Abstract : The United States Space Situational Awareness capability continues to be a key element in obtaining and maintaining the high ground in space. Space Situational Awareness satellites are critical enablers for integrated air, ground and sea operations, and play an essential role in fighting and winning conflicts. The United States leads the world space community in spacecraft payload systems from the component level into spacecraft, and in the development of constellations of spacecraft. The United States? position is founded upon continued government investment in research and development in space technology [1], which is clearly reflected in the Space Situational Awareness capabilities and the longevity of these missions. In the area of launch systems that support Space Situational Awareness, despite the recent development of small launch vehicles, the United States launch capability is dominated by an old, unresponsive and relatively expensive set of launchers [1] in the Expandable, Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) platforms; Delta IV and Atlas V. The EELV systems require an average of six to eight months from positioning on the launch table until liftoff [3]. Access to space requires maintaining a robust space transportation capability, founded on a rigorous industrial and technology base. The downturn of commercial space launch service use has undermined, for the time being, the ability of industry to recoup its significant investment in current launch systems. This has effectively precluded industry from sustaining a balanced robust industrial and technology base to sufficiently meet all United States Government spacelift needs [2]. The reduction of resources to the Department of Defense and the Air Force, coupled by the long launch preparation periods have further resulted in less operationally responsive spacelift capability from new launch systems.


Triple reuptake inhibitors (TRIs) are currently being developed as a new class of promising antidepressants that block serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) transporters, thereby increasing extracellular monoamine concentrations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of LPM570065, a novel TRI and a desvenlafaxine prodrug, on extracellular 5-HT, DA and NE levels in the rat striatum after acute and chronic administration relative to desvenlafaxine, using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and microdialysis. Acute administration was performed by providing rodents with oral solutions (0.06 mmol·kg−1 p.o.), oral suspensions (0.06 mmol·kg−1 p.o.) and intravenous solutions (0.04 mmol·kg−1 i.v.) of LPM570065 and desvenlafaxine. Oral suspensions (0.06 mmol·kg−1·day−1) of the two drugs were also administered for a 14-day chronic period. HPLC analysis revealed that LPM570065 rapidly penetrated the rat striatum, converted into desvenlafaxine and exhibited larger total exposure compared with the administration of desvenlafaxine. Microdialysis revealed that acute and chronic administration of oral suspension of LPM570065 increased the 5-HT, DA and NE levels more than the relative administration of desvenlafaxine. Unlike desvenlafaxine, acute administration of an intravenous LPM570065 solution did not induce the undesirable 90% decrease in extracellular 5-HT levels. In contrast to the fully dose-dependent elevation of 5-HT induced by desvenlafaxine, the acute administration of LPM570065 showed a capped increase in extracellular 5-HT levels when combined with WAY-100635. Additionally, forced swim test demonstrated that acute and chronic administration of LPM570065 reduced the immobility time more than the relative administration of desvenlafaxine. These data suggest that LPM570065 may have greater efficacy and/or a more rapid onset of antidepressant action than desvenlafaxine and also counterbalance the harmful effects of desvenlafaxine on 5-HT neurotransmission related to 5-HT1A autoreceptors. Thus, this new class of drugs, TRIs has the potential to provide a new therapeutic mechanism for treating depression.


Western Canada has very large heavy oil and bitumen resources, the recovery of which will require the application of thermal recovery processes in most cases. The most common thermal process involves injection of large quantities of steam. Steam generation accounts for approximately 30 percent of the costs of recovering heavy oil and bitumen. Reduction of this cost, therefore, is a very important factor in the economics of recovering heavy oil and bitumen and affects the amount that will be ultimately recovered. Cogeneration of steam and electricity has been implemented at a number of projects in California and other places. It has proven to be one method of improving the energy efficiency and reducing costs of both electricity and steam. An industry-supported study of cogeneration as it would apply to Canadian operations was undertaken in 1992. Typical small, medium, and large heavy oil or bitumen thermal recovery projects of 4,000, 15,000, and 50,000 BOPD were identified and conceptual cogeneration designs, cost estimates, and economic evaluations were carried out for 10 scenarios. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to illustrate the relationship between the power buy-back rate and fuel costs on the economics of potential cogeneration projects. The simple cycle gas turbine configuration applied to medium and large volume projects was shown to have potential applicability. The design, cost estimates, economics, and other factors that must be considered in developing a cogeneration project are discussed.


During tempering process of steel materials, a plastic strain occurs along loading direction even if the applied stress is less than yield stress. The authors name this phenomenon " tempering plasticity ". In the temperature raising process during tempering, volume change occurs in each temperature range, and it is known that the cause is the decomposition of retained austenite and the precipitation of carbide. The influence of these factors on tempering plasticity has not been considered so far. In this paper the plastic strain was experimentally investigated by tempering of quenched specimen with tensile stress under various conditions such as "subzero treatment", "change of tempering heating rate", "the case of extremely low carbon material". And the effects of decomposition of retained austenite and precipitation of carbide on tempering plasticity were quantitatively evaluated. As a result, decomposition of retained austenite has little influence on tempering plasticity, while precipitation of carbide has a large influence on tempering plasticity. Furthermore, assuming the similarity with the transformation plasticity phenomenon, the tempered plastic strain was formulated based on the tensile test during tempering, and the tempered plastic coefficient was obtained. This coefficient was proportional to the volumetric strain difference before and after tempering and inversely proportional to the lower yield stress of the parent phase and the new phase during tempering. This shows the similarity to the mechanism of transformation plasticity proposed by Greenwood-Johnson.


Folate is a water-soluble vitamin B that is required for the synthesis of amino acids and nucleic acids. It plays an important role in cell division and cell growth in several living organisms. The purpose of this study was to screen strong folate-synthesizing bacteria and to optimize their culture conditions for folate production. Folate production was quantified by microbiological assays by using folate-dependent strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus KCTC 3237. Folate derivatives were identified by LC-MS/MS. Of the 65 strains of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli tested, L. plantarum Fol 708 demonstrated the greatest ability to produce folate. Its optimal pH for folate production was 5.5 in a pH-controlled, labscale fermenter. Coculturing L. plantarum Fol 708 with L. brevis GABA 100 in a milk medium enhanced the level of folate produced in comparison to culturing L. plantarum Fol 708 alone.


Electronic learning (E-learning) involves the use of information and communications technology (ICT) tools and systems in teaching and learning processes. Such tools are being rapidly deployed into the Nigerian higher educational system because of their pedagogical benefits. But there have been inadequate efforts to deploy such tools at the secondary schools in the country, where spectres of overpopulated classrooms and escalating student-to-teacher ratios have contributed to the poor performances of students in the Senior Secondary School Certificate examinations, especially in mathematics. Towards contributing to the local Nigerian efforts in the development and utilisation of e-learning tools in Nigerian secondary schools, this research undertook the development of an e-learning application (EMaths) to support the teaching and learning of some aspects of the mathematics syllabus of the West African Examinations Council. A survey of students in selected secondary schools had revealed that mathematics was the most challenging to learn. The research found out and recommended that, in view of the very limited networked and Internet-connected ICT infrastructure available to most Nigerian secondary schools at present, the application would be most useful in hybrid learning environments that combine face-to-face classroom instruction delivery with the application, using CD-ROM as the delivery medium.


