Thalassemias are a heterogeneous group of red blood cell disorders ranging from a clinically severe phenotype requiring life-saving transfusions (thalassemia major) to a relatively moderate symptomatic disorder, sometimes requiring transfusions (thalassemia intermedia). Thalassemia minor, the least severe form of the disorder, is characterized by minimal to mild symptoms. While thalassemia minor and intermedia are vastly more prevalent than thalassemia major, the latter is often fatal when not treated. Though considered a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, there is still no universally available cure for this severe form of thalassemia. A reason for this is at least in part due to the lack of full understanding of pathophsyiology of thalassemia. The underlying cause of pathology in thalassemia is the premature apoptotic destruction of erythroblasts causing ineffective erythropoeisis. Normally, the assembly of adult hemoglobin (consisting of a tetramer of two α- and two β-globin chains) features a very tight coordination of α- and β-globin chain synthesis. However, in β-thalassemia, β-globin synthesis is decelerated causing α-globin accumulation; while in α-thalassemia the opposite scenario occurs. Unpaired globin chains that accumulate in thalassemic erythroblasts are bound to heme. In addition, in β-thalassemia an erythroid specific protease destroys excess α-globin chains, likely leading to the generation of a pool of "free" heme in erythroblasts. "Free" heme is toxic, but this toxicity will likely be augmented, if heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) can release iron from heme. To date, virtually no information about the expression of HO-1 in erythroblasts has been produced; however, we have recently provided unequivocal evidence that this enzyme is present in several model erythroid cells1. Based on this novel and important finding, we hypothesize that in β-thalassemic erythroblasts HO-1 mediated release of iron from heme is the major culprit responsible for cellular damage. To test this hypothesis we exploited the mouse model of β-thalassemia, th3/th3. Thus far, our data indicates that HO-1 expression is increased in liver, spleen and kidney of β-thalassemic mice compared to wild type mice. Importantly, we observed that Epo-mediated erythroid differentiation of fetal liver (FL) cells isolated from β-thalassemic fetuses, display increased levels of HO-1 at mRNA and protein levels as well as decreased phosphorylated eiF2-α. Ferritin levels are also increased in these cells suggesting increased heme catabolism and iron release. Altogether, these results indicate that β-thalassemic erythroblasts have inappropriately high levels of unbound heme that is continuously degraded by HO-1. Further research is needed to determine whether HO-1 liberated iron is responsible for the damage of β-thalassemic erythroblasts.

1Garcia-Santos D, et al. Heme oxygenase 1 is expressed in murine erythroid cells where it controls the level of regulatory heme. Blood 123 (14): 2269-77, 2014.

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Cross-national data are used to explore the question of whether world urban patterns and processes are converging or diverging. We compare tabular data on overall percent urban, urban primacy, overurbanization, and urban bias across world-system strata and global regions. The evidence suggests continuing differences and little evidence for convergence. To determine whether world-system effects have causal efficacy, we conclude with a regression analysis. These results provide strong evidence for a world-system explanation of continuing differences in overall level of urbanization and urban primacy, and a developmentalist approach seems to explain persisting divergence in levels of urban bias.


The aim of this study was to determine the anti-psoriatic activity of newly formulated oil in water (O/W) creams of methanol extract of Cassia tora L. leaves using Mouse tail model. The plant C. tora has been traditionally used in the treatment of number of skin diseases. However, there is no established scientific evidence reported for its anti- psoriatic activity. Methanol extract of C. tora leaves was prepared as various concentrations of O/W creams and tested for acute dermal toxicity study. The different O/W creams showed good physical characteristics and pass the sensitivity, irri- tation, grittiness and bleeding test. The results of acute dermal toxicity study showed that the creams were safe up to the dose of 2,000 mg/kg. In the case of Mouse tail model, histopathological analysis revealed that there were absence of Munro micro abscess, elongation of rete ridges and capillary loop dilation in the sections in Test 2 (0.1%) and Standard group. O/W creams and methanol extract of C. tora leaves exhibited significant reduction in percentage relative epidermal thickness and spleen index as compared to the positive control. We concluded that topical O/W creams and crude extact containing mehthanolic extract of C. tora leaves has potent anti-psoriatic activity.


The elastic performance brings an appropriate flexibility and a restoring force for installing and maintaining the routing arrangement of the control cable which is widely used as machine elements for transmitting load and displacement. On the other hand, the non-linear elastic performance has also made it difficult to design the control cable theoretically. In this study, we considered the method of the elastic analysis for the construction with non-linear stiffness property, such as a control cable and its application for the actual design. Then, we obtained following conclusions.(1) We developed the precise FEA model for the construction with various non-linear stiffness property.(2) We developed the method to predict the routing arrangement, the performance and the durability performance.(3) This developed simulation technology have been widely used in our company as the optimal and the low-cost design method in the early stage of vehicle's development.


The contemporary media reform movement exploded into prominence in the United States in 2003 as a response to the effort by the Bush Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to weaken media ownership regulations.… The size and success of this popular uprising was…a testament to the power of activism to thwart the plans of the powerful in seemingly hopeless conditions.… The Obama campaign in 2007 and 2008 expressed interest in media reform and worked closely with members of the movement…. Except for Obama's speech against the Iraq War invasion, it was arguably his communication platform that most distinguished him as a progressive in the 2008 presidential primaries.… One can debate whether this was an appropriate strategic shift at the time but there can be no debate that the strategy failed. The Obama administration abandoned its platform almost immediately, and repudiated the movement. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Theobiology proposes that not only pertinent disciplines from the sciences be brought into theological, psychology-of-religion, and spirituality discussions and analyses but that this be done on a systematic, consistent basis. Theobiology does not presume any primacy of the sciences over theology or the psychology of religion/spirituality or vice versa. Nor is revealed knowledge or divine revelation seen as any less important than scientific knowledge. In this theory and methodology, sciences serve as tools or aids to give us deeper understanding of theology and psychology of religion/spirituality. Theobiology theoretical undergirdings include the philosophical approach, with search for truth coming about through logical reasoning rather than factual direct observation and analysis of bases and concepts of fundamental beliefs, and hermeneutics recognizing that all sciences are needed for the most accurate, appropriate interpretation of theological matters.


Urban agriculture is the integration of agricultural production systems into nontraditional spatial environments, specifically urban and suburban residential and commercial areas, as opposed to more traditional rural agricultural settings. As the world's population grows and becomes increasingly urbanized, humans bear witness to a shrinking minority of persons finding their employment in agricultural production practices. The industrialized agricultural system has bestowed consumers with many benefits, but it is accompanied by a broadening sense of disconnect between the average person and the food that he or she consumes. Urban agriculture offers the unique possibility for average citizen food consumers to become reacquainted with the intimacy that most have lost with their food—primarily how and where it is grown, handled, processed, packaged, and shipped through, all before it reaches their tables. Aquaponics is the integration of hydroponics—soilless plant production—and aquaculture—fish farming. Aquaponics presents a model for a designed ecological semi-symbiotic system, in which each of the major outputs is harvestable for human consumption, while also adding beneficial value to the other biological system components. Aquaponic integration is far more sustainable than either hydroponics or aquaculture alone, and is therefore unsurprisingly a rapidly emerging horticultural technique. Because aquaponic systems are enclosed and utilize circulating water instead of soil, they provide the capability to be integrated into urban agriculture, including areas where soil may be contaminated in brownfields or even completely nonexistent in endless asphalt acreage. Because aquaponic systems pump nutrient-rich water over roots instead of growing plants in soils, the technique also readily scales vertically, without the need to replace spent soils, further lending the practice to spatially constrained urban areas. GreenTowers, LLC is a State College, Pennsylvania startup company innovating in urban agricultural and aquaponic product design.


Summary The spotted-dorsal pattern is composed of a number of macromelanophores in the dorsal fin of the common platyfish, Platypoecilus maculatus . The spotted-dorsal pattern may be referred to the Sd gene which is dominant and sex-linked (or, more accurately, incompletely sex-linked). Sd belongs in an allelic series of four other somewhat similar genes, each of which controls the development of macromelanophores somewhere on the body of the platyfish. The spotted-dorsal pattern is found in each of the six known populations of the platyfish in six large rivers of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and British Honduras. In tests, the penetrance of the spotted-dorsal gene in members of its own population is complete. The pattern varies in its expressivity; in some individuals it may be recognized by the presence of a tiny black spot in the dorsal fin which is produced by two or three macromelanophores; in others most of the fin is blackened by many large pigment cells. There are all intermediate degrees of expressivity between these extremes. The spotted-dorsal gene shows a lower penetrance and greater range of expressivity in the first generation hybrids between members of two natural populations of platyfish. Some hybrids that carry the dominant Sd gene do not show the pattern at all. When an Sd platyfish with no pattern is mated to a swordtail, Xiphophorus hellerii , their Sd interspecific hybrids show the pattern in somewhat exaggerated form. When an Sd platyfish-swordtail hybrid is backcrossed to a swordtail, some of the Sd hybrids of the backcross generation develop melanotic tumors of the dorsal fin. The genetic analysis of the process by which a dominant gene for macromelanophore production shifts from no macromelanophore formation to the development of melanomas shows that several types of modifying genes are involved. The members of the various natural populations of the platyfish apparently have many polygene modifiers, some of which increase and others decrease Sd 9s expressivity. These effects are small compared to the modifying effects of genes of the swordtail. In addition to the modifying genes which have no other detectable effects of their own, the macro-melanophore genes are influenced by color genes like the albino gene and the golden gene. The hereditary control of melanomas in hybrid fishes rests not on one gene but on a constellation of genes. To be effective, this assemblage of genes must contain a macromelanophore gene.


