This article-length book review jointly examines two legal biographies of two landmark First Amendment decisions and the justices who produced them. In The Great Dissent (Henry Holt and Co. 2013), Thomas Healy explores Oliver Wendell Holmes's dissent in Abrams v. United States (1919), which arguably laid the cornerstone for modern American free speech jurisprudence. In The Progeny (ABA 2014), Stephen Wermiel and Lee Levine explore William J. Brennan's majority opinion in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) and the development and evolution of its progeny over Brennan's remaining twenty-five years on the Court. The review then explores three ideas: 1) the connections and intersections between these watershed opinions and their revered authors, including how New York Times and its progeny brought to fruit the First Amendment seeds that Holmes planted in Abrams; 2) three recent Supreme Court decisions that show how deeply both cases are engrained into the First Amendment fabric; and 3) how Brennan took the speech-protective lead in many other areas of First Amendment jurisprudence.


To explore the effects of icariin on the biocompatibility of dental implants, icariin(ICA-) loaded TiO 2 nanotubes were fabricated on Ti substrates via anodic oxidation and physical absorption.The surface characteristics of the specimens were monitored by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), contact angle measurements (CA), and highpressure liquid chromatography. Additionally, the activities of bone marrow cells, such as cytoskeletal, proliferative activities, mineralization, and osteogenesis-related gene expression on the substrates were investigated in detail. The characterization results demonstrated that ICA-loaded TiO 2 nanotubes were successfully fabricated and the hydrophilicity of these TiO 2 nanotubes was significantly higher than that of the pure Ti groups. The results also showed that ICA-loaded TiO 2 nanotubes might not have enhanced effects on cell proliferation and ALP expression. However, it seemed to significantly promote differentiation of bone marrow cells, demonstrated by enhancing the formation of mineralized nodule and the upregulation of the gene expression such as OC, BSP, OPN, and COL-1. The results indicated that ICA-loaded TiO 2 nanotubes can modulate bioactivity of bone marrow cells, which is promising for potential applications in the orthopedics field.


The use of mobile devices that have high technical capabilities has increased in the last years. These devices are appropriate instructional tools reflecting the trends in modern education by providing instant access to information that is used with mobile learning purposes. As is in many areas of education, m-learning has been becoming widespread in medical education. Therefore, medical students' readiness for m-learning is highly important. This study aims to investigate how medical students' beliefs influence their behavioral intention to use mobile devices for learning purposes. The 376 medical students (222 juniors, 154 sophomores; aged between 18 and 24 years; 214 males, 162 females) participated in this study. All participants had mobile devices. Data were collected through a survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the findings. The proposed model, which is created based on the theory of planned behavior, was tested in the study. Based on the findings, the medical students' perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, learning autonomy, intention to use, perceived self-efficacy toward mobile devices, and m-learning are found to be high level. However, according to medical students, instructors' readiness to apply m-learning has been found to be low level. The findings showed that the proposed model explains medical students' behavioral intention to use m-learning reasonably well. The behavioral intention is explained with a variance of 76% in the model. Subjective norm is the main indicator of behavioral intention, followed by perceived behavioral control and attitude. The proposed model in the study could be useful to design m-learning applications, environments, and implementation plans effectively in medical education.


Memory leaks are known to be a major cause of reliability and performance issues in software. This paper describes a run-time scheme that detects and removes memory leaks with minimal performance overhead and with no modifications to application source code. The scheme consists of a first stage where a pattern recognition technique proactively detects subtle memory leaks, followed by a more resource-intensive second stage that scans the memory space of an application and removes detected memory leaks. The pattern recognition technique in the first stage is based on the multivariate state estimation technique (MSET) which provides accurate detection of subtle memory leaks with very little overhead. The second stage is only activated when problems are identified by the first stage. For our prototype, this second stage is based on debugging and analysis tools provided by Solaris 10. Due to the low-overhead impact of the first stage, the system can be monitored for memory leaks without incurring noticeable performance degradation. We present and discuss some results from our unique proactive detection and debugging methodology


The charge exchange channel of the proton-deuteron break-up reaction pd to npp at 1 GeV is studied in impulse approximation. The final-state interaction in the 1S0 state of the pp subsystem induces a slight asymmetry in the spectator proton angle and a threshold enhancement in the pp effective mass. The 20% of the observed events which have large effective mass may be explained quantitatively by the production of a Delta resonance which is de-excited through a final-state interaction with the spectator nucleon. It is concluded that almost all of the small-angle np charge exchange cross section at this energy involves nucleon spin-flip.


BACKGROUND
Thermal ablation is a minimally invasive and safe treatment for benign thyroid nodules, and the volume reduction rate (VRR) of nodule is a primary clinical efficacy indicator.

PURPOSE
To screen factors influencing VRR in benign thyroid nodules after thermal ablation and establish a predictable nomogram.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This retrospective study enrolled 238 patients with benign thyroid nodules who underwent thermal ablation between January 2016 and September 2021. Clinical information and imaging characteristics in routine ultrasound (US) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) were evaluated. Factors influencing the VRR ≥75% were screened using multivariate logistic regression, and a predictable nomogram was established.

RESULTS
At the 12-month follow-up, the VRR of nodule was 77.0 ± 20.6% (18.4-100%). Seven factors influencing the VRR ≥75.0% were identified: echogenicity, component, calcification, enhancement degree, enhancement defect, ring enhancement, and energy of ablation. A nomogram was established based on the above factors, and the predictive ability of the model was confirmed by internal validation with 1000 bootstrap repetitions. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the model was 0.926, and the calibration curve and decision curve analysis (DCA) revealed that this model demonstrated predictive ability.

CONCLUSION
Seven factors influencing VRR in benign thyroid nodules after thermal ablation were screened out in the present study and used to establish a nomogram to predict the probability of VRR ≥75% at the 12-month follow-up. It would be beneficial to make personalized medical decisions to trigger thermal ablation in patients with benign thyroid nodules.


Abstract 1. Metoclopramide is a widely used clinical drug in a variety of medical settings with rare acute dystonic events reported. The aim of this study was to assess a previous report of inactivation of CYP2D6 by metoclopramide, to determine the contribution of various CYPs to metoclopramide metabolism, and to identify the mono-oxygenated products of metoclopramide metabolism. 2. Metoclopramide interacted with CYP2D6 with Type I binding and a Ks value of 9.56 ± 1.09 µM. CYP2D6 was the major metabolizer of metoclopramide and the two major products were N-deethylation of the diethyl amine and N-hydroxylation on the phenyl ring amine. CYPs 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, and 3A4 also metabolized metoclopramide. 3. While reversible inhibition of CYP2D6 was noted, CYP2D6 inactivation by metoclopramide was not observed under conditions of varying concentration or varying time using SupersomesTM or pooled human liver microsomes. 4. The major metabolites of metoclopramide were N-hydroxylation and N-deethylation formed most efficiently by CYP2D6 but also formed by all CYPs examined. Also, while metoclopramide is metabolized primarily by CYP2D6, it is not a mechanism-based inactivator of CYP2D6 in vitro.


This thesis presents Hubble Space Telescope (HST) infra-red imaging of the locations of 40 Swift detected long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) with known redshifts z < 3 and subsequent analysis. Of the 40 imaged, host galaxy detections are obtained in 35 cases and upper limits in the remaining 5. For the 35 detected hosts, there is sufficient quality data to locate the LGRB to better than an HST pixel (∼ 0.13) precision in 30 cases. Data on the burst locations is shown, as well as on the photometry and morphology of their host galaxies. Also shown is that the distribution of bursts with respect to the light distribution of their hosts is similar in the infra-red to that already measured by previous work in the optical.


Different generalized filters topologies are proposed in the fractional-order domain. Three voltage-mode topologies and one current-mode topology are used to realize several types of fractional-order filters by applying different admittances combinations. The proposed topologies are designed using a single second-generation current conveyor (CCII-) and two fractional-order capacitors, which add more degrees of freedom for the design. The generalized Fractional Transfer Function (FTF) for each proposed topology is investigated where the fractional-order low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, and notch filters with α+β)-order are realized. The Numerical results are provided where the stability analysis is presented for different cases. Also, the PSPICE simulations are presented to prove the theoretical findings of selected cases.


The tumor suppressor TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in cancer. Most TP53 mutations are missense mutations in the DNA-binding domain, which in addition to loss of canonical p53 activity, frequently confer gain-of-function (GOF) aberrant transcriptional activity through mutant p53 localization to non-canonical genes. GOF phenotypes differ by mutation and cell identity and are reported to include increased proliferation, migration, metabolic reprogramming, and therapy resistance. We found that several recurring p53 mutations exhibit a sex-bias in patients with glioblastoma (GBM). In vitro and in vivo analysis of three mutations, p53R172H, p53Y202C, and p53Y217C revealed sex differences in each mutation's ability to transform primary mouse astrocytes. p53R172H exhibited a far greater ability to transform female astrocytes than males, p53Y202C transformed both male and female astrocytes with a small male bias, and p53Y217C only exhibited GOF transformation effects in male astrocytes. These phenotypic differences reflect an interaction between sex and GOF mutation to drive unique gene expression patterns in cancer pathways. We found that mutant p53 exhibits sex and mutation specific aberrant genomic localization to the transcriptional start sites of upregulated genes, whose promoter regions were enriched for different sets of transcription factor DNA-binding motifs. Together, our data establish a novel paradigm for sex specific mutant p53 GOF activity in GBM with implications for all cancer.


