Classical trajectory studies of electron capture in ion-Rydberg atom collisions show that the total interaction can roughly be classified into two categories. In a type-1 process, the Rydberg electron is directly captured by the projectile into a stable orbit. This mechanism is very sensitive to the spatial overlap and matching velocities of the Rydberg electron and the projectile. In contrast, in a type-2 capture process the electron returns in a close passage to its own (target) nucleus after its initial atomic orbit has been perturbed by the projectile; this 'double scattering' is rather insensitive to velocity matching. The analogy between these two processes and the leading terms in a strong potential treatment of charge exchange is suggestive. Impact conditions have been identified in which the type-2 process is by far the dominant one.


A comprehensive summary report of quality-control data is of great value in monitoring the accuracy and precision of the clinical chemistry laboratory. This report allows a retrospective appraisal alerting laboratory personnel to possible test control material degradation or instrument malfunction. A microcomputer-based program package is described, designed to reduce the errors and lengthy preparation inherent in the manual generation of such a report. Quality-control summary data is automatically compared with a predefined set of statistical criteria, and any aberrant values are flagged, thus eliminating subjective and nonuniform data interpretation. Statistical comparisons include: number of control points, delta mean, delta standard deviation, standard deviation index, and F-ratio. The summary report is well accepted by the laboratory staff, and its incorporation into the decision-making process allows for an efficient, critical, and uniformly rigorous examination of analytic proficiency.


The concentrations of papaverine in the plasma of healthy volunteers were determined by a GLC-method both after single and repeated oral doses of plain and sustained-release drug formulation. In both experiments the AUC-value after the sustained-release drug form was significantly lower than after the plain papaverine and no maintenance of plasma levels for 12 hours after the sustained-release drug form was observed. Our work demonstrates that the systemic availability or papaverine can be markedly affected by product formulation.


Aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) is an uncommon condition which is characterized by congenital, localized or widespread absence of skin or scar formation. Lesions can be multiple and may occur on any body surface, although they are mostly seen on the scalp as a solitary lesion. ACC is most often a benign isolated defect; but it can be associated with other physical anomalies or malformation syndromes. Adams-Oliver syndrome is a distinct subtype in which distal limb reduction is found in association with a solitary scalp defect. There is no single underlying cause of ACC; it may reflect a disruption of intrauterine skin development. A 25 day-old boy was referred to our clinic with a thick hemorrhagic crust, and a surrounding hairless atrophic scar on the midline over the skull vertex. He also had hypoplasia of the left 2nd to 5th toes since birth. The rest of the physical examination as well as an ultrasound examination of the brain were normal. Herein we report a rare case of ACC of the scalp accompanied by distal limb hypoplasia, Adamson-Oliver syndrome. (Korean J Dermatol 2011;49(10):952∼954)


On-line learning is a process which is facilitated through the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It has the potential for stimulating learning on a social constructivist paradigm given the wide range of applications available on the Internet and the web. The social constructivist paradigm is associated with creative thinking and problem solving through collaborative learning. In spite of this, problems related to the practice act as impediments to effective on-line learning in some higher education institutions. This integrative literature review examines the findings of qualitative research articles regarding impediments to effective on-line learning. Five primary research articles published between 2000 and 2010 serve as the source of data for the study and recommendations based on literature are presented as possible solutions to the identified problems. The article used as its theoretical basis Garrison's Community of Inquiry. The study makes recommendations that may address the problems prevalent in the practice of on-line learning. These recommendations may serve as a marker for academic planners and policy makers who are involved with the creation of effective on-line learning environments. Key words : on-line learning, social constructivism, impediments to effective on-line learning, community of inquiry


The morphology of microglial cells is often closely related to their functions. The mechanisms that regulate microglial ramification are not well understood. Here we reveal the biological mechanisms by which astrocytes regulate microglial ramification. Morphological variation in mouse microglial cultures was measured in terms of cell area as well as branch number and length. Effects on microglial ramification were analyzed after microinjecting the toxin L-alpha-aminoadipic acid (L-AAA) in the mouse cortex or hippocampus to ablate astrocytes, and after culturing microglia on their own in an astrocyte-conditioned medium (ACM) or together with astrocytes in coculture. TGF-β expression was determined by Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and ELISA. The TGF-β signaling pathway was blocked by the TGF-β antibody to assess the role of TGF-β on microglial ramification. The results showed that microglia had more and longer branches and smaller cell bodies in brain areas where astrocytes were abundant. In the mouse cortex and hippocampus, ablation of astrocytes by L-AAA decreased number and length of microglial branches and increased the size of cell bodies. Similar results were obtained with isolated microglia in culture. However, isolated microglia were able to maintain their multibranched structure for a long time when cultured on astrocyte monolayers. Ameboid microglia isolated from P0 to P3 mice showed increased ramification when cultured in ACM or on astrocyte monolayers. Microglia cultured on astrocyte monolayers showed more complex branching structures than those cultured in ACM. Blocking astrocyte-derived TGF-β decreased microglial ramification. Astrocytes induced the formation of protuberances on branches of microglia by forming glial fibers that increased traction. These experiments in mice suggest that astrocytes promote microglial ramification by forming glial fibers to create traction and by secreting soluble factors into the surroundings. For example, astrocyte-secreted TGF-β promotes microglia to generate primitive branches, whose ramification is refined by glial fibers.


The study of population dynamics addresses three questions that are not always separated in discussions with empirical data. Two questions address population regulation. What stabilises population density is the first question, and, in spite of much theory, little progress has been made in answering this question empirically. The assumption of an equilibrium density is impossible to test and direct experimental tests to answer this question are rare. What prevents population growth is a second question, and is the classic question of population regulation. To answer this question requires an increasing population, and, with adequate experimental manipulations, the density- dependent factors preventing increase can be identified. Surprisingly, answering this question has provided little assistance in solving practical problems in population dynamics, possibly because most populations are rarely in the state of growth and show a limited range of densities. What limits population density in good and poor habitats is a third question, which addresses population limitation rather than regulation, and has been the most useful question for empirical ecologists to ask. Population limitation admits of little theory and no elegant models, and highlights the gap between theory and practice in much of ecology. Defining the question clearly and adopting an experimental approach with clear alternative hypotheses will be essential to avoiding the controversies of the past while building useful generalisations for the practical problems of population management.


The recent technological advancement has made the rare earth elements (REEs) more significant and they in turn have facilitated the culmination of more new technological applications owing to their unique physical and chemical properties. In this regard, renewable energy applications such as wind turbine and hybrid cars testify to the increasing demands on permanent magnet in the future. Considering such increasing demands on REEs, it is felt necessary to identify alternative producers of REEs outside of China as one of the measures to create a fair competition and control the price on the market. It is worth highlighting that the separation of rare earth can be both complex and challenging owing to similar properties which are shared by them. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively review and summarize the rare earth processing routes, the mostly employed rare earth separation methods, supply and demand of rare earth around the world and some possible scenarios in rare earth market. This review has critically looked into a few authors' recent reviews on six major processes of rare earth processing steps and each step is considered as important to produce both high quality and better quantity of REEs. Chemical Engineering Research Bulletin 19(2017) 20-35


Two different methodologies, one top-down and one bottom-up, are presented for estimating potential future energy demand for space and water heating in the existing building stock of the residential sector to 2030. Two future price scenarios are used as inputs. The work is tested using data for the existing Swedish residential building stock. Compared to 2005 levels of energy use (74 TWh) the bottom-up model shows reductions to 52 TWh and 50 TWh for the two price scenarios, respectively. Results from the top-down model are 11 % (8 TWh) and 7 % (5 TWh) higher than those of the bottom-up model for the two price scenarios. This suggests that the price mechanism alone will not be sufficient to achieve the full techno-economic potential for energy efficiency.


Nanoporous gold, a dilute alloy of Ag in Au, activates molecular oxygen and promotes the oxygen-assisted catalytic coupling of methanol. Because this trace amount of Ag inherent to nanoporous gold has been proposed as the source of oxygen activation, a thin film Ag/Au alloy surface was studied as a model system for probing the origin of this reactivity. Thin alloy layers of Ag(x)Au(1-x), with 0.15≤x≤0.40, were examined for dioxygen activation and methanol self-coupling. These alloy surfaces recombine atomic oxygen at different temperatures depending on the alloy composition. Total conversion of methanol to selective oxidation products, that is, formaldehyde and methyl formate, was achieved at low initial oxygen coverage and at low temperature. Reaction channels for methyl formate formation occurred on both Au and Au/Ag mixed sites with a ratio, as was predicted from the local 2-dimensional composition.


The aim of this study was to examine the effects of interferon on cirrhotic patients with hepatitis C and the incidence of adverse reactions. The subjects were 35 cirrhotic patients, and 29 chronic active hepatitis patients without cirrhosis (CAH) served as controls. The cirrhotic patients received 3 or 6 million units of human lymphoblastoid interferon daily for one or two weeks and then three times a week for 22 or 23 weeks, while the CAH patients received 6 million units daily for 2 weeks and then three times a week for 14 or 16 weeks. Discontinuation of interferon treatment or dose reduction was required in the 7 cirrhotic patients. The most frequent reason was thrombocytopenia. Dose reduction alone was necessary in two CAH patients. Five cirrhotic patients (14.3%) and nine CAH patients (31.0%) were classified as complete responders to interferon treatment. In all five complete responders with cirrhosis, the hepatitis C virus RNA level before treatment was less than 5 log copies/50 microliters. The results of this study confirm the beneficial effect of interferon in selected patients with cirrhosis on basis of pre-treatment virus levels and platelet count.


