Objective Oesophageal self-expanding metal endoprostheses (SEMS, or stents) are recognized as a safe means of palliating dysphagia caused by malignancy. Stent designs that have covered or uncovered walls are now available. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of use of these two designs. Design Thirty consecutive cases were reviewed. All the patients had been referred over a period of 25 months for palliation of dysphagia caused by malignant obstruction. Either a covered or an uncovered stent was placed in each patient. Palliation of dysphagia, 30 day mortality, mean survival time, and the number of endoscopic re-interventions required, were assessed. Results Uncovered Ultraflex stents were used in 14 patients, and Schneider Wallstents were used in 16 patients. Dysphagia improved by one grade or more in 69% of patients. The 30 day mortality was 27%, with an overall mean survival time of 99 days. There was no significant difference between the two groups for these three parameters. Ten patients needed a total of 28 repeat endoscopic procedures to maintain stent patency, with overall rates for each group of 1.64 procedures per patient, for uncovered stents, compared with 0.31 for covered stents (significant at the P < 0.05 level). The number of repeat procedures increased with survival time. Conclusion The use of covered self-expanding metal oesophageal endoprostheses is associated with a significant reduction in the need for endoscopic re-intervention after stent placement.


Abstract Commercial sex has been a complex and controversial issue in Taiwan. It was banned several times and finally partially legalized in law when the Congress finally amended Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Law and authorized local governments to establish red-light districts. Unfortunately, in reality, until now, no local government has established a red-light district. Therefore, all commercial sex is still illegal in Taiwan. By reviewing this issue from gender, culture, and legal perspectives, this paper discusses the regulation of commercial sex in Taiwan in three parts. In the first part, this paper provides a historical view of the development of commercial sex and how the government regulated it in different periods. In the second part, this paper introduces the debate and various perspectives of feminist legal theories on this issue. Finally, compared with the regulation models of Japan and Singapore, this paper proposes an empowerment approach in response to the current Social Order Maintenance Law. Focusing on sex workers' autonomy and subjectivity, the new approach hopes to balance the interests between the rights of sex workers and the needs of social order and public health.


A unique challenge for SSD storage caching management in a virtual machine (VM) environment is to accomplish the dual objectives: maximizing utilization of shared SSD cache devices and ensuring performance isolation among VMs. In this paper, we present our design and implementation of S-CAVE, a hypervisor-based SSD caching facility, which effectively manages a storage cache in a Multi-VM environment by collecting and exploiting runtime information from both VMs and storage devices. Due to a hypervisor's unique position between VMs and hardware resources, S-CAVE does not require any modification to guest OSes, user applications, or the underlying storage system. A critical issue to address in S-CAVE is how to allocate limited and shared SSD cache space among multiple VMs to achieve the dual goals. This is accomplished in two steps. First, we propose an effective metric to determine the demand for SSD cache space of each VM. Next, by incorporating this cache demand information into a dynamic control mechanism, S-CAVE is able to efficiently provide a fair share of cache space to each VM while achieving the goal of best utilizing the shared SSD cache device. In accordance with the constraints of all the functionalities of a hypervisor, S-CAVE incurs minimum overhead in both memory space and computing time. We have implemented S-CAVE in vSphere ESX, a widely used commercial hypervisor from VMWare. Our extensive experiments have shown its strong effectiveness for various data-intensive applications.


Post-translational modifications (PTMs) add a further layer of complexity to the proteome and regulate a wide range of cellular protein functions. With the increasing number of known PTM sites, it becomes imperative to understand their functional interplays. In this study, we proposed a novel analytical strategy to explore functional relationships between PTM sites by testing their tendency to be modified together (co-occurrence) under the same condition, and applied it to proteome-wide human phosphorylation data collected under 88 different laboratory or physiological conditions. Co-occurring phosphorylation occurs significantly more frequently than randomly expected and include many known examples of cross-talk or functional connections. Such pairs, either within the same phosphoprotein or between interacting partners, are more likely to be in sequence or structural proximity, be phosphorylated by the same kinases, participate in similar biological processes, and show residue co-evolution across vertebrates. In addition, we also found that their co-occurrence states tend to be conserved in orthologous phosphosites in the mouse proteome. Together, our results support that the co-occurring phosphorylation are functionally associated. Comparison with existing methods further suggests that co-occurrence analysis can be a useful complement to uncover novel functional associations between PTM sites.


An engineering intensity scale is proposed for earthquakes and for ground motion resulting from nuclear or chemical explosions. It is based upon 5 per cent damped response spectra developed from the ground motion and a standard 10 × 9 matrix with columns representing period bands and rows representing prescribed response velocity levels, Sv . Acceleration or relative displacement can also be readily assigned with the use of 4-way logarithmic paper. The El scale can be reported by period column as 9-digit, 3-digit, or 1-digit numbers, or by all three in a standard format. The more digits reported, the greater the amount of information on the period bands. The advantages over existing scales are many including ratings that are directly informative and useful in damage estimations and which ratings are made objectively and have period identification lacking in other scales. Some example El ratings are provided.


In bimodal atomic force microscopy, two flexural modes are driven at their resonances. The oscillation of the second eigenmode, which is usually an incommensurate multiple of the fundamental frequency, perturbs the dynamic system. Numerical simulations show that the tip motion is almost periodic at typical set points and that harmonics and intermodulation frequencies prevail in the spectrum. The simulations also predict a very small increase in the noise of the first mode amplitude and phase due to the second mode oscillation. At small average tip sample separations, however, phases with repulsive and purely attractive forces can occur intermittently.


A simple method for the fabrication of silicon nanowires using Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) combined with thermal oxidation size reduction method is presented. EBL is used to define the initial silicon nanowires of dimensions approximately 100 nm. Size-reduction method is employed for reaching true nanoscale of dimensions approximately 20 nm. Dry oxidation of silicon is well investigated process for self-limited size-reduction of silicon nanowires. In this paper, successful size reduction of silicon nanowires is presented and surface topography characterizations using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) are reported.


Nitrogen management is crucial in cropping systems; it is often difficult to strike a balance between levels sufficient for normal plant growth and those that are acceptable for human consumption. An experiment was carried out on red clay soils at the University of Zimbabwe Campus to determine the effects of nitrogen side dress on mustard rape growth and leaf taste. The experiment was done over two growing periods, February to June and August to November 2004. Four nitrogen side dress levels; N 0, 34.5, 69 and 103.5 kg ha-1, were applied in mustard rape at three weeks after crop emergence (WACE) and two harvesting times; morning and sunset were included in the experiment. The eight treatment combinations were laid out as a 4 x 2 factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Leaves for the respective treatments were analyzed for nitrate and total nitrogen content using the sodium-salicylate and the improved Kjeldahl methods respectively. In both crop seasons, taste panels were conducted at five WACE using untrained panelists. Harvesting time only significantly affected nitrate and total nitrogen content of leaves but had no effect on all other parameters measured. Leaf nitrate content at five WACE was higher (0.537 mg kg-1) in samples harvested in the morning compared to the ones harvested in the evening (0.464 mg kg-1). Leaf size, plant height, fresh leaf yields, SPAD meter readings, percent nitrogen and nitrate content all significantly increased with increase in nitrogen fertilization. Leaf yields ranged from 5,000 kg ha-1 in the control to +16,000 kg ha-1 in the highest nitrogen fertilization rate (103.5 kg N ha-1) in the February planting. Leaf nitrogen content increased from the lowest value 3.66 mg kg-1 (control) to the highest value of 4.31 mg kg-1 (103.5 kg N ha-1). Leaf nitrate content also increased from 0.425 mg kg-1 in the control to 0.575 mg kg-1 in the 103.5 kg N ha-1 rate. SPAD meter readings increased from 24.48 in the control to 32.43 in the 103.5 kg N ha-1. Bitterness increased with increasing level of nitrogen fertilization with a significant correlation between nitrogen level and level of bitterness of R = 0.503 (p<0.01). Increasing nitrogen fertilization increased yields and nitrogen levels in the leaves. Evening leaf harvest had less nitrate levels in the leaves. Taste panelists also indicated the improvement of the appearance of leaves after preparation with increasing nitrogen side dressing giving a significant negative correlation between the two (p < 0.01, R = -0.259).


This paper presents and analyzes a new multigrid framework to solve shape optimization problems governed by elliptic PDEs. The boundary of the domain, i.e., the control variable, is represented as the graph of a continuous function that is approximated at various levels of discretization. The proposed multigrid shape optimization scheme acts directly on the function describing the geometry of the domain and it combines a single-grid shape gradient optimizer with a coarse-grid correction (minimization) step, recursively within a hierarchy of levels. The convergence of the proposed multigrid shape optimization method is proved and several numerical experiments assess its effectiveness.


