The American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) PROviding better Access To Organs (PROACTOR) Task Force was created to inform ongoing ASTS organ access efforts. Task force members were charged with comprehensively cataloguing current organ access activities and organizing them according to stakeholder type. This white paper summarizes the task force findings and makes recommendations for future ASTS organ access initiatives.


Apparent viscosity of ultra-high-temperature (UHT) treated milk and of yogurt prepared from this milk was studied and compared to that of vat-treated milk and yogurt. UHT-treated milks (149 C, 3.3 sec) had an apparent viscosity of 2.3 to 2.7 cp, while the apparent viscosity of vat-treated milks (63 C and 82 C, 30 min) ranged from 1.9 to 2.0 cp. The apparent viscosity of unheated (raw) milk was 1.7 cp. The apparent viscosity of yogurt prepared from UHT-treated milk became nearly constant at 0.8 cp after 14 min of shearing, while the apparent viscosity of yogurts prepared from vat-treated milks ranged from 1.8 to 3.8 cp under the same conditions. All yogurts exhibited thixotrophic behavior.


In this paper we present a Charged-Based Capacitance Measurement (CBCM) cell with an on-chip non-overlapping signal generation circuitry to reduce the number of probe pads, and to enable the test structure to operate at GHz range. Also, we describe the circuit design technique and measurement calibration to improve the resolution limit in 28 nm process node. These novel features combine to make it a very suitable for industrial applications for large amounts of accurate capacitance characterizations.


Within the context of EAM numerous approaches proposed by researches exist. Still, it is not easy for companies to choose the most suitable one from the multitude of architecture frameworks and methods. Additionally trends in the global economy and the resulting pressure on the part of competitors force companies to introduce more effective management processes. As a consequence, EAM faces the similar challenge as that of knowledge management that is identifying, collecting and maintaining process-specific information in an efficient way. This research article addresses the aforementioned challenge by identifying weaknesses of existing approaches to enterprise architecture management and proposing future areas of research. Thereby, the future research topics are identified in two steps. Firstly, an extensive literature analysis from a knowledge management perspective derives hypotheses on possible fields for improvement and future research. These hypotheses are evaluated according to their relevance in practice in an online survey conducted among enterprise architecture management practitioners from companies belonging to various industry branches in Europe.


The article reports the views of parents of children with Down syndrome in the United Kingdom, and those of a parent-researcher, who have recently been or are currently involved in early intervention programmes. It reports on a series of semi-structured interviews with nine parents of eight children with Down syndrome and the reflective engagement of the parent-researcher. The parents reflect upon learning moments and activities with their child that have been most enjoyable, effective and easy to carry out, as well as those that were difficult or a potential cause of conflict. They also prioritise situations that had a positive impact upon their child's learning. This research adds a parental voice to evidence that suggests a need to place a greater emphasis on learning that comes from the child's interests and less upon developmental goals, and the positive impact this may have for both the parents and children currently being encouraged to engage in early intervention programmes.


Whilst thought control strategies are becoming increasingly recognised as counterproductive, the role of psychological flexibility has been observed in depression, anxiety and chronic pain, however little research has considered its role in insomnia. It was hypothesised that psychological flexibility would predict levels of insomnia. Participants were 162 male and female adults seeking chronic pain treatment who completed a set of questionnaires measuring four variables of psychological flexibility and insomnia severity. Results indicated that measures of psychological flexibility were significant correlated with measures of sleep quality. Multiple regression analysis revealed that collectively, chronicity of pain, usual pain intensity and measures of psychological flexibility accounted for 30.2% of the variance in insomnia severity scores. Further studies are needed to verify these results in order to effectively treat the problem of insomnia occurring secondary to chronic pain.


Three studies were conducted to examine the effects of zinc concentration or source in diets of finishing beef steers. In Exp. 1, 108 (British x Continental) beef steers were supplemented with concentrations of added zinc (as ZnSO4) at 20, 100, or 200 mg/kg of dietary DM. No differences (P > 0.10) were noted among treatments for ADG or gain:feed for the 112-d finishing period. However, a linear (P < 0.10) decrease was noted in daily DMI with increasing zinc concentrations for the overall finishing period. No differences (P > 0.10) were noted in hot carcass weight; dressing percentage; longissimus muscle area; percentage of kidney, pelvic, and heart fat; or marbling score. There were, however, quadratic increases in s.c. fat thickness (P < 0.05) and yield grade (P < 0.01) with added zinc. In Exp. 2, 12 beef steers were used to examine effects of added dietary zinc on serum concentrations of cholesterol and fatty acid profiles. No differences (P > 0.10) were observed in cholesterol or fatty acids among the supplemental zinc levels. In Exp. 3, 84 Brangus- and Angus-sired steers were fed a steam-flaked corn-based diet containing 30 mg of supplemental zinc per kilogram of dietary DM from one of the following sources: 1) ZnSO4, 2) Zn amino acid complex, or 3) a zinc polysaccharide complex. No differences (P > 0.10) were noted for the overall 126-d trial for ADG, DMI, or gain:feed ratio. Percentage kidney, pelvic, and heart fat was increased (P < 0.10) in steers supplemented with ZnSO4 vs the average of Zn amino acid and Zn polysaccharide complexes. However, s.c. fat thickness was greater (P < 0.10) in steers supplemented with Zn amino acid and Zn polysaccharide complexes vs ZnSO4. Serum zinc concentration did not differ (P > 0.10) among zinc sources. Supplemental zinc concentration in finishing diets did not seem to influence feedlot performance and had a minimal impact on carcass quality. Either the organic or inorganic source can be included in finishing diets without affecting feedlot performance.


In this paper, the angle of the thighs that appear during walking condition to balance estimation to the left and right leg was occurred during normal walking. Get over to the limitations of gait analysis using image processing or foot pressure that was used a lot in the previous, the angle of the thigh were used for estimation of asymmetric gait. We implemented heathy five adult male to test targeting and gait and obtained cycle data from 10 times. For this research, Thigh-Angle measurement device were developed, and attached to in a position of 20° for flexion and 15° for extension to measure the angle of the thigh. Also, in order to verify the reliability of estimation of asymmetric gait using thigh-angle, it was compared with the result of asymmetric gait estimation using foot pressure. The results of this paper, using the thigh angle is the average of 16.84% higher than using pressure to accuracy of determine the gait imbalance.


Facilitative glucose transport molecules (glucose transporters, GLUTs) are responsible for glucose transport across cellular membranes. Of the 14 family members, expression of nine has been reported in the murine uterus and seven in the human uterus. Some studies reveal that adequate glucose uptake and metabolism are essential for the proper differentiation of the uterine endometrium toward a receptive state capable of supporting embryo implantation. However, the mechanistic role of GLUTs in endometrial function remains poorly understood. This review aims to present the current knowledge about GLUT expression in the uterus and distribution among the different cell types within the endometrium. In addition, it analyzes the available data in the context of roles GLUTs may play in normal uterine physiology as well as the pathological conditions of infertility, endometrial cancer, and polycystic ovarian syndrome.


Background: Although ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS) is a universal treatment for hydrocephalus, it is generally well-known that the procedure often has complications. Shunt catheter migration is one such complication, but no reports of migration into the thoracic cavity are associated with the surgical technique. Herein, I present a case of thoracic cavity migration of a shunt catheter alongside anatomical pitfalls of the rib structure. Case Description: The patient was a 62-year-old male diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage due to craniocervical junction arteriovenous fistula and underwent direct surgery to occlude the fistula. We performed VPS for secondary hydrocephalus 1 month later. During VPS, the peritoneal catheter was tunneled subcutaneously over the clavicle to pass from the head to the abdomen. Several months later, the peritoneal catheter had migrated from the peritoneal cavity to the thoracic cavity. A computed tomography scan showed that the peritoneal catheter tunneled subcutaneously over the clavicle, penetrated the thoracic wall through the intercostal space between ribs 1 and 2, and entered the thoracic cavity. Conclusion: When performing VPS, it is not enough to send the passer through the skin over the clavicle; it must also be tunneled subcutaneously over the ribs while confirming the position of the tip by touch.


Last week, Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena
Nieto. Jesus Velasco and Cody Holmes write that while both Trump and Pena Nieto are
experiencing tough times politically, Trump was able to use the meeting to appear presidential, while
the Mexican president only looked defenseless and indulgent. They comment that Pena Nieto's
cluelessness at handling this year's US election highlights that Mexico has lacked a consistent and
coherent foreign policy towards the US in recent years.


A long-standing question in ecology is how predators interact with their environment when locating patchily distributed prey. There is some evidence to suggest that marine predators use environmental features as foraging cues at meso-scales (100-1000 km); however, the role of environmental structure at finer scales (1-100 km) is less well understood. To investigate how marine predators respond to fine-scale environmental variability, the movement patterns of 29 GPS-tagged little penguins Eudyptula minor from 3 colonies in the highly variable Storm Bay ecosystem in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia, were analysed using hidden Markov behavioural state modelling alongside high-resolution environmental data. Variability in at-sea behavioural states was observed between colonies correlating with differences in fine-scale environmental parameters. There were significant differences in trip metrics and time spent in each of the identified behavioural states between each of the study colonies. Additionally, transitions between behavioural states were associated with different environmental parameters at each site. This variability in foraging behaviour for conspecifics at similar temporal scales illustrates the significance of fine-scale environmental variability in determining at-sea predator behaviour and highlights how even subtle differences in fine-scale environmental parameters can lead to alternative foraging strategies. This flexibility suggests a capacity to behaviourally adapt to variable and changing environmental conditions, a necessary condition for persistence in a changing world.


