A numerical procedure is presented to simulate conjugate heat transfer in generalized coordinates and used in some typical turbomachinery applications. The discretized equations at the solid-fluid interface are obtained using energy conservation principles and computational nodes are placed exactly on that interface, thus yielding the corresponding temperatures directly, without the need for inter- or extrapolation from neighboring nodes. The temperature field over both the fluid and the solid domains is computed implicitly, i.e., without iterating between the two. The computer code used for the computations is based on the finite-volume method and the SIMPLE algorithm along with various turbulence models. Both a version of the low-Reynolds-number k-ϵ model suitable for recirculating flows with heat transfer and the standard k-ϵ have been used, with suitable modifications.
 The successful treatment of the boundary condition at the solid-fluid interface has been verified by comparing against analytical solutions for laminar, conjugate heat transfer over a flat plate of finite thickness. The agreement was found to be quite good, when temperature profiles were compared at various streamwise distances from the leading edge. Further applications have been sought in the field of turbomachinery and as the main test case, the turbulent flow and heat transfer in labyrinth seals has been selected. Two such configurations have been considered, a straight-through and a stepped labyrinth seal. Results were compared with measured data obtained for the same configurations and the agreement was found to be satisfactory. In addition, the applicability of the current method to a film-cooling problem and the merits of it are being demonstrated.


Chrysotile asbestos is retained in lung tissue, where it may be used as a marker of exposure. Studies include analysis of sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, but principally lung parenchyma from autopsy or surgically resected specimens. Asbestos bodies form on chrysotile fibres but are generally not a good indicator of human exposure to chrysotile because of their greater probability of formation on amphiboles. Chrysotile fibre analyses in lung have advantages and limitations. Chrysotile concentration is related to the level of environmental and occupational exposure, but in the latter situation owing to deposition, fibre alteration and clearance cumulative exposure and interval between end-exposure and death clearly affect results. Autopsy case series are biased toward increased proportions of asbestos-related diseases as compared to epidemiological cohort data. Analytical problems include potential contamination by chrysotile at autopsy, from fixatives, from post-fixative processing and in the analytical laboratory itself. These may have greatest effect in studies of individuals with low exposure, for tissue other than lung, and for short chrysotile fibres. Selection of control subjects should be contemporaneous with that of cases, and control subjects should fully reflect the hospital population at the time of case death. Limited data are available on fibre analysis in pleural tissue. More are needed. Issues requiring attention include avoidance of contamination, selection of controls, and sample site selection (parietal pleura, or tumour or plaque). For mesothelioma, two case-control studies of lung fibre burden show the principal relationship to be with long amphiboles, but some methodological problems exist. Lung cancer shows no such fibre-type differences. Asbestosis seems to be associated with long-fibre chrysotile and tremolite in one study and short fibres in others. Overall, lung retained dose is a useful indicator of chrysotile exposure if used cautiously in inference, and is very useful in the evaluation of historical exposures and industrial hygiene data in epidemiological studies.


One of the common problems facing EFL teachers in teaching writing is how to engage students in their writing lessons and help them autonomously communicate their ideas through writing. In this workshop, the participants will experience a number of tools and apps for motivating EFL students to write creatively such as Storybird, Bookcreator, Infographics and Telescopic Text, which are suitable for students of different levels to develop their writing from simple forms to complicated ones. Besides, they are also provided with useful tools for assessing their students' writing namely Grammarly and English Profile. Additionally, the presenters also demonstrate how to help students share their work and assess their peers' writing through the app called Padlet. Furthermore, the participants will have opportunity to practise using the tools and apps they learn in this workshop in designing writing activities for a specific task in a new English textbook, which is currently used at many secondary schools in Vietnam. Finally, there will be a small discussion regarding other possibilities to apply the mentioned tools and apps in teaching writing skills and other skills.


In two strains of Trichosporon adeninovorans genes of unknown location were assigned to linkage groups. Diploid strains were produced by protoplast fusion and partially haploidized by growth on benomyl causing mitotic haploidization. We show that both strains synthesize an extracellular glucoamylase with different properties. These differences could be used to map the corresponding gene in the segregants. We could map the glucoamylase gene from one of these yeast strains on linkage group II, one of the three linkage groups identified so far.


The importance of dosage in the treatment of mouse leukemia with a-methopterin (Methotrexate) has been demonstrated by Goldin and associates. 1 They found in the treatment of leukemia L 1210 that a schedule of large, infrequent doses of a-methopterin was, with regard to survival time, therapeutically superior to single maximum doses or to small, consecutive daily doses, if treatment was begun soon after tumor implantation. The optimum interval of four days between consecutive doses was subsequently shown to be closely related to the time required for recovery of the mouse from the effects of the drug. 2 The enhanced therapeutic effectiveness of this intermittent regimen suggested that the host recovered faster than the tumor, so that the tumor was damaged selectively by subsequent doses of the drug. The therapeutic advantage of this dosage regimen was so obvious that its clinical application was undertaken. Studies in man led to the selection


The immunological effects of recombinant human interleukin 12 (rhIL-12) administration were examined during the conduct of a Phase I clinical trial. Forty patients with advanced cancer received bolus i.v. injections of rhIL-12 in doses ranging between 3 and 1000 ng/kg. Dose-dependent increases in serum IFN-gamma levels were seen during rhIL-12 therapy. Significant lymphopenia was observed 24 h after single i.v. injections of rhIL-12 at each dose level. The degree of lymphopenia was dose dependent, and a plateau effect was seen with rhIL-12 doses of 100 ng/kg and higher. Lymphocyte counts reached nadir levels at approximately 10 h after rhIL-12 injection and returned to baseline within 14 days postinjection. Rebound lymphocytosis, as seen after interleukin 2 therapy, was not observed after recovery from rhIL-12-induced lymphopenia. rhIL-12-induced lymphopenia involved all major lymphocyte subsets, although natural killer (NK) cell numbers were the most profoundly affected, and CD4 T-cell numbers were the least affected. CD2, LFA-1, and CD56 were transiently up-regulated on the surface of NK cells exposed to rhIL-12 in vivo. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from cancer patients before rhIL-12 therapy exhibited defective NK cell cytotoxicity and T-cell-proliferative responses. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained after lymphocyte recovery following the administration of a single 500 ng/kg dose of rhIL-12 displayed augmented NK cell cytolytic activity in four of four patients tested and enhanced T-cell proliferation in three of four patients tested. These studies confirm that doses of rhIL-12 resulting in significant immunological activity can be administered with acceptable toxicity to cancer patients. Furthermore, rhIL-12 therapy can reverse defects in NK cell and T-cell function that are associated with advanced cancer in humans.


Tonics are herbs that strengthen and stimulate a specific organ, body system or the entire body. System tonics nourish and tone the body and assist in keeping body systems functioning efficiently. Tonics can be used to assist in avoiding health problems and play a significant role in ensuring optimal health and vitality. The horse owner will sense an improvement in the vitality to the horse.


Objective HCV infection affects millions of people worldwide, and many patients develop chronic infection leading to liver cancers. For decades, the lack of a small animal model that can recapitulate HCV infection, its immunopathogenesis and disease progression has impeded the development of an effective vaccine and therapeutics. We aim to provide a humanised mouse model for the understanding of HCV-specific human immune responses and HCV-associated disease pathologies. Design Recently, we have established human liver cells with a matched human immune system in NOD-scid Il2rg−/− (NSG) mice (HIL mice). These mice are infected with HCV by intravenous injection, and the pathologies are investigated. Results In this study, we demonstrate that HIL mouse is capable of supporting HCV infection and can present some of the clinical symptoms found in HCV-infected patients including hepatitis, robust virus-specific human immune cell and cytokine responses as well as liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Similar to results obtained from the analysis of patient samples, the human immune cells, particularly T cells and macrophages, play critical roles during the HCV-associated liver disease development in the HIL mice. Furthermore, our model is demonstrated to be able to reproduce the therapeutic effects of human interferon alpha 2a antiviral treatment. Conclusions The HIL mouse provides a model for the understanding of HCV-specific human immune responses and HCV-associated disease pathologies. It could also serve as a platform for antifibrosis and immune-modulatory drug testing.


Background: Thalassemia is a major inherited disease in Thailand, with a large number of people being either directly affected or carrying the trait. The Southeast Asian ?-thalassemia 1 deletion (--SEA) is the most common ?-thalassemia 1 type, with a high number of carriers in Thai population. Individuals who carry the deletion have the potential for having offspring with Hb Bart's hydrops fetalis, the most severe thalassemia syndrome. Given the incidence of this disease, screening for thalassemia is an important tool in diagnosis and many methods have been developed. Objectives: A single tube real-time PCR methodology with a melting curve analysis method has been recently developed, and this work sought to determine the limit of sensitivity of this technique to determine whether it is possible to optimize this methodology and apply it to the single cell level for application in preimplantation genetic diagnosis screening programs. Methods: DNA was extracted from whole blood or isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells of normal volunteers as well as ?-thalassemia 1 (--SEA) carriers. Sensitivity of the melting curve analysis was established with serial dilutions of DNA down to the picogram (pg) level. Results: The melting curve analysis as previously established was sensitive down to 2 ng of DNA. Further optimization increased sensitivity down to 200 pg, but discrimination of a normal allele from an ?-thalassemia 1 (--SEA) allele below this level of DNA was not achieved. Conclusion: While advantageous in routine screening programs, real time PCR coupled with a melting curve analysis is not currently suitable for adaptation to pre-implantation diagnosis for alpha thalassemia. Keywords: Hb Bart's hydrops fetalis, PCR, PGD, thalassemia


Fifty five patients with 108 coronary bypass saphenous vein grafts were studied at necropsy. The mean duration of the grafts was 153 days (SD 516). The luminal narrowing of the native coronary arteries proximal to, at, and distal to the vein graft anastomoses and the narrowing of the non-grafted arteries were evaluated planimetrically. Twenty nine per cent of coronary arteries distal to graft anastomoses showed at least 76% narrowing and 50-75% occlusion was seen in 39% of such arteries. Fifty three per cent of non-grafted arteries showed at least 76% luminal narrowing and 26% had 50-75% narrowing. Six patients (11%) had surgically induced dissection of coronary arteries. Seventy seven vein grafts (71%) showed no appreciable luminal narrowing. Problems related to operative technique caused 30% of the deaths.


