The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of gene recombination technique using the pET-30 Ek/LIC expression vector for production a 36 kDa released protein called YopD and evaluate of this purified protein as antigen in serodiagnosis of yersiniosis. Protein YopD of Y. enterocolitica was expressing in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) using the pET-30 Ek/LIC expression vector. Purification of the expressed enzyme from suspensions of E. coli cells treated with Bug Buster Protein/Extraction Reagent was accomplished by immobilised metal (Ni2+) affinity column chromatography (His-trap). The IgM, IgG and IgA class antibodies to YopD were measured in 100 serum samples collected from patients suspected for yersiniosis and 100 blood donors. The obtained results were compared to the results of ELISA with released proteins isolated from the culture of Y. enterocolitica supernatant under calcium deficient conditions and commercial ELISA with recombinant released proteins. A very high (94.0-100.0%) specificity and good sensitivity (55.2-80.4%) were displayed by the ELISA with YopD in relation to other two ELISA. The results of our study showed that recombinant YopD protein purified by chromatography of bio-affinity may be used in serodiagnosis of yersiniosis as a high specific antigen free of Yersinia lipopolysaccharides.


This project smart garbage dustbin system is a very smart system which will help to keep our cities clean. In several urban areas although the dustbins are provided so that it can be used by the people but without proper maintenance of waste which cause a major factor for environment pollution and also destroying our environment day by day also resulting severe adverse effects for mankind. In the traditional system, the garbage uses to be collected in a manual way. So that time is consumed. This project which can reduce their time and effort in efficient manner. Automation is the most demandable feature now a day. For this purpose, smart dustbins are the much suitable approach. It will be helpful to develop green and smart city. For this we have to develop an automatic smart dustbin which will first be able to detect the current status of the garbage bin send the information to the garbage collection vehicle employee. They can immediately take action to empty. It ultimate helps to keep cleanness in the society and hence the expansion of diseases caused by waste material is reduces.


The present study investigated the potential role of Arctium lappa L. extract against the hepato-cardio toxicity and hyperlipidemia induced by ZnO-NPs in male rats. The groups of this study were Control, ZnO-NPs (50 mg/kg b.w.), ZnO-NPs+Arctium lappa L. (300 mg/kg b.w.) and Arctium lappa L. group. The oral administration of ZnO-NPs caused significant decrease in RBC, Hb, Hct and platelets while, WBC was increased. Liver enzymes and total bilirubin were significantly increased after ZnO-NPs supplementation. On the other hand, protein, albumin and globulin were significantly decreased in ZnO-NPs group. Lipid profile determination revealed hyperlipidemia state in the ZnO-NPs group. The ZnO-NPs group exhibited an oxidative stress as documented by an increase in TBARS and a decrease in GSH and total thiol. CK-MB, PON1, Fe+3 were significantly decreased while; LDH, TNF-α, p53, IL-6, Zn+2 and Ca+2 were increased in ZnO-NPs treated group. In addition, ZnO-NPs caused histopathological changes in liver and heart tissues. In contrast, Arctium lappa L. administration improved the most measured parameters by its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects against the ZnO-NPs toxicities.


Background: Myocardial hypertrophy is a complex pathological process, which is a common manifestation during the development of various cardiovascular diseases. Hirudin has been shown to have therapeutic effects on a variety of cardiovascular diseases, however, its therapeutic effect on myocardial hypertrophy is still unknown, and its chemical and pharmacological characteristics remain to be elucidated. Methods: In this study, the network pharmacology method was used to characterize the mechanism of hirudin on myocardial hypertrophy. The potential protein targets of hirudin and myocardial hypertrophy were both obtained from the Genecards database, and potential pathways associated with genes were identified by Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analysis, and the data were displayed in a visual manner. Subsequently, the potential mechanism of action of hirudin on myocardial hypertrophy predicted by network pharmacology analysis was verified by molecular docking, and finally, the main findings were further verified by in vitro experiments by molecular biology techniques. Based on the results obtained from the study of H9c2 cell line, the inhibitory effect of hirudin on myocardial hypertrophy was further proved in the primary rat cardiomyocytes. Results: A total of 250 targets of hirudin, and 5,376 targets related to myocardial hypertrophy after deduplication were collected. The drug-disease network showed the relationship between hirudin, myocardial hypertrophy, and the targets. Further, systematic analysis from the PPI network indicated that blood coagulation, vesicle lumen, and signaling receptor activator activity may be the potential mechanisms of hirudin in the treatment of myocardial hypertrophy, and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway may be the most relevant to the therapeutic effect of hirudin. Then, three therapeutic targets that were highly related to myocardial hypertrophy were extracted. Hirudin can be highly bound to STAT3, IL-6, and MAPK1 and found by molecular docking, which may be the basis for its inhibitory effect on myocardial hypertrophy. In addition, in vitro experiments showed that hirudin could inhibit AngII-induced hypertrophy and death of H9c2 cells, and significantly reduce the mRNA and protein expression levels of STAT3, MAPK1, and IL-6. The above conclusions were verified in primary rat cardiomyocytes. Conclusion: Hirudin can be used to treat myocardial hypertrophy through a complex mechanism. The application of network pharmacology and experimental validation can promote the application of hirudin in cardiovascular diseases and the interpretation and understanding of molecular biological mechanisms.


The benefits of using linear mixed-effects models for occupational exposure assessment were studied by re-analysing three data sets from two published surveys with repeated exposure measurements. The relative contributions of particular characteristics affecting exposure levels were assessed as in a multiple regression model, while controlling for the correlation between repeated measurements. While one-way ANOVA allows one only to estimate unconditioned variance components, a mixed model enables estimation of between- and within-worker variance components of exposure levels while accounting for the fixed effects of work characteristics. Consequently, we can identify the work characteristics affecting each variance component. Mixed models were applied to the data sets with repeated measurements and auxil iary information on work characteristics. The between-worker variance components were reduced by 35, 66 and 80%, respectively, in the three data sets when work characteristics were taken into account. The within-worker (day-to-day) variability was reduced only in the pig farmer data set, by 25%, when accounting for work activities. In addition, coefficients of work characteristics from the mixed model were compared with coefficients resulting from originally published multiple linear regression models. In the rubber manufacturing data, the coefficients of the mixed model showed similar relative importance, but were generally smaller than the coefficients from regression models. However, in the pig farm data, only the coefficients of work activities were somewhat reduced. The mixed model is a helpful tool for estimating factors affecting exposure and suitable variance components. Identifying the factors in the working environment that affect the between-worker variability facilitates a posteriori grouping of workers into more uniformly exposed groups. Identifying the factors that affect the within-worker variance is helpful for hazard control and in designing efficient sampling schemes with reference to time schedule.


This paper presents miniaturized microstrip bandpass filters based on the quarter-wavelength (λ/4) spiral-coupled scheme (SCS). By introducing the mutual electric and magnetic coupling between two SCS, two resonant modes can be well adjusted to form a passband and four transmission zeros can be generated to obtain a good out-of-band rejection. Without modifying the initial design parameters, another transmission zero with strong attenuation can be further introduced by loading a parallel-coupled line section along the symmetrical plane, thus largely widening the upper stopband. To verify our proposal, two filters are finally implemented and fabricated, which exhibit the following attractive features: low insertion loss, good passband selectivity, wide stopband with a high rejection level, and compact size.


Subgraph queries also known as subgraph isomorphism search is a fundamental problem in querying graph-like structured data. It consists to enumerate the subgraphs of a data graph that match a query graph. This problem arises in many real-world applications related to query processing or pattern recognition such as computer vision, social network analysis, bioinformatic and big data analytic. Subgraph isomorphism search knows a lot of investigations and solutions mainly because of its importance and use but also because of its NP-completeness. Existing solutions use filtering mechanisms and optimise the order within witch the query vertices are matched on the data vertices to obtain acceptable processing times. However, existing approaches are iterative and generate several intermediate results. They also require that the data graph is loaded in main memory and consequently are not adapted to large graphs that do not fit into memory or are accessed by streams. To tackle this problem, we propose a new approach based on concepts widely different from existing works. Our approach distills the semantic and topological information that surround a vertex into a simple integer. This simple vertex encoding that can be computed and updated incrementally reduces considerably intermediate results and avoid to load the entire data graph into main memory. We evaluate our approach on several real-word datasets. The experimental results show that our approach is efficient and scalable.


The topological protected electronic states on the surface of a topological insulator can progressively change their Fermi cross-section from circular to a snowflake shape as the chemical potential is increased above the Dirac point because of an hexagonal warping term in the Hamiltonian. Another effect of warping is to change the spin texture which exists when a finite gap is included by magnetic doping, although the in-plane spin component remains locked perpendicular to momentum. It also changes the orbital magnetic moment, the matrix element for optical absorption and the circular dichroism. We find that the Fermi surface average of z-component of spin is closely related to the value of the Berry phase. This holds even when the Hamiltonian includes a subdominant non-relativistic quadratic in momentum term (which provides particle-hole asymmetry) in addition to the dominant relativistic Dirac term. There is also a qualitative correlation between $\left\langle S_z \right\rangle$ and the dichroism. For the case when the chemical potential falls inside the gap between valence and conduction band, the Hall conductivity remains quantized and unaffected in value by the hexagonal warping term.


