This paper presents finite
element models of the fingertip skin which have been created to simulate the
contact of textile objects with the skin to gain a better understanding of the
perception of textiles through the skin, the so-called hand of textiles. Many
objective and subjective techniques have already been developed for analysing
the hand of textiles; however, none of them provide exact overall information
concerning the sensation of textiles through the skin. As the human skin is a
complex heterogeneous hyperelastic body composed of many particles, some
simplifications had to be made at the early stage of building the models;
however, their utilitarian value was maintained. The models relate only to mechanical
loading of the skin. They predict a low deformation of the fingertip skin under
the pressure of virtual heterogeneous material: acrylic, coarse wool, and
steel.


Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in men and women in the United States. Despite being so common, colorectal malignancies pose a significant early diagnostic problems due to wide variety of reasons which include lack of awareness of risk factors, avoidance of doctor check-ups, fear of getting tested, perception as "man's disease", no symptoms/no problem and lack of proper set-up/colonoscopy especially in remote areas. Numerous international CRC screening programs have been initiated as evidence grows for an impact of CRC screening on mortality. Death from colorectal cancer is preventable. Effective, safe, and relatively inexpensive methods for screening for the disease have been available. The time taken by a sessile polyp to get converted into pedunculated and frank adenocarcinoma is considered as golden period of time for early detection of colorectal malignancies. Even after development of malignancy in the initial stages when the disease is localized the chances of five year survival go as high as 80% and when it has distant metastasis it goes below 10%.
Nearly 90% of colon cancer patients are over the age of 50. Other risk factors include: family or personal history of colon cancer or polyps, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, hereditary colorectal syndromes, use of cigarettes and other tobacco products, high-fat/low fiber diet and physical inactivity.
Screening for colorectal cancer clearly reduces colorectal cancer mortality, yet many eligible adults remain unscreened. Various screening techniques used for detection of colorectal malignancies Fecal occult blood testing (FOBT), Barium enema, Flexible sigmoidoscopy, Colonoscopy, Virtual Colonoscopy, Carcinoembryonic antigen and other tumour markers, Fecal DNA and Genetic testing. The recommendation that all men and women aged 50 years or older undergo screening for colorectal cancer is supported by a large body of direct and indirect evidence.
Colorectal cancer screening has been recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and many other organizations for more than 10 years. On the basis of evidence from multiple randomized, controlled trials (RCTs), a screening program with repeated annual or biennial guaiac fecal occult blood tests (FOBTs) and endoscopic follow-up of positive test results reduces colorectal cancer mortality; according to a recent update, colorectal cancer mortality was reduced 16% (CI, 10% to 22%) after 12 to 18 years. Extrapolating from trial evidence, clinical studies of test accuracy, and other supporting evidence, the USPSTF recognized flexible sigmoidoscopy (with or without FOBTs), colonoscopy, and double-contrast barium enema as other colorectal cancer screening options in 2002. However, because colorectal cancer screening tests have potential harms, limited accessibility, or imperfect acceptability to patients, and no tests could be identified as superior in cost-effectiveness analysis, the USPSTF also recommended that choice among recommended methods for colorectal cancer screening to be individualized to patients or practice settings.


Introduction: In this study, we studied ocular morbidity among smokers in central India, awareness regarding ocular side effect among smoker and effect of awareness about smoking among smokers. This study was conducted with aim-to study ocular morbidity among smokers in Central India, to study awareness regarding ocular side effect among smokers, to study effect of awareness about smoking among smokers.
Methods: Patient attending ophthalmology OPD with history of smoking cigarettes every day or more than 4 days per week, number of cigarettes–4 or more per day, duration of smoking-more than 6 months were included in the study. Patients were asked about the complaints and were given questionnaire to see awareness regarding ocular side. Patients were followed in eye OPD with their relative for 6 months to see effect of awareness about smoking among smokers.
Results: The most common symptom found was irritation of eyes seen in 48%, followed by blurring of vision 16%, burning sensation 15%, and itching 6%. Most number of patients had cataract 64% followed by Dry eye 55%, ARMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration) 19%, Glaucoma 9% and Graves ophthalmopathy 1.7%. Only 12% of subjects were aware of the association between blindness and smoking, the lowest among the six conditions included in the survey.
Conclusion: The awareness of the risk of blindness from smoking is low amongst smokers. Public eye health campaigns viz advertisement, health camp is an important mean of spreading message to smokers to quit smoking.


The Vita Nuova is based on the principle that writing calls forth further writing, which calls forth further writing... Among writers deeply influenced by Dante, Michelet stands out for understanding that Dante's poetry depended on his listening to all the voices before and around him; while Osip Mandelstam brings out Dante's relationship to painting.


wifery. But nevertheless these have been years of painstaking research and earnest endeavour on the part of obstetricians to make easier and safer the prime duty of women to the race. Perhaps the failures of the past have been partly due to the rebellion of our women against the suffer-ing and sacrifice such fulfilment entails, and to their demand for easy and painless labour. Obstetricians have been too complaisant, and have met the demand by the over-use of ansssthettcs, forceps and Cresarean section. The manual is a stimulus to better obstetric practice. The chapter dealing with puerperal sepsis covers the whole field of recent research in this direction from the points of view of causation, prevention and treatment. Stress is laid on the association of hremolytic streptococci of human origin (Group A of Lancefleld's classification) with the greatest percentage of severe and fatal cases, and on the comparative rarity of other types in severe cases. The inevitable deduction, that the majority of cases of puerperal sepsis are due to "droplet" infection, is followed by the serious admonition that all persons in attendance, both at the confinement and during the puerperium, must be masked, and must not even "chatter" unnecessarily. The comparative failure of special methods of treatment in established cases is emphasized, and the corollary is drawn that improvement in results in obstetrical practice must come from preventive methods. The complacent or impatient obstetrician who is willing to take risks, the pliable seeker after a reputation among his patients for "kindness", and the practitioner whose only treatment for a refractory patient is the application of forceps, will no longer be able to salve their consciences by blaming the patient's lack of natural resistance after reading that this is now a discarded theory, but that puerperal sepsis is due to the virulence of the infecting organism, which, in nearly every instance, is introduced at the time of labour. Cresarean section-that easy way out of difficulties-is tully dealt with, and its indications are strictly defined. The classical and the lower segment operations are compared with a bias in favour of the older operation. The high mortality rate following this operation in septic cases is stressed and alternative methods are fully discussed. The chapter on sex and reproductive hormones goes a long way towards clarifying the present-day position of our knowledge of this subject. The therapeutic uses of these hormones are now more clearly indicated in dysfunctions of menstruation and pregnancy. For instance, the treatment of threatened abortion by corpus luteum, thyreoid and anterior pituitary hormones follows from the account of the inlluence of these hormones on pregnancy. The manual concludes with chapters dealing fully with feeding of the new-born child, the premature child, birth injuries and accidents, diseases of the new-born child et cetera.


This book is a collection of independent chapters written by 27 contributing authors, most of whom have academic or research backgrounds. The stated aim of the volume is "to demonstrate the application of geophysical techniques to provide a database for hydrogeological decisions like drillhole positioning or action plans for groundwater protection," and it is targeted toward both students and professionals.

The 539 pages of text are divided into two parts: The first two thirds are devoted to describing individual geophysical techniques, including some data to illustrate key points, and the latter third emphasizes field examples of the use of various geophysical techniques for detecting and characterizing specific types of hydrogeologic targets. By drawing on multiple authors, the editor capitalizes on the strengths and focused expertise of each contributor, but this leads to inconsistencies in the emphasis and presentation. There is little differentiation between techniques that are currently primarily academic pursuits (e.g., complex resistivity and magnetic nuclear resonance [MNR]) from those technologies that are more commonly used in commercial surveys (e.g., seismic and geoelectric techniques). The de-emphasis of commercial concerns is apparent in the lack of information about production rates or implementation costs. Although not always the case, overall there is also little discussion of uncertainties and limitations. Some figures are provided in color, but there are many that are produced in gray scales, and clarity suffers as a result.

The book begins with a short but very useful discussion (by R. Kirsch) relating petrophysical properties to the parameters measured by geophysical techniques such as P and S wave velocities, various forms of Archie's law, and …


There are both theoretical and empirical reasons for believing that the parameters of macroeconomic models may vary over time. However, work with time-varying parameter models has largely involved vector autoregressions (VARs), ignoring cointegration. This is despite the fact that cointegration plays an important role in informing macroeconomists on a range of issues. In this paper, we develop a new time varying parameter model which permits cointegration. We use a specification which allows for the cointegrating space to evolve over time in a manner comparable to the random walk variation used with TVP–VARs. The properties of our approach are investigated before developing a method of posterior simulation. We use our methods in an empirical investigation involving the Fisher effect.


Specific, rapid association of protein complexes is essential for all forms of cellular existence. The initial association of two molecules in diffusion-controlled reactions is often influenced by the electrostatic potential. Yet, the detailed binding mechanisms of proteins highly depend on the particular system. A complete protein complex formation pathway has been delineated by using structural information sampled over the course of the transformation reaction. The pathway begins at an encounter complex that is formed by one of the apo forms of neurotoxin fasciculin-2 (FAS2) and its high-affinity binding protein, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), followed by rapid conformational rearrangements into an intermediate complex that subsequently converts to the final complex as observed in crystal structures. Formation of the intermediate complex has also been independently captured in a separate 20-ns molecular dynamics simulation of the encounter complex. Conformational transitions between the apo and liganded states of FAS2 in the presence and absence of AChE are described in terms of their relative free energy profiles that link these two states. The transitions of FAS2 after binding to AChE are significantly faster than in the absence of AChE; the energy barrier between the two conformational states is reduced by half. Conformational rearrangements of FAS2 to the final liganded form not only bring the FAS2/AChE complex to lower energy states, but by controlling transient motions that lead to opening or closing one of the alternative passages to the active site of the enzyme also maximize the ligand's inhibition of the enzyme.


