The article discusses some aspects demonstrating that a decrease in acetylcholine synthesis in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) is a consequence of the strong decline in glucose turnover in the brain. This becomes obvious by the fact that acetylcoenzyme A, the key substrate of acetylcholine synthesis, is exclusively synthesized in the glycolytic pathway in the brain. This means that a single molecule of glucose synthesizes only two molecules of acetylcoenzyme A but 38 molecules of ATP. This is critically changed if glucose metabolism of the brain decreases in SDAT. beta-Amyloid precursor protein (beta-APP) of chromosome 21 is a regular protein of repair of any cellular membrane in the body. It is integrated into the cellular membranes and split off by proteases in the beta-region. This process is ATP-dependent. If in SDAT ATP synthesis is critically lowered by a decreased glucose turnover, beta-APP cannot be built into the cellular membranes and the beta-APP molecule is not split off in the beta-region either. The consequence is a generation of beta-amyloid from beta-APP fragments, which are progressively accumulated in senile plaques and vascular walls. The missing repair of cellular membranes and synapses in the brain results in nerve cell atrophy and a shrinkage of the brain. It is concluded that the cholinergic deficit, nerve cell atrophy and the amyloid accumulation in the brain are secondary phenomena caused by the 50-70% decline of glucose metabolism in SDAT.


In this paper, we have introduced and evaluated intonation based feature for scoring the English speech of nonnative English speakers in Indian context. For this, we created an automated spoken English scoring engine to learn from the manual evaluation of spoken English. This involved using an existing Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engine to convert the speech to text. Thereafter, macro features like accuracy, fluency and prosodic features were used to build a scoring model. In the process, we introduced SimIntonation, short for similarity between spoken intonation pattern and "ideal" i.e. training intonation pattern. Our results show that it is a highly predictive feature under controlled environment. We also categorized interword pauses into 4 distinct types for a granular evaluation of pauses and their impact on speech evaluation. Moreover, we took steps to moderate test difficulty through its evaluation across parameters like difficult word count, average sentence readability and lexical density. Our results show that macro features like accuracy and intonation, and micro features like pause-topography are strongly predictive. The scoring of spoken English is not within the purview of this paper.


The potential levels of exposure to indoor overheating in an urban environment are assessed for vulnerable social housing residents. Particular focus is given to the synergistic effects between summertime ventilation behaviour, indoor temperature and air pollutant concentration in relation to energy retrofit and climate change. Three different types of social housing are investigated (1900s' low-rise, 1950s' mid-rise and 1960s' high-rise). The case study dwellings are located in Central London and occupied by vulnerable individuals (elderly and/or people suffering from ill-health or mobility impairment). Indoor temperature monitoring suggests that occupants are already exposed to some degree of overheating; the highest levels of overheating occur in 1960s' high-rise tower blocks. The thermal and airflow performance simulation of a mid-floor flat in the 1960s' block under the current and projected future climate indicates that improved natural ventilation strategies may reduce overheating risk to a certain extent, with night cooling and shading being slightly more effective than all-day rapid ventilation. However, their potential may be limited in future due to high external temperatures and the undesired ingress of outdoor pollutants. This highlights the need for the development of combined strategies aiming to achieve both indoor thermal comfort and air quality.


The author calls for a more mindful engagement with the analogical imagination, the creative promptings of which have guided the evolution of transpersonal theory from its inception to the present. Having traced, in Part One, the role of spatial and temporal image schemata in the models of such transpersonal precursors as Fechner, James, Myers, and Jung, this second part considers the further evolution of transpersonal theory into the paradigmatic models of Wilber (from Wilber I to IV) and Grof. Special attention is given to the tendency to spatialize, and therefore obscure, the more complex aspects of psyche and its relation to Spirit or the transpersonal. This tendency, when not rendered conscious, can lead to a kind of hardening of the categories and to a clash of tacit metaphysical assumptions and character dispositions hidden behind the variously defended ''positions.'' I have called for a more mindful engagement with the analogical imagination, the creative promptings of which have guided the evolution of transpersonal theory from its inception to the present. I began, in Part One, with some reflections on the metaphorical or analogical ground of all theories, and went on to trace the role of spatial and temporal image schemata in the models of such transpersonal precursors as G.T. Fechner, Frederick Myers, William James, and C.G. Jung. In this Part Two, I consider the further evolution of transpersonal theory into the paradigmatic models of Wilber (from Wilber I to IV) and Grof, along with some implications of the trajectory as a whole.


It is important to understand the motivation to quit smoking in patients with asthma and help these patients in smoking cessation. The aim of the study was to analyze the motivation to quit smoking (MQS) among patients with asthma and the effectiveness of telephone consultations. Methods. Patients with asthma were interviewed about smoking, Fagerstrom nicotine dependence test (ND), MQS. They filled in questionnaire Hearing the views of smokers who have a lung condition-ELF. Among smokers who applied to Russian Quitline (RQ) 12% had a diagnosis asthma and 93 people (63 male and 30 female, 34- 75 years) gave the agreed to participate in smoking cessation program (medical-psychological support during 1 month: 4-8 telephone sessions). Results. Patients with asthma smoked from 10 to 60 cigarettes per day during 10-60 years, ND=5,07+0,62. The main reason the smoking was: it helps cope with stress. The most smokers tried to quit smoking more 3 times (80,6%); 59,1% had the strong degree of withdrawal. In 10,7% the doctors recommended to quit smoking, but the recommendation about smoking cessation were given only 2,1% of patients. The main reasons to stop smoking were: current health condition, the request of relatives, example for children or for the sake of childrens health, physicians recommendation; for the economic cost. Effectiveness of smoking cessation (6 months) was 17,4% and the use the nicotine replacement therapy increased the number of abstaining from smoking to 41%. Conclusion. Physicians should be to assist smokers with asthma to quit smoking and often give advice to stop smoking. It is also advisable to involve in this process patients relatives and convince patients of the need for the use of drug therapy.


INTRODUCTION - The changes within coordination structure of athletes' complex motions under simulation of various conditions of gravitation interactions were studied at the experiment. Motion actions of basketballers who performed the throw into basket at jumping: under natural conditions A; under condition B - with weights being positioned on the body so that the geometry of athletes' body masses to keep with the man; under condition C - with weight placed locally on the body (waistcoat) were controlled by the using of videocomputer analysis, the tensodynamography. RESULTS - The characteristics of vertical component of supporting response as well as the kinematic parameters were registered. Computed t-statistics about the time of the achieving of supporting response' maximum vertical component plus the time of the taking off platform Tmax + Tt for compared samples A and B is -2.3128 at significance level 0.0231, for samples A and C is -1.0704 at significance level 0.2874. Computed t-statistics about the gradient of supporting response' vertical component F'(t) for compared samples A and B is 2.1351 at significance level 0.0355, for samples A and C is 0.4043 at significance level 0.6870. Computed t-statistics about the impulse of supporting response' vertical component I F(t)dt for compared samples A and B is - 3.5362 at significance level 6.5E4, for samples A and C is -1.4528 at significance level 0.1498. Computed t-statistics about the total time of the jump Tsum for compared samples A and B is -1.2286 a significance level 0.2225, for samples / and C is -0.0218 at significance level 0.0986. The results of hypothesis test for Ho about the differences=O (at Alpha=O 05 between these statistical samples each b! number of observations equal of 4! showed: I) the hypothesis Ho is not rejected , the differences equal 0 at the comparison between samples of condition A and B; 2) the hypothesis Ho is rejected , the differences are not equal 0 at the comparison between samples of condition A and C. CONCLUSION - The experiments proved the weights being positioned so that the geometry of body mass to keep did not influence essentially onto kinematic structure of throw technique. At the same time the weight of the same mass that is fixed locally on the body cause: pronounced changes within the coordination structure of the throw particularly with the time. Experiments showed the positioning of weights at the keeping of masses' geometry allows to create for examinees the artificial gravitational surround adequate with a motional tasks and so gives the possibility to increase essentially their power potential and to improve greatly the coordination of motions during sport exercises.


Vertebrate odorant receptor (OR) genes have been isolated and characterized in several taxa, including bony fish and mammals. However, the search for more ancient vertebrate OR genes has been unsuccessful to date, indicating that these ancient genes share little sequence identity with previously isolated ORs. The lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) olfactory epithelium does not appear to express any of the modern vertebrate ORs previously identified in bony fish and mammals. We have isolated and characterized an ancient family of vertebrate membrane receptors from the olfactory epithelium of the lamprey. Sequence analysis reveals similarities with other Class A (rhodopsin-like) G protein-coupled receptors such as serotonin, dopamine, and histamine receptors, but the expression patterns of members of the new family, as well as certain conserved motifs, strongly suggest that the sequences encode ORs. Sequence similarity within the lamprey OR family is low, and Southern blot analysis suggests reduced-sized subfamilies. This novel vertebrate OR gene family, the most ancient isolated to date, is proposed to be involved in the detection of water-borne molecules in jawless fishes. Lamprey OR genes therefore represent a new level of diversity within the vertebrate OR gene family, but also provide clues as to how vertebrate ORs might have emerged.


Purpose
Economic literature highlights both positive and negative impact of FDI on economic growth. The purpose of this study is to confirm the relationship between various economic factors and FDI equity inflows and find out deviations, if any. This is investigated using standard time-series econometric models. The long and short run relationship is inquired with respect to market size, inflation rate, level of infrastructure, domestic investment and openness to trade. The choice of variables for Indian economy is purely based on empirical observations obtained from scientific literature review.

Design/methodology/approach
The study involves application of autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model to investigate the relationship. The long run co-integration between FDI and economic growth is tested by Pesaran ARDL model. The stationarity of data is tested by augmented Dickey Fuller test and Phillip–Perron unit root test. Error correction model is applied to study the short run relationship using Johansen's vector error correction model method besides other tests.

