologic surgery, which is performed predominantly in a "clean" outpatient office setting, is becoming a more frequent phenomenon because of the increasing number of dermatologists performing these procedures. Furthermore, with third-party payers giving increasing emphasis to outpatient surgery, plastic surgeons, otolaryngologists, and other surgical specialists are performing a greater


It is shown that the performance of an induction motor, having a symmetrically wound rotor and a stator which may be wound or connected in any conceivable way, can be uniquely specified by means of two sets of equations. The first set, the `internal' equations, is peculiar to the machine and expresses the phase voltages in terms of the phase currents and rotating-field parameters. These are based on a generalization of the counter-rotating field theory to include the effects of all space harmonics. The second set-the `external' equations-is peculiar to the connection and expresses the relationships between the phase voltages and currents, supply voltages and line impedances. These are the so-called `inspection equations' obtained by the simple application of Kirchhoff's laws. The complete performance of the machine can always be computed from the solutions of the two sets of equations on a phase-by-phase basis. It is also shown that, if the stator has windings whose axes are symmertically displaced, symmetrical-component theory is an alternative which enables to be computed on a per-phase basis whilst still including the effects of all space harmonics.


Large icing wind tunnels typically have sufficient distance for drops from spray nozzles to spread evenly producing small spatial variations of cloud properties at the wind tunnel test section. As the size of a wind tunnel gets smaller, producing clouds with uniform properties becomes challenging because of 1) the reduced distance from the spray bar system to the test section and 2) the spray characteristics of most air-assisted nozzles used for spray generation. For this paper, discrete-phase simulations using FLUENT were used to explore droplet collection on a partial NACA 0012 model at different angles of attack in the Baylor Liquid Film and Cloud Tunnel (LFACT). McClain et al. (2022) used the LFACT to validate a new microwave sensor system to measure collection efficiency variations along the surface of a wind tunnel model. However, the sensors used in the investigation were essentially the same size as the measured non-uniform cloud features in the wind tunnel test section. A convolution approach was used to map the measured Liquid Water Content (LWC) variations onto the sensor areas, but this approach is based on critical assumptions about droplet trajectories. The FLUENT simulations were performed to further validate the collection efficiency sensors and to investigate water capture by wind tunnel models in the non-uniform clouds of the LFACT. The simulations were performed using the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, and the droplet injection pattern was generated using Matlab and a two-dimensional Gaussian random number generator. The injection pattern was then simulated using a non-interacting, spherical drop discrete-phase modeling system in FLUENT. The simulation results for two cloud conditions and two angles of attack demonstrate the validity of the convolution approach and further validate the measurements of the microwave sensor system.


Data on earthquake-induced landslides in the valley of Riviere du Gouffre in the Charlevoix region of Quebec are presented. A set of 37 radiocarbon dates obtained from tree trunks buried in flow material and found at the bottom of a small lake was used to reconstruct landslide activity. In addition, large subfossil tree trunks were sampled for tree-ring analysis. The radiocarbon dates indicate that most landslide activity in the area is recent (<600 BP). Two tree-ring-dated landslides were triggered by a large earthquake in AD 1663.


Methylene-bridged bis-1,3-dicarbonyl derivatives were synthesized efficiently by iron-catalyzed oxidative reactions of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and N,N-dimethylaniline. Bipyrazoles and substituted 1,4-dihydropyridine were obtained by the reactions of bis-1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with hydrazines and ammonium acetate, respectively.


A breakthrough technology is one that breaks through the dam of conventional wisdom and slow progress, opening up prospects for transformative change. The radical novelty of a "breakthrough technology" is thus conveyed by the old, familiar, and rather conventional image of a "breakthrough". This holds true for nanotechnology's claim to novelty. It has to draw on traditional imagery that, through redeployment in a novel context, acquires new meaning. Nanotechnology is shaping the world atom by atom. This article gives an overview of nanotechnology in space.


(or is it more properly the perpetrator?) and a description of the culprit: e.g., the girl sniffing fresh hay in the stable has an allergy to pollen; the child reading in a cushiony armchair is surrounded by dust mites and their fecal pellets; the boys pillow fighting are tickled by the jagged barbs on goose down. On the page facing each description is a Kunkel electron micrograph of the irritant, dyed to appear at its luridly glamorous best against a glossy black background, and nearly guaranteed to provoke strong reader reaction to the suggestion that stuff such as this makes its way up the schnozz. After examining the possible irritants, both physical and chemical, Siy turns to the interplay of nervous and muscular systems that work in tandem to produce the actual sneeze, and then wraps up with several pages of fascinating back matter on sneeze miscellanea, Edison's early film of a staged sneeze, information on the micrographs and their coloration, a glossary, and an annotated list of kid-friendly related resources on the Web. EB


This paper addresses the problem of segmentation of moving objects in image sequences, which is of key importance in content-based applications. We transform the problem into a graph labeling problem over a region adjacency graph (RAG), by introducing a Markov random field (MRF) model based on spatio-temporal information. The initial partition is obtained by fast, color-based watershed segmentation. The motion of each region is estimated and validated in a hierarchical framework. A dynamic memory, based on object tracking, is incorporated into the segmentation process to maintain temporal coherence. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated on several real-world image sequences.


