: In this study, effects of pretreatment of corn stover (CS) with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) combined with calcium oxide (CaO) on anaerobic co-digestion of swine manure and CS for biogas production were investigated. Different pretreated-CSs were prepared by adding different doses of NaOH and CaO to CS: Treat-CSA (0.10 g NaOH/g CS), Treat-CSB((0.075 g NaOH + 0.05 g CaO)/g CS), Treat-CSC ((0.05 g NaOH + 0.05 g CaO)/g CS), and Treat-CSD ((0.025 g NaOH + 0.1 g CaO)/g CS). Lignin removal rate, biomass recovery, reduced sugar, methane yield, DT80 (digestion time when biogas achieved 80% of the total biogas), composition of residues, and cost-efficiency were measured to characterize CS after pretreatment and to evaluate the performance of co-digestors fed with swine manure and differently-pretreated CS. The results showed that Treat-CSB showed an excellent lignin removal efficiency and biomass recovery, resulting in the highest methane yield in its co-digestion with swine manure. Since the net benefit of Treat-CSB was calculated to be the highest (i.e., $1.89/ton total solids), therefore, we believe the co-digestion of Treat-CSB and swine manure for biogas production be an effective valorization option for the wastes.


IMPORTANCE
Central neck dissection (CND) is considered an imperative part of the treatment of patients with high-risk, well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the presence of lymphatic tissue and/or metastatic nodes in the upper part of the paratracheal region to determine the need to dissect this region as part of a paratracheal neck dissection.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
We prospectively enrolled 27 nonselective patients with surgical thyroid cancer (4 men and 23 women; median age, 43 years; range, 21-74 years) from June 1, 2010, through March 31, 2011, from a head and neck surgical oncology specialist group practice within the largest private hospital in Israel. All patients were scheduled to undergo unilateral (n = 23) or bilateral (n = 4) CND as their definitive surgical care.

INTERVENTIONS
A total of 31 paratracheal neck dissections were performed among the 27 patients. The surgical specimens were divided into upper and lower paratracheal regions, separated by the nerve curve line (corresponding to the level of the cricoid). These specimens were thoroughly examined separately for normal and metastatic lymph nodes. A standard pathologic technique was used, with no dedicated personnel.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The existence of lymphatic tissue and metastatic cells in all upper paratracheal surgical specimens.

RESULTS
The surgical procedures were uneventful. Postoperative complications included temporary vocal cord palsy, minimal chyle leak, and wound infection. A median of 8 nodes were retrieved (range, 2-21). No lymphatic tissue was identified in all upper paratracheal dissection specimens. All benign and metastatic lymph nodes (mean, 5.3 and 2.5, respectively) were located in the lower paratracheal region specimens. All upper paratracheal surgical specimens (n = 31) consisted of only fibrofatty connective tissue and were devoid of lymph nodes, metastatic cells, or other endothelial-lined lymphatic structures.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In this series of paratracheal neck dissections, the upper part of the paratracheal region contained no lymphatic tissue or cancer-bearing lymph nodes. The necessity to dissect this region, as part of conventional CND, is therefore challenged.


Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the aspect ratio (AR; ratio of enclosure height:length) dependence of steady-state Rayleigh–Benard convection of Bingham fluids within rectangular enclosures for both constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux boundary conditions. A nominal Rayleigh number range 103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105 (Ra defined based on the height) for a single representative value of nominal Prandtl number (i.e. Pr = 500) has been considered for 1/4 ≤ AR ≤ 4.

Design/methodology/approach

The bi-viscosity Bingham model is used to mimic Bingham fluids for Rayleigh–Benard convection of Bingham fluids in rectangular enclosures. The conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy have been solved in a coupled manner using the finite volume method where a second-order central differencing scheme is used for the diffusive terms and a second-order up-wind scheme is used for the convective terms. The well-known semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations algorithm is used for the coupling of the pressure and velocity.

Findings

It has been found that buoyancy-driven flow strengthens with increasing nominal Rayleigh number Ra, but the convective transport weakens with increasing Bingham number Bn, because of additional flow resistance arising from yield stress in Bingham fluids. The relative contribution of thermal conduction (advection) to the total thermal transport strengthens (diminishes) with increasing AR for a given set of values of Ra and Pr for both Newtonian and Bingham fluids for both boundary conditions, and the thermal transport takes place purely because of conduction for tall enclosures.

Originality/value

Correlations for the mean Nusselt number Nu¯ have been proposed for both boundary conditions for both Newtonian and Bingham fluids using scaling arguments, and the correlations have been demonstrated to predict Nu¯ obtained from simulation data for 1/4 ≤ AR ≤ 4, 103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105 and Pr = 500.


The current etymology of δeλφίς connects it to δeλφύς 'womb; uterus' and ἀδeλφός '(co-uterinus) brother', thus interpreting this name as '(sea animal) provided with a uterus'. The characterization of the dolphin as a sea-mammal, however, appears to belong to a scientific classification that emerges relatively late, with Aristotle. In the light of a wide series of comparanda among many IE languages (Old Irish, Latin, Germanic, Sanskrit etc.), I argue that the primary meaning of the IE root involved (*gʷelbh-) was 'lip' and that this denomination of the dolphin originally referred to its "long-lipped" snout (likewise several names of the swine, e.g. δέλφαξ), which coherently fits in with the frame of archaic, and also IE, folk-taxonomies. KEYWORDS:  Greek, dolphin, etymology, meaning, folk-taxonomy


CLASSROOM MATERIALS & MEDIA REVIEW 279 Sensory Ecology & Evolution (produced by the Sensory Ecology and Evolution Group at University of Exeter; https://www.sensoryecology.com/games) From a young age, children are fascinated by hide-and-seek games. These visual acuity games strengthen observational skills while increasing a competitive spirit to find a fellow playmate or a hidden object in an image. Unknowingly, children are using ecological and evolutionary principles of camouflage, mimicry, and adaptation when playing these classic games. The website Sensory Ecology & Evolution (https://www.sensoryecology.com/ games), curated by the Centre for Ecology & Conservation at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, utilizes citizen science games to develop new tools to study visual observations in reference to organism coloration in a variety of realistic habitats. Human "predators" participate in computer experiments to contribute to an understanding of camouflage, disruptive coloration, and distractive markings. The center's research also focuses on laboratory and field data with the aim of understanding animal vision, with applications to ecology, evolution, and animal behavior. Organisms, ranging from beetles to moths to crabs to frogs to hares to birds' eggs to plants, are highlighted in the various citizen science games that will be sure to test your students' visual acuity and be a perfect springboard for discussion around natural selection, adaptation, camouflage, and animal behavior, to name a few. When selecting a game for classroom or individual use, teachers should play the game first to test their own visual acuity. The habitats and various backgrounds are real images recorded and curated directly from the natural environments of the organisms. By clicking "start," the participant agrees to have their data included in the larger research study. General instructions are included in the beginning of each game, with an example of the organism with size reference to be located. Silhouettes with various designs, ranging from solid colors to stripes to polka dots to more realisticlooking organisms such as frogs or herbs, are also featured in the games. Most of the games have a timer and bar count across the bottom of the screen where the observer is tasked with finding a particular number of organisms within a set time limit. Each game also asks whether the observer has played the game before. When one's score and visual spotting percentage is revealed at the end of the game, it becomes a springboard for friendly competition with students. Most high school students would immediately jump at the chance to compete with me and with one another. The game provides a leaderboard at the end for quick identification, but an individual class leaderboard could also be easily generated as a class. Once the students recognize the organism's shape and possible coloration and patterns, they will become invested in finding the organisms in the real images of habitats. The games can be utilized to introduce and reinforce observational skills or prior to evolution or ecology laboratories. For example, "Find the Camouflaged Moth" uses a simple triangular moth shape to see whether coloration or a particular pattern can evade predators more successfully. "Evolving Bugs" employs a beetle image to study whether a particular pattern optimizes camouflage. When introducing variation in a population, natural selection, and differential survival and reproduction, these games are perfect and contribute to a larger research endeavor. One of the highlights of these citizen science games is the ability to differentiate them for all grade levels. For example, "Spot the Hares" or "Frog Finder" can be utilized by lower elementary school students as they spot the hares or frogs among the field sites. Younger students can test their identification speed with a race against the clock and a chance to obtain a high score on the leaderboard, whereas an older student may connect the ability to spot the hare to climate change that could alter the snowy landscape over time. Furthermore, students can access the official publications and connect the games to the field studies, which enables the games to evolve into another educational opportunity for reading and evaluating scientific literature. When one thinks of camouflage, plants are not usually considered. However, one of the games, "Spot the Plant," focuses on plant evolution of fritillaries used as medicinal plants in southwest China. This game is unique, in that one can play the game as a human or a yak. It is interesting to see how the selective pressure varies when the predators' vision differs. As children explore the natural world, the classic hide-and-seek games can demonstrate the universal biological importance of observation, camouflage, and visual acuity. Biological principles and NGSS standards of natural selection, adaptation, environmental conditions, and biodiversity are evident in these citizen science games through Sensory Ecology & Evolution. A fun, competitive childhood game evolves into a research study worthy of further exploration.


In e-business, creating a common vocabulary for business integration, interoperation and interaction has to consider the heterogeneity reality of different interpretations from multiple term providers. Maintaining semantic consistency between multiple vocabulary providers is a difficult problem. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel cross-context collaborative vocabulary editing approach. This approach introduces a semantically consistent representation for terms, vocabularies and operations. It presents a cross-context semantic consistency maintenance model. To satisfy this model, it achieves context commonality by proposing a distributed, two-layered, role-based, and partially-replicated system architecture. It achieves concept equivalence by collaborative term mapping, multi-copy and arbitration. It satisfies structure mappability through a novel term identifier scheme. An integrated DO-scheme of ADD, MODIFY, DELETE and ARBITRATE has been devised to discuss an integrated solution to cross-context semantic consistency maintenance. The proposed vocabulary editing system has been implemented in a CHCES system.