Dr. Donald J. Fleischli: This 43-year-old woman was in good health until six months before admission to the hospital when she became intermittently constipated. Three months later her constipation was accompanied by crampy pain in the lower part of the abdomen. The pain became severe and was accompanied by vomiting. When admitted to a nearby hospital, she was unable to move her bowels. Shortly after admission, however, profuse diarrhea spontaneously developed with relief of obstructive symptoms. Findings from physical examination and routine laboratory studies were within normal limits. A barium enema was performed at that hospital (Figure). Discussion Dr. Laurence L. Robbins: Dr. Tomchik, what do you see to account for her problems? Dr. Frederick S. Tomchik: There is an eccentric, partially constricting lesion in the sigmoid colon. It is somewhat sessile and has a central area of ulceration as well as shelf-like edges which suggest tumor. Carcinoma causing partial


The work describes the process of building a telephone-based interactive voice response (IVR) system. For the collection of audio data for speech recognition, webbased audio recorders are used so that technical audio equipment does not have to be shipped to the countries with the language in question. However, some parts of the world do not have an Internet infrastructure at all or only a slow one. If these areas provide a telephone infrastructure, an appropriate telephone-based interface is a solution for the collection of audio data. Using existing open source software tools and some classical concepts for implementing conversational systems, we designed and implemented a low cost telephony system for this specific task. Our final system consists of two modules for collecting spontaneous and read speech. Both modules were evaluated with a Wizard of Oz scenario. A second test with the implemented read speech module was performed. As a result from this second evaluation, we can summarize that the test users were able to easily complete their task and are overall satisfied with the system. The system is running and can be accessed via the public switched telephone network on +4972118030681.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze and compare open (OR) versus endovascular (EVAR) abdominal aortic aneurysm repair at our institution.

METHODS
EVAR was attempted in 256 patients at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, between December 1999 and November 2002. One hundred forty patients underwent attempted EVAR, and 116 underwent OR. All patients were included on an intent-to-treat basis, and results were reviewed retrospectively. Statistical methods included the Student t test and chi-square analysis.

RESULTS
Patients were age matched between the 2 groups (70.2 years versus 69.0 years; P = .936). Patients in the OR group had significantly higher American Society of Anesthesiologists classes than the EVAR group (2.96 versus 3.07; P = .006). However, there was no difference between the groups, OR versus EVAR, with respect to the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (55% versus 46%; P = .129), coronary artery disease (69% versus 66%; P = .638), diabetes mellitus (12% versus 18%; P = .167), mean left ventricular ejection fraction (51.8% versus 53.9%; P = .28), or mean preoperative creatinine level (1.2 mg/dL versus 1.1 mg/dL; P = .167). Tobacco use was more prevalent in the OR group (78.4% versus 64.2%; P = .013), and known carotid artery disease was more prevalent in the EVAR group (20.0% versus 6.9%; P = .003). The EVAR group had significantly shorter lengths of stay ( 4.2 versus 9.0 days; P = .000), intensive care unit days (0 versus 3.2; P = .000), time in the operating room (119.6 minutes versus 225.7 minutes; P = .000), and estimated blood loss (189.1 mL versus 897.9 mL; P = .000). Mean aneurysm size was larger in the OR group (5.6 cm versus 4.9 cm; P = .000). Perioperative complications occurred in 31 patients in the OR group and 5 in the EVAR group (P = .000). Two perioperative deaths occurred in the OR group and none in the EVAR group. As of this writing there has been no significant difference in all-cause mortality in the 2 groups (OR 9.6% versus EVAR 8.0%; P = .651). Seven patients in the EVAR group needed secondary interventions. Six were managed with endovascular techniques, and 1 underwent femoral-femoral bypass.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients who undergo EVAR have significantly less morbidity and mortality in the perioperative period than do equally matched patients undergoing open repair. In midterm follow-up (2-5 years), mortality is no different. Morbidity conferred by the need for secondary intervention in the endovascular group is minimal.


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Summary Incomplete factorization methods are an important part of the linear solver strategy in reservoir simulation. It has been shown earlier that the inherited pressure-decoupling effect of (block)-ILU(0) plays an important role for the convergence of efficient linear solvers like System-AMG or CPR. From Black-Oil to coupled geomechanics. With these specific linear systems, this decoupling is a by-product of the row-wise ILU-elimination. However, this also makes ILU sequential in nature, which is a problem on parallel compute hardware. The parallelization of ILU methods has been a field of active research – and it still is. Various approaches are reported in the literature. All exploit inherited parallelism in the sparse systems to solve. Either by reordering the system accordingly or by setting synchronization points induced by the underlying structure (so-called wavefronts). All of these approaches have certain disadvantages and advantages regarding parallel efficiency and numerical robustness. It depends on the application which approach is best-suited. Re-ordering approaches affect the elimination order. Hence, they can have significant robustness impacts for AMG in reservoir simulation. Wavefront parallelizations guarantee equivalence to the sequential method. However, they either require the parallelization structure to be induced by the geometry. This may be challenging in unstructured cases and voids a main advantage of AMG. Or they perform a row-wise data-dependency scan, with a resulting amount of blocking communication. In this paper, we are going to present a wavefront parallelization for (block-) ILU(0) that does not perform its dependency scan by considering groups of rows. The resulting wavefront setup works analogously to aggregative AMG setups, just with additional constraints. The outcome is a data-dependency graph where one can control the compromise between the frequency of data-exchange and wait-time. The equivalence to the sequential ILU(0) algorithm is still guaranteed. While this approach can't compete with the parallelizability of methods like Jacobi-relaxations, it can exploit inherited parallelism with ILU(0) for both OpenMP and MPI. It maintains the numerical properties of the original algorithm. We will demonstrate both with test problems as well as with ones from industrial reservoir simulations.


Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a polypeptide containing 36 amino acids. Circulating NPY originates predominantly from the sympatho-adrenomedullary nervous system. It has a vasoconstrictive and mitogenic effect on blood vessels and seems to be involved in blood pressure regulation and angiogenesis. NPY is a potent orexigenic agent and is presumed to play a leading role in the regulation of eating behavior. Stimulation of the NPY-ergic arcuate – paraventricular nucleus (ARC–PVN) pathway by exercise, fasting, energy loss (glucosuria) is followed by increased appetite and food intake and increased parasympathetic activity, but suppression of sympathetic activity and energy expenditure. The end result of this process is an increase of energy stores. Activity of the NPY-ergic ARC–PVN pathway is suppressed by leptin – a polypeptide produced by adipocytes. Although functioning of an NPY–leptin feedback was found in rodents, it seems likely that also in man the NPY–leptin axis is involved in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.


Stress is one of the biggest realities in our modern lives because of the rapid variations in human lives and it induces depression. Depression is an illness characterized by anxiety and gloominess felt over a phase of time. Some signs of depression matched with other physical illnesses implying huge trouble in diagnosing it. In this analysis, we have tried to identify the reason for depression among students, based on their nature. We have collected data and generated a dataset that contains 539 instances containing 23 unique attributes individually. By using this data, we created a system that helps to identify the reason for depression. In this paper, a dataset has been analyzed to identify the rate of depression among students using Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm and Fuzzy Unordered Rule Induction Algorithm. With the assistance of 100-fold-cross validation, we measure the validity of data that is collected by us, and the performance matrix helps us to report the evaluation of data. This evaluation report has shown us the accuracy and effectiveness of constructing a model to predict the reason for depression. We have got 90.90% accuracy by using Multilayer Perceptron, 92.95% accuracy by using the Fuzzy Unordered Rule Induction Algorithm and 92.76% accuracy by using Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm. Our main goal is to identify the rate of depression among students based on human nature.


Cold-formed trapezoidal sheeting of thin steel plate is a very popular product for building construction. It combines low weight and high strength and is economical in use. To increase the insight into the behaviour of the sheeting, this article presents new experiments in which firstgeneration sheeting behaviour is studied under combined concentrated load and bending. The experiments show that after ultimate load, three different post-failure modes occur. Mechanical models have been developed for the three post-failure modes. These models can help to explain why a certain post-failure mode occurs.


AIM
To analyse the effect of mindfulness training on levels of burnout among nurses.

BACKGROUND
Burnout syndrome is a common occupational hazard for nursing staff. Mindfulness training has been proposed as a valid intervention for burnout.

DESIGN
Systematic review and meta-analysis.

DATA SOURCES
The CINAHL, LILACS, Medline, ProQuest, PsycINFO, Scielo and Scopus databases were consulted, using the search equation "Nurs * AND burnout AND mindfulness". There was no restriction on the year of publication.

REVIEW METHODS
Papers were selected for analysis in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The meta-analysis was carried out using Review Manager 5.3 software.

RESULTS
The sample was of 17 articles including 632 nurses. Mindfulness training reduces levels of burnout, producing lower scores for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and higher for personal accomplishment. The differences in the means were 1.32 (95% CI: -9.41 - 6.78), 1.91 (95% CI: -4.50 - 0.68) and 2.12 (95% CI: -9.91 - 14.14) respectively, between the intervention and control groups.

CONCLUSION
Mindfulness training reduces the emotional burden and hence levels of burnout, among nurses. However, further randomised clinical trials are required.

IMPACT
Mindfulness intervention reduces the level of burnout among nursing staff. Mindfulness, through body-mind training, allows workers to address and overcome situations of severe emotional impact. These results may have a positive impact for well-being and quality of life in nurses and also for the quality care. Hospitals can provide mindfulness training, which has been proposed as a potential strategy to reduce nurses burnout.