In order to resolve data scarcity problem related to crisis, Oh and Kim (2007) proposed to use stability oriented approach which focuses a base period of financial market, fits asymptotic stationary autoregressive model to the base period and then compares the fitted model with the current market situation. Based on such approach, they developed financial market instability index. However, since neural network, their major tool, depends on the base period too heavily, their instability index tends to suffer from inaccuracy. In this study, we consider linear asymptotic stationary autoregressive model and neural network to fit the base period and produce two instability indexes independently. Then the two indexes are combined into one integrated instability index via newly proposed combining method. It turns out that the combined instability performs reliably well


It has applied the design method of face to face dimension, an MC (Modular Coordination) design method, at design steps of an apartment house for standardization of architecture. But It has been still using center line size. A construction limit isn't specific on these center line size, and dead space occurs with excessive gaps as size matching isn't performed well between structural sieve and parts. And above all, measurement before construction isn't to expect standardization, and to increase custom-made furniture. We investigate manufacture of a preferential domestic system kitchen and construction state, and we derive from a problem in viewpoints of standardization for this. And we utilized a reference plane, and we present construction document and design plan in order to solve these problems. And we analyze an effect got by application of the assembly basis aspect that we presented, and we can raise efficiency of standardization of housing and construction industry, and we light ultimately up.


Background Current literature provides insufficient information on the degree of cognitive impairment during and after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), mostly due to the fact that applied tests lacked sensitivity and flexibility. Our goal was to evaluate cognitive functioning in adult depressed patients treated with bi-temporal ECT, using tests sensitive for detection of possible acute and medium-term memory changes. Method Thirty adult patients with major depressive disorder, treated with a course of bi-temporal ECT, underwent clinical and cognitive measurements three times: at baseline, immediately after a course of ECT, and 1 month later. For cognition assessment, we used learning and visual, spatial and figural memory tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Results Bi-temporal ECT has proven to be an effective treatment. The linear mixed model, used to analyze changes in depression severity and patients' cognitive performances over time and to assess dynamic correlations between aforementioned features, did not show any significant memory impairment as a potential acute or medium-term ECT effect. However, it yielded significant improvement on visual memory and learning at the follow-up, which positively correlated with the improvement of depression. Conclusion Good progress is being made in the search for ECT-related acute and medium-term cognitive side-effects by using the tests sensitive to detect memory dysfunction with parallel forms of the tasks (to counter practice effects on repeat testing). Our results on learning and memory in relation to ECT during treatment of depression did not bring forth any prolonged and significant bi-temporal ECT-related memory deficit.


Performance modelling of generalized processor sharing (GPS) systems in the presence of self-similar traffic has attracted significant research efforts. To simplify the interdependent relationships between traffic flows in GPS systems, most existing studies have been confined to the unrealistic scenarios where only two traffic flows are taken into account. This paper develops an analytical model for investigating both queue length distributions and loss probabilities of GPS systems subject to multi-class self-similar traffic. To this end, we present an efficient approach to decompose the complicated system based on the notion of feasible ordering of GPS systems and the empty buffer approximation. Through extensive comparisons between analytical and simulation results, we investigate the correctness of the decomposition approach and validate the accuracy of the analytical performance results.


Abstract STUDY QUESTION What is the effect of growth velocity (height and weight) in early infancy on metabolic end-points and endothelial function in children born after ART? SUMMARY ANSWER Neonatal, infant and childhood growth is positively related to blood pressure in 9-year-old IVF/ICSI offspring, while growth in childhood was negatively associated with endothelial function. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Offspring of pregnancies conceived after ART are at risk for later cardiometabolic risk factors. It is well established that early growth is related to numerous later cardiometabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure. This concept is known as the Developmental Origin of Health and Disease theory. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The relation between early growth and later cardiometabolic risk profile was studied in the MEDIUM-KIDS study, a prospective observational cohort study in children born after an IVF/ICSI treatment. In 131 children (48.1% males) at the average age of 9.4 years, cardiometabolic outcomes were assessed and growth data from birth until age 9 years were collected from child welfare centers. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTINGS, METHODS The following cardiometabolic outcomes were assessed: blood pressure, skinfolds, lipid spectrum, hair cortisone and glucose and insulin levels. Data on maximum skin perfusion after transdermal delivery of acetylcholine as a measure of endothelial function were collected. Growth charts were obtained electronically from child welfare centers, which offer free consultations and vaccinations to all Dutch children. At these centers, height and weight are recorded at predefined ages. Growth was defined as z-score difference in weight between two time points. Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to model the relation between growth and cardiometabolic outcomes. The following growth windows were –studied simultaneously in each model: 0–1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–11 months, 11–24 months and 2–6 years. The model was adjusted for height growth in all intervals except for 0–1 month. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE In multivariable linear regression analyses, multiple growth windows were positively associated with blood pressure, for example growth from 2–6 years was significantly related to systolic blood pressure: B = 4.13, P = 0.005. Maximum skin perfusion after acetylcholine was negatively associated with height-adjusted weight gain from 2 to 6 years: B = −0.09 (log scale), P = 0.03. Several growth windows (weight 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–11 months, 11–24 months, 2–6 years) were positively linked with total adiposity. Lipids, glucose tolerance indices and cortisone were not related to growth. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION This study is of modest size and of observational nature, and we did not include a control group. Therefore, we cannot assess whether the observed associations are causal. It is also not possible to analyze if our observations are specific for, or exacerbated in, the ART population. Ideally, a control group of naturally conceived siblings of IVF/ICSI children should simultaneously be studied to address this limitation and to assess the impact of the ART procedure without the influence of parental (subfertility) characteristics. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the reported increased risk for hypertension in ART offspring. We speculate that early, accelerated growth may be involved in the reported increased risk for hypertension in ART offspring, with endothelial dysfunction as a possible underlying mechanism. However, additional research into the mechanisms involved is required. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) The study was financially supported by the March of Dimes, grant number #6-FY13-153. The sponsor of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the paper. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NTR4220


The following white paper details the University of Calgary's 2021 graduate student conference titled, 'Opportunities in a Crisis.' This white paper works to describe how graduate students explore the terms 'opportunities' and 'crisis' within their research interests. These research interests were interdisciplinary to various fields such as telecommunications policy, algorithmic studies, critical race theory, and video game studies to list a few. Through this conference, we observed an acute awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has impacted research in media activism, feminist media studies, internet infrastructure, and teaching and learning, to mention a handful. This white paper is divided by panel sections, thereby allowing readers to connect with this graduate student conference and help inform future research on topics in communication and media studies, as they are framed in working through these crisis moments in our global history. Our white paper set out to achieve two goals: first, document the presentations and emerging scholarly work of graduate students; and second, reflect on how research can, and very well does, pivot in times of crises, specifically using our current global COVID-19 pandemic as an ongoing, lived experience. This white paper achieves these goals which we believe helps in the preservation of this unique moment in time to be a graduate student.


Vitamin C is a Natural antioxidants that generally have beneficial health effect and marketed as a dietary suplement, partly because of its "antioxidant" properties. If the intakes of vitamin C are very high, ascorbic acid remains in its oxidized form as dehydroascorbic acid and an ascorbate free radical, which may cause damage of macromolecules and cells. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of administration of high dose vitamin C on folliculogenesis of female adult Wistar Rats (Rattus norvegicus). A total of twenty eight female Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 group of 7 rats each. Group 1 as control was given distilled water 2 ml/week, group 2,3,4 as treatment groups were given Vitamin C 5,25 mg/week (subfisiologis), 8 mg/week (fisiologis), 17,5 mg/week (suprafisiologis) respectively. The number of secondary follicle and follicle de Graaf was count by Hematoxyclin Eosin Staining. The result showed a decrease of the number of secondary follicle and follicle de Graaf in group 4.Group 4 had lower number of of secondary follicle and follicle de Graaf compared with all treatment groups. There was no significant different betwen the number of follicle in group 1 with group 2 and 3 (p>0,05), but there were a significant different in group 1 with group 4 (p<0,05). The result of this study conclude that high dose vitamin C could decrease number of follicle in rat's ovarium. Keyword: Vitamin C, Secondary Follicle, Follicle de Graaf


Acute myopericarditis defines an inflammatory syndrome which affects perimyocardium. In this clinical event, pericarditis is often accompanied by some degree of myocardial involvement, which is generally manifested by elevation of cardiac troponins. Main etiologic factors are infectious, idiopathic and immune mediated agents. The most common causes are viral infections. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis reflects the degree of myopericardial involvement. This article reports a myopericarditis event diagnosed at sixteen years old patient who presented with chest pain that increases when lying down and ST segment elevations and elevated cardiac enzymes.


Sites in a 66-station geodetic network in central Greece have been occupied up to six times since 1989 using GPS surveying, and accurate positions have been computed using fiducially-improved or precise orbits. Site velocities are calculated under the assumption that they are constant with time, after correcting for co-seismic effects, and that the position of the fixed base station (and hence the entire network) may be subject to small errors. Low-order polynomial expressions do not fit the velocity field well. The pattern of observed strain closely resembles that derived from independent geodetic observations made over a hundred-year time-scale. Significant geodetic strain is observed across the Gulf of Korinthos, even after the co-seismic displacement field of the Ms=6.2 1995 Egion earthquake has been removed by forward modelling. Geodetic strain is higher in the western than eastern Gulf, in contrast to the seismic strain which is similar throughout. Seismic strain matches geodetic strain in the east, but a significant deficit of seismic moment exists in the west which may represent a high earthquake hazard in the medium term.

The Ms=6.6 1995 Grevena earthquake struck a previously seismically quiet region well covered by a recent triangulation / trilateration survey. Ninety-one points from this network were reoccupied with GPS immediately after the earthquake, and site displacements computed. To invert for the earthquake source parameters from the geodetic displacement field, a novel inversion scheme is used which combines the Monte-Carlo and simplex approaches. A priori parameters are not required, even though the inverse problem is strongly nonlinear. The resulting focal mechanism agrees well with the global CMT solution and locally observed aftershocks, but implies a significantly higher scalar moment than do seismological studies. A network for observing post-seismic deformation has been established, which in view of the low background seismicity seems likely to provide significant results.


