In the clinical study of pathologic conditions of the blood and bone marrow, the recognition of immature forms of red cells is often of great importance. In specimens fixed and stained by the ordinary methods, the chief evidence of immaturity are the presence of nucleated, polychromatophilic and probably stippled red cells. With the possible exception of the nucleated erythrocyte, however, none of these forms has been generally studied with a view to obtaining a quantitative index of the variation in bone marrow activity. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that they are rarely found in normal blood, and that even in conditions in which a stimulation of the bone marrow may be assumed they may be present in very small numbers. In this connection considerable interest has been manifested in recent years in the so-called "reticulated cells," in which a fine or coarse network, or a fine granulation arranged


Dissolved acrylonitrile can be separated from water by adsorption onto a polymeric sorbent in a fixed bed. Switching the liquid phase from water in the adsorption step to another solvent in the desorption step can enhance the desorption of acrylonitrile from the sorbent. The selection of this solvent is the aim of this study. As a first step, computer aided molecular design was used to confine the experimental search domain. In this search the functional groups acetyl, alcohol, and amine appeared as parts of the potential solvents. As a second step, five organic solvents containing these functional groups were chosen. As a last step, the selected solvents were tested by performing adsorption experiments. Acetone was finally selected as desorption solvent for the adsorption–desorption process. This study demonstrates that by combining computer aided molecular design with experimental work, a wide range of solvents can be efficiently screened in a short time.


The authors describe in detail a Raman microprobe that is capable of acquiring high quality Raman spectra from thin films of nematic liquid crystal, and of recording the transient response to applied electric fields, of the signal associated with particular Raman active bands. The apparatus has been used to acquire very low noise flat baseline spectra from a 14.85 mu m thick sample of planar aligned nematic 4-pentyl-4 '-cyanobiphenyl (5CB). From the transient data in the limit of small deformations, the authors have used the analysis of Pieranski et al (1973) to determine effective viscosity coefficients over a range of temperatures for the major Raman bands associated with the rigid core and flexible alkyl chain sections of the molecules. The derived viscosity coefficients bracket those otherwise determined by classical light scattering and permittivity techniques. It is suggested that these data reflect a bending of the molecular director field even in the small distortions limit.


To have an idea on the contribution of agricultural practices on biochemical characterization of insecticide resistance in Anopheles Gambiae populations, Anopheles larvae were collected from cotton field from July to September 2017 and reared until F1 generation.

Enzymatic mechanisms (Glutathione-S-Transferase, esterase, monooxygenase P450 and total protein) were investigated from the F1 (the parental population after breeding) populations of An. Gambiae s.l.

Results from this study showed a significant high level of GST and monooxygenase P450 activities from the wild populations of An. Gambiae from Banikoara compared to susceptible Kisumu strain (Pgt0.05). However, there is no significant difference in the level activity of Esterase (alpha and beta-Naphthyl) from the wild populations of An. Gambiae from compared to the susceptible Kisumu strain (Pgt0,05).

These findings confirmed the contribution of agricultural practices on the selection of enzymatic activity in An. Gambiae populations particularly on Glutathione-S-Transferase, and monooxygenase P450. However, the same level of the wild populations in esterase showed compared to the susceptible Kisumu strain showed that there is no clear link between the use of insecticide and enzymatic activity in An. Gambiae populations.


abstract:This article explores antiphilosophical polemics written by Muslim and Jewish thinkers in the medieval Mediterranean world. These writings demonstrate, in both traditions, a struggle with the incorporation of nontraditional texts and interpretations of theology and textuality. My examination of these writings "against the philosophers" suggests that, far from constituting the reflexive, antiphilosophical fundamentalism that typically characterizes assessments of these texts, authors like al-Ghazali, Halevi, and Ibn Arabi were concerned with what they believed to be the subordination of Jewish and Islamic tradition to Greek philosophy—a rhetoric that, for them, undermined the "conditions of identification" for Muslims and Jews. I argue that these antiphilosophical texts highlight the extent to which these thinkers believed that writing was the battleground for identity in the medieval Middle East.


Visual prototyping of materials is relevant for many computer graphics applications. A large amount of modelling flexibility can be obtained by directly rendering micro‐geometry. While this is possible in principle, it is usually computationally expensive. Recently, bidirectional texture functions (BTFs) have become popular for efficient photorealistic rendering of surfaces. We propose an efficient system for the computation of synthetic BTFs using Monte Carlo path tracing of micro‐geometry. We observe that BTFs usually consist of many similar apparent bidirectional reflectance distribution functions. By exploiting structural similarity we can reduce rendering times by one order of magnitude. This is done in a process we call non‐local image reconstruction, which has been inspired by non‐local means filtering. Our results indicate that synthesizing BTFs is highly practical and may currently only take a few minutes for BTFs with 70 × 70 viewing and lighting directions and 128 × 128 pixels.


Outcomes research in forensic mental health (FMH) has concentrated on reoffending as the principal indicator of success. Defining success in one-dimensional, negative terms can create a distorted view of the diverse objectives of the FMH system. This qualitative study examined the complexity of success from the perspectives of people in the FMH system. Interviews were conducted with 18 forensic service users and 10 forensic service providers. Data were analyzed inductively using thematic analysis to identify predominant themes. The participants conceptualized success as a dynamic process materializing across six different domains in the context of the FMH system: (a) normal life, (b) independent life, (c) compliant life, (d) healthy life, (e) meaningful life, and (f) progressing life. The results indicate that people who provide or use FMH services emphasize a broad range of processes and outcomes, apart from public safety, when they think about success.


: The production of soluble cytostatic (CS) factor(s) by nonactivated peritoneal resident macrophages (Mph) of Syrian hamsters was found with the use of susceptible spontaneously transformed in vitro cells of STHE cell strain. The CS factor was determined by two modifications of CS test: 1) incorporation of 3H-TdR to the nuclei of target cells and 2) direct determination of the number of cells in the wells. The selected in vivo highly malignant variant of STHE strain appeared to be resistant to CS factors Mph.


Abstract. We present an equivalent circuit model for a titanium dioxide-based humidity
sensor which enables discrimination of three separate contributions to the
sensor impedance. The first contribution, the electronic conductance,
consists of a temperature-dependent ohmic resistance. The second contribution
arises from the ionic pathway, which forms depending on the relative humidity
on the sensor surface. It is modeled by a constant-phase element (CPE) in
parallel with an ohmic resistance. The third contribution is the capacitance
of the double layer which forms at the blocking electrodes and is modeled by
a second CPE in series to the first CPE. This model was fitted to
experimental data between 1 mHz and 1 MHz recorded at different sensor
temperatures (between room temperature and 320 ∘C) and different
humidity levels. The electronic conductance becomes negligible at low sensor
temperatures, whereas the double-layer capacitance becomes negligible at high
sensor temperatures in the investigated frequency range. Both the
contribution from the ionic pathway and from the double-layer capacitance
strongly depend on the relative humidity and are, therefore, suitable sensor
signals. The findings define the parameters for the development of a
dedicated Fourier-based impedance spectroscope with much faster acquisition
times, paving a way for impedance-based high-temperature humidity sensor
systems.


Improved understanding of the responses of stem radial growth to climates is necessary for modeling and predicting the response of forest ecosystems to future climate change. We used dendrochronological methods to study climate effects on the radial growth of a subalpine deciduous conifer, Larix potaninii. Tree-ring residual chronologies were developed for five sites at the upper distributional limits in the Central Hengduan Mountains, Southwestern China. Redundancy analysis and response function were used to compare inter-annual variability in growth sensitivity among the chronologies and to identity key climatic factors controlling tree radial growth. The results showed that both precipitation and temperature influenced tree growth, and response patterns were consistent for five chronologies. During the current year's early growing season (Tmean in May and Tmax in June), temperature positively affected the radial growth of L. potaninii, while September Tmin and October precipitation in the previous year and May and June precipitation in the current year all had negative impacts on its radial growth. L. potaninii growth appeared to be mainly limited by photothermal conditions in May and June. In the context of increasing CO2 concentrations accompanied with warmer temperatures, future climate change would likely stimulate the radial growth of L. potaninii in Central Hengduan Mountain.


The organomineral fertilizers can release organic compounds during their solubilization, and those compounds can affect the plant growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the initial development of wheat, nutrient accumulation in the plant and soil chemical changes, with the use of organic, mineral and organomineral fertilizers. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using an Acrisol cultivated with wheat (Triticum aestivum). Six treatments were tested: 100% of the nutrient recommendation in organomineral form (OMF 100); broiler litter in the same amount present in the OMF 100 (BL 10); mineral fertilizer in the same quantity present in the OMF 100 (MF 90); 100% of the nutrient recommendation in the form of broiler litter (BL 100); 100% of the nutrient recommendation in mineral form (MF 100); and a control without fertilization (CONT). The treatments were evaluated at six sampling times: 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 and 80 days after implantation. No significant differences were observed between fertilizers in dry matter yield. In the soil, there was a decrease in availability of N, P and K over time. By equivalence, all the sources tested can be used in the supply of nutrients to the wheat crop.