Findings
The results show that the domestic investment, inflation rate, level of infrastructure and trade openness influence inward FDI flows. These factors have both long and short-term relationship with FDI inflows. However, market size is insignificant in influencing the foreign investments inflows. There lies an inverse relation between FDI and inflation rate.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, the study is original. The methodology and interpretation of results are distinct and different from other similar studies.


The deaf population of the United States has historically been viewed as a collection of handicapped individuals isolated from society and unable to cope because of an inability to hear. Deafness itself has traditionally been defined in pathological terms relating to degree of hearing loss. While hearing is indeed important in defining who is and who is not deaf, mere decibels of hearing loss do not provide an adequate measure of the impact of deafness on an individual. The present study suggests that deafness may be better understood when defined in cultural and social terms rather than pathological.  The deaf are viewed as a native, but alien, minority culture t living within the matrix of the hearing society. The deaf community of Tampa has been studied as representative of this native but alien cultural group.


In five aspects, this paper is an anti-criticism of Wang Wenyuan's critical article on Saussure, arguing that it is indispensable to understand well the original academic texts before launching academic criticism.


The magnified infectious power of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus compared to its precursor SARS‐CoV is intimately linked to an enhanced ability in the mutated virus to find available hydrogen‐bond sites in the host cells. This characteristic is acquired during virus evolution because of the selective pressure exerted at the molecular level. We pinpoint the specific residue (in the virus) to residue (in the cell) contacts during the initial recognition and binding and show that the virus⋅⋅⋅cell interaction is mainly due to an extensive network of hydrogen bonds and to a large surface of noncovalent interactions. In addition to the formal quantum characterization of bonding interactions, computation of absorption spectra for the specific virus⋅⋅⋅cell interacting residues yields significant shifts of Δλmax=47 and 66 nm in the wavelength for maximum absorption in the complex with respect to the isolated host and virus, respectively.


While the theory of languages of words is very mature, our understanding of relations on words is still lagging behind. And yet such relations appear in many new applications such as verification of parameterized systems, querying graph-structured data, and information extraction, for instance. Classes of well-behaved relations typically used in such applications are obtained by adapting some of the equivalent definitions of regularity of words for relations, leading to nonequivalent notions of recognizable, regular, and rational relations. The goal of this paper is to propose a systematic way of defining classes of relations on words, of which these three classes are just natural examples, and to demonstrate its advantages compared to some of the standard techniques for studying word relations. The key idea is that of a synchronization of a pair of words, which is a word over an extended alphabet. Using it, we define classes of relations via classes of regular languages over a fixed alphabet, just {1,2} for binary relations. We characterize some of the standard classes of relations on words via finiteness of parameters of synchronization languages, called shift, lag, and shiftlag. We describe these conditions in terms of the structure of cycles of graphs underlying automata, thereby showing their decidability. We show that for these classes there exist canonical synchronization languages, and every class of relations can be effectively re-synchronized using those canonical representatives. We also give sufficient conditions on synchronization languages, defined in terms of injectivity and surjectivity of their Parikh images, that guarantee closure under intersection and complement of the classes of relations they define. CR Subject Classification F.4.3 Formal Languages


Dense 3D face reconstruction plays a fundamental role in visual media production involving digital actors. We improve upon high fidelity reconstruction from a single 2D photo with a reconstruction framework that is robust to large variations in expressions, poses and illumination. We provide a global optimization step improving the alignment of 3D facial geometry to tracked 2D landmarks with 3D Laplacian deformation. Face detail is improved through, extending Shape from Shading reconstruction with fitted albedo prior masks, together with a fast proportionality constraint between depth and image gradients consistent with local self-occlusion behavior. Together these measures better preserve the crucial facial features that define an actor's identity, andwe illustrate this through a variety of comparisons with related works.


2519Background: Despite using cytogenetic and molecular-risk stratification and precision medicine, the current overall outcome of GBM patients remains relatively poor. Therapy selection is often b...


§I. Introductory. In the fine collection of fossils from the Crag of Norfolk and Suffolk, presented to the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society at York by Dr. Reed, is a battered and water-worn specimen, which is of singular interest, because it carries the range of one of the most restricted of the genera of the Oriental Province far to the west and to the north of its present habitat. It is a small fragment of the right lower jaw, with the last true molar in position, found in the Red Crag of Felixstowe, the rest of the ramus and the angle and articular and coronoid processes being broken away (see figs. 1 and 2). §2. Description and Comparison with Ailurus fulgens. After a long and careful study, I find that the lower jaw in question differs in a marked degree from all the European fossil Carnivores, and presents no important points of difference when compared with the series of jaws of recent Ailurus in the British Museum. The last true molar in the fossil is implanted in the jaw by two fangs, the anterior being the smaller, and supporting the anterior cusps, A and D of figures 1, 2, 3, 4. The multicuspid crown is composed of three small, obtusely pointed cusps, A, B, c of figs. 1, 3, and 4, on the outer side, while the inner (figs. 2 and 3) is occupied by the large cusp D and a smaller hind cusp F, connected by a line


Transparent noise barrier panels have the advantages of transmitting light to nearby residents and allowing drivers to orientate themselves by providing views of the surrounding area. To develop guidelines on quality criteria for transparent soundproof panels, their sound transmission loss and weatherability were experimentally investigated. In Korea, the sound transmission loss of noise barrier panels should be more than 25 dB at 500 Hz and 30 dB at 1000 Hz. The transmission loss tests of transparent panels were performed in accordance with KS F 2808. Typically, plastic materials suffer from color changes when exposed to ultraviolet(UV) light over extended periods. Therefore, weathering of plastics is one of the most important properties for outdoor applications. Protection against UV radiation and weathering is usually accomplished by using UV stabilizer additives or coatings. Transparent materials for soundproof panels were examined through accelerated weathering tests and their weathering resistances were evaluated from changes in yellowness index.


We consider two popular, permutation-based, step-down procedures of p-values adjustment in multiple testing problems known as min P and max T and intended for strong control of the family-wise error rate, under the so-called subset pivotality property (SPP). We examine key but subtle issues involved in ascertaining validity of these methods, and also introduce a new, slightly narrower notion of strong control which ensures proper bounds on the family-wise error rate in min P and max T without SPP.


Aims Although traditional tests such as serum urea, creatinine, and microalbuminuria have been widely employed in the diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy, their sensitivity and accuracy are limited because kidney damage precedes the excretion of these biomarkers. This study investigated the role of serum free light chains in the disease manifestation of diabetic nephropathy. Materials and Methods Using a cross-sectional design we recruited 107 diabetes mellitus out-patients who visited the Diabetes and Renal Disease Clinics at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Manhyia District Hospital, and Suntreso Government Hospital all in Ghana from November 2019 to February 2020. Five (5) mls of blood was collected from each participant and analyzed for fasting blood glucose (FBG) urea, creatinine, immunoglobulin free light chains. Urine samples were obtained and analyzed for albumin. Anthropometric characteristics were also measured. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, Tukey HSD post hoc, and Kruskal Wallis test. Chi-squared test was used to examine if there are significant associations with the indicators of interest. In addition, Spearman's correlation was used to test for associations between appropriate variables. Receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC) was also performed to assess the diagnostic performance of free light chains. Results The mean age of studied participants was 58.2 years (SD: ± 11.1), 63.2% were females and most of the participants were married (63.0%). The mean FBG of the studied participants was 8.0mmol/L (SD: ± 5.86), and the average duration of diabetes mellitus (DM) was 11.88 years (SD: ± 7.96). The median serum Kappa, Lambda, and Kappa: Lambda ratios for the studied participants were 18.51 (15.63-24.18), 12.19(10.84-14.48), and 1.50(1.23-1.86) respectively. A positive correlation was observed between albuminuria and; Kappa (rs=0.132; p=0.209), and Lambda (rs=0.076; p=0.469). However, a negative correlation was observed between albuminuria and K: L ratio (rs=-0.006; p=0.956). Conclusions The current study observed an increasing trend in the levels of free light chains and degree of diabetic nephropathy, although not statistically significant. The exploration of serum free light chains as a better marker of diabetic nephropathy showed very promising results but further studies are required to elucidate its predictive value as a diagnostic tool for diabetic nephropathy.


The author analyzes trends in female labor force participation by age in Mexico during the period 1978-1987, using data for Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. Aspects considered include the increase in the number of employed married women, changes in type of occupational activity, and changes in the motivations for women seeking employment, especially changes due to the need for additional household income.


Based on a two-qubit isotropic Heisenberg XY model under a constant external magnetic field, we construct a four-level entangled quantum heat engine (QHE). The expressions for the heat transferred, the work, and the efficiency are derived. Moreover, the influence of the entanglement on the thermodynamic quantities is investigated analytically and numerically. Several interesting features of the variations of the heat transferred, the work, and the efficiency with the concurrences of the thermal entanglement of two different thermal equilibrium states in zero and nonzero magnetic fields are obtained.


While the association between teenagers' work and academic performance continues to be debated in studies of adolescent employment, many researchers have found that "intensive" involvement in paid work increases the risk of high school dropout. It is still unclear, however, whether this relationship is spurious owing to preexisting differences in socioeconomic background, school performance, aspirations, and orientations toward work and school. Using propensity- score matching techniques, the authors address this issue and assess variation in the effects of work hours on the probability of dropping out of high school. The results suggest that long hours on the job do not encourage high school dropout among all students.