We show the differences in the stability of 3d-5d (NiPt and CuAu) and 3d-4d (NiPd and CuAg) alloys arise mainly due to relativistic corrections. The magnetic properties of disordered NiPd and NiPt alloys also differ due to these corrections which lead to increase in the separation between s-d bands of 5d elements in these alloys. For the magnetic case we analyze the results in terms of splitting of majority and minority spin d-band centers of the 3d elements. We further examine the effect of relativistic corrections to the pair energies and order disorder transition temperatures in these alloys. The magnetic moments and Curie temperatures have also been studied along with the short range ordering/segregation effects in NiPt/NiPd alloys.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is one of the modulation scheme, used for high speed mobile communication. However, fast time varying multipath channels lead to loss of orthogonality of subcarriers causing inter carrier interference (ICI) in OFDM signal. In this paper, MMSE and DFIC (Decision Feedback ICI Cancellation) equalizers are implementedtoremove ICI. The information of Channel Impulse Response (CIR) required for equalizing the OFDM signal is estimated on every subcarrier using time domain Kalman Filter. The performance of MMSE and DFIC equalizers are compared on the basis of bit error rate (BER) of equalizers.


Anna Geiduschek usually has no time to respond to the recruitment emails that arrive in her in-box each week. But Geiduschek, a software engineer at Dropbox, recently made a point of turning down an Amazon Web Services recruiter by citing her personal opposition to Amazon's role in hosting another tech company's service used by U.S. government agents to target immigrants living in the country illegally for detention and deportation.


Introduction: DSMES is a critical component of diabetes (DM) care. Providers are expected to perform this service, but time for it is limited, especially for ongoing support. Digital tools, like mobile applications (apps) , show promise in extending efforts and supporting self-management, but have yet to be fully utilized. The purpose of this study was to examine provider insights on the role of mobile apps in DSMES delivery.
 Methods: DM providers representing inpatient, outpatient, and community settings were invited to complete a validated survey about experiences with and perspectives on app use for DSMES. Survey results were recorded and summarized to capture dominant themes.
 Results: Sixty providers (33% diabetes care and education specialists, DCESs, 21% endocrine clinicians) completed the survey. Of those, 17% (10/59) reported being very familiar with apps; 33% (20/59) had used an app to provide DM education while 25% (15/59) used an app for support. Respondents (77%, 46/60) primarily viewed apps as adjunct to DCES education, particularly for reinforcement. In terms of recommending apps, 90% of providers (54/60) rated patient app interest and access as most important factors to consider. In addition, 70% (42/60) agreed apps may be particularly useful to patients who use telehealth or live far from clinics. Specific to insulin, 70% agreed apps could serve as a helpful tool to prepare those new to insulin and aid with injection skills, dosing decisions and titration. Features they viewed as useful include clear set-up instructions, goal setting and digital coaching. Interestingly, outpatient DCESs reported willingness to use 15 or more minutes of visit on setting up/teaching app use, while hospital-based providers were willing to spend 5 minutes.
 Conclusion: National standards recommend digital coaching as an effective method to deliver DSMES. These findings offer important feedback for introducing digital tools into clinical practice.

 N.Mehrotra: None. J.S.Krall: Research Support; Becton, Dickinson and Company, Sanofi. J.Ng: Research Support; Sanofi. L.M.Siminerio: Advisory Panel; Abbott, Bayer AG, Research Support; Becton, Dickinson and Company, Sanofi.

 Becton, Dickinson and Company


In this paper, initial 3D ultrasound measurements from a 1024 channel system are presented. Measurements of 3D Synthetic aperture imaging (SAI) and Explososcan are presented and compared. Explososcan is the 'gold standard' for real-time 3D medical ultrasound imaging. SAI is compared to Explososcan by using tissue and wire phantom measurements. The measurements are carried out using a 1024 element 2D transducer and the 1024 channel experimental ultrasound scanner SARUS. To make a fair comparison, the two imaging techniques use the same number of active channels, the same number of emissions per frame, and they emit the same amount of energy per frame. The measurements were performed with parameters similar to standard cardiac imaging, with 256 emissions to image a volume spanning 90°×90° and 150mm in depth. This results in a frame rate of 20 Hz. The number of active channels is set to 316 from the design of Explososcan. From wire phantom measurements the point spread functions of both techniques were measured. At 40mm depth Explososcan achieves a main lobe width (FWHM) of 2.5mm while SAI's FWHM is 2.2 mm. At 80mm the FWHM is 5.2mm for Explososcan and 3.4mm for SAI, which is a difference of 35 %. Another metric used on the PSF is the cystic resolution, which expresses the ability to detect anechoic cysts in a uniform scattering media. SAI improved the cystic resolution, R20dB, at 40mm depth from 4.5mm to 1.7 mm, compared to Explososcan. The speckle pattern looked better for SAI compared to Explososcan's spatial shift variant speckle pattern.


We consider a nonlinear reaction-diffusion competition model with Neumann boundary condition. The main goal of this article is to research the existence and uniqueness of positive periodic solution when most of parameters are functions of time t and space x. We apply the lower and upper solutions method to present existence conditions of positive periodic solution. We obtain uniqueness conditions of positive periodic solution from priori estimates of the system. Moreover, Numerical simulation is carried out to illustrate feasibility of our main results.


A double mutant (R9E/M17K) of pigeon liver malic enzyme with glutamate and lysine replaced for arginine and methionine at positions 9 and 17, respectively, was found to be much more stable in urea and thermal denaturation, but was enzymatically less active than the wild‐type enzyme (WT). Unfolding of the enzyme by urea produced a large red shifting of the protein fluorescence maximum from 320 to 360 nm, which was completely reversible upon dilution. Analysis of the denaturation curves monitored by enzyme activity lost suggested that a putative intermediate was involved in the denaturation process. The half unfolding urea concentration, measured by fluorescence spectral changes, increased from 2.24 M for WT to 3.13 M for R9E/M17K. The melting temperature increased by approximately 10°C for R9E/M17K compared with that for WT. Kinetic analysis of the thermal inactivation at 58°C also conformed to a three‐state model with the rate constant for the intermediate state of R9E/M17K (k2 = 0.03 min‐1) being much smaller than the WT value (k2= 2.39 min‐1). Results obtained from single mutants indicated that the decreasing enzyme activity of R9E/M17K was exclusively due to R9 mutation, which increased the KmMn and KmMal by at least one order of magnitude compared with WT. Consequently, a decrease occurred in the specificity constant [kcat/(KmMnKmNADPKmMal)] for the R9 mutants at least four orders of magnitude smaller than the WT. M17K has similar properties to the WT, while R9E is more labile than the WT enzyme. The above results indicate that the extra stability gained by the double mutant possibly occurs through the introduction of an extra ion‐pair between E9 and K17, which freezes the double mutant in the putative intermediate state. Examination of the N‐terminal amino acid sequence of pigeon liver malic enzyme reveals that position 15 is also a lysine residue. Since the R9E mutant, which has an extra Glu9‐Lys15 ion‐pair, is less stable than the WT, we conclude that the contribution to malic enzyme stability is specific for the Glu9‐Lys17 ion‐pair. Proteins 31:61–73, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Summarizing texts is not a straightforward task. Before even considering text summarization, one should determine what kind of summary is expected. How much should the information be compressed? Is it relevant to reformulate or should the summary stick to the original phrasing? State-of-the-art on automatic text summarization mostly revolves around news articles. We suggest that considering a wider variety of tasks would lead to an improvement in the field, in terms of generalization and robustness. We explore meeting summarization: generating reports from automatic transcriptions. Our work consists in segmenting and aligning transcriptions with respect to reports, to get a suitable dataset for neural summarization. Using a bootstrapping approach, we provide pre-alignments that are corrected by human annotators, making a validation set against which we evaluate automatic models. This consistently reduces annotators' efforts by providing iteratively better pre-alignment and maximizes the corpus size by using annotations from our automatic alignment models. Evaluation is conducted on publicmeetings, a novel corpus of aligned public meetings. We report automatic alignment and summarization performances on this corpus and show that automatic alignment is relevant for data annotation since it leads to large improvement of almost +4 on all ROUGE scores on the summarization task.


Heterochrony, the relative change of developmental timing, is one of the major modes of macroevolutionary change; it identifies temporally disassociated units of developmental evolution. Here, we report the results of a fine-scale temporal study for the expression of the developmental gene hairy and morphological development in three species of Drosophila, D. melanogaster, D. simulans, and D. pseudoobscura. The results suggest that between and among closely related species, temporal displacement of ontogenetic trajectory is detected even at the earliest stage of development. Overall, D. simulans shows the earliest expression, followed by D. melanogaster, and then by D. pseudoobscura. Setting D. melanogaster as the standard, we find the approximate time to full expression is accelerated by 13 min, 48 s in D. simulans and retarded by 24 min in D. pseudoobscura. Morphologically, again with D. melanogaster setting the standard, initiation of cellularization is faster in D. simulans by 15 min, 42 s; and initiation of morphogenesis is faster in D. simulans by 18 min, 7 s. These results seem to be consistent with the finding that the approximate time to full expression of hairy is accelerated by 13 min, 48 s in D. simulans. On the other hand, the same morphological events are delayed by 5 min, 32 s, and by 11 min, 32 s, respectively, in D. pseudoobscura. These delays are small, compared with the 24-min delay in full expression. The timing changes, in total, seem consistent with continuous phyletic evolution of temporal trajectories. Finally, we speculate that epigenetic interactions of hairy expression timing and cell-cycle timing may have led to morphological differences in the terminal system of the larvae.


This article examines the impact of trace items through their evocation and elevation to the status of the sublime object. The authors focus on the impact that things left behind by the dead or missing have on those whose loved them, arguing that such traces provide a glimmer of materiality that those left behind can desperately crave.