This article examines the regulation of religion in China, in the context of changing social expectations and resulting dilemmas of regime legitimacy. The post-Mao government has permitted limited freedom of religious belief, subject to legal and regulatory restrictions on religious behaviour. However, this distinction between belief and behaviour poses challenges for the regime's efforts to maintain political control while preserving an image of tolerance aimed at building legitimacy. By examining the regulation of religion in the context of patterns of compliance and resistance in religious conduct, the article attempts to explain how efforts to control religion raise challenges for regime legitimacy.


s of the 1989 Child Language Seminar * Location: Hatfield Polytechnic, 3-5 April 1989 Organizers: David Messer & Geoffrey Turner The acquisition of formational parameters in British Sign Language: a cast study. J CLIBBENS, Plymouth Polytechnic M. HARRIS, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College Analysis of signs produced by deaf children learning American Sign Language has indicated that there are similarities between deaf children's progressive mastery of the formational components of signs and the development of the phonological system in hearing children. In particular, a series of development stages has been proposed for the acquisition of hand configurations, with substitution of earlier acquired forms for those which develop later. This paper presents an analysis of hand configurations and other formational components of signs produced by a deaf child learning British Sign Language. The data were obtained from videotaped observations of the child engaged in free play with her mother from the age of 6 months to 2 years. Peer group interaction in the Infant School E. COATES, University of Warwick The development of verbal communication in the Infants School has long been a matter of general concern. This paper looks at aspects of that development based on eleven groups of four children interacting together as they explore objects in a structured environment. The setting was designed to encourage rich dialogue both between children and between children and an adult. Evidence of this dialogue is based on tape-recordings made during these explorations. Each group of children was recorded twice once during their first year in school and once, two years later, at the end of their Infant School


Here, the miscellaneous soliton solutions of the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation are considered that describe the model of few-cycle pulse propagation in metamaterials with parabolic law of nonlinearity. The novel analytical wave solutions to the mentioned nonlinear equation in the sense of the nonlinear ordinary differential transform equation are obtained. The techniques are the improved

 exp

 −
 Γ

 ϖ

 function method and the improved simple equation method. The nonlinear ordinary transform to concern the generalized Schrodinger equation to convert it for a solvable integer-order differential equation is used. After the successful implementation of the presented methods, the exact solitary wave solutions in the form of trigonometric, rational, and hyperbolic functions are obtained. Hence, the presented methods are relatable and efficient to solve nonlinear problems in mathematical physics.


Abstract The present work develops a low cost numerical method for the solution of nonpremixed piloted methane jet flames. This method is based on the mixture fraction for fluid flow and on unsteady flamelet models, combined with the presumed probability density function, for the chemistry. Numerical tests, for the governing equations discretized by the finite difference and solved by the Gauss-Seidel scheme, were carried out for turbulent, nonpremixed, nonreacting propane-jet flow and for confined Sandia C and D flames for reasonable values of gaseous hydrocarbon chemistry. The methodology, developed for low Mach number flows and based on a density approximation, allows to decrease considerably the computational time while obtaining results which contributes to a better understanding of the complexity involved in the numerical solution of piloted methane jet diffusion flames.


Red tides involving Karenia brevis expose humans to brevetoxins (PbTxs). Oral exposition triggers neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, whereas inhalation induces a respiratory syndrome and sensory disturbances. No curative treatment is available and the pathophysiology is not fully elucidated. Protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2), cathepsin S (Cat-S) and substance P (SP) release are crucial mediators of the sensory effects of ciguatoxins (CTXs) which are PbTx analogs. This work explored the role of PAR2 and Cat-S in PbTx-1-induced sensory effects and deciphered the signaling pathway involved. We performed calcium imaging, PAR2 immunolocalization and SP release experiments in monocultured sensory neurons or co-cultured with keratinocytes treated with PbTx-1 or P-CTX-2. We demonstrated that PbTx-1-induced calcium increase and SP release involved Cat-S, PAR2 and transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4). The PbTx-1-induced signaling pathway included protein kinase A (PKA) and TRPV4, which are compatible with the PAR2 biased signaling induced by Cat-S. Internalization of PAR2 and protein kinase C (PKC), inositol triphosphate receptor and TRPV4 activation evoked by PbTx-1 are compatible with the PAR2 canonical signaling. Our results suggest that PbTx-1-induced sensory disturbances involve the PAR2-TRPV4 pathway. We identified PAR2, Cat-S, PKA, and PKC that are involved in TRPV4 sensitization induced by PbTx-1 in sensory neurons.


The 9/11 attacks made the war on terror the central plank of American grand strategy. Yet despite its importance in shaping US policy choices, there has been considerable confusion over how the war on terror relates to foreign policy goals. This article attempts to locate the war on terror within American grand strategy and makes three claims. First, it argues that the Bush administration's approach to the war on terror rests on a false analogy between terrorism and fascism or communism. This has led to misinterpretations of the goals of the war on terror and to a persistent misuse of American power. Second, it suggests that the central purpose of the war on terror should be to de-legitimize terror as a tactic and to induce states to assume responsibility for controlling terrorists within their borders. American grand strategy should be focused on creating a normative anti-terror regime with costly commitments by linchpin states—defined as great powers and crucial but endangered allies such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia—rather than on conducting regime change against rogue states on the margins of the international system. Success in the war on terror should be measured not by the perceived legitimacy of discrete US policy choices, but by the number of these crucial states who accept the de-legitimation of terrorism as a core foreign policy principle and act accordingly. Third, it argues that bilateral enforcement of an anti-terror regime imposes high costs for US power and puts other elements of American grand strategy— including the promotion of democracy and the promotion of human rights—at risk. To reduce these costs and to preserve American power over the long-term, the US should attempt to institutionalize cooperation in the war on terror and to scale back ambitious policy choices (such as achieving a democratic revolution in the Middle East) which increase the risks of state defection from the anti-terror regime.


Introduction . The initial material is the basis of the current breeding work with all agricultural crops, including alfalfa. The purpose of the conducted work is to estimate the productivity of alfalfa samples in the collection nursery, depending on the growing conditions and the identification of the most adapted samples according to the trait "green mass productivity". Materials. The objects of the current study were 30 alfalfa samples (16 samples from Canada; 11 samples from the USA; 1 sample from Peru; 2 samples from France) from the collection ARIGCR named after N.I. Vavilov. Results. The estimation of alfalfa samples for the presence of adaptive properties based on the trait 'green mass productivity' showed that: — the genotypes К-27116, К-43269, К-43272, К-48771, К-48775, К-48776, К-50545, К-50561, К-45119 are more responsive to changes in environmental conditions; the genotypes К-32873, К-33299, К-42684, К-42249, К-47803 are characterized with a slight b i < 1 response to changes in environmental conditions; the genotypes К-36104, К-48778, К-42694, К-45715, К-47800, К-47801, К-47802, К-43260 are characterized with high stability to stresses; the genotypes К-43272, К-50545, К-47806, К-47807 are characterized with genetic adaptability; the genotypes К-36104, К-48778, К-48715, К-47800, К-43260 are characterized with more stability of response to changes in environmental conditions; the genotypes К-36104, К-48778, К-45715, К-47800, К-47801, К-47802, К-39978, К-43260 are characterized with great homeostasis (ecological adaptability).


The anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C) controls sister chromatid segregation and the exit from mitosis by catalysing the ubiquitylation of cyclins and other cell cycle regulatory proteins. This unusually large E3 RING-cullin ubiquitin ligase is assembled from 13 different proteins. Selection of APC/C targets is controlled through recognition of short destruction motifs, predominantly the D box and KEN box. APC/C-mediated coordination of cell cycle progression is achieved through the temporal regulation of APC/C activity and substrate specificity, exerted through a combination of co-activator subunits, reversible phosphorylation and inhibitory proteins and complexes. Recent structural and biochemical studies of the APC/C are beginning to reveal an understanding of the roles of individual APC/C subunits and co-activators and how they mutually interact to mediate APC/C functions. This review focuses on the findings showing how information on the structural organization of the APC/C provides insights into the role of co-activators and core APC/C subunits in mediating substrate recognition. Mechanisms of regulating and modulating substrate recognition are discussed in the context of controlling the binding of the co-activator to the APC/C, and the accessibility and conformation of the co-activator when bound to the APC/C.


The manufacturing process for an ultrawide flexible microwave absorbing meta-surface was developed and optimized experimentally. The developed replication process consists of four main steps to demonstrate double-square loop array meta-structures: (1) mechanical machining of a master mold, (2) soft mold replication and patterned film imprinting, (3) conductive ink blade filling, (4) lamination of a base flexible film to meta sheet. Based on experimental optimization of the individual steps, the manufacturing process for a large-area flexible meta-film was established successfully. The feasibility of a developed process has been demonstrated with a 200 mm × 500 mm fabricated meta-film with a focus on microwave absorbing uniformity in the X-band region.