In our previous work, we proposed a particle Gaussian mixture (PGM-I) filter for nonlinear estimation. The PGM-I filter uses the transition kernel of the state Markov chain to sample from the propagated prior. It constructs a Gaussian mixture representation of the propagated prior density by clustering the samples. The measurement data is incorporated by updating individual mixture modes using the Kalman measurement update. However, the Kalman measurement update is inexact when the measurement function is nonlinear and leads to the restrictive assumption that the number of modes remain fixed during the measurement update. In this paper, we introduce an alternate PGM-II filter that employs parallelized Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling to perform the measurement update. The PGM-II filter update is asymptotically exact and does not enforce any assumptions on the number of Gaussian modes. The PGM-II filter is employed in the estimation of two test case systems. The results indicate that the PGM-II filter is suitable for handling nonlinear/non-Gaussian measurement update.


Case 1. The patient was the third child of healthy parents, born at home following a normal pregnancy. She remained well until 20 months of age, when she was admitted to hospital, as a case of otitis media. The history was that she had become listless 2 days previously, had refused her food, and had vomited intermittently. Her bowels had been open regularly and were of normal colour. There had been no abdominal pain. On examination, her temperature was 990 F. (37. 20 C.), pulse 120, and respirations 40/min. There was no jaundice. The only abnormal physical finding was bulging of the left ear-drum. Hb 90%. WBC 17,600/ c.mm. with a polymorph leucocytosis. She was treated with oral penicillin. The following day her temperature was 1010 F. (38 30 C.), an expiratory grunt had developed, and though no definite signs were found in the chest, the radiograph showed some mottling of the right mid-zone. Slight nuchal rigidity was also observed and a revised diagnosis of pneumonitis with meningism was made. CSF was normal. One of us (W.L.) was asked to see her on the third day ofadmission because her abdomenhadbecome distended. She was now apathetic with a flushed face. There was no jaundice. The left ear-drum showed some peripheral injection, but no bulging. Slight nuchal rigidity was still present. The abdomen was distended and showed yellow staining around the umbilicus and in the right flank and right iliac fossa. There was no rigidity, but tenderness and guarding were present in all quadrants. Serum amylase was normal. It was thought that the child might have a traumatic biliary peritonitis, though injury was denied by the parents and no local bruising was found. At laparotomy much clear, bile-stained fluid escaped; on culture this proved sterile. Exploration of the upper abdomen revealed a normal spleen, liver,and gall-bladder. A small perforation was found on the posterior wall of the


The DNase that is associated with a multiprotein form of HeLa cell DNA polymerase alpha (polymerase alpha 2) has two distinct exonuclease activities: the major activity initiates hydrolysis from the 3' terminus and the other from the 5' terminus of single-stranded DNA. The two exonuclease activities show identical rates of thermal inactivation and coincidental migration during chromatofocusing, glycerol gradient centrifugation, and nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the DNase. Moreover, the purified DNase shows a single protein band of Mr 69,000 following nondenaturing polyacrylamide and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The 3'----5' exonuclease activity hydrolyzes only single-stranded DNA substrates and the products are 5' mononucleotides. This activity recognizes and excizes mismatched bases at the 3' terminus of double-stranded DNA substrates. The 3'----5' exonuclease does not hydrolyze 3' phosphoryl terminated single-stranded DNA substrates. The 5'----3' exonuclease activity also only hydrolyzes single-stranded DNA substrates. The rate of hydrolysis, however is only about 1/25th the rate of the 3'----5' exonuclease. This exonuclease activity requires a 5' single-stranded terminus in order to initiate hydrolysis and does not proceed into double-stranded regions. The products of hydrolysis by 5'----3' exonuclease are also 5' nucleoside monophosphates.


The effect of the long-acting somatostatin analog octreotide on liver regeneration was studied in rats in vitro and in vivo. The effect of continuous subcutaneous octreotide infusion on regenerative liver weight and relative DNA synthesis was examined in rats that had undergone 70% hepatectomy. Administration of octreotide resulted in a 33% reduction of regenerating liver weight at 72 hours and a 67% reduction of regenerative hepatocellular hyperplasia at 24 hours. This effect was reversed within 12 hours after withdrawal of the drug. The mechanism for the inhibitory effect of octreotide appears to be indirect, because experiments in hepatocyte cultures did not demonstrate a direct inhibitory effect on serum-free or epidermal growth factor-induced regenerative hepatocyte proliferation. Because insulin levels were suppressed by octreotide in the in vivo experiments, suppression of hepatotrophs may be the mechanism by which octreotide inhibits liver regeneration.


This paper examines the contribution of the rise in the return to ability to the rise in the economic return to education. All of the evidence on this question comes from panel data sets in which a small collection of adjacent birth cohorts is followed over time. The structure of the data creates an identification problem that makes it impossible to identify main age and time effects and to isolate all possible age-time interactions. In addition, many education-ability cells are empty due to the stratification of ability with educational attainment. These empty cells or identification problems are literature and produce a variety of different estimates. We test and reject widely used linearity assumptions invoked to identify the contribution of the return to ability on the return to schooling. Using nonparametric methods find little evidence that the rise in the return to education is centered among the most able.


Background: There are few studies evaluating the prognostic value of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). We analyzed possible power of serum LDH level to predict in-hospital mortality. Methods: In this cross-sectional study 217 patients with confirmed PE diagnosis with CT angiography and available serum LDH level at first 24-hours upon admission were included. Results: The mean age of patients were 63.04±16.81 years old, 23 patients (10.6%) died during hospitalization. Multivariate analysis showed that only LDH, WBC were independent predictors of in-hospital mortality, however this association was not significant. Conclusions: In patients with pulmonary embolism, LDH can be a good prognostic marker for predicting in-hospital death.


Documented historical records of large-magnitude earthquakes in China, in addition to providing data for preparing catalogs for seismostatistical investigations, have been used by seismologists for constructing isoseismal maps. Isoseismals of earthquakes tend to be influenced by the surficial sedimentary terrain, and in the case of the historical earthquakes, the ambient population density affected earthquake reporting used in preparing isoseismal maps. However, isoseismal geometry in the epicentral region also reflects on the pattern of faulting associated with the earthquake, whether the faults are visible on the surface or not. Isoseismals for a large number of earthquakes in China have been examined and interpreted. An interesting deduction is the definition of a boundary separating the East China mini-plate from the West China mini-plate which strikes almost north-south between longitudes 102° and 105°E and extends from about 25° to 36°N. Isoseismals on the west of this boundary are elongated from NW to NNW while on the east from NS to NNE. Beginning with 1800 A.D., available isoseismals of all earthquakes of magnitude greater than or equal to 6 have been examined for this area. These isoseismal geometries, combined with the inferred left-lateral, strike-slip faulting on satellite imagery, as well as on some recent earthquakes on the western side of the boundary, and the rotation measured by Chinese scientists near the city of Shan Tan during the February 11, 1954 earthquake (38°51′N, 101° 22′E, focal depth 12.5 km, M = 7 1 4 ) are consistent with a clockwise rotation of the West China mini-plate.


Differential radiographic criteria are unreliable for the histological diagnosis of periradicular lesions of pulpal origin. It should not, therefore, be assumed that large lesions or lesions with an opaque border are cystic. Even if cystic, or if strands of epithelium are present, the literature supports repair following the removal of the source of the pathosis. In most cases, the aetiological factors are oral contamination through the root canal or degenerating pulpal tissue. Therefore, the mere surgical removal of lesions of pulpal origin without removing the causes through proper root canal cleaning, shaping and obturation, will not result in the healing of the periradicular tissues. In addition to removing effectively the causative factors, environmental changes in the periradicular tissues caused by the process of canal debridement may inherently aid in the demise of epithelium, when present. The salient issues are discussed in light of thorough debridement of the root canal system, coupled with postulated mechanisms for the resolution of lesions displaying epithelial stands or cavities. Likewise, the role of calcium hydroxide and its potential role in the alteration of the periradicular environment is addressed, with support for the repair of large periradicular lesions without surgical intervention.


This article introduces the somatic transform that operationalizes the relation between affect and cognition at the psychological level of analysis by capitalizing on the relation between the cognitive-denotative and affective-connotative meaning of concepts as measured with semantic differential rating scales. Following discussion of levels of analysis, the importance of language at the psychological level, and two principles (inextricability and complementarity) summarizing the relation between affect and cognition that are rendered explicit by the somatic transform, we present affect control theory (ACT) and its Bayesian extension (BayesACT) containing the somatic transform. We conclude by identifying examples of inextricability and complementarity in the social science and neuroscience literatures and discussing how our psychological model might be implemented in a realistic neural model.


Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have the potential to increase road-network capacities, reduce congestion and pollution, create shorter and more predictable journey times and significantly improve road-user safety. However, these technologies will also have the ability to track a citizen's every move, extracting information about their daily lives. This data could range from information about the user's driving style, to exactly where their vehicle was at any given time in its lifetime, right down to the radio station the driver listens to. It has been argued that privacy invasions caused by ITS will have a damaging effect on society, creating a 'Big Brother' or panopticon state. For these fears to be fulfilled, it needs to be the case that future users are not only concerned about the privacy impacts of ITS, but that the ITS will actually cause users to change their travel behaviour. This research examines the results of both a survey of 993 people across four culturally diverse European countries (the UK, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands). The survey primarily seeks to interrogate the factors influencing a future ITS user's privacy concerns, their stated behavioural intention and their actual privacy behaviour. The results of this research show that privacy concerns could play a significant role in limiting the voluntary uptake rate of the technology. While this may not be critical to the success of all future ITS, future ITS which require high penetration rates to be successful will definitely need to consider the privacy aspects of their system. This research also indicates that when a future ITS user is required to decide whether to disclose their personal information, they will be influenced significantly more by their demographics and the potential risks associated with disclosing the information than the rewards that are on offer. This means that ITS developers should attempt to use less sensitive data where possible, consider using a more trusted organisation to collect and store the required information and also consider the user's perception on how secure a transfer method is.


As social innovations that help to transition towards a more sustainable food system, alternative food networks (AFNs) in China have attracted much scholarly attention in recent years. However, studies of the community building behavior of AFNs at the micro-level in the Chinese social context are scant. Through in-depth case studies conducted between 2017 and 2021 and social network analysis, our study examines how founders of AFNs successfully facilitate community building among their customers. We find that in China, the traditional social-cultural construct, guanxi, plays a critical role in AFNs' community formation and expansion. The study identifies a three-stage framework for understanding the community building process of AFNs. First, a group of guanxi of the same kind would form a guanxi-circle. Second, the initial guanxi-circle is enhanced and expanded to multiple secondary guanxi-circles. Third, these multiple guanxi-circles together and the interactions among them constitute the community of AFNs. We argue that to strengthen the community, AFNs operators should inspire key members to form secondary guanxi-circles by enhancing their cognitive trust and emotional trust.


This paper considers a task assignment problem for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The UAVs are set to perform attack tasks on a collection of ground targets in a severe uncertain environment. The UAVs have different attack capabilities and are located at different positions. Each UAV should be assigned an attack task before the mission starts. Due to uncertain information, many criteria values essential to task assignment were random or fuzzy, and the weights of criteria were not precisely known. In this study, a novel task assignment approach based on stochastic Multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) method was proposed to address this problem. The uncertainties in the criteria were analyzed, and a task assignment procedure was designed. The results of simulation experiments show that the proposed approach is useful for finding a satisfactory assignment under severe uncertain circumstances.


Purpose: To evaluate the age- and gender-specific prevalence of early and late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a Portuguese population-based sample. Methods: All patients aged ≥55 years of a Portuguese primary health-care unit were recruited for a cross-sectional population-based study. Responders underwent complete ophthalmological examination and digital fundus imaging. Early and late AMD was defined according to the International Age-Related Macular Epidemiological Study Group Classification, and the adopted staging for AMD was the same as that used in the Rotterdam study. The age- and gender-adjusted prevalence of early and late forms of AMD was calculated. Results: Of the 4,370 eligible subjects, 3,000 underwent study procedures (68.6% response rate) and 2,975 were included in the analysis; they had a mean age of 68.9 ± 8.6 years. The overall prevalence of early and late AMD was 15.53% (95% CI 14.25-16.88) and 0.67% (95% CI 0.41-1.04), respectively. Neovascular AMD (NV-AMD) and geographic atrophy (GA) accounted for 0.44% (95% CI 0.23-0.75) and 0.27% (95% CI 0.12-0.53) of individuals, respectively. The highest prevalence of advanced AMD was among those aged ≥75 years (1.13% for NV-AMD; 0.63% for GA). Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first AMD epidemiological study in a Portuguese population. The early forms of the disease had a similar prevalence to that of other large-scale population-based cohorts, but late AMD was less frequent than previously reported.


The establishment of linkages between habitats is of great importance to avert the detrimental impacts of land fragmentation and climate change on biodiversity. Linkages need to be cost-efficient, and should account for specific dispersal requirements of species. Since cost-efficient linkages defined indepen- dently for each individual species are more costly than linkages optimised for multiple species, there is need for methods specifically designed to retrieve efficient linkages for multiple species. MulTyLink (Multiple Type Linkages) is a Cþþ open source program that defines cost-efficient linkages free of barriers for the species considered, and that allows species-specific dispersal requirements to be considered. Here we present, discuss and illustrate the algorithms used by MulTyLink to identify cost- efficient linkages for multiple species.


Experimental results on the acoustic modulation of fiber Bragg gratings are presented. Two main effects are achieved for the acousto-optic effect, one due to the longitudinal vibration mode of the fiber and the other due to the flexural mode. Using the flexural effect, the FBG reflectivity can be attenuated up to 26 dB, with a switching time of 63 ¿s. Using the longitudinal effect, lateral lobules separated by 0.3 nm can be induced.


We consider two intrinsic sources of noise in ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors based on MgO magnetic tunnel junctions, coming both from 25Mg nuclear spins (I = 5/2, 10% natural abundance) and S = 1 Mg-vacancies. While nuclear spins induce noise peaked in the MHz frequency range, the vacancies noise peaks in the GHz range. We find that the nuclear noise in submicron devices has a similar magnitude than the 1/f noise, while the vacancy-induced noise dominates in the GHz range. Interestingly, the noise spectrum under a finite magnetic field gradient may provide spatial information about the spins in the MgO layer.


Background: Traumatic ulcer is a common ulcer lesion that similar to other oral lesions such as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) making it a challenge for clinicians in establishing the diagnosis. Objective: Describing the challenges and difficulties in establishing the diagnosis of a confusing oral lesion. Case report: A 48-year- old woman complained of a painful indurated lesion on her left lateral tongue for 3 weeks, accompanied by numbness causing difficulties in eating. There were sharp 37 and 38 teeth. The ulcer's clinical feature was similar to OSCC makingitdifficulttoestablishthediagnosis.Basedontheseclinicalfindings, the patient was diagnosed as traumatic ulcer and differentiated diagnosis with OSCC. The patient was treated with topical corticosteroid, vitamin B12, folic acid and extraction of the sharp teeth. Conclusions: A thorough anamnesis and recognizing clinical findings are the keys to establish diagnosis appropriately in order to provide proper treatment.


In this paper, we consider the prediction of the helium concentrations as function of a spatially variable source term perturbed by fractional Brownian motion. For the direct problem, we show that it is well-posed and has a unique mild solution under some conditions. For the inverse problem, the uniqueness and the instability are given. In the meanwhile, we determine the statistical properties of the source from the expectation and covariance of the final-time data u(r,T). Finally, numerical implements are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed reconstruction.


Abstract Objectives: Several studies have reported that the intestinal microbiota composition of celiac disease (CD) patients differs from healthy individuals. The possible role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of the disease is, however, not known. Here, we aimed to assess the possible differences in early fecal microbiota composition between children that later developed CD and healthy controls matched for age, sex and HLA risk genotype. Materials and methods: We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine the fecal microbiota of 27 children with high genetic risk of developing CD. Nine of these children developed the disease by the age of 4 years. Stool samples were collected at the age of 9 and 12 months, before any of the children had developed CD. The fecal microbiota composition of children who later developed the disease was compared with the microbiota of the children who did not have CD or associated autoantibodies at the age of 4 years. Delivery mode, early nutrition, and use of antibiotics were taken into account in the analyses. Results: No statistically significant differences in the fecal microbiota composition were found between children who later developed CD (n = 9) and the control children without disease or associated autoantibodies (n = 18). Conclusions: Based on our results, the fecal microbiota composition at the age of 9 and 12 months is not associated with the development of CD. Our results, however, do not exclude the possibility of duodenal microbiota changes or a later microbiota-related trigger for the disease.


A brief review of traction and its application as a therapeutic tool is outlined. The preliminary results obtained indicate that traction, as used in this study, along with isokinetic exercises and chiropractic manipulation, have a very positive effect on tension headaches originating from the posterior muscles in conjunction with pathomechanics of the cervical spine. A brief but pertinent review of the literature dealing with the anatomy and physiology of the muscle spindle, the muscles, the joints, the neural connections in the spinal cord and the central nervous system is presented, to provide the basic principles of the possible mechanisms underlying the therapeutic result obtained. This framework also provides the basis of a second paper, which will explore the neural control mechanisms that are intrinsic in the control of the head, eyes and cervical spine movement, with the view of utilizing these to facilitate manipulation of this region.


The aim of this essay is to present the position of women in politics and the labour market after Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004. The recent reports on Polish women's participation in politics show a considerable increase in 2010. Yet, although the number of female Members of Parliament (MPs) has increased in absolute terms, there is still a meaningful disproportion between men and women in the Polish parliament. There are several important reasons responsible for these disproportions such as patronizing attitudes towards women often expressed by male politicians in public debates and in the media and the absence of females' names at the top positions of electoral lists with the result that fewer women win elections and sit in the national parliament.  A similar situation can be observed in employment. There are several causes of the weak position of women in the labour market. First of all, the general level of unemployment in Poland is quite high (around 11.5% in January 2015). Secondly, many women are discouraged from actively seeking jobs because of unequal pay. Thirdly, the majority of women occupy professions which are less respected and thus lower paid, and where the prospects for promotion are poor. Finally, many women succumb to social pressure deriving from the attitude of a traditional model of family which is still prevalent in Poland.