This paper deals with the problematic of automatic target recognition (ATR) using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. In this work, the Deep Learning (DL) architecture is proposed and applied in order to recognize military vehicles from SAR images. We propose mainly in this work the deep learning algorithms based on convolutional neural network architecture. In the second step and in order to optimize the convolution of DL steps, we propose to use a convolutional auto-encoder which may be better suited to image processing. Its use provides several areas of the best results in the presence of noise on shifted and truncated images. To validate our approach, some experimentation results are given and compared. The obtained results show that the proposed approach of DL achieves a height recognition accuracy of 93%.


This paper deals with performance analysis and implementation of three phase inverter fed induction motor drive system. The closed loop control scheme of the drive utilizes the digital phase locked loop (DPLL) in the speed control loop. The former is implemented using the well known integrated circuit 4046. A linear continuous model of the drive is developed. The stability of the whole system in closed loop is analyzed using Hurwitz - Routh criterion and the stability limits on the low pass filter (LPF) time constant are predicted. The PLL control law sensitivity against induction motor (IM) parameters variation is studied. An experimental verification is carried out on one kw scalar controlled induction motor drives for a wide range of speeds, loads and stator resistance.


Because parental lines of rice hybrids usually differ in their growth duration, obtaining well-synchronized flowering is a major problem in hybrid rice seed production. The present method of staggered sowing of parental lines based on their growth duration difference, though simple, is not always effective, especially in areas where temperature changes are frequent. Reports from China indicate that because the leaf number of a rice cultivar is fairly stable, leaf number difference can be used to decide the seeding dates of parental lines in hybrid rice seed production. Before using this method, however, the leaf number of the prospective parental lines to be used in hybrid rice seed production should be ascertained. We conducted an experiment to determine the leaf number of two cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines and five promising restorers during the 1994 wet season (WS), 1995 WS, and 1995 dry season (DS) at the DRR research farm. We also compared the extent of variation for leaf number and days to flowering over the seasons.


Rethinking the 'marginality' of medical anthropology in Italy. Politics of resistance for whole anthropology Starting from the teaching and research experience of the author in the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, and considering what is actually happening in Italian universities, the paper highlights the dangerous trend of a reduction of medical anthropology courses as important symptom of the widest and creeping impoverishment of whole anthropology, discipline so valuable and strategic for humanity. The aim is to draw the attention of the national and international academic and scientific communities on the need to develop adequate strategies of resistance to preserve, however, the epistemological wealth of anthropology, even surpassing, at this stage of criticality, some conflicts related to its various forms such as social, cultural, medical, applied, clinical ones, and to its different schools, in order to get public legitimacy in terms of a clear socio-political and institutional mandate, considering also the so-called 'ontological turn' in human sciences.


Purpose: The goal of this paper is to present the thermal characteristics of magnesium alloy using the novel Universal Metallurgical Simulator and Analyzer Platform. Design/methodology/approach: The objective of this work is determine the liquidus, solidus temperature and beginning nucleation temperature to understanding crystallization of magnesium alloys. Findings: The research show that the thermal analysis carried out on UMSA Technology Platform is an efficient tool for collect and calculate thermal parameters. The formation temperatures of various thermal parameters and hardness are shifting with an increasing cooling rate. Research limitations/implications: This paper presents results for one alloy – MCMgAl12Zn1 only, cooled with three different solidifications rate i.e. 0.6, 1.2 and 2,4 °C/s, for assessment for the liquidus, solidus temperatures and describe a beginning of nucleation of α(Mg)-s(Mg-Mg17Al12) eutectic and its influence on the mechanical properties. Further investigations should be concentrating on assessment an influence of different solidification rate on microstructure. Practical implications: The parameters described can be applied in metal casting industry for selecting magnesium ingot preheating temperature for semi solid processing to achieve requirements properties. Originality/value: The paper contributes to better understanding and recognition an influence of different solidification condition on non-equilibrium thermal parameters of magnesium alloys.


Data profiling is an essential process in modern data-driven industries. One of its critical components is the discovery and validation of complex statistics, including functional dependencies, data constraints, association rules, and others. However, most existing data profiling systems that focus on complex statistics do not provide proper integration with the tools used by contemporary data scientists. This creates a significant barrier to the adoption of these tools in the industry. Moreover, existing systems were not created with industrial-grade workloads in mind. Finally, they do not aim to provide descriptive explanations, i.e. why a given pattern is not found. It is a significant issue as it is essential to understand the underlying reasons for a specific pattern's absence to make informed decisions based on the data. Because of that, these patterns are effectively rest in thin air: their application scope is rather limited, they are rarely used by the broader public. At the same time, as we are going to demonstrate in this presentation, complex statistics can be efficiently used to solve many classic data quality problems. Desbordante is an open-source data profiler that aims to close this gap. It is built with emphasis on industrial application: it is efficient, scalable, resilient to crashes, and provides explanations. Furthermore, it provides seamless Python integration by offloading various costly operations to the C++ core, not only mining. In this demonstration, we show several scenarios that allow end users to solve different data quality problems. Namely, we showcase typo detection, data deduplication, and data anomaly detection scenarios.


Polymer flooding can be a viable alternative to enhance oil recovery of heavy oil fields. The comparison of water and polymer flooding requires a reliable reservoir numerical model to safely ensure the decision analysis including uncertainties and involving a significant amount of simulation runs. Reservoir engineers usually work-around this problem using fast models to reduce computational time; however, it is important to maintain the reliability of heterogeneous reservoir models. Therefore, the proposed work demonstrates how the grid size impacts on accuracy of results and both the time and computational resources. In addition, it is performed an analysis to establish how the typical physical phenomena related to the polymer flooding impact the applicability of the proposed methodology. A highly heterogeneous heavy oil field is used in our proposed studies. The application is conducted to assist pilot test wells. Initially, the definition of the reference strategy (OTM) is presented. In this case study, the OTM strategy is based on the optimization of location and number of wells. Secondly, the effect of grid size on the process is evaluated through two procedures: (1) DA method: a selection of grid size defined by drainage area of the selected wells; and (2) UP method: upscaling is performed in the simulation model. Then, production parameters resulting from models of both procedures (DA and UP) are compared with OTM results. The definition of which procedure is better to represent the wells of interest is performed. Finally, the impact of three polymer flooding physical phenomena (degradation, adsorption and Non-Newtonian effect) on production results is presented, in order to verify the accuracy of the generated fast models in maintained considering these effects. The DA method present good accuracy for reservoir response compared to the reference OTM results. Differently, UP models are not as accurate as DA models for production results indicators. In conclusion, the application of the methodology allows choosing the DA over the UP technique to support our decision in the investigated recovery methods, showing a reliable and fast procedure. Finally, this procedure shows excellent applicability and robustness when a typical polymer flooding study is carried out: the evaluation of physical phenomena impact on production results based on wells of interest. Introduction The oil industry has experienced a gradual decrease on the discovery of new oil deposits on the last decades (Alvarado and Manrique, 2010) and, the reserves that have been found lately are located in


We report quantum chemical semiempirical calculations of the electronic structure of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) and 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT). Those substances are important in the context of Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, the tautomerism of 5,7-DHT, which is not present in serotonin, is also examined. We have found that the phenol form of 5,7-DHT is more stable than is the 4-keto form in the gas phase. However, the large dipole moment of the keto form suggests that a large stabilization of this form can occur in a polar environment, which is confirmed by further supermolecule calculations. We have also calculated the absorption spectra of both 5,7-DHT and serotonin (5-HT) using the INDO/S method at the calculated AM1 geometries, with good agreement with experimental data. Our results give strong support to the hypothesis of the phenol–keto tautomerism of 5,7-DHT being responsible for the UV-visible spectroscopic features. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


A single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is used to sense individual, as well as small ensembles of, electron spins placed outside the diamond lattice. Applying double electron–electron resonance techniques, we were able to observe Rabi nutations of these external spins as well as the coupling strength between the external spins and the NV sensor, via modulations and accelerated decay of the NV spin echo. Echo modulation frequencies as large as 600 kHz have been observed, being equivalent to a few nanometers distance between the NV and an unpaired electron spin. Upon surface modification, the coupling disappears, suggesting the spins to be localized at surface defects. The present study is important for understanding the properties of diamond surface spins so that their effects on NV sensors can eventually be mitigated. This would enable potential applications such as the imaging and tracking of single atoms and molecules in living cells or the use of NVs on scanning probe tips to entangle remote spins for scalable room temperature quantum computers.


Good magnetic surfaces, as opposed to magnetic islands and chaotic field lines, are generally desirable for stellarators. In previous work, Landreman et al. [Phys. of Plasmas 28, 092505 (2021)] showed that equilibria computed by the Stepped-Pressure Equilibrium Code (SPEC) [Hudson et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 112502 (2012)] could be optimized for good magnetic surfaces in vacuum. In this paper, we build upon their work to show the first finite- β, fixed-, and free-boundary optimization of SPEC equilibria for good magnetic surfaces. The objective function is constructed with the Greene's residue of selected rational surfaces, and the optimization is driven by the SIMSOPT framework [Landreman et al., J. Open Source Software 6, 3525 (2021)]. We show that the size of magnetic islands and the consequent regions occupied by chaotic field lines can be minimized in a classical stellarator geometry (rotating ellipse) by optimizing either the injected toroidal current profile, the shape of a perfectly conducting wall surrounding the plasma (fixed-boundary case), or the vacuum field produced by the coils (free-boundary case). This work shows that SPEC can be used as an equilibrium code both in a two-step or single-step stellarator optimization loop.


