ABSTRACT Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) and southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius) are uncommon throughout their range and are listed (informally) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as species of management concern. Much of the decline in numbers of these species can be linked to a loss of bottomland hardwood forests throughout their range, resulting in a loss of natural roost structures in many areas. We characterized day roosts of both species and determined differences in characteristics of roost trees in western Tennessee. Radio transmitters were attached to adult females of both species to aid in locating new roosts. Thirty-one roost trees were identified, with most (93.5%) being large hollow water tupelos (Nyssa aquatica). Only two roost trees were used by both species during the survey period and no simultaneous roosting was documented. Roost trees in our study typically had triangular-shaped basal openings and large diameters (129.2 ± 7.3 cm). A significant difference (P < 0.05) in roost-tree diameter was observed between trees used by the two bat species. Our study is the first to compare characteristics of tree roosts of sympatric populations of Rafinesque's big-eared bats and southeastern myotis. Results suggest that these species may have different preferences for roost trees.


Specialized hardware accelerators have been designed and employed to maximize the performance efficiency of Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs). However, such accelerators are vulnerable to transient faults (i.e., soft errors), which occur due to high-energy particle strikes, and manifest as bit flips at the hardware layer. These errors can change the weight values and neuron operations in the compute engine of SNN accelerators, thereby leading to incorrect outputs and accuracy degradation. However, the impact of soft errors in the compute engine and the respective mitigation techniques have not been thoroughly studied yet for SNNs. A potential solution is employing redundant executions (re-execution) for ensuring correct outputs, but it leads to huge latency and energy overheads. Toward this, we propose SoftSNN, a novel methodology to mitigate soft errors in the weight registers (synapses) and neurons of SNN accelerators without re-execution, thereby maintaining the accuracy with low latency and energy overheads. Our SoftSNN methodology employs the following key steps: (1) analyzing the SNN characteristics under soft errors to identify faulty weights and neuron operations, which are required for recognizing faulty SNN behavior; (2) a Bound-and-Protect technique that leverages this analysis to improve the SNN fault tolerance by bounding the weight values and protecting the neurons from faulty operations; and (3) devising lightweight hardware enhancements for the neural hardware accelerator to efficiently support the proposed technique. The experimental results show that, for a 900-neuron network with even a high fault rate, our SoftSNN maintains the accuracy degradation below 3%, while reducing latency and energy by up to 3x and 2.3x respectively, as compared to the re-execution technique.


Researchers and information security professionals share an understanding of information securitypolicies as the foundation of organizational information security. A major concern for informationsecurity professionals is that only seldom do these policies bring about the expected outcomes. Inefforts to understand this problem, researchers have concentrated on different approaches formotivating end-users to comply with the information security policies but left the differences inorganizational groups and their expectations of these policies for little attention. This thesisanalyzes the impact of key organizational groups' perceptions of information security policies to theimplementation and use of these policies in the light of a theoretical framework that draws on theliterature on frames of reference and on information security policies. We propose a concept ofInformation Security Policy Frames of Reference (ISPFOR) as a means for understanding theseperceptions and their consequences. Our empirical findings from an interpretive case studyhighlight that organizational groups' perceptions of information security policies deserve attentionin regard to formulating and implementing information security policies in organizations. The thesisconcludes by arguing that frames of reference perspective, a perspective prominent in informationsystems research but not yet applied in the context of information security policies, offers acompelling explanation for problems around information security policy implementation and use inorganizations and provides new insight into employees' perceptions of information security policies.


Background: Mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) functions within the context of a large multiprotein complex including MLL, WDR5, RbBP5, and ASH2L that is required for maximal enzymatic activity. Each component is required for full histone H3 trimethyl Lysine 4 (H3K4me3) methyltransferase activity of the complex. The structure-function analysis shows that WDR5 mediates interaction between the MLL catalytic unit and the core complex, as well as the histone H3 substrate. Recently it is found that blocking MLL1-WDR5 interaction by an inhibitor could result in the complex disassembly, inhibition methyltransferase activity and suppression of proliferation of leukemia cells. Despite our growing knowledge about MLL1 fusion proteins and leukemia, very little is known about the role of WDR5 in leukemia. Methods: The WDR5 expression was determined by qPCR in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. The genome-wide binding profiling of WDR5 and H3K4me3 was obtained by ChIP-seq. The effect of WDR5 on its target gene expression, cell proliferation and apoptosis was observed by qPCR, WST-1 cell proliferation assay and Annexin V-PE staining following the flow cytometry analysis, respectively, in leukemic cells with WDR5 shRNA knockdown Results: WDR5 expression is significantly increased in adult ALL and AML compared to that of normal bone marrow control. WDR5 high expression is associated with high risk factors in the patients. Also, its high expression is associated with MLL1 high expression; particularly the patients with WDR5 high expression plus MLL1 high expression has poor complete remission (CR) rate. We further identified the global genomic binding of WDR5 in RS4:11 ALL and THP-1 AML cells by ChIP-seq and detected more than 2000 binding peaks in the two leukemia cell lines. We also examined global H3K4me3 peaks, analyzed the correlation of WDR5 peaks with H3K4me3 peaks and found the genomic co-localization of WDR5 binding with H3K4me3 enrichment. Moreover, WDR5 knockdown by shRNA suppressed the cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, inhibited the expression of WDR5 targets on oncogenesis and anti-apoptosis, blocked the H3K4me3 enrichment on the promoter of these targets. We also observed the positive correlation of WDR5 expression with its targets in B-ALL and AML cohort. Conclusion: WDR5 has oncogenic effect and WDR5-mediated H3K4 methylation plays important role in the leukemogenesis Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


A sclerostomy was produced in a case of chronic angle-closure glaucoma using the Argon laser. A filtering bleb was present two years postoperatively and pressure was normalized.


A four-dimensional hyperspectral imager (FDHI) that combines fluorescence spectral detection and 3D surface morphology measurement is proposed. The FDHI consists of a hyperspectral line-scanner, a line structured light stereo vision system, and a line laser. The line laser is used as both the excitation light for the fluorescence and the scanning light line for the 3D profiling. At each scanning step, the system collects both fluorescent and 3D spatial data of the irradiated line region, which are fused to 4D data points based on a line mapping relationship between the datasets, and by scanning across the measurement object, a complete 4D dataset is obtained. The FDHI shows excellent performance with spatial and spectral resolution of 26.0 µm and 3 nm, respectively. The reported FDHI system and its applications provide a solution for 4D detection and analysis of fluorescent objects in meters measurement range, with advantage of high integration as two imaging modules sharing a same laser source.


Detailed modelling of neurons is now a recognised sub-field of neurobiology. Such models rely on accurate and quantitative experimental measurements. For instance, modelling electrophysiology requires morphological reconstructions of identified neurons. Similarly, understanding the biochemical basis of neurotransmission becomes possible if we know about the molecular composition of the connected neurons. In this chapter we will describe the pitfalls of generic models that seek to reproduce common features of groups of neurons, and in particular, the artifacts generated by an excessive abstraction. Instead, we advocate the development of typological models, seeking to describe accurately a given neuron, generic inferences being derived afterwards.


The article discusses the relevance of data visualization, based on improving the efficiency of the perception of the material to make the right professional solutions. author of the study describes the steps for creating verbal and graphic materials multipage text documents on the example of the analysis and structuring of the information provided in the Development Strategy of the State Autonomous Educational Institution "Moscow City Pedagogical University" for the period until 2020, including:setting a goal, the definition of the main directions of the rendered objects, the study of verbal material, familiarity with previously established visualized examples, creating schematic drawings, search and selection of resources, creation of visualization, analysis work. It is also justified by the need for each stage, and provides recommendations for the implementation of visualized ideas. Particular attention is paid to the isolation and mapping of key sites such as the logo of the educational institution, full name, infrastructure, etc. The paper sets out the basic approach to the visualization of documents containing large amounts of text data, among which are highlighted: purposeful, analytical, creative, search, implementation-creative, reflective. We give the visualization of multi-page document University Development Strategy in the form of three logically and stylistically related illustrations with a description placed in these facilities.


The Internet works on a simple principle. The two endpoints are essentially stationary computers. The IP routes the packets of data from source to destination with the help of routers. This forwarding of packets by the routers is done depending upon the contents of their router tables. The router tables maintain the out-bound network interface (i.e., the next hop) information for each destination IP address according to the number of networks to which that IP address is connected. The network number is derived from the IP address by masking off some of the low order bits. The working of the mobile Internet protocol is discussed. This is illustrated as a journey from a source to a destination.


Schools need a leader who can create better education for learners. The effective leader, who can understand the needs of learners and able to provide a solution, and also produce a better quality of education. In fact, the behavior of leaders relies heavily on his leadership model. Thus, the leadership model will have much effect to the quality of education. Good facilities and qualified teachers will not give anoptimal results without effective leader. Theoretically, many leadership model need to re-discussed so it can be seen the right leadership model for educational leadership. Effective leadership will be required to set up a school system where the applications can be seen from better learning activities and the result is quality learners. This discussion will emphasis on how each model of leadership influence on the quality of education. The results of this research may provide the potential impact on the advancement of education.