The importance of the first year experience (FYE) to success at university has been a focus of attention in the Australian higher education sector since the 1990s. For students a successful transition into university during their first year is now regarded as crucial for student engagement, success and retention. In this review we summarise a decade of research into FYE in the Australasian context. We draw on the findings arising from this comprehensive review of FYE programs and practices to describe FYE trends through the dual lenses of the first year curriculum principles and the generational approach to FYE initiatives. We contend that the generational approach to conceptualising the FYE and first year student engagement has made a useful but limited contribution to our understanding of the first year experience. Acknowledging the criticality of student engagement in a successful FYE, we propose an alternative— the Student Engagement Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM)— as a sophisticated vehicle for achieving whole-of-institution approaches to the FYE. The SESR-MM embodies the aspirations and characteristics of the transition pedagogy, highlights the need for institutional level evaluation of the FYE, focuses attention on the capacity of institutions to mobilise for first year student engagement, and importantly builds on the generational approach to allow an assessment of institutional capacity to initiate, plan, manage, evaluate and review institutional FYE practices.


DNA and histone synthesis are coupled and ongoing replication is required to maintain histone gene expression. Here, we expose S phase–arrested cells to the kinase inhibitors caffeine and LY294002. This uncouples DNA replication from histone messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance, altering the efficiency of replication stress–induced histone mRNA down-regulation. Interference with caffeine-sensitive checkpoint kinases ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related (ATR)/ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) does not affect histone mRNA down- regulation, which indicates that ATR/ATM alone cannot account for such coupling. LY294002 potentiates caffeine's ability to uncouple histone mRNA stabilization from replication only in cells containing functional DNA-activated protein kinase (DNA-PK), which indicates that DNA-PK is the target of LY294002. DNA-PK is activated during replication stress and DNA-PK signaling is enhanced when ATR/ATM signaling is abrogated. Histone mRNA decay does not require Chk1/Chk2. Replication stress induces phosphorylation of UPF1 but not hairpin-binding protein/stem-loop binding protein at S/TQ sites, which are preferred substrate recognition motifs of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase–like kinases, which indicates that histone mRNA stability may be directly controlled by ATR/ATM- and DNA-PK–mediated phosphorylation of UPF1.


An experimental work was carried out at "Nina Bonita" Pasture and Forage Station of Bauta, in order to achieve high forage production based on triticale by using minimum nitrogen doses. It was made on a Lixic Ferralic Nitisol with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculations (AMF). Treatments consisted of AMF inoculation and non-inoculation as well as varying N doses (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 kg ha-1), with a fixed bottom of 54 and 70 kg ha-1 of phosphorus and potassium, respectively. Evaluations were performed to leaf rates (% N, % P and % K), fungal variables, N, P and K extraction (kg ha-1), raw protein (%), mycorrhizal efficiency (%), dry forage mass (kg ha-1), apparent recovery efficiency (kg kg-1) and partial factor productivity, besides using ANOVA statistical analyses with one-way classification model to the original data. In every case, the best fitting models (dose-yield) were chosen to estimate optimal N doses with and without AMF, followed by the first derivative criteria to find the respective optimum ones. Results showed that AMF application allows reducing N doses to 50 and 100 kg ha-1, achieving a dry mass production of 6185 kg ha-1 with 11,75 % raw protein; leaf rates of 1,94 % N, 0,23 % P and 30 % K, indicating the adequate forage quality produced.


A method for recognizing inhalations in spontaneous speech is presented. It is similar to the template matching technique; a distance measure is calculated between a reference sound and an equally long portion of the same sound being tracked. A feature representation consisting of the standard Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), obtained by performing a discrete Cosine Transform of the mel-scaled filterbank spectrum is used. MFCC's are calculated every 5 ms. The comparison is then done by computing the euclidian distance between the cepstral coefficients of each frame of the two sounds. A low distance value means that the two compared inhalations are likely to be similar. The method can detect inhalations in both male and female spontaneous speech. The method is most suited for signals with low noise and high average intensity (studio recording) but can also be used on noisier recordings with lower average intensity, albeit with poorer results. (Less)


Cyclosporin A reverses multidrug resistance (MDR) and increases the in vivo cytostatic activity and toxicity of the anticancer agent etoposide (VP 16–213). SDZ PSC 833 (PSC 833), a non‐immunosuppressive, non‐toxic cyclosporin and very active modifier of P‐gp 170‐mediated MDR, elicits similar effects when administered with adriamycin. The underlying mechanisms, however, are not yet understood. The present pharmacological interaction study with PSC 833 and VP 16–213 was carried out to reveal the nature of this enhancement of cytostatic activity and toxicity. Rats pre‐treated with either PSC‐833 or solvent received a single dose of VP 16–213. Plasma levels of VP 16–213 were measured by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The resulting increase in cytostatic activity and toxicity of VP 16–213 mediated by PSC 833 was paralleled by marked changes in the pharmacokinetic parameters of VP 16–213 in vivo. Bioavailability and blood levels of VP 16–213 were significantly increased 30 min after administration if PSC 833 had been given before. The disappearance rate of VP 16–213 from the intravascular compartment was considerably slowed down by PSC 833. In drug‐sensitive xenografts of human colon carcinoma, the PSC‐833‐induced pharmacologic changes in vivo could be counteracted by dose reduction of VP 16–213 while a full therapeutic potential was maintained. Doses of VP 16–213, 1.5 to 2 times smaller, combined with PSC 833, were as effective in terms of tumor‐growth inhibition as the maximum tolerated dose of VP 16–213 alone. Thus, pharmacologic interactions between PSC 833 or other resistance modifiers and VP 16–213 and other cytostatic agents require careful attention if they are to be used in humans to overcome MDR.


We characterize the trade-off between consumption tax rates and tax revenue -- the Laffer curve -- while allowing for re-optimization by both consumers and firms with market power. Using detailed data from Pennsylvania, a state that monopolizes retail sales of alcoholic beverages, we estimate a discrete choice demand model allowing for flexible substitution patterns between products and across demographic groups while not imposing conduct among upstream distillers. We find that current policy overprices spirits and that firms respond to reductions in the state's ad valorem tax rate by increasing wholesale prices. The upstream response thus limits the state's revenue gain from lower tax rates to only 14% of the incremental tax revenue predicted under the common assumption of perfect competition. The burden of such naive policy falls disproportionately on older, poorer, uneducated, and minority consumers. Upstream collusion exacerbates these effects.


BACKGROUND
The aims of this study were to investigate the effect, if any, of preoperative chemotherapy and to investigate the adaptation and the limits for achieving a more functional limb in our limb-salvaging procedure.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Since 1983 to 1997 we have treated 53 cases of osteosarcoma in an upper or lower limb at our Institute. According to surgical staging by Enneking, there were 37 cases at stage II B, and 16 cases at stage III. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was performed according to one or other of our four protocols.

RESULTS
The 5-year-survival rate was 68% for those cases at stage II B, and was 13% for those at stage III. In particular, we adopted the protocol involving hyperthermic isolated regional perfusion (HIRP) for those cases in which the lesion affected the knee joint.

CONCLUSION
The various protocols of chemotherapy including HIRP were effective to permit reduction in the surgical margin and were also effective to achieve an increase in the limb-salvaging rate and especially effective for increasing the salvaged limb-functionality.


Colombia's decades-long internal conflict seemingly came to a close in 2012 when the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared their intent to engage in peace talks. In this transitional justice period, Colombia aimed to effectively address all the violations that had occurred during the conflict by holding them accountable within its Peace Agreement - including gender-based violations (GBV). This essay will examine the ways in which Colombia's most recent peace process tackles conflict-related GBV in order to study whether these violations were sufficiently and appropriately addressed. The first section of this essay will define gender-based violations and examine how they have been addressed in transitional justice literature so far. The second section will evaluate how successfully Colombia's peace process handles GBV by (a) studying the inclusion of gender perspectives in the peace process and by (b) analysing how the 2016 Peace Agreement provides for (i) truth, (ii) justice, (iii) reparations and (iv) guarantees of non-repetition in terms of GBV. In doing so, this article hopes that academic literature, the international community, and other peace processes can use Colombia's take on gender-based violations as a guide - on what to do well and what to do better – so that the recognition of and protection from GBV is only increased here on out.

Keywords: SGBV, Colombia, transitional justice, gender


Background: Social adversity and poor maternal mental health during pregnancy can have long-term adverse effects on the infant's health, social and educational outcomes. Stress in pregnancy may have direct physiological effects on the fetus, as well as impairing development of maternal sensitivity to the infant. Improved antenatal support and more effective engagement with 'high-risk' expectant mothers is needed. Method: Pregnant women meeting high-risk criteria were invited to participate. Participants (n=35) were randomly allocated in clusters of six to either Mellow Bumps (a 6-week antenatal parenting programme that aims to decrease maternal stress levels and emphasises the importance of early interaction in enhancing brain development and attachment), Chill-out in Pregnancy (a 6-week stress reduction programme) or care-as-usual. Results: The interventions are promising in terms of maternal mental health. Qualitative feedback suggested that the interventions' format was acceptable. A larger trial may b...


Hybrid nanoparticles with complex architectures combine the properties of two distinct materials and integrate them to synergistically provide new characteristics to the assembly. In this work we demonstrate the ability to decorate the surface of a variety of micrometer-sized "core" particles with responsive microgels, forming raspberry-like particles. We use a templating technique wherein the microgel coating is applied from a high-volume-fraction colloidal phase, leading to high surface coverage and enhanced colloidal stability of the resultant particles. Concentrated colloidal dispersions enable microgel/core combinations driven by both specific and nonspecific interactions and offer improved coverage relative to dilute heteroaggregation. This approach is versatile and allows both the core material and microgel phase to be altered while still remaining effective. Though the recovered particles are highly diluted, recycling the unincorporated microgels following raspberry-like particle isolation and reforming the packed colloidal assembly allow multiple cycles of particle synthesis, which improves overall yield.