Background Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic musculoskeletal disorder. (1). Neurologic symptoms including memory decline, mental confusion and cognitive impairment have been frequently seen in FMS (2,3). There is a positive correlation of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration with cognitive function and low levels of vitamin D were seen in fibromyalgia patients (4,5). Objectives Our aim was to evaluate the levels of 25-OH-Vitamin D and cognitive functions and their relationships in patients with FMS. Methods Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were performed for evaluation of cognitive functions and Vit-D levels were obtained. Scores lower than 26 were considered as cognitive impairment for both MOCA and MMSE. Magnetic resonance imaging findings and rates of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, 3 within the APOE gene (E2, E3, E4) were considered after neurological examination. Results Forty patients (39 women, 1 man with a median age of 48.33±1.11) were enrolled in the study. Memory deterioration was found in 29 (%73) of patients. Cognitive dysfunction was found in %15 according to MMSE scores and %30 according to MOCA scores. A total of 18 MRI studies were performed and %56 of patients have positive findings. Nine of 18 patients have ischemic lesions according to MRI findings. A total of 29 patients' APOE polymorphism were considered and one of them has ApoE2 allel, one of them has E4/E4 allel, 4 of them have Apo E3/E4 allel, and 21 of them have E3/E3 allels. Sixteen patients (%40) have Vitamin D deficiency. We did not find any correlations between cognitive test scores and Vitamin D levels. Conclusions According to the study by Myers et al. ; the cumulative incidence of Alzheimer's (AD) increased in a dose dependent fashion where 55% of the ApoE E4/E4 subjects developed AD by age 80, compared with 27% of the ApoE E3/E4 and 9% of the ApoE E3/E3 subjects by age 85 years (6). Prospective studies may be helpfull for the relationship between FMS, cognitive impairment and ApoE allels and vitamin D. References -Mease P: Fibromyalgia syndrome: review of clinical presentation, pathogenesis, outcome measures, and treatment. J Rheumatol Suppl 2005, 75:6-21 -Rodríguez-Andreu J, Ibáñez-Bosch R, Portero-Vázquez A, Masramon X, Rejas J, Gálvez R.Cognitive impairment in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome as assessed by the mini-mental state examination. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2009 Dec 21;10:162. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-10-162. -Leavitt F, Katz RS, Mills M, Heard AR.Cognitive and dissociative manifestations in fibromyalgia. J Clin Rheumatol. 2002 Apr;8(2):77-84. -Lu'o'ng KV, Nguyên LT. The beneficial role of vitamin D in Alzheimer's disease. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2011 Nov;26(7):511-20. -Armstrong DJ, Meenagh GK, Bickle I, Lee AS, Curran ES, Finch MB.Vitamin D deficiency is associated with anxiety and depression in fibromyalgia. Clin Rheumatol. 2007 Apr;26(4):551-4. Epub 2006 Jul 19. -Myers RH, Schaefer EJ, Wilson PW, D'Agostino R, Ordovas JM, Espino A, Au R, White RF, Knoefel JE, Cobb JL, McNulty KA, Beiser A, Wolf PA.Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 association with dementia in a population-based study: The Framingham study. Neurology. 1996 Mar;46(3):673-7. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Electronic polarizability is an important factor in molecular interactions. In the conventional force fields such as AMBER or CHARMM, however, there is inconsistency in how the effect of electronic dielectric screening of Coulombic interactions, inherent for the condensed phase media, is treated. Namely, the screening appears to be accounted for via effective charges only for neutral moieties, whereas the charged residues are treated as if they were in vacuum. As a result, the electrostatic interactions between ionized groups are exaggerated in molecular simulations by the factor of about 2. The discussed here MDEC (Molecular Dynamics in Electronic Continuum) model provides a theoretical framework for modification of the standard non-polarizable force fields to make them consistent with the idea of uniform electronic screening of partial atomic charges. The present theory states that the charges of ionized groups and ions should be scaled; i.e. reduced by a factor of about 0.7. In several examples, including the interaction between Na (+) ions, which is of interest for ion-channel simulations, and the dynamics of an important salt-bride in Cytochrome c Oxidase, we compared the standard non-polarizable MD simulations with MDEC simulations, and demonstrated that MDEC charge scaling procedure results in more accurate interactions. The inclusion of electronic screening for charged moieties is shown to result in significant changes in protein dynamics and can give rise to new qualitative results compared with the traditional non-polarizable force fields simulations.


Fairness assumptions have a great impact on distributed algorithms. They play a major role in determining the time complexity and the correctness of algorithms, since progress or freedom from various types of starvation may not be guaranteed without fairness assumptions. In this paper, we present a stabilizing deterministic algorithm allowing simultaneous execution of actions for strong fairness under weak fairness assumption, in addition, we show that the proposed algorithm yields a high degree of concurrency. We conclude the paper with some remarks on issues such as time optimal implementation of strong fairness and open problems related to fairness.


Developing students' critical thinking skills is often seen as an important educational goal for inquiry assignments. In this study, we investigated to what extent pre-laboratory activities of a chemical inquiry assignment influence students' independent critical thinking. We compared two forms of pre-laboratory activities that are frequently used in educational practice to prepare students for their inquiry assignments: on the one hand paved road pre-laboratory activities that lead students with sensemaking preparatory questions and on the other, critical-thinking pre-laboratory activities in which students start with the development of an experiment plan using provided information and criteria for a good experimental design. We conducted this study two years in succession in senior year Dutch high school chemistry classes during an inquiry assignment that involved the study of the relation between reaction kinetics and molecular reaction mechanisms of organic nucleophilic substitution reactions (SN1/SN2). We focused on aspects associated with critical thinking, such as the desire to understand what is observed and to be able to adjust an existing method or model on the basis of experimental data. The results show that the design of pre-laboratory activities strongly influence the critical thinking exhibited by students during their inquiry activities, whereby students who perform critical thinking pre-laboratory activities are more motivated to think more deeply about the meaning of their measurements than students that perform paved road pre-laboratory activities.


This article presents results of a study aimed at analyzing the entrepreneurial profile of Barbacena hamburgerias owners, based on the dimensions developed by McClelland (1961) and refined by Kruger et al. (2018). Regarding the method, the study can be characterized as quantitative involving the application of questionnaires with 21 hamburgerias owners in the city of Barbacena (MG). The empirical results show that the majority of respondents are male, have a high level of education and have been in the market for over a year. Taking as a reference the dimensions of the McClelland model (1961), the entrepreneurial profile identified in most of the owners was that of Planning. The characteristic "goal setting" was the one that stood out the most among the investigated entrepreneurs, while "taking calculated risks" was the least seen in the surveyed sample. As for its contribution, the study contributes, in some way, to the increase in the range of national surveys on entrepreneur profiles, since, only more recently, studies on types of entrepreneurs in the country have been carried out. Key-words: entrepreneurship; entrepreneur behaviors; types of entrepreneurs; burgers.


A small electric melter was developed to implement studies for converting radioactive waste to glass at the Savannah River Laboratory (SRL). The ceramic-lined, joule-heated melter has been in operation for ten months. During this period, simulated, high-level-waste, calcined materials and frit were processed at rates of 2 to 15 g/min. The melt chamber is 7.6-cm wide, 22.9-cm long and 7.6-cm deep. The total power consumption is 3.5 KVA when the glass processing temperature is 1150/sup 0/C. A similar unit will be in operation in FY-1979 in the SRL high-level cells.


Digital images often contain "noise" which takes away their clarity and sharpness. Most of the existing denoising algorithms do not offer the best solution because there are difficulties such as removing strong noise while leaving the features and other details of the image intact. Faced with the problem of denoising, we tried solving it with a Convolutional Neural Network architecture called the "U-Net". This paper deals with the training of a U-Net to remove 3 different kinds of noise: Gaussian, Blockiness, and Camera shake. Our results indicate the effectiveness of U-Net in denoising images while leaving their features and other details intact


Mainly based on the observation that overexpression of CD23 in B-CLL cells is regulated by Notch2, deregulation of the Notch pathway has been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). The aim of the present study was to assess a possible functional role of the Notch pathway in CLL. To this end we performed two kind of experiments. First we co-cultured primary CLL cells with either L cells or OP9 cells expressing the Notch ligands DeltaLike1 (DL1) and Jagged1 (Jag1). This did not affect cell survival in CLL. Next we evaluated the effect of the g-secretase inhibitors GSI-1 and GSI-9 (DAPT) which have been shown to block intracellular processing of all four Notch receptors. Here we encountered a surprising dichotomy: whereas DAPT was unable to induce apoptosis in CLL, it did inhibit lineage commitment of early thymic precursors by means of DL-1 triggering of the Notch1 receptor (Dontje et al, Blood 15 March 2006, Vol. 107, No. 6). In contrast we found that GSI-1 was a potent inducer of apoptosis in CLL, but did not affect Notch1 dependent lineage commitment, indicating that GSI-1-induced apoptosis in B-CLL is not due to inhibition of Notch signaling. Instead, we observed efficient GSI-1 mediated blocking of the proteasome, measured using a 20S proteasomal activity assay (Fig. 1). The blocking activity was equivalent to that observed with two well known proteasome inhibitors, Bortezomib and MG-132. In contrast DAPT had no effect on proteasome activity. Furthermore, GSI-1-induced apoptosis was associated with a transcription-independent accumulation of the BH3-only protein Noxa. The pivotal role of Noxa in GSI-1 mediated apoptosis was demonstrated via RNAi in a model system. Importantly, p53 functionality proved not to be required for GSI-1-induced apoptosis. In summary, we have shown that GSI-1 efficiently blocks the proteasome and that this induces p53-independent apoptosis in B-CLL. Therefore, GSI-1, or similar compounds that inhibit g-secretase activity, may be an effective treatment option in B-CLL.