In this paper, the fast alternating minimization algorithm (FAMA) is proposed to solve model predictive control (MPC) problems with polytopic and second-order cone constraints. We extend previous theoretical results of FAMA to a more general case, where convex constraints are allowed to be imposed on the strongly convex objective and all convergence properties of FAMA are still preserved. Two splitting strategies for MPC problems are presented. Both of them satisfy the assumptions of FAMA and result in efficient implementations by reducing each iteration of FAMA to simple operations. We derive computational complexity certificates for both splitting strategies, by providing bounds on the number of iterations for both primal and dual variables, which are of particular relevance in the context of real-time MPC to bound the required online computation time. For MPC problems with polyhedral and ellipsoidal constraints, an off-line preconditioning method is presented to further improve the convergence speed of FAMA by reducing the complexity bound and enlarging the step-size of the algorithm. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of FAMA compared to other splitting methods using a quadrotor example.


Introduction: This study aimed to assess the position of impacted maxillary canine in panoramic radiography via two variables of angulation and magnification. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, each panoramic radiography was numbered on which the patient 's name was written as well. Two variables, angulation (The angle of impacted maxillary canine was measured in relation to Occlusal plane) and magnification( the ratio of the widest dimension of mesiodistal canine crown to that of the ipsilateral central incisor crown) were assessed in each panoramic radiography (44 impacted maxillary canines), then they were compared with CBCT. Kappa test was used to assess the agreement of the two variables in panoramic radiography and CBCT. Results: Utilizing angulation variable, 41.6% buccally impacted maxillary canines and 84.3% palatally impacted maxillary canines were determined in their real positions. Moreover, magnification variable also detected 58.3% buccally impacted maxillary canines and 37.5% palatally impacted maxillary canines in their real positions. Degree of agreement between angulation and CBCT was 0.275, and it was reported 0.03 between magnification and CBCT. Conclusion: The study findings revealed that the angulation and magnification methods were not reliable in order to assess the impacted maxillary canines in panoramic radiography, though Angulation proved to be more successful than magnification method.


It is a fact that the strength and ductility of the concrete is highly dependent on the confinement level provided by the lateral reinforcement. In the current design codes design of strength is separated with deformability. Evaluation of deformability is independent of some key parameters of concrete and steel. In the present study curvature ductility of a RCC beams with different level of confinements are calculated analytically following Hong K N and Han S H (2005) Model and Saaticioglu and Razvi (1992) Model and compared with experimental results. Six rectangular RCC beams having same cross section and main reinforcements are analysed by using OPENSEES software. Different level of lateral confinement in beams is induced by two legged and three legged stirrups provided with three different spacing. For experimental study six RCC beams are cast with stirrups provided at spacing of 100 mm, 150 mm and 250 mm. Three beams are cast with two legged and three beams are cast with three legged stirrups. Analytical observation is that the curvature ductility increases with decrease in spacing of stirrups and increase in number of legs of stirrups i.e. lateral confinement increases the curvature ductility of beam . The variation with respect to spacing is more compared to number of legs of stirrups. It is proven by using both models. The same trends are observed through experimental results. Analytical results following Saatcioglu and Razvi (1995) Model are found to be in well agreement with the experimental results.


"The development of the command and control capability for the crisis management operations conducted by the European Union has been a constant element in the context of European security and defence cooperation. The particular profile of the regulatory framework governing the activities performed under the auspices of the Common Security and Defence Policy has led to a specific EU capability building process. The formulas promoted in relation to both civilian and military components have taken various forms. However, the constant trend is to consolidate the options that the EU can employ in generating and conducting its own operations. They will add to the EU-NATO cooperation framework, developed from the earliest moments of the launch of European military operations. The developments in terms of the potential to generate and lead mixed civil-military commitments have been placed on similar coordinates. In practice, the stage in the development of the EU's command and control capabilities attests to the existence of a comprehensive and equally complex instrument that the EU can employ in managing its own operational commitments."


Study of the interaction between gold nanoparticles and a series of amino acids is reported in this paper. Amino acids with thiol, amine, or hydroxyl groups in their side chains are proven to make gold nanoparticles self-assemble under certain conditions. There is a progression of the effect on self-assembly of gold nanoparticles from hydroxyl < amine < thiol. Meanwhile, concentration of amino acids and the pH value of the solution have been found to be important for amino acids to exert the interesting effect on self-assembly of the nanoparticles.


User experience is vital in usability evaluation to understand all aspects of user interactions with a product or system. The usability includes user satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness to achieve certain goals. On the other hand, to support the sustainability of the business, it is necessary to know the factors that significantly affect purchase intention through online travel booking application. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the usability of online travel booking system and consumer-level factors of purchase intention in online travel booking application. The research attempt to find whether product diagnosticity influences perceived quality and product trust and generally impacts purchase intention. In this study, we select an existing online travel booking application named Traveloka. The system usability scales (SUS) were used to evaluate the usability for web applications. A total of 1,225 respondents participate in online questionnaire using Google form. Most of the respondents recruited are based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The overall SUS score is only 56.13 from 100. The results show that intention for purchase is influenced by product trust and perceived quality. Moreover, the product diagnosticity (PD) supported perceived quality (PQ) and product trust (PT), and variable of product trust (PT) also supported perceived quality (PQ).


The mean velocity, turbulence intensity and turbulent diffusion behind a model of the EOCR complex deeply submerged in a neutral turbulent boundary layer, have been investigated using wind tunnel tests and mathematical analysis. The effects of the momentum-type wake behind a complex are to decrease mean velocity and increase turbulence intensity. The complex geometry breaks down the horseshoe vortices, which consequently do not play an important role in determining wake characteristics. The decay rate of mean velocity defect was smaller than that of turbulence intensity excess variance. The wake was detected at a distance of x/H equal to 35 at a 5 percent mean velocity defect level. Such long wake regions are associated with the low roughness characteristics of the site. The vertical profiles of velocity defect and maximum velocity defect rates compared very well with the analytical predictions except at y/H=-0.67. The experimental measurements of the decay rate of turbulent intensity excess variance also compared very well with that predicted by the theory. The ground-level concentration compared satisfactorily with the perturbation theory.


Since the beginning of economic reforms in 1991, major reforms initiatives have been taken in the fields of investment, trade, financial sector, exchange control, simplification of procedures, enactment of competition and amendments in the intellectual property rights laws, etc. India provides a liberal, attractive, and investor friendly investment climate. India has the most liberal and transparent policies on FDI (Foreign direct investment) among the emerging economies. FDI up to 100 percent is allowed under the automatic route in most of activities/sectors. FDI in sectors/activities to the extent permitted under automatic route does not require any prior approval either by the Government or RBI. The investors are only required to notify the Regional office within 30 days of receipt of inward remittances and file the required documents in that office within 30 days of issue of shares to foreign investors. On the other hand, other sectors required the approval by either the foreign investment promotion board or the cabinet committee of foreign investment. Presently, foreign direct investment is freely allowed in most of the sectors but a few sectors where the existing and notified sectoral policy does not permit foreign direct investment beyond a specific limit. Foreign direct investment for almost all sectors/activities can be brought in through the automatic route under the power delegated to the Reserve Bank of India and the remaining sectors/activities through government approval. This research article brings forth the data related to centre government approved foreign direct investment in these sectors on the recommendations of the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB).


Obtaining meaningful quality scores for machine translation systems through human evaluation remains a challenge given the high variability between human evaluators, partly due to subjective expectations for translation quality for different language pairs. We propose a new metric called XSTS that is more focused on semantic equivalence and a cross-lingual calibration method that enables more consistent assessment. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these novel contributions in large scale evaluation studies across up to 14 language pairs, with translation both into and out of English.


Bovine herpesvirus type 5 (BoHV-5) is a major cause of viral meningoencephalitis in cattle. The expression of different viral proteins has been associated with BoHV-5 neuropathogenesis. Among these, gI, gE and US9 have been considered essential for the production of neurological disease in infected animals. To evaluate the role of gI, gE and US9 in neurovirulence, a recombinant from which the respective genes were deleted (BoHV-5 gI-/gE-/US9-) was constructed and inoculated in rabbits of two age groups (four and eight weeks-old). When the recombinant virus was inoculated through the paranasal sinuses of four weeks-old rabbits, neurological disease was observed and death was the outcome in 4 out of 13 (30.7 %) animals, whereas clinical signs and death were observed in 11/13 (84.6%) of rabbits infected with the parental virus. In eight weeks-old rabbits, the BoHV-5 gI-/gE-/US9- did not induce clinically apparent disease and could not be reactivated after dexamethasone administration, whereas wild type BoHV-5 caused disease in 55.5% of the animals and was reactivated. These findings reveal that the simultaneous deletion of gI, gE and US9 genes did reduce but did not completely abolish the neurovirulence of BoHV-5 in rabbits, indicating that other viral genes may also play a role in the induction of neurological disease.


Poly(lactic acid), PLA, is a biodegradable polymer, but its applications are limited by its high cost and relatively poorer properties when compared to petroleum-based plastics. The addition of starch powder into PLA is one of the most promising efforts because starch is an abundant and cheap biopolymer. However, the challenge is the major problem associated with poor interfacial adhesion between the hydrophilic starch granules and the hydrophobic PLA, leading to poorer mechanical properties. In this paper, soybean oil maleate (SOMA) was synthesized by grafting soybean oil with various weight percents of maleic anhydride (MA) using dicumyl peroxide (DCP) as an initiator. Then, SOMA was employed for the surface modifying of cassava starch powder, resulting in SOMA-g-STARCH. The obtained SOMA-g-STARCH was mixed with PLA in various weight ratios using twin-screw extruder, resulting in PLA/SOMA-g-STARCH. Finally, the obtained PLA/SOMA-g-STARCH composites were prepared by a compression molding machines. The compatibility, thermal properties, morphology properties, and mechanical properties were characterized and evaluated. The results showed that the compatibility, surface appearance, and mechanical properties at 90 : 10 and 80 : 20 ratios of PLA/SOMA-g-STARCH were the best.


