In this paper, we give an overview of spatial identification (determining position and velocity) of modulated backscatter UHF RFID tags using RF phase information. We describe three main techniques based on PDOA (Phase Difference of Arrival): TD (Time Domain), FD (Frequency Domain), and SD (Spatial Domain). The techniques are illustrated with modeling and simulation example in free space and in presence of multipath using a multi-ray channel model for amplitude and phase of the received tag signal in deterministic environment. We also present and discuss the experiments performed in a real RFID warehouse portal environment.


The secure way of Philosophy. In the Prologue to the first Critique Kant gives some notes to recognize if a science goes his own secure way. The author discusses if Philosophy is able to follow the science's way, or if —in doing so— goes against its own na-ture.


Herein, we consider how overlay architectures can be deployed in order to support usage management in cloud computing. We contrast filter-centric perimeter and policy-centric overlay approaches toward usage management of sensitive content from the perspective of cross-domain solutions and then demonstrate a path from current systems to distributed policy-centric overlay methods. We first cover the need for overlay networks supporting usage management by highlighting the pending migration to utility computing models and the current shortcomings of those kinds of systems from a variety of perspectives. We also briefly cover the state of usage management within these kinds of systems, also examining the known state of the art in proposed cross domain solutions. We then compare and contrast the advantages of policy-based overlay systems to solving usage management issues over sensitive materials within multi-level security environments. We then demonstrate a migration path from current to future solutions. We close with our current and future directions of research.


The present work is aimed to develop and analyze a novel model for distributed stateful intrusion detection able to scale in order to keep up with the pace of high speed network links. More precisely, in this work we make the following contributions: - We introduce a novel architecture for the distributed matching of stateful network-based signatures. - We present a novel algorithm that allows for the detection of complex, stateful attacks in a distributed fashion. - We provide a precise characterization of the bottlenecks that are inherent to the distributed matching of stateful signatures in the most general case. - We developed optimizing to reduce the impact of these bottlenecks and improve the performance of distributed detection. - We describe a working, yet demonstrative implementation of the system based on the Snort intrusion detection engine - We provide an evaluation of the implemented system on a real-world testbed


Our previous work (PMID: 35192691) has identified that genetically silenced phospholipase Cγ2 (PLCγ2) hinders VEGF therapy of the diabetic ischemic limb. Hyperglycemia caused hypermethylation of endothelial specific gene promoter. Given that epigenetic changes are reversible, this work tests the significance of gene-targeted therapeutic DNA demethylation in improving blood flow to diabetic ischemic wounds. Bipedicle ischemic wounds were placed in streptozotocin (STZ) induced acute diabetic C57BL6 mice. Diabetic VWF+ dermal endothelial cells were isolated using flow sorting. In wound tissue, PLCγ2 promoter CpG methylation levels were analyzed using bisulfite sequencing. Next, to specifically demethylate PLCγ2 promoter in endothelial cells, a demethylation cocktail was designed: (i) (scFv)-TET1 catalytic domain (TET1CD) system capable of inducing targeted DNA methylation, and (ii) endothelial promoter driven gene specific guide RNAs. This demethylation cocktail was delivered at the diabetic ischemic wound-edge employing non-viral topical tissue nano-transfection (TNT) technology. PLCγ2 protein expression outcomes were assessed using flow cytometry. Functional outcome of such demethylation was assessed using Laser Speckle Perfusion imaging (Perimed Inc.) and ultrasonography (Vevo 2100) at days 3, 7&10. Overall DNA hyper methylation was prominent in murine ischemic flaps as demonstrated by the increased ratio of 5-methylcytosine (methylation mark) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (demethylation mark) (n=5). Specifically, the PLCγ2 promoter was hypermethylated (n=5). TNT mediated endothelial-targeted demethylation of the PLCγ2 promoter increased its expression (n=4). Such demethylation-based upregulation of PLCγ2 improved wound tissue blood flow with increased abundance of VWF+/PLCG2+ vascular elements (n=4). TNT-based endothelial demethylation of the PLCγ2 gene promoter improved perfusion of cutaneous diabetic wounds.

 S.S.Verma: None. S.Kacar: None. S.C.Gnyawali: None. L.S.Fehme: None. C.K.Sen: n/a. K.Singh: None.

 U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-22-1-0146)


Children's electronic media use in the form of Internet has increased over the past decades. The activities that children engage using the Internet can lead to experiencing positive as well as negative outcomes. Recent studies have found that excessive time devoted to the Internet use and behavioral narrowing can lead to Internet addiction (Enagandula et al., 2018) or compulsive Internet use (Meerkerk et al., 2009). This phenomenon can be described as a greater risk of developing excessive online habits, which may result in impairments of individual's activities of daily living as well as relationships with others. Specific characteristics of these associations, however, have been examined only minimally in young children. The goal of this study was to examine the peculiarities of elementary school-aged children's Internet use in relation to sociodemographic and relationships with others, as well as possible behavioral and emotional difficulties. The sample consisted of 304 parent-child dyads. All children in the study were second or third grade students (mean age 8.47 years, SD = 0.56), 50.3% were boys. Children and parents completed the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS; Meerkerk et al., 2009) and provided information about time spent on the Internet. Parents provided sociodemographic information and completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997), and children answered questions about their relationships with their parents and peers. The results of the study revealed significant gender differences in compulsivity of the Internet use, i.e. the estimates of boys CIUS – both provided by children and their parents – were significantly higher than girls. In overall, there was good agreement between parental and children's reports on child's CIUS, however parents reported higher CIUS scores and longer Internet use than children themselves. Regression analysis revealed that children's CIUS is predicted (a) from the child's perspective – by longer Internet time together with lower scores of child prosocial behavior, male gender, less advantaged financial situation in the family, and poorer parent-child relationships; (b) from the parent's perspective – by longer Internet time, male gender, lower scores of child prosocial behavior, higher scores of behavioral and emotional difficulties together with less advantaged financial family status. The findings of the study are discussed in light of evidence-based practice and research.


Powder product as instant drink from red guava (Psidium guajava L.) juice is more practicable to increase economic value. The objective of the research was to investigate physicochemical and organoleptic characteristics of red guava juice instant drink powder produced using foam-mat drying method. The results showed that red guava juice instant drink powder produced using foam-mat drying method had high yield with solubility was low, the brightness was high, the level of redness was high, the level of yellowish was low, sugar was high, and sensory properties were accepted by panelist.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to theoretically describe the role of Zakah as a vital tool of fiscal policy in achieving Pareto optimality. Design/methodology/approach - The paper sets a general equilibrium model that describes the long-run convergence to a Pareto optimal allocation in a theoretical Islamic economy. The model is based on Diamond criteria where the social planner maximizes the utility of all generations subject to the output of the economy. Findings - While the government in the capitalist economy issues debt like T-bills and government bonds to insure Pareto optimality, the paper shows, theoretically, that constructing a Zakah fund can take the role of issuing debt in financial markets. Furthermore, the paper shows that Islamic economy converges to Pareto optimality by its nature without issuing debt in the financial market. Research implications - This result is very important in describing the strength of the theoretical Islamic economics in achieving dynamic efficiency with least possible interventions. More importantly, the results would help the government in setting an optimal tax rate that insures Pareto efficiency without issuing debt. Originality/value - This paper attempts to model the actual effects of Zakah as a fiscal policy tool in wealth redistribution in an Islamic economy. In addition, the paper opens a wide channel for future research in conducting monetary and fiscal policy in a government's debt tools economies.


Spectrum sharing between radars and cellular systems is an emerging area of research. In this paper, we model channel between a seaborne MIMO radar and MIMO cellular system. We model a 2D channel to capture the azimuth aspect of the spectrum sharing scenario. Our channel modeling methodology allows MIMO radar to place accurate nulls in the azimuth location of base stations (BS), thus, protecting them from harmful radar interference. We use a projection based approach, where radar waveform is projected onto null space of channel, for mitigating radar interference to BSs. This is also known as an approach based on eigen-nulling which is different from spatial-nulling commonly employed by radars. We show through simulations that the proposed spatial channel model allows eigen-nulling which performs superior to traditional spatial-nulling for interference mitigation. The proposed channel model can be leveraged to use eigen-nulling that enhances target detection and beampattern resolution of MIMO radar while mitigating interference to BSs.


The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing capabilities on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as how dynamic environmental factors moderate these relationships. The population was all managers or owners of SMES in Padang City. The sampling technique used a non-probability approach, namely the purposive sampling. In the data analysis, 190 samples (response rate 84,44%) were used as a sample size. The Smart-PLS software is used in this study to perform variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM). The findings show that (i) entrepreneurial orientation has a positive and significant effect on SME performance, (ii) marketing capabilities have a positive and significant effect on SME performance, and (iii) In these relationships, the role of dynamic environmental factors as a moderator is not supported. The managerial implications will be discussed laterKeywords: Entrepreneurial orientation; marketing capabilities; dynamic environmental factors; performance; SMEs.


The 677 C-->T polymorphism in the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene interacts with folate status in determining elevated total plasma levels of homocysteine, a risk factor for coronary atherosclerotic disease (CAD). The present study had the following goals: 1) to define the 677 C-->T genotype-specific threshold values of both plasma and RBC folate, associated with hyperhomocysteinemia (>15 micro mol/L); and 2) to determine the risk of CAD among subjects with levels of folate below the genotype-specific threshold considered at risk for hyperhomocysteinemia. We examined 655 subjects, with (433) or without (222) angiographically documented CAD. The MTHFR 677 C-->T genotype-specific threshold values of plasma folate corresponded to the 40th, 30th and 10th percentile in the TT, CT and CC genotype, respectively. A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of CAD among subjects with plasma folate levels below the genotype-specific thresholds was 1.6 (95% CI, 1.04-2.46). Similar results were obtained when RBC folate was considered as a measure of folate status (odds ratio = 1.8, 95% CI, 1.03-3.15). A gene-nutrient interaction that defines a higher risk for CAD is determined by folate levels below specific thresholds, which differ depending on the MTHFR 677 C-->T genotype.


