Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most frequent types of oral cancer in developing countries and its burden correlates with exposure to tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption. Toll like receptors (TLRs) are major sensors of inflammatory stimuli, from both microbial and sterile causes and as such, they have been related to tumor progression and metastasis. Here, we evaluated the expression of TLR2, 4 and 9 as well as CD3+, CD8+ and Granzyme B+ cell infiltration by immunohistochemistry in oral samples of 30 patients with OSCC, classified according to their consumption of alcohol. Our findings indicate that there is a significant association between heavy alcohol consumption and tumors with higher expression levels of TLR9. Moreover, patients with TLR9high tumors, as well as those who indicated high consumption of alcohol exhibited a diminished overall survival. TCGA data analysis indicated that TLR9high tumors express a significant increase in some genes related with the oral cavity itself, inflammation and tumor promotion. Our analysis of tumor infiltrating leukocytes demonstrated that the major differences perceived in heavy alcohol consumers was the location of CD8+ T cells infiltrating the tumor, which showed lower numbers intratumorally. Our data suggest the existence of a pathogenic loop that involves alcohol consumption, high TLR9 expression and the immunophenotype, which might have a profound impact on the progression of the disease.


Many authors, I suspect, share my perception that they do not know their own book until they see the responses it provokes. Only then does it become clear what themes in the book matter, what is controversial, and, of course, what is mistaken, confusing, or self-contradictory. For that reason, I am particularly grateful for the careful readings and thoughtful criticisms of Legal Ethics and Human Dignity1 by scholars whose own work I greatly admire. In addition, each of them has written an essay worth reading for its own ideas, apart from what they have to say about my book. Several themes recur among my critics. Professor Norman Spaulding and Professor W. Bradley Wendel believe that the fact of moral pluralism poses a deep and possibly fatal objection to my "morally activist" view that lawyers are morally accountable for what they do on behalf of clients and what outcomes they further.2 (Although the problem of pluralism is not the principal focus of Professor Katherine Kruse's essay, she has elsewhere criticized me on similar grounds and raises the critique briefly here.)3 Professor William Simon, Spaulding, and Wendel also criticize the preeminence I give to lawyers' consciences over the guiding values of the institutions in which lawyers work—the adversary system (Spaulding),4 the legal and political system more generally (Wendel),5 or the organizational settings of law


Switzerland's exceptional scenic beauty of valleys, lakes, and mountains, its central location on international trade routes, and its world famous banking system are just a few elements that have contributed to its rise in the global market. It consists of twenty-six member states, called cantons and it's actively engaged in the maintenance of peace among nations. The history of the Swiss Confederation is as rich and varied as its culture and people. This updated second edition of Historical Dictionary of Switzerland features the nation's multicultural and democratic traditions and institutions, its complex history, and its people's involvement in past and present world affairs. This is done through a list of abbreviations and acronyms, a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, maps, a bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions, as well as significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone who wants to know more about Switzerland.


Storm Xynthia, which hit French coasts on February 28th, 2010, flooded vast territories despite coastal defences. This disaster highlighted the need of studying the behaviour of our coastal flood protection systems at an adapted geographical scale and by taking into account the kinematics of the events. The research project led by Cerema has made significant breakthroughs in the knowledge of mechanisms governing the flooding and in strategies and methods dedicated to their analysis and their representation. The developed methodology was successfully tested on four sites submerged during Xynthia (Loix, Les Boucholeurs and Boyardville in Charente-Maritime, Batz-sur-mer in Loire-Atlantique). It is intented to guide the diagnosis of sites prone to marine flood, since the first investigations until the delivery of study reports.


Over the past two decades, there has been much research into the discourse of post-observation conferences in the supervision of teachers in both mainstream education and the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. However, the discourse of post-observation conferences in peer observation of teaching has received little attention. The purpose of this study is to investigate the way in which suggestions and advice are mitigated in such discourse. 21 audio-recorded and transcribed post-observation conferences held between 3 dyads of English Language teacher trainers as part of a larger action research project were analysed. It was found that both the observing and the observed teachers made suggestions and gave advice. The participants also made frequent use of negative politeness strategies, and less so positive politeness strategies, when offering suggestions and advice to their colleagues. The findings show that while collaborative in nature, post-observation conferences in peer observation of teaching can construe a threat to the face of the participants, even when power relations are levelled.


Fuel effectivization and emission reductions have been on the forefront of research for marine power system solutions. The reduction in fuel use was originally motivated by savings on the principal operating cost of vessels. The need to reduce emissions, both CO2 for the global environment and nitrous oxides (NOx) and soot for the local environment, is on the agenda for the maritime industry. The introduction of shore power supply for ships in port and the NOx emission tax and reduction support scheme are examples of this in Norway. Another initiative that is intended to reduce emissions is the development of battery-based propulsion systems with electric power distribution. Unfortunately, the use of an electric power distribution system, with power conversions from a diesel generator and subsequent storage and retrieval from battery banks, will inevitably result in power losses. However, the actual operation of normal diesel-powered ships is seldom optimal, and only larger ocean-crossing vessels may hope to operate their prime mover and support power systems in an optimal fashion for prolonged periods of time. This article presents the application of a serial-diesel-battery hybrid power system installed onboard a Norwegian costal fisheries vessel, where the variation in power demand allows the batteries to replace the traditional diesel power used in fisheries. A power and propulsion system design is presented as well as energy and time use data for the vessel's operation during one calendar year. The simple design of vessels, such as of the example vessels in this article, allows battery hybrid power systems to deliver energy savings due to the low-power demand of the diesel engine operation at idle power used during the operation of the fishing gear. The prime mover is used to supply limited propulsion power, which is mainly hydraulic and electric. The power system for the example vessel is designed as a serial hybrid where the diesel engine is exclusively used to supply electric power to the batteries, which has the added benefit of shielding the diesel engine from load variations on the propeller. The hybrid battery power system is expected to cut operating costs by minimizing fuel consumption during fishing, reducing the use of engine lubricants, diminishing maintenance costs by requiring fewer engine-running hours, and increasing the lifetime of the onboard diesel engine in calendar days due to decreased running time.


The design of an electronic ballast based on a Class D voltage switching resonant inverter is presented. A new control strategy based on a variable capacitance diode used to regulate the resonant converter frequency is proposed. The control allows the lamp to start by increasing the frequency to the resonant point, producing the necessary high voltage, then varying the frequency value to a minimal current consumption operating point. The ballast includes a power factor corrector and the experimental results show energy savings of about 30% at a very competitive cost when compared to an electromagnetic ballast.


Table is a popular data format to organize and present relational information. Users often have to manually compose tables when gathering their desiderate information (e.g., entities and their attributes) for decision making. In this work, we propose to resolve a new type of heterogeneous query viz: tabular query, which contains a natural language query description, column names of the desired table, and an example row. We aim to acquire more entity tuples (rows) and automatically fill the table specified by the tabular query. We design a novel framework AutoTableComplete which aims to integrate schema specific structural information with the natural language contextual information provided by the user, to complete tables automatically, using a heterogeneous knowledge base (KB) as the main information source. Given a tabular query as input, our framework first constructs a set of candidate chains that connect the given example entities in KB. We learn to select the best matching chain from these candidates using the semantic context from tabular query. The selected chain is then converted into a SPARQL query, executed against KB to gather a set of candidate rows, that are then ranked in order of their relevance to the tabular query, to complete the desired table. We construct a new dataset based on tables in Wikipedia pages and Freebase, using which we perform a wide range of experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of AutoTableComplete as well as present a detailed error analysis of our method.


Being able to merge high quality and complete building models with parcel data is of a paramount importance for any application dealing with urban planning. However since parcel boundaries often stand for the legal reference frame, the whole correction will be exclusively done on building features. Then a major task is to identify spatial relationships and properties that buildings should keep through the conflation process. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method based on least squares approach to ensure that buildings fit consistently into parcels while abiding by a set of standard constraints that may concern most of urban applications. An important asset of our model is that it can be easily extended to comply with more specific constraints. In addition, results analysis also demonstrates that it provides significantly better output than a basic algorithm relying on an individual correction of features, especially regarding conservation of metrics and topological relationships between buildings. In the future, we would like to include more specific constraints to retrieve the actual positions of buildings relatively to parcel borders and we plan to assess the contribution of our algorithm on the quality of urban application outputs.


The characteristics of
Chinese economic area are distinct, and the development status of the inter-provincial
high-tech industry is significantly different. As Chinese high-tech industry is
acting an increasingly important role in pushing the economic development, it
is necessary to evaluate the inter-provincial R&D innovation efficiency for
high-tech industry. This text, using the DEA Approach with Double Frontiers,
made comparison for the evaluation unit with the "optimized" and "worst"
decision-making unit respectively. Therefore it carried out measurement for the
inter-provincial optimistic efficiency and pessimistic efficiency for Chinese
high-tech industry, and suggested the comprehensive results with the geometric
average efficiency. The research results showed that there were great
differences among the R&D innovation efficiencies for Chinese high-tech
industry among 26 provinces and municipalities. There is no need for the high-tech
industry to blossom everywhere. It, based on the economic development and
efficiency status, should be strengthened in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong,
Chongqing and Jiangsu, etc.