The ability to supply energy in rural areas and in agricultural plants with renewable energy technologies, especially wind energy, is advantageous in terms of a sustainable environment and the increasing cost of energy. Today, wind turbines are used actively in many areas, some of which are for commercial purposes. Small-scale wind turbines that produce electricity directly have the necessary characteristics for use in agricultural plants. In this study, wind-concentrator systems for small-scale wind turbines that can be used in agricultural electrification applications have been designed for geographical areas where the wind-speed potential is low. Three different concentrator systems have been designed to make use of low wind-speed potentials and obtain high power values with relatively small rotor diameters. The three different designs have been produced as prototypes, and power values of 324–503 W m−2 (at 5 m s−1 wind speed) can be obtained by concentrating the wind. The efficiency, power, energy production capacity, and economic elements of the models were determined, and the possible results for agricultural plants have been assessed. According to these assessments, the efficiency values are 71 and 90 % for wind speed and 410 and 600 % for wind power. The energy production capacities are a maximum of 6462, 5193, and 8226 kWh m−2 per year for the conical wind-concentrator system, the wind-concentrator system with a panel, and the wind-concentrator system without a panel, respectively. If the energy production cost per unit of these systems is considered, these systems are not economical. Therefore, these systems must be produced on a large scale to become economical, and their size must be enlarged to reduce the cost. Consequently, the potential power values per unit area and the potential energy values per unit produced by the wind-concentrator systems will contribute to the production of more energy than that achieved by current wind turbines.


Layer-layer coupling plays a critical role in defining the physical properties of few-layer graphene (FLG). With respect to vibrations, the interlayer coupling is predicted to create a set of N-1 finite frequency, out-of-plane interlayer modes in N-layer graphene. Unlike the widely studied in-plane vibrations, the properties of these layer-breathing modes (LBMs) are defined by the layer-layer interactions. Here we report direct observation of the distinct LBMs for graphene of thicknesses from 2 to 20 layers through electronically resonant overtone Raman bands observed in the range of 80 - 300 cm-1. The Raman bands exhibit multi-peak features that are unique for graphene samples of each layer thickness up to 20 layers. The frequencies of the set of layer breathing modes for all samples can be described within a simple model of nearest plane coupling.


BACKGROUND
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in the world, however lung cancer screening has not been implemented in most countries at a population level. A previous Cochrane Review found limited evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening with chest radiography (CXR) or sputum cytology in reducing lung cancer-related mortality, however there has been increasing evidence supporting screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).  OBJECTIVES: To determine whether screening for lung cancer using LDCT of the chest reduces lung cancer-related mortality and to evaluate the possible harms of LDCT screening.

SEARCH METHODS
We performed the search in collaboration with the Information Specialist of the Cochrane Lung Cancer Group and included the Cochrane Lung Cancer Group Trial Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, the Cochrane Library, current issue), MEDLINE (accessed via PubMed) and Embase in our search. We also searched the clinical trial registries to identify unpublished and ongoing trials. We did not impose any restriction on language of publication. The search was performed up to 31 July 2021.  SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of lung cancer screening using LDCT and reporting mortality or harm outcomes.  DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors were involved in independently assessing trials for eligibility, extraction of trial data and characteristics, and assessing risk of bias of the included trials using the Cochrane RoB 1 tool. We assessed the certainty of evidence using GRADE. Primary outcomes were lung cancer-related mortality and harms of screening. We performed a meta-analysis, where appropriate, for all outcomes using a random-effects model. We only included trials in the analysis of mortality outcomes if they had at least 5 years of follow-up. We reported risk ratios (RRs) and hazard ratios (HRs), with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and used the I2 statistic to investigate heterogeneity.  MAIN RESULTS: We included 11 trials in this review with a total of 94,445 participants. Trials were conducted in Europe and the USA in people aged 40 years or older, with most trials having an entry requirement of ≥ 20 pack-year smoking history (e.g. 1 pack of cigarettes/day for 20 years or 2 packs/day for 10 years etc.). One trial included male participants only. Eight trials were phase three RCTs, with two feasibility RCTs and one pilot RCT. Seven of the included trials had no screening as a comparison, and four trials had CXR screening as a comparator. Screening frequency included annual, biennial and incrementing intervals. The duration of screening ranged from 1 year to 10 years. Mortality follow-up was from 5 years to approximately 12 years.  None of the included trials were at low risk of bias across all domains. The certainty of evidence was moderate to low across different outcomes, as assessed by GRADE. In the meta-analysis of trials assessing lung cancer-related mortality, we included eight trials (91,122 participants), and there was a reduction in mortality of 21% with LDCT screening compared to control groups of no screening or CXR screening (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.87; 8 trials, 91,122 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). There were probably no differences in subgroups for analyses by control type, sex, geographical region, and nodule management algorithm. Females appeared to have a larger lung cancer-related mortality benefit compared to males with LDCT screening. There was also a reduction in all-cause mortality (including lung cancer-related) of 5% (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.99; 8 trials, 91,107 participants; moderate-certainty evidence).  Invasive tests occurred more frequently in the LDCT group (RR 2.60, 95% CI 2.41 to 2.80; 3 trials, 60,003 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). However, analysis of 60-day postoperative mortality was not significant between groups (RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.24 to 1.94; 2 trials, 409 participants; moderate-certainty evidence).  False-positive results and recall rates were higher with LDCT screening compared to screening with CXR, however there was low-certainty evidence in the meta-analyses due to heterogeneity and risk of bias concerns. Estimated overdiagnosis with LDCT screening was 18%, however the 95% CI was 0 to 36% (risk difference (RD) 0.18, 95% CI -0.00 to 0.36; 5 trials, 28,656 participants; low-certainty evidence). Four trials compared different aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using various measures. Anxiety was pooled from three trials, with participants in LDCT screening reporting lower anxiety scores than in the control group (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.43, 95% CI -0.59 to -0.27; 3 trials, 8153 participants; low-certainty evidence). There were insufficient data to comment on the impact of LDCT screening on smoking behaviour.  AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The current evidence supports a reduction in lung cancer-related mortality with the use of LDCT for lung cancer screening in high-risk populations (those over the age of 40 with a significant smoking exposure). However, there are limited data on harms and further trials are required to determine participant selection and optimal frequency and duration of screening, with potential for significant overdiagnosis of lung cancer. Trials are ongoing for lung cancer screening in non-smokers.


In Escherichia coli manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), the absolutely conserved Glu170 of one monomer is hydrogen-bonded to the Mn ligand His171 of the other monomer, forming a double bridge at the dimer interface. Point mutation of Glu170 → Ala destabilizes the dimer structure, and the mutant protein occurs as a mixture of dimer and monomer species. The purified E170A MnSOD contains exclusively Fe and is devoid of superoxide dismutase activity. E170A Fe2-MnSOD closely resembles authentic FeSOD in terms of spectroscopic properties, anion interactions and pH titration behavior. Reconstitution of E170A Fe2-MnSOD with Mn(II) salts does not restore superoxide dismutase activity despite the spectroscopic similarity between E170A Mn2-MnSOD and wild type Mn2-MnSOD. Growth of sodA+ and sodA− E. coli containing the mutant plasmid pDT1–5(E170A) is impaired, suggesting that expression of mutant protein is toxic to the host cells.


In the fall of 1999, Garry Ridge, the newly appointed CEO of WD-40 Company, wanted to rejuvenate the company and stimulate its employees to look beyond the firm's relatively narrow focus of the last 43 years. The very nature of WD-40 Company's success in capturing the market had created its own limited growth opportunities. The A case (UVA-OB-0764) describes the company's one-product business success and Ridge's background. The B case reveals some of the challenges Ridge faced in implementing change. The B case tells how the new CEO helped the company achieve growth in both new products and markets through related acquisitions. Despite these purchases, however, the company's earnings failed to climb between 1998 and 2001. Ridge concluded that he needed to do more than just buy more companies, so he framed a model of strong leadership and learning theory that he thought would enable the company to outsmart its competitors. He built a framework that was demanding, yet forgiving when individuals fell short. Ridge held employees responsible for their results, but he encouraged everyone to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. The company's financial results suggest success for his leadership model. This case series is a valuable tool for conducting conversations in the classroom about leadership and leading strategic change.


This study assessed whether the correlates related to physical activity and television viewing differed across gender, grade, and racial groups. Adolescents (n = 4746) from 31 junior and senior high schools completed a self-administered survey. Adolescents' physical activity was related to their families' and friends' fitness concerns. Adolescents' physical activity was also related to their own fitness and health concerns. Few correlates of physical activity differed by gender, age, or race. Television viewing was negatively related to the family's fitness concerns and health concerns; however, these factors accounted for a small amount of the variance in adolescents' television viewing. None of the factors related to television viewing differed by age or race groups. Future studies will need to identify the factors related to physical activity and television viewing among adolescents who are at greatest risk for inactivity.