We compute the spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization induced by non-linear effects in the Compton interactions between CMB photons and the flow of intergalactic electrons. This signal is of the y-type and is dominated by contributions arising from the reionized era. We stress that it is not shadowed by the thermal SZ effect which has no equivalent for polarization. We decompose its angular dependence into E- and B-modes, and we calculate the corresponding power spectra, both exactly and using a suitable Limber approximation that allows a simpler numerical evaluation. We find that B-modes are of the same order of magnitude as E-modes. Both spectra are relatively flat, peaking around ℓ = 280, and their overall amplitude is directly related to the optical depth to reionization. Moreover, we find this effect to be one order of magnitude larger than the non-linear kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in galaxy clusters. Finally, we discuss how to improve the detectability of our signal by cross-correlating it with other quantities sourced by the flow of intergalactic electrons.


Introduction/Background Radical trachelectomy is a valuable fertility-sparing treatment option for women with early-stage cervical cancer. Vaginal radical trachelectomy with laparoscopic lymphadenectomy (LVRT) has several limitations (nulliparous patients, previous conization with adverse vaginal anatomy). According to recent studies, 252 patients experienced a total laparoscopic radical trachelectomy (LRT) and there are very few publications about the surgical procedure. In this video, we describe the technique of LRT. Methodology A nulliparous 33 years-old woman was diagnosed with a stage IB2 endocervical adenocarcinoma (22 mm). To preserve her fertility, we performed a LRT with uterine arteries preservation associated with a laparoscopic cerclage of the uterine isthmus. The pelvic sentinel lymph node biopsy was negative which leaded to bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy. We opened the para vesical fossa and started the ureteric dissection down to the ureterovesical junction and the dissection of the vesicouterin space. Then, we opened the pararectal fossa and performed a posterior dissection with section of the uterosacral ligaments approximately 20 mm from the uterine insertion and we isolated the ascending branch of the uterine artery. We sectioned the uterine veins. We removed the parametria separately. Trachelectomy was performed after section of the uterine isthmus just below the ascending branches of the uterine arteries and a circumferential colpotomy. Finally, we realized a laparoscopic isthmus cerclage and the uterine isthmus was sutured to the vagina with 2 overlocks, using V-lock thread. Results The surgery was performed successfully without per-operative complications and lasted 270 minutes. The intra-operative blood loss was <100 mL. The patient was discharge on day 6 with self-catheterization for urinary retention. The were no early post-operative complications. The resection margins were safe, without lymphovascular space invasion and the parametria were free of disease. Conclusion LRT performed by trained surgeon is a feasible option for young women with early-stage cervical cancer who wants to spare their fertility. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.


Transient conjugated heat transfer in laminar pipe flow is analysed involving two-dimensional wall and fluid axial conduction. The problem is solved numerically by a finite difference method for a semi-infinite pipe which is initially isothermal and both for hydrodynamically developing and developed flow with a sudden change in the ambient temperature. Heat transfer characteristics of the flow are found to be sensitive to the velocity profile. The results are given by non-dimensional interfacial heat flux values, the outer and inner wall temperatures, bulk temperatures, radial distributions of the fluid temperatures and Nusselt numbers. In order to illustrate the effects of the velocity profile, the results for the developing flow and for the parabolic velocity profile are plotted as comparative.


Globally and in Vietnam, forests are crucial resources for economic activity and for the survival of flora and fauna. However, deforestation in tropical regions continues to have negative effects on ecosystem services, climate regulation, and biodiversity protection. This study used Landsat 5-TM and Landsat 9-OLI/TIRS satellite imagery to investigate the changes in forest cover in Tuyen Quang province, located in the Northeast region of Vietnam, from 1992 to 2022. The maximum likelihood algorithm was employed to classify the forests in 1992, 2010, and 2022, with classification accuracy evaluated using the kappa coefficient for each year (0.890, 0.897, and 0.937, respectively). Additionally, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) were used to assess forest cover losses and gains, and their outcomes were compared with the results of the supervised classification. The findings indicated a significant decline in forest cover in Tuyen Quang province over the years. In 1992, the forest cover was estimated at 89.63% (5,259.33 km2) of the total land area, which decreased to 68.14% (3,998.61 km2) in 2010, and subsequently increased to 75.14% (4,409.09 km2) in 2022. The conversion of forested areas for agriculture often leads to a substantial reduction in forest coverage. Furthermore, logging and illegal land use conversion have significantly contributed to this problem. Although appropriate policies for forest management and conservation have been implemented in the research area from 2010 to 2022, a long-term plan is necessary to ensure sustainable land use and effective forest resource conservation and development in the future.


Martin Kemp has two choices: face death by hanging for a rape and murder he did not commit, or take his longbow and follow the King on his latest foray into France. There, he hopes to win honour and the hand of Beatrice, but the reality is horrifyingly different.


MOTIVATION
Allostery in proteins is an essential phenomenon in biological processes. In this paper, we present a computational model to predict paths of maximum information transfer between active and allosteric sites. In this information theoretic study, we use mutual information as the measure of information transfer, where transition probability of information from one residue to its contacting neighbors is proportional to the magnitude of mutual information between the two residues. Starting from a given residue and using a Hidden Markov Model, we successively determine the neighboring residues that eventually lead to a path of optimum information transfer. The Gaussian approximation of mutual information between residue pairs is adopted. The limits of validity of this approximation are discussed in terms of a nonlinear theory of mutual information and its reduction to the Gaussian form.

RESULTS
Predictions of the model are tested on six widely studied cases, CheY Bacterial Chemotaxis, B-cell Lymphoma extra-large Bcl-xL, Human proline isomerase cyclophilin A (CypA), Dihydrofolate reductase DHFR, HRas GTPase, and Caspase-1. The communication transmission rendering the propagation of local fluctuations from the active sites throughout the structure in multiple paths correlate well with the known experimental data. Distinct paths originating from the active site may likely represent a multi functionality such as involving more than one allosteric site and/or preexistence of some other functional states. Our model is computationally fast and simple, and can give allosteric communication pathways, which are crucial for the understanding and control of protein functionality.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


The purposeofthispaper is todeterminetherelationshipbetweenself-controlandmeeting the needs of students with school organizations atSMK X Pandaan, where there are problems due to lack of school organization. The population used in this study was 270 while the sample of this study was 152 students who were carried out at SMK X Pandaan. In determining the subject with the stratified random sampling technique, two psychological scales with the Likert scale model were used to collect data in this study, namely the self-control scale of the behavioral scale of compliance with school rules. Data analysis was performed using the statistical test technique of Pearson Flow Moment Correlation. The results of the data analysis of this study indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between self-control and compliance with school rules and the performance of SMK X Pandaan students of 0.37. at a significance level of 0.001 (<0.005). the results of hypothesis testing indicate that the hypothesis can be accepted. The results showed that students' self-control according to school regulations was mostly moderate at SMK X Pandaan.


Pompe disease, also called type II glycogen storage disease, is a rare autosomal recessive inherited disease caused by the storage of glycogen in lysosome due to acid α-glucosidase (GAA) deficiency, with the most severe conditions in the skeletal muscle, the myocardium, and the smooth muscle. Patients may have the manifestations of dyspnea and dyskinesia, with or without hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. GAA gene mutation has ethnic and regional differences, and new mutation sites are found with the advances in research. Gene analysis is the gold standard for the diagnosis of Pompe disease. Conventional methods, such as skin and muscle biopsies and dried blood spot test, have certain limitations for the diagnosis of this disease. In recent years, prenatal diagnosis and newborn screening play an important role in early diagnosis of this disease. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has a satisfactory effect in the treatment of this disease, but it may lead to immune intolerance. New targeted gene therapy and modified ERT will be put into practice in the future. This article reviews the research advances in the diagnosis and treatment of Pompe disease.


Neuropsychiatric disorders are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and affect the health of billions of people. Previous publications have demonstrated that neuropsychiatric disorders can cause histomorphological damage in particular regions of the brain. By using a clinical symptom-comparing approach, 55 neuropsychiatric signs or symptoms related usually to 14 types of acute and chronic brain insults were identified and categorized in the present study. Forty percent of the 55 neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms have been found to be commonly shared by the 14 brain insults. A meta-analysis supports existence of the same neuropsychiatric signs or symptoms in all brain insults. The results suggest that neuronal damage might be occurring in the same or similar regions or structures of the brain. Neuronal cell death, neural loss, and axonal degeneration in some parts of the brain (the limbic system, basal ganglia system, brainstem, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex) might be the histomorphological basis that is responsible for the neuropsychiatric symptom clusters. These morphological alterations may be the result of secondary neuronal damage (a cascade of progressive neural injury and neuronal cell death that is triggered by the initial insult). Secondary neuronal damage causes neuronal cell death and neural injury in not only the initial injured site but also remote brain regions. It may be a major contributor to subsequent neuropsychiatric disorders following brain insults.