̶ The current housing crisis and demand for residential accommodation in Ireland has required a change in the construction industry. The introduction by the Irish Government of the temporary fast track planning arrangement for large scale housing developments delivers a key commitment of the Governments action plan for housing and homelessness. Under these new provisions, planning applications can be made directly to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) and not to a local planning authority as was previously the case. This introduction has required the design team to provide sufficient information to enable ABP to offer an opinion and give direction on any amendments required to allow the project to proceed to the application stage. If significant changes are requested, this will result in major redesign work for the architect and other design team members. By adopting BIM methodologies at this early stage, the design team has the potential to automate the process through early design collaboration and improved coordination. This paper will begin by focusing on the current usage of BIM processes during early stages of residential design in both Ireland and the UK and investigate through a literature study the impact BIM has currently made on the sector. The paper will propose the potential use of adopting computational design tools and methods to enhance the delivery of architectural designs through BIM methodologies. A graphical programming tool, Dynamo, will be used to demonstrate the integration into a stage BIM workflow. The experimental research will be appraised by selected industry professionals and feedback will be gathered to evaluate the potential future for computational design tools in the field of architectural design of residential units.


In recent years, the introduction of new molecular techniques in experimental and clinical settings has allowed researchers and clinicians to propose circulating-tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis and liquid biopsy as novel promising strategies for the early diagnosis of cancer and for the definition of patients' prognosis. It was widely demonstrated that through the non-invasive analysis of ctDNA, it is possible to identify and characterize the mutational status of tumors while avoiding invasive diagnostic strategies. Although a number of studies on ctDNA in patients' samples significantly contributed to the improvement of oncology practice, some investigations generated conflicting data about the diagnostic and prognostic significance of ctDNA. Hence, to highlight the relevant achievements obtained so far in this field, a clearer description of the current methodologies used, as well as the obtained results, are strongly needed. On these bases, this review discusses the most relevant studies on ctDNA analysis in cancer, as well as the future directions and applications of liquid biopsy. In particular, special attention was paid to the early diagnosis of primary cancer, to the diagnosis of tumors with an unknown primary location, and finally to the prognosis of cancer patients. Furthermore, the current limitations of ctDNA-based approaches and possible strategies to overcome these limitations are presented.


Summary
Quasi-elastic light scattering studies were made of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in 10 mm- or 100 mm-Tris-HCl buffer pH 7.2, or in 100 mm-sodium phosphate buffer pH 7.2. The translational diffusion coefficients, extrapolated to zero TMV concentration, were 3.75 × 10-8 cm2/s in phosphate buffer and 4.50 × 10-8 cm2/s in Tris buffer; the latter value is in good accord with that calculated for monodispersed TMV. Sedimentation studies showed that one sedimentating component was formed in Tris buffer, but two broad bands were formed in phosphate buffer. Sedimentation coefficients were 192 for monodispersed TMV and 214 for the second component, showing that it was an aggregate. These results indicate that the lower translational diffusion coefficient obtained in phosphate buffer is caused by the presence of TMV aggregates, and that Tris buffer is better than phosphate buffer for the preparation of monodispersed TMV solutions.


A parliamentary inquiry into elder abuse is being established in South Australia, something the Council on the Ageing says is long overdue. A specialist lawyer in elder law says while the inquiry may address community attitudes and policy, the criminal justice system also needs to be changed.


Structural sub-units of the Al-Mn-Pd decagonal quasicrystal are derived from the structure of the T3 Al-Mn-Zn crystalline approximant and both atom positions and species are defined. The structure of the Al-Mn-Pd decagonal quasicrystal can be constructed by these subunits. The atom decoration of these structural sub-units is comparable to the single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. Meanwhile the high-resolution electron microscopy image of the Al-Mn-Pd decagonal quasicrystal can be explained as an aperiodic aggregation of these sub-units.


Renal disease is a common complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and can occur secondary to RA or be induced by therapeutic agents. Recently, glomerular deposition of galactose-deficient IgA1 (Gd-IgA1) was identified as a feature of primary IgA vasculitis with nephritis (IgA-VN). We herein report a case of IgA-VN in an RA patient whose disease activity was controlled by treatment with etanercept. To distinguish between primary IgA-VN and secondary IgA-VN caused by RA or etanercept, we performed immunostaining of renal biopsy sections with the Gd-IgA1-specific antibody KM55. Positive KM55 staining confirmed the diagnosis of primary IgA-VN in a patient with RA.


On i June 2005, the Dutch voters said no to the ratification of the "European Constitution" with a dear majority of 62 % (at a turnout rate of 63 %). To many domestic as well as international observers, this result came as a surpriseAfter describing the run-up to the Dutch referendum and the campaign for it, this contribution reviews the various explanations that have been presented to explain the outcome and tries to put the events in a broader context. On the basis of these findings for the Dutch case, the authors formulate a perspective on how to move on from here with the European constitutionalisation process.


This paper investigates the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model in simulating multiple small-scale precipitation bands (multibands) within the extratropical cyclone comma head using four winter storm cases from 2014 to 2017. Using the model output, some physical processes are explored to investigate band prediction. A 40-member WRF ensemble was constructed down to 2-km grid spacing over the Northeast United States using different physics, stochastic physics perturbations, different initial/boundary conditions from the first five perturbed members of the Global Forecast System (GFS) Ensemble Reforecast (GEFSR), and a stochastic kinetic energy backscatter scheme (SKEBS). It was found that 2-km grid spacing is adequate to resolve most snowbands. A feature-based verification is applied to hourly WRF reflectivity fields from each ensemble member and the WSR-88D radar reflectivity at 2-km height above sea level. The Method for Object-Based Diagnostic Evaluation (MODE) tool is used for identifying multibands, which are defined as two or more bands that are 5–20 km in width and that also exhibit a >2:1 aspect ratio. The WRF underpredicts the number of multibands and has a slight eastward position bias. There is no significant difference in frontogenetical forcing, vertical stability, moisture, and vertical shear between the banded versus nonbanded members. Underpredicted band members tend to have slightly stronger frontogenesis than observed, which may be consolidating the bands, but overall there is no clear linkage in ambient condition errors and band errors, thus leaving the source for the band underprediction motivation for future work.


The work of Ziemen et al, analyses the effects of internally-produced ice surges of the Laurentide ice sheet on the Northern Hemisphere climate around to the LGM. It does so in a fully coupled (asynchronous) ice-sheet / climate framework. Such a modelling framework has an inherent merit and it is of sufficient interest to make this contribution worth of being published. The paper nicely analyses the effects of a freshwater injec-


Each year, millions of children undergo anesthesia, and both human and animal studies have indicated that exposure to anesthesia at an early age can lead to neuronal damage and learning deficiency. However, disorders of sensory functions were not reported in children or animals exposed to anesthesia during infancy, which is surprising, given the significant amount of damage to brain tissue reported in many animal studies. In this review, we discuss the relationship between the systems in the brain that mediate sensory input, spatial learning, and classical conditioning, and how these systems could be affected during anesthesia exposure. Based on previous reports, we conclude that anesthesia can induce structural, functional, and compensatory changes in both sensory and learning systems. Changes in myelination following anesthesia exposure were observed as well as the neurodegeneration in the gray matter across variety of brain regions. Disproportionate cell death between excitatory and inhibitory cells induced by anesthesia exposure can lead to a long-term shift in the excitatory/inhibitory balance, which affects both learning-specific networks and sensory systems. Anesthesia may directly affect synaptic plasticity which is especially critical to learning acquisition. However, sensory systems appear to have better ability to compensate for damage than learning-specific networks.


Modern embedded CPU systems rely on a growing number of software features, but this growth increases the memory footprint and increases the need for efficient instruction and data caches. The embedded operating system will often juggle a changing set tasks in a round-robin fashion, which inevitably results in cache misses due to conflicts between different tasks. Our technique reduces cache misses by continuously monitoring CPU cache misses to grade the performance of running tasks. Through a series of step-wise refinements, our software system tunes the round-robin ordering to find a better temporal sequence for the tasks. This tuning is done dynamically during program execution and hence can adapt to changes in work load or external input stimulus. The benefits of this technique are illustrated using an ARM processor running application benchmarks with different cache organizations and round-robin scheduling techniques.


The work illustrates a clinical example of successful treatment in a patient with closed intraarticular transcondylar fracture of humerus. The special feature of operative treatment consisted in simultaneous use of the internal osteosynthesis with reconstructive and tubular for one-third plates and the transosseous osteosynthesis of humerus and forearm with the Ilizarov fixator. The aim of both technique use was to create the conditions for accurate reposition of articular surface, and to provide the stable fixation of fragments in the early postoperative period, as well as the graduated training of the elbow movements


Janthinobacterium lividum is a species of bacteria that has been recognized for its anti-fungal properties. It has also been found regularly on the skin of healthy amphibians, suggesting the potential to combat the chytrid fungus in amphibians. In this paper, we explore the possibility of speciation between strains of J. lividum occurring on salamanders and in their environment. DNA analyses were performed to explore possible genetic differences between strains. No significant genetic differences were found between the salamander and environmental samples, suggesting that speciation is not occurring between these groups. This suggests that specialization between amphibians and certain strains of J. lividum would not be a barrier to its use as a treatment for chytridiomycosis. However, further investigation will be necessary to confirm a true lack of specialization of J. lividum on amphibians.