Treatment of equimolar amounts of the [arylthio(chloro)methyl) trimethylsilanes (2) or (3) and electron-rich arenes with an equimolar amount of Lewis acid (SnCI4 or TiCI4) gave the Friedel-Crafts reaction products, [aryl (arylthio)methyl] trimethylsilanes (4) or (5), in high yields. Similar treatment of the chlorides (2) or (3) with alk-1-enes gave ene type products, (1-arylthioalk-3-enyl]trimethylsilanes (12) or (13), in moderate yields. Some chemical transformations of these products are also described.


Traditional structural steel manufacturing routes typically produce prismatic members comprising of flat plate elements. Under compressive actions, the capacity of these sections is often dominated by plate instability of the lowest buckling mode. The current study proposes the use of innovative additive manufacturing to produce metallic plate elements with predefined imperfection patterns capable of postponing instability via the lowest buckling mode thus providing increased buckling resistances. To this end, a program of numerical modelling has been carried out to explore various combinations of predefined surface waves with different amplitudes in stainless steel square hollow section stub columns of varying slenderness. Their stiffness, strength, and material consumption against the typical flat sided structural steel members with the same nominal dimensions were assessed. The study identifies the possibility for 'imperfect' sections to achieve up to a 50% increase in strength for a minimal increase in material consumption. This innovative study highlights the significant potential of new metallic additive manufacturing technologies in achieving unprecedented material efficiency and economic design in the future steel construction industry.


This paper offers a statistical analysis of the importance of urban green areas as critical constituents of sustainability policy of cities. Special attention is given to the background conditions and factors that are responsible for effective urban green space planning. Based on a systematic extensive database on relevant attributes of urban green in 23 European cities, our study aims to assess performance indicators for the effective provision and maintenance of green spaces in these cities. By using multivariate statistical analyses, we provide an operational framework for quantitative comparative study of such green spaces. Based on this comparative analysis, we derive transferable policy lessons on sustainable urban green spaces, in particular regarding the need for effective institutional support systems and the need for tailor-made flanking financial mechanisms for green space policy.


A delay-dependent sliding mode control algorithm for the networked control system (NCS) with mismatched uncertainties and stochastic less delay is studied. Considering stochastic less delay of the NCS, delay estimation online is present. The delay iterative measuring and pretest parameters-based estimation methods are adopted. Loop delay estimation online is designed to overcome the adverse influence caused by time-varying delay. Considering mismatched uncertainties, an asymptotically stable sliding mode surface is designed by means of linear matrix inequality (LMI). The sufficient condition for the existence of sliding surface if gained by using LMI with delay depending. A discrete sliding mode control strategy based on the loop delay of estimation and the asymptotically stable sliding mode surface is present. The simulation experiment results show the effectiveness of the algorithm.


A lambda-specialized transducing phage carrying the pyrE gene from Salmonella typhimurium LT2 was constructed and used as the source of DNA for subcloning the pyrE gene into pBR322. The pyrE gene product was identified as a 23-kDa polypeptide using a minicell system for analysis of plasmid-encoded proteins. Studies utilizing a promoter-cloning vehicle provided evidence for the existence of two promoter regions, one located close to the start of the structural gene and the other positioned more than 300 base pairs upstream. Transcription from the more distal promotor was the only situation in which significant regulation by pyrimidines was observed. Additional studies served to localize sites involved in the regulation of pyrE expression and led to the inference that regulation does not occur at the level of initiation of transcription. A procedure was developed for the construction of plasmids through recombination in vivo, whereby pyrE::Mud1 (Ap lac) fusions were transferred to a recipient pyrE+ plasmid by bacteriophage P22-mediated transduction. This enabled the identification of the integration sites of Mud within pyrE and also verified the deduced orientation of the pyrE gene in the parental plasmid. The nucleotide sequence of the 5' end of the pyrE gene was determined, including 150 nucleotide residues encoding the first 50 N-terminal amino acids of orotate phosphoribosyltransferase, and 400 nucleotides upstream from the start of the coding region. The leader region contains sequences characteristic of a rho-independent transcriptional terminator preceded by a cluster of thymidylate residues. In addition, the leader RNA contains an open reading frame with a UGA stop codon immediately preceding the putative transcriptional terminator. The nucleotide sequence suggests that pyrE expression is regulated by modulated attenuation, as has been proposed to be the case for both pyrB and pyrE expression in Escherichia coli.


Most evidence showed that women with diabetes mellitus have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Prediabetes is a reversible state that can progressive for future complications or regressive to normoglycemic. The weight loss that prevents progressivity from prediabetes can be achieved by regulating dietary composition. The dietary composition may affect pancreatic ?-cell function and insulin sensitivity. Consumption of foods rich in MUFA and PUFA has a positive effect on metabolism, which is associated with an increase in the position of adiponectin, anti-inflammatory cytokines, which increase liver elevation, and reduce atherosclerosis, such as decreased triglycerides, LDL and VLDL and increased HDL. This article explores relevant literature on this subject in order to identify and elaborated the knowledge for further research.


Epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like factors [amphiregulin (AREG), betacellulin, and epiregulin] are induced by LH and activate the EGF receptor (ERBB1)/ERK1/2 pathway in granulosa cells and cumulus cells of preovulatory follicles to impact ovulation. However, the expression and roles of other ERBB family members and their ligands have not been explored in detail. Herein, we document that two transcripts of the neuregulin (Nrg1) gene are expressed in granulosa cells, and that the type III Nrg1 is induced during ovulation in an ERK1/2 and C/EBPβ-dependent manner. Western blotting shows that intact (75 kDa) and secreted (45 kDa) forms of neuregulin 1 (NRG1) are present in the ovary. NRG1 likely binds to ERBB3/ERBB2 complexes that are expressed in granulosa cells and cumulus cells. In cultured granulosa cells, NRG1 selectively stimulates the phosphorylation of AKT/PKB compared to ERK1/2. However, when granulosa cells were cultured with NRG1 and AREG, the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was markedly enhanced as compared with that by AREG alone. Cotreatment with NRG1 and AREG also increased progesterone production. When cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured with both NRG1 and AREG, the matured oocytes exhibited significantly higher developmental competence as compared with that of oocytes cultured with AREG alone. Collectively, these results document that the expression of type III NRG1 is induced in granulosa cells during ovulation and that NRG1 enhances AREG-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation in both granulosa cells and cumulus cells. The NRG1 pathway has two roles: one is to enhance AREG-induced progesterone production in granulosa cells, and the other is to regulate oocyte maturation by a cumulus cell-dependent mechanism.


We report on the implementation of stainless steel foils coated with dispersed Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes as novel, low cost and highly efficient counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We use commercially available non purified nanotubes dispersed in water by ultrasonication and drop cast on stainless steel substrates. When implemented on a ruthenium based DSSC we obtain a high short circuit current density (J(sc)= 9.21 mA cm(-2)), a good open circuit voltage (V(oc) = 0.660 V) and a solar energy conversion efficiency of 3.92%. The above cited values are measured under a light flux of 100 mW cm(-2) generated by a solar simulator equipped with a filter AM 1.5. The obtained results are comparable to those attained using a stainless steel counter electrode sputtered with a 2 microm thick platinum film (J(sc) 10.92 mA cm(-2), V(max) = 0.66 V and eta = 4.5%, AM 1.5).


Colistin has a long story of safe use in animals for the treatment and prevention of certain bacterial diseases. Nevertheless, the first description of the mcr-1 gene showed that colistin resistance can spread by horizontal gene transfer and changed the landscape. This study aimed to assess the effect of colistin administration on the dispersion of resistance in the microbiota of day-old broiler chicks and how the presence of mcr-1 genes influences the spread of colistin resistance determinants. In this study, 100 one-day-old chicks were divided into four groups of 25 animals (G1, G2, G3, and G4). Animals from G3/G4 were challenged with mcr-1-carrying Salmonella (day 7), while colistin (600 mg/L) was administered daily to G2/G4 animals through drinking water (from day 8 to day 15). Two quantitative PCR assays were performed to compare the amount of Salmonella and mcr-1 that were present in the caecal samples. We observed that levels of mcr-1 were higher in G3/G4 animals, especially G4, due to the spread of mcr-1-carrying Salmonella. On day 21, Salmonella levels decreased in G4, reaching similar values as those for G3, but mcr-1 levels remained significantly higher, suggesting that colistin may accelerate the spreading process when mcr-1-carrying bacteria reach the gut.


Temperature dependencies (81 °C–18 °C) ofvisible absorption and Raman spectra of all-trans-β-carotene and all-trans-retinol extremely diluted in dimethyl sulfoxide are investigated in order to clarify temperature effects on different polyenes. Their absorption spectra are identified to be redshifted with temperature decreasing. Moreover, all-trans-β-carotene is more sensitive to temperature due to the presence of a longer length of conjugated system. The characteristic energy responsible for the conformational changes in all-trans-β-carotene is smaller than that in all-trans-retinol. Both of the Raman scattering cross sections increase with temperature decreasing. The results are explained with electron—phonon coupling theory and coherent weakly damped electron—lattice vibrations model.


A method for the determination of optimal machine tool setting for manufacturing modified (mismatched) hypoid gears based on improved load distribution and reduced transmission errors is presented. The applied load distribution calculation is based on the conditions that the total angular position errors of the gear teeth being instantaneously in contact under load must be the same, and along the contact line of every tooth pair instantaneously in contact, the composite displacements of tooth surface points-as the sums of tooth deformations, geometrical surface separations, gear body bending and torsion, deflections of the supporting shafts, misalignments, and composite tooth errors-should correspond to the angular position of the gear. The tooth deformations consists of the bending and shearing deflections of gear teeth and of the local contact deformations of the mating surfaces. The tooth deflections are calculated by the finite element method. As the equations governing the load sharing and load distribution are nonlinear, an approximate and iterative technique is used to solve this system of equations. The method is implemented by a computer program. Using the program that was developed the influence of machine tool setting parameters for pinion manufacture on maximum tooth contact pressure, load distribution factor, and transmission errors is investigated. By successively choosing the optimal value for every machine tool setting parameter, and by applying the optimal set of these parameters, the maximum tooth contact pressure is reduced by 5.8%, the load distribution factor by 5.9%, and the angular position error of the driven gear by 65.4%, in regard to the hypoid gear pair manufactured by the machine tool setting determined by the commonly used method.