Stress may be an important variable affecting the survival of the captured hares, for this reason the Authors studied the effect of the use of a blindfolding hood applied to the hares immediately after net trapping. A total of 119 hares were captured by coursing with 3-4 dogs (greyhounds or lurchers) in no hunting areas of Tuscany. Immediately after net trapping 38 hares were blindfolded with a hood and 81 were normally handled to the wooden darkened capture-boxes without blinding their eyes (control). From all the hares a sample of blood was collected within 1-2 min by the auricular vein. Blood samples were analyzed for haemocromocytometry and metabolic profile determination. Data were analyzed by ANOVA. Sub-clinically stressed hares were discriminated from nonstressed hares by the use of the discriminant function based on CK, AST and glucose and the differences were tested by χ 2 c. Results showed that body temperature, heart and respiratory rates, glucose, cholesterol, CK, AST, ALT, BUN, total protein and some haemocromo-cytometric parameters were significantly higher in captured hares without blindfold. The incidence of subclinically stressed hares was 26% in the hares equipped with the blindfold and 81% in the hares without blindfold (χ 2 c = 32.98,


Purpose: This case study and evidence-based analysis aims to determine if pressure garment therapy (PGT) is more effective than no pressure or other modalities for the treatment of hypertrophic scars in burned patients. Background: PGT has been a first-line conservative therapy for hypertrophic scarring since the early 1970s, however the research presents conflicting results and lacks consistency with study characteristics. With a myriad of possible side effects and limitations, research on PGT needs to be reanalyzed and its true potential determined. Case Description: The patient selected for this case study and analysis is a 49-year-old woman, admitted to the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) on June 20th, 2012, with full thickness burns on approximately 86% of her total body surface area. Her long term treatment will need to include interventions for abnormal scar formation, which will most likely include PGT. Outcomes: A review of the current literature revealed that PGT can reduce the thickness or height of hypertrophic scars with the greatest effects seen in the first month of treatment. PGT has no statistically significant effect on erythema, pruritus or rigidity. The mechanism of action and optimal pressure for garments remains hypothetical. Integrating the results from all the included studies became apparently unlikely as each study varied considerably and many essential characteristics were commonly not reported. Discussion: The overall quality of the current research is poor and consistently lacks good external validity. While PGT was shown to have no effect on all the characteristics of hypertrophic scars, additional benefits may exist. These possible benefits, the potential side effects and cost should all be considered and discussed with the patient before prescribing PGT for hypertrophic scarring. Pressure Garment Therapy and Hypertrophic Burn Scars 2


Fusion-evaporation reactions induced by 110 MeV 11 B and radioactive 11 C on 87 Rb targets have been studied by measuring evaporation residue–light particle coincidences. The proton to a particle ratio in each reaction has been derived and compared with predictions from statistical model calculations. These calculations account rather well for the experimental data, when a small empirical adjustment of the emission barrier is performed, in agreement with earlier results. No evidence is found for predicted temperature and isospin modification of the binding energies. The possibility of a further study of isospin and temperature dependent effects in fusion-evaporation reactions with radioactive beams is discussed


In this study, the viability, performance, and characteristics of a turbojet-to-turbofan conversion through the use of a continuously variable transmission (CVT) are investigated. By an in-house thermodynamic simulation code, the performance of the simple cycle turbojet, a direct shaft joined turbofan, and a CVT coupled turbofan with variable bypass are contrasted. The baseline turbojet and turbofan findings are validated against a commercial software. The comparison indicates high quantitative agreement.Analyzing the results of the turbofan engine equipped with a variable bypass and CVT, it is observed that both the thrust and the efficiency are increased. The augmented thrust is observed to be an artifact of enhanced component matching and wider operational range introduced by variable bypass capability. On the other hand, the introduction of CVT contributes to the reduction in fuel consumption. Therefore, the current research suggests that adaptation of a micro-turbojet into a variable cycle micro turbofan will greatly improve the performance and efficiency of existing engines, in addition to providing a pathway towards extended use in various applications.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


Deisotoping, or the process of removing peaks in a mass spectrum resulting from the incorporation of naturally occurring heavy isotopes, has long been used to reduce complexity and improve the effectiveness of spectral annotation methods in proteomics. We have previously described MSFragger, an ultrafast search engine for proteomics, that did not utilize deisotoping in processing input spectra. Here, we present a new, high-speed parallelized deisotoping algorithm, based on elements of several existing methods, that we have incorporated into the MSFragger search engine. Applying deisotoping with MSFragger reveals substantial improvements to database search speed and performance, particularly for complex methods like open or nonspecific searches. Finally, we evaluate our deisotoping method on data from several instrument types and vendors, revealing a wide range in performance and offering an updated perspective on deisotoping in the modern proteomics environment.


We compute a class of Sarkisov links from Fano 3-folds embedded in weighted Grassmannians using explicit methods for describing graded rings associated to a variation of geometric invariant theory (GIT) quotient.


: Controlled experiments are commonly used in technology companies for product development, algorithm improvement, marketing strategy evaluation, etc. These experiments are usually run for a short period of time to enable fast business/product iteration. Due to the relatively short lifecycle of these experiments, key business metrics that span a longer window cannot be calculated and compared among different variations of these experiments. This is essentially a treatment effect prediction issue. Research in this paper focuses on experiments in the offline-payment business at Ant Financial. Experiments in this area are usually run for one or two weeks, sometimes even shorter, yet the accumulating window of key business metrics such as payment days, payment counts is one month. In this paper, we apply the classic BG/NBD model(Fader et al., 2005) in marketing to predict users payment behavior based on data collected from the relatively short experimentation periods. The predictions are then used to evaluate the impact on the key business metrics. We compare this method with supervised learning methods and direct modelling of treatment effect as a time series. We show the advantage of the proposed method using data collected from plenty of controlled experiments in Ant Financial. The proposed technique has been integrated into Ant Financial experimentation reporting platform, where metrics based on the predictions are one of the auxiliary evaluation criteria in offline-payment experiments.


The optic lobes of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster form a highly wired neural network composed of roughly 130.000 neurons of more than 80 different types. How neuronal diversity arises from very few cell progenitors is a central question in developmental neurobiology. We use the optic lobe of the fruit fly as a paradigm to understand how neuroblasts, the neural stem cells, generate multiple neuron types. Although the development of the fly brain has been the subject of extensive research, very little is known about the lineage relationships of the cell types forming the adult optic lobes. Here we perform a large-scale lineage bioinformatics analysis using the graph theory. We generated a large collection of cell clones that genetically label the progeny of neuroblasts and built a database to draw graphs showing the lineage relationships between cell types. By establishing biological criteria that measures the strength of the neuronal relationships and applying community detection tools we have identified eight clusters of neurons. Each cluster contains different cell types that we pose are the product of eight distinct classes of neuroblasts. Three of these clusters match the available lineage data, supporting the predictive value of the analysis. Finally, we show that the neuronal progeny of a neuroblast do not have preferential innervation patterns, but instead become part of different layers and neuropils. Here we establish a new methodology that helps understanding the logic of Drosophila brain development and can be applied to the more complex vertebrate brains.


In this paper we describe and investigate a new self-tuning metaheuristic approach called Co-Operation of Biology Related Algorithms (COBRA) based on five well-known nature-inspired optimization methods such as Particle Swarm Optimization, Wolf Pack Search, Firefly Algorithm, Bat Algorithm and Cuckoo Search Algorithm. Besides, two modifications of COBRA are introduced. Also new metaheuristic was used for adjustment of neural network's weight coefficients for solving different classification problems.


Biogenic Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most fascinating nanomaterials used in biomedical purposes. In the current study, we biosynthesized AgNPs using Arthrospira platensis, Microcystis aeruginosa and Chlorella vulgarisactive metabolites and evaluate their efficacy against breast cancer. The recovered AgNPs was characterized using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). The safety usage of bio-AgNPs was tested in-vitro on PBMCs cells and in-vivo. The obtained results indicated the safety usage of bio-AgNPs at concentration 0.1 mg/ml on PBMCs cells and 1.5mg/ml on the tested Albino mice. The bio-AgNPs displayed dose-dependent cytotoxicity (0.1 mg/ml) against HepG-2, CaCO-2 and MCF-7 cell lines via ROS induction and arresting treated cells in G0/G1 and sub G0 phases. In addition, Arthrospira bio-AgNPs treatment induced cellular apoptosis in breast cancer cells via the down regulation of survivin, MMP7, TGF and Bcl2 genes expressions. Upon Arthrospira bio-AgNPs treatment, a great delay in tumor growth and prolonged survival were recorded in breast cancer mice model. Furthermore, after Arthrospira bio-AgNPs treatment, a great reduction in Ki 67 protein marker from 60% to be 20% and was recorded and an elevation in Caspase 3 protein levels was recorded in treated groups with percentage 65% comparing with 45% in Doxorubicin treated groups.


Interstitial light delivery for therapeutic applications requires the use of fibre-based light diffusers. Such diffusers are presently manufactured to emit with a flat longitudinal power profile. Recently, diffusers with tailored longitudinal emission profiles have become available opening an avenue to improve conformal light delivery. This paper explores the ability of tailored diffusers to improve light dose confinement to the target volume. A formalism to calculate the light dose from an arbitrary source distribution is presented based on the convolution with an appropriate point source function. By choosing a source distribution corresponding to a cylindrical diffuser emitting with a sinusoidal profile, the set of attainable light dose distributions is characterized via a relationship between the diffuser's spatial frequency, the radial distance and the amplitude of the isodose contour.