Abstract. Recent studies indicate that virtual social networks have the ability to modulate emotional states and health of users for better or worse. One possible explanation between these inconsistent results may be related to the amount of time spent using social network sites. Therefore, we examined if patterns of social media use modulated responses to an acute laboratory stressor. Physiological (heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), respiratory rate (RR)), psychological (perception of public speaking, mood, perceived social isolation) and behavioral (passive and active engagements) responses were compared in healthy college undergraduates before and after completing the Simulation Public Speaking Test (SPST). Lack of access to a phone was associated with elevated physiological arousal (i.e., increased HR, BP, RR; all p > 0.05) and subjects who reported high social media use (HSMU) that were not allowed access to their phones demonstrated potentiated stress responses compared with low social media users (LSMU; e.g., mean HSMU/No phone stress HR = 84.5 beats/min vs mean LSMU/No phone; stress HR = 69 beats/min; p > 0.05). Subjects with access to a phone responded differently to psychological assessments throughout the SPST based on amount of social media use. HSMUs demonstrated higher amounts of perceived social isolation and were less likely to interact with others around them compared with LSMUs. These results suggest that subjects reporting high social media use depended on their phone for "stress coping" more so than those reporting low social media use and that lack of access to a phone resulted in differential physiological, psychological and behavioral responses in HSMUs compared with LSMUs. Collectively, these data provide further insight into the interaction between psychosocial stress, social media use and health.


We study the tmf-based Adams spectral sequence for the type 2 spectrum Z. We establish the structure of the E_1-page of this spectral sequence, and compute the d_1-differential modulo v_2-torsion. We develop a technique for performing low dimensional calculations, and use this to compute the spectral sequence fully in stems < 40. We use this computation to prove that the K(2)-local Adams-Novikov spectral sequence for Z studied by the third author and Egger collapses, resulting in the computation of the homotopy groups of Z_{K(2)}. We discuss how these computations fit with the conjectural failure of the telescope conjecture.


The index of dissimilarity is the most widely used method for measuring racial segregation. When applied to Indianapolis, this index has returned results showing the city to be among the most segregated in the country. The resulting measure, however, suffers from two shortcomings. First, the index of dissimilarity is sensitive to the census-defined geographic unit chosen for the analysis; thus, this index returns different (though proportionate) results depending on whether the population data are aggregated to larger or smaller enumeration units. Second, the index of dissimilarity cannot account for the influence of spatial proximity; adjacent census blocks interact regardless of administrative boundaries. In place of the index of dissimilarity, we apply the segregation index in order to treat the phenomena as a surface that is simultaneously smooth and continuous. In this article, we calculate the segregation index for Indianapolis from 1990 to 2010 using the kernel density estimation method. The results of the analysis are presented in three pairs of decennial maps. These maps add to the understanding of residential segregation by resolving in a statistically reliable manner the phenomenon's geographic component. Our visualization of segregation confirms its presence in distinct clusters, its growth over time, and a strong bias of this growth to be contiguous. In a manner akin to examinations of residential segregation's impact on education attainment and health outcomes, careful description of segregation's spatial aspect leads to a more nuanced understanding of phenomenon's pervasiveness across social life.


Automatic analysis based on image content is a hotspot with bright future of medical image diagnosis technology research. Analysis of the fracture of skull can help doctors to diagnose. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to automatically detect the fracture of skull based on CT image content. First region growing method, whose seeds and growing rules are chosen by k-means clustering dynamically, is applied for image automatic segmentation. The segmented region boundary is found by boundary tracing. Then the shape ofthe boundary is analyzed, and the circularity measure is taken as description parameter. At last the rules for computer automatic diagnosis of the fracture of skull are reasoned by entropy function. This method is used to analyze the images from the third ventricles below layer to cerebral cortex top layer. Experimental result shows that the recognition rate is 1 00% for the 100 images, which are chosen from medical image database randomly and are not included in the training examples. This method integrates color and shape feature, and isn't affected by image size and position. This research achieves high recognition rate and sets a basis for automatic analysis ofbrain image.


Current disparities in the access to diagnostic imaging for Black patients and the underrepresentation of Black physicians in radiology, relative to their representation in the general U.S. population, reflect contemporary consequences of historical anti-Black discrimination. These disparities have existed within the field of radiology and professional medical organizations since their inception. Explicit and implicit racism against Black patients and physicians was institutional policy in the early 20th century when radiology was being developed as a clinical medical field. Early radiology organizations also embraced this structural discrimination, creating strong barriers to professional Black radiologist involvement. Nevertheless, there were numerous pioneering Black radiologists who advanced scholarship, patient care, and diversity within medicine and radiology during the early 20th century. This work remains important in the present day, as race-based health care disparities persist and continue to decrease the quality of radiology-delivered patient care. There are also structural barriers within radiology affecting workforce diversity that negatively impact marginalized groups. Multiple opportunities exist today for antiracism work to improve quality of care and to apply standards of social justice and health equity to the field of radiology. An initial step is to expand education on the disparities in access to imaging and health care among Black patients. Institutional interventions include implementing community-based outreach and applying antibias methodology in artificial intelligence algorithms, while systemic interventions include identifying national race-based quality measures and ensuring imaging guidelines properly address the unique cancer risks in the Black patient population. These approaches reflect some of the strategies that may mutually serve to address health care disparities in radiology. © RSNA, 2023 See the invited commentary by Scott in this issue. Quiz questions for this article are available in the supplemental material.


Abstract Vipergrass [Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panzer] is an annual weed of the Poaceae family distributed in several parts of Australia, Asia, and Europe. Very limited information is available on its germination response to different environmental conditions. Knowledge of its seed ecology and biology could help in formulating better weed management decisions. Experiments were conducted to study the effect of alternating temperatures, light conditions, salt stress, water stress, seed burial depths, and wheat residue amounts on the germination or emergence of D. retroflexa. Also, different pre- and postemergence herbicides were evaluated to control D. retroflexa. The highest germination (98%) was recorded at 30/20 C followed by 35/25 C (95%). Light was required for the germination of D. retroflexa. Germination decreased with an increase in sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations. Even at 80 mM NaCl, 81% of seeds germinated, indicating D. retroflexa's high salt tolerance. Seed germination gradually decreased with an increase in water stress, and no germination was recorded at –0.8 MPa osmotic potential. The emergence of D. retroflexa decreased with an increase in seed burial depths. The highest germination (83%) was recorded for surface-sown seeds, and emergence was reduced to 0 at a burial depth of 2 cm. Seedling emergence decreased from 82% to 2% when the crop residue load was increased from 0 to 800 kg ha–1. Applications of preemergence herbicides (at field rates), such as diuron, isoxaflutole, pendimethalin, pyroxasulfone, S-metolachlor, terbuthylazine, and triallate, and postemergence herbicides, such as clethodim, haloxyfop-methyl, glufosinate, glyphosate, imazamox plus imazapyr (a commercial mixture), and paraquat, resulted in complete control (100%) of D. retroflexa. Knowledge gained from this study will help us to understand the potential spread of D. retroflexa to other areas and to formulate integrated weed management strategies for its effective control.


Numerous aspects of vascular homeostasis are modulated by nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species (ROS). The production of these is dramatically influenced by mechanical forces imposed on the endothelium and vascular smooth muscle. In this review, we will discuss the effects of mechanical forces on the expression of the endothelial cell nitric oxide synthase, production of ROS and modulation of endothelial cell glutathione. We will also review data that exercise training in vivo has a similar effect as laminar shear on endothelial function and discuss the clinical relevance of these basic findings.


Successful practice of cardiovascular medicine requires familiarity with the complex ethical issues that accompany therapeutic innovation and diffusion. Even as technologies transition from experimental to standard care, challenges remain. Mechanical circulatory support devices, for instance, are increasingly conceptualized as conventional therapies. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the ethical issues surrounding the use of these devices in patients with end-stage organ dysfunction are becoming increasingly apparent. In this paper, we provide an introduction to ethical considerations related to the use of ventricular assist devices (VADs) in end-stage organ failure, focusing on three stages or decision points: initiation, continued use, and deactivation. Our goal is not to exhaustively resolve these dilemmas but to illustrate how ethical considerations relate to decision making.


Obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) continues to be the major limitation to long‐term survival after lung transplantation. The specific aetiology and pathogenesis of OB are not well understood. To explore the role of autoreactivity in OB, we spotted 751 different self molecules onto glass slides, and used these antigen microarrays to profile 48 human serum samples for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM autoantibodies; 27 patients showed no or mild bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS; a clinical correlate of OB) and 15 patients showed medium to severe BOS. We now report that these BOS grades could be differentiated by a profile of autoantibodies binding to 28 proteins or their peptides. The informative autoantibody profile included down‐regulation as well as up‐regulation of both IgM and IgG specific reactivities. This profile was evaluated for robustness using a panel of six independent test patients. Analysis of the functions of the 28 informative self antigens showed that eight of them are connected in an interaction network involved in apoptosis and protein metabolism. Thus, a profile of autoantibodies may reflect pathological processes in the lung allograft, suggesting a role for autoimmunity in chronic rejection leading to OB.