Software engineering is the discipline which paves the roadmap for development of software within given schedule and effort and with the desired quality. The initial process with software development includes estimating the size, effort and time required for the development of the software. With the increasing size and complexity of software, software development has become a more tedious process and hence needs to take care of even the simplest activity in the development process. Several techniques are available for effort estimation. However, none of the existing methods guarantees the necessary accuracy. In this paper, we develop the web based tool, based on function point analysis, which shows the influence of quality attributes in estimation and increases the accuracy of effort estimation. By implication, the research suggests that the web based tool is efficient and accurate to make estimators and developers more accruable in the software estimation.


This evidence-based pilot project was implemented to optimize gestational weight gain (GWG) among women enrolled for prenatal care at a private practice. Evidence from meta-analyses and large studies show: 1) an association between excess GWG and increased risk of fetal macrosomia and increased cesarean delivery; 2) 66% of women do not know their healthy GWG target; 3) a 20% reduction in excess GWG in women receiving diet or exercise interventions or both. In addition, visual plotting of weight gain has helped overweight adults reduce and maintain weight loss over a one-year period. Nutrition assessment using a validated nutritional screening questionnaire called starting the conversation (STC) was utilized to screen women for their dietary habits, measure readiness for change, and set individualized dietary change goals at the first prenatal appointment. Women were provided verbal and written education on increasing physical activity and exercise to at least 150 minutes per week at moderate intensity. An individualized visual plot of gestational weight gain was created and shown to woman at every visit with anticipatory guidance on expected weight gain for upcoming prenatal visits. Data was collected retrospectively and reviewed from patients' charts a year prior to intervention and compared to intervention year. The data was assessed for (1) Change in nutritional assessment score at 36 weeks in comparison to score at first prenatal visit (2). Proportion of women gaining appropriate weight. Only 7% screened positive for needing further nutritional education by scoring greater than seven on the STC prescreening, and none screened positive on the STC post-screening. Only 35% of participants exceeded the recommended weight gain, compared to 64% the year prior.


Abstract Late instars of 3 littoral Cafius Curtis species [Cafius fucicola Curtis, C. nauticus (Fairmaire), C. vestitus (Sharp)] are described for the first time by using sequences of mitochondrial gene. In total, 13 unknown larvae were collected in association with adults from the Nearctic and Palearctic regions. The partial cytochrome oxidase II (CO II) gene was sequenced from the unknown larvae and several identified adult specimens for adults-larvae association. The range of intraspecific p-distance was from 0 to 2.30% and the minimum interspecific p-distance was 14.46% between Cafius nauticus and C. vestitus. Parsimony and distance analyses were conducted and individuals of a single species were always grouped closely together. Based on these results, the unknown larvae were identified and diagnostic characters of the species are provided, with illustrations of features.


The aims of this research is to describe the kind of symbols used on internet chatting. Besides elaborating the relation between the symbol and the signee. And the last one of study is to describe the meaning of the symbols used in internet chatting. Since the research explores the symbols used in the internet chatting, qualitative approach is deemed to be the precise research design. The data obtained are described comprehensively by classifying the symbols, analyzing the representation of the symbols based on semiotic approach, and interpreting the meaning of symbols based on the context of the internet chatting text. The findings show that the symbols consists of number, letter, combination of number and letter, and the emoticons or smiley. The sample of the number, consist of '2' and '4'. For the letter consist of 'R', 'U', 'b', 'Ur', 'ASL', 'btw', and so on. For emoticons consist of ':-)', ':-(', ':-P', ':-D', ':-C', ';-)', ':- ))', ':~', '|-)', '(-_-)', '^_^', ':-|', and '8-O'. Those symbols have different meaning or references with different interpreters because they can be interpreted in denotative level as signifier or in connotative level as signified.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the risk of incident diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients with psoriasis and to evaluate DM treatment patterns among patients with psoriasis and incident DM.

DESIGN
Population-based cohort study.

SETTING
United Kingdom-based electronic medical records.

PATIENTS
We matched 108 132 patients with psoriasis aged 18 to 90 years with 430 716 unexposed patients based on practice and time of visit. For our nested study, only patients who developed incident DM during our study time were included.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Incident DM and adjusted risk of pharmacotherapy among those with incident DM.

RESULTS
The fully adjusted hazard ratios (95% CIs) for incident DM were 1.14 (95% CI, 1.10-1.18), 1.11 (95% CI, 1.07-1.15), and 1.46 (95% CI, 1.30-1.65) in the overall, mild, and severe psoriasis groups, respectively. Among those with incident DM and severe psoriasis, the adjusted risk for receiving DM pharmacotherapy was 1.55 (95% CI, 1.15-2.10).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that psoriasis is an independent risk factor for the development of type 2 DM in a dose-dependent manner, and that patients with severe psoriasis who develop DM are more likely to receive systemic diabetic therapies in comparison with patients with DM but without psoriasis.


A rare example of the addition of sulfur to a phosphaalkene double bond leading to 1,2λ3,σ3-thiaphosphirane 4 is described. The relative accessibility of this compound has allowed the study of some of the chemical properties of the thiaphosphirane ring. The thermodynamic stability of 1,2λ3,σ3-thiaphosphiranes compared with λ5,σ3-phosphoranes has been studied by DFT calculations.


In the leader-following approach, it has been commonly assumed that the leader robot's velocity information may be either measured or telecommunicated. However, in some circumstances, it is difficult to satisfy it because the follower robots may not have the sensor or the communication device to obtain accurate enough leader robot's velocity. Therefore this study proposes an adaptive formation control approach for multiple mobile robots in the absence of the velocity information of the leader robot. The proposed control system only requires a knowledge of the leader–follower relative distance and the bearing angle. The smooth projection algorithm is employed to estimate time-invariant or time-varying velocities of the leader robot. Using Lyapunov stability theory, it is shown that the formation errors are uniformly ultimately bounded and converge to an adjustable neighbourhood of the origin. Simulation and experiment results are provided to demonstrate the performance and stability of the proposed formation scheme.


Waterflooding is a common secondary oil recovery process. Performance of waterfloods in mature fields with a significant number of wells can be improved with minimal infrastructure investment by optimizing injection/production rates of individual wells. However, a major bottleneck in the optimization framework is the large number of reservoir flow simulations often required. In this work we propose a new method based on streamline-derived information that significantly reduces these computational costs in addition to making use of the computational efficiency of streamline simulation itself. We seek to maximize the long-term net present value of a waterflood by determining optimal individual well rates, given an expected albeit uncertain oil price and a total fluid injection volume. We approach the optimization problem by decomposing it into two stages which can be implemented in a computationally efficient manner. The two-stage streamline-based optimization approach can be an effective technique when applied to reservoirs with a large number of wells in need of an efficient waterflooding strategy over a 5 to 15 year period.


We studied whether endothelin-1 (ET-1) and leukotoxin (Lx), which have a different effects on vascular tone in isolated perfused rat lungs, also have different effects on mitochondrial function in edematous lung injury. Lung mitochondria were extracted from isolated perfused rat lungs exposed to each mediator. In lungs exposed to 0.5 nmol of ET-1, lung wet weight increased with a markedly elevated perfusion pressure but with no increase in the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), an index of cell damage, into the perfusate. Neither mitochondrial respiration rate no ATP content in the lung tissue differed from those of untreated lungs. In contrast, in lungs treated with 30 mumol of Lx, lung wet weight markedly increased despite a small elevation of perfusion pressure; release of LDH into the perfusate increased, and the mitochondrial respiration rate in state 3 adn 4 significantly decreased while the ATP content in the lung tissue was less than in untreated lungs. We also examined cellular and mitochondrial damage in hydrostatic lung edema caused by raising an outflow reservoir. Mitochondrial respiration was not suppressed, and perfusate LDH activity was not increased, although lung wet weight increased as much as it did after the treatment described above. These results indicate that lung mitochondrial function is differentially affected by ET-1 and Lx, and they suggest that abnormalities in energy production by lung mitochondria are related to permeability edema.


The interline power flow controller (IPFC) and the unified power flow controller (UPFC) are both advanced types of flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS). These devices can provide the power system with control of voltage, and that of real and reactive power. This paper reviews the literature on UPFC and IPFC FACTS devices in voltage control and covers two main areas of research (i) voltage control using FACTS devices, and (ii) UPFCs / IPFCs and their applications in power systems. FACTs devices are applied in modern power system networks for the purpose of voltage control while at the same time providing enhanced power system stability. Research has shown that their benefits in the long run outweighs their high cost especially when they are optimally sized and located in the power network. Moreover, in the planning of power transmission systems, a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique can help in the incorporation of both the costs and technical viability. This approach provides techno-economic optimization and at the same time meeting environmental criteria.


The objective of this study is proposing strategies to strengthen research competencies needed by engineers in training. An analytical, situation research was conducted in four Engineering programs from a public university located in the municipality of Valledupar, Cesar Department, in Colombia. A Likert-scale questionnaire of 50 items was designed; while a document, review was performed applying a matrix that systematized the information about the study plan. Ten experts and five experts respectively validated the content of the questionnaire and of the matrix. The interpretation of the data evidenced that the greatest deficiencies of students were methodological competencies such as "result analyses". They lack foundations on the use and interpretation of data, which hinders data processing for disseminating results, conclusions and recommendations in research reports. It is therefore necessary to transform the curriculum, including better teaching, pedagogical and didactic methods.