The global COVID-19 pandemic has suppressed the economy and people's welfare, including in Indonesia and Central Java Province, as indicated by the weakening of the national economy by −2.06 percent and locally by −2.65 percent in 2020. Although the economy grew by 3.32 percent in 2021, societal welfare remains lower than in 2019, marked by an increase in unemployment and poverty throughout 2019–2021. Furthermore, the threat of COVID-19 including new variants of the virus continues to weigh on the economy, in 2022 and beyond. This study considered an industrial approach to production, based on inter-industrial linkages and policy simulations with input–output analysis. The objectives of this research are to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of Central Java and to formulate an effective economic recovery policy for industry. The results show that the industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Central Java can promote recovery of overall income in economic industry better than the leading industry and the industries with the highest output multipliers, expressed as a proportional increase in final demand for each industry. Meanwhile, the economic recovery strategy of increasing final demand in industries with high output multipliers results in a faster increase in economic output compared with increasing final demand in the affected industries or leading industries.


The crystal structure of posnjakite '(space group Pa, a = 10.578, b = 6.345, c = 7.863 A, {3 = 117.98°) was determined by direct methods and refined to a final R value of 0.05. The structure is characterized by corrugated sheets of distorted copper octahedra with crystal chemical formula ~(CuiOHMH20)O). Sulphate groups are connected to one side of the octahedral sheet by corner sharing. The resultant composite octahedral- tetrahedral layers are connected to each other by hydrogen bonds. The crystal chemicalformula ofposnjakite is CU4(S04)(OH)6' H20 with two such units in the unit cell. The relations ofposnjakite with other copper sulphate hydrates are noted and discussed.


The learning pattern of the Dogmatics course tends to be directed at mastering and memorizing Christian doctrines, and participants find it difficult to connect Christian doctrines learned to real-life realities. The course materials become things to memorize, not things to believe. In the Dogmatics learning process, a learning pattern that can improve understanding of course materials and be applied in everyday life is needed. This research aims to describe the application of the combined teaching method to improve participants' understanding of course materials and to be able to relate them to daily life. It is descriptive &qualitative research. The research was conducted at Simpson Theological Seminary Ungaran on the odd semester of 2020/2021 Academic Year. The objects of this research were 15 participants and lecturers of Christian Religious Education major participating in the Dogmatics I course. The results show that applying a combination of lecture and Q&A methods could improve participants' understanding of course material and connect lecture material to daily life. Evaluation of learning outcomes showed a good level of understanding of the course material, in which participants could connect the concepts in learning to everyday life


The rising shortage of water resources and the need to provide water in many regions like Morocco around the world has been crucial and will become increasingly alarming in the future. Water bodies can be practically polluted or impaired by industrial, agricultural, and anthropogenic waste. Heavy metals are widely known environmental contaminants due to their toxicity, prevalence, and bioaccumulation. They build up in the environment, disrupting the food chains as chronic pollutants. In organisms, including humans, the deposition of possibly hazardous heavy metals poses a significant threat to health. This review paper highlights the present research on heavy metal removal, focusing on adsorbents and techniques accessible and feasible, such as adsorptive separation by substances, including a metal oxide, graphene, zeolite, and carbon-based composites. These techniques received a lot of acknowledgment due to their significant active surface area, high proportion of functional groups, increased chemical and thermal stability, and impressive adsorption efficiency and efficacy. The economic aspects and feasibility of adsorbents have also been presented.


The circuit cover problem for mixed graphs (those containing edges and/or arcs) is defined as follows. Given a mixed graph M with a nonnegative integer weight function p on its edges and arcs, decide whether (M, p) has a circuit cover, that is, a list of circuits in M such that every edge (arc) e is contained in exactly p(e) circuits of the list. In the special case when M is a directed graph (contains only arcs), the problem is easy, but when M is an undirected graph not many results are known. For general mixed graphs this problem was shown to be NP-complete by Arkin and Papadimitriou in 1986. We prove that this problem remains NP-complete for planar mixed graphs. Furthermore, we present a good characterization for the existence of a circuit cover when M is series-parallel (a similar result holds for the fractional version). We also describe a polynomial algorithm to find such a circuit cover, when it exists. This is an ellipsoid-based algorithm whose separation problem is the minimum circuit problem on series-parallel mixed graphs, which we show to be polynomially solvable. Results on two well-known combinatorial problems, the problem of detecting negative circuits and the problem of finding shortest paths, are also presented. We prove that both problems are NP-hard for planar mixed graphs.


Few modalities have the capacity to demonstrate massive or fragmented thrombi to evaluate the effect of catheter-based or systemic thrombosis for pulmonary embolism (PE). We herein present a patient who underwent a thrombectomy for PE using a non-obstructive general angioscopy (NOGA) system. Small floating mobile thrombi were aspirated using the original method, and massive thrombi were aspirated using the NOGA system. Systemic thrombosis was also monitored via NOGA for 30 minutes. Detachment of thrombi from the wall of the pulmonary artery began two minutes after infusion of a recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA). Six minutes after thrombolysis, the thrombi lost their erythematous color, and the white thrombi gradually floated and dissolved. NOGA-guided selective pulmonary thrombectomy and NOGA-monitored systemic thrombosis contributed to improved patient survival. Rapid systemic thrombosis for PE using rt-PA was also demonstrated by NOGA.


"One day, my sister will be bigger than me," a friend's 3-year-old recently announced. "How do you know that?" her mother asked, preparing for a preschooler's take on polygenic inheritance. Leaning in closer, she whispered: "An owl told me." What tickles me about this response is how perfectly it illustrates the creativity and open-mindedness with which children approach the world. Like the best scientists, they tackle the unknown with minimal preconceptions and aren't afraid to employ a little outside-the-box thinking. Helping kids identify the right questions and the best ways to answer them is our happy task, a job made easier by this year's finalists for the Science Books and Films (SB&F) Prizes for Excellence in Science Books. Sponsored by Suburu and AAAS (the publisher of Science), this annual competition highlights books that promote science literacy among children and young adults. Read on to see reviews of the finalists written by the staff (and families) of Science and our sister journals.


An earlier electron microscopic study using different caldesmon forms complexed with actin revealed that the aggregates produced display regular periodic striation after antibody labeling of the 35-kDa caldesmon fragment. This approach provides further evidence that a caldesmon fragment, even as small as 15 kDa, can induce actin filaments to assemble into bundles. The observed difference in the compactness of these structures, depending on the use of the 15-kDa fragment instead of the 35-kDa fragment, suggests the existence of more than one actin-binding site in the caldesmon molecule. In this study, the caldesmon-induced process of F-actin association was investigated in the presence of skeletal myosin subfragment-1, using light-scattering methods, cosedimentation experiment and electron microscopic techniques. We show that the actin-caldesmon association is partially destabilized in the presence of subfragment-1 and this leads to a ternary complex formation. Immunogold labelling of the actin filaments still reveals the presence of caldesmon within this structure. This latter result strengthens the hypothesis that actin has a site(s) able to bind both caldesmon and myosin subfragment-1, as detected by recent NMR observations. This evidence is discussed with respect to the regulatory function of caldesmon during smooth muscle contraction.


The toxicities of patulin and of the patulin adducts formed with cysteine were compared using the mutation-sensitive strain Escherichia coli W3110 thy polA1 and its polA1+ revertant. The acute toxicities of patulin and of the adduct mixture were also compared using NMRI mice. The adduct mixture was shown by thin-layer chromatography to consist of one ninhydrin-positive, one ninhydrin- and MBTH (3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone)-positive, three MBTH-positive, and two ninhydrin- and MBTH-negative components. The results showed that patulin was over 100 times more toxic to E. coli than the adduct complex. Neither patulin nor the adduct mixture was found to induce the repair effect in E. coli. In the mouse feeding tests, the oral 50% lethal dose for patulin was 29 mg/kg, while that of the adduct mixture was greater than 2,370 mg/kg.


Dyspnea is an aversive symptom in various diseases. High levels of negative affectivity are typically associated with increased dyspnea and changes in its neural processing. Recently, more dyspnea-specific forms of negative affectivity such as dyspnea catastrophizing were suggested to contribute to increased perception of dyspnea beyond effects of rather unspecific negative affectivity such as general anxiety levels. The involved neural mechanisms have not yet been explored. Therefore, the present retrospective analysis examined the associations of dyspnea catastrophizing with neural activations during the anticipation and perception of dyspnea. Sixty-six healthy volunteers underwent 20 blocks of inspiratory resistive load breathing with parallel acquisition of fMRI data. Loads inducing either severe or mild dyspnea (dyspnea conditions) were presented in alternating order, with each condition being visually cued (anticipation conditions). Dyspnea catastrophizing and general trait anxiety were measured with the Breathlessness Catastrophizing Scale (BCS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, respectively. Correlating the BCS scores with neural activations during the perception of dyspnea yielded no significant results. However, during the anticipation of dyspnea, BCS scores correlated positively with activations of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), even after controlling for general anxiety levels. These activations in the ACC were not related to concurrent respiratory parameters. Results suggest that dyspnea catastrophizing in healthy volunteers is associated with stronger ACC recruitment during dyspnea anticipation. Given the established role of the ACC in processing affective states, affect regulation, and antinociception, this might reflect increased affective and/or top-down modulatory processing in individuals with higher dyspnea catastrophizing when anticipating dyspnea.