Automated recommender systems play an important role in e-commerce applications. Such systems recommend items (movies, music, books, news, web pages, etc.) that the user should be interested in. These systems hold the promise of delivering high quality recommendations. However, the incredible growth of users and applications poses some challenges for recommender systems. One of the concerns for current recommenders is that the quality of recommendations is strongly dependant on the size of the user's population. In this paper we investigate, with the scaling of neighborhood size, the evolution of different recommendation techniques performance, the increase of the coverage, and the quality of prediction. We also identify which recommendation method is the most efficient given reasonably small training datasets.


I investigated the experimental effects of manipulations of snowmelt on the flowering phenology and forage chemistry (digestibility and nitrogen concentration) of tussock cottongrass on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The early snowmelt treatment (1) accelerated reproductive phenology by 11 days, and (2) resulted in higher floral digestibility but is associated with decreased nitrogen concentration in flowers. Therefore, changes in climate that lead to changes in the timing of snowmelt can alter the timing of flowering of E. vaginatum and, consequendy, its value as reindeer and caribou forage. I then used relationships between forage chemistry and body weight gain of caribou derived from White (1983) to model the possible effects of altered forage chemistry on food intake and growth in reindeer. Reindeer foraging on cottongrass flowers can potentially increase their intake of digestible dry matter and therefore energy, by selecting to forage on early-emergent inflorescences over late-emergent ones. The multiplicative effects of forage quality and food intake can result in large increases in the rate of body weight gain that have positive feedbacks on the health and reproductive status of reindeer at both the individual and population level. Comparison of effects on reindeer and caribou populations on the Seward Peninsula indicate that early emergence of cottongrass flowers may confer a greater benefit on reindeer.


urgent access is needed and native arteriovenous fistulas sites have been exhausted. We performed a retrospective review of all polyurethane grafts, all brachiobasilic fistulas (BBAVF) and age- and sex-matched controls with a tunnelled central venous access catheter (CVC) in a 27 month period. Patency, defined as dialysis-days, was analysed using life-table analysis methods. Results. The groups were similar in terms of age, sex, and of renal failure. Six out of 21 BBAVF (29%) failed to mature. Patency of the polyurethane grafts, and were similar (log-rank The overall infection in the CVC and the graft was similar. More than half of the occurred in five leg grafts. This was significantly higher than in the arm ( (cid:1) 2 ¼ 4.7; P ¼ 0.03). No serious infection, requiring ligation of the fistula, was seen in the BBAVF group. The polyurethane graft is an alternative to the tunnelled CVC in patients who need urgent dialysis access when the options for simple arteriovenous fistulas are exhausted.


Proceedings: AACR 107th Annual Meeting 2016; April 16-20, 2016; New Orleans, LA

The purpose of this study is to leverage the large number of perturbation signatures from the NIH Library of Integrative Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) and integrate them with patient data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and PubChem bioactivity data in an effort to prioritize compounds based on their synergistic effect in cancer treatment.

From the large number of LINCS L1000 transcriptional data capturing cellular responses after chemical or genetic perturbations, we extracted gene expression signatures that were indicative of specific LINCS compounds. Moreover, we compared the L1000 transcriptional profiles with ones from TCGA in order to identify characteristic signatures of major cancer types and prioritized small molecule compounds with discordant expression profiles to those cancer types. We then linked the above compounds to protein target annotations and therefore produced a compound-specific protein target profile. For this, we utilized biochemical data produced by the LINCS KinomeScan and KiNative assays and also biochemical data obtained through PubChem. Using the above information, we obtained pairs of compounds that would inhibit unlinked gene sub-networks that were produced through processing of the TCGA transcriptional data.

The above process can be used as a means to suggest compound combinations towards specific cancer types and to prioritize the development of compounds with targeted polypharmacology.

Citation Format: Vasileios Stathias, Bryce Allen, Jennifer Clarke, Nagi G. Ayad, Stephan Schurer. Combinatorial compound stratification based on integration of LINCS, TCGA and PubChem data. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 775.


ABSTRACT Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) (Flaviviridae, Flavivirus) is an arthropod-borne flavivirus transmitted by Culex species mosquitoes. We report here the complete genome of the JEV genotype I strain JEV_CNS769_Laos_2009 isolated from an infected patient in Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) (Laos).


An important indicator or even the crucial factor of the competitiveness of a company can be seen in its innovative capacity, i.e. the abstract capacity to launch continuous product innovations and to implement the required processes in the internal structure of an organization. This is also true for the food industry as several studies of the broad area of innovations in the food market have shown (Galizzi/Venturini, 1996). From a more macroeconomic perspective, the national innovation systems have been analyzed, as well as general trends in the food sector (Menrad, 2001). In the empirical literature we find several surveys analyzing the influence of the innovative performance of firms in the food industry (Herrmann et al., 1996; McNamara et al., 2003). Most of these contributions concentrate either on statements on the Input-Output Relationship of innovation activities or include analysis within the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm provided by the scholars of the Harvard School. Both aspects are starting points for empirical research as well as in both cases the process-related and dynamic elements of innovation are treated as a black box. The general intention of this paper is to find a more theoretical framework which explains the innovative capacity of firms that are involved in the focused sector. In this regard the concept of Dynamic Capabilities provided by Teece et al. (1997) and Eisenhardt/Martin (2000) are broadly accepted as a useable explanation of firms' innovative capacity. Since these concepts were designed with a particular regard to typical high-tech industries like IT-branch, telecommunication and biotechnology, the question comes up if these approaches do essentially fit to those conditions we can observe on the food market. Thus, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, we want to introduce and discuss the concepts of dynamic capabilities in the context of firms' innovative capacity and market dynamics. Second, we are going to analyse the explanatory power and finally the applicability of dynamic capabilities to the food industry. We will start with an introduction and critical discussions of the concepts of Dynamic Capabilities (II) that are regarded as the recent extension on RBV. In order to test the applicability of Dynamic Capabilities to the food market, we concentrate the analysis on three main criteria (III) derived from the theoretical background. Based on those, we will finally draw a conclusion (IV) on the applicability of the approach discussed.


Abstract The 1928 Olympic Winter Games in St Moritz was the first international sports competition in Switzerland to bring together the country's Olympic and sport circles, its hotel industry and local authorities. Doing so crystallized public and semi-public actions around an event capable of making or breaking Switzerland's reputation as a tourist destination. In addition, the Swiss government, which did not directly initiate the project, ensured the event would serve the aims of its foreign policy by placing a foreign ministry representative on the organising committee. The involvement of these stakeholders meant that the games mainly affected three interconnected areas: tourism – hosting the Games was a way of fending off competition from other winter sports destinations; diplomacy – the event allowed the Foreign Ministry to bolster Switzerland's image abroad; and domestic politics – obtaining and staging the Olympics led to the development of a strong sports lobby during the 1920s.


ABSTRACT Despite extensive public service motivation (PSM) research, our knowledge of PSM's influence on individuals' sector employment preferences is limited. Few studies examine this relationship by suitable research designs, and the empirical findings are mixed. Using a sample of 718 Danish students of economics, political science, and law, this article tests (1) the relationship between PSM and attraction to public versus private sector employment and (2) the moderating effect on this relationship of students' academic field of study. Overall, results underscore the multidimensionality of the PSM construct, as the PSM dimension of "public interest" is positively associated with attraction to public sector employment and negatively associated with attraction to private sector employment, while the PSM dimension of "compassion" is unrelated to both. Importantly, however, moderation analyses reveal notable correlation differences across students' academic fields. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of prior and future research.


It is impractical to develop a new parts collection for every potential host organism. It is well-established that gene expression parts, like genes, are qualitatively transferable, but there is little quantitative information defining transferability. Here, we systematically quantified the behavior of a parts set across multiple hosts. To do this, we developed a broad host range (BHR) plasmid system compatible with the large, modular CIDAR parts collection for E. coli. This enabled testing of a library of DNA constructs across the Pseudomonadota – Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida, Cupriavidus necator, and Komagataeibacter nataicola. Part performance was evaluated with a standardized characterization procedure that quantified expression in terms of molecules of equivalent fluorescein (MEFL), an objective unit of measure. The results showed that the CIDAR parts enable graded gene expression across all organisms – meaning that the same parts can be used to program E. coli, P. putida, C. necator, and K. nataicola. Most parts had a similar expression trend across hosts, although each organism had a different average gene expression level. The variability is enough that to achieve the same MEFL in a different organism, a lookup table is required to translate a design from one host to another. To identify truly divergent parts, we applied linear regression to a combinatorial set of promoters and ribosome binding sites, finding that the promoter J23100 behaves very differently in K. nataicola than in the other hosts. Thus, it is now possible to evaluate any CIDAR compatible part in three other hosts of interest, and the diversity of these hosts implies that the collection will also be compatible with many other Proteobacteria (Pseudomonadota). Furthermore, this work defines an approach to generalize modular synthetic biology parts sets beyond a single host, making it possible to create a small number of parts sets that can span the tree of life. This will accelerate current efforts to engineer diverse species for environmental, biotechnological, and health applications.


Memory impairments are a major characteristic of schizophrenia (SZ). In the current study, we used an associative memory task to test the hypothesis that SZ patients and first-degree relatives have altered functional patterns in comparison to healthy controls. We analyzed the fMRI activation pattern during the presentation of a face-name task in 27 SZ patients, 23 first-degree relatives, and 27 healthy controls. In addition, we performed correlation analyses between individual psychopathology, accuracy and reaction time of the task and the beta scores of the functional brain activations. We observed a lower response accuracy and increased reaction time during the retrieval of face-name pairs in SZ patients compared with controls. Deficient performance was accompanied by abnormal functional activation patterns predominantly in DMN regions during encoding and retrieval. No significant correlation between individual psychopathology and neuronal activation during encoding or retrieval of face-name pairs was observed. Findings of first-degree relatives indicated slightly different functional pattern within brain networks in contrast to controls without significant differences in the behavioral task. Both the accuracy of memory performance as well as the functional activation pattern during retrieval revealed alterations in SZ patients, and, to a lesser degree, in relatives. The results are of potential relevance for integration within a comprehensive model of memory function in SZ. The development of a neurophysiological model of cognition in psychosis may help to clarify and improve therapeutic options to improve memory and functioning in the illness.


