We report the compression of a single crystal of salicylamide to 5.1 GPa. Between ambient pressure and 5.1 GPa the structure remains in a compressed form of the ambient-pressure phase, referred to as salicylamide-I. This phase has been investigated twice previously, but the coordinates appear to have been reported with respect to a non-standard space group origin, though no comment to this effect is made in either of the original reports. Short H⋯H contacts implied by the previously published coordinates are strongly destabilising according to PIXEL packing energy calculations, but are absent in the structure reported here. A new high-pressure polymorph, salicylamide-II, is formed if salicylamide is crystallised in situ from a saturated solution in a 4 : 1 mixture of methanol and ethanol at 0.2 GPa. Crystal growth yielded three crystallites within the pressure cell, and combination of single-crystal X-ray diffraction intensity data from all three yielded a dataset which was >90% complete. PIXEL calculations indicate that salicylamide-II exhibits weaker H-bonding but stronger dispersion interactions than phase-I. Harmonic frequencies calculated using periodic DFT (and validated by inelastic neutron scattering data) indicate that phase-II is favoured at high pressure by its lower volume, its lower zero-point energy and higher entropy, and we estimate that at 0.2 GPa the free energy of phase-II is lower than that of phase-I by about 3 kJ mol−1.


In this paper, the participation of wind farms in load frequency control (LFC) is studied. A previously proposed macromodel for the wind farm is employed to regulate its output power. The wind farm including its proposed control strategy is incorporated into the conventional LFC model. The proposed LFC structure is able to dynamically maintain the system frequency at the nominal value against the power imbalances. To achieve proper transient response, the integral control parameter of the LFC controller is optimized using the genetic algorithm (GA). To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, several simulation case studies are carried out. The results show that the wind farm can effectively participate in the regulation of power system frequency in the future utility grid.


Electron cyclotron resonance in alloys of mercury cadmium telluride having a mole fraction x of CdTe equal to 0.20 and 0.215 has been observed in transmission at 337 mu m using an HCN laser. Semiclassical interpretation of the lineshapes leads to values of the band edge effective mass and estimates of the relaxation time between 77 and 136K. For x=0.215 the effective mass ratio is 9.7+or-0.3*10-3 at 77K. The temperature dependence of the effective mass is compared with Kane's theory (1957) and is found to be stronger by a factor of two than that predicted, with an experimental temperature coefficient of 5*10-5m0K-1.


Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence and risk factors of hyperkalemia associated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) in the intensive care unit (ICU). Study design: A single-center, retrospective observational study. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of patients who received TMP-SMX in the ICU. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the level of serum potassium: the group with hyperkalemia and the group without hyperkalemia. Results: The incidence of hyperkalemia in the patients receiving TMP-SMX in ICU was 49% (25/51). Hyperkalemia occurred 6.2±3.8 days after the beginning of TMP-SMX treatment. Baseline serum potassium level determined as an independent risk factor for hyperkalemia (p<0.009). The optimal cut-off value of baseline serum potassium to predict hyperkalemia associated with TMP-SMX was 3.55 mEq/L. Conclusion: Potassium levels should be closely monitored, especially in the first week of TMP treatment, in critically ill patients. Even if the baseline potassium level is within normal limits, care should be taken in terms of hyperkalemia. In addition, even if hyperkalemia is mild, potassium-lowering therapeutic approaches may be necessary.


Background small B-cell neoplasms can show plasmacytic differentiation and may potentially progress to aggressive lymphoma (DLBCL). Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection may cause the transformation of malignant cells in vitro. Design and Method we established VR09 cell line with plasmacytic differentiation, obtained from a case of atypical, non-CLL B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disease with plasmacytic features. We used flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction, cytogenetic analysis and florescence in situ hybridization in the attempt at thoroughly characterizing the cell line. We showed VR09 tumorigenic potential in vivo, leading to the development of activated DLBCL with plasmacytic features. Results VR09 cells displayed plasmacytic appearance and grew as spherical tumors when inoculated subcutaneously into immunodeficient Rag2−/− γ-chain−/− mice. VR09 cell line and tumors displayed the phenotype of activated stage of B cell maturation, with secretory differentiation (CD19+ CD20+ CD79a+ CD79b+/− CD138+ cyclin D1- Ki67 80% IgM+ IgD+ MUM1+ MNDA+ CD10- CD22+ CD23+ CD43+ K+, λ- Bcl2+ Bcl6-) and they presented episomal EBV genome, chromosome 12 trisomy, lack of c-MYC rearrangement and Myd88 gene mutation, presence of somatic hypermutation in the VH region, and wild-type p53. Conclusion This new EBV-positive cell line may be useful to further characterize in vivo activated DLBCL with plasmacytic features.


Covering: 2005 up to 2020Olive bioactive secoiridoids are recognized as natural antioxidants with multiple beneficial effects on human health. Nevertheless, the study of their biological activity has also disclosed some critical aspects associated with their application. Firstly, only a few of them can be extracted in large amounts from their natural matrix, namely olive leaves, drupes, oil and olive mill wastewater. Secondly, their application as preventive agents and drugs is limited by their low membrane permeability. Thirdly, the study of their biological fate after administration is complicated by the absence of pure analytical standards. Accordingly, efficient synthetic methods to obtain natural and non-natural bioactive phenol derivatives have been developed. Among them, semi-synthetic protocols represent efficient and economical alternatives to total synthesis, combining efficient extraction protocols with efficient catalytic conversions to achieve reasonable amounts of active molecules. The aim of this review is to summarize the semi-synthetic protocols published in the last fifteen years, covering 2005 up to 2020, which can produce natural olive bioactive phenols scarcely available by extractive procedures, and new biophenol derivatives with enhanced biological activity. Moreover, the semi-synthetic protocols to produce olive bioactive phenol derivatives as analytical standards are also discussed. A critical analysis of the advantages offered by semi-synthesis compared to classical extraction methods or total synthesis protocols is also performed.


The theory of Lambda-rings, in the sense of Grothendieck's Riemann-Roch theory, is an enrichment of the theory of commutative rings. In the same way, we can enrich usual algebraic geometry over the ring Z of integers to produce Lambda-algebraic geometry. We show that Lambda-algebraic geometry is in a precise sense an algebraic geometry over a deeper base than Z and that it has many properties predicted for algebraic geometry over the mythical field with one element. Moreover, it does this is a way that is both formally robust and closely related to active areas in arithmetic algebraic geometry.


Background: Diarrhoeal diseases affect millions of people around the world and have greatest impact on children, especially those in developing countries. Diarrhoeal disease outbreaks are cause of major public health emergencies in India. We investigated such an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in Daslana Village of Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, to identify etiological agent, source of transmission and propose control measures.
Methodology: A cross sectional epidemiological study was carried out to find out the cases of acute gastroenteritis by house to house survey, and also inspected the sanitation and water supply.
Results: There were 38 cases of acute gastroenteritis among total 220 peoples who were residing near brick production sites, overall attack rate was 17.27%. Infants and children of 1 to 12 years of age were highly affected, (25%) and (20.56%) respectively.
Conclusion: The underlying cause for this outbreak of acute gastroenteritis was waterborne in nature and due to contamination of water with contributing factors of poor living condition.


Muscle is a calcium responsive tissue and requires calcium for initiation of muscle contraction. Calcium concentration in muscle is tightly regulated by calcium binding proteins. Calcineurin-B2 (canB2), a calcium binding, regulatory subunit of calcineurin, is the isoform maximally expressed in the indirect flight muscles (IFMs) of Drosophila. The developmental and functional roles of CanB2 particularly in the maintenance of calcium homeostasis are not understood. In this study, we show that the loss of canB2 causes hypercontraction of IFMs. Genetic interaction studies with hypercontraction mutants suggest a synergistic interaction between Calcineurin-B2 and structural protein Troponin-T. Similarly, interaction studies with dSERCA mutant reveal that Calcineurin-B2 is important for regulating calcium homeostasis in muscles. In vivo calcium imaging showed that Calcineurin-B2 deficiency leads to arrhythmicity in the calcium oscillations. We show that Calcineurin-B2 knockdown causes deregulation of calcium homeostasis, which results in unregulated acto-myosin interaction. However, overexpression of Calcineurin-A, which inhibits calcium oscillations, had no effect on myofibrillogenesis suggesting that calcium activation is dispensable for myofibrillar assembly. Our findings contribute to the understanding of muscle physiology in normal as well as pathophysiological conditions.


A digitally controlled phase-locked loop (DCPLL) that achieves fast acquisition by employing a digital phase-frequency detector (DPFD) and a variable loop gain scheme was developed for an advanced clock synthesizer and was fabricated in a 3.3-V 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The DPFD was developed to measure the frequency difference and to generate digital outputs corresponding to the difference. Using these features, the DCPLL achieves ideally one-cycle frequency acquisition when programmed with an appropriate gain. The experimental results show that the fabricated DCPLL exhibits three-cycle and one-cycle frequency acquisitions, when locking to 400 MHz (VCO at 800 MHz) and 200 MHz (VCO at 400 MHz), respectively.


Optically pure epoxides are useful synthons for a variety of biologically active compounds. The epoxide hydrolase obtained from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 hydrolyses racemic aryl epoxides with moderate and aliphatic epoxides with low enantioselectivity. The three-dimensional structure of this enzyme indicates that two tyrosine residues interact with the epoxide oxygen. Mutating one of these, tyrosine 215, to a phenylalanine (Y215F) resulted in an enzyme with increased enantioselectivity towards aryl epoxides. The relatively strong decrease in activity towards the remaining enantiomers makes this enzyme a much better biocatalyst than the wild-type enzyme for the preparation of optically pure (S)-styrene oxide derivatives.