In the USA, syringe services programmes (SSPs) provide a range of harm reduction services and have numerous benefits for communities. However, stigma, misconceptions about SSPs and changing policies/legislation remain a challenge to effective implementation. This study reviews the implementation of two digital interventions, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence, which used social media influencers and digital volunteers to communicate positive information about harm reduction and SSPs. The intervention was designed to deliver accurate and supportive messaging in locally relevant and meaningful ways. Messaging was informed by interviews with subject matter experts and community organisations, and was integrated into prompts used by local influencers (paid individuals with more than 1,000 followers) and digital volunteers (unpaid individuals with no following requirement, who joined the project independently). In the first 6 months of implementation, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence engaged a total of 9,014 individuals, 236 of whom were paid influencers and 8,778 of whom were digital volunteers. Paid influencer posts achieved a total of 868,943 impressions, 42,432 engagements and 1,567 comments. Comments on paid influencer posts were overwhelmingly positive, with 87.4% positive and 0.8% negative. Interviews showed the importance of understanding local realities, leading with compassion and emphasising the 'human' aspects of dependency and addiction in messaging. This study shows the potential to implement an influencer-led social media intervention to reach people with authentic and compassionate messaging about harm reduction and SSPs. Future research should examine intervention effectiveness and how this approach can be applied to other stigmatised topics.


Research suggests that addressing dying patients' existential concerns can improve their quality of life. We aimed to illuminate dying patients' existential concerns about the impending death through a descriptive analysis of semistructured interviews with 17 patients in Danish hospices. The main findings demonstrated how the patients faced the imminent death without being anxious of death but sorrowful about leaving life. Some patients expressed that they avoided thinking about death. They wished to focus on positive aspects in their daily life. We argue that the patients' existential concerns could not be fully captured by Yalom's existential psychology or by Kübler-Ross's theory about death stages. Patients' complex concerns could be more fully explained taking an outset in Heidegger's phenomenological thinking.


Ball pythons (Python regius) are among the most popular reptile pets in the world. Benin, Ghana and Togo provide almost 100% of the specimens exported mainly to USA and EU since 1976. Ball pythons are thus the most heavily traded CITES-listed species exported from Africa, with hundreds of thousands of specimens involved in international trade every year. Specimens are exported under CITES source codes "C', "R" and 'W', in 0.5%, 93.5% and 6% of the cases, respectively. The species has a large distribution, fast reproductive rate, and occurs in a wide range of habitats. However, despite the viability of sustainable ranching illegal trade is believed to be still occurring and even increasing. For instance, in Benin, an illegal link with the bush meat trade was discovered, leading to a prohibition on ranching. Trade focuses on the most vulnerable life stages, i.e. neonates and gravid females and harvest methods may damage nests. Agricultural mechanization, chemical pest controls and atmosphere warming coupled with frequent flooding in the species preferred habitat (climate change) are likely to worsen the situation. In some areas, notably Benin, harvesting has therefore become a potentially serious threat to wild populations. In some areas local traditions and taboos may protect the snakes from over-harvesting. Considering all abovementioned we make recommendations for future management.


Methods of treating stiffness in proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints in flexion and dorsal instability of the PIP joint are presented. The author points out that an exact knowledge of the volar aspect of the PIP joint is essential to diagnosing these problems and treating them effectively.


ABSTRACT The carbonate-dominated Mesozoic sequence of the Transdanubian Mountain Range contains Triassic, uranium-enriched phosphorite layers and Cretaceous, REE-enriched nodular phosphorite. Detailed investigation of these deposits may have an economic benefit because of their large U and REE contents. The dominant minerals in the Triassic phosphorite are carbonate-bearing fluorapatite (CFA) and calcite. According to the electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) the U is mainly associated with the CFA crystals. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) measurement shows that CFA contains 137–612 ppm U and 113–261 ppm total REE + Y. The LA-ICP-MS U-Pb age of the uppermost phosphorite horizon is 237 ± 11 Ma, which conforms with the stratigraphic age of the host limestone. The Cretaceous nodular phosphorite occurs on the base of an Aptian crinoid-bearing limestone mostly in the form of encrustations around bio- and silicic-clasts, but the clasts also contain phosphorite. The main minerals in these crusts are CFA, calcite, quartz, glauconite and Fe-oxide-hydroxides. Based on EPMA the REE enrichment is related to CFA and LA-ICP-MS measurements show that it contains 748–2953 ppm total REE + Y. The redox-sensitive proxies and the shape of NASC normalized REE patterns indicate that both phosphorites formed in anoxic environments. There are significant differences between these deposits such as appearance, rock-forming minerals, and U and REE contents which indicate differences in their sedimentary environments. The present results suggest that the Triassic phosphorite was formed by inorganic precipitation in a reducing environment close to sea-mounts. The Cretaceous occurrence resulted from a concentric growth mechanism in cold, ascending seawater at the continental margin environment during the anoxic Selli Event (OAE 1a) and/or Paquier Episode (OAE 1b). The critical raw material contents were derived from other sources.


In order to improve the electricity generation performance of fuel cell electric vehicles, it is necessary to optimize the microstructure of the catalyst layer of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. The catalyst layer is formed by a wet coating process using catalyst inks. Therefore, it is very important to observe the microstructure of the catalyst ink. In this study, the morphology of carbon-supported platinum (Pt/C) particles in catalyst inks with a different solvent composition was investigated by cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM). In addition, the morphology of the ionomer, which presumably influences the formation of agglomerated Pt/C particles in a catalyst ink, was investigated by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The results of a cryo-SEM observation revealed that the agglomerated Pt/C particles tended to become coarser with a higher 1-propanol (NPA) weight fraction. The results of a cryo-TEM observation indicated that the actual ionomer dispersion in a catalyst ink formed a network structure different from that of the ionomer in the solvent.


A transport-based small-signal analysis of the fundamental mode of propagation in a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) waveguide is presented. The formulation incorporates the full set of Maxwell's equations and the equations of motion of the carriers based on a drift-diffusion model, providing a quantitative description of the space-charge wave induced of the surface of the semiconductor. Effects of an external DC bias on the propagation characteristics are also accounted for. Numerical solutions to the system of equations for a waveguide with typical material parameters and dimensions are obtained using an iterative algorithm. Results indicate that the transverse component of the electric field in the semiconductor is strongly influenced by the screening effect of the charge carriers, whereas the longitudinal component is governed mainly by energy dissipation arising from the conduction current. >


Background: The Pay-for-performance (P4P) program of diabetes care has demonstrated successful outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, the effectiveness of this multidisciplinary care model for psychiatric patients has never been evaluated. The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of P4P program of diabetes for psychiatric patients with diabetes. Methods: This study utilized a retrospective cohort design to examine the effectiveness of P4P program of diabetes care for psychiatric patients with diabetes. The participants' HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) data of the fourth quarter in 2018 were used as baseline value, while P4P program was not applied yet. HbA1c data of every quarter in 2019 were collected. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) was used to analyze the change of HbA1c level. Results: The HbA1c level increased slightly in the first quarter, and then decreased gradually since the second quarter. The HbA1c level was significantly lower in the fourth quarter after P4P program intervention (p < 0.05). Conclusion: P4P program of diabetes care is also effective on psychiatric patients with diabetes, and this multidisciplinary care model could be encouraged and promoted for psychiatric patients with diabetes.


Abstract The Near Real-Time System for Estimating the Seismic Damage in Romania, implemented in 2012 at the National Institute for Earth Physics, is one of the automated systems that can directly contribute to saving many lives right after a major earthquake, by translating earthquake parameters into damage probabilities for different areas within Romanian counties and showing emergency intervention necessities, and can also lead to mitigation actions before an earthquake, through raising awareness and highlighting vulnerable aspects of the building stock and economic and social impacts. This paper aims to present the scientific background of this constantly upgrading system, and to show different results for relevant scenarios, for intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquakes and other crustal earthquakes. Several important questions are tried to be answered, like: "How credible are the estimated losses?", "What are the most vulnerable aspects?" or "How can the damage maps be useful for authorities?". Currently, the system uses for building loss estimation the analytical methods (as the Improved-Displacement Capacity Method - I-DCM) implemented within the open-source software SELENA (SEismic Loss EstimatioN using a logic tree Approach), together with HAZUS methods for estimating the human casualties. The building stock is defined through 48 different capacity and fragility curves, depending on construction material, height and age. As hazard data, PGA and SA values obtained through the ShakeMap System and based on real recordings and attenuation relations are used. The area currently analyzed by the system consists of 19 Romanian Counties, capital Bucharest and 9 regions in northern Bulgaria; resolution of the data is at administrative unit (commune or city) level. We aim to provide an insight of each part of this system, justify the choices made and also discuss the improvement possibilities.


With the Bonebridge, a new bone-anchored hearing aid has been available since March 2012. The objective of the study was to analyse the visualisation of the implant itself as well as its impact on the representation of the bony structures of the petrosal bone in CT, MRI and cone beam CT (CBCT). The Bonebridge was implanted unilaterally in two completely prepared human heads. The radiological imaging by means of CBCT, 64-slice CT, 1.5-T and 3.0-T MRI was conducted both preoperatively and postoperatively. The images were subsequently evaluated from both the ENT medical and nd radiological perspectives. As anticipated, no visualisation of the implant or of the petrosal bones could be realised on MRI because of the interactive technology and the magnet artefact. In contrast, an excellent evaluability of the implant itself as well as of the surrounding neurovascular structures (sinus sigmoideus, skull base, middle ear, inner ear, inner auditory canal) was exhibited in both the CT and in the CBCT. The Bonebridge can be excellently imaged with the radiological imaging technologies of CT and CBCT. In the process, CBCT shows discrete advantages in comparison with CT. No relevant restrictions in image quality in the evaluation of the bony structures of the petrosal bones could be seen.


The article introduces the complete digital edition of Tommaso Campanella's letters. It is a transcription of the full corpus of 172 letters written by Campanella in the years 1591-1639. This work is built on the print collection edited by Germana Ernst and published in 2010 by Olschki. Beyond metadata, an asset in themselves, each letter is enriched by information about the manuscript source (including the archive or the library holding it), the various editions, and a brief summary. The collection offers a detailed and comprehensive vision of the harsh conditions Campanella had to live through during the trials and the long years of imprisonment, at the same time showing, first-hand, the philosophical and theological discussions he had with learned of his time. In order to enhance this intellectual network, the opportunity of including the collection within the great Italian and European epistolary projects has been explored.