We demonstrate the effectiveness of democratization and efficient computation as key concepts of our experimentation platform (XP) by presenting four new models supported by the platform: 1) Weighted least squares, 2) Quantile bootstrapping, 3) Bayesian shrinkage, and 4) Dynamic treatment effects. Each model is motivated by a specific business problem but is generalizable and extensible. The modular structure of our platform allows independent innovation on statistical and computational methods. In practice, a technical symbiosis is created where increasingly advanced user contributions inspire innovations to the software that in turn enable further methodological improvements. This cycle adds further value to how the XP contributes to business solutions.


Present clinical study was designed to assess the lekhaniya effect of Vacha and Musta in reducing sign and symptoms of Medoroga. Lekhaniya effect can be correlates with antiobesity drug action. Total 40 patient of Medoroga were registered in the OPD of Pakwasa, (Shri Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur). Total patients were divided equally into 2 groups: A and B. Study was done by using randomized single blind method. The trial drugs were identified pharmacognostically as per API standards. In the study both male and female patients with clinical sign and symptoms of Medoroga was taken. Assessment was done with regard to 10 symptoms of Medoroga in Ayurvedic classical text and 3 parameters from modern medicine, i.e., weight height according to age, waist-hip ratio, BMI.    These were done before and after the treatment. Group A were treated by 250 mg Vacha churna, BD and group B were treated by 2 gm Musta churna, BD with lukewarm water; for period of 60 days with follow up in 30 days. The result assessed on the basis of symptomatic improvement by using statistical one way ANOVA test. Unpaired t-test was used to comparison between both groups. As a statistical analysis Vacha churna and Musta churna were found significant for Lekhaniya karma. Clinical study shows that Musta churna was more significant (in 5 symptoms angagaurav, pipasavruddhi, shramasamarthata, daurbalta, swedadhikya, also in objective parameters) than vacha. In comparative study between both groups the result was non-significant. Keywords: Lekhniya effect, Medoroga, Musta churna, Obesity, Vacha churna Cite this Article Sunita R. Paradkar, Swatee N. Pardhi; Clinical Evaluation of lekhaniya Effect of vacha ( acorus calamus ) and Musta ( cyperus rotundus ) in Medoroga w.s.r. to Obesity: A Comparative Study. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Pharmacognosy. 2016; 3(1): 1–8p.


The Independence volcano was a major eruptive center in the northern part of the Absaroka volcanic province during middle to late Eocene time. A huge strato-volcano developed that led to the accumulation of thick volcani-clastic deposits of intermediate composition in the surrounding low-lying areas. A large volume of calc-alkalic and potassic-alkalic volcanics was extruded, reworked, and distributed over the Independence area during a period of volcanic activity that probably extended over a relatively long time. The extrusive rocks are divided into five groups: Group I volcanics, which consist of dacitic, rhyodacitic, and trachyandesitic breccias and minor lava flows; Group II volcanics, consisting of a series of quartz latitic lava flows; Group III volcanics, which consist of trachyandesitic pyroclastic breccias, tuffs, agglomerates, volcanic mud-flows, conglomerates and sandstones; Group IV volcanics, which is a sequence of well-bedded, reworked epiclastic volcanic conglomerates and sandstones; and Group V volcanics, which consist of alkalic basalts and minor felsic tuffs. The volcanic rocks show a normal line of descent from trachybasalts to trachyandesites and rhyodacites. Coarse-grained intrusive equivalents of the extrusive rocks which occur in the core of the Independence volcano are syenogabbro, monzonite, and granodiorite; the general felsic to mafic extrusive sequence suggests tapping of a differentiating magma chamber at successively deeper levels. Several small plugs aligned with a northwest trend were emplaced along a major fault zone during the main period of volcanism.


A 72-year-old man with ileocecal lymphadenopathy was found to have Epstein-Barr virus-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma using open biopsy, and an ileostoma was created. R-CHOP-like chemotherapy was initiated, but his malnutrition did not improve. After 3 cycles of chemotherapy, a 2-m-long Cestoda was removed from the stoma and was identified as Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense using mitochondria cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 targeted polymerase chain reaction analysis. Although D. nihonkaiense infections are asymptomatic, the ileostomy was thought to have exacerbated the malabsorption in this patient. Parasitic infections are rare; however, they should be added to the differential diagnosis of malnutrition of unknown cause during chemotherapy for hematological malignancies.


There is a rising requirement for high quality satellite photos and also fast distribution of this kind of spatial data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) platforms are needed to be implemented with the capability of dealing with the massive spatial data, especially image data. Thus these platforms need computational power and high capacity data storage. Nowadays Cloud Computing is one of the most popular IT solutions for GIS. It serves tremendous computing resources over the Internet. Users do not need to know neither the location of the servers which the applications run on nor the data storages their information is collected. The rise of Cloud Computing is making notable change in various areas of information technology. GIS technology users are one of the first customers to explore the cloud-based applications and its benefits. Users take the advantage of sharing spatial data and applications using the cloud. Therefore massive spatial data storages fit into cloud instead of transferring the data via the network.


There are partitions in military environments such as a battlefield or a hostile region. They are likely to suffer from intermittentnetwork connectivity. They are having frequent partitions. Disruption-tolerant network DTN technologies are is a true and easy solutions.DTN is a Disruption-tolerant network.It allows devices which are wireless and carried by peoples in a military to interact with each other. These devices access the confidential information or command reliably by exploiting external storage nodes. In these networking environments DTN is very successful technology. When there is no wired connection between a source and a destination device, the information from the source node may need to wait in the intermediate nodes for a large amount of time until the connection would be correctly established. one of the challenging approach is a ABE. That is attribute-based encryption which fulfills the requirements for secure data retrieval in DTNs. The concept is Cipher text Policy ABE (CP-ABE).it gives a appropriate way of encryption of data. the encryption includes the attribute set that the decryption needs to possess in order to decrypt the cipher text. Hence, Many users can be allowed to decrypt different parts of data according to the security policy.


The present study was designed to examine the retention of relative force in the scaling of a serial force pattern in finger-tapping sequences. On practice trials, 11 male college students tapped a force plate connected to strain gauges which provided feedback. On test trials, subjects recalled both the force pattern (100 g-100 g-100 g-300 g) and intertap interval (400 msec.) acquired during practice without feedback (recalled task) and then produced a halved (halved task) or doubled-force (doubled task) at the fixed intertap interval. Analysis showed that, although there was no difference for absolute forces between the recalled task and the halved task, the forces at the doubled task were three times as great as those at the recalled task. For relative forces, on the other hand, although there was no difference among the three tasks, the force ratios were closer to 1:1:1:2 than 1:1:1:3. This indicated that the scaling of force pattern was a more difficult adaptive task than that of the intertap interval in the previous study (Inui, Ishida, & Yamanishi, 1999).


Two of four patients with ballooning posterior leaflet syndrome died suddenly and the remaining two developed a near-fatal arrhythmia. These four patients demonstrate the potentially fatal nature of the ballooning posterior leaflet syndrome.


Abstract We have studied the molecular mechanisms of variants in solute carrier Family 6 Member 1 associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, including various epilepsy syndromes, autism and intellectual disability. Based on functional assays of solute carrier Family 6 Member 1 variants, we conclude that partial or complete loss of γ-amino butyric acid uptake due to reduced membrane γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 trafficking is the primary aetiology. Importantly, we identified common patterns of the mutant γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 protein trafficking from biogenesis, oligomerization, glycosylation and translocation to the cell membrane across variants in different cell types such as astrocytes and neurons. We hypothesize that therapeutic approaches to facilitate membrane trafficking would increase γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 protein membrane expression and function. 4-Phenylbutyrate is a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for paediatric use and is orally bioavailable. 4-Phenylbutyrate shows promise in the treatment of cystic fibrosis. The common cellular mechanisms shared by the mutant γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator led us to hypothesize that 4-phenylbutyrate could be a potential treatment option for solute carrier Family 6 Member 1 mutations. We examined the impact of 4-phenylbutyrate across a library of variants in cell and knockin mouse models. Because γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 is expressed in both neurons and astrocytes, and γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 deficiency in astrocytes has been hypothesized to underlie seizure generation, we tested the effect of 4-phenylbutyrate in both neurons and astrocytes with a focus on astrocytes. We demonstrated existence of the mutant γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 retaining wildtype γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1, suggesting the mutant protein causes aberrant protein oligomerization and trafficking. 4-Phenylbutyrate increased γ-amino butyric acid uptake in both mouse and human astrocytes and neurons bearing the variants. Importantly, 4-phenylbutyrate alone increased γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 expression and suppressed spike wave discharges in heterozygous knockin mice. Although the mechanisms of action for 4-phenylbutyrate are still unclear, with multiple possibly being involved, it is likely that 4-phenylbutyrate can facilitate the forward trafficking of the wildtype γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1 regardless of rescuing the mutant γ-amino butyric acid transporter 1, thus increasing γ-amino butyric acid uptake. All patients with solute carrier Family 6 Member 1 variants are heterozygous and carry one wildtype allele, suggesting a great opportunity for treatment development leveraging wildtype protein trafficking. The study opens a novel avenue of treatment development for genetic epilepsy via drug repurposing.