Abstract The winner of many prestigious prizes (Oscar for the best foreign language film, Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival, and the Golden Globe among them), the Hungarian film, Son of Saul – according to most critics – represents the Holocaust trauma in a completely new and intriguing way. The filmmakers have invented a special form in order to tackle the heroic task of showing the unwatchable, representing the unthinkable. In this essay I analyse the representational strategy of the film from a phenomenological point of view, and position it in the theoretical framework of haptic sensuality formulated by Vivian Sobchack and Laura U. Marks, among others. I mainly focus on the use of sound, in particular the role of sound design in the creation of haptic space. With the help of the analysis of the representation and artistic invocation of the different bodily senses in the film, I demonstrate how traditional artistic formal elements (characteristic of highly artistic, even experimental productions) are combined with high impact effects often present in popular film forms. I argue that the successful combination of these two factors makes the film an example of artistic immersive cinema.1


ABSTRACT Introduction While women now represent a majority of neuropsychology trainees, men remain prominent in senior positions. As such, female mentees are often paired with senior male mentors, a practice referred to as "cross-gender mentorship." Although cross-gender mentoring dynamics have inherent potential for missteps due to implicit power differentials, when approached through a gender-informed lens, they can be optimized and lead to personal and professional growth for women neuropsychologists. The present article provides a framework for promoting gender-informed mentorship by cataloging first-hand accounts of early career women and discussing resultant lessons and concrete suggestions for mentorship. Method The authors provide first-hand accounts of experiences related to cross-gender mentorship across a variety of settings and professional contexts. From these accounts, the following steps offer a framework to encourage effective mentorship: 1) Set appropriate expectations and boundaries, 2) Address challenging clinical interactions through a gender-informed lens, 3) Foster personal and professional development, 4) Understand the intersection between gender and multicultural traits, 5) Advocate for advancement of women in the field, and 6) Maintain knowledge of women's issues. Conclusions Providing effective mentorship for women in neuropsychology is crucial to promote ascension of women to leadership positions and close long-established disparities in the field. The authors hope that our shared experiences can serve as useful tools for both women trainees and their mentors as they embark on mentoring relationships. Practically, we envision that mentoring dyads may discuss this article at the outset of their relationship to understand potential challenges and collaboratively establish a groundwork for optimal mentoring.


In P2P networks, the behavior of free-ride is growing. It causes negative impact on the robustness and availability of the networks. The enthusiasm of users should be guaranteed by containing the free-riders. An allocation method of the resource based on the global reputation value is proposed in this paper. The weight of the recommender is assigned through the introduction of the cluster algorithm, the global reputation values are synthesized through iteration. Based on the reputation value, the problem of the allocation of the resource is summed up as a linear programming issue. The method can ensure the peer with more contribution have priority to be allocated with the resource, the rational peers are impelled to contribute for the system. Simulation analysis shows that, the method is fair for the allocation the resource. It is effective for restricting the selfish behavior of the peer.


The precise mechanisms by which immunologic tolerance is induced have not as yet been elucidated. There are a variety of different types of tolerance (1–3) and tolerance in both thymus-derived lymphocytes (T lymphocytes)2 and bone marrow-derived lymphocytes (B lymphocytes) has been described (4).
 Tolerance induction may involve the destruction of specific immuno-competent cells upon contact with antigen. Support for this concept comes from the finding by some investigators that the number of antigen-binding cells, which appear to be precursors of antibody-secreting cells, are reduced in tolerant animals (5, 6). One possible mechanism for tolerance induction is that antigen, upon reacting with cell surface-bound immunoglobulin receptors, may under certain conditions activate complement at the surface of the cell and thus cause destruction of these cells. Azar et al., following this line of reasoning, have produced a transient complement deficiency in mice with a variety of agents and have reported that in such temporarily complement deficient animals tolerance is more difficult to achieve than in normal animals (7–9).


PCV51 ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF DIAGNOSTIC STRATEGIES IN PATIENTS WITH SUSPECTED CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE (CAD) IN THE UK Ratcliffe A, Barwell T, Chambers MG Abacus International, BICESTER, OXON, UK, GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, UK OBJECTIVE: The early identification of coronary artery disease CAD is important in preventing subsequent premature mortality and disability, and potentially reducing the health care burden associated with advanced disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) for patients with suspected chronic CAD in the UK. METHOD: A decision-analytic model was developed to represent the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected XCAD. A "diagnostic" module represented alternative diagnostic strategies based on combinations of exercise ECG (ExECG), MPS and coronary angiography (CA). A 'treatment' module represented initial patient management, based on diagnostic results. Finally, subsequent patient experience (mortality, future MIs and revascularisation procedures) according to severity of disease and therapy at outset was represented as a Markov process. Event risks, therapy effectiveness (risk reductions), diagnostic accuracy and risks were obtained from published studies. Test and intervention costs were based on NHS reference values. Long-term costs of patient management for patients with CAD in the UK, and health state utilities were based on published values. The model was used to test parameter assumptions, including duration of therapy effectiveness (base case: 5–10 years) and delay to diagnosis of false negatives (those missed in initial work-up: base case 1 year). RESULTS: Compared with ExECG, MPS was cost-effective when the underlying risk of CAD was <50% (cost saving at <30%). Compared with a strategy of no testing MPS was cost-effective at an underlying risk of >20%. At ≥80% risk direct CA was cost saving and more effective than alternative diagnostic strategies. Adding MPS as a second-line test for patients positive or indeterminate on ExECG was cost-effective for intermediate risk patients. CONCLUSION: MPS is likely to be an economically attractive first-line or second-line test in the diagnostic work-up of symptomatic patients with intermediate risk of chronic CAD.


Social media have facilitated information sharing in social networks. Previous research shows that sentiment of text influences its diffusion in social media. Each emotion can be located on a threedimensional space formed by dimensions of valence (positive–negative), arousal (passive / calm–active / excited), and tension (tense–relaxed). While previous research has investigated the effect of emotional valence on information diffusion in social media, the effect of emotional arousal remains unexplored. This study examines how emotional arousal influences information diffusion in social media using a sentiment mining approach. We propose a research model and test it using data collected from Twitter.


Staphylococcus aureus is a facultative anaerobic Gram-positive coccal bacterium whose incidence ranges from skin, soft tissue, respiratory, bone, joint, endovascular to wound infections. The purpose of this study was to identify Staphylococcus aureus from clinical specimens using routine conventional and rapid tests. Gram staining, catalase test, coagulase test, DNase test, haemolysis on blood agar and Microgen™ STAPH-ID kit tests were carried out. A total of 125 Gram positive cocci were tested. The Gram staining technique yielded 100 (80.00%) Staphylococcus spp (Gram positive cocci in clusters). 89(71.20%) isolates were positive to haemolysis on blood agar. Mannitol Salt Agar, DNase agar and Catalase test correctly identified 69 (55.2%) of the Gram positive cocci to be S. aureus as was confirmed by the Microgen™ STAPH-ID kit test. Coagulase test yielded 66 (52.8%) positive results. The Microgen™ STAPH-ID kit test identified three non-coagulase Staphylococcus aureus isolates. The Microgen™ STAPH-ID kit test was the most reliable of the tests, with accuracy comparable to any other rapid test. However, it is the most expensive of the tests. This study established that conventional tests can be used for direct identification of S. aureus to species level if the battery of tests is increased.


We consider the parabolic Anderson problem with random potentials having inverse-square singularities around the points of a standard Poisson point process in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d \geq 3$. The potentials we consider are obtained via superposition of translations over the points of the Poisson point process of a kernel $\mathfrak{K}$ behaving as $\mathfrak{K}(x) \approx \theta |x|^{-2}$ near the origin, where $\theta \in (0,(d-2)^2/16]$. In order to make sense of the corresponding path integrals, we require the potential to be either attenuated (meaning that $\mathfrak{K}$ is integrable at infinity) or, when $d=3$, renormalized, as introduced by Chen and Kulik in [8]. Our main results include existence and large-time asymptotics of non-negative solutions via Feynman-Kac representation. In particular, we settle for the renormalized potential in $d=3$ the problem with critical parameter $\theta = 1/16$, left open by Chen and Rosinski in [arXiv:1103.5717].


The study aims to analyze on sui generis systems for intellectual property protection of traditional knowledge in World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) member countries. The data were collected from the Reports submitted to WIPO Intergovernmental Committee (see annex 1. 2). First, whereas developing countries have preferred to a sui generis system, existing mechanisms for the protection of traditional knowledge seems to be the preference of advanced countries which are USA and Japan. Second, the perceived limitations in the application of intellectual property laws and procedures to the protection of traditional knowledge are novelty or originality (49.2%), individual/collective creation (36.1%), informal nature of traditional knowledge (32.8%), inventive step or non-obviousness (31.1%), and term of protection (23.0%). Third, the important factors which are for the policy choices reflected in the sui generis measures and laws for the protection of tradition knowledge are legal and policy framework, policy tool, policy objectives, and form of protection.


We present an experimental investigation of a filamentation-assisted fourth-order nonlinear optical process in KTP crystals pumped by intense 1.53 eV (807 nm) femtosecond laser pulses. Femtosecond light pulses at 2.58 eV (480 nm) are generated by the fourth-order nonlinear polarization (P(4) (ω2) = χ(4) (ω2, ω, ω, ω, – ω1) E3 (ω) E* (ω1), where E(ω) corresponds to the pump frequency and E(ω1) to the supercontinuum generated through filamentation). If the system is seeded by a laser beam at ω1 or ω2 and there are spatial and temporal overlaps with the pump beam, E(ω1) and E(ω2) are simultaneously amplified. When the intensity of the seed laser beam exceeds a certain intensity threshold, the contribution of P(4) (ω) = χ(4) (ω, ω1, ω2, – ω, – ω) E (ω1) E (ω2) (E* (ω))2 becomes non-negligible, and the amplification weakens. The conversion efficiency from the pump to the signal at 2.58 eV (480 nm) attains to 0.1%.