In recent years, a series of reports have appeared in the British press about the fate of Iraqi interpreters employed by the British forces in Basra. As well as the day-to-day risk of death or injury in the course of their work, interpreters have been vulnerable to reprisals from insurgents who view them as collaborators and traitors. There have been a large number of documented cases of Iraqi interpreters being murdered, often in an especially brutal manner. Many other cases have gone undocumented, in part because of the tendency for interpreters to work under pseudonyms and even wear masks to conceal their identity, making it difficult to identify a particular victim as an interpreter. The issue of protecting interpreters came to a head in 2007 with the handover of Basra to Iraqi administration and the subsequent withdrawal of British troops. A special protection scheme was set up, whereby those who had worked for the British forces for twelve months would be eligible for resettlement in the United Kingdom. The issue, however, has remained a contentious one: many interpreters were ineligible for resettlement or did not want to move to the UK, and many of those who did accept resettlement found themselves economically disadvantaged and socially marginalized. One group of Iraqi interpreters have taken legal action against the British government.


Abstract Rice ageing is a complicated process, which involves changes in physical and chemical properties of the rice grain. Starch, protein and lipids are the main rice grain components which affect cooking and eating quality. While the overall starch, protein and lipid contents in the rice grain remain essentially unchanged during storage, structural changes do occur. These changes affect the pasting and gel properties, flavour and texture of cooked rice. This paper reviews research on the physical and chemical properties of the rice grain and how these change during storage. The effects of these changes on rice functionality are discussed.


The use of multidrug chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation in cancer treatment has made the utilization of reliable, long-term venous access (LTVA) an essential component of cancer therapy. The placement of LTVA devices not only permits the delivery of these complex therapeutic regimens but also drastically improves patients' quality of life.


iAbstract Background: Long time course of orthodontic treatment is considered as one of the major problems causing a decrease in patients' compliance. This problem is related to the rate of tooth movement during treatment. One of the newest approved methods that affect the bone remodeling and tooth movement is the low-level laser irradiation. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of low-level laser irradiation on tooth movement following the separator placement. Methods: This experimental clinical trial was carried out in dental clinics of Mashhad University during 2006-2007. A total of 30 orthodontic patients participated in this study. On the first day, the separators were placed between the 5 th , 6 th and the 7 th teeth. Later, the low-level laser irradiation was applied to one half of each jaw for 5 days while the other half was left as control. The sides of the laser irradiation were selected, randomly. On the 6 th day, the impression was taken from both arches and the distance between the teeth were measured by a leaf-like gauge. The data were statistically analyzed using paired t-test. Findings: The mean amount of the tooth movement in laser irradiated side in maxilla was 0.55±0.19 mm and in the opposite side 0.50±0.21 mm, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p=0.031). This finding in mandible was 0.048±0.21 mm in laser irradiated side and 0.48±0.24 mm in the other side however, the difference was insignificant, statistically (p=0.86). Comparatively, the measurement of both jaws in the laser-irradiated side was 0.52±0.20 mm while it was 0.49±0.22 mm in the opposite side with no significant difference between two groups. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the low-level laser irradiation can accelerate the tooth movement in maxilla more than that in mandible, but the difference between the mean amount of the total tooth movement in laser irradiated side and the control side was statistically insignificant.


Retail industry is trying hard to cope up with the technological advances. Today it might be a choice, but in not so far future, it will become a must for retailers to adopt technologies to satisfy and engage their consumers. changing consumer behaviors, priced-based competition, technological advancements, and rising focus on cost competitiveness are currently driving change in the retail industry. Global retailers are revisiting strategies for a sustainable future. In this research paper the researcher trying to find out the key trends that are shaping the retail industry. The researcher also try to get the reasons that why to move to Big Data technology.


We studied the effects of two garlic sources on systolic blood pressure (SBP) using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Beginning at 12 wk of age, male SHRs were fed diets containing either aged garlic extract (AGE) or raw garlic (RG) powder for 10 wk. Both AGE and RG reduced the increase of SBP compared with the control group from 4 wk after beginning the experimental diets. The effect of AGE was accompanied by a decrease of pulse pressure (PP), suggesting an improvement of the pliability of the artery, although RG did not affect PP. However, harmful effects were observed in the RG group, including a decrease in erythrocytes, an increase in reticulocytes, and generation of papilloma in the forestomach. These results suggest that AGE may safely improve several factors related to blood vessel physiology and circulatory disease.


The work examines the activities of the Commission of Theological Schools (1808−1839) on the organization and support of the system of spiritual education in Russia. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, there was an active process of modernization of the education system. And immediately after the reform of secular education, questions began to be raised about the further change of the theological school, which was not orderly, did not have a general systematic education and sufficient provision for further improvement of conditions. The article is devoted to the consideration of proposals for funding, drawn up by highly educated and authoritative church-state leaders of the time. Speransky, Golitsyn, Feofilakt were the creators of the changes that breathed new standards into the old school, reflecting the progressive trends of the Alexander era. Based on a comparative analysis of the report of the Commission of Theological Schools on the allocation of church revenues for the maintenance of the system of spiritual education and diocesan reports, we see that the changes did not arouse general sympathy. The new orders for the subordination of the seminary to the academy or the limitation of the bishop's power over the schools were not supported by the public. The results of this study proved that initially good intentions, underlying innovations did not lead to the desired result. The transformations of the theological schools of the Russian Empire did not touch upon important issues of a class character in teaching and did not set goals in the upbringing of Orthodox Christians to become churched, changing regular curricula and lists of recommended Latin textbooks. The authors proved the influence of the regional aspect on the financing of theological schools, and this relationship reveals the achievements and results of the reform.


A novel geometric terrain methodology was recently presented for finding all physically relevant solutions and singular points to chemical process simulation problems based on intelligently moving along special integral curves of the gradient vector field to guide both uphill and downhill movement. The terrain methodology is extended here to include multivariable problems and integral curve bifurcations. The integral curves of interest are those associated with valleys and ridges and characterized as a collection of extrema in the norm of the gradient over a set of level curves. It is shown that integral curves can undergo tangent, pitchfork, and other types of bifurcations and that terrain methods are clearly superior to differential arc homotopy-continuation methods on problems that exhibit parametric disconnectedness. Several examples, including a pair of CSTR problems, a retrograde flash calculation, and the task of finding all azeotropes for a heterogeneous ternary mixture, are used to show that terrain methods represent a reliable, efficient, and global way of solving multivariable process engineering simulation and optimization problems. Geometric illustrations are used whenever possible to clarify underlying ideas.


Dental arch width dimensions have been measured by use of certain cusp tips (MOORREES, The Dentition of the Growing Child, 1959) or points at the lingual cervical margin of the teeth (BAUME, J Dent Res 29:123, 1950) as reference points. However, cusp tips wear off, vary in number and location, and do not allow adequate transformation from the deciduous canines and molars to their successors (Fig 1). Points at the lingual cervical margin are affected by the buccolingual width of a tooth and its eruption level. Recent technical developments involve computer graphic techniques in handling dental cast information as recorded by occlusal photographs (BIGGERSTAFF, Angle Orthodont 40:28, 1970) and the direct collection of numerical data from dental casts in a two dimensional (SAVARA and SANIN, Am J Phys Anthropol 30: 315, 1969) or three dimensional way (VAN DER LINDEN, IADR Program and Abstracts of Papers, No. 286, 1970). With both approaches the construction of more appropriate reference points can be realized. Reference points to determine tooth position and dental arch dimensions should represent the real position, the "center" of the crown, and be independent of number of cusps, location of cusps, abrasion, and eruption level.


—In this paper we propose to use massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in order to boost the throughput over a 1000 m vertically-configured time-varying underwater acoustic channel (UAC). We compare the bit error rate (BER) performance of un-coded and Turbo-coded massive MIMO systems based on filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) modulation and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). A modified FBMC system is considered whereby complex data symbols are transmitted instead of real-valued ones. This is made possible by spreading the data symbols in time while still ensuring maximum bandwidth efficiency and low complexity. It is shown that the coded FBMC systems outperform the coded OFDM systems both in terms of error performance and bit rate for similar massive MIMO configuration. Video transmission is evaluated over the UAC with the systems that achieve the highest bit rates and it is shown that real-time transmission is possible with acceptable video quality over the long range acoustic link.


We present a novel robust policy gradient method (RPG) for s-rectangular robust Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). We are the first to derive the adversarial kernel in a closed form and demonstrate that it is a one-rank perturbation of the nominal kernel. This allows us to derive an RPG that is similar to the one used in non-robust MDPs, except with a robust Q-value function and an additional correction term. Both robust Q-values and correction terms are efficiently computable, thus the time complexity of our method matches that of non-robust MDPs, which is significantly faster compared to existing black box methods.


In this paper, we propose a service-driven model for structuring WLANs into overlay networks of interacting wireless management communities. A wireless management community (WMC) is composed of a set of parties and is governed by a charter named the WMC-SLA (service level agreement). A WMC constitutes the basic unit of management upon which installed any form of service interaction between parties belonging to the wireless community. The WMC-SLA model is presented as a use case of a more general SLA model we name GSLA. The GSLA is an SLA information model that supports multi-party service relationships through a role-based mechanism. It is intended to catch up not only the complex nature of service interactivity intra and inter WMCs but also the broader range of SLA modeling of all sorts of IT business relationships. This model accommodates both granularity and modularity of behavioral specifications by having each party playing a role within a service relationship. It intends to bring a step towards SLA-driven management within pervasive service environments.