Background: Lipid-lowering therapy is the primary treatment for hypercholesterolemia, with statins as the first-line therapy. Nutraceuticals like bergamot, RYR, and berberine have been shown to be effective in reducing Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC) levels. This study assessed the safety and efficacy of a novel nutraceutical supplement for mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia and low cardiovascular risk. Materials and methods: A prospective, multicentric, open-label, randomized controlled trial was conducted at four outpatient endocrine clinical centers in Greece. Patients were over 40 years old, had mild hypercholesterolemia, and did not require statin treatment according to guidelines. 66 subjects with mild hypercholesterolemia and a 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk (ASCVD Risk) <7.5% were included in the study. Mediterranean diet and the nutraceutical compound were prescribed to 34 patients at random for eight weeks, while 30 patients comprised the diet-only control group. Results: No significant changes were observed in Body mass index, TC, and High-density Lipoprotein concentrations between the two groups. A significant median reduction of 13.25% in LDL-C levels was achieved in the treated group and no adverse effects were reported. Conclusion: These results suggest that the investigated nutraceutical compound could serve as a potential alternative treatment, particularly for certain patient populations, such as those who are intolerant to statins or who refuse lipid-lowering drug therapy.


In this paper, we consider codimension one Anosov actions of
 $\RR^k,\ k\geq 1,$ on closed connected orientable manifolds of dimension $n+k$
 with $n\geq 3$. We show that the fundamental group of the ambient manifold is solvable if and only if the weak foliation of codimension one is transversely affine. We also study the situation where one $1$-parameter subgroup of $\RR^k$ admits a cross-section, and compare this to the case where the whole action is transverse to a fibration over a manifold of dimension $n$.
 As a byproduct, generalizing a Theorem by Ghys in the case $k=1$, we show that, under some assumptions about the
 smoothness of the sub-bundle $E^{ss}\oplus E$uu , and in the case where the action preserves the volume,
 it is
 topologically equivalent to a suspension of a linear Anosov action of
 $\mathbb{Z}^k$ on $\TT^{n}$.


The parameters of environmental in some selected samples from Kufa in Najaf city was determined and discussed. Five soil samples were collected from: 1- Housing grouped for kufa cement factory 2- Kufa river bottom 3- Kufa bridge closeness (Kufa Environment office) 4- Kenda -          5- Gazwyniha We implemented a laboratory apparatus based on a NaI (Tl) γ-ray spectrometer, where connect the scintillation detector with multichannel analyzer.Results showed the presence of natural radionuclide Ra 226 in soil samples.  In order to evaluate the radiological hazard of the natural radioactivity, mean resulted Dose has been calculated.     Chemical analysis for concentration of NO 2 -1 , NO 3 -1 and  PO 4 -3 the range of values (0.701-2.246),(2.55-13.236),(0.00-0.003)ppm respectively,  also carried out along with the measurement of electrical conductivity and pH of the soils samples; the values range (272-9360) µScm -1 and (7.51-8.11), respectively.


Normal pregnancy is associated with profound changes in maternal heart rate (HR), peripheral blood pressure (BP) and cardiac output (CO) as early as 5-6 weeks. However, longitudinal changes in central BP, pulse wave reflection and aortic stiffness during pregnancy beginning from pre-pregnancy have not been described. Our aim was to assess changes in maternal cardiovascular function, including measurements of wave reflections and aortic stiffness before, and during pregnancy- in early first trimester, second and third trimester. In this longitudinal study of 143 women planning to conceive (age: 27-38yrs), brachial and central BP, augmentation index (AIx), aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV) and CO were assessed pre-pregnancy and repeated 2-3 weeks after the first positive pregnancy test, at 20-24weeks, 31-34weeks in 35 women who became pregnant. While HR (P=0.001) increased significantly throughout pregnancy, both brachial and central BP reduced (P<0.001). However, significant reduction in BP was seen very early in pregnancy compared to late pregnancy. AIx reduced significantly in early pregnancy (P=0.001) with no further change by second trimester, followed by a significant increase in third trimester (P=0.004). aPWV was unaltered in early pregnancy but reduced by second trimester (P<0.001). This is the first study to investigate longitudinal changes in pulse wave reflection and aortic stiffness from pre-pregnancy. We have demonstrated profound changes in brachial, central BP and AIx very early in pregnancy. Furthermore, late first trimester data cannot be used as 'baseline' in order to identify the extent of cardiovascular adaptation in pregnancy as has been hitherto assumed.


AIM
To determine the cost of medical services for the treatment of preventable minor ocular injuries in Rijeka, Croatia.

METHODS
We analyzed data on 3,755 outpatients (3,363 men and 392 women) treated for eye injuries at the Department of Ophthalmology, Rijeka University Hospital, from April 2002 to March 2003. Median age of patients was 37 years (range, 26-47 years). Data were collected with a questionnaire designed for the study, which included sociodemographic data, type of injury, time and place of injury, and preventability. We carried out cost analysis of the procedures and determined the length of hospital stay.

RESULTS
Out of 5,143 emergencies, minor eye injuries comprised 3,755 cases (73%). Minor injuries were potentially preventable in 90% of cases, as they resulted from nonuse or misuse of obligatory protection devices. Total one-year cost of preventable eye injuries was 135,529.55 Euros.

CONCLUSION
Preventable minor eye injuries in Rijeka, Croatia, cause a serious medical and economic burden. Stricter adherence to the use of protection devices should be promoted.


The best working gases for thermoacoustic refrigeration have high ratios of specific heats and low Prandtl numbers. These properties can be optimized by the use of a mixture of light and heavy noble gases. In this paper it is shown that light noble gas-heavy polyatomic gas mixtures can result in useful working gases. In addition, it is demonstrated that the onset temperature of a heat driven prime mover can be minimized with a gas with large Prandtl number and small ratio of specific heats. The gas properties must be optimized for the particular application of thermoacoustics; it cannot be assumed that high specific heat ratio and low Prandtl number are always desirable.


-Wireless sensor networks are appealing to researchers due to their wide range of application potential in areas such as target detection and tracking, environmental monitoring, industrial process monitoring, and tactical systems. Routing in sensor networks has attracted a lot of attention in the recent years and introduced unique challenges compared to traditional data routing in wired networks. In this paper, we have summarized various routing protocols in wireless sensor network like TEEN, APTEEN etc.


Seventy patients with hepatosplenic schistosomiasis were treated with oxamniquine. The patients lived iti an endemic area and were evaluated 6, 18 and 24 months after treatment, during which time transmission in the area was interrupted. After treatment, clinical improvement occurred in 49 (70%) of the patients, as seen by reduction in visceromegaly and reversion of liver nodules. Reversion of hepatosplenic disease occurred in 28 (40%) patients and in liver nodularity in 26 (47.3%)patients after 24 months. Reversion of hepatosplenic disease was seen in 12 (21%) patients and liver nodules disappeared in 4 (8.5%) as early as 6 months after treatment. In general, hepatosplenomegaly reverses earlier than liver nodularity. Itis notable that reversion of hepatosplenic disease occurred in many individuals with a history ofprevious treatment and also in some with advanced age. In four cases this clinical form of the disease had existed for 20 years. Therefore, there must exist factors other than age and duration of the condition which determine the reversibility of this clinical form. Ourresults reinforce the concept that, in patients with hepatosplenic disease without esophageal hemorrhages, specific treatment shouldpreceed surgical intervention even in those with a history of previous treatment. At least 18 months should be allowed for the ejfects of treatment to be manifest.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual conditions of induction
education carried out in Korean kindergartens and to identify teachers' needs in the
field of early childhood education. The subjects of this study were 150 novice
teachers working for kindergartens located in Busan and Gyeongnam. The result of
this study were as follows. First, carried out induction education in kindergartens was
mostly executed by senior teachers including a head teacher and a vice-principal.
Secondly, concerning the methods of induction education, it was found that this was
mostly provided by senior staff including a head teacher, vice-principal, or principal,
a personal interview, or informal talks. Thirdly, concerning the frequency of induction
education, it was found that this was performed at times depending on personal
situations rather than regular time or frequency.


Since the early stages the profession of dietetics has been characterized as a multifaceted discipline and influenced by scientific and social changes. Today, health and nutrition-related diseases are becoming more global--as is the dietetics profession. The aim of this article is to review the history, education, work and challenges for dietetic practitioners in North and South America, specifically in the United States and in the Argentinean Republic. It was in Argentina where the first Latin American dietetics school was established. Both countries have since shaped the profession creating standards for education and practice in response to advances in the biopsychosocial sciences and economic and environmental changes. Reviewing both the past and current diversities in both Americas contributes to a better understanding of professional strengths and weaknesses, and can prepare dietetics specialists to meet today's needs. Regardless of local disparities, it is interesting that current and future challenges for the dietetics profession are similar between the two countries, such as growing rates of obesity, limited access to and choice of healthy diets among various income groups, busy lifestyles and decline of family meals. These common issues and the availability of Internet tools offer a unique opportunity for partnership and research that can lead to successful creative nutrition interventions and programs. In turn, such joint initiatives will confirm the essential role for the profession--not only in the western hemisphere--but also globally.