In this paper we analyze the average off-training-set behavior of the Bayes-optimal and Gibbs learning algorithms. We do this by exploiting the concept of refinement, which concerns the relationship between probability distributions. For non-uniform sampling distributions the expected off-training-set error for both learning algorithms can increase with training set size. However, we show in this paper that for uniform sampling and either algorithm, the expected error is a non-increasing function of training set size. For uniform sampling distributions, we also characterize the priors for which the expected error of the Bayes-optimal algorithm stays constant. In addition, we show that when the target function is fixed, expected off-training-set error can increase with training set size if and only if the expected error averaged over all targets decreases with training set size. Our results hold for arbitrary noise and arbitrary loss functions.


This paper reports recent advances in the development of a symbolic asymptotic modeling software package, called MEMSALab, which will be used for automatic generation of asymptotic models for arrays of micro and nanosystems. More precisely, a model is a partial differential equation and an asymptotic method approximate it by another partial differential equation which can be numerically simulated in a reasonable time. The challenge consists in taking into account a wide range of different physical features and geometries e.g. thin structures, periodic structures, multiple nested scales etc. The main purpose of this software is to construct models incrementally so that model features can be included step by step. This idea, conceptualized under the name "by-extension-combination", is presented for the first time. A user friendly language recently introduced is also shortly discussed. We illustrate the mathematical operations that need to be implemented in MEMSALab by an example of an asymptotic model for the stationary heat equation in a Micro-Mirror Array developed for astrophysics.


The present work describes the mechanical characterization combined with the thermal degradation kinetics of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP). The thermal degradation kinetics of CFRP have never been studied in the past. In that regard, the present work focuses on studying the thermal degradation kinetics of CFRP tested mechanically at different environmental conditions. Tensile tests were performed on the specimens with different lay-ups at room temperature, elevated temperature (71 °C), and cryogenic conditions (-54 °C), and the same specimens were used for thermal degradation kinetic studies. Mechanical tests show different responses respect to the different environmental conditions and different fibers orientation. On the other hand, the thermogravimetric results, mass loss, and derivative mass loss, show no significant difference in the degradation of CFRP tested at different temperatures. However, the thermal degradation kinetics shows more insight into the degradation pattern of the materials. The activation energy of degradation shows that the degradation of materials subjected to elevated conditions increases rapidly in the later stages of degradation, suggesting the formation of high char yield. The varying activation energy has been related to different degradation mechanisms. Lastly, the morphology of the materials was studied under SEM to understand the structural change in the material after tested in different weather conditions.


This guide will help you navigate a variety of sources that you will need to conduct research for your final ART1021 project.


: In this study, a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) method is developed for in -situ quantitative imaging of trace impurity elements in Bi 4 Si 3 O 12 (BSO) crystals. This method has unique advantages of low detection limit and high spatial resolution for the analysis of defects in crystal microregions. The regression coefficients of the calibration curves for each element were greater than 0.99, and the detection limits (DLs) were 17, 5, 7, 48, 5, 7, 16, 27, and 7 ng/g for 24 Mg, 45 Sc, 48 Ti, 90 Zr, 139 La, 146 Nd, 172 Yb and 208 Pb, respectively. The LA-ICP-MS measurements were in good agreement with the results obtained using conventional ICP-MS method. Segregation phenomena of elemental impurities in the axial direction of the BSO crystal can exist during crystal growth. Finally, the distribution of the impurity elements in the dendritic crystal defect region of the crystal was visualized. We believe that this work proposes a novel less-invasive analysis method for exploring the composition-defect relationship of crystals.


Purple Au-Al alloy films were deposited on glass substrates using a radio frequency ion plating method. Au-Al alloys were used as source materials. The effects on the film of the source alloy composition and the evaporation time were studied. The color tones of the deposited films were measured using spectral reflectance and their crystal structures were studied by X-ray diffraction. As a result, a composition of Au 80%-Al 20% was chosed as the most suitable source alloy. The color tone of a film deposited from a single evaporation source changed from white to purple as the evaporation time increased. The intensity of the X-ray diffraction pattern of the AuAl2 sharpened as the color tone of the film became more purpler. The purple color of the film became brighter after 1hour of heat annealing at 550°C in an atmosphere of Ar (8×103Pa).


Public financing of education in the developing world context combines public and private funds, and the utilisation of fees is seen as a way of complementing state resources. In South Africa the new government in 1994 permitted schools to charge fees, a policy that has provoked much controversy. While different aspects of this policy have been well documented, less is known about the decision to review this policy and declare certain schools as no‐fees schools in 2006. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing the current no‐fees schools policy and its potential impact on the South African education system. Specifically it examines whether the amended policy promotes school access for the poor while creatively complementing state resources. It is argued that while the policy is a progressive step away from charging fees for basic education, there are a number of policy challenges that require further reflection and research.


Corynebacterium minutissimum Sarkany, Taplin, and Black 1962 was not included on the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names and consequently has no standing in bacteriological nomenclature. However, the results of numerical taxonomic, cell wall, lipid, and deoxyribonucleic acid base composition studies indicate that the organism designated the type strain by Sarkany et al. (strain NCTC 10288) and other strains studied by these workers form a distinct taxon within the genus Corynebacterium. The name Corynebacterium minutissimum is here revived for the same organism to which the name was applied by Sarkany et al. The type strain is strain NCTC 10288.


This study investigated the sociotropic and autonomous personality characteristics and perceived problem solving ability of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients, and their relationship with quality of life. The study included 14 CAPD patients and 54 healthy volunteers. Sociotropy and autonomy scores were significantly higher in CAPD patients than in the healthy control group. Among CAPD patients, there was a significant correlation between problem solving and serum phosphate, parathormone levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. There was a negative correlation between total dialysis time and sociotropy in CAPD patients, and a positive correlation between general health/pain perception and autonomy. Appropriate medical management, time on dialysis and positive self-perception of health were correlated with better problem solving ability and higher autonomous but lower sociotropic personality styles.


Mission safety and cost-efficiency concerns have resulted in a resurgence of interest in real-time strip chart recorders. But conventional recorder technologies require inordinate maintenance and daily calibration. Attempts at strip chart emulation involving costly dedicated microcomputers and CRT's have failed, because the chart itself is not real-time, a basic requirement. The concept of an inexpensive, direct digital link to a telemetry processing computer (VAX, e.g.) is discussed. A thorough examination of real-time monitoring of critical, non-repeatable data is presented. Objectives: An automated, turn-key telemetry data system. Reduce the routine maintenance required by conventional recording systems; eliminate the need for digital-toanalog converters (DAC's); and improve the efficiency of range personnel and the integrity of recorded data.


Most of the literature on countertransference reactions with criminals has emphasized negative emotions such as hatred, rage, and fear. This article discusses reactions that have been relatively neglected, such as fascination and envy. Fantasies of leading a life of excitement are frequently evoked. Recognizing these fantasies and emotions and accepting them as attractive can increase our understanding of the offender and his life. The lure of criminality, despite its severe consequences, become more understandable. Accepting these emotions can bring a challenge to life, and a reevaluation of one's morals and values. A balance between the reality of "normal" life and fantasy is ultimately accepted.


From matricide to mutilation, poisoning, and the cold-blooded murder of a police man, the case-studies in this collection made headlines in their time and remain as gripping today as then. Frederick Browne, sentenced to death for the shooting of P.C. Gutteridge in 1928, endured a veritable "trial by newspaper" when the damning statement of his accomplice was made public. The plight of the defendent who stands accused by heresay and prejudice was illustrated by the notorious case of Florence Maybrick - found guilty of poisoning her husband with arsenic - which exposed the need for a Court of Appeal. This book also features the convictions of Sidney Fox, who killed his mother, and Dr Ruxton who mutilated the bodies of his wife and her maid, which were both triumphs of forensic investigation, while the Clapham Common murder trial held more than a hint of a tragically wrongful conviction.


Abstract Long, low waves preceding the arrival of the visible swell from a storm have been recorded off Pendeen, England, and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, by means of new instruments for the measurement and analysis of ocean waves. These forerunners provide storm warnings of practical value. Expressions giving the fore-runner's distance from the storm system and its travel time as functions of recorded period and rate of change of period are derived from very general assumptions. The expressions are suitable for simple graphical representation. The application of the method to tracking storms across the ocean is illustrated by means of a few actual examples, and the computed storm tracks are shown to be in good agreement with the information contained on weather maps. Certain features of the wave records may eventually make it possible to compute not only the location but also the size, intensity, and general character of the storm.


This dissertation examines the portrayal of the synthetic drug MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy, in the print media in Ireland. Qualitative documentary research methods were used to analyse thirty-two articles from two Irish newspapers, in the time period 1991 to 1997. Two Irish newspapers, the Irish Times and the Evening Herald were chosen, representing broadsheet and tabloid approaches respectively. The qualitative data package QSR NUD*IST was used to code the data from the thirty-two articles analysed. The portrayal of the drug ecstasy in the articles analysed was found to be overwhelmingly negative, with both newspapers using fearsome adjectives to describe it. A comparison of reporting styles between the two newspapers revealed that there was not a great diference between their styles, and though The Evening Herarld was found to have a less cautious approach, both newspapers came to the same negative conclusions about ecstasy.