Due to the increasing opportunities for malicious inclusions in hardware, Design-for-Trust (DFTr) is emerging as an important IC design methodology. In order to incorporate the DFTr techniques into the IC development cycle, they have to be practical in terms of their Trojan detection capabilities, hardware overhead, and test cost. We propose a non-invasive DFTr technique, which can detect Trojans in the presence of process variations and measurement errors. This technique can detect Trojans that are inserted in all or a subset of the ICs. It is applicable to both ASICs and FPGA implementations. Circuit paths in a design are reconfigured into ring oscillators1 (ROs) by adding a small amount of logic. Trojans are detected by observing the changes in the frequency of the ROs. An algorithm is provided to secure all the gates, while reducing the hardware overhead. We analyzed the coverage, area and test time overhead of the proposed DFTr technique. To demonstrate its effectiveness in the real world, the proposed technique had been validated by a red-team blue-team approach.


The purpose of this study is threefold: to analyse the metropolitan origin and destination patterns of movers in information-intensive work, to examine the demographic and work characteristics of movers, and to determine the odds of an intermetropolitan move as opposed to an intrametropolitan move based on demographic and work characteristics. In this study, two industry categories (high technology manufacturing and advanced producer services) and one occupation category (engineers) are used as surrogates of information-intensive work. A much larger portion of moves are usually intrametropolitan as opposed to intermetropolitan. The data for the analysis were collected from Public Use Micro Sample data files of the 1990 US census. The findings show the dominance of large metropolitan areas as major origins and destinations; however, the importance of existing and emerging high tech agglomerations cannot be ignored. Selected findings of the determinants of migration show that males, whites, advanced degree holders, never-married persons are more likely to move compared to females, nonwhites, college degree holders and/or married persons. Findings also show the importance of producer services in the geographic mobility of females. However, in general, more female movers are in technical occupations and more male movers are executives and professionals. The research findings also show variations in terms of demographic and work characteristics across information-intensive work and metropolitan move categories despite the similarities in origin and destination patterns.


We prove that the initial-value problem for the fractional heat equation admits a solution provided that the (possibly unbounded) initial datum has a conveniently moderate growth at infinity. Under the same growth condition we also prove that the solution is unique. Our result does not require any sign assumption, thus complementing the Widder's type theorem of Barrios et al. (Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 213 (2014) 629-650) for positive solutions. Finally, we show that the fractional heat flow preserves convexity of the initial datum. Incidentally, several properties of stationary convex solutions are established.


Worldwide, colorectal cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies. Due to oncological safety concerns, data regarding the laparoscopic surgical treatment of rectal cancer is scarce. Our study's main aim was investigate the oncological adequacy of laparoscopic surgery in the treatment of rectal cancer by comparing its oncological reliability with the oncological results obtained after open surgery for rectal cancer. In this retrospective study, 80 patients who underwent surgery for rectal cancer, admitted in our Clinic between January 1, 2014-November 31, 2015 were enrolled. The studied group was stratified according to the way of approach chosen: classic surgery (59 cases) and laparoscopic surgery (21 cases), respectively. Based on the histopathological examination, we analyzed the histological grading of rectal neoplasms, TNM staging, resection margins, lymphovascular and perineural invasion and the number of regional lymph nodes identified in the perirectal adipose tissue. The average number of isolated lymph nodes demonstrated non-significant differences between the two types of approaches: 20 lymph nodes in the classical approach versus 18 lymph nodes in the laparoscopic approach (p=0.109). Lymph nodes affected by metastases were associated in the majority of cases with stage IIIB and stage IIIC rectal cancers (100% and 83.3%, respectively). The laparoscopic approach proved to be efficient in terms of reaching oncological resection limits. On the resection specimens extracted by laparoscopic surgery, the residual tumor (R1) was encountered in 5% of the cases versus in 6.7% of the cases after classic surgery. The laparoscopic approach is oncologically feasible in the rectal cancer surgical treatment.


last decades witnessed several research activities in the area of acoustic undersea warfare targeting the development of advanced systems to accurately detect and localize underwater moving targets. One of the main categories of these systems is the passive sonar (sound navigation and ranging) that searches for the location of the ships and submarines by listening to the radiated noise produced by their propellers, machinery, and flow dynamics. The performance of the passive sonar (involving estimation of the target bearing) highly depends on the particular array signal processing algorithms used in practice. Presently, the main challenge is to accurately estimate the target bearing in low signal to noise ratio for the underwater environment. This book presents advanced high spatial resolution techniques for both uniform and nonuniform hydrophone arrays. These techniques are now utilized in real applications due to its outstanding performance.


The delivery of messages in political communication varies. One of them was President Vladimir Putin's political communication when he received a diplomatic visit from other Presidents, including President Joko Widodo's visit in 2022. The messages sent and received by these two important people provoked different perceptions by the public. The extreme social distancing between President Vladimir Putin and other Heads of State was interesting to analyze. The purpose of this study was to analyze the distance (proxemics) of communication of President Vladimir Putin and President Joko Widodo, and President Vladimir Putin and President Emmanuel Macron. Data were collected from newspapers. Photographs showing the communication distance between President Putin and other heads of state were analyzed using proxemic theory. This research shows that President Vladimir Putin has a different way of welcoming and engaging himself when communicating with the President of Indonesia and the President of France. This non-verbal way of conveying messages shows both power and respect for the interlocutor.
Keywords: communication, proxemic, symbol, non-verbal communication


A series of hyperbranched poly(amine-ester)-co-D,L-lactide (HPAE-co-PLA) copolymer were synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of D,L-lactide with Sn(Oct)2 as catalyst to a fourth generation branched poly(amine-ester) (HPAE-OHs4). The chemical structures of copolymers were determined by FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and TGA. Double emulsion (DE) and nanoprecipitation (NP) method were used to fabricate the nanoparticles of these copolymers encapsulating bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model. DSC thermo-grams indicated that the nanoparticles with BSA kept stable below 40°C. Different factors which influence on particular size and encapsulation efficiency (EE) were investigated. Their EE to BSA could reach 97.8% at an available condition. In vitro release behavior of NPs showed a continuous release after a burst release. The stability maintenance of BSA in the nanoparticle release in vitro was also measured via circular dichroism and fluorescence spectrometry. The results showed that the copolymer nanoparticles have a promising potential in protein delivery system. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010


A single-chip analog signal processor IC that allows the number of external components in a stereo enhancement system to be reduced has been developed. The chip uses the SRS (Sound Retrieval System), developed by the Hughes Aircraft Company. Compared with conventional stereo-enhancement systems. SRS has the following advantages: stereo sound with 3-D ambience can be obtained with only two speakers; wide optimum listening area is created; a realistic sound image is maintained regardless of the apparent position of the sound source; specific encoding is not required; and digital/analog delay, artificial phase correction, and harmonics regeneration are not required. The performance and the configuration of the chip are described in detail. >


The hyperosmolality of current ionic angiographic media gives rise to several adverse effects. Use of the first low-osmolality medium, metrizamide (Amipaque), has been inhibited by expense and by the necessity for prior mixing into solution. Hexabrix is the first of such media to be available in stable solution, and its use in angiocardiography is reported, in direct comparison with Urografin, Triosil, Cardio-Conray, and metrizamide. The low osmolality media cause significantly less discomfort than ionic media, and are better tolerated in paediatric angiocardiography. In coronary angiography Hexabrix causes comparable T wave change to Urografin and more than Triosil or metrizamide, but tends to have less effect on heart rate. The risk of exacerbating pulmonary arterial hypertension in right heart angiography appears to be reduced.


The present content analysis is aimed at exploring the computerized activities included in the 10th grade "Communication Skills" Arabic Language Textbook in Jordan. It attempts to find out whether each unit includes such activities or not. It also attempts to explore the nature of these activities and their relation to the topics presented in the units that have undergone analysis. The content analysis includes the eight units of the second part of the 10th grade "Communication Skills" Arabic Language Textbook in Jordan. The findings showed that all the units included computerized activities. It also showed that each unit has at least one task that requires students to surf the internet and do the required activities. Furthermore, all the tasks in the computerized activities are directly related to the topics presented in the eight units. The researcher presents some pedagogical implications at the end of the analysis.


Abstract. During a survey on the biology of Cobitis cf. turcica living in Pınarbaşı Springs (Haymana district, Turkey), symptoms of black spot disease were frequently observed on the specimens. Of the 1295 loach collected, 240 (19 %) specimens were found to be infected with metacercaria of Posthodiplostomum cuticola, a common digenean parasite causing black spot disease in freshwater fish in Eurasia. During spring and autumn, the infection rate was significantly higher than during winter and summer, most probably due to the increasing density of migration of birds in this area. No statistically significant difference was found in condition, weight and length between infected and non-infected specimens; indicating low physiological effects of the encysted metacercaria on the host specimens. However, the prevalence of black spot had a tendency to decrease with age, remarking a higher mortality rate of infected specimens. This increased mortality rate seems to be the most important impact of an infection with metacercaria for a Cobitis population.