It is known that in contrast with the E-mode polarization, the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background cannot be generated by the Compton scattering in the case of scalar mode of metric perturbation. However it is possible to generate the B-mode by the Compton scattering in the case of tensor mode of metric perturbation. For this reason, the ratio of tensor to scalar modes of metric perturbation ($r\sim C_{Bl}/C_{El}$) is estimated by comparing the B-mode power spectrum with the E-mode at least for small $l$. We study the CMB polarization specially B-mode due to the weak interaction of Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) and CMB, in addition to the Compton scattering in both cases of scalar and tensor metric perturbations. It is shown that the power spectrum $C_{Bl}$ of the B-mode polarization receives some contributions from scalar and tensor modes, which have effects on the value of $r$-parameter. We also show that the B-mode polarization power spectrum can be used as an indirect probe into the CNB.


Data reduction is the process of minimizing the amount of data that needs to be stored in a data storage environment. Data reduction can increase storage efficiency and reduce costs.It also decreases size of the training set presented to the algorithm by keeping only the most representative instances. In this paper, we introduce ADR-Miner with c4.5 and attribute selected classifier, novel data reduction algorithm that utilizes ant colony optimization (ACO). ADR-Miner is designed to perform instance selection to improve the predictive effectiveness of the constructed classification models. Empirical evaluations on 20 benchmark data sets with three wellknown classification algorithms show that ADR-Miner improves the predictive quality of the produced classifiers.


Today, electronic devices are increasingly employed in different fields, including safety- and mission-critical applications, where the quality of the product is an essential requirement. In the automotive field, the Software-Based Self-Test is a dependability technique currently demanded by industrial standards. This paper presents an approach employed by STMicro electronics for evaluating, or grading, the effectiveness of Software-Based Self-Test procedure used for on-line testing automotive microcontrollers to be included in safety-critical vehicle parts, such as in airbags and steering systems.


Ecological approaches to psychology suggest succinct accounts ofeasily-used artifacts. Affordances are properties of the world that are compatible with and relevant for people's interactions. When affordances are perceptible, they offer a direct link between perception and action; hidden and false affordances lead to mistakes. Complex actions can be understood in terms of groups of affordances that are sequential in time or nested in space, and in terms of the abilities of different media to reveal them. I illustrate this discussion with several examples of interface techniques, and suggest that the concept of affordances can provide a useful tool for user-centered analyses of technologies.


Contemporary workplace has become permanent resort for complex scenarios and challenges. The global pandemic 2019 reminded all about the insufficiency of current operational capacities and KSAs (Knowledge, Skill, and Attitude) at both institutional and individual levels. Technological superiority and Branding are no more buzz words for the business and economic progress. The mindset of Individual employee and organization, and their approach towards the notion of meaningful work, optimal utilization of knowledge and resilience are among the priority now. There is a constant demand for the alignment of individual's morale with the values of organization. Employee loyalty, satisfaction, wellbeing and commitment are must for smooth working of organizations post pandemic. It is observed that workplace spirituality can be the key driver in employee to act upon their individual capacity in order to accelerate organizational effectiveness and to reinforce tools and techniques of knowledge management. The essentials of knowledge management involve the enthusiasm of employees to challenge, negotiate, adapt and nurture to learn from all the possible resources. The current study is all set to explore the dimensions of spirituality that drives individual to learn and manage knowledge in such a way that fabricate a 'culture of creating meaningful experiences' at workplace. This paper composes the Meta analytical review of all workplace spirituality models and knowledge management practices in the context of academic institutions. Based the on the review, this study attempts to formulate the adequate research propositions that can act of guideline to explore the connection between spirituality and knowledge management. The paper documents both theoretical and practical implications of possible association between spirituality and knowledge of individuals at workplace during task performance. The paper will try to offer suggestions, for organizations to incorporate 'effective knowledge management mechanism through spirituality' in the light of making them, the better learning places.
KEYWORDS: Workplace Spirituality, Knowledge Management, Resilience, Organizational Learning Culture, Morale.


A brief review of the features of the defect structure and studies of the luminescent properties of nonlinear optical lithium niobate crystals of various compositions and genesis was given. It was established that the electron-hole pair NbNb4+-O- in the oxygen-octahedral cluster NbO6 emitted in the short-wavelength region of the visible spectrum (400-500 nm), while point defects (VLi and NbNb4+-NbLi4+ bipolarons) - in the long-wavelength region (500-620 nm). At the ratio of Li/Nb≈1 the luminescence was extinguished in the visible region of the spectrum due to decreasing the intrinsic luminescence centers. It was shown that the presence of polaron luminescence in the near-IR region (700-1050 nm) was due to the small polarons NbLi4+ and impurity ions Cr3+ localized in lithium and niobium octahedra. The energy transfer between the luminescence centers in the visible and near-IR spectral regions was detected. Moreover, luminescence in near-IR regions was dominant. Doping of LiNbO3 crystals with zinc and magnesium at ZnO<4.46 mol.% and MgO<5.29 mol.% led to decreasing luminescence of intrinsic defects (VLi, NbNb4+-NbLi4+). However, there was an increase of the contribution of the short-wave spectrum component at higher dopant concentrations because of the introduction of Zn and Mg into the origin positions of Nb ions.


Alginate coating teralgim and algimaf were applied to 24 decubitus ulcers of various sites in 19 spinal patients. Stage--specific choice of applications produced a good cleansing effect and ulcer healing in 62.5% of the lesions within 48.5 days on the average. Indications for surgery were defined in 37.5% of the cases (repair of the ulcer defect) which were also treated with alginate coating with a good preoperative effect.


To determine the best flow alternation in the internal iliac arteries for regional chemotherapy using a reservoir to treat pelvic malignancies, collateral arteries that arose after arterial flow alternation were evaluated on follow-up pelvic angiographies. Follow-up angiographies were obtained in 11 patients with 21 embolized arteries; six male and five female patients including three with urinary bladder cancer, two with prostate cancer, four with uterine cervical cancer and two with bone metastasis. The interval until follow-up angiography ranged from one to-28 months (mean 8.9 months). Three radiologists interpreted the angiographic results and evaluated collateral vessels. Among 21 embolized arteries, 19 were well occluded, while two were not blocked completely. The two arteries with incomplete embolization did not induce collaterals. Eight internal iliac arteries occluded at the proximal portion enhanced retrogradely via collaterals from the ipsilateral external iliac arteries. Collaterals between the bilateral internal iliac arteries were noted only in four of them. In conclusion, embolization at the proximal point of the internal iliac arteries usually induced collaterals from the ipsilateral external iliac arteries and did not always from collaterals between the bilateral internal iliac arteries, which were necessary for regional chemotherapy. This should be considered when pelvic malignancies are treated with reservoirs.


This article analyses findings from a large-scale study conducted in England and Wales into the prevalence of, and mediators and moderators of risk in relation to, suicidality amongst victims of domestic abuse. The authors tracked (disclosed) experiences of suicidal ideation or suicide within a sample of more than 3,500 domestically abused adults and explored factors that appeared to be correlated with a presence of suicidality amongst this constituency. This analysis was triangulated with a series of 20 semi-structured interviews which explored on-the-ground challenges in relation to the identification of, and support provision for, this vulnerable group, and which also included reflection on the difficulties experienced by staff as a consequence of the emotionally demanding nature of their interactions with such clients. Based on their findings, in this article, the authors underscore the need for more effective multi-agency cooperation, for greater priority to be given to self-harm and suicidality in risk-assessment processes, and for sustainable resourcing of domestic abuse service providers. In a context in which suicidality was correlated with experiences of isolation and hopelessness, they also emphasise the importance of appropriate and effective engagement by state agencies and those professionals tasked with intervening to help victims of domestic abuse.


Abstract This article introduces a special issue of West European Politics on the COVID-19 crisis. It first sets out the dual challenge to democratic principles and democratic performance that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to European liberal democracies. Three bodies of scholarship are especially relevant in framing this dual democratic challenge: those that provide accounts of policy, institutional and legitimacy crises; accounts of the governance of emergencies and of emergency politics; and accounts of political turbulence and organisational and policy responses. The articles that comprise the special issue provide comparative empirical insights into first reactions, with a focus on the responses by political decision-makers, European publics and the EU. Assessments of the likely longer-term, potentially transformative effects of COVID-19 on the principles and performance of European liberal democracies will need to draw on both sectoral and systemic perspectives, with a focus on the organisation and operation of public authority and the state.


Background Play is an important childhood occupation and a medium for development. Parents' attitudes towards play, knowledge about play and its benefits, and their experiences in facilitating effective play are key factors that determine the experiences of play in children. These factors related to parent's understanding and experiences of play gain additional significance when the child has a disability. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize the available evidence on awareness, knowledge, and experience of play among parents and to summarise the findings. Method MEDLINE, CINAHL, APA PsycINFO, Psychology Database, Sociological Abstracts, EMBASE, and Cochrane Collection Plus will be searched for studies of any design that investigate awareness, knowledge, and experience of play among parents and its benefits to child development. Manual searches from reference lists of relevant papers will also be completed. The primary outcomes are parents' knowledge (what constitutes play), experiences (what parents feel about play) and awareness (benefits of play) about play. Three independent reviewers will screen identified papers with pre-defined eligibility criteria and extract data using a customized extraction form. Discrepancies will be resolved in discussion with a fourth reviewer. A synthesis of eligible studies and summary will be provided. Discussion A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative research evidence of parents' awareness, knowledge, and experiences in play will be carried out. This will highlight parents' own views on play among their children, current theories/domains related to parents' awareness, knowledge, and experience in play, and outcome measures that have been used. In addition, comparison among views of parents of children with disabilities and parents of typically developing children will be made. The results will be presented as a summary of key findings under the themes of awareness, knowledge, and experience of parents in play.


