Transesophageal echocardiography(TEE) is valuable in intensive care unit (ICU) because its application meets the requirements of diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients.However, the current application has not fully adapted to the specialty of critical care. TEE could be more valuablein ICU when used with a new way that under the guidance of the theory of critical care and embedded into the treatment workflow. We have expanded and improved the application of traditional TEE and integrated the concept of critical care, established the concept of transesophageal echocardiography for critical care (TEECC). Chinese Critical Ultrasound Study Group (CCUSG) organized experts in the area to form the consensus based the previous studiesand the long term practice of critical care ultrasound and TEE, aiming at clarifying the nature and characteristics of TEECC, promoting the rational and standardized clinical application and the coming researches.The consensus of Chinese experts on clinical application of TEECC (2019) were 33 in total, of whichthe main items were as follows: (1) TEECC is a significant means, which is expanded and improved from the traditional transesophageal echocardiography according to characteristics of critically ill patients and is applied in ICU based on critically clinical scenarios and requirements by the critical care physician, to promote visualized, refined and precisely management of critically ill patients.(2) TEE possesses distinctive superiority in implementation in ICU. It has characteristics of images with good quality, operations with good stability and low-dependent of operators, monitoring with continuity, and visualization with all-dimensional and detail of heart and blood vessels.(3)As a means of refined monitoring that could resulted in precise diagnosis and treatment, TEECC expands the dimension of intensive monitoring and improves the performance of critical care. (4) Indications of TEECC application include clinical etiological searching and invasive procedures guiding when it acted as a traditional role; and also refined hemodynamic monitoring based on critical care rationale and over-all management under specific critical clinical scenarios. (5) TEE and TTE assessments are complementary; they are not alternative. Integrated assessment of TTE and TEE is required under many critical clinical scenarios.(6) TEE should be a necessary configuration in ICU. (7) All-round and significant information regarding to the mechanism of acute circulatory disorders can be provided by TEECC; it is a non-substitutable means of identifying the causes of shock under some special clinical scenarios. (8) Focal extracardiac hematoma can be accurately and rapidly detected by TEE in patients with open-thoracic cardiac surgery or severe chest trauma when highly suspected pericardial tamponade.(9) The priority of pathophysiologic mechanism of septic shock can be rapidly and accurately identified by TEE; even if its pathophysiological changes are complex, including hypovolemia and/or vasospasm and/or left and right heart dysfunction. (10) Causes of hemodynamic disorders can be rapidly and qualitatively evaluated so that the orientation of treatment can be clarified by TEECC. (11) A full range of quantitative indicators for refined hemodynamic management in critically ill patients can be provided by TEECC. (12) TEECC helps to accurately assess volume status and predict fluid responsiveness.(13) TEECC is specially suitable for accurate quantitative assessment of cardiac function.(14) Mini TEE provides long-term continuous hemodynamic monitoring. (15) Standard views are easy to be acquired by TEECC, which is a premise for accurate and repeatable measurements, and a guarantee for assessment of effect and risk of therapy. (16) Compared with invasive hemodynamic monitoring, TEECC is minimally invasive, with low infection risk and high safety.(17) In patients with acute cor pulmonale (ACP) under condition of right ventricular dysfunction and low cardiac output, TEECC is a key tool for assessment. (18) TEECC should be implemented actively when suspicious of left to right shunt in critically ill patients who occurred hypotension that hard to explain the cause. (19) TEECC should be implemented actively when suspicious of right to left shunt in critically ill patients who occurred hypoxemia that hard to explain the cause. (20) TEECC is preferred in hemodynamics monitoring under prone position of ventilated patients.(21) TEECC is an imperative means to achieve over-all management of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy, especially for all-round hemodynamic monitoring. (22) Three basic views is recommended to be used to simplify TEE assessment during cardiac arrest so that reversible causes could be identified, and resuscitation could be guided. (23) The flow related echodynamic evaluation (TEECC-FREE) workflow is preferred in refined hemodynamics monitoring and therapy. (24) Simple workflow of TEECC could be implemented in special critical clinical scenarios. (25) Application of TEECC is highly secure; however, impairments of procedure should also be alert by operators. (26) Pitfalls in application of TEE should be paid attention to by the critical care physician. (27) Timely and rationally application of TEECC is in favor of diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients and may improve the prognosis.


The decision-making method based on risk analysis is proposed to solve the selection of knowledgeable manufacturing mode. The risk factors in implementing knowledgeable manufacturing mode are analyzed according to the characteristics of knowledgeable manufacturing system. The analytic network progress model of mode selection risk is set up. The risk decision-making method integrating analytic network progress and entropy coefficient has the advantages of considering the dependence and feedback relations between the risk factors and avoiding non-determinacy and optional judgments resulted from the subjective opinions. A case studied shows the effectiveness of this method.


SIVIM Alpine (GIVD ID: EU-00-034) is a thematic database focused on vegetation plots from alpine grasslands of the Iberian Peninsula. The main aim of the database is to centralize historical and new vegetation plots of grassland-like communities above the treeline from Spanish mountains, the Pyrenees (including France and Andorra) and Serra da Estrela (Portugal). The database was registered in GIVD in December 2020, and it is currently available in EVA under semi-restricted regime. SIVIM Alpine includes both digitized relevés from the literature and unpublished data. Most of digitized relevés overlap with SIVIM (GIVD ID EU-00-004) but the header data and the geographical coordinates of SIVIM Alpine have been improved when possible. The database is routinely updated with new surveys conducted with GPS and detailed ecological data. Nowadays, SIVIM Alpine contains 6,420 vegetation plots corresponding to all phytosociological alliances described in the Iberian Peninsula for high-mountain grassland vegetation, 85% of them also classified at the association level. Plot size is available for 80% of the relevés. Plant taxonomy keeps the names provided by the original authors of the relevés, with an additional correspondence to Euro+Med and The Plant List, when possible. The database is continuously updated by revisiting the original sources. Different versions of the database have been used to vegetation analysis at national at continental scales.
 Abbreviations: EVA = European Vegeation Archive; GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases; SIVIM = Iberian and Macaronesian Vegetation Information System.


In a "smart" corrosion-protective coating system, both the active anti-corrosion and the early corrosion detection of underlying metals are highly required. It is practical significant to develop materials that possess self-detecting of the early local corrosion and self-healing of coating defects simultaneously. The organic compound 8-hydroxyquinoline (8HQ) is an effective inhibitor and a fluorescent sensor probe for corrosion of aluminum alloy. Therefore, a layer double hydroxide (LDH) nanocontainer film loaded with the 8HQ was developed for the active corrosion protection purpose of aluminum alloy AA2024. In corrosive environments, the 8HQ are released from LDH film to inhibit the corrosion process, leading to the loss of the complexation with Al3+ ions in LDH laminates, thus turning off fluorescence. Results show that the LDH film loaded with 8HQ composites can improve the anti-corrosion performance of the film by releasing corrosion inhibitors on demand. Simultaneously, due to the complexation of 8HQ and Al3+ ions, the LDH film is fluorescent at the initial stage under ultraviolet light, and then becomes non-fluorescent at the corrosion sites, indicating the corrosion evolution process of the coating. The 8HQ-loaded LDH film with self-healing and self-detecting dual functions provides promising opportunities for the effective corrosion protection of aluminum alloy due to its "smart" and multifunctional properties.


The application of natural light in photocatalytic process is a potential energy source. In this study, TiO2-SiO2 nanoparticles with outstandingly enhanced photocatalytic activity have been fabricated by sol-gel method. The prepared photocatalysts with different molar ratio of TiO2:SiO2 as 100:0; 95:5; 85:15 and 75:25 were denoted as TiO2, TS5, TS15 and TS25, respectively. Characterization of these photocatalysts was evaluated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 Adsorption and Desorption isotherms method (Brunauer–Emmet–Teller, BET). The specific surface area was improved in TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst namely 193.9 m2.g-1 (at molar ratio of TiO2:SiO2 of 95:5) compared to 33.6 m2.g-1 of TiO2. The crystallite size was calculated around 5 nm from XRD data and uniform particle size distribution was observed in TEM image. The photocatalytic experiments were performed with bisphenol A (BPA) as model compound of organic pollutant. The effect of various operation parameters such as initial concentration, initial solution pH and photocatalyst dosage has been investigated. The kinetic studies of the photocatalytic degradation BPA over TS5 followed the pseudo-first order (k=1.09×10-2 min-1) and degradation yield to be 82.4% BPA, at pH6.23, initial concentration to be 10 ppm and photocatalyst dosage to be 1.0 g.L-1. The photocatalyst TS5 maintained activity after four cycles and remained 78%. The TiO2-SiO2 composite photocatalyst has shown to be a promising heterogeneous photocatalyst for organic degradation.


【The purpose of this article was to review the basic concept of the SERVQUAL scale and to evaluate its usefulness in health care settings. The SERVQUAL scale was developed by Parasuraman et al. in 1988. Its purpose was to provide an instrument for measuring the quality of service that would apply across a broad range of services with minor modifications in the scale. The SERVQUAL scale is based on gap theory, which indicates the difference between consumers' expectations and their assessment of the actual performance of a specific firm. It has five dimensions to define service quality. These dimensions include: (1) tangibles' (2) reliability' (3) responsiveness' (4) assurance' (5) empathy. While the SERVQUAL scale has been tested in a number of health care settings. the findings have been mixed. So. health care marketers should be cautious in their use of the SERVQUAL scale. However, it is rare to find instruments that are as well validated as SERVQUAL appears to be. As well the SERVQUAL scale provides valuable information about the quality of health care service.】


The authors report on 22 men with a prolactin secreting adenoma. Clinical symptomatology included associated signs of tumoral compression with varying degrees of hypogonadism. Endocrinological evaluation disclosed hyperprolactinemia in all cases but one, and hypopituitarism in 10 of 22 cases. Of the 22 patients, 21 underwent transsphenoidal microsurgery (two of whom underwent a second procedure by the infrafrontal approach) and in one case surgery was performed by the infrafrontal route. Diagnosis was confirmed by immunocytochemical evaluation of tumoral tissue. Prolactin levels returned to normal in 32% of cases after operation and became normal after complementary bromocriptine therapy in 54.5% of cases. However, normal prolactin secretion was not consistently accompanied by a return to normal of gonadotropin regulation. In three patients radiotherapy was not effective. The latter treatment should be limited to the very rare cases of postoperative resistance to bromocriptine.