Postsolid organ transplant Burkitt lymphoma (PSOT-BL) is rare but more aggressive than other post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD). Little is known about optimal treatment and outcome of postcardiac transplant Burkitt lymphoma (BL). We report an 8-year-old boy with a history of heart transplant who developed Epstein-Barr virus positive, late-onset PSOT-BL. He was successfully treated with BL specific chemoimmunotherapy and cessation of baseline immunosuppression. In this pediatric case of PSOT-BL, the use of standard intensive pediatric based chemoimmunotherapy regimen without modifications was feasible, well tolerated and resulted in complete remission. Long-term toxicities need further study.


This paper seeks to explain Kelsen's pure theory of law and his whole contribution to legal positivism was influenced and bolstered by his early stay in Vienna, even though the foundational stone laid by Kelsen on legal positivism is clearly distinguished from logical positivism propounded by the pioneers of Vienna circle, in this article I argue the intellectual uplifting Kelsen underwent during the youth he spent in Vienna had left a hallmark in his thoughts. Furthermore this article illustrates how both logical positivism and legal positivism grew parallel in a same time period during two great wars. Central argument I seek to explain in this article is to demonstrate Hans Kelsen as a legal modernist and how Vienna circle made impacts upon his thoughts.


This paper presents an analytical model to predict the increase in longitudinal reinforcement tension due to shear in reinforced concrete beams. Based on a smeared truss idealization with an inclined compression chord, the model assumes that the profiles of compression chord can be represented by the simple power law of which curvature effect equilibrates a constant fraction of the shear along the span. Thereby, the sectional equilibrium and compatibility conditions are established between the forces and deformations associated with the chords and those associated with the web. The modified compression field theory is employed to evaluate the shear deformation of the web. From these equilibrium and compatibility conditions, the influence of shear on the longitudinal steel tension is determined at each cross section of a beam. The accuracy of the model is examined by comparisons with the measured values which are available in literatures. A good agreement is observed between the predicted and the measured at every loading stage in each test beam. Also the model is compared with the shift-rule in the current design codes, and the differences are discussed.


Given the increasing use of nanotechnology in food production and packaging, its acceptance was evaluated in Temuco, Chile, and different consumer segments were identified. Different brands of sunflower oil were used at different prices as a case study. A structured questionnaire was applied to 400 supermarket shoppers. It was determined that brand was more important than nanotechnology application in packaging and food, and more important than price. The consumers preferred an average priced oil with a manufacturer's brand with nanoparticles to reduce cholesterol, and packaging with nanoparticles to increase the shelf life of the product and to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Three consumer segments were distinguished by the cluster analysis. The largest segment (44%) preferred the oil without nanotechnology. The second (35.2%) preferred the oil with nanotechnology in the food and the packaging, and the greatest preference was for packaging with nanoparticles extension in the shelf life of the product. The third segment (20.8%) had similar behavior, but it showed greater preference for the oil with nanoparticles that reduced cholesterol and for the packaging that prevented the growth of bacteria and viruses. The segments differed in terms of their satisfaction with food-related life and lifestyle. It was found that over 50% of the participants preferred oil with nanotechnology applications.


Isolated hepatocytes from obese Zucker rats showed an increased capacity for lipid synthesis measured as the incorporation of 3H2O into lipid fractions. In addition lipid synthesis from 1 mM U-14C-alanine was elevated as compared to those isolated from their lean counterparts. On these lines, the amino acid was a better lipogenic substrate than U-14C-lactate at 5 mM concentration. Insulin increased lipid synthesis from the amino acid in the lean animals while showed no effects on this parameter in the obese. While the hepatocytes from the lean animals used to a similar extent U-14C-alanine carbon from 14CO2 production, lipid synthesis and 14C-glycogen incorporation, those from the obese animals showed a decreased oxidation and glycogen incorporation while an augmented lipid synthesis. The total amount of the amino acid taken up by the obese animals was also significantly elevated. Conversely, the metabolic fate of U-14C-leucine was very similar between the two groups. It can be concluded that in the obese Zucker rat alanine is a very important amino acid which contributes to sustain the high liver hyperlipogenesis previously described.


We studied the toxicity caused by chronic ingestion of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) in cattle in the humid Chaco of Tarija, Bolivia. Bovine enzootic haematuria (BEH) and Carcinoma of the esophagus (CE) affected the herds. Sick animals showed caquexia, anemia, leucopenia and urine that turned from pink to intense red color with the presence of blood clots. Cattle grazed in the humid forests of the mountains where P aquilinum represented more than 50% of the plants. P aquilinum var arachnoideum and P aquilinum var Caudatum were present. Toxic norsesquiterpene, ptaquiloside, was identified in both varieties. Carcinomas were in the urinary bladders and esophagus of 100% and 50% of the cattle, respectively. Control of the intoxication could be difficult due to geographic characteristics of this Bolivian region.


The notion of a hybrid fuel cell vehicle is promising in the sense that size and cost reductions for the fuel cell unit can be achieved by offloading much of the peak power requirements to an auxiliary energy storage device (either a battery or super-capacitor). However, to maximize the efficacy of such a system, a power management coordination unit (or controller)will need to be designed. Additionally, the design of this controller and its ability to meet drive cycle requirements will be dramatically influenced by earlier decisions concerning the size of the fuel cell and energy storage devices. Thus, the objective of this work is to develop a scheme that simultaneously designs the controller while sizing the fuel cell and energy storage units. Such an approach, in which system design decisions are driven by the capabilities of the closed-loop system, represents a paradigm shift in hybrid vehicle design.


How valid in contemporary times is the reproduction and re-enactment of a glorious cultural past when such has the capacity of masking the material conditions of contemporary existence? This is the main question addressed by this research. The study attempts to evaluate the interface of cultural nationalism and prevailing social and material conditions in a particular Nigerian society. The city of Benin in Edo state of Nigeria has become the hub of the international sex trade in Africa's most populous nation. On the premise that the issue of prostitution and how to solve the problem transcends sentimental attachment to a glorious past, this work proposes to interrogate the following questions as a way of understanding the problem. Should the 'Idia Renaissance' project be seen as an attempt by the privileged class to advance, project and protect its status, rather than a genuine attempt to find solutions to an endemic social and economic problem? Are the girls engaged in prostitution really interested in being 'saved from themselves'? How plausible is the attempt to re-invent the Queen Mother in the face of present realities? Humanities Review Journal Vol. 5 2005: pp. 28-46


Total virus particle counts, infectivity titrations and the ratios between particles and infective units have been determined for vaccinia virus infected tissues. Growth curves of vaccinia in the chorioallantoic membrane are characterized by relatively low ratios from 1 to 4 days after inoculation and a marked rise in the ratio at more prolonged intervals. Ratio determinations of vaccinia virus passages in the egg, rabbit skin, and guinea pig skin have been made to study the phenomenon of adaptation in different hosts. The embryonated egg chorioallantoic membrane shows no variation in the ratio of particles to infectious units during passage and it is concluded that this host is completely susceptible to vaccinia. During adaptive passages on the skin of rabbits and guinea pigs relatively large amounts of non-infective virus appear as indicated by a rise in the particle-infectivity ratios. The extent of ratio increase appears related to the general resistance of the host to the virus. Finally, treatment of crude tissue extracts with sonic vibration is described as an aid in dispersing the virus particles for quantitative particle counts.


BACKGROUND
Platelet/endothelium interaction plays an important role in the pathophysiology of inflammation and atherosclerosis. The role of platelets for monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) secretion and surface expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) on endothelial cells has been assessed.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Monolayers of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were incubated with nonstimulated or ADP-activated platelets for 6 hours, and secretion of MCP-1 and surface expression of ICAM-1 were determined by ELISA and flow cytometry, respectively. In the presence of ADP-activated platelets, both MCP-1 secretion and ICAM-1 surface expression were significantly increased compared with nonstimulated platelets (P<0.02). Activation of the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and kappaB-dependent transcriptional activity was enhanced in the presence of activated platelets. In addition, ADP-activated platelets induced MCP-1 and ICAM-1 promoter-dependent transcription. Liposomal transfection of a double-stranded kappaB phosphorothioate oligonucleotide, but not of the mutated form, inhibited MCP-1 secretion and surface expression of ICAM-1 on activated endothelium (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The present study indicates that activated platelets modulate chemotactic (MCP-1) and adhesive (ICAM-1) properties of endothelial cells via an NF-kappaB-dependent mechanism. Platelet-induced activation of the NF-kappaB system might contribute to early inflammatory events in atherogenesis.


A real-time message stream is said to have a (m,k)-firm requirement if at least m out of any k consecutive messages from the stream must meet their deadline to ensure adequate quality of service (QoS). A scheduling policy is proposed recently called distance-based priority (DBP) to better service multiple input queues single server (MIQSS) model, each stream with (m,k)-firm. But DBP cannot always provide good performance in MIQSS model. The raison is that DBP assignment is only based on the distance to failure state of each individual message stream with (m,k)-firm. Neither the message timing parameters (period, deadline, service time in server) nor its relationship with other streams sharing the same server is taken into account. Song et al proposed a modification of DBP called matrix-DBF to improve its performance. But this improved policy just only applies to periodic source. In this paper, we propose a new policy referred to equivalent matrix (E/spl I.bar/matrix) DBP for aperiodic streams by considering the above factor. The effectiveness of this proposal is evaluated through simulation under varying service rate in Poisson streams with same and different (m,k)-firm constraints. The evaluation shows that substantial reductions in the probability of dynamic failure for overall system are achieved when the proposed policy is used.