This study contains information on receipts and expenditures of 16 municipal governments in Belgium during the period 1870-1933. All of the information on receipts and expenditures was taken from various volumes of the 'Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique'. While that source provides information about both the budget (intended receipts and expenditures) and accounts (actual receipts and expenditures), only the latter is included in this data file.


In this paper we investigate the problem of provisioning dynamic anycast holding-time-aware (HTA) lightpaths in all-optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. We employ a technique called lightpath switching (LPS) wherein the data transmission may begin on one lightpath and switch to a different lightpath at a later time. We propose two heuristics to solve the anycast routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem: anycast with continuous segment (ACS) and anycast with lightpath switching (ALPS). We first compare the performance of ACS to ALPS and observe that ALPS achieves better blocking than ACS. Furthermore, we also compare the performance of these two anycast RWA algorithms to the traditional unicast RWA algorithm. We show that the anycast RWA algorithms presented here significantly out-perform the traditional unicast RWA algorithms.


In this paper, we consider the problem of calculating the node reputation in a Peer-toPeer (P2P) system from fragments of partial knowledge concerned with the trustfulness of nodes which are subjectively given by each node (i.e., evaluator) participating in the system. We are particularly interested in the distributed processing of the calculation of reputation scores while preserving the privacy of evaluators. The basic idea of the proposed method is to extend the EigenTrust reputation management system with the notion of homomorphic cryptosystem. More specifically, it calculates the main eigenvector of a linear system which models the trustfulness of the users (nodes) in the P2P system in a distributed manner, in such a way that: 1) it blocks accesses to the trust value by the nodes to have the secret key used for the decryption, 2) it improves the efficiency of calculation by offloading a part of the task to the participating nodes, and 3) it uses different public keys during the calculation to improve the robustness against the leave of nodes. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through numerical calculations.


: Rapid increase in population and limitation of available land, construction of buildings and other civil engineering structures have to be done on soft soil. The properties of soil remarkably impact the constancy of the design laid on it. Dark Cotton Soil (Expansive soils) have the property of volumetric change when presented to variation in moisture conditions. It is having a swelling and impervious nature with good geotechnical sub grade characteristics. This irregular conduct is basically due the presence of Soil mineral montmorillonite. Physical and geotechnical properties of the soil samples will be studied in the laboratory. The tests such as standard Proctor compaction, specific gravity, grain size analysis direct shear test and consolidation test will be conducted on black cotton soil and sandy soil of the study area. Obtained results will be compared with the Indian standard code (IS). the at a depth of 1m, 1.2 m and 1.5 meters. The Physical and geotechnical properties of the soil specimen were studied in the laboratory. The tests performed were grain size analysis, Atterberg's limits, specific gravity, standard Proctor compaction, consolidation and direct sheartest. Results obtained by the tests were compared with the Indian standard code.


Psychological derailment refers to the phenomenon whereby original self-expectations are seriously inconsistent with developments in reality. Research to date has neglected the valence of derailment and the mechanism by which it affects mental health. To improve the mental health of Chinese adolescents from the perspective of psychological derailment, after validating the translated Chinese versions of the derailment measurement instruments, we conducted an empirical study on the freshmen in senior high schools and universities in China and obtained three major results. First, the study revealed the prevalence of psychological derailment among Chinese adolescents and its strong correlation with mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress and satisfaction with life). Second, the study found significant differences in all mental health indicators among the non-derailed group, the positively derailed group and the negatively derailed group, and suggested that positive psychological derailment may help to ease mental health problems. Third, using path analysis to establish a mediated moderation model relating psychological derailment, psychological derailment valence, self-esteem and depression, the study uncovered that the valence of psychological derailment moderated the effect of psychological derailment on depression, while self-esteem mediated the moderating effect. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.


This study identifies some eco-cultural tourism attraction potentials that exist in PondokCabeUdik Village Tangerang Selatan Indonesia. In addition, it investigates local people's opinion on tourism development. The objective is to provide a preliminary overview of eco-tourism development. This study is a descriptive study that uses three types of instrument in data collection method, including questionnaire, interview and field observation. The data is then analyzed using SWOT analysis. The result indicated that natural potential include farming, lake and fish pond, and chicken hatchery. Cultural potentials include cultural diversity that depicted in praying houses and culinary. 194 respondents involved are the locals. The result showed thatthere is positive view from the local community on the availability of tourism potentials and development in the future. It is proposed that environmental awareness, education, ecotourism development, and consensus buildingare needed to implement eco cultural tourism concept. Keywords : Tourism, Eco-Cultural, Village, Planning and Development


Objective: The goal was to study the prevalence of and factors associated with diazepam self-medication in Parakou city in 2018. Method: This study was a cross-sectional study including 450 subjects of both sexes who were at least 18 years of age and living in Parakou. The sample size was obtained using Schwartz's formula. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered for data collection from April 1st to August 31st, 2018, using two-stage cluster sampling. Results: The sex ratio was 1.2, and the prevalence of diazepam self-medication was 19.11%. The mean age of those who self-medicated was 47 ± 18.2 years (range of 18 and 82 years). Difficulty falling asleep (56.40%) was the main reason mentioned. Factors associated with self-medication included age of 68 to 77 years, significant life event, alcohol consumption, low monthly income and marital status. Conclusion: Self-medication with diazepam is related to the concurrent consumption of alcoholic drinks, which increases the risk. ISSN 2641-4317 ResearchArticle Citation: DJIDONOU Anselme, TCHAOU Blaise Adelin, TOGNON TCHEGNONSI Francis, et al. Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Self-Medication with Diazepam in Parakou City in 2018. Int J Psychiatr Res. 2019; 2(5): 1-4.


A comparative study was conducted on the needles stable carbon isotope composition (delta13 C), specific leaf area (SLA), and dry matter content (DMC) of 19-year-old Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica trees in a sparse wood grassland in the south edge of Keerqin Sandy Land under the conditions of extreme drought and extreme wetness, aimed to understand the water use of Pinus sylvestris under the conditions of extreme precipitation. The soil water content and groundwater level were also measured. In the dry year (2009), the soil water content in the grassland was significantly lower than that in the wet year (2010), but the delta13C values of the current year-old needles had no significant difference between the two years and between the same months of the two years. The SLA of the current year-old needles was significantly lower in the dry year than in the wet year, but the DMC had no significant difference between the two years. Under the conditions of the two extreme precipitations, the water use efficiency of the trees did not vary remarkably, and the trees could change their needles SLA to adapt the variations of precipitation. For the test ecosystem with a groundwater level more than 3.0 m, extreme drought could have no serious impact on the growth and survival of the trees.


A superheterodyne receiver intended for TDMA multi-standard operation is presented. The receiver achieves image rejection, by employing a very high first intermediate frequency, common for the three standards involved. The second IF stage positions the signal at a lower frequency, suitable for analog channel selection and bandpass sub-sampling, making the conversion to baseband a trivial digital task, The main objective is the determination of the feasibility of the architecture by extracting the building block parameters in order to operate for all the GSM-like standards.