The amyloid is a hyaline deposit appearing in the cells of some tissues and organs during immunosupression caused by persistent chronic infections in birds. For demonstrating the amyloid substance in livers affected by the chronic respiratory disease (CRD), eight White Leghorn laying hens were slaughtered and necropsy was applied. The liver fragments were processed with Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) and visualized by optic microscopy. The presence of the amyloid substance was confirmed with special stain (violet crystal) and the bacteriological study was carried out. The principal microscopic injuries present in the livers of the birds affected by CRD were: hyperplasia of the lymphoid tissue around the portal space in five livers from which Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. were isolated and the non stimulation of lymphoid with amyloid deposits in three livers from which only E. coli was isolated. The results obtained demonstrated the presence of amyloid deposits in livers infected by E. coli, where the lymphoid tissue stimulation was not found.


A novel, simple, direct, and selective stability- indicating GC/MS procedure was developed for the determination of the anti-ischemic drug trimetazidine dihydrochloride (TMZ) in the presence of two of its related substances (potential impurities), namely, 2,3,4-trimethoxybenzyl alcohol (T1) and 2,3,4-trimethoxybenzaldehyde (T2). The method involved resolution of the undeilvatized compounds using a 100% dimethylpolysiloxane (Rtx-1) capillary column, and MS detection was carried out in the electron-impact mode. The peaks of the three compounds eluted at retention times 11.69, 11.92, and 15.47 min for T1, T2, and TMZ, respectively. Quantification of the parent drug TMZ was based on measuring its peak area. The reliability and analytical performance of the proposed method, including linearity, range, precision, accuracy, selectivity, detection, and quantification limits, were statistically validated. The calibration curve of TMZ was linear over the range 100-600 μg/mL. The proposed method was successfully applied to the assay of TMZ in several commercially available pharmaceutical formulations with recoveries not lessthan 96.2%.


A nanodiamonds-based anti-cancer drug targeted delivery system, Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF)–nanodiamonds (NDs)–cisplatin (ENC) bioconjugate was developed. Due to the effect of the specific biorecognition process of EGF (a kind of targeting molecule), human liver hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells could be selectively killed by the ENC system, even in a lower concentration of the cisplatin (a kind of anti-cancer drug) comparing to the traditional drug therapy. The cytotoxicity of ENC could be blocked by EGFR antibody in cancer cells, revealing the specificity of its targeting ability. Because the morphological change of HepG2 cells treated by ENC was observed, from epithelial to mesenchymal-like shape, the related mechanism was evaluated. The results showed that E-cadherin expression declined after ENC treatment, while vimentin expression did not change. The decrease of E-cadherin expression means the loss of cell–cell adhesion. Loose cells provided more specific surface area for drug absorption. Based on these advantages, ENC delivery system would be a promising targeting drug delivery system. Moreover, we located the spatial distribution of ENC system in cells by using the NDs existing in ENC as Raman probe through 3-dimensional (3D) confocal Raman imaging, i.e., we were able to visualize the process of uptake of ENC into living cancer cells, which is helpful to observe the specific biorecognition process between EGF and its receptor (EGFR) in a physiology condition and the cellular uptake of ENC drug delivery system. The present study demonstrates that drug-loaded NDs have a potential as novel intravascular probes for both diagnostic (e.g., imaging) and therapeutic purposes (e.g., targeted drug delivery).


textabstractDrawing on elements of a political economy framework, this paper addresses two
inter-related questions with regard to economic growth and public expenditure
patterns in Morocco. The main factors that help explain Morocco's relatively slow
economic growth for the last few decades have to do with problems of:
• representation (policy makers mainly represented their own and family/clan
interests rather than the public at large);
• coordination (coordination among ministries is constrained by the centralized
nature of information and power); and
• commitment (to the trade and economic liberalization as well as privatization
policies, linked to rent seeking activities by certain interests groups).
An overarching trend is the disproportionate influence of political considerations on economic decisions. The paper illustrates this point with numerous examples,
including the tax exemption of the agricultural sector.
The second part of the paper identifies the main causes of Morocco's disappointing
social development indicators compared to other middle-income countries. These
causes are mainly linked to unsatisfactory outcomes in the education sector, and
weak pro-poor targeting of government programs, which can in turn be explained by
political economy imperatives discussed in the first part of the paper.


Three polyether, ionophorous anticoccidial drugs were fed to broiler chickens in floor pens for 5 or 6 weeks, then withdrawn for 2 weeks or 1 week, respectively. With monensin and salinomycin there was evidence of increased feed consumption and compensatory growth during the first week, but not the second week, after drug withdrawal. There was no evidence of compensatory growth in birds fed lasalocid. Final weights were best in birds fed lasalocid and salinomycin in comparison with unmedicated controls and birds fed monensin. There was evidence of increased feed consumption and compensatory growth in some treatments in which birds weighed more than controls prior to drug withdrawal.


Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of organ cancer among males in Turkey as well as all over the world. The gold standard method for histopathological diagnosis of prostate cancer is Trans rectal Ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy. Today, the most common indications for prostate biopsy are suspicious findings on digital rectal examination and increased serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) level. Although there is no generally accepted guideline regarding the preparation and performing prostate biopsies, it has been reported that prostate cancer is detected at different frequencies with different techniques. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of prostate cancer detected in patients undergoing TRUS-guided prostate biopsy and its relationship with patient characteristics and technique. Materials and methods: Patients, who had undergone TRUSguided prostate biopsy between January 2003 and December 2007 at the Urology Department of Mersin University Faculty of Medicine, were enrolled in the study. All patients were standardly prepared before the biopsy and at least 12 pieces of biopsy specimens were obtained during the procedure. Results: A total of 906 biopsies were performed in 832 patients. The mean age of the patients was 67.2±8.7 years. Sixty-two patients (6.8%) had undergone biopsy two-times and 12 patients (1.3%) had undergone the procedure 3-times. Prostate cancer detection rates were 29.4% in first biopsies and 12.9% in second biopsies. No cancer was detected in any of the patients who had undergone the third prostate biopsy. When evaluated according to years, the prostate cancer detection rates were found to be 16.5%, 30.2%, 25.1%, 31% and 30.1% from 2003 to 2007, respectively. Prostate cancer rates were 19% and 8.6% in patients with normal (n = 573) and suspicious (n = 259) digital rectal examination findings. When the rates of prostate cancer according to PSA values were evaluated, the prostate cancer rates in patients with serum PSA <4 ng / ml, 4-10 ng / ml and > 10 ng / ml were found to be 4.8%, 17.9% and 47%, respectively. Conclusion: Prostate cancer, the rate of which has increased in recent years, responds very well to treatment when diagnosed early. Our findings, in particular, the frequent use of PSA and advances in biopsy techniques have been shown to be important factors in the increase in prostate cancer detection rates. Our findings show that a number of factors, especially more frequent measurement of PSA and improvements in biopsy techniques play important roles in the increase in prostate cancer detection rates. Citation: Erdem E. Evaluation of Prostate Cancer Detection Rates in Patients Undergoing Transrectal Ultrasound (TRUS) Guided Prostate Biopsy. J Cancer Sci. 2018;5(1): 4. J Cancer Sci 5(1): 4 (2018) Page 02 ISSN: 2377-9292 Urology Outpatient Clinic, with lower urinary tract and / or other urological complaints and undergone TRUS-guided prostate biopsy between January 2003 and December 2007 due to high serum PSA or abnormal rectal digital examination findings. All patients had undergone digital rectal examination and serum PSA had been measured on admission. The TRUS-guided prostate volumes were calculated. Serum PSA values were evaluated based on the reference PSA intervals of the patient's age group. All patients had been informed about the procedure and 12-core biopsy protocol had been carried out. Ciprofloxacin 500 mg was administered intravenously to all patients at night prior to the biopsy and on the morning of the biopsy and repeated every 12 hours for 3 days. A rectal enema was applied to all patients before biopsy. Prostate biopsies were performed using an 18 Gauge x 20 cm biopsy needle and automatic biopsy gun (Angiotech Tru-Core I, U.S.A) guided by a 7.5 MHz rectal probe (Siemens Sonoline Adara, Germany) with the patient lying on left lateral decubitus position. All core biopsy specimens were sent to the pathology laboratory in separate tubes. Statistical analysis The Chi-Square test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Shapiro-Wilk test and the Independent samples T test were used for the statistical analyses of the data. For the statistical analysis, the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Standard Version Package for Windows Release 11.5.1 was used. The Microsoft Office Standard Edition for students and Teachers, Microsoft ® Office Excel 2003 module was used as a second tool. Ethical Issues This study was approved by the Mersin University Medical Faculty Ethics Committee (dated 24.01.2008, numbered 2008/04).


Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototypic autoimmune disease, where the treatment includes corticosteroids, DMARD-s and newly developed biological agents, but we often face drug resistance and thus inefficiency. One particular mechanism of loss of drug efficacy is multi-drug resistance (MDR), i.e. over-activity of drug efflux pumps, that belongs to the ATP binding cassette super family, such as ABCB1 (P-gp, MDR1), ABCC1 (MRP1) and ABCG2 (BCRP, MXR). Results from the literature reveal that expressions of different transporters are correlating with disease activity in different lymphocytes populations, but data from functional activities have conflicting results. Objectives Determination of functional activity of the MDR transporters in newly recognized not treated "naïve" active, active and inactive patients with SLE, comparison the results with the data of healthy individuals. Study the effect of corticosteroid and DMARD therapies on the activity of the MDR transporters. Methods PBMC-s of patients with SLE and control populations were isolated, then CD3 positive cells were further investigated via a flow cytometric analysis. The activity of the multidrug transporter (MAF) was calculated from the difference between the mean fluorescent intensity of cells without the specific inhibitors, respectively. MAF was determined in the study populations before and after corticosteroid and/or DMARD treatments (active groups), or once (inactive and control groups). The SOLVO MDQ Kit™ was used to detect the functional activity of clinically relevant MDR1, MRP1 and BCRP efflux transporters in the cells. Results The CD3+ cells of total number of 87 patients with SLE were investigated. 12 patients were therapy free "naïve" active (SLEDAI: 12.5), 12 patients were previously treated, but currently active patients (SLEDAI: 7.58) and 63 patients were in inactive phase of the disease (SLEDAI: 2.64). Lymphocytes of 120 age and sex matched healthy individuals were tested as a control population. We could detect, that the MAF results of the SLE patients were comparable to the control population. We could not find significant differences in the three different patient populations, regarding the transporter activity. No significant correlations were found between the disease activity, i.e. SLEDAI score, and the transporter activities. Analyzing the therapy naïve active population revealed that corticosteroid treatment significantly decreased disease activity but no changes were detected in the functional activity of the transporters. Similarly, new DMARD therapy introduction in the active patients did not alter the MAF results of the transporters. Conclusions Our data suggest that neither disease activity, nor immunosuppressant treatment modify functional activity of MDR transporters in the CD3 positive T-cells of patients with SLE. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Purpose The effect of oral hypoglycemic agents on fluorine-18-flurodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake is less understood than the effect of exogenous insulin. In this study, the effect of withholding metformin on 18F-FDG distribution in subsequent PET imaging was evaluated. Patients and methods A retrospective observational study was carried out. A total of 15 patients taking metformin were grouped according to the time interval from the last dose of metformin to 18F-FDG-PET. Those who received PET after stopping metformin for less than 24 h were compared with those stopping metformin 24–48 h before PET. The 18F-FDG uptake and PET image fidelity for these groups were compared qualitatively and the associated blood glucose was recorded. The average standardized uptake value of the liver, tongue, and subcutaneous tissues among the groups were also compared. Results The 18F-FDG-PET distribution and image quality were found to be the best at time points greater than 24 h following metformin dose. There was significantly increased 18F-FDG uptake in the liver and tongue and tongue-to-liver ratio in patients who had metformin within 24 h of 18F-FDG-PET compared with those who last had metformin greater than 24 h before 18F-FDG-PET; however, the 18F-FDG uptake in the subcutaneous tissues was unchanged. Conclusion Less than 24 h between metformin dose and 18F-FDG-PET resulted in increased muscle and fat uptake in addition to increased bowel uptake. Abnormal 18F-FDG uptake can limit the diagnostic quality of an exam and affect 18F-FDG uptake in cancer. The emerging role of biguanides in the treatment of cancer calls for more personalized standardization for 18F-FDG-PET in the presence of oral hypoglycemic agents.


Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) from healthy volunteers were tested for ADCC activity against both erythrocyte and tumor targets with and without the addition of human leukocyte interferon (IFN). It was demonstrated that IFN within 30 to 60 min enhanced the reaction in a dose-dependent manner with minimal IFN doses ranging from 1 to 100 units. Formal proof that the augmenting agent was IFN was obtained by using pure IFN proteins in combination with both mock-IFN preparations, which showed no enhancing activity, and anti-IFN antisera, which inhibited the action of the completely purified IFN proteins. In the light of data demonstrating that the IFN effect was most pronounced when the IgG antibodies in the ADCC reaction were present in suboptimal amounts, it is hypothesized that IFN may play a special role in the early nonspecific immune response against non-self antigens.


Companies increasingly demand ambidexterity from their employees, the ability to flexibly switch between exploitation (use and refine existing competencies) and exploration (explore new opportunities and create new knowledge) (Holmqvist & Spicer, 2012). From a job design perspective, ambidexterity is seen as a valuable form of job enrichment that can increase employee creativity, innovation and motivation (T. J. M. Mom et al., 2018; Parker, 2014). However, studies have also indicated that the demand for ambidexterity may lead to frustration, anger and stress among employees (Karhu, 2017; T. Keller & Weibler, 2015; Laureiro-Martínez, Brusoni, & Zollo, 2010). Despite these warnings, the possible negative impact on employee well-being has received little attention in the literature (Agnihotri et al., 2017; Caniëls & Veld, 2016; Tempelaar & Rosenkranz, 2017). This thesis addresses this research gap. Taking into account the moderating effect of the Big Five personality traits as well as the team climate, the influence of the demand for ambidexterity on on middle managers' well-being is investigated. The impact of the demand for ambidexterity on well-being was investigated using the data from an anonymous online survey of administrative middle managers from different divisions and professions of Swiss Post. The analysis of data from the 1,657 participants suggests that the demand for ambidexterity does not generally pose a particular threat to middle managers' well-being. However, the results also suggest that the demand for ambidexterity does not have a positive impact on psychological well-being. It was also found that personality, in contrast to team climate, has a significant moderating effect. Concretely, it was found that extraversion positively influences the impact of the demand for ambidexterity on middle managers' well-being, while the personality traits conscientiousness and neuroticism have a negative influence. This research provides a significant contribution by closing a long-known research gap. The findings on the role of personality traits further contribute to the advancement of the individual ambidexterity theory. The research provides equally valuable insights for practice. Employers have been in the dark about the effect of the demand for ambidexterity among their middle managers. The findings from this research inform employers that by introducing ambidextrous jobs, they are not generally putting their middle managers at significant risk, nor are they promoting their well-being. Furthermore, the finding of this research that the two personality traits conscientiousness and neuroticism tend to have a negative impact on psychological well-being when ambidexterity is demanded, and extraversion does the opposite is of great importance for employers. Since psychological assessments based on the five-factor model of personality are a common tool in the recruitment process, employers are now able to systematically select middle managers for ambidextrous jobs.


Fascin 1 is an actin-bundling protein that is dramatically overexpressed in a variety of invasive tumors and thought to have a critical role in cancer cell metastasis. However, as a drug target it is highly challenging due to its mechanism of protein-protein interaction and the lack of knowledge around the critical actin-binding sites. Using a fragment-based approach, biophysical assay screening and X-ray crystallography, we have been able to identify and optimize novel fascin 1 inhibitors. Furthermore we have developed robust and reproducible biochemical binding and bundling assays which have allowed us to develop ligands with submicromolar affinity. Fascin 1 cross-links filamentous actin (F-actin) into parallel bundles that are involved in the formation of dynamic cellular protrusions (such as lamellipodia and filopodia) used during cell migration. It also contributes to the formation of actin-rich finger-like protrusions, termed invadopodia, that tumor cell lines use to degrade the tumor extracellular matrix (ECM). Fascin 1 expression is low or absent in normal epithelia but is dramatically increased in a variety of tumor types including bladder, colon, lung, ovarian and pancreas. Its increased expression is associated with the most aggressive and metastatic tumor types and has been shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of poor clinical outcome. Fascin knockdown has been shown to reduce tumor cell invasion both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting fascin as a valid target for small molecule inhibitors. We have utilized a fragment-based screening approach incorporating surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to identify small molecules that bind to fascin 1. Our fragment library (∼1000 compounds) yielded 53 hit compounds that were confirmed by dose-response. Using these hits, X-ray co-crystallography identified four independent ligand binding sites within fascin. We have concentrated our efforts on one site, a deeply enclosed pocket between fascin domains 1 and 2. A number of fragment hits and commercial analogues were found to bind in this pocket and open a channel towards the surface of the protein. Subsequent virtual screening studies identified BDP-00010834, a compound which binds in this pocket with an SPR Kd of 29.7μM. Moreover, BDP-00010834 shows activity (IC50 = 50μM) in a functional biochemical screening assay that measures fascin-mediated F-actin bundling. Structure-based optimization together with X-ray co-crystallography has generated compounds with a 25- to 50-fold increase in both binding affinity and functional activity over this screening hit. Best-in-series compounds include BDP-00011163 (Kd = 1.2μM, IC50 = 0.8μM) and BDP-00011165 (Kd = 0.6μM, IC50 = 1.1μM). Citation Format: Daniel Croft, Stuart Francis, Alexander Schuettelkopf, Charles Parry, Gillian Goodwin, Angelo Pugliese, Laura McDonald, Maeve Clarke, Andrew Pannifer, Jen Lonsdale, Christopher Gray, Justin Bower, Heather McKinnon, Laura Machesky, Martin Drysdale. A fragment-based approach towards the identification of small molecule inhibitors of fascin 1. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr A113.


Abstract Most studies on urban land values focus on the determinants, using hedonic land price models with the consideration of the physical and socio-economic factors. This article employs geostatistical methods to analyze urban land values. Through a case study of Milwaukee, we set up semivariogram models and 3-D TIN surface models for urban land values, and explore anisotropy characteristics and the relationships of land values among different types of land use. We have found that spatial dependency is a salient feature of urban land values, and spatial clustering of land values varies with type and location of land use. Our models can detect and well explain spatial autocorrelations of urban land values. We demonstrate that geostatistical methods have a great potential when applied in the urban context.


Neural ordinary differential equations (NODE) present a new way of considering a deep residual network as a continuous structure by layer depth. However, it fails to overcome its representational limits, where it cannot learn all possible homeomorphisms of input data space, and therefore quickly saturates in terms of performance even as the number of layers increases. Here, we show that simply stacking Neural ODE blocks could easily improve performance by alleviating this issue. Furthermore, we suggest a more effective way of training neural ODE by using a time-evolving mixture weight on multiple ODE functions that also evolves with a separate neural ODE. We provide empirical results that are suggestive of improved performance over stacked as well as vanilla neural ODEs where we also confirm our approach can be orthogonally combined with recent advances in neural ODEs.


Guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (GC-A/NPRA) signaling antagonizes the physiological effects mediated by the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). The objective of this study was to determine whether the targeted-disruption of Npr1 gene (coding for GC-A/NPRA) leads to the activation of cardiac RAS genes involved on the hypertrophic remodeling process. The Npr1 gene-knockout (Npr1(-/-)) mice showed 30-35 mmHg higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) and a 63% greater heart weight-to-body weight (HW/BW) ratio compared with wild-type (Npr1(+/+)) mice. The mRNA levels of both angiotensin-converting enzyme and angiotensin II type 1a receptor were increased by three- and fourfold, respectively, in Npr1(-/-) null mutant mice hearts compared with the wild-type Npr1(+/+) mice hearts. In parallel, the expression levels of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha were increased by four- to fivefold, in Npr1(-/-) mice hearts compared with control animals. The NF-kappaB binding activity in nuclear extracts of Npr1(-/-) mice hearts was increased by fourfold compared with wild-type Npr1(+/+) mice hearts. Treatments with captopril or hydralazine equally attenuated SBP; however, only captopril significantly decreased the HW/BW ratio and suppressed cytokine gene expression in Npr1(-/-) mice hearts. The ventricular cGMP level was reduced by almost sixfold in Npr1(-/-) mice compared with wild-type control mice. The results of the present study indicate that disruption of NPRA/cGMP signaling leads to the augmented expression of cardiac RAS pathways that promote the development of cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling.