ABSTRACT This article focuses on the introduction of a new function for translation in a changing context of formal language learning in the Madras Presidency in nineteenth-century south India. Amongst this region's multiple languages, the article considers language examination papers, examiners' feedback, and preparatory materials in Hindustani, Tamil and Telugu to reconstruct two developments in relation to translation: first, translation as pedagogy, introduced as a key mechanism in the instruction and examination of languages, increased and made visible the scope of translation beyond the literary context. Second, competition based on translation abilities across diverging professions in the colonial domain promoted greater awareness of the changing distinctions between different language registers and varieties within languages. Paying attention to translation pedagogy undertaken for non-literary purposes is thus important in expanding current understandings of how translation evolved and functioned in colonial South India.


The forecasting models of demand on tourist services taking into account a seasonal wave and model of dynamics of development of tourist enterprise, realization of which is able to promote efficiency of functioning of separate tourist enterprises and tourist market on the whole, are developed.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of alternative strategies of malaria chemoprophylaxis on the reduction of malaria episodes and prevalence of parasitaemia among pregnant women in Kigoma urban district in western Tanzania.

DESIGN
Randomised antimalarial prophylactic trial.

SETTING
The study was conducted in an urban maternal and child health (MCH) clinic in Kigoma town.

SUBJECTS
All pregnant women attending antenatal care services at Kigoma urban MCH clinic were eligible. Informed consent was sought from each pregnant woman for participation in the study. INTERVENTION MEASURES: The intervention measures were intermittent and continuous malaria chemoprophylaxis using chloroquine and proguanil.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Reduction of malaria episodes and parasitaemia and haemoglobin levels among participating pregnant women in Kigoma urban district.

RESULTS
Baseline data indicates that the overall mean haemoglobin concentrations among the primigravidae and multigravidae women were similar within the intervention and comparison groups (F-test (df = 5, N = 701) = 1.27, P = 0.27). Similarly, no significant difference was observed in the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia within the primigravidae intervention and comparison groups (chi 2 test (df = 5, N = 701) = 5.4, P = 0.4). Hence, the process of randomisation produced comparable intervention and comparison groups with balanced characteristics. Specific results of the baseline studies are presented in the companion paper.

CONCLUSION
We conclude that the process of randomisation resulted in comparable intervention and comparison groups. As malaria is a common cause of considerable morbidity and mortality among pregnant women in Tanzania, the present study provided useful data for improving reproductive health in Kigoma region, western Tanzania.


Bad choices during software development might lead to maintenance and performance issues. Code smells are typically used to indicate such problems. A number of smells have been proposed, usually focused on generic code problems. In this work, we focus on the specifics of Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) code in Java. Developers use ORM frameworks to abstract the complexity of accessing a database. However, when poorly used, frameworks can lead to problems that might affect the overall performance of the system. Therefore, we present a catalog of eight smells extracted from the state of research and practice, through a combination of rapid review and grey literature review. For each smell, we also present a suggested solution and rationale. To evaluate the catalog, we conducted a survey with 86 respondents. The majority of the respondents agree both that the code smells are a problem, as well as that the suggested solution is adequate. In conclusion, this work contributes with a systematic way of describing ORM code smells and an initial catalog, which can be useful for researchers and practitioners, positively evaluated by our initial results.


Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has strongly affected economies and human lifestyles globally. The changes observed in domestic energy consumption patterns have had an impact on household greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since GHG emissions inventories are only available at the country level and at annual intervals, most studies have calculated the local emission variations by extrapolating annual emissions with smaller time and territorial scale consumption data. This research presents a bottom-up method, based on the exploitation of a survey addressed to 1200 households, that provides the information to calculate directly the variation in their energy-related GHG emissions, without the need for extrapolations. This method has been applied to four medium-sized Chilean cities with serious air quality problems. Given the high correlation between atmospheric pollutants such as NOx and CO2 emissions, we estimate that before the appearance of COVID-19, per capita CO2 emissions were already high. The results show that space heating-related GHG emissions have increased moderately (between 1 and 6%), while emissions from electricity and gas consumption for non-heating uses have increased significantly (between 8 and 23%). This has harmed the household economy, highlighting the importance of considering socioeconomic aspects when assessing the impact of COVID-19 in its entirety.