Since the beginning of the fifth generation (5G) standardization process, positioning has been considered as a key element in future cellular networks. In order to perform accurate positioning, solutions for estimating and processing location-related measurements such as direction of arrival (DoA) and time of arrival (ToA) for various use-cases need to be developed. In this paper, building on the existing 5G new radio (NR) specifications and millimeter wave frequencies, we propose a novel estimation and tracking solution of the DoA and ToA such that only analog/RF beamforming-based observations are utilized. In addition to the proposed extended Kalman filter (EKF)-based estimation and tracking approach, we derive Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) for the considered RF multi-beam system, and propose an information-based criterion for selecting the necessary beams for the estimation process in order to provide highly accurate performance with feasible computational complexity. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using extensive ray-tracing simulations and numerical evaluations, and the results are compared with other estimation and beam-selection approaches. Based on the obtained results, beam-selection at the receiver can have a significant impact on the DoA and ToA estimation performance as well as on the subsequent positioning accuracy. Finally, we demonstrate the highly accurate performance of the methods when extended to joint multi-receiver-based device positioning and clock synchronization.


Abstract. Awang-Jamil Z, Aminuddin MF, Zaidi BQ, Basri AM, Ahmad N, Taha H. 2021. Phytochemicals and antimicrobial analysis of selected medicinal plants from Brunei Darussalam. Biodiversitas 22: 601-606. Medicinal plants have been widely used but their pharmacological properties are yet to be fully explored. This study was aimed to determine the phytochemicals and their antimicrobial activity of four selected medicinal plants: Melastoma malabathricum, Merremia borneensis, Pandanus amaryllifolius, and Senna alata from Brunei Darussalam. Phytochemical constituents were evaluated by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and antimicrobial screening was carried out using agar well diffusion method. A number of phytochemicals were identified in the plant extracts, of which the following compounds were present in higher amounts (>10 %): coumaran, hentriacontane, hexatriacontane, 3-hydroxy benzyl alcohol, α-linolenic acid, palmitic acid, catechol, squalene, and α-tocopherol-β-D-mannoside. A concentration-dependent antimicrobial activity was observed in some extracts against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Results of this study showed medicinal potential of the four selected plants.


^3BSRVATION AND EXPERIMENT. SIn,-T'he admnirabl-e philosophical article by Mr. Wilfred Trotter in the Journal of Jtuly 26th (p. 129) has riglhtlv arouised considerable attentioni. It is not often that space is allottedl to so clear an expositioni of the groundwork of medicine, anid I hope the discussion will continue. I s51o0lk(1 like to coimmiii-eiit on the last sentence of Mr. Trotter;'s last paragraplh: " Onl the otlier hand, it is pcrbap)s the lack of rationial doctriine anld a general interest ill tile 1prol)ems of miethod that has made mnedicinie the scene of so mliuchi disunited and conitradictory effort, an(l lelpced to puit it downi fromii its hiistorical position as the motlher and the niurse of science." In the first leading ar'ticle in thie same issue the statemient is made: " In this plocess, m-lethod-that is, the wav in w-hich facts are discovered---has ani imiiportant buit secondary place," anid, ftirtlher oin, " an(l it may be, said to have scientific valuie in .So) far as it is adapted to time material being studied and to time ends the scienitist hias in view." Youl stress tlhe ends of science which Mr. Tr-otter implies but does inot si)ecificallv state in hlis article. 'T'he cadls or purpose of medicinie are to alleviate paini, prolong life, restore to healtlh, anid promote health in the individ-ual anid the commuiiinity. These are practical aims, anid all the sciences have passed through this phase, but as sciences they go beyond it. nnd miiake their own contribution to the sum total of knowledge--knowledge for its own salke. Geology, first concerned with quarrying and mlining,


This paper deals with an experimental investigation into the velocity distribution downstream of a propeller, operating at bollard pull conditions and in the presence of a mobile sediment bed. Previous investigations either ignored the effect of a rudder in the wash or considered only its influence on an unconfined jet. The velocity profiles within the jet produced by a rotating propeller with a rudder present were measured at a mobile bed and compared to currently available predictive equations. The velocity distribution profiles in the jet, influenced by bed proximity, were found not to comply with current predictive methods. The velocity distributions measured within the jet were found to be complex and non-symmetrical. To provide a basic velocity predictive tool, a neural network analysis toolbox within Matlab was utilised and trained using the experimental data.


Estimated to exceed one billion, the number of those currently studying English as a foreign language is expected to continue growing. Various tools that draw on natural language processing have been developed to help students of English detect and correct writing errors. As one example, tools that correct spelling errors have achieved high accuracy and are now widely used throughout the world. These tools are used not just by those learning English, but in other areas for natural language processing systems, for instance to improve output from machine translation systems. Nevertheless, the tools for many other aspects, including grammar checking, remain relatively ineffective. This paper proposes a system for detecting missing prepositions based on syntactic information provided by an English language parser. The information lets us focus on locations that may lack a required preposition. This information can also be used as a machine learning feature to determine whether a location truly requires a preposition. By comparing the detection accuracy achieved against a simple baseline system, our study assessed the effectiveness of our system on the Konan-JIEM Learner Corpus, a typical English learner corpus. We found that our system achieved accuracy superior to the baseline system.


This paper examines on-line communication in liberal adult education. It highlights the problematic space between message posting and the promotion of dialogue. Conference software in Swedish adult education is widely based on message posting. But can message posting also foster the democratic practices associated with reasoned discussion or dialogue?


Today's concern is about the energy efficiency of servers and high power machines in a cloud datacenter infrastructure. According to Barroso et al. [1], an ideal machine consumes energy proportional to the work performed. In this case, an idle machine should consume no energy and a machine in operation should only consume energy proportionally to the number of tasks performed. Even though the energy efficiency of machines is constantly improving, they are still not perfectly energy-proportional. Therefore, Durr proposed the concept of Elastic Tandem Machines Instances (ETMI) in [2] aims to improve the energy efficiency in particular for idle and weakly loaded instances. In this thesis, we attempt to improve the concept of Elastic Tandem Machines. The original concept only integrated one low-power system on a chip (SoC) machine, which operates during low load on the datacenter, and exactly one high-power vir- tual machine(VM) instance, powered on when the traffic increases and needs to be redirected. However, if the performance of the SoC and the VM instance differed too much, the efficiency of the approach suffered since at the performance limit of the SoC, when the transferred occurred, the high-power would be almost idle. There- fore, we integrate different performance classes of VMs (e.g., small, medium, and large instances) into Elastic n-Instance Machines to further improve the efficiency and scalability of the system. We then design a predictive algorithm and integrate it with the ETMI to decide, in advance, when the best time is, before overloading any server, to switch among the instances. The handover algorithm, based on a software-defined networking and the pre- dictive algorithm, based on an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model are presented. The performance of the system with respect to the energy efficiency and machine elasticity is evaluated using experiments and performance benchmarks. The evaluations of the model demonstrate the applicability of low and medium power instances serving low and medium loads efficiently, in addition to the scalability of the solution among n-instances. The predictive method shows satisfactory results when forecasting seasonal data, different models may have to be implemented for non-seasonal series.


In the detection of web attacks, it is necessary that Web Application Firewalls WAFs are effective, at the same time than efficient. In this paper, we propose a new methodology for web attack detection that enhances these two aspects of WAFs. It involves both feature construction and feature selection. For the feature construction phase, many professionals rely on their expert knowledge to define a set of important features, what normally leads to high and reliable attack detection rates. Nevertheless, it is a manual process and not quickly adaptive to the changing network environments. Alternatively, automatic feature construction methods such as n-grams overcome this drawback, but they provide unreliable results. Therefore, in this paper, we propose to combine expert knowledge with n-gram feature construction method for reliable and efficient web attack detection. However, the number of n-grams grows exponentially with n, which usually leads to high dimensionality problems. Hence, we propose to apply feature selection to reduce the number of redundant and irrelevant features. In particular, we study the recently proposed Generic Feature Selection GeFS measure, which has been successfully tested in intrusion detection systems. Additionally, we use several decision tree algorithms as classifiers of WAFs. The experiments are conducted on the publicly available ECML/PKDD 2007 dataset. The results show that the combination of expert knowledge and n-grams outperforms each separate technique and that the GeFS measure can greatly reduce the number of features, thus enhancing both the effectiveness and efficiency of WAFs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Hamiltonian formulation of Lagrangian on time scale is investigated and the equivalence of Hamilton and Euler–Lagrange equations is obtained. The role of Lagrange multipliers is discussed.


The effect of different chemical treatments of hemp fibres, carried out by alkali treatment, acetylation and modification with maleic anhydride, on their physical, thermal and chemical properties as well as their surface characteristic was discussed in this paper. The morphology of the fibres was investigated by SEM. Thermal properties were investigated by TGA and DTA methods and the chemical composition of fibres by FT-IR spectroscopy. Chemical modifications resulted in the lowered content of lignin, pectin and hemicellulose, what is especially observable with mercerised fibres. Another effect of the chemical treatment applied is related to the removal of waxy substances from the surface, which was indirectly ascertained by SEM observation, which revealed a relatively smooth hemp fibres surface. TGA results showed that the applied chemical fibre treatment resulted in the lowered thermal degradation of the treated fibres, after the removal of non-cellulose components, especially lignin.