In the current era is a lot of public transportation that has been provided by the government and private sectors. People now, more inclined to use the mode of transport that is more secure, convenient, and timely in mobility to his destination. One form of technological developments in the world of aviation is the air cargo door system. However, at the Boeing 737-900 ER still uses the cargo door manually. Cargo door mechanical system simulation created automatically by connecting the rotor pulley to load the door so that it can move. To make the program by arranging the ladder diagram and simulated work with Zelio Soft 2 is then transferred from the PC (personal computer) to the device to be tested. Panel system works by switching the green Input Port I1 then the DC motor will rotate to right drive the load to open the door and if the load door has touched a mechanical sensor switch 1 Input Port I3 then the motor stops and by switching the red Input Port I2, the DC motor will drive the load rotates left to close the door and if the door is already touching the load mechanical sensor switch 2 input Port I3 then the motor stops. When the load exceeds the capacity ampere circuit safety In 4A until it reaches the average - average of 7,25 A. The MCB trip to secure the circuit within the average - average of 6,25 seconds and the Power Supply change the voltage of 220 VAC enter into a 24 VDC output voltage, which is taken Data is based on testing of the average - average 210,8 VAC and 23,05 VDC. Kata Kunci— Cargo; Zelio Smart Relay; MCB; Power Supply; sensor


In this paper, we study the dynamics of legal convergence and the comparison between the different instruments of legal convergence based on cooperative strategies (i.e., harmonization and unification) or not. To study these questions we use a model with two nation-states which is inspired in part by that used in Carbonara and Parisi (2008) where preferences of each nation-state are such that it is costly to change the law, but it is also costly to have a different legal system from the other nation-state. We show that legal unification could be achieved in the long-run through small step by step changes despite the existence of huge harmonization costs in the short run. We also show that legal cooperation is not always necessary to achieve legal convergence.


Cassava (Manihot esculanta. Cratz) is one of the most important food crops that constitute a considerable portion of the daily diet of the people and also serves as one of the major source of carbohydrate. Despite its importance, production of cassava in Ethiopia has different constraints and opportunities. Among which, shortage of improved varieties is the first and the most important one. It is mainly cultivated by small resource poor farmers on smallholding plots of land. Average storage root yield obtained per a given plot of cassava is as low as 100 tons per hectare despite the potential yield of 600 tons per hectare per year. This low yield might be due to the cultivation of local, low yielding, late maturing cultivars. To contribute to alleviating the problem and provide farmers other alternative varieties, Hawassa Agricultural Research Center, in collaboration with Jimma and Sekota Agricultural Research Centers, conducted evaluation of cassava clones in potential and moisture stressed agroclimatic conditions of the country. Jima and Hawassa sites represent potential agroclimatic condition, while Amaro and Sekota represent moisture stressed areas. A total of seven cassava clones namely AWC-1 (MM 96/5280), AWC-2 (MM 90/5280), AWC-3 (MM 96/7151), AWC-4 (MM96/1871), AWC-5 (MM96/3868) and Kello (standard check) were evaluated by using randomized complete block design replicated three times. The evaluation was carried out for two consecutive years, from 2012 to 2014. The combined analysis result indicated that there was statistically significant difference among the clones tested and the locations where the experiment was conducted. The clone AWC-1 (37.17 t/ha) followed by AWC-2(35.52 t/ha) and AWC-5 (35.51 t/ha) gave the highest storage root yield but there was no statistically significant difference in the total storage yield among the clones AWC-2, AWC-3 and AWC-5. In the same way, the highest dry matter content was recorded from the clones AWC-2 (51.8%), AWC-3 (48.5%) and Kello (49.1%). Among the locations tested, the best result was obtained from Amaro (35.14 t/ha) which is characterized by its low moisture stress, indicating that cassava can resist/tolerate low moisture stress and give comparative yield provided that other factors are not limited. Thus, those clones with the highest storage root yield and dry matter content were promoted for variety verification and will be released for wider production.

 Key words: Cassava, moisture stress, potential, storage root, dry matter


This contribution investigates the inner dimensions of contemplation and the dynamics of the spiritual process. It focusses on six paradigms taken from the Christian tradition: It firstly discusses the contemplative reader that is characterized by the interpretation of signs, read in a protected space, seeking understanding, but at the end leading to the "other" reading, brought about by the divine-human dialogue. The second type of contemplation refers to "the contemplative warrior" which is about contemplative transformation that provides a spiritual defence mechanism against destructive demonic forces. This type of contemplation is practiced by the desert monks. The article then analyses a third contemplation in terms of the Biblical characters of Mary and Martha who represent two different, but unified positions of the contemplative way. The fourth paradigm belongs to the field of modernity: it is about contemplation in discernment that reflects the desire to discern the will of God amidst as a time of doubting and uncertainty. There is, in the fifth paradigm, contemplation in presence. In this part, Brother Lawrence is presented as an example: His concept of contemplation is living in the presence of the Lord in a simple act of love and being loved. The final paradigm is prophetic contemplation, of which Titus Brandsma is an example. He had Elijah as model of inspiration and as an exemplar for imitation. For him this Elijahan contemplation is unified in three layers. The first layer is the ideal of contemplation, the second one is the realization of this ideal in a life of prayer, the third one is the liturgy of hours.


OBJECTIVE
We explored the inhibitory effect of sulphoraphane (SFN), a potent inducer of Phase 2 enzymes, on cytokine-induced prostaglandin E(2) (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) production and cartilage degradation in articular chondrocytes. The regulatory mechanism of SFN on nuclear factor (NF)-κB was investigated.

METHODS
Chondrocytes were obtained from patients with knee OA. Chondrocytes were stimulated with IL-1β or TNF-α with or without pre-incubation with SFN. Production of PGE2 and NO was evaluated by the Griess reaction and an ELISA. The expression of microsomal PGE synthase (mPGES), cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) was evaluated by real-time RT-PCR and western blot analysis. The regulation of NF-κB activity was explored using luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays as well as a western blot for phosphorylated IκB kinase (IKK), IκB and the degradation of IκB. Proteoglycan and type II collagen degradation products released from explant cultures were analysed using the dimethylmethylene blue assay and an ELISA for C-terminal telopeptides of type II collagen.

RESULTS
SFN inhibited the production of PGE2 and NO induced by IL-1β and TNF-α. At a concentration as low as 5 μM, SFN completely inhibited mPGES, COX-2 and iNOS at the mRNA and protein levels, and proteoglycan and type II collagen degradation product release in explant culture. Various signalling pathways required for the NF-κB activation were affected by SFN.

CONCLUSION
SFN inhibited a broad range of catabolic mechanisms in articular chondrocytes. SFN may be a safe and effective candidate drug for the inhibition of cartilage degradation in arthritic diseases.


This paper proposes to identify a propagation model that considers the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) unique characteristics, contemplating two actual wireless technologies, UMTS and LTE, which are theoretically capable of supporting a real-time video service admitting more than one quality index according to the RF conditions. Several measurements were made in a specific outdoor rural scenario in order to understand if the current network infrastructure is prepared to support this type of service using these vehicles, by simulating a real case scenario and considering critical locations where the loss of Quality of Service (QoS) can be significant due to the hole phenomenon that occurs over the antennas/base stations, raising the probability to occur handover.


It is well-known that: (i) every context-free language over a singleton terminal alphabet is regular, and (ii) the class of languages that satisfy the Pumping Lemma is a proper super-class of the context-free languages. We show that any language in this superclass over a singleton terminal alphabet is regular. Our proof is based on a transformational approach and does not rely on Parikh's Theorem. Our result extends previously known results because there are languages that are not context-free, do satisfy the Pumping Lemma, and do not satisfy the hypotheses of Parikh's Theorem.


ABSTRACT This article is based on the results of a survey of entrepreneurs, researchers and artists moving between arts organizations, institutional research labs and the business world. It puts to use the results of a survey conducted among creator-researchers of a Canadian prototype in the organization of these relationships: the inter-university consortium Hexagram (Montreal, Canada). Based on my analysis of this organizational model, I demonstrate and examine the solutions used to promote collaborative tasks. I call into question the various dimensions of the interrelatedness of development, research and creation. In conclusion, I examine the restructuring of artistic work and its resulting hybridized products.


Standard precautions is an action to prevent infection in any cases of medical treatment toward patients. However, some studies have shown that the implementation of standard precautions has not been optimal due to the barriers perceived by nurses. This study aimed to identify the barriers perceived by nurses in the implementation of standard precautions. Descriptive-quantitative method was used with cross-sectional approach in 37 nurses in General Hospital Emergency Department by using total sampling technique. The data were collected by using questionnaires consisting of 48 statements, including five action of standard precautions (hand hygiene, use of PPEs, safe injection, environmental disinfection, and respiratory hygiene practices/ethics of cough and sneezing) and have been through the content and face validity test. The data were analyzed by using frequency distribution and presented in percentage.  The results showed that there were some barriers perceived by nurses on standard precautions action. The most perceived barriers are limited PPEs equipment (45.9%), equipment that irritates the skin on hand hygiene (37.8%), increased number of patients in environmental disinfection (32.4%), limited support and supervision in the implementations of standard precautions for safe injection (16.2%), and equipment limitations on respiratory hygiene practices/ethics of cough and sneezing (10.8%). Based on this research, the hospital should strengthen the function properly and regularly to overcome some equipment, seek hand hygiene equipment containing emollient/moisturizers and alcohol type hand rub n-propanol to overcome skin irritation, and pay attention to the study of the ratio of nurses and patients to safe working practices. In addition, the hospital should create a practice program, socialize rewards or penalties to improve it in standard precautions.