Electrical Impedance Tomography (EFT) is a relatively new medical imaging method which, by injecting current and measuring voltage, estimates a volume conductivity map of the sub ject. It has the potential to become a portable noninvasive imaging technique of particular use in imaging brain function. A good estimate of the modelling parameters is essential for abso lute image reconstruction. While biological tissue like bone and white matter is anisotropic, clinical applications have assumed isotropic conductivity and adopted linear reconstruction of time difference data, as this is less affected by systematic errors. In previous studies, measured scalp impedance changes during evoked response on adults and on neonates were consistent, yet data had a low signal-to-noise ratio and image localisation using truncated singular-value- decomposition and a fixed truncation level was unsuccessful. There were four main goals in this thesis. The first goal was to examine ways of optimising linear reconstruction. This was attempted by comparison of standard methods for selecting the truncation level with modelling of the covariance of the noise. When examined on data from simulation, a head-shaped saline tank, and scalp neonatal evoked responses, there was no significant difference among selection methods, yet modelling a general covariance of the noise led to a significant improvement for simulated data. The second goal was to reduce the noise by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA), for the case of EIT images collected during cortical evoked responses in the neonate. PCA significantly improved the SNR by 15dB on both tank and neonatal data. The third goal was to study the possibility of the recovery of a piecewise linear anisotropic tensor with known eigenvectors. It was possible to recover three smooth eigenvalues for simulated conductivity distributions with eigenvectors generally orientated and for a conductivity tensor estimated from diffusion weighted MRI. The fourth goal was to develop a method for incor porating anisotropy in a forward numerical model for EIT of the head and assess the resulting improvement in image quality. Neglecting anisotropy of the scalp, skull, and brain, yielded a 50% error in the forward solution and 24mm localisation error for a linearised inverse solution. This suggests that use of anisotropy is likely to improve EIT image quality.


A 4-year-old boy with severely discolored primary maxillary incisors was treated with bonded porcelain veneer restorations. Two years previously, the child had been treated with topical application of sodium fluoride-silver nitrate solution to arrest dental caries associated with a nursing bottle habit. With minimal chair time, the incisors were restored with laboratory-processed porcelain veneer restorations that were bonded with resin cement. This is perhaps the only report to date of the use of porcelain veneer restorations for primary anterior teeth.


Abstract : A need existed to perform high energy electron irradiation experiments on gallium arsenide solar cells. To support this research, an automated solar cell test facility was constructed, gallium arsenide solar cells were obtained, and the Naval Postgraduate School LINAC facility was utilized to irradiate the cells to selected fluence levels at 20 MEV energies. Equivalent damage coefficients were calculated, and it was found that the average maximum power output decreased by 50% following a cumulative irradiation by electrons to a total fluence of 1 X 10 to the 15th power sq. cm.


This paper proposes a reconfigurable sensor analog front-end using low-noise chopper-stabilized delta-sigma capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) for capacitive microsensors. The proposed reconfigurable sensor analog front-end can drive both capacitive microsensors and voltage signals by direct conversion without a front-end amplifier. The reconfigurable scheme of the front-end can be implemented in various multi-mode applications, where it is equipped with a fully integrated temperature sensor. A chopper stabilization technique is implemented here to achieve a low-noise characteristic by reducing unexpected low-frequency noises such as offsets and flicker noise. The prototype chip of the proposed sensor analog front-end is fabricated by a standard 0.18-μm 1-poly-6-metal (1P6M) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. It occupies a total active area of 5.37 mm2 and achieves an effective resolution of 16.3-bit. The total power consumption is 0.843 mW with a 1.8 V power supply.


Introducao: The wine industry has an intensive development in Sauce. Various health problems linked to this sector was identified by the practice of family medicine in the locality. There were many questions about the relationship between this activity, the environment and the health of people. We identified a lack of information on these issues in people involved in the production and health professionals. Objetivos: To know the wine production processes in the ASSE-Sauce influence zone in 2009. To identify the perception of the population linked to this production on its impact on human health and the environment. Describe the processes used and phytosanitary management of waste production. Metodologia ou descricao da experiencia: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Quantitative and qualitative. Vineyards and wine establishments of the 6th section of Canelones were studied. A random sample of 10% of the local places registered in INAVI was taken. Face interviews with the head of each establishment, a worker and a boundary neighbor at the same visit, were performed. Data collection forms were designed for each group (farmers , workers and neighbors). Questions were used to guide the open interviews. For quantitative analysis and database processing Exel 2007 was used. The interviews were transcribed to text files and processed using qualitative discourse analysis. Resultados: 16 vineyards and 5 wineries were studied (7.5 % of the cultivated land, 1.57% of state wine produced). We interviewed 21 producers, 10 workers and 14 neighbors. All establishments were using agricultural chemicals with different intensity. Organic wastes were returned to the soil and inorganic and chemicals effluents were returned to the environment without processing. Low use of protection of the workers during the application of products was demonstrated. Most respondents stated that this process does not affect the environment or human health or they minimized the effects observed. Health problems identified were musculoskeletal (physical) skin and respiratory (related to contaminants). Conclusoes ou hipoteses: The general perception is that vineyard and wine production are safe. However there is a concern about air and soil contamination. In the production process we can identify a traditional and modern environmental hazard that suggests the need for further multidisciplinary studies. We find cultural family values as healthy traditional process and can be presented as positive determinants of health.


ABSTRACT CD8+ T cells play a crucial role in the control of infection with intracellular microbes. The mechanisms underlying the CD8+ T-cell-mediated clearance of the intracellular pathogen Toxoplasma gondii are, however, not completely understood. The effect of CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated lysis of host cells on the viability of intracellular T. gondii was investigated. Quantitative competitive PCR of the gene encoding T. gondii major surface antigen (SAG-1) was combined with treatment of the parasites with DNase, which removed the DNA template of nonviable parasites. The induction by CD8+ CTLs of apoptosis in cells infected withT. gondii did not result in the reduction of live parasites, indicating that intracellular T. gondii remains alive after lysis of host cells by CTLs.


In an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP), the dependence of radio-frequency (rf) tuned self-DC bias of substrate on the discharge parameters such as rf source power, gas pressure, gas flow rate and electric connection of upper cover with ground have been studied. Experimental results show that the tuned bias of substrate can be generated and independently controlled in an inductively- coupled plasma without a rf bias source, and the advantage of this technique together with inductively-coupled plasma can find potential applications in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.


Organizational change, in the form of work redesign, is widespread in hospitals across the country. How can the resulting patient-focused care models be sustained when "sustaining" means continuously changing and improving? The authors describe one hospital's use of a multidisciplinary shared governance system to provide the structure and process support for the innovative changes initiated by work redesign.


Model-based methods and deep neural networks have both been tremendously successful paradigms in machine learning. In model-based methods, problem domain knowledge can be built into the constraints of the model, typically at the expense of difficulties during inference. In contrast, deterministic deep neural networks are constructed in such a way that inference is straightforward, but their architectures are generic and it is unclear how to incorporate knowledge. This work aims to obtain the advantages of both approaches. To do so, we start with a model-based approach and an associated inference algorithm, and \emph{unfold} the inference iterations as layers in a deep network. Rather than optimizing the original model, we \emph{untie} the model parameters across layers, in order to create a more powerful network. The resulting architecture can be trained discriminatively to perform accurate inference within a fixed network size. We show how this framework allows us to interpret conventional networks as mean-field inference in Markov random fields, and to obtain new architectures by instead using belief propagation as the inference algorithm. We then show its application to a non-negative matrix factorization model that incorporates the problem-domain knowledge that sound sources are additive. Deep unfolding of this model yields a new kind of non-negative deep neural network, that can be trained using a multiplicative backpropagation-style update algorithm. We present speech enhancement experiments showing that our approach is competitive with conventional neural networks despite using far fewer parameters.


This study evaluated the performance of dental students versus prosthodontics residents on a simulated caries removal exercise using a newly designed, 3D immersive haptic simulator. The intent of this study was to provide an initial assessment of the simulator's construct validity, which in the context of this experiment was defined as its ability to detect a statistically significant performance difference between novice dental students (n=12) and experienced prosthodontics residents (n=14). Both groups received equivalent calibration training on the simulator and repeated the same caries removal exercise three times. Novice and experienced subjects' average performance differed significantly on the caries removal exercise with respect to the percentage of carious lesion removed and volume of surrounding sound tooth structure removed (p<0.05). Experienced subjects removed a greater portion of the carious lesion, but also a greater volume of the surrounding tooth structure. Efficiency, defined as percentage of carious lesion removed over drilling time, improved significantly over the course of the experiment for both novice and experienced subjects (p<0.001). Within the limitations of this study, experienced subjects removed a greater portion of carious lesion on a 3D immersive haptic simulator. These results are a first step in establishing the validity of this device.