Consensus has not been reached regarding the ability of pathologic fracture to predict local recurrence and survival in osteosarcoma. We aim to review the available evidence to examine the association between pathologic fracture and osteosarcoma prognosis. A comprehensive literature search for relevant studies published until March 2014 was performed using PubMed, Cochrane and Web of Science. The studies investigating pathologic fracture of osteosarcoma patients were systematically analyzed. The overall relative risk (RR) was estimated using a fixed‐effect model or random‐effect model according to heterogeneity between the trials. We included nine cohort studies involving 2,187 patients (311 with pathologic fracture and 1,876 without fracture) for the analysis of survival rate and local recurrence. Studies were assessed for quality using the Newcastle–Ottawa Assessment Scale. In the fixed‐effects model, the meta‐analysis showed that pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma patients predicted poor 3‐year overall survival (OS) (RR = 1.86, 95% CI: 1.37–2.53, p < 0.001) and 5‐year OS (RR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.06–1.70, p = 0.016). Similarly, pathologic fracture was significantly correlated with worse 3‐year event free survival (EFS) (RR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.21–1.92, p < 0.001) and 5‐year EFS (RR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.03–1.49, p = 0.021), whereas no significant association was noted with local recurrence (RR = 1.30, 95% CI: 0.84–2.02, p = 0.233). The meta‐analysis confirmed that pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma was a prognostic marker for both OS and EFS but not for local recurrence. © 2014 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 33:131–139, 2015.


NEC, a highly lethal disease that affects premature/compromised infants, is characterized by ischemic necrosis of the gastrointestinal tract. While risk factors can be identified, pathogenesis is uncertain. Protective factors in breast milk promote intestinal maturation and protect the newborn gut from pathologic penetration of macromolecules. Medical and surgical treatments have improved the prognosis of those diagnosed with NEC; however, prevention appears to be the most effective way to decrease mortality rates in the ever-increasing premature population.


Steering behavior is behaviors allowed individual elements to navigate their digital environments in a "life-like" manner with strategies for seeking, fleeing, wandering, arriving, pursuing, evading, path following, obstacle avoiding, etc. This technique is widely used in various fields including the field of robotics, artificial intelligence and artificial life, games and animation. In this research technique of steering behavior used to develop macroscopic simulation crowd of tawaf ritual. Some works are done to create crowded simulation more real by modeling, designing, and implementation analysis and test. This was done in order to simulate more realistic crowd tawaf ritual, steering technique to be applied are flocking, following the path, and path-flocking. Implementation is done by performing coding using C ++ programming language, library Opensteer, and the OpenGL. The steering techniques are next evaluated on several pilgrims' general behaviors, i.e. walking to certain direction, collision avoidance, and obstacle avoidance behavior. In the evaluation, the occurrences of unusual behavior in three steering behavior techniques are recorded and then compared. An evaluation involving user has also been done to get a quick feedback. Based on the evaluation results, it can be concluded that steering behavior of the path flocking is a better model for tawaf crowd simulation than the path following or flocking method alone. That simulation implemented on Augmented Reality for Manasik (ARM).


|A system is presented that learns to control a priori unknown nonlinear dy-namical systems and enables the user to interpret, examine and correct the control strategy in every stage of learning. The application of dynamic programming methods to train a neural network for such control purposes was already quite successful. In order to shorten the long training process the system should allow the incorporation of a priori knowledge about the control strategy in terms of classical linear controllers, fuzzy control rules etc. As a solution, we propose the hybrid control architecture Fy-nesse: The control strategy is represented by a fuzzy relation that can be interpreted and contain a priori knowledge, whereas the more complex part of learning is solved by a neural network as before. This article reports results on the application of the Fy-nesse controller to a chemical plant.


This letter presents a pulsed-coherent time-of-flight (ToF) receiver for a laser ranging system implemented in 28-nm CMOS process. The prototype is designed at 19-GHz carrier frequency with 6.8-ns pulsed modulation. A segmented coarse-fine ToF measurement is adopted to achieve high resolution and fast acquisition. The coarse ToF is recorded by detecting the pulse's edge whereas the fine measurement is measured by coherent detection. The proposed post-edge detection with automatic gain control loop provides better suppression of walk error from 600 to 26 ps as compared to the rising-edge detection. Also, phase-invariant variable-gain amplifiers provide a low phase error of <± 1° across gain settings with 60-dB dynamic range. This letter can, based on the timing accuracy, achieve 40-µm precision with 1-MHz sampling rate.


Various reviews have appeared in earlier years dealing with several aspects of gelatin. Articles have also appeared dealing with the structure of the material and its properties, and with its properties in the solid state. Specifications for the purer form of gelatin have appeared in a number of Pharmacopiea, and commercial specification covering several qualities of the material have also been published.


It is critical to discover a non-noble metal catalyst with high catalytic activity capable of replacing palladium in electrochemical reduction. In this work, a highly efficient single-atom Co-N/C catalyst was synthesized with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a precursor for electrochemical dehalogenation. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) revealed that Co-N/C exhibited a Co-N4 configuration, which had more active sites and a faster charge-transfer rate and thus enabled the efficient removal of florfenicol (FLO) at a wide pH, achieving a rate constant 3.5 and 2.1 times that of N/C and commercial Pd/C, respectively. The defluorination and dechlorination efficiencies were 67.6 and 95.6%, respectively, with extremely low Co leaching (6 μg L-1), low energy consumption (22.7 kWh kg-1), and high turnover frequency (TOF) (0.0350 min-1), demonstrating excellent dehalogenation performance. Spiking experiments and density functional theory (DFT) verified that Co-N4 was the active site and had the lowest energy barrier for forming atomic hydrogen (H*) (ΔGH*). Capture experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), electrochemical tests, and in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) proved that H* and direct electron transfer were responsible for dehalogenation. Toxicity assessment indicated that FLO toxicity decreased significantly after dehalogenation. This work develops a non-noble metal catalyst with broad application prospects in electrocatalytic dehalogenation.


Abstract The United States and its partners have arrived at a critical crossroads in their relations with China – and with one another – in the realm of high technology. Some degree of high-tech decoupling between the two sides is already under way, and recent events suggest this trend is accelerating. Combined efforts to bolster their collective resilience in the face of China's rise remain inadequate. Going forward, much greater investment in resilience is required, including measures to absorb threatening Chinese actions and to adapt and transform in response to China's growing technological prowess. While this will call for considerable acumen and effort on the part of like-minded governments, greater resilience would afford them renewed solidarity and enriched opportunities to sustain technological leadership in the future.


The article analyzes the foreign exchange market functioning under the influence of exchange rate fluctuations. The main factors determining the exchange rate in the existing conditions have been determined. All course-forming factors are divided into fundamental ones, which include the main economic indicators; technical conjunctural; extraordinary (unexpected) and non-economical. The formation of the forward currency operations market trends, in particular forward contracts, currency swaps, options and other financial instruments, was also investigated. The income trends of the current currency market from quotes of the most used currency pairs are briefly described.It was concluded that the most predictable indicator in the current currency operations market is the standardized exchange rate, determined on the basis of currency quotes of at least 6 commercial banks. When calculating the average arithmetic rate, the highest and lowest quotation rates are not taken into account.The future foreign exchange market trends depend on the choice of the monetary policy vector, which is based on a qualitative and quantitative assessment. Since the processes in the currency market have a fractal structure and cannot be predicted using classical methods, the provisions of the fractal statistics theory are used for this purpose.In particular, on the basis of existing quotations of the currency pair US dollar/Ukrainian hryvnia, the Hurst indicator, which reflects the level of anti-persistence of the national currency exchange rate dynamics, was calculated, and accordingly, its ability to change trends to the opposite in periods of high volatility and in the presence of factors that cause it. The volatility of the national currency rate and the level of anti-persistence of currency fluctuations depends on a number of measures in the field of currency regulation and currency and monetary policy. At the same time, any intervention of the state government in the exchange rate formation process causes a change in the trend. The results of the calculations can be used for operational and strategic planning of the business entities behavior on currency markets and measures aimed at countering the negative impact of exchange rate changes.


The Cumulative constraint greatly contributes to the success of constraint programming at solving scheduling problems. The SoftCumulative, a version of the Cumulative where overloading the resource incurs a penalty is, however, less studied. We introduce a checker and a filtering algorithm for the SoftCumulative, which are inspired by the powerful energetic reasoning rule for the Cumulative. Both algorithms can be used with classic linear penalty function, but also with a quadratic penalty function, where the penalty of overloading the resource increases quadratically with the amount of the overload. We show that these algorithms are more general than existing algorithms and vastly outperform a decomposition of the SoftCumulative in practice.


This comprehensive survey of British Romantic poetry explores the work of six poets whose names are most closely associated with the Romantic era—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron, and Shelley—as well as works by other significant but less widely studied poets such as Leigh Hunt, Charlotte Smith, Felicia Hemans, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Along with its exceptional coverage, the volume is alert to relevant contexts, and opens up ways of understanding Romantic poetry.

The Romantic Poetry Handbook encompasses the entire breadth of the Romantic Movement, beginning with Anna Laetitia Barbauld and running through to Thomas Lovell Beddoes and John Clare. In its central section 'Readings' it explores tensions, change, and continuity within the Romantic Movement, and examines a wide range of individual poems and poets through sensitive, attentive and accessible analyses. In addition, the authors provide a full introduction, a detailed historical and cultural timeline, biographies of the poets whose works are featured in the "Readings" section, and a helpful guide to further reading.

The Romantic Poetry Handbook is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate study of British Romantic poetry. It also will appeal to every reader with an interest in the Romantics and in poetry generally.