In line with the growing trend of using machine learning to help solve combinatorial optimisation problems, one promising idea is to improve node selection within a mixed integer programming (MIP) branch-and-bound tree by using a learned policy. Previous work using imitation learning indicates the feasibility of acquiring a node selection policy, by learning an adaptive node searching order. In contrast, our imitation learning policy is focused solely on learning which of a node's children to select. We present an offline method to learn such a policy in two settings: one that comprises a heuristic by committing to pruning of nodes; one that is exact and backtracks from a leaf to guarantee finding the optimal integer solution. The former setting corresponds to a child selector during plunging, while the latter is akin to a diving heuristic. We apply the policy within the popular open-source solver SCIP, in both heuristic and exact settings. Empirical results on five MIP datasets indicate that our node selection policy leads to solutions significantly more quickly than the state-of-the-art precedent in the literature. While we do not beat the highly-optimised SCIP state-of-practice baseline node selector in terms of solving time on exact solutions, our heuristic policies have a consistently better optimality gap than all baselines, if the accuracy of the predictive model is sufficient. Further, the results also indicate that, when a time limit is applied, our heuristic method finds better solutions than all baselines in the majority of problems tested. We explain the results by showing that the learned policies have imitated the SCIP baseline, but without the latter's early plunge abort. Our recommendation is that, despite the clear improvements over the literature, this kind of MIP child selector is better seen in a broader approach to using learning in MIP branch-and-bound tree decisions.


Background: Serum antimullerian hormone (AMH) proposed to be a reliable marker of ovarian reserve; the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence and value of laparoscopic management in endometriosis as measured by serum AMH levels. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 33 infertile patients who referred to fertility - Infertility Center of Isfahan - with different stages of endometriosis managed by diagnostic operative laparoscopy and serum AMH levels were measured pre and one month postoperative laparoscopy. Main outcome measures were serum AMH levels in correlation with the type of infertility, stage of endometriosis, and type of surgery in infertile patients. Results: 33 infertile patients enrolled in the study with mean age 28.9 ± 5 years, and thus did not show a significant difference. Mean serum AMH levels was 4.23 ± 3.75 ng/ml and 2.2 ± 2.47 ng/ml, respectively, in primary and secondary infertility groups before and one month after laparoscopy, which shows a significant difference (P < 0.001). Median AMH level changes in Cauterization (0.67 ± 0.76 ng/ml), endometrioma excision 2 ± 0.6 ng/ml, both 2.18 ± 0.81 ng/ml and shows no significant differences. Mean serum AMH levels were definitely decreased in minimal/mild and severe stage endometriosis before and 1 month after laparoscopy, (1.84 ± 2.06 ng/ml and 2.18 ± 3.45 ng/ml), respectively. Also serum AMH according to ovarian appearance and evolvement showed no significant differences after laparoscopy: (5.5 ± 1.4 ng/ml and 2.76 ± 0.96 ng/ml) and (3.37 ± 2.2 ng/ml and 1.84 ± 1.5 ng/ml). Conclusion: Serum AMH levels clearly decreased 1 month after operative laparoscopy.


Background Many residents volunteer at summer camps for children with Diabetes Mellitus and Oncologic conditions. Volunteering at summer camps separates residents from their family and often requires them to live in rustic conditions. This study is being conducted as a quality assurance tool to assess how valuable of an experience it is for residents to volunteer at summer camps, and to ensure that the service is not being provided without benefit. There are few studies on volunteerism in residency to assess the impact on the training and overall experience of residents. The University of California, San Francisco looked at residents' international volunteer elective, and found that it enhanced the clinical experience of the residents and also seemed to promote volunteerism after graduation. (Clin Orthop 396:12–18). Methods A survey was distributed to residents in the current UBC Paediatric Residency Training program in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years, as well as the graduates of year 2002, 2003, 2004, and current subspecialty fellows. A separate survey was completed for each camp attended. All surveys are confidential. All camps of summers of 2000–04 were eligible. Results The preliminary results show a total number of surveys being returned being 17. All participants went as camp physicians. Although residents were there to provide constant medical support and coverage, the number of hours of work done was surprisingly low. The physicians rated the following experiences as very valuable or uniquely valuable with the following frequency: medical learning experience 65%; emotional/quality of life learning experiences for the child 82%; medical care provision experience 76%; interactive experience with other faculty/medical staff 82%; and the value of a camp experience for other trainees at the same level of training 94%. Conclusions The overall experience provided by attending camp as a volunteer seems to be positive and well received by the residents and fellows who responded. This practice should be continued, supported and encouraged within residency programs.


Many engineering faculty believe that when students perceive a course to have a high workload, students will rate the course and the performance of the course instructor poorly. This belief can be particularly worrying to engineering faculty since engineering courses are often perceived as uniquely demanding. The present investigation demonstrated that student ratings of workload and of overall instructor performance in engineering courses were not correlated (e.g., Spearman's rho = 0.068) in data sets from either of two institutions. In contrast, a number of evaluation items were strongly correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.7 to 0.899) with ratings of overall instructor performance across engineering, mathematics and science, and humanities courses. The results of the present study provide motivation for faculty seeking to improve their teaching and course evaluations to focus on teaching methods, organization/preparation, and interactions with students, rather than course workload.


This study aimed to investigate the mapping of parenting problems and to compose parental self-efficacy scale for parents of primary school age children. This study is a preliminary study in the study of parental self-efficacy in Bandung city. This research was carried out because of the existing research has shown that parental self-efficacy is an important factor for children and parents. But what about the condition of parental selfefficacy in Indonesia, particulary in Bandung city is unknown because there is no parental self-efficacy scale Indonesian version. To create parental self-efficacy scale, researchers need to understand the problems of parenting in Bandung city contextually. In a survey on parenting problems in Bandung city, taken 300 samples parents primary school age children. Parents asked 11 questions about the role of parentsand parenting problems. The result of the survey are then mapped into a mapping of parenting problems. Obtained results, there are 11 job description (role) of parents. Parenting problems come from children: nature unruly children; from parents: physical exhaustion parents, and less time for children. Based on the mapping of parenting problems are then compiled a parental self-efficacy scale Indonesian (Bandung) version. Keywords:Parenting, parental self-efficacy


It still remains intriguing how signal specificity is achieved when different signals are relayed by the common intracellular signal transduction pathways. A well documented example for signal specificity determination is found in rat phaeochromocytoma PC12 cells where epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation produces a transient mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation and leads to cell proliferation while nerve growth factor (NGF) initiates a sustained MAPK activation and induces cell differentiation. In this simulation, we demonstrated that NGF‐induced sustained MAPK activation may mainly depend on continual regeneration of NGF receptors and that the presence of a small pool of surface receptors is enough to maintain a sustained MAPK activation. On the other hand, MAPK activation is not significantly sensitive to the half‐life of internalized receptors and the levels of NGF‐specific MAPK phosphatase MAP kinase phosphatase‐3 (MKP‐3), though cytoplasmic persistence of internalized NGF‐bound receptors and the MKP‐3 dependent feedback control also contribute to the sustaining of MAPK activation. These results are consistent with the recent experimental evidence that persistent tyrosine receptor kinase A (TrkA) activity is necessary to maintain transcription in the differentiating PC12 cells ( Chang et al. 2003 ) and a sustained Src kinase activity is detected in response to NGF stimulation ( Gatti 2003 ). It is suggested that sustained or transient MAPK activation induced by different growth factor and neurotrophins, which is crucial to their signaling specificity, could be satisfactorily accounted for by their specific receptor turnover kinetics rather than by the activation of specific downstream signaling cascades.


Monocular depth estimation from Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images is a well-studied ill-posed problem in computer vision which has been investigated intensively over the past decade using Deep Learning (DL) approaches. The recent approaches for monocular depth estimation mostly rely on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Estimating depth from two-dimensional images plays an important role in various applications including scene reconstruction, 3D object-detection, robotics and autonomous driving. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of this research topic including the problem representation and a short description of traditional methods for depth estimation. Relevant datasets and 13 state-of-the-art deep learning-based approaches for monocular depth estimation are reviewed, evaluated and discussed. We conclude this paper with a perspective towards future research work requiring further investigation in monocular depth estimation challenges.


Akathisia is a common and distressing side effect of antipsychotic and some other psychotropic medications. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge of its clinical features, pathophysiology, and treatment. Restless legs syndrome and akathisia associated with Parkinson's disease are discussed in so far as they help understand drug-induced akathisia. The complexity of the disorder, and the difficulty in characterizing and quantifying it, may explain why researchers have relatively neglected akathisia for so long. The recent upsurge of research interest promises the hope of a better understanding of its pathophysiology so that effective therapy may result.


100 Patients with first episode of acute myocardial infarction were examined. 9 patients were excluded from study because of poor echgenicity and the study consisted of 91 patients (53 anterior, 31 inferior, 6 posterior and 1 lateral). Diagnostic admission electrocardiograph was possible in 31 (69 percent) of anterior and 14 (46 percent) of inferior infarcts. 6 patients of posterior and one of lateral wall infarct had the first electrocardiograph within normal limits. Adequate 2 dimensional echocardiography was possible in 91 patients, 71 (79 percent) had the typical wall motion abnormalities. 45 (84 percent) of anterior, 22 (70 percent) of inferior, 4 (60 percent) of posterior and one (50 percent) patient of lateral wall infarct had the diagnostic segmental dysfunction suggestive of myocardial infarction.