This article presents a novel algorithmic methodology for performing automated diagrammatic deductions over combinatorial structures, using a combination of modified equational theorem-proving techniques and the extended Wolfram model hypergraph rewriting formalism developed by the authors in previous work. We focus especially upon the application of this new algorithm to the problem of automated circuit simplification in quantum information theory, using Wolfram model multiway operator systems combined with the ZX-calculus formalism for enacting fast diagrammatic reasoning over linear transformations between qubits. We show how to construct a generalization of the deductive inference rules for Knuth-Bendix completion in which equation matches are selected on the basis of causal edge density in the associated multiway system, before proceeding to demonstrate how to embed the higher-order logic of the ZX-calculus rules within this first-order equational framework. After showing explicitly how the (hyper)graph rewritings of both Wolfram model systems and the ZX-calculus can be effectively realized within this formalism, we proceed to exhibit comparisons of time complexity vs. proof complexity for this new algorithmic approach when simplifying randomly-generated Clifford circuits down to pseudo-normal form, as well as when reducing the number of T-gates in randomly-generated non-Clifford circuits, with circuit sizes ranging up to 3000 gates, illustrating that the method performs favorably in comparison with existing circuit simplification frameworks, and also exhibiting the approximately quadratic speedup obtained by employing the causal edge density optimization. Finally, we present a worked example of an automated proof of correctness for a simple quantum teleportation protocol, in order to demonstrate more clearly the internal operations of the theorem-proving procedure.


To test the hypothesis that elastin-derived peptides (EDP) from human aortic tissue may be chemotactic for inflammatory cells, we studied the chemotaxis of neutrophils and monocytes to EDP derived from abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), aortic occlusive disease (AOD), and control aortas. In addition, we determined if neutrophils deliver neutrophil elastase to the aorta in vivo by staining for neutrophil elastase (NE) throughout the course of abdominal aortic aneurysms with the monoclonal antibody to human NE. EDP from AAA, AOD, and control tissue demonstrated significant chemotactic activity for both neutrophils and monocytes. All neutrophils had a greater attraction to EDP from AAA tissue compared to AOD and control aorta. Neutrophils from AAA patients were more attracted to EDP of AAA tissue than were neutrophils of AOD or control patients attracted to their respective aortic EDP. Neutrophil elastase stained positive in the adventitia and thrombus throughout the course of the aneurysm, but was not found in the intima, media, or plaque of the aorta.


We investigate the weak order of convergence for space-time discrete approximations of semilinear parabolic stochastic evolution equations driven by additive square-integrable Levy noise. To this end, the Malliavin regularity of the solution is analyzed and recent results on refined Malliavin-Sobolev spaces from the Gaussian setting are extended to a Poissonian setting. For a class of path-dependent test functions, we obtain that the weak rate of convergence is twice the strong rate.


The essay revisits the question of the canon in a French context. This it does by using the theory of fetishisation/defetishisation put forward by the British Marxist John Holloway. The essay formulates nine theses, beginning with the necessity to criticize the canon as an instance of fetishism and ending on the necessity to defend academic canons as the only canons where defetishisation counteracts fetishisation.


The low-temperature triclinic variety α-BaZr2F10 constitutes a new structure type, less symmetrical than the higher-temperature β-variety. It is based on the stacking of double sheets of Zr polyhedra, connecting three different kinds of ZrF7 polyhedra and one ZrF8 polyhedron via vertices and edges, separated by corrugated Ba2+ layers. It is compared to the high-temperature β-variety, directly recrystallizing from barium fluoridozirconate glass, and also to BaTe2F10 and KTe2F9.


Improving the spatial resolution of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is quite significant and challenging task in recent days. Many researchers have made substantial attempts to face this challenge where the researchers aimed at accurate detection of elusive lesions and more faithfully solving fibre tracts of white matter (WM). In practice, signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) restriction is the major pertain of high-resolution (HR) DWI, which is later counterbalance the benefits of high spatial resolution. In spite of the fact that the SNR of DWI data can be enhanced with the approach of denoising in the post-processing, the conventional approaches of denoising might possibly mitigate the anatomic solvable of HR imaging data. In addition, a signal bias that is caused by the non-Gaussian noise is also not possible to adjust every time. Therefore, this article presents an efficient framework for DW-MR brain image denoising that utilizes non-local Euclidean medians (NLEM) in non-subsampled contourlet (NSC) domain, which works based on multi-scale decomposition and directionality. Simulation results are tested with different kind of DW-MR images and the proposed NLEM-NSC approach shown the superiority over existing denoising approaches. Further, it is also provided that the qualitative analysis to disclose the robustness and effectiveness of NLEM-NSC method at lower strengths of noise.


The IEEE 802.16 standard (mobile broadband wireless access system), which is also known as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), is one of the latest technologies in the wireless world. The main goal of WiMAX is to deliver wireless communications with quality of service (QoS) guarantees, security, and mobility. In this article, we have evaluated the performance of the Internet Protocol security (IPSec) over WiMAX networks. We have also illustrated the results of the simulations. We have also depicted the processing time and the throughput introduced when IPSec is applied over WiMAX technology (IEEE 802.16).


Recurrent neural networks that can capture temporal characteristics on multiple timescales are a key architecture in machine learning solutions as well as in neurocognitive models. A crucial open question is how these architectures can adopt both multi-term dependencies and systematic fluctuations from the data or from sensory input, similar to the adaptation and abstraction capabilities of the human brain. In this paper, we propose an extension of the classic Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Network (CTRNN) by allowing it to learn to gate its timescale characteristic during activation and thus dynamically change the timescales in processing sequences. This mechanism is simple but bio-plausible as it is motivated by the modulation of oscillation modes between neural populations. We test how the novel Gating Adaptive CTRNNs can solve difficult synthetic sequence prediction problems and explore the development of the timescale characteristics as well as the interplay of multiple timescales. As a particularly interesting finding, we report that timescale distributions emerge, which simultaneously capture systematic patterns as well as spontaneous fluctuations. Our extended architecture is interesting for cognitive models that aim to investigate the development of specific timescale characteristic under temporally complex perception and action, and vice versa.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of three spray antimicrobial solutions for the disinfection of children's toothbrushes. A 4-stage changeover system was used. The solutions studied were: BrushtoxTM (Spray 1), CosmocilTM + basic formula (Spray 2), basic formula (Spray 3), and control – sterile water (Spray 4). Forty children used the solutions in all stages. In each stage, the children received a new toothbrush and performed a single 1-min brushing. Thereafter, the solutions were sprayed six times at different positions on the toothbrush bristles. After four hours, microbiologic culture of the toothbrushes was performed. BrushtoxTM, CosmocilTM + basic formula, and basic formula presented a similar effect on prevention of cariogenic biofilm formation which was better than basic formula alone or sterile water. BrushtoxTM showed the best antimicrobial efficacy.


INTRODUCTION
The aim was to report the occurrence of after application of olanzapine long-acting injection (OLAI) in patients with schizophrenia during one year period.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
During one year period, OLAI was applied to 30 patients with schizophrenia (18 men, 12 women) who were non-adherent to previous treatment with oral olanzapine. Patients were 20-58 years of age (39 years old on average), diagnosed with SCID based on DSM-IV-TR criteria. Patients received OLAI in dosage between 210-405 mg (287±62 (mean ± SD)) every 2-4 weeks.

RESULTS
Out of 30 patients that received OLAI, 29 patients improved significantly without side-effects, and one patient developed post-injection delirium/sedation syndrome (PDSS). The patient's somatic condition stabilized and treatment with OLAI was discontinued due to the PDSS.

CONCLUSION
The occurrence of PDSS is not common and when it occurs, in our experience, it was reversible.


The current study examined the integral role of subordinate support staff in primary and secondary schools in Kenya on the overall academic performance and social and emotional well-being of students. A total of 80 student respondents currently attending tertiary institutions in Uasin-Gishu and Trans-Nzoia Counties in Kenya were interviewed using an on-spot questionnaire. The findings indicate a near 'fanatical,' 'nostalgic,' and 'emotional' attachment of the student respondents to almost all the various subordinate support staff they interacted with in their formative educational years. Respondents enrolled in boarding schools at an early age reported strong 'emotional' and 'social support' from especially matrons, cooks, and drivers who acted primarily as caregivers. The relationship between students and subordinate staff developed to the extent of students assigning 'nicknames' to some of them. In one of the primary and secondary schools, the school bus was assigned the names 'monkey cage' and 'Lucy.' The student respondents ranked the following subordinate staff as follows:

Bursar (3%),
Secretary/messenger (2%),
Laundry attendant (8%),
Telephone operator (1%),
Swimming pool attendant (4%),
Bus driver (14%),
Health staff (10%),
Matron (25%),
Cooks/caterers (21%),
Cleaner/groundsman (3%),
Security (9%)

The results show that 97% of student respondents acknowledged the significant role of subordinate support staff in promoting the overall academic performance and social and emotional development of students in primary and secondary schools in Kenya. The study concludes that the presence of subordinate support staff in the various educational institutions attended by the student respondents had a beneficial effect allowing them to have a more active role in interactions with adults.