Introduction: Parents are children's primary nurturers, and the responsibility of proper guidance of their children falls on their shoulders. Each parent, however, differs in the way they interact with their children. Do these interactions correlate, in any way, with the way the personality traits that their children develop, when they grow up, is the question that has been tried to answer in this study. Methodology: The study was conducted on 100 MBBS students of the 4th year of MMMC and H Kumarhatti, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. Two self-administered questionnaires were administered to the students: (1) International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE)- ICD 10 was used to screen for the personality traits of students and (2) the Perceptions of Parents Scale to assess the students' retrospective perception of their parents' methods of parenting. Result: MAS and FAS were found to be significantly negatively correlated with paranoid trait among students;MW was significantly negatively correlated with paranoid trait among students; and FI,FASand FW were significantly negatively correlated with borderline trait, and FI was significantly negatively correlated with dependant traits. Conclusion: Parenting style of both parents as seen in the study, does show correlation with development of some personality traits of their wards.


Tendons are connective tissue structures of paramount importance to human ability of locomotion. The understanding of their physiology and pathology is gaining importance as advances in regenerative medicine are being made today. So far, very few studies were conducted to extend the knowledge about pathology, healing response and management of tendon lesions. In this paper we summarise actual knowledge on structure, process of healing and ageing of the tendons. The structure of tendon is optimised for the best performance of the tissue. Despite the simplicity of the healing response, numerous studies showed that the problems with full recovery are common and much more significant than we thought; that is why we discussed the issue of immobilisation and mechanical stimulation during healing process. The phenomenon of tendons' ageing is poorly understood. Although it seems to be a natural and painless process, it is completely different from degeneration in tendinopathy. Recent studies of biological treatment reported faster and optimal healing of the tendons when augmented by growth factors and stem cells. Despite advances in biology of tendons, management of their injuries is still a challenge for physicians; therefore, further studies are required to improve treatment outcomes.


Background: Two calcified objects recovered from an adolescent in a burial site in Amiens, France, have been previously identified as hydatid cysts using thin-section petrography. The importance of ancient hydatidosis besides the value of these unique archeological excavated materials encouraged the authors to look at this attractive subject more interdisciplinary by implementing medical radiology. Methods: In the current experiment, which has been carried out in the Radiology Department, Tehran Heart Center (THC), Tehran, Iran, the conventional and dual-energy dual-source Tomography, X-Ray Computed-scan was used in studying the remaining structures of the two calcified masses. The imaging procedure was carried out based on X-Ray attenuation by two different tube voltages. Results: A high concentration of calcium sediment in the cyst walls was revealed in Hounsfield units, the measuring of the elements in CT. Taking advantage of implementing this imaging technique the oxalate calcium was also shown as the dominant component of the samples. The results were all in favor of diagnosing hydatid cysts. Conclusion: The achieved pictorial results in the present paper have highlighted the important role of CT scan as a noninvasive confirming technique in paleopathological investigations. Using Dual-source dual-energy CT-scan in reconfirming these previously identified hydatid cysts, is an encouraging message towards the necessity of sequential studies on invaluable biological excavated pieces.


Human exposure to toxic metals is a concern of the highest priority, due to their vast array of biological effects, including carcinogenicity. The particulate (water insoluble) form of several heavy metals presents a higher carcinogenic potential than its soluble counterparts. Our previous work demonstrates that the particulate forms of different heavy metals, such as nickel oxide, cadmium sulfide and mercury sulfide, stimulate human L1 mobile element activity leading to genomic instability. We present data demonstrating that the soluble form of CdCl2 also stimulates L1 retrotransposition in a dose-dependent manner comparable to the insoluble carcinogenic form of this compound. Reproducible results demonstrated a 2 to 3 fold dose-dependent increase in L1 retrotransposition compared to control cells. Heavy metals may cause DNA breaks through the generation of reactive oxygen species. However, evaluation of DNA damage by comet assay revealed no differences between the negative controls and the CdS-treated cells. In addition, active L1 elements express a protein with endonuclease activity that can generate toxicity through the creation of double strand breaks. To determine the contribution of the L1 endonuclease to the toxicity observed in our metal treatment assays, we compared the wild-type L1 vector with an L1 endonuclease-mutant vector. The presence of an active L1 endonuclease did not contribute significantly to the toxicity observed in any of the CdCl2 or CdS doses evaluated. No correlation between the creation of DNA breaks and L1 activity was observed. Alternatively, heavy metals inhibit enzymatic reactions by displacement of cofactors such as Zn and Mg from enzymes. Concomitant treatment with Mg(Ac)2 and Zn(Ac)2 ppb suppresses the stimulatory effect on L1 activity induced by the 3.8 ppb CdS treatment. Overall, these results are consistent with our previous observations, suggesting that the mechanism of L1 stimulation by heavy metals is most likely due to an overall inhibition of DNA repair proteins or other enzymes caused by the displacement of Mg and Zn from cellular proteins.


Lewis Corey presents the reader with a detailed description of the crisis that is confronting the middle class. This crisis which has as its underlying cause the economic paralysis that confronts the world and the inability of government to help master the means of production and distribution. This situation has created an unnecessary poverty and, through social pressure and dislocation, brought about a new social order. He contends that during this period of crisis and social change the entrenched interests will attempt to hold on to their power by abandoning the principles of capitalism and democracy by carrying out a fascist repression of progressive forces. Corey contends that this crisis is a result of the decline of capitalism and that any remedy must be based on the split between the propertied and propertyless elements of the middle class.


We report on the exploration of perpendicular exchange bias in iron platinum/nickel oxide (FePt/NiO) bilayer thin films grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on MgO (100) substrates. Exchange bias is an important property for giant magnetoresistance, and, as such has promise for applications in spin valves, magnetic sensors and magnetic random access memory. The magnetic L1_0 phase of FePt is known for having high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, tunable coercivity/grain size and large magnetic storage density. The FePt layer was first deposited directly on MgO, followed by the deposition of the NiO layer on top of the FePt layer. The coercivity of the L1_0 FePt layer was tuned during growth to form a hard or soft magnetic layer. The FePt/NiO thin films grown for this study exhibit perpendicular exchange bias at 5K, as quantified using our SQUID measurements. XRD confirms parallel plane ordering between the MgO (200), FePt (002) and NiO (111) atomic planes while cross sectional TEM confirms the epitaxial growth of L1_0-FePt(001)<100>//MgO(100)<001> and the preferential growth of NiO on top of the FePt. Films of only FePt were grown to examine the surface architecture of the ferromagnetic layer and thus the interface of the FePt/NiO bilayer. The results from our XRD, TEM and magnetometry characterization of the FePt films and FePt/NiO bilayer thin films will be discussed.


We investigate the aggregation kinetics of a simulated telechelic polymer gel. In the hybrid molecular dynamics (MD)/Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm, aggregates of associating end groups form and break according to MC rules, while the position of the polymers in space is dictated by MD. As a result, the aggregate sizes change over time. In order to describe this aggregation process, we employ master equations. They define changes in the number of aggregates of a certain size in terms of reaction rates. These reaction rates indicate the likelihood that two aggregates combine to form a large one, or that a large aggregate splits into two smaller parts. The reaction rates are obtained from the simulations for a range of temperatures. Our results indicate that the rates are not only temperature dependent, but also a function of the sizes of the aggregates involved in the reaction. Using the measured rates, solutions to the master equations are shown to be stable and in agreement with the aggregate size distribution, as obtained directly from simulation data. Furthermore, we show how temperature-induced variations in these rates give rise to the observed changes in the aggregate distribution that characterizes the sol-gel transition.


In this paper, the personal financial assessment system of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch in Suzhou was used for a example, during the designing and testing in parallel, according to test results, we propose a method to calculate the satisfaction of the software system, to judge the performance of the system and to analysis the extent of the various stages of testing changes, then evaluate the quality of the system changes.


This demo presents MultiNet, a novel method for joining devices to a domestic Wi-Fi network. MultiNet dynamically reconfigures the network to accept each device, rather than configuring each device to fit the network as is the norm. It does so by assuming that each device is pre-configured with a cryptographically generated WPA2 network SSID/passphrase pair, and then providing a lightweight interaction through which the user creates a new network for each device. This approach makes securely adding devices to a wireless network straightforward without compromising security or burdening the user, and maintaining backward compatibility with existing deployed standards and protocols.
 The demo deploys a MultiNet Access Point (AP) and a number of Wi-Fi enabled consumer devices to allow viewers to dynamically construct and deconstruct the network via the MultiNet controller currently implemented as an app on an Android phone (Figure 1). The code for MultiNet is publicly available under open-source licenses.


Taking into account a high strength of source material for cubiform rubble production, the only way to prepare material for its further mechanical processing is a complex of drilling and blasting operations. Stress state of rock mass, its physical and mechanical properties determine the nature of destruction. Presently, there is no convincing and accurate calculation of the stress state during blasting. The task of optimal control of blasting lied in selecting the method of charges allocation in the rock mass and their mode of action in time, which would meet some technical and economic criteria. Finding the optimal blasting schemes was implemented as a search for extremum points of objective function in the space of controlled variables. Using mathematical models, laboratory research of the influence of deep-hole charges allocation on destruction of environment models was conducted. Analysis of key blasting results showed the advantage of such blasting schemes and charge structures which ensure maximum tensile force (and stress) in the rock mass in three mutually perpendicular planes. It was found that high efficiency of multi-directional charge initiation, which allows creating in the rock mass a complex-stress state with a predominance of tensile and shear stresses, promotes both crushing and softening of blasted rock mass.