Novel ionic shape memory polymer (SMP) gels were fabricated using SMPs and ionic liquids (ILs) of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMI-TFSI) at different weight ratios (WIL). The shape memory effect and sensor performance of the ionic SMP gels were investigated by means of thermomechanical and mechanoelectrical analyses. It was found that the ionic SMP gel at WIL = 25 wt% showed a shape memory effect with the shape fixing ratio (Rf) and shape recovery ratio (Rr) of 72.7% and 72.9%, respectively. Upon bending, the ionic SMP gel sensors with PEDOT:PSS electrodes generated an open circuit voltage of 3.3 mV and a charge of 1.6 nC which linearly increased with increasing bending displacement and velocity, respectively. Furthermore, the wearable shape memory multifunctional sensor array was demonstrated as a self-powered motion sensor for IoT applications.


There has been substantial recent interest in shortening dry periods; however, the effects of this management change on reproduction have not been adequately evaluated. Holstein cows (n = 58) were assigned in a randomized block design to 1 of 3 treatments: 1) traditional (T) dry period (approximately 56 d) in which cows were fed a low energy diet from 56 to 29 d prepartum followed by a moderate energy diet for 28 d; 2) shortened (S) dry period (approximately 28 d) in which cows were fed continuously a high energy diet; or 3) no planned (N) dry period in which cows were fed continuously a high energy diet. All cows received a high energy lactation diet after calving. Ovaries were evaluated by ultrasound and blood samples collected 3 times weekly beginning at d 6 or 7 postpartum until 7 d after second ovulation. Average days from calving until first detection of a 10-mm follicle were fewer in N (8.0 d) and S (8.9 d) than in T (10.5 d) cows. Time from calving to first ovulation was earlier in N (13.2 d) than in S (23.8 d) and T (31.9 d) cows. A greater percentage of follicles of the first follicular wave ovulated in N (89%; 16/18) than in T (42%; 8/19), with S (62%; 13/21) cows being intermediate. Double ovulation rate at the first ovulation was greater in T (61%) than N (16%), with S (35%) intermediate. No difference was detected in double ovulation rate at second ovulation (13/56). Number of cows with persistent corpus luteum (>30 d; 15/56) was not different among groups; however, short luteal phases were greater in N (28%; 5/18) than S (0%; 0/20) cows. Days to first artificial insemination were fewer in N (69.4 d) and S (68.0 d) than in T (75.0 d). First-service conception rate was greater in N (55%; 11/20) than in T (20%; 4/20), with S (26%; 6/23) cows being intermediate. Days open in pregnant cows were fewer in N (93.8 d) than in T (145.4 d), with S (121.2 d) cows being intermediate. Thus, shortening or eliminating the dry period leads to earlier postpartum ovulation and the results highlight the need for future large field studies to accurately evaluate the effect of dry period length on reproductive performance of lactating dairy cows.


It is generally acknowledged that African economies were able to withstand the 2007/2008 global economic crisis because of better macroeconomic management. Macroeconomic fundamentals, such as growth, rate of inflation and deficit/GDP ratio, among others, appear to move in the right direction during and after the crisis. In recent times, Africa's growth of about six per cent is being celebrated, despite the rising rate of unemployment, rising incidence of poverty, widening inequality and deterioration in the provision of basic needs. Both the economic performance and misery indices seem to be rising despite 'impressive' growth trajectories. The positive growth is backed by rising commodity prices with the inherent adverse implications. Regression results indicate that democracy, fiscal balance and life expectancy are positively related to growth. On the other hand, the rate of inflation and human development index show a negative relationship with growth.


Objective Because of the abundance of complications associated with peri-intubation hypoxia, maintaining adequate oxygen saturation during endotracheal intubation (ETI) is of great concern. In addition to standard preoxygenation techniques, apneic oxygenation (AO), the continuous flow of passive oxygenation, is a potential tool that can be used to eliminate hypoxia during ETI. Although scarcely studied in the pediatric population, AO has proven effective in reducing the incidence of hypoxia in adult patients with minimal side effects. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of apneic oxygenation in pediatric patients and to determine its efficacy in preventing or delaying oxygen desaturation during the apneic period of ETI. Methods This literature review examines 4 studies that evaluate the practice of AO in pediatric patients. A total of 712 patients across 3 randomized control trials and 1 observational study were assigned to either a control group that did not receive any form of AO, a group that did not receive 100% fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2), or an intervention group where various methods of AO were delivered. Results Each AO method that provided 100% FiO2 saw a significantly longer time until initial desaturation when compared with those that did not receive any form of AO or those not receiving 100% FiO2. Conclusions The findings in this study confirm that the practice of AO is not only efficacious in increasing the time until initial desaturation but also reduces the overall incidence of hypoxia during laryngoscopy in children.


Background:
The purpose of this research is to assess PMTCT intervention uptake by HIV positive pregnant mothers and to assess the degree of linkage to HIV exposed infants to care and treatment services in selected. We conducted a prospective observational study in HIV positive pregnant mothers and their new-borns attending ANC and PMTCT health services at seven health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods:
Outcome evaluations included retention to PMCTC procedures, timing of ART initiation, self-reported ART adherence using a 5-item recall questionnaire, risk factors associated with poor treatment adherence, up-take of infant nevirapine prophylaxis, HIV early infant diagnosis (EID) procedures and mother-to-child transmission rates.
Results:
Of 494 women enrolled into the study 4.9% did not complete PMTCT procedures due to active refusal or loss to follow-up. First HIV diagnosis was done in 223 (45.1%) and ART initiated in 321 (65.0%) women during pregnancy. The median time of ART initiation after HIV diagnosis was 1.3 weeks (IQR 0-4.3) and 17.4 weeks (IQR 11.7-23.9) before delivery. The majority received triple ART, except 37 (7.6%) women starting zidovudine monotherapy following Option A procedures. Poor self-reported treatment adherence was higher post-partum as compared to prior delivery (12.5% versus 7.0%, p=0.002), and significantly associated with divorced/separated marital status (RR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.8), low family income (RR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-4.1), low CD4 count (RR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0-3.0), and ART initiation during delivery (RR 2.5, 95% CI 1.1-5.6). Of 435 infants born alive 98.6% initiated nevirapine prophylaxis. The mother-to-child HIV transmission rate was 0.7%, but EID results were received only in 4.8% within 2 months, and cumulatively 46.6% within 3 months after birth.
Conclusion: High retention to PMTCT services, triple maternal ART and high uptake of infant nevirapine prophylaxis was associated with a low mother-to-child HIV transmission rate. Declining post-partum antiretroviral treatment adherence and challenges of EID linkage procedures require focused interventions.


Two cases of hypertrophic mononeuropathy were studied. This entity is characterized grossly by focal enlargement of a single peripheral nerve, and microscopically by loss of nerve fibers, fibrosis, and formation of numerous onion bulbs. Our cases were diagnosed by exploratory surgery, biopsy, and light microscopy. Electron microscopic evaluation was performed in one case. Recognition of this entity by the surgical pathologist is important, so that it can be distinguished from generalized forms of onion bulb neuropathies, most of which give a much less favorable long-term prognosis. Hypertrophic mononeuropathy has usually resulted in irreversible local neurologic deficit but, unlike the polyneuropathies, in all the previously reported cases (as well as in our two cases to date) it has remained a localized process.


The crisis of Australian-Russian relations after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the set of factors that caused it have received little attention from scholars of international affairs. The article contributes to addressing this research lacuna. It examines the 2014–2015 crisis in bilateral relations from the point of view of both Moscow and of Canberra. The author analyses the evolution of these relations before 2014 to understand whether the Ukrainian crisis was the cause of their sharp deterioration in 2014–2015, or it only accelerated the process that began much earlier. He demonstrates that Australia had no close political and economic ties with Russia, and the two countries did not consider each other as priority partners. The article finds that in 2014–2015 the Kremlin did not take into account a number of factors, such as very limited interest of Australia in commercial exchanges with Russia, Canberra's growing suspicions about Moscow's foreign policy intentions and view of Russia as a revisionist power (especially after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war), a strong sense of solidarity with the West among Australia's political elites, and Russia's increasingly worsening public image in Australia, that negatively affected Canberra's stance towards the Kremlin even before 2014, and which greatly contributed to the crisis in bilateral relations. As for future development, the author identifies two factors that may have a negative impact on Russian-Australian relations: 1) rising energy demand in China and India, making Russia and Australia potential competitors in Asia's gas markets; 2) a too close rapprochement of Moscow with Beijing, fraught with the risk of embroiling Russia in a web of conflicts in the Western Pacific.


Forty-six years after the identification of the first polyomaviruses in humans (PyV) still there are strong concerns to find new types related to pathologies of different organs in immunocompromised patients. At the time of this review, 15 PyV have been described, many of them without being clearly associated with diseases. In our country, as in much of South America, the knowledge and research of these infectious agents are insufficient, so we systematized what is known about these viruses and their relationship with different human systems with emphasis on immunocompromised and we pointed out data published in our continent. Thus, we hope to encourage the study of these infections.