Heparin is administered parenterally. Its therapeutic effect is measured by the clotting time of the whole blood, determined by the method of Lee and White. An excessive anticoagulant effect is controlled by the administration of specific antagonists, toluidine blue or protamine sulfate. Dicumarol* is admintered orally in amounts sufficient to reduce the prothrombin activity of the plasma to between 10 and 30 per cent of normal. The prothrombin time, which represents such a reduction in prothrombin activity, will vary according to the method by which the determination is performed, the thromboplastin used, and the technique followed. Excessive prolongation of the prothrombin time is antagonized by the administration of vitamin K in large doses. Long-term therapy with Dicumarol is sufficiently hazardous to require considerable experience on the part of the physician. Where an immediate anticoagulant effect is necessary, yet prolonged administration anticipated, combined therapy with both heparin and Dicumarol may be used until the prothrombin time is prolonged satisfactorily, whereupon heparin may be discontinued.


Abstract The effectiveness, efficiency, availability, agility, and equality of global healthcare systems are in question. The COVID-19 pandemic have further highlighted some of these issues and also shown that healthcare provision is in many parts of the world paternalistic, nimble, and often governed too extensively by revenue and profit motivations. The 4th industrial revolution - the machine learning age - with data gathering, analysis, optimisation, and delivery changes has not yet reached Healthcare / Health provision. We are still treating patients when they are sick rather then to use advanced sensors, data analytics, machine learning, genetic information, and other exponential technologies to prevent people from becoming patients or to help and support a clinicians decision. We are trying to optimise and improve traditional medicine (incremental innovation) rather than to use technologies to find new medical and clinical approaches (disruptive innovation). Education of future stakeholders from the clinical and from the technology side has not been updated to Health 4.0 demands and the needed 21st century skills. This paper presents a novel proposal for a university and innovation lab based interdisciplinary Master education of HealthTEC innovation designers.


To improve vehicle performance, development of the torque converter matching to advanced engine performance is essential. The improvement of the torque converter's performance could be optimized by modifying geometry of 3 elements of the torque converter. The impeller and turbine of automotive torque converters are usually made of stamped sheet metal parts. Any geometry modification of the impeller or turbine would be very expensive because of tooling cost. In contrast, the stator is usually made of aluminum die-casting. Torque converter modifications are limited to the stator only in order to reduce the manufacturing cost. By the Computational Fluid Dynamics, the variation of stator shapes were analyzed and designed. To verify the accuracy of CFD, performance test was done with samples. In comparison of analysis with test result, both shows similar pattern through overall speed ratio.


The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing teachers' motivation and their effect on performances: in the case of Degga Woreda public primary schools. Descriptive and explanatory research designs were adopted with both qualitative and quantitative research approach. The study population comprised a totaling 297 teachers from primary schools and 170 teachers were sampled for this study by using Yemane (1967). Also to identify the target respondents from total population of the study systematic random sampling techniques was used. Questionnaires, interview, and researcher observation were served as data collection instruments. The data were analyzed using descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multiple correlations and regression). The analysis was supported by the statistical software such as Statistical Package for Social Scientists 20 versions and Analysis of Moment Structures 22 versions. The key findings of doing so; organizational leadership and training and development have a positive direct effect on the performance of teachers. The study concluded that organizational leadership and training have a major positive direct effect on the performance of teachers. Finally, the study recommended that the regional education bureau, woreda education office, and head of schools will have developed a national training policy and award programs based on performance. Keywords: Organizational Leadership, Training, Performance of Teachers DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-3-01 Publication date: February 29 th 2020


In August 2009, an experimental water quality monitoring kit based on Colorimetric Solid Phase Extraction (CSPE) technology was delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The kit, called the Colorimetric Water Quality Monitoring Kit (CWQMK), was launched as a Station Development Test Objective (SDTO) experiment to evaluate the suitability of CSPE technology for routine use monitoring water quality on the ISS. CSPE is a sorption-spectrophotometric technique that combines colorimetric reagents, solid-phase extraction, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to quantify trace analytes in water samples. In CSPE, a known volume of sample is metered through a membrane disk that has been impregnated with an analyte-specific colorimetric reagent and any additives required to optimize the formation of the analyte-reagent complex. As the sample flows through the membrane disk, the target analyte is selectively extracted, concentrated, and complexed. Formation of the analyte-reagent complex causes a detectable change in the color of the membrane disk that is proportional to the amount of analyte present in the sample. The analyte is then quantified by measuring the color of the membrane disk surface using a hand-held diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer (DRS). The CWQMK provides the capability to measure the ionic silver (Ag +) and molecular iodine (I2) in water samples on-orbit. These analytes were selected for the evaluation of CSPE technology because they are the biocides used in the potable water storage and distribution systems on the ISS. Biocides are added to the potable water systems on spacecraft to inhibit microbial growth. On the United States (US) segment of the ISS molecular iodine serves as the biocide, while the Russian space agency utilizes silver as a biocide in their systems. In both cases, the biocides must be maintained at a level sufficient to control bacterial growth, but low enough to avoid any negative effects on crew health. For example, the presence of high levels of iodine in water can cause taste and odor issues that result in decreased water consumption by the crew. There are also concerns about potential impacts on thyroid function following exposure to high levels of iodine. With silver, there is a risk of developing argyria, an irreversible blue-gray discoloration of the skin, associated with long term consumption of water containing high concentrations of silver. The need to ensure that safe, effective levels of biocide are maintained in the potable water systems on the ISS provides a perfect platform for evaluating the suitability of CSPE technology for in-flight water quality monitoring. This paper provides an overview of CSPE technology and details on the silver and iodine methods used in the CWQMK. It also reports results obtained during in-flight analyses performed with the CWQMK and briefly discusses other potential applications for CSPE technology in both the spacecraft and terrestrial environments.


We analyze the ground state of a system of dipolar bosons moving in the XY plane and such that their dipolar moments are all aligned in a fixed direction in space. We focus on the general case where the polarization field forms a generic angle a with respect to the Z axis. We use the path-integral ground-state method to analyze the static properties of the system as both a and the density n vary over a wide range where the system is stable. We use the maximum of the static structure function as an order parameter to characterize the different phases and the transition lines among them. We find that, in addition to a superfluid gas and a solid phase, the system reaches a stripe phase at large tilting angles that is entirely induced by the anisotropic character of the interaction. We also show that the quantum phase transition from the gas to the stripe phase is of second order and report approximate values for the critical exponents.


The purpose of this study was to examine the graduate students' views regarding the modular course delivery of the master's programme in Addis Ababa University. It attempted to answer four basic questions: what are the attitudes of the graduate students towards the modular curricula and block teaching mode of delivery? Is there any difference in students' preference for modular delivery across different colleges/subjects/disciplines? What are the major strengths and weaknesses of modular course delivery as perceived by graduate students? And what are the outstanding academic and administrative problems encountered by the modular course delivery? The study used the survey method supported by qualitative data collection procedures. Questionnaire was employed to collect data from 732 first year graduate students. However, analysis was made on properly completed and returned 724 questionnaires. Besides six focus group discussions were held. The quantitative data were analyzed by using percentages, means and composite scores, standard deviations and analysis of variance and Tukey HSD. The results showed that graduate students' overall attitude toward the modular programme is positive. The modular delivery was also perceived favorably. However, significant differences were observed between students of different colleges with regard to attitude towards the modular programme, modular delivery and availability and accessibility of module related materials.


Background: Surgical stabilization of injured spine in patients with complete spinal cord injury is a common practice despite the lack of strong evidence supporting it. The aim of this study is to compare clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of surgical stabilization versus conservative management of spinal injury in patients with complete deficits, essentially from a developing country's point of view. Methods: A detailed analysis of patients with traumatic spine injury and complete deficits admitted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Pakistan, from January 2004 till January 2010 was carried out. All patients presenting within 14 days of injury were divided in two groups, those who underwent stabilization procedures and those who were managed non-operatively. The two groups were compared with the endpoints being time to rehabilitation, length of hospital stay, 30 day morbidity/mortality, cost of treatment, and status at follow up. Results: Fifty-four patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and half of these were operated. On comparing endpoints, patients in the operative group took longer time to rehabilitation (P-value = 0.002); had longer hospital stay (P-value = 0.006) which included longer length of stay in special care unit (P-value = 0.002) as well as intensive care unit (P-value = 0.004); and were associated with more complications, especially those related to infections (P-value = 0.002). The mean cost of treatment was also significantly higher in the operative group (USD 6,500) as compared to non-operative group (USD 1490) (P-value < 0.001). Conclusion: We recommend that patients with complete SCI should be managed non-operatively with a provision of surgery only if their rehabilitation is impeded due to pain or deformity.


abstract:This essay focuses on the interactions between Dido and Cupid in Christopher Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage. Unlike Marlowe's source material, Marlowe's play focuses on the way Dido pretends to be the mother of Cupid, constructing herself as a kind of surrogate mother. These interactions reflect the fraught status of surrogate children, who were at increased risk of exploitation even as they were viewed as a potential threat to their adoptive parents. The performance conditions of the play exacerbate this unease as Dido was performed by a group of child actors who were viewed as surrogate children to the theater manager. Like a surrogate child, the boy player was both a commodity to be exploited and a threat because he occupied a liminal space between boyhood and adulthood. Drawing on broader cultural unease concerning surrogate parent-child relationships, Marlowe uses Cupid's status as surrogate son who is both a sexual plaything and a sinister threat to highlight anxieties about the agency of boy players on the cusp of manhood. The discrepancy between Cupid's boyish appearance and his crafty manipulation of Dido reminds the audience that the actor playing Cupid will also one day possess the full sexual and political agency of an adult.