In this paper, we compute exactly the average density of a harmonically confined Riesz gas of N particles for large N in the presence of a hard wall. In this Riesz gas, the particles repel each other via a pairwise interaction that behaves as |x i − x j |−k for k > −2, with x i denoting the position of the ith particle. This density can be classified into three different regimes of k. For k ⩾ 1, where the interactions are effectively short-ranged, the appropriately scaled density has a finite support over [−l k (w), w] where w is the scaled position of the wall. While the density vanishes at the left edge of the support, it approaches a nonzero constant at the right edge w. For −1 < k < 1, where the interactions are weakly long-ranged, we find that the scaled density is again supported over [−l k (w), w]. While it still vanishes at the left edge of the support, it diverges at the right edge w algebraically with an exponent (k − 1)/2. For −2 < k < −1, the interactions are strongly long-ranged that leads to a rather exotic density profile with an extended bulk part and a delta-peak at the wall, separated by a hole in between. Exactly at k = −1 the hole disappears. For −2 < k < −1, we find an interesting first-order phase transition when the scaled position of the wall decreases through a critical value w = w*(k). For w < w*(k), the density is a pure delta-peak located at the wall. The amplitude of the delta-peak plays the role of an order parameter which jumps to the value 1 as w is decreased through w*(k). Our analytical results are in very good agreement with our Monte-Carlo simulations.


Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) affect up to 97% of AD patients, with an estimated 80% of current AD patients experiencing these symptoms. Common AD-associated NPS include depression, anxiety, agitation, aggression, and apathy. The severity of NPS in AD is typically linked to the disease's progression and the extent of cognitive decline. Additionally, these symptoms are responsible for a significant increase in morbidity, mortality, caregiver burden, earlier nursing home placement, and greater healthcare expenditure. Despite their high prevalence and significant impact, there is a notable lack of clinical research on NPS in AD. In this article, we explore and analyze the prevalence, symptom manifestations, challenges in diagnosis, and treatment options of NPS associated with AD. Our literature review reveals that distinguishing and accurately diagnosing the NPS associated with AD remains a challenging task in clinical settings. It is often difficult to discern whether NPS are secondary to pathophysiological changes from AD or are comorbid psychiatric conditions. Furthermore, the availability of effective pharmaceutical interventions, as well as non-pharmacotherapies for NPS in AD, remains limited. By highlighting the advance and challenges in diagnosis and treatment of AD-associated NPS, we aspire to offer new insights into the complexity of identifying and treating these symptoms within the context of AD, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted nature of NPS in AD.


Entomologists and others concerned with insecticides and related materials and their uses are constantly confronted with the problem of keeping abreast of current developments on the subject of the chemical control of certain insects, other arthropods and similar pest animals. It is as important to identify the "species" of an insecticide as it is the species of an insect when attempting to effect control.


This chapter examines the scope of malicious software (malware) threats to mobile devices. The stakes for the wireless industry are high. While malware is rampant among 1 billion PCs, approximately twice as many mobile users currently enjoy a malware-free experience. However, since the appearance of the Cabir worm in 2004, malware for mobile devices has evolved relatively quickly, targeted mostly at the popular Symbian smartphone platform. Significant highlights in malware evolution are pointed out that suggest that mobile devices are attracting more sophisticated malware attacks. Fortunately, a range of host-based and network-based defenses have been developed from decades of experience with PC malware. Activities are underway to improve protection of mobile devices before the malware problem becomes catastrophic, but developers are limited by the capabilities of handheld devices.


The former paper outlines the reorganization of a fracture service in the hope that it may be of interest to provincial hospitals of a similar size. In the first paragraph under the heading " Organization" the author states, ' All fracture cases are seen and treated in the first instance by whoever is on duty in casualty. Usually it is the casualty officer, but it may be one of the housesurgeons." This is the basic fault of unorganized fracture services, where the original reduction of fractures is relegated to whatever house-surgeon happe-is to be on duty; and where such a loose arrangement exists I do not feel that the term "organized fracture service" should be used. It is significant that the following sentence appears under " Colles Fractures." " I did many of the second reductions for cases that had not been properly reduced under a local, as then one could say that one merely had to make a slight adjustment, thus avoiding the idea in the patient's mind that the fracture had not been properly set.' ' The second paper is prefaced by the remark that one reason for its appearance is " that insufficient recognition has been given to L. Bohler's methods of reduction." The first case report tells of a woman with signs of median nerve involvement whose dislocated semilunar was reduced by hyperextension of the wrist. This method is mentioned by Bohler only to be condemned, and is listed under errors in treatment! In his description of the reduction of second and third degree dislocation, Mr. Goode describes a tug-of-war between the surgeon and one, or preferably. two, assistants, the patient's hand and forearm acting as the rope. Surely this has little in common with the axis traction described by Bohler in which the traction band plays such an important part.-I am, etc.,


Communication is considered the key feature in suspect interviews. To date, studies have investigate in finding ways how to use communication in suspect interviews, although less attention is given to what happens when communication fails. Therefore, we examined police officers' perspective of the making of a communication error in suspect interviews. We assessed which psychological and behavioural consequences police officers experienced after the making of an error, which repair strategy they used to repair the error, how they estimated the suspect's affective, cognitive and relational perceptions, and what influence the suspect's stance after the error had. Police officers (N = 68) were asked to conduct a suspect interview role-play, in which the role of the suspect was played by a confederate of the researchers. The police officers were randomly assigned to a condition in a 2 (communication error: factual vs. judgment) x 2 (suspect's stance: cooperative vs. non-cooperative) between subject design or a control group in which no error was included. During the role-play their psychophysiological arousal level was measured using an EDA-wristband. Our findings demonstrate that police officers show significantly more perceived stress (not supported by their psychophysiological arousal level) and that they get more distracted after the making of a communication error in comparison to police officers that made no error. Specifically, after the making of a factual error, police officers experience also more guilt and shame. Additionally, we found that police officers who made a communication error estimated the suspect's view on rapport between the suspect and themselves lower compared to police officers who made no error. Specifically after the making of a factual error, police officers also estimated the suspect's level of affective- and cognitive trust in them lower. Furthermore, when dealing with a non-cooperative suspect after the making of a communication error, police officers thought that the suspect's level of affective trust in them and the suspect's view on rapport were lower than when dealing with a cooperative suspect. Surprisingly, police officers' self-oriented anger was higher when dealing with a cooperative suspect, compared to dealing with a non-cooperative suspect.


The effects of exogenous cAMP, dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) on LPS-induced liver injury were examined in mice made hypersensitive to LPS by treatment with i.v. injection of Propionibacterium acnes. In vivo administration of DBcAMP significantly protected P. acnes-treated mice from LPS-induced liver injury, including apoptosis of hepatocytes. DBcAMP significantly increased circulating IL-10 level in correlation with suppression of the TNF-alpha level after LPS challenge in P. acnes-treated mice. Treatment with anti-IL-10 mAb abrogated the protective effect of DBcAMP on LPS-induced liver injury. Similar to in vivo findings, addition to DBcAMP to in vitro culture of liver adherent cells from P. acnes-treated mice enhanced IL-10 synthesis after LPS stimulation. These results suggest that the increment in IL-10 production by liver adherent cells is involved in the protective effect of DBcAMP on LPS-induced inflammatory liver injury.


SIR,-There are five and a half millions of schlool cllildren in England, of which 1 per cent. is the expectancy of mental defectives, so that the 12,000 for which Dr. Gibbons says we are taxed is but a small part of the 55,OCO that exist of persons at schlool age-say of 5 to 14 years. The sclhool medical service no doubt affords a locus of preventive action for the benefit of humanity in the long run, but practically considered the prevention of mental defect by any action whatever would be very intricate and difficult owing to the unending connexions and ramifications of the hereditary lines, and the impossibility of following out the hereditary connexions. To lessen the numerical occurrence of mental defect may be a possibility which a persistent effort extending tlhrough a couple of generations would greatly enhance, but to remove the element of recurrence is probably as impossible as to deprive the sea of herrings by fishiing. A sufficiently long period of neglect would result in the return to the old state. It would not suffice to limit the effort to England; it would lhave to be worldwide.-I am, etc.,


In Derrick Bell's Community-based Classroom, I argue that Derrick Bell enhanced his participatory pedagogical approach to teaching constitutional law by intentionally creating community within the law school classroom — a community that humanized the students' educational experience. This essay explores three ways in which he created community: through his participatory, student-centered course structure; his social classroom environment; and his interactive self-assessments. Over the past few years, legal education has come under indictment in the media for not adequately training lawyers for practice. Bell's community-based classroom responds to this indictment, fusing both theory and practice in teaching doctrinal constitutional law courses that aim to transform students into competent, caring professionals.


Introduction Enterococcus is a gram-positive, non-sporing, facultative anaerobe. It is a common cause of nosocomial infections in the United States. Enterococcal bacteremia is primarily a nosocomial infection in the medical intensive care unit (ICU), with a preference for elderly patients with multiple comorbidities. Material and methods This is a retrospective cohort study using the publicly accessible National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from October 2015 to December 2017. We examined data from 75,430 patients aged 18 years and older in the NIS who developed enterococcal bacteremia, as identified from the ICD-10 CM codes (B95), to discuss the epidemiologic effects and outcomes of enterococcal bacteremia. Patients were classified based on demographics, and comorbidities were identified. Three primary outcomes were studied: in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and healthcare cost. The secondary outcome was identifying any comorbidities associated with enterococcal bacteremia. Length of stay was defined as days from admission to discharge or death. Healthcare costs were estimated from the hospital perspective from hospital-level ratios of costs-to-charges. SAS 9.4 (2013; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, United States) was used for univariate and multivariate analyses. For data analysis, mortality was modeled using logistic regression. Length of stay and costs were modeled using linear regression, controlling for patient and hospital characteristics. Statistical analyses were performed using SAS. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05. Results A total of 75,430 patients with enterococcal bacteremia were included in the study. Of this, 44,270 were males and 31,160 females. A total of 50,270 (68.67%) were Caucasians, 11,210 (15.31%) were African Americans, 6,445 (8.80%) were Hispanic and 2,025 (2.77%) were native Americans. Important comorbidities were congestive heart failure (25.91%), valvular disease (8.08%), neurological complications (11.87%), diabetes mellitus with complications (18.89%), renal failure (28.52%), and obesity (11.61%). In-hospital mortality was 11.07%, length of stay was 13.8 days, and a healthcare cost of 41,232.6 USD. Conclusions Enterococcal bacteremia is a nosocomial infection with a preference for the elderly with renal failure, cardiac failure, cardiac valvular diseases, stroke, obesity, and diabetes with complications. Further studies are needed to see whether the mortality caused by enterococcal bacteremia is attributable to comorbidities or to the bacteremia. It is associated with a more extended hospital stay and higher healthcare expenditure. Implementing contact precautions to contain the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus(VRE) has also checked the spread of enterococci. Further prospective studies can be planned using chart-based data.