Management of Parkinson's disease traditionally relies solely on clinical assessment. The PKG objectively measures affected persons' movements in daily life. The present study evaluated how often PKG data changed treatment decisions in routine clinical care and to what extent the clinical assessment and the PKG interpretation differed. PKG recordings were performed before routine visits. The neurologist first made a clinical assessment without reviewing the PKG. Signs and symptoms were recorded, and a treatment plan was documented. Afterward, the PKG was evaluated. Then, the neurologist decided whether to change the initial treatment plan or not. PKG review resulted in a change in the initial treatment plan in 21 of 66 participants (31.8%). The clinical assessment and the PKG review differed frequently, mainly regarding individual overall presence of motor problems (67%), profile of bradykinesia/wearing off (79%), dyskinesia (35%) and sleep (55%). PKG improved the dialogue with the participant in 88% of cases. PKG and clinical variables were stable when they were repeated after 3–6 months. In conclusion, PKG information changes treatment decisions in nearly a third of people with Parkinson's disease in routine care. Standard clinical assessment and PKG evaluation are often non-identical. Objective measurements in people living with Parkinson's disease can add therapeutically relevant information.


The pretarsus displays details of the main claw, accessory claws, and posteroventral spine that provide new characters for the systematics of lithobiomorph centipedes and the question of the monophyly or non-monophyly of the Lithobiomorpha. By outgroup comparison with Craterostigmus (order Craterostigmomorpha) and Cryptops (order Scolopendromorpha), three modifications of the accessory claws shared by the two lithobiomorph families, Lithobiidae and Henicopidae, are synapomorphic. The posterior accessory claw has a ventrally expanded base; the ornament of the accessory claws shows an abrupt transition between a pitted proximal part and a striated/ridged distal part; the main claw has groups of rimmed pores concentrated beneath the accessory claws. Claw characters are congruent with other morphological and molecular evidence for monophyly of the Lithobiomorpha.


Background: Several reports from around the world have reported that some patients who have recovered from COVID-19 have experienced a range of persistent or new clinical symptoms after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. These symptoms can last from weeks to months, impacting everyday functioning to a significant number of patients. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis based on an online, self-reporting questionnaire was conducted in Ecuador from April to July 2022. Participants were invited by social media, radio, and TV to voluntarily participate in our study. A total of 2103 surveys were included in this study. We compared socio-demographic variables and long-term persisting symptoms at low (<2500 m) and high altitude (>2500 m). Results: Overall, 1100 (52.3%) responders claimed to have Long-COVID symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of these were reported by women (64.0%); the most affected group was young adults between 21 to 40 years (68.5%), and most long-haulers were mestizos (91.6%). We found that high altitude residents were more likely to report persisting symptoms (71.7%) versus those living at lower altitudes (29.3%). The most common symptoms were fatigue or tiredness (8.4%), hair loss (5.1%) and difficulty concentrating (5.0%). The highest proportion of symptoms was observed in the group that received less than 2 doses. Conclusions: This is the first study describing post-COVID symptoms' persistence in low and high-altitude residents. Our findings demonstrate that women, especially those aging between 21–40, are more likely to describe Long-COVID. We also found that living at a high altitude was associated with higher reports of mood changes, tachycardia, decreased libido, insomnia, and palpitations compared to lowlanders. Finally, we found a greater risk to report Long-COVID symptoms among women, those with previous comorbidities and those who had a severer acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.


In the presence of BF 3 -OEt 2 , (perfluoroalkyl)lithiums generated in situ from the reaction of primary perfluoroalkyl iodides and MeLi-LiBr reacted with imines, azines, and nitrones to afford perfluoroalkylated nitrogen-containing compounds in moderate to good yields. This method was successfully applied to the preparation of a (perfluoroalkyl)glycine and optically active perfluoroalkylated amines