The objective of this work is to experimental assessment of the suitability of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) as a filtration loss agent in water based drilling mud formulation. The drilling mud was mixed with concentration of various SCBA at 1, 3 and 5% weight by weight, and is conducted at temperatures at 25, 50 and 80°C according to API RP13B-1 standard. The chemical properties are determined by using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope. The major oxide observed in SCBA is SiO 2 (88.379%). Meanwhile, the major minerals of SCBA with predominance of quartz (73.123%) and shows the amorphous silica formation. The particle shape of SCBA has an irregular shape with rough surfaces and small porous textures. The drilling mud mixed with 1% w/w of SCBA exhibited the best filtration control characteristics with minimal filtrate volume and thinner and consistent mud filter cakes. Physical examination of the filtrate volume indicates that filtrate volume and filter cake thickness increases by a percentage of SCBA and temperature increasing. Thus, SCBA has proved to possess good filtration (fluid) loss control properties.


Resource constraints in smart devices demand an efficient cryptosystem that allows for low power and memory consumption. This has led to popularity of comparatively efficient Elliptic curve cryptog-raphy (ECC). Prior to this paper, much of ECC is implemented on re-configurable hardware i.e. FPGAs, which are costly and unfavorable as low-cost solutions. We present comprehensive yet efficient implementations of ECC on fixed-point TMS54xx series of digital signal processors (DSP). 160-bit prime field GF(p) ECC is implemented over a wide range of coordinate choices. This paper also implements windowed recoding technique to provide better execution times. Stalls in the programming are mini-mized by utilization of loop unrolling and by avoiding data dependence. Complete scalar multiplication is achieved within 50 msec in coordinate implementations, which is further reduced till 25 msec for windowed-recoding method. These are the best known results for fixed-point low power digital signal processor to date.


The Leptospira interrogans serogroup Australis is traditionally described as pathogenic for swine although animals usually present low serologic response and mild clinical signs. The first isolation of a Leptospira interrogans serogroup Australis strain from swine, in Brazil, was recently described. Herein we present the genomic characterization of this strain (SU5) and further comparison with the Leptospira serovars reference genomes available in the GenBank database. The SU5 strain was characterized with sequence types previously described in a serogroup Australis isolated from human and presented a new ST98 that is thus far exclusively of the Brazilian porcine L. interrogans serogroup Australis. Even though the SU5 strain presented higher similarity with the American porcine serogroup Australis strain PigK151, as expected, it also presented sequences blocks in both chromosomes which are absent in the genomes of the studied Leptospira serovars. These regions are flanked by insertion sequences and transposases genes, suggesting the existence of inter- and intra-serogroup genomic variability due to mobile elements transferring. This genomic plasticity has already been demonstrated for pathogenic Leptospira species; nevertheless, there is still a limited understanding of the relationship between genome organization and content and the divergence of Leptospira serogroups and serovars that needs to be further elucidated.


Restructuring of the energy sector  and liberalization of the electricity market resulted in separation of a single industry into a multitude of generating companies, federal and interregional distribution utilities, regional power providers and energy suppliers. For a number of reasons, related to the process of managing separate companies, faults in the laws and regulations, and unsatisfactory technical state of the energy equipment both on the part of distributors and consumers, reliability of energy supply faces increasing negative trends, which potentially can lead to big problems. Up to this day the energy sector does not have a developed database on the state of equipment and results of its maintenance, nor has it defined criteria to actually assess technical conditions of the equipment. The authors propose to develop and implement a mechanism aimed at technical auditing and monitoring of the engineering state of external power supply system, whose results can help in the development of more efficient and economically sound measures to improve reliability of energy supply.In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the issues of enhanced security of industrial power supply. However, specific characteristics of underground coal mining and enormous work load of the production process limit the applicability of developed methods and algorithms.Existing research does not address economic issues of reliable energy supply, either direct (economic damage from power interruptions, contractual security of supply, tariff regulation) or indirect (charges for utility connection with a required level of reliability). There is no explicit definition for the term «autonomous energy source», nor is there a list of power receivers falling into the first and «special» categories according to their reliability. The paper contains a range of urgent problems and solutions that will increase reliability of external power supply in the coal mines.


In this Field Note piece, I use my clinical and research experiences in the UK and Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the contrasting ways it unravelled in each setting during the period between January 2020 and October 2021. In the UK, working as a clinician while also studying at a leading public health institution, my life became monopolised by COVID-19, particularly in relation to concerns around direct transmission of the virus and the illness it causes. Whilst conducting fieldwork and working in a health centre in Uganda, however, I was reminded to pay greater attention to the effects of COVID-19 restrictions and the burden of other causes of ill health. Bringing together these experiences, this piece explores how priorities and preparedness for fieldwork developed in one setting do not necessarily translate to another location, thereby underlining the challenges of planning adequately for fieldwork.


Purpose To investigate outcomes for elderly patients treated with chemotherapy (CT) alone versus chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in the modern era by using a large national database. Patients and Methods Elderly patients (age ≥ 70 years) with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer clinical stage I to III who received CT or CRT were identified in the National Cancer Data Base between 2003 and 2011. Hierarchical mixed-effects logistic regression with clustering by reporting facility was performed to identify factors associated with treatment selection. Overall survival (OS) of patients receiving CT versus CRT was compared by using the log-rank test, Cox proportional hazards regression, and propensity score matching. Results A total of 8,637 patients were identified, among whom 3,775 (43.7%) received CT and 4,862 (56.3%) received CRT. The odds of receiving CRT decreased with increasing age, clinical stage III disease, female sex, and the presence of medical comorbidities (all P < .01). Use of CRT was associated with increased OS compared with CT on univariable and multivariable analysis (median OS, 15.6 v 9.3 months; 3-year OS, 22.0% v 6.3%; log-rank P < .001; Cox P < .001). Propensity score matching identified a matched cohort of 6,856 patients and confirmed a survival benefit associated with CRT (hazard ratio, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.55; P < .001). Subset analysis of CRT treatment sequence showed that patients alive 4 months after diagnosis derived a survival benefit with concurrent CRT over sequential CRT (median OS, 17.0 v 15.4 months; log-rank P = .01). Conclusion In elderly patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer, modern CRT appears to confer an additional OS advantage beyond that achieved with CT alone in a large population-based cohort. Our findings suggest that CRT should be the preferred strategy in elderly patients who are expected to tolerate the toxicities of the combined approach.


The action of isoprinosine on lymphocytes stimulated by optimal or suboptimal concentrations of polyclonal mitogens (ConA and PWM) was studied in 3, 5 and 7-days cultures. In some experiments, varying concentrations of isoprinosine were added to lymphocyte cultures at variuos times. Isoprinosine exerted no effect on non stimulated cells but enhanced the proliferative response in the presence of mitogens. The optimal response was obtained with a dose of 1 000 micrograms (/10(6) cells) of isoprinosine and on the 5th day in the cultures stimulated by ConA or PWM, but an enhancing effect could still be detected on the 7th day of culture. The effect seems stronger when isoprinosine is introduced earlier in the course of the cultures. Preliminary experiments suggest that isoprinosine increase the proliferation of both T and B cells and that its activity on B cells could be due to the potentiating action of helper T cells.


OBJECTIVE
Health promotion often faces the problem that populations with high behavioral risk profiles respond defensively to health promotion messages by negating risk or reactant behavior. Self-affirmation theory proposes that defensive reactions are an attempt of the self-system to maintain integrity. In this article, we examine whether a self-affirmation manipulation can mitigate defensive responses to personalized visual risk feedback in the skin cancer prevention context (ultraviolet [UV] photography), and whether the effects pertain to individuals with high behavioral risk status (high personal relevance of tanning).

METHOD
We conducted a full-factorial randomized controlled trial (N = 292; age 11-71) following a 2 * 2 design (UV photo yes/no, self-affirmation yes/no). Follow-up period was 2 weeks. Subsequent tanning behavior, sun avoidance intentions, and risk perception.

RESULTS
A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a three-way interaction between risk feedback, the self-affirmation manipulation, and risk status for the three outcome measures. Follow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) indicated that high-risk individuals receiving only the risk feedback intervention reacted defensively and reported higher exposure. A self-affirmation manipulation mitigates this reactance effect both on the level of cognitions and behavior.

CONCLUSION
Self-affirmation has influential implications not only for Social Psychology but also for health prevention measures. The findings support the effectiveness of self-affirmation in reducing reactant and defensive reactions to personalized visual risk feedback. Interactions with health risk status indicate that self-affirmation might increase the effectiveness of health promotion messages in high-risk populations.


The adsorption of self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metal oxide surfaces is a promising route to control electronic characteristics and surface wettability. Here, arylphosphonic acid derivatives are used to modulate the surface properties of vertically oriented ZnO nanowire arrays. Arylphosphonate‐functionalized ZnO nanowires are incorporated into hybrid organic‐inorganic solar cells in which infiltrated poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) serves as the polymer donor. Strong correlations between device short‐circuit current density (J sc) and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) with ZnO surface functionalization species are observed and a weak correlation in the open‐circuit voltage (V oc) is observed. Inverted solar cells fabricated with these treated interfaces exhibit PCEs as high as 2.1%, primarily due to improvements in J sc. Analogous devices using untreated ZnO arrays having efficiencies of 1.6%. The enhancement in J sc is attributed to surface passivation of ZnO by SAMs and enhanced wettability from P3HT, which improve charge transfer and reduce carrier recombination at the organic‐inorganic interface in the solar cells.