Given k-linear forms , define a k-linear form by , where are projections. If a k-linear form can be expressed as above call the system of subspaces an orthogonal decomposition (with respect to f ). We show that for k ≥ 3 such a decomposition is unique if m is maximal possible. Furthermore we prove that a nondegenerate alternating form can be always extended to , where are nonzero alternating, and .


An attempt was made to study the effect of bile salt [sodium glycocholate (SG)] as a permeation enhancer on mucoadhesive buccal patches of diltiazem hydrochloride (anti-anginal drug) using various polymers like hydroxypropyl methyl cellulosee (HPMC), Eudragit RL100, ethyl cellulose alone and in combination with PVP. The prepared mucoadhesive buccal patches were evaluated for their physical parameter such as thickness uniformity, weight variation, drug content and surface pH and were found to be uniform. Folding
endurance, swelling index, bioadhesive strength and in vitro drug release studies were also performed. SEM study of the patch was also conducted. Films prepared with HPMC (3%) and ethyl cellulose (4%) showed fast and slow release, respectively, among all the nine formulations. SG was selected and incorporated as a permeation enhancers in both the formulations (0.5% and 1% w/w of drug, respectively). Among the formulations prepared, F10 and F13 showed significant drug release, so they were selected for a in situ diffusion studies using goat cheek pouch. About 93.04% and 91.83% of drug release were observed in in situ diffusion studies at the end of 9 h and 18 h, respectively. The stability studies were conducted at two different temperatures (37 °C and 45 °C) and no significant change was observed at 37 °C but slight change in drug content was observed at 45 °C. The FTIR and DSC studies showed that there was no interaction between drug and polymers. Keywords : mucoadhesive buccal patches, diltiazem hydrochloride, goat cheek pouch, bile salt, sodium glycocholate Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Journal Vol. 25 (1) 2007: pp. 29-34


Most of the psychology programs in Brazil have mandatory courses on the history and foundations of psychology, whatever names such courses may receive. In any case, Brazilian psychology students are supposed to acquire knowledge about the historical development of psychological theories and psychology as a science and profession, which would allow them to adopt a critical perspective toward their own theoretical and practical choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).


We present a novel boundary-aware face alignment algorithm by utilising boundary lines as the geometric structure of a human face to help facial landmark localisation. Unlike the conventional heatmap based method and regression based method, our approach derives face landmarks from boundary lines which remove the ambiguities in the landmark definition. Three questions are explored and answered by this work: 1. Why using boundary? 2. How to use boundary? 3. What is the relationship between boundary estimation and landmarks localisation? Our boundaryaware face alignment algorithm achieves 3.49% mean error on 300-W Fullset, which outperforms state-of-the-art methods by a large margin. Our method can also easily integrate information from other datasets. By utilising boundary information of 300-W dataset, our method achieves 3.92% mean error with 0.39% failure rate on COFW dataset, and 1.25% mean error on AFLW-Full dataset. Moreover, we propose a new dataset WFLW to unify training and testing across different factors, including poses, expressions, illuminations, makeups, occlusions, and blurriness. Dataset and model will be publicly available at https://wywu. github.io/projects/LAB/LAB.html


AIM
This randomized controlled study was carried out to evaluate the role of H2 receptor antagonists after simple closure of perforated duodenal ulcer.

METHODS
A total of 192 patients who underwent simple closure for perforated duodenal ulcer were divided into two groups (A: study group and B: control group). Group A patients were treated with H2 receptor antagonists, while the patients in group B received placebo. Only 174 patients were available for endoscopic follow up.

RESULTS
At the end of 24 weeks, only 6 patients out of 90 (6.6%) in group A as compared to 18 patients out of 84 (21.4%) in group B had persistent symptoms of ulcer disease as well as endoscopically proven ulcer (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that H2 receptor antagonists have a definite role and endoscopic follow up is mandatory to define those cases who actually need definitive surgery.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the aortic elastic properties and its clinical significance in intracranial aneurysms (IAs).

METHODS
One hundred and seven IAs patients (57 with hypertension) and 108 healthy subjects were recruited. The internal aortic diameters in systole and diastole were measured by the M-mode echocardiography, the aortic elasticity indexes were calculated and compared.

RESULTS
The aortic distensibility (DIS) was lower and the aortic stiffness index (SI) was higher in IAs patients than those in controls (both P <0.001). DIS was lower and SI was higher in IAs patients with hypertension (IAs-HP) than those in IAs with no hypertension (P <0.001). Similar results were obtained when the aortic elasticity index were adjusted for body surface area and body mass index.

CONCLUSION
Abnormal aortic elasticity is a common finding in IAs patients and hypertension is closely related to the severity of aortic elasticity.


A SARS-CoV-2 variant belonging to Pango lineage B.1.1.529 with a significant number of S-gene mutations compared to the original virus was found in early November 2021. On 26th November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the mutation as a variant of concern and assigned it the name Omicron. The difference is identified by 30 changes in the spike protein, three minor deletions, and one minor insertion, 15 of which are in the receptor-binding area. The Omicron variant is the most diverging variety discovered in substantial numbers so far during the pandemic, raising significant concerns that it may be associated with significant reductions in vaccination efficacy and an increased risk of reinfections. Omicron pseudo- or live virus isolates are urgently needed to understand better the virus's escape potential against both vaccination, and infection-acquired immunity is urgently required.


Introduction: Hepatitis B is a common infectious disease w hich can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among healthcare workers in Brunei Darussalam. Materials and Methods: All healthcare workers in Brunei Darussalam who reported to the Occupational Health Division for pre-employment and periodic medical examinations were reviewed. Information was collated from healthcare records from January 2003 until December 2013 by using a pretested data collection form. Data collected included demographic characteristics of the healthcare workers (gender, age and nationality), work sectors (public and private), laboratory reports of Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and presence of other infections (HCV, Syphilis or HIV). Results: Out of the 5,466 healthcare workers, the prevalence of hepatitis B was 1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.5, 2.2). Hepatitis B infection was highest in males (1.9%; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.5), 41-50 age group (2.4%; 95% CI: 1.5, 3.3), and being Bruneian (2.1%; 95% CI: 1.7, 2.5). Comparison of hepatitis B infected healthcare workers between public and private sectors did not show a statistical significance. There was no association observed between Hepatitis B and co-infection with Syphilis, Hepatitis C or HIV. Of the occupational groups studied, support staff had a significantly higher prevalence for HBV infection compared to doctors (p=0.032). Conclusion: The prevalence of HBV infection in Brunei Darussalam remains low. There was little variation in prevalence across the age groups and occupational groups. No increased risk for HBV infection was seen within healthcare workers.


Thermophysical characterization of three paraffin waxes (RT27, RT21 and RT35HC) is carried out in this study using DSC, TGA and transient plane source technics. Then, a numerical study of their melting in a rectangular enclosure is examined. The enthalpy-porosity approach is used to formulate this problem in order to understand the heat transfer mechanism during the melting process. The analysis of the solid-liquid interface shape, the temperature field shows that the conduction is the dominant heat transfer mode in the beginning of the melting process. It is followed by a transition regime and the natural convection becomes the dominant heat transfer mode. The effects of the Rayleigh number and the aspect ratio of the enclosure on the melting phenomenon are studied and it is found that the intensity of the natural convection increases as the Rayleigh number is higher and the aspect ratio is smaller. In the second part of the numerical study, a comparison of the performance of paraffins waxes during the melting process is conducted. Results reveals that from a kinetically RT21 is the most performant but in term of heat storage capacity, it was inferred that RT35HC is the most efficient PCM.


Cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are now a global health problem, due to their main cause of mortality of these patients. Ischemic heart disease (IHD) among all cardiovascular diseases occupies a leading position. The purpose of the study was comparative assessment of possibilities of coronary reserve correction in patients with stable angina and T2DM by nitrates and activator of potassium channels by nicorandil. The study included 54 patients with stable angina of 2-3 functional classes (FC) and T2DM. The dynamics of frequency of angina attacks, mean FC of angina pectoris, exercise tolerance, vasoregulatory function of endothelium under the influence of therapy with nicorandil, isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) and isosorbide-5-Mononitrate (I5MN) were analyzed. In patients with IHD and T2DM drug of choice for long-term treatment is nicorandil with greater antianginal and anti-ischemic efficacy compared with traditional nitrates. Nicorandil effectively corrects endothelial dysfunction, without causing the development of tolerance and without reducing its effectiveness while taking hypoglycemic therapy.