In recent years, advances in aeronautical engineering field include, among others, the development of increasingly lightweight and flexible materials, allowing better performance of systems in applications such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, photographic model airplanes, light weight aircraft etc. This progress, however, can cause difficulties in design and various types of tests, such as those performed in modal analysis, since the instrumentation weight and shape can influence the behavior of very light and aerodynamic structures. This paper proposes a new technique to perform modal analysis in simple structures, eliminating the use of accelerometers, which must be numerous in this type of analysis and have significant weight; the whole structure can be analyzed at the same time, and this is an advantage in comparison with other techniques as vibrometer laser, that analyses one point at a time. The technique in question makes use of infrared imaging, detecting, through the heat, the structure deformation, allowing the trace of its modal shape.For this, a theoretical analysis and a thermomechanical modeling of a known structure are performed, with subsequent test to be validated, and finally the conclusions and suggestions for future work are presented.


Clothing and textile materials are not only the carriers of microorganisms such as pathogenic bacteria, odor generating bacteria, and mold fungi, but also good media for growth of the microorganisms. These microorganisms, if pathogenic or infectious, may cause problems to wearers or users of the textile materials. Hence it becomes very important to finish garments with special chemicals that can restrict the growth of these microorganisms. Nevertheless, inappropriate antimicrobial finishes have some shortcomings such as unsatisfactory wash fastness, lack of durability, and either too strong or too less antimicrobial action.Taking these factors into consideration, in this study an attempt has been made to discuss the effects of the microorganisms on textile products, the kinds of antimicrobial finishes and agents, the evaluation systems of antimicrobial activity. The analysis should be helpful to professionals in identifying the best possible method to put antimicrobial activity on PET fibers.


This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on how to conceptualise structure and agency in accounting through a longitudinal exploration of the financial statements of the St. Anselm Foundry over almost a century. We argue that linkages between the firm's information production choices, its governance structure and the socio-economic context in which it operates are better explained as a function of different interacting structural conditions, as mediated through human agency, than with agency theory alone. This argument is consistent with a proposal by Kilfoyle and Richardson (2011), but our analysis expands the demonstration of such dualism from management accounting to financial accounting.


The first described case of a highly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma, with light microscopic and ultrastructural features, pointing to the normal gastric epithelium as the site of origin, is presented.


A 43 year-old female patient with a history of manic-depressive illness and prophylactic carbamazepine (CBZ) medication ingested a potentially lethal overdose of 20 g of the substance. Neurotoxic symptoms reached full intensity after about 24 hours. Subsequently, the patient developed a gastrointestinal atony, which proved to be refractory to treatment for several days. Moreover, there was an increase of bilirubin. Parallel to this we observed the persistence-and even intermittent re-increase--of toxic serum CBZ concentrations for one week with corresponding protracted clinical symptomatology.


This article focuses on ongoing work done for Portuguese concerning the phenomenon of lexical co-occurrence known as collocation (cf. Cruse, 1986, inter al.). Instances of the syntactic variety formed by noun plus adjective have been especially observed. Collocational instances are not lexical entries, and thus should not be stored in the lexicon as multiword lexical units. Their processing can be conceived through relations linking the lexical components. Mechanisms for dealing with the collocation-hood of the expressions are required to be included in the systems, topographically, in their lexical modules. Lexical databases like wordnets, with a general architecture typically structured on semantic relations, make room for the specification of this phenomenon. This can be handled through the definition of ad-hoc relations expressing the different semantic effects the adjectival modification bring to nominal phrases, collocationally.


In this paper, a new design configuration has been proposed in which a prototype of resonant inductive power transfer-based contactless power transfer to wound rotor has been developed which provides field power to brushless alternating current (BLAC) or brushless direct current (BLDC) motors without the use of permanent magnets in the rotor. Further, wound field in the rotor of DC motor can be powered without carbon brushes. The proposed design facilitates motor performance improvement by adding an extra dimension of field flux control, while the armature circuit is conventionally fed from position detection and commutation schemes. It contains a primary multilayer concentrated coil fed with high-frequency resonating AC supply or switched mode supply. A single layer helical secondary coil coaxially fixed on the shaft receives high frequency wireless AC power transmitted from primary coil. Fast rectifier inside the hollow shaft and DC filter provides the transferred DC power to field terminals in the rotor. It has been verified that rotor power can be varied linearly with linear variation in input DC power with the highest efficiency at the resonant frequency. Available power to the rotor remains invariable with rotational speed and angle, which is a necessary requirement for rotor field. DC voltage on the rotor terminals can be effectively controlled during standstill as well as during rotation at any speed.


An outbreak of a severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus that began in China in late 2019 has become a pandemic. We report the case of COVID-19-associated myocarditis in a 45-year-old healthy female who presented with solely gastrointestinal symptoms. Initial investigations revealed ST-segment elevations in her electrocardiogram (EKG), elevated troponin levels, and a positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Subsequently, she had rapid deterioration with the development of cardiogenic shock within hours of admission to a community hospital in Massachusetts. This case highlights an atypical presentation of COVID-19 with a fulminant course in this emerging and evolving disease.


Dynamic signaling complexes employ multiple post-translational modifications (PTMs) to convey intracellular messages that govern cell division. We seek to model these mechanisms to understand the action of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as anti-cancer drugs. Advanced proteomics and informatics approaches allow proteome-wide dissection of TKI-associated signaling complexes and decoding the cross-talk among PTM signaling network. Sequential enrichment of PTM proteomics and MaxQuant were used to quantitatively characterize phosphorylation, ubiquitination and acetylation in ten non-small cell cancer (NSCLC) cell lines including H3122, H2228, STE-1, PC9, HCC827, HCC4006, HCC78, H1781,H2286, H366, H3122 and PC9 under conditions where cells were treated with the TKIs crizotinib (targets ALK and ROS1), erlotinib (targets EGFR), Afatinib (targets HER2), Dasatinib (targets DDR2) and the proteasome inhibitor PR171. We used t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) to identify PTM clusters, and filtered known protein-protein interactions using these clusters. We identified 5941 unique phosphorylation tyrosine sites, 5643 unique ubiquitinated sites and 2893 acetylated sites. We hypothesize that PTM clusters that contain proteins known to interact with one another are likely to represent cross-talk among functionally interactive signaling pathways. We identified 826 clusters containing at least 3 unique PTM sites in each cluster. The data suggest functional interactions between ALK, EGFR and enzymes that act on different PTMs, including kinases, phosphatases, acetyltransferases, and E3 ubiquitin ligases. PTM sites of co-clustered enzymes are associated with distinct signaling modules that respond to drug in concert with the known drug target in NSCLC. Clusters of PTMs were used to filter specific functional interactions, some of which represent cell signaling pathways. The goal is to filter interactions that are active in lung cancer cell lines from the many possible interactions identified in PPI networks. These pathways associated with TKI form a signaling network identified by various PTM clusters providing broad and deep insights into TKI mechanisms. The data suggest that particular kinases (MET, PKM, EPHA2, PRKDC, LYN and ROS1), E3 ligase (ZNF451), E1 ubiquitin activating enzyme (UBA1), deubiquitinase (USP5) and acetyltransferases (FASN and EP300) are common regulators of TKI signaling pathways. Targeting these proteins provides an opportunity to enhance TKI drug efficacy or overcome drug resistance in NSCLC. Collectively, our study identifies individual PTM sites that are responsible for cross-talk within TKI signaling pathways, and provides insight into TKI mechanisms with an eye towards a co-targeting strategy for improving TKI-based therapy in NSCLC. Citation Format: Guolin Zhang, Karen Ross, Cuneyt Akcora, Katia Smirnova, Bin Fang, John M. Koomen, Eric B. Haura, Mark Grimes. Integrative omics analysis decodes cross-talk between signaling pathways to understand the anti-cancer mechanism of TKIs in NSCLC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr B025. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-B025


Tissue engineering is focusing on processing tissue micro-structures for a variety of applications in cell biology and the "bottom-up" construction of artificial tissue. Over the last decade, microfluidic devices have provided novel tools for producing alginate hydrogel microfibers with various morphologies, structures, and compositions for cell cultivation. Moreover, microfluidic spun alginate microfibers are long, thin, and flexible, and these features facilitate higher-order assemblies for fabricating macroscopic cellular structures. In this paper, we present an overview of the microfluidic spinning principle of alginate hydrogel microfibers and their application as micro-scaffolds or scaffolding elements for 3D assembly in tissue engineering.


BACKGROUND: Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is considered a good noninvasive marker to assess airway inflammation in asthma and allergic rhinitis. It has been also proposed that adjusting anti-inflammatory drugs guided by the monitoring of exhaled NO could improve overall asthma control. However standards, the assessment of long-term repeatability of this parameter as well as the rate of change which can be considered significant have not been established yet. The aim of our study was to assess the long-term, intra-subject variability of FeNO in pregnant asthmatic women with controlled asthma. METHODS: Pregnant, non-smoking women with asthma were recruited between 8 and 24 weeks of gestation. Exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), lung function, and the asthma control test (ACT) were performed at monthly visits up to delivery. The data of 50 subjects with well controlled asthma (20-25 ACT, normal spirometric parameters, no change in treatment) during pregnancy were analyzed. The variability of the FeNO parameter was assessed in asthmatics using the variation coefficient (standard deviation x 100% / average). RESULTS: FeNO showed high coefficient of variation (CV): 35.8% (Me 32;Min 2.45, Max 121,9) in all women with well controlled asthma during pregnancy. There was no significant difference in CV between atopic 36,2% (35,5; 2,45-121,9) and nonatopic 33,9% (25,5; 11-71,9) asthmatic women (p= 0,98). CONCLUSIONS: Long-term variation of FeNO was found to be not satisfactory because the variation coefficient was 35.8%. It means that changes of FeNO should be interpreted with caution.