Psychic and physical health become a desire for everyone, it is not only in health side, desire to have proportional body gesture, strong, and charismatic are the most things that human want to have. The scientists are competing to discover the solution including the eastern scientists with their oriental characteristic. The realization of such proportional body gesture is one of the goals from systematic anatomy as a part of the body that organized by the systems and functions. Based on the structural functionalism theory by Robert Merton, in the third part of the theory (indispensability) describe that all of the aspect of human body beside the positive side however it needs for the realization of the unity inside human body with the maximal function so it brings up psychic health or physical, including proportional body gesture and to realize something that can be studied in asana philosophy. Yoga philosophy has instructions to realize physic and physical health for locomotor system, digestive system, respiratory system, nervous system, and five senses that are part of systematic anatomy. Āsana as the one of Yoga principal forms has a role in systematic anatomy, especially locomotor anatomy as the parts concerned with gestures.


Study Design: Retrospective study. Objective: Resolution of clinical signs and symptoms following orbital fractures depends on the accurate restoration of the orbital volume. Computer-Assisted procedures and Patient Specific Implants represent modern solutions, but they require additional resources. A more reproducible option is the use of standard preformed titanium meshes, widely available and cheaper; with their use quality of results is proportional to the accuracy with which they are positioned. This work identifies 6 reproducible and constant anatomical landmarks, as an intraoperative guide for the precise positioning of titanium preformed meshes. Methods: 90 patients treated at the Maxillofacial Surgery Department, Niguarda Trauma Center, Milan, for unilateral orbital reconstruction (January 2012 to December 2018), were studied. In all cases reconstruction was performed respecting the 6 proposed anatomical landmarks. The outcomes analyzed are: post-operative CT adherence to the 6 anatomical markers and symmetry achieved respect to controlateral orbit; number/year of re-interventions and duration of surgery; resolution of clinical defects (at least 12-months follow-up); incidence of complications. Results: Satisfactory results were obtained in terms of restoration of orbital size, shape and volume. Clinical defects early recovered with a low incidence of complications and re-interventions. Operating times and radiological accuracy have shown a progressive improvement during years of application of this technique. Conclusions: The proposed "6 anatomical landmarks" is an easy free-hand technique that allows everyone to obtain high levels of reconstructive accuracy and it should be a skill of all surgeons who deal with orbital reconstruction in daily clinical activity.


BACKGROUND
Hospitalizations contribute significantly to the annual health care expenditure for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and reducing cost of care without compromising outcomes is a rising priority. Teaching hospitals (THs) have higher costs and utilize trainees in care to a greater extent than community hospitals, and it is unknown how hospital teaching status (HTS) affects outcomes. We therefore sought to investigate the impact of HTS on IBD hospitalization outcomes.

METHODS
We used the Vizient clinical database to identify patients hospitalized between October 1, 2014, and March 31, 2018, for IBD. Vizient hospitals were divided into major THs, minor THs, and non-THs. We used multivariable linear regression of aggregated discharge data to assess the association of HTS with mean length of stay (LOS), mean direct cost (DC), 30-day readmission rate (RR), and in-hospital mortality rate (MR), while adjusting for demographics and disease complexity.

RESULTS
Vizient included 29,863 discharges among 291 hospitals for ulcerative colitis (UC) and 62,698 discharges among 314 hospitals for Crohn's disease (CD) between October 1, 2014, and March 31, 2018. Unadjusted mean LOS, mean DC, and 30-day RR were greater among THs for both UC and CD. Unadjusted MR was greater among major THs for UC but not CD. After multivariable analysis, only 30-day RR for UC was increased in major THs relative to non-THs (1.98%; 95% confidence interval, 0.33%-3.61%).

CONCLUSIONS
Differences in metrics of cost-effective hospital care for patients with IBD appear to be driven by disease severity rather than HTS. Future research should attempt to better characterize factors driving resource utilization for IBD hospitalizations.


Children's tv programs can be distinguished by the processing demands of their format and the pace with which changes occur. High-continuity programs are stories requiring temporal integration of successive scenes for full comprehension. Low-continuity programs are in "magazine" format: Successive bits are independent of one another, and temporal integration across bits is not required for comprehension. Pace is denned as rate of scene and character change in stones and rate of bit change in magazine shows. Sixteen children's tv programs varying in continuity (high vs. low), pace (high vs low), and animation (cartoon vs. live production) were made from broadcast material. Each lasted 15 minutes. Children (N = 160), half in grades K-l and half in grades 3-4, viewed two of the programs and were then tested for recall. The recall task required sequential senation of still photos taken from the program. Older children attended longer and reconstructed sequences better than younger children. High-continuity (story) programs led to greater attention and better recall than low-continuity (magazine) programs. Low-paced shows were recalled better than high-paced shows. Older children recalled best when shown either low pace or story format or both. Young children showed additive increments in recall due to low pace and high continuity: Either alone was better than none, and both was better than either alone. Younger children attended somewhat more to high- than to low-paced shows if they were in magazine format, a weak effect of perceptual salience. Older children attended to high-continuity programs in synchrony with their pace: longer looks to low-paced and shorter looks to high-paced programs. This effect was attributed to schematic and strategic processing by older children when the format justified it. Regression analyses indicated higher correlations between attention and recall for animated stories than for other types of programs, an effect attributed to their relatively high stereotypy in the medium. Age, continuity, and pace effects on recall were not fully accounted for by their effects on attention. Results were interpreted as indicating evidence for development of active, schematic processing of television by children and for strategic attending by older children, based on perceived processing demands.


INTRODUCTIONThis protocol provides guidance for setting the parameters for a typical data-dependent MS/MS acquisition analysis using the ThermoFinnigan LCQ system. The method consists of a continual cycle beginning with one scan of MS (scan one), which records all of the m/z values of the ions present at that moment in the gradient, followed by two rounds of MS/MS. The initial MS/MS scan is of the first most-intense ion recorded from the MS scan. The second MS/MS scan is of the second most-intense ion recorded from scan one. Dynamic exclusion is activated to improve the protein identification capacity during the analysis.


TCR repertoire studies in RA have yielded conflicting data. These studies were initiated on the premise that clonal expression of T cells at the site of inflammation could serve as a target for immune therapies designed on the basis of the option to inactivate or eliminate the presumed pathogenic T cells. These analyses have demonstrated the existence of a highly diverse overall TCR repertoire on the basis of extensive usage of TCR V genes both in synovial fluid and tissue. However, clusters of RA patients can be recognized who share increased usage frequencies of defined TCR V genes among synovial fluid or synovial tissue lymphocytes. Subsequent analysis of the CDR3 regions among diverse overall TCR repertoires have revealed the presence of conserved amino acid sequences in the CDR3 regions of the variable portions of TCRs in T lymphocytes derived from the site of inflammation. These findings suggest that a selective, antigen-driven expansion of T lymphocytes is occurring in the inflamed joints. Parallel to the TCR-repertoire studies, we investigated whether vaccines prepared from synovial T cells could modulate T-cell reactivity. The studies were based on previous work on TCV in animals, revealing that attenuated non-specific T-cell lines could serve as a vaccine. The results obtained in 13 RA patients showed no clear indication for a cellular or humoral immune response. Our experience with TCV in RA patients showed that this technique is feasible and safe. We found some evidence for a modulated T-cell reactivity both in vivo and in vitro. These results show at least some immunomodulatory effect af T-cell vaccination, although the antigen specificity of the effect of this intervention remains to be shown. Because of the convincing studies in animals and MS patients, further studies in RA should focus on the effect of vaccination using vaccines prepared from disease-inducing cells. In this respect, determination of the CDR3 regions of synovial T cells could lead to the identification of those T cells that are relevant for the disease.


This review of the clinical and experimental literature on pre-motor eyelid control, including an analysis of available clinico-pathological reports, suggests support for the following hypotheses: (1) cortex, extrapyramidal motor systems and rostral brainstem structures contribute to the control of the levator palpebrae muscle (LP) in various eyelid functions; (2) though the LP motor nucleus is unpaired, the pre-motor control of LP is at least in part lateralized; (3) signals of the rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) are involved in the control of coordinated lid movements with saccadic up- and downgaze movements; (4) lesions of the medial and/or principal portion of the nuclear complex of the posterior commissure are essential for the production of lid retraction. These structures are assumed to be involved in lid-eye coordination by providing inhibitory modulation of LP motor neuronal activity; (5) the ventral periaqueductal grey is assumed to play a role in the generation of tonic LP motor neuronal activity; (6) neurons of the caudal supraoculomotor area could play a role in the mediation of converging inhibitory inputs onto LP motor neurons.


This paper addresses the problem of modeling and simulating large set of heterogeneous networked embedded systems which cooperate to build cost-efficient, reliable, secure and scalable applications. The purpose of this task is an application-driven top-down design flow which starts from application requirements and then progressively decides the general architecture of the system and the type and structure of its HW, SW and network components. In the past, a considerable research effort has been done to create specific tools for each design domain - software, hardware and network - and to integrate them for data exchange between models and their joint simulation. However the advantages and drawbacks of different combinations of tools in the various stages of the design flow have not been discussed. The paper describes and discusses how to combine different modeling tools to provide different modeling and simulation alternatives for the design of networked embedded systems devoted to complex distributed applications. The problem is faced both theoretically and practically with a real application derived from a European project


Three months after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer, a 58-year-old man presented with fluid trapped in his upper mediastinum due to chylous leakage from a duplicated left-sided thoracic duct that remained after excision of the main thoracic duct. Classical lymphangiography using lipiodol confirmed the presence of duplicated thoracic ducts. Conservative treatments were not effective, and then we performed ligation of the left-sided thoracic duct with left-sided video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Anatomic variations of the thoracic duct can result in chylous leakage after thoracic surgery. Even if the patient has anomaly of the thoracic duct, classical lymphangiography is useful for detecting locations of the thoracic duct precisely, allowing for certain ligation of the duct with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.