The oncoprotein insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) has previously been shown to promote tumorigenesis. Overexpression of IGF-1R is considered to be a critical prerequisite for malignant transformation in numerous human cancers. Therefore, targeting IGF-1R for cancer therapy has gained a lot of interest. In the present study, an RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated IGF-1R gene silencing approach was conducted in BGC823 gastric cancer cells. The tumorigenic and malignant properties of the cells were assessed, in response to reduced IGF-1R expression. Notably, IGF-1R depletion not only inhibited gastric cancer cell growth, resulted in G1 cell cycle arrest and consequently led to apoptosis, but also suppressed cancer cell motility and invasion. The findings of the present study are the first, to the best of our knowledge, to suggest that RNAi-based IGF-1R silencing may be a potential and promising therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer treatment.


Data collection from field sensors by using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is the application taken in consideration in this paper. All the sensor nodes are kept location unaware to reduce their cost and energy utilization. The issue addressed in this paper is localization of sensor nodes by UAV to collect data in efficient way. ULA of multiple antennas are used to measure the Angle of Arrival (AoA) of incoming signals. However, the drawbacks of mounting such multiple antennas on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) outweigh the benefits. The challenge is to affix multiple antennas and receivers on an UAV, increase its weight which ultimately decrease its payload capacity, flight time, speed and agility. In this paper, we are proposing a new method to estimate the AoA, called Virtual Phase Array (VPA) antenna system. A single moving antenna installed over an UAV taking snapshots every fixed time periods forms an antenna array virtually. This VPA has enable us to introduce two new concepts of adaptive staring precision and multiple frequency use. All these became reality only because number and spacing between antenna elements can be adjusted, which is not easy to implement in physical antenna array especially when antenna is onboard. The proposed system is evaluated by simulation model. Suggested modifications and additions in classical MUSIC algorithm make it possible to operate the virtual antenna system with the same precision as the physical antenna may have, but adding more flexibility, ease of use, cost economy, more reliability and better throughput.


This paper describes the development and preliminary validation of a scale to assess perceived self-efficacy to complete culturally and age-appropriate life tasks (SelfEfficacy for Life Tasks, or SELT) among male veterans of Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom; OEF) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom; OIF). The SELT scale was developed for this population in a multistage process that included: 1) semistructured interviews inquiring about expectations of self among OEF/OIF veterans; 2) content analysis to inductively derive a list of priority life tasks; 3) item development; 4) field-testing; and 5) preliminary instrument validation. Forty-one veterans completed the final instrument along with measures of anxiety and depression symptoms, positive and negative social support, and postdeployment life stressors. We tested two scoring methods, one using a simple mean and one a weighted mean. Using either scoring method, SELT had statistically significant negative correlations with anxiety, depression, and being separated from partner, as well as strong positive correlations with postdeployment social support. These findings support the construct validity of the SELT scale in the population of male OEF/OIF veterans. Future research examining the relationship between SELT and long-term outcomes using longitudinal designs will be needed to assess predictive validity.


The different political systems in the two previous German states had decisive influences on the development of the veterinary profession. The organisation, objectives and results of veterinary activities have also been influenced by the prevalent social system. Structures and ownership in the agricultural industry changed together with the political change in 1989. These changes require reorganisation of veterinary activities, especially in East Germany. The current situation, its deficiencies and the potential for improvements in the different veterinary activities, such as animal welfare, disease control, animal disease notification, education and veterinary epidemiology, are described and discussed


Sarm1 is the fifth Toll/IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain-containing adaptor protein identified to regulate TLR downstream signaling. Unlike the other TIR domain-containing adaptor proteins, Sarm1 is predominantly expressed in the brain. Our previous study indicated that Sarm1 regulates dendritic growth, axonal extension and neuronal polarity. Here, we investigated whether Sarm1 is involved in innate immunity in the brain. First, regional and cell-type distribution of Sarm1 in mouse brains was revealed using double immunostaining. Sarm1 was widely distributed in different regions of brains, including the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum and midbrain. Moreover, Sarm1 is present in both projection and inhibitory neurons, but, interestingly, not in microglial cells—the main immune cells in the brain. These results suggest that Sarm1 is unlikely to regulate microglial activity in a cell-autonomous manner. However, compared with wild type littermates, the RNA expression levels of several inflammatory and antiviral cytokines were altered in the embryonic and adult brains of Sarm1 knockdown transgenic mice. These data imply that Sarm1 influences cytokine expression in neurons. In conclusion, our findings suggest that Sarm1 regulates the innate immune responses of the central nervous system through regulating the inflammatory and anti-virus cytokines produced by neurons.


In this paper we examine the usefulness of optimisation methods for practical farm program decisions. We inspect three Brandenburg cash crop farms over the last five years and find that their total gross margins could have been increased significantly by using optimisation methods. Our ex post planning approach uses the information available to the farmers in the respective planning year and provides us with optimised alternative programs. Taking account of the actual yields and prices in the following year, the total gross margins of the optimised and observed programs are compared. The planning approach includes systematic time series analyses of uncertain gross margins and their correlations in a stochastic programming approach. The variance of the observed program which implicitly reflects the risk attitude of the individual farmer is used as an up-per limit of the optimised program.


The effects of the essential oil of Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm. (EOET) on guinea-pig tracheal smooth muscle were investigated. EOET (10 - 1000 microg/mL) relaxed the tracheal basal tonus with an EC (50) value of 125.3 [52.2 - 300.9] microg/mL. Its maximal relaxation (40 +/- 6 %) was significantly lower than that evoked by aminophylline (209 +/- 34 %). The K (+)-(60 mM)-induced contractions were significantly reduced by both EOET (200 - 1000 microg/mL) and its main constituent 1,8-cineole (600 - 1000 microg/mL). Acetylcholine (1 microgM)-induced contractions were significantly enhanced by 1,8-cineole (10 - 1000 microg/mL). However, they were significantly enhanced and reduced by lower (200 - 400 microg/mL) and higher (800 - 1000 microg/mL) concentrations of EOET, respectively. Electrical field stimulation-induced contractions were significantly increased by EOET (100 - 600 microg/mL). In conclusion, EOET produces myorelaxant effects on guinea-pig isolated trachea, an effect that seems to result from a complex interaction between its monoterpenoid constituents.


Interaction between tumor endothelial cells (TECs) and tumor cells plays a key role in the early stage of hematogenous metastasis. TECs provide the principal route by which tumor cells exit the primary tumor site and enter the circulation. We have reported TECs are different from normal endothelial cells (NECs) in various aspects, such as chromosomal abnormality and gene expression profiles. In this study, we isolated two types of TECs from different human tumor xenografts in nude mice to analyze interaction between TECs and tumor cells. One is HMTEC isolated from highly metastatic tumor and the other is LMTEC from low metastatic tumor. We also isolated NEC from dermis of normal nude mouse as normal control. HMTEC expressed higher levels of mRNA of angiogenesis-related genes than LMTEC or NEC. We hypothesized HMTECs may promote metastasis, in particular, intravasation at the primary site. We investigated the roles of TECs in tumor metastasis; 1) migration of tumor cells towards TECs, 2) adhesion to endothelial layer, 3) crossing the endothelium. Tumor cells migrated towards conditioned-media (CM) from HMTEC more than LMTEC-CM or NEC-CM in vitro. Tumor cells were more adhesive to HMTEC than to LMTEC or NEC. They migrated through the HMTEC-monolayer most among all ECs in transendothelial migration assay. These results suggested that HMTEC may help tumor cells to metastasize. Finally, we analyzed the effects of CM from highly metastatic tumor cells on NECs. Tumor CM induced mRNA expressions of several genes, such as CXCL12, VEGFA and extracellular matrix in NEC. Tumor cells more migrated towards tumor CM- treated NEC than non-treated NEC. Tumor cells adhered more to the tumor CM- treated NEC than to non-treated NEC. These results suggest that TECs "educated" in tumor microenvironment which have highly metastatic potential, may be collaborating with tumor cells for metastasis. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1509. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1509


The article analyzes the issues of interactive media culture development in modern society. The authors consider information and media strategies as tools for constructing the ecological identity of deprived territories residents (on the example of Chelyabinsk region). The article is based on research carried out between 2015 to 2019, monitoring the environmental situation in Chelyabinsk region. Mass representative surveys, held among the southern Urals citizens, expert interviews, content analysis of official information sources and informal channels of communication users (social networks), thematic debates with regional journalistic community served to ground the main ideas for this work. The resource mobilization idea of the 'negative memory' of the audience is the key conclusion, obtained during the analysis of sociological data. Negative memory is a stable negative perception of the territory ecological image under the influence of the broadcasted media content. The theoretical principles of memory studies are the base of this approach. The research has fixed the contradiction between the subjective readiness of the audience for constructive mobilization in the area of environmental initiatives and the 'negative ecological memory' of the territory. To model the favorable environmental media content it is essential, firstly, to adjust it by: i) using the resource of opinion leaders and social advertising; ii) engaging the expert community in a broad public dialogue on environmental issues; iii) developing independent media projects aimed at radical transformation of the environmental agenda coverage in Chelyabinsk region.
Keywords: information strategies, audience, ecology, identity, negative memory


The evolution of stress is reported, as a hnction of processing conditions, for the chemical- solution deposition of Pb(Zro.53Tio 47)03 (PZT) thin layers on silicon (Si). Shrinkage behavior was determined by in- situ ellipsometry, and stress by in-situ laser reflectance measurements, to a maximum temperature of 700°C. Densification, thermal analysis, pyrolysis and crystallization data are related to stress development as a hnction of the sequential build-up of multi-layered structures. A residual tensile stress of -125 MPa was measured at room temperature for an amorphous 1-layer film. The magnitude of the stress decreased with increasing number of deposited layers. Observations are made for the crystallization behavior of pyrochlore on Si, and the formation of a lead silicate interfacial layer.