Melinda Cooper This article looks at the history of the stem cell as an experimental life-form and situates it within the context of biological theories of cellular ageing which emerged in the 1960s, under the banner of 'biogerontology'. The field of biogerontology, I argue, is crucially concerned not only with the internal limits to a cell's lifespan, but also with the possibility of overcoming limits. Hence, the sense of 'revolution' that has surrounded the isolation of human embryonic stem cells. The article goes on to situate the problematic of cellular ageing within the larger historical transition from Fordist to post-Fordist modes of production – a transition whose effects on the life sciences have been insufficiently theorized – and points to resonances between the concerns of biogerontology and an emerging political rhetoric on the crisis of ageing and limits to growth. Having surfaced in parallel with the neo-liberal euphoria of the 1990s, the field of regenerative medicine presents itself as a biomedical solution to the problem of limits to growth. What is at stake in the contemporary biosciences, I suggest, is not so much the mass commodification of life itself as its transformation into a source of speculative surplus value.


This research project presents an assessment that was carried out to investigate the marketing activities of Commercial Records Centres (CRCs). The major aim of the project was to find out how CRCs, Archive-It Services as a typical case, managed to penetrate the Zimbabwean market especially during the economic meltdown period. Of major interest to the study were the marketing strategies that are employed by Archive-It Services in its endeavour to gain ground and recognition. The case study research method was adopted. Questionnaires and interviews were employed as primary data collection tools. Secondary data was collected through content analysis of the company"s records such as director"s annual reports, company"s profile, brochures and registers. For data presentation, tables, pie-charts and graphs were used. The research study found out that, although there are some financial and technical challenges that are being faced, marketing is actually one of the top priority functions at Archive-It Services as manifested by the number of marketing activities that the company carries out. This eventually explains the company"s success in introducing such an uncommon idea especially in the Zimbabwean market where the current economic conditions are not so favourable for ventures of such nature. Recommendations include familiarisation with the marketing concept, introduction of advertising as part of its promotion toolkit, aggressive campaigns and continued prioritisation of marketing on resource allocation


Occasional case reports have shown that acute myopathy may occur in patients treated with massive doses of corticosteroids. The mechanism of this myopathy is poorly understood. Therefore, 60 male rats were randomly assigned to receive daily injection of saline (C), methylprednisolone (M), or triamcinolone (T) 80 mg/kg/d for 5 d. Nutritional intake, measured daily in 15 animals, showed a significant reduction of food intake in the steroid-treated groups (-50 and -79% in M and T, respectively). This was associated with a similar loss in body weight. In the 45 remaining animals, diaphragm contractility and histopathologic features of several muscles were studied. Weights of respiratory and peripheral muscles were similarly decreased after steroid treatment. Maximal twitches of the diaphragm were lower in the C group (653 +/- 174 g/cm(2)) than in the M group (837 +/- 171 g/cm(2); p < 0.05) and the T group (765 +/- 145 g/cm(2), NS). Half-relaxation time was prolonged in both steroid groups, and time to peak tension was longer with M, whereas tetanic tensions were similar. Steroid treatment also induced a leftward shift of the force-frequency curve at 25 and 50 Hz when compared with saline treatment (p < 0.05). ATPase staining of the diaphragm, scalenus medius, and gastrocnemius showed type IIb fiber atrophy in the steroid groups and also diaphragmatic type IIa atrophy with T, whereas histologic examinations revealed a normal muscular pattern with absence of necrosis. Finally, a pair-fed (PF) study, performed in 18 rats (C, T, and PF), showed that muscle atrophy was considerably less pronounced in PF animals than in T-treated animals. We conclude that (1) short-term treatment with massive doses of steroids induced severe respiratory and limb muscle wasting; (2) both types of steroids induced predominantly type IIb atrophy, resulting in the expected alterations in diaphragm contractile properties; (3) neither steroid caused muscle necrosis; (4) type IIb atrophy was not caused by acute nutritional deprivation alone.


HISTORY AND CLINICAL FINDINGS
A 20-year-old patient was hospitalized with persistent high fever after tonsillitis and swelling of the talocalcanean joint.

INVESTIGATIONS
The ECG showed a partial right bundle branch block pattern and pathological T inversions on the left precordial leads. Cardiac Troponin I levels were slightly elevated and echocardiography revealed a dyscinetic area at the right ventricular apex. The anti-streptolysin titer was elevated.

DIAGNOSIS
Post-streptococcal rheumatic myocarditis. THERAPY AND FOLLOW-UP: Antibiotic therapy for 2 weeks. The patient showed subjective full recovery after 6 weeks. The anti-streptolysin titer further increases. Nuclear spin tomography of the heart reveal postinflammatory alterations at the apex of the right ventricle.

CONCLUSION
Rheumatoid fever is a rare diagnosis in developed countries. This case, however, illustrates that the true prevalence of rheumatoid carditis might be underestimated in the presence of only minimal heart-and joint-specific symptoms.


This paper introduces programmable text rendering that enables temporal typography in web browsers. Typing is seen not only as a dynamic but interactive process facilitating both scripted and live musical expression in various contexts such as audio-visual performance using keyboards and live coding visualization. With the programmable text animation , we turn plain text into a highly audiovisual medium and a musical interface which is visually expressive. We describe a concrete technical realization of the concept using Web Audio API, WebGL and GLSL shaders. We further show a number of examples that illustrate instances of the concept in various scenarios ranging from simple textual visualization to live coding environments. Lastly, we present an audiovisual music piece that involves live writing augmented by the visualization technique.


In this paper a new algorithm for missile transfer alignment is supposed. The quaternion algorithm based on the specific force output and angular rate output of the master inertial navigation system and the slave inertial navigation system is deduced too. According to the motion relations between the master INS and the slave INS, the velocity relation and the acceleration relation are derived too. The computing simulation showed the performance of the new algorithm under the noise-disturbance. The new algorithm can be used prior to the more extractive alignment as it can provide smaller misalignment angle by which we can obtain the linear dynamic error model. As we know the linear dynamic error model is more simple for the transfer alignment, so the algorithm of this paper has engineering sense.


ABSTRACT Objective: To assess respiratory system impedance (Zrs) and spirometric parameters in children and adolescents with and without a history of preterm birth. Methods: We evaluated a sample of 51 subjects between 11 and 14 years of age: 35 who had a history of preterm birth (preterm group) and 16 who had been born at term (full-term group). Lung function was measured by spirometry, spectral oscillometry, and intra-breath oscillometry. Results: Neither spirometry nor spectral oscillometry revealed any statistically significant differences between the preterm and full-term groups. However, intra-breath oscillometry demonstrated significant differences between the two groups in terms of the change in resistance, reactance at end-inspiration, and the change in reactance (p < 0.05 for all). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that abnormalities in Zrs persist in children and adolescents with a history of preterm birth and that intra-breath oscillometry is more sensitive than is spectral oscillometry. Larger studies are needed in order to validate these findings and to explore the impact that birth weight and gestational age at birth have on Zrs later in life.


This paper presents a novel approach to estimate the Standard Model backgrounds based on modifying Monte Carlo predictions within their systematic uncertainties. The improved background model is obtained by altering the original predictions with successively more complex correction functions in signal-free control selections. Statistical tests indicate when sufficient compatibility with data is reached. In this way, systematic effects are absorbed into the new background model. The same correction is then applied on the Monte Carlo prediction in the signal region. Comparing this method to other background estimation techniques shows improvements with respect to statistical and systematic uncertainties. The proposed method can also be applied in other fields beyond high energy physics.


Four experiments were conducted in southern Taiwan to evaluate the yield and economic benefits of management practices aimed at alleviating the effects of high temperature and heavy rain on tomato production. Following tropical storms, waterlogging caused wilting which was more evident in tomatoes grown in beds 20 cm in height than in those grown in raised beds 40 cm in height. This indication of crop water stress induced by flooding was quantified by measurement of the difference between canopy surface and air temperature at a specified saturation vapour pressure deficit. Canopy heating was less on the raised beds, especially when straddled by rain shelters. Nevertheless, waterlogging stress for the low-bed treatment did not result in loss of stand. In crops which experienced heavy rain, application of a synthetic fruit-set hormone enhanced fruit numbers as did the simple transparent polyethylene rain shelters. While planting on raised beds was without yield benefit the use of fruit-set hormone improved yield by at least 10 t ha−1. A further 4–6 t ha−1 yield was gained through the additional use of rain shelters. Partial budget analysis showed positive returns to the use of fruit-set hormone (US$6600 ha−1) but, unless rain shelters could be constructed with cheaper frame material or used for two tomato crops throughout the summer, their use would be uneconomical. Using existing frame material, net returns to rainshelters reached US$8000 ha−1. The likelihood of high temperatures, tropical storms and typhoons will influence economic returns to summer tomato production. Data from this study may be subjected to economic analyses using values for inputs and tomato prices from other countries with similar climatic conditions.