Microfinance was recognised as an effective poverty alleviation tool in many regions of the developing world. This study evaluates the potential of micro-financial service, their providers and demand for these specific financial products in the Bie province (namely community Kuito), an area of Angola that was mostly affected byt he civil war. The survey was held under the patronage of the development project "Centre of Agricultural Education in Bie Province" (Angola) from the Institute of Tropics and Subtropics of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. In this physically and socially damaged area, several development organisations (Oxfam, Care, Concern, etc.) intervene in order to improve living conditions and empower women as well as to integrate the work of veterans. The primary data collection was carried out by co-operation with these organisations by interviews and questionnaires handed out among their co-workers and among selected households of community Kuito. The results clearly show evidence of strong need for stable input market, technical support, and consultancy for local farmers/entrepreneurs. From this point of view is not the short money supply the only constraining factor of rural development. It also analyses the current status of organisations working in target area, their ability to provide these requested financial services and discusses their influence on the product or money market formation which is the prerequisite for stable income generation. Recommendation derived from the study suggests that it would be highly advisable to intensify the cooperation among organisations working in target area, local authorities' representatives and organisations providing foreign developing projects. Based on primary data, personal observing and qualitative interviews, this study evaluates the community Kuito as well as the Bie province has still not overcome problems caused by war and does not use its potential on such level which would attach the steady income generation throughout the year for all groups of local population.


We introduce PyVertical, a framework supporting vertical federated learning using split neural networks. The proposed framework allows a data scientist to train neural networks on data features vertically partitioned across multiple owners while keeping raw data on an owner's device. To link entities shared across different datasets' partitions, we use Private Set Intersection on IDs associated with data points. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed framework, we present the training of a simple dual-headed split neural network for a MNIST classification task, with data samples vertically distributed across two data owners and a data scientist.


Mycotoxin contamination of maize ( Zea mays L.) grain is a global threat to the safety of both human food and animal feed. Hence, the development of maize genotypes with reduced mycotoxin accumulation in grain is of major importance. In order to find maize germplasm sources of resistance to Fusarium ear rot, 34 Italian and six public inbred lines were evaluated by means of artificial inoculation in field experiments during 2009 and 2010. Relationships between ear rot and fumonisin concentration in the ears were investigated. Primary ears were challenged with a mixture of two Fusarium verticillioides isolates from Northern Italy, through kernel inoculation, and ear rot severity was assessed.The average number of visibly infected kernels per ear, after inoculation, ranged from 2 to 68 in 2009 and from 0 to 120 in 2010. Fumonisin concentrations in the inoculated ears were greater than in the experimental controls for both years. Variability was found between the inbred lines: fumonisin accumulation ranged from 0.56 to 240.83 mg kg-1 in 2009 and from 1.09 to 190.60 mg kg-1 in 2010. In both years, six inbred lines showed high fumonisin content (≥100 mg kg-1), while the other genotypes were almost equally split into two groups, low (≤10 mg kg-1) and medium (from 11 to 100 mg kg-1) fumonisin content. The number of infected kernels after artificial inoculation correlated with fumonisin concentration both in 2009 (r = 0.94; P≤0.01) and 2010 (r = 0.67; P≤0.01). Additionally, the percentage of internally infected kernels correlated positively with fumonisin concentration (r = 0.37; P≤0.01) and with the number of infected kernels (r = 0.29; P≤0.05). This research has demonstrated that Italian maize germplasm is a valid source of resistance to Fusarium ear rot. Furthermore, there is a strong association of visible Fusarium symptoms with fumonisin concentration, suggesting that selection in maize for reduced visible moulds should reduce the risk of mycotoxin contamination.


: Utility lines are sometime criticized as a prime factor in the unsightly visual impression of Japanese landscapes. This research investigates a cognitive bias leading the landscapes to seem to be wirescapes. Participants evaluated two kinds of landscape pictures: one with electronic lines and another where the lines were digitally eliminated. When evaluated side by side, participants showed clear preference for one picture over the other, typically strong preferences for wire-free landscapes, although when evaluated separately, they showed no preference. The findings suggest that people, at least Japanese people living in Japan, are insensitive to utility lines in their vision and that those who are exposed to wirescapes tend to form a similar impression to those who exposed to wire-free landscapes in a typical real-life situation, where a comparison isn't readily available.


Background: The relationship between childhood bullying and healthcare adherence in adulthood has been rarely studied, but one published study suggests that being bullied in childhood is related to lower healthcare adherence among adolescents. This previous study examined few adherence variables and was limited to youths. Aims: In this study, we assessed five variables for childhood bullying as related to seven measures of healthcare adherence among a cohort of adult primary care outpatients. Method: Using a cross-sectional, self-report survey methodology in a sample of 263 consecutive internal medicine outpatients, we examined five aspects of bullying and seven aspects of adherence with general healthcare. Results: Being a victim of bullying, type of bullying (emotional, physical), number of years bullied and number of bullies each evidenced no statistical relationships with healthcare adherence. However, being a bully demonstrated several statistical relationships with healthcare adherence, indicating less adherence to instructions provided by healthcare professionals. Conclusions: Despite all of the deleterious psychological and physical effects of being bullied in childhood, there was no evidence that non-adherence with healthcare in adulthood is one of them. In contrast, bullies evidenced several areas of reduced healthcare adherence.


A lattice Boltzmann (LB) model is proposed to track the interface of binary fluid system based on the conservative-form Allen-Cahn (A-C) equation for phase field. Utilizing an equilibrium distribution function and a modified LB equation, this model is able to correctly recover the conservative A-C equation through the Chapman-Enskog analysis. A series of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) phase-capturing benchmark tests have been conducted for validation, which include the diagonal translation of a circular interface, the rigid-body rotation of a Zalesak disk, and the deformation of 2D circular interface and 3D spherical interface in shear flows, all illustrating better accuracy and stability of the proposed model than the previous models tested. By coupling the incompressible hydrodynamic equation, a stationary droplet, a spinodal decomposition, and the Rayleigh-Taylor instability are simulated as well, showing the satisfying performance of the model in dealing with complex interfaces of binary fluid systems.


We develop TROSS, a solver for constrained trajectory optimization based on a sequential operator splitting framework. TROSS iteratively improves trajectories by solving, using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), a sequence of subproblems setup within evolving trust regions around current iterates. TROSS achieves consensus among competing objectives, such as finding low-cost dynamically feasible trajectories respecting control limits and safety constraints. A library of building blocks in the form of inexpensive and parallelizable proximal operators associated with trajectory costs and constraints can be used to configure the solver for a variety of tasks. The method shows faster cost reduction compared to iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator (iLQR) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) on a control-limited vehicle maneuvering task. We demonstrate TROSS on shortest-path navigation of a variant of Dubin's car in the presence of obstacles, while exploiting passive dynamics of the system. When applied to a constrained robust state estimation problem involving nondifferentiable nonconvex penalties, TROSS shows less susceptibility to non-Gaussian dynamics disturbances and measurement outliers in comparison to an Extended Kalman smoother. Unlike generic SQP methods, our approach produces time-varying linear feedback control policies even for constrained control tasks. The solver is potentially suitable for nonlinear model predictive control and moving horizon state estimation in embedded systems.


Background and introduction The findings of the enquiry into events at the Gosport Hospital, published in June 2018, demonstrated shocking misuse of opioid and benzodiazepine medications and syringe drivers leading to the shortening of many lives. Hospices frequently utilise opioid and benzodiazepine medications, including via syringe driver, and need to be able to demonstrate that their practice is safe and appropriate. Methods Individual hospice units developed their own responses to the Gosport report. Both Prince of Wales and St Catherine's Hospice undertook retrospective audits of hospice inpatient unit care. St Catherine's Hospice presented their work for discussion at the regional 'Learning group' meeting. Results The two sites utilised different collection proforma and reviewed care given to 93 hospice inpatient unit patients, demonstrating safe and appropriate practice at both hospices. Anticipatory prescribing was personalised to the patient, considering factors such as renal function, and was judged 'appropriate' in 82–100% of cases. 80 patients died and, as anticipated, there was significant use of opioids, benzodiazepines and syringe drivers. The use of opioids and syringe drivers was found to be proportionate and appropriate. Areas for improvement included recording of indication for both prescription and administration of medications. Through discussion of these results, it was acknowledged that a regional approach to auditing to allow 'benchmarking' between Hospice units would be advantageous in standard setting and comparison. Both pilot proformas had strengths and weaknesses and are being utilised to develop a regional audit proforma with plans to establish regular audit and re-audit cycles. Conclusions As specialists with a high use of opioid and benzodiazepine medications, there is a need to demonstrate that our use of these medications is safe, consistent and of exemplary standard. The hope is that this approach will allow identification of any areas of difference in practice and offer quality assurance across region and Hospice.


Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is one of the most challenging condition that clinicians come across owing to its varied degree of presentation defined in literature. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), individuals are under the influence of varied medications which might impact the bone turnover. Hence, this narrative review has been undertaken to specifically discuss development of MRONJ in RA, to study the associated risk factors, to highlight the importance of oral health care and to revisit the concepts of medications related to the above said condition. PubMed and Cochrane database search was done in English language literature using the term "Medication-related osteonecrosis of jaw and rheumatoid arthritis" and "bisphosphonate induced osteonecrosis of jaw and rheumatoid arthritis", which resulted in 45 articles. It was concluded that MRONJ is a multifactorial condition, seen concomitantly with various medical co morbidities like thromphophilia, hypertension, kidney disorders, osteoporotic conditions, arthritis, and various medications like steroids, bisphosphonates and other drugs affecting metabolism of bone. Literature has often tried to prove the association of RA in MRONJ causation, however there is no uniform agreement on the same. Though various risk factors have been delineated, but multiple evidences suggest that RA may prove to be a major risk factor. Present review supports the same and also highlights the growing evidence on the role of emerging new drugs in MRONJ development. Also utmost dental care, appropriate patient education, reduction of infective foci prior to initiation of medical therapy, patient compliance and regular follow up is required for reduction of number of patients presenting with MRONJ.