By cloning Hymenocallis littoralis, a practical biosynthetic procedure was developed for producing pancratistatin [1]. The plant tissue culture-->greenhouse-->field production sequence was successively utilized for increasing an original 1.5 kg of wild H. littoralis bulbs to some 60,000 bulbs at present. In the central Arizona Sonoran Desert, the tropical H. littoralis was found to reach a maximum pancratistatin content in October and a minimum in May. Generally pancratistatin [1] was accompanied by lesser yields of narciclasine [2], 7-deoxynarciclasine [3], and 7-deoxy-trans-dihydronarcicasine [4]. Improved laboratory and pilot-plant scale techniques were also developed for the isolation of pancratistatin [1] from difficult-to-separate mixtures of narciclasine [2] and 7-deoxynarciclasine [3]occurring in H. littoralis.


General expressions of magnitude- and phase-probability distributions of MRI signals are presented and discussed. From these expressions, maximum-likelihood estimators are derived that allow optimal measurement of true magnitude and true phase from a set of noisy samples. Bias and uncertainty of estimates are determined by Monte Carlo simulations. It is demonstrated that with 100 samples and for signal-to-noise ratios above 1, bias and uncertainty of ML estimates are approximately 1 and 3% for magnitude and 0.1 and 5% for phase, respectively.


Shear thickening fluid polishing (STFP)is one type of the non-Newtonian fluids which is used to polish the complex shapes. This method is applied to machine the complex surfaces of mold in this study. The principle and performance of STFP was introduced. The parameters having significant influence on the STFP process, including polishing speed, abrasive concentration, abrasive sizes were experimentally investigated. In these parameters, the effect of inclination angle to the machining process is simulated in this paper. The inclination angle parameters of the workpieces such as 0°, 10°, 15°, 20°, and 25° are used during the simulation process. Cutting pressure area and polishing fluid flow characteristics will be presented and analyzed. When inclination angle parameters exceed 15°, the pressure area is distributed throughout all the surface of the surfaces. The maximum pressure can be reached about 7.95 kPa. Based on the simulation results to establish conditions for later experimental research.


This paper presents the design of stacked rectangular dielectric resonator antennas (DRA) for FCC ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The antenna is composed of a dielectric resonator and a thin dielectric segment, and is excited by a coaxial probe. Two techniques are proposed to improve the impedance matching and the bandwidth of previously designed UWB rectangular stacked DRA, making them more reliable for FCC UWB application without any performance compromising. Cutting a groove on the bottom side of the dielectric resonator (DR) can improve the impedance matching within the UWB bandwidth, whereas a square metallic patch connected to a coaxial probe to excite the DRA can broaden the entire UWB band. Theoretical results show that an ultra-wide band, from 3 GHz to 11.6 GHz, can be achieved.


We present theoretical investigations of atomic vibrations in thin superlattices grown in the [111] direction with f.c.c. stacking, using the adiabatic bond-charge model. In the acoustic range we confirm the existence of guided Love modes. In the optical range we observe folding, confinement and mode anisotropy behaviours. We show that confined optical modes approximate travelling waves in the propagation layer, decaying rapidly outside. In addition we clearly show optical interface modes of both `AlAs' and `GaAs' type, and that these modes are of the `Fuchs-Kliewer' variety. We compare the results obtained for the [111] direction to previous results obtained for the [001] and [110] directions.


In Detroit, Michigan, the urban poor fear they are being displaced and replaced by water. As part of the city's recent redevelopment efforts, planners have proposed creating green and blue infrastructure zones to manage urban flooding and mitigate the volume of overflow storm and sewer waters that pollute the Great Lakes each year. The areas slated for these water retention zones are the same marginal neighborhoods where Black residents face frequent foreclosures due to water debts and mass shutoffs from water and sewer services. This paper explores how water materializes and mediates uneven landscapes of livability, as well as new modes of living in common among those excluded from the urban commons. I introduce the concepts of "bluelining" and "blues infrastructures" in order to think through the contested assemblages of water, race, and space at the margins of urban life.


The fundamental idea behind this article is to demonstrate that tax complexity, as far as direct tax is concerned, should not be negatively perceived. Actually, it can increase the perception of investment opportunities for rational investors both at the national and international level. Assuming the correctness of the above, the general propensity towards investment would improve through a direct tax diversification process with a clear positive impact at the macroeconomic level on the aggregate investment being part of the aggregate demand. The proposed reasoning in particular is based on the relevance of the dimension of time in relation to the existence of a certain direct tax rate. Furthermore, the author suggests a higher level of global tax integration through the implementation of specific changes in the tax law, which are able to facilitate the role to be played by direct tax jurisdictions in the global context.


Soil erosion by water is one of the main environmental problems of the tropical mountains of Central America. The fragility of these areas, the significant degree of human population pressure exerted and changes in traditional farming systems all contribute to the current state of degradation. In this study, we compare two types of agricultural management (conventional tillage with traditional ploughing and no‐tillage with a digging stick) and analyse the influence of land slope, the management of vegetation cover, and various soil features and properties related to erosion in fields dedicated to the cultivation of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to determine the erosion thresholds. The study area was located in the hills around El Cuá, in northern Nicaragua. The results showed the system of no‐tillage (NT) to be more effective at controlling erosion than conventional tillage (CT), such that 28.7% less land was affected by erosion. Erosion in plots under CT did not present any statistically significant relationship with the factors analysed. Conversely, the erosion in the plots under NT was significantly related to the coverage of vegetation residues, and we calculated an erosion threshold of 40% of the level of vegetation coverage, which significantly reduces erosion.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the 8-weeks back pain management program (consisted of exercise and education for back pain) in patients with chronic low back pain. Methods: A total of 20 subjects who visited the pain clinic in a university hospital were randomly assigned either to a experimental or a control group. Ten subjects in the experimental group carried out the back pain management program for 8 weeks, and 10 in the control group did not. Results: After the back pain management program, back pain and disability were significantly reduced, and back pain management behavior and back muscle strength were significantly increased in the experimental group. However, radiating pain and flexibility were not significantly changed after the back pain management program. Conclusion: Findings of this study indicated that the 8-weeks back pain management program had favorable effects on back pain, degree of disability, back pain management behavior, and back muscle strength in patients with chronic low back pain. Future research needs to examine the optimal intensity and frequency of back muscle strengthen exercise, and the lasting effects of education for back pain.


While there have been many studies on measuring the size of learners' vocabulary or the vocabulary they should learn, there have been few studies on what kind of words learners actually know. Therefore, we investigated theoretically and practically important models for predicting second language learners' vocabulary and propose another model for this vocabulary prediction task. With the current models, the same word difficulty measure is shared by all learners. This is unrealistic because some learners have special interests. A learner interested in music may know special music-related terms regardless of their difficulty. To solve this problem, our model can define a learner-specific word difficulty measure. Our model is also an extension of these current models in the sense that these models are special cases of our model. In a qualitative evaluation, we defined a measure for how learner-specific a word is. Interestingly, the word with the highest learner-specificity was "twitter". Although "twitter" is a difficult English word, some low-ability learners presumably knew this word through the famous micro-blogging service. Our qualitative evaluation successfully extracted such interesting and suggestive examples. Our model achieved an accuracy competitive with the current models.


Quercus robur, Q. frainetto, Q. cerris and Q. petraea that predominate in forests in the Thrace region, a bridge between the Balkans and Anatolia, were sampled, elaborated and classified. The ecological conditions were estimated by bio-indicator values. Oak forests can be divided into four groups: Q. robur-Fraxinus angustifolia forests thriving in floodplains, Q. petraea forests found at higher altitudes, Q. frainetto-Carpinus orientalis forests appearing in the warmest and driest sites and Q. frainetto forests on more humid sites. It was established that the most important topographic factor is altitude, while slope and aspect are of minor importance.


The purpose of our study is to find an answer to how real economic processes and their online media representation are connected, that is, whether the economic crisis of 2008-2009 has generally changed the way how Hungarian journalists use economic terms and expressions and whether a learning procedure has begun of a more informed and proficient form of journalism about economic processes. Based on our analysis we can state that the occurrence of economic terms in connection with economic policy, foreign trade, companies and the crisis contain a break in the trend at the start of the crisis. We can say that because of the crisis the word usage rates within the above word groups increased significantly ‐ except in the case of the foreign trade group, where it fell. We can also say that knowledge of the occurrence of the economic policy, credit, macroeconomy, financial market, company and crisis word groups provide additional information to estimate industrial sales about a month in advance as compared to if we only use the previous two values of the time series for our estimation.