ABSTRACT Delgadillo-Calzadilla, M.A.; Mendoza, E.; Silva, R.; González-Vázquez, J.A., and Infante-Mata, D., 2014. Beach erosion in San Benito Chiapas, Mexico: Assessment and possible solution. The study area is on the Gulf of Tehuantepec, where a harbour was built at San Benito, near Tapachula, Chiapas, in 1972. Two breakwaters, of 630 m and 800 m, respectively, were constructed to provide protection to the harbour channel. Erosion problems were detected near the harbour even before it was opened to trade. The original design had many flaws as no wave climate analysis had been done and littoral drift had not been taken into account. In 1975, 17 groins were built with the aim of reducing the erosion on the adjacent beach. These were unsuccessful and, in 1980, a rock armour apron was built at the most seriously eroded section in a further attempt to minimize the problem and to protect the population. However, the erosion continues at a rate of around 25 m per year in some sections. Commercial and navigation activities at the harbour are important for the population of San Benito and its surroundings, so coastal management policies must facilitate harmonic coexistence between human activities and the coastal system. This study analyses the problem and offers alternative solutions for minimizing the beach erosion using hard and/or soft solutions.


To investigate the pharmacokinetic and bioavailability of polydatin (PD) in rats after oral and intravenous administration, a simple, rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of polydation. After precipitating the plasma proteins with methanol, the analytes were separated on a C18 column (3.5µm, 2.1×100 mm) with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of methanol-acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid (18: 15: 67, v/v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3mL/min. The Agilent G6410A triple quadrupole LC/MS system was operated under the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode and the electrospray ionization technique was in negative mode. Linear responses were obtained for PD ranging from 1.0-5000.0 ng/mL (r= 0.9984) and the LLOQ was 1.0ng/ml and was sufficient for the pharmacokinetic studies. The intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision of the assay were less than 8.0%. The method is capable of quantifying PD. The pharmacokinetic parameters of polydatin after intragastric administration of PD with different doses (50, 100 and 300 mg/kg) and intravenous administration at the dose of 20 mg/kg, were obtained, with t1/2 of 200.30 min, 210.30 min, 272.26 min, and 112.5 min, and AUC0-∞ of 125626.41 μg/L· min, 250433.47 μg/L·min, 693722.60 μg/L· min and 1723509.57μg/L· min, respectively. The absolute bioavailability of PD was somewhat low to 2.9%. The results were firsly reported, as far as we know, about bioavailability of PD and seem important for linking PD and other phenolic glycosides-related drugs administration to their medicinal effects.


In this position paper, the author proposes the use of social networks of characters as an AI narrative generation mechanism. The first part of the paper offers examples of recent research by literary critics on the relationship between character networks and narrative structure. The second part of the paper offers a simple example of story generation based on a structural balance network model.


The book discusses the hazards and risks of settlements along the West African gas pipeline spanning from Itoki, Ogun state to Badagry in Lagos State. In order to solve this, Descriptive statistic and multivariate statistical method (factor analysis) were used to analysis the data. The results of the factor analysis showed 78.106 percent of total variance of seven principal factors with eigen values equals or greater than unity. Furthermore, the hypothesis tested using the t- test showed that computed t-scores (- 19.273) for pair one, (-52.134) for pair two and (-41.273) for pair three all exceeds the value of t indicated in the table. More so, the ranking of the hazards and risks identified along the pipeline right of way was done by the use of the risk assessment matrix (RAM). The ranking showed high risk on the settlers. The research recommends an aggressive public awareness campaign by the government and the oil and gas companies on the dangers of settling along the pipeline right of way. It also recommends enforcement of the existing oil and gas pipeline laws on adherence to the minimum set back from right of way before sitting structures.


F (magnetic fluids, magnetic nanofluids) are ultrastable colloidal suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles in nonpolar and polar carrier liquids. The most striking feature of a ferrofluid is that it is a liquid with strong magnetic properties. The macroscopic dynamics of ferrofluids remains a subject of interest. Here we concentrate mainly on the two limiting cases. One corresponds to the assumption about equilibrium magnetization of ferrofluids i.e., under dynamic perturbations of the ferrofluids, the relaxation time of a magnetic field strength to its equilibrium value is infinitely small. Another limiting case corresponds to the assumption of frozen-in magnetization. The relaxation time of a magnetic field strength to its equilibrium value is infinitely large. The physical grounds for introducing this limiting case were descriptions of dynamic processes, in particular, ultrasound propagation in ferrofluids. The obtained expression for the velocity of fast magnetosonic waves describes the existing experimental data on the anisotropy of ultrasound wave propagation in ferrofluids. The previous theories could not describe the propagation of ultrasound waves in magnetic fluid under external magnetic field. The prediction concerning the existence of new waves, namely slow magnetosonic wave and Alfvén-type wave in ferrofluids seems very important and requires an experimental verification. We believe these waves would prove a most prolific area of experimental research.


We present a generic calculus of "mobile" processes intended as language, labelled transition system, and bisimulation. The distinctive feature of this presentation is an explicit treatment of contexts. Calculi having processes (CHOCS) or channels (p-calculus) as transmissible values are obtained as instances of the generic calculus. Our main tecnical contributions are : - a needed weakening of the notion of bisimulation for CHOCS and a new characterization of p-calculus bisimulation. - a sufficint condition for checking the bisimilarity of CHOCS processes via a standard translation into the p-calculus. - a uniform notion of bisimulation for the p-calculus.


This paper assesses the effectiveness of public sector organizations (PSOs) by employing a framework of effectiveness, efficiency, relevancy and creativity (EERC). However, this particular paper assesses only the effectiveness dimension of organizational performance; the three remaining dimensions are outside of its ambit. While discussing the above, public sector training institutes (PSTIs) were used for illustrative purposes. Four sets of questionnaires focusing on four different target groups were developed to collect pertinent data. Results show that PSTIs are not realizing their objectives and that their training programs are not consistent with the policy objectives and trainees' needs, thus scoring low on effectiveness. It is hoped that the findings of the study will have practical implications for trainees, PSTIs, policy makers and on many other on-going performances-oriented policies and programs to improve the effectiveness of PSOs.


The large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) framework has been widely used to determine the Bjorken-x dependence of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in lattice-QCD hadron-structure calculations. In this talk, I highlighted selected recent lattice-QCD results on parton distributions from MSULat group. We use clover valence fermions on ensembles generated by MILC Collaboration with lattice spacing a ≈ 0.06, 0.09, and 0.12 fm, with MπL ≈ 4, and with pion masses including 135, 220 and 310 MeV and N f = 2 + 1 + 1 flavors of highly improved staggered dynamical quarks. Results include the continuum-physical isovector nucleon PDF, a first study of the strange and charm PDFs and the pion and kaon valence-quark PDFs. We also reported results on the Q2 and x dependence of nucleon isovector unpolarized and helicity GPDs calculated directly at physical pion mass; we also make a comparison of the GPDs with the traditional moment methods from other lattice calculations.


A case of primary tuberculosis of the esophagus is presented in an Asian patient. This is a rare site for tuberculosis and mimicked the appearance of a carcinoma.


Post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) with chemical solvents is a near-term option for commercial deployment of CO2 capture from power plants. However, the technology is energy intensive and costly, and there is no experience with the deployment of CO2 capture at large power plant scale. Therefore, proper knowledge of CO2 capture mechanisms is required to solve the technological challenges. Also, due to lack of experience with large-scale CO2 capture, the reasonable way for evaluation of the process is simulation and precise modeling. In the design of an absorber, the largest capital unit, important parameters such as mass and heat transfer, wetting and active area, kinetics for the solvent chosen and effects of operational conditions need to be properly understood before moving from small to large-scale. Due to lack of proper understanding of the complex transfer phenomena occurring in the absorber, modeling the absorber is based on empirical and semi-empirical correlations with parameters obtained from fitting to experimental data. Therefore, using these correlations in largescale column applications requires good confidence in the parameters which affect the performance of the system.In this thesis, several correlations for prediction of the hydrodynamics and mass transfer through structured packed columns were compared and the studies showed that there is a large uncertainty associated with applying these correlations to large-scale packed columns. None of the proposed correlations in the literature are verified for large-scale CO2 capture processes. The uncertainty can be explained by three main factors: (i) the models which the correlations are based on may contain many assumptions that are not generally valid; (ii) the data basis for fitting parameters and for validation of the models may not be extensive enough, or of sufficient quality, and (iii) the complexity of the models may need a numerical approach for solving equations where accuracy may be an issue.A series of rate-based model simulations (RateSep models) were carried out in Aspen plus in order to perform a sensitivity analysis and compare the effect of different design correlations (e.g. mass transfer and interfacial area), physiochemical properties and kinetic models on the performance of an absorber in a large-scale CO2 capture process with a chemical solvent. The RateSep models were validated using pilot data, the important design parameters such as pressure drop, temperature profiles and CO2 removal were compared to the pilot data. The results showed that the accuracy of the Aspen RateSep model depends heavily on the reaction kinetic model, selected mass transfer and interfacial area correlations, and more confidence is required for applying the available kinetics and mass transfer models in rigorous rate based modeling of industrial absorber units. Model validation using pilot plant or commercial data for the absorption system chosen is highly recommended.Multi-scale simulations of the absorber were also investigated using Aspen RateSep in order to perform cost and sensitivity analysis for CO2 capture process from a coal-fired and a gas-fired power plant both with a net power output of 400MWe . Possible redesign of the absorber was studied and the results show that large electrical energy savings in the feed gas blower can be obtained when a design is chosen giving reduced absorber pressure drop. This can be achieved if the column cross sectional area is increased. This is offset by extra capital cost by a need for slightly more volume of packing. The operational design flexibility in a CO2 capture plant for a gas-fired power plant is higher than for a coal-fired power plant.