Today's linear economy with a production and consumption pattern based on a take-make-waste principle puts a large pressure on the planet's environmental boundaries. To achieve a sustainable development a more resource-efficient and waste-reduced system must be developed. In a so called circular economy, where the aim is to decouple development from the use of scarce and linear inputs, new business models is one of the fundamental building blocks. With business models aiming to close or slow down material cycles, for example by selling second hand products, it is possible to create a more sustainable use of resources. But for a company to become successful it is important to choose a marketing strategy that attracts customers and help them find the value in the business' products. This study aims to find out how businesses in the sustainable product segment, selling used products and/or new products, can convey their concept. Methods used have been a literature review and interviews with second hand stores. By performing this study it was possible to a) survey how second hand stores works in practice with these questions and b) present improvement suggestions to the company Godsinlosen Nordic AB. The study shows that the second hand market include a variety of business models and that economic value is most important for the consumers although environmental concerns, good service and warranties also is attractive to them. It is important for the stores to meet the need of the consumer, and if they are using green marketing the staff should be able to answer questions regarding environmental benefits. If the stores provide information about environmental claims it has to be credible and adequate. (Less)


Theory predicts that selfish genetic elements that increase their transmission are prone to originate on sex-chromosomes but create strong selective pressure to evolve suppressors due to reduced fertility and distorted population sex-ratios. Here we show that recurrent genetic conflict over sex-chromosome transmission is an important evolutionary force that has shaped gene-content evolution of sex-chromosomes. We demonstrate that convergent acquisition and amplification of spermatid-expressed gene-families are common on Drosophila sex-chromosomes, and harbor characteristics typical of meiotic drivers. We experimentally verify a novel cryptic sex-chromosome-distortion system in Drosophila pseudoobscura using transgenics. Knockdown of Y-linked copies of the S-Lap1 gene-family result in abnormal spermatogenesis, a deficiency of Y-bearing sperm and female-biased sex-ratios, and meiotic drive and suppression likely involves RNAi mechanisms. Our finding suggests that recurrent conflict over sex-chromosome transmission has shaped widespread genomic and evolutionary patterns, including the epigenetic regulation of sex-chromosomes, the distribution of sex-biased-genes, and the evolution of hybrid sterility.


This work proposes a mechatronic model of surgical robot which allows the analysis of relations and flows (of the mass, energy and information) between components as well as specification of their hierarchy in the system. The processing of information and its transmission in the system basis in regard to mechatronic surgical telemanipulator will be also discussed.


Background Selective conservative management of abdominal penetrating trauma can significantly minimize the morbidity and length of hospitalization by decreasing the rate of unnecessary laparotomies. Objectives In the present study, we reported the outcome of newest guidelines of our trauma center in one year. Patients and Methods All patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds who were referred to Rajaiee trauma center between September 2012 and September 2013 were enrolled. Patients without shock, peritonitis, and evisceration who did not require emergency operation were planned for nonoperative management with serial physical examinations, blood cells count, and radiographic investigations. Outcome of nonoperative management was described in order to reveal the advantages and disadvantages of our current guideline. Results Among 45 patients who underwent nonoperative management, 27 cases (60%) required laparotomy due to peritonitis or shock. Rate of unnecessary nontherapeutic operations was 49.2%. Conclusions Minimizing diagnostic procedures such as diagnostic peritoneal lavage and computed tomography can significantly increase the rate of unnecessary operations leading to longer hospitalizations and operation-related morbidity. To reduce the failure rate of nonoperative management and nontherapeutic surgeries, modifications in current guidelines should be made.


In this study, the authors address the problem of composite cooperative state estimation and system identification for linear multi-agent systems (MASs) under the leader-follower framework. This problem specifies an objective for each follower agent to estimate its local plant state and identify its plant dynamics simultaneously through interacting and communicating with its neighbours. A novel distributed adaptive estimation and identification protocol is proposed, which possesses five important properties to improve existing cooperative approaches: (i) it deals with general linear MASs with a completely unknown agent dynamics, allowing dynamics heterogeneity between the leader and the followers; (ii) it enables simultaneous exact state estimation and accurate system identification of MASs with guaranteed exponential convergence performance; (iii) it utilises only relative measurements from neighbouring agents, but without requiring any knowledge of absolute local plant states/outputs; (iv) it is fully distributed in the sense that its design and implementation do not involve any global information, including the overall network connectivity and the leader's dynamics; (v) exact system identification can be achieved under a cooperative persistent excitation (PE) condition, which significantly relaxes the classical PE condition. Simulation studies have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


'In order to breathe': transformative mimesis as a condition for commitment in the poetry of Antjie Krog Committed writing makes salient a type of relationship between text, reality and reader which presupposes mimesis. Mimesis is, however, a seemingly outdated concept in literary aesthetics. Therefore, it is necessary to rehabilitate mimesis conceptually in order to account for actual literary commitment. This rehabilitation can be done via Paul Ricoeur"s theory of a threefold mimesis, also known as mimetic arc. The mimetic arc allows a view of mimesis that privileges neither aesthetic autonomy nor aesthetic heteronomy. Thereby the power of art to influence society is preserved without compromising its unique aesthetic goals and characteristics. The threefold mimetic process consequently points towards a transformative mimesis, which acts as the condition for the possibility of literary commitment itself. The principles of transformative mimesis are present in the poetry of Antjie Krog in a salient and enlightening way, making her poetry exemplary committed art.


The article presents the possibility of reducing the number of traffic accidents caused by drivers, through the use of smart cars, which independently evaluate the road markings and perform correction of steered wheels angles.


Fair classification has become an important topic in machine learning research. While most bias mitigation strategies focus on neural networks, we noticed a lack of work on fair classifiers based on decision trees even though they have proven very efficient. In an up-to-date comparison of state-of-the-art classification algorithms in tabular data, tree boosting outperforms deep learning. For this reason, we have developed a novel approach of adversarial gradient tree boosting. The objective of the algorithm is to predict the output Y with gradient tree boosting while minimizing the ability of an adversarial neural network to predict the sensitive attribute S. The approach incorporates at each iteration the gradient of the neural network directly in the gradient tree boosting. We empirically assess our approach on 4 popular data sets and compare against state-of-the-art algorithms. The results show that our algorithm achieves a higher accuracy while obtaining the same level of fairness, as measured using a set of different common fairness definitions.


The regulatory mechanisms of vascular endothelial barrier function are complicated. Inflammatory mediators, such as alpha-thrombin, activate phospholipases to mediate generation of IP3 and other second messengers through receptor-coupled G protein. Protein kinase C and myosin light chain kinase are then activated, leading to phosphorylation of myosin light chains, rearrangement of F-actin skeleton, interendothelial cell gap formation and increased endothelial permeability.


Our study analyses possibilities of misusing social network sites due to irresponsible behaviour of users. Recent surveys show that problems of social network are more often to occur, due to openness as one of the key features of these sites. Social engineering can be misused by attackers concerning on social network with the purpose of gaining sensitive information. There is a conflict between users' security awareness and their actual behaviour, so called privacy paradox. We were interested in amount of information people are willing to reveal in their profiles. We have found out users' behaviour which leads to insufficient protection of published information. These sensitive information are suitable for all kinds of phishing and other similar attacks. In our study we compared two groups of fictive profiles (personal profiles of users having no friends and profiles of users with fictive friends) and studied their success in creating new links in social network. We also considered tools for protecting sensitive information in social networks.


A total of 44 molluscan species belonging to 5 classes were identifi ed in 3 transects (including depths of 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 200 m) located in Kumkuyu, Limonlu, and Erdemli. Overall, no signifi cant diff erence in community parameters such as diversity index, evenness index, and species richness was found among transects. Th e species abundance showed seasonal and depth-wise variations. Th e highest species richness (6-16 species) was encountered between depths of 10 and 100 m in winter and spring, whereas the molluscan population increased in warm seasons due to the high abundance of Corbula gibba and Nucula nitidosa. Bivalves and gastropods were abundantly found at depths of 10-200 m, 10-25 m, and 75-100 m. Two main molluscan assemblages were determined: the fi rst assemblage occurred in the shallow water (10-50 m) and was characterized by high abundances of C. gibba, Abra alba, and Tellimya ferruginosa, and the second occurred in deep waters (75-200 m) and was characterized by the presence of Falcidens gutturosus, N. nitidosa, and Astarte fusca. Depth, the fi ne-grain size of sediment, and total organic carbon were the main factors governing the distribution of the mollusks in the area. Among the species, only Conomurex persicus was an alien species.


A single feed, single layer compact bevel cut rectangular patch antenna is proposed. The bevels are cut at the left-top corner and the right-bottom corner. The 1 st resonant frequency (4.25 GHz) is applicable for short band radio wave communication and the other resonant frequency (6.93 GHz) is applicable for radar communication. All the results are simulated by using IE3D, a MoM based software and the results are verified by the VNA network analyzer. This paper includes the bandwidth, return loss, vswr range and radiation pattern.


Summary The clinical utility of genotypic drug resistance testing (DRT) in HIV-infected children on antiretroviral therapy (ART) is not well understood. HIV-infected patients aged <19 years undergoing DRT for virological failure were retrospectively enrolled. Indications for DRT and changes in HIV RNA load were recorded. Between January 2000 and December 2006, 57 patients had DRT. The most common indication for DRT was poor ART adherence (57.7% of patients). ART was changed in 50.9% of patients after DRT. Poor adherence was cited by clinicians for not changing ART significantly more often than any other reason (47.3%, P < 0.001). After DRT, significant improvement in HIV RNA load occurred independent of ART changes, though patients whose ART was modified were more likely to become undetectable (31.5% versus 7.0%, P < 0.001). Poor adherence was a significant factor for ordering DRT and for not changing ART in HIV-infected children.