At present, most states have made HMOs subject to their insurance holding company acts. Insurance holding company acts are comprehensive bodies of law that govern the relationships and activities within insurance holding company structures. These laws indirectly regulate the activities of entities that are affiliated with insurance companies and HMOs, which would not otherwise be subject to regulation.


This research presents a methodological process for selecting the most appropriate construction technique for the reconstruction of housing after a seismic disaster in a rural and heritage context. This process, which is applicable to a large part of the Andean region, incorporates sustainability criteria to guarantee the economic, social and environmental balance of the intervention. The methodology was developed on a case study: the Colca Valley in Arequipa, Peru. In 2016 an earthquake affected this zone, where traditional unreinforced earthen buildings suffered serious damage. The objective of this research focuses on comparing six traditional building techniques strongly related to self-building: four techniques for adobe housing—reinforced with cane (CRA), wire mesh (WMRA), geogrid (GRA) and halyard ropes (HRRA)—and two techniques for masonry buildings— confined (CM) and reinforced (RM). For this purpose the authors used the Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES), a Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model used to compare alternatives by assigning a "sustainability index" to each evaluated construction technique. This research study includes two types of variables: quantitative, such as economy ($/m2) and environmental impact (kgCO2/m), among others, and qualitative, such as perception of safety, respect for the urban image and popular knowledge. The research results show that reinforced adobe techniques are a viable and competitive option, highlighting the cane reinforced adobe technique (CRA), with a value of 0.714 in relation to industrialized materials such as masonry. This technique has the same safety characteristics, but at almost half the price, with the additional advantage of using traditional materials and construction methods, having less environmental impact and showing better thermal performance in cold climates.


Phosphorus is the least mobile nutrient element in plant and soil compared to other essential macronutrients. Root development, stalk, stem strength, flower, seed formation, crop maturity, Nfixation in legumes and crop quality are the attributes associated with phosphorus (P) nutrition. Phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms play role in P nutrition by enhancing its availability to plants through release from inorganic and organic soil P pools by solubilization and mineralization. Principal mechanism in soil for P solubilization is lowering of soil pH by microbial production of organic acids and mineralization of organic P by acid phosphatases. Use of phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms alone or in combination with other beneficial bacteria and mycorrhiza as inoculants increase prospects of direct application of rock phosphate (RP) in P uptake and crop production.


ABSTRACT In this paper, the robust stability of a perturbed linear continuous-time system is examined when controlled using a sampled-data networked control system (NCS) framework. Three new robust stability bounds on the time-invariant perturbations to the original continuous-time plant matrix are presented guaranteeing stability for the corresponding discrete closed-loop augmented delay-free system (ADFS) with multiple time-varying sensor and actuator delays. The bounds are differentiated from previous work by accounting for the sampled-data nature of the NCS and for separate communication delays for each sensor and actuator, not a single delay. Therefore, this paper expands the knowledge base in multiple inputs multiple outputs (MIMO) sampled-data time delay systems. Bounds are presented for unstructured, semi-structured, and structured perturbations.


The trend towards green, sustainable living is on the rise and the benefits are continuing to make noise in the world of homeowners. In this project, the benefits of renewable energy and consumer preferences were analyzed and applied to off-grid living in the form of a case study. It was found that the majority of homebuyers are concerned about the environment and wanted an environmentally friendly home but are not willing to pay more in order to achieve these desires. This information spurred the need for a detailed assessment of the feasibility of sustainable off-grid living. After conducting extensive research, overview guidelines for living off the grid were provided which include expert experience and cost data. These guidelines were exemplified in the real-life success story of the Auerbach's off-grid home on Lasqueti Island in Canada. They were successful in creating an off-grid home which showcased several of the components discussed in the research-based guidelines. Their system was based on strategically placed solar panels and a well thought out lithium-ion battery system. This research paper benefits the reader with a general outlook into the feasibility of off-grid living and/or ideas for implementing renewable energy sources into one's home.


The stored-to-kinetic energy conversion efficiency of railgun system is investigated by simulation and experiment methods. There are many factors can affect railgun system conversion efficiency. The factors include some parameters values of PPS, the velocity of armature, the inductance gradient of rail and so on. To analyze the stored-to-kinetic energy conversion efficiency, a novel electric circuit simulation model for a railgun system is built. The simulation results showed the less resistance and the more inductance of PPS, the more inductance gradient of laucher and the higher muzzle velocity of armature can improve the energy conversion efficiency of the railgun system. Some experimental results with the 6MJ railgun system of Beijing Institute of Special Electromechanical Technology (BISET) are also presented in this paper, and they prove the simulation results.


The ∼ 10% of tidal disruption events (TDEs) due to stars more massive than M∗ >∼ M⊙ should show abundance anomalies due to stellar evolution in helium, carbon and nitrogen, but not oxygen. Helium is always enhanced, but only by up to ∼ 25% on average because it becomes inaccessible once it is sequestered in the high density core as the star leaves the main sequence. However, portions of the debris associated with the disrupted core of a main sequence star can be enhanced in helium by factors of 2-3 for debris at a common orbital period. These helium abundance variations may be a contributor to the observed diversity of hydrogen and helium line strengths in TDEs. A still more striking anomaly is the rapid enhancement of nitrogen and the depletion of carbon due to the CNO cycle – stars with M∗ >∼ M⊙ quickly show an increase in their average N/C ratio by factors of 3-10. Because low mass stars evolve slowly and high mass stars are rare, TDEs showing high N/C will almost all be due to 1-2M⊙ stars disrupted on the main sequence. Like helium, portions of the debris will show still larger changes in C and N, and the anomalies decline as the star leaves the main sequence. The enhanced [N/C] abundance ratio of these TDEs provides the first natural explanation for the rare, nitrogen rich quasars and also explains the strong nitrogen emission seen in ultraviolet spectra of ASASSN-14li.


Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is the treatment of choice for human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) patients. Severe side effects of these drugs have been described that produce generalized autoimmune blistering diseases, such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrosis (TEN). These complications may seriously compromise the patient's life or cause disabling consequences such as blindness. We describe a case of 21-year old female HIV patient with a CD4 count of 126 cells/microliter. Ten days post elective caesarean delivery she restarted HAART with nevirapine and developed TEN after approximately two weeks. Nevirapine was discontinued, but despite this, ocular surface disorder persisted. She presented severe bilateral keratoconjunctivitis that was treated with free tear substitutes, moxifloxacyn, and prednisolone acethate eye drops. At 2-month follow up her visual acuity without correction was 20/160 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left. She had bilateral moderate cicatricial keratoconjunctivitis and a central corneal leukoma in the right eye. Early treatment is important and should consist of preservative-free lubricants, and amniotic membrane transplantation to decrease the frequency of severe sequelae such as keratitis and corneal leukomas that will reduce the quality of life for these patients.


This report describes the groundwater modelling work that was carried out as part of a BGS research programme on Quaternary Mapping and Modelling in the north of Scotland. The report describes the recharge model, the regional groundwater model and the catchment groundwater model. The work involved using GSI3D models at two scales (regional scale along the coastal strip of the Moray Firth and catchment scale where the River Findhorn flows over superficial deposits) as the basis for the geometry of the model layering and hydraulic conductivity distribution. This is novel and shows that geological models can be used to parameterise groundwater flow models. The project produced a preliminary model which showed potential and requires improvements to the steady-state groundwater flow model and the introduction of time variant behaviour to complete. Any future development of the model should be informed by a particular question or issue. This should be developed in conjunction with the appropriate stakeholders.


A multigrid-type method for solving the parameter identification problem in electrical impedance tomography is developed. The task is to minimize an output least squares functional over a set of admissible conductivity parameters. The functional measures the deviation from observed data of the boundary values of the solution of an elliptic system based on a given parameter. To make the functional well posed, it is regularized by the addition of a term involving the Laplacian. A multigrid method is then developed to minimize a quadradicization of the regularized functional. Numerical experiments exploring the effects of the regularization on the solution and on the performance of the multigrid solver are presented.


We consider a traffic network subject to known time-varying demands between its origins and destinations. We model the network as a discrete-time dynamical system driven by these demands. The state of the system at each time epoch is defined in a way that avoids complete microscopic detail by grouping vehicles into platoons irrespective of origin node and time of entry to network. Moreover, the formulation contains no path enumeration. The control variables correspond to the assignment or routing of the platoons on downstream links at the nodes of the network. Impedance functions combined with link outflow functions are used to model link travel times in the state transition function. This modeling approach allows for the study of the problem of dynamic traffic assignment in networks in the framework of the optimal control of dynamical systems. This work has applications to route guidance issues that arise in an Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) environment.


Preliminaries Phological Rules and Representations Alternations Phonological Sketches Evidence and Motivation The Problem of Abstractness The Representation of Sounds Rule Interaction Notation The Role of Syntax and the Lexicon in Phonology References Language Index Subject Index


Twenty-nine patients were monitored overnight for breathing distress patterns during postoperative analgesia. Nasal flow apnoea monitoring and pulse oximetry data were recorded at 50 Hz. Respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) tracked tidal volume (TV) thoracoabdominal motion, and supplemented the flow monitoring by identifying detected apnoea type. TVs were computed from linear combinations of the RIP signals, but calibrations showed that multiple regression approaches with fitting errors <1% had highly variable coefficients and estimate precisions. Simple least squares theory showed that unstable parameter calculation and coefficient variation with signal conditions were inherent in RIP calibration models. Principal components (PC) methods were well suited to mitigating these problems because the RIP signals were highly correlated. The two PCs tracked the relative changes in TVs and indicated the degree of signal asynchrony, enabling improved uncalibrated monitoring. For accurately measuring RIP phase differences, the cross-correlation function was calculated. A simple version of PC analysis is developed, avoiding matrices, to help clarify how RIP calibration problems can be addressed. The methods are illustrated for calibration in normal breathing, and for postoperative monitoring during Cheyne-Stokes breathing. Sum and difference combinations of the RIP signals could discriminate central from obstructive apnoeas to help improve flow monitoring efficacy on-line.