Nanotechnology is making great contributions in various fields including harvesting solar energy through solar cells since nanostructured solar cells can provide high performance with lower fabrication costs. The transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable sustainable energy represents a major technological challenge for the world. The solar cells industry has grown rapidly in recent years due to strong interest in renewable energy in order to handle the problem of global climate change that is now believed to occur due to the use of fossil fuels. Cost is an important factor in the eventual success of any solar technology since inexpensive solar cells are needed to provide electricity especially for rural areas and for underdeveloped countries. Therefore, new developments in nanotechnology may open the door to the production of cheaper and more efficient solar cells by reducing the manufacturing costs of solar cells. This chapter covers a review of the progress that has been made to-date to enhance efficiencies of various nanostructures used in solar cells including utilizations of all the wavelengths present in of the solar spectrum.


Background and Purpose— Global warming has attracted worldwide attention. Numerous studies have indicated that stroke is associated with temperature; however, few studies are available on the projections of the burden of stroke attributable to future climate change. We aimed to investigate the future trends of stroke years of life lost (YLL) associated with global warming. Methods— We collected death records to examine YLL in Tianjin, China, from 2006 to 2011. We fitted a standard time-series Poisson regression model after controlling for trends, day of the week, relative humidity, and air pollution. We estimated temperature–YLL associations with a distributed lag nonlinear model. These models were then applied to the local climate projections to estimate temperature-related YLL in the 2050s and 2070s. We projected temperature-related YLL from stroke in Tianjin under 19 global-scale climate models and 3 different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Results— The results showed a slight decrease in YLL with percent decreases of 0.85%, 0.97%, and 1.02% in the 2050s and 0.94%, 1.02%, and 0.91% in the 2070s for the 3 scenarios, respectively. The increases in heat-related annual YLL and the decreases in cold-related YLL under the high emission scenario were the strongest. The monthly analysis showed that the most significant increase occurred in the summer months, particularly in August, with percent changes >150% in the 2050s and up to 300% in the 2070s. Conclusions— Future changes in climate are likely to lead to an increase in heat-related YLL, and this increase will not be offset by adaptation under both medium emission and high emission scenarios. Health protections from hot weather will become increasingly necessary, and measures to reduce cold effects will also remain important.


Over the last decade the improvement of a missing hand function by application of neuroprostheses in particular the implantable Freehand system has been successfully shown in high spinal cord injured individuals. The clinically proven advantages of the Freehand system is its ease of use, the reproducible generation of two distinct functional grasp patterns and an analog control scheme based on movements of the contralateral shoulder. However, after the Freehand system is not commercially available for more than ten years, alternative grasp neuroprosthesis with a comparable functionality are still missing. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a non-invasive neuroprosthesis and to show that a degree of functional restoration can be provided to end users comparable to implanted devices. By introduction of an easy to handle forearm electrode sleeve the reproducible generation of two grasp patterns has been achieved. Generated grasp forces of the palmar grasp are in the range of the implanted system. Though pinch force of the lateral grasp is significantly lower, it can effectively used by a tetraplegic subject to perform functional tasks. The non-invasive grasp neuroprosthesis developed in this work may serve as an easy to apply and inexpensive way to restore a missing hand and finger function at any time after spinal cord injury.


Ultra-wideband (UWB) sensors are a radio frequency technology that use wireless communication between devices to precisely determine the position. The most recent applications focus on locating and sensor data collecting on mobile phones, car keys and other similar devices. However, this technology is still not being utilized in the mining sector. To overcome this gap, this perspective offers implementation options and solutions. Additionally, it evaluated the benefits and drawbacks of using ultra-wideband for mining. The measurements provided were made using QORVO two-way ranging sensors, and these were compared to theoretical and existing technological solutions. To ensure the optimal use of UWB sensors, a special emphasis was placed on certain influencing factors, such as ways of locating via UWB and factors affecting measurement accuracies, such as the line of sight, multipath propagation, the effect of shielding and the ideal measurement setup. A conducted experiment showed that the most accurate results are obtained when there is no multipath propagation and the arriving signal travels directly from the transmitter to the receiver.


Records from 56 stations on free-field within 150km to causative fault surface are used as database during the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in china. According to this study, the duration of ground motion is strongly affected by rupture distance, site conditions, fault rupture directory and thrust of hanging wall. Duration is obtained based on the time between 10 and 80 per cent of Arias intensity. A simple attenuation relation in terms of rupture distance is proposed and compared with some available predictions. The durations of tri-component ground motions on hanging wall are smaller than those on the foot wall in the same range of rupture distance. Durations of ground motions close to rupture fault resulting from directivity effects are significantly different between the forward and backward direction, and this difference reaches nearly 2 times on average.


ABSTRACT Johnson, D.E. and Barrio Froján, C., 2020. A new impetus for Particularly Sensitive Sea Area designation. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 829–834. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Designation of 15 Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) by the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) has taken place over a period of 30 years (1990-2020). Each of these areas must qualify on its own merits, and is subject to collective scrutiny by the IMO Marine Environmental Protection Committee and other relevant IMO technical committees. In principle, evidence must be presented to demonstrate that a sensitive and valuable site is vulnerable to adverse impacts from activities associated with international shipping, activities which can be addressed by an Associated Protective Measure within the purview of IMO. In practice, designation of PSSAs has taken place in a series of pulses stimulated by marine accidents, changes in legislation, and through revision of the IMO Guidelines. This article examines two case studies: the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Philippines and the Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania. The impetus for both has been a desire by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to reduce the vulnerability of marine World Heritage Sites and their recognised 'outstanding universal value' to the adverse impacts of international shipping activities. For Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, the catalyst was high profile groundings of two vessels in the Spring of 2013. For Banc d'Arguin, it was a recognition of the migratory avifaunal links to Europe and a unique oceanic upwelling system. A wider study to make best use of data gathered by the Convention on Biological Diversity's process to describe Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas is also reviewed. The article concludes that this is a best practice example of marine governance, where the remits of UN agencies coincide and complement each other. Cooperation amongst agencies can provide for better protection and awareness-raising of the value of unique marine ecosystems. Recommendations are made to explore other opportunities for synergies.


The National Center for Manufacturing Science is investigating bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon at a site in Belleville, Michigan. As part of this study we examined the microbial communities to help elucidate biodegradative processes currently active at the site. We observed high densities of aerobic hydrocarbon degraders and denitrifiers in the lesscontaminated sediments. Low densities of iron and sulfate reducers were measured in the same sediments. In contrast, the highly-contaminated sediments showed low densities of aerobic hydrocarbon degraders and denitrifiers and high densities of iron and sulfate reducers. Methanogens were also found in these highly-contaminated sediments. These contaminated sediments also showed a higher biomass, by phospholipid fatty acids, and greater ratios of phospholipid fatty acids which indicate stress within the microbial community. Aquifer chemistry analyses indicated that the more-contaminated area was more reduced and had lower sulfate than the less-contaminated area. These conditions suggest that the subsurface environment at the highly-contaminated area had progressed into sulfate reduction and methanogensis. The less-contaminated area, although less reduced, also appeared to be progressing into primarily ironand sulfate-reducing microbial communities. The proposed treatment to stimulate bioremediation includes addition of oxygen and nitrate. Groundwater chemistry and microbial analyses revealed significant differences resulted from the injection of . dissolved oxygen and nitrate in the subsurface. These differences included increases in pH and Eh and large decreases in BTEX, dissolved iron, and sulfate concentrations at the injection well. Injected nitrate was rapid utilized by the subsurface microbial community and significant nitrite


Vegetable drinks can provide the necessary energy boost you need in all seasons. You can find several commercial brands of drinks on the market. Often, these beverages include a variety of vegetables to add to their flavor and health value. Vegetable-based drinks offer a convenient way to stay sated while exercising. Benefits Hiking places demands on your body for energy. A vegetable drink can make a good snack on the trail because of its fiber content. You will feel full longer due to the added time your body needs to digest these nutrients. Vegetable drinks that are low in sugar will also prevent spikes in your blood sugar, something you need to avoid while exercising. A spike followed by a drop in blood glucose can leave you feeling weak or fatigued. Vegetable drinks offer a convenient means to maintain your energy stores while not adversely affecting your blood sugar to support your hiking or exercising, further If you perspire heavily, you may also be at risk of losing electrolytes like sodium and potassium. Vegetable drinks are the ideal choice to replenish these nutrients. Its added advantage when a drink is providing CLA, to find out more.. read this book!! Enjoy the drink