Background Dysphagia, is a significant sign of many different lesions in upper digestive system especially in proximal esophagus. Tumors, gastroesophageal reflux, achalasia and extrinsic compressions are the most common causes that may lead to dysphagia in geriatric population. Cervical osteophyte induced dysphagia, is one of the uncommon reasons of dysphagia, therefore other causes of dysphagia must be excluded to establish the exact diagnosis. Eagle syndrome is one of the considerable reason which may lead to misdiagnosis in patients with cervical osteophytes. In this case report, we represent four patients who had dysphagia due to anteriorly located cervical osteophytes and evaluate the patients with special reference to Eagle syndrome. Material and methods After a detailed anamnesis and ENT examination, cervical plain radiographs in four projections and Towne radiographs were obtained for every patient. After that, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cervical spine and barium swallowing studies were performed to evaluate the presence of esophageal compression. Results Eagle syndrome was excluded due to absence of other symptoms and physical signs, eventhough unilateral or bilateral elongation of styloid processes was found in all of the patients. Conclusion Cervical osteophytes induced dysphagia is a rare clinical entity, diagnosis should be done by a careful examination, intensive radiologic evaluation. Moreover, all the other causes like Eagle syndrome should be excluded during the diagnosis of cervical osteophyte induced dysphagia.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death in the world. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are currently being explored in the context of CVD risk. EPCs are bone marrow derived progenitor cells involved in postnatal endothelial repair and neovascularization. A large body of evidence from clinical, animal, and in vitro studies have shown that EPC numbers in circulation and their functionality reflect endogenous vascular regenerative capacity. Traditionally vitamin D is known to be beneficial for bone health and calcium metabolism and in the last two decades, its role in influencing CVD and cancer risk has generated significant interest. Observational studies have shown that low vitamin D levels are associated with an adverse cardiovascular risk profile. Still, Mendelian randomization studies and randomized control trials (RCTs) have not shown significant effects of vitamin D on cardiovascular events. The criticism regarding the RCTs on vitamin D and CVD is that they were not designed to investigate cardiovascular outcomes in vitamin D-deficient individuals. Overall, the association between vitamin D and CVD remains inconclusive. Recent clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated the beneficial role of vitamin D in increasing the circulatory level of EPC as well as their functionality. In this review we present evidence supporting the beneficial role of vitamin D in CVD through its modulation of EPC homeostasis.


Abstract Pressure ulcers (decubiti) are one of the most frequent side effects in the palliative care setting. Terminally ill and dying people have multiple comorbidities resulting in a high risk to develop pressure ulcers. These skin lesions are caused by pressure, friction and shearing forces in combination with several risk factors (e.g. moisture, tissue condition). People of all ages with reduced activity can suffer from decubitus ulcers. In palliative care, the treatment of symptoms to ensure the highest possible quality of life is of primary importance. Ethical controversies and difficult decision-making often lead to uncertainties and burdens for caregivers, patients and relatives. In the DekuProSys project, a decubitus prophylaxis system for inpatient and outpatient palliative care of people of all ages is being developed. The system will assist caregivers in patient care in multiple ways. It will capture and report risk factors for decubitus, assist at decision making and documentation. Furthermore, it will provide care information and instruction if needed. Aiming for an innovative and useful solution, the project follows a user-centered and interdisciplinary approach.


Objective. To compare the informative value of using dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in patients with breast liver metastasis during chemotherapy.Material and methods. The investigation enrolled 30 patients with breast liver metastasis during their treatment. The results of standard intravenous contrast-enhanced abdominal MRI studies (by evaluating the liver in the arterial, venous, and delayed phases) were compared with those of DW-MRI with different B-factor values (50, 400 and 800 sec/mm2).Results. Comparison of the findings of initial studies prior to chemotherapy (those of only dynamic intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI and only DW-MRI) revealed a complete correspondence with the number of detected foci in 10 patients. Ten patients had a larger number of metastatic foci at DW-MRI than at intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI, in the aggregate by 44 foci more (of them 36 foci measured less than 1 cm). The remaining 10 of the 30 patients were found to have multiple, unquantifiable (more than 20–40) metastatic foci of various sizes (1–6 cm) at both intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI and DW-MRI. Nineteen of the 30 patients were followed up during their chemotherapy. Seven of the 19 patients showed a stabilized liver metastatic process that was similarly evidenced by both techniques. Eleven of the 19 patients were observed to have a progressive metastatic process that was reflected by the similar increase in the number and size of metastases in 5 of the 11 patients, as shown by both of the above techniques. In the remaining 6 of the 11 patients, the number of newly detected liver tumors proved to be larger at DW-MRI than at intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI. Both techniques showed that the last patient of the 19 cases had a decrease in the number of small liver metastases that maintained their sizes (less than 1 cm).Conclusion. DW-MRI has been shown to be much more effective in detecting metastases than conventional intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI, which necessitates the inclusion of this technique in standard abdominal MRI protocols for patients with liver metastasis.


Performance-based regulation establishes mandatory goals rather than enforcing prescriptive standards. Performance-based regulation has become popular over the past two decades as an alternative to prescriptive regulation, as it holds out the promise of simultaneously achieving health, safety and environmental outcomes while facilitating innovation and reducing regulatory costs. In the early 1990s New Zealand adopted a performance-based building control regime. This demonstrably failed and was replaced in 2004 with a new regime, still performance-based but more conservative. Using legal determinations, adjudications and court cases, and reviews of the failures, contributing factors have been identified. An assessment has been made of the extent to which these factors can be attributed to the performance philosophy and features of the regime. Strategies to addresses the weaknesses of performance-based regulation have been explored. The change from a standards-based regulatory regime, where technology shifts are on the margin and occur through a process of incremental trial-and-error, to a performance-based regime, displaced traditional institutions for aggregating knowledge required for risk-based decision-making. At the same time, the new performance-based regime was permissive of greater technology shifts, which demands more of decision-makers who are operating in an environment of inevitable uncertainty. The significance of the regime change was not well understood and new institutions did not evolve. Reverting to traditional institutions is not an option as they are inherently conservative and therefore innovation as one of the normative benefits of performance-based regulation is likely to be constrained. New institutions are required to aggregate knowledge, but also permit decisions that enable the technology threshold to be pushed out in situations where it is not possible to measure accurately how a novel technology will perform in all of the circumstances of its use, and failure in the field is a possibility. This requires knowledge that is both technical and evaluative. Technical knowledge is more than science, but increasingly knowledge in other domains such as psychology, economics, and both domestic and international law. Evaluative knowledge is that which is required to assess risks and consequences. This study explores two strategies for resolving the challenges of decision-making in a permissive performance-based regulatory environment: improving the predicative capability of decision-making systems through the better application of the intuitive judgment associated with expertise and wisdom, and treating novel technologies as explicit experiments. Both strategies show promise, but may be difficult to implement. If the conditions for materially pushing out the thresholds of technology while managing the risks cannot be met, it may be necessary to revert to incremental trial-and-error in high-risk areas. This does not preclude innovation, but it will be at a slower rate.


The 2013 MEM workshop is the sixth in the series and proved to be one of the largest, with over 60 participants and over 40 presentations. Only a small selection of these presentations have progressed from PowerPoint to a reviewed paper accepted for publication in Superconductor Science and Technology (SUST). However, the dynamics of a good workshop should not be judged solely by the output of high quality papers. The interplay between electromagnetic and mechanical effects in superconductors is proving to be one of the critical issues in understanding the factors that dominate the practical application of not only the more traditional low temperature superconductors (LTS) but also, perhaps surprisingly, the high temperature superconductors (HTS) materials too. The lessons learned in the design and the diagnostic techniques which have been developed for LTS now overlap into the HTS field. The MEM13 workshop provided an opportunity for informal discussion across these fields, to the benefit of all. The topics of the workshop were selected to allow, as far as practically possible, co-presentation of LTS and HTS materials, as follows: Electro-mechanical effects on practical conductor performance. Analysis of electro-mechanical effects. Diagnosis of electro-mechanical effects. Strain dependence. Simulations and standardized tests for electro-mechanical effects. Microstructure, properties and sensitivity. Coated conductors. Manufacture of LTS and HTS conductors. The papers were wide ranging, covering basic manufacturing issues through to sophisticated testing and advanced diagnosis tools. The MEM13 workshop provided many papers based on the ITER construction, and diagnoses using the large quantity of data available from the industrial scale fabrication and testing of ITER conductors, as well as papers on the frontiers of HTS industrial technologies. It was clear that the huge industrial fabrication of Nb3Sn conductors for ITER, and the associated test programmes, have driven the development of modelling and diagnostic tools to an extent that is exceptional. Assessment of these data, and the application of the conclusions, is only just beginning. We were also fortunate in having industrial contributions from leaders in the various HTS fields, covering production, production issues and critical performance problems. The papers selected for publication are in the more complete areas of development, where sufficient definitive conclusions were available to satisfy the publication requirements of the journal SUST. In the workshop environment, there were plenty of dynamic and lively discussions around the uncertainties. I expect that such discussions will sow the seeds of future developments, appearing in future MEM workshops. Acknowledgments Finally I would like to acknowledge the support and drive of the session moderators in the success of MEM13: A Devred, A Nijhuis, Y Yang, D Larbalestier, K Osamura and A Ballarino. Without them, the workshop and the discussions would have been far less lively and far less structured.


In cellular networks, users communicate with each other through their respective base stations (BSs). Conventionally, users are assumed to be in different cells. BSs serve as decode-and-forward (DF) relay nodes to users. In addition to this type of conventional user, we recognize that there are scenarios users who want to communicate with each other are located in the same cell. This gives rise to the scenario of intra-cell communication. In this case, a BS can behave as a two-way relay to achieve information exchange instead of using conventional DF relay. We consider a multi-cell orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) network that comprises these two types of users. We are interested in resource allocation between them. Specifically, we jointly optimize subcarrier assignment, subcarrier pairing, and power allocation to maximize the weighted sum rate. We consider the resource allocation problem at BSs when the end users' power is fixed. We solve the problem approximately through Lagrange dual decomposition. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes outperform other existing schemes.


. The aims of this work were to evaluate antifeedant, horizontal transfer and repellent activities of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), free and microencapsulated, at different doses against Oryzaephilus surinamensis and Tribolium castaneum on peanut kernels. In general, negative values for the percentage feeding deterrence index (FDI) were found for Oryzaephilus surinamensis in the presence of these chemical treatments, suggesting a phagostimulant activity. In addition, untreated individuals died within 20 days of coming into contact with insects previously exposed to both antioxidants (BHA and BHT) and formulations (F-BHA and F-BHT), regardless of the dose, while the insects in the controls died after this time. evidence the transfer of both free and microencapsulated antioxidants from treated to untreated individuals, we can confirm that horizontal transfer of these compounds takes place between treated and untreated insects. The evaluated compounds showed no repellent activity against O. surinamensis , which continued unaffected with its life cycle on both treated and untreated peanuts. On the other hand, Tribolium castaneum exhibited high FDI values, especially for the formulations, with mean values of 0.68 and 0.91 for F-BHA and F-BHT, respectively. No horizontal transfer was observed for this insect, but repellency was higher than 80% for free and encapsulated BHT. We can conclude that the mechanism of insecticidal action of antioxidants and their formulations was dependent on the type of insect evaluated. The insecticidal effect on Polish Journal of 88 (2) 102 Oryzaephilus surinamensis could have been due to the direct intake of the chemical compounds added, whereas the negative effect on Tribolium castaneum could have been caused by starvation.