We present a brief overview of some of the analytic perturbative techniques for the computation of the Floquet Hamiltonian for a periodically driven, or Floquet, quantum many-body system. The key technical points about each of the methods discussed are presented in a pedagogical manner. They are followed by a brief account of some chosen phenomena where these methods have provided useful insights. We provide an extensive discussion of the Floquet–Magnus (FM) expansion, the adiabatic-impulse approximation, and the Floquet perturbation theory. This is followed by a relatively short discourse on the rotating wave approximation, a FM resummation technique and the Hamiltonian flow method. We also provide a discussion of some open problems which may possibly be addressed using these methods.


A collection H of integers is called an affine d-cube if there exist d+1 positive integers x0,x1,…, xd so that formula here We address both density and Ramsey-type questions for affine d-cubes. Regarding density results, upper bounds are found for the size of the largest subset of {1,2,…,n} not containing an affine d-cube. In 1892 Hilbert published the first Ramsey-type result for affine d-cubes by showing that, for any positive integers r and d, there exists a least number n=h(d,r) so that, for any r-colouring of {1,2,…,n}, there is a monochromatic affine d-cube. Improvements for upper and lower bounds on h(d,r) are given for d>2.


Foams are dispersions of bubbles in liquids, often water. They are frequently stabilized by surfactant or polymer, but like Pickering emulsions, they can be also stabilized solely by particles. If the particles have a moderate hydrophobicity, the foams can be extremely stable (lifetimes of the order of years). Due to technical preparation difficulties, very few studies can be found in the literature to date. We will discuss the origin of these difficulties. We will also describe experiments using partially hydrophobic fumed silica particles, in which the foam properties were correlated with the properties of spread and adsorbed layers of these particles at the air–water interface. These combined experiments allowed us to define the conditions necessary to stop bubble disproportionation.


This study introduces an ecotravel coordinator program to reduce car use. In this system, ecotravel coordinators are put in charge of several people. They organize ecotravel meetings and are responsible for taking the initiative. During the meetings participants recognize and deepen their understanding of their travel behaviors and devise their own plans for reducing car use. The aim of this study is to examine the validity of the ecotravel coordinator program through an experimental method. One result of the experiments was that the ecocoordinators and the other participants reduced their car travel mileage 54% and 48%, respectively. Nonparticipants, however, almost never reduced their travel mileage (1.4% reduction). Thus, experiment results indicate that the system is fairly effective for reducing car use.


A one-step method for catheterising the jugular vein of cats for taking multiple blood samples was developed, with the aid of radiography, to determine an appropriate internal catheter length for adult cats. The effects of multiple blood sampling and heparin flushes on the cats' haematocrit and blood total solids were also assessed. Seven healthy adult cats were used. A total of 128 of 132 (97 per cent) blood samples were collected successfully through a 19 G, 30·5 cm catheter introduced as a central venous catheter and maintained in place during two periods of 48 hours. The haematocrit and total solids were significantly decreased in all the cats, but no clinically significant blood loss or coagulation disorders were observed.


Various raw materials including plant biomass, bacteria, algae and the Tunicates (marine animals) have been used to produce cellulose. However, agricultural waste has rarely been utilized for this purpose. In this work, Sugarcane bagasse was used as raw material to produce cellulose. Cellulose was extracted from sugarcane bagasse through the elimination of lignin and hemicellulose. Cellulose was then converted to carboxymethyl cellulose (CMCb) by using sodium monochloroacet (SMCA) and various sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was applied to verify the effect of NaOH concentration on this property. The highest viscosity and degree of substitution (DS=0.78) were observed in 30 gr/100 ml NaOH of carboxymethylation. Maximum tensile strength of the films produced at these conditions was 37.34 Mpa. The addition of a various amount of glycerol (1 ml/ 100 ml, 2 ml/ 100 ml, 3 ml/ 100 ml) dramatically decreased the tensile strength. The highest level of water vapor permeability was also observed at the same NaOH concentration. Cellulose can be correctly extracted from sugarcane bagasse and converted to carboxymethyl cellulose. Based on the cellulose of the bagasse characteristic, proper amount of NaOH was found to get a high DS. CMCb has considerable features for application on biodegradable coating materials. Synthesis and Characterization of Carboxymethyl Cellulose from Sugarcane Bagasse


Abstract : Renewable energy-powered microgrids have proven to be a valuable technology for self-contained (off-grid) energy systems. Characterizing microgrid system performance pre-deployment would allow the system to be appropriately sized to meet all required electrical loads at a given renewable source operational time frequency. A vanadium redox battery was empirically characterized to determine operating efficiency as a function of charging characteristics and parasitic load losses. A model was developed to iteratively determine system performance based on known weather conditions and load requirements. A case study was performed to compare modeled system performance to measurements taken during operation of the microgrid system. Another iterative model was developed to incrementally predict the microgrid operating performance as a function of diesel generator operating frequency. Calibration of the model was performed to determine accurate PV panel and inverter efficiencies. A case study was performed to estimate the constant loads the system could power at varying diesel generator operating frequencies. Typical Meteorological Year 3 (TMY3) data from 217 Class I locations throughout the United States was inserted into the model to determine the quantity of external AC and DC load the system could supply at intermittent diesel generator variable operational frequencies. Ordinary block Kriging analysis was performed using ArcGIS to interpolate AC and DC load power between TMY3 Class I locations for each diesel generator operating frequency. Figures representing projected AC and DC external load were then developed for each diesel generator operating frequency.


The nature of Oil and Gas production presents numerous challenges for creating and maintaining reliable electrical infrastructure. Production assets are often widely dispersed over remote geographical areas, leaving them vulnerable to wildlife, storms and poor load management. Unfortunately for ESPs, even an extremely short interruption in electrical service can lead to significant downtime, stress on equipment, and additional field labor costs. The economic and operational advantages to providing a readily available, alternative source of power during these short duration events is significant. This paper describes an effective, economical approach that is based on locally situated energy storage with the appropriate control circuitry.
 The existing Variable Speed Drive (VSD) architecture allows for the storage system to be constantly connected to the ESP's electrical system, allowing for an ever-present power supply without the need for mechanical switching. The ride-through system was designed to keep a fully loaded ESP system, of corresponding size, operational during most temporary power disturbances. At the conclusion of rigorous laboratory testing, the ride-through system was installed in the field and was subjected to simulated outages. Precision electrical monitoring equipment was installed to record voltage and current during genuine disruptions and interruptions. Records from field testing and genuine events confirmed the viability of local storage systems utilizing supercapacitors. The energy storage system provided a steady supply of power and consistently prevented shutdowns during common power system disruptions. Due to its capacity to store a considerable amount of power, the system demonstrated an ability to ride-through both multiple disturbances in short succession as well as outages lasting as long as 8 seconds, even under full load.


Forest growth is mainly currently monitored using in-situ measurements in northeast of China.To effectively monitor forest growth disturbance at large scale,we attempted to use remote sensing technique,particularly,time series MODIS data from 2004 to 2006.The annual time series of 8-day enhanced vegetation index(EVI) dataset was generated and smoothed using a Savitzky-Golay filter.The EVI trajectory during growth season was simulated using a logistic model. From the simulated trajectory,the EVI area of growth season and annual EVI entropy were calculated.These two factors were combined to map the disturbance regions of forest growth. Finally,the disturbance regions were verified using a set of random samples.The result indicates that the disturbance points have distinctively higher entropy and lower peak.Some of these points also show abrupt EVI decline during the midseason of the peak phases or double peaks.This approach is demonstrated to be feasible for disturbance monitoring of forest growth.


Abstract This paper presents some of our results regarding calculus of the functionally graded plates (FGPs). Such plates are made of Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs), which represent a new material class belonging to the composite materials. Our paper presents some material laws in a comparative way. But the main purpose of this paper is to provide calculus concepts and calculus methodologies, based on the means available in scientific research of mechanical engineering field, for the calculation of plates made of FGMs. Thus, the authors use the concepts of multilayer plate and equivalent plate, using both analytical and numerical calculus. The numerical method used are the Finite Element Method (FEM).The calculation aims both to determine the displacements and the stresses of the plates under statical loads, as well as to determine the free vibration frequencies. The research methodology is based on combining analytical calculation, where and when possible, with numerical simulation. The validation of our results is done by comparison with the analytical solution and the comparative analysis of the methods.


With thousands of new volumes lining the shelves of bookstores, abundant advertisements, and innumerable online reviews, it is becoming increasingly difficulty for the concerned adult to recommend literature that is of quality, yet speaks to young audiences. Core Collection for Children and Young Adults presents the best in contemporary and classic literature for children and young adults. Every book listed in this reference has a concisely worded annotation, which is followed by headings designating awards the book has won, related subjects, and character themes. With more than 350 titles reviewed, this resource will prove invaluable for teachers, librarians, parents, collectors of children's books, and college students with an interest in juvenile literature, education, or child growth and development.


This Article explores a little-noticed dimension of abortion and assisted suicide (or voluntary euthanasia): how choosing to reject those options can have a negative impact on the legally authorized choosers. Women who refuse abortion may be blamed for their choice by boyfriends, neighbors, employers, and others. Similarly, infirm or dying persons may find family and other caregivers upset by their refusal to agree to assisted suicide when voluntary death seems the sensible option. Finally, the author questions whether a life chosen as an option can ever have the dignity of a life simply accepted, i.e., whether the child a mother once chose not to abort suffers from her having been able to choose otherwise, and whether the severely disabled but suicide-rejecting person suffers from having to justify her continued existence.