We apply a model of an environmentally differentiated duopoly to the analysis of environmental policy in the form of a subsidy/tax on consumers based on emission levels of products. More specifically, we consider environmental and welfare effects of subsidizing consumers who purchase environmental-friendly goods such as hybrid vehicles. Focusing on types of market coverage by heterogeneous consumers, we examine the issue in the cases of a Bertrand and a Cournot duopoly. In the case of full market coverage with a Bertrand duopoly, an environmental subsidy improves the environment and is socially optimal. However, in the case of partial market coverage, irrespective of mode of competition, the optimal policy depends on the magnitude of the marginal social valuation of environmental damage. That is, if the marginal social valuation of environmental damage is sufficiently large (small), an environmental tax (subsidy) is optimal. Furthermore, in the Bertrand duopoly case, the effect of subsidy on the environment is ambiguous, whereas in the Cournot duopoly case, the subsidy degrades the environment.


CONTEXT
Although myomas shrink after menopause, the cellular mechanism for this phenomenon has received little attention. It was recently demonstrated that fibrous degeneration is significantly associated with postmenopausal status in both small and large myomas.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether reduction in myoma cell size is also associated with postmenopausal status in small myomas.

DESIGN
Tumor size and patient age have also been related to fibrous degeneration in small (<1 cm) myomas. Therefore, in the present study, 10 pairs of premenopausal and postmenopausal small myomas were matched within 3 years for patient age, within 1 mm for size, and within 1 grade for degree of fibrous degeneration. Most of the women were in their 50s, the decade during which postmenopausal fibrous degeneration in small myomas is most prevalent. Myoma cell size was derived by morphometric evaluation of relative myoma cell area (correcting for percentage of stroma, as measured by point counting) and by direct counting of the number of myoma cells per unit area in trichrome-stained sections.

RESULTS
Small myomas from postmenopausal women had significantly (P <.05) smaller cell sizes than did size-matched myomas from age-matched premenopausal women. Myoma cell sizes and nucleus-cell (N/C) ratios were highly variable, especially in premenopausal myomas.

CONCLUSIONS
Reduction in myoma cell size is significantly associated with postmenopausal status in small uterine leiomyomas and may be an important mechanism for postmenopausal shrinkage of myomas. In addition, the high variability of myoma cell size and N/C ratio may further support the somatic mutation theory (ie, the theory that diverse mutations may account not only for variations in the growth potential of uterine myomas, but also for variations in their cellular details).


Background/purpose: We tested eye protection used for phototherapy patients. The study also established current practice concerning eye protection in a sample of UK phototherapy units.


The paper reviews the current progress in describing quantum intramolecular dynamics using merely symmetry principles as a basis. This closed qualitative approach is of particular interest because it is the only method currently available for a broad class of topical problems in the internal dynamics of molecules. Moreover, a molecule makes a physical system whose collective internal motions are geometrically structured, so that its description by perturbation methods requires a symmetry analysis of this structure. The nature of the geometrical symmetry groups crucial for the closed formulation of the qualitative approach is discussed. In particular, the point group of a molecule is of this type.


Zero‐phase two‐dimensional recursive filters, with a specified frequency domain response, have been designed for processing potential field data. In the case of second vertical derivative filters, it is possible to use the rational approximation of symmetrical functions of a single variable for the design of a short recursive filter. The filter so designed has an excellent response in the frequency domain. For vertical gradient and continuation filters, a method is developed for obtaining, by the least‐squares method, a rational expression for a two‐dimensional symmetrical function. In order to ensure the stability of the recursive filter, the denominator of the rational expression is approximated by a product of two factors, each being a function of a single variable. Finally, to keep the error of the filter response as small as possible, an iterative procedure is used for adjusting the zeros of the denominator and then determining the coefficients of the numerator of the rational expression.


The concept of heterochrony is a persistent component of discussions about the way that evolution and development interact. Since the late 1970s heterochrony has been defined largely as developmental changes in the relationship of size and shape. This approach to heterochrony, here termed growth heterochrony, is limited in the way it can analyse change in the relative timing of developmental events in a number of respects. In particular, analytical techniques do not readily allow the study of changes in developmental events not characterized by size and shape parameters, or of many kinds of events in many taxa. I discuss here an alternative approach to heterochrony, termed sequence heterochrony, in which a developmental trajectory is conceptualized as a series of discrete events. Heterochrony is demonstrated when the sequence position of an event changes relative to other events in that sequence. I summarize several analytical techniques that allow the investigation of sequence heterochrony in phylogenetic contexts and also quantitatively. Finally, several examples of how this approach may be used to test hypotheses on the way development evolves are summarized.


CNT-Ag-G composite brushes were fabricated by means of powder metallurgy. Under 10A/cm~2 and different pressure(5N/cm~2~30N/cm~2)conditions,the contact voltage drop of CNT-Ag-G composite brushes was studied and worn surface was observed using SEM. The results show:when pressure is small (10N/cm~2,5N/cm~2),because of the increase in the roughness and intensification of the abrasive properties of the metal counterbody surface,the contact voltage drop of CNT-Ag-G composite is bigger;with the increase of pressure, the contact area between brush and commutator increases and the contact resistance decreases and leads to the decrease of contact voltage drop. Due to the polishing of CNT, the lubricating film doesn't thicken and contact voltage drop of composite remains constant with the increase of wear time.


Hospital revenue cycle staff education programs should support skill development, address adult learning principles, and use cost-effective methods. Education programs should provide training for both new and existing employees. Educating revenue cycle staff reduces employee turnover, improves compliance, decreases denial write-offs, improves customer satisfaction, and increases point-of-service collections.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Melanoma is responsible for only 4% of skin cancer diagnoses; nonetheless 80% of skin cancer deaths are attributed to this aggressive skin cancer each year. Growing evidence points to an important role miRNAs may play in the aberrant cellular signaling of cancers, including melanoma. microRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved 22-25nt non-coding RNAs involved in regulating RNA stability and translation and are predicted to regulate ∼60% of the human transcriptome. We are investigating the tumor suppressor role miR-340 plays in the development and progression of melanoma. A limited number of miR-340 targets were previously characterized, however, it is unlikely the effects of miR-340 on the melanoma phenotype are the result of directly targeting a few mRNAs, as miRNAs are likely to target upwards of 100 mRNAs each. Using an in silico target identification and pathway mapping system, we identified a multitude of potential miR-340 mRNA targets that encode proteins distributed amongst a variety of cellular signaling pathways. In silico analysis revealed a high proportion of miR-340 predicted mRNA targets that encode for members of the MAPK signaling pathway. Our results show that miR-340 modulated most of the assayed mRNAs that encode MAPK components. We also demonstrate that miR-340 inhibits the tumorigenic phenotype of melanoma cells. We recently developed a novel method to identify direct targets of miRNAs. Using this method, we demonstrate miR-340 directly targets mRNAs that encode protein kinases of the MAPK pathway. Further direct target identification is crucial toward understanding the role miR-340-directed regulation plays in triggering pleiotropic effects during melanoma development and progression. Elucidating the roles aberrant gene regulatory networks play in melanoma is critical for understanding the disease and developing treatment options to improve the melanoma prognosis.

Supported by NIH grants ES007015 (to A.M.P.S.), AR063361 (to V.S.S.) and CA191550 (to V.S.S.).

Citation Format: Ashley M. Poenitzsch Strong, Emily G. Adochio, Vijayasaradhi Setaluri, Vladimir S. Spiegelman. miR-340 is a modulator of oncogenic signaling in melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3129. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3129


This paper attempts to give an overview of current levels of child mortality prevailing in the world. It also examines trends and socioeconomic differentials in child mortality for selected countries and regions of the world. Lastly it reviews data on causes of child death and related environmental factors. The paper concludes that despite the fact that child deaths are frequently avoidable, mortality differentials between the developed and developing regions of the world are more pronounced in childhood (ages one to under five years) than at any other time of life. While some developing countries have substantially reduced the level of mortality in childhood, in others it remains very high. In contrast, in most developed countries child death rates are now so low, that they no longer serve as useful measures of public health.


Augmented Reality (AR) appears as one of the most promising tech-nologies for the next decades with a lot of applications in Industry 4.0. Unfortunately, most of existing systems are limited to small environments and running on a single device. To cope with these limitations, we present in this paper an AR Cloud solution for real-time crowd mapping. We propose an AR cloud service architecture that is able to 1) continuously relocalize AR devices in relation to the reference coordinate system of a common global 3D map in order to estimate the initial pose of the AR device and to correct tracking drift as soon as possible; 2) locally map in 3D the real environment surrounding each AR device; 3) fuse these 3D local maps with the global 3D map in order to keep it up-to-date, mandatory feature when real environment changes over time. Finally, we show experiments of our AR cloud platform at a large scale.


Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in tumor progression in ovarian cancer, but the complex mechanism and interaction with oxidative stress are not fully understood. Methods: A prospective study included 52 patients with ovarian adenocarcinoma stage IIIA-IV. Serum VEGF and reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as malondialdehyde and ceruloplasmin were measured. Results: VEGF levels were elevated (mean 1014.7 ± 165 pg/mL), especially in patients with macroscopic residual disease (1058 vs. 810 pg/mL, p = 0.0001). Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 6 and 40 months in patients with a very high VEGF (over 1200 pg/mL), 11 and 48 months in patients with VEGF between 1000–1200 pg/mL, 18 and 84 months in patients with VEGF between 800–1000 pg/mL, and not reached in patients with normal VEGF. Increased VEGF values were associated with a 2.6-fold increased risk of disease progression (HR = 2.60, 95% CI 1.69–3.99), and a 1.4-fold increased risk of death (HR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.15–1.91, p = 0.002). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were used to validate VEGF as a prognostic factor and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.814, p = 0.036 for PFS and 0.729, p = 0.043, for OS. There was a positive correlation between VEGF and malondialdehyde, Pearson coefficient of 0.35, p = 0.0001. Conclusions: VEGF and malondialdehyde are important prognostic markers in ovarian cancer, especially in macroscopic residual disease, and there is a positive correlation between angiogenesis and oxidative stress.


It is a wide range of types of building materials. Depending on the flow of time for the increased interest in building appearance of quality new and different materials are being developed. In particular, the case of granite widely used as cladding, recently, China's low-cost stone disguised as a large number of local granite stone as the domestic industry has been a big hit. Therefore, the purpose of study is establishment of the database for granite building exterior materials. For that, the domestic granite and chinese granite are selected. The spectrums of these material are investigated and analyzed.


The goal of this work is to perform 3D reconstruction and novel view synthesis from data captured by scanning platforms commonly deployed for world mapping in urban outdoor environments (e.g., Street View). Given a sequence of posed RGB images and lidar sweeps acquired by cameras and scanners moving through an outdoor scene, we produce a model from which 3D surfaces can be extracted and novel RGB images can be synthesized. Our approach extends Neural Radiance Fields, which has been demonstrated to synthesize realistic novel images for small scenes in controlled settings, with new methods for leveraging asynchronously captured lidar data, for addressing exposure variation between captured images, and for leveraging predicted image segmentations to supervise densities on rays pointing at the sky. Each of these three extensions provides significant performance improvements in experiments on Street View data. Our system produces state-of-the-art 3D surface reconstructions and synthesizes higher quality novel views in comparison to both traditional methods (e.g. COLMAP) and recent neural representations (e.g. Mip-NeRF).


High-temperature superconductivity is closely adjacent to a long-range antiferromagnet, which is called a parent compound. In cuprates, all parent compounds are alike and carrier doping leads to superconductivity, so a unified phase diagram can be drawn. However, the properties of parent compounds for iron-based superconductors show significant diversity and both carrier and isovalent dopings can cause superconductivity, which casts doubt on the idea that there exists a unified phase diagram for them. Here we show that the ordered moments in a variety of iron pnictides are inversely proportional to the effective Curie constants of their nematic susceptibility. This unexpected scaling behavior suggests that the magnetic ground states of iron pnictides can be achieved by tuning the strength of nematic fluctuations. Therefore, a unified phase diagram can be established where superconductivity emerges from a hypothetical parent compound with a large ordered moment but weak nematic fluctuations, which suggests that iron-based superconductors are strongly correlated electron systems.


The present status of studies on soft X-ray multilayers in Japan is briefly reviewed. This includes the design concepts, optical constants of substrates and thin films, fabrication techniques, evaluation methods, and some applications.


A new tunable CMOS FDNR circuit is proposed. The circuit is based on the transcapacitive gyrator approach with both transcapacitive stages realized by MOS transistors configuration. This FDNR element lends itself well to the design of low-pass ladder filters and its use will result in a more efficient integrated circuit implementation than filters that simulate floating inductors utilizing resistive gyrators. The applications of FDNR to realize a current-mode fifth-order elliptic filter and current mode sixth-order elliptic band-pass filter are given. The proposed FDNR is simulated using CMOS TSMC 0.35 μm technology. Simulation results are given to confirm the theoretical analysis.


Hypercholesterolemia plays an important role in the development of atherosclerosis, leading to endothelial dysfunction, ischemic events, and increased mortality. Numerous studies suggest the pivotal role of rheological factors in the pathology of atherosclerosis. To get a more detailed hematological and hemorheological profile in hypercholesterolemia, we carried out an experiment on rabbits. Animals were divided into two groups: the control group (Control) was kept on normal rabbit chow, the high-cholesterol diet group (HC) was fed with special increased cholesterol-containing food. Hematological parameters (Sysmex K-4500 automate), whole blood and plasma viscosity (Hevimet-40 capillary viscometer), red blood cell (RBC) aggregation (Myrenne MA-1 aggregometer), deformability and mechanical stability (LoRRca MaxSis Osmoscan ektacytometer) were tested. The white blood cell and platelet count, mean corpuscular volume, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were significantly higher in the HC group, while the RBC count, hemoglobin, and hematocrit values were lower than the Control data. Viscosity values corrected to 40% hematocrit were higher in the HC group. The RBC aggregation significantly increased in the HC vs. the Control. The HC group showed significantly worse results both in RBCs' deformability and membrane stability. In conclusion, the atherogenic diet worsens the hematological and macro- and micro-rheological parameters, affecting blood flow properties and microcirculation.


Abstract Background: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion using autogenous iliac bone graft may lead to donor site pain. This has led some surgeons to use hydroxyapatite but it has greater rates of complications. Objective: Analyze results of the treatment of cervical spine spondylosis by anterior cervical discectomy, and to compare fusion using titanium cage with hydroxyapatite and with autograft. Methods: We evaluated eighty patients (at 146 cervical levels) that had been treated by anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with hydroxyapatite or autograft. In a prospective study, patients were divided into two groups: 1) 77 levels of anterior cervical fusion from in 40 patients who were treated with cage and hydroxyapatite, and 2) 69 levels of anterior cervical fusions in 40 patients who were treated with cage and autograft. Results were evaluated using the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scoring system before and after surgery, subsidence, non-union and complication. Results: According to JOA score, the first group (hydroxyapatite) had improved from 9.8 preoperation to 14.5 postoperation. The subsidence rate was 26.0%, the non-union rate was 10.4%, and there was no intra and post-operative complication. In the other group (autograft), the preoperative JOA score had improved from 9.3 to 14.1. The subsidence rate was 11.6%, and there were no non-union and complications. Statistical significance was found in non-union and subsidence aspect between groups, but the clinical outcome of JOA score was not significantly different. Conclusion: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion in cervical spondylosis patients, titanium cage implantation with hydroxyapatite is a highly useful alternative to autograft.


It is necessary for nuclear power plant operation and spent fuel canisters to provide a sound technical basis for the safety and security of long-term operation and storage respectively. A new code case for mitigation of Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking (PWSCC) and Chloride Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking (CISCC) in Section III components by using an advanced surface stress improvement technology (ASSIT) is being developed by Task Group ASSIT which is one of the task groups under the ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers). The necessary technical reports supporting this code case are being developed as part of joint research projects conducted by Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction (DOOSAN), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Sun Moon University (SMU). A well-known approach to prevent PWSCC and CISCC are to be performed using materials resistant to PWSCC and CISCC. The objective is to eliminate residual tensile stresses, or to induce compressive residual stress using ASSIT methods such as laser peening, water jet/cavitation peening, ultrasonic peening and ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM). Performance and measurement criteria for mitigation of PWSCC by ASSIT will be established based on the magnitude of surface stress and depth of compressive residual stress, sustainability, inspectability and lack of adverse effects. Additionally, for mitigation of CISCC by ASSIT, the evaluation of chloride induced corrosion pitting, the depth and density of corrosion pits and stress corrosion crack initiation and growth under chloride salt chemistry conditions are also being examined. This paper explains the approach, and progress of testing and analysis. The results and details from testing and analysis will be presented in a future PVP paper upon completion.


Neonatal pneumonia is one of the most common infection in neonates which can causes death. Neonatal pneumonia occurs in babies since birth until the age of 28 days. Several risk factors are known to increase the incidence of neonatal pneumonia. However, there still unconclusive results on these factors. The purpose of this study is to determine the risk factors of neonatal pneumonia in tertiary hospital in Bali. This case control study with case group consisted of 70 neonates with neonatal pneumonia while the control group consisted of 70 healthy neonates. Data was collected from level I, II and III neonatal care unit at Sanglah general Hospital in January-June 2021. Descriptive and analytical analysis were performed. Multivariate analyses with logistic regression showed PROM >18 hours (RO 11.2; 95%CI 2.87-44.13), smelly green amniotic fluid (OR 19.9; 95%CI 3.31-120.07), low birth weight (OR 4.4; 95%CI 1.31-14.86) and APGAR score <7 (OR 36.5; 95% CI 11.47-116.37) were statistically significant for the occurrence of neonatal pneumonia. Smelly green amniotic fluid, PROM >18 hours, low birth weight, and APGAR score <7 are risk factors of neonatal pneumonia.


Computing-in-memory (CIM) has been an ongoing prominent research area for easing the energy efficiency of machine learning tasks in edge devices. Recently, embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) CIM architectures have been popular as an edge device, where it can turn off their supply during standby for low power consumption. However, most eNVMs (e.g., MRAMs and RRAMs) require the use of specialized technologies and are mostly used as single-level cell (SLC) data storage [2], [3]. In the technologies that do not provide eNVMs, logic-compatible single-poly non-volatile embedded flash (eflash) memory [1] can be considered an alternative. Although the cell area of the single-poly non-volatile eflash is significant, we can considerably compensate for the cell area penalty by using multi-level cells (MLCS). Further, in eNVM CIMs, the analog computations must be quantized with an ADC, where the SAR ADCs are a popular conversion topology. However, SAR ADC designs result in significant power consumption and area overhead due to its capacitor DAC driving and high accuracy comparators [5]. In this work, we propose to overcome such challenges by proposing 1) a logic-compatible single-poly nonvolatile eflash memory macro using MLC and an SLC at the same time to increase computation density while maintaining a reasonable signal margin, 2) a resolution configurable differential SAR TDC used for both memory programming and computing with replacing analog voltage comparators to inverters in order to reduce power consumption and area, and 3) an energy-efficient 2's complement dual-slope computation with MLC and SLC sharing a single differential TDC for multi-bit weight computation. We fabricated the proposed eFlash CIM macro in a $65 \mathrm{~nm}$ CMOS process. Our measurements show that the proposed CIM macro achieves up to 333 TOPSM energy efficiency and 186.2 GOPS throughput.