The connection between the regulation of L-arginine transport and nitric oxide (NO) synthesis was studied in rat alveolar macrophages. Lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) and interferon-g stimulated in the same concentrationand time-dependent manner NO synthesis (measured by nitrite accumulation) and L-[H]arginine uptake. This correlated with an increased mRNA expression for iNOS and the cationic amino acid transporter CAT-2B (analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction), with the same kinetics observed for the up-regulation of both mRNAs. Because nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) is essential for induction of iNOS its role for the regulation of CAT-2B expression and L-arginine transport was investigated. The NF-kB inhibitors pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate and N-p-tosyl-Llysine chloromethyl ketone abrogated LPSand interferon-ginduced increase of nitrite accumulation and L-[H]arginine uptake as well as up-regulation of iNOS and CAT-2B mRNA. LPS-induced increase in iNOS and CAT-2B mRNA was also suppressed by specific NF-kB decoy oligodesoxynucleotides, confirming the essential role of NF-kB for iNOS and CAT-2B expression. Dexamethasone did not affect the initial (5 h) LPSinduced increase of iNOS and CAT-2B mRNA, but down-regulated both mRNAs after prolonged (20 h) exposure and this was accompanied by partial inhibition of LPS-stimulated nitrite accumulation and L-[H]arginine uptake. These findings demonstrate parallel regulation of the expression of iNOS and CAT2B, and of NO synthesis and L-arginine uptake in rat alveolar macrophages. NF-kB is an essential transcription factor not only for the induction of iNOS, but also for the up-regulation of CAT-2B. The simultaneous up-regulation of CAT-2B with iNOS is considered as a mechanism to ensure a high substrate supply for iNOS. Macrophages (MF) play an important role in host defense and immunity, and synthesis and release of nitric oxide (NO) are important elements of their machinery to fulfil these functions. Thus, NO is part of the effector mechanisms in the nonspecific defense (Moncada et al., 1991), but may also act as a signaling molecule to control inflammatory reactions (Brunn et al., 1997; Thomassen et al., 1997). Three isoenzymes of NO synthase (NOS) have been identified (Moncada et al., 1991; Förstermann and Kleinert, 1995) of which the inducible form (iNOS, also named NOS II) is responsible for NO production in MF, including alveolar MF (AMF) (Xie et al., 1992; Hey et al., 1995). Bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) and the cytokine interferon-g (IFN-g) are strong inducers of iNOS in MF and AMF (Sherman et al., 1993; Martin et al., 1994; Hey et al., 1995; Kim et al., 1995). Stimulation of NO synthesis in iNOS-expressing cells correlates usually with corresponding changes in iNOS mRNA levels, indicating that a major part of iNOS regulation occurs at the level of transcription (Förstermann and Kleinert, 1995). The promoter regions of the mouse (Lowenstein et al., 1993), human (Zhang et al., 1996), and rat (Eberhardt et al., 1996) iNOS genes have been characterized and contain several binding sites for transcription factors such as nuclear factor kB (NF-kB), activator protein-1, and various members of the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP), activating This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Ra 400/9-1 and 9-2). M.D.M.D. and L.B. were supported by travel grants of the "Vigoni Programm" of the Deutsche Akademische Auslandsdienst and the Conferenza Permanente dei Rettori delle Università Italiane, respectively. 1 Current address: Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, II University of Naples, Naples, Italy. ABBREVIATIONS: MF, macrophages; NO, nitric oxide; NOS, nitric-oxide synthase; iNOS, inducible nitric-oxide synthase; AMF, alveolar macrophages; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; IFN-g, interferon-g; NF-kB, nuclear factor-kB; CAT, cationic amino acid transporter; ODN, oligodesoxynucleotide; PDTC, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate; TLCK, N-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone; RT, reverse transcription; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; bp, base pair. 0026-895X/00/061294-09$3.00/0 MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY Vol. 58, No. 6 Copyright © 2000 The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 171/866724 Mol Pharmacol 58:1294–1302, 2000 Printed in U.S.A. 1294 at A PE T Jornals on July 0, 2018 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from transcription factor/cAMP response element binding protein (ATF/CREB), and signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family of transcription factors. Among these transcription factor recognition sites only the activation of a downstream NF-kB site (Xie et al., 1994), the enhancer function of an upstream NF-kB site (Kim et al., 1997), and the activation of a novel lipopolysaccharide-response element, termed LREAA (Xie, 1997), have been shown to be involved in the expression of the iNOS gene in murine MF in response to LPS and/or IFN-g. Finally, several lines of evidence indicate that NF-kB is an essential, although alone not sufficient transcription factor for the induction of iNOS in rat and mouse MF (Sherman et al., 1993; Xie et al., 1994; Ding et al., 1995; Kim et al., 1995; Xie, 1997). Once expressed, iNOS is active and the amount of NO synthesized by MF depends critically on the availability of L-arginine (Baydoun et al., 1994; Hey et al. 1997; Hammermann et al., 1998). Induction of iNOS in MF and AMF is accompanied by an up-regulation of L-arginine uptake (Bogle et al., 1992; Hammermann et al., 1999). Different transport systems for the cellular uptake of L-arginine have been characterized, such as the cationic amino acid-specific, high-affinity transport system y and several broad-scope amino acid transport systems (system yL, b, and B) (Closs, 1996; Devés and Boyd, 1998). System y plays a particular role in MF and appears to mediate essentially the LPSstimulated L-arginine transport (Bogle et al., 1992; Messeri Dreibig et al., 2000). At the molecular level the transport properties of system y could be ascribed to a family of cationic amino acid transporters (CATs) (Closs, 1996; Devés and Boyd, 1998). In rat and mouse AMF CAT-1 and a splicing variant of the CAT-2 gene (CAT-2B) were found to be expressed (Racké et al., 1998), and the LPS-induced upregulation of L-arginine transport was accompanied by an increased expression of CAT-2B, but not of CAT-1 (Messeri Dreibig et al., 2000). The question arose whether the concomitant induction of iNOS and up-regulation of L-arginine transport and CAT-2B expression occurred via the same signal transduction pathway. Because NF-kB plays an essential role in the control of iNOS expression in MF, it was tested whether this signal transduction pathway is also involved in the up-regulation of L-arginine transport and the expression of CAT-2B in rat AMF, as a model of primary MF. Experimental Procedures Materials. Amphotericin B, L-arginine HCl, cycloheximide, deoxynucleotide mixture, dexamethasone, Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/nutrient mixture Ham's F-12, rat interferon-g, lipopolysaccharides from Escherichia coli 0127:B8, mifepristone (RU-486), penicillin-streptomycin solution, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), RedTaq DNA-polymerase, and N-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK) were all purchased from Sigma (Deisenhofen, Germany). L-[2,3-H]arginine HCl (1481 GBq/mmol) was purchased from DuPont (Dreieich, Germany), fetal calf serum from Vitromex (Vilshofen, Germany), DC Protein Assay from Bio-Rad (Munich, Germany), Trizol reagent for RNA isolation from Life Technologies (Karlsruhe, Germany), and avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase from Promega (Mannheim, Germany). All oligodesoxynucleotides for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and decoy approach were obtained from MWG Biotech (Ebersberg, Germany). Cell Preparation and Culture. Sprague-Dawley rats (own breeding) of either sex were killed by stunning followed by exsanguination. Lung and trachea were excised en bloc and lavaged three times by instilling 10 to 15 ml of cold PBS. Usually, for one preparation of AMF, lavage fluids from several lungs were pooled and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 10 min. Thereafter, cells were resuspended in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/nutrient mixture Ham's F-12 supplemented with 5% fetal calf serum, 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 mg/ml streptomycin, and 5 mg/ml amphotericin B, and plated in 12-well plates (10 AMF for uptake and NO accumulation studies), or 4 3 10 AMF were disseminated on 35-mm culture dishes (for RT-PCR and immunoblots). AMF were allowed to adhere for 2 h (37°C, 5% CO2), before the medium was renewed to remove nonadherent cells. The adherent cells consisted of more than 95% AMF according to morphological criteria (May Grünwald-Giemsa staining). Thereafter, AMF were cultured for different time periods in the absence or presence of test substances. L-[H]Arginine Uptake Studies. AMF were cultured for 5 to 20 h in the absence or presence of test substances. Subsequently, they were incubated at 37°C for 2 min in 0.5 ml L-[H]arginine (37 kBq, 100 nM) containing Krebs-HEPES solution [composition 118.5 mM NaCl, 5.57 mM KCl, 1.25 mM CaCl2, 0.6 mM MgCl2, 0.03 mM EDTA, 0.06 mM L-(1)-ascorbic acid, 20.0 mM HEPES (adjusted to pH 7.4 using NaOH) and 11.1 mM D-(1)-glucose]. Cells were lysed in 0.5 ml Tris/Triton (0.1%) solution followed by determination of the cellular radioactivity (Hey et al., 1997) and protein content using the DC Protein Assay (Bio-Rad). The 2-min incubation period was chosen because L-[H]arginine (100 nM) uptake was linear between 1 and 3 min (Racké et al., 1998). L-[H]arginine uptake was expressed either in absolute terms (picomoles per milligram of protein) or as percentage of the uptake observed in respective controls of the respective cell preparation. Nitrite Assay. As a measure of NO synthesis during the culture period nitrite that accumulated in the culture media was determined. To estimate the iNOS activit


A novel carbohydrate-derived side-chain polyether was synthesized as a new biomaterial by condensation polymerization of monomers derived from natural occurring carbohydrates. Surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy studies demonstrated that this side-chain polyether has excellent resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption. The protein resistant capability of the side-chain polyether is comparable to that of oligoethylene glycol, a main-chain polyether that is, to date, the best protein resistant material. In addition to the excellent biocompatibility, the new polymer also combines biodegradability and functionalizability. With these combined good properties, this side-chain polyether is envisioned as a new biomaterial for many potential biomedical applications.