To control the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus(COVID-19), China imposed rigorous restrictions, which resulted in great reductions in pollutant emissions. However, two heavy haze pollution episodes still occurred in Beijing. In this study, we use the air pollutants, aerosol number concentration, and meteorological elements data in Beijing, combined with the HYSPLIT model, to calculate the potential source contribution factor(PSCF) and concentration weight trajectory(CWT), and analyze the characteristics of evolution and potential source apportionment of atmospheric pollutants during the two episodes. The COVID-19 lockdown restrictions had great impacts on the diurnal variations of PM2.5 and black carbon(BC), while small impacts on the diurnal variations of CO, NO2, SO2, and O3. The primary pollutant was PM2.5 during the two haze pollution episodes, and the haze1 episode was mainly local pollution, while haze 2 was mainly local and external transportation pollution. The spectrum of aerosol number concentration was unimodal under different processes, with the peak located at 0.3 μm. During the haze episodes, the number concentration in the size range of 0.2-0.5 μm increased 3.3-13.6 times that of the clean days. The mass concentration contributions of BCliquid to BC in different processes were 64.8%-85.1%. This mass concentration of BCliquid ranked in the order of haze 1(5.04 μg·m-3) >haze 1(3.20 μg·m-3) >clean day(before COVID-19) (2.31 μg·m-3) >clean day(COVID-19) (0.76 μg·m-3). The characteristics of PSCF and CWT distribution of PM2.5 and BC were different in different processes. The PSCF high value areas of PM2.5 on the clean day(before COVID-19) and the clean day(COVID-19) were mainly distributed in the southwest and western of Beijing, and the weight concentration exceeded 30 μg·m-3. The PSCF high value areas of PM2.5 during haze 1 and haze 2 were mainly distributed in Beijing and its surrounding areas and southwestern, when the weight concentration exceeded 90 μg·m-3. The PSCF high value areas of BC were mainly distributed in Beijing and its surrounding areas on clean days(before COVID-19), clean days(COVID-19) and haze 1, with weighted concentrations exceeding 2.4, 0.9 and, 4.5 μg·m-3, respectively. The PSCF high value areas of BC on haze 2 was distributed in the southwest of Beijing, and the weight concentration exceeded 5 μg·m-3.


The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the abnormal earnings announcement returns of «green» and «non-green» U.S. REITs from 2010 to 2017. We focus on the impact of financial analysts' forecast accuracy, market-level uncertainty, REIT-level uncertainty and synchronicity. First, we document the coverage, the accuracy and the bias of financial analysts' earnings forecasts (ffo) on «green» and «non-green» REITs. Our results report that the level of accuracy and the level of optimism are statistically different for these two categories. Second, we observe that abnormal stock returns, abnormal trading volume and abnormal volatility may be related to «greenness» and synchronicity. Our results shed a new light on the link between the concept of «greenness» and the level of information on stock markets.


The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) specification defines both a) a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic-oriented information; and b) a set of mechanisms for combining and extending document types using a process called specialization.


This is an examination of the realist tradition in contemporary American landscape painting, which the author sees as the only form of visual expression that has remained a constant link in American art, from the late 19th-century work of Frederic E.Church, through to the present day. After surveying the predecessors, including Homer, Burchfield and O'Keeffe, and a new generation with Fairfield Porter, Alex Katz and Neil Welliver, the author devotes chapters to the various formal approaches of the painters of the 1970s and 1980s. "Realism" is interpreted broadly; some of the paintings illustrated are expressionist in feeling, and lyricism dominates, rather than the hard edge of photorealism. Some eighty painters are discussed and their works illustrated. Among the contemporary artists are Diebenkorn, Wyeth, Beckman, Estes, Button, Kahn and Wonner. The book makes both art historical and critical points, and is a survey of the best in American landscape in the second half of the twentieth century.


Modified choledochoduodenostomy and gastrojejunostomy were used successfully to treat extensive duodenal ulceration and perforation in a dog. Concomitant pyometra, simultaneously managed by ovariohysterectomy, may have predisposed the dog to stress ulceration. Choledochoduodenostomy was performed by transplantation of the entire common bile duct and associated major duodenal papilla to a more distal duodenal location. An indwelling choledochostomy tube was used to stent the anastomotic site, externally divert bile flow, and allow postoperative cholangiography. Early postoperative complications included presumed metronidazole-induced neurotoxicosis, choledochostomy tube obstruction, and pancreatitis, all of which resolved within 2 weeks. The dog was clinically normal and medication (ranitidine and sucralfate) was discontinued 35 months later.