We have previously shown that substantial losses of fat-soluble (FS) vitamin A from parenteral alimentation solution occur due to adsorption in the intravenous tubing and photodegradation in the bottle. This study assessed the delivery of other vitamins, viz. FS vitamin E and water-soluble (WS) vitamin C, from parenteral alimentation solution. The solution containing 2.0 ml/L of an aqueous multivitamin infusion was infused at a constant rate of 10 ml/h using a standard intravenous administration set. Multiple aliquots of the solution from the bottle and the effluent obtained sequentially in a 24-h period were analyzed for concentrations of vitamins E and C. Both vitamins remained relatively stable in the bottle. A significant amount (12%) of vitamin E was lost in the intravenous tubing. No losses of vitamin C were incurred in the intravenous tubing. The data suggest that delivery of FS vitamin E from parenteral alimentation solutions is less than optimum because of adsorptive losses. Similar losses are not encountered with WS vitamin C.


Background Chondroitin sulfate (CS), an interesting candidate for the therapeutic treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), has been shown in clinical trials to reduce swelling and effusion in knee OA. Objectives We thus aimed to further investigate the effect of CS alone or in combination with glucosamine sulfate (GS), an anti-COX-2 (celecoxib), or acetaminophen on some synovial membrane anti-angiogenic and inflammatory factors. Methods Treatment with CS (200 μg/ml; CSbBio-Active®, Bioibérica, Spain), GS (5 mM),celecoxib or acetaminophenalone, and CS in combination with the other mentioned products was investigated on human OA synovial fibroblasts in the presence or absence of IL-1β at 10 and 100 pg/ml. To determine whether CS has an additional effect with celecoxib or acetaminophen, preliminary experiments were performed to find concentrations of these products that induced about a 50% reduction in prostaglandin E2 production under IL-1β at 100 pg/ml. A concentration of 10 nM was found for celecoxib and 25 μM for acetaminophen.The expression levels (real time PCR) and/or protein production of vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI),thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1),hyaluronic acid (HA), secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2), and cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) were determined using specific primers (expression) and ELISAs (protein). Results On the anti-angiogenic factors VEGI and TSP-1, IL-1β dose-dependently decreased their levels. On cells under basal conditions or treated with IL-1β, CS significantly induced the levels of VEGI expression and TSP-1 production. All the other products tested (GS, celecoxib, and acetaminophen) alone had no effect or decreased these anti-angiogenic factors, but in conjunction with CS their levels were significantly increased. HA production was slightly but significantly increased by IL-1β at 10 pg/ml and a heightened induction was found at 100 pg/ml. CS significantly increased HA under basal conditions and in the presence of IL-1β at 10 pg/ml. GS had no effect and celecoxib and acetaminophen significantly decreased it. Concomitant incubation of CS with GS, celecoxib, or acetaminophen significantly increased HA production. Interestingly, sPLA2, which is considered an anti-inflammatory (resolving) factor, demonstrated a significant decrease under IL-1β. Incubation with CS alone and in conjunction with celecoxib or acetaminophen significantly increased its level. The inflammatory factor cPLA2 showed significantly decreased expression levels by CS, GS, and the combination of CS and GS. IL-1β markedly and significantly increased it at both concentrations and under IL-1β, CS alone had no effect, but in combination with GS, its level was significantly reduced. Conclusions The anti-inflammatory effect of CS appears to occur through a number of mechanisms including the increased level of the anti-angiogenic factors TSP-1 and VEGI as well as sPLA2, a factor associated with an anti-inflammatory effect, and through increasing HA production and decreasing cPLA2. Importantly, these effects of CS occurred in the presence of other products, even though those products alone had no or a reverse effect. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


This paper attempts to study the propagating characteristics of acoustic signals emitted from the breakdown of air using time domain numerical model. Acoustic emissions are produced by high voltage faults such as partial discharge and surface discharge. Study of such emissions has become popular among researchers because of the promising correlation between partial and surface discharges and its byproduct, acoustic signal emission. In this paper, propagation characteristics of acoustic signals are studied using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. Multiple monitoring points are placed within a designated computation space at different distance away from a source.


The effects of dopamine agonists and antagonists on baclofen antinociception were examined in mice using the tail-flick test. Injection of different doses of baclofen (5-10 mg/kg, i.p.) produced dose-related antinociception. This effect was decreased in animals treated with SKF 38393 (8 mg/kg, i.p.) or apomorphine (2 mg/kg, s.c.). The inhibitory responses of both SKF 38393 and apomorphine were decreased in animals pretreated with SCH 23390 (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.). Bromocriptine (1 mg/kg, i.p.), or lower doses of apomorphine (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.), did not alter the baclofen-induced antinociception. Antinociception induced by baclofen (5-10 mg/kg, i.p.) was decreased in animals pretreated with sulpiride (10 mg/kg, i.p.) but not by SCH 23390 (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.). Administration of apomorphine, SKF 38393, bromocriptine or sulpiride alone did not change the latency in the tail-flick test, but SCH 23390 induced a slight but significant antinociception. On the basis of the above findings, it may be concluded that D-1 receptor activation can decrease the baclofen antinociceptive effect.


Bladder cancer is the second most commonly occurring cancer of the genitourinary tract. Transitional carcinoma of the bladder, the most prevalent type, is very aggressive and can metastasize early (1). The most frequent sites of bladder cancer metastases are the lymph nodes, liver, lung, bone, and adrenal gland. Bladder cancer is rarely reported to metastasize to the temporal bone (1% of cases) (2). The most common primary tumors that metastasize to the temporal bone are breast (10%), lung (6%), and prostate (5%). In this study, a case of metastatic tumor of the temporal bone from transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder will be presented.


Vascular parkinsonism is the second cause of secondary parkinsonism, and can cause a complex clinical syndrome. In spite of this, it is not common to find an isolated vascular injury in the mesencephalic region, and even rarer for it to give rise to clinical parkinsonism. We present the case of a young patient who developed left hemiparkinsonism with a fluctuating clinical evolution and unpredictable response to the treatment after suffering right mesencephalic bleeding. Structural and functional neuroimaging techniques showed injury on the mesencephalic level and no uptake in the right striatal region, respectively.


Long‐term effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on the ammonia‐oxidizing and denitrifying bacteria in a grassland soil were investigated to test whether a shift in abundance of these N‐cycling microorganisms was responsible for enhanced N2O emissions under elevated atmospheric CO2. Soil samples (7.5 cm increments to 45 cm depth) were collected in 2008 from the University of Giessen Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment (GiFACE), a permanent grassland exposed to moderately elevated atmospheric CO2 (+20%) since 1998. GiFACE plots lay on a soil moisture gradient because of gradually changing depth to the underlying water table and labeled as the DRY block (furthest from water table), MED block (intermediate to water table), and WET block (nearest to water table). Mean N2O emissions measured since 1998 have been significantly higher under elevated CO2. This study sought to identify microbial and biochemical parameters that might explain higher N2O emissions under elevated CO2. Soil biochemical parameters [extractable organic carbon (EOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), NH4+, NO3−], and abundances of genes encoding the key enzymes involved in ammonia oxidation (amoA) and denitrification (nirK, nirS, nosZ) depended more on soil depth and block (underlying soil moisture gradient) than on elevated CO2. Ammonia oxidation and denitrification gene abundances, relative abundances (ratios) of nirS to nirK, of nosZ to both nirS and to nirK, and of the measured soil biochemical properties DON and NO3− tended to be lower in elevated CO2 plots as compared with ambient plots in the MED and WET blocks while the DRY block exhibited an opposite trend. High N2O emissions under elevated CO2 in the MED and WET blocks correlated with lower nosZ to nirK ratios, suggesting that increased N2O emissions under elevated CO2 might be caused by a higher proportion of N2O‐producing rather than N2O consuming (N2 producing) denitrifiers.


Here, we examined long-term synaptic plasticity in the avian auditory midbrain, a region involved in experience-dependent learning. We found that coactivation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) and type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1R) induces long-term depression (LTD) at the synapse between the central shell and the external portion of the inferior colliculus of the chicken. Although endocannabinoids are commonly thought of as presynaptic modulators, recent reports have suggested that they can also modulate the postsynaptic site. In the avian midbrain, we found that LTD is mediated by both presynaptic and postsynaptic changes. The presynaptic mechanism consists of a decrease in neurotransmitter release, whereas a depression of NMDAR-mediated current takes place on the postsynaptic side. Both the presynaptic and the postsynaptic effects depend on CB1R activation. The reduction of postsynaptic NMDAR currents represents a novel role of endocannabinoids in synaptic modulation.


This paper presents a typographical analyses and classes. Typographical analysis is an indispensable tool for machine-printed character recognition in English. This analysis is a preliminary step for character segmentation in OCR. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, word typographical classes from words are defined by the word typographical analysis. In the second part, character typographical classes from connected components are defined by the character typographical analysis. The character typographical classes are used in the character segmentation.


The Taiji program plans to utilize the laser interferometer to measure the movement at the picometer level between free-floating test masses. As the phase readout equipment, the phasemeter needs to obtain the beat note with an accuracy of μrad/Hz. The main source of noise in the phasemeter is the analog frontend of the analog to digital converter. A self-designed phasemeter prototype with a low-noise analog frontend, which includes the theme of the pilot tone correction, has been developed and tested for the Taiji program in this Note. The experimental results show that the performance of the developed phasemeter can satisfy the Taiji sensitivity requirement in the whole frequency range. The sensitivity of the board can reach 0.5 μrad/Hz in the frequency range of 0.1-1 Hz. Therefore, the prototype gives us a good model for the fully functional Taiji phasemeter.