This article reviews hydrogeological studies carried out between 2016 and 2018 in the Silala River basin, a catchment shared by Chile and Bolivia. These were conducted in the context of the Case Concerning the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala River, submitted to the International Court of Justice in 2016, and contributed to multidisciplinary science to demonstrate that this system is an international watercourse. In 2016, the hydrogeological understanding of the Silala River basin was poor. The studies reviewed here filled many knowledge gaps, providing a solid hydrogeological baseline, and establishing new monitoring infrastructure to collect relevant aquifer data. The most important hydrogeological units were identified as the fluvial deposits, alluvial deposits, and the Cabana ignimbrite. The latter is highly heterogeneous, weathered and fractured, and exhibits a high permeability. It is the most important unit in terms of productivity, and is the major regional aquifer providing spring flows to Bolivian wetlands and groundwater flow across the international border. The studies provided a preliminary understanding of the main aquifers in Chile and their properties, which underpinned the development of a robust hydrogeological conceptual model of the system, reviewed elsewhere in this special issue. Subsequent refinements are also summarized. This work confirmed that both surface water and groundwater flows from Bolivia to Chile, and thus confirms the status of the Silala River as an international watercourse and provided the basis for a basin‐scale groundwater numerical model, used to investigate the impact of wetland channelization on surface water/groundwater partitioning.This article is categorized under:
Science of Water > Hydrological Processes


Here, a 3D printed multiplexed competitive migration assay is reported for characterizing a chemotactic response in the presence of multiple spatially distributed chemoattractants. The utility of the assay is demonstrated by examining the chemotactic response of human glioblastoma cells to spatially opposing chemotactic gradients of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and bradykinin (BK). Competitive migration assays involving spatially opposing gradients of EGF and BK that are optimized in the absence of the second chemoattractant show that 46% more glioblastoma cells migrate toward EGF sources. The migration velocities of human glioblastoma cells toward EGF and BK sources are reduced by 7.6 ± 2.2% and 11.6 ± 6.3% relative to those found in the absence of the spatially opposing chemoattractant. This work provides new insight to the chemotactic response associated with glioblastoma‐vasculature interactions and a versatile, user‐friendly platform for characterizing the chemotactic response of cells in the presence of multiple spatially distributed chemoattractants.


This work presents a statistical field study of the availability of time sources for location in a true wireless network. Terrestrial (base stations) and satellite (GPS) sources were investigated in three different urban scenarios. The density function of a specific number of sources available for triangulation is presented along with other statistical data in order to assess coverage. Since the fusion of terrestrial and satellite sources to obtain the location in wireless networks has been proposed as a way of improving coverage, the joint density function and cross-correlation between the availability of both types of sources are also presented. This correlation depends on the scenario, leading to the conclusion that the improvement obtained through the fusion of sources depends on both the fusion type and the scenario.


A loss in process performance for rapid pressure swing adsorption processes at high cycling frequencies is typically associated with an increase in pressure drop and mass and heat transfer resistances. An experimental study was performed to isolate the effect of pressure drop on process performance using particles ∼0.5 mm in diameter. The results demonstrate column pressure drop has a negligible effect on process performance in the flow regime where Darcy's law holds for the high pressure production step. They also suggest, within our operational range, it is more advantageous to operate with a long, thin column as opposed to a short, wide column. A brief simulation study was also conducted to support the experimental results. It confirmed pressure drop effects were minimal, leaving mass and heat transfer resistances as more logical causes of performance decline with increasing cyclic frequency in this study. However, further research is needed to extend these conclusions to much smaller particles.


Ultra Deepwater wells are commonly characterized by a narrow margin between pore and fracture gradients. Eni pioneer of the Continuous circulation technique has pushed the control of annulus dynamic pressure to the limit. The experience presented in this paper cover the drilling of an HPHT Deepwater well, through an ultra narrow PPFG window by means of technology application and strict procedural control.
 In the case study presented the reservoir section of an HPHT well was planned to be reached with an adequate kick tolerance and choke margin by applying the ENI near balance drilling technique (e-nbd™) in order to ensure strict control on the primary barrier and achieving the aimed operational and safety performance. The plan required the use of e-cd™ (eni circulating devices) system installed for the first time on a drilling ship with the 6 5/8″ DPs.


Twenty-seven patients underwent surgical repair for nonpenetrating injuries of the thoracic aorta. Emergency operation was performed in 19 patients with acute aortic injury and there were 12 survivors. Left heart bypass (LHB), external shunts, and simple aortic cross-clamping were methods employed during repair. All operative deaths occurred in the left heart bypass group. Morbidity, hospital stay, operative time, and blood loss all were markedly less in patients repaired with an external shunt or simple cross-clamping. Systemic heparinization related adversely to mortality and morbidity. Eight patients had repair of chronic post-traumatic descending aortic aneurysms. One of these had previous repair elsewhere with paraplegia and subsequent mycotic aneurysm at the graft repair site. He presented to us with massive hemoptysis. Surgical correction in the chronic group was performed using either left heart bypass, external shunt, or simple aortic cross-clamp with graft interposition. The only death occurred in a patient repaired on left heart bypass.


In order to launch a new policy that could improve higher contribution of private investments on renewable electricity supplied to the grid, Feed-in tariffs (FITs) program is currently aimed to substitute the previous adder program in Thailand. Increasing in renewable electricity supplied from private sector to the grid could induce higher direct and indirect effects to the economy in long run. This study provides a longterm impact assessment of the expected FIT and quantity implemented in the economy by energy input-output model. Annual expected FIT's from each renewable power sector were assessed from financial analysis and forecasted related to future costs trends. The renewable electricity contributions were forecasted as presented in the Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP 2012-2021) and in the Power Development Plan (PDP2010). Specific input-output structure in each additional renewable energy power sector was provided based on surveyed data. The reference scenarios were assumed that the grid electricity was performed in business as usual activity (BAU) without renewable electricity supplied. The macro economic impacts from purchasing electricity from private renewable power sector were assessed annually base on Energy InputOutput model in terms of economy-wide output, total primary energy supply (TPES), CO2 emissions, and value of employment, during the studied period. Result of the study presented a higher TPES, particularly in biomass, but a lower in fossil primary energy supply. There were increasing in significant annual CO2 emissions reductions. Both of the FITs under two different plans induced reductions in import content with some reductions in local employments due to less employments required in renewable power plants. Better impacts on FITs programs could be found in the PDP case where each renewable energy technology was supplied to the grid prioritized by minimum cost.


Introduction. Malnutrition in the forms of wasting and overweight among children ages 0 to 23 months is a continuing public health concern in the Philippines. Childhood malnutrition has lifelong consequences. For young children aged 0-23 months, maternal influences play a significant role in the realization of optimal nutritional status.
Objective. This study aimed to identify maternal characteristics that may influence the nutritional status of children aged 0–23 months.
Methods. This study utilized data from the 2015 Updating Survey from Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute. The association of maternal characteristics with the nutritional status of a child was determined using the Rao-Scott Chi-squared test statistic. Multinomial logistic regression was used to model a child's nutritional status using weight-for-length as an indicator.
Results. A child whose mother was educated was less likely to be wasted. The odds of a child being wasted was observed to increase with underweight mothers, longer duration of lactation and higher wealth quintile. Alternatively, the odds of a child to be overweight is reduced if the mother had formal education, was in late lactation stage, and availed tetanus toxoid vaccine. The likelihood that a child will be overweight increased with higher family wealth quintile and obesity of the mother.
Conclusion. Maternal nutritional status, education, duration of lactation, wealth quintile, and availment of prenatal services were found to be associated with the weight-for-height status of children 0–23 months. Incorporating the identified maternal factors when planning new interventions and policies is recommended to address wasting in young children.


Arterial oxygen tension measurements were performed simultaneously using two different techniques: (1) the conventional method of analyzing a blood sample obtained from the radial artery by means of a Clark electrode and (2) a new method of transcutaneous oxygen tension recording using a newly developed surface electrode containing a built-in heating device to ensure optimal cutaneous perfusion at the site of measurement. Two groups of newborn infants were used as subjects: (1) 70 clinically healthy babies who were tested during normoxia and hyperoxia (breathing 80% to 100% oxygen) and (2) 20 sick preterm and term infants receiving inspired oxygen concentrations of between 21% and 100% during the measurement. Our results indicate a satisfactory accuracy for the transcutaneous oxygen tension measurements in normoxia and hyperoxia (percentage coefficient of variation, 15.9% and 24.1%, respectively). In hypoxia agreement between the two methods varies depending on the degree of circulatory derangement. Overall correlation coefficients were greater than 0.85 in each group.


An excellent guide through a complex and fascinating world of ideas that is sure to provoke further investigation. Knowledge and the sudden experience of understanding can be as thrilling as the solution to any puzzle or riddle, since knowledge always resolves a mystery-that of not knowing. Most people are familiar with the names Plato, Machiavelli, Spinoza, and Simone de Beauvoir, but remain unsure of their significance. "Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers" provides succinct descriptions of the essential thought of one hundred major philosophers, including some who are not seen primarily as philosophers, such as Darwin, Freud, and Einstein. Presenting biographical details, quotations, and clear explanations, "Philosophy" serves as a thorough and accessible introduction to the Western intellectual tradition, covering philosophical, scientific, political, and religious thought over a period of 2,500 years.


Abstract The intensification of the financial and economic crisis in Europe has added a new impetus to the debate over the possibilities for securing supranational fiscal integration within the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Since the literature on the European Union's response to the crisis is dominated by the study of intergovernmental politics, this article considers the previously neglected role of the Commission. A framing analysis of the Commission's crisis discourse is operationalised here, which is supplemented by interviews with senior officials located in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) during key phases of the crisis. It is found that a supranational reform agenda was never internalised by the Commission. Instead, the Commission acted strategically by framing the crisis around intergovernmental fiscal discipline. These findings suggest that, in line with the 'new intergovernmentalist' thesis, supranational institutions themselves may not be as 'hard-wired' towards supranationalism as is often assumed.


Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare tumor of dermal origin generally found in sun exposed skin. We report the case of a woman of 76 years old presenting a large vascularized Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) of the left arm lateral to the elbow joint, infiltrating the muscolo-fascial plane who was treated with surgical therapy and post operative radiotherapy.


As rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a heterogeneous disease whose course and treatment response varies between patients, a stratified approach to its management is required. This thesis aimed to facilitate the risk prediction that underpins stratified medicine in RA. Its primary aim was to improve the knowledge of which clinical and genetic factors predict RA's onset, disease course and treatment responses. Its secondary aim was to develop a prediction modelling framework that harnessed these factors to inform clinical care. There were five key findings. Firstly, it demonstrated a significant inverse association between alcohol consumption and RA development when the evidence across published studies was pooled using meta-analytical techniques. This suggests alcohol may protect against RA. Secondly, it demonstrated that only HLA RA susceptibility variants associated with radiological progression in a clinical trial cohort of early, active RA patients. This suggests the non-HLA genetic architectures of RA susceptibility and severity may, at least partially, differ. Thirdly, it provided evidence that anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) can identify patients with early, active RA that are most likely to benefit from combination treatments. Fourthly, it demonstrated that estimating an asymptomatic individual's risk of RA is possible, through developing and validating a risk prediction model that uses computer simulation to improve upon the discriminative abilities of existing RA prediction models. Finally, it highlighted the importance of considering RA's heterogeneity when assessing its predictive factors; alcohol's likely protective effect was predominantly seen in ACPA-positive disease and genetic and environmental factors had different impacts on the risk of developing younger and older onset RA. In conclusion this thesis has contributed to stratified medicine in RA by better characterising which predictive factors are relevant to its development, severity, treatment needs and responses and developing a risk prediction modelling framework that may be applicable to many aspects of stratified care.


Interference from high priority tasks and messages in a hard real-time Networks-on-Chip (NoC) create computation and communication delays. As the delays increase in number, maintaining the system's schedulability become difficult. In order to overcome the problem, one way is to reduce interference in the NoC by changing task mapping and network routing. Some population-based heuristics evaluate the worst-case response times of tasks and messages based on the schedulability analysis, but requires a significant amount of optimization time to complete due to the complexity of the evaluation function. In this paper, we propose an optimization technique that explore both parameters simultaneously with the aim to meet the schedulability of the system, hence reducing the optimization time. One of the advantages from our approach is the unrepeated call to the evaluation function, which is unaddressed in the heuristics that configure design parameters in stages. The results show that a schedulable configuration can be found from the large design space.


A differential diagnosis of shoulder pathology producing stiff shoulders is discussed from alterations in functional anatomy. Several original observations or signs, useful in differentiating glenohumeral from the scapulothoracic causes, are presented.


Summary. The basic mechanism of optical information storage utilizing the azobenzene photoaddressable moiety will briefly be introduced. A synthetically flexible polyester matrix covalently integrating cyanoazobenzene in regularly spaced side chains is particularly well suited for holographic storage. Notable figures of merits of thin film materials of liquid crystalline polyesters are: response time to laser light in the order of ns, storage capacity of 5000 lines/mm, high permanent (more than eight years) diffraction efficiency in the order of 50% or higher, and erasability. The implications of the nature of the main chain on polyester morphology and on the permanency of the induced anisotropy are discussed. Arguments for the design and methods of preparation of other very different polymer scaffolds supporting the cyanoazobenzene are elucidated. Whereas oligopeptides invariably form amorphous materials, both copolymethacrylates and dendritic or hyperbranched polyesters provide some materials that exhibit liquid crystallinity. However, none of these other scaffolds offer materials that allow long-lasting anisotropy to be laser light induced.


Riemannian effective spacetime description of Hawking radiation in He − A superfluids is extended to non-Riemannian effective spacetime. An example is given of non-Riemannian effective geometry of the rotational motion of the superfluid vacuum around the vortex where the effective spacetime Cartan torsion can be associated to the Hawking giving rise to a physical interpretation of effective torsion recently introduced in the literature in the form of an acoustic torsion in superfluid He (PRD-70(2004),064004). Curvature and torsion singularities of this He − A fermionic superfluid are investigated. This Lense-Thirring effective metric , representing the superfluid vacuum in rotational motion, is shown not support Hawking radiation when the isotropic He is restored at far distances from the vortex axis. Hawking radiation can be expressed also in topological solitons (moving domain walls) in fermionic superfluids in non-Riemannian (teleparallel) (1+1) dimensional effective spacetime. A teleparallel solution is proposed where the quasiparticle speed is determined from the teleparallel geometry. PACS numbers: 02.40, 0450


Indium selenide (InSe) features intriguing thickness-dependent optoelectronic properties, and a simple, and precise way to identify the thickness is essential for the rapid development of InSe research. Here, a red, green, and blue (RGB) color contrast method with regression analysis for quantitative correlation of three optical contrasts from RGB channels with the InSe thickness (1–35 nm), is demonstrated. The lower accuracy of the thickness identification obtained from the individual channels was discussed. Moreover, the effective refractive indices in the three RGB regions can be extracted from the Fresnel equation and numerical analysis by finding the best fit to the experimental optical contrast. After further consideration of the wavelength-dependent refractive indices, the slope of the regression line between the estimated thickness and that obtained from the atomic force microscope was improved from 1.59 ± 0.05 to 0.97 ± 0.02. The complex refractive index spectra of InSe (1–10 layers) generated from ab initio numerical calculation results were also adopted to identify the InSe thickness. Compared to dispersion, the evolution of the band structure had less effect on thickness identification. This work could be extended to other layered materials, facilitate the thickness-dependent study of layered materials, and expedite the realization of their practical applications.


Session 1862–63. 1. On Vulcanism; its Nature and Functions. By David Page. Read 5th February 1863. 2. On the Dinornis or Moa of New Zealand. By E. Ayton. Read 5th March 1863. 3. On the Gems and Precious Stones of Scotland. By T. R. Marshall. Read 5th March 1863. 4. On the Mosaic Deluge. By David Marshall. Read 26th March 1863. 5. On the Occurrence of Large Beds of Graphite in Siberia. By Thomas C. Archer. Read 2d April 1863. 6. On Fashions in Geology, and how far to follow them. By David Page. Read 30th April 1863. 7. On Cephalopoda; their distribution in time and space. By Andrew Taylor. Read 7th May 1863. Session 1863–64. *1. Opening Address by J. P. Falkner, Esq., S.S.C., President, being a History of the Proceedings of the Society since its institution in 1834—its Origin and Progress, &c. Read 5th Nov. 1863. *2. The Aim, Scope, and Character of Geological Inquiry—Opening Lecture. By David Page. Read 5th Nov. 1863. 3. On the Distribution of Organic Reliquiæ. By A. T. Morrison. Read 26th Nov. 1863. *4. On the Remains of a Horse alleged to have been found in the glacial drift of the Vale of Trent. A communication by Edwin Brown of Burton-on-Trent. Read 24th Dec. 1863. 5. On the Structure of Recent Plants as compared with that of Fossil Species. By John Sadler. Read 4th Feb. 1864. 6. On Mountain Ranges, their Origin and Structure. By George Lyon. Read 25th Feb. 1864. *7. Account


A continuous 7802 nucleotide sequence spanning the 94% of foot and mouth disease virus RNA between the 5'-proximal poly(C) tract and the 3'-terminal poly(A) was obtained from cloned cDNA, and the total size of the RNA genome was corrected to 8450 nucleotides. A long open reading frame was identified within this sequence starting about 1300 bases from the 5' end of the RNA genome and extending to a termination codon 92 bases from its polyadenylated 3' end. The protein sequence of 2332 amino acids deduced from this coding sequence was correlated with the 260 K FMDV polyprotein. Its processing sites and twelve mature viral proteins were inferred from protein data, available for some proteins, a predicted cleavage specificity of an FMDV encoded protease for Glu/Gly(Thr, Ser) linkages, and homologies to related proteins from poliovirus. In addition, a short unlinked reading frame of 92 codons has been identified by sequence homology to the polyprotein initiation signal and by in vitro translation studies.


2012 saw the release of what has since been branded 'the most successful British film to date': Skyfall broke box office records by making £94 million in the first 40 days of its release. The positive reception from film critics would have undoubtedly gone some way to attracting patrons to its cinema run, however, the overwhelming commercial success of Skyfall indicates that there were more hooks at play here, amongst the promotional campaign for the film. This article argues that strong themes of nostalgia, nationalism and notability (of the cast and crew), present throughout the marketing and preview literature for Skyfall, played a significant part in generating audience interest for the film. Through textual analysis of a variety of artefacts circulated in anticipation of the film's release, this article aims to explore how these three themes engaged with the audience and helped to ensure a successful box office run for Skyfall.


In recent years, the robotic research area has become extremely prolific in terms of wearable active exoskeletons for human body motion assistance, with the presentation of many novel devices, for upper limbs, lower limbs, and the hand. The hand shows a complex morphology, a high intersubject variability, and offers limited space for physical interaction with a robot: as a result, hand exoskeletons usually are heavy, cumbersome, and poorly usable. This paper introduces a novel device designed on the basis of human kinematic compatibility, wearability, and portability criteria. This hand exoskeleton, briefly HX, embeds several features as underactuated joints, passive degrees of freedom ensuring adaptability and compliance toward the hand anthropometric variability, and an ad hoc design of self-alignment mechanisms to absorb human/robot joint axes misplacement, and proposes a novel mechanism for the thumb opposition. The HX kinematic design and actuation are discussed together with theoretical and experimental data validating its adaptability performances. Results suggest that HX matches the self-alignment design goal and is then suited for close human-robot interaction.


A proof-of-principle demonstration of a one-way polarization encoding quantum key distribution (QKD) system is demonstrated. This approach can automatically compensate for birefringence and phase drift. This is achieved by constructing intrinsically stable polarization-modulated units (PMUs) to perform the encoding and decoding, which can be used with four-state protocol, six-state protocol, and the measurement-device-independent (MDI) scheme. A polarization extinction ratio of about 30 dB was maintained for several hours over a 50 km optical fiber without any adjustments to our setup, which evidences its potential for use in practical applications.