A 7-wk trial was carried out to investigate the effect of vitamin E and inorganic and organic selenium added to hens' diet on quality and lipid stability of eggs during storage. One hundred forty-four Hy-Line W-36 hens (63-wk of age) were divided into six equal groups. Five groups received a basal diet supplemented with 0.4 mg kg-1 sodium selenite or selenium yeast, 200 mg kg-1 vitamin E or a combination of selenium and vitamin E; whereas the control group received no supplementation. Hen production was assessed daily and fresh egg quality parameters were determined every 2 wk. Eggs were stored under different conditions (4°C, 23–27°C or 31°C) for 14 d. Eggs were analyzed for quality characteristics, egg component weight, Malondialdehyde values as a secondary oxidation product and yolk fatty acid (FA) composition. The performance of the hens and egg weights were not affected either by the source of the selenium or by the vitamin E. The inclusion of selenium or vitamin E in the diet significantly increased...


The most common foreign bodies seen in the foot are sewing needles, toothpicks, glass, and materials such as sand or silica. Foreign bodies in the foot are usually embedded, and surgical exploration and removal is usually necessary. Penetrating foreign bodies in the foot-particularly of organic origin, like wood-can cause cellulitis, osteomyelitis, abscess formation, and pseudotumor formation. Identification of foreign bodies in the foot can be challenging because they are often not radiopaque. However, foreign bodies in the foot do not migrate, in contrast to upper extremities, where foreign bodies are known to migrate. We report a case of a toothpick penetrating a child's foot and moving proximally along the tendon sheath.


OBJECTIVE: To describe a case of levetiracetam-induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome. CASE SUMMARY: A 31-year-old white male with a low-grade astrocytoma presenting with tonic-clonic seizures was treated with levetiracetam 1 g twice daily and dexamethasone (initial dosage 12 mg/day, tapered down to 2 mg/day). On day 45 after levetiracetam initiation, dexamethasone was discontinued and levetiracetam continued. The patient developed fever and dyspnea on day 46 and was admitted to the hospital on day 49. A chest X-ray showed bilateral pulmonary interstitial infiltrates, and laboratory tests showed elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH; 288 U/L [reference range <204]), ferritin (223 ng/mL [13–178]), and C-reactive protein (CRP; 3.1 mg/dL [<0.5]). Neurologic fever was suspected and the reinitiation of dexamethasone at 6 mg/day was followed by improvement of all symptoms; the patient was discharged on day 55 with dexamethasone 4 mg/day for 2 more days. On day 59, 2 days after the withdrawal of dexamethasone for the second time, the patient presented with a pruritic erythematous maculopapular rash along with recurrence of fever and dyspnea, and was admitted to the hospital. A chest X-ray showed reappearance of the bilateral pulmonary interstitial infiltrates, and laboratory tests showed impaired liver function (alanine aminotransferase 60 U/L [reference range <56], aspartate aminotransferase 53 U/L [<30], LDH 516 U/L, ferritin 419 ng/mL, and CRP 2.6). A diagnosis of DRESS syndrome was suspected and levetiracetam was discontinued. Upon levetiracetam withdrawal, the patient's symptoms resolved by day 66, and radiological images showed resolution of the interstitial infiltrate by day 68. The patient was discharged on day 68. Low-grade fever persisted until day 71, with no other symptoms. During a 2-month follow-up period, liver function test results returned to normal. DISCUSSION: DRESS is a hypersensitivity reaction to several drugs, mainly antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), characterized by cutaneous, hematologic, and visceral involvement. Levetiracetam is structurally and pharmacologically unrelated to other AEDs. Previously, only one case of levetiracetam-induced DRESS syndrome had been reported, which required corticosteroids to control symptoms. We describe a case of levetiracetam-induced DRESS syndrome presenting with pneumonitis and hepatitis that resolved with levetiracetam withdrawal. Our patient was classified as a definitive DRESS case according to the RegiSCAR scoring system, which grades DRESS cases. According to the Naranjo probability scale, the adverse drug reaction was considered probable. CONCLUSIONS: Although levetiracetam is usually well tolerated, clinicians should be aware of the potential for it to cause DRESS syndrome.


Health care, public safety, home security and self-driving cars applications rely on the automatic identification and interpretation of sound events. For example, abnormal respiratory sounds indicate respiratory problems, a gunshot or a glass breaking imply a safe alert, and an ambulance siren wailing implies that vehicles should stop or pull over. Systems that can automatically recognize sound events in order to extract meaning that helps us react accordingly, aresystems capable of Sound Understanding. Sound Understanding is an emerging field of Machine Hearing, which aims to build systems that can do sound-related tasks that have nothing to do with hearing - such as sonography, seismic, and sonar - and systems that could hear the way humans do and distinguish between music, speech and sounds [1]. Hearing machines that understand sounds like humans do require computational programs that can learn from years of accumulated diverse acoustics. They must useassociated knowledge to guide subsequent learning and organize what they hear, learn names for recognizable events, scenes, objects, actions, materials, places, and retrieve sounds by reference to those names. These machines must also continuously improve their hearing competence to encompass all the diversity and scale of the acoustics in the world. Therefore, this thesis proposes the Never-Ending Learning of Sounds (NELS), a computationalprogram that aims to build hearing machines that understand sounds under a never-ending learning paradigm. NELS continuously hears the Web, in order to learn meaningful categories and relationships of sounds, and use this knowledge to index and organize the crawled audio. The content is made available for people to query and recover all kinds of information. To enhanceNELS quality of expression of acoustic phenomena, we introduced a new interdisciplinary solution that draws domain knowledge from Psychology to build Machine Learning models. NELS breaks ground in challenges of Sound Understanding, such as collecting datasets with different types of labels and annotation processes, designing and improving sound recognition models, defining knowledge about sounds, and retrieving sounds with different types of similarities.


Six sigma as a proven improvement methodology has been widely used among organizations in various industries. It focuses on improving production processes, reducing variation, and eliminating waste leading to higher efficiency and profitability. Six sigma has been applied in Indonesian manufacturing industries and continues to grow. This paper discussed six sigma implementations in Indonesian manufacturing industries that identifies sigma levels from various manufacturing sectors and summarizes current evidence that contributes to revealing the current sigma level. This study reviews six sigma project cases from one of six sigma consulting firms in Indonesia. Six sigma project cases were collected from 2019-2022, the total project cases during that period included 120 six sigma project, and 58 projects that meet the criteria has been selected for this study. The results show that from 58 selected projects, the average sigma value of the observed industries was 3.7 before improvement and 4.1 after improvement. However, the highest sigma level before improvement was 4.8 which came from fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector and the highest sigma level after improvement was 5.4 which came from the packaging sector.


Methodologies to assess the effects of energy projects on global carbon dioxide emissions will be an important feature of a future international carbon dioxide trading system. In this paper, we present and discuss four different models for assessing the net carbon dioxide emissions resulting from a certain energy project. These models are applied to different district heating technologies. To judge the mitigation performance of a project, the amount of carbon dioxide released in kilograms is expressed per megawatt‐hour of useful district heating produced. All the models consider the marginal change caused by the project on the electric power system. The different model perspectives are discussed, and it is shown that the choice of model is very critical for assessing the net carbon dioxide emissions from an energy project. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of daily living and the location of welfare facilities for the aged in the local city. The thorough investigation and observation works were made to them from the view points of daily living behaviors and behavioral places of the recuperating elderly and location of welfare facilities. This article discusses about the actual condition of the daily living activities of 252 elderly in 4 facilities. The results of this study are summarized as follows; We must actively prepare for the advanced age society to the increase of the elderly man population. The elderly man welfare facilities expansion needs the range who do not escape from existing a life area of the aged. The city of Sa-cheon the elderly man welfare facilities have got on favorable terms ready in the locational environment. But an facilities in the west area need to preparable emergency happen that facility construction. The usage of behavioral places in recuperating facilities are influenced by the physical environments and the basic characteristics of the elderly.


Cr electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels were corroded at 600-800C to 30hr in (N2-1%H2S-H2O)-mixed gas condition, and their sulfidation characteristics were studied. Un-electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels corroded rapidly, forming outer FeS scales and inner FeS, Fe,Cr-(S,O)-mixed scales. The high growth rate of FeS impeded the formation of a continuous, protective Cr-rich oxide. Electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels corroded slower than un-electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels, because of Cr coated layer. Electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels formed much thinner scales, which consisted primarily of Cr2O3, Cr2S3 scales indicating that both sulfidation and oxidation occurred simultaneously. Cr2O3 oxide effectively provided corrosion resistance. Electroplated Fe-18Cr-12Ni steels corrosion resistance increased with increasing the Cr content. During sulfidation, it also displayed good corrosion resistance at 600C, but it suffered from massive weight loss above 800C.