Of all fundamental conditions of society none is of greater moment than that of the propagation and preservation of the human race. Beside it all other sociologic and material conditions fade into insignificance. For it is self-evident that only a few decades without a single birth would mean practically the depopulation of the entire earth, and though this will probably not occur, yet we are undoubtedly facing a diminishing birth rate, especially among the better class of American-born citizens. I will not tire you with statistics, for they are often incorrect and usually misleading; but I would ask each one of you to compare the number of children born twenty years ago in your immediate neighborhood with the number born to-day, and I feel sure that you will note a decided reduction. Fifteen years after I was graduated in medicine there were inquiries made of the one hundred and twenty-four


Objective: "Rapid screening, targeted sampling, objective test" is an efficient test model. The factors affecting the efficiency include false screening rate, missing rate and rapid screening time. However, only missing rate and accuracy have been used as technical requirements to evaluate rapid screening method. In this study, efficiency was regarded as evaluation index of quick testing method. Method: The evaluation model of quick testing efficiency was established by comparing time of routine testing and quick testing. By simulation calculation, the effect factors such as rapid screening time, false screening rate, missing rate and defective rate were analyzed. Results: The calculation formula of efficiency was derived. Simulation results showed that the lower defective rate, the higher efficiency; the smaller missing rate, false screening rate, or screening time, the higher efficiency and the degree of improving efficiency is related to defective rate; sometimes, the screening time is the most important factor affecting the efficiency. In certain cases, if the false screening rate or missing rate is 50%, the efficiency can be increased by more than 10 times. Conclusions: Taken together, this study highlighted a role of efficiency which functioned as an index to evaluate rapid screening. Quick testing efficiency evaluation model can be used for the calculation efficiency, and can be used to analysis the relationship between efficiency and the influence factors, and can provide the theoretical foundation for rapid screening method development and evaluation.


A variety of etiologies may result in functional and aesthetic deficiencies requiring orbital reconstruction. Fractures of the zygomaticomaxillary complex in the acute stage are frequently accompanied by sensory disturbances of the zygomatic nerve (ZN). The purpose of the current study was to describe the anatomic and topographic landmarks of the ZN in 18 adult human cadavers regarding the localization and dimensions in the orbit. The zygomaticotemporal (ZTN) and zygomaticofacial nerves (ZFN) along the lateral wall of the orbit passed through the zygomaticotemporal and zygomaticofacial foramens, respectively. The angle between the ZTN and the ZFN within the orbit was approximately 42.21 degrees. The mean (SD) distance between the orbital opening of the ZTN and the meeting point of the ZTN was measured as 9.21 (5.18) mm. The mean (SD) distance between the orbital opening of the ZFN and the meeting point of the ZTN was calculated as 11.22 (4.25) mm. The mean (SD) distance between the orbital opening of the ZFN and the infraorbital margin of the orbit was 13.04. (3.21) mm. A detailed knowledge of the ZN's passage in the orbit is necessary for a surgeon while performing maxillofacial surgery. If these measurements are taken into account, there will be little surgical risk, and this will be helpful in identifying the extent of the operative field.


In this study, we combine reconstructions of volcanological data sets and inputs from a structured expert judgment to produce a first long‐term probability map for vent opening location for the next Plinian or sub‐Plinian eruption of Somma‐Vesuvio. In the past, the volcano has exhibited significant spatial variability in vent location; this can exert a significant control on where hazards materialize (particularly of pyroclastic density currents). The new vent opening probability mapping has been performed through (i) development of spatial probability density maps with Gaussian kernel functions for different data sets and (ii) weighted linear combination of these spatial density maps. The epistemic uncertainties affecting these data sets were quantified explicitly with expert judgments and implemented following a doubly stochastic approach. Various elicitation pooling metrics and subgroupings of experts and target questions were tested to evaluate the robustness of outcomes. Our findings indicate that (a) Somma‐Vesuvio vent opening probabilities are distributed inside the whole caldera, with a peak corresponding to the area of the present crater, but with more than 50% probability that the next vent could open elsewhere within the caldera; (b) there is a mean probability of about 30% that the next vent will open west of the present edifice; (c) there is a mean probability of about 9.5% that the next medium‐large eruption will enlarge the present Somma‐Vesuvio caldera, and (d) there is a nonnegligible probability (mean value of 6–10%) that the next Plinian or sub‐Plinian eruption will have its initial vent opening outside the present Somma‐Vesuvio caldera.


The semiconductor pixel detector Timepix (matrix of 256 × 256 pixels with 55 μm pitch) can be used for measurements of energies of radiation quanta. For this purpose knowledge of the energy calibration of each pixel is required. Such a calibration is nonlinear. Two calibration methods already exist that use either monochromatic radiation sources or the internal test pulse capability. In the work we compare the calibrated response of the detector with the source method and for different temperatures and detector settings. Furthermore in this work we also explore the possibility of calibrating the detector under new conditions (temperature, detector settings) by adjusting an already existing calibration for different conditions. The new cross-temperature and cross-threshold calibration is calculated based on 3 original calibrations. This approach is advantageous, because it allows improving the detector response for different conditions without the need to make a whole new calibration. It is also the only appropriate method for particular applications where the detector is for instance placed in environments beyond direct physical access such as in a nuclear reactor vessel, the LHC ATLAS detector or in outer space. The method was applied and tested on a Timepix chip equipped with a 300 μm thick Si sensor.


In an upper level undergraduate elective course in vehicle dynamics, the author has developed some off-campus experimental-based assignments that involve the students (in pairs) designing the experiments and providing their own measuring tools and test vehicle to get results that they can compare with their calculated predictions. The students are free to design their own procedure or do some investigation and use an industry-standard approach. The students typically find that their experimental results vary considerably from their predictions. While this can be due to simple student implementation errors, it is typically a result of more complex issues. This leads to some deep learning (and a little frustration) for the students as they look into why their results, which they have clearly observed, should differ so much from those predicted by standard machine design and dynamics formulae they have previously used without question. Students must dig into and understand the assumptions behind the standard formulas and also the assumptions they made in designing and executing their experiments. (Texts and Internet articles are often misleading on this subject so students also get an appreciation for the nuances of interpreting what someone has written.) To balance the frustration factor associated with the "reality" of the assignment, there is a fun factor in testing using real vehicles (in various states of conforming to the original manufacturers' specifications) that pushes the students further in the assignment than they would go with a typical campus lab experiment. The paper describes two of the experiments providing some sample student approaches with examples of experiment-calculation discrepancies and their likely causes.


In the first note in this series, Norman Train stresses the importance of making clear from the outset what an engineer will – and will not – do in return for their fee.


A 46-year-old woman with a history of end-stage renal disease on chronic haemodialysis presented with 1 week of fever, chills, altered mental status and hand pain. She was febrile and ill-appearing on presentation with a pulse rate of 102 beats per minute. She had a tunnelled dialysis catheter in her right neck. Hand examination demonstrated a swollen, erythematous and tender wrist. Cardiovascular examination demonstrated no murmurs. CT of the hand showed abscesses involving the left forearm. Blood and abscess cultures grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) showed a 1.0×1.0 cm mobile vegetation involving the eustachian valve (EV), confirming EV endocarditis. She remained bacteraemic for 18 days despite being on vancomycin with appropriate blood levels. Vancomycin was switched to daptomycin and ceftaroline, which cleared her cultures. Repeat TEE showed improved vegetation size. Our case highlights the rarity and management of EV endocarditis and the importance of synergy for treatment of persistent MRSA bacteraemia.


Several investigators have observed that repeated acid infusions induce stronger symptoms (symptom hypersensitivity). The goal of our study was to determine whether symptom hypersensitivity is associated with esophageal contractile hypersensitivity. Subjects with chronic heartburn symptoms underwent simultaneous pressure and ultrasound imaging of esophagus. Normal saline and 0.1 N HCl were sequentially infused into the esophagus, and subjects scored heartburn symptoms on a 1-10 scale. Saline and HCl infusions were repeated in 10 subjects with a positive Bernstein test. Esophageal contraction amplitude and duration and muscularis propria thickness were measured using a computerized method during recording. Acid infusion induced heartburn. Esophageal contractions had higher amplitudes (pressure 114.2 +/- 7.0%) and longer duration (116.8 +/- 4.4%) during acid infusion compared with saline infusion. Average muscle thickness was greater during acid infusion than saline infusion (107.0 +/- 2.0%). Sustained esophageal contractions (SECs) were identified during acid infusion. A second acid infusion (acid-2) induced heartburn with shorter latency (93.0 +/- 15.0 vs. 317.0 +/- 43.0 s) and stronger severity (8.5 +/- 0.5 vs. 5.3 +/- 0.8) than the first acid infusion (acid-1). Contraction amplitudes (140.2 +/- 13.0%), average muscle thickness (118.0 +/- 3.3%), and contraction duration (148.5 +/- 5.6 vs. 116.8 +/- 4.4%) were higher during acid-2 than acid-1. Also, numbers of SECs were greater during acid-2 than acid-1 (31 in 8 subjects vs. 11 in 6 subjects). Our data show that acid infusion into esophagus induces esophageal hypersensitivity and that a close temporal correlation exists between symptom hypersensitivity and contractility hypersensitivity.


Iron in the form of ferric siderophore complexes and vitamin B12 are transported through the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria by a mechanism which consumes energy. There is no known energy source in the outer membrane or in the adjacent periplasmic space so that energy is provided by the electrochemical potential across the cytoplasmic membrane. Energy flows from the cytoplasmic into the outer membrane via a complex consisting of the TonB, ExbB and ExbD proteins which are anchored in the cytoplasmic membrane. It is proposed that the TonB--ExbB--ExbD complex opens--via an energized conformation of the TonB protein--channels in the outer membrane, formed by proteins which serves as highly specific binding sites for the various ferric siderophores and vitamin B12. In addition, outer membrane receptors together with the TonB--ExbB--ExbD complex are directly involved in induction of the transcription of ferric citrate and pseudobactin transport genes of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida, respectively.