Abstract OBJECTIVES Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) surrounding the human internal thoracic artery exhibits anticontractile and vasorelaxing properties associated with the adipocyte-derived relaxing factor (ADRF). The goal of our study was to assess if perivascular tissue of the human radial artery (RA) also exhibits such anticontractile/vasorelaxant properties. It could be especially relevant in preventing RA spasms. METHODS The study was performed on isolated segments of human pedicled RA. Its skeletonized fragments were suspended on stainless steel wire hooks and gradually contracted with serotonin to establish the concentration–effect relationship in the presence/absence of PVAT. Skeletonized arterial segments were precontracted with a single dose of 10−6 M serotonin (EC80). The 5-ml PVAT aliquots (from PVAT incubated in Krebs–Henseleit solution) were transferred to the RA tissue bath resulting in its relaxation. Subsequently, we investigated if ADRF is dependent on endothelial vasorelaxants (nitric oxide and prostacyclin). We attempted to find the potassium channel responsible for mediating the activity of ADRF using different potassium channel blockers. RESULTS RA without PVAT contracted more strongly in response to serotonin compared to RA with PVAT [Emax: 108.3 (20.2) vs 76.1 (13.5) mN]. The PVAT aliquot relaxed precontracted RA rings at 43% (2.4%) [72.2 (15.6) to 41.0 (5.6) mN]. ADRF is independent of endothelial vasorelaxants; hence, the addition of NG-monomethyl-l-arginine and indomethacin did not change the vasorelaxant response. Neither of the potassium channel blockers participated in the activity of ADRF. CONCLUSIONS PVAT of human RA exhibits anticontractile/vasorelaxant properties that are inherently associated with ADRF secretion. We confirmed the endothelial-independent mechanism of the activity of ADRF. However, we failed to find the potassium channel responsible for the action of ADRF.


Background Femur fractures in adolescents are rare. Severe vitamin D deficiency has important implications for bone health. We describe the case of a 13-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who presented with low-impact bilateral femur fractures in the setting of severe vitamin D deficiency. Case Presentation. A 13-year-old boy with ASD presented with bilateral leg pain after an unwitnessed fall. Laboratory investigations revealed severe hypocalcemia (S. calcium 4.9 mg/dL) and severe vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D < 4 ng/mL). Lower extremity X-rays revealed bilateral distal femoral metaphyseal fractures. Conclusion This is the youngest known case of bilateral femoral fractures in the setting of severe 25(OH)D deficiency. Children with ASD are especially at risk for 25(OH)D deficiency as many have inadequate nutritional intake. As such, primary care providers may provide a pivotal role in the routine laboratory screening of 25(OH)D in this population.


Adhesion and buckling of single PDMS micropillars were investigated as a function of compressive preload. The micropillars had diameters of 10, 12, 14, and 20 μm and aspect ratios of 1 to 3.3. Adhesion generally increased with a decrease in the aspect ratio. A dependence of pull-off strength on the compressive preload stress was found for micropillars that underwent buckling. When buckling was reversible, tip contact recovered upon unbuckling, which resulted in only a slight reduction of adhesion. In situ observation studies identified irreversible buckling, i.e., lack of tip-contact re-formation, resulting in adhesion loss. It is concluded that the edge radius of the tip, which acts as a circumferential crack, controls adhesion. Fibril buckling is found to be broadly consistent with the predictions of Euler buckling theory.


The decision of whether to control for covariates, and how to select which covariates to include, is ubiquitous in psychological research. Failing to control for valid covariates can yield biased parameter estimates in correlational analyses or in imperfectly randomized experiments and contributes to underpowered analyses even in effectively randomized experiments. We introduce double-lasso regression as a principle method for variable selection. The double lasso method is calibrated to not over-select potentially spurious covariates, and simulations demonstrate that using this method reduces error and increases statistical power. This method can be used to identify which covariates have sufficient empirical support for inclusion in analyses of correlations, moderation, mediation and experimental interventions, as well as to test for the effectiveness of randomization. We illustrate both the method's usefulness and how to implement it in practice by applying it to four analyses from the prior literature, using both correlational and experimental data.


Phyllodes tumours are rare breast neoplasms that present as painless breast masses. They are classified as benign, malignant and borderline. More rare presentations of these tumours include bilateral asynchronous disease and unilateral multifocal disease. Surgical excision with clear margins remains the treatment of choice for these tumours. The present case report is the first to be discussed in the literature. It describes a patient presenting with synchronous bilateral, multifocal breast phyllodes tumours who underwent immediate reconstruction with tissue expanders at the time of her mastectomies.


HURLEY, M. V., H. L. MITCHELL, and N. WALSH. In osteoarthritis, the psychosocial benefits of exercise are as important as physiological improvements. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 138–143, 2003. Exercise has a major role in the management of osteoarthritis, effecting well-documented physiological improvements on muscle function. However, exercise also has lasting benefits on the complex psychosocial sequelae of osteoarthritis—facilitating appropriate health beliefs, behaviors, pain coping, and self-management strategies—that are as important as its physiological effects.


Thermal behavior of Mediterranean Andean streams in South-Central Chile Despite of the importance of temperature in the fluvial ecosystems, the knowledge of its spatial and temporal variability in Andean rivers is limited, thus it is necessary to clarify the relative importance of site-specific factors in controlling the temperature of rivers. The aim of this research was to characterize the thermal regime of five Andean streams through an altitudinal gradient. The results show that there is a spatial and temporal variability in water temperature with a relatively rapid rise in temperature in mid-December, being stable in January and February, and a rapid decrease at the beginning of March and April. The thermal heterogeneity recorded in the high Andean zone of the Biobio River Basin makes it clear that geomorphology characteristics of each site are important in regulating water temperature, associated mainly with the altitude and shade; this latter mainly generated by high mountains and in some cases by the timberline. It is known that thermal variability, mainly the maximum and minimum mean temperatures; causing severe stress on stenotherm organisms. Therefore, a deeper knowledge of the river temperature is essential for the management and future protection of the Andean freshwater ecosystems to mitigate the impacts associated to the global warming.


OBJECTIVE
To explore doctor and nurse perception of inter-professional co-operation in hospitals; discuss professional differences as reflections of cultural diversity in the perspective of quality improvement.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey data from a stratified sample of 15 Norwegian hospitals, September 1998: 551 doctors and 2050 nurses at medical and surgical wards. Measures. Doctor and nurse evaluation of their inter-professional co-operation was mapped. Logistic regression models predicting their satisfaction were compared.

RESULTS
Doctors were significantly more often than nurses satisfied with the inter-professional co-operation of the two groups. Satisfaction with inter-professional co-operation was predicted by a number of work situation variables. Some of them contribute differently to doctor and nurse satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS
Doctors and nurses not only evaluate their inter-professional co-operation differently, they also appear to define the concept in different ways. Hospital managers should include an understanding of this cultural diversity into the basis of their quality improvement efforts.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the individual and the synergetic radioprotective effect of lidocaine, amifostine, and pilocarpin on the parotid gland. Forty-nine rabbits were randomized into seven groups (n = 7)--control, irradiated sham-treated, irradiated/lidocaine-pretreated, irradiated/amifostine-pretreated, irradiated/pilocarpin-pretreated, irradiated/lidocaine + pilocarpin-pretreated, and irradiated/amifostine + pilocarpin-pretreated groups. One week before irradiation (15 Gy) and 72 hours as well as 1 month afterward, the parotid gland was investigated morphologically, sialoscintigraphically, and immunohistochemically with the use of tenascin-C and alpha smooth muscle actin. Compared with control animals, there was a significant reduction of the salivary ejection fraction in the irradiated untreated group 72 hours following radiation. Only animals pretreated with lidocaine or amifostine (alone or combined with pilocarpin) showed a slight nonsignificant reduction of salivary ejection fraction. Immunohistochemically, we observed a significant loss of alpha smooth muscle actin and an up-regulation of tenascin-C expression in irradiated/untreated glands. These changes were less evident in animals pretreated with lidocaine or lidocaine + pilocarpin. Amifostine and pilocarpin did not show any influence on tenascin-C or alpha smooth muscle actin expression. Ultrastructural damage was observed in irradiated untreated and pilocarpin-pretreated glands. In contrast, lidocaine and amifostine could largely preserve the glandular ultrastructure. One month postradiation, all changes were regressive regardless of treatment protocol. Potential radioprotective agents show different effects on both morphology and function of the parotid gland. Associated immunohistochemical and ultrastructural findings could prove the prevailed protection profile of lidocaine. This may provide a prophylactic approach in the field of radioprotection of salivary glands.


The inverse scale factor, which in classical cosmological models diverges at the singularity, is quantized in isotropic models of loop quantum cosmology by using techniques which have been developed in quantum geometry for a quantization of general relativity. This procedure results in a bounded operator which is diagonalizable simultaneously with the volume operator and whose eigenvalues are determined explicitly. For large scale factors (in fact, up to a scale factor slightly above the Planck length) the eigenvalues are close to the classical expectation, whereas below the Planck length there are large deviations leading to a non-diverging behavior of the inverse scale factor even though the scale factor has vanishing eigenvalues. This is a first indication that the classical singularity is better behaved in loop quantum cosmology.