This paper proposes an efficient time-varying step-size adaptation algorithm implemented within an in-service non-intrusive measurement device (INMD) in public switched telephone networks (PSTNs). The adaptation step-size is obtained from the correlation of the input speech signal. The effect of the correlation method is described and the variable step-size is derived. The in-service non-intrusive measurement system of interest is used to monitor the delivered quality of service (QoS) by monitoring the echoes in the telephony network INMDs are usually based on a class of least mean square (LMS) digital adaptive filters (DAFs). The performance criterion is defined by the modelling convergence rate derived from the optimal Wiener weights, and the excitation for the DAFs is conversational speech. Experimental observations have shown that divergence occurs during the low energy unvoiced segments in high-noise environments. The optimum adaptation step-size minimises such divergence by using low step-sizes during unvoiced periods. This result is then compared with a perfect divergence detector (PDD), which employs the unknown Wiener weights, a technique applicable in simulations only. The optimal step-size method reported produces a significant improvement in the system's performance in a noise-impaired environment where the near-end speech and echo path speech are contaminated with noise. Original simulation results show a modelling misadjustment improvement of 30.3 dB and 11.9 dB for noise free and noisy (signal to noise ratio, S/N of 5 dB) near-end speech respectively, all at a far-end echo to noise ratio (E/N) of 0 dB over 1 second adaptation.


A novel PID controller design method is proposed in the paper for PMSM Servo system using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The detailed procedures for optimal PID controller design are summarized in terms of the principle of particle swarm optimization. In order to overall optimize the performance of the system step response, a new evaluation strategy (fuzzy hamming distance) is introduced for evaluating the performance. Comparisons between the results obtained by GA method and those by PSO method are made. The simulation and experimental results show that the PSO method can locate the optimal or near optimal parameter space and achieve a higher quality solution than the GA method. Hence it affords a new and better optimization tool for optimal PID controller design in complex and coupled systems.


We consider the multiple access source coding (MASC) problem (also known as the Slepian-Wolf problem) for situations where the joint source statistics are unknown a priori. Since neither encoder receives information about the joint source statistics, we allow an asymptotically negligible amount of communication between the encoders. We prove the existence of universal 2-encoder linked MASCs (LMASCs) with rates approaching the Slepian-Wolf bound, demonstrate the tightness of this bound, and calculate the rate of convergence of the proposed universal LMASC. The result generalizes to M>2 encoders. We also consider scenarios where the number of bits passed between the system encoders is allowed to grow linearly in the code dimension; in these scenarios one encoder can act as a conduit for the flow of another encoder's information.


Abstract Elasticity measurements were carried out for several natural rubber and poly (ethyl acrylate) networks crosslinked in two stages (first in the isotropic state and then in the stretched state). These composite networks were shown to be similar in behavior to networks formed by crosslinking in the fibrous state and differed significantly from the usual network formed by crosslinking in the isotropic state. The anisotropic elasticity exhibited by these composite networks cannot be fully accounted for by finite chain extensibility. It appears that the deviation of the behavior of these networks from theoretical expectation is associated with the same kind of effects responsible for deviations from rubber elasticity theory in conventional networks.


Introduction In contrast to the traditional view that opioid antinociception is mediated exclusively within the central nervous system, peripheral opioid receptors have been discovered and shown to mediate analgesic effects when activated by locally applied exogenous opioid agonists. Such effects are particularly prominent in painful inflammatory conditions and have been demonstrated in both animals and humans (Barber and Gottschlich, 1992; Stein, 1995). Opioid receptors are present on peripheral sensory nerves and are up-regulated during the development of inflammation. Their endogenous ligands, opioid peptides, are expressed in resident immune cells within peripheral inflamed tissue. Environmental stimuli (stress) and releasing agents (corticotropin-releasing factor, cytokines) can liberate these opioid peptides to elicit local analgesia, and suppression of the immune system abolishes these effects. These findings have led to the concept that endogenous opioid peptides can be secreted from immunocytes, occupy opioid receptors on sensory nerves, and produce analgesia by inhibiting either the excitability of these nerves or the release of excitatory, proinflammatory neuropeptides. This chapter summarizes the discoveries that led to the formulation of this concept and discusses therapeutic implications resulting therefrom. Peripheral Analgesic Effects of Exogenous Opioids The basis for the concept just described has emerged from animal experiments investigating local analgesic actions of opioids in peripheral tissues. Interestingly, almost all of these studies have used models of inflammation. In those models exogenous opioid agonists produce potent local antinociception. Different strategies have been used to exclude central effects – for example, compounds that do not cross the blood-brain barrier (Chang et al., 1996) or the local versus systemic application of equivalent doses of agents (Stein, 1993; Stein et al., 1997).


This paper presents a formalized approach to specify and implement design matrix support for systems engineering applications that structure large and complex product models. Design matrixes can clearly visualize the relationships between large amounts of hierarchically structured engineering objects and higher level systems engineering design objects like requirements and functions in the product model. Examples of structures that can be lied out along the X and Y axis of a design matrix are stakeholder trees, requirement trees, function-means trees, product concept trees, and implementation trees. The cells of the design matrix visualize how corresponding objects at the axes relate to each other. One benefit with configurable design matrixes is that the information content and layout of a design matrix can be specified by a user, and all software implementation effort is handled automatically by a generic software framework that is included in the engineering application. The paper provides an overview of the theory behind a formal specification language for configurable design matrixes. It gives examples of design matrix specifications and screen shoots of instances of these design matrixes generated by a prototype engineering application called FMDesign. The examples of different types of design matrixes are taken from a aircraft product model of a small business jet. A formal software specification of the design matrix specification language and the example engineering application is provided in UML class diagrams.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


This chapter presents an investigation of different methods of multicriteria analysis and different rules of proceedings that have to be taken into account for making decision about location of a wind farm with application in the north-eastern (NE) Poland. Ten multicriteria analyses were discussed taking into account the main criteria on which they are based on utility functions (MAUT, AHP, and DEMATEL), relationship outranking (ELECTRE, PROMETHEE, and ARROW-RAYNAUD), distances (TOPSIS), and decision support (BORDA ranking methods and their modified and COPELAND). Taking into account of nine criteria that should be met by the location of 15 wind turbines in Krynki and Szudzialowo communities, the main three criteria (C3, C8, and C9) were found to differentiate location of eight wind turbines (T-6-T-13), according to two variants (I and II). The Borda ranking method proved that from among the two variants considered, the more suitable location of wind turbines is second variant W II than first variant W I. Variant W II had a higher altitude of the terrain (C3) and less risk of impact on birds (C8) and bats species (C9) than variant W I.


Visualizing the artifacts of a software system graphically has proven to improve the cognitive strategies and understanding of the subject system by programmers. This is more crucial when they need to maintain a software system with out-dated documentation or without system documentation at all. Many tools have emerged and they predominantly consist of a reverse engineering environment and a viewer to visualize software artifacts such as in the form of graphs. The tools also grant structural redocumentation of existing software system but they do not directly utilize document-like software visualization in their approaches. We propose DocLike modularized graph (DMG) method that represents the software architectures of a reverse engineered subject system graphically in a modularized and standardized document-like manner. To realize this method, we have built a prototype tool called DocLike Viewer that enables a user to redocument, visualize and comprehend a subject system written in C language that is parsed by an existing parser. From the experiment conducted we found that our method managed to statistically improve cognition of a subject system in terms of productivity and quality to solve certain types of maintenance tasks.


BACKGROUND
In last years, pregnancies and deliveries carefully monitorized, have led to perinatal mortality decrease. The more common diagnostic method used to point out fetal distress is cardiotocography, which is carried out as a routine screening during pregnancy and labor. The importance of cardiotocography, the limitations of this of measurement of fetal heart rate (FHR) are highlighted: no decrease in neurologic sequelae, positive and/or negative falses, dependence in interpretation on clinicians' experience. Our search aimed at checking the specificity of electronic fetal monitoring of fetal hearth rate at antepartum diagnosis moment.

METHODS
53 pregnant women in the third trimester of gestation period have been studied and the pregnancies results have been compared with specific women CTG trace and results of other diagnostic method (Ultrasound, Velocimetry).

RESULTS
Analysing our data we find out that diagnostic methods of fetal distress, at present, are not significative.

CONCLUSIONS
To sum up, it is possible to confirm that cardiotocography has a low specificity in fetal distress diagnosis, although it remains the most reliable method. In any case a global evaluation is necessary to monitorize pregnancy by means of clinical screening ordinary used.


The medieval Dawuro kingdom in south-western Ethiopia was able to build defensive dry stone walls and dig defensive ditches from the 16th to the 18th century. The motivation for these activities might have been the need to protect the territory against the neighboring arch-enemies, the Ahmed Gragn's war and the Oromo population expansion or pastoralist pressure. This paper basically assessed the construction process, the scientific value and the physical structure of the Great Dry Stone Walls of the medieval Dawuro kingdom in the upper Omo Valley. The data was collected in 2011 through fieldwork, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis. The walls are locally called the Kati Halala Keela. They are dry stone walls constructed without using any joining materials. The walls counted three to seven rows and the kingdom was watched over by seven main gateways. Some sources estimated the length of a single wall from 150 km to 200 km length. The sum total of the seven rows to be about more than 1,000 km. Its average height and width is about 2.6 m and 3.5 m, respectively.