It has been theoretically and experimentally shown that split ring resonators (SRRs) can be used as a negative permeability medium near its magnetic resonance frequency. In this paper, a new structure for magnetic resonance has been designed by introducing a short wire into the common SRRs. The effects of short wire on the transmission characteristics of SRRs and left-handed metamaterials (LHMs) are experimentally and numerically investigated. The results show that an additional capacitor, formed by short wire and the gap side of SRR, leads to higher capacitance around the gap and lower the resonance frequency of SRRs. The resonance frequency of SRRs decreases with the length of short wire, but increases with the distance between short wire and SRRs. The short wire has no significant influence on the negative permeability of SRR. It is also demonstrated that the left-handed transmission peak, negative permeability, antiresonance frequency of permittivity and negative refractive index of LHMs could be tuned by controlling the distance between the short wire and the SRR.


Objectives: FDD was a 12 month, multi-centre, Canadian, randomized study translating diabetes-protective messages after GDM. Male partner participation was encouraged. We compared paternal vs. maternal food choices for interventional (INT) and control (CON) participants before and after FDD. Methods: INT maternal and paternal participants received information promoting high fibre/low fat foods; portion control; healthy restaurant choices via postpartum seminar, access to branded FDD website and twice-monthly email contact. CON maternal subjects received a postpartum healthy living handout. One-day food records at 3 and 12 months were analyzed for fast food intake (FF) and Canada's Food Guide (CFG) servings. Results: 15 INT and 16 CON maternal/paternal pairs provided food records at 3 and 12 months. Considering INT and CON cohorts together: paternal and maternal grain products, milk/alternatives and meat/alternatives consumption met CFG guidelines at 3 and 12 months. Paternal and maternal vegetables and fruit (V and F) intakes were similar but lower than recommended (paternal: goal 8-10 servings/day; baseline 3.8±2.2; 12 months 4.6±2.9; maternal: goal 7-8 servings/day; baseline 4.1±2.8; 12 months 5.4±3.2). Paternal FF intake was higher than maternal at baseline: (0.41±0.61 vs. 0.12±0.34; p=0.03) but not at 12 months (0.44±0.62 vs. 0.34±0.40, p=0.6). Paternal and maternal V and F intakes were modestly correlated by 12 months (r=0.35, p=0.05). Conclusions: Notable paternal and maternal postpartum diet choices were: servings of V and F did not meet CFG recommendations at 3 and 12 months for men or women; paternal FF intake was higher than maternal soon after delivery, but not at 12 months as maternal servings increased; paternal and maternal V and F intakes were correlated at 12 months postpartum. Therefore, it may be helpful to target both paternal and maternal food choices when promoting healthy living after GDM. Disclosure A. Vezina: None. R.M. McManus: None. L.E. Donovan: None. D.B. Miller: None. I.T. Giroux: None.


monitoring. The arterial blood pressure decreased to 80/50 mmHg minutes after injection of carbocaine. 50, of the mixed venous blood was about 75% throughout the procedure. The intra-operative course was smooth and intraoperative muscle relaxation excellent. She recovered consciousness 3 minutes after withdrawal of nitrous oxide. Her postoperative course was also uneventful. Plasma aldosterone levels increased markedly during manipulation of the tumour and thcn decreased gradually to the normal level after its removal. Plasma ACTH and cortisol concentrations were elevated significantly by surgical intervention while adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine in the plasma remained within normal ranges. This method has been used widely since 1969 in many pain clinics in Japan to treat various pain syndromes. Total spinal anaesthesia is often considered to be the most dangerous complication following spinal anaesthesia and epidural anaesthesia but the method can be applied safely in clinical practice, provided that adequate care is taken of the cardiorespiratory systems.


Haemophilia is characterized by bleeding longer after an injury, easy bruising, and an increased risk of bleeding inside joints and muscles. Recurrent joint bleeds lead to haemophilic arthropathy (HA). Joint pain, limitations in range of motion and muscle atrophy are the hallmark of HA, resulting in limitations in activities and participation. Persons with haemophilia (PWH) therefore require lifelong (prophylactic) treatment with clotting factor replacement therapy. However, PWH under intermediate dose prophylactic therapy still experience approximately 2 joint bleeds annually and clotting factor replacement is associated with high costs (180.000 US$ per patient annually). The comprehensive care team supports patients to optimize self-management and participation, with a specific role for the physiotherapist in supporting patients with bleed recognition, early detection of impairments in joint health, activities and participation by regular monitoring and supporting patients in achieving and maintaining optimal movement behaviour. The aim of this thesis was to provide a basis for the evaluation of joints, provide a basis for monitoring joint health, activities and participation and provide insight in movement behaviour of persons with haemophilia. Differentiating between joint bleeds and flare-ups of HA is not always straightforward, but essential to provide optimal care and decrease healthcare costs. A narrative literature review on symptoms associated with joints bleeds and HA and additional techniques that can be valuable for differentiating showed that there is no consensus about the symptoms associated with joint bleeds and that there is limited literature about the symptoms associated with HA, however a diagnosis based on clinical symptoms is still the most practical solution for patients to perform at home. Based on the results from focus group interviews we made an initial proposal of items to include in a diagnostic criteria set; 1) course of the symptoms, 2) cause of the complaints, 3) joint history, 4) type of pain and 5) degree of impairments in range of motion. The need to monitor persons with haemophilia on all levels of the ICF model is increasingly accepted, but a core outcome set is not yet available. Two systematic literature studies showed that measurement properties of the HJHS (physical examination), (ped)HAL (questionnaire) and FISH (performance based test) were most extensively studied, but significant gaps exists in the evidence on measurement properties. Further studies showed that in joints with minimal loss of function, HEAD-US (ultrasound) assessment may be used to evaluate whether impaired joint function is caused by intra-articular changes. In apparently healthy joints according to the HJHS, HEAD-US may detect minimal osteochodral changes. Furthermore, monitoring of all 6 joints included in the HJHS may only be needed every 5 years, when single joints are monitored more frequently in case of bleeding or other complaints. Adults with haemophilia experience increased limitations in activities due to haemophilic arthropathy. A cross-sectional study shows that movement behavior of adults with severe haemophilia differs from healthy adults, mainly due to less walking and less running. A hierarchical cluster analysis classified the majority of PWH as sedentary, whereas less sitting and regular walking during the day seemed to be more beneficial.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the diagnoses and treatment of interstitial cystitis (IC).

METHODS
The clinical data of 16 IC patients were analyzed respectively. The patients with urinary frequency, urgency, suprapubic pain and chronic pelvic pain. They were misdiagnosed as chronic cystitis, pelvic inflammation, endometriosis, cystophthisis and urethral syndrome, and were diagnosed finally by the means of pathology or cystoscopy. Among the 16 patients, 4 cases had the operation of ileal reservoir, Two cases had sigmoid-cysto-plasty, and 10 cases had drug treatment. The methods of IC diagnosis and treatment were discussed with the review of literature.

RESULTS
The pelvic ache disappeared completely in 4 cases after the operation of ileal reservoir; Two cases after cystoplasty felt lightly discomfortable in perineum occasionally, and their bladder capacity was above 350 ml, no recurrence after operation having been found after follow-up for 24 months and 33 months; Ten cases treated with non-operative treatment improved obviously, with the O'Leary-Sant IC symptom index and IC problem index decreased from 15.4 +/- 4.1, 9.4 +/- 2.7 to 4.1 +/- 2.1 and 5.1 +/- 3.9, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Sufficient attention should be paid to the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of IC; Early diagnosis and therapeutic alliance with manifold measures can relieve the patients' symptom and improve the quality of life.


Owing to energy conservation of waste heat, Lead telluride, PbTe, based materials have promising good thermoelectric properties around a range of middle temperature (Fig. 1, from 300 to 600°C), due to their high melting point, fine chemical stability, and the high figure of merit Z. The general physical properties and factors affecting the figure of merit have been reviewed. This research is focused on the n-type of PbTe materials and collocated with analysis of densities, hardness, elastic modulus, and thermoelectric properties thermoelectric figure of merit ZT=GS2T/κ (where G is electrical conductivity, S is Seebeck coefficient , T is absolute temperature, and κ is thermal conductivity). Room temperature hardness and Young's modulus are measured by nano-indentation. In this study, the hot-press compacts under the pressure of 4 ton/cm2 can reach the maximum density about 8.2 g/cm3, and hardness and elastic modulus are 0.6 GPa and 70 GPa, respectively. The figure of merit value (ZT) of PbTe in low temperature (around 340°C) was found about 1 with carrier concentration above 1019 cm−3. These results also indicate that the powder metallurgy parameters provide potentialities for further increase of the high efficiency of energy conversion in PbTe materials.