In this paper, we argue that ethnographically-based field studies can make a unique contribution to empirical software engineering. We begin by discussing why such studies are important and what they entail. We then discuss the contexts in which they may inform empirical software engineering research (perhaps in combination with other types of study) and how they might be tailored to fit the needs of software engineers.


BackgroundRare diseases affect a small number of people compared to prevalent diseases' estimates. The vast majority of these diseases are of genetic origin, have no cure, are chronic and can lead to death. Although the right to access to medicines is included in the constitutionally guaranteed right to health in Brazil, problems in the supply of medicines for rare diseases are reported in the country. ObjectiveThis study aimed to describe and analyze the initiatives to promote access to medicines for treating rare diseases in Unified Health System, Brazil, after the publication of the National Policy on Comprehensive Care of People with Rare Diseases.MethodsBased on the model published by The WHO Regional Office for Europe, which described access to medicines in pre-launch, per-launch and post-launch policies, the initiatives referring to each category were summarized, based on documentary research searched in online databases, in the period from January 2014 to December 2020. ResultsDifferent actions and policy interventions were identified, which went through the expansion of resources for research and development, health regulations, incorporation of new drugs, review and publication of clinical guidelines, expansion of the network of care facilities by the Ministry of Health. On the other hand, aspects related to care policies, pricing methods, technological development, and development of pharmaceutical services processes were not implemented. ConclusionsAlthough it is impossible to determine the explicit motivation of such actions concerning the Policy, its publication certainly was a landmark in Brazilian society, allowing greater recognition of the needs of rare diseases patients and the treatment's specificities. However, the study suggests that the steps that make up the life cycle of medicines are not linked, lacking articulation and integration of the care network and, consequently, there is no evidence that the rare diseases policy publication has generated broad impact on the promotion of access to medicines to treat rare diseases in Brazil.


Residual thoracic collections after thoracic traumas occur in 5-30% of patients and are a major risk factor for development of empyema. Management with a thoracostomy tube is the traditional treatment but it requires a prolonged hospital stay and 20% of patients treated continue to have a residual clot. Forty-two haemodynamically stable patients with chest trauma (36 blunt and 6 penetrating) were examined thoracoscopically. Indications for videothoracoscopy included suspected diaphragmatic injury (8 patients), persistent pneumothorax (8), continued haemorrhage (6) and clotted haemothorax (20). Diaphragmatic lacerations were confirmed thoracoscopically in 7 patients. Four of them were successfully repaired with thoracoscopic techniques and three were repaired after conversion to open thoracotomy for large diaphragmatic lacerations. In patients with persistent pneumothorax, limited lung lacerations were correctly diagnosed and repaired thoracoscopically. In all patients with continued haemorrhage intercostal artery injury was confirmed and repaired by diathermy. All clotted haemothorax cases were successfully evacuated. No complications occurred. Videothoracoscopy appears to be a safe, accurate and reliable operative therapy for the assessment of diaphragmatic injuries, control of continued bleeding and evacuation of clotted haemothorax, reducing the hospital stay and possible complications.


Background: Capillary hemangioma is a rare tumor in spinal intradural location. Despite the rarity, early recognition is important because of the risk of hemorrhage. This is a case report of a woman who had capillary hemangioma of cauda equina. Case Description: A 54 -year-old woman presented with a low backache, radiating to the left leg for 2 months. She had left extensor hallucis weakness, sensory impairment in left L5 dermatome, and mild tenderness in lower lumbar spine. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) LS spine showed L4/5 intradural tumor, completely occluding canal in myelogram, enhancing with contrast, s/o benign nerve sheath tumor. L4 laminectomy was done. Reddish tumor was seen originating from a single root. It was removed preserving the root. Postoperatively, she was relieved of symptoms. MRI showed no residue. Histopathology showed lobular proliferation of capillary-sized blood vessels and elongated spindle cells. Immunohistochemistry showed CD34 positivity in endothelial cell lining of blood vessel and smooth muscle actin positivity in blood vessel muscle cells. HPR-capillary hemangioma. Conclusion: Although rare, capillary hemangioma should be in the differential diagnosis of intradural tumors. It closely mimics nerve sheath tumor.


We prove new cell-probe lower bounds for dynamic data structures that maintain a subset of {1, 2, ..., n}, and compute various statistics of the set. The data structure is said to handle insertions non-adaptively if the locations of memory accessed depend only on the element being inserted, and not on the contents of the memory. For any such data structure that can compute the median of the set, we prove that: [EQUATION] where tins is the number of memory locations accessed during insertions, tmed is the number of memory locations accessed to compute the median, and w is the number of bits stored in each memory location. When the data structure is able to perform deletions non-adaptively and compute the minimum non-adaptively, we prove [EQUATION] where tmin is the number of locations accessed to compute the minimum, and tdel is the number of locations accessed to perform deletions. For the predecessor search problem, where the data structure is required to compute the predecessor of any element in the set, we prove that if computing the predecessors can be done non-adaptively, then [EQUATION] where tpred is the number of locations accessed to compute predecessors. These bounds are nearly matched by Binary Search Trees in some range of parameters. Our results follow from using the Sunflower Lemma of Erdős and Rado [11] together with several kinds of encoding arguments.


The main aim of the present study is to design, fabricate and evaluate a slicing machine for potato chips to be used in small and medium production units locally available materials like stainless steel and mild steel were used in fabrication. The obtained results indicated that the machine productivity increased from 256.021 to 387.670, 201.879 to 448.670 and 250.070 to 392.290 kg h-1 with increasing potato size from small to large, slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm and slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm, respectively. The uniformity index increased from 76.598 to 83.372, 73.472 to 87.103 and 73.615 to 86.422% with increasing potato size from small to large, slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm and slicer thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm, respectively. The cutting efficiency increased from 87.582 to 93.305 and 89.531 to 92.209 % with increasing potato size from small to large, slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm, respectively, while it decreased from 92.325 to 89.829% with increasing cutting speed from 250 to 550 rpm, respectively. The specific energy consumption decreased from 2.446 to 1.663, 3.042 to 1.464 and 2.608 to 1.578 W.h kg-1 with increasing potato size from small to large, slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm and cutting speed from 250 to 550 rpm, respectively.The total cost of slicing machine decreased from 0.085 to 0.055, 0.102 to 0.044 and 0.091 to 0.054 LE kg-1 with increasing potato size from small to large, slice thickness from 1.0 to 2.5 mm and cutting speed from 250 to 550 rpm, respectively.


The PDCA cycle, also known as Deming's cycle, mainly includes four stages: planning, implementation, inspection, and processing. As a kind of atypical pneumonia with fever and cough, mycoplasma pneumonia harms the health of many children. The purpose of this study is to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antimycoplasma effects and safety of artificial intelligence e-health PDCA nursing mode on pediatric MPP, to investigate its clinical efficacy, to observe the changes of serum cytokines (IL-10, IL-2, IL-4, IFN-γ), and to explore the mechanism of action and possible targets for the treatment of MPP, to provide a new basis for clinical treatment of MPP. The experimental results show that in the experimental group using PDCA nursing mode, the total satisfaction is 97.22%, higher than the control group of 94.44%; in the experimental group, the hospital stay and symptom disappearance time were significantly shortened by four hours. The satisfaction of nursing staff was significantly increased in statistical significance (P < 0.05). Therefore, in a statistical sense, the artificial intelligence e-health PDCA nursing mode can significantly improve the clinical symptoms of MPP children with wind-heat stagnation of lung syndrome and phlegm-heat closure of lung syndrome, improve the treatment effect of childhood mycoplasma pneumonia epidemic, shorten the time of hospitalization and symptom disappeared, and play a great auxiliary role in the treatment of childhood mycoplasma pneumonia.


Ascorbic acid has numerous and diverse roles in plant metabolism. We have used the vtc-1 mutant of Arabidopsis, which is deficient in ascorbate biosynthesis, to investigate the role of ascorbate concentration in growth, regulation of photosynthesis, and control of the partitioning of antioxidative enyzmes. The mutant possessed 70% less ascorbate in the leaves compared with the wild type. This lesion was associated with a slight increase in total glutathione but no change in the redox state of either ascorbate or glutathione. In vtc-1, total ascorbate in the apoplast was decreased to 23% of the wild-type value. The mutant displayed much slower shoot growth than the wild type when grown in air or at high CO(2) (3 mL L(-1)), where oxidative stress is diminished. Leaves were smaller, and shoot fresh weight and dry weight were lower in the mutant. No significant differences in the light saturation curves for CO(2) assimilation were found in air or at high CO(2), suggesting that the effect on growth was not due to decreased photosynthetic capacity in the mutant. Analysis of chlorophyll a fluorescence quenching revealed only a slight effect on non-photochemical energy dissipation. Hydrogen peroxide contents were similar in the leaves of the vtc-1 mutant and the wild type. Total leaf peroxidase activity was increased in the mutant and compartment-specific differences in ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity were observed. In agreement with the measurements of enzyme activity, the expression of cytosolic APX was increased, whereas that for chloroplast APX isoforms was either unchanged or slightly decreased. These data implicate ascorbate concentration in the regulation of the compartmentalization of the antioxidant system in Arabidopsis.


INTRODUCTION
Invasive prenatal diagnosis (IPD) has long been used to prenatally diagnose Down syndrome (DS), but it is associated with a small risk of miscarriage. Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a highly sensitive screening test using cell-free DNA in maternal blood for detection of DS without the risk of miscarriage, but it confers a small risk of false-positive and false-negative results. The implementation of these procedures into clinical practice requires an understanding of stakeholder preferences.

METHODS
A total of 69 health professionals (HPs) and 301 women took part in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in which preferences for four prenatal test attributes - accuracy, time of results, risk of miscarriage and amount of information provided - were assessed. Conditional logit regression was used to analyse the data. Data on demographics and ranked preferences for test attributes was collected, and a direct choice question regarding NIPT, IPD or neither test was posed to participants.