In the last years, counterparty default risk has experienced an increased interest both by academics as well as practitioners. This was especially motivated by the market turbulences and the financial crises over the past years which have highlighted the importance of counterparty default risk for uncollateralized derivatives.The following paper focuses on the pricing of derivatives subject to such counterparty risk. After a succinct introduction to the topic, a brief review of state-of-the-art methods for the calculation of bilateral counterparty value adjustments is presented. Due to some weaknesses of these models, a novel method for the determination of model-free tight lower and upper bounds on these adjustments is presented. It will be shown in detail how these bounds can be easily and efficiently calculated by the solution of a corresponding linear optimization problem. It will be illustrated how usual discretization methods like Monte Carlo methods allow to reduce the calculation of bounds to an ordinary finite dimensional transportation problem, whereas a continuous time approach will lead to a general mass transportation problem.The paper is closed with several applications of these model-free bounds, like stress-testing and estimation of model reserves.


u
st like any medical professional, Optometrists occasionally have to broach difficult topics with their patients. Whether it's a frightening diagnosis, an expired frame warranty, or even just some unfortunate news about insurance coverage, these conversations are an unavoidable part of the job.
Neither patient nor practitioner looks forward to these sorts of discussions, but sweeping them under the rug is never an option. The best thing to do is to approach tough subjects with compassion, grace, and clarity.
Here are a few strategies you can use when having difficult conversations with your patients.


Hydration of clinker particles is since long a topic of interest in both designing and optimizing cement composition and its quantity used in concrete. The interest for carefully observing and also quantifying the type or stage of clinker hydration in hardened cement paste is twofold. Firstly, the characteristics of the hydration features can give useful information on the actual hydration mechanisms (e.g., diffusion versus dissolution). Secondly, considering the different hydration stages more quantitatively can help to study for example the amount of hydration or hydration rate in different types of concrete. In this paper, it is shown that polarization and fluorescent light microscopy (PFM) and backscattered electron microscopy (BSE) can be used to quantify different clinker hydration types in hardened cement paste. Different stages or types of hydration could be distinguished in the clinker grains: (A) unhydrated clinker core without a visible hydration rim, (B) hydrated clinker 'imprint', (C) hydrated clinker core with an unhydrated clinker rim and (D) unhydrated clinker core with a clear hydration rim. These different types of clinker hydration can be quantified using point counting. In fluorescent light, the hydrated clinker zones contain more fluorescent dye compared to the unhydrated clinker parts and also to the rest of the cement paste. This suggests that the clinker may have partly or fully dissolved, creating porosity and that the hydration products have precipitated further away from the clinker particle, resulting in a less porous hardened cement paste. In other words, dissolution and precipitation processes might play a role in the hydration mechanism. Quantifying these different clinker types could also be useful for estimating for example the amount of hydration that took place, or for quantifying the 'overcapacity' of unhydrated clinker. The latter gives interesting information to possibly reduce the amount of clinker and as such lower the CO2 footprint of concrete.


We examined the effects of semantic and visual cues to animacy on children's and adults' interpretation of ambiguous pronouns, using the visual world paradigm. Participants listened to sentences with object relative clauses that varied the animacy of potential referents, followed by test sentences beginning with a referentially ambiguous subject pronoun he. Participants viewed images of the referents, with semantically inanimate objects (e.g., a TV) shown with or without added facial features. Results from offline verbal report and online gaze data revealed consistent effects of both semantic animacy and visual context on pronoun resolution in both groups: There was a preference for semantically animate referents as antecedent, but this preference decreased or disappeared when semantically inanimate referents had facial features. The results indicate that the use of animacy as a linguistic cue is flexible and responsive to the visual context. They further suggest that like adults (Nieuwland and Van Berkum, 2006), 4-year-olds can already use fictional, here visual, context to adjust their online and offline language comprehension preferences.


The backlash, which is always present in the gears of drive-trains to enable smooth operation, may increase with time due to the wear and tear during mechanical power transmission. Accurate knowledge of the amount of backlash non-linearity is required in such systems for monitoring control applications as well as developing maintenance strategies. In this study, the modelling and online estimation of the backlash existing in the gear train of wind turbine driven doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) systems is presented. The estimation has been performed using the unscented Kalman filter considering the backlash as a parameter and augmenting it as a state into the dynamics. Local measurements of the DFIG system have been used to estimate the backlash. The performance and efficacy of the method have been investigated in different scenarios viz. system parameters, noise levels of the measurements and operating points of the DFIG system. The estimation has also been performed in an environment of the time-varying wind, modelled by Van der Hoven's spectral model. The estimation has been enabled by the bad-data detection and examined in the presence of unknown mechanical parameters of the shaft.


The variation of frequency F as a function of wave number K and the associated spectral transfer function are computed for different modes in a complex oceanic wave-guide. The model consists of a fluid layer resting upon a three-layer elastic half-space. The layers and the half-space are homogeneous.

The comparison of theoretical results with measured power spectra for two records taken in the Pacific Ocean shows qualitative agreement stressing strongly the role of the leaking compressional organ-pipe modes which are not continuations of normal modes beyond cutoff frequency.

The mathematical procedure consists in the integration of the second-minor propagator equation of Gilbert and Backus (1966). The determinant representing the secular function is computed directly rather than by summing the products of its elements. This improves both accuracy and computing time. The integration can be reduced to that of a third-order nonlinear differential system which, for K = 0, splits into two Riccati equations.

The ( F, K )-diagram corresponding to every mode is obtained by a technique based on properties of similar diagrams for simple oceanic and continental structures.


We report partial cross sections for electron attachment to c-C4F8O, a gas with promising technological applications in free-electron-rich environments. The dissociative electron attachment leads to a number of anionic fragments resulting from complex bond-breaking and bond-forming processes. However, the anion with the highest abundance is the non-dissociated (transient) parent anion which is formed around 0.9 eV electron energy. Its lifetime reaches tens of microseconds. We discuss the origin of this long lifetime, the anion's strong interactions with other molecules, and the consequences for electron-scavenging properties of c-C4F8O in denser environments, in particular for its use in mixtures with CO2 and N2.


The archives record of the causes of death in Thailand using the death registration (DR) system is important source of mortality data. Over the past two decades, Thailand has presented many formats to enhance civil registration and vial statistics systems. More than 30% of death unregistered and about 40% of deaths registered have given the cause of death as "ill-defined". The aim of this study was to propose a statistical model to estimate percentages of respiratory deaths in Thailand based on a sample of 9,644 deaths from the 2005 Verbal Autopsy (VA) study. Logistic regression was used to predict respiratory deaths classified by three factors, province, gender-age group and cause of each death. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess accuracy of the model prediction and the area under the ROC curve measures discrimination model which has ability to correctly predict those with and without respiratory deaths. Province, gender-age group and cause of death were statistically significant associated with respiratory deaths. The area under ROC curve was 0.7 with a false positive rate of 5.52% and sensitivity of 39.2%. Moreover, the results revealed that the under-reporting of respiratory deaths were those registered as tuberculosis, septicemia and other CVD cases. In conclusions, the logistic model in this study can be used for estimating the respiratory deaths from the DR database in Thailand or the DR system in other countries that are under-reporting the death rate.


Origami tessellations have been proposed as a mechanism for control of radiative heat transfer through the use of the cavity effect. This work explores the impact of a changing projected surface area and varying apparent radiative properties on the net radiative heat transfer of an accordion fold comprised of V-grooves. The net radiative heat transfer of an accordion tessellation is obtained by a thermal energy balance at the cavity openings with radiative properties of the cavities given as a function of various cavity parameters. Results of the analytical model are experimentally confirmed. An accordion tessellation, constructed of stainless-steel shim stock, is positioned to achieve a specified fold angle and placed in a vacuum environment while heated by Joule heating. A thermal camera records the apparent temperature of the cavity openings for various fold angles. Results are compared to apparent temperatures predicted with the analytical model. Analytically and experimentally obtained temperatures agree within 5% and all measurements fall within experimental uncertainty. For diffusely irradiated surfaces, the decrease in projected surface area dominates, causing a continuous decrease in net radiative heat transfer for a collapsing accordion fold. Highly reflective specular surfaces exposed to diffuse irradiation experience large turn-down ratios (7.5× reduction in heat transfer) in the small angle ranges. Specular surfaces exposed to collimated irradiation achieve a turn down ratio of 3.35 between V-groove angles of 120 deg and 150 deg. The approach outlined here may be extended to modeling the net radiative heat transfer for other origami tessellations.


Lotus birth, or umbilical nonseverance, is the practice wherein the umbilical cord is not separated from the placenta after birth, but allowed instead to dry and fall off on its own. Lotus birth may result in neonatal omphalitis. This article describes the history and rationale for lotus birth as well as the etiology, incidence, clinical presentation, and management of neonatal omphalitis. Recommendations for educating families how to perform lotus birth safely are presented. Additionally, signs and symptoms that warrant newborn assessment and treatment are reviewed.