T1D is an autoimmune disease, which may be caused by lack of insulin‐secreting β cells due to damage of autoimmune system. Living with T1D is a challenge for the child and the family; cell transplantation is a treatment option for diabetes in children. To establish a microenvironment suitable for cell growth and proliferation as well as for sustained cellular function, we used MIN‐6 β cells as seed cells and SF‐IV collagen as a 3D composite scaffold to construct artificial pancreas in this experiment. The cell viabilities were determined by MTT assay, and the response of cells to different glucose concentrations was observed by glucose stimulation test. Artificial pancreas was transplanted into the abdominal cavity of T1D mice, and the changes of blood glucose were monitored. After 10 days, insulin expression was detected by immunohistochemical method, and the claybank stained area showed effectiveness of insulin secretion. A series of experiments showed that implantation of 3D cell scaffold into the abdominal cavity can effectively control the blood glucose level of T1D mice. It also had longer‐lasting hypoglycemic effects than simple cell transplantation, which was expected to become a new method for the treatment of T1D.


Prevalence estimates of depression in AD vary greatly across studies, and a reliable result is crucial for further interventions. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to identify the prevalence of depression in AD patients. We searched PubMed and Embase, followed by data extraction, quality assessment, prevalence estimates and subgroup analyses. A total of 63 studies were included in the review. The prevalences of depression were 12.7% (CI, 8.8-17.8) and 42% (CI, 38-45) according to the DSM criteria for major depression and the specific criteria for dementia respectively. Subgroup analyses stratified by case identification showed that the prevalences of population-based stud ies were 5% (CI: 2-15) and 35% (CI: 29-41) according to the DSM criteria and the specific criteria respectively, while those of single source were 17% (CI: 11-25) and 43% (CI: 37-49). Subgroup analyses stratified by MMSE score revealed that the prevalences of severe AD were 8% (CI: 5-15) and 48% (CI: 41-54) according to the DSM criteria and the specific criteria respectively, while those of mild AD were 14% (CI: 8-24) and 40% (CI: 32- 47). In conclusion, the prevalence of depression according to the DSM criteria was lower than that of the specific criteria. Prevalence estimates conducted in population-based studies were lower compared with those in single-source studies irrespective of the screening tools. Patients with severe AD tended to have higher prevalence of depression according to the specific criteria, while the trend was opposite according to the DSM criteria. Thus, different settings and diagnostic approaches should be taken into account before estimates of depression and further interventions.


Aquatic ecosystems worldwide face growing threats from elevated levels of contaminants from human activities. Toxic levels of selenium (Se) shown to cause deformities in birds, fish, and mammals can transfer from parents to progeny during embryonic development or accumulate through Se-enriched diets. For migratory species that move across landscapes, tracking exposure to elevated Se is vital to mitigating vulnerabilities. Yet, traditional toxicological investigations resolve only recent Se exposure. Here, we use a novel combination of X-ray fluorescence microscopy and depositional chronology in a biomineral to reveal for the first time provenance, life stage, and duration of toxic Se exposure over the lifetime of an organism. Spinal deformities observed in wild Sacramento Splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), an imperiled migratory minnow, were attributed to elevated Se acquired through maternal transfer and juvenile feeding on contaminated prey. This novel approach paves the way for diagnosing sources, pathways, and potential for a cumulative exposure of Se relevant for conservation.


In this paper, the authors present a biometric low-cost 3D acquisition system, based on a digital photogrammetry technique. The aim of the work is to analyze the suitability of this system for facial recognition purposes. The facial data of a set of 20 people were acquired with the photogrammetric system developed by the authors, and different CAD 3D models were reconstructed for each person. The results are quantified by aligning the models and calculating mean distances and standard deviations between them using two different methods. The former considers the entire face; the latter is based on a few fiducial points of the face.


The inactivation mechanism(s) of human glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (hGST P1-1) by the catechol metabolite of Premarin estrogens, 4-hydroxyequilenin (4-OHEN), was (were) studied by means of site-directed mutagenesis, electrospray ionization mass spectrometric analysis, titration of free thiol groups, kinetic studies of irreversible inhibition, and analysis of band patterns on nonreducing sodium dodecyl sulfate--polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The four cysteines (Cys 14, Cys 47, Cys 101, and Cys 169 in the primary sequence) in hGST P1-1 are susceptible to electrophilic attack and/or oxidative damage leading to loss of enzymatic activity. To investigate the role of cysteine residues in the 4-OHEN-mediated inactivation of this enzyme, one or a combination of cysteine residues was replaced by alanine residues (C47A, C101A, C47A/C101A, C14A/C47A/C101A, and C47A/C101A/C169A mutants). Mutation of Cys 47 decreased the affinity for the substrate GSH but not for the cosubstrate 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB). However, the Cys 47 mutation did not significantly affect the rate of catalysis since V(max) values of the mutants were similar or higher compared to that of wild type. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometric analyses of wild-type and mutant enzymes treated with 4-OHEN showed that a single molecule of 4-OHEN-o-quinone attached to the proteins, with the exception of the C14A/C47A/C101A mutant where no covalent adduct was detected. 4-OHEN also caused oxidative damage as demonstrated by the appearance of disulfide-bonded species on nonreducing SDS--PAGE and protection of 4-OHEN-mediated enzyme inhibition by free radical scavengers. The studies of thiol group titration and irreversible kinetic experiments indicated that the different cysteines have distinct reactivity for 4-OHEN; Cys 47 was the most reactive thiol group whereas Cys 169 was resistant to modification. These results demonstrate that hGST P1-1 is inactivated by 4-OHEN through two possible mechanisms: (1) covalent modification of cysteine residues and (2) oxidative damage leading to proteins inactivated by disulfide bond formation.


Synopsis The rocks of the Whithorn area comprise two groups of Silurian strata: the Riccarton Beds, of Wenlock age, and the Hawick Rocks. The boundary between these groups is reinterpreted as a strike fault with major southward downthrow. Five fold movements have been recognised in the area. The first two comprise N.E.-S.W. folds and are responsible for the major monoclinal structure of the area. Folds of the third movement have E-W axial planes and steep plunges, and are considered contemporaneous with members of the Caledonian dyke suite. Fourth generation folds have low-angle axial planes, and are associated with late thrusts and mineralisation (probably Hercynian). The latest folds, dextral kink bands with N-S modal trend, are believed to post-date a Tertiary dyke series. Early thrusts are associated with the first folds, and a conjugate set of wrench faults with the second folds. It is suggested that strike faults originated as dip-slip fractures before or during the second fold movement, and were later reactivated by strike- and oblique-slip movement. The structural history of the area is found to be comparable with those of other parts of the southern Caledonian fold belt, especially the Silurian areas.


A thermoplastic polyurethane resin composition with excellent flame resistance, a conductor covering material with excellent characteristics and a manufacturing method of these are provided. In one form, the thermoplastic polyurethane resin composition and conductor covering material (20) contain: 100 parts by weight of a resin component which has 58.1-73.9 parts by weight of a thermoplastic polyurethane resin and 26.1-41.9 parts by weight of core-shell polymer particles; and 42-87 parts by weight of an organophosphate flame retardant.


The Baduy tribe lives in the Lebak Regency area, Banten Province is famous for the life of the people who still maintain the harmonious customs with the surrounding environment, especially the Inner Baduy tribe. Settlement arrangements, the form of houses and the number of family heads in one group are maintained in customary law which still held firmly. The architecture of traditional houses arranged in such a way, having this kind of local wisdom is interesting to study. Especially when associated with healthy home requirements and their impact on occupant health. The purpose and scope of this research are how the architecture of the Baduy traditional house and the impact of it on the health of its inhabitants. This research method is qualitative with an exploratory design. The findings that the Baduy Traditional House generally follow a certain rule, especially for the Inner Baduy community who still adhere to its custom, where there is local wisdom in it, to remain in harmony and maintain the preservation of the surrounding environment.


Subacute ascending aortic dissection following open heart surgery is a rare but potentially fatal complication. It is associated with dilatation of the aortic root or cystic medial necrosis. We present associated a case of a 65-year old patient with non-fatal ascending aortic dissection after coronary artery bypass grafting using extracorporeal circulation.


The aim of this work was to study the dynamics of Alitta succinea population growth in a tropical estuary. The organisms were collected in the polyhaline area of Pina Basin, north-eastern Brazil, in lower and shallow subtidal consolidated substrates, from October 2009 to March 2011. Fifteen samples with a size of 0.01 m2 were collected every month. A total of 2064 A. succinea individuals were measured for growth analysis, and the measure used was the length from prostomium to the 25th setiger. Growth parameters were estimated by the frequency–length distribution data from three different functions (i.e. von Bertalanffy, Gompertz and Richards). The differences in the densities of A. succinea were significant between the months of the dry and the rainy season, with the rain pattern being the factor that most affects the A. succinea life cycle. According to Akaike information criteria, the von Bertalanffy and Gompertz models were the ones that presented the best fit with the growth curve of A. succinea for the studied period. Using the Bhattacharya method for the analysis of modal progression, we identified eight cohorts. The lowest recruitment values were found in July and August 2010, respectively, and the remaining months had numbers of recruits that were representative of the total population. The growth performance index (Ø′) found was 2.86. The maximum longevity indicates that specimens of A. succinea live between 586 and 953 d, and the instantaneous mortality rate (Z) is 1.53 yr−1.


Using drift-diffusion simulations we have clarified the effect of 2-dimensional (2D) lamellar ordering on the device performance and, in particular, the open circuit voltage in donor-acceptor type organic solar cells. The simulations are performed both in systems where direct (band-to-band) recombination dominates and in systems where trap-assisted recombination dominates. Results show that lamellar ordering reduces both the amount of direct and trap-assisted recombination, which is beneficial for device performance. The effect is particularly prominent for small lamellar thicknesses (~ 1 nm). It is furthermore shown that in the case of s-shaped current-voltage characteristics due to electrostatic injection barriers the s-shape becomes less prominent for thinner lamellar thicknesses.