RESULTS
The women showed a preference for test safety, whereas HPs prioritised test accuracy above all other attributes. When offered a direct choice of NIPT, IPD or neither test, women aged 35 years and older, those with previous miscarriage or who knew a child with DS were more likely to choose NIPT. Chinese women preferred NIPT, whereas Indian women preferred IPD.

CONCLUSION
Our data highlights the need for patient-specific counselling, taking into account previous experiences and cultural factors. Since women and HPs prioritise different test attributes, it is essential that HPs recognise these differences in order to provide non-biased counselling.


Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have been extremely effective in treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia and have shown promise against other malignancies including multiple myeloma (MM). However, relatively poor potency and durability continue to limit efficacy. Addressing these shortcomings, we have developed a novel CAR-T cell therapeutic with enhanced stem cell memory phenotype, reduced immunogenicity, and no evidence of tonic activity. P-BCMA-101 employs a BCMA-specific Centyrin rather than a single chain variable fragment (scFv) for antigen detection and is engineered using piggyBac (PB). Centyrins are fully human and have similar binding affinities but are smaller, more thermostable and predicted to be less immunogenic than a scFv. Furthermore, PB modification of human T cells requires only in vitro transcribed mRNA and plasmid DNA, eliminating the need for lentivirus or γ–retrovirus and resulting in time and cost savings. Additionally, the increased cargo capacity of PB permits the incorporation of a safety switch and a selectable gene into the product. The former is incorporated for optional depletion in vivo in case of adverse events and the latter allows enrichment of CARTyrin+ cells using the non-genotoxic drug methotrexate (MTX), leading to greater consistency in patient product material. Characterization of P-BCMA-101 revealed > 70% of cells possessed a stem-cell memory phenotype (i.e. CD45RA+ CCR7+ CD62L+ CD95+) and >95% of the cells were CARTyrin+. In addition, no tonic signaling or T cell exhaustion was observed, highlighted by low levels of PD-1, Lag3, and Tim-3. Cells exhibit specific and robust in vitro target-cell killing, cytokine production, and proliferation in response to BCMA+ tumor cells. In vivo anti-tumor efficacy of P-BCMA-101 has been evaluated in NSG mice bearing luciferase+ MM.1S cells, an aggressive human MM-derived cell line, monitoring tumor growth by bioluminescent imaging (BLI). Following tumor implantation, animals received a single IV administration of either 4 x 106 or 12 x 106 P-BCMA-101 cells. All untreated control animals succumbed to disease within four weeks of the treatment date. Conversely, tumor burden was reduced to the limit of detection by BLI within 7 days of p-BCMA-101 treatment. As opposed to lentivirus-based products in the same animal model, P-BCMA-101 persists and expands in the animals, eliminates tumors from relapse and prolong survival, with most animals surviving 100 days post-tumor implant. Finally, the effectiveness of the safety switch has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. P-BCMA-101 is the first-in-class of Centyrin-based CAR therapeutics modified using PB and is predicted to have improved potency and durability given the phenotype and non-immunogenic properties of Centryrins. We plan to initiate a phase I clinical trial of P-BCMA-101 for the treatment of patients with relapsed and/or refractory MM. Citation Format: David Hermanson, Burton E. Barnett, Srinivas Rengarajan, Rebecca Codde, Christopher E. Martin, Xinxin Wang, Yening Tan, Jenessa B. Smith, Jin He, Rohit Mathur, Sattva S. Neelapu, Jing Yang, Eric M. Ostertag, Shedlock J. Devon. PiggyBac-manufactured anti-BCMA Centyrin-based CAR-T therapeutic exhibits improved potency and durability [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3759. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3759


Abstract Teaching demands engagement with a diverse world. When teaching about distant places, school textbooks commonly employ mediation devices of comparison, contrast and narratives of change. To what extent are such pedagogical strategies inherently othering? This question is addressed in the context of representations of Japan in English geography textbooks from 1850 to 2000. A process of detailed qualitative analysis was applied to the books, focussing on language structures, but also considering visual elements. Although the nature of comparison and change narratives varied over time, there was an enduring power dynamic within their construction. It is important to recognize this dynamic because of the widespread use of such taken-for-granted strategies. This is relevant not only to geography education but to any discipline in which the world is represented. Can other ways of constructing the world offer an alternative approach?


Background Absolute monocyte counts after 3 months of treatment have been found to be predictive of clinical response to adalimumab at 6 months in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients1. It has also been shown that resistance to spontaneous apoptosis of monocytes in vitro predicts inadequate response to etanercept2. We hypothesise that absolute monocyte counts obtained from routine pre-treatment blood testing has predictive utility for treatment response to biologic agents. Objectives To assess whether monocytes and other white blood cell subtypes are associated with treatment response at 6 months in RA patients. Methods Full blood count (FBC) data was collected from patients attending 2 centres participating in the Biologics in RA Genetics and Genomics Study Syndicate (BRAGGSS), Manchester Royal Infirmary and Royal Lancaster Infirmary, from 2009–2015. BRAGGSS is a UK-based multi-centre inception cohort of secondary-care RA patients. Spearman correlation was carried out to explore relationships between pre-biologic differential white cell count (WCC) and absolute DAS28 (and its components) at treatment start (baseline) and 6 months. Logistic regression was used to explore associations between differential WCC and EULAR response at 6 months. Stata v13.1 was used for all statistical analyses. Results 130 patients had WCC data available for analysis. They all satisfied American College of Rheumatology 1987 classification criteria for RA. 104 patients (80%) were female, with a mean age of 56.21 (SD 13.07). Mean baseline DAS28 score was 5.96 (SD 0.92) and mean monocyte count at baseline was 0.62*109/L (SD 0.22). Patients were on a variety of biologics: etanercept (n=56), adalimumab (n=24), rituximab (n=13), abatacept (n=10), golimumab (n=5), tocilizumab (n=12) and certolizumab (n=10). Pre-treatment monocyte count was not associated with DAS28 at baseline, but correlated with DAS28 at 6 months (rho=0.19, p=0.028). When a cut-off of 0.62*109/L was used, high monocyte count was associated with DAS28>3.2 at 6 months (OR1.72 [95% CI 1.12–2.64], p=0.013), and with poor EULAR response (OR 2.82 [95% CI 1.12–7.13], p=0.028). Neutrophil count was associated with DAS28 at both baseline (rho=0.22, p=0.013) and 6 months (rho=0.21, p=0.019). Neutrophil count was significantly associated with reduced odds of achieving a good EULAR response at 6 months (OR 0.82 [95% CI 0.69, 0.96], p=0.017). These neutrophil counts likely reflect ongoing inflammation, contributing to poor response to biologic therapy3. Conclusions Monocyte counts were associated with increased DAS28 at 6 months, but not baseline, and with poor EULAR response at 6 months. This could provide a useful and widely available predictive biomarker, as FBC is routinely carried out in all patients commencing disease-modifying therapy in the UK. In future, monocyte count at baseline may be used to predict treatment response to biologics in RA patients at 6 months. Further studies with increased sample size are required to confirm these findings. References Chara L et al. Arthritis Res Ther 2012;14:R175. Meusch U et al. Arthritis Res Ther 2013;15:R219. Wright HL et al. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2014;10:593–601. Disclosure of Interest None declared


To ensure competitiveness in the modern automotive market, material arrangements and information managements should be performed concurrently with new car developments. In automotive general assembly shops, thus, new business workflow and supporting environments are inevitable to reduce the manufacturing preparation time in developing a new car in the manner of concurrent and collaborative engineering. Since complete material arrangements for a whole general assembly system is a huge and complex job, several planners should execute their planning jobs and share information. Therefore, each planner should provide others with his/her results with continuous on-line communication and cooperation. Digital automotive general assembly factory is useful the performing concurrent and collaborative engineering and is essential for material arrangements and information managements systems. In this research, we constructed a sophisticated digital factory of an automotive general assembly shop by measuring and modeling through the parametric 3-D CAD, and a web-based system for concurrent and collaborative material arrangements for automotive general assembly via 3D mock-up is developed. By the digital general assembly shop and developed web-based system, savings in time and colt of manufacturing preparation activities are possible, and the reliability of the planning result Is greatly improved.


Medical image retrieval to search for clinically relevant and visually similar images depicting suspecious lesions have been attracting research interest. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is an important alternate and complement to traditional text-based retrieval using keywords. We have implemented CBIR system based on effective use of texture information within the images obtained by statistical cooccurrence matrix method. Also, the method is improved by bridging the semantic gap between low-level visual features and the high-level semantic concepts using automated image annotations. In this paper, we have proposed a classification-based multi-class multi-label semantic model and the corresponding learning procedure to address the problem of automatic image annotation using J48 decision tree classifier and show its application to medical image retrieval. Hash structure is used to index images. Eucledian distance measure is used for similarity measurement. Both the methods are compared using precision and recall measures. Semantic indexing is shown to outperform CBIR for MR-T2 axial brain images.


African urban hinterlands are fascinating spaces of imbalance where ordinary people have imagined new constructions of space and time. Based on interdisciplinary field research in central Africa, this article analyzes how power over nature is structured in peri-urban areas. It defines the concept of peri-urban space and identifies the stakeholders working, living, exploiting and imagining this hybrid form of social space. It addresses the way urban populations have reconfigured the complex relations that link them to their hinterlands. It concludes that demographic pressure will continue in peri-urban areas, that the environment will be increasingly degraded and people living in these areas will find access to land for housing and agriculture more and more challenging.


In this era of unprecedented access to information, teachers have a wealth of resources readily available for lesson planning - but determining what legally can and can't be used in the classroom is a difficult task. "The Teacher's Guide to Music, Media and Copyright Law" helps explain in plain English just how information, images, video and music can be incorporated into any kind of lesson plan without running afoul of copyright laws. You'll learn: what you can legally use without permission; how to obtain and licence what you need permission to use; how to check the copyright status of any media item; and, how to apply copyright legality examples to real classroom situations.