Objective: this study aims to know the caregiver's perception of children's dental caries and their experience of accessing dental health services in children. Material and Methods: this research was an analytic observational study with a cross-sectional method and used a purposive sampling technique with a sample of 56 respondents. Data were obtained through a questionnaire and the sampling technique used purposive sampling with samples were all caregivers at Cahaya Tazkia Kindergarten, Yapita Kindergarten, and Aisyiah 52 Kindergarten Surabaya. Data were analyzed using a correlation Spearman test. Results: perceived benefit and self-efficacy had a significant correlation with the experience of accessing dental health services (p-value ≤ 0.05) with coefficient correlations were 0.168 and 0.936 respectively. Meanwhile, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and the perceived barrier had no correlation with the experience of accessing dental health. Most male respondents in this research had a proper job to manage their children to go to dental health. Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefit, and self-efficacy of women caregivers in productive age were good but the perceived barrier showed a high mean. Respondents with that characteristics did not have steady jobs. Conclusion: women caregiver between the age of 21-40 years old believes that maintaining oral health is beneficial and will result in an increased number of accessing dental health services for their children. But caregivers who were women and also did not have a steady job had barriers to accessing dental health for their children.


Abstract In this contribution, I discuss potential risk to the health of people with disabilities in residential care institutions during the COVID-19 outbreak by looking at evidence from Romania. As an academic who has studied deinstitutionalization of services for people with disabilities in Romania, I argue that residential care institutions for people with disabilities are at risk of becoming sites for community contagion with COVID-19. These institutions are often located in remote and economically peripheral areas of the country that have been characterized by high rates of outmigration. Now, these are becoming areas of intense return migration. Community contagion in adjacent locations can easily spill over to residential institutions through care and health workers' trajectories. Once spread to residential institutions, COVID-19 has a high chance of adversely affecting the health of residents with disabilities. It is vital to ensure disabled people's health and wellbeing through adequate contagion prevention measures.


In the present study, coarse powder of Scindapsus officinalis (Roxb.) Schott. fruit was extracted successively using hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and 50% ethanol. The ethyl acetate and 50% ethanolic extracts were investigated for its antioxidant activity by using nitric oxide and DPPH radical scavenging methods. The IC50 value was also calculated. Ascorbic acid was used as a standard. Both 50% ethanolic and ethyl acetate extract were found to exert concentration dependent free radical scavenging activity but former extract was more effective than the later on. The highest free radical scavenging activity by Scindapsus officinalis fruit extracts was observed at concentration of 1000 μg/ml.


Dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) lesions were used to treat intractable pain due to deafferentation in 78 patients managed between 1981 and 1988. Etiology of pain included avulsion of brachial or lumbosacral plexuses (27 cases), spinal cord injury (20 cases), amputation (nine cases), post-herpetic neuralgia (16 cases), and cauda equina injury (six cases). Three different lesioning techniques were employed: a radiofrequency (rf) method using a 0.5 X 2-mm stainless steel electrode with control of electric current and duration (Group 1: 21 cases); the CO2 laser (Group 2: 20 cases); and an rf method, using a 0.25 X 2-mm stainless steel electrode with control of electrode temperature and duration (Group 3: 37 cases). Overall, 48 (61.5%) of 78 patients received satisfactory pain relief, defined as a 50% or greater reduction in pain intensity, cessation of narcotic analgesic usage, and improvement in functional capacity. Fourteen (67%) of the 21 Group 1 patients obtained effective pain relief, compared to nine (45%) of the 20 Group 2 patients and 25 (68%) of the 37 Group 3 patients. Neurological complications including mainly ipsilateral leg weakness or loss of proprioception occurred in 52.3% of the patients in Group 1, 15% of the Group 2 patients, and 8.1% of the Group 3 patients. These results support the view that DREZ lesions may be made most effectively and safely with the rf lesioning technique associated with control of electrode temperature and duration.


This paper analyzes adjustment to exogenous shocks in a dynamic version of the specific-factors model in which capital is assumed to be a quasi-fixed factor. Capital allocation is treated as an issue in investment theory, thus endogeniz-ing long-run capital stocks of industries. Convex costs of adjustment generate finite Keynesian investment demand functions which are incorporated in a two-sector trade model. Depending on the source of the exogenous shock comparative static effects are ambiguous and the adjustment path to the long-run equilib-rium may be characterized by an overadjustment of capital stocks and/or of the national product. The long-run equilibrium is almost always characterized by non-equalization of capital rentals.


A 5 year old child with brucellosis is described who developed severe liver disease with neuropsychiatric signs and electroencephalographic changes.


Liu et al. presented a typical ozone pollution event study of a coastal city of southeast China for the exploration of AOC, OH reactivity, radical chemistry and ozone pollution mechanism with OBM-MCM method. The predominant oxidant for AOC, dominant contributor for OH reactivity, important source of ROx radical were examined, as well as the ozone formation regime sensitivity. Finally, the VOCs emission reduction were proposed for limiting the radical recycling and O3 formation. Overall, the paper is appropriate for publication at ACP subject to the following concerns.


BACKGROUND
Many prognostic factors have been reported for the outcomes of biliary atresia (BA) patients after Kasai procedure, however, it still shows a conflicting result. Our study was to determine the impact of total bilirubin postoperative day-7 and pre-operative ratio (TB7/TB0), gammaglutamyl transferase post-operative day-7 and pre-operative ratio (GGT7/GGT0), and alanine transaminase post-operative day-7 and pre-operative ratio (ALT7/ALT0) on the survival of BA patients following Kasai surgery.

METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of BA patients who underwent Kasai procedure at the Dr. Sardjito Hospital, Indonesia from August 2012 to December 2018. The cut-off values of TB7/TB0, GGT7/GGT0, and ALT7/ALT0 for prediction of patients' survival were determined by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. Log-rank tests were utilised to test the association between cut-off values and overall survival.

RESULTS
In all 46 BA patients (23 males and 23 females) after Kasai procedure were included, consisting of one type 1, 17 type 2A, seven type 2B, and 21 type 3. The cut-off values of TB7/TB0, ALT7/ALT0 and GGT7/GGT0 for overall survival was 0.455 (sensitivity 87.5%, specificity 22.7%, area under curve (AUC) 0.59; 95% Confidence Interval (95%CI): 0.42, 0.75), 0.481 (sensitivity 87.5%, specificity 18.2%, AUC 0.49; 95%CI: 0.31, 0.65), and and 0.31 (sensitivity 79.2%, specificity 9.1%, AUC 0.34; 95%CI: 0.18, 0.50), respectively. However, these cut-off values were not significantly associated with overall survival, with p-values of 0.18, 0.49, and 0.56, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The TB7/TB0, ALT7/ALT0, and GGT7/GGT0 might not predict the overall survival of BA patients after Kasai procedure. Further multicentre studies with a larger sample size is needed to clarify our findings.


Today's industries exhibit a growing trend towards benefiting from Web services. However, management complexity also grows with the number and type of services deployed. How to help users discover an appropriate service from tremendous ones, how to provide security access to target service, how to supply reliable service, and how to integrate commerce into services executing process become significant challenges. Therefore, companies soon require facilities that support and automate their management efforts. Furthermore, existing Web services management facilities, which lack structure and computer understandable metadata, prohibit users from managing Web services effectively. To address above issues, this paper elaborates a semantic Web technologies based service-management solution, called Dart-Man, towards making Web service management more flexible and automated.


This paper addresses the question of the protean nature of 'ontology', with special attention paid to its use within the domain of terminology theories and applications. This term is widely used nowadays within various disciplines for designating different types of organising relational frameworks. Yet, its designations remain unvaried and, in this way, it causes ambiguity. The multifaceted nature of the so-called 'ontology' hinders the possibility of providing an unambiguous deÞ nition. This is mainly due to the multi- and interdisciplinary dimension of this notion, which is outlined here through an overview of its application within philosophy, information science, and linguistic disciplines. The reference model of ontology that is applied nowadays in various disciplines corresponds to an object, or more precisely, to various types of objects which are all based on a relational framework, and are used for organising different types of knowledge units. This view differs from the original value of ontology that was shaped within philosophy as a purely theoretical model, a global and universally-valid abstract classiÞ cation of reality. Therefore, it seems appropriate that this term should acquire greater precision especially when it is used within the domain of terminology.


The estimation of economic benefits of health effects through direct methods, such as contingent valuation, presents the problem of preference imprecision. This paper deals with this problem by proposing an elicitation method that allows the subject to state an interval for willingness to pay, without inducing any specific amount as a response. The paper also analyzes the effects of the context where changes in health occur on the associated imprecision level and the estimates, by comparing a situation without context with another in which effects are due to atmospheric pollution. The econometric modelling develops a Bayesian estimation method for censored intervals, which models the existing uncertainty between the lower and upper limits derived from the elicitation process. Results prove that data dispersion is significantly higher for the non-contextual scenario, and increases for the most severe symptoms.


It is pointed out theoretically that fiber acousto-optic mode coupling can occur between the higher-order modes with adjacent azimuthal numbers. Selective fiber mode conversion from LP01 to LP11, and then to LP21 or LP02 is demonstrated experimentally in a few-mode fiber by using a method of cascaded acousto-optic mode coupling.