A bone histological investigation was performed in 20 mondialyzed patients with chronic renal failure and a glomerular filtration rate of 5.1--31.9 ml/min. Osteomalacia was the predominant pathological feature in 60% of the patients, mixed lesion of both osteomalacia and osteitis fibrosa in 30%, and osteitis fibrosa only was seen in 5% of the patients. Only 1 showed normal bone histology. Elevated plasma immunoreactive parathyroid hormone was found in only 1 patient out of 6. The beneficial effect of 1 alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol was recognized in 7 patients, but the drug induced relatively rapid growth of serum creatinine incidentally, when patients had more than 4 mg/dl of serum creatinine.


A. Revalidation This article has been prepared with continuing professional development (CPD) in mind and can be used to support your revalidation. It is estimated that 4 hours of CPD activity will be required for completion of the reading, 'Time out' activities, the quiz and writing a reflective account in relation to your learning and its applicability to your practice. (You could test your knowledge by completing the selfassessment quiz before reading the article, returning to it afterwards to see how much you have learned.)


: Background: Various anomalies, especially Down syndrome impose heavy emotional and financial burden on families and communities by development of mental and behavioral retardation. The purpose of this study is to assess the value of Nuchal Translucency (NT) to diagnose Down syndrome in the first trimester of pregnancy. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted through evaluating 102 pregnant women of 17-44 years old with gestational age of 11 to 13 weeks and 3 days, in a private radiology clinic in Zahedan during May 2008 to June 2010. All embryos were ultra-sounded by a radiologist, their NT and crown-rump length were measured. After birth, all infants were examined by a pediatrician and cases suspected with Down syndrome were diagnosed through karyotype test. Results: The mean of NT was 1.62 mm. NT was above 1.7 mm for women older than 35 years and it was 3.1 to 3.8 mm for women older than 40 years. 6 out of 7 cases diagnosed postnatal with Down syndrome, had above 95% normal NT and 4 out of 7 mothers who had baby with Down syndrome, were older than 35 years. Conclusion: Through measurement of NT during 11th to 13th weeks of pregnancy and consideration of base risk factors, the possibility of Down syndrome can be assessed and necessary diagnostic evaluations can be performed for risky cases.


This paper presents a parallel programming model, Parallel Phase Model (PPM), for next-generation high-end parallel machines based on a distributed memory architecture consisting of a networked cluster of nodes with a large number of cores on each node. PPM has a unified high-level programming abstraction that facilitates the design and implementation of parallel algorithms to exploit both the parallelism of the many cores and the parallelism at the cluster level. The programming abstraction will be suitable for expressing both fine-grained and coarse-grained parallelism. It includes a few high-level parallel programming language constructs that can be added as an extension to an existing (sequential or parallel) programming language such as C; and the implementation of PPM also includes a light-weight runtime library that runs on top of an existing network communication software layer (e.g. MPI). Design philosophy of PPM and details of the programming abstraction are also presented. Several unstructured applications that inherently require high-volume random fine-grained data accesses have been implemented in PPM with very promising results.


This article describes the first phase of an effort to evaluate the ability of multizone airflow and pollutant transport models to predict the impact of residential IAQ control technologies. Measurements of the performance of several particulate air cleaning devices and related particle transport parameters were performed in a one-room test house. These measurements were used to calculate building air change rates, particle deposition rates and penetration factors, and air cleaner removal efficiencies. Two separate 24 h tests were performed with two of the tested air cleaners, and the measured air change rates and particle concentrations were compared to predicted values obtained with the CONTAM model. For both tests, simulated 24 h average air change rates were within 5% of measured air change rates and simulated 24 h average particle concentrations were within 30% of measurements for all particle sizes.


Abstract Previous adaptive thermal comfort research mainly emphasized the correlations between outdoor climate and thermal adaptation. In this paper, we explore the influence of indoor thermal experience on occupants' thermal adaptation, especially with regard to physiological adaptation. We also investigate whether people with distinct cold indoor exposures have different levels of physiological adaptation to cold environment. A comparative experiment, including both physiological measurements and subjective questionnaires, was conducted in China where winter indoor climates in the northern region (with pervasive district heating) are much warmer than the southern region (without district heating). Two subject groups were recruited, namely: (a) N-N group subjects who had lived in the northern China with district heating all their life, and (b) S-N group subjects who grew up in the southern region without district heating but recently moved to the north. The results indicate that S-N subjects who had lived their entire lives in cold wintertime indoor climates had slither physiological response and felt less uncomfortable in mild cold exposures than N-N subjects who lived in neutral-to-warm wintertime indoor climates. The findings suggest that indoor thermal exposures can also influence occupants' thermal adaptation, which can reserve as a reference to the future adaptive thermal comfort model.


Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to cardiomyocyte death resulting in cardiac dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanism is still poorly understood. Cardiac fibroblasts can be marked by CD90, a N-glycosylated glycophosphatidylinositol anchored conserved cell surface protein, and the CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts can release exosome against ischemic damage. Reduce apoptosis can promote the recovery of myocardial function after ischemic heart. Interestingly, exosome from CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts can decrease the level of apoptosis after MI in vivo. However, the ability of CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome to reduce apoptosis, and the potential effects on the recovery of cardiomyocytes in heart after MI remain to be clarified. In this study, we found that CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome treated induced myocardial function recovery in a mouse MI model. Indeed, CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome increased phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and kinase B (AKT) after MI. In addition, CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome decreased TUNEL in cardiomyocytes after MI. Furthermore, PI3K was inhibited by PI3K inhibitor LY294002, while hypoxia-stimulated primary cardiomyocytes were treated with CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome. Collectively, our results suggest that CD90 positive cardiac fibroblasts exosome can improve the recovery of cardiac function by decreasing apoptosis after MI in mice, likely via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.


The American Political Science Association was founded December 30, 1903, at New Orleans. Its organization was the outgrowth of a movement looking toward a national conference on comparative legislation. A group having the matter in charge held a meeting in December, 1902, at Washington, the call for which stated that the formation of an American Society of Comparative Legislation had been suggested as "particularly desirable because of the complexity of our system of federal government." Interest in legislation in general and in the problems presented by the lawmaking activities of the federal and state agencies in particular was, therefore, the starting point from which proceeded the wider range of interests which gave rise to this Association. The preliminary meeting in Washington indicated that if a new national society were to be formed it might be well to enlarge its scope so as to embrace the whole of political science, of which comparative legislation is an important part. A year later, thanks to the coöperation of the American Historical Association and of the American Economic Association, which were having joint meetings in New Orleans, opportunity was given to the group to form an organization, the members of which were in large part members of one or both of the older Associations. The adoption of the constitution of this Association was the result. In a way, therefore, the American Political Science Association is the god-child of the American Historical and the American Economic Associations. All but two annual meetings have been held jointly with one or both of the older bodies, indicating not only a factor of common membership but also a large measure of common interests and kindred endeavors.


The Valsalva manoeuvre remains a popular medical topic, with more than 100 publications per annum, 300 years after its first mention by Antonio Valsalva in Bologna in 1704 in his classical 'De aure humana tractatus'.1 In current usage it usually means: an acute rise in intrathoracic and intra abdominal pressure, brought about by contraction of the trunk muscles, right down to the pelvic floor, against a 'stop', at the glottis, but also more peripherally by the tongue in the nasopharynx, or at the lips and nostrils, or even outside the body, as in the blowing up of a column of mercury in a manometer. It is done automatically, and very briefly, in coughing and sneezing; and for longer periods in bodily functions like defaecation and parturition; or, more deliberately, in heavy lifting; in various sports; and in the blowing of wind instruments.


The accurate assessment of bioavailability for copper in biosolids after its long-term application in soil is one of the key questions regarding its eco-environmental risk assessment and modifying of current soil environmental quality threshold. A procedure for determining L and E-values of Cu using 65 Cu isotopic dilution technology has been successfully developed and applied using rye grass and earthworms, the effect of pH on the L and E-values of Cu in the soils was also investigated in this study. The results indicated that the L-values determined with rye grass were nearly equal to E-values measured in soils and a good conver- gence of L- and E-values was observed (regression R 2 =0.98), the percentage of L-values determined with ryegrass plants of different pH treatments ranged from 15.9% to 21.6% and the measured L and E-values of Cu increased with the decreasing pH in soils; however, the L-values determined with earthworms were gen- erally less than the E-values measured in the soils and the earthworms' gut which indicating that the activi- ties of worms increase the exchangeable pool of Cu in soil. The strong influence of soil pH on Cu bioavail- ability and toxicity found in this study indicated that control of soil pH is a critical factor in minimising the


A part of research on application of mobots (mobile robots) for watching real environment isthe computer-based system for training and selecting candidates for mobot operators. The gameplayed by the candidates is the main part of the system. The core of the game is touring simulator.Firstly, it was assumed that speed of simulation would be a crucial factor for the game. Hence, theinitial version of the game was written in C++ for LAN. However, the experiments showed thatpromptness of the reaction of the game to the actions of the players was not so important. It turnedout that wide and easy access to the game and its remote management (e.g. via Internet) arenecessary. The current version of the game uses Java technology. Rewriting the game from C++ toJava created typical problems connected with moving an application from LAN to Internet. It wasnot a trivial problem. The paper evaluates and compares both versions of the game and describesproblems with migration from C++ to Java.