Background Because of the increased number of diagnosed cases of endometriosis or adenomyosis resulting in infertility, many women require assisted reproductive technology (ART) to become pregnant. However, incidences of obstetric complications are increased for women who conceive using ART. There has been no prospective cohort study examining the influence of endometriosis and adenomyosis on obstetric outcomes after adjusting for the confounding influence of ART therapy. Objective This study evaluated the impact of endometriosis and adenomyosis on the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Study design Data were obtained from a prospective cohort study, known as the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS), of the incidence of obstetric complications for women with endometriosis and adenomyosis. The data of 103,099 pregnancies that resulted in live birth or stillbirth or that were terminated through abortion between February 2011 and July 2014 in Japan were included. Results Women with endometriosis or adenomyosis were at increased risk for complications during pregnancy compared to those without a medical history of endometriosis (odds ratio [OR], 1.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23 to 1.41) or adenomyosis (OR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.37 to 2.16). Our analysis showed that the adjusted ORs for obstetric complications of pregnant women who conceived naturally or after infertility treatment that did not involve ART therapy were 1.26 (CI, 1.17 to 1.35) for pregnant women with a history of endometriosis and 1.52 (CI, 1.19 to 1.94) for those with a history of adenomyosis. Conclusions The presence of endometriosis and adenomyosis significantly increased the prevalence of obstetric complications after adjusting for the influence of ART outcomes.


Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the major staple foods for global consumption. A major roadblock to global rice production is persistent loss of crops caused by plant diseases, including rice blast, sheath blight, bacterial blight, and particularly various vector-borne rice viral diseases. Since the late 19th century, 19 species of rice viruses have been recorded in rice-producing areas worldwide and cause varying degrees of damage on the rice production. Among them, southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) and rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) in Asia, rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) in Africa, and rice stripe necrosis virus (RSNV) in America currently pose serious threats to rice yields. This review systematizes the emergence and damage of rice viral diseases, the symptomatology and transmission biology of rice viruses, the arm races between viruses and rice plants as well as their insect vectors, and the strategies for the prevention and control of rice viral diseases.


Application-level storage aggregation provides a massive storage capacity with high scalability and low cost. However, these systems usually only support their special sites, which ignores the legacy storage systems. So we developed a distributed storage system to aggregate these popular storages and provide a uniform access and management interface for these sites. To ensure high data availability, our distributed storage system utilizes a sophisticated way known as data replication. In this paper, we present the data currency scenario employed in our distributed storage system, which can be also used in other replicated distributed storage systems. We propose a Replica Access Service (RAS) to deal with data availability and efficient retrieval of current replicas based on version controlling, which can balance the data accessibility and replica consistency. We validate our solution's performance and scalability through simulation up to 10,000 distributed sites. The simulation results show that our algorithm used in RAS achieves major performance gains, in terms of response time, compared with a baseline algorithm.


Regular expression is important for many natural language processing tasks especially when used to deal with unstructured and semi-structured data. This work focuses on automatically generating regular expressions and proposes a novel genetic algorithm to deal with this problem. Different from the methods which generate regular expressions from character level, we first utilize byte pair encoder (BPE) to extract some frequent items, which are then used to construct regular expressions. The fitness function of our genetic algorithm contains multi objectives and is solved based on evolutionary procedure including crossover and mutation operation. In the fitness function, we take the length of generated regular expression, the maximum matching characters and samples for positive training samples, and the minimum matching characters and samples for negative training samples into consideration. In addition, to accelerate the training process, we do exponential decay on the population size of the genetic algorithm. Our method together with a strong baseline is tested on 13 kinds of challenging datasets. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, which outperforms the baseline on 10 kinds of data and achieves nearly 50 percent improvement on average. By doing exponential decay, the training speed is approximately 100 times faster than the methods without using exponential decay. In summary, our method possesses both effectiveness and efficiency, and can be implemented for the industry application.


Summary Live measles virus obtained from tissue culture autolysates is shown to evoke the production of neutralizing antibody when given intradermally or intraperitoneally to rabbits and guinea pigs and intravenously to chickens. Virus injected intraperitoneally in chickens failed to stimulate antibody production, however, even when given in multiple doses. The kinetics of neutralizing antibody production in the guinea pig in response to primary and secondary injections of live virus resembles that seen with low levels of nonviable antigens. Heat or electron inactivated virus retains full antigenicity at exposure levels and times greatly in excess of those required for loss of viability. Inactivation of viral infectivity with formalin is more detrimental to antigenicity than the other methods studied.


We study the relation between two existing formalisms: incomplete argumentation frameworks (IAFs) and epistemic logic of visibility (ELV). We show that the set of completions of a given IAF naturally corresponds to a specific equivalence class of possible worlds within the model of visibility. This connection is further strengthened in two directions. First, we show how to reduce argument acceptance problems of IAFs to ELV model-checking problems. Second, we highlight the epistemic assumptions that underlie IAFs by providing a minimal epistemic logic for IAFs.


An analogue functional analysis identified attention as a function for a 5-year-old boy's bruxism (teeth grinding). Functional communication training resulted in a reduction of bruxism and an increase in alternative mands for attention. Results were maintained 3 weeks following the intervention.


The structure and properties of vanadium oxide deposited on γ-alumina at submonolayer coverage have been investigated. Textural analysis, electron microscopy, and low energy ion scattering (LEIS) show that, for loadings up to at least 3.4 V/nm2, the vanadium oxide is present as a highly dispersed phase. LEIS experiments show that the development of the vanadium oxide monolayer proceeds in three steps. In the first step vanadium oxide is molecularly dispersed on γ-alumina as isolated monomeric and dimeric species. Above approximately 1.5 V/nm2 a second layer of vanadium oxide is formed on top of the dimeric species, resulting in the formation of oligomeric species. At coverages above 2.5 V/nm2 these small oligomeric species grow into polymeric vanadium oxide chains. TPR experiments show that reduction of these polymeric species proceeds at lower temperatures than reduction of the monomeric species, probably as a result of the weakening of the vanadium-oxygen bond.


This thesis deals with two major process routes for the direct oxidation of benzene to
phenol. The main objective of the first route was to understand the properties of the
porous stainless steel (PSS) needed for support of a catalyst deposited onto its surface,
to identify the morphologies of the Pd membrane deposited onto the PSS, to design a
catalytic membrane reactor, to characterise membrane in terms of its permeability to
hydrogen, and then to investigate hydroxylation of benzene using oxygen as an oxidant.
It was observed, using Mo or zeolites as a second catalyst and the reactor design affect
the productivity and selectivity towards phenol.
This research has also shown the effects of the catalytic properties of iron zeolites with a
focus on reactions involving the decomposition of nitrous oxide and direct oxidation of
benzene to phenol using nitrous oxide as the oxidant. The main objective of this second
route was to identify the active sites in the catalysts, and to a design catalyst based on
the acquired knowledge. The methodology was to incorporate iron either at framework
positions via hydrothermal synthesis of the zeolites followed by controlled migration to
extra-framework positions, or directly at extra-framework positions via sublimation of
FeCh or liquid ion-exchange. In this project, different catalysts were characterized and
their catalytic activities compared. It was observed contaminants such as N-containing
compounds, O2, CO, and water affected the catalytic properties and catalyst half-life.
In this thesis, two different methods were used to improve productivity when using a
PdlPSS membrane. First, changing design of the reactor, and second, using Mo as a
second catalyst. It was observed that higher productivity was obtained when the reactor
tube was packed with Fe/ZSM-5 and N20 using as the oxidant. From an economic
point of view, using N20 in the presence of zeolite in a fixed-bed reactor is expected to
offer more advantages than Pd membrane for oxidation of aromatic compounds.


A partial cDNA (similar to 1200 bp) of the porcine ACTC1 gene was identified in the subtracted foetal hind limb muscle cDNA library (44 days of gestation; using m. biceps femoris cDNA as the driver). Using specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers, a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone containing the genomic ACTC1 gene was identified and the gene was sequenced. Specific PCR primers designed from the BAC and cDNA sequences were used for amplification and comparative sequencing of ACTC1 of Pietrain and Meishan pigs. The gene is approximately 5.4 kb in length, is composed of 7 exons, and has a coding sequence containing 1134 bp. The gene was mapped using the INRA-Minnesota porcine radiation hybrid (IMpRH) panel to chromosome 1, with SW65 as the closest marker (41 cR; LOD = 7.73). Differences were observed in tissue-specific expression of ACTC1 that was studied by transcription profiling in 28 porcine tissues. Developmental differences in muscle and heart were analysed by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found in intron 1. One adequately informative SNP (FM212567.1:g.901C>G) was genotyped by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism, and allele frequencies in eight pig breeds were calculated.


This article investigates gendered meanings attached to filial obligations when they are negotiated between Iranian refugee parents and their children. We investigate gender in intergenerational relationships by using the frame of social control, understanding it as a form of institutional, normative and internalized control. This research is based on an ethnographic study of Iranian families living in Finland. The data consists of observations and interviews with adult children and their parents. The results show that the daughters were able to negotiate their filial obligations with their parents in strategic ways. They actively spoke against their parents' normative control to make independent choices. However, following their parents' wishes was also a way for the daughters to actively maintain their own cultural values. The sons were often expected to take care of their ageing parents and had little agency when negotiating the intensity of these demands for support. So rather than making decisions about maintaining their cultural values like the daughters, the sons were often automatically expected to offer support and guidance. However, the sons experienced less normative control when interacting with their parents.