In this study the occurrence and behaviour of semivolatile organic chemicals (SOC5) in the atmospheric environment of Brisbane, Australia are examined. The studied compounds include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PANs), tetra- to octachiorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofiirans (PCDD/Fs), a selection of tn- to octachiorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB). The characteristics and occurrence of these compounds are outlined and theories and models for vapour/particle and lea±7atmosphere distribution processes are reviewed. An air sampling system developed for sampling SOCs was modified and tested for a series of sampling artefacts. Air samples were collected from seven sites in urban Brisbane. PANs, PCDDIFs and PCBs were detectable in all air and leaf samples. Concentrations and compound profiles were evaluated with respect to the dominant sources. The results show that the main sources for PANs in the air at the seven sites are motor vehicle emissions. For PCDDIFs the homologue profile indicates that a distant source may have significantly contributed to the atmospheric concentrations of these compounds. In a dry atmosphere, SOCs are distributed between the vapour and the particle associated phase. Vapour/particle distribution for SOCs from a given compound group can be correlated with different molecular and physical-chemical descriptors. The vapour/particle distribution results are examined using both an adsorption and absorption based model. The temperature sensitivity of the vapour/particle distribution can be explained using either model. The adsorption model, based on compound subcooled liquid vapour pressure, has a higher predictive capacity. However, a m~or drawback of the adsorption model is that it discriminates between compounds from different compound groups (i.e. PAHs and PCDD/Fs). The absorption model, based on compound KOA values, shows less difference between compounds from different compound groups. Its lower predictive capacity may be the result of more unreliable input parameters. In order to assess leaves as biomonitors, the leaf/atmosphere distribution process of SOCs was studied using predominantly leaves from Melaleuca, an Australian native tree commonly planted along road sides in Brisbane. A comparison of experimentally determined leaf/vapour concentration ratios (ng m3 leaf / ng ni3 air) with calculated leaf/vapour equilibrium bioconcentration factors indicates that PARs with more than 3 rings and PCDD/Fs do not reach equilibrium with the vapour phase in the atmosphere. A kinetic model is applied to identify the main kinetic limitation. The results suggest that for compounds which do not reach equilibrium, the air side resistance is limiting the process. The air side resistance is influenced by a myriad of factors. For predictive purposes it was assumed that the leaf/atmosphere system had reached a steady state situation. This allows the calculation of an empirical loss rate constant which is added to the loss rate constant based on volatiisation. Employing this empirical rate constants, relatively good predictions of leaf concentrations, based on measured atmospheric concentrations, were obtained in a dynamic application of a kinetic leaf/atmosphere distribution model.
Additionally, a passive sampling device was developed consisting of fibre glass material coated with tristearin. It seems that SOCs with K0A values larger than lO~ did not reach equilibrium and the kinetics for these compounds is again controlled by the air side resistance. Initial experiments with this sampler show that it has potential for gaining a better insight into the processes which govern the distribution of SOCs between leaves and the atmosphere. Predicting atmospheric concentrations using this device requires further tests and modifications of the sampler.


Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors that influence the sustainable online purchase intentions of consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also examines the role of relational benefit and site commitment in the study model.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from a survey of 356 Bangladeshi consumers who were voluntarily using the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling with Smart PLS 3.0 and SPSS V25 tools.

Findings
The results show a positive and significant relationship between consumers' personal innovativeness and impulse purchase orientation with their relational benefit and site commitment, social influence with relational benefit, relational benefit with site commitment, site commitment with the intention to purchase. Moreover, the study found that relational benefit mediates the relationship between impulse purchase orientation and social influence with site commitment. The results also indicate that site commitment mediates the relationship between personal innovativeness and impulse purchase orientation with the intention to purchase. The results further indicate that site commitment mediates the relationship between relational benefit and intention to purchase.

Practical implications
The findings allow online stores to consider crucial factors in their policies when making strategic decisions regarding the factors impacting consumers' online purchasing intention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originality/value
In this study, a research framework is developed with a focus on the sustainable consumer intention to purchase. This study, therefore, adds to the existing literature by analyzing the factors that determine online purchase intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, given the limited number of studies on the online consumer behavioral intentions in related circumstances to COVID-19.


High-manganese steels containing 10 to 30% Mn exhibit high strength and exceptional plasticity due to TWIP effect (TWinning Induced Plasticity) or via multiple martensitic transformations TRIP effect (TRansformation Induced Plasticity). High Mn steel also has low density because of Al addition and features high specific energy absorption. Therefore, it is a very promising material for the automotive industry. But it is hard to cast high Mn steel by the continuous casting process, and even by Horizontal Single-Belt Casting, as the slab is susceptible to cracking. This is because high Mn steel has poor hot ductility.
In order to design alloys with good ductility, a new shear test equipment was developed in the context of this work. It can test high temperature mechanical properties in as cast state solidified directly from the melt. In this way, the high Mn steels with good hot ductility can be selected and subsequently produced in the steel industry.
The reasons why some high Mn steels are prone to cracking are complex. High Mn steel with high carbon content has severe microsegregation, especially regarding Si. Furthermore with carbon content increasing, carbide formation increases. Engineering stress and true stress of high Mn steel at 1000 ℃ were investigated. It has to be point out that high elongation does not necessarily mean good hot ductility. In the experiments, samples that have cracks can also exhibit high elongation at high temperature.
After cooling down to room temperature and subsequently annealing for 1 hour at 1020℃ in the muffle furnace, hot ductility of high Mn steel becomes much better. For the Horizontal Single-Belt Casting process, casting of high Mn high carbon steels can be processed, because the strip has no bending during the casting. After the casting, the strip should not be inline-rolled directly, but should first be reheated, and then rolled. For the traditional continuous casting process, it is not recommended to cast high Mn high C full austenite steels. If these are needed, the possible process is to cast ferritic+austenitic steel firstly, and subsequently anneal it in order to remove the ferrite phase.


Adequate membrane fluidity is required for a variety of key cellular processes and in particular for proper function of membrane proteins. In most eukaryotic cells, membrane fluidity is known to be regulated by fatty acid desaturation and cholesterol, although some cells, such as insect cells, are almost devoid of sterol synthesis. We show here that insect and mammalian cells present similar microviscosity at their respective physiological temperature. To investigate how both sterols and phospholipids control fluidity homeostasis, we quantified the lipidic composition of insect SF9 and mammalian HEK 293T cells under normal or sterol-modified condition. As expected, insect cells show minimal sterols compared with mammalian cells. A major difference is also observed in phospholipid content as the ratio of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to phosphatidylcholine (PC) is inverted (4 times higher in SF9 cells). In vitro studies in liposomes confirm that both cholesterol and PE can increase rigidity of the bilayer, suggesting that both can be used by cells to maintain membrane fluidity. We then show that exogenously increasing the cholesterol amount in SF9 membranes leads to a significant decrease in PE:PC ratio whereas decreasing cholesterol in HEK 293T cells using statin treatment leads to an increase in the PE:PC ratio. In all cases, the membrane fluidity is maintained, indicating that both cell types combine regulation by sterols and phospholipids to control proper membrane fluidity.


An outbreak of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in China in December 2019, and has spread rapidly to more than 200 countries and areas in four months. A few studies have reported that transmissibility exists during the late incubation period based on one single infection cluster caused by SARS-CoV-2. Here based on 178 SARS-CoV-2 clusters confirmed in Zhejiang Province, we analyzed the epidemic link between all 212 secondary cases with their previous cases, and found 49 secondary cases (from 26 clusters), which were 23.11% (49/212) of the total secondary cases infected from previous cases during the latter's incubation period. The median days from the last exposure of secondary cases to the onset of previous cases was 2.0 days (IQR: 1.00~5.00 days, 90th percentile: 9.00 days) .This study has shown transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 during the incubation period and indicated that some cases might be infectious soon after they were exposed to a prior transmitter. The results highlight the importance of extending the contact group for medical observation and isolation to those in contact with the index case nine (90th percentile) or more days before the latter's illness onset, when medical resources were sufficient.


To study a range of coordination disorders in Chiari malformation type 1 (CM1), a clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were made in 73 patients (52 women and 21 men) aged 17 to 71 years with this disorder. Special tests were used to identify cerebellar and vestibular disorders. Vertigo was noted in 76.7% of the patients with CM1. The special tests revealed impaired coordination in the majority (93.1%) of the patients. Babinsky's asynergy was the most common (52% of the patients) symptom of coordination disorders. The findings confirmed the high rate of coordination disorders in CM1 and the informative value of supplementary studies of cerebellar and vestibular functions along with routine evaluation of the neurological status.


In this research program, we explore the relationship between television use, architectural space, and community identity. In particular, we discuss the conceptual design of a system that brings together the physically distributed academic community (students, academic and administrative staff) of the University of the Aegean. We propose the employment of networked interactive video installations in everyday places (e.g. cafeteria, halls) of the university. In this paper, we explore previous related research and we discuss design issues and approaches for the case of the University of the Aegean.


Whole-thorax irradiation results in the development of the diffuse inflammatory response alveolitis in C3H/HeJ (C3H) mice and a milder alveolitis with fibrosis in C57BL/6J (B6) mice. In this study, we investigate if this mouse strain difference in response to radiation is due to differences in lung inflammatory cell apoptosis. Mice of the C3H and B6 strains were given a radiation dose of 18 Gy to the thorax and the animals were sacrificed at 11 or 18 weeks following exposure or when they were moribund. Active caspase-3 staining was used to identify apoptotic cells in the alveolar space of histological lung sections from the mice. The apoptotic index of B6 mice was greater than that of C3H mice at 11 weeks postirradiation (17.8% of airspace cells vs. 7.8%, p = 0.028) and in mice sacrificed because of illness (27.3% vs. 14.4%, p = 0.036). No C3H mice survived to the later time point. The inflammatory cells undergoing apoptosis in the mouse lungs were morphologically consistent with alveolar macrophages. We conclude that a difference in inflammatory cell apoptosis may contribute to the disparate pulmonary radiation response of these mouse strains.


The canine omentum has many valuable properties but is still an underestimated organ. It contributes in many ways to the protection of the peritoneal cavity through its versatility on immunological level, but also through its role during angiogenesis, absorption, adhesion and fat storage. Despite a wide range of applications, the basic structure of the omentum is not well documented. This study provides an insight in the microscopic structure of the canine omentum through both light microscopic and electron microscopic investigations. Two regions could be distinguished in the canine omentum: translucent and adipose‐rich regions. The translucent regions were composed of two different layers: a continuous flattened mesothelium on top of a submesothelial connective tissue matrix. The adipose‐rich regions consisted of a substantial layer of adipocytes on which a flattened continuous mesothelium was present. Between those two layers, a few strands of collagen fibres could be detected. Large aggregates of immune cells, the so‐called milky spots, were not observed in the omentum of healthy dogs. Only a limited number of leucocytes, macrophages and neutrophils were found, scattered throughout the connective tissue in the translucent regions. At the level of the adipose‐rich regions, the immunological population was virtually non‐existent.