Cyclized polyacrylonitrile (CPAN) sensitized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were prepared by dip method. Photocatalysis and photo absorbance property of TiO2/CPAN were measured. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocomposites was evaluated by decomposition of an ordinary dye Reactive Brilliant Red X‐3B in an aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. Results show that TiO2/CPAN nanocomposites with CPAN content of 0.5% have the highest photocatalytic activity. The optimum cyclized temperature is 300°C, and cyclized time is 1 h. Ultraviolet‐visible diffuse reflectance spectra indicate the photo absorbance property of TiO2/CPAN nanoparticles in the range of visible light is higher than that of TiO2 nanoparticles. Fluorescence spectra indicate that introduction of trace CPAN onto TiO2 nanoparticles can efficiently decrease the recombination probability of photo‐generated electrons and holes, so the visible light photocatalysis of TiO2/CPAN nanocomposites is significantly improved. The morphology and microstructure of TiO2 and TiO2/CPAN nanocomposites were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction. Results show that the size of TiO2/CPAN nanocomposites is similar to that of TiO2 nanoparticles. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 32–38, 2015


This paper presents the application of multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) in engineering issues. An evolutionary symbolic implementation was developed based on a case study on prediction of the shear strength of slender reinforced concrete beams without stirrups including 1942 set of published test results. In the implementation of the MOGP model, the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II with adaptive regression by mixing algorithm with considering the optimization of mean-square error as the fitness measure and the subtree complexity was used. The developed MOGP model was compared to previously developed genetic programming models, different building codes, and additional machine learning based approaches. It is clearly shown that the MOGP model outperformed the other algorithms applied on this database and can be a general solution on any engineering problems with the main advantage of prediction equations without assuming prior form of the relevance among the input predictor variables.


A primary goal in pain treatment is restoration of behaviors that are disrupted by pain. Measures of pain interference indicate the degree to which pain interferes with activities in pain patients, and these measures are used to evaluate the effects of analgesic drugs. As a result of the emphasis on the expression and treatment of functional impairment in clinical settings, preclinical pain researchers have attempted to develop procedures for evaluation of pain-related functional impairment in laboratory animals. The goal of the present study was to develop and validate a low cost procedure for the objective evaluation of pain-related depression of home cage behavior in mice. On test days, a 5 × 5 cm Nestlet was weighed prior to being suspended from the wire lid of the home cage of individually housed male and female ICR mice. Over the course of experimental sessions, mice removed pieces of the suspended Nestlet, and began to build a nest with the material they removed. Thus, the weight of the pieces of Nestlet that remained suspended at various time points in the session provided an indicator of the rate of this behavior. The results indicate that Nestlet shredding was stable with repeated testing, and shredding was depressed by intra-peritoneal injection of 0.32% lactic acid. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen blocked 0.32% lactic acid-induced depression of shredding, but did not block depression of shredding by a pharmacological stimulus, the kappa opioid receptor agonist U69,593. The μ-opioid receptor agonist morphine did not block 0.32% lactic acid-induced depression of shredding when tested up to doses that depressed shredding in the absence of lactic acid. When noxious stimulus intensity was reduced by decreasing the lactic acid concentration to 0.18%, morphine was effective at blocking pain-related depression of behavior. In summary, the data from the present study support consideration of the Nestlet shredding procedure for use in studies examining mechanisms, expression, and treatment of pain-related functional impairment.


The results of a study of sexually transmitted disease (STD) incidence and related risk factors for STDs among uninfected women at high risk of contracting STD infection in Bangkok are reported. Comprising the control arm of a randomized controlled trial of a vaginal contraceptive sponge and STD incidence, 163 women aged 18 or older were recruited from 4 massage parlours and followed for evidence of new infections over a 6–week period or until cervical infection occurred. Gynaecological examinations were performed and endocervical specimens were obtained at weekly intervals, at which time women returned coital logs recording their number of sexual partners. There were 76.5 new STD infections per 100 woman-months, including 31.7 with gonorrhoea, 43.1 with chlamydia, 1.8 of trichomoniasis and 3.5 of candidiasis. None of the risk factors examined were good predictors of STD infection in this population, which may be related to the restricted admission criteria in the study.


Molecular subtypes of breast cancer are important references to personalized clinical treatment. For cost and labor savings, only one of the patient's paraffin blocks is usually selected for subsequent immunohistochemistry (IHC) to obtain molecular subtypes. Inevitable sampling error is risky due to tumor heterogeneity and could result in a delay in treatment. Molecular subtype prediction from conventional H&E pathological whole slide images (WSI) using AI method is useful and critical to assist pathologists pre-screen proper paraffin block for IHC. It's a challenging task since only WSI level labels of molecular subtypes can be obtained from IHC. Gigapixel WSIs are divided into a huge number of patches to be computationally feasible for deep learning. While with coarse slide-level labels, patch-based methods may suffer from abundant noise patches, such as folds, overstained regions, or non-tumor tissues. A weakly supervised learning framework based on discriminative patch selecting and multi-instance learning was proposed for breast cancer molecular subtype prediction from H&E WSIs. Firstly, co-teaching strategy was adopted to learn molecular subtype representations and filter out noise patches. Then, a balanced sampling strategy was used to handle the imbalance in subtypes in the dataset. In addition, a noise patch filtering algorithm that used local outlier factor based on cluster centers was proposed to further select discriminative patches. Finally, a loss function integrating patch with slide constraint information was used to finetune MIL framework on obtained discriminative patches and further improve the performance of molecular subtyping. The experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method and our models outperformed even senior pathologists, with potential to assist pathologists to pre-screen paraffin blocks for IHC in clinic.


UVC radiation has been recently used to disinfect hospital, daycare and public places. It can be used to reduce bacteria by deactivating their DNA. Our work is to examine the effectiveness of UVC radiation (254 nm) in inactivating the SkinBorn bacteria. Mathematical models of these microorganisms placed in different positions on a human skin have been developed and solved numerically. Heat transfer equation is linked to Lambert Beer relationship by taking into account the conduction, the convection and the radiation phenomena. The experimental set-up is realized in order to verify our purposes. Swabs from skin and under nails of different individuals were inoculated on nutrient agar plates. Our experimental results achieved 97.43% of microorganisms killing. Both experimental and numerical results demonstrate that secured using of UVC is extremely effective in killing bacteria without damaging the human skin.


We address the problem of localizing a specific moment described by a natural language query. Existing works interact the query with either video frame or moment proposal, and neglect the inherent structure of moment construction for both cross-modal understanding and video content comprehension, which are the two crucial challenges for this task. In this paper, we disentangle the activity moment into boundary and content. Based on the explored moment structure, we propose a novel Structured Multi-level Interaction Network (SMIN) to tackle this problem through multi-levels of cross-modal interaction coupled with content-boundary-moment interaction. In particular, for cross-modal interaction, we interact the sentence-level query with the whole moment while interacting the word-level query with content and boundary, as in a coarse-to-fine manner. For content-boundary-moment interaction, we capture the insightful relations between boundary, content, and the whole moment proposal. Through multi-level interactions, the model obtains robust cross-modal representation for accurate moment localization. Extensive experiments conducted on three benchmarks (i.e., CharadesSTA, ActivityNet-Captions, and TACoS) demonstrate the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


Abstract Purpose Research to date has focused on clinicians' views on patients' discharge readiness from acute hospital settings.This study aims to synthesise the literature on discharge readiness from sub-acute (rehabilitation) hospital settings from all stakeholders' perspectives. Methods Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Ageline, AMED and Global Health) were systematically searched for post-2000 publications on discharge readiness of adult inpatients in sub-acute settings. After screening, quantitative and qualitative studies were assessed for bias using the Downs and Black checklist and McMaster critical assessment tool respectively, and narrative analysis conducted. Results From the 3516 papers identified, 23 were included in the review. Overall quality of articles was rated as adequate. Narrative synthesis identified three main themes: the importance of functional outcomes; confounding factors impact on discharge destination and length of stay and barriers and facilitators to discharge. Conclusion Despite limited literature defining sub-acute patients' discharge-readiness from all stakeholders' perspectives, synthesis of available findings identified major themes for consideration when determining when a patient is ready to leave hospital. Limitations include the heterogeneity of the studies located impacted on data extraction and quality appraisal. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Discharging patients from hospital is complex, discharge too early may lead to poor medical outcomes or readmission, while discharge too late may increase the risk of hospital-based adverse events. Multiple factors need to be considered when considering the discharge readiness of an inpatient. Ensuring adequate social support is key to maximising transition from hospital to home. Combining the use of functional outcome measures with clinical decision-making allows for quantifying readiness for discharge.


Psoriasis is a chronic and inflammatory multifactorial disease. For psoriasis treatment, topical chemical agents are applied, in spite of inefficient effects or less effectiveness. But medical plants can be one of the alternative treatment methods. In the field, herbal creams are the most used. In fact, they are helping to inhibit leukotriene formation, inflammation and blocks cyclooxygenase enzymes, then heal skin wounds due to the plant's flavonoids and tannins. The aim of this study is the making of new herbal cream for treating psoriasis. In the mentioned cream, synergistic effects of medicinal herbals extracts were evaluate on damaged skin. Some of these extracts include Santalum album, Arctium lappa, Matricaria chamomilla, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Lavandula angustifolia, Avena sativa, Aloe barbadesis, Pinus eldarica and Cydonia seed-Mucus. Cream was prepared by mixing water-in-oil (W/O) and was proposed to five patients who suffer from psoriasis. Results were remarkable. All five patients were satisfied from itching inhibition and skin inflammation in first week. After 2weeks applying cream, fading skin redness and increasing skin flexibility and repair were noticeable. An important point in this cream was the mixed herbal extract with high effectiveness than each of them alone. In fact, S. album and L. angustifolia were caused softening of skin corneous layer. Flavonoids and tannins in G. glabra, A. lappa, P. eldarica and A. sativa are effective for treating skin lesions such as psoriasis. Polysaccharides in A. barbadensis and mucilage in C. seed-Mucus not only are healing skin wounds but also their malic acid make peeling skin dead cells. Moreover, pectin and provitamins (A) act as antioxidants and prevent damage of skin healthy cells. Herbal β-sitosterols are factor of fading skin redness and anti-itching, abisabolol (M. chamomilla) as anti-inflammation; blocks cyclooxygenase enzymes and inhibits leukotriene formation to prevent redness. In fact, this treatment cream is effective for collagen synthesis, wound improvement, epidermal-moisture maintenance, inflammation relief and boost immune system and will inhibit psoriasis common symptoms in shortest time and no side effect.