N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide (4HPR), a chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic retinoid, induces apoptosis in various types of cells. Currently, oxidative mitochondrial damage is thought to cause 4HPR-induced apoptosis, although the exact mechanism has not yet been clarified. 4HPR effectively induces apoptosis in hepatoma cells although the susceptibility differs in a cell-specific manner. Hep-3B and PLC/PRF/5 cells were more susceptible to 4HPR than were Hep-G2 and SK-HEP-1 cells, and the resistance to 4HPR seems to be related to growth inhibition (G1 arrest). We further observed that 4HPR specifically down-regulates cytochrome coxidase subunit III (CO III) transcript levels through destabilization of its mRNA and thus decreases the activity of cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV). To explore the mechanism whereby the CO III transcript was decreased by 4HPR, we used adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) ligands, which modulate mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) without altering CO III transcription. Intriguingly, bongkrekic acid, a specific ANT inhibitor, enhanced 4HPR-induced ΔΨm disruption, which in turn decreased the level ofCO III transcripts, which was accompanied by increases in the generation of reactive oxygen species and in apoptosis. In contrast, atractyloside, an activator of ANT, inhibited those 4HPR-induced effects. Taken together, these results indicate that down-regulation of CO III, a molecular marker of oxidative stress, may result from upstream ΔΨm disruption and that ligands of ANT may be capable of modulating 4HPR-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis.


Purpose: the aim of this article is to study the features of the financial and economic security of the integrated financial market of the EU

Theoretical Framework: the concept of financial security was considered as a complex multi-tiered system. The theories of healthy competitive investment environment, and theory of capital markets functioning were employed in the study.

Design/Methodology/Approach: the instrumental and methodological apparatus of the work is based on the use of general methods of scientific knowledge: comparison, abstraction, analysis and synthesis. Dialectical metod was used, as well as formal-logical, problem-theoretical, systemic-structural, and the method of comparative legal analysis.

Findings: the EU has achieved noticeable success in providing economic security of financial markets over the past decades. The EU experience in this area can be considered the most complete. The uniqueness of this experience is also proven by the fact that it is based on national achievements and the centuries-old financial culture of the EU member states, among which several states are rightfully recognized as global financial players and have the status of international financial centers.

Research, Practical and Social Implications: For global expert and regulators community, turning to the EU experience is not only valuable, but also relevant, under the necessity to consider the best world practices when creating a common financial market.

Originality/Value: the EU experience in the field of financial and economic security of financial markets is systematized not at the level of individual EU members, but at the level of EU as a community in whole.


An experienced implantologist introduces a new, flexible, and versatile endosteal implant system. Requiring only a single bur, the implant may be used immediately or permitted to osteointegrate. Since intra-oral welding techniques may be used, parallelism of implants is not a requisite for the successful completion of mesiostructure double-railed bars. A variety of prosthetic techniques may be incorporated into the Gimlet system, and the implants themselves can be used in a number of locations and employed for multiple purposes.


Author: Monica M. Londono Title: Determination of stability and control derivatives for a modern light composite twin engine airplane Institution: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Degree: Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering Year: 2009 To develop and compare full envelope stability and control derivatives and their associated errors for a modern light composite twin engine airplane from flight test data and digital DATCOM (Data Compendium). This development is to serve three purposes 1) to provide data for validation of newer analytical techniques such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), 2) to provide public domain static and dynamic stability and control derivatives for a modern twin engine airplane, 3) to analyze the relationship between test design and error for both output error and equation error methods. A flight test program was conducted on a Diamond Twin Star DA42 with Thielert engines and on a DA42 with Lycoming engines by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. For the theoretical verification the equation error and output error methods in both time and frequency domain within System Identification Programs for AirCraft (SIDPAC), were used. The DATCOM analysis was based on airplane drawings and direct measurement on the DA42 airframe. The results for both methods and error associated with SIDPAC were compared to Digital DATCOM results.


On a wintery afternoon over 60 years ago, I was browsing the Baker Library stacks at Dartmouth College and stumbled across a small book with an arresting title: What Is Life? [Schrödinger, E. What is Life? The physical aspect of the living cell and mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944]. This small volume contained numerous concepts that would transform the future of the biological sciences, giving rise to new fields, dogmas, approaches, and debates. Here, I present the core concepts of Schrödinger's book, the influence they have had on biology, and the influence they may continue to have on the cognitive neurosciences.


We reviewed the evidence on features of central nervous system (CNS) involvement in trichinellosis, systematically searching five databases (to January 2021). We categorized clinical features based on their diagnostic value as warning signs for severe CNS infection (with outcome death) or non-specific signs (outcome improvement). They were suggestive of severe infection if they substantially raised death probability. The review included 87 papers published from 1906 through 2019, with data on 168 patients. Mydriasis, paraparesis, dysphagia, psychomotor seizures, or delirium present a 30–45% increased death likelihood. The best poor prognosis predictor is mydriasis (positive likelihood ratio 9.08). Slow/absent light reflex, diminished/absent knee reflexes, globally decreased tendon reflexes present a moderate increase (20–25%) of death risk. Anisocoria, acalculia, or seizures could also indicate an increased death risk. We provided a detailed presentation of clinical and paraclinical signs that alert physicians of a possible neurotrichinellosis, emphasizing signs that might indicate a poor prognosis.


Desulphurization of oil-based fuels is common practice to mitigate the ecological burden to ecosystems and human health of SOx emissions. In many countries, fuels for vehicles are restricted to 10 ppm sulphur. For marine fuels, low sulphur contents are under discussion. The environmental impact of desulphurization processes is, however, quite high: (1) The main current source for industrial hydrogen is Steam Methane Reforming (SMR), with a rather high level of CO2 emissions, (2) the hydrotreating process, especially below 150 ppm, needs a lot of energy. These two issues lead to three research questions: (a) What is the overall net ecological benefit of the current desulphurization practice? (b) At which sulfphur ppm level in the fuel is the additional ecological burden of desulphurization higher than the additional ecological benefit of less SOx pollution from combustion? (c) To what extent can cleaner hydrogen processes improve the ecological benefit of diesel desulphurization? In this paper we use LCA to analyze the processes of hydrotreatment, the recovery of sulphur via amine treating of H2S, and three processes of hydrogen production: SMR without Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), SMR with 53% and 90% CCS, and water electrolysis with two types of renewable energy. The prevention-based eco-costs system is used for the overall comparison of the ecological burden and the ecological benefit. The ReCiPe system was applied as well but appeared not suitable for such a comparison (other damage-based indicators cannot be applied either). The overall conclusion is that (1) the overall net ecological benefit of hydrogen-based Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel is dependent of local conditions, but is remarkably high, (2) desulphurization below 10 ppm is beneficial for big cities, and (3) cleaner production of hydrogen reduces eco-cost by a factor 1.8–3.4.


Voice over IP (VoIP) is an emerging communication service allowing voice transmission over a private or a public IP network. VoIP allows significant benefits for customers and service providers including cost savings, phone and service portability, mobility, and the integration with other applications. Nevertheless, the deployment of the VoIP technology encounters many challenges such as interoperability issues, security issues, and QoS concerns. Among these disadvantages, QoS issues are considered the most serious due to the QoS problems that may arise on IP networks, and the stringent QoS requirements of voice traffic. The aim of this paper is carry out a deep analysis of the QoS concerns of the VoIP technology. Firstly, we present a brief overview about the VoIP technology. Then, we discuss the QoS issues related to the use of the IP networking technology for voice traffic transmission. After that, we present the QoS concerns related voice clarity. Finally, we present the QoS mechanisms proposed to make the IP technology able to support voice traffic QoS requirements in terms of voice clarity, voice packet delay, packet delay variation, and packet loss.


Some countries face a national dilemma. Spain has rather a dilemma of nationalities. This is chiefly cultural and political with inter-regional disparities tending also to reinforce internal cleavages. Despite its secular conflicts of internal ethnoterritorial accommodation, Spain is an entity clearly identifiable as a country of countries, or a nation of nations. However, the social and cultural cohesion that makes up Spain's unity does not obliterate its internal rivalries. After a long hyper-centralist dictatorship (1939-75), and peaceful transition to democracy (1975-79), Spain has undergone a process of deep decentralisation. The 'open model' of home-rule-all-round has evolved into a gradual process of top-down 'federalization', despite that the Spanish 1978 Constitution does not include the word "federal" in any of its provisions. This paper analyses the main features of the ongoing process of 'devolutionary federalism' and provides with insights concerning the evolution of the competitive interplay among Spanish regions and nationalities.


Cancer is a prime public health burden that accounts for approximately 9.9 million deaths worldwide. Despite recent advances in treatment regimen and huge capital investment in the pharmaceutical sector, there has been little success in improving the chances of survival of cancer patients. Drug repurposing sometimes termed drug repositioning is a strategy of discovery and redeveloping existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes. This novel approach is highly efficient, considerably cuts research and development costs, reduces the drug development timeline, maximizes therapeutic value and consequently increases success rate with minimum risk of failure. In this review, prioritizing drug repurposing to activate immune and inflammatory responses to target tumor cells through immune surveillance mechanism is a promising strategy for cancer immunotherapy. Cancer immunotherapy cover myriad of therapeutic approaches as cytokine therapy, immune checkpoint blockade therapy, cancer vaccines, natural killer cells, adoptive T cell therapies, monoclonal antibodies, oncolytic viruses, computational approach and host of others. In the current pipeline, drug repurposing is devoid of adequate funding and the necessary legal support for research and development by stakeholders. At the moment, immunotherapy strategies combine with computational biology could be considered the new milestone in drug re-profiling for cancer treatment.