The design and analysis of differential space-time coding is considered where the receiver, with a single radio frequency (RF) chain, uses switch and stay combining (SSC). Without channel knowledge at the receiver, a receive-power-based switching algorithm is proposed. By deriving the distribution of the received signal on the selected antenna, upper and lower bounds on the Chernoff bound on the pairwise error probability are derived. Using the upper bound, it is shown that even when the code satisfies the conditions to achieve full transmit diversity, if a fixed switching threshold with respect to the average SNR is used, receive diversity will not be attained. Following this, a switching threshold that offers full diversity is obtained and shown to be a logarithmic function of the average SNR at a high SNR. Furthermore, code design criteria for the proposed system are developed. For the special case of two transmit antennas, new codes for the proposed differentially modulated SSC scheme are designed and shown to perform better than existing codes. Simulation results are included to corroborate our analytical results.


Systems for ML inference are widely deployed today, but they typically optimize ML inference workloads using techniques designed for conventional data serving workloads and miss critical opportunities to leverage the statistical nature of ML. In this paper, we present Willump, an optimizer for ML inference that introduces two statistically-motivated optimizations targeting ML applications whose performance bottleneck is feature computation. First, Willump automatically cascades feature computation for classification queries: Willump classifies most data inputs using only high-value, low-cost features selected through empirical observations of ML model performance, improving query performance by up to 5x without statistically significant accuracy loss. Second, Willump accurately approximates ML top-K queries, discarding low-scoring inputs with an automatically constructed approximate model and then ranking the remainder with a more powerful model, improving query performance by up to 10x with minimal accuracy loss. Willump automatically tunes these optimizations' parameters to maximize query performance while meeting an accuracy target. Moreover, Willump complements these statistical optimizations with compiler optimizations to automatically generate fast inference code for ML applications. We show that Willump improves the end-to-end performance of real-world ML inference pipelines curated from major data science competitions by up to 16x without statistically significant loss of accuracy.


This paper presents a single-element microstrip spade-shaped patch antennas with a partial ground plane, integrated with an electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure, and fed with a microstrip feedline to achieve wideband, dual-band and band-notched characteristic. Two similar mushroom-like EBG structures built into the wide-band antenna were used to suppress a specific band, resulting in dual-band. The wide-band antenna achieved a broad bandwidth of 9GHz from 5-14GHz, with a maximum gain of 6.8dBi. Based on the simulation and measured results, the wide-band antenna offers 89% fractional bandwidth for a voltage standing wave ratio less than 2 (VSWR < 2). The EBG provides a band-notch with a bandwidth 3GHz from 8-11GHz, leaving dual-band with bandwidths of 2GHz and 1.5GHz centred at 7GHz and 11GHz, respectively. Surface current distribution and parametric studies were conducted to better understand the behaviour and influence of the EBG parameters. The simulation results were validated through experimental measurement, and both agreed well. The antennas could be used for 5G wireless communication and filtering.


At Siemens, plcs are used to control the gas turbines, and to execute the code in the plcs cyclic interrupts are used. If the execution time for the interrupt becomes close to the cyclic time of the interrupt the load of the plc increases. High load levels can lead to situations were segments of code are not executed on time or even not executed at all. In this thesis an analysis of the regulators used to govern a gas turbine has been performed. The purpose of the analysis is to study the performance of the regulators for different cycle times with the aim to be able to reduce the load by sampling more slowly. To determine the load contribution from each regulator a review of the regulators and their execution times has been made. For the analysis the Matlab program Simulink has been used to make models of the regulators, which have then been sampled at different rates. With this information it is possible to determine for which cycle times each regulator has accepetable performance and how much load each regulator contributes with. A save of load of approximately 2 percent can be obtained without loosing too much performance.


BACKGROUND
Non-islet-cell tumor hypoglycemia (NICTH) is a rare cause of hypoglycemia associated with tumors of mesenchymal, epithelial, or hematopoietic origin. Lactic acidosis is likewise an uncommon complication of hematological malignancy associated mainly with leukemia and lymphoma. Most cases of NICTH and lactic acidosis have been described in the adult population. We report a child with congenital HIV and AIDS who developed Burkitt's lymphoma, lactic acidosis and NICTH.

PATIENT
An 11 year-old boy with AIDS, cerebral palsy and seizure disorder presented with intractable hypoglycemia 12 days after diagnosis of Burkitt's lymphoma. He had persistent hypoglycemia (serum glucose 20-40 mg/dl; 1.1-2.2 mmo/l) despite glucose infusion rate of 6 mg/kg/minute and trial of diazoxide treatment. Critical sample obtained at time of hypoglycemia showed insulin at 1.78 microU/ml (normal <5 microU/ml), pro-insulin 5.6 pmol/l (<18.8 pmol/l), IGF-I <25 ng/ml (80-723 ng/ml), IGF-II 422 ng/ml (610-1,217 ng/ml), lactate 15.6 mmol/l (normal: 0.5-2.2 mmol/l), cortisol 21 microg/dl (580 nmol/l; normal >10 microg/dl; 276 nmol/l), and negative insulin antibodies. He remained alert and seizure free despite profound hypoglycemia. A 1 mg glucagon stimulation test showed a rise in serum glucose of 29 mg/dl (>1.6 mmol/l). Continuous glucagon infusion at 0.15-0.3 mg/h maintained euglycemia until the time of his demise (1 month after admission) due to complications of his underlying illness.

CONCLUSION
We present a case of lactic acidosis and NICTH in an 11 year-old boy with AIDS and Burkitts's lymphoma. We review the mechanism of hyperlacticacidemia in supporting cerebral function during profound hypoglycemia. NICTH and lactic acidosis in association with malignancy carries a poor prognosis. In this patient, continuous glucagon infusion was a successful alternative to corticosteroid treatment in maintaining euglycemia.


[1] Recent papers in the international literature on global dimming found a mixed pattern in data from New Zealand. Closer analysis of pyranometer data from four long-term sites shows a downward trend up to 1990, with a reversal at three of them after that time. How much can be attributed to the direct aerosol effect is uncertain from the pyranometer data, but aerosol optical depth data from Lauder show too little aerosol for this to be a substantial component. A comparison with much longer records of sunshine hours shows that there was a trend of increasing cloudiness to around 1990, and a decline since then, consistent with the global pattern.


: In the twentieth century, Latin American countries were persuaded to import projects from the United States that aimed to increase production of basic commodities to supply the international market. As a result, space for agricultural practices of peasants and the cultivation of foodstuffs outside the logic of productivism shrank over time. These alternative practices were maintained in peripheral form, including the production of native fruits, feijoa (Acca sellowiana) among them . Feijoa was chosen due to its unique flavour, aroma and pharmacological and nutritional properties. In this article, we argue that scientific research and small-scale producers, not public policies, were the main drivers of feijoa cultivation in Brazil and Colombia. Scientists supported the increase of production and productivity of a fruit species which remained at the margins of industrial, science-based agriculture. These countries came under heavy international influence to adopt plans intended to modernize their agricultural sector. Despite being on the margins of these development plans and receiving few direct financial subsidies, research on feijoa continued. Today, while Colombia produces monocrops for export, cultivation in Brazil remains incipient and limited to smallholdings.


Weak labeling is a popular weak supervision strategy for Named Entity Recognition (NER) tasks, with the goal of reducing the necessity for hand-crafted annotations. Although there are numerous remarkable annotation tools for NER labeling, the subject of integrating weak labeling sources is still unexplored. We introduce a web-based tool for text annotation called SciAnnotate, which stands for scientific annotation tool. Compared to frequently used text annotation tools, our annotation tool allows for the development of weak labels in addition to providing a manual annotation experience. Our tool provides users with multiple user-friendly interfaces for creating weak labels. SciAnnotate additionally allows users to incorporate their own language models and visualize the output of their model for evaluation. In this study, we take multi-source weak label denoising as an example, we utilized a Bertifying Conditional Hidden Markov Model to denoise the weak label generated by our tool. We also evaluate our annotation tool against the dataset provided by Mysore which contains 230 annotated materials synthesis procedures. The results shows that a 53.7% reduction in annotation time obtained AND a 1.6\% increase in recall using weak label denoising. Online demo is available at https://sciannotate.azurewebsites.net/(demo account can be found in README), but we don't host a model server with it, please check the README in supplementary material for model server usage.


AIMS
This study examined links between DNA methylation and birth weight centile (BWC), and explored the impact of genetic variation.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Using HumanMethylation450 arrays, we examined candidate gene-associated CpGs in cord blood from newborns with low (<15th centile), medium (40-60th centile) and high (>85th centile) BWC (n = 12). Candidates were examined in an investigation cohort (n = 110) using pyrosequencing and genotyping for putative methylation-associated polymorphisms performed using standard PCR.

RESULTS
Array analysis identified 314 candidate genes associated with BWC extremes, four of which showed ≥ 4 BWC-linked CpGs. Of these, PM20D1 and MI886 suggested genetically determined methylation levels. However, methylation at three CpGs in FGFR2 remained significantly associated with high BWC (p = 0.004-0.027).

CONCLUSION
We identified a novel biologically plausible candidate (FGFR2) for with BWC that merits further study.


The equilibrium distribution of copper(II) and zinc(II) ions among a mixture of 17 amino acids has been computed from stability-constant and blood-plasma-composition data. At pH7.4, 98% of the copper(II) in the simulated plasma solution is co-ordinated to histidine and cystine, predominantly as the mixed-ligand complexes [Cu.His.Cystine](-) and [Cu.H.His.Cystine]. Approximately half of the zinc(II) is co-ordinated to cysteine and histidine, but appreciable complex-formation occurs with most of the other amino acids. Stability constants are given for copper(II) and zinc(II) amino acid complexes, including some mixed-ligand species, at 37 degrees C and I=0.15m.