BACKGROUND
Coxa vara is a rare condition. Surgical correction of coxa vara has been challenging. A few reports present correction coxa vara in multiple causes. In this retrospective study, the authors reported the results of surgical treatment of coxa vara by valgus osteotomy with angle blade plate fixation in 11 children with 12 hips.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Since 2002-2011, 11 children with 12 hips with coxa vara were reviewed retrospectively by medical chart and radiographic data after surgical treatment. All of them were operated by valgus osteotomy and fixation with angle blade plate. All of them had been hip spica cast between 8-12 weeks after surgery. Neck-shaft angle, Hilgenreiner-epiphyseal angle, leg-length discrepancy and Harris hip score were evaluated at preoperative, postoperative, and final follow-up.

RESULTS
Twelve coxa vara; 4 malunion femeral neck fracture, 4 congenital coxa vara, 2 spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia and 1 multiple epiphyseal dysplasia were operated on in 11 patients. One spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia had bilateral coxa vara. The average age at surgery was 9.5 years (range, 7-12 years). The average time of follow-up was 4.2 years (range, 3-7years). The average neck-shaft angle was changed significantly from 79.8 to 123.7 degrees, the Hilgenreiner-epiphyseal angle was changed significantly from 70 to 39.3 degrees and leg-length discrepancy was changed significantly from 2.2 to 1.7 centimeters at final follow-up. The average Harris Hip score was improved significantly from 68 at preoperative to 96 atfinalfollow-up. No complication or recurrence was found.

CONCLUSION
Surgical treatment of coxa vara is uncommon treatment. The aims of treatment were to change the stress in the neck femur from shearing force to compression force and also improving shortening that could reduce incidence of further fracture and osteoarthritis. The Hilgenreiner-epiphyseal angle should be closed to 38-40 degree or less after surgery.


A high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detector method (HPLC-DAD) was developed and validated for the determination of tramadol in human saliva. Samples of saliva were prepared utilizing liquid–liquid extraction with hexane-ethyl acetate (4:1, v/v). Propranolol was used as an internal standard (IS). The linear range and average recovery of tramadol were 0.25–4.00 μg/mL and 94.70%, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay precisions at low, intermediate and high concentrations were within 1.40–9.79 % and 0.77–3.98%, respectively. Intra- and inter-assay accuracies were within 98.50–107.13% and 100.44–103.89%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine tramadol in saliva concentrations in three healthy volunteers for 24 hours after administration of 100 mg oral doses of tramadol.


Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) is a system that integrates computerized tools and methodologies for managing the engineering knowledge and information that defines products. The PLM approach covers all the stages of the product lifecycle, beginning with the initial concept definition and including requirement characterization, detailed design, analyses and simulations, transition from development to production, production planning, production, maintenance and end of life. PLM tools support design processes distributed among decentralized development groups, as well as knowledge and information management within and outside the organization, including suppliers, clients and business partners. As in ERP, which supports the supply chain and management of the organization's operations, assets and resources, PLM supports the product definition information chain and management of the organization's intellectual property (IP). PLM systems comprise the following main and tightly integrated components: • Systems engineering and requirement management tools; • CAD tools for defining the digital product; • Product data and engineering processes management – PDM; • Digital manufacturing system, including design and simulation of production lines. Integrating PLM into the management system can shorten time-to-market, reduce expenses, improve quality and encourage innovation and creativity in developing products and planning production and service processes. The paper describes the principles and components of the PLM approach and presents a case study involving a PLM implementation at Boeing and Airbus. The case study describes the design and digital manufacturing of the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 aircraft. Both companies used similar tools in the PLM environment. At the time of the study (2006), Airbus used Dassault Catia V4 and Catia V5 with the Enovia PLM system, while Boeing used Dassault Catia V5 with Enovia. Major differences were found in system implementation, engineering process definitions and management methods, leading to entirely different results. The main differences in the implementations at Boeing and at Airbus were as follows: • In both cases, the engineering project and the business environment were extremely complex. At Airbus, design and production took place in four different countries at 16 different sites, with 41,000 employees. At Boeing, 6,000 engineers at 135 sites designed the plane, with 300 major suppliers; • In the case of Airbus, because of CAD system incompatibility changes in the design of the electrical wiring harnesses caused the harnesses not to fit the airplane body. The digital prototype was not updated with all the changes, and the lack of fit was only discovered at the stage of the actual physical assembly; • Boeing laid down strict rules during the design process to ensure that the information was complete and up to date. At Boeing, all those involved in development and production were obligated to work with one central data base, which was updated at least twice a week by all participants; • Airbus reported major losses and delays in supplying the planes, while Boeing reported high profits and shorter time-to-market. Airbus reported a loss of 6 billion dollars and a two-year delay in supplying the A380. Boeing, in contrast, reported a savings of 2 billion dollars and a reduction of 12 months in the timetable for supplying the 787. The use of PLM in the above examples leads to the following conclusions: • The design of major engineering processes (i.e. change process) is a critical success factor to PLM implementation; • Digital information must be compatible among the various CAD systems in the entire design chain; • All participants in the design and supply chain must impose and enforce engineering procedures and processes; • The information must be integrated among all the components in the PLM system; • A single data base must be created to reflect the product definition during the entire lifecycle of the product.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


In Trypanosoma brucei and related Kinetoplastids, regulation of gene expression occurs mostly post-transcriptionally, and RNA-binding proteins play a critical role in the regulation of mRNA and protein abundance. Trypanosoma brucei ZC3H28 is a 114 KDa cytoplasmic mRNA-binding protein with a single C(x)7C(x)5C(x)sH zinc finger at the C-terminus and numerous proline-, histine- or glutamine-rich regions. We here show that N-terminally tagged ZC3H28 copurifies ribosomes, various RNA-binding proteins, and the translation initiation complex EIF4E4/EIF4G3. ZC3H28 is preferentially associated with long RNAs that have low complexity sequences in their 3'-untranslated regions. When tethered to a reporter mRNA, ZC3H28 increased the mRNA level without a corresponding increase in protein expression; this suggests that it stabilized the reporter but at the same time suppressed its translation. Indeed, there was a clear negative correlation between ZC3H28 mRNA binding and ribosome density. After ZC3H28 depletion, the relative levels of ribosomal protein mRNAs increased while levels of some long mRNAs decreased, but there is no overall correlation between binding and RNAi effects on mRNA abundance. We speculate that ZC3H28 might be implicated in stabilizing poorly-translated mRNAs.


Preface The 2018 3rd International Conference on Sustainable (ICSC 2018) cities was successfully held on May 18, 2018 in Moscow, Russia. The conference is devoted to new technologies that enable sustainable cities development and promote a stable, comfortable, modern space for life. There were 3 major sections of the scientific track of the conference: - Strategic frontiers in sustainable city development - Transportation for sustainable cities - Green technologies for sustainable business - New energy solutions for sustainable development of modern cities This volume of IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (EES) is a compilation of the accepted papers in ICSC 2018 and represents contributions that were presented in the conference. This year we had experienced significant increase in the number of submitted for the review quality papers and only 41 of them where accepted for the oral or poster presentation. On behalf of the organization committee I would like to thank all of the conference sponsors, partners and volunteers who made conference possible. Looking forward to meeting you during ICSC 2018 On behalf of organizing and program committees of the ICSC 2017 Igor Balk, ICSC 2017 co-chair.


Background and Aims Aspiration of the secretions at birth is a step performed in the care of the newborn immediately after delivery, but it is not supported by evidence-based data. Our study aim is to prove the suction of the secretions is a necessary step in neonatal resuscitation and care at delivery. Method We studied 1154 consecutive cesarean section deliveries The care at birth was according to the AAP Resuscitation Guidelines, except the neonates were randomized to mandatory aspiration of the secretions at delivery by suction catheter (S group) or clearing the secretions from the mouth when they are visible by gentle aspiration of the mouth (C group). There were noted the time to first breath, need for bag and mask ventilation, occurrence of respiratory distress, need for mechanical ventilation, blood gas values at delivery. Results 25/577 of the neonates in the S group developed respiratory grunting after delivery compared with 42/577 neonates in the C group (p<0.001). The need of bag and mask ventilation at birth was similar between the groups (10/577 C; 11/577 S group). When stratified for gestational age(GA), 12/253 neonates in the S group with GA less than 38 weeks presented with respiratory distress and grunting after delivery compared with 35/260 in the C group (p<0.001). Conclusions Aspiration of the secretions at birth is a necessary step in the care at birth of the newborns born by cesarean section, especially if they are 38 weeks or less gestational age.


The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of clamping sequences in fixturing processes. We analyze the stability of fixturing prismatic workpieces during different stages of clamping. Sequences of clamping described in this research assure the stability of the workpiece during clamping processes and relax the stringent requirement on the positioning accuracy of placing the clamps.