Abstract. Peak‐to‐trough electroantennogram amplitudes (bursts), caused by the individual filaments of a plume of female pheromone, diminish as high‐emission‐rate sources are approached by male Grapholita molesta, and this reduction is correlated with in‐flight arrestment (ceasing to advance upwind). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that one cause of in‐flight arrestment in response to high‐concentration point sources is the attenuation of the peak‐to‐ trough amplitudes close to the source. High burst frequency, high pheromone flux, or low levels of continuous neuronal activity all are less well correlated with arrestment. Rather, arrestment appears due to a reduction of chemosensory input to the CNS during flight up the plume, even though the actual molecular concentration continues to increase. In a laboratory wind tunnel, upwind flight initiation by more than 20% of males was elicited only by pheromone source concentrations evoking significant fluctuations in EAG amplitudes at downwind release points. The burst frequencies that evoked high levels of upwind flight initiation ranged from a mean of 0.4‐2.2 bursts/s. Because a previous study revealed that flying male G. molestachange their course angle within 0.15 s of losing or contacting pheromone, these EAG burst frequencies indicate that during flight in a pheromone plume, many manoeuvres are probably made in response to contact with individual plume filaments. Thus, upwind flight tracks may be shaped by hundreds of steering reactions in response to encounters with individual pheromone filaments and pockets of clean air. Field‐recorded EAGs reveal that burst amplitudes diminish from 3 to 30 m downwind of the source, whereas burst frequencies do not, averaging c.1/s at 3, 10 and 30 m downwind.


In this study, optimal injection moulding conditions for minimum shrinkage during moulding of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) were obtained by Taguchi method. The result showed that melting temperature of 190OC, injection pressure of 55 MPa, refilling pressure of 85 MPa and cooling time of 11 seconds gave minimum shrinkage for High Density Polyethylene. Cooling time was found to be the factor with most significant effect on the shrinkage of High Density Polyethylene followed by refilling pressure. Injection pressure was found to be the least effective factor. Keywords: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Injection Moulding, Process Parameters, Taguchi method.


Abstract Background Hospital acquired infection (HAI) is a major problem in healthcare delivery worldwide despite medical advances. A low HH compliance rate of 17.1% was found among surgical health workers at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria, Nigeria. Although hand hygiene (HH) is a proven low-cost means to curtail HAI, low HH compliance is a global reality. The WHO multimodal strategy attempts to address low HH compliance within the frame of contextual realities. Methods This was an interventional study utilizing action research through a mixed method approach to investigate the effectiveness of employing a contextualized multimodal strategy to enhance the HH compliance rate of doctors at ABUTH Zaria. The study was from August to October 2022. A behavioural change campaign (BCC) HH workshop was carried out on doctors, and data collection followed immediately in the surgical wards (i.e. clusters) that had received environmental modification through the provision HH posters and nurses for visual and verbal reminders, respectively. The four clusters were: visual reminders only, verbal reminders only, visual and verbal reminders combined and neither visual nor verbal reminders (i.e. control). All clusters received an uninterrupted supply of alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR) throughout the study period. The HH observation proforma for 'five moments of HH' template was used to collect the quantitative data through direct observation while qualitative data were by one-on-one interviews on doctors in surgical wards at ABUTH Zaria. Results The cumulative HH compliance rate by doctors was 69% (N = 1774). This was significantly different from the baseline HH compliance rate of 17.1% before this study's intervention (P < 0.0001, C. I. 45.5% to 57.7%). HH was observed from doctors most in wards with both visual and verbal reminders (78%) while lowest (59%) where visual and verbal reminders were not provided, i.e. C4 (n = 444). Compared with the baseline HH compliance, all interventions were significant. However, compared with C4, visual reminders only (C1) had insignificant effect on influencing the HH practice of doctors while visual and verbal reminders combined. Verbal reminders only (C2) were found to be as effective as when combined with visual reminders (78%) as the difference was statistically insignificant (P = 0.4791, CI −3.5% to 7.5%, χ2 = 0.5). However, all doctors reported being motivated to perform HH by the presence of ABHR which was similar to the significance found even in the ward where no verbal or visual reminders (59%, n = 444) were used compared with the baseline (17%, n = 286) before this intervention study (P < 0.0001, CI 35% to 48%, χ2 = 125). All respondents reported hearing about the HH behavioural change workshop even though only one attended. Conclusions Continuous workshop on HH is necessary to sustain awareness of health workers on the importance of hand hygiene. The presence of ABHRs alone was enough motivation for doctors to perform HH but verbal reminders were significant in sustaining this positive attitude towards HH. A scaling of this intervention is needed in other departments so that staff can have changes made to their values towards healthcare delivery as well at ABUTH Zaria. Contextualizing the WHO multimodal strategy is an efficient and acceptable means of addressing the problem of low HH compliance.


BACKGROUND
The acute radiation morbidity may be a serious problem for the patient and may be decreased by pharmacological approaches.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A database research (Medline, Cancerlit, DIMDI, etc.) was performed in order to obtain pharmacological approaches to decrease the acute radiation morbidity. The evaluation was focused on therapeutic principles but not on special drugs.

RESULTS
Different approaches may be chosen to protect healthy tissues from the effects of ionizing radiation: 1. administration of cyto- or radioprotective agents prior to irradiation, 2. administration of agents to avoid additional secondary toxicity by inflammation or superinfection during the treatment cycle (supportive care) and 3. administration of rescue agents, such as bone marrow CSFs or hyperbaric oxygen (HBO), after therapy. For radioprotection, there are reports on cellular protection by vitamine E, vitamine C, beta carotene, ribose-cysteine, glutamine, Mgcl2/adenosine triphosphate and WR-2721 (amifostine). In general, preclinical studies show that the combination of pretreatment with amifostine, irradiation, and G-CSF after radiation enhances hematologic recovery. Assessment of these combined effects, including local supportive therapies, merits further clinical investigation. There are data from prospective studies as well as from empirical clinical experience, that radioprotection and clinical supportive care may reduce the treatment related morbidity by 10 to 30% either.

CONCLUSIONS
A further improvement of the therapeutic ratio is to be expected by systemically combined application of radioprotectors, supportive care and rescue agents.


This paper presents a new generical approach for the design of variable structure control (VSC) systems free of chattering. The work in this paper is proposed for cases where the output of VSC is the input of a system that cannot tolerate chattering. This paper presents the plant augmentation method to mitigate the chattering problem and describes the associated design of the VSC system. The application of this method leads to the application of the phase plane method in studying the dynamics of MIMO nth-order system. This approach is applied to designing a VSC of a MIMO heating system for hot water and space heating. The simulation results confirm the theoretical expectation. The problem of chattering is solved and the approach results in a robust VSC system free of chattering.


Although positrons and antiprotons have vastly different masses, we show that it is possible to store both particle species simultaneously in a Paul trap, using the space charge of the positron cloud as a trap for the antiprotons. Computer simulations confirm the validity of this new trapping mechanism. In addition, the simulations show transient antihydrogen production that manifests itself in the intermittent production of bound positron-antiproton Rydberg states. Since realistic trapping parameters are used in the simulations, (i) simultaneous positron-antiproton trapping and (ii) transient antihydrogen formation should be experimentally observable in a Paul trap. Strategies are suggested to lengthen the lifetime of antihydrogen in the Paul trap.


Objective: The current study extended upon previous research efforts by evaluating the utility and feasibility of an 8-session Internet-based interpretation bias modification (IBM) training protocol targeting evaluation- and appearance-related threat biases characteristic of the disorder compared to a progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) condition for treatment of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Method: Fifty participants with BDD were recruited from across the United States and randomly assigned to eight sessions of either IBM or PMR. Assessments of interpretation bias, BDD symptoms, depression, and anxiety were administered at pretreatment, 1-week posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Results: Compared to the PMR group, individuals in the IBM condition reported less negative/threat interpretation biases and greater positive/benign interpretation biases at posttreatment and follow-up. There were no significant differences between groups with regard to BDD symptoms, depression, or anxiety. Clinically significant improvement was common in both conditions (IBM = 64.0%; PMR = 52.0%), though it did not differ between them. Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, IBM did not outperform PMR with regard to BDD symptom reduction, though both treatments yielded significant improvements on symptom outcomes. Findings suggest that IBM and/or PMR may be promising treatment strategies for BDD, perhaps adjunctively. Overall, these findings provide helpful future directions for IBM research and provide an additional lens through which to examine its potential effectiveness for BDD.


In this paper we apply regenerative method to estimate the required effective bandwidth (EB) of a station in an acyclic communication network. Earlier this problem for a tandem network has been addresses in [1]. We give a brief introduction to the EB theory and then discuss basic statistical methods for the EB estimation. For a queueing network described by a regenerative process we construct the estimator which gives an upper bound of predetermined QoS requirement. Simulation results show that an overestimation of a QoS parameter obtained by this method is acceptable to calculate workload-based EB for the nodes being components of highlyreliable communication systems.