Observations were made on amylase secretion from the rat parotid gland induced by parasympathetic nerve stimulation in vivo. In spite of a low salivary amylase concentration a large total amylase output, equivalent to 36% of initial gland content, was found on prolonged activation (5 Hz, 120 min). However, no decrease in gland amylase content was found, which indicates that the output of amylase was balanced by synthesis. We suggest that prolonged, parasympathetically induced amylase secretion is dependent on activation of amylase synthesis and that the secretion is mainly of non-granular origin. Parasympathetic nerve stimulation produced an even larger amylase output from sympathectomized glands. Even under these conditions gland amylase content was unchanged and no obvious degranulation was found when the glands were examined after stimulation. This is in marked contrast to the decrease in amylase content and to the degranulation which are found after sympathetic activation.


The major focus of the paper is the design and control of micro/picocellular systems supporting real-time wireless connections subject to a guaranteed quality-of-service as defined by three metrics: call blocking, call hand-off dropping, and forced call termination probability. The authors introduce the notion of the cell-cluster and provide a model as well as an analytical methodology which can be used to design wireless micro-cellular networks (in terms of base station coverage), to allocate wireless spectrum (in terms of base station capacity), as well as to perform wireless call admission control such that once a call is admitted to the system, it will enjoy a predefined quality-of-service (in terms of call hand-off dropping and/or forced termination probability). This wireless call control policy is simple enough that a high rate of mobile connection hand-offs can be managed in a timely fashion.<<ETX>>


Objective To explore the perception of medical students from a private medical college in Perak, Malaysia, on primary care practice and induce the factors influencing their perception and willingness to consider primary care as a career pathway. Design Qualitative study using focus group discussions. Participants' responses were audio recorded, transcribed, grouped under various domains and listed out and analysed. Setting A private medical college in Perak state, Malaysia. Participants Forty-six medical students from years 2 to 5 were included. Eight focus groups were formed with two focus groups from each academic year (six students each in seven groups and four students in one group). Students were informed through their respective student leader of each year and received a participant information sheet and an informed consent form which were completed and returned if they decided to participate in the focus group discussions. Results The participants had different levels of understanding of primary care depending on their level of exposure to primary care. Senior students with more exposure had a better understanding about primary care and its services. Attractive factors towards choosing primary care as a career included short working hours with a more balanced family and social life, being able to treat patients as a whole with continuity of care and closer relationship with patients. Unattractive factors included routine, unchallenging and boring practice, poor salary, work overload and administrative work in government clinics, being less recognised by other specialties; and the poor perception by other doctors that those pursuing primary care were not 'brilliant enough' for more 'sophisticated disciplines like surgery or paediatrics'. Conclusion This study showed that the medical students' level of exposure to primary care played a crucial role in determining their understanding of primary care practice and their choice of career in primary care. Issues to be addressed include remuneration, workload and the prejudice against primary care as a career pathway. Suggestions included introducing early exposure to fun and challenging primary care postings in the medical curriculum and producing well trained, skilled and enthusiastic role models.


Using pulsed Doppler methods, hemodynamics of the common carotid and the brachial arteries were measured in 10 patients with essential hypertension. After vasodilatation due to Cadralazine, a Dihydralazine-like substance, mean arterial pressure significantly decreased and heart rate increased. Change in PRA was significantly and positively correlated with the change in heart rate. In the brachial artery circulation, diameter and vascular resistance decreased while blood flow velocity and volumic blood flow did not increase significantly. In the common carotid artery circulation, diameter, mean blood flow did not change. However, vascular resistance and tangential tension decreased slightly. The increase in heart rate was strongly and negatively correlated (r = 0.82 p less than 0.01) with the change in the carotid artery tangential tension (measured as the product between mean arterial pressure and arterial radius) while no comparable correlation was observed with the change in blood pressure or arterial radius alone. The study suggested that in essential hypertensives, modifications in the carotid artery tangential tension secondary to arteriolar vasodilatation contribute actively to the baroreflex response.


Astronaut cooling during extravehicular activity is a critical design issue in developing a portable life support system that meets the requirements of a space station mission. Some of the requirements are that the cooling device can be easily regenerable and nonventing during operation. In response to this, a direct-interface, fusible heat sink prototype with freezable quick-disconnects was developed. A proof-of-concept prototype was constructed and tested that consists of an elastic container filled with normal tap water and having two quick-disconnects embedded in a wall. These quick-disconnects are designed so that they may be frozen with the ice and yet still be joined to the cooling system, allowing an immediate flow path. The inherent difficulties in a direct-interface heat sink have been overcome, i.e., (1) establishing an initial flow path; (2) avoiding low-flow freeze-up; and (3) achieving adequate heat-transfer rates at the end of the melting process. The requirements, design, fabrication, and testing are discussed.


Nowadays China has speeded up urbanization, urban land use occurred in areas of significant change. In order to obtain land cover information speedily and correctly, many methods from data mining are used to classify the remote sensing image. In recent years, using decision trees (DTs) to classify remotely sensed data has increased, due to the algorithm running fast and making no statistical assumptions. While in remotely sensed data, the classification borders of topographic features are often not parallel with the feature space axes. So it will result in a large decision tree and poor generalization to the unobserved instances, if we use univariate DT method which tests a single feature at a node and splits the instance space with borders parallel with the features'. Aiming at the defect of univariate DT method, in this paper, principal component analysis-based approach and "best-first" method which is superior to the depth-first method that standard DT learners used are combined to construct a multivariate DT in which each tree node test can be based on one or more of the input features. In order to construct a good multivariate DT, the following issues are considered in this paper: calculating features for classification, determining the best feature space dimension, and avoiding overfitting the training data. In this study, separate test and training data sets from multispectral Landsat TM are used to evaluate the performance of univariate and multivariate DT for land cover classification. Evaluation factors considered are: the training data set size, the final tree size built by DT algorithms and algorithms classification accuracy. When compared our multivariate method with C4.5, a univariate DT algorithms, the experiments confirm that the multivariate DT builds a pithiness tree and generally improves the accuracy of the resulting DT over a univariate tree.


Introduction It is well documented that on entering college, students experience a multitude of changes in sleep habits. Very few studies have been conducted that explore sleep quality in Indian undergraduate students; fewer still study the effects of burnout in the same population. Medical students, in particular, are believed to be more stressed, sleep deprived, and burnt out than their non-medical peers. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to study sleep disturbances and burnout in a sample of 214 Indian undergraduate students (112 medical, 102 non-medical). The instruments used to measure the sleep quality and burnout were the PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and OLBI (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory), respectively. Differences between continuous variables were analysed using Wilcox Mann Whitney U-tests. Bivariate Spearman's rho correlations were done to identify correlations between the individual burnout components and the PSQI sleep quality components. Results Of the students surveyed, 62.6% were found to be poor sleepers with an average score of 6.45 ± 2.85. It was seen that 20% of the students (n = 43) slept less than five hours a day. Medical students, in particular, were found to have more poor sleep (72.9%) than their non-medical peers (51.9%; p < 0.001). Of the sampled women, 65.8% were poor sleepers, as compared to 62.1% of the sampled men, but the difference was not statistically significant. The average scores of the burnout dimensions were 2.43 ± 0.57 for exhaustion and 2.32 ± 0.53 for disengagement. Both exhaustion and disengagement correlated with PSQI sleep scores (Rho 0.21, p 0.001) and (Rho = 0.18, p = 0.008), respectively. The exhaustion dimension of burnout was higher in medical students (2.46 ± 0.55) than in non-medical students (2.38 ± 0.59), but was seen to correlate more with the PSQI sleep score in the non-medical group (Rho = 0.62, p < 0.001). The PSQI scores showed a weak but significant correlation with academic year (rho = -0.19, p = 0.004). Unlike the sleep scores, the burnout dimensions did not correlate well with the academic year. Conclusions Burnout and sleep quality are both uncommonly studied topics in India. Fostering a healthier and more proactive approach to tackling burnout and poor sleep quality may help unearth culture specific causes for some of the results we have demonstrated.


ABSTRACT:
 The coati (Nasua nasua, Carnivora) is a medium-sized mammal common in the Pantanal of Brazil. Unlike most mammals, coatis construct arboreal nests used for resting and reproduction. In this region, the coati is an important host of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. There are two possible routes through coatis can be infected by T. cruzi: the oral route or the vectorial route. However, the relative importance of each of these routes in the infection of coatis and its role in the sylvatic cycle of the parasite are unknown. Our objectives were to investigate: (i) whether coati nests were infested by triatomine bugs, (ii) what species were frequent in the nests, (iii) whether the triatomines in nests were infected by T. cruzi, and (iv) what were the food resources of these triatomines. Eight of the 24 nests sampled were infested with triatomines, a total of 37 specimens of at least two species (Rhodnius stali and Triatoma sordida). In one nest, R. stali and T. sordida co-occurred and both fed on multiple resources, including coatis. This is the first report of triatomines occurring in arboreal nests of coatis. The co-occurrence of two different genera of triatomine vectors and coatis within the limited space of the coati nests provide multiple opportunities for the exchange of the protozoan parasite through both the vectorial and oral transmission routes.