The inaugural conference on Nanoscale Devices and System Integration (NDSI-2004) was held in Miami, Florida, 15-19 February, 2004. The focus of the conference was `real-life' devices and systems that have recently emerged as a result of various nanotechnology initiatives in chemistry and chemical engineering, physics, electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering, computer science, robotics, and environmental science. The conference had a single session all-invited speaker format, with the presenters making the `Who's Who in Nanotechnology' list. Contributed work was showcased at a special poster session. The conference, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the US Air Force, and endorsed by Materials Research Society (MRS), drew more than 160 participants from fourteen countries. To strengthen the connection between fundamental research and `real-life' applications, the conference featured a large number of presenters from both academia and industry. Among the participating companies were NEC, IBM, Toshiba, AMD, Samsung, Seagate, and Veeco. Nanotechnology has triggered a new wave of research collaborations between researchers from academia and industry with a broad range of specializations. Such a global approach has resulted in a number of breakthrough accomplishments. One of the main goals of this conference was to identify these accomplishments and put the novel technology initiatives and the emerging research teams on the map. Among the key nanotechnology applications demonstrated at NDSI-2004 were carbon-nanotube-based transistors, quantum computing systems, nanophotonic devices, single-molecule electronic devices and biological magnetic sources. Due to the unprecedented success of the conference, the organizing committee of NDSI has unanimously chosen to turn NDSI into an annual international nanotechnology event. The next NDSI is scheduled for 4-6 April, 2005, in Houston, Texas. Details can be found on the conference web site at http://www.nanointernational.org. This special issue of Nanotechnology features selected papers from NDSI-2004.


With more than 80,000 unsignalized intersections in Virginia, determining how and where to focus limited highway safety resources through deployment of low-cost, high-benefit systemic countermeasures is paramount to beginning to reduce the number of fatal and injury crashes at unsignalized intersections in Virginia. The purpose of this study was to develop a safety improvement plan for unsignalized intersections using systemic low-cost countermeasures. The scope of the study focused on unsignalized intersections with stop sign control on the minor approaches. Virginia's unsignalized intersection crashes over a 5-year period were assessed to determine predominant crash trends and crash types to target for treatment. Three Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) databases (crashes, roadway inventory, and traffic counts) were combined for unsignalized intersections. Four focus collision types with the highest frequency of crashes and the greatest potential reduction in crashes were identified from the data: 3-leg angle, 3-leg fixed object off road, 4-leg angle, and 4-leg rear-end. Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) was used to perform a systemic analysis to identify a group of intersections based on independent variables (roadway inventory and traffic count variables) that were most strongly related to the focus collision types. After the crash assessment was performed, case studies of selected intersections in each group were reviewed to assess the factors that might influence the four focus collision types. A tiered list of countermeasures to deploy was developed based on the literature and input from VDOT staff. The countermeasures were intended to warn of the stop ahead, to make the stop sign and stop location more visible on the minor street, and to warn of the intersection ahead on the major street. The potential for safety improvement measure was used to prioritize the candidate treatment intersections. Before deployment, a study of the intersections conducted by district traffic engineering staff is planned in order to finalize the safety improvement plan. The output of the study is a safety improvement plan to deploy treatments to unsignalized intersections systemically as part of the safety program. The plan can be adjusted based on available funding.


For many years the writer has wondered about the ancient Israelite claim to a town as far out in the coastal plain as Tell el-Ḥesi, if that town is correctly identified with Biblical Eglon. During 1964–65, when with graduate students I was able to explore the area in person, thus supplementing the study of maps, my puzzlement with the historical topography and archaeology of the area deepened. It is a disappointment that there never was an opportunity to discuss the matter with Paul W. Lapp, in whose honor this issue is published, because his interest in such topographical matters had been whetted by the same teacher as my own, William Foxwell Albright.


Regarding the two main comments, we will revise the paper to make it clear that sorptivity has two parts, the unsaturated sorptivity that corresponds to cp' and the saturated part that corresponds to 2|ha*|. The saturated part is related to the air-entry water pressure head |ha*| that equals unity only for the Delta and the BC functions. In that case, the saturated part equals 2*|ha*|=2. Note that by convention, for the Delta and BC functions, the scale water pressure head, hg, is taken equal to the air entry pressure head, so that |ha*|=1. For the other hydraulic functions, |ha*| = 0, and the saturated part of sorptivity is null. We will implement the reviewer's suggestions on discussing both parts of the sorptivity as a function of the shape indexes and revise Figure 3.


Water fern Azolla microphylla symbioses with Anabaena azollae which is able to fix N 2 . Fern growth is strongly influenced by the availability of macro nutrients such as phosphate. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of concentration of phosphate fertilizers and different water levels on the growth and nitrogen uptake of Azolla microphylla . Research was conducted by using randomized block design with three replications. The treatment were  water level which consists of 0 cm, 2 cm, 4 cm, and 6 cm, and the concentration of phosphates (P) which is composed of without and with  15 ppm, 30 ppm and 45 ppm. The results showed that the water level are interdependent with the phosphates concentration to influence  Azolla's covered area at  7-21 days after planting, wet weight, total dry weight, and total nitrogen uptake of Azolla microphylla . The water level 2 cm at a concentration of 30 ppm of phosphate fertilizers is the best treatment combination to increase Azolla's covered area at 7-21 HST, wet weight, total dry weight, and total nitrogen uptake of Azolla microphylla .


Examinations of aphasic patients by using cognitive tasks were based on the hypothesis that semantically evoked potentials correlate to the processing of information in the different speech processing of information in the different speech processing areas. It was found that patients with Broca aphasia generated synchronization potentials in the Wernicke area in contrast to Wernicke patients. We suppose a correlation between the timing in sensorial speech processing areas and the generation of synchronization potentials.


Pulsed and cw Nd3+:YAG lasers were used in an experimental investigation of the influence of dynamic gratings in intracavity DKDP crystal elements on the main characteristics of the radiation emitted by solid-state lasers at room temperature. A hologram, formed in a DKDP crystal by a two-beam method, induced generation of pulsed laser radiation which had the spectral characteristics of a signal beam injected from outside in the form of radiation from a cw Nd3+:YAG laser. In experiments on a cw Nd3+:YAG laser the formation of a phase grating resulted in selection of transverse radiation modes. Such selection made the repetition period of the lasing spikes more regular and reduced their duration. A study was made of the dependence of the amplitude of a photoinduced electric field, inducing photorefraction, on the polarisation of the radiation of the 1.06 μm wavelength. The formation of phase gratings in a DKDP crystal was the effect of excitation of impurity centres. The results obtained indicated feasibility of extending the range of control functions which can be performed by DKDP crystal elements.


Terrestrial vertebrates show striking changes in species richness across topographic gradients. For mammals, nearly twice as many species per unit area occur in topographically complex regions as in adjacent lowlands. The geological context of this pervasive biogeographic pattern suggests that tectonic processes have a first-order impact on regional diversity.

I evaluate ecological, evolutionary, and historical influences of tectonics and topography on the regional diversity of terrestrial mammals, focusing on the hypothesis that diversification rates are higher in active versus passive tectonic settings. Ten predictions follow from this hypothesis. 1) The timing of peaks in speciation should be congruent with the timescale for tectonic episodes. 2) The rates of speciation and genetic differentiation of populations should be greater for species inhabiting topographically complex regions than spatially continuous landscapes. 3) If topographic complexity per se promotes diversification, then a cluster of young divergences should occur for montane species compared to lowland relatives. 4) Endemism in tectonically active regions should reflect origination within the region rather than range reduction from larger areas. 5) Extinction rates should differ for lineages in tectonically active regions compared to adjacent lowlands. 6) The relationship between local and regional species richness should differ between topographic settings because of higher beta diversity in topographically complex regions. 7) Species originating in topographically complex regions should colonize adjacent lowlands more often than the reverse pattern. 8) North-south mountain ranges should have higher regional species richness than east-west mountain ranges. 9) Areas with multiple mountain ranges should have higher regional species richness than comparable areas with single mountain ranges. 10) Global climate changes should affect diversification in tectonically active regions. Research addressing these topics places elevational diversity gradients into a geohistorical context and integrates data from modern biotas and the fossil record.


Nanocellulose hydrogels are a crucial category of soft biomaterials with versatile applications in tissue engineering, artificial extracellular matrices, and drug-delivery systems. In the present work, a simple and novel method, involving the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) induced by tannic acid (TA), was developed to construct a stable hydrogel (SH-CNC/TA) with oriented porous network structures. The gelation process is driven by the H-bonding interaction between the hydroxyl groups of CNCs and the catechol groups of TA, as substantiated by the atoms in molecules topology analysis and FTIR spectra. Interestingly, the assembled hydrogels exhibited a tunable hierarchical porous structure and mechanical moduli by varying the mass ratio of CNCs to TA. Furthermore, these hydrogels also demonstrate rapid self-healing ability due to the dynamic nature of the H-bond. Additionally, the structural stability of the SH-CNC/TA hydrogel could be further enhanced and adjusted by introducing coordination bonding between metal cations and TA. This H-bonding driven self-assembly method may promote the development of smart cellulose hydrogels with unique microstructures and properties for biomedical and other applications.