The effect of shot peening on the fatigue strength of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was investigated in the temperature range of 20°C to 450°C. In order to evaluate separately the individual effects of compressive residual stress, strain hardening and surface roughness induced by shot peening, the results obtained were discussed by the Murakami's √area parameter model which could predict fatigue strength using two parameters of defect size (√area) and Vicker's hardness (HV), and the effect of static mean stress (σm) could also be considered in the model. Shot peening increased fatigue strength at 20°C-350°C, but decreased at 450°C. The reduction at 450°C was due to surface roughness because compressive residual stress was decreased during fatigue loading. At 450°C, by comparing the fatigue strength of the rough surface specimens with that of the surface polished specimens, the defect size (√area) equivalent to the surface roughness was evaluated to be approximately 76μm. At 20°C-350°C, the fatigue strength observed could be regarded as that obtained by adding the contribution of compressive residual stress (static mean stress) to the fatigue strength of the specimens with the defect size of 76μm. The compressive residual stress predicted by the model showed reasonable values quantitatively. Drilling holes equivalent to √area of 93 and 185μm decreased fatigue strength markedly. The holes, however, were crushed by shot peening. For example, √area of 185μm was decreased down to about 55μm. Therefore, the fatigue strength of the drilled and shot-peened specimens increased drastically and was comparable to that of the shot-peened specimens without drilling holes but with the rough surface of 76μm.


Background Behcet's disease (BD) is a multisystem disease with vasculitic features and possibly an autoinflammatory pathogenesis. It is rare in Germany with an estimated prevalence of 0,6/100.000 inhabitants, whereas it is much more common in Turkey where, depending on the region, its prevalence ranges from 40 to 340/100.000. Objectives To evaluate the relationship between ethnic origin, disease manifestations and the association of HLA-B 51 to the disease itself and its expression in German and Turkish patients living in Germany. Methods 238 patients with BD regularly seen in a large interdisciplinary reference center for Behçet's disesase were retrospectively analysed. 112 were of German and 126 of Turkish origin, all living in Germany. They all fulfilled the criteria of the International Study Group of BD. The entire spectrum of disease was analysed, all patients were seen by a rheumatologist and ophthalmologist and a laboratory workup including HLA-B51 genotyping was done. Disease severity was scored according to an established scoring system. Fisher's Exact test and Chi Square test as well as Kaplan Meier curves and Odds ratios were calculated. Results Males are more commonly affected than females (3:1) in the Turkish versus the German patient group (1:1), OR 2,62. In German patients, time from first manifestation to diagnosis was 4 years versus one year in Turks (p<0,0015). All disease manifestations and disease severity were comparable in both patient groups. HLA B51 was positive in 36% of the German and 77% of Turkish patients (p<0,001). Ocular involvement was significantly associated with HLA-B 51 in both patient groups, in German patients (p<0,007) even more than in Turkish patients (p<0,05). Moreover, in Turkish patients, a significant association between papulopustules and HLA-B 51 was found, this was not the case in German patients. Conclusions In general, BD is very similar in patients of Turkish and German origin living in Germany. There are some similarities between Turks living in Germany and Turks living in Turkey: the gender difference is identical, as is the high association with HLA-B51. However, the frequency of pathergy positivity is lower in Turks in Germany than in those in Turkey (17% vs. 30%) and in this respect identical with that of German BD patients. The first finding underlines the contribution of genetics, whereas the latter probably is due to environmental influences. Pathergy positivity is reported to be much rarer in Northern European BD patients than in Middle Eastern patients. In order to further evaluate these findings, a direct comparison of the German patient cohort with one of Turkish patients living in Turkey using the same methods as in the present study would be valuable. References Kotter, I., R. Vonthein, et al. (2004). Behcet's disease in patients of German and Turkish origin living in Germany: a comparative analysis. J Rheumatol 31(1): 133-139. Krause, L., A. K. Kohler, et al. (2009). Ocular involvement in Adamantiades-Behcet's disease in Berlin, Germany. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 247(5): 661-666. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Abstract. This paper is devoted to finding solutions of polynomial equations in roots of unity. It was conjectured by S. Lang and proved by M. Laurent that all such solutions can be described in terms of a finite number of parametric families called maximal torsion cosets. We obtain new explicit upper bounds for the number of maximal torsion cosets on an algebraic subvariety of the complex algebraic -torus . In contrast to earlier work that gives the bounds of polynomial growth in the maximum total degree of defining polynomials, the proofs of our results are constructive. This allows us to obtain a new algorithm for determining maximal torsion cosets on an algebraic subvariety of .


BACKGROUND
The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis governs sexual maturation and reproductive function in humans. In early postnatal life, it is transiently active during which circulating sex steroids reach adult levels. While this so-called minipuberty represents a universal phenomenon in infants of both sexes, its role for early maturation and growth remains incompletely understood.

OBJECTIVES
To provide normative data on auxology as well as serum and urinary hormone levels in healthy, full-term infants throughout the first year of life and to investigate associations of postnatal HPG axis dynamics as well as hormonal, genetic and environmental exposures with early genital development and growth.

POPULATION
Healthy, Danish, full-term, singleton newborns including their parents.

DESIGN
Single-centre, prospective, observational longitudinal pregnancy and birth cohort.

METHODS
Newborns were followed with six repeated clinical examinations during a one-year follow-up period. An umbilical cord blood sample was drawn at birth. At each visit, infants underwent a clinical examination focusing on auxology and genital development. Further, blood (serum, plasma, DNA) and urine samples were collected at each visit. Mothers and fathers underwent a clinical examination and provided blood samples prior to and after birth. A subset of parents provided urine samples and breast milk samples. Pregnancy and obstetrical outcomes, and detailed parental questionnaires were compiled.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Between August 2016 and August 2018, 2481 women with singleton pregnancies were invited to participate of which 298, including their partners, were enrolled (12.0%). A total of 268 healthy, full-term newborns born appropriate for gestational age (AGA) were included at birth, 233 newborns participated in the postnatal follow-up period and 186 completed the one-year follow-up period (9.4% and 7.5%, respectively).

CONCLUSION
The COPENHAGEN Minipuberty Study provides detailed, longitudinal data on early genital development and growth including hormonal and genetic profiles and environmental exposure in healthy infants including additional data in their parents.


Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is a hazardous compound used in a variety of industrial processes and is a decomposition product of many other fluorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are often environmental contaminants. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators on quartz substrates are suited for HF sensing because the analyte can react directly with the sensor substrate to produce H2O and the volatile compound SiF4, which evaporates from the surface. This work shows evidence that during gas phase HF exposure to a generalized SAW (GSAW) resonator and a pure shear horizontal SAW (SHSAW) resonator, the dominant sensing mechanism is the detection of a condensed liquid layer on the substrate surface, rather than material removal via SiF4 desorption. The GSAW and SHSAW, fabricated on ST-X and ST-900 quartz, respectively, have been simultaneously exposed to HF through a low-volume (~1 cm ) test cell. The devices' responses were monitored, with data collected every minute. An automated gas delivery system was used to vary HF concentrations from 1-18 ppm, while maintaining a constant flow rate of 100 seem. While both resonators are sensitive to the formation of a condensed liquid layer, the frequency shift of the SHSAW resonator, due to this effect, is up to seven times greater than that of the GSAW device for the HF concentrations investigated.