Background: One of the "holy grails" in vascular neurology is a TIA serum marker. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics, a unique, unbiased method to identify candidate proteins, was used to test the serum of patients with transient neurologic symptoms for biomarkers of cerebral ischemia.
Methods: Patients with transient neurologic symptoms were prospectively enrolled. Mass spectrometry was performed on the serum samples, and results were searched against the Human Uniport database. Three candidate proteins were found, and serum concentrations of these proteins were measured by ELISA in a second cohort of prospectively enrolled patients. The student's t-test was used for comparison. The Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate controlling procedure for multiple comparison adjustments determined significance for the proteomic screen.
Results: Patients with TIA (n=20), minor stroke (n=15), and controls (i.e. migraine, seizure, n=12) were enrolled in the first cohort. Ceruloplasmin, complement component C8 gamma (C8γ) and platelet basic protein (PBP) were significantly different between the ischemic samples (TIA and minor stroke) and the controls (p = 0.0001, p=0.00027, p=0.00105 respectively). A second cohort of patients with TIA (n=21), minor stroke (n=20), and controls' (n=12) serum was tested. PBP serum concentrations were increased in the ischemic samples compared to control (for TIA and stroke, p= 0.046, for TIA alone, p=0.019). Ceruloplasmin trended towards increased concentrations in the ischemic groups (p=0.127), and an insignificant increase in C8γ (p=0.44) was found.
Conclusions: PBP has been identified as potential serum biomarker for TIA. Larger sample size may find that ceruloplasmin is an additional candidate. Ultimately, a panel of proteins may be required. Larger studies are needed to determine the validity of these proteins in clinical use. Disclosure: Dr. George has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mlynash has nothing to disclose. Dr. Adams has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kuo has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kemp has nothing to disclose. Dr. Garcia has nothing to disclose. Dr. Albers has received personal compensation for activities with Genentech, Inc. and Lundbeck Research USA, Inc. as an advisor. Dr. Olivot has nothing to disclose.


Text Categorization(TC) is an important component in many information organization and information management tasks. Two key issues in TC are feature coding and classifier design. In this paper Text Categorization via Support Vector Machines(SVMs) approach based on Latent Semantic Indexing(LSI) is described. Latent Semantic Indexing[1][2] is a method for selecting informative subspaces of feature spaces with the goal of obtaining a compact representation of document. Support Vector Machines[3] are powerful machine learning systems, which combine remarkable performance with an elegant theoretical framework. The SVMs well fits the Text Categorization task due to the special properties of text itself. Experiments show that the LSI+SVMs frame improves clustering performance by focusing attention of Support Vector Machines onto informative subspaces of the feature spaces.


An argument against the use of nonmedical egg freezing (NMEF) is that women should not use NMEF as it is an individualistic and morally problematic answer to the social problems that women face, for instance, in the labour market. Instead of allowing or expecting women to deal with these problems individually, we should address them by challenging the patriarchal structure of the labour market— for example, by securing equal pay and affordable childcare. In a recent article in Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), I argue that we should distinguish between different versions of this kind of reasoning and that all the versions discussed are implausible. In three separate comments following my article in the March 2021 issue of JME, Moen, Segers and CampoEngelstein have supported and criticised some of my results. It is impossible, in such a short reply, to discuss all of their many relevant comments in detail, but in what follows I will reply to some of their criticism. Moen presents several interesting comments; let me try to deal with what I take to be the two most important ones. The first of these deals with some of my critical comments concerning what I have called the distraction view, according to which the use of NMEF is problematic because it draws attention away from social solutions. In my article, I mention that the ethical discussion of NMEF by politicians, scholars and the public usually also attracts attention to the moral problems that women face on the labour market. However, according to Moen, such an observation is off target, as opponents of NMEF do not deny that the discussion of NMEF attracts attention to women's problems on the labour market, but they oppose the practice of NMEF. Even if Moen is right about this, which seems plausible, it is not obvious that we can separate the discussion and practice of NMEF as Moen intends. The discussion of NMEF is necessary to challenge its practice; if no politicians, scholars or the public did discuss the ethics of NMEF, we could not know how and why some people oppose NMEF. Second, Moen argues that if NMEF is a positional good, according to which the advantage of using NMEF (e.g. in competing for jobs) is mainly an advantage relative to others and should therefore not be subsidised by the state, as this would not promote overall wellbeing. I believe, however, that there are good arguments in favour of the view that having access to NMEF is mainly a nonpositional good, as the result of using NMEF might be to have a child. Having a child by means of technology can be seen as a good in itself whether or not others have access to this technology and have children because of it. I take Segers's main comments to be the following two. First, Segers claims that the authors I discuss in my article are incorrectly reduced to adherents of the argument from individualisation, which concludes that it is morally wrong for women to use NMEF. Second, that I have overlooked the multifaceted nature of these scholars. I agree with Segers's first comment, although it is easy, from the quotations by the authors under discussion, to infer the abovementioned moral conclusion. However, it would have been fairer and more in accordance with the views of the authors being discussed if the argument from individualisation had been formulated with a conclusion that did not claim that it is morally wrong for individuals to use NMEF, but with a conclusion claiming that there is a moral reason for individuals not to use NMEF. To argue that there is a moral reason against a certain practice is not to argue that this practice, all things considered, is morally wrong— it depends on the weighing of all the reasons for or against the practice in question. Concerning Segers's second comment, I am not convinced it is a fair criticism. In the introduction of the article, I explicitly make it clear that there are other reasons for being sceptical about the use of NMEF— reasons that, for example, have to do with a 'morally problematic peer pressure' to use NMEF, with NMEF giving 'false hope to women' or with women being 'victims of a greedy fertility industry'. Some of these concerns are supported by references to some of the authors that are dealt with in the paper. Although very supportive and in line with most of the reasoning in my article, CampoEngelstein has two main concerns. First, CampoEngelstein claims that we may overlook some ethical problems if, as is done in my article, we talk about women as a heteronomous group. In order to know whether NMEF is beneficial to women, we should be aware of the social hierarchies that exist between women and include, for example, empirical data showing how less privileged women experience the access and use of NMEF. I agree with this, and if I had had more space in the original article, this is definitely an aspect that should have been developed. Second, CampoEngelstein believes that it would be more correct if instead of writing 'NMEF is able to increase the probability of some women having a child at all', I had written that 'NMEF could increase the chance of having a genetically related child'. The problem with the first formulation is that it may seem to reveal a problematic assumption of what it means to be a parent that is best captured in the second formulation. I agree here with CampoEngelstein that it is a problematic assumption as parenthood can be just as desired and fulfilling if you are not genetically related to your child.


As the classic image segmentation technique, Otsu adaptive thresholding method is widely employed in image processing and computer vision. Two-dimensional Otsu thresholding algorithm was regarded as an effective improvement of the original Otsu method, especially under low SNR condition. However, the tremendous computation cost limited the application of two-dimensional Otsu algorithm in real-time situation. This paper addresses this problem and proposes a novel fast algorithm. We utilized integral image to simplify the redundant calculation for searching optimal threshold. Instead of repeating accumulations, the sum of rectangle area can be calculated by several addition operations. Both the theoretical analysis and segmentation experiment proved that the proposed approach can significantly reduce the computation cost and still obtain the identical optimal threshold acquired by original two-dimensional Otsu algorithm.


Background: Puberty and its consequence changes are one of the most important events of each person's life. Knowledge and practice about puberty health lead to successful passage of this period. This study was aimed to determine factors predicting the knowledge and practice of girl students about puberty health in Tabriz high schools. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted on 364 students in seventh and eighth grades in 2015. The participants were selected using random cluster sampling. Their knowledge, practice and socio-demographic characteristics about puberty health were collected using self-completed questionnaires which is standardized questionnaire for Iran society. General Linear Model was used for determining the socio-demographic predictors of knowledge and practice of students about puberty health. Results: The mean score of students' knowledge was 8.26±2.21 (in the range of 0-15 scores) and the mean score of students' practice was 92.3±10.0 (in the range of 32-128 scores). Fathers' education (P=0.023) and previous obtained information (P=0.001) were knowledge predictors. Adequacy of information, the kind of family and the preferred source of information were practice predictors about puberty health (P=0.03). Conclusion: Regarding the mean score of students' knowledge and practice and their direct relationship some factors such as father's education, it is suggested to increase the knowledge of parents especially mothers about puberty health by health providers at schools and the related organization using in present learning pamphlets, sessions and classes.


The performances of organic optoelectronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes and polymer solar cells, have rapidly improved in the past decade. The stability of an organic optoelectronic device has become a key problem for further development. In this paper, we report one simple encapsulation method for organic optoelectronic devices with a parafilm, based on ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs). The power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of PSCs with and without encapsulation decrease from 2.93% to 2.17% and from 2.87% to 1.16% after 168-hours of degradation under an ambient environment, respectively. The stability of PSCs could be enhanced by encapsulation with a parafilm. The encapsulation method is a competitive choice for organic optoelectronic devices, owing to its low cost and compatibility with flexible devices.


This study aims to reveal the principles of the Qur'an about economic norms that play an important role in creating balance and equality of life for society as a whole. Based on the principles of the Qur'an, all activities and economic transactions can be controlled on the basis of the purpose of Islamic teachings. This research uses literature study to find out normatively what is the basic principles of the Qur'an about economic norms and ethics that became the main foundation in carrying out all business or business activities. This study shows that the economic norm is the main prerequisite to create balance in building the economic system based on populist economy. As for the principles of the Qur'an about economic norms or rules is not separated values of unity, honesty, balance, justice, and responsibility. As the main source, the Qur'an contains the ethics and norms that govern all human activities in meeting their individual needs, especially economic activity. So the principles of the Qur'an about the economic norms as practiced by the Prophet must be revived in the midst of the hegemony of the capitalist economic system that controls the world economy.