We have altered by site-directed mutagenesis the 3' terminal adenosine residue of a tRNA(Tyrsu3+) gene encoded on a single-copy plasmid and examined the consequences of these substitutions on suppressor activity in vivo. Our data show that mutant su3 genes containing 3'-CCC, -CCG, or -CCU termini instead of -CCA can be efficiently transcribed and processed in Escherichia coli to generate functional suppressor tRNAs. However, in contrast to normal tRNA genes, both tRNA nucleotidyltransferase and exoribonuclease activities are required to obtain suppression by the mutant tRNAs, indicating that removal of the incorrect 3' terminal residue and resynthesis of the normal -CCA terminus are occurring in this situation. In addition, a low level of suppressor activity and tRNA repair was found in cells devoid of tRNA nucleotidyltransferase, suggesting that an additional activity able to partially repair the 3' end of tRNA is present in E. coli. The use of mutant strains lacking one or several exoribonucleases revealed that the various RNAses have very different specificities for removal of incorrect 3' residues and that these differ greatly from their action on CCA-ending tRNA. These data show that the 3' terminal adenosine residue is necessary for tRNA function in vivo and that cells can compensate for its alteration by changes in the normal pathway of tRNA metabolism.


The hydrological cycle has been massively impacted by climate change and human activities. Thus it is of the highest concern to examine the effect of climate change on water management, especially at the regional level, to understand possible future shifts in water supply and water-related crises, and to provide support for regional water management. Fortunately, there arises a high degree of ambiguity in determining the effect of climate change on water requirements. In this paper, the Statistical DownScaling (SDSM) model is applied to simulate the potential impact of climate on crop water requirement (CWR) by downscaling ET0 in the region of Western Maharashtra, India for the future periods viz., 2030s, 2050s, and 2080s across three meteorological stations (Pune, Rahuri, and Solapur). Four crops i.e. cotton, soybean, onion, and sugarcane are selected during the analysis. The Penman-Monteith equation is used to calculate reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0), which further in conjunction with the crop coefficient (Kc) equation is used to calculate crop evapotranspiration (ETc) / CWR. The predictor variables are extracted from the NCEP reanalysis dataset for the period 1961-2000 and the HadCM3 under H3A2 and H3B2 scenarios for the period of 1961 – 2099. The results indicated by SDSM profound good applicability in downscaling due to satisfactory performance during calibration and validation for all three stations. The projected ET0 indicated an increase in mean annual ET0 as compared to the present condition during the 2030s, 2050s, and 2080s. The ET0 would increase for all months (in summer, winter, and pre-monsoon seasons) and decrease from June to September (monsoon season). The estimated future CWR show variation in the range for cotton (-0.97 to 2.48%), soybean (-2.09 to 1.63 %), onion (0.49 to 4.62 %), and sugarcane (0.05 to 2.86 %).


The evidence for a reversal of the trend of population movement from the cities to the suburbs in the United States is examined. The data used are from published reports of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The author concludes that the evidence does not support the theory that people will move back to the city; rather, it suggests that there is, and seems likely to be, a significant out-flow of people from central cities in all regions of the country.


Absolute excitation cross sections by electron impact for some 5d levels with J=2 of Ar I have been measured by the optical method. Excitation functions for electron energies in the range from the excitation threshold to 1000 eV are also reported. A delayed coincidence analysis of the de-excitation at 100 eV electron energy allowed for the subtraction of radiative cascades. The resulting excitation cross sections are between 7.3 and 12*10-20 cm2. The present results and those obtained by electron spectroscopy for the 3d (J=2) levels can be interpreted on the basis of intermediate coupling as indirectly coupled excitations.


Abstract Objective: Previous literature has shown that executive functions (EF) are related to performance in memory tasks. The fact that there are no psychometric tests that evaluate these two constructs simultaneously led a group of researchers to develop the Test of Memory Strategies (TSM). Given the potential importance of this instrument for neuropsychological evaluation, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the TMS in Portuguese sample. We also examined the effect of aging by exploring profiles of performance on the TMS, comparing young and elderly healthy subjects. Method: Total of 135 healthy participants were submitted to a neuropsychological assessment and were divided into four age groups: a group of young adults (25–35 years) and three groups of older individuals (aged 60–69 years, 70–79 years, and 80 or more years). Results: Findings supported the reliability of the TMS scores, based on analyses of internal consistency. As expected, factor analysis of the TMS scores revealed that the test yielded two factors, one capturing EF and the other memory. Correlations with classic neuropsychological tests supported convergent and discriminant validity of the TMS scores. The elderly groups presented more difficulties in creating and mobilizing memory strategies when compared with a younger group, after controlling for the influence of education, although both groups presented increases in performance throughout the five TMS subscales. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the TMS is an adequate measure to assess memory and EF, simultaneously, presenting adequate psychometric properties for a Portuguese sample.


The purpose of this study is to determine influence of Leverage, Growth, Firm Size, Dividend Policy and Interest rate on the value of the company of construction and building sub-sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the observation period 2014 - 2020. The research sample in this study consists of 7 companies determined by conducting purposive sampling. In this study, uses secondary data from financial statements were reported by construction and building sub-sector companies. Research methods uses descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using the Random Effect Model. The results showed that Leverage and Interest Rate have a significant positive effect, Firm Size has a negative and significant effect. While the Growth and Dividend Policy has no effect on the value of the company.


Background and Aims: In this study, the effect of infections and inflammation developed during hepatitis B vaccination program on antibody response in hemodialysis (HD) patients was evaluated. Methods: In total, 94 patients who had hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) (-), antibody to hepatitis B surface (antiHBs) (-), antibody against hepatitis B core immunoglobulin G (antiHBcIgG) (-) (Group A) and who were previously vaccinated but having antibody titer levels lower than 10 mIU/mL (Group B), on maintenance HD program were included in this study. In group A, 40 ||vaccine on 0, 1, 2 and 6 months and in group B, 40 µ|intramuscular booster dose vaccine were administered. Antibody titer of 10 mIU/mL was considered as positive. Group A was then divided into two subgroups with respect to antibody response (Group A1 and Group A2). Results: Eighty-one patients completed the study (Group A; n=64, mean age=42.3±11.4 years; Group B: n=17, mean age=53.6±10.6 years). In Group A, antibody response was positive in 82.8% (Group A1), negative in 17.2% (Group A2) and it was positive in 100% of Group B. Inflammatory parameters, nutritional and demographic features were found similarly in all groups. Throughout the study, infections developed most frequently in Group A. Conclusions: We concluded that acute infections and inflammations developed in patients vaccinated according to vaccination schedule recommended for HBV prophylaxis during HD treatment does not affect antibody response and


Cultural heritage is a valuable and characteristic symbol of every country. It should be handled with care and it must be exhaustively investigated and measured with non-destructive techniques. In this chapter, we will talk about different reflectance measurement techniques to obtain the conservation state of the artwork. With this reflectance characterization, conservators, and curators could soon determine the best maintenance procedures for restoration purposes. Also, a new technique for lighting will be discussed, where the artwork can be also photonically restored illuminating with the correct light in the desired area of the artwork using a spectrally selective projection system.


Leadership is the ability of leaders to influence subordinates in an organization so that they are motivated to achieve organizational goals. There are two styles of leadership that can be applied, namely the force of transformational leadership and transactional leadership style. Both are expected to influence job satisfaction of subordinates. The population in this study were all employees of SMK Raden Patah Kota Mojokerto many as 60 people. Because its population is relatively small, the entire population sampled. Data were collected through a questionnaire given directly to respondents. Furthermore, in analysis with multiple linear regression approach. The results of this study indicate that: (1) changes in employee satisfaction 58.6% change in employee job satisfaction is influenced by the style of transformational leadership and transactional leadership style. The remaining 41.4% are influenced by other variables not studied. This is indicated by the value of R Square = 0.586, (2) style of transformational leadership and transactional leadership styles together influence on employee job satisfaction. This is indicated by a probability value of F test = 0.014 less 0.05, and (3) the dominant influence transformational leadership style on employee job satisfaction. This is indicated by the value of regression coefficient (beta) is a standardized = 0.651 is larger than transactional leadership style variables = -0.549


The high potassium (K)-fixing capacity of calcareous soils with homogeneous K supply limits crop K concentration. The objective of this study was to determine the increase in the leaf K concentration of tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum L.) with a heterogeneous K supply. Two field experiments were conducted from 2013 to 2015 with five K rates applied in homogeneous environments and one K rate applied in varying fractions of soil volume (from 0% to 100%) in heterogeneous environments. Under ridge culture, leaf biomass was not significantly affected by homogeneous (K rate) or heterogeneous (patch size) K management. Under homogeneous conditions, increasing the K supply to three times the standard rate used by farmers (249 kg K ha−1) increased leaf K concentration significantly, but the effect was limited and not cost-effective. Heterogeneous supply of K fertilizer at the standard K rate in patches of 0–40% of soil volume outperformed homogeneous K supply in terms of leaf K concentrations. Furthermore, K fertilizer mixed in intermediate soil volume fractions of 1–20% resulted in higher leaf K concentrations than the smallest (0%) and larger (30–40%) soil fractions. However, such K-rich patch application should be managed precisely with specific placement due to the sharp reduction in available K with increasing distance from the fertilizer. To maximize the sorption of immobile K, the match between the uptake volume of the rhizosphere and the area available for K diffusion is important.