Extant terrestrial vegetation alters its physical environment via its albedo, and its influence on immediate temperature via stomatal and boundary–layer influences of energy dissipation as sensible and latent heat; aquatic vegetation also controls albedo (e.g. coccolithophorids) and, by competing with water for electromagnetic energy absorption, the depth of the mixed layer and hence the quantity of nutrients trapped for the spring bloom. Both aquatic and terrestrial vegetation have had, together with microbial and geological processes, an influence on O2 and CO2 levels, and hence on the availability and biological functioning of Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Se and P, and the relative competitive advantage of C3 versus C4, crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and carbon concentration mechanism (CCM) organisms. Less directly, changes in primary productivity impact on the production of CH4 and N2O which, like CO2, are greenhouse gases, while some (marine) primary producers yield dimethyl sulphide (and hence cloud condensation nuclei, with effects on cloudiness) and halocarbons (via, in part, O2–dependent processes), partly negating the O3 attenuation of UV–B radiation. These effects can be related to the terrestrial embryophytic vegetation back to ca. 450 Ma, and to eukaryotic marine vegetation back to at least 1.7, and probably 2.1 Ga, with implications for inter alia C3 versus C4, CAM and CCM photosynthesis, and Fe acquisition mechanisms. Even earlier (3.8 Ga onwards) prokaryotes may have influenced CO2 levels and hence controlled (as they did later) surface temperature. By producing O2, they led to decreasing availability of Fe, Mn and P (and utility of Se?), and increasing availability of Cu (and Zn?) that shaped the biochemistry on which later biogeochemistry was based.


The degree of hyperlipidemia, hyperthyrosinemia, hyperserotoninemia and enhanced release of bradykinin from kininogen in patients with chronic recurrent pancreatitis was found to be decreased upon the attainment of a clinical remission. In patients with more considerable and more stable metabolic disorders, the incidence of exacerbations and the rate of progression of pancreatic, enzyme-secretory deficiency appeared, according to the data of a 8-year follow up, greater than in those with lesser degree and resistance of metabolic shifts.


There are at least three kinds of structure we find in Islamic socio-cultural phenomena. First is the binary oppositional structure, which has two kinds of variations : hierarchical and non-hierarchical. Second is the threefold structure which has three kinds of variations, the hierarchical, the non-hierarchical and the triangle, third is the fivefold structure. Those structures are neither material nor spiritual. They are above the material, the behavioral, as well as the spiritual phenomena, but they are manifested, expressed in material, behavioral and spiritual phenomena. They are thus the transcendental structures in Islam. Are those structures universal ? Can we find them in other religions? To answer these questions we need to analyze data from other religions.


We present a protocol for evaluating the efficiency of an electronic white cane for improving the mobility of blind people. The electronic cane used during the test is the Tom Pouce III, made of LIDAR sensors (light detection and ranging) with tactile feedback. The protocol comprises two parts. The first part, the "detection test", evaluates the efficiency of the sensors in the Tom Pouce III for detecting the obstacles found in everyday life (thin and large poles, apertures) under different environmental conditions (darkness, sun light, rain). The second part of the test, the "mobility test", compares the ability of blind participants to cross a 25 m path by avoiding obstacles with the simple white cane and the electronic cane. The 12 blind participants had between 2 and 20 years of experience of everyday usage of Tom Pouce devices. The results show a significant improvement in the capacity to avoid obstacles with the electronic cane relative to the simple white cane, and there was no speed difference. There was no correlation between the results and the years of experience of the users.


Background: Osteosarcoma, primarily resulting from mesenchymal cell differentiation, is the most common primary malignancy of the bone in children and adolescents. Metastases to other sites, such as the lung, often occur in the early stages and progress rapidly. Autophagy functions as a tumor-suppressing mechanism in the early stages of oncogenesis, however, in later stages, autophagy may promote tumor growth, spread, and increase treatment resistance. Methods: In the present study, we aimed to screen new key autophagy-related biomarkers that may serve as therapeutic targets for osteosarcoma. The expression profile of the GSE42352 dataset, including 103 OS cell lines and 15 MSC lines from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), was analyzed to identify the differentially expressed genes. Results: WGCNA was used to construct the gene co-expression network in osteosarcoma, identify co-expression modules for protein interactions (PPI), and screen the key genes. A total of 757 differentially expressed genes were identified by WGCNA analysis including one key autophagy-related module. Conclusions: Further, we performed the PPI analysis for module genes and identified a key gene. We also theoretically and functionally validated its expression using the validation dataset GSE14359, and in vitro experiments, respectively.


This article presents the results on the volatilization of the volatile organic pollutants (VOP) during decontamination process from the soil. The choice of TCE as a volatile organic pollutant is explained by the fact that it is relatively highly soluble in water, compared to other compounds, which excludes any possibility of adsorption of its vapors on the walls of the experimental device during testing. Its saturation vapor pressure very high (≈7700 Pa at 20oC and nearly 12,000 Pa at 30oC) facilitates its monitoring using a pressure transducer relatively less accurate and less expensive. The results obtained on the evaporation of TCE show a linear dependence with the pressure. The coefficient of volatilization is 3.2 times greater for an atmospheric pressure of 90 kPa than for a pressure of 100 kPa. This coefficient would be multiplied by 20 when the pressure passes from 100 kPa to 10 kPa.


North American research suggests that the neighbourhood and community in which children live influence children's development. The author asks if this is the case in Australia and, if so, which children are most affected? The issue of neighbourhood effects on Australian children is relevant to community development policies devised by federal and state governments that aim to foster positive childhood development. The author states that of particular importance is the influence that communities and neighbourhoods have on young children, as the first five years of a child's life are seen to impact on the rest of their lives. Two statistical measures were used to explore neighbourhood effects on children's developmental outcomes: the LSAC Outcome Index which was designed to measure physical, social/emotional and learning domains and the Socio-Economic Indices for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Advantage/Disadvantage. Results from this study suggest that neighbourhood advantage and disadvantage are associated with children's social/emotional, physical and learning outcomes.


A review is given of structures, organization, function, and contemporary problems of preventive health care for children in Sweden. The importance of health education for their parents is emphasized.


PurposeCloud computing provides a dynamic, heterogeneous and elastic environment by offering accessible 'cloud services' to end-users. The tasks involved in making cloud services available, such as matchmaking, selection and composition, are essential and closely related to each other. Integration of these tasks is critical for optimal composition and performance of the cloud service platform. More efficient solutions could be developed by considering cloud service tasks collectively, but the research and academic community have so far only considered these tasks individually. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated QoS-based approach for cloud service matchmaking, selection and composition using the Semantic Web.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors propose a new approach using the Semantic Web and quality of service (QoS) model to perform cloud service matchmaking, selection and composition, to fulfil the requirements of an end user. In the Semantic Web, the authors develop cloud ontologies to provide semantic descriptions to the service provider and requester, so as to automate the cloud service tasks. This paper considers QoS parameters, such as availability, throughput, response time and cost, for quality assurance and enhanced user satisfaction.FindingsThis paper focus on the development of an integrated framework and approach for cloud service life cycle phases, such as discovery, selection and composition using QoS, to enhance user satisfaction and the Semantic Web, to achieve automation. To evaluate performance and usefulness, this paper uses a scenario based on a Healthcare Decision-Making System (HDMS). Results derived through the experiment prove that the proposed prototype performs well for the defined set of cloud-services tasks.Originality/valueAs a novel concept, our proposed integrated framework and approach for cloud service matchmaking, selection and composition based on the Semantic Web and QoS characterisitcs (availability, response time, throughput and cost), as part of the service level agreement (SLA) will help the end user to match, select and filter cloud services and integrate cloud-service providers into a multi-cloud environment.


Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a complex disease caused by interactions between environmental and genetic factors. This study investigated whether genetic variability in protocadherin related 15 (PCDH15) underlies an increased susceptibility to the development of NIHL in a Chinese population. The results showed that compared with the TT genotype of rs11004085, CT/CC genotypes were associated with an increased risk of NIHL [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.64; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14-6.11, P = 0.024]. Additionally, significant interactions between the rs11004085 and rs978842 genetic variations and noise exposure were observed in the high-level exposure groups (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the risk haplotype TAGCC was observed when combined with higher levels of noise exposure (P < 0.05). Thus, our study confirms that genetic variations in PCDH15 modify the susceptibility to NIHL development in humans.


Land consolidation (LC) is implemented as a public project that contributes to the improvement of agricultural productivity, and its effect is evaluated mainly by labour productivity and land productivity. However, to maintain both agricultural production and the social community, understanding the impact on non-farmers in the community as one of the aspects of LC is extremely important. In this study, we surveyed rural areas about eight years after the LC was implemented by posted questionnaire and analysed the difference between farmers' and non-farmers' perceptions of the multifaceted evaluation items on the policy effect. The evaluation points for the LC include the following: [1] Impact on farming and farmland preservation, [2] Impact on community activation, and [3] Impact on collaboration between farmers and non-farmers. Results can be summarized as follows: First, it was confirmed that there is a trend for non-farmers' attachment to the area to be reduced because of LC. Second, non-farmers evaluations that LC attracts young farmers were also low. However, this opinion was much more noticeable in non-farmers who had quit agriculture recently than in the generation that had left agriculture because of LC. In other words, LC is a useful policy for improving agricultural conditions and agricultural structure. However, in some cases, the connections between farmers and non-farmers is weakened. Thus, cooperative activities to actively prevent this weakening are important.


Increasing fruit yield, fatty acids and essential oils content in coriander are the main objectives. Reaching them need to understand the nature of gene action and quantifying the heterosis and inbreeding depression. Six genetically diverse parents, their 15 F1 one-way hybrids and 15 F2 populations were evaluated under different levels of water treatments. Beside the water treatment and genotype effects, the genetic effects of general (GCA) and specific (SCA) combining ability and their interactions with water treatment were significant for all traits. Water deficit stress decreased all traits in both F1 and F2 generations except for essential oil content which were significantly increased due to water deficit stress. Under water deficit stress, a non-additive gene action nature was predominant in F1 generation while an additive gene action nature was more important in F2 generation for all the traits except fruit yield under severe water deficit stress. There was a positive high heterosis for the traits examined in some hybrids. Also, in F2 generation even after inbreeding depression, some promising populations displayed appropriate mean performance. These show that the parents used for crossing had rich gene pool for studied traits. Therefore, selection between the individuals of relevant F2 populations could be led to develop high yielding hybrids or transgressed lines.