Conventional optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems generally have a limited imaging range within a depth of only 1-2 mm and suffers from unwanted noise such as speckle, ghost or mirror noise. To overcome these limitations, we developed a motorized-stage-based OCT system with an extended imaging range, using a common-path Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (CP-FD-OCT) configuration. Using this OCT systems, OCT image was obtained from an onion, and their subsurface structure were observed. The result showed that the OCT images obtained using our motorized-stage-based system had a significantly extended imaging range due to its real-time accurate depth tracking. Consequently, the devised CP-FD-OCT systems and algorithms have good potential for the further development of endoscopic OCT for microsurgery.


Aims and Objectives: This article examines semantic convergence of bilinguals' two languages in the case of words that overlap semantically but are not fully isomorphic in meaning and application. To what extent do the type of bilingual, type of category, and relative semantic width across the languages matter? Design: The primary method involves eye tracking while participants chose pictures corresponding to an English word heard. The data examine potential differences in simultaneous Spanish–English bilinguals', early Spanish L1–English L2 bilinguals', and monolingual English speakers' durations and numbers of fixations on potential candidates for referents. Data and Analysis: Thirty-eight participants were administered the task in relation to 48 English words from three types of words (classical, radial, and homophonic), half with wider semantic extension in English, half with wider semantic extension in Spanish. Durations and numbers of fixations were analyzed with ANOVAs with participant group, word type, and semantic width treated as variables. Findings/Conclusions: Data revealed minimal influences from Spanish on English with homophonic words, but for classical categories, and to some extent radial categories, bilinguals showed influence from Spanish on English words: participants considered referents that would be relevant for Spanish but not English. Originality: Eye tracking provides a window into the online processing of words and their referents, and thus provides more subtle clues to bilinguals' processing of these categories relative to monolinguals'. The results support a special status relative to semantic convergence for words whose referents correspond to categories whose members lie close together in the conceptual space. Significance/Implications: For us to best account for semantic convergence in bilingual speakers, these data indicate that the type of category and the category structure in the conceptual space matter, the relative widths of the categories in bilinguals' two languages matter, the task demands matter, and the type of bilingual matters.


Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is one of the photochemical electrical cells consisting of a photoelectrode, dye, electrolyte, and counter electrode. The purpose of using dyes in the DSSC is to extend the absorption spectrum to visible light because visible light has about 96% energy from sunlight. This article presents some experimental data on the nature of absorbance and the conductivity of natural dyes extracted from the plant as an application in the DSSC. Absorbance test using Spectrophotometer UV Visible 1601 PC and electrical properties test using Elkahfi 100 / Meter I-V. DSSC fabrication has been done using dye extract of mangosteen peel pigment (Garnicia mangostana) with a variety of coating technique of Spin Coating and Slip Casting. The results show that natural dyes from natural material extraction have an absorbance spectrum of 380-520 nm range and the greatest conductivity is owned by mangosteen fruit peel pigment (Garnicia mangostana). From the results of the test using AM Simulator 1.5G (100 mW / cm2) diesel simulator, it was found that the volume of TiO2 precursors affected the performance of DSSC solar cells and the overall conversion efficiency was 0.084% for the mangosteen peel dye by slip casting technique and 0.092% for the mangosteen peel dye by spin coating technique.Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is one of the photochemical electrical cells consisting of a photoelectrode, dye, electrolyte, and counter electrode. The purpose of using dyes in the DSSC is to extend the absorption spectrum to visible light because visible light has about 96% energy from sunlight. This article presents some experimental data on the nature of absorbance and the conductivity of natural dyes extracted from the plant as an application in the DSSC. Absorbance test using Spectrophotometer UV Visible 1601 PC and electrical properties test using Elkahfi 100 / Meter I-V. DSSC fabrication has been done using dye extract of mangosteen peel pigment (Garnicia mangostana) with a variety of coating technique of Spin Coating and Slip Casting. The results show that natural dyes from natural material extraction have an absorbance spectrum of 380-520 nm range and the greatest conductivity is owned by mangosteen fruit peel pigment (Garnicia mangostana). From the results of the test using AM Simulator 1.5G ...


Glaucoma is a blinding disease associated with characteristic progressive optic nerve damage and visual field loss. Visual field testing in the form of automated perimetry is critical in the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of glaucoma. Functional tests can also be powerful research tools in clinical trials and in the field of neuroprotection. Standard automated perimetry (SAP) commonly used today, however, has its limitations. Early diagnosis of glaucoma based on functional measures can be challenging since it has been shown that retinal ganglion cell loss precedes defects detected on SAP. In addition, SAP is a subjective test prone to inter-test variability making the evaluation of disease progression problematic. Newer algorithms and functional tests are now being used and developed in an attempt to improve the accuracy in the detection of glaucoma and disease progression.


Combining word alignments trained in two translation directions has mostly relied on heuristics that are not directly motivated by intended applications. We propose a novel method that performs combination as an optimization process. Our algorithm explicitly maximizes the effectiveness function with greedy search for phrase table training or synchronized grammar extraction. Experimental results show that the proposed method leads to significantly better translation quality than existing methods. Analysis suggests that this simple approach is able to maintain accuracy while maximizing coverage.


Background Epidemiological studies suggest a bidirectional association between atrial fibrillation and breast cancer. This study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to elucidate the prevalence of atrial fibrillation among breast cancer patients, and the bidirectional association between atrial fibrillation and breast cancer. Methods PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched to identify studies reporting the prevalence, incidence, and bidirectional association between atrial fibrillation and breast cancer. The study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022313251). Levels of evidence and recommendations were assessed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Results Twenty-three studies (17 retrospective cohort studies, 5 case-control studies and 1 cross-sectional study) involving 8,537,551 participants were included. Among patients with breast cancer, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation was 3% (11 studies; 95% CI: 0.6 to 7.1%) and the incidence was 2.7% (6 studies; 95% CI: 1.1 to 4.9%). Breast cancer was associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (5 studies; hazard ratio [HR]: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.12 to 1.82, I2 = 98%). Atrial fibrillation was also significantly associated elevated risk of breast cancer (5 studies HR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.22, I2 = 0%). Grade assessment shown low certainty of the evidence for the risk of atrial fibrillation and moderate certainty of the evidence for the risk of breast cancer. Conclusion Atrial fibrillation is not uncommon in patients with breast cancer and vice versa. There is a bidirectional association between atrial fibrillation (low certainty) and breast cancer (moderate certainty). Graphical Abstract Cartoon depicting the association between atrial fibrillation and breast cancer.


Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a devastating condition with premature mortality, poor quality of life, & vast economic cost contributing to substantial societal burden. More resources are allocated to DM than any other condition, & with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 350 million people by 2025, it remains an urgent epidemic. Providing standardized, high quality care (HQC) to improve DM control is a matter of utmost importance. Our residents receive primary care training in a federal funded healthcare system, with yearly reports from Medicare addressing compliance with current accepted standards, including but not limited to DM management. In this Quality Improvement (QI) project, we sought to directly address deficiencies in their management. A retrospective chart review was conducted over 1 year. Patients with uncontrolled (UC) DM were identified & a root cause analysis conducted. It was noted that over 40% of diabetics were UC, with a hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) >8%; 60% of whom did not have appropriate escalation of management (AEOM) in further encounters. A QI intervention was developed aiming to improve AEOM in patients. Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles focused on the creation of a standardized documentation system (SDS) for UC DM encounters, a tracking system & a designated "DM manager", who ensured electronic prescription delivery & early follow-up (F/U) appointments. Clear metrics of AEOM were established & clinicians underwent small group educational sessions emphasizing each intervention, with review of updated ADA guidelines. Although prospective biweekly chart review is ongoing, Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis of initial post interventional data. A total of 33 UC DM patient encounters were analyzed thus far. In January 2020, 31% of all encounters used the newly created SDS; of which 69% had AEOM. In February 2020, 57% of all encounters used the SDS; 71% of providers had AEOM. Of the encounters using the SDS, 83% had AEOM compared to 67% in those without (p:0.42). Average F/U time per patient was 6 weeks. Delivering standardized & HQC in DM patients presents a challenge dependent on a variety of system & patient factors. This becomes more apparent in rural & low-income populations as in our clinic. Although HbA1c is a well-established method of monitoring glycemic control, we propose that other uniform performance measures be used to dynamically assess overall DM management. Our metrics include standardized, replicable documentation, early F/U time & defined AEOM parameters such as timely addition of new medication, dose adjustments, & utilization of resources such as DM educators. Thus far, there appears to be a non-statistically significant trend towards improved standardization of provider documentation, F/U visits & AEOM. Further data is needed. We hope to see these measures translate into overall improved glycemic control.


Detergents are invaluable tools for studying membrane proteins. However, these deceptively simple, amphipathic molecules exhibit complex behavior when they self-associate and interact with other molecules. The phase behavior and assembled structures of detergents are markedly influenced not only by their unique chemical and physical properties but also by concentration, ionic conditions, and the presence of other lipids and proteins. In this minireview, we discuss the various aggregate forms detergents assume and some misconceptions about their structure. The distinction between detergents and the membrane lipids that they may (or may not) replace is emphasized in the most recent high resolution structures of membrane proteins. Detergents are clearly friends and foes, but with the knowledge of how they work, we can use the increasing variety of detergents to our advantage.