Recent studies have begun to reveal the genes underlying quantitative trait differences between closely related populations. Not all quantitative trait loci (QTL) are, however, equally likely to be detected. QTL studies involve a limited number of crosses, individuals, and genetic markers and, as a result, often have little power to detect genetic factors of small to moderate effects. In this article, we develop an estimator for the total number of fixed genetic differences between two parental lines. Like the Castle-Wright estimator, which is based on the observed segregation variance in classical crossbreeding experiments, our QTL-based estimator requires that a distribution be specified for the expected effect sizes of the underlying loci. We use this expected distribution and the observed mean and minimum effect size of the detected QTL in a likelihood model to estimate the total number of loci underlying the trait difference. We then test the QTL-based estimator and the Castle-Wright estimator in Monte Carlo simulations. When the assumptions of the simulations match those of the model, both estimators perform well on average. The 95% confidence limits of the Castle-Wright estimator, however, often excluded the true number of underlying loci, while the confidence limits for the QTL-based estimator typically included the true value approximately 95% of the time. Furthermore, we found that the QTL-based estimator was less sensitive to dominance and to allelic effects of opposite sign than the Castle-Wright estimator. We therefore suggest that the QTL-based estimator be used to assess how many loci may have been missed in QTL studies.


We calculate the probability of strong shaking in Istanbul, an urban center of 10 million people, from the description of earthquakes on the North Anatolian fault system in the Marmara Sea during the past 500 years and test the resulting catalog against the frequency of damage in Istanbul during the preceding millennium. Departing from current practice, we include the time-dependent effect of stress transferred by the 1999 moment magnitude M = 7.4 Izmit earthquake to faults nearer to Istanbul. We find a 62 +/- 15% probability (one standard deviation) of strong shaking during the next 30 years and 32 +/- 12% during the next decade.


The purpose of this study is investigate the relationship between consequences of leadership and Transformational leadership style in presidents of universities and institutes of Tehran, 30 presidents in Tehran and 102 raters (subordination of presidents) response to third edition of multifactor leadership Questionnaire MLQ (Leader and rater version). The data were analyzed taking in to consideration both descriptive statistics (Frequency, percentage and mean) and Pearson correlation, the result of this study showed that: the existence of a meaningful and positive correlation between 3 consequences of leadership (extra effort, effectiveness, satisfaction) and Transformational leadership style.


In order to increase the thermal stability of a magnetic random access memory cell, materials with high spin-orbit interaction are often introduced in the storage layer. As a side effect, a strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) may arise in such systems. Here, we investigate the impact of DMI on the magnetic cell performance, using micromagnetic simulations. We find that DMI strongly promotes non-uniform magnetization states and non-uniform switching modes of the magnetic layer. It appears to be detrimental for both the thermal stability of the cell and its switching current, leading to considerable deterioration of the cell performance even for a moderate DMI amplitude.


Silver-based heterogeneous catalysts, modified with a range of elements, have found industrial application in several reactions in which selectivity is a challenge. Alloying small amounts of Pt into Ag has the potential to greatly enhance the somewhat low reactivity of Ag while maintaining high selectivity and resilience to poisoning. This single-atom alloy approach has had many successes for other alloy combinations but has yet to be investigated for PtAg. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and STM-based spectroscopy, we characterized the atomic-scale surface structure of a range of submonolayer amounts of Pt deposited on and in Ag(111) as a function of temperature. Near room temperature, intermixing of PtAg results in multiple metastable structures on the surface. Increasing the alloying temperature results in a higher concentration of isolated Pt atoms in the regions near Ag step edges as well as direct exchange of Pt atoms into Ag terraces. Furthermore, STM-based work function measurements allow us to identify Pt rich areas of the samples. We use CO temperature programmed desorption to confirm our STM assignments and quantify CO binding strengths that are compared with theory. Importantly, we find that CO, a common catalyst poison, binds more weakly to Pt atoms in the Ag surface than extended Pt ensembles. Taken together, this atomic-scale characterization of model PtAg surface alloys provides a starting point to investigate how the size and structure of Pt ensembles affect reaction pathways on the alloy and can inform the design of alloy catalysts with improved catalytic properties and resilience to poisoning.


Jisuguimundo is an inimitable magic hexagon devised by CHOI Seok-Jeong, who was the author of GuSuRyak as well as a prime minister in Joseon dynasty. Jisuguimundo, recorded in GuSuRyak, is also known as Hexagonal Tortoise Problem (HTP) because its nine hexagons resemble a tortoise shell. We call the sum of numbers in a hexagon in Jisuguimundo a magic sum, and show that the magic sum of hexagonal tortoise problem of order 2 varies 40 through 62 exactly and that of hexagonal tortoise problem of order 3 varies 77 through 109 exactly. We also find all of the possible solutions for hexagonal tortoise problem of oder 2.


Forty-six rat liver transplants were performed to investigate the effectiveness of a simplified lactobionate solution containing histidine as a buffer (histidine-lactobionate solution) and to compare it with University of Wisconsin solution. This new solution is isoosmotic (320 mOsm/L) and has a higher sodium content and a lower potassium content (Na: 90 mEq/L, K: 45 mEq/L) than standard UW solution. Buffering capacity is increased by adding histidine (90 mM/L) together with KH2PO4 (20 mM/L) and is greater than that of Eurocollins solution or UW solution. Adenosine, insulin, hydroxyethyl starch, and dexamethasone that are included in UW solution are not included in the new solution. The 1-week survival rate of rats transplanted with livers preserved in this solutions at 4 degrees C was 85% (11/13) following 24-hr preservation and 33% (2/6) after 30-hr preservation. By contrast, UW solution gave only a 29% (5/17) survival rate after 24-hr preservation and 0% (0/6) survival after 30-hr preservation, demonstrating that this simplified UW solution with histidine is superior to UW solution in rat liver preservation. No rats (0/4) receiving livers preserved for 24 hr in Eurocollins solution survived. These findings show that the inclusion of histidine as a buffer dramatically improves the effectiveness of lactobionate-based preservation solutions and justify application in a large-animal model and subsequently in clinical liver transplantation.


Background: The accurate and clear reporting of vertebral fractures in routine clinical practice is essential to ensure that patients with osteoporosis receive appropriate treatment to prevent the occurrence of further fractures. A statistical shape model-based vision system for semi-automated morphometry called MorphoXpress℘ has been developed and needs to be tested in routine clinical practice. Purpose: This multi-centre medical practice evaluation pilot study compared the degree of agreement between two methods to detect vertebral body deformities in routine clinical practice: qualitative visual evaluation of conventional lateral thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs as a "gold standard" and the MorphoXpress℘ semi-automatic software system for vertebral morphometry. Patients and methods: This pilot study was performed in seven participating osteo-centers in Germany. The analysis included 223 ambulatory patients with 446 conventional lateral thoracic (n=223) and lumbar (n=223) spine radiographs showing 2676 vertebrae from T5 to L4. Qualitative visual radiograph evaluation was performed by clinician experts, who classified vertebral shape as fractured or not fractured. MorphoXpress℘ was used for quantitative assessment of vertebral height in digitized radiographs by localising all morphometric points within the set range of vertebrae based on a statistical model-based vision system. Using the interactive tools in MorphoXpress℘, clinicians could refine the positions of morphometric points to their satisfaction. Agreement between the two methods was analyzed. Results: Using qualitative visual radiograph evaluation, clinicians recognised fractures in 92 (41.3%) patients while quantitative evaluation with MorphoXpress℘with interactive manual corrections detected fractures in 85 (38.1%) patients. Distribution of fractures was comparable using the two methods. The MorphoXpress℘ system alone identified 76% of the fractured vertebrae correctly. This result was improved to 98% using additional manual corrections by the clinician once. The overall mean time needed for MorphoXpress℘ fracture morphometric assessment of vertebral fractures in clinical practice took 13 minutes and 36 seconds. Conclusions: Quantitative measurement using the current version of the MorphoXpress℘ software system for vertebral morphometry in combination with qualitative interactive corrections by clinicians seems to be a valuable tool for assessment and follow-up documentation of osteoporotic vertebral deformities in patients without severe scoliosis in epidemiological studies and clinical drug trials only. Currently the technique is too time-consuming and only after significant improvement of the procedure time and following appropriate training for physicians, MorphoXpress℘ vertebral morphometry could be a valuable tool in daily routine clinical use for osteoporotic patients.


This title comes from the authors of "Legislative Labyrinth: Congress and Campaign Finance Reform". Elections, the basic mechanism of representative democracy, should be untainted by corruption and provide a platform for free speech. But running for office takes money - a lot of it, usually - which means campaign finance has become a pitched battle over the fundamental political values of free speech versus fair elections. With insiders' perspectives, Farrar-Myers and Dwyre tell the story of what it took to pass campaign finance legislation, provide analysis of the subsequent court action, and explore the regulatory and electoral outcomes of reform efforts. "Limits and Loopholes" is a story about incremental policymaking and inter-branch struggle, about institutional design and unintended consequences, about the influence of interest groups and the media, and about the health of our representative democracy. Bringing together discussions of core values and the policymaking process, this book serves as an excellent case study that traces an issue from inception, through legislation and litigation, and finally to implementation.