One could begin a study like the present one by simply postulating that our universe is four-dimensional. There are ample reasons for doing this. Experience, observation and experiment all point to the fact that we inhabit a four-dimensional universe. Another approach would be to show that four-dimensions arise naturally from a reasonable model of the universe or multiverse. After reviewing the causal set approach to discrete quantum gravity in Section~1, we shall discuss the emergence of four-dimensions in Section~2. We shall see that certain patterns of four arise that suggest the introduction of a 4-dimensional discrete manifold. In the later sections we shall discuss some consequences of this introduced framework. In particular, we will show that quantum amplitudes can be employed to describe a multiverse dynamics. Moreover, a natural unitary operator together with energy, position and momentum operators will be introduced and their properties studied.


Abstract. Two morphometric
methods are applied and compared for the analysis of suture lines in Early
Carboniferous ammonoids of the superfamilies Pericycloidea, Girtyoceratoidea
and Goniatitoidea. We analysed (1) classic metric data (proportions of the
width and depths or heights of lobes and saddles) using multivariate
statistic methods and (2) outline data of the external lobe and the
ventrolateral saddle of the same ammonoid taxa using the elliptic Fourier
analysis. Both methods lead to similar results and simultaneously demonstrate
ontogenetic and phylogenetic trends of these ammonoids. Our results are
consistent with three previously suggested evolutionary patterns: (1) a
general decrease of the amplitude of lobes and saddles, (2) a proportional
widening of the external lobe and (3) a heightening of the median saddle.


Fishing plays a critical role as a 'bank in the water' for local populations that largely rely on this activity to access
 cash quickly. This study aimed: (1) to assess the importance of fisheries in improving farmer's livelihood in the study
 area. (2) to assess households and individual's involvement in inland fisheries in terms of utilization and
 management, and (3) to recommend means of interventions for sustainable use of the resource and enhance
 benefits from the river fishery. This activity was conducted by using a combination of monitoring of fish catch, focus
 group discussions, and key informant interviews. Fishing is seasonal and intensively carried out during the dry
 seasons starting from February up to April. The most popular fishing gears used for fishing are the seed of Millettia
 ferruginea (in Amharic called Birbira) and barks of Balanites aegyptiaca (locally called Bedeno). In the area the main
 fish type consumed by the community are Clarias gariepinus [catfish] and Labeobarbus intermedius [Barbus] fish
 species in fresh and sun dried forms but Oreochromis niloticus is not known as it is edible. The farmers have a good
 fish consumption habit which is by far greater than the town's inhabitants. Hence, Farming and fishing are
 overwhelmingly the most important activities for household food supply and means of income generation. Fish
 catches from the rivers have declined significantly because of the destructive way of fishing, water pollution, and
 resource encroachment, thereby threatening the sustainability of Jemma and Wonchit river fisheries as well as the
 river's ecosystem.


Offshoring is an emerging trend where companies choose to globally distribute segments of the value chain ranging from production and testing, to product development and innovation. Offshoring of activities that were previously performed at home base create new challenges for the industry, as the complexity of both the process as well as the organizational interfaces increase. Three case studies are used to explore the paradoxes found in the practice of globally distributed development. We discuss the need for opposition, spatial and temporal separation, and synthesis to explain and resolve the tensions and trade-offs in globally distributed development that is visible in these case studies.


Twenty-three patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in terminal transformation were treated with a regimen incorporating vindesine (a new derivative of vinblastine), prednisolone, and additional cytarabine. Of 21 patients in blastic crisis, complete remission (CR) was achieved in 15 (71.4%). All of five patients with lymphoid morphology and ten of 12 with myeloid morphology (83.3%) achieved CR, while none of four with monocytoid morphology achieved CR. Two patients in accelerated phase also attained CR. Our results compare favorably with those of other regimens in this refractory disorder and indicate that the regimens incorporating vindesine, prednisolone, and additional cytarabine may be recommended in the treatment of CML-blastic crisis with both lymphoid and myeloid morphology and accelerated phase of CML as well.


Introduction China has made great achievements in health insurance coverage and healthcare financing. Nonetheless, the rate of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) in China was 13 percent in 2008, which is higher than in some other countries. There are differences among the provinces in China in terms of the lifestyles, customs, prevalent medical conditions, and health consciousness of their populations. This study aimed to compare the proportion of households with CHE and the factors influencing this expenditure between the Zhejiang and Qinghai province in China. Methods Data were derived from household surveys conducted in Zhejiang and Qinghai. Sampling was based on a multi-stage, stratified random cluster method. Households with CHE were defined as those with an out-of-pocket payment for health care that was at least 40 percent of the household income. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify the factors associated with CHE. Results A total of 1,598 households were included: 995 in Zhejiang and 603 in Qinghai. The average rates of CHE in Zhejiang and Qinghai were 10 percent and 31 percent, respectively. The economic status of a household influenced the likelihood of experiencing CHE; households headed by an employed person were less likely to experience CHE. In contrast, households that included outpatients or individuals with chronic diseases had a higher risk of experiencing CHE across the two provinces. Poorer or uninsured households in Zhejiang were more likely to experience CHE, as were households in Qinghai that included outpatients or were headed by a person from a minority nationality. Conclusions This study highlighted the importance of promoting economic development, expanding employment, and adjusting policies to better protect individuals with chronic diseases and outpatients from the risk of CHE. The Chinese government should pay more attention to actual conditions in different provinces to ensure that policy decisions incorporate local knowledge.


BACKGROUND
Gaseous fumigants are commonly employed to control fungal decay of cold-stored grapes. So far it is not clear if these fumigants, besides the direct interaction against fungal structures, induce transcriptional responses of defensive markers. In order to contribute to understanding the mechanisms by which these fumigants exert their effect, we studied the influence of ozone (O3) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) on the decay caused by Botrytis cinerea, and the quality and expression of the defense-related genes chitinase, β-1,3-glucanase and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) in the table grape cultivars 'Redglobe' and 'Sugraone'.

RESULTS
The application of SO2 or O3 delayed decay of both table grape cultivars caused by B. cinerea compared with the inoculated control. O3 treatments altered weight loss, firmness and shatter in both cultivars. Significant upregulation of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase were observed in SO2 -treated 'Redglobe' berries stored at 2 °C. O3 treatment transiently increased the expression of chitinase and PAL in 'Redglobe' and 'Sugraone' berries, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Ozone and sulfur dioxide treatments can influence the expression patterns of PAL, chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase to different extents in different grape cultivars and under different exposure conditions. The upregulation of these genes may be involved in the mechanism by which these fumigants inhibit the decay caused by pathogenic fungi.