BackgroundPost viral anosmia has been reported in human coronavirus infections. In this current pandemic, olfactory dysfunction (OD) has emerged as a common key presenting symptom of COVID-19 infection. In this study, we describe OD assessment in the inpatient setting of patients both suspected of and with confirmed COVID-19 infection via University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) objective assessment and a simple self-reported 3-item questionnaire.MethodsThirty patients admitted to the isolation wards of the National University Hospital, Singapore for either suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection from April to May 2020 were recruited to this study. 10 patients who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 were recruited as control subjects. The 20 patients with COVID-19 infection were divided into two groups (10 had olfactory testing performed during the first week of illness, 10 in the second week of illness). A simple 3-question survey was administered to each participant - to rank the severity, state the onset and duration of their hyposmia. Olfactory testing was performed using an English version of the UPSIT.ResultsLoss of smell was reported in 2 participants from the control group, 6 participants from the in the first week of illness and 5 participants from the second week of illness. Two COVID-19 patients have anosmia on the UPSIT. COVID-19 patients were more likely to have severe hyposmia or anosmia by objective assessment, a difference that was statistically significant (P = 0.0485). The differences in degree of OD among COVID-19 patients in their first and second week of illness were not statistically significant (P= 0.6563).ConclusionSelf-reported anosmia was higher among COVID-19 patients compared to controls who were admitted to isolation wards for respiratory symptoms but were tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection. On objective assessment by the UPSIT, COVID-19 patients were found to have higher rates of severe hyposmia or anosmia, a difference that was statistically significant (P = 0.0485). A limitation of this study is the odorants used in UPSIT which may be less familiar to the primarily Asian participants in this study, owing to cultural differences.


An index is simply a single number which is calculated from a set of numbers or quantities. It can be developed by various methods. This paper discusses the usage of two multi criteria methods, namely the CRITIC and TOPSIS methods to construct multiple development index for districts in Peninsular Malaysia based on State and District Data Bank of Malaysia for year 2005. The first method was utilized to determine the weights of the criteria selected, while the second method composed the values in criteria together with the weights to end up as the index value for each district selected. Due to limited data available, only three development dimensions were considered, education, health and public safety. Four indices were successfully constructed, the three basic individual dimensions and one multiple development index which is the combination of the three basic indices. Even though the resulted indices cannot represent the exact level of developments, the indices can give us some estimated evaluation as a whole. The paper highlighted the top five and the bottom five districts for every dimension, and also from the multiple development perspective.


We performed subfield characterization of Mesial Temporal Sclerosis (MTS) using diffusion metrics. Analysis of MRI from 57 temporal lobe epilepsy patients was based on categorization from medical records, initial clinical radiological reads, and diagnostic changes after subfield DTI analyses. We observed differences in mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity and orientation dispersion in the dentate gyrus of patients with MTS. Differences between MTS and control patients were more pronounced in left MTS.  We demonstrate how these methods may aid in the MRI identification of MTS.


Background and objective Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health issue, often preceded by a latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in individuals. Significant global and local efforts have recently been directed toward this infection, focusing on TB control and eradication. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of LTBI among healthcare workers (HCWs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by evaluating its prevalence and associated risk factors. Methods An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs at the King Abdullah Hospital (KAH), from January to August 2018, by using two surveys: the first one involved data related to HCW demographics and the tuberculin skin test (TST) readings, and the second involved a questionnaire that assessed LTBI risk factors. Results Out of the total 561 HCWs who participated in the study, 66 had an induration reading of more than 10 mm in TST. Many factors were associated with LTBI cases, but multivariate analysis showed that age, gender, and nationality were statistically significant risk factors. Conclusion Given the nature of their work, HCWs are at a greater risk of TB and LTBI. At the same time, HCWs are uniquely positioned to play a crucial role in halting the spread of TB. Gaps in preventive measures may result in the increased spread of TB. Our study assessed risk factors associated with the increased risk of LTBI and proposed possible ways of addressing them.


The overtopping of flood defenses by coastal storm surges constitutes a significant threat to life and property. Like all forecasts, storm surge predictions have an associated uncertainty, but this is not directly predicted by current operational systems. The dominant source of this uncertainty is thought to be uncertainty in the driving atmospheric forecast of conditions at the sea surface, which can vary substantially depending on the meteorological situation. Ensemble prediction is a technique used to assess uncertainty in forecasts of complex nonlinear systems such as weather, where small errors can quickly grow to produce significantly different outcomes. It works by running not one but several forecasts, using slightly different initial conditions, boundary conditions, and/or model physics. These are chosen to sample the range of uncertainty in model inputs and formulation so that the corresponding forecasts will sample the range of possible results that are consistent with those uncertainties. The United Kingdom Met Office has recently developed the Met Office Global and Regional Ensemble Prediction System (MOGREPS), which provides 24 different predictions of meteorological evolution over a North Atlantic and European domain with a 24 km grid length. The aim of the present project is to run a barotropic storm surge prediction for each MOGREPS ensemble member, and thereby estimate the risk of damaging events given the forecast uncertainties which are sampled by the ensemble. The system forecasts 54 hours ahead and runs twice per day. In most situations, the ensemble develops rather little spread, suggesting a fairly predictable situation and a high degree of confidence in the forecast. On some occasions, however, the spread is much larger, suggesting a greater degree of uncertainty. Initial verification results are encouraging, although statistical evaluation suggests the ensemble spread is generally too small.


Abstract Background: Primary dysmenorrhea (PD), also regarded as functional dysmenorrhea, refers to dysmenorrhea without obvious organic lesions in the reproductive system. It accounts for more than 90% of dysmenorrhea and seriously affects womens life and work. Previous studies have proved that acupoint catgut embedding therapy is effective and safe for PD patients. It could relieve the pain rapidly and work for a long time in multiple mechanisms. This protocol aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupoint catgut embedding therapy on PD systematically. With the latest published evidence, a systematic review and meta-analysis of catgut embedding for patients with PD would be carried out in this study. Methods: All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to acupoint catgut embedding therapy on PD will be searched in the following electronic databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Wed of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chongqing VIP Database, Wanfang Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literatures Database (CBM), from inception to September 2020. The primary outcomes contain visual analog scale (VAS), dysmenorrhea symptom score, and clinical effectiveness rate, while the secondary outcomes consist of adverse events and the recurrence rate. Two reviewers will independently perform data selection, data synthesis, and quality assessment. Assessment of risk of bias and data synthesis would be performed with Review Manager 5.3 software. Result: This systematic review will summarize the current and high-quality evidence of acupoint catgut embedding therapy on PD. Conclusion: This systematic review aims to offer the latest persuasive evidence for clinical practitioners that using acupoint catgut embedding therapy on PD is effective and safe. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020156362.


We propose a cross-lingual neural codec language model, VALL-E X, for cross-lingual speech synthesis. Specifically, we extend VALL-E and train a multi-lingual conditional codec language model to predict the acoustic token sequences of the target language speech by using both the source language speech and the target language text as prompts. VALL-E X inherits strong in-context learning capabilities and can be applied for zero-shot cross-lingual text-to-speech synthesis and zero-shot speech-to-speech translation tasks. Experimental results show that it can generate high-quality speech in the target language via just one speech utterance in the source language as a prompt while preserving the unseen speaker's voice, emotion, and acoustic environment. Moreover, VALL-E X effectively alleviates the foreign accent problems, which can be controlled by a language ID. Audio samples are available at \url{https://aka.ms/vallex}.


Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) has recently emerged to reduce the deployment cost of running cloud applications compared to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). FaaS follows a serverless "pay-as-you-go" computing model; it comes at a higher cost per unit of execution time but typically application functions experience lower provisioning time (startup delay). IaaS requires the provisioning of Virtual Machines, which typically suffer from longer cold-start delays that cause higher queuing delays and higher request drop rates. We present LIBRA, a balanced (hybrid) approach that leverages both VM-based and serverless resources to efficiently manage cloud resources for the applications. LIBRA closely monitors the application demand and provisions appropriate VM and serverless resources such that the running cost is minimized and Service-Level Agreements are met. Unlike state of the art, LIBRA not only hides VM cold-start delays, and hence reduces response time, by leveraging serverless, but also directs a low-rate bursty portion of the demand to serverless where it would be less costly than spinning up new VMs. We evaluate LIBRA on real traces in a simulated environment as well as on the AWS commercial cloud. Our results show that LIBRA outperforms other resource-provisioning policies, including a recent hybrid approach - LIBRA achieves more than 85% reduction in SLA violations and up to 53% cost savings.


With the proliferation of distributed generators and energy storage systems, traditional passive consumers in power systems have been gradually evolving into the so-called "prosumers", i.e., proactive consumers, which can both produce and consume power. To encourage energy exchange among prosumers, energy sharing is increasingly adopted, which is usually formulated as a generalized Nash game (GNG). In this paper, a distributed approach is proposed to seek the Generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) of the energy sharing game. To this end, we first reveal by proof that the GNG is generally not monotone. In such a situation, the pseudo-gradient of the disutilities is not monotone, which makes existing methods inapplicable. To overcome this obstacle, we convert the GNG into an equivalent optimization problem. A Krasnosel'ski{ǐ}-Mann iteration type algorithm is thereby devised to solve the problem and consequently find the GNE in a distributed manner. We further prove the convergence of the proposed distributed algorithm based on the nonexpansive operator theory. The performance of the algorithm is validated by experiments with three prosumers, and the scalability is tested by simulations using 123 prosumers.


This research investigates the impact of digital marketing on consumer purchase intention of apparel items. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the implication of digital marketing in consumer purchase intention & to find out that the willingness to purchase apparel items. Due to globalization the shifting marketing trends are getting digitalized. With this digital marketing online purchase got a boost especially among the young generation. The study holds much significance for the consumer attitude to determine the main factors influencing for digital marketing on the consumer purchase intention, to retain the customer by providing information of apparels items to keep them satisfy and to make them trustworthy. A non-probability convenience sampling technique used to collect data. Questionnaire instrument was used to collect data. A correlation and regression used to analyze the relationship between the variables. The overall model extended successfully explained the effect of the predictors on willingness to purchase apparel items. These factors individually and together predict on willingness to purchase apparel items. Keywords: Consumer Attitude, Price, Social Media, Advertisment, Website Quality, Purchase Intention