Today, Cognitive radio (CR) is found to be the key technology to exploit the unused available spectrum resources; it can sense and use spectrum in an opportunistic manner without creating any harm to cognitive users. In this paper, we develop a cognitive radio access strategy based on the implementation of a dynamic genetic algorithm for CR. The crossover and mutation operators are developed to keep the channel allocation plan always in the appropriate state. Based on these techniques, reasonable implementation is proposed. Results demonstrate that our algorithm obtains satisfactory result with all satisfying network interference and reduce the number of used channels.


Objetivo: to investigate the occurrence of GBS in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, PE, Brazil, 2015. Methods: this was a descriptive study using data from the Hospital Information System, National Pharmaceutical Services Management System and interviews; GBS cases were classified according to Brighton criteria and prior infection according to laboratory and clinical criteria. Results: in 2015, the number of GBS hospitalizations had a threefold increase in comparison to 2014. We investigated 44 confirmed or probable GBS cases, of which 18 had symptoms of Zika infection up to 35 days before the occurrence of GBS, mainly rash; one case was laboratory-confirmed for Zika virus infection and one death was registered. Conclusion: the findings reinforce a possible relationship between GBS and Zika infection, given the absence of increased GBS occurrence in previous dengue epidemic years, absence of chikungunya transmission records, presence of clinical manifestations compatible with infection and a laboratory confirmation.


The blood glucose and plasma insulin response to the two hypoglycaemic agents, chlorpropamide (Diabenese) and glibenclamide (Daonil) was determined in normal subjects under strict metabolic control in a double blind study. The subjects were admitted to hospital for the period of the study, during which time they received four isocaloric meals per day and their physical exercise was standardised. Chlorpropamide had a prolonged hypoglycaemic effect compared with the short lived response after glibenclamide. Thy hypoglycaemic characteristics of the two preparations could not be explained simply on the insulin responses. Chlorpropamide was capable of lowering blood glucose without raising plasma insulin levels, whereas glibenclamide produced a prolonged and marked increase in plasma insulin levels only to be associated with a short-lived hypoglycaemic response. The latter suggested that a degree of insulin resistance had been produced secondary to the early profound lowering of the blood glucose following glibenclamide. The data indicate therefore the need for caution in extrapolating to diabetic subjects the hypoglycaemic characteristics of an agent such as glibenclamide derived from studies in normal subjects.


Background Febrile neutropenia (FN) is the most serious hematologic toxicity of systemic chemotherapy. However, accurate prediction of FN development has been difficult because the risk varies largely depending on the chemotherapy regimen and various individual factors. Methods We retrospectively analyzed diverse clinical factors including pretreatment hematological parameters to clarify the reliable predictors of FN development during chemotherapy with a docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (TPF) regimen in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Results Among the 50 patients, grade ≥3 neutropenia, grade 4 neutropenia, and FN developed in 36 (72%), 21 (42%), and 12 (24%) patients, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that a pretreatment absolute monocyte count (AMC) <370/mm3 is an independent predictor of TPF chemotherapy-induced FN (odds ratio=6.000, p=0.017). The predictive performance of the model combining AMC and absolute neutrophil count (ANC), in which the high-risk group was defined as having an AMC <370/mm3 and/or ANC <3500/mm3, was superior (area under the curve [AUC]=0.745) to that of the model with a cutoff for AMC alone (AUC=0.679). Conclusions On the basis of our results, we recommend primary prophylactic use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and/or antibiotics selectively for patients predicted to be at high risk for TPF chemotherapy-induced FN.


Abstract We evaluated the performance of an FFQ in estimating phytosterol intake against multiple 24-h dietary recalls (24HDR) using data from 1011 participants of the calibration sub-study of the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) cohort. Dietary assessments of phytosterol intake included a self-administered FFQ and six 24HDR and plasma sterols. Plasma sterols were determined using the GLC flame ionisation method. Validation of energy-adjusted phytosterol intake from the FFQ with 24HDR was conducted by calculating crude, unadjusted, partial and de-attenuated correlation coefficients (r) and cross-classification by race. On average, total phytosterol intake from the FFQ was 439·6 mg/d in blacks and 417·9 mg/d in whites. From the 24HDR, these were 295·6 mg/d in blacks and 351·4 mg/d in whites. Intake estimates of β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, other plant sterols and total phytosterols from the FFQ had moderate to strong correlations with estimates from 24HDR (r 0·41–0·73). Correlations were slightly higher in whites (r 0·42–0·73) than in blacks (r 0·41–0·67). FFQ estimates were poorly correlated with plasma sterols as well as 24HDR v. plasma sterols. We conclude that the AHS-2 FFQ provided reasonable estimates of phytosterol intake and may be used in future studies relating phytosterol intake and disease outcomes.


Introduction: Archidendron bubalinum is an underutilised plant with numerous antioxidant properties and has a great potential to inhibit enzymes linked with diabetes and obesity. Food irradiation is an advanced technology to prolong the lifespan of plant, prevent physical spoilage and eradicate food borne disease. Present study was aimed to determine the total antioxidant activity, enzymatic inhibition against alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase and the toxicity levels of non-irradiated and irradiated (3, 6, 9 & 12 kGy) hot aqueous extract of A. bubalinum. Methods: The antioxidant ability of the extract was determined by total phenolic content (TPC), total flavanoid content (TFC), Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), β-carotene assay and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay. The inhibitory activities were evaluated using α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and pancreatic lipase inhibition assay. The toxicity levels of A. bubalinum extract were determined using Brine shrimp and Zebra-fish assays. Results: Results showed that irradiated A. bubalinum at 12 kGy demonstrated the highest TFC (448.99 ± 5.02 mg GAE/g), FRAP (2.55 ± 0.40 mmol Fe2+/g) and β-carotene bleaching activity (79.49%). Whereas, non-irradiated A. bubalinum samples expressed the highest TPC (2517.07 ± 15.81 mg GAE/g) and exhibited the lowest IC 50 values of α-amylase (31.99 ± 3.15 μg/ml), α-glucosidase (23.40 ± 0.69μg/ml) and pancreatic lipase (32.81 ± 7.96 μg/ml) activity. The toxicity assays also showed no significant different between irradiated and non-irradiated samples. Conclusion: The study suggests that gamma irradiation has the prospective future to increase antioxidant properties and maintaining the enzyme inhibitory activities to preserve the sample of A. bubalinum for commercial purposes.


Abstract Uranium-series age determinations by mass spectrometric methods were done for travertines and associated carbonate veins related to clastic deposits of the last glaciation (Pinedale) in the northern Yellowstone area. Dramatic variations in the hydrologic head are inferred from variations in the elevation of travertine deposition with time and are consistent with the expected hydrologic effects of glaciation. We determine the following chronology of the Pinedale Glaciation, with the key assumption that travertine deposits (and associated carbonate veins) perched high above present thermal springs were deposited when glaciers filled the valley below these perched deposits: (1) the early Pinedale outlet glacier advanced well downvalley between 47,000 and 34,000 yr B.P.; (2) the outlet glacier receded to an interstadial position between 34,000 and 30,000 yr B.P.; (3) an extensive Pinedale ice advance occurred between 30,000 and 22,500 yr B.P.; (4) a major recession occurred between 22,500 and 19,500 yr B.P.; (5) a minor readvance (Deckard Flats) culminated after 19,500 yr B.P.; and (6) recession from the Deckard Flats position was completed before 15,500 yr B.P. This chronology is consistent with the general trend of climatic changes in the northern hemisphere as revealed by recent high-resolution ice-core records from the Greenland ice sheet.


A regression methodology is introduced that obtains competitive, robust, efficient, high‐breakdown regression parameter estimates as well as providing an informative summary regarding possible multiple outlier structure. The proposed method blends a cluster analysis phase with a controlled bounded influence (BI) regression phase, thereby referred to as cluster‐based bounded influence regression, or CBI. Representing the data space via a special set of anchor points, a collection of point‐addition OLS regression estimators forms the basis of a metric used in defining the similarity between any two observations. Cluster analysis then yields a main cluster 'half‐set' of observations, with the remaining observations comprising one or more minor clusters. An initial regression estimator arises from the main cluster, with a group‐additive DFFITS argument used to carefully activate the minor clusters through a BI regression frame work. CBI achieves a 50% breakdown point, is regression equivariant, scale and affine equivariant and distributionally is asymptotically normal. Case studies and Monte Carlo results demonstrate the performance advantage of CBI over other popular robust regression procedures regarding coefficient stability, scale estimation and standard errors. The dendrogram of the clustering process and the weight plot are graphical displays available for multivariate outlier detection. Overall, the proposed methodology represents advancement in the field of robust regression, offering a distinct philosophical view point towards data analysis and the marriage of estimation with diagnostic summary. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Poor crop establishment was identified as a major constraint on rainfed crop production by farmers and on-farm seed priming with water was chosen as a low cost, low risk intervention appropriate to the farmers' needs. Micronutrient seed treatments, which include seed priming and seed coating, are an attractive and easy alternative. Here in this review, we discuss the potential of micronutrient seed treatments for improving crop growth and grain nutrient enrichment and their application through seed treatments improves the stand establishment, advances phenological events, and increases yield and micronutrient grain contents in most cases. Direct benefits in all three crops included faster emergence, better stands and a lower incidence of re-sowing, more vigorous plants, better drought tolerance, earlier flowering, earlier harvest and higher grain yield and Indirect benefits reported were earlier sowing of crops because of the shorter duration of the preceding crop, earlier harvesting of crops that allowed earlier migration from the area. Seed priming can markedly increase the germination rate of seed, but has not always been accompanied by improvements in field emergence rates or percentages and optimal priming conditions may vary among cultivars and even seed lots of a given species. Although seed lots differed in the magnitude of their response to a standard priming treatment, all lots exhibited markedly improved rates of germination and emergence after priming and in most cases, micronutrient application through seed treatment performed better or similar to other application methods. Being an easy and cost effective method of micronutrient application, seed treatments offer an attractive option for resource-poor farmers.