Fluidic interfaces disintegrate under sufficiently strong electric fields, leading to electrohydrodynamic (EHD) tip streaming. Taylor cones, which emit charged droplets from the tip of a conical cusp, are among the most prominent and wellstudied examples of EHD instabilities. In liquid-liquid systems, more complex interface deformation modes than simple Taylor cones can be observed, with the interface being pushed away from the electrode, and additional cone structures emerging from the rim of the dimple. In this article, we investigate the mechanisms behind these deformation modes experimentally and numerically, and demonstrate that the presence of droplets triggers the dimple at the interface. In order to characterize the underlying processes, we replace the pin electrode by a hollow metallic needle with a prescribed electrolyte volume flow. The submerged electrospray introduces droplets of an aqueous KCl solution with varying ion concentrations into silicone oils with varying viscosities. By measuring the corresponding electric current and by optical investigation of the interface deformation, we study the system response to variations of the ionic concentration, viscosity, applied voltage as well as flow rate. The voltage between needle and liquid-liquid interface has a strong influence on the deformation, whereas the electrolyte flow rate only has a small influence. In addition, we observe that both the deflection as well as the current reach limiting values with increasing ion concentration and viscosity, which we explain based on a scaling relationship for the size of the droplets. In addition to the experiments, we use a finite element solver and compute the charge transport due to the droplets in the oil phase as an advection-diffusion process. Further, we compute the electric potential distribution, flow field and interface deformation. After calibration of our model with particle tracking velocimetry data of the flow inside the oil phase, we reproduce the experimentally observed dimple at the liquid-liquid interface. By including a relationship between the electric field at the pin electrode and the emitted electrospray current, we are able to identify the space charge as the cause of the experimentally observed limiting behavior of the interface deflection and the electric current. In total, this work highlights the importance of charged droplets for the complex dynamic modes observed when a liquid-liquid interface is exposed to a local electric field.


The gas-phase structure, stability, spectra, and electron density topography of H(-)W(n) clusters (where n = 1-8) have been calculated using coupled-cluster CCSD(T) and Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation (MP2) theory combined with complete basis set (CBS) approaches. The performance of various density functional theory (DFT) based methods such as B3LYP, M05-2X, M06, M06-L, and M06-2X using 6-311++G(d,p), and aug-cc-pVXZ (aVXZ, where X = D, T, and Q) basis sets has also been assessed by considering values calculated using CCSD(T)/CBS limit as reference. The performance of the functionals has been ranked based on the mean signed/unsigned error. The comparison of geometrical parameters elicits that the geometrical parameters predicted by B3LYP/aVTZ method are in good agreement with those values obtained at MP2/aVTZ level of theory. Results show that M05-2X functional outperform other functionals in predicting the energetics when compared to CCSD(T)/CBS value. On the other hand, values predicted by M06-2X, and M06 methods, are closer to those values obtained from MP2/CBS approach. It is evident from the calculations that H(-)W(n) (where n = 5-8) clusters adopt several interesting structural motifs such as pyramidal, prism, book, Clessidra, cubic, cage, and bag. The important role played by ion-water (O-H···H(-)) and water-water (O-H···O) interactions in determining the stability of the clusters has also been observed. Analysis of the results indicates that the most stable cluster is made up of minimum number of O-H···H(-) interaction in conjugation with the maximum number of O-H···O interactions. The Bader theory of atoms in molecules (AIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses has also been carried out to characterize the nature of interactions between hydride ion and water molecules. It can be observed from the vibrational spectra of H(-)W(n) clusters, the stretching frequencies involving ion-water interaction always exhibit larger redshift and intensities than that of water-water (inter solvent) interactions.


The aim of this chapter is to bridge the gap between what is known about IS theory and the specifics characteristics of health to develop an evidence based health information systems theory. An initial background first sets the significance for the need to have a solid information systems theory in health and then argues that neither the information systems literature nor the health sector have been able to provide any satisfactory pathway to facilitate the adoption of information systems in health settings. The chapter further continues by reviewing the common pathway to develop information systems theory and the knowledge foundations used in the process, and then proceeds to highlight how this theory was developed. Subsequently, the building blocks (constructs, premises, supporting evidence and conclusions) that underpins the constructs and a brief explanation of the relationships between them is included. A discussion and limitation section is then followed by a conclusion. bAckgROunD The importance of having information systems theories that will be conducive to the adoption of new technologies in health settings cannot be underestimated. To place it in context, the health


We aim to investigate the influence of waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) on all-cause death and cardiovascular-specific death in patients with hypertension. This prospective cohort study, based on waist circumference and body mass index measurements in patients with hypertension, provided risk estimates of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events. The waist circumference-to-BMI ratio (WtBR) is an anthropometric measure integrating waist circumference and BMI. We utilized multivariable Cox regression analysis, restricted cubic spline model, Kaplan-Meier plot, random forest analysis, and sensitivity analysis to assess the relationship of WtBR with all-cause mortality. Subsequently, Fine-Gray competing risk regression models were applied to precisely evaluate the probability of cardiovascular-specific death attributed to high WtBR. The results indicate that thea deceased group showed significantly higher WtBR and lower BMI compared with the alive groups (P < .05), while no significant difference was observed in waist circumference (P = .373). When analyzed as continuous, the risk of all-cause death elevated with increasing WtBR in the adjusted model with an HR of 2.42 (95% CI, 2.06-2.85). The restricted cubic spline illustrated an elevated risk of all-cause mortality as WtBR increased (J-shaped curve). Nevertheless, WtBR showed no significant association with cardiovascular-specific death and the prediction model exhibited a reliable performance in the testing set. This study supported that WtBR, an anthropometric measure, is independently associated with all-cause death in hypertensive patients. It's advisable to routinely assess waist circumference in hypertensive patients regardless of BMI, in order to more effectively manage the risk of obesity-related health.


Introduction: Complications can arise from endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Few studies have studied the relationship between malnutrition and post-ERCP complications. One study identified malnutrition as a risk factor for post-ERCP cholangitis. Another study found malnourished patients had increased post-ERCP inpatient mortality and higher risks for sepsis, hemorrhage, and intestinal perforation. We seek to elucidate the relationship between malnutrition and post-ERCP complications. Methods: The National Inpatient Sample database was used to identify hospitalized patients over 18 years old who had an ERCP procedure between 2007 2017 using ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. Patients were divided into two groups, those with and without malnutrition. Primary outcomes were length of stay, payor status, and total charges. Secondary outcomes were rates of post-ERCP pancreatitis, cholangitis, cholecystitis, infection, hemorrhage, perforation, and overall mortality. Patients were matched by age, race, sex, and Elixhauser comorbidity index. Chi-squared tests compared categorical data, independent ttests compared continuous data, and multivariate analyses assessed primary outcomes. Results: Of 282,526 patients who met inclusion criteria, 141,285 had malnutrition. For both groups, the mean ages were 67 years old with 49% males, 69.7% White and 11.6% Black. The Elixhauser Comorbidity Index was 19.8 in the malnutrition group and 15.0 in the control group. Primary outcomes were significant for length of stay (13.9 days vs 7.9 days, p, 0.001), payor status (p, 0.001) with more patients in the malnutrition group having Medicare or Medicaid, and higher total charges ($139,346 vs $80,136, p, 0.001). Secondary outcomes were significant (p, 0.001) for the odds ratio of post-ERCP pancreatitis (OR 2.3), perforation (OR 2.4), cholangitis (OR 1.8), cholecystitis (OR 3.6), infection (OR 3.3), hemorrhage (OR 3.8), and mortality (OR 2.0). Conclusion: Malnutrition can be characterized as increased catabolic state versus decreased anabolic state. Catabolism, which involves the body expending energy, can occur in response to an acute stressor. Decreased anabolism can occur due to food insecurity or feeding issues. Malnutrition increases morbidity and mortality for patients undergoing procedures. Our data shows malnourished patients have increased risks for multiple post-ERCP complications. Patients' nutritional statuses should be assessed and optimized prior to ERCP.


The NEO-PI–R has been one of the standard tools for measuring the Five Factor Model. Validity tests of the Swedish version of the NEO-PI-R have previously been limited to factor analyses and to testing the inventory's congruent validity using Hogan's Personality Inventory and the Karolinska Scales of Personality. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the validity of the NEO-PI–R. 53 pairs of volunteer college students who were peers (77 women, 29 men; M age = 27.3 yr., SD = 7) from the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University rated themselves both on the NEO-PI–R and on single statements taken from the NEO-PI–R Summary feedback sheet as well as rating their respective peers on a short version of the NEO-PI–R and on single statements taken from the NEO-PI–R Summary feedback sheet. The pattern of correlations indicated some support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the Swedish version of the NEO-PI–R.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the value of preoperative evaluation with three-dimensional endoanal ultrasonography (3D-EAUS) for anal fistula in order to provide preoperative assessment for anal fistula.

METHODS
One hundred patients diagnosed with anal fistula undergoing surgery between March 2012 and March 2013 in our department were prospectively enrolled. All the patients were randomly divided into the ultrasound group and the control group with fifty patients in each group. The ultrasound group received 3D-EAUS and the control group received routine examinations (digital examination and probe) to assess the position of the internal opening, the type of fistula and secondary tracks, respectively. The concordance rate of the preoperative assessment and intraoperative exploration was evaluated between the two groups.

RESULTS
The accuracy of identifying internal opening was 96.0% for the ultrasound group and 82.0% for the control group with statistically significant difference (P=0.02). The accuracy of identifying internal opening for simple anal fistula was similar (95.0% vs. 91.3%, P=1). For complex anal fistula, the accuracy was also higher in the ultrasound group (96.7% vs. 74.1%, P=0.025). The accuracy of fistula classification was 78.0% for the ultrasound group and 96.0% for the control group with significant difference (P=0.01). The accuracy of identifying a second track was higher in the ultrasound group (96.0% vs. 82.0%, P=0.025).

CONCLUSIONS
It is significantly superior for 3D-EAUS to detect the internal opening, fistula classification and identification of a second track in complex anal fistulas as compared to conventional examination. 3D-EAUS should be recommended as a preoperative assessment for anal fistula, especially for complex one.