Explantation and cultivation in vitro of 55 human biopsies of histologically normal urothelial tissue, and 63 biopsies from transitional cell carcinomas (TCC) revealed a primary success rate of about 75% and a secondary success rate of about 50% with no significant differences, between normal and TCC derived cultures. While only half of the subcultured biopsies of normal origin were able to grow for more than 4 passages all TCC derived cultures were able to do so. Based on morphology, life span, invasive growth into co-cultured fragments of embryonic chick heart, and tumorigenicity in nude mice the following transformation grades (TGr) were defined: Normal (TGr 0), non-malignant with prolonged, but finite life span (TGr I), premalignant with infinite life span but without tumorigenic and invasive potential (TGr II), malignant with infinite life span and tumorigenic and invasive properties (TGr III). Differentiation between TGr I - TGr III was possible by several other parameters, including cytological characteristics, molecular and immunological surface structure, relative oncogene expression, pyruvate kinase isoenzymes, DNA Repair, and growth pattern. However, in addition to these common characteristics, the individual cell lines of the various categories of transformation showed differences that allowed the identification of well defined cell lines and sublines.


As 170 people sat down to dinner, I breathed a sigh of relief: The conference was going well. Running it was part of my job as a university program manager, working on a project to boost biotech collaborations between academia and industry. When I started in the role a few years earlier, I thought that maybe, after years of career exploration, I had finally found the right job for me. But at the conference, I found myself wondering whether that was really what I wanted from my career. I'm a scientist, not an event planner—but I had been too busy organizing the conference to appreciate the research being discussed. Was it time for yet another change?

![Figure][1]

ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

> "I spent a few years in each role only to find that it wasn't quite the right fit."

I had always thought that you were supposed to find the ideal job, one that ticked all the boxes. So, after my Ph.D., that's what I went looking for.

I started off as a lab scientist. But after two postdoc positions, I discovered that the highly focused nature of lab work wasn't for me. My next job was at a pharmaceutical company—conducting literature searches, compiling newsletters, and gathering information about the company's competitors. I enjoyed the work, which allowed me to stay close to research and interact with a variety of people. But I was only offered a short-term contract, so after a year I had to move on. I then became a scientific journal editor. I loved the breadth of science that I was exposed to, but the job required a lengthy commute. So, I made another dramatic change and moved back to the ivory tower for my current job.

It had become a pattern: I spent a few years in each role only to find that it wasn't quite the right fit, then moved on to try something else. In this process I built up a lot of great experience and expertise in a variety of sectors, but I felt that I'd had a series of jobs rather than a career that was moving forward in the way I wanted. I also realized that maybe I was searching for something that didn't exist.

Organizing that conference was a turning point. Although I loved the buzz I got from running a successful event, I could not deny that parts of my work were unfulfilling. But instead of moving on again, I began to think about creative ways to add the scientific stimulation I sought to my work life. I needed a way to dip into different areas of research while keeping my "regular" job. With my knowledge of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and my experience as an editor, I realized I had the skill set to do that through freelance science writing, such as news articles for journals and blogs and reports for industry.

I put out some feelers to former colleagues from my days as a journal editor and was encouraged by their positive responses. It seemed that this might actually work—if I could find the time to balance it with my staff job. I wanted to dedicate sufficient time to writing, and I felt I could do my university job on a less than full-time schedule.

I waited until the time felt right to broach the topic of reducing my work hours with my manager. The opportunity came when an informal conversation on the train turned to the next phase of the project I managed. I used this as a hook for describing how my job responsibilities could be managed in fewer hours—I proposed 80% time—and my vision for my future. He agreed before I even completed my prepared pitch, I think largely because he respected that I was taking the initiative to manage my own career. In a happy coincidence, my first freelance assignment landed in my inbox on my first day of reduced hours.

For the last year, I have been a university program manager-slash-freelance writer, and I've never been happier. Working out what kind of freelance work to take on—and just as important, turn down—so that I can weave the two roles together has been a bit tricky at times. I recently reduced my university hours to about half time to make it work. But I finally feel I have a career that is tailored to my needs. It took me a while to get here, but I've realized that a career doesn't need to be "off the shelf." Jobs can be mixed and matched to get to one that fits.

 [1]: pending:yes


A 65-year-old otherwise healthy female, with bilateral normal visual acuity, presented with a unique pattern of strabismus. She complained of esotropia and diplopia occurring after every 24 h. There was no history of previous injury or ocular surgery. Other differentials were ruled out and the patient was diagnosed as adult-onset cyclic esotropia. The patient underwent right eye medial rectus retroequatorial myopexy, which tackled both diplopia and strabismus, without causing exotropia on nonsquint days.


IETF QUIC, the standardized version of Google's UDP-based layer-4 network protocol, has seen increasing adoption from large Internet companies for its benefits over TCP. Yet despite its rapid adoption, performance analysis of QUIC in production is scarce. Most existing analyses have only used unoptimized open-source QUIC servers on non-tuned kernels: these analyses are unrepresentative of production deployments which raises the question of whether QUIC actually outperforms TCP in practice. In this paper, we conduct one of the first comparative studies on the performance of QUIC and TCP against production endpoints hosted by Google, Facebook, and Cloudflare under various dimensions: network conditions, workloads, and client implementations. To understand our results, we create a tool to systematically visualize the root causes of performance differences between the two protocols. Using our tool we make several key observations. First, while QUIC has some inherent advantages over TCP, such as worst-case 1-RTT handshakes, its overall performance is largely determined by the server's choice of congestion-control algorithm and the robustness of its congestion-control implementation under edge-case network scenarios. Second, we find that some QUIC clients require non-trivial configuration tuning in order to achieve optimal performance. Lastly, we demonstrate that QUIC's removal of head-of-line (HOL) blocking has little impact on web-page performance in practice. Taken together, our observations illustrate the fact that QUIC's performance is inherently tied to implementation design choices, bugs, and configurations which implies that QUIC measurements are not always a reflection of the protocol and often do not generalize across deployments.


Liquefied petroleum gas LPG is a good alternative to gasoline fuel. It has emerged as a solution to the deteriorating urban air quality problem especially in an oil country like Iraq. Computational model is used for parametric study of spark ignition engine works on Iraqi fuel (gasoline or LPG). Transient one dimensional continuity, momentum and energy equations are solved by two – step Lax wender off (Ritchmyer) approach to evaluate brake specific fuel consumption BSFC, brake power, brake thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency, air fuel ratio, in cylinder pressure and exhaust gas temperature. Results revealed that LPG fuel improves BSFC by 3.11% as a maximum compare to gasoline for 10 kW brake power and 9.9:1 compression ratio. The maximum cylinder pressures predicted for LPG are lower than that for gasoline fuel. The volumetric efficiency was 76.8 % for engine works with, LPG at compression ratio 9.9:1. While that for gasoline was 85.9%. The equivalence ratio is higher for gasoline than that for LPG, since the first required higher air-fuel ratio for combustion. The reported maximum exhaust gas temperature for LPG is 706C, while that for gasoline is 741.4C.


This study investigates the accuracy of the radiocarbon-based calculation of the biogenic carbon fraction for different biogas and biofossil gas mixtures. The focus is on the uncertainty in the 14C reference values for 100% biogenic carbon and on the 13C-based isotope fractionation correction of the measured 14C values. The separately (AMS) measured CO2 and CH4 fractions of 8 different biogas samples showed 14C values between 102‰ and 116% (pMC). The δ13C values of these samples varied between –6‰ and +31‰ for the CO2 fraction and between –28‰ and –62‰ for the CH4 fraction. The uncertainty in calculated biogenic carbon fractions due to uncertainty in the 14C reference values depends on the available information about the origin of the used biogenic materials. It varies between ±0.5% and ±3.5% (absolute) depending on the type of biogas. A method is proposed to minimize this uncertainty for different groups of biogases. The calculated biogenic carbon fraction deviates up to ±2.5% for biofossil gas mixtures, if the applied isotope fractionation correction is based on the δ13C value of the mixed biofossil sample instead of the biogenic δ13C value. Combination of both error sources shows that the uncertainty in the calculated biogenic carbon fraction varies between ±0.7% and ±4.5%, depending on the type of biogas in the sample.


This study aimed to determine the effect of black cumin (Nigella sativa) supplementation through drinking water on the histology of broiler chickens' small intestine and large intestine. The research was conducted from April-September 2020 in a cage facility of the Integrated Field Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Lampung. This research used a completely randomized design with four treatment groups and three replications (five broilers per replication) with a total of 60 male broilers. The treatments were drinking water without Black Cumin (P0, control); drinking water with Black Cumin 36 mg/kg BW/day (P1); 72 mg/kg BW/day (P2); and 144 mg/kg BW/day (P3). Three broilers from each group were randomly necropsied at 31 days old, and samples of the small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum) and large intestine were fixed with 10% formalin solution and sent to the Lampung Disease Investigation Center for histological preparations. The observation of preparations was carried out microscopically using the Leica DM500® Binocular Microscope to accurately calculate various parameter sizes. The results were analyzed statistically with one way Analysis of Variance at significant level 5% and if proven significant, then a Tukey test was conducted. The results of this study were that the supplementation of black cumin 72 mg/kg BW/day through drinking water could significantly increase (P0.05) 1) the average sizes of villi height and villi area of small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) and large intestine (colon) of broiler chickens; 2) the average sizes of basal villi width, villi apex width, and gland diameter of broiler duodenum; and 3) the average size of apex villi width of broiler colon. The conclusion of this study was the supplementation of black cumin at dose of 72 mg/kg BW/day through drinking water could increase the histological sizes of the small intestine and large intestine of broilers.