The geological and hydrogeophysical assessment of the groundwater prospect/potential in Angwan Zakara and its environs, Karu Local Government, Nasarawa State, North-Central, Nigeria has been carried out in this study. The study area covers 25km2.The area is underlain by the Basement Complex of the North-Central Nigeria consisting of Medium grained biotite granite, biotite gneiss, phyllite and un-mappable muscovite schist with structural features such as joints, veins, foliation, faults, and xenoliths trending NW-SE direction. Forty Nine (49) Vertical Electrical Sounding were carried out in the study area using Omega Resistivity Terrameter, GPS12 Garmix with a maximum cable spread of AB/2=100m and MN/2=5m. The results obtained from the field data were interpreted using IXID Software for quantitative analysis. True resistivity map, piezometric map, basement resistivity map and depth to basement map were prepared and interpreted using computer software for qualitative analysis (SURFER 8). From the IXID interpreted results, five (5) curve types were obtained from the acquired data namely A, H, KH, AH, and HK curve types are the dominant. The study area showed depth to basement ranges from 20-90m. That revealed good groundwater potential. The study area revealed 4-7 lithologic sequences consisting of top soil, laterite, clay, weathered/ fractured basement however the host rocks in the study area are biotite granite, quartzite and schistose-gneiss. The results obtained shows that the direction of water flows revealed five ridges R1-R5 and four depressions D1-D4 with receptacles trends of the ridges are R1 and R2:NW-SE; R3 N-S, R4 : NE-SW and R5; E-W. The geoelectric sections were produced and correlated with the geology of the study area and it was found to be in conformity with the each other. Based on this, the study area is zoned into three namely good, moderate and poor groundwater potential zones.


We currently see a large increase in e-commerce sector; it is becoming a central trend in the banking industry. Fraudsters keep up with modern technologies, and use weak points in human psychology and security systems to steal money from regular users. To ensure the required level of security, banks began to apply artificial intelligence in their anti-fraud systems. Fraud detection can be formulated as a classification problem with a case-based reasoning or knowledge extraction task with unbalanced classes. In this paper we present a framework of models based on various approaches of artificial intelligence, such as neural networks, decision trees, copula models and others to recognize payment behavior of fraudster. The considered framework is evaluated with different metrics and implemented in an actual anti-fraud system, which leads to an improvement of the system performance. Finally, the interrelation between the anti-fraud system indicators and banks operational risks is discussed in this paper.


In this work, the network simulation method is presented as a tool for the numerical resolution of the electroosmotic and pressure-driven flow problem in microchannels with rectangular and cylindrical geometries. Based on the Brinkman equation for steady flow and constant porosity, the network model is designed using spatial discretization. An equivalent electrical circuit is obtained by establishing an analogy between the physical variable fluid velocity and electric potential. The network model is solved quickly and easily employing an electrical circuit resolution code, providing solutions for the velocity profile in the channel cross-section and the total circulating flow. After simulating two practical cases, the suitability of the grid is discussed, relating the relative errors made in the variables of interest with the number of cells used. Finally, two other applications, one for rectangular geometries and the other for cylindrical channels, show the effects the main parameters controlling the flow in these types of channels have on velocities and total flow: the zeta potential of the soil pores, applied potential and pressure gradients, and the boundary condition modified by the zeta potential in the walls of the channel.


Slow oscillations in system frequency, with a periodic time of 60-90 seconds and amplitude of 50 mHz, has been observed in the Nordic grid. As a result the frequency is outside the limit of 50 +/- 0,1 Hz more often. It is assumed that this cause wear on turbines and generators. It may also cause additional activation of balancing power in the Regulating Power market, and impose an additional cost on the transmission system operators (TSOs). Together, the Nordic TSOs have worked on a report evaluating causes and mitigation of the problem. One of the suggestions is to improve the tuning of the hydro turbine governors. In this Master Thesis a model of the Nordic grid has been used for simulations in PSS/E (Power System Simulation for Engineering), and the effect of governor tuning has been evaluated. In addition, a Simulink model has been developed based on data in the PSS/E model, in order to be able to run longer simulations without having numerical problems. The objective was to find out whether changing the governor parameters, or other parameters, may reduce the problem of low-frequent oscillations. Spectral analysis of the simulated frequency has been used to determine the periodic time of the frequency variations. The modeled frequency responses are similar to the real life frequency response, which confirms that the models are valid for frequency analysis. Simulations run with random load changes, and with different governor settings, indicated that the periodic time and amplitude of the frequency variations are affected by the governor parameters Rp, Rt and Tr. The inertia in the system also has a great impact on the periodic time and variance of the frequency oscillations. Deadbands were implemented on the governors in the Simulink model, and they were found to amplify the amplitude of the oscillations, and to make the periodic time longer.


ABSTRACT Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) can cause sudden death, which is the leading cause of mortality in patients with sarcoidosis in Japan. However, it is difficult to diagnose CS because of the lack of a sensitive diagnostic method for the condition. Late gadolinium-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging demonstrates improved sensitivity for diagnosing CS. Therefore, it is important to know the late gadolinium-enhancement (LGE) characteristics of CS on cardiac MR images in order to diagnose CS accurately. In this study, we investigated the most common sites of LGE on cardiac MR images in CS. Late gadolinium-enhanced MR images of 9 consecutive patients with CS (obtained between August 2009 and July 2015) were reviewed by two radiologists. The distribution of LGE was evaluated using the American Heart Association 17-segment model of the left ventricle. The LGE in each segment was also classified into 4 patterns according to the myocardial layer in which it occurred (the subepicardial, subendocardial, intramural, and transmural layer patterns). All 9 patients exhibited LGE in their left ventricle, and 70 of 153 (46%) myocardial segments were enhanced. All of the patients displayed LGE in the basal septal wall. The patients' LGE layer patterns were as follows: subepicardial: 40% (28/70), intramural: 30% (21/70), subendocardial: 16% (11/70), and transmural: 14% (10/70). The basal septum wall and subepicardial layer often exhibit LGE on cardiac MR images in CS patients. LGE can be observed in other segments and layers in some cases.


Antimicrobial peptide (AMP) derived from the horseshoe crab, tachyplesin I (KWCFRVCYRGICYRRCR–NH2), displayed the apparent antimicrobial activity with low cytotoxicity, suggesting its efficacy as an attractive agent but still lacks the understandings regarding its mechanism(s). Hence, the study focused on investigating the antibacterial mode of action of tachyplesin I against Escherichia coli. Based on the reactive oxygen species generation displayed in several antimicrobial effects, the detection of superoxide anion and nitric oxide were verified after tachyplesin I treatment. Substantial increment of two molecules was followed by the imbalance in intracellular ion concentration, noticeably magnesium and calcium. The series of stages led to hydroxyl radical generation with reduced glutathione, followed by damage in DNA due to oxidative stress. Eventually, the apoptosis‐like death in E. coli was monitored in DNA fragmentation‐dependent manner due to the tachyplesin I treatment, verified by membrane depolarization, caspase‐like protein activation, and phosphatidylserine exposure. Accordingly, tachyplesin I induces apoptosis‐like death in E. coli, suggesting the potential of being a candidate for regulating bacterial infection.


Methylaluminoxane (MAO)/(nBuCp)2ZrCl2 metallocene catalytic system was supported on silica and silica-alumina. The Zr loading was varied between 0.2–0.4 wt %, and the MAO amount was calculated to get (AlMAO/Zr) molar ratios between 100 and 200, suitable for the industrial ethylene polymerization of supported metallocene catalysts. Catalytic activity was statistically analyzed through the response surface method. Within the ranges studied, it was found that Zr loading had a negative effect on polymerization activity, which increases with the (AlMAO/Zr) molar ratio. Catalysts supported on silica-alumina are more active than those supported on silica, needing less MAO to reach similar productivity, which constitutes an important advantage from an economical and environmental point of view. Supported catalysts were characterized by ICP-AES, SEM-energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer, and UV-Vis spectroscopy, whereas polyethylenes were characterized by GPC and DSC. Molecular weight and crystallinity are not influenced by Zr loading or (AlMAO/Zr) ratio, in the range studied. In general, silica-supported MAO/(nBuCp)2ZrCl2 catalysts give polyethylenes with higher molecular weight and polydispersity but lower crystallinity. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


INTRODUCTION :
Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are the most common
mesenchymal tumours of the digestive tract. Most gastrointestinal soft
tissue neoplasms, previously classified as leiomyomas, schwannomas,
leiomyoblastomas or leiomyosarcomas, are today classified as GIST on
the basis of molecular and immunohistological features. They originate
from gastrointestinal pacemaker cells and are characterised by overexpression
of the tyrosine kinase receptor KIT. Overall 5-year survival
after surgical resection of GIST is approximately 60%. However, these
tumours span a wide clinical spectrum from benign to highly malignant.
Prognostic factors have recently been identified for GIST and include
tumour size, mitotic rate and other minor factors. At present, surgery is
the standard treatment for primary resectable GIST. Benign GIST have
an excellent prognosis after primary surgical treatment, with over 90% 5-
year survival. While recurrent or malignant GIST, which are resistant to
radiotherapy and chemotherapy, had until recently an extremely poor
prognosis even after surgical resection, with median survival of 12
months. The development of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor has changed the
management of unresectable malignant cases. This new tyrosine kinase
inhibitor, imatinib mesylate, which inhibits the c-kit receptor, has proved
highly effective against GIST and has improved survival in metastatic
GIST.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES :
1. To find out the actual number of Gastrointestinal stromal tumours
treated in our institute based on c-kit positivity.
2. To identify the prognostic factors influencing recurrence and
survival.
3. To identify subgroup of patients, who might benefit from adjuvant
therapy.
MATERIALS & METHODS :
All the case records of patients who were diagnosed to have GIST
(on the basis of c-kit positivity) were analysed individually. Case records
of all the patients who were diagnosed to have intraabdominal sarcoma
from the year 1999 to june 2007 were scrutinized. Paraffin blocks and
slides of the above patients were retrieved from pathology dept. IHC
study for c-kit were performed on the slides. All the c-kit positive cases
were also included in the study. Of the 32 patients with GIST only 31
were available for analysis.
CONCLUSION :
Primary surgery remains the cornerstone in the treatment of
localized and resectable GIST. Recurrent disease is still a great problem.
Summarizing our results with the influence of high mitotic count,
presence of tumour necrosis, large tumour size, incomplete surgical
resection and primary site other than stomach on the DFS, which is
reflected by a high rate of recurrences, we support the concept that all
patients with these high risk features need to be assessed for adjuvant
treatment with Imatinib.
Considering the 100% chance of recurrence with an incomplete
resection, neoadjuvant treatment with Imatinib followed by surgical
resection and continuing of Imatinib administration is a reasonable
option. This combination strategy may provide survival benefit. But it
remains to be determined whether this multimodal approach may exceed
the benefits associated with Imatinib monotherapy.