Myocardial perforation is an uncommon but potentially life-threatening complication of pacemaker and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. Myocardial perforation may be acute, subacute or chronic when it occurs within 24 hours of the device insertion; between 1 day and 30 days; and more than 30 days after implantation. This complication may occur in 1.7%–7% of patients. However, subacute myocardial perforation is rare and affects 0.5%–1.2% of patients. We report the case of an 85-year-old patient with a pacemaker failure 10 days after implantation due to a subacute myocardial perforation caused by an active fixation ventricular lead. Transthoracic echocardiography showed penetration of the ventricular lead through the right ventricular apex into the pericardium without any pericardial effusion. We confirmed myocardial perforation by a CT scan. We referred her to the surgery ward where she was successfully managed.


The first time Gabriele d'Annunzio's literary activity dealt with the classical antiquity dates back directly to 1879, when the author published his first poetic collection: Primo vere. It only includes four poetic translations from Horace Odes, but a new improved edition was republished in 1880 including twenty-three translations of nineteen Latin poems (from Catullus, Tibullus and most importantly from Horace) and of four Homeric hymns. A thorough analysis of the translations from ancient Greek allowed to discover the stylistic tendencies of the poet-translator and food for the though concerning the relationship between ancient Greek poetry and Dannunzian works.


Objective Identify and analyze the factors associated to length of hospital stay among HIV positive and HIV negative patients with tuberculosis in Manaus city, state of Amazonas, Brazil, in 2010. Methods Epidemiological study with primary data obtained from monitoring of hospitalized patients with tuberculosis in Manaus. Data were collected by interviewing patients and analyzing medical records, according to the following study variables age, sex, co-morbidities, education, race, income, lifestyle, history of previous treatment or hospitalization due to tuberculosis, treatment regimen, adverse reactions, smear test, clinical form, type of discharge, and length of hospital stay. The associated factors were identified through chi-square or t-Student test at a 5% significance level. Results Income from 1 to 3 minimum wages (P = 0.028), pulmonary tuberculosis form (P = 0.011), negative smear test or no information in this regard (P = 0.014), initial 6-month treatment scheme (P = 0.029), and adverse drug reactions (P = 0.021) were associated to prolonged hospital stay in HIV positive patients. Conclusion We found out that although there were no significant differences in the length of hospital stay in HIV positive patients, all factors significantly associated to prolonged hospital stay occurred in this group of patients. This finding corroborates other studies indicating the severity of tuberculosis in HIV patients, which may also contribute to lengthen their hospital stay.


Intravenous injection of growth hormone in anaesthetized pigs has been shown to cause coronary vasoconstriction by antagonizing the vasodilatory effects of β2‐adrenergic receptors. Because nitric oxide is believed to modulate or mediate β2‐adrenergic effects, the present study was undertaken in the same experimental model to determine the role of nitric oxide in the above response to growth hormone. In fourteen pigs anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone, changes in left circumflex or anterior descending coronary blood flow caused by intravenous injection of 0.05 i.u. kg‐1 of growth hormone at constant heart rate and arterial blood pressure were assessed using electromagnetic flowmeters. In a first control group of six pigs, growth hormone caused a decrease in coronary blood flow which averaged 13.1% of the baseline values. In a second group of eight pigs, intravenous administration of Nω‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester (L‐NAME) was used to block the endothelial release of nitric oxide. In these pigs, the subsequent injection of growth hormone did not cause any significant changes in coronary blood flow, even when performed after reversing the increase in arterial blood pressure and coronary vascular resistance caused by L‐NAME with continuous intravenous infusion of papaverine. These results indicated that the coronary vasoconstricting effect of growth hormone, known to involve antagonism of β2‐adrenergic vasodilatory effect, was mediated by inhibition of nitric oxide release.


Military ground vehicle design must consider the threat posed by underbody blasts to new vehicles and their occupants, while also accounting for weight reduction goals for improving fuel economy and mobility. A two-stage process is presented to model the blast event, using LS-DYNA for simulating vehicle response and MADYMO for the occupant's response. Issues including computational expense, objective function formulation and multi-objective seating system design optimisation are addressed in detail, and three different blastworthiness optimisation formulations are presented and evaluated.


The knowledge and diffusion of palaeontology concepts is of extreme importance for a more complete understanding of biological, geological and environmental aspects. However, it is well-known that didactic resources are still necessary to their diffusion and to stimulate the interest of first degree students. In order to develop strategies allowing the transference of palaeontological knowledge in a more dynamic and attractive manner, an educational CD-ROM about the Sao Jose de Itaborai Basin, in the Rio de Janeiro State, South-Eastern Brazil has been elaborated and is presented here. It is the first major project aimed at the diffusion of palaeontology, through the presentation of the main fossil-related Basins of Brazil, using computing resources applied to education. This multimedia system contains geological and palaeontological information about the Sao Jose de Itaborai Basin, using texts, fossil pictures and their present representatives, maps, outline drawings, references, glossary, palaeoenvironmental reconstitutions and fixation exercises. This didactic resource shall provide college (future teachers) and first degree students and teachers with a dynamic resource to complete and improve their knowledge about geology and palaeontology. This CD-ROM is an important virtual tool for the diffusion of the scientific and cultural importance of the Sao Jose de Itaborai Basin to pupils at local schools, stimulating the preservation of this important natural monument of the Rio de Janeiro State.


New graduates joining the software engineering workforce sometimes have trouble writing test code. Coming from university, they lack a hands-on approach to testing and have little experience with writing tests in a real-world setting. Software companies resort to costly training camps or mentoring initiatives. Not overcoming this lack of testing skills early on can hinder the newcomer's professional progress in becoming a high-quality engineer. Studying open source developers, we found that they rely on a project's pre-existing test code to learn how to write tests and adapt test code for their own use. We propose to strategically present useful and contextual test code examples from a project's test suite to newcomers in order to facilitate learning and test writing. With an automatic suggestion mechanism for valuable test code, the newcomer is enabled to learn how senior developers write tests and copy it. Having access to suitable tests lowers the barrier for writing new tests.


Schisandrin B (ScB), isolated from Schisandra chinensis (S. chinensis), is a traditional Chinese medicine with proven cardioprotective and neuroprotective effects. However, it is unclear whether ScB also has beneficial effects on rat hind limb ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury model. In this study, ScB (20 mg/kg, 40 mg/kg, and 80 mg/kg) was administered via oral gavage once daily for 5 days before the surgery. After 6 h ischemia and 24 h reperfusion of left hind limb, ScB reduced I/R induced histological changes and edema. ScB also suppressed the oxidative stress through decreasing MDA level and increasing SOD activity. Moreover, above changes were associated with downregulated TNF-α mRNA expression and reduced level of IL-1β in plasma. Meanwhile, ScB treatment downregulated activation of p38MAPK, ERK1/2, and NF-κB in ischemic skeletal muscle. These results demonstrate that ScB treatment could prevent hind limb I/R skeletal muscle injury possibly by attenuating oxidative stress and inflammation via p38MAPK, ERK1/2, and NF-κB pathways.


Depression is the sixth most costly health condition in the United States, and depression that does not respond to its first trial of antidepressant treatment adds an annual cost of $9,529 per person per year. Thus, choosing an effective starting antidepressant can decrease the overall cost of depression to society. A secondary analysis of data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Survey (CPES) was performed to create models that can predict the efficacy of second-generation antidepressants in treating sadness. Two sets of Principal Component Analyses (PCAs) and logistic regressions were performed on variables associated with patient demographics, clinical symptoms, past medical history, and current mental health treatments: the first set explored associations between symptom clusters and drug efficacy, and the second set created models to predict the efficacy of each of the seven antidepressants. This study found that when treating sadness, paroxetine and venlafaxine should be avoided in depression with low moods, fluoxetine should be avoided in depression with high anxiety, and sertraline should be avoided in depression with high levels of fatigue. In addition, the models created to predict drug efficacy had a mean accuracy of 84% and internal validity of 62%. Since fewer than 50% of patients currently respond to their first antidepressant, the use of this model could provide a modest improvement to choosing efficacious starting antidepressants, subsequently decreasing the total disease burden depression poses onto society.


This research work focuses on vibration energy harvesting in order to design an alternative to batteries for standalone, left-behind wireless devices. This study brings a new vision on bistable generators featuring nonlinear stiffness, presenting a wide operating frequency bandwidth compared to linear generators for a better adaptation to complex excitations. In this study, original behaviors of bistable oscillators are considered and analyzed for vibration energy harvesting, consisting in subharmonic motions for which the mass oscillates at a frequency N times lower than the excitation. First, experimental analysis is conducted with a generator integrating buckled beams for the bistability feature. It is shown that, in addition to the well-known first harmonic behavior, the third subharmonic orbit widens the bistable microgenerator useful operating frequency band by 180% compared to the sole exploitation of the first harmonic motion. A second part of this study analytically investigates those subharmonic orbits for the optimized design of future generator. The different orbits are obtained with the harmonic balance method and their stability is calculated for small disturbances. Stable orbits being more or less easy to reach and maintain, a new criterion is introduced, namely the stability robustness, indicating the stable orbit sensitivity to disturbances of different levels. For low stability robustness, the orbit will be considered as non-suitable for energy harvesting leading to a new definition of bistable generators frequency bandwidth. Analytical results following this method show good agreement with previous experimental results validating the relevance of stability robustness criterion.


Thirty patients from the White and Coloured asthma clinics were subjected to skin prick tests with various antigens. Although the house-dust mite was found to be the main offender, 9 of the 30 patients showed a significant reaction to cockroach antigen. It is felt that cockroaches play a role in the pathogenesis of asthma in the Durban area and that this fact should be considered in desensitization programmes.