In today's technologically complex and racially hybrid society, what is the meaning of 'cultural memory'? Like performance, Ian Watson argues, culture 'exists only in the doing' – yet if our formative experiences are in that sense 'rehearsals' for life, the subsequent 'performance' is in a constant state of flux and renewal. Here, Ian Watson looks at the interface between theatrical and cultural training in American society, from the old apprenticeship system of the stock companies, through the Delsarte-based approach of the earliest conservatoires and the pervasiveness of Americanized Stanislavsky in the post-war period, towards a renewed concern with the techniques of voice and movement to meet the demands of both the classical and the contemporary experimental repertoires. In contrast to the deep cultural roots of much eastern theatrical training, perceptions of actor training in America are, he argues, as eclectic and diffuse as American society itself, and so (using Eugenio Barba's distinction) lean strongly towards creating a 'professional' rather than a 'personal' identity for the performer – one which 'bears the signature of the hybrid narrative it springs from'. Ian Watson, who is an Advisory Editor of New Theatre Quarterly, teaches at Rutgers University–Newark, where he is the Acting Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. He is author of Towards a Third Theatre: Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret (Routledge, 1993) and of Negotiating Cultures: Eugenio Barba and the Intercultural Debate (Manchester University Press, 2002). He edited Performer Training across Cultures (Routledge, 2001), and has also published numerous articles on theatre in scholarly journals.


To obtain a large amount of training labels inexpensively, researchers have recently adopted the weak supervision (WS) paradigm, which leverages labeling rules to synthesize training labels rather than using individual annotations to achieve competitive results for natural language processing (NLP) tasks. However, data imbalance is often overlooked in applying the WS paradigm, despite being a common issue in a variety of NLP tasks. To address this challenge, we propose Adaptive Ranking-based Sample Selection (ARS2), a model-agnostic framework to alleviate the data imbalance issue in the WS paradigm. Specifically, it calculates a probabilistic margin score based on the output of the current model to measure and rank the cleanliness of each data point. Then, the ranked data are sampled based on both class-wise and rule-aware ranking. In particular, the two sample strategies corresponds to our motivations: (1) to train the model with balanced data batches to reduce the data imbalance issue and (2) to exploit the expertise of each labeling rule for collecting clean samples. Experiments on four text classification datasets with four different imbalance ratios show that ARS2 outperformed the state-of-the-art imbalanced learning and WS methods, leading to a 2%-57.8% improvement on their F1-score.


Modern computational fluid dynamics simulations are capable of the detailed simulation of fluid flow. The output data sets of these simulations are very large and information rich. The importance of data visualization is clearly recognized for the presentation of these data sets. For gaining new insight in the nature of flow, interactive visualization methods are essential. The goal of our work is to develop a environment which allows fluid dynamics experts to analyze very large flow fields. This paper motivates the need for an interactive visualization environment. The design of the environment is centered around two fundamental beliefs: First, the environment should integrate modeling and visualization. Second, interactive visualization is essential so that exploration is stimulated. We discuss two interactive visualization methods and their application to a flow field resulting from a direct numerical simulation. We believe that the working methods discussed in this paper will be typical of future visualization environments.


The paper introduces three patterns for use by university managers and lecturers for creating of Master of Science (MSc) program in engineering and science faculties, developing entrepreneurial skills: • TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION (TEI) CURRICULA – provide a valuable and computational set of courses to guarantee the competence of graduate students in the turbulent environment; • TEI MSc PROGRAM – create the road map for successful implementation of the technology entrepreneurship graduate education; • TEACHERS TEAM – when the human capital is scarce, focus the stress on attracting and retains the best professionals in the fields. The authors experimented with the MSc graduate Technology Entrepreneurship curriculum design and implementation of the program in the university master level teaching, and used a mix of methods and observation techniques to assess its feasibility and applicability for developing the winning strategy.


Intra-articular instillation of a local anaesthetic agent for pain relief after arthroscopy has not been shown consistently to be beneficial. Alkalinization of a local anaesthetic agent may be expected to improve onset time, quality and duration of the block. In a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, we have examined the effect of 1% prilocaine 20 ml, plain or alkalinized, or saline, instilled into the knee joint after arthroscopy. Linear analogue scale (LAS) pain scores were assessed at six times after operation and time to first request for analgesia, total analgesic consumption and times to walking unaided and normal activities were recorded. There were no differences in any of these measurements at any time between the groups, except that the group which received intraarticular saline had significantly lower pain scores 8 h after operation than the groups which had alkalinized or plain prilocaine. We conclude that prilocaine, at both pH values, is ineffective in producing postoperative analgesia but as there were patients who received no analgesic agents and who had very little pain, we may also conclude that arthroscopy is not a consistently painful procedure and is not a good model for assessing the efficacy of local anaesthetic agents.


In 2017, Jakarta was ranked as 7th most congested city in the world. To overcome the problem of congestion in Jakarta, the Government implements the construction of road infrastructure through 6 toll roads inside Jakarta City, but the construction causes pros and contra regarding the effects of induced demand. This research aimed to analyze the service level of Bekasi Raya road on existing and toll roads in Jakarta City and analyzing Bekasi Raya road performance after the operation of the toll road and the off ramp impact of toll road. The analysis were conducted based on Indonesian Road Capacity Manual 1997, the Greenshield model, and the Highway Capacity Manual 2000. The result showed that the level of road service in segment 1 was C for Bekasi and D for the Pulogadung direction. In segment 2 the level of service was E for both directions, and in segment 3 the level of service was C. The level of the toll road service was C for both directions. The toll roads construction would increase the level of road service to C and reduce vehicle volume of 64,1% in Bekasi direction and 45,2% for Pulogadung (Jakarta) direction. The off ramp impact was the the toll road would not experience significant congestion until 2035.


BACKGROUND
Skin lesions from patients infected with Leishmania braziliensis has been associated with inflammation induced by cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. In addition, CD8+ T cell-mediated cytotoxicity has not been linked to parasite killing. Meanwhile, the cytotoxic role played by natural killer (NK) cells in cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) remains poorly understood.

METHODS
In this study, we observed higher frequencies of NK cells in the peripheral blood of CL patients compared with healthy subjects, and that NK cells expressed more interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), granzyme B, and perforin than CD8+ T cells.

RESULTS
We also found that most of the cytotoxic activity in CL lesions was triggered by NK cells, and that the high levels of granzyme B produced in CL lesions was associated with larger lesion size. Furthermore, an in vitro blockade of granzyme B was observed to decrease TNF production.

CONCCLUSIONS
Our data, taken together, suggest an important role by NK cells in inducing inflammation in CL, thereby contributing to disease immunopathology.


Memes and popular culture have become central to our understanding of contemporary politics. Recent fan scholarship has shown how popular culture encourages audiences into discussion, participation, creativity, intervention, and evaluation in politics. In this article, we build on existing scholarship analysing political meme creation and distribution, which to date has primarily focused primarily on American politics. Using a case study of the Facebook group The Simpsons Against the Liberals (the conservative ruling party in Australia), we examine how the anti-fannish behaviors of appropriating and remixing content, affective investment, and community collective identity formation is activated through othering or a "politics of against" (Sandvoss, 2019). The Simpsons Against the Liberals page features memes which insert current Australian political issues, scandals, and controversies into the fictional world of The Simpsons. As we argue, the community is bound by its anti-fandom of the Australian Liberal party, rather than a specific unifying feature. While anti-fandom is driven from hate and dislike, this case study demonstrates that a form of anti-fandom exists in which pleasure is derived from the use of humor to perform acts of citizenship and imagined community. Specifically, this article will examine the flurry of creative production during the 2019/20 Australian bushfire crisis—centered around the controversial behavior of Prime Minister Scott Morrison—as a form of contemporary civic action and activism rooted in anti-fan practices.


Experimental examination of the accommodative responses to a stereoscopic 3-D display found that accommodation was elicited by convergence and moved to the stereoscopic distance of the 3-D image. Immediately after the depth of the target was changed, the magnitude of response was smaller than that for a real target, but when the subjects fixated on the 3-D images, the responses were in almost the same position as the position of 3-D images. Measurement of accommodation response time after the subjects viewed 3-D images showed an afteraffect on the far-to-near accommodation response. The results are discussed in terms of the mismatch of accommodation and convergence in stereoscopic 3-D images and of the interaction between accommodation and convergence in human eyes.