Blood samples from 58 leprosy patients were tested by the MK1R and VDRL slide tests, the latter being performed on normally inactivated sera and on the same sera heated for 5 minutes at 65 degrees C. The MK1R test showed fewer false positive reactions than the VDRL test on normally inactivated sera. The VDRL test on the "overheated" sera, however, gave the same results as the MK1R test. This may be due to the thermostable factor being removed by the NaCl used in the MK1R test (3.5%) and by overheating in the variant method for the VDRL test.


A technique is described whereby visualization of the posterior pole of the retina is accomplished through a very miotic pupil. The technique is simple and quick to perform. A wide field of view is maintained as well as stereopsis.


This article is one of a series of others that are currently being carried out within the context of the project Teletandem Brasil: Foreign languages for all. Developed at Sao Paulo State University, Brazil. The project focuses on the communicative processes of distance in-tandem language learning. The article focuses on a few successful and unsuccessful cases of teletandem. Data analyses are grounded on the hermenutic phenomenological mode of qualitative research. Our aim is to understand which aspects contribute and obstruct the online distance interaction of teletandem. The case studies focus on the problems that the students face and our attempt to provide explanations and to propose solutions. Some of these problems were linked to the students' beliefs of autonomy and motivation. We conclude the article by providing a reflection on virtual in-tandem teaching/learning.


Energy from renewable sources is being increasingly exploited for meeting the power demands and reducing the harmful impact of burning the fossil fuels on the environment. Solar photovoltaic and wind turbine are being incorporated with the conventional diesel generator to reduce the fuel consumption. Saudi Arabia, being a country with high intensity of solar radiation, has good potential of using solar PV system. In this study, a solar wind hybrid system is modeled using HOMER to find an optimum system to meet the load requirement of a community at Yanbu city. The primary load of the community of 500 people is 556 kWh/day with 68 kW peak. The analysis showed that 200 kW PV system is the most economically feasible to meet the proposed demand and the minimum cost of energy for this system is 0.617 $/kWh. Sensitivity analysis was carried out by varying average wind speed and solar radiation and is presented in this study.


Many fault-tolerant group communication middleware systems have been implemented assuming crash failure semantics. While this assumption is not unreasonable, it becomes hard to justify when applications are required to meet high reliability requirements and are built using commercial off the shelf (COTS) components. This paper presents a structured approach to extend a crash-tolerant middleware system into an authenticated Byzantine tolerant one with small modifications to the original system. The proposed approach is based on state machine replication (SMR) and is motivated by the composability features of standard distributed object technologies such as CORBA. SMR is used to assure signal-onfailure (fail-signal) semantics at a level where existing crash-tolerant services can be seamlessly deployed. The resulting system can provide total ordering that has no liveness requirement for termination. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by porting a crash-tolerant CORBA group communication service – the NewTOP system. We also measure the performance of the resulting system.


Two dimensional (2D) transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostate biopsy is the standard approach for definitive diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). However, due to the lack of image contrast of prostate tumors needed to clearly visualize early-stage PCa, prostate biopsy often results in false negatives, requiring repeat biopsies. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been considered to be a promising imaging modality for noninvasive identification of PCa, since it can provide a high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of early stage PCa. Our main objective is to develop and validate a registration method of 3D MR-TRUS images, allowing generation of volumetric 3D maps of targets identified in 3D MR images to be biopsied using 3D TRUS images. Our registration method first makes use of an initial rigid registration of 3D MR images to 3D TRUS images using 6 manually placed approximately corresponding landmarks in each image. Following the manual initialization, two prostate surfaces are segmented from 3D MR and TRUS images and then non-rigidly registered using a thin-plate spline (TPS) algorithm. The registration accuracy was evaluated using 4 patient images by measuring target registration error (TRE) of manually identified corresponding intrinsic fiducials (calcifications and/or cysts) in the prostates. Experimental results show that the proposed method yielded an overall mean TRE of 2.05 mm, which is favorably comparable to a clinical requirement for an error of less than 2.5 mm.


Insects are highly dependent on ambient temperatures to ensure their biological functions. Their persistence in the environment and their resistance to unfavourable temperatures are governed by their physiological thermal tolerance. Global change extends beyond climatic conditions to encompass modifications to the landscape. Studies of climate change and landscape composition effects on ecosystem services, such as biological control, are commonly performed independently. Moreover, coarse scales are not always relevant when assessing climate change's impacts on ectotherms. We aimed to better understand the ecological relationships that may exist between microclimatic variation and insect thermal tolerance across a landscape composition gradient. To determine how landscape composition may impact insect thermal tolerance, parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) of aphids were sampled along a landscape gradient from 'closed' to 'open' habitats. Sampling was performed during the winter 2013/14 and spring 2014 in cereal fields of Brittany, France. Meteorological data were recorded along this gradient. First, our results show an influence of landscape composition on local microclimate. Additionally, parasitoids from open landscapes had a higher tolerance to low temperatures, leading to higher physiological costs, compared with parasitoids from closed landscapes. This trend was stronger in winter than in spring. These results have numerous implications in the context of climate change, suggesting that targeted landscape management practices could create sheltered microclimatic areas that reduce the physiological costs of thermal tolerance and promote the persistence of biological control agents.


The Brain and Spine Foundation (BSF) has produced a web based information access toolkit for health and social care professionals and primary care trust service commissioners to support implementation of the national service framework for long term neurological conditions.


Objective: The unmet health-care needs among older persons population should be identified and anticipated due to hideous potential impacts. Ironically, no published study regarding this phenomenon was found in Indonesia. Derived from the Indonesian population and civil data, this study was conducted to identify the health-care needs of urban older people living on Java Island, the most populated island in Indonesia. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in 3 subdistricts in Surabaya, the capital city of East Java, namely, Rungkut, Kenjeran, and Tenggilis. There were 9 focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted during March-August 2015. Participants in this study were recruited purposively, i.e., person in charge of "Karang Werda," and the discussion explored thematically various topics in the area of unmet health needs phenomena related to: (1) Availability, (2) accessibility, and (3) acceptability. A FGD guide was developed to ensure in-depth discussion. Results: There were 90 older persons serving as volunteers who participated in this study. The unmet health-care needs addressed by participants in this study were (1) Integrated and specialized health-care services for older persons and (2) skillful yet age-friendly health-care personnel were needed by participants. Our findings pointed out that the unmet health-care needs in Indonesian urban settings were classified as primarily availability, accessibility, and acceptability issues. Conclusion: The government needs to take actions to solve the challenges related to the fulfillment of health-care needs among older persons in Indonesia. Further study of the health care personnel's beliefs and attitudes in providing care among older persons needs to be conducted to provide a more holistic picture of the phenomena before making any strategy for the future Indonesia's health-care system.


Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) in tropical countries is now a critical piece of any international agreement that aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An important issue refers to the distribution of benefits or, in other words, benefit sharing mechanisms. In this paper, I examine the degree of local participation in benefit-sharing mechanisms in the case of the Juma Sustainable Development Reserve in the State of Amazonas, Brazil, and assess how local participation – or lack of it – affects the outcomes, particularly with regard to equity. The analysis seeks to address the gap between theory and practice by considering the main concerns regarding equitable benefit sharing for REDD+, namely, the types of benefits to be distributed, eligible beneficiaries, the structure of benefits, and mechanisms for distributing them, and by identifying the possible negative and positive effects of benefit-sharing mechanisms. In doing so, my aim is to contribute to the more effective design and implementation of benefit-sharing mechanisms and to expand debate on the topic. The main research question of this paper is: how important is local participation for achieving equity in benefit-sharing mechanisms for REDD+? The results of this analysis indicate that the adaptation and mitigation goals of REDD+ are more likely to be achieved if the development and implementation of benefit-sharing mechanisms involve democratic and interactive processes for local participation, because such processes will lead to greater flexibility in the definition of benefits and distributional mechanisms. I draw the following conclusions: (1) the criteria for equity should be considered when benefits are defined, rather than when they are distributed and (2) given the complex and diverse relationships and issues involved in deforestation, it is important to adopt a multidimensional approach when identifying beneficiaries and benefits and designing benefit-sharing mechanisms.