The fungicidal activities against phytopathogenic fungi of two aminothiazole compounds of N-[4-(4-fluoro)phenyl-2-aminothiazol-5-yl]pyrimidin-2-yl-N-subst. phenylamine (V-1, V-2) have been determined and these two compounds were used as the leading compounds in this study as V-1 for N-[4-(4-fluoro)phenyl-2-aminothiazol-5-yl]pyrimidin-2-yl-N-(3-hydroxymethyl)phenylamine and V-2 for N- [4-(4-fluoro)phenyl-2-aminothiazol-5-yl] pyrimidin-2-yl-N-3-(l-hydroxyethyl)phenylamine. Further syntheses of these two compounds, V-l and V-2, were conducted by reacting them with three functional groups, 2-(N-ethoxycarbonyl)piperidin-4-yl, 2-piperidin-4-yl, and 2-(N-methyl)-piperidin-4-yl-thiazole. From this scheme, 21 compounds were newly synthesized and their structures were confirmed by 1H-NMR-spectrum. The fungicidal activities of all the synthesized compounds against Phytophthora capsici were examined using the whole plant method. While the EC50 value of the commercial fungicide dimethomorph was 4.26 mM, that of IX-3g on P. capsici was 1.03 mM. Among the 21 chemicals, IX-3g showed the most potential antifungal activity in vivo. Therefore, IX-3g may be considered as a potential candidate for the control of phytopathogenic diseases characterized by P. capsici infection, and further studies will be conducted on the mode of action IX-3g.


Introduction
Dabigatran is one of the nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants. Thrombolytic treatment with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is contraindicated in patients taking a DOAC. Idarucizumab was recently approved for dabigatran-activity reversing in severe bleeding, emergency surgery, or urgent procedures, but many attempts have been made to use idarucizumab in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke in order to be eligible for thrombolysis.

Case
Our patient was an 89-year-old woman with severe aphasia who was treated with dabigatran for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. She received an infusion of idarucizumab followed by thrombolytic therapy, with complete remission of symptoms after 24 hours.

Discussion
Idarucizumab is a safe option for patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with dabigatran; otherwise eligibles for thrombolysis, even in very old people like our patient.


The objective of this work was to analyze the geometric distortions of aerial photographs mosaic derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) generated with data from a GPS navigation engaged in remotely piloted aircraft in relation to the field collected control points with an RTK . The imaging was performed on August 9, 2014, at UFMS research base in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul, with a fixed-wing aircraft and electric propulsion motor. The flight was conducted at an altitude of 150 m, planned in such a way to obtain pixels with about 4 cm spatial resolution. To check the accuracy of the mosaic were collected control points from a GNSS HIPER receiver. To ease the location of points on aerial photographs were made markings on the ground. Mosaic without control point presented displacement ranging from 6.30 m to 8.83 m. Previously the tiles with 1, 2 and 3 control points had low errors, given the legislation for the georeferencing of rural properties. Products generated from controls points have high planialtimetric accuracy and are likely to use in jobs that require high positional accuracy, such as expertise services, registration and georeferencing of rural properties, crops analysis and flora and fauna quantification.


Nuclear robots must be hardened against radiation for effective operation in high-radiation environments. These robots require special components that usually have few functions, high costs and long delivery times. In the present study, we propose a modulated and hierarchical electrical circuit system for robot components such as actuators. The hierarchical system is set into a design that can withstand radiation without reducing or limiting the functionality of the robot. The hierarchical system is achieved by minimizing the variety of integrated circuit (IC) components to be used and selecting specific ICs that require radiation testing. These ICs are defined by spotted ICs with regard to the integration density and operational speed. In some cases, it is possible to select off-the-shelf IC components, but certain key IC components are needed for on-line irradiation tests, depending on robot operation reliability and the radiation environment. Since the serial numbers of off-the-shelf IC components are random, it is important that a sufficiently large number of IC components are tested under the operating conditions for statistical evaluation. If the radiation lifetime is random, then the radiation lifetime of the sorted IC components can be estimated statistically. Here, the robot user decides the operation based on this lifetime. By doing so, the experimental cost can be minimized in accordance with the proposed method at the user's operational risk. Of course, if on-line irradiation tests are performed for various types of IC components, the radiation lifetime of the robot can be predicted with a relatively high accuracy. As a result, the design of a robot that operates under certain radiation conditions, while having a certain lifetime and cost, is possible. This design technique was applied to a nuclear disaster prevention robot and the radiation lifetime of the spotted IC components was shown to be distributed randomly, indicating the validity of the proposed method.


Anomaly regions in satellite images can reflect unexpected changes of land cover caused by flood, fire, landslide, etc. Detecting anomaly regions in satellite image time series is important for studying the dynamic processes of land cover changes as well as for disaster monitoring. Although several methods have been developed to detect land cover changes using satellite image time series, they are generally designed for detecting inter-annual or abrupt land cover changes, but are not focusing on detecting spatial-temporal changes in continuous images. In order to identify spatial-temporal dynamic processes of unexpected changes of land cover, this study proposes a method for detecting anomaly regions in each image of satellite image time series based on seasonal autocorrelation analysis. The method was validated with a case study to detect spatial-temporal processes of a severe flooding using Terra/MODIS image time series. Experiments demonstrated the advantages of the method that (1) it can effectively detect anomaly regions in each of satellite image time series, showing spatial-temporal varying process of anomaly regions, (2) it is flexible to meet some requirement (e.g., z-value or significance level) of detection accuracies with overall accuracy being up to 89% and precision above than 90%, and (3) it does not need time series smoothing and can detect anomaly regions in noisy satellite images with a high reliability.


This article adopts the assumption that different wireless access technologies (e.g., UMTS, HIPERLAN2, and DVB-T) can be cooperating components of a composite radio infrastructure. The coordinated management of services and network in this heterogeneous context is a complex task. This article presents a service and network resource management platform for wireless systems that operate in a composite radio context. Aspects addressed are the requirements, high-level platform design, functionality of the components that conduct monitoring, resource brokerage, service management, and network resource optimization. Indicative results are presented and concluding remarks provided.


ABSTRACT A scientific workshop was held in 2006 to discuss the use of in vitro Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion (ADME) data in chemical bioaccumulation assessments for fish. Computer-based (in silico) modeling tools are widely used to estimate chemical bioaccumulation. These in silico methods have inherent limitations that result in inaccurate estimates for many compounds. Based on a review of the science, workshop participants concluded that two factors, absorption and metabolism, represent the greatest sources of uncertainty in current bioaccumulation models. Both factors can be investigated experimentally using in vitro test systems. A variety of abiotic and biotic systems have been used to predict chemical accumulation by invertebrates, and dietary absorption of drugs and xenobiotics by mammals. Research is needed to determine whether these or similar methods can be used to better predict chemical absorption across the gills and gut of fish. Scientists studying mammals have developed a stepwise approach to extrapolate in vitro hepatic metabolism data to the whole animal. A series of demonstration projects was proposed to investigate the utility of these in vitro–in vivo extrapolation procedures in bioaccumulation assessments for fish and delineate the applicability domain of different in vitro test systems. Anticipating research progress on these topics, participants developed a "decision tree" to show how in vitro information for individual compounds could be used in a tiered approach to improve bioaccumulation assessments for fish and inform the possible need for whole-animal testing.


Over the past decade the use of BIM in the AEC industry has grown several fold and with it the number of standards available for implementing BIM. US Army Corps of Engineers are some of the several BIM guidelines that are currently available to the AEC industry practitioners. Some of these guidelines are as comprehensive as defining BIM and the associated taxonomy while others are meant to be used on an individual project basis. From a contractor's perspective one of the key benefits of using BIM is for the purpose of collision detection and coordination. This research has found that currently available guidelines do not address these issues adequately. For instance, the currently available guidelines do not allow the subcontractor to quickly communicate issues such as naming conventions and color schemes within the model, to the general contractor. Consequently general contractors and subcontractors find themselves making changes to their BIM deliverables based on each other's abilities and levels of adoption, apart from reason's stemming from use of different software platforms. This paper describes how a group of contractors and subcontractors from Atlanta and Birmingham in the United States came together to create and adopt a 'Coordination Guidelines for Virtual Design and Construction'. These guidelines were specifically created with the purpose of streamlining the construction coordination process using BIM. This paper describes how the guidelines created differ from other guidelines currently available in the industry.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of Wuhuang Tangkangling on tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in serum of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

METHOD
One hundred cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were randomly divided into two groups. The control group was treated with pioglitazone (15 mg x d(-1)) orally once a day in the morning, combined with insulin subcutaneous injection based on blood glucose level. The treatment group was treated with decoction of Wuhuang Tangkang Ling daily, 8 weeks as a course. TNF-alpha, IL-6, hs-CRP, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and postprandial blood glucose (PBG) were tested for two groups of patients before and after the treatment And other 50 healthy cases were tested for comparison.