27796 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 27796–2780 interaction mechanism of fluorescent whitening agents to human serum albumin using saturation transfer difference-NMR, multi-spectroscopy, and docking studies† Ludan Zhao, Jiuyang Liu, Ronghui Guo,* Qiaomei Sun, Hongqin Yang and Hui Li c In this study, 2,20-(4,40-biphenylylenebisvinylene)bisbenzenesulfonicacid (CBS-X) and its disodiumsalt (CBS) were used as model compounds to investigate the interaction mechanism between 4,40-distyrylbiphenyl based fluorescent whitening agents (DSBP-FWAs) and human serum albumin (HSA) through various techniques, including H saturation transfer difference nuclear magnetic resonance (H STD-NMR), fluorescence studies, UV-vis absorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and molecular docking. The H STD-NMR analyses indicated that CBS and CBS-X can bind to HSA at the favored Sudlow's sites II and I, respectively. Fluorescence emission spectra showed that CBS and CBS-X quenches HSA fluorescence through a dynamic mechanism, and this was further verified by fluorescence lifetime experiments and UV-vis absorption. Moreover, the effective binding constant values of the two compounds at the same temperature decreased in the order CBS > CBS-X. Furthermore, the energy transfer efficiency for CBS and CBS-X were 50.5% and 40.6%, respectively. Thermodynamic analyses indicated that the binding of CBS and CBS-X with HSA are both primarily controlled by hydrophobic forces. FT-IR and CD spectroscopy provided complementary information on the micro-environmental and conformational changes of HSA with the additions of CBS and CBS-X. Molecular docking further confirmed the NMR and spectroscopic results. Overall, the comparative studies on the interaction mechanism of CBS and CBS-X when binding to HSA may provide useful information for evaluating their effects on the human body.


We consider a class of min-max robust problems in which the functions that need to be "robustified" can be decomposed as the sum of arbitrary functions. This class of problems includes many practical problems, such as the lot-sizing problem under demand uncertainty. By considering a Lagrangian relaxation of the uncertainty set, we derive a tractable approximation, called the dual Lagrangian approach, that we relate with both the classical dualization approximation approach and an exact approach. Moreover, we show that the dual Lagrangian approach coincides with the affine decision rule approximation approach. The dual Lagrangian approach is applied to a lot-sizing problem, in which demands are assumed to be uncertain and to belong to the uncertainty set with a budget constraint for each time period. Using the insights provided by the interpretation of the Lagrangian multipliers as penalties in the proposed approach, two heuristic strategies, a new guided iterated local search heuristic, and a subgradient optimization method are designed to solve more complex lot-sizing problems in which additional practical aspects, such as setup costs, are considered. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed heuristics that provide a good compromise between the quality of the robust solutions and the running time required in their computation. Summary of Contribution: The paper includes both theoretical and algorithmic contributions for a class of min-max robust optimization problems where the objective function includes the maximum of a sum of affine functions. From the theoretical point of view, a tractable Lagrangian dual model resulting from a relaxation of the well-known adversarial problem is proposed, providing a new perspective of well-known models, such as the affinely adjustable robust counterpart (AARC) and the dualization technique introduced by Bertsimas and Sim. These results are particularized to lot-sizing problems. From the algorithm point of view, efficient heuristic schemes—which exploit the information based on the interpretation of the Lagrangian multipliers to solve large size robust problems—are proposed, and their performance is evaluated through extensive computational results based on the lot-sizing problem. In particular, a guided iterated local search and a subgradient optimization method are proposed and compared against the dualization approach proposed by Bertsimas and Sim and with several heuristics based on the AARC approach, which include an iterated local search heuristic and a Benders decomposition approach. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed heuristics, which provide a good compromise between the quality of the robust solutions and the running time.


Imideo G. Nerici (1985) points out in his book, "Hacia una Didactica General
Dinamica", that university teaching should avoid four things. First, university studies should not only aim to prepare students to pass exams. Second, university students should not limit themselves to just take notes and then memorize them. Third, university students should neither play passive roles norlimit themselves to know just what the teacher gives them. Fourth, university students should not be kept away from the problems their community and country face.


The use of real-time ultrasound imaging (RUSI) as biofeedback to enhance the performance of spinal stabilization exercise and recovery from low back pain has been a recent trend in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate whether it would be feasible to conduct a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of spinal stabilization exercise with RUSI biofeedback in individuals with chronic nonspecific low back pain. This was a single-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. Ten consecutive patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain met the study criteria. They received spinal stabilization exercise with the RUSI biofeedback focusing on lumbar multifidus muscle activation. The intervention was provided twice weekly for 6 weeks. Outcome measures were lumbar multifidus muscle cross-sectional area, pain, disability and quality of life assessed at baseline and after intervention. A paired t-test was applied and effect size (Cohen d) was computed. The recruitment and retention rates were 75% and 83% respectively. No adverse events were reported during the study. Compared with the baseline, the participants demonstrated statistically significant improvement in lumbar multifidus muscle cross-sectional area (P<0.05, d=1.03), pain (P<0.001, d=2.56) and disability (P<0.05, d=1.43) with large effect size after the intervention. However, no statistically significant differences were observed for physical and mental health (P>0.05) after the intervention. It was concluded that spinal stabilization exercise with RUSI biofeedback is effective in improving lumbar multifidus muscle cross-sectional area, pain and disability in individuals with chronic nonspecific low back pain. The results demonstrated the feasibility of conducting a future, larger-scale powered randomized controlled trial to confirm these preliminary findings.


Abstract. The German Bight within the central North Sea is of vital importance to many industrial nations in the European Union (EU), which have obligated themselves to ensure the development of green energy facilities and technology, while improving natural habitats and still being economically competitive. These ambitious goals require a tremendous amount of careful planning and considerations, which depends heavily on data availability. For this reason, we established in close cooperation with stakeholders an open-access integrated, marine data collection from 1996 to 2015 for bathymetry, surface sediments, tidal dynamics, salinity, and waves in the German Bight for science, economy, and governmental interest. This second part of a two-part publication presents data products from numerical hindcast simulations for sea surface elevation, current velocity, bottom shear stress, salinity, wave parameters and wave spectra. As an important improvement to existing data collections our model represents the variability of the bathymetry by using annually updated model topographies. Moreover, we provide model results at a high temporal and spatial resolution (Hagen et al. 2020b), i.e. model results are gridded to 1,000 m at 20-minute intervals (https://doi.org/10.48437/02.2020.K2.7000.0004). Tidal characteristic values (Hagen et al. 2020a), such as tidal range or ebb current velocity, are computed based on the numerical modeling results (https://doi.org/10.48437/02.2020.K2.7000.0003). Therefore, this integrated, marine data collection enables coastal stakeholders and scientists to easily enter and participate in countless applications, which could be the development of detailed coastal models, handling of complex natural habitat problems, design of coastal structures, or trend exploration into the future.


Background Studies link sexual health to lower sexual risk in adolescent women, yet no empirical literature evaluates these associations in adolescent men.

METHODS
Data were drawn from a longitudinal cohort study of sexual relationships and sexual behaviour among adolescent men (n=72; 14-16 years) in the US. Participants contributed quarterly partner-specific interviews, from which sexual health information and partnered sexual behaviours were drawn. A multidimensional measure of sexual health was constructed and linked to partnered outcomes, including oral-genital, vaginal and anal sex, condom use, partner concurrency and intimate partner violence. Random intercept, mixed-effects linear, ordinal logistic or binary logistic regression were for analyses. Models controlled for participant age, race/ethnicity and relationship length.

RESULTS
Adolescent men contributed 651 unique partner-specific interviews. A higher sexual health score with partners was significantly associated with more frequent oral-genital and vaginal sex, as well as higher condom use, lower partner concurrency and lower received and perpetuated intimate partner violence.

CONCLUSION
Positive sexually related experiences in adolescent men contribute to a core of sexual wellbeing, which in turn is linked to lower levels of sexual risk with partners. The present study data support both developmental and public health applications of sexual health, with attention on promoting healthy sexuality as well as risk reduction. Higher sexual health among adolescent men from the US is associated with more frequent condom use, lower partner concurrency and less frequent intimate partner violence. Young men's exercising the skills associated with healthy sexuality may also reinforce the skills needed to both enjoy sexuality with partners and to avoid adverse sexual outcomes.


Attractor black holes in type II string compactifications on K3 × T 2 are in correspondence with equivalence classes of binary quadratic forms. The discriminant of the quadratic form governs the black hole entropy, and the count of attractor black holes at a given entropy is given by a class number. Here, we show this tantalizing relationship between attractors and arithmetic can be generalized to a rich family, connecting black holes in supergravity and string models with analogous equivalence classes of more general forms under the action of arithmetic groups. Many of the physical theories involved have played an earlier role in the study of 'magical' supergravities, while their mathematical counterparts are directly related to geometry-of-numbers examples in the work of Bhargava et al. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Peter Freund. The last section is devoted to some of MG's personal reminiscences of Peter Freund.


Bone marrow failure in aplastic anemia (AA) could result from abnormalities of hematopoietic stem cells, abnormal control of hematopoiesis, or abnormalities of the hematopoietic environment. Bone marrow transplantation, in vitro marrow culture techniques, and studies in animal models of marrow failure have provided insights on the possible pathogenetic mechanisms underlying AA. Studies in man and in murine models suggest that most often AA results from injuries to hematopoietic stem cells. Despite the intriguing report of abnormal regulatory cells in congenitally anemic mice, instances of marrow failure due to defective humoral or cellular control of hematopoiesis have not been identified in man. In vitro studies employing allogeneic marrow targets have suggested that immune suppression of hematopoiesis may occasionally mediate AA in man. Marrow failure due to abnormalities of the hematopoietic microenvironment has been suggested by experience with bone marrow transplantation, but no direct study of this possibility has been reported. Based on available evidence, it seems likely that AA will prove to be many diseases that share common clinical and morphologic features.