Plasma corticosterone levels in rodents are characterised by a diurnal rhythm with low levels in the morning and markedly higher levels towards the evening, the activity phase of these nocturnal animals. Apart from diurnal changes, plasma corticosterone levels also display an ultradian rhythm [1], possibly resulting from its pulsatile secretion by the adrenal cortex [2]. At present it is unknown whether this ultradian rhythm in glucocorticoid hormone persists across the blood-brain barrier and can be found in the extracellular space of the brain. To clarify this issue, we designed a series of in vivo microdialysis studies to measure corticosterone levels in the rat hippocampus, a principal site of glucocorticoid action in the brain. Importantly, because the extracellular fluid is devoid of corticosterone binding proteins, dialysate levels represent the free, i.e. the biologically active fraction, of this glucocorticoid [3]. Male and female Wistar rats were equipped with a guide cannula under isoflurane anaesthesia. Seven days later a microdialysis probe was inserted, under isoflurane anaesthesia, into the hippocampus. After 2 days, collection of dialysate samples was started at 05:00 h and continued for 48 h. Sample intervals were 10 min or 30 min between 08:00-22:00 h and 22:00-08:00 h, respectively. On the second day animals were subjected to novelty (30 min) or swim stress (15 min, 25°C), or left undisturbed in their home cage. A sensitive radioimmunoassay was used to measure dialysate corticosterone. Data were analysed using Pulsar PC and SPSS software. It was found that hippocampal free corticosterone levels show a clear pulsatile pattern in both male and female rats. Interestingly, in both sexes the pulse amplitude increased towards the evening. A comparison between male (n=15) and female (n=10) rats over a 12 h period (09:00-21:00 h), revealed no significant gender differences (P > 0.05, Student's t test) in the total number of pulses (male (m): 14.6±0.5 vs. female (f): 14.5±1.2 pulses) and the pulse amplitude (0.11±0.01 (m) vs. 0.09±0.01 (f) μg/dl). Moreover, the mean corticosterone level was similar in male and female rats (0.14±0.02 (m) vs. 0.11±0.01 (f) μg/dl). While both novelty and swim stress caused a rise in free corticosterone in male and female rats, the ultradian rhythm was rapidly restored after termination of the stressors (maximal effect in male rats: novelty: 0.27±0.08 μg/dl, swim: 0.79±0.34 μg/dl; female rats: novelty 0.27±0.05 μg/dl, swim: 1.27±0.33 μg/dl). These data demonstrate for the first time the existence of an ultradian rhythm of free corticosterone in the hippocampus of rats. Such an ultradian pattern of hormone levels could be of great significance for glucocorticoid action in the hippocampus during ongoing conditions and for the role of this brain structure in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and other glucocorticoid-sensitive systems over the diurnal cycle.


because the patients in developing countries are actually less impaired. The sixth assessment which showed no difference between the two groups was the amount of time spent in psychotic episodes. The reasons for these differences in outcome between developing and developed countries are unknown, but the evidence from this study was sufficient to reject the hypothesis that the inclusion of atypical transient psychotic illnesses among the schizophrenic cases in the developing countries could explain the better course and outcome in these areas. It is concluded that some factor related to cultural environment is responsible for the different outcomes, but the nature of this remains obscure. Although many of the findings regarding predictions of outcome are in keeping with previous knowledge, one was not, and will be of interest to many. This was the fact that 'street drug' use was a predictor of poor outcome. It is stated that the initial expectation of those involved in the study had been that drug use might be a triggering factor in the precipitation of relatively benign schizophreniform illnesses. The result was the reverse of this expectation. This finding must parallel the clinical experience of many practising psychiatrists, and highlights an area deserving of further investigation.


Issue of the importance of multi-storey housing building appear as a solving on some of the urban problematic mainly in settlement issue. Some of societies considered that multi-storey housing able to solve parts of the problem. By vertically building housing, there will be reduction of farming land conversion; the ecosystem environmental will be revitalize, and affordable housing for the urban poorer communities. Nevertheless, other sides of societies are not being able to accept the multi storey housing concept because they consider it is inappropriate to the culture and social characteristic of the communities. Instead of solving the problem, this inappropriate concerned to create new problem rather than solving it. This research is explorative, perimeter on the investigation about communities perception on multi-storey housing build in Bali.


[1] Global climate models typically do not correctly simulate cloudiness associated with midlatitude synoptic systems because coarse grid spacing prevents them from resolving dynamics occurring at smaller scales and there exist no adequate parameterizations for the effects of these subgrid-scale dynamics. Comparison of modeled and observed cloud properties averaged over similar regimes (e.g., compositing) aids the diagnosis of simulation errors and identification of meteorological forcing responsible for producing particular cloud conditions. This study uses a k-means clustering algorithm to objectively classify satellite cloud scenes into distinct regimes based on grid box mean cloud fraction, cloud reflectivity, and cloud top pressure. The spatial domain is the densely instrumented southern Great Plains site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, and the time period is the cool season months (November–March) of 1999–2001. As a complement to the satellite retrievals of cloud properties, lidar and cloud radar data are analyzed to examine the vertical structure of the cloud layers. Meteorological data from the constraint variational analysis is averaged for each cluster to provide insight on the large-scale dynamics and advective tendencies coincident with specific cloud types. Meteorological conditions associated with high and low subgrid spatial variability are also investigated for each cluster. Cloud outputs from a single-column model version of the GFDL AM2 atmospheric model forced with meteorological boundary conditions derived from observations and a numerical weather prediction model were compared to observations for each cluster in order to determine the accuracy with which the model reproduces attributes of specific cloud regimes.


Purpose: Our studies have shown variable sensitivity of cultured melanoma cells to docetaxel. To better understand this response, we studied the role of signal transduction pathways in modulating docetaxel-induced melanoma killing. Experimental Design: Involvement of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Akt signaling was studied by evaluating their extent of activation in melanoma cells after treatment with docetaxel. The effect of their activation on docetaxel-induced apoptosis was assessed using biochemical inhibitors of the pathways and Western blot analysis of proteins involved. Results: Docetaxel induced activation of both JNK and ERK1/2 but not p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase or Akt kinases. Apoptosis was dependent on activation of JNK and mediated through activation of caspase-2 and caspase-dependent changes in Bax and Bak. The levels of activated JNK in individual lines showed a close correlation with the levels of apoptosis. In contrast, activation of ERK1/2 by docetaxel inhibited apoptosis and the levels of activation in individual lines were inversely correlated to the degree of apoptosis. Studies on the Bcl-2 family proteins seemed to reflect changes induced by activation of JNK and ERK1/2 pathways. Docetaxel-induced JNK activation was required for Bcl-2 phosphorylation as well as caspase-2–dependent activation of Bax and Bak and subsequent mitochondrial release of apoptosis-inducing factor and cytochrome c. In contrast, activation of ERK1/2 resulted in degradation of BH3-only protein Bim and phosphorylation of Bad. Conclusions: These studies provide further insights into sensitivity of melanoma cells to taxanes and provide a basis for the current rationale of combining taxanes with inhibitors of the Raf-ERK1/2 pathway.


Reinforcement learning algorithms, when used to solve multi-stage decision problems, perform a kind of online (incremental) search to find an optimal decision policy. The time complexity of this search strongly depends upon the size and structure of the state space and upon a priori knowledge encoded in the learners initial parameter values. When a priori knowledge is not available, search is unbiased and can be excessive. Cooperative mechanisms help reduce search by providing the learner with shorter latency feedback and auxiliary sources of experience. These mechanisms are based on the observation that in nature, intelligent agents exist in a cooperative social environment that helps structure and guide learning. Within this context, learning involves information transfer as much as it does discovery by trial-and-error. Two cooperative mechanisms are described: Learning with an External Critic (or LEC) and Learning By Watching (or LBW). The search time complexity of these algorithms, along with unbiased Q-learning, are analyzed for problem solving tasks on a restricted class of state spaces. The results indicate that while unbiased search can be expected to require time moderately exponential in the size of the state space, the LEC and LBW algorithms require at most time linear in the size of the state space and under appropriate conditions, are independent of the state space size altogether; requiring time proportional to the length of the optimal solution path. While these analytic results apply only to a restricted class of tasks, they shed light on the complexity of search in reinforcement learning in general and the utility of cooperative mechanisms for reducing search.


Total genome scans of genetically segregating populations derived from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and other rat models of essential hypertension suggested a presence of quantitative trait loci (QTL) regulating blood pressure on multiple chromosomes, including chromosome 5. The objective of the current study was to test directly a hypothesis that chromosome 5 of the SHR carries a blood pressure regulatory QTL. A new congenic strain was derived by replacing a segment of chromosome 5 in the SHR/Ola between the D5Wox20 and D5Rat63 markers with the corresponding chromosome segment from the normotensive Brown Norway (BN/Crl) rat. Arterial pressures were directly monitored in conscious, unrestrained rats by radiotelemetry. The transfer of a segment of chromosome 5 from the BN strain onto the SHR genetic background was associated with a significant decrease of systolic blood pressure, that was accompanied by amelioration of renal hypertrophy. The heart rates were not significantly different in the SHR compared to SHR chromosome 5 congenic strain. The findings of the current study demonstrate that gene(s) with major effects on blood pressure and renal mass exist in the differential segment of chromosome 5 trapped within the new SHR.BN congenic strain.


Previous work on end-to-end translation from speech has primarily used frame-level features as speech representations, which creates longer, sparser sequences than text. We show that a naive method to create compressed phoneme-like speech representations is far more effective and efficient for translation than traditional frame-level speech features. Specifically, we generate phoneme labels for speech frames and average consecutive frames with the same label to create shorter, higher-level source sequences for translation. We see improvements of up to 5 BLEU on both our high and low resource language pairs, with a reduction in training time of 60%. Our improvements hold across multiple data sizes and two language pairs.