A new approach to modal analysis is presented that allows the modes and natural frequencies of a mistuned bladed disk to be determined from its response to a traveling wave excitation. The resulting modes and natural frequencies are then used as input to a system identification method to determine the bladed disk's mistuning while it is rotating. This capability is useful since it provides a basis for determining blade frequencies under engine operational conditions and could help monitor the health of the engine.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


GIS technology is rapidly becoming a standard tool for managing environmental issues. It assists decision-planners and decisionmakers for environmental protection and sustainable development. Today's GIS application is limitless wherever spatial features need to be modeled and analyzed. The applications of GIS in water resources and environmental engineering are constantly on the rise. This paper briefly introduced the GIS techniques and technologies and the history of it is discussed. The advantages and drawbacks of using GIS are narrated in the paper. This paper emphasizes the GIS applications in water resources including surface water (surface hydrologic modeling), water supply & sewer system modeling and water quality management. Also; this paper expounds on the GIS applications in environmental engineering such as environmental impact assessment; climate change; disaster management; and air quality monitoring.


The preoccupation with the processes of globalization, which has become a key concept in the analysis of the sociocultural condition of postmodernity, has led to a decreased interest in the theory of civilization. The ideological burden of the concept of civilization and its stigmatization by critics of post-Enlightenment modernity also contribute to this current state. However, issues associated with the processes of civilization have once again come to the fore, as shown by the reconstruction of threads associated with civilization in social theory, including sociological works. The views on civilization presented by Weber, Durkheim and Mauss, by their successors Sorokin, Elias and Nelson, down to the contemporary publications of Huntington and Eisenstadt are widely known, whereas works published on this subject in Polish by Florian Znaniecki are not. On a backdrop of the genesis of civilization-associated discourse and its antinomy as regards religion, the article presents Znaniecki ' s concept of civilization processes as the social integration of culture, developed on the basis of his theory of cultural and social systems. Two types of human participation in culture are significant here: cultural communities and social groups which create a cultural bond. The de-civilizing processes which Znaniecki described are shown. The article analyzes Znaniecki ' s idea of a fluid civilization and the conditions which are necessary for its existence, in the shape of reflexive cultural knowledge as the answer to a cultural crisis. The new type of cultural crisis stems from cultural innovations. The article shows the differences between Znaniecki ' s concept of fluidity and Bauman ' s liquid modernity. It presents the concept of "civilization of the future" as a pan-human civilization, which requires the formation of a new type of cultural community – the world culture society.


We examine the response of a two-dimensional cylindrical array of Josephson junctions to a time-dependent Aharonov-Bohm flux, which can be mapped to tight-binding electrons in the same geometry. It is shown that a non-vanishing time-average of the persistent current is developed whenever the dc component of the flux is properly quantized, leading to giant Shapiro resonances. Here a perpendicular magnetic field is found to yield novel fractional resonances in addition to the integer ones. In particular, the topological origin of such integer and fractional quantization is pointed out.


Background: The use of topical therapy is a key component in the management of almost all psoriasis patients. Topicals are considered first-line therapy for mild disease and are having an increasing role in moderate or severe psoriasis as an integral part of combination therapy. Halobetasol has been shown be effective in moderate or severe localized plaque psoriasis, and tazarotene affords important effects on epidermal hyperproliferation that may be important in more severe disease.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of a once-daily application of a fixed combination halobetasol propionate 0.01% and tazarotene 0.045% (HP/TAZ) lotion in comparison with its vehicle in patients with severe localized plaque psoriasis (as defined by an Investigator Global Assessment (IGA) of 4 and Body Surface Area (BSA) of 3%-12%.

Methods: Post hoc analysis of two multicenter, randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled phase 3 studies. Sixty-two patients with severe localized psoriasis (mean BSA 7.4) randomized (2:1) to receive HP/TAZ lotion or vehicle, once-daily for 8 weeks, with a 4-week posttreatment follow-up. Efficacy assessments included treatment success (defined as at least a 2-grade improvement from baseline in the IGA score and a score of 'clear' or 'almost clear'), impact on individual signs of psoriasis (erythema, plaque elevation, and scaling) at the target lesion, BSA, reduction in mean baseline IGAxBSA and achievement of a clinically meaningful response (number of patients who achieved at least a 75% improvement in IGAxBSA). Safety and treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were evaluated throughout.

Results: By week 8, 34.8% of patients were treatment successes compared with 0.0% on vehicle (P=0.004). HP/TAZ lotion was also significantly superior in reducing psoriasis signs and symptoms and improving BSA. At week 8, 47.4% (erythema), 66.4% (plaque elevation), and 65.4% (scaling) subjects achieved at least a 2-grade improvement, compared with 14.0% (P=0.016), 14.8% (P<0.001) and 14.7% (P<0.001) respectively with vehicle. Patients treated with HP/TAZ lotion achieved a 32.8% reduction in baseline mean BSA, compared with a 39.6% increase with vehicle (P=0.013). HP/TAZ lotion achieved a statistically significant superior reduction in mean IGAxBSA compared to vehicle from week 2 (P<0.001 versus vehicle). By week 8, almost half of the patients treated with HP/TAZ lotion achieved a clinically meaningful response (IGAxBSA-75) and a 52.9% reduction in mean IGAxBSA score compared with a 17.5% increase in those patients treated with vehicle (P<0.001). One patient (2.6%) treated with HP/TAZ lotion discontinued due to AE. Most frequently reported treatment related AEs were application site pain (7.9%), contact dermatitis (5.3%) and pruritus (5.3%).

Conclusions: HP/TAZ lotion provides significantly greater efficacy than vehicle that is both rapid and sustained, in patients with severe localized plaque psoriasis, with good tolerability and safety over 8 weeks' once-daily use.

J Drugs Dermatol. 2019;18(10):1012-1018.


The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of abusive supervision on employee creativity with the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on the Research & Development sector in twin cities of Pakistan. The population of the research study is Research & Development employees working in the private sector-based organization. Data was collected through quantitative research techniques by using questionnaires from a sample of 214. A simple random sampling technique was adopted. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. Results of the study shown that abusive supervision is a negative and significant effect on employee creativity. Similarly, the study showed that emotional exhaustion has a mediating effect on abusive supervision and employee creativity.


In this paper, based on the homeomorphism theory and Lyapunov functional method, we investigate global asymptotical stability for a novel class of delayed impulsive neural networks without Lipschitz neuron activations. Some sufficient conditions are derived which ensure the existence, uniqueness, and global asymptotical stability of the equilibrium point of neural networks. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the improvements of the paper.


Background The UK National Amyloidosis Centre has the largest known cohort of individuals with AA amyloidosis, with 660 cases since 1990. A third present in end stage renal failure (33%), with a median survival of 133 months from diagnosis1. Over 27 years the rate of new cases has remained remarkably constant with a median of 24 diagnoses per annum (IQR 18.5–30.5) but responsible for a decreasing proportion of new cases of systemic amyloidosis from 35% in the first 5 years to 6% in the last 5 years of the cohort. Objectives We sought to determine to what extent advances in treatment of the inflammatory arthritides have influenced the aetiology of AA Amyloidosis over time. Methods Retrospective analysis of the UK National Amyloidosis Centre AA Amyloidosis database containing baseline demographic and clinical data. Data was analysed using a Chi-squared test (GraphPad Prism 7.0). Results Between 1990–2000 there were 188 new cases of AA Amyloidosis of which 51 (27.1%) had an underlying diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), median age at diagnosis of amyloid was 60 years. 37 (19.7%) had a diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), median age 29 years. Between 2007 and 2017 there were 270 new diagnoses of AA Amyloidosis, of whom 57 had RA (21.1%), median age 66 years, and 5 (1.9%) had JIA, median age 37 years. Since the widespread use of combination disease-modifying and biologic therapy there has been a significant reduction in the incidence of JIA-associated AA Amyloidosis (p<0.0001). In contrast, the incidence of RA-associated AA Amyloidosis is unchanged (p<0.1357). Conclusions Advances in the treatment of JIA have significantly reduced the incidence of AA Amyloidosis in this cohort. In contrast, despite largely the same medication and similar treatment targets, RA continues to be responsible for a substantial proportion of new cases of AA Amyloidosis. One possible explanation for this may be that current assessment of disease activity in RA is sufficient to identify those at risk of joint damage or radiological progression of disease but insufficient for identifying peristent subclinical biochemical inflammation. One approach for reducing this risk may be the routine measure of the AA Amyloid precursor protein, serum Amyloid A protein (SAA) in those with RA, as it is well established that levels of SAA of below 10mg/L prevents the accumulation of AA Amyloid in those with inflammatory disease. References Lachmann, H. J., Goodman HJ, Gilbertson JA, Gallimore JR, Sabin CA, Gillmore JD, Hawkins PN (2007). Natural history and outcome in systemic AA amyloidosis. N Engl J Med 356(23): 2361–2371. Disclosure of Interest None declared


This introduction outlines an anthropological concept of 'theopolitics' emergent from ethnographic engagements with the oldest site of European colonialism—the (Latin) Americas. Defined as a query into the sensorial regimes enabling incarnate forms of power, theopolitics focuses on the sovereignties from below that are immanent in struggles between the universalisms of Christian imperialisms and the autochthonous forces they seek to police and unmake. The articles comprising this special issue advance this query by exploring processes of attunement to the prophetic voices of the dead and life itself, of the elasticity of incarnate forms of political charisma and crowds, and the potencies of precious matter and touch as domains for rethinking relationships among political anthropology, political economy, and political theology beyond a focus on the state.