RESULT
Before treatment, the level of cytokine, FBG and PBG in the serum of patients with T2DM were significantly higher than healthy cases (P < 0.01). In treatment group, difference between before and after the treatment had statistical significance (P < 0.01); after treatment, difference between treatment group and control group had statistical significance (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
Wuhuang Tangkangling could significantly decrease the level of TNF-alpha, IL-6, hs-CRP, FBG and PBG in patients with T2DM, and could decrease blood glucose, anti inflammatory, and improve insulin resistance. According to testing these cytokines, a new criteria for evaluating the progress of T2DM and the treatment may be approached.


This book begins with the laudable aim of providing "a comprehensive and easily understood book on genetic counseling for primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and social workers". I am sorry to say that, in my opinion, it fails to achieve this aim and cannot be recommended. The first five chapters cover basic genetics, reproductive options, and prenatal diagnosis. There follow 14 chapters on specific disorders, mostly organised along 'system' lines. The style is didactic and rather forbiddingly dogmatic. The chapter on inheritance patterns, for example, begins with a glossary and continues with a series of baldly stated rules. Many of the 'system' chapters are entitled 'Patients at risk for . . . disease', but the overwhelming impression is of a catalogue of diseases with little or nothing about the clinical evaluation of patients and their families and the ways in which they cope with inherited disorders. This impression is strengthened by the presentation of much material in tables, some covering several pages. Common and rare disorders are given comparable amounts of space with no indication of relative frequency. The one thing that would make a listing of rare disorders useful, a reference for each one, is not provided. There are some alarming omissions. The table on 'dwarfism' lists 13 conditions but does not mention osteogenesis imperfecta, hypophosphatasia, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, and pseudoachondroplasia. I was unable to find any mention of the fragile X syndrome or X linked mental handicap in the book, including the index, nor is there any coverage of the diagnostic evaluation of a patient with mental handicap. DNA analysis is mentioned fleetingly in connection with sickle cell anaemia, the thalassaemias, and Huntington's chorea, but the methods and underlying principles are not explained. One would not know that only a linked marker, with all its attendant limitations, is available for Huntington's chorea, and DNA diagnosis in X linked disorders is not mentioned at all. In the sections on chromosomes there is no Paris Conference diagram and no explanation of banding notation. Reading this book was a disappointing experience. Other authors have shown that a book of this size can provide a guide to the field of clinical genetics in appropriate depth for newcomers, and at the same time convey a sense of intellectual excitement and unanswered questions. I hope that the distinguished authors and publishers, together with the 21 eminent persons listed as having had a hand in it also, will radically re-think their approach for the second edition.


Cancer patients account for 15% of all admissions to intensive care unit (ICU) and 5% will experience a critical illness resulting in ICU admission. Mortality rates have decreased during the last decades because of new anticancer therapies and advanced organ support methods. Since early critical care and organ support is associated with improved survival, timely identification of the onset of clinical signs indicating critical illness is crucial to avoid delaying. This article focused on relevant and current information on epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of the main clinical disorders experienced by critically ill cancer patients.


Despite developments in electrophysiological testing, imaging remains the standard method to determine cochlear implant positioning. Whilst cone beam computed tomography is optimal, modified Stenver radiographs are easier to perform and are therefore commonly used. With recent debate as to the need for routine imaging in uncomplicated cases, the radiologist is increasingly faced with cases of abnormal anatomy or surgical error. The primary interest is the positioning of the electrode array within the cochlea. This includes evidence of tip roll over or kinking and depth of electrode insertion, as both are independent predictors of hearing outcomes and may necessitate revision surgery.


The United States (U.S.) is undergoing three major trends, which are converging and changing the housing market. The first trend is housing inventory is constrained in much of the U.S. As a result, home prices have increased to an inflation‐adjusted 49 percent from 2012 to 2017 (National Association of Realtors 2018b) and has become out of reach for many Americans as incomes have risen 14 percent in the same timeframe (U.S. Census Bureau 2018a). The second trend is the homeownership rate for those under the age of 35, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino adults has not rebounded since the Great Recession in the United States (U.S.). The third trend is the amount of student loan debt in the U.S. has increased about 70 percent from 2007 to 2017 (Chakrabarti et al. 2017) and is concentrated among those under the age of 35, Black/African Americans, and Hispanic/Latinos. This thesis explores the intersection of these trends through the application of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Through a Two‐Stage Least Squares econometric approach, those with student debt, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino buyers purchase a lower priced home, even while controlling household income and home size purchased. These three populations are most at risk to be impacted by the reduction in housing inventory, increased home prices, and the increase in student loan debt. As these three populations face limited affordable housing inventory and student debt increases, the homeownership rate has declined. To understand how local economic and demographic factors play a role, the days on market, unemployment rate, the share of those over the age of 65, and share of those with Bachelor's degrees within the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) are added into the model. Results from the econometrics are triangulated through focus groups conducted in cities across the U.S. Focus groups explored themes that were not able to be understood through econometrics, such as the idea that individuals may prefer to rent. The thesis contains policy recommendations based on the findings from the econometrics and focus groups.


Increased severity in operating conditions coupled with the environmental and toxicity issues related with using conventional lubricants. In addition to, depletion of petroleum reserves and high prices of fossil fuels, have led to exploration of new kind of natural additives as a
bio-lubricant. BP as an agricultural wastes are potential to be developed as bio-oils that to replace the petroleum products, due to their environmentally friendly characteristics, being biodegradable, nontoxic and renewable. The purpose of this study are to produce crude oil from BP as a bio additives in paraffin oil, as well as to determine their physical and tribological properties as bio-lubricant under severe operation conditions to identify their ability for lubrication. In this study, ultrasonic homogenizer had been used to mix the lubricants. Brookfield viscometer had been used to determine viscosity of lubricants under various temperatures, while viscosity index had been determined according to ASTM 02270. Tribological performance of BP as a bio-lubricant was tested using a four-ball test machine under extreme pressure conditions, according to ASTM 02783-03. Various
lubricating oils (PO and P0+5%, 20%, 50% of banana peel) were tested. The experiments were run for 30 minutes under 500-1750N range of load. The temperatures were set at 27,
80, 100 °C and the sliding speed was set to 1000 RPM. The wear scar and surface roughness were measured using digital microscope and surface roughness tester, respectively.
Statistical approach had been used in this the results analyzed was to identify the ability of BP for lubrication. The results focused on density, viscosity, VI, coefficient of friction, wear scar, wear volume losses, Extreme Pressure (EP) Anti-Wear (AW) properties, welding load
and surface roughness, which are the basis of comparison between bio-lubricant and paraffin oil. Experimental results showed significant improvement in overall performance with increased BP content compared with paraffin oil through all parameters mentioned above.
The results showed that at 100 °C, 50%BP had achieved a highest rate improved compared with paraffin oil in terms of dynamic and kinematic viscosity at rates 250.3% and 229.7% respectively and VI at rate 310.2%. Meanwhile, at 100 °C, lower value of COF at welding point was 0.086 for 50%BP followed by 20%BP, 5%BP and 1 OO%PO at values 0.089, 0.456 and 0.595 respectively. For A W and EP properties, where rates are increase in mean wear scar diameter and welding load at 100 °C of 50%BP compared with paraffin oil was 67.36% and 44.62% respectively. Values ofwelding loads at 100 oc were 1625 N, 1575 N, 1475 N and 900 N for 50%BP, 20%BP, 5%BP and 1 OO%PO respectively. The results showed that best performance was achieved by mix a 50% ofBP in the mineral oil, where COF and WSO could reach their lowest value in extreme operation conditions. As a results, banana peel as EP and A W adoitives has proven itself able for use in lubrication applications for gears and as engine oils.


A brief physical restraint procedure combined with differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour was used to reduce the tantrum behaviour of a five-year-old severely intellectually disabled girl in a classroom setting. Daily frequency recording of tantrum behaviour demonstrated a marked reduction of tantrums in classroom settings following intervention which was maintained at followup. Staff also reported concomitant increases in the subject's participation in class activities. Spontaneous generalization of reductions in tantrum behaviour to non-programmed settings and staff was not found.


This study uses 2000 to 2004 Current Population Survey data to examine the effects of public premiums on the insurance coverage of children whose family incomes are between 100% and 300% of the federal poverty level. The analysis employs multinomial logistic models that control for factors other than premium costs. While the magnitude of the estimated effects varies across models, the results consistently indicate that raising public premiums reduces enrollment in public programs, with some children who forgo public coverage having private coverage instead and others being uninsured. The results indicate that public premiums have larger effects when applied to lower-income families.