In this paper, an effective strategy of extraction of common variables from onset table is proposed. By employing the strategy, a novel algorithm is presented to derive a compact multi-level mixed-polarity Reed-Muller expression. The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the literals of the RM functions. Compared with published results, the proposed algorithm works faster and needs less memory.


The formation of mixed materials in the ITER divertor region is a critical materials issue that is expected to have a profound effect on the operation of the machine. This is particularly true for the divertor, the component where most of the energy is deposited during ITER operation. The divertor is made up of three tungsten domes and two vertical plates (inboard and outboard) which will be manufactured with composite carbon fiber according to the latest design. In the case of the first wall, the plasma-exposed surface is made out of beryllium; some of this beryllium is eroded from the first wall and finds its way into the divertor region, where it may strike the carbon vertical plates and get implanted or deposited. Having beryllium in the divertor enhances tritium trapping via codeposition, hence reducing the net available fuel for the reactor; on the other hand, there is evidence of carbon chemical erosion suppression. In this paper, the dynamic composition of a carbon surface under simultaneous bombardment by deuterium, tritium, and beryllium ions is studied. Both carbon and beryllium can redeposit on the target once eroded, so the source of ions receives feedback from the eroded material. Simulation results show that both the partial sputtering of Be and C atoms as well as the bombarding energy play an important role in Be accumulation on the vertical target plate, which can reach up to 50% near the surface. The results also show that the contribution of redeposited species may become so large that the DT bombarding flux may drop to 70% of the incident species.


Many bats, including some small-bodied tropical and subtropical Pteropodidae, use torpor to offset energetic constraints. We tested the hypothesis that medium-sized (110–160 g) cave-roosting Egyptian rousette bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) at the southern extent of their range are able to employ torpor. We measured daytime body temperatures (Tb) of 9 wild individuals using implanted temperature-sensitive radiotransmitters. The bats roosted in a cave on Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa (a typically cool and wet area). Daily mean cave temperature (Tc) ranged between 7°C and 12°C (mean 9.3°C). All wild individuals exhibited a circadian cycle in Tb, with an average of 37.7°C upon return from foraging, decreasing to 35.5°C by mid-day. Before emergence for feeding, Tb increased to about 37°C. No individual allowed Tb to drop below 34°C indicating (assuming a threshold temperature of 30°C) that individuals in this population do not use torpor. Bats were active throughout the day within the roost and metabolic heat production may have contributed to the maintenance of rest-phase Tb. Ten individuals implanted with temperature-sensitive passive integrated transponder tags were held in captivity at temperatures of 25–30°C and subjected to food deprivation for 2–3 days. The lowest Tb recorded for any captive individual was 33.4°C despite losing an average of 10% of their initial body mass. Despite exposure to cool Ta in the cave, and often cold, wet, and windy conditions while foraging, or substantial food restriction in captive bats, R. aegyptiacus did not resort to using torpor.


BACKGROUND
Zoledronic acid reduces skeletal-related events associated with prostate cancer and has long-term efficacy in pain outcomes. Findings of treatment group differences in pain early in treatment are less reliable. We used a recently recommended analytic approach to examine the effect of zoledronic acid on pain.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In a trial of zoledronic acid (n = 214) versus placebo (n = 208), we used the Brief Pain Inventory to assess pain at baseline, 3 weeks, 6 weeks and every 6 weeks thereafter for a total of 60 weeks. We used a modified longitudinal rank test to determine whether clinically meaningful changes in pain were related to treatment group.

RESULTS
Seventy-six of 214 patients (35.5%) receiving zoledronic acid and 62 of 208 patients (29.8%) receiving placebo completed the 60-week visit (P = 0.22). In all 11 pain assessments, patients receiving zoledronic acid reported more favorable, clinically meaningful changes in pain scores. Overall, patients receiving zoledronic acid had a 33% chance of a favorable response, compared with 25% for patients receiving placebo (P = 0.04; 95% CI 0.5% to 15.6%).

CONCLUSIONS
Zoledronic acid was more likely than placebo to be associated with clinically meaningful reductions in pain. Thus, zoledronic acid may help to avert the pain experienced by patients with progressing metastatic disease secondary to prostate cancer.


In Quasi-Constitutional Amendments, Professor Richard Albert provides an insightful and nuanced description of how constitutional change can occur through an informal process that he calls "quasi-constitutional amendment." Quasi-constitutional amendments are "sub-constitutional changes" to existing constitutional norms that can become functionally entrenched even though they are formally vulnerable to ordinary statutory repeal or modification. Professor Albert observes that quasi-constitutional amendment is the byproduct of high barriers to formal amendment.
In this essay, I briefly explore the extent to which high barriers to formal amendment are the driving force behind other informal processes of constitutional change; especially informal change through constitutional litigation. Conventional theories of constitutional design suggest that informal processes, especially transformative judicial rulings, occur mostly because formal amendment is too difficult. I am skeptical of these assumptions; at least at the level of generality and universality that they often operate, and especially as they apply to constitutional litigation as a pathway to change. My skepticism is based mostly on anecdotal evidence suggesting that the interaction between formal and informal processes of constitutional change is more complicated and nuanced than these theories suggest. There is evidence, for example, that even when formal amendment is cheap and frequent, idiosyncrasies in political culture can drive some constitutional issues towards informal processes. Constitutional age might also play a role. As societies stabilize and prosper under a particular constitution, they might be less inclined to make explicit changes through formal amendment and instead prefer change to occur informally with a stronger appearance of continuity and stability. Finally, frequent formal amendment might alter the rules of the game for constitutional reformers in ways that catalyze rather than diminish formal amendment. All of these factors (and surely some others) suggest that the interaction between formal and informal processes of constitutional change is complex; perhaps even to the point of being mysterious.


Cellular protrusions mediated by the membrane-deforming I-BAR domain protein IRSp53 are involved in cell migration, including metastasis. However, the role of IRSp53 in cell proliferation remains unclear. Here, we examined the role of IRSp53 in cell proliferation and found that it acts through secretion. Coculture of gingiva squamous carcinoma Ca9-22 cells and their IRSp53-knockout cells restored proliferation to parental Ca9-22 cell levels, suggesting possible secretion dependent on IRSp53. Notably, the amounts of microvesicle fraction proteins that were secreted into the culture medium were reduced in the IRSp53-knockout cells. The IRSp53-knockout cells exhibited decreased phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase, suggesting the decrease in the proliferation signals. The phosphorylation was restored by the addition of the microvesicles. In mice xenograft Ca9-22 cells, IRSp53-containing particles were secreted around the xenograft, indicating that IRSp53-dependent secretion occurs in vivo. In a tumor mice model, IRSp53 deficiency elongated lifespan. In some human cancers, the higher levels of IRSp53 mRNA expression was found to be correlated with shorter survival years. Therefore, IRSp53 is involved in tumor progression and secretion for cellular proliferation.


We conducted a retrospective study examining the trends in referral to a tertiary epilepsy surgery center in India over 2 decades.


A desire that has been hidden for such a long time to the realms of the inexspressible will find alternative ways to begin to speak, even if this means to subject its content to a metamorphosis that could make it unrecognizable. As the dream activity translates thoughts in images, the unspeakable can be representable. This happens even in the Tavola Ritonda , one of the Italian rewritings (beginning of the 14 th century) of the Prose Tristan , a 13 th Arthurian French compilation. Tristan, became the unhappy husband of Iseult of the White Hands,tries to fill the absence of Iseult the Blond by realizing a statue of his lover. This episode's model, absent from the Prose Tristan , can be found in the famous scene of the "Salle aux images" coming from Thomas, that the Tavola Ritonda rewrites in a "bourgeois" way by transforming the statue in a proper fetish symbol. This paper, that will turn to the notions of Unheimliche and Witz , will point out how the Tuscan writer canalizes the return of the repressed through ekphrasis , and how he tries to mitigate the uncanny of the inanimate double of Iseult by a comic conclusion.


Introduction Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is a recognised and serious complication following surgical aortic valve replacement, with an incidence of 0.3–1.2% per year and an in-hospital mortality of >20%. The incidence and outcomes of PVE following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are less well established. Previously published studies suggest the incidence of PVE in the first year following TAVI is 0.5–3.1%, the rate of in-hospital mortality 11–47%, and mortality during two years follow-up of 67%. However, a number of questions remain unanswered, including the incidence of PVE per TAVI-year, the variation in incidence by year post-procedure and the diagnostic sensitivity of the modified Duke criteria. Methods This retrospective study of the incidence of TAVI-PVE has been designed and reported using the STROBE statement. We included all adults who underwent TAVI at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust between 1st January 2008 and 31st December 2018. Cases of TAVI-PVE were identified from the Leeds Endocarditis Service database and all clinical, microbiological, echocardiographic and outcome data was retrieved from electronic patient records. Results During the 10-year study period 1337 patients underwent TAVI and the median follow-up was 2.3 years (interquartile range 1.3–4.0 years). In this time, 13 patients (0.97%) were diagnosed with TAVI-PVE; 1 presented within 30 days of TAVI (7.7%) and 5 presented in the first-year post-procedure (38.5%). The mean age of patients diagnosed with TAVI-PVE was 81.3 years (SD 5.1 years), and the mean time between TAVI and diagnosis with TAVI-PVE was 653 days (SD 541.9 days). Out of the 13 patients diagnosed with TAVI-PVE, only 4 (30.8%) fulfilled the modified Duke criteria for definite infective endocarditis (IE). The remaining 9 patients (69.2%) fulfilled the modified Duke criteria for possible IE. The most common reason for patients not fulfilling definite criteria was lack of echocardiographic features. In the majority of cases (7/13; 53.8%) the causative organism was found to be streptococcal. The cumulative incidence of TAVI-PVE has risen in line with the number of patients living with TAVI prostheses and the cumulative number of TAVI years (figure 1). However, when assessed in relation to the number of 100-TAVI years, the infection rate has fallen from a peak of 3.6 in 2009 and has remained relatively static (between 0.19–0.38) over the last 6 years (figure 2). Seven out of the 13 patients died within the study period giving an overall mortality rate of 53.8%. Five of those deaths occurred during the hospital admission, giving an in-hospital mortality rate of 38.5%, and these were all attributable TAVI-PVE or related complications.Abstract 129 Figure 1 Cumulative episodes of PVE relative to cumulative number of TAVI yearsAbstract 129 Figure 2 PVE rate per 100 TAVI years relative to cumulative 100 TAVI years Conclusion The overall incidence of TAVI-PVE in our institution is 0.97%, with an associated mortality of 53.8%. The incidence relative to the number of TAVI-years has fallen and has remained static in recent years. Interestingly, the modified Duke criteria has a relatively low sensitivity in the diagnosis of TAVI-PVE, due to lack of diagnostic echocardiographic features. This may be a result of TAVI-PVE being less likely to demonstrate new paravalvular leak than SAVR-PVE due to the absence of suturing material in the former. As such, a high index of suspicion is required. Conflict of Interest None


The paper presents mathematical models, a process of selection of an optimal structure and parameters of a pulse measuring transducer.