Objective: Since December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) has been experienced from Wuhan, China to the world. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to summarize the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 and to explore the risk factors affecting the disease duration in Jiangan Fangcang shelter hospital, Wuhan, China. Methods: Clinical characteristics of 409 patients with COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. We describe the clinical characteristics and distribution of discharge time or transfer time for each patient. Then we performed univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis to identify potential risk factors for progression from non-severe to severe COVID-19 or death. Results: The median disease duration of all patients was 23 days (IQR 19-28). The main symptoms of the patient were fever (95.6%), cough (74.3%), tiredness (21.5%), and so on. Comorbidities mainly included hypertension (30.6%) diabetes (17.6%) and heart disease (12.5%). The univariate Cox regression analysis showed that old age, number of symptoms, the combination of hypertension, heart disease and pulmonary disease were associated with the progression of disease. The multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that old age (HR: 7.294; 95% CI: 1.442-36.888; P = 0.016), the combination of hypertension (HR: 2.230; 95% CI: 1.090-4.562; P = 0.028) and heart disease (HR: 2.650; 95% CI: 1.079-6.510; P = 0.034) were independent risk factors for progression of COVID-19. Conclusions: The age of the patient, the combination of hypertension and heart disease were independent risk factors for the progression of COVID-19. Cautions should be raised for patients with these risk factors.


Antilochus coqueberti predators of each developmental stage exhibited a relatively broad prey size range against their prey Dysdercus cingulatus when a single prey individual was provided in the laboratory. On the other hand, when two prey individuals of different developmental stages were provided together for a single predator in the laboratory, younger predators tended to attack younger prey and older predators tended to attack older prey. This tendency is similar to that observed in the field. During its nymphal developmental period, the predator killed fewer prey individuals when fed older prey, and more prey individuals when fed younger prey individuals. Predators of all nymphal instars examined exhibited a Holling's type II functional response to prey density, even if the developmental stages of the prey were different. The predatory properties of the predator elucidated in this study can provide a basis for a biological control program of D. cingulatus using its specialist predator A. coqueberti.


Background Connexins (Cxs) are integral membrane proteins that form plasma membrane channels, allowing cell-matrix and cell to cell communication. Initially described in joining excitable cells (nerve and muscle), gap junctions (GJs) are found joining virtually all cells in solid tissues and are essential for the functional co-ordination of organs by enabling direct transfer of small signalling molecules, metabolites, ions, and electrical signals. Several studies have revealed diverse channel-independent functions of Cxs, including control of cell growth and tumorigenicity. Chondrocytes from osteoarthritic cartilage have increased expression of connexin 43 (Cx43). The myriad roles of Cx43 and its implication in the development of diseases such as cancer, osteoarthritis or alzheimer have rise to many novel questions. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate possible RNA binding domains in the Cx43 and Cx26 sequences in order to study if cells are able to exchange molecules of RNA anchored to Cx43/Cx26 sequences present in exosomes or vesicles. Methods Amino acids sequences from Cx43 and Connexin 26 (Cx26) were obtained from the Protein Database (NCBI) and the Cx26 structure from the Protein Data Bank (RCSB) [1]. Protein sequences from both Cxs were aligned and compared with Protein Blast and Lalign servers. Analysis of RNA-binding propensity of Cx43 and Cx26 sequences was evaluated with three computational methods with the high predicting accuracy [2] aaRNA, Bind+ and Pprint. Results Protein sequences were highly conserved between Cx43 and Cx26 with the exception of the the C-terminal end (CTD). The combination of the scores obtained from the three predictors showed four domains that potentially interact with RNA sequences. Two of these domains include the intracellular loop (ICL) and the CTD. Conclusions Our results suggest that Cx43 and Cx26 are able to interact with RNA targets including siRNA and mRNA. These interactions would have a range of potential implications for cellular communication and control of signalling pathways. References Maeda S et al. Nature 458: 597–602. Nagarajan R et al. PLos ONE 9 (3): e91140. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Even in nominally uniform solar wind flows, such as over the solar poles near solar minimum, the wind velocity exhibits fluctuations of order 40 km/s. We have shown previously that such variations will shear planar parallel propagating magnetic fluctuations leading to the generation of transverse wave vectors. Here we extend our previous two‐dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to three dimensions and describe how, starting from an initial spectrum of circularly polarized Alfven waves with radial wave vectors, such "microstreams" might produce fluctuations that could be described as "quasi‐two‐dimensional". Our goal is to elucidate the origin of the "two‐component" nature of the correlation function of magnetic fluctuations.


In this paper, a 3.5-in computer hard disk drive consisting of a rotating-shaft fluid dynamic bearing spindle motor and 4-disk spinning at 15 000 rpm under external linear vibration is analyzed by commercial finite element analysis software. Predicted frequency response functions of the head-disk off-track motion per unit input acceleration are compared to measured hard disk drive position-error signals on a shaker table. Both theoretical and experimental results show a huge disk pack radial motion near 1600 Hz under linear in-plane vibration. The mode shape analysis indicates that the large radial motion without noticeable disk bending is mainly due to the bending of the motor bracket and shaft. The characteristics of the high frequency radial mode are discussed with the variation of fluid dynamic bearing parameters with the verification of experimental results.


This paper describes the design and the implementation of an academic semester course based on an integrative teaching / learning approach within a Master's Program in Construction Management and Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Herein, two newly developed business simulations represent the core of the course. It is supplemented by additional teaching methods which are oriented toward the teaching-/ learning targets affiliated to the core element "business simulation". These methods are selected by using a handy tool, with which the user is able to select appropriate teaching / learning methods, tied to the intended competency profile which defines the goal of the course. Findings indicate that an integrative teaching / learning approach seems to improve participant's competency acquisition indeed. Therefore the aim of this paper is to give suggestions for the practical implementation of integrative teaching / learning concepts involving business simulations and future research in general as well. The development and the implementation are described as universally as possible to allow the transferability to other domains. In addition, this paper should contribute to a lively discussion on integrative teaching / learning approaches involving business simulations at large.


Farming systems can expose animals to chronic mild stress which is known to induce negative affective state. Affective state in animals, as in humans, can be assessed through behavioral cues. This study aimed to describe the effect of a chronic mild stress, known to induce a negative affective state, on sheep health through their response to vaccination. The study used 15 lambs subjected to a model of chronic mild stress for 15 weeks and 15 lambs reared under conventional farming as a control group. After 7 weeks of stressful treatment, the lambs were individually exposed to a judgment bias test to assess a putative stress-induced 'pessimism.' After 15 weeks of stressful treatment, antibody immune response was measured after an injection of a live vaccine challenge (Chlamydia abortus attenuated vaccine strain 1B). Stressed lambs displayed a pessimistic-like perception in the judgment bias test, revealing a negative affective state. Stressed and control animals showed different immunological reactions to vaccine challenge: stressed sheep had lower hemoglobin concentrations and higher platelet, granulocyte and acute-phase protein concentrations. Antibody response induced by the vaccine strain was not different between stressed and control sheep. Our results suggest that negative affective state induced by chronic stress treatment may induce a stronger inflammatory response to vaccine challenge in sheep. Improvement of animal health may be achieved through consideration of stressors that may affect the emotional and immunological state of sheep.


Esophageal and gastric cancers are distinct carcinomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract, although the distinction between them becomes less clear at the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ). Increasingly accurate staging is possible based on newer radiographic and surgical techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET), laparoscopy and thoracoscopy, laparoscopic ultrasound, and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). For both cancer types, tumor classification is determined by depth of penetration of the primary tumor into the gastric or esophageal wall. For esophageal cancer, primary tumor anatomic position-upper, mid, and lower esophagus-is used to define the local nodal basin. Metastases in nodes outside the local basin are considered to be distant (M) rather than regional (N). In gastric cancer, the region of nodal metastasis has been abandoned in favor of the number of lymph nodes containing metastasis, which predicts outcome more accurately-patients with more than 15 positive lymph nodes have an outcome comparable to those with M disease. Increasing consideration is being given to the subclassification of tumors near the GEJ into types based on anatomical position, although this staging scheme ("Adenocarcinoma of the EsophagoGastric junction" or AEG type) has not yet been universally adopted. We review the current pathologic staging systems for esophageal and gastric cancers, the clinical staging approaches for these diseases, and the controversy surrounding classification of tumors of the GEJ.


The creation of more jobs for China's massive labor force is the foremost economic development objective for the Chinese government. This paper analyzes the relations between economic growth and employment growth, between capital growth and employment growth, and between wage growth and employment growth in China. The solution to China's unemployment problem requires not only changes in China's macroeconomic and employment policies, but also a change in the priorities of the country's economic growth model from output growth toward employment growth. Moreover, it will be necessary to handle correctly the relations between labor-intensive industries and capital-intensive industries, balance the interests of laborers and the interests of capital, and support the expansion of domestic demand and the creation of employment opportunities.


Housing is a basic need and critical issue in case of sheltering the low income people. Generally migrants and the local poor are considered as low income group. Low income people have limited earning and they cannot afford rental housing as their major portion of income goes to purpose of food. Affordable housing is a critical issue in view of the low income of people. Majority of low income people are living in poor quality housing where the absence of basic services and facilities are significant. In this study the characteristics of low income housing is specifically examined in respect of housing condition. The issue of affordability of low income people is examined in terms of their income and expenditure for purpose of rent and utility services and facilities. If the expenditure of rent and utility services is more than 30% of their total income then housing is not affordable for the low income people. In this study, effort is given to identify the causes of mobility and locational choice of the low income people. Frequent movement is considered as a barrier on the way of continuous income and affordable housing.


Popular culture conventions (cons) can be powerful opportunities for library outreach, but they are underutilized or ignored as possibilities for many libraries. This article summarizes the results of a survey of libraries concerning their own con attendance/non-attendance as well as perceived benefits and actual barriers to attending. We also discuss our own experiences attending cons, including lessons learned and benefits gained by our own institution.