Separating the distal anterior tip and lateral edges of an ingrown toenail from the adjacent soft tissue with a wisp of absorbent cotton coated with collodion gives immediate relief of pain and provides a firm runway for further growth of the nail. The collodion coating fixes the cotton in place, waterproofs, and permits bathing. This simple office method was successfully used on 86 private patients. It is not applicable in patients with infected acute paronychia.


1 In this paper the pharmacokinetic relation between concentrations of erythromycin in plasma and in bronchial mucosa was established. 2 Sixteen patients undergoing bronchoscopy received 1 g erythromycin by continuous infusion in 30 min. 3 Two bronchial mucosal samples were taken from each patient sometime after drug administration. Concentrations were determined in the mucosal sample and in several plasma samples collected at different times before the mucosal sample. 4 Rate constants for the distribution between plasma and tissue were calculated on the basis of the assumption of passive diffusion of the free drug. 5 Mean values of the distribution rate constants, calculated by a nonlinear curve fitting procedure, were 2.40 h-1 for distribution from plasma to tissue and 1.28 h-1 for that from tissue to plasma. 6 These values correspond to a half-life for the distribution of the free drug of 33 min and a free fraction of the drug in mucosal tissue of 0.20.


ABSTRACT Wang, N.N., 2020. Analysis of influence factors of China-ASEAN economic cooperation: A perspective of economic coupling. In: Qiu, Y.; Zhu, H., and Fang, X. (eds.), Current Advancements in Marine and Coastal Research for Technological and Sociological Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 107, pp. 388-392. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The study of economic coupling between two regions is a hot topic in regional economics, and also a hot topic in the field of international trade. The evaluation index of economic coupling between the two places is the core and key to study this problem, and is also the major indicator related to the scientific of the evaluation results. This paper takes the economic coupling between Beihai of China and Haiphong of Vietnam as the research object, constructs the multiple regression equation of the economic coupling between the two places by using the multiple linear regression method, and gives the correlation coefficient analysis and the statistical test of the regression model based on SPSS software. Empirical research finds that the coordination degree of per capita GDP, output value of the third industry and per capita green space area are the important indicators that affect the economic coupling of the two places.


Cancer cells generate large quantities of cytoplasmic protons as byproducts of aberrantly activated aerobic glycolysis and lactate fermentation. To avoid potentially detrimental acidification of the intracellular milieu, cancer cells activate multiple acid-removal pathways that promote cytosolic alkalization and extracellular acidification. Accumulating evidence suggests that in addition to the well-characterized ion pumps and exchangers in the plasma membrane, cancer cell lysosomes are also reprogrammed for this purpose. On the one hand, the increased expression and activity of the vacuolar-type H+−ATPase (V-ATPase) on the lysosomal limiting membrane combined with the larger volume of the lysosomal compartment increases the lysosomal proton storage capacity substantially. On the other hand, enhanced lysosome exocytosis enables the efficient release of lysosomal protons to the extracellular space. Together, these two steps dynamically drive proton flow from the cytosol to extracellular space. In this perspective, we provide mechanistic insight into how lysosomes contribute to the rewiring of pH homeostasis in cancer cells.


Copyright © 2019 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : Habbash F, Saeed A, Abbas F, Ajlan BY, Abdulla F, Al-Sayyad AS. Knowledge and Practice Regarding Foot Care in Patients with Diabetes mellitus Attending Diabetic Clinics in Health Centers in The Kingdom of Bahrain. Int J Med Public Health. 2019;9(4):148-53. ABSTRACT Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a serious chronic disease. The prevalence of diabetes in Bahrain in 2007 was 14.3%. One of the most important complications of diabetes is foot problems. In Bahrain the estimated prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy was 36.6%, peripheral vascular disease 11.8% and foot ulceration 4.75%. Although there is a large amount of literature on the diabetic foot and the importance of foot care, there is a lack of population based study of foot care knowledge and practice. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and describe the practice of foot care in diabetic patients in diabetic clinic. Design: A cross –sectional survey in diabetic clinics in local health centers in Bahrain. Setting: Diabetic clinic, Primary health centers, The Kingdom of Bahrain. Methods: The target population was all diabetic patients attending diabetic clinics in primary health care in Bahrain during the period of 15th, July, 2008 till 15th October, 2008. The questionnaires were filled by direct interview of 400 patients, 100 patients from each health region. The questionnaire contained demographic data, questions about knowledge and practice of diabetic foot care. Results: The mean knowledge score was 8 (SD 2) out of 11. Only 33% of the patients knew that there is no relationship between diabetes and flat feet. 44% of the patients were unaware that they should inspect their feet daily. 38.7% did not think that they should inspect their footwear every time they were worn. Higher knowledge score was found in Bahraini patients (P=.000), Patients with high educational level (P=.004) and in patients with less than 20 years duration of diabetes (P=.001). On the other hand, there were no associations between the knowledge score and gender, glycemic control or having previous foot problem. Feet inspection was practiced by 66.5% of the patients. 86.8% were washing their feet daily and 78.5% were washing their feet in warm water. Practices that put patients at risk included trimming toenails straight across, not having their feet measured when they last bought footwear and walking barefoot regularly. Conclusion: This study revealed a good knowledge score in this study (mean 8, SD 2), but are still deficiencies in knowledge about the frequency of foot inspection (44%) and awareness regarding inspection of the inside of footwear for object and torn lining (38.7%). Feet inspection was practiced by 66.5% of the patients, 86.8% were washing their feet daily and 78.5% were washing their feet in warm water. Findings from this study can be used in implementing health education programs on foot care for diabetic patients to improve their knowledge and practice.


This study examined the epistemological beliefs of preservice teachers, from naïve to sophisticated, from five different departments of the faculty of education in a Turkish university. By using the adapted form of the Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire, social studies, science, Turkish, mathematics, and classroom preservice teachers were surveyed and their epistemological belief levels were determined in terms of department and gender variables. Epistemological beliefs were examined in three dimensions: beliefs that pertain to learning depending on effort, beliefs that pertain to learning depending on ability, and beliefs that pertain to there being only one unchanging truth. The analysis indicated that generally all in departments, preservice teachers have sophisticated beliefs regarding the first two dimensions of the questionnaire. For the third dimension, they seem be at medium level. The results show that for the second dimension females have more sophisticated beliefs than males. For the other two dimensions there was no significant difference between females and males. A significant difference was found only for the first dimension and only between mathematics and classroom preservice teachers.


Frontiers on land and bodies are performative of imperial expansion and acceleration. This chapter argues that frontier sites are especially productive of imperial formations, as they expose inconsistencies and excesses that are met with a particular rage and discipline. As such, frontier sites are productive of iterations of imperial violence, which includes the construction of new infrastructures and technologies of violence, as well as the discursive justification for this violent apparatus. Palestine is a frontier of imperial formations that is productive of war technologies, but also a site where debates over the legitimization of the use of this violence takes place. Performances on the frontiers of empire such as Palestine are constitutive of subject and subjectivities on resistance and settler colonialism in global politics. The marking of Hamas as terrorists is central to the coding and interpretations of Palestine in public discourses. The democratic election of Hamas troubled the coding of the movement as an illegitimate terrorist Other, which was met with a performative anxiety and rage by the European Union. The EU had headed the election-monitoring mission in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and they had declared the elections transparent, free. and fair. Their response, however, was to diplomatically and financially sanction Hamas, which had profound consequences for Palestinian governance. Hamas and Gaza exposed fault lines in empire's attempt to defend its use of violence. and as such they are also productive of new forms of enacting imperial violence. The chapter explores the performances of Tania El Khoury, whose work uses intimate scenes and audience interactivity to foreground the pain and oppression of imperial violence. Performance acts as a cultural frontier that negotiates and expresses subversive and resistant meanings of violence in global politics.


Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques have been recently advanced to tremendously improve the performance of wireless networks. However, the use of very large antenna arrays brings new issues, such as the significantly increased hardware cost and signal processing cost and complexity. In order to reap the enormous gain of massive MIMO and yet reduce its cost to an affordable level, this paper proposes a novel system design by integrating an electromagnetic (EM) lens with the large antenna array, termed electromagnetic lens antenna (ELA). An ELA has the capability of focusing the power of any incident plane wave passing through the EM lens to a small subset of the antenna array, while the location of focal area is dependent on the angle of arrival (AoA) of the wave. As compared to conventional antenna arrays without the EM lens, the proposed system can substantially reduce the number of required radio frequency (RF) chains at the receiver and hence, the implementation costs. In this paper, we investigate the proposed system under a simplified single-user uplink transmission setup, by characterizing the power distribution of the ELA as well as the resulting channel model. Furthermore, by assuming antenna selection used at the receiver, we show the throughput gains of the proposed system over conventional antenna arrays given the same number of selected antennas.


Calculations are carried out, using a nonempirical modeling of the interaction potential and solving the quantum scattering coupled channel equations, for low energy electron scattering from cubane (C8H8) molecules in the gas phase. Total integral cross sections are obtained and partial contributions are analyzed for the most important irreducible representations that describe the continuum electron in the Oh molecular symmetry. Several trapping resonances are found and analyzed in terms of the molecular-type features of the resonant electron states associated with them. A Ramsauer-Townsend minimum is also found and its possible behavior related to features of the scattering length as k --> 0.