: This research investigates impoliteness employed in selected British social interviews using pragmatic approach. It aims at identifying the pragmatic structure of the phenomenon of impoliteness when dealing with it in selected British social interviews, pinpointing the most common pragmatic strategies of being impolite in those interviews and showing the types of being impoliteness in it.The research employed qualitative method. The data to be analysed in this study are British social interviews where there are two participants or more directing their words to an audience or hearers/ readers. The data of this work are in the form of script even those that are taken from video-recorded.The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one presents the problem, aims, hypotheses, procedures, limits, and value of the study. Chapter two is intended to show the literature review of impoliteness: its definitions, types and history of impoliteness. Chapter three is devoted for data collection and developing the model of analysis. Chapter four is specified for analyzing the data under study. Chapter five is introduced to show the results of the analysis done.The results of this research have described as follows. First, Impoliteness in selected British social interviews is a process structured of three stages. Second, four types of impoliteness strategies occur in this data. They are bald on record strategy, positive impoliteness strategy, negative impoliteness strategy and sarcasm or mock impoliteness. Positive impoliteness strategy becomes the most dominant type used in British social interviews. Meanwhile, withhold impoliteness does not exist in the data under this study. Third, all the types of being impolite are used in British social interviews. Those are affective, coercive and entertaining impoliteness. The most utilized type in this study is entertaining impoliteness. It is employed to amuse the speaker or other people by making the hearer the object of entertaining. Finally, the model used in analysis the data of the present study is workable


We report a measurement of the top quark mass using six candidate events for the process p{bar p}{r_arrow}t{bar t}+X{r_arrow}l{sup +}{nu}bl{sup {minus}}{bar {nu}}{bar b}+X, observed in the D0 experiment at the Fermilab p{bar p} collider. Using maximum likelihood fits to the dynamics of the decays, we measure a mass for the top quark of m{sub t}=168.4{plus_minus}12.3(stat){plus_minus}3.6(syst) Gev. We combine this result with our previous measurement in the t{bar t}{r_arrow}l+jets channel to obtain m{sub t}=172.1{plus_minus}7.1 GeV as the best value of the mass of the top quark measured by D0. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}


The method of Annandale (1995) is widely used by Australian practitioners for the assessment of erosion in unlined spillways. This method is based on comparison to various case studies, where the geology at each site is characterised using the Kirsten index (a rock mass index previously developed to assess the rippability of rock), and the hydraulic conditions are characterised using the unit stream power dissipation. In this paper, the historical development of this comparative design technique is traced and is critically reviewed against the original geotechnical and hydraulic data, and against a new, independent, dataset gained from unlined spillways in fractured rock in Australia, South Africa and the USA. It is shown that, while erosion can be usefully correlated against rock-mass indices and hydraulic indices, this 'comparative' design technique has been promoted beyond its reach the data do not support the inference of an erosion 'threshold' as presented by Annandale (1995). It is argued that this type of analysis should be used only as an initial 'first indication of erosion potential', as originally proposed by van Schalkwyk (1994b).


The mandate for women's silence in 1 Corinthians 14.34-35 is an incongruity within Paul's undisputed writings. Critical scholars expressed doubts about these verses' authorship beginning in the nineteenth century. The consensus of egalitarian Paulists today is that vv.34-35 are not Paul's sentiments. Disagreements about circumstances beyond this fact remain unresolved. Supporters of the quotation/refutation ("Q/R") hypothesis argue that Paul quoted a letter from Corinth in vv.34-35 and refuted it in v.36. Supporters of the interpolation hypothesis regard the passage as a marginal gloss by a later author, inserted at one of two locations (after v.33 or v.40). The present work favors the Q/R position. Tertullian of Carthage (c.155-220 CE) was the first known exegetist of vv.34-35. Tertullian and his successors employed the Western text-type manuscript tradition. The second century CE displacement of vv.34-35 (following v.40) in this text stream is not evidence of haphazard interpolation. It coheres with a pattern of anti-feminist redactions in the Western texts of the epistles and Acts. The editors of the Western text-type sought to harmonize the genuine epistles with pseudo-Pauline material. This harmonization effort shaped later orthodox exegesis, which established canonical norms by domesticating Paul and recast him in the image of a Greco-Roman gender traditionalist.


Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction, and approximately 60% of patients with LEMS have a tumor, mostly small cell lung cancer (SCLC), as a paraneoplastic neurological syndrome. The clinical data of Japanese patients in the present study are as follows: the ratio of men to women is 3: 1 (mean age, 62 years; age range, 17-80 years). Of the patients with LEMS, 61% have SCLC, whereas the others do not have cancer. Clinical symptoms are usually characterized by proximal muscle weakness and dysautonomia. In less than 10% of the patients, there are signs of cerebellar dysfunctions (paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration with LEMS; PCD-LEMS), and these are usually associated with SCLC. The diagnosis can be confirmed by detecting a specific antibody in a radioimmunoprecipitation assay and finding reduced amplitude of compound muscle action potential that increases by over 100% after maximum voluntary activation or 50Hz of nerve stimulation. The pathomechanism of LEMS is characterized by impaired transmission across the neuromuscular junction because of autoantibodies directed against the presynaptic P/Q-type voltage-gated calcium channels (P/Q-VGCCs). Histopathologic evaluation of the cerebellum in patients with PCD-LEMS showed a reduced number of P/Q-type VGCCs in the molecular layer. Therefore, it was hypothesized that P/Q-VGCC antibodies may induce cerebellar dysfunction after entering the CNS in patients with PCD-LEMS. Specific tumor therapy in patients with LEMS as well as cancer often improves the neurologic deficit. Tumor removal is the primary treatment for LEMS. If the result of the primary screening is negative, screening should be repeated after 3-6 months and thereafter every 6 months for up to 2 years. Most patients benefit from 3, 4-diaminopyridine administered with pyridostigmine. In those with severe weakness, intravenous gamma globulin (IVIg) or plasmapheresis confers short-term benefits. Prednisone when administered alone or in combination with immunosuppressive drugs can achieve long-term control of the disorder.


Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has traditionally been context-driven, focusing on the special field in which the language is expected to be used; needs-responsive, trying to define language learners' needs and adapt teaching practices to these needs; and finally learner-centred, in a sense that teaching processes and learners activities have been highly influenced by the desired learning outcomes. However, due to recent global changes the conventional ways of teaching have been challenged. The paper lists some of the most intriguing pedagogical challenges for ESP practitioners and also recommends possible solutions to meet them, partly from overviewing related academic literature, partly from successful practical implementations. Pedagogical issues raised by the internationalisation of higher education are also investigated by the author and some preliminary results of empirical research about learning styles are presented.


A number of studies have observed associations between the serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor and mental disorders. Here, we investigated correlations between polymorphisms (−1438G/A and 102T/C) of the 5-HT2A gene and personality traits in healthy Japanese volunteers (n=239). The personality traits were evaluated using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R). The −1438G/A and 102T/C were in complete linkage disequilibrium. There was a tendency for associations between the genotype and the scores for Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism of the NEO PI-R (P=0.028, 0.039 and 0.062, respectively; analysis of variance, uncorrected for multiple testing). Subjects with the A/A of −1438G/A (or T/T of 102T/C) appeared to be lower in Neuroticism and higher in Conscientiousness than the rest of the subjects. However, the results were statistically non-significant after Bonferroni's correction for multiple testing of the five scales of the NEO PI-R. Thus, the present study provided no evidence for statistically significant associations between the 5-HT2A polymorphisms and the personality traits.


Our systematic review aimed to investigate the theories and studies which evaluate the effectiveness of coronary sinus reducer "CSR" in patients with refractory angina. Chronic refractory angina is also a condition primarily due to severe coronary artery obstruction which is not properly controlled and is not subject to percutaneous or surgical revascularization by appropriate care. The coronary sinus reducer "CSR" has emerged as a therapeutic novel which is a strategy for patients with refractory angina. The CSR is a stainless steel, ballon expanding, hourglass shaping tool percutaneously inserted though right internal jugular vein in the coronary sinus. Upon implantation, it produces a regular lumen narrowing that enhances blood flow from coronary venous pressure to an ischemic myocardial layer by redistributing blood from subepicardial myocardium.


Leukocytosis can be present at any time during various malignancies. A 42-year-old male was admitted to our department for surgical management of his metastatic papillary thyroid cancer. Persistent white blood cell (WBC) elevation with left shift led to a thorough investigation. Having excluded other causes, leukocytosis was attributed to thyroid cancer itself. Positive immunostaining for IL-6 and CEA, as well as elevated serum levels, established this connection.


A number of issues affecting U.S. agriculture could receive attention during the 109th Congress. Some are related to new initiatives or to unfinished legislation from the 108th Congress; others have been the focus of ongoing congressional oversight. Although the current (2002) farm bill (P.L. 107-171) generally does not expire until 2007, the agriculture committees could begin hearings on a new measure as early as 2005. The farm bill spells out the types and levels of benefits provided to producers and landowners under commodity price support and conservation programs, both of which could receive close scrutiny in the coming year as lawmakers seek ways to control federal spending. Other concerns include agroterrorism, food safety, and animal and plant diseases (e.g., "mad cow" disease); interest in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations; the rising cost of energy on farms; environmental issues; and a number of agricultural marketing matters.


PURPOSE
Survivors of childhood cancer are at high risk of chronic conditions, but few studies investigated whether this translates into increased health care utilization. We compared health care service utilization between childhood cancer survivors and the general British population and investigated potential risk factors.

METHODS
We used data from the British Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, a population-based cohort of 17,981 individuals diagnosed with childhood cancer (1940-1991) and surviving ≥ 5 years. Frequency of talks to a doctor, hospital outpatient visits, and day-patient and inpatient hospitalizations were ascertained by questionnaire in 10,483 survivors and were compared with the General Household Survey 2002 data by using logistic regression.

RESULTS
Among survivors, 16.5% had talked to a doctor in the last 2 weeks, 25.5% had attended the outpatient department of a hospital in the last 3 months, 11.9% had been hospitalized as a day patient in the last 12 months, and 9.8% had been hospitalized as an inpatient in the last 12 months. Survivors had talked slightly more often to a doctor than the general population (odds ratio [OR], 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.3) and experienced increased hospital outpatient visits (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 2.3 to 2.8), day-patient hospitalizations (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.3 to 1.6) and inpatient hospitalizations (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.7 to 2.2). Survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and Wilms tumor had the highest ORs for day-patient care, whereas survivors of CNS tumors and bone sarcomas had the highest OR for outpatient and inpatient care. The OR of health care use did not vary significantly with age of survivor.