Fault prediction is the key technology of the predictive maintenance. Currently, researches on fault prediction are mainly focused on the evaluation of the intensities of the failure and the remaining life of the machine. There is lack of methods on the prediction of fault locations and fault characters. To satisfy the requirement of the prediction of the fault characters, the data acquisition and fusion strategies were studied. Firstly, the traditional vibration measurement mechanism and its disadvantages were presented. Then, the full-vector data acquisition and fusion model were proposed. After that, the sampling procedure and information fusion algorithm were analyzed. At last, the fault prediction method based on full-vector spectrum was proposed. The methodology is that of Dr. Bently and Dr. Muszynska. On the basis of this methodology, the application study has been carried out. The uncertainty of the spectrum structure can be eliminated by the designed data acquisition and fusion method. The reliability of the diagnosis on fault character was improved. The study on full-vector data acquisition system laid the technical foundation for the prediction and diagnosis research of the fault characters.


Employing a dual process motivational (DPM) model perspective, we found that how political messages are framed influences the differential effects of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) on political candidate support in the United States. Study 1 (N = 85) found that RWA and SDO differentially predicted support for right-wing candidates who used cohesion and group status threats to frame same-sex marriage, respectively. Study 2 (N = 89) largely replicated those findings on immigration policy. In Study 3 (N = 128), the hypothesis that RWA and SDO negatively predicted support for left-wing candidates who framed same-sex marriage in terms of individual liberty and social equality, respectively, received partial support. Additional analyses indicated that the effects of RWA on candidate support in these studies were driven by specific theoretically-relevant dimensions of RWA. Together, these results indicate that candidates can enhance their appeal by strategically employing value-based political messages targeting different subsets of their constituency.


Liver transplantation (LT) is an established therapy associated with a dramatic improvement in patients' life expectancy. With improved early-term management, current 10-year patient survival rates in many indications exceed 70%. Life-long immunosuppressive therapy may, however, be accompanied by considerable long-term toxicity: most importantly, renal dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, which, in addition to recurrence of the primary liver disease, emerge as key contributors to late mortality. Chronic kidney disease cumulatively affects up to 28% of patients by ten years after LT. Various factors can contribute to renal impairment, but perioperative acute kidney injury, calcineurin inhibitor toxicity, hypertension, and diabetes are considered most important. LT patients demonstrate 3-fold risk for cardiovascular events, which seems to result mostly from an excess of traditional risk factors, mainly hypertension and diabetes. The cumulative cancer incidence reaches 16–42% by 20 years after LT, and cancer rates are 2- to 4-fold higher among LT patients than among matched controls. Highest rates are for nonmelanoma skin cancer (3- to 70-fold) and lymphoma (8- to 29-fold). The liver graft usually displays uncomplicated function in the long term. Most common causes for chronic graft dysfunction include disease recurrence and biliary problems. LT generally restores patients' quality of life to a level comparable with that of the general population, with only minor deficits in some areas. Thus, long-term survival after LT is impressive, and despite these long-term complications, patients' quality of life remains comparable with that of the general population.


Abstract Studying a multi-dimensional structure of supernovae (SNe) gives important constraints on the mechanism of the SN explosion. Polarization measurement is one of the most powerful methods to study the explosion geometry of extragalactic SNe. Especially, Type Ib/c SNe are the ideal targets because the core of the explosion is bare. We have performed spectropolarimetric observations of Type Ib/c SNe with the Subaru telescope. We detect a rotation of the polarization angle across the line, which is seen as a loop in the Q - U plane. This indicates that axisymmetry is broken in the SN ejecta. Adding our new data to the sample of stripped-envelope SNe with high-quality spectropolarimetric data, five SNe out of six show a loop in the Q - U plane. This implies that the SN explosion commonly has a non-axisymmetric, three-dimensional geometry.


An accurate road surface friction forecasting algorithm can allow travelers and managers to schedule trips and maintenance activities based on the road weather condition to enhance traffic safety and efficiency in advance. Previously, scholars developed multiple forecasting models to predict road surface conditions using historical data. However, historical dataset used for model training may have missing values caused by multiple issues, e.g. the data collected by on-vehicle sensors may be influenced when vehicles cannot travel due to high economic and labor cost or weather-related issues.The missing values in the road surface condition dataset can damage the effectiveness and accuracy of the existing prediction methods. This study proposed a road surface friction forecasting algorithm by employing a time-aware Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU-D) networks that integrate a decay mechanism as extra gates of the GRU to handle the missing values and forecast the road surface friction in future periods simultaneously. The evaluation results present that the proposed GRU-D networks outperform all selected baseline algorithms. The impacts of missing rate on predictive accuracy, learning efficiency, and learned decay rates are investigated as well. The findings can help improve the forecasting accuracy and efficiency of road surface friction prediction using historical data with missing values, therefore mitigating the negative impact of wet or icy road conditions on traffic safety and efficiency.


Background:Little is currently known about how social media should be integrated into physical activity (PA) promotion, and how it can be exploited to enhance social marketing campaigns. MoveU is a PA campaign with a social media component at the University of Toronto that aims to increase active healthy living particularly among first year female students.

 Purpose:This research aims to explore the role of Facebook in enhancing the effectiveness of a PA intervention (MoveU) from the perspective of the health promoters involved in the development of the campaign, and the students exposed to the campaign.

 Methodology:A mixed methods evaluation was conducted which comprised nine interviews with key partners involved in various aspects of the campaign; focus groups with students (n=45), and analytic data capturing Facebook usage from one academic year.

 Results:All partners and most students believed that social media can be an effective tool within health promotion because of the volume of young people who use it. By the end of the academic year (April, 2014), the MoveU Facebook page had 2250 followers, representing a modest growth of 968 followers since August, 2013. 84% of followers were female and 83% were between 18-24 years old suggesting social media was being used by the target audience. Although partners saw social media as a platform to facilitate engagement through discussions, students tended to focus on its role in event announcement. This was also reflected in the modest engagement of, on average, 35 clicks, "likes" shares, and comments per post.

 Conclusion:There is a role for social media in PA promotion but within MoveU there were unrealistic expectations about how it would assist campaign goals. The optimal use of social media like Facebook for PA campaigns is in its ability to efficiently communicate tailored messages to a specific target audience. Acknowledgments: Ontario Trillium Foundation and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Population Intervention for Chronic Disease Prevention Training Program


This project establishes models to optimize the balance of freight demand across rail and truck modes. In real life situations, trains often travel at different speeds (i.e. passenger trains and freight trains share the same rail network). This incurs train delay whereby reducing the efficiency of the rail network. To provide a solution for this problem, we develop heuristic algorithms to improve conventional dispatching rules to reduce the average train delay. Then we build a control model and provide the solution procedure to adapt a dynamic headway concept inspired by new signaling technology like Positive Train Control (PTC). Rail network data of the Southern California region is collected to perform a detailed simulation analysis. The simulation results show significant improvement of network efficiency brought by our model and algorithms: as high as 21% reduction in average train delay with our best dispatching policy while with the dynamic headway control model, the average train delay is reduced by 40%. The railway network is therefore shown to have the potential to increase throughput capacity by 20%. View the NCST Project Webpage


BACKGROUND
Individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness have higher rates of obesity than the general population due to a range of factors, including: medication side effects, poor nutrition and reduced physical activity. Obesity is associated with increased mortality and reduced quality of life. Evidence suggests that lifestyle interventions can be effective in addressing this issue. While such interventions would appear to fit within the scope of practice of occupational therapy, there is no publication synthesising the existing literature regarding occupational therapy interventions addressing lifestyle factors associated with obesity.