Regulation of immune responses and tolerance is mediated by a variety of mechanisms and cells. So far the role of B cells in this process is not well known, yet.
 Methods: Highly purified CD19+B and CD4+T cells were separated from human PBMC by MACS. B cells were prestimulated with SAC, αIgM/IgG or αCD40, washed and set up in cocultures with freshly isolated autologous CD4+T cells under addition of αCD3+IL-2 or αCD28. CD4+ T cell proliferation was determined after 3–6d by 3H Thymidine incorporation and PKH-26; apoptosis by AnnexinV.
 Results: under optimal stimulatory conditions T cell proliferation was inhibited more than 50% in presence of SAC-activated B cells and to a lesser extent by αIgM/IgG stimulated B cells. Enrichment of SAC-activated large CD25+ B cells by FACSsorting enhanced suppression further up to 68%, while the small CD25− population had no significant effect. Separation of B and T cells by cell culture inserts abolished inhibition, suggesting a requirement for direct cell-contact. In addition to growth inhibition, T cell specific cytokine production (IFNγ, IL-10) was downregulated, and a significant proportion of T cells (37% vs 17%) went into apoptosis.
 Conclusions: B cells are able to inhibit T cell mediated responses depending on their mode of activation. Further experiments are dealing with the mechanisms of B cell mediated suppression and their pathophysiological impact also in autoimmune diseases.


Glycoside hydrolases (GH) have been shown to play unique roles in various biological processes like the biosynthesis of glycans, cell wall metabolism, plant defence, signalling, and the mobilization of storage reserves. To date, GH are divided into more than 100 families based upon their overall structure. GH32 and GH68 are combined in clan GH-J, not only harbouring typical hydrolases but also non-Leloir type transferases (fructosyltransferases), involved in fructan biosynthesis. This review summarizes the recent structure-function research progress on plant GH32 enzymes, and highlights the similarities and differences compared with the microbial GH32 and GH68 enzymes. A profound analysis of ligand-bound structures and site-directed mutagenesis experiments identified key residues in substrate (or inhibitor) binding and recognition. In particular, sucrose can bind as inhibitor in Cichorium intybus 1-FEH IIa, whereas it binds as substrate in Bacillus subtilis levansucrase and Arabidopsis thaliana cell wall invertase (AtcwINV1). In plant GH32, a single residue, the equivalent of Asp239 in AtcwINV1, appears to be important for sucrose stabilization in the active site and essential in determining sucrose donor specificity.


Abstract In this review, the recent developments on centrifugal spinning and characteristics of centrifugally-spun fibers are reviewed. In recent years, there have been great efforts to develop high performance materials for different applications including energy storage, tissue engineering, drug delivery and aerosol filtration. The performance of these materials is greatly influenced by the material type; structure; mechanical, chemical, thermal stability and physical properties such as porosity and surface area. This review introduces the principles of centrifugal spinning with recent developments in manufacturing. The structures, characteristics and performance of centrifugally spun fibers are described in this review. Furthermore, the perspective on the current challenges and promising research directions that could lead to further advancements on centrifugal spinning is provided.


Recent studies that have measured the levels of shareholder protection in Australia and compared them internationally have highlighted the relative strength of Australian shareholder protection. However, the question as to why this is so remains unanswered. Theories suggest that the development of corporate law is influenced by corporate ownership structures. Several scholars argue that this can occur when corporate ownership structures provide the means for interest groups to exercise political power and thereby influence law reform or when inefficiencies arising from corporate ownership structures result in changes to corporate law. This study seeks to determine whether there is any evidence of corporate ownership structures contributing to the development of Australian corporate law. The factors that have led to changes in Australian corporate law over time are examined, first by drawing from the leximetric data that measures changes in the strength of shareholder protection in Australia from 1970 to 2010, and secondly by examining three significant reforms occurring over a period of two decades. These reforms are the strengthening of the regulation of related party transactions in 1992 (the reforms prohibited the giving of financial benefits to directors of public companies and their immediate families unless the transaction was exempt or approved by disinterested shareholders), the auditor independence reforms in 2004 and the introduction of the "two strikes" rules relating to remuneration in 2011. The results of this study provide little support for the proposition that corporate ownership structures have influenced the development of Australian corporate law. Several possible alternative explanations for the shape corporate law in Australia are suggested.


Human serum angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) levels vary substantially between individuals and are highly heritable. Segregation analysis in European families has shown that more than half of the total variability in ACE levels is influenced by quantitative-trait loci (QTL). One of these QTLs is located within or close to the ACE locus itself. Combined segregation/linkage analysis in a series of African Caribbean families from Jamaica shows that the ACE insertion-deletion polymorphism is in moderate linkage disequilibrium with an ACE-linked QTL. Linkage analysis with a highly informative polymorphism at the neighboring growth-hormone gene (GH) shows surprisingly little support for linkage (LOD score [Z] = 0.12). An extended analysis with a two-QTL model, where an ACE-linked QTL interacts additively with an unlinked QTL, significantly improves both the fit of the model (P = .002) and the support for linkage between the ACe-linked QTL interacts additively with an unlinked QTL, significantly improves both the fit of the model (P = .002) and the support for linkage between the ACe-linked QTL and GH polymorphism (Z = 5.0). We conclude that two QTLs jointly influence serum ACE levels in this population. One QTL is located within or close to the ACE locus and explains 27% of the total variability; the second QTL is unlinked to the ACE locus and explains 52% of the variability. The identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying both QTLs is necessary in order to interpret the role of ACE in cardiovascular disease.


Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most consumed fruits in the world, and it is cultivated in many tropical countries. In Brazil, the productivity is low due to several factors such as the incidence of pests and diseases. The nematodes are among the most important problems found in the production of bananas. This research studied the reproduction of Meloidogyne incognita race 2, M. javanica and Pratylenchus coffeae in different cultivars of banana. The evaluation of the experiments with Meloidogyne spp. was carried out 120 days after the inoculation. The analyzed parameters were: number of gall, number of the external masses of eggs, number of eggs per gram of root, reproduction factor and number of juveniles in the soil. The evaluation of the experiment with P. coffeae was carried out 90 days after the inoculation; the final population was evaluated. The cultivars PV-0344, Maca, Grande Naine, FHIA 01, Thap Maeo and Prata Ana allowed greater multiplication of P. coffeae than Caipira, SH-3640 and FHIA-18. For M. javanica, the cultivars Calypso, Bucanneer, Grande Naine, PV-0344, Nanicao Magario, FHIA-02, SH-3640, Pacovan, and Prata Ana exhibited larger populations, decreasing in Maca. All cultivars allowed high multiplication rates of M. incognita.


The major challenge facing Africa's socioeconomic transformation pivots on the gross absence of added value to its abundant natural resources. The continent is suffering from low human resources development, poor innovative capacity, and low productivity. This paper argues that, until the continent is able to develop its innovative, competitive, productive, and competence capacity, it will remain an underdeveloped polity exploited by the countries that master the driving forces of science, technology, research, innovation, and globalization in the development process.


Mycobacterium bovis is the etiologic agent of bovine tuberculosis (BTB), a serious infectious disease in both humans and animals. BTB is a zoonotic disease primarily affecting cattle and occasionally humans infected through close contact with infected hosts or the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products. Zoonotic tuberculosis is strongly associated with poverty and poor hygiene, and low- and middle-income countries bear the brunt of the disease. BTB has been increasingly recognized as a growing public health threat in developing countries. However, the lack of effective surveillance programs in many of these countries poses a barrier to accurately determining the true burden of this disease. Additionally, the control of BTB is threatened by the emergence of drug-resistant strains that affect the effectiveness of current treatment regimens. Here, we analyzed current trends in the epidemiology of the disease as well as the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of M. bovis in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, a region that includes several developing countries. Following PRISMA guidelines, a total of 90 studies conducted in the MENA region were selected. Our findings revealed that the prevalence of BTB among humans and cattle varied significantly according to the population size and country in the MENA region. Most of the available studies were based on culture and/or PCR strategies and were published without including data on antimicrobial resistance and molecular typing. Our findings highlighted the paramount need for the use of appropriate diagnostic tools and the implementation of sustainable control measures, especially at the human/animal interface, in the MENA region.


In this study, we were synthesized Fe3O4@LDH@Lamivudine and characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD and TEM. The interaction of this nanoparticle with CT-DNA was investigated by viscosity, circular dichroism (CD), Uv-Visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. Among all nanocarriers which applied as drug delivery vectors, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with exchangeable anions in the positive brucitelike interlayers have been attracting much attentions in the field of cellular delivery of anionic drug and other bio-functional molecules, due to their low toxicity, biocompatibility, high stability, pH dependent solubility and enhanced cellular uptake behavior compared with the conventional drug carriers. UVVisible absorption studies indicated hyperchromism with the binding constant of 4.9×103 M-1. In the fluorimetric investigation, this nanocomposite can bind to DNA and creates a new non-fluorescence adduct. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH<0 and ΔS<0), indicate that the interaction between DNA and nanocomposite is hydrogen bond and Vander-Waals force. The process of binding was spontaneous, in which Gibbs free energy change (ΔG) was negative. Furthermore, viscosity measurements did not show any changes by increasing the amount of the mentioned nanocomposite. In Circular dichroism, both positive and negative bands illustrate little changes, which imply a non-intercalative mode of binding. The experimental results demonstrated that Fe3O4@LDH@Lamivudine interact with DNA by groove binding mode. As an evidenced, increasing the fluorescence intensity of Hoechst–DNA solutions in the presence of different amounts of Fe3O4@LDH@Lamivudine nanoparticles are able to displace the Hoechst molecules, which was grooved into DNA completely as to indicate groove binding mode.