In this study, several different metal ions, i.e., Mn2+, Mn4+, Co2+, Co3+, Sb2+ and Sb3+, were added in ZnO varistors to investigate their effect on admittance-frequency response. When manganese and cobalt with high valencies are added, the depression angle and relaxation time become minimal, whereas if manganese and cobalt with low valencies are added, they become maximal. On the other hand, the relaxation time is independent of the valency of antimony ions. However, the depression angle increases with increasing valency of antimony ions.


This paper uses survey evidence to analyse the response of Luxembourg firms to the economic and financial crisis in 2008-2009. Approximately three out of four firms reported that they were negatively affected by the crisis, mostly due to a fall in demand, but also due to financing difficulties and difficulties being paid for their products and services. The measures to adjust vary with the type and the size of the shock experienced. Firms aim at cutting costs in the first place, predominantly via a reduction of non-labour cost, but also by cutting temporary staff, bonuses and overtime compensation. While base wage freezes became much more common during the recent crisis, cuts in base wages remained very rare and few firms only reduced permanent staff in an attempt to reduce costs. The most important reasons for not cutting base wages relate to labour market regulation / existing wage agreements and the concern of reducing staff morale and effort. Finally, our results suggest that the assessment of adjustment measures and obstacles to wage cuts may depend on the economic environment and the actual situation of the firm.


The fabrication of telecom active devices, such as waveguide amplifiers and lasers, with femtosecond laser pulses is of great industrial interest due to the simplicity, low cost and 3D capabilities of this technology with respect to the standard ones. In this work we will present the various improvements that brought us to demonstrate net gain and the first waveguide laser fabricated with femtosecond laser pulses on an erbium-ytterbium-doped phosphate glass. The first results have been obtained with an amplified, low repetition rate (1 kHz), Ti:Sapphire system. The target of matching the mode field of the fabricated waveguides to that of standard telecom fibers pushed us to develop a novel astigmatic focusing of the writing beam to overcome the asymmetry of the waveguide transverse profile intrinsic in the transversal writing geometry. Despite the circularization of the transverse profile, the high coupling losses allowed only for internal gain in an all-fiber coupling configuration. The best results have been obtained with a very compact, unamplified, diode-pumped Yb:glass laser, with a higher repetition rate (166/505 kHz) and lower energy. In this case, the waveguides exhibited almost perfect mode matching with a telecom fiber allowing coupling losses as low as 0.18 dB and propagation losses of 0.5 dB/cm. Such figures enabled net gain when pumping with 980-nm laser diodes and laser action by terminating the waveguide with two fiber Bragg gratings. These results pave the way to a transfer of femtosecond waveguide writing into the industrial arena for the realization of practical telecom components.


Time pressure brought about by work or other activities is a real problem in modern society. Humans are required to do things faster and faster. As revealed in both informal language and in ergonomics literature, time pressure is a factor in psychological stress. Paradoxically, despite the current challenge to reduce time pressure, its mechanisms and consequences are still insufficiently studied.
 Factors to be taken into account in the analysis of the causes and consequences of time pressure, be it acute or chronic, are illustrated in two fields: the route and the work. Arguments are built from bibliographic data and from results obtained by the authors during surveys, experiments and activity analysis involving child pedestrians, car drivers and employees of call centres.
 The subjective nature of time pressure is put forward. Strong links between organisational time constraints and cognitivo-emotional individual factors are illustrated throughout the process. Time pressure has been described as resulting from an unfavourable ratio between the amount of time that is required to accomplish a task and the amount of time that is available. The insufficiency of a chronometric approach is also highlighted. The presence of a sanction if the task is not completed in time has also been previously seen as a main determinant of time pressure. In line with this idea, motivation sometime appears to be sufficient for time pressure elicitation; however, it is not a necessary condition for either. Indeed, the incidence of cross-situational contagion supports the fact that time pressure may extend to nearly all of an individual?s activities without the scope for specific motivation. Other time-pressure related factors have been identified, including task complexity and multi-tasking, despite the fact that the latter?s primary purpose is actually to save time. In addition, uncertainties, operating margins and flexibilities, and break efficacy have to be examined. Finally, personality characteristics, especially type A, need to be considered in this framework.
 The consequences of time pressure on behaviour and emotions are discussed in terms of negative impacts, as well as in terms of positive impacts at individual and/or organisational levels.
 To conclude, the authors propose a comprehensive definition of time pressure. Methodological issues to better address the study of time pressure are outlined in the field of experimental research, but above all in the field of management in ergonomics.


The correlation between expression and prognosis of thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) and CD44v6 in undifferentiated lung carcinoma was investigated. There were 116 cases with large cell undifferentiated carcinoma in group A, 120 cases with small cell undifferentiated carcinoma in group B and 80 normal individuals from the same period in group C. The expression levels of TTF-1 and CD44v6 in the serum of group A, B and C and the cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of group A, B and C were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the levels in each group were compared. Pearsons test was used to analyze the correlation between TTF-1 and CD44v6 expression in serum of group A and group B and cancer tissues. Patients were divided into the survival group and the deceased group according to their 5-year survival. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to analyze the risk factors of mortality, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to analyze the diagnostic value of TTF-1 and CD44v6. The best cut-off values of TTF-1 and CD44v6 were divided into the high and low expression groups to observe the 5-year mortality of patients and the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival curve was drawn. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of mortality. The expression of CD44v6 in the serum of group A and group B was higher than that in group C, and that of group B was higher than that in group A (P<0.05). The expression of TTF-1 in serum of group A and group B was higher than that of group C, and the expression of TTF-1 in group A was higher than that in group B (P<0.05). The expression of TTF-1 and CD44v6 in group A and group B were significantly higher than those in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). The expression of TTF-1 in group A was higher than that in group B (P<0.05), and that of CD44v6 was lower than that in group B (P<0.05). The 5-year survival of patients showed that 209 patients died and 27 survived at 5 years; the survival rate was 11.44%. The course of disease, TNM stage, TTF-1 and CD44v6 were independent mortality factors for undifferentiated lung cancer.


The parallel operation of modular power factor correction circuits is illustrated. The modular units are operated at a constant frequency to alleviate the problem of electromagnetic interference, at discontinuous-current-mode to obtain good current sharing, and with a phase-shift to have a smaller ripple in the input current. The prototype circuit consists of 15 modular units, which are required to supply the attempted power rating of 3.75 kVA.


We prospectively studied 535 newborn infants who had been monitored during labour with scalp electrodes. Daily examination of scalp changes showed frequent transient mild lacerations, while severe complications were rare: seven (1.3%) had scalp ulceration and one (0.2%) developed scalp abscess.


The lyophilization of the solution extracted from 60 percent of acetone applied to persimmon leaves, the compounding process in accordance with the solution's concentration, and the gel filteration through Sephadex G-50 of biologically activated substances obstructing enzyme activity, such as tyrosinase, xanthine oxidase, and angiotesin converting enzyme (ACE) led to the assumption that polyphenol was the compound serving as biologically activated substances obstructing enzyme activity. Xanthine oxidase involved in pruine metabolism oxidizes hypoxanthine to xanthine and xanthine to uric acid. In the continuous study for natural compound, nine flavan-3-ols have been isolated from the persimmon leaves. The structures of (+)-catechin, (+)-gallocatechin, procyanidin B-1, pyrocyanidin C-1, prodelphinidin B-3, gallocatechin--catechin, procyanidin B-7-3-O-gallate, procyanidin C-1-3'-3'-3'-O-trigallate and (-)-epigallocatechin--epigallocatechin--catechin were established by NMR and their inhibitory effect on xanthine oxidase activity was investigated. Procyanidin B-7-3-O-gallate, (-)-epigallocatechin--epigallocatechin--catechin and procyanidin C-1-3'-3'-3'-O-trigallate showed 94%, 90.69%, 80.90% inhibition at and inhibited on the angiotensin converting enzyme respectively. Procyanidin B-7-3-O-gallate and procyanidin C-1-3'-3'-3'-O-trigallate showed 66%, 63% inhibition at and inhibited on the xanthine oxidase competitively. Procyanidin C-1-3'-3'-3'-O-trigallate showed 70% inhibition at and inhibited on the tyrosinase competitively.


The chronicle developed in the 19th Century in French journals (and Mexican ones as well) is a genre both literary and popular which becomes an emblem of daily life, into the symbol of development of the media era. The chronicle, as journalistic genre, is split between being a literary ambition and a media obligation. This same ambiguity might be what grants it its character essential to literature, an ambiguity which is based on the search for media through literature, and vice versa.


This paper proposes an OFDM based transmission scheme for asynchronous amplify-and-forward cooperative systems with two relay nodes over frequency-selective channels. To combat the inter-symbol interference from multi-path fading and timing errors, the cyclic prefix (CP) is used at both the source node and relay nodes. Unlike [7] using IDFT and DFT modulation for two consecutive OFDM blocks respectively, all data blocks are modulated by IDFT at the source node and demodulated by DFT at the destination node in the proposed scheme. A subcarrier basis symbol-by-symbol ML decoding can be employed by exploiting the Alamouti code structure of two consecutive OFDM blocks at the destination node. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve diversity order 2 over frequency-selective channels in the presence of asynchronism between nodes. Moreover, we prove that the proposed scheme over frequency selective fading channel has the identical BER performance with the case of flat fading. Extension to more relay nodes is straightforward and the proposed scheme can achieve diversity order equal to the number of relay nodes.