The cytochrome P450 (CYP) family 1A enzymes, CYP1A1 and CYP1A2, are two of the most important enzymes implicated in the metabolism of endogenous and exogenous compounds through oxidation. These enzymes are also known to metabolize environmental procarcinogens into carcinogenic species, leading to the advent of several types of cancer. The development of selective inhibitors for these P450 enzymes, mitigating procarcinogenic oxidative effects, has been the focus of many studies in recent years. CYP1A1 is mainly found in extrahepatic tissues while CYP1A2 is the major CYP enzyme in human liver. Many molecules have been found to be metabolized by both of these enzymes, with varying rates and/or positions of oxidation. A complete understanding of the factors that govern the specificity and potency for the two CYP 1A enzymes is critical to the development of effective inhibitors. Computational molecular modeling tools have been used by several research groups to decipher the specificity and potency factors of the CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 substrates. In this review, we perform a thorough analysis of the computational studies that are ligand-based and protein-ligand complex-based to catalog the various factors that govern the specificity/potency toward these two enzymes.


BACKGROUND
This study examined the rates of coronary angiography (CA), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) in British Columbia (BC) between 1995 and 2001.

METHODS
Data sources were as follows: CABG--BC Cardiac Registries; CA and PCI--BC Medical Services Plan; acute coronary syndromes (ACS)--Hospital Separation database; population data--BC Statistics. All rates were age and sex standardized per 100,000 BC resident adults over 20 years of age.

RESULTS
The rate of diagnostic CA increased from 352 per 100,000 in 1995 to 400 per 100,000 in 2001 (P<0.01). The rate of PCI increased from 101 per 100,000 in 1995 to 154 per 100,000 in 2001 (P<0.01). Single stage 'ad hoc' PCI increased from 38% in 1995 to 68% in 2001. The rate of CABG remained stable at between 70 and 79 per 100,000. There was a downward trend in the annual hospitalized incidence of ACS (477 to 430 per 100,000, P=0.04). The incidence of ACS and the rates of CA, PCI and CABG were higher for men in all age groups. PCI was more common than CABG in all groups.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of ACS in BC is falling. The rates of diagnostic CA and PCI are increasing. The latter finding may reflect an appropriate evidence-based response to data supporting greater application of CA following ACS after publication of several studies supporting a routine invasive approach. The PCI rate is rising compared with the CABG rate, likely reflecting changes in patient selection and improved PCI technology, as well as a limited ability of the system to provide surgical procedures.


This study focuses on early experiences of families with a child with microtia to better inform their ongoing care by pediatric providers. Parents and children (n = 62; mean age of 6.9 ± 3.9 years) with isolated microtia participated in semistructured interviews in Spanish (66.1%) or English (33.9%). Qualitative analysis of responses used open coding to identify themes. Parents reported stressful informing experiences of the diagnosis with multiple negative emotions. Parents and children generally reported not understanding microtia etiology, while some families identified medical, religious, and folk explanations. Parental coping included learning about surgeries, normalization, perspective taking, and support from family, providers, religion, and others with microtia. Family communication centered on surgery and reassurance. Pediatricians of children with microtia need to understand families' formative psychosocial experiences to better promote positive family adjustment through clarifying misinformation, educating families about available treatment options, modeling acceptance, psychosocial screening, and providing resources.


Matrix multiplication $A^t A$ appears as intermediate operation during the solution of a wide set of problems. In this paper, we propose a new cache-oblivious algorithm for the $A^t A$ multiplication. Our algorithm, A$\scriptstyle \mathsf{T}$A, calls classical Strassen's algorithm as sub-routine, decreasing the computational cost %(expressed in number of performed products) of the conventional $A^t A$ multiplication to $\frac{2}{7}n^{\log_2 7}$. It works for generic rectangular matrices and exploits the peculiar symmetry of the resulting product matrix for sparing memory. We used the MPI paradigm to implement A$\scriptstyle \mathsf{T}$A in parallel, and we tested its performances on a small subset of nodes of the Galileo cluster. Experiments highlight good scalability and speed-up, also thanks to minimal number of exchanged messages in the designed communication system. Parallel overhead and inherently sequential time fraction are negligible in the tested configurations.


Current understanding of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes associated with land-use change from forest to oil palm on mineral soil is not sufficient to provide reliable estimates of emission rates or advice on GHG mitigation strategies. Monocultures of oil palm have expanded in Southeast Asia, mostly replacing tropical forests. The limited data available have indicated that the land-use conversion is associated with a potentially aggravated GHG burden, including nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) emissions, with unclear underlying biological mechanisms. In this study, we investigated N2O and NO emission potentials of tropical soils with different land-uses from Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, under laboratory incubation. Under similar controlled conditions, logged forest and oil palm soils showed high and similar potentials of N2O and NO emissions following increase in soil moisture, while the emissions were negligible in a riparian reserve soil irrespective of moisture conditions. Soil N2O and NO emission rates from logged forest soils and oil palm (OP) plantations were of similar magnitude, with average fluxes over the 35 and 22 day incubation periods, respectively, of 11.5 and 1.6 ng N g−1 h−1 (OP) and 15.6 and 6.0 ng N g−1 h−1 (logged forest). Contrarily, the riparian reserve soil did not respond to rewetting and nitrogen application and fluxes were negligible. Furthermore, N2O fluxes were on average about 10 times higher than NO fluxes. The fact that forest soils also have the potential to emit large amounts of N2O and NO, has important implications for land-use change scenarios in the tropics, especially as some scenarios suggest atmospheric N deposition is likely to drastically increase in tropical regions due to biomass burning, increased N-fertilizer use and fossil fuel consumption. Quantification of related gene transcripts implied that Proteobacterial nirS and AniA-nirK (betaproteobacterial clade of Neisseria) containing denitrifiers might continuously contribute to the N2O emissions, while the nitrifiers (ammonia oxidizing archaea in this study) are conditionally active to produce N2O. This study therefore provides some evidence for N2O and NO emissions associated with phylogenetically diverse groups of microorganisms, which might be of importance in modulating the GHG emissions under different land-uses and field conditions.


The reaction of the cyclotetraphosphazene, [N4P4Cl8], with the difunctional reagent, 2,2'-biphenol, in the presence of potassium carbonate in acetone produced the spiro-substituted derivatives, 2,2'-dioxybiphenylhexachlorocyclotetraphosphazene, bis(2,2'-dioxybiphenyl)tetrachloro-cyclotetraphosphazene, and tris(2,2'-dioxybiphenyl)dichlorocyclotetraphosphazene. Both cis and trans geometrical isomers of the bis compound are observed. Although chromatographic separation of these was unsuccessful, a sample of the trans isomer was obtained by fractional crystallization. The compounds all show non-first-order 31P NMR spectra which were simulated to extract the spectral parameters. Single-crystal X-ray structures of both the trans bis and the tris compounds show that the cyclophosphazene rings exhibit conformational flexibility which gives rise to different crystalline forms being obtained from the same solvent systems. Crystals of trans-bis(2,2'-dioxybiphenyl)tetrachloro-cyclotetraphosphazene were obtained in two different space groups: Pnna (orthorhombic) and P21/n (monoclinic). In the orthorhombic structure, the dominant (72%) conformation of one phosphazene ring is a chair form, and the other (28%) resembles a boat. While for the monoclinic structure, the ring is virtually flat with an oval shape. In both cases the dioxybiphenyl groups are found in R and S configurations in the same molecule and are pi stacked in columns (Pnna) or involved in pi-pi or pi-H interactions (P21/n), thus anchoring the phosphorus atoms of the cyclotetraphosphazenes but still allowing flexibility in the ring conformations. Three crystalline modifications of tris(2,2'-dioxybiphenyl)dichloro-cyclotetraphosphazene were obtained: two in space group P (triclinic), which contained two molecules of dichloromethane in the unit cell, and one solvent-free form in space group P21/n (monoclinic). The cyclophosphazene rings exhibit puckered conformations with the trans-dioxybiphenyl moieties having opposing RS or SR conformations. DFT calculations were carried out on each of the phosphazene ring conformations in trans-bis(2,2'-dioxybiphenyl)tetrachlorocyclotetraphosphazene identified from the X-ray diffraction analysis. It is concluded that intermolecular interactions (i.e., pi-pi or pi-H) between the dioxybiphenyl groups is a factor that modifies the nature of the potential energy surface between the different conformers. The flexibility of the phosphazene ring is supported computationally through the calculated low-energy barriers and experimentally through the highly disordered phosphazene ring conformations observed in the solid state. The results on 2,2'-dioxybiphenyl-substituted cyclotetraphosphazenes provide evidence that microcrystalline domains in their 2,2'-dioxybiphenyl-substituted polyphosphazene analogues will be generated by similar pi-pi and pi-H interactions.


We present anab initio method of calculation of isotope shift in atoms with a few valence electrons, based on the configuration-interaction calculation of energy. The main motivation for developing the method comes from the need to analyze whether differences in isotope abundance in early universe can contribute to the observed anomalies in quasar absorption spectra. The current best explanation for these anomalies is the assumption that the fine structure constant was smaller at early epoch. We show that we can calculate the isotope shift in magnesium with good accuracy.


Data mining has the most important role in healthcare for discovering hidden relationships in big datasets, especially in breast cancer diagnostics, which is the most popular cause of death in the world. In this paper two algorithms are applied that are decision tree and K-Nearest Neighbour for diagnosing Breast Cancer Grad in order to reduce its risk on patients. In decision tree with feature selection, the Gini index gives an accuracy of %87.83, while with entropy, the feature selection gives an accuracy of %86.77. In both cases, Age appeared as the  most effective parameter, particularly when Age<49.5. Whereas  Ki67  appeared as a second effective parameter. Furthermore, K- Nearest Neighbor is based on the minimum error rate, and the test maximum accuracy for K_value selection with an accuracy of 86.24%. Where the distance metric has been assigned using the Euclidean approach. From previous models, it seems that Breast Cancer Grade2 is the most prevalent type. For the future perspective, a comparative study could be performed to compare the supervised and unsupervised data mining algorithms.


Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are being used to model the aggregation of detergents into spherical assemblies called micelles.  Detergent micelles can be used experimentally to study membrane proteins. In the present study, we are investigating micelle formation in dodecyl β-D-maltoside (DDM) detergents with a longer-term goal of understanding how the nature of the detergent micelle influences the properties of the membrane protein proteorhodopsin.   Proteorhodopsin captures sunlight and stores it in a proton gradient that the cell can use to directly drive ATP synthesis; in marine environments, this protein may be responsible for 10-15% of what was once thought to be photosynthesis. Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics (NAMD) and Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) software programs are being run on a high-speed Linux workstation at Fairmont State University and the High Performance Computing systems at West Virginia University. Simulation results are analyzed to generate quantitative data about the system, including aggregation number and radius of gyration. Current simulations to be reported on include random assemblies of 20, 60, 110 and 200 DDM molecules, pre-formed micelles of 150 and 220 DDM molecules, and a pre-formed inverted micelle of 110 DDM molecules.   Funding for the project was provided by the College of Science and Technology at Fairmont State University and the NASA WV Space Grant Consortium.


Anonymous authentication is a means of authorizing a user without revealing his/her identification. Mobile technologies such as radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags, PDAs and mobile phone systems are increasingly being deployed in pervasive computing. These mobile devices have raised public concern regarding violation of privacy, anonymity and information confidentiality. Considering these concerns, there is a growing need to discover and develop techniques and methods to overcome the threats described above. In this paper we propose an architecture which enhances the privacy and anonymity of users in ubiquitous computing and yet preserves the security requirements of the system. Our proposed architecture is based on elliptic curve techniques, on MaptoCurve or MapToPoint function, on Weil pairing techniques and finally on elliptic curve based Okamoto identification scheme. In addition, we present a formal validation of our protocol by using the AVISPA tool. The main comparative study of our proposed architecture is to provide privacy and anonymity for mobile users. Our proposed architecture achieves many of desirable security requirements.


BACKGROUND
The main goal of this study was to analyze the associations between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body mass index (BMI) with self-rated health (SRH) of adolescent girls.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of 533 adolescents girls, aged from 10 to 18 years old. CRF was predicted by maximal multistage 20-m shuttle-run test according to procedures described from FITNESSGRAM. Girls' obesity status was classified according to International Obesity Task Force and Self-rated health (SRH) was assessed by questionnaire.

RESULTS
The findings showed that among adolescent girls 23.2% had negative SRH. Girls who were classified as unfit were more likely to report negative SRH in both univariate logistic (OR: 3.05; CI: 1.91-4.87; P < .05) and multivariate (OR: 2.93; CI: 1.82-4.72; P < .05) regression analyses compared with their fit peers. Obese girls were more likely to report negative SRH (OR: 2.30; CI: 1.14-4.62; P < .05) compared with their normal-weight counterparts. However such association was lost in multivariate analyses suggesting an effect of CRF.

CONCLUSIONS
Negative perception of health was associated with lower CRF and weight status although such association it is mediated by CRF condition.


The stability properties of the bandwidth allocation algorithm First Fit are analyzed for the distributions concentrated on three sizes for the requests. We give the explicit expression of the ergodicity condition of this model; it involves a quadratic functional of the input parameters. The stochastic processes describing these systems are string valued Markov process. To analyze these processes we introduce the notion of a smooth initial state. Starting from a smooth initial state the fluid limits of this systems can be investigated. The fluid limits of interest are random dynamical systems in $\R^2$ which are products of random $2\times2$ matrices.


Purpose of reviewAdoptive T-cell therapy has become one of the most exciting fields of cancer therapy in the past few years. In this article, we describe a method which combines adoptive T-cell therapy with antibody therapy by arming T cells from cord blood, normal patients, and cancer patients with bispecific antibodies capable of binding to tumor-associated antigens on one side of the bispecific antibody construct and T cells on another side of the construct. This approach redirects T cells against tumor cells in a non-MHC-restricted manner. Recent findingsVarious methods for manipulating the immune system including check-point inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, and bispecific antibodies have shown promising activity in treating both hematological malignancies and solid tumors with excellent success. In recent studies, activated T cells armed with bispecific antibodies have shown good preclinical activity, safety, and promising efficacy in the clinical trials. SummaryActivated T cells armed with bispecific antibodies represent a promising treatment for cancer immunotherapy.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this contribution is to present and familiarize the medical community with the method for the assessment of trace and essentials elements in prostate tissue sections.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
X-ray fluorescence based technique(namely Synchrotron Induced X-ray Emission (SRIXE)) is described in terms of methodology, sample preparation and the evaluation of the recorded results (spectral data sets). Materials for the samples were collected from the patients underwent radical prostatectomy due to Adenocarcinoma prostatae. Specimens were freeze-dried, cut by microtome (to the thickness of 15 μm), one slice was placed on Mylar foil (for SRIXE measurements) and adjacent one on microscopic glass (for histopathological assessment).

RESULTS
Results presented here show the usability of SRIXE method for the evaluation of concentration of trace and essential elements in prostate tissue sections with the spatial resolution better than 15 microns.

DISCUSSION
Histopathological analysis of samples, which is only focused on morphological features, is unable to reveal information about changes in biochemical signature of tissues affected by the illness. SRIXE is a powerful and promising technique to analyse even very low concentrations oat the cellular level without any labelling or separating procedures. Obtained results may be correlated with classic histopathological assessment allowing for drawing conclusions on the changes in certain elements concentrations with the progression of disease. Moreover, mentioned in this work analysis, can be performed for any type of biological tissues.


A well‐known model of apoptosis is induction in thymocytes by injection of pharmacological doses of exogenous steroids. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this process also occurs under physiological conditions, i.e. by stimulation of endogenous glucocorticoid release, using the chicken as an experimental model. Endogenous glucocorticoid levels can be elevated by immunization with exogenous antigens or by injection of conditioned medium, e.g. supernatant of mitogen‐stimulated spleen cells. This effect is mediated by so‐called glucocorticoid‐increasing factors, and is considered to act as an immunoregulatory principle. Thymocyte DNA of so treated birds showed a typical "ladder" pattern after electrophoresis in a 1.8% agarose gel, and degradation could be prevented by RU 38486. This provides evidence that apoptosis can be induced by elevating endogenous corticosterone levels in vivo. By means of in situ nick translation (ISNT) and simultaneous immunofluorescence tests, it was possible to analyze various thymic subpopulations during apoptosis after treatment with exogenous glucocorticoids. Additionally, using confocal microscopical techniques, apoptosis of the same cells as analyzed by ISNT is shown. The possible role of elevated concentrations of endogenous glucocorticoids in regulating thymocyte cell death and autoimmune diseases is discussed.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected people's social lives by inhibiting their movement; this seriously impacts the lives of older people in particular. Rural older people may have been particularly affected because they live dispersedly and in isolation. This study explored rural older people's perceptions of how COVID-19 has impacted their social lives. This qualitative study assessed participants who were 65 years and older and residing in rural Japanese communities. Five focus group discussions were conducted with 53 participants to explore their perceptions and challenges during COVID-19. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and four themes were developed: the beginning of suffering, social cognitive suppression, reflection on rural contexts, and critical approaches to the pandemic based on rural standards. The daily activities of rural older people were suppressed due to social norms and pandemic-related standard precautionary measures based on urban areas. Specific infection control standards for rural areas and the provision of direct information to individuals in the community to sustain social support are needed. To effectively maintain rural social support, as well as the trust and accountability of rural citizens, constant dialog among local governments and rural citizens is required.


In this paper we present the concept and prototype of a new musical interface that utilizes the close relationship between gestural expression in the act of painting and that of playing a musical instrument in order to provide non-musicians the opportunity to create musical expression. A physical brush on a canvas acts as the instrument. The characteristics of its stroke are intuitively mapped to a conductor program, defining expressive parameters of the tone in real-time. Two different interaction modes highlight the importance of bodily expression in making music as well as the value of a metaphorical visual representation.


Weighted sums of Dirichlet characters are estimated with power reduction when the number of terms in the sum is small in comparison with the absolute value of the character.


The ecological feasibility of sago plants is not strong enough to determine sago as a commodity that can be developed in the upstream area. The research objective was to assess the community's perception of the strategy for water of sago land management in Salu Paku sub-watershed, the upper part of Rongkong watershed. The research begins with the socialization of the rainfed sago land water management strategy. The research consisted of two stages (before socialization and after socialization). The results showed that before the socialization, 100% of the community understood that sago land did not need water management, but after socialization, the community understood that sago could be developed in dryland conditions if there was water management. The community previously understood that it was not important to regulate the number of plants in one clump, after receiving additional information, generally, they wanted to regulate the number of sago trees by maintaining two tillers, one weaning plant, and two tillers during the weaning period. phase, and in the tree phase raise one tree plus one wean and two chicks. The public perception of water conservation measures before the socialization was doubtful 100%, after the socialization, the perception increased 95% (willing to make terraces and dead-end trenches), and 5% were still in doubt. Public perception about the addition of organic fertilizer to sago land before the socialization was doubtful 100%, after the socialization, 95% of the people agreed to add organic fertilizer, although 5% still had doubts