The Concept of Art in Ernst Cassirer's Philosophy of CultureThe presentation is dedicated to the discussion of the concept of art and aesthetics within Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of culture. The considerations are connected with an attempt to answer the question about the meaning of art in the system of symbolic forms and the position of aesthetics in Cassirer's thought. It includes a reconstruction of his position on the tradition of aesthetic thought, including the theory of mimesis and theory of expression, the notion of beauty and imagination. It shows the dialogical, dynamic and communicative nature of culture as viewed by Cassirer. In the context of his intuition of culture art as a "bridge," the following is discussed: mediation between the "I" and "You," subjectivity and objectivity, mimesis and creativity, rationality and emotionality. References are made to the positions adopted by Michaela Hinsch, Marion Lauschke, Birgit Recki.


When Sartre arrives late to meet Pierre at a local establishment,
he discovers not merely that Pierre is absent, but also Pierre's
absence, where this depends, or so Sartre notoriously supposes, on a
frustrated expectation that Pierre would be seen at that place. Many
philosophers have railed against this view, taking it to entail a treatment
of the ontology of absence that Richard Gale describes as 'attitudinal'
– one whereby absences are thought to ontologically depend
on psychological attitudes. In this article, I aim to make Sartre's
intuition respectable. What Sartre perceives is an 'absential location',
only the 'boundaries' of which are circumscribed by what Sartre is
doing at that place: meeting Pierre. I explain how this Sartrean view,
though not specifically attributable to Sartre, nonetheless honours
some of the phenomenological data described, if a little opaquely, in
Being and Nothingness.


In this study, we documented traditional plant use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi and hypothesized that (i) plant use knowledge in general would be higher in isolated high elevation communities, and that (ii) use of home gardens would be much more restricted to lower elevation settings. Fieldwork was conducted in Khevsureti, Pshavi, and Tusheti. Interviews using semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with 74 participants. In the present study, we encountered 317 plant species belonging to 203 genera of 80 families being used in the research region. Of these, 197 species were exclusively wild-harvested, 73 were grown in homegardens, and 47 were both grown in gardens and sourced in the wild. The ordinations in plant-space and in use-space were significantly fit by elevation of informant community, and community itself. Age and gender did not significantly fit the distribution of informants across either plant-space or use-space, respectively. Number of use-reports was highest across all communities in the food and medicinal use-categories, and informant consensus. Species with especially high use-diversity (UD) tended to be woody species although. Species with high use-value (UV) were mostly managed/domesticated species from home orchards, gardens, or farms. Plant species, and uses, found in our study, showed clear relations to the wider Eurasian cultural complex. The species number found was, however, far higher than in any published study from either the region or the wiser Mediterranean and Eurasia. The maintenance of home gardens in Georgia serves as socio-ecological memory. While the great variety of plant species used in the Georgian Caucasus might provide a reservoir for food security climate change is starting to affect both natural floristic diversity and gardens both in the Caucasus as well as continent wide.


In studying integrated dual damascene hardware at 10 nm node dimensions, we identified the mechanism for Co liner enhancement of Cu gap-fill to be a wetting improvement of the PVD Cu seed, rather than a local nucleation enhancement for Cu plating. We then show that Co "divot" (top-comer slit void defect) formation can be suppressed by a new wet chemistry, in turn eliminating divot-induced EM degradation. Further, we confirm a relative decrease in Cu-alloy seed proportional resistivity impact compared to scattering at scaled dimensions, and finally we address the incompatibility between the commonly-used carbonyl-based CVD-Co process with Cu-alloy seed EM performance This problem is due to oxidation of Ta(N) barriers at the TaN/CVD-Co interface by carbonyl-based CVD processes, which then consumes alloy atoms before they can segregate at the Cu/cap interface. We show that O-free CVD-Co may solve this problem. The above solutions may then enable CVD-Co/Cu-alloy seed integration in advanced nodes.


We have recently isolated a herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2 (strain 333)-specific cDNA that encodes uracil-DNA glycosylase. This cDNA lies between 0.065 and 0.08 map units on the HSV genome. Within this region there are five overlapping transcripts which encompass three open reading frames. We have determined that the second open reading frame, UL-2, codes for glycosylase. In vitro transcription of the UL-2 region and subsequent translation yielded uracil-DNA glycosylase activity. Sequence analysis of the UL-2 open reading frame indicated a coding capacity of 295 amino acids. Comparison to the HSV type 1 (strain 17) sequence indicated that there is 74% amino acid homology between the two strains, with most of the conservation occurring in the middle and the 3' end. The 5' end, however, has diverged considerably.


In order to obtain global contextual information precisely from videos with heavy camera motions and scene changes, this study proposes an improved spatiotemporal two-stream neural network architecture with a novel convolutional fusion layer. The three main improvements of this study are: 1) the Resnet-101 network has been integrated into the two streams of the target network independently; 2) two kinds of feature maps (i.e., the optical flow motion and RGB-channel information) obtained by the corresponding convolution layer of two streams respectively are superimposed on each other; 3) the temporal information is combined with the spatial information by the integrated three-dimensional (3D) convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract more latent information from the videos. The proposed approach was tested by using UCF-101 and HMDB51 benchmarking datasets and the experimental results show that the proposed two-stream 3D CNN model can gain substantial improvement on the recognition rate in video-based analysis.


Certain models describing the age dynamics of a natural forest give rise to nonlinear integro-differential equations for the seedlings density as a function of time. The special feature of the problem is that corresponding solutions have non-smooth second derivatives. Since the biological model contains a small parameter, a perturbation method can be used to find an asymptotic solution. Banach's fixed point theorem is used to prove existence and uniqueness of the solution, the convergence of a numerical scheme, and the validity of the asymptotic approximation. In an example numerical and asymptotic approximations are compared for various choices of time steps.


A novel hemoperfusion device was developed by embedding powered activated charcoal in thin (150 micrometer) films of cellulose nitrate. These films were sprinkled with small particles of granular charcoal and wound into spools, which were then placed in a plastic housing. The use of powdered charcoal exploits the enormous rate-of-uptake advantage of powered charcoal over the granular sorbents found in other hemoperfusion devices. The granular carbon sprinkled on the films was primarily to provide spacing between adjacent film layers for adequate fluid flow; the granules did enhance long-term uptake in addition. Clearance tests with this novel "thin-film adsorber," using sodium salicylate, sodium barbital, and creatinine, showed that its rate of solute adsorption, particularly at early times, was consistently very high. This type of hemoperfusion device is a promising alternative to the granular-sorbent types of devices currently available, especially when maximal solute removal during the early stages of treatment is mandated.


In travel narratives, in correspondence, in diaries, and even in fiction, travelers to Philadelphia have bequeathed to us a bounty of "as many Philadelphias as there are observers." Philip Stevick's collection of outsiders' observations captures what the visitors thought they saw and how it felt to have engaged the life of the city. Some travelers visited the classic destinations of earlier times, such as the great waterworks complex; others reacted generally to the tone and temper of the city. Together, these accounts fall into patterns that often convey a mythic reading of the city, as a place of uncommon order and symmetry, for example, or a place of great torpor and dullness, or a city extraordinary for the way in which elements of wilderness interpenetrate the metropolitan core. Stevick finds that the city has inscribed itself on the imaginations of two centuries of visitors in ways that are often compelling but unpredictable, a parallel city to the place on the map and the street under foot, a city of the mind, an imagined Philadelphia.


One indicator of national economic progress is middle class expansion. While recent studies show an increasing sub-Saharan African middle class, there is no clear empirical appreciation of the factors driving this and how they may be sustained. This study uses data from Northern Ghana and a logistic regression model to identify the factors determining the probability of being in the middle class to provide public and private policy support. The study evaluated two alternative middle class definitions, Kharas and Getz's and African Development Bank's, and found that although definitions matter, the signs on the influencing variables were similar. Our results showed that education, locale and household size significantly influenced the odds of being in the middle class. For example, urban households with educated heads have a higher probability of being in the middle class than rural households with uneducated heads. Additionally, increasing household size has an adverse effect on the probability of being in the middle class. The results direct public and private policy focus on improving education and literacy programs, building infrastructure and controlling household sizes to support middle class expansion in Northern Ghana.

 Key words: Middle class, Africa, Ghana, poverty, education, economic development, infrastructure.


Recruitment to clinical trials is a key objective in the management of IPF. For phase 3 trials, the inclusion and exclusion criteria are stringent. It is not known if the natural history of IPF in patients eligible for clinical trials differs from that in non-eligible patients. Aims To determine the natural history of IPF in patients eligible for phase 3 trials vs those not eligible Methods Since 1/1/2002, all patients with IPF presenting to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary lung fibrosis clinic have been recruited prospectively to a database. The diagnosis of IPF was made by multi-disciplinary consensus after integration of clinical, HRCT and pathological data, based on ATS/ERS criteria. Management and follow-up was by standardised protocol. IPF-directed therapy, including corticosteroids, azathioprine and anti-oxidants, was considered only in advanced disease, acute exacerbation or in those who exhibited pre-specified fall in lung function. Patients were grouped into those eligible for phase 3 clinical trials and those ineligible, based on the major inclusion/exclusion criteria used in a recently published study (CAPACITY, Lancet 2011 377;1760–1769). Results Of 199 consecutively presenting patients with IPF, 61 (31%) were eligible for a phase 3 trial. The proportion of males in the eligible and ineligible groups was similar, but eligible patients were younger (68 vs 74 yrs, p<0.0001), comprised fewer individuals with >20 pack/year smoking history (50% vs 65%, p=0.057), had lower % predicted VC (82.6 vs 95.8 p=0.0003) and higher % predicted TLCO (56.6 vs 51.9, p=0.07). Eligible patients had less % emphysema on HRCT scoring compared to non-eligible patients (0.74% vs 6% p<0.0001). The 3yr-survival of eligible and ineligible patients were not significantly different (Abstract S137 figure 1 74% vs 63%, p=0.3). Event-free survival, defined as time to death or =10% fall in VC or =15% fall in TLCO or acute exacerbation of IPF or hospital admission with respiratory illness, was not significantly different between eligible and ineligible groups, such that in both groups 40% and 60% experienced a progression-defining event by 12 -and 24-months respectively.Abstract S137 Figure 1 IPF survival. Conclusions Trial ineligible patients are demographically and phenotypically different from eligible patients, but have identical mortality and progression-free survival. These data have important implications for translation of trial data to clinical practice and for IPF trial design.