Abstract Degree-hours have many applications in fields such as agriculture, architecture, and power generation. Since daily mean temperatures are more readily available than hourly temperatures, the difference between mean daily degree-hours computed from daily mean temperatures and those computed from hourly data is examined. Mean daily degree-hours were modeled assuming normal probability distributions for temperatures and homogeneous variances of hourly temperatures throughout a day. The validity of the assumptions, which is dependent upon time of year and location, as well as the effect of the assumptions on four models of daily degree-hours are discussed. Two of the models require mean hourly temperatures and two require the readily available daily mean temperatures as input. Comparisons among models and observed data show that estimates made from mean hourly temperatures are better than those made from daily mean temperatures. The difference is sizable during the transition months between warm and c...


Indirect evidence suggests that estrogen is involved in the etiology of breast cancer. Estrogen is also thought to modulate nitric oxide (NO) in human breast tumor tissue via regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Objectives of this study were to determine whether estradiol (E2) affects iNOS expression level in breast cancer cells and to study the effect of various concentrations of E2 on cell proliferation. Immunocytochemical technique was employed to assess iNOS expression level. Proliferation of parent and 10-6 M tamoxifen resistant cells (T47D/TAMR-6) were assessed by MTT assay in the presence of E2. Addition of E2 (10-12 to 10-8 M) increases the expression of iNOS in parent cells, but not T47D/TAMR-6, Further increase in concentrations of E2 (10-8 to 10-4 M) again decreases the expression of iNOS in parent cells, but increase that of the T47D/TAMR-6 cells. Expression of iNOS in parent cells in a medium containing 1% serum (low serum) is less than the cells grown in a medium containing 10% FBS (normal serum). This trend was not seen in T47D/TAMR-6 cells. The results of these experiments may indicate that increasing of iNOS expression decreases the viability of parent cells whilst increasing the number of T47D/


We will identify sufficient and partly necessary conditions for a family of copulas to be closed under the construction of generalized linear mean values. These families of copulas generalize results well-known from the literature for the Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern (FGM), the Ali-Mikhai-Haq (AMH) and the Barnett-Gumbel (BG) families of copulas closed under weighted linear, harmonic and geometric mean. For these generalizations we calculate the range of Spearman's ρ depending on the choice of weights α, the copulas generation function φ and the exponent γ determining what kind of mean value will be considered. It seems that FGM and AMH generating function φ(υ) = 1 - υ maximizes the range of Spearman's ρ. Furthermore, it will be shown that the considered families of copulas closed under the construction of generalized linear means have no tail dependence in the sense of Ledford & Tawn.


The purpose of the present study was to examine acute changes in active muscle stiffness with and without the stretch reflex following static stretching. Before and after static stretching for 10 min, active muscle stiffness was measured according to changes in exerted torque and fascicle length during short-range stretch of faster (peak angular velocity of 250 deg·s-1; without the stretch reflex) and slower (peak angular velocity of 100 deg·s-1; with the stretch reflex) angular velocities. During the measurement of active muscle stiffness, the electromyographic activities of plantar flexor muscles were recorded and averaged over two different phases: just before (mEMGa) and after (mEMGb) stretch. In addition, the mEMGb/ mEMGa ratio was used to evaluate the effects of stretch reflex. After 10 min of stretching, the mEMGb/mEMGa ratio tended to decrease under the 100 deg·s-1 condition, but not 250 deg·s-1. Under both conditions, active muscle stiffness did not change after 10 min of static stretching. In conclusion, the prolonged static stretching did not affect active muscle stiffness with or without the stretch reflex, but tended to decrease the stretch reflex. In addition, these results imply that active muscle stiffness measured during contractions was not influenced by the stretch reflex.


In recent years it has been shown that many, and possibly all, integrable systems can be obtained by dimensional reduction of self-dual Yang-Mills. I show how the integrable systems obtained this way naturally inherit bihamiltonian structure. I also present a simple, gauge-invariant formulation of the self-dual Yang-Mills hierarchy proposed by several authors, and I discuss the notion of gauge equivalence of integrable systems that arises from the gauge invariance of the self-duality equations (and their hierarchy); this notion of gauge equivalence may well be large enough to unify the many diverse existing notions.


In this design-based study we have examined students' encounters with a computer game, Energispillet.no, in school. How do students deal with complex issues related to energy and environment in a digital simulation-based video game? How does the meetings between the gaming arena and the school arena unfold? The study was conducted in a vocational class (electricity), two groups with respectively 3 and 4 pupils. We have analyzed spoken and written student texts with selected elements from Halliday's systemic functional grammar. In our material, we saw two different encounters between the gaming arena and the school arena. One group that predominantly interpreted Energispillet in a gaming frame and one group that drew on working methods associated with both gaming- and school arena. In the game the students encounter "texts" that do not convey facts or certain knowledge, but on the contrary entrusts the players to do their own considerations. Based on their own values and attitudes students must jointly make use of knowledge from different disciplines such as natural science, social studies, economics and ethics to make ongoing assessments, argue points of view, and make informed choices during gameplay. One group explored the game extremely and one-sided and reflected on the complex issues in the game once they left the game world. The other group did more joint reflection, both during and after gaming.


The purpose of the doctoral thesis is to demonstrate the role of the Hospitaller knights of the Order of St John as art patrons and collectors, and the extent to which works of art enabled internal relations between the Grand Masters of the Order and Hospitaller knights, and the extent to which art also enabled external relations with other entities and states through the language of gifts, bequests and cultural identity. The study will enable an understanding of the development of the Order's art patronage and the growth of Hospitaller art collections, from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. These dates encompass the first commissions given to artists to embellish the magistral palace and the Conventual church in the 1570s, and the growth of a magistral art collection under successive Grand Masters. The research will also aim to situate Hospitaller art patronage and collecting within the broader history of art collecting in Europe, by highlighting factors that were specific to the institutional character of the Order of St John and the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience taken by Hospitaller knights. The thesis will be informed by archival research on Hospitaller inventories. It will also build on studies that have been conducted on the Order's art patronage, and on the history of individual artists in Malta such as Caravaggio and Mattia Preti, as well as on research on the broader history of art collecting.


Xenogeneic transplantation of ovarian cortex into an immunodeficient animal host may be an approach toward fertility preservation for young female patients undergoing cancer therapy. Our objective was to evaluate the development of follicles in human ovarian cortex placed s.c. in non-obese diabetic-severe combined immune deficiency (NOD-SCID) mice (n = 54). The following variables were compared: 1) male versus female mice as hosts, 2) intact versus pituitary down-regulated mice, and 3) warm versus cold tissue transport. After 2 wk, 37 of 50 (74%) of the human xenografts contained follicles. At 12 wk after transplantation, exogenous gonadotropin stimulation resulted in follicle growth in 19 of 37 (51%) of the grafts, including the development of antral follicles, which could be palpated and visualized through the mouse skin. Significantly more developing follicles were identified in male versus female mice (13 of 17 vs. 6 of 20, respectively; p = 0.013) after stimulation. No difference was found between intact and pituitary down-regulated mice as hosts. Follicular survival was significantly increased by warm versus cold tissue transport. Our results suggest that s.c. ovarian cortex xenografting into NOD-SCID mice is feasible. Primordial follicles in ovarian xenografts retain their developmental potential and form antral follicles following gonadotropin stimulation.


Background:In high income countries, men-who-have –sex-with-men (MSM) are a high risk group for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Therefore, interventions are urgently needed to improve MSM's sexual health. Salutogenesis theory guides health promotion through identification of protective health factors. Sense of coherence (SOC) is the measurable construct underpinning the salutogenic approach. It assesses an individual's ability to understand the world they live in, and make use of internal and external resources towards making health promoting decisions. Here, we examine the role that salutogenesis plays in reducing MSM's sexual risk behaviours.

Methods:A cross-sectional online survey recruited 2043 MSM in Scotland, Wales and Ireland via sociosexual media websites and smartphone apps. Sociodemographic and sexual behavioural data were collected alongside the SOC measure. Uni- and multivariate analyses were performed to identify relationships between SOC, sociodemographics and sexual behaviours.

Findings:MSM who reported high risk sex in the last year reported significantly lower SOC than men who reported no high risk sex*. Lower SOC was also significantly related to younger age**, lower qualifications**, being single**, sex partying*, reporting commercial sex work** but not other variables including STI and HIV testing. Multivariate logistic regression suggested that SOC*, relationship status**, recent STI testing** and HIV positive status** were independently predictive of high risk sexual behaviours amongst MSM.

Discussion:Lower levels of SOC were related to higher risk sex over and above other predictive variables. We propose an assets-based approach to sexual health promotion, which through improving MSM's SOC, will reduce sexual risk-taking behaviours.

**p<0.01, ***p<0.001