CONCLUSION
We have quantified how excess morbidity experienced by survivors of childhood cancer translates into increased use of health care facilities.


Introduction Partial urethrectomy during radical surgery for vulvar cancer may help avoid adjuvant radiotherapy in some patients. This study aimed to evaluate surgical, oncologic, and urinary outcomes of a new surgical technique based on vaginal flap to perform neomeatus reconstruction after distal urethral resection in radical surgery for vulvar cancer. Methods Retrospective cohort study between January 2005 and December 2017. We recorded data on pre- and post-operative urinary symptoms, surgical procedures, complications, adjuvant therapy, and follow-up of all patients who underwent surgery for vulvar cancer and had distal urethral resection and neomeatus reconstruction with the proposed technique. The reconstruction was based on the development of a vaginal flap in which a circular opening was created to become the neo-outlet of the urethra. Results Of a total of 200 patients with vulvar cancer operated with curative intent, 33 (16.5%) underwent distal urethral resection and neomeatus reconstruction during surgery (median age 73 (range 57–89) years; median body mass index 25.3 (range 16.3–36.4) kg/m2). Urethrectomy allowed the avoidance of adjuvant radiotherapy in 15/33 (45.5%) patients. No case of dehiscence was reported at the site of neomeatus. After a median follow-up of 39 (range 14–151) months, only one case of deviated urinary stream (3%) and no cases of neomeatus stricture were reported. Six (18.2%) patients developed or worsened urinary incontinence after urethral resection and neomeatus reconstruction, and there was no difference in the prevalence of urethral compressor muscle involvement during urethrectomy (p=0.19) and adjuvant radiotherapy (p=1.00). No recurrences were reported at urethral margins. Conclusions Distal urethral resection and neomeatus reconstruction seem to be associated with adequate healing and low complication rates, such as dehiscence, stenosis, and flux deviation/dribbling. New-onset or worsened urinary incontinence does not seem to be associated with urethral compressor muscle involvement during urethral resection or adjuvant radiotherapy.


H-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy (H-BSE) is an atypical form of BSE in cattle. During passaging of H-BSE in transgenic bovinized (TgBoPrP) mice, a novel phenotype of BSE, termed BSE-SW emerged and was characterized by a short incubation time and host weight loss. To investigate the biological and biochemical properties of the BSE-SW prion, a transmission study was conducted in cattle, which were inoculated intracerebrally with brain homogenate from BSE-SW–infected TgBoPrP mice. The disease incubation period was approximately 15 months. The animals showed characteristic neurological signs of dullness, and severe spongiform changes and a widespread, uniform distribution of disease-associated prion protein (PrPSc) were observed throughout the brain of infected cattle. Immunohistochemical PrPSc staining of the brain revealed the presence of intraglial accumulations and plaque-like deposits. No remarkable differences were identified in vacuolar lesion scores, topographical distribution patterns, and staining types of PrPSc in the brains of BSE-SW– vs H-BSE–infected cattle. PrPSc deposition was detected in the ganglia, vagus nerve, spinal nerve, cauda equina, adrenal medulla, and ocular muscle. Western blot analysis revealed that the specific biochemical properties of the BSE-SW prion, with an additional 10- to 12-kDa fragment, were well maintained after transmission. These findings indicated that the BSE-SW prion has biochemical properties distinct from those of H-BSE in cattle, although clinical and pathologic features of BSW-SW in cattle are indistinguishable from those of H-BSE. The results suggest that the 2 infectious agents, BSE-SW and H-BSE, are closely related strains.


Blood pressure is a cardinal vital sign that gives important information about the cardiovascular function and about hemodynamic trends during anaesthesia, in critical ill patients and during experimental procedures (Rehman and Nelson, 2018). Arterial blood pressure can be evaluated by direct technique (arterial catheter) or indirect technique (Doppler or oscillometry). Direct measurement is gold standard for blood pressure measurement, giving accurate beat-to-beat information and also allow collection of blood samples. However, it is more invasive and requires equipment for monitoring and experience to place the arterial catheter (Araghi et al., 2006; Ward and Langton, 2007; Wingfield and Raffe, 2002). Given its importance in directing care, it is essential to measure blood pressure accurately and consistently.The aim of this article is to present all technique found in literature, with its advantages and disadvantages, with the errors that may occur so that the researchers can have a better knowledge before choosing their technique. For this study we took into consideration articles from literature and speciality books from which we extracted the information reliable for the study. Experimental studies on small laboratory animals, particularly rats are widely used as a model. Three methods are used for recording the blood pressure in rats: tail cuff (indirect technique), intra-arterial catheters (direct technique), and radio telemetry. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages and each of it may lead to erroneous data if they are improperly performed. The vast ranges of these errors highlight the importance of adhering to appropriate technique when measuring blood pressure.


In hot extrusion, tearing plays an important role on surface quality of profiles. In this study, extrudability of 7075 aluminum alloy without tearing was quantified by extrusion limit diagram, which is a relationship between temperatures and speeds. Tearing appearance and distribution of elements were investigated to assess tearing mechanism. According to the diagram, tearing easily occurrs at high temperature and high speed conditions. Micro-solid bridge was observed at tearing surface to indicate the localization of melting of soluble Al2CuMg and MgZn2 compounds because temperature increased by friction coupled with tension stress at a die region. During hot extrusion, recrystallization affects the grain growth, intermetallic compounds were formed at grain boundaries reducing bonding strength between grains promoting tearing sensitivity. Zinc and magnesium concentration is high at the vicinity of grain boundaries because of diffusion into aluminum-matrix whereas insoluble Al7Cu2Fe particles were large and remained at grain boundaries resulting in tearing. Grain refinement can decrease a size of insoluble compounds and promote scattering of soluble compounds. Therefore, to reduce tearing sensitivity, grain refinement has to be controlled during hot extrusion process by controlling chemical composition of billet and friction at bearing region. This causes temperature to increases and thus, induce recrystallization. (Received June 7, 2018 Accepted August 28, 2018)


The purpose of the study was to compare the impact of the peristaltic orientation of laparoscopic gastrojejunal anastomoses (LGJ) in patients with malignant gastric outlet obstruction (GOO) on postoperative delayed-return gastric emptying (DRGE) rates. GOO was defined as complete holdup of contrast at barium meal and/or failure of gastroscope to pass beyond stricture. DRGE was defined as inability to eat regular diet by day 10. Thirty-four patients undergoing antiperistaltic LGJ were compared with 21 patients undergoing isoperistaltic LGJ at two institutions during the same period. Thirty-day mortality was 5.4%, and median survival was 6.2 months. Thirty-day morbidity was 20%, and conversion rate was 3.6%. DRGE rates were increased after isoperistaltic LGJ (0 vs. 3;P < 0.05), but patient groups were not well matched for type of primary cancer (P < 0.05). All patients with DRGE resumed food intake 12 to 16 days after surgery. There were 21 admissions before death, with a reoperation rate of 11.5% and a recurrent GOO rate of 3.8%. Although no conclusions could be drawn about whether the peristaltic orientation of the anastomosis had a bearing on DRGE rates, LGJ resulted in an overall 6% rate of DRGE.


Planarians are known for their ability to regenerate missing body parts. However, little is known about the regeneration ability of land planarians, especially regarding Neotropical species. Herein, we investigated the regeneration in the Neotropical land planarian Luteostriata abundans. Specimens were cut in two at different points along the body and monitored for 50 days. Larger and anterior pieces survived more than smaller posterior pieces. Anterior pieces that retained the pharynx continued to feed normally as intact animals, while posterior pieces that retained the pharynx lost its function temporarily. The growth rate was similar amongst all pieces across 50 days. Anterior mouthless pieces regenerated the pharynx and mouth significantly faster than posterior mouthless pieces. After 50 days, the relative position of the mouth along the body reached values close to intact animals in all regenerating pieces. In general, anterior pieces showed higher survival and regenerated faster than posterior fragments, which agrees with observations with other planarian species. However, surviving posterior pieces were able to retain the proportions of intact animals as well. Our results suggest that L. abundans has a good regenerative capacity similar to many freshwater planarians.


Background Population attributable risk percent (PAR%) is an epidemiological tool that provides an estimate of the percent reduction in total disease burden if that disease could be entirely eliminated among a subpopulation. As such, PAR% is used to efficiently target prevention interventions. Due to significant limitations in current Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) prevention practices and the development of new approaches to prevent CDI, such as vaccination, we determined the PAR% for CDI in various subpopulations in the Medicare 5% random sample. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study using the 2009 Medicare 5% random sample. Comorbidities, infections, and healthcare exposures during the 12 months prior to CDI were identified. CDI incidence and PAR% were calculated for each condition/exposure. Easy to identify subpopulations that could be targeted from prevention interventions were identified based on PAR%. Findings There were 1,465,927 Medicare beneficiaries with 9,401 CDI cases for an incidence of 677/100,000 persons. Subpopulations representing less than 15% of the entire population and with a PAR% ≥ 30% were identified. These included deficiency anemia (PAR% = 37.9%), congestive heart failure (PAR% = 30.2%), fluid and electrolyte disorders (PAR% = 29.6%), urinary tract infections (PAR% = 40.5%), pneumonia (PAR% = 35.2%), emergent hospitalization (PAR% = 48.5%) and invasive procedures (PAR% = 38.9%). Stratification by age and hospital exposures indicates hospital exposures are more strongly associated with CDI than age. Significance Small and identifiable subpopulations that account for relatively large proportions of CDI cases in the elderly were identified. These data can be used to target specific subpopulations for CDI prevention interventions.