Ethics and the moral obligations of management were an accepted component in the planning process during the early development of Corporate Strategy as a field of study. It is proposed that ethics must be brought back into that planning process in order to build trust on the part of all of the stake-holders of the firm. Trust generates commitment. Commitment ensures effort, and effort that is cooperative, innovative and strategically directed is essential for success in a competitive global economy. Ethics should be central, not peripheral, to the overall management of the firm.


Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become more common as the cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. The liver disease is highly prevalent in people with type-2 diabetes. Indonesia is not spared from the global epidemic of type-2 diabetes. The ultrasound examination is clinically easy-to-use, economical and non-invasive as a tool to detect NAFLD, compared to the gold standard, liver biopsy. To date, there has been no study in Indonesia to link risk factors and ultrasound-based severity grading of NAFLD. Aim: To understand the association between risk factors and ultrasound-based grades of NAFLD in patients with type-2 diabetes. Method: The present study was an observational study with a cross-sectional design (May-October 2018) that involved 82 type-2 diabetes outpatients of the internal medicine clinic in the Gotong Royong Hospital (Surabaya, Indonesia). The risk factors assessed were gender, age, diabetes duration, obesity (anthropometric measurement: body mass index/ BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio), glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c/ HbA1c level) and dyslipidemia (lipid profile: total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein/ LDL, high-density lipoprotein/ HDL and triglyceride). The ultrasound-based grades of NAFLD consisted of grade 0 (no NAFLD), grade 1 (increased liver echogenicity with normal images of intrahepatic vessel lines and diaphragm), grade 2 (blurred image of intrahepatic vessel lines) and grade 3 (blurred images of intrahepatic vessel lines and diaphragm). Statistical p-value was significant at ≤ 0.05. Results: Seventy-eight subjects (95,1%) had NAFLD. The ultrasound-based NAFLD grades were significantly different across age groups (Kruskal-Wallis) but the Spearman's rank correlation test result was not significant. Body mass index and total cholesterol were positively correlated (r = 0.390 and 0.237, respectively) with the NAFLD grades. Conclusion: Higher BMI and total cholesterol are associated with increased ultrasound-based NAFLD grades.


. The article deals with various ways of bringing a car to the stability limit in terms of adhesion conditions. The article deals with the possibilities how to reduce the adhesion force transmitted between the car wheels and the road. Subsequently, we evaluate the change in the behaviour of the car depending on the way the adhesion force changes. The measurement is carried out on a special experimental vehicle. The aim of the article is to find out the differences in the car behaviour when inducing a limit situation. In the first case, by reducing the coefficient of adhesion and, in the second case, by reducing the radial response on the car wheels. The change of the coefficient of adhesion is done by means of a sliding surface (foil) sprayed with water. To reduce the radial response on vehicle wheels, we used a device called Alternative SkidCar. It is similar to a commercially available SkidCar device that is built for a particular experimental vehicle. The car behaviour in both cases was verified on the basis of driving tests in a direct direction. The actual test was carried out in the form of critical braking. Initial set of measurements was realized for dry road and separate vehicle. Subsequently, we proceeded to the experiment on sliding surface. The coefficient of adhesion is reduced to a constant value on sliding surface. The last set of experimental tests was performed with the help of Alternative SkidCar. We carried out the initial measurements for a situation where the car wheels transmitted a full radial response. In this way we found out to what extent the frame of the Alternative SkidCar influences the car behaviour. Furthermore, we reduced the radial response of vehicle wheels in three stages. Subsequently, we processed the measured values and, by comparison, we found differences from comparable tests. Due to the reduced adhesion force, a limit state in relation to stability at lower speeds can be induced on the vehicle. In this way, it is possible to achieve a skid at a lower, so-called safe speed.


Negotiation skills are critical soft skills that remain pedagogically challenging. We propose a pedagogical approach for win-win negotiations within the framework of social exchange theory. We then examine the effectiveness of our approach by testing the impact of training on the negotiation outcomes of MBA students, using a separate sample, pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design. For 84 dyads, we found that training explained rates of getting to yes as well as the quality of the agreements reached as rated by third party reviewers. Dyads with training were 25% more likely to reach agreement than those without training, and the quality of agreements reached was significantly higher for the experimental group, overall as well as for three out of four measures of quality (creativity, price prominence, and practicality) after controlling for age, age gap, gender, and country.


This work deals with the design and implementation of a new charger for a battery-operated electric vehicle (EV) with power factor improvement at the front end. In the proposed configuration, the conventional diode converter at the source end of existing EV battery charger is eliminated with the modified Landsman power factor correction (PFC) converter. The PFC converter is cascaded to a flyback isolated converter, which yields the EV battery control to charge it, first in constant current mode then switching to constant voltage mode. The proposed PFC converter is controlled using single sensed entity to achieve the robust regulation of dc-link voltage as well as to ensure the unity power factor operation. The proposed topology offers improved power quality, low device stress, and low input and output current ripple with low input current harmonics when compared to the conventional one. Moreover, to demonstrate the conformity of the proposed charger to an IEC 61000-3-2 standard, a prototype is built and tested to charge a 48 V EV battery of 100 Ah capacity, under transients in input voltage. The performance of the charger is found satisfactory for all the cases.


The goal of our research is to develop an autonomous robot for subsurface mapping. We are motivated by the growing need for mapping buried pipes, hazardous waste, landmines and other buried objects. Most of these are large scale mapping problems, and to manually construct subsurface maps in these cases would require a significant amount of resources. Therefore, automating the subsurface mapping process is an important factor in alleviating these problems. To achieve our goal, we have developed a robotic system that can autonomously gather and process Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data. The system uses a scanning laser rangefinder to construct an elevation map of an area. By using the elevation map, a robotic manipulator can follow the contour of the terrain when it moves the GPR antenna during the scanning process. The collected data are then processed to detect and locate buried objects. We have developed three new processing methods, two are volume based processing methods and one is a surface based processing method. In volume based processing, the 3-D data are directly processed to find the buried objects, while in surface based processing, the 3-D data are first reduced to a series of 2.5-D surfaces before further processing. Each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. The volume based processing methods can be made very fast using parallel processing techniques, but they require an accurate propagation velocity of the GPR signal in the soil. On the other hand, the surface based processing method uses 3-D segmentation to recognize the shape of the buried objects, which does not require an accurate propagation velocity estimate. Both approaches are quite efficient and well suited for online data processing. In fact, they are so efficient that the current bottleneck in the subsurface mapping process is the data acquisition phase. The main contribution of the thesis is the development of an autonomous system for detecting and localizing buried objects. Specifically, we have developed three new methods to find buried objects in 3-D GPR data. Using these methods, we are able to autonomously obtain subsurface data, locate and recognize buried objects. These methods differ from existing GPR data processing methods because they can autonomously extract the location, orientation , and parameters of the buried object from high resolution 3-D data. Most existing methods only enhance the GPR data for easier interpretation by human experts. There are some existing works in automated interpretation of …


Particularly in his early 20 century writings, the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey advocated open-mindedness as a critical value for education. Rather than a passive kind of tolerance that is acquired through intellectual consideration alone, Dewey recommended open-mindedness that is attained through a combination of contemplation and embodied experience. A close reading of Dewey's personal correspondence from Japan and China between 1919-1921, previously unexplored to this degree, highlights the profound impact that experiencing the different cultures had on Dewey's understanding of difference compared to considering them from afar. In particular, this study sought to investigate how Dewey's experiences in Asia affected his understanding of open-mindedness; how Dewey's evolving philosophical insight can help educators more fully understand open-mindedness; and how Dewey's interpretation of open-mindedness can help contemporary educators employ his pragmatic concept of "intelligent practice" to engage writing students in activities that will help them attain openness. Composition specialists can use Dewey's discoveries to begin to extend multiculturalism and comparative rhetoric by requiring all students to research and write using rhetorical patterns typical in other cultures. A pragmatic approach to teaching comparative rhetoric can also involve a wider shift in the field's inquiries, as students approach courses in other disciplines, and even beyond university, with the kind of openness of mind that Dewey comes to realize in Asia.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the new approaches for prevention of complications after hernia repair.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We have proposed the method of combined hernia repair including 2 new techniques to prevent complications after Lichtenstein surgery. The results of 100 surgeries over 5 years (2017-2021) for oblique inguinal hernias were analyzed. Patients were divided into 2 groups by 50 patients depending on surgical technique. We assessed the incidence and severity of postoperative complications, as well as duration of inpatient treatment.

RESULTS
According to visual-analogue scale of pain syndrome, local pain intensity in the main group was 1.3 times less than in the control group in 1 hour after surgery, after 1 day - almost 2 times less, after 5 days - 1.7 times less. After 3 months, 1 (2%) patient in the control group had persistent local pain. In the main group, no patient had chronic pain (p<0.05). In the control group, ultrasound of postoperative wound area revealed serous fluid in the mesh area in 36 (60%) patients by the 6th day after surgery. In the main group, there were no ultrasound signs of seroma in any case. Incidence of complications was significantly lower in the main group (p<0.05). Mean length of hospital-stay was significantly less in the main group (6.2±1.1 and 7.1±1.2 days, respectively), p<0.05.

CONCLUSION
The proposed new modification of Lichtenstein procedure is an effective method for prevention of the most common postoperative complications.