Introduction: Tenapanor (TEN) is a fi rst-in-class,minimally systemicinhibitor of intestinal sodium-hydrogenexchangerisoform 3 (NHE3) approved by theFDA for adults withirritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C). Through NHE3 inhibition, TEN reduces the absorption of sodium leading to softer stool consistency and faster transit. In nonclinical studies, TEN has been shown to also decrease both intestinal permeability and visceral hypersensitivity.The phase 2b (NCT01923428) and phase 3 T3MPO-1(NCT02621892)and T3MPO-2(NCT02686138)studies showed that patients treated withTEN 50 mg bidexperiencedbothsigni fi cantincreaseincompletespontaneousbowelmovements(CSBMs)anddecreaseinabdominalpaincomparedtothosereceivingplacebo.Themostcommonadverseeventseenacross TEN studies was diarrhea. Bloating is a bothersome abdominal symptom in IBS-C and is a common reason to seek treatment. We previously demonstrated that TEN improves bloating along with other abdominal symptoms in IBS-C. We conducted a post hoc analysis of pooled data from phase 2b and 3 studies to assess the relationship between improvement in bloating and overall CSBM response to TEN treatment. Methods: Study methods have been described previously. Brie fl y, the studies enrolled adults with IBS-C who met the Rome III criteria. Patients were randomized to TEN 50 mg bid or placebo bid for 12 or 26 weeks. A phone diary was used to collect data on daily abdominal bloating on a 0 to 10-point scale. For this analysis, TEN-treated patients were categorized into those that met and those that did not meet the overall CSBM response utilizing the regulatory de fi nition


Although it is necessary, activities regarding quality assurance and maintenance of software are considered the longest and most complex in software development lifecycle. Taking advantage of this growing trend and of the benefits obtained from open-source initiative, researches on open-source software quality and maintainability have gained renewed interest. The use of robust statistical techniques, such as PLS-SEM to investigate and empirically validate software quality models has also been an efficient alternative to obtain information on open-source software quality. The aim of this study was evaluate and build a conceptual model to characterize the internal quality in Java open-source software in different domains, validated with the PLS-SEM technique. The study results indicate that there are domains with similarities among them and four factors can influence the internal quality of objectoriented software to present better maintainability (Complexity Reduce, Normalized Cohesion, Non-normalized Cohesion, and Increase of the Modularity Level). Besides, we identified some measures are more effective to evaluate internal quality in object-oriented open-source, such as, Fan-out (FOUT), Lack of Cohesion of Methods 2 (LCOM2), Response for Class (RFC), Tight Class Cohesion (TCC), and Loose Class Cohesion (LCC). Thus, this study aims at supporting software engineers and project managers to develop measurement strategies to ensure internal quality of source code and reduce maintenance costs.


This study presents the effects of various geometric properties on the ultimate behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges. In general, cable-stayed bridges are well known as a very efficient structural system, because of those geometric characteristics, but at the same time, the structure also shows complex structural behavior including various nonlinearities which significantly affect to the ultimate behavior of the structure. In this study, the effects of various geometric properties of main members on the ultimate behavior under specific live load cases, which had been studied in previous studies, were investigated using a rational analytical method. In this parametric study, sectional dimensions of main members were considered as main geometric parameters. For the rational ultimate analysis under specific live load cases, the 2-step analysis method, which contains initial shape analysis and live load analysis, was used. As the analysis model, 920.0 m long steel cable-stayed bridges were used and two different types of cable arrangement were considered to study the effect of the cable arrangement types. Through this study, the effects of various geometric properties on the characteristics of the ultimate behavior of steel cable-stayed bridges were intensively investigated.


A large literature examines the composition of cabinets in parliamentary systems, but very little attention has been paid to the size of those cabinets. Yet not only is the size of the cabinet related to the division of portfolios that may take place, cabinet size is also related to policy outcomes. In this article, a theory of party size is considered which examines how coalition bargaining considerations, intra-party politics and efficiency concerns affect the size of cabinets. Hypotheses derived from the theory are examined using an extensive cross-national dataset on coalition governments which allows us to track changes in cabinet size and membership both across and within cabinets.


We study the prospects for detecting gamma-rays from decaying dark matter (DM), focusing in particular on gravitino DM in R-parity breaking vacua. Given the substantially different angular distribution of the predicted gamma-ray signal with respect to the case of annihilating DM, and the relatively poor (of order 0.1°) angular resolution of gamma-ray detectors, the best strategy for detection is in this case to look for an exotic contribution to the gamma-ray flux at high galactic latitudes, where the decaying DM contribution would resemble an astrophysical extragalactic component, similar to the one inferred by EGRET observations. Upcoming experiments such as GLAST and AMS-02 may identify this exotic contribution and discriminate between it and astrophysical sources, or place significant constraints on the mass and lifetime of DM particles.


As a family physician and a family nurse practitioner in a Federally Qualified Health Center in rural Maine, we experienced a COVID-19 outbreak at our local long-term care facility, which involved 32 patient cases, 11 staff cases, 19 recovered cases, and 13 deaths over 34 days in April 2020. There were many lessons to be learned that may inform and guide others or help prevent facilities from facing some predictable challenges.


The HCI community has begun to use 'app store'-style software repositories as a distribution channel for research applications. A number of ethical challenges present themselves in this setting, not least that of gaining informed consent from potential participants before logging data on their use of the software. We note that standard 'terms and conditions' pages have proved unsuccessful in communicating relevant information to users, and explore further means of conveying researchers' intent and allowing opt-out mechanisms. We test the hypothesis that revealing collected information to users will affect their level of concern at being recorded and find that users are more concerned when presented with a personalised representation of recorded data, and consequently stop using the application sooner. Also described is a means of allowing between-groups experiments in such mass participation trials.


Radio telemetry and capture-recapture techniques were used to evaluate the hazards to golden-mantled ground squirrels (Spermophilus lateralis) from hand baiting with 0.5% strychnine-trea oats for western pocket gophers ( ted Thomomys mazama) on conifer plantations in eastern Oregon. Toxicolo data were collected on field-killed and caged ground squirrels and on caged mink ( gy Mustela vison), great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), and red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). Ground squirrel populations ychnine 8 ed


It has been established that once macrophages become activated, they pass through different stages of functional activity. Mouse macrophages activated by BCG "exerted" pronounced cytotoxic effects for 2-5 days to be followed later by growth-stimulating ones. However, in other experiments, the cytotoxic effect was either absent or occurred at later stages which was probably due to a certain functional state of macrophages before activation. The synthesis of TGF-beta increased 1-2 days after activation with BCG vaccine, lipopolysacharide and gamma radiation. An increase in mRNA TGF-beta i expression was observed only 5 days after activation of macrophages.


Background Tobacco tax increases are the most effective means of reducing tobacco use and inequalities in smoking but effectiveness depends on transnational tobacco company (TTC) pricing strategies, specifically whether TTCs overshift tax increases (increase prices on top of the tax increase) or undershift the taxes (absorb the tax increases so they are not passed onto consumers), about which very little is known. Our routine monitoring of TTC activity had shown that, despite falling sales and consumers shifting down to cheaper cigarette brands, TTC profits were increasing. We therefore aimed to examine tobacco industry pricing strategy in Britain and the extent to which it might undermine the public health objectives of tobacco taxation policy. Methods A. Review of industry and retail literature was used to inform the allocation of cigarette brands to price segments. Analysis survey, commercial and routine data covering the period 1999 to 2009 was used to explore (i) value and volume market share by price segment; (ii) real price trends using CPI indexation; (iii) revenue by price segment; (iv) the extent to which tax increases were transferred to consumers and whether this differs by price segment; (v) whether commonly used price indices, including the retail price index for cigarettes accurately reflect price trends when compared with the weighted average price of cigarettes. B. TTCs categorise brands into four price segments: premium, economy, mid and "ultra-low-price" (ULP). TTCs have only sold ULP brands since 2006 whence their real price has remained virtually static and their market share doubled. The price gap between premium and ULP brands is increasing because the industry differentially shifts tax increases between brand segments: while on average taxes are overshifted, taxes on ULP brands are not always fully passed onto consumers. Most notably, at the point each year when tobacco taxes increase, the industry is absorbing taxes on the ULP brands. Price indices reflect the price of premium brands only, despite the fact that the market share of premium brands has fallen substantially over time and thus fail to detect these problems. Conclusion Industry initiated price changes appear timed to reassure price-sensitive smokers and accentuate the price gap. While overshifting should benefit public health, the growing price-gap enables downtrading to cheaper products and may explain smoking-related inequalities. Governments must monitor cigarette prices by price segment and consider industry pricing strategies in setting tobacco tax policies. Monitoring of corporate activities can inform public health policy developments.