In this paper, we examine and compare the impact of American and Japanese labor law on the relative bargaining power of the labor and management within the context of the new global economy based on information technology. We begin by providing a simple economic definition of bargaining power and examining how it can be influenced by economic and legal factors. Next, we discuss the impact of new information technology and the global economy on the employment relationship and how this has decreased union bargaining power relative to management bargaining power. Finally, we compare various facets of American and Japanese labor law that have a significant impact on the parties' relative bargaining power and discuss how one might expect American and Japanese unions to fare in their negotiations with management in the new economic environment.


laser ablation dynamics due to its wide application in the fields of micromachining, laser surgery, surface smoothing, nanoparticle production etc. I,2 Compared to long-pulse nanosecond (ns) laser ablation, the thermal processes are less pronounced in plasmas produced by femtosecond (fs) ultrafast lasers. Ultrafast lasers are better suited for micromachining, pulsed laser deposition and various other applications. Ultra intense laser produced plasmas can also be used for producing collimated proton, electron and neutron beams. Moreover, the laser plasmas provide intense ion beams with a high charge state, the so called laser ion source (LIS). However, the lack of control of the ion pulse from laser-produced plasmas limits its applications and further studies are necessary to improve basic understanding of ion emission dynamics from laser-produced plasmas. We investigated the dynamics of ion emission from ultrafast laser ablated plasmas in vacuum from metal targets. The angular features of ion emission features are studied for ultrafast laser ablation and compared with ion emission


Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is extensively applied in environmental remediation, disinfection, bleaching, and so on. Two‐electron oxygen reduction reaction for synthesizing H2O2 is the most promising alternative to the traditional energy‐intensive anthraquinone process. Existing strategies for electrocatalytic synthesis of H2O2 generally proceed well in alkaline electrolytes. But environmental application demands the reaction to take place in a broad pH range, especially in acidic medium. Here a zinc‐air battery technology is developed for on‐site production of H2O2 in alkaline, neutral, and acidic conditions. A key component of the battery is the tubular cathode fabricated by partially oxidized carbon nanotubes self‐assembled on the substrate of nickel foam. The battery exhibits an unusual 2e− discharge property and achieves an appreciable H2O2 accumulation (215.1 µmol, 497 ppm, 162.5 mg L−1 h−1) in acidic solution within 3 h, which is among the highest value ever been reported through electrosynthesis. Excitingly, the battery coupled with UV light demonstrates a promising application in water purification, which enables rapid degradation of model pollutants and actual pollutants ranging from municipal sewage to dye and pesticide wastewaters. Furthermore, this water treatment technology can be self‐powered, as the battery in the system generates the power that is available to drive UV lights.


Population changes and their dependent gene frequencies are affected by mutation, selection, random fluctuations, meiotic drive, and migration. The effects of selection pressure on relatively small populations can have dramatic effects on gene frequency and hence on breeding progress: This selection, driven by necessity, has resulted in "narrow base" sugarbeet populations. This paper presents examples of population changes which can occur (have occurred in sugarbeet) in populations subject to intense selection. The utility of gene frequency analysis and its use as a predictive tool is outlined. Sugarbeet breeders, geneticists, and agronomists now attempting to collect and introgress wild germ plasm into breeding populations will be aided by attention to principles presented in this paper. Additional


Currently, there is no standard biomarker that predict immunotherapy response in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we aim to investigate the role of tissue stiffness measured by magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in predicting neoadjuvant immunotherapy response in patients with resectable HCC.This was a study of 15 patients with HCC treated with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, nivolumab ± ipilimumab, followed by surgical resection. HCC MRE assessment was performed at baseline and after 6 weeks of therapy. HCC stiffness (kPa) was measured on MRE elastograms (liver stiffness maps). Baseline stiffness and changes in stiffness were compared with treatment response to ICB. Treatment response was defined as a tumor with more than 60% necrosis which was the major pathological response. Analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, and Wilcoxon rank sum test; p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Fifteen patients were evaluable for MRE assessment. The median age was 67 years. Etiology of liver disease was NASH (n=4), HCV (n=3), HBV (n=2) and unknown (n=6). Three out of 15 patients (20%) achieved a major pathological response (MPR). Median baseline HCC stiffness and change in stiffness were 4.6 kPa and –0.2 kPa, respectively. Among the 4 patients with stiffness increase, 3 (75%) of them achieved MPR and 1 (25%) did not achieve MPR. Among the patients without stiffness increase, none of them achieved MPR. Fisher's exact test indicates that increase in stiffness was associated with a higher chance to achieve MPR than patients without stiffness increase (p=0.0088). Median baseline HCC stiffness for responders and non-responders was 6.8 (5.4, 9) kPa and 3.9 (2.2, 9.7) kPa, respectively (p=0.09). The median change in HCC stiffness for responders and non-responders was 1 (1, 1.4) kPa and -0.4 (-2.2, 0.7) kPa, respectively (p=0.02).Patients who achieved MPR inclined to have a higher baseline stiffness than patients who did not achieve MPR. Regarding the changes in stiffness between the two arms, patients with MPR group had a greater increase than that in the non-MPR group. In conclusion, baseline and change in MRE stiffness may be a useful biomarkers in predicting response to ICB therapy in HCC.This was an Institutional Review Board approved study (MDACC 2017–0972). All patients provided written informed consent.


Recent interest to study the relationship between Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposure and respiratory health in adults has been extended to the Ranchi district in the Jharkhand state of India. The present study is a fair attempt to access the effects of ETS exposure on respiratory symptoms in two types of study populations, i.e., urban and rural, on the basis of a standardized questionnaire. This results in studying subjects with variable exposure to passive smoking. There were some 80% subjects from the urban population and 20% from the rural one. The two study populations were further classified into two age grades, i.e., grade (1) and grade (2). Age grade (1) with the age range between 13 – 30 years formed the major group of subjects at 72%. Cigarette smoke including chewing products were found to be the culprit behind ETS exposure while another class of sources (chulla smoke including wood, coal, dung etc.) was found responsible for the Respirable Suspended Particulate matter (RSP). 51.3% and 10.5% subjects were passively exposed to ETS and RSP respectively. Among the common respiratory symptoms observed were coughing, wheezing, shortness of breadth and tightness of chest. The unavailability of any data for the above region makes this study very promising.


This study compared two approaches for acquiring transmission computed tomography (TCT) data for SPECT nonuniform attenuation compensation. One approach, which has been implemented in commercial SPECT systems, acquires the TCT and SPECT data simultaneously using a scanning transmission line source, dual head SPECT system and parallel beam collimation (PB-sim). The other approach acquires the TCT and SPECT data sequentially using long focus, off-set fan beam collimation with a non-scanning line source and a triple head system (FB-seq). The two systems were compared based on (a) the noise level of the TCT data, (b) the spatial resolution of the TCT data, and (c) the quality of reconstructed TCT and SPECT images of a thorax phantom. For the thorax phantom data, a fast TCT scan was used (2 min.) and total scan time (TCT and SPECT) was the same for the two systems. The results from the TCT noise measurements showed that for the source activities used here (400 mCi for PB-sim, 56 mCi for FB-seq), PB-sim had higher count density in the lung region whereas FB-seq had higher in the heart and liver regions. The measured TCT spatial resolution for the two systems was comparable in the axial direction but far superior with FB-seq in the transaxial direction. This difference in resolution was apparent in the reconstructed TCT images. The SPECT images from the two systems demonstrated the effects of attenuation compensation.


Dead wood is the largest detrital component within forests, comprising a significant portion of the total carbon (C) pool. Despite its ecological importance, there is insufficient information on the factors affecting wood decomposition, and there are no mechanistic models that effectively simulate wood decay and the incorporation of wood C into soil across North America. Therefore, the objective of this experiment is to establish a long-term experimental framework to serve as a foundation to study decomposition processes in wood and the associated interactions with the underlaying soil. The basic approach is to assess the interactions of site conditions with biological processes mediating wood decomposition by incubating common wood substrates, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), and birch (Betula papyrifera Marshall) logs in forest ecosystems with different soil and environmental conditions. The unique aspect of this study is the use of logs from Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) sites in North Carolina and Wisconsin, which have a distinct δ13C signature that can be followed through the wood decomposition process, thereby providing the capacity to assess the translocation of wood C into soil organic matter pools. In 2011, FACE logs were placed horizontally on the soil surface and vertically without soil contact to simulate standing dead trees, the two dominate positions of dead wood in forest ecosystems. Those samples are to facilitate the study of wood decomposition and associated changes to the soil C pools. The experimental design facilitates the assessment of wood-soil food web, and it capitalizes on the strong foundation of research in the nationwide U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDA-FS) Experimental Forest and Range Network.


[Abstract This paper analyzes the use of Qurʾanic rhetoric and imagery in al-Ṭāhir Waṭṭār's 1974 novel al-Zilzāl (The Earthquake). More specifically, it emphasizes Waṭṭār's employment of Qurʾanic eschatology to blur the boundary between 'religious' and 'secular' forms of discourse in the construction of Algerian nationalist discourse. The paper investigates al-Zilzāl's critical engagement with the rhetoric of Arabism and Islamism in post-revolutionary state politics, highlighting the novel's hybrid genre, its conscious manipulation of narrative time and space, as well as its incorporation of various registers of the Arabic language. Through the mobilization of eschatological notions of struggle, death and sacrifice, al-Zilzāl unsettles a number of authorized narratives on Algerian national identity, language and literature., AbstractThis paper analyzes the use of Quranic rhetoric and imagery in al-āhir Waār's 1974 novel al-Zilzāl (The Earthquake). More specifically, it emphasizes Waār's employment of Quranic eschatology to blur the boundary between 'religious' and 'secular' forms of discourse in the construction of Algerian nationalist discourse. The paper investigates al-Zilzāl's critical engagement with the rhetoric of Arabism and Islamism in post-revolutionary state politics, highlighting the novel's hybrid genre, its conscious manipulation of narrative time and space, as well as its incorporation of various registers of the Arabic language. Through the mobilization of eschatological notions of struggle, death and sacrifice, al-Zilzāl unsettles a number of authorized narratives on Algerian national identity, language and literature.]