AIM
To determine what is known from the existing literature about occupational therapy interventions addressing weight gain and obesity in adults diagnosed with severe mental illness.

METHODS
A scoping review was conducted. Searches were performed in online databases, occupational therapy journals and grey literature databases. Thematic analysis occurred across all articles included in the review.

RESULTS
A total of 14 articles were included in the review. Analysis revealed a central theme of supporting occupational performance and participation in health promoting occupations. This central theme consisted of four categories; facilitating client-centred practice, addressing personal performance issues, addressing environmental barriers and providing the 'just right' challenge.

CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE
These findings suggest occupational therapists are providing occupation focused interventions that are aligned with current clinical guidelines. However, more research is required to strengthen evidence-based occupational therapy practice in this important area.


A safe and effective delivery system is considered a key to the success of nucleic acid therapeutics. It has been reported that pulmonary surfactants or their components could facilitate the uptake of small interfering RNA (siRNA) into the lung epithelial cells. Previously, our group investigated the use of KL4 peptide, a synthetic cationic peptide that simulates the structural properties of surfactant protein B (SP-B), as siRNA delivery vector. Although KL4 peptide exhibits good in vitro siRNA transfection efficiency on lung epithelial cells, its therapeutic potential is limited by its poor aqueous solubility due to the presence of a high proportion of hydrophobic leucine residues. In this study, we aim to address the solubility issue, designing five different modified peptides by replacing the hydrophobic leucine with alanine or valine, and assess their potential as siRNA delivery vectors. While the modified peptides retain the overall cationic property, their siRNA binding is also affected and their transfection efficiency is inferior to the parent KL4 peptide. A closer examination of the conformation of these peptides by circular dichroism shows that substitution of leucine residues leads to the change of the secondary structure from α-helical content to either β-sheet or more disordered, β-turn conformations. Relatively conservative amino acid substitutions, in terms of hydrophobicity bulk, lead to substantial conformational alteration, heavily impacting siRNA binding and release, cellular uptake, and transfection efficiency. Although the peptide modification strategy employed in this study was unsuccessful in developing an improved version of KL4 peptide for siRNA delivery, it highlights the importance of the α-helical conformation for efficient siRNA transfection, providing useful insights for future development of peptide-based RNA delivery system.


The Rough Guide to Shakespeare provides the perfect introduction across all media from the Elizabethan theatre to the modern multiplex. Designed to work equally well as a quick reference and a background companion, the book features full coverage of all 38 plays including a synopsis, character list, stage history and a full critical essay. There are guides to recommended texts, critical studies and further reading, reviews of the best films and audio recordings, and guidance on where to go next. The author provides fascinating features on such topics as swearing in Shakespeare, fools, cross-dressing and the mystery of Shakespeare's lost plays. As well as the plays there's a detailed look at Shakespeare's poetry, both the famous Sonnets and the less well-known narrative poems. Finally, this handbook includes everything there is to know about Shakespeare's life, along with a full account of how the plays were originally performed. Throughout there are more than 100 pictures, including photos of great Shakespearean actors and some of the most celebrated recent productions.


This paper is a study on the compulsion of transformational leadership from the part of the principal of this era when the demography of the students are changing exponentially, when the globe is experiencing massive changes in methods and techniques in educational process but the institutions remain the same as its ethics and operational strategies. The time is eloping when an educational head earns praises due to their prominence and performance in managerial functioning. But this paper tends to focus on several persisting challenges in these educational institutions like huge gap between teacher-student ratio, students' increasing technological oriented learning, teachers' lack of knowledge of multimedia class operation, girls' little rate of enrolment in higher level of education, early marriage of school going girls and ensuring quality education to girls as per the demand of SDG 4 by 2030. This paper fosters the idea that a transformational head of the institution can be successful in this chase of challenges as he involves everyone to activities in order to reach goal. He works with the other members as a team member and thus a challenge of an institution turns to be liability to all.


Play helps facilitate a child's development and learning, such as social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Delayed or abnormal devel- opment of play behaviors can inevitably influence the lifelong development of these skills. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cannot often understand and produce play actions. This study aimed to measure the effectiveness of each of the two programs: video modeling and reciprocal imitation, in teaching children with ASD play skills. The sample consisted of 18 children with ASD aged 5 to 8 years old, and divided into two experimental groups: the first group in- cluded 9 children with ASD who received a reciprocal imitation program: their mean age is 6.2 years, standard deviation = 0.7, and their mean IQ ratio is 87.23 with a SD = of 5.6. The second group included 9 children with ASD who received a video modeling pro- gram: their mean age is 6.7 years, standard deviation = 0.9, and their mean IQ ratio is 89.10 with SD = of 6.1. The children in both groups belong to two private primary schools associated with this project in Kenitra, Morocco. The results showed that both methods improved play skills in these children with different levels of progress, according to age, autism level, and program type. There were statistically significant differences in the post-test in favor of the video modeling group. Visual stimuli are highly solicited by children with autism. The durability of the effect of training by both methods was verified by comparing the post-test scores and the follow-up measure. The follow-up measurement revealed no significant differences between post-test and follow-up for either group. In general, video modeling was more effective than reciprocal imitation in developing play skills. It was found that learning by modeling the behaviors of peers (re-ciprocal imitation) is one of the effective methods, in teaching and training of most children with ASD for many skills, however video modeling is more effective, because it is based on the regular teaching of measurable behavioral units, and each skill is reduced to small steps.


Gut dysfunction is defined as the impairment of intestinal parenchyma and(or) intestinal function leading to dyspepsia, malabsorption, and(or) intestinal barrier dysfunction. In the stress state, gastrointestinal tract contributes to the physiopathological change, which is considered as the "central organ after stress". Because of ischemia, anoxia and metabolic disturbance, critical illness is frequently complicated with intestinal dysfunction, which is one of the difficulties to treat critically ill patients. Undoubtedly, nutritional support is one of the indispensable therapies of intestinal dysfunction, which is also difficult to manage. This report was aimed to elaborate the definition, causes of intestinal dysfunction, assessment of nutritional status, and design of nutritional support in these patients.


The Covid-19 pandemic in Pamekasan Regency has had a major impact on various aspects of people's lives, especially in terms of health, namely Covid-19 can cause respiratory system disorders, severe lung infections, and even death. The frightening condition of the Covid-19 Pandemic can lead to denial and denial of the truth (Denial Syndrome). Denial Syndrome is a form of self-defense against anxiety against a threatening reality. In the short term Denial Syndrome will help individuals to think logically and make peace with their own fears, but in the long term Denial Syndrome will be dangerous and cause problems for themselves or the environment. Empirical phenomenological research through observations and interviews regarding the behavior of the Pamekasan community in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic shows a prolonged Denial Syndrome, so that the impact is the spread of the virus quickly and widely which results in the number of cases being positively infected with the corona virus and the death increasing. Therefore, every individual must be able to accept and be aware of the existence of the corona virus and its impact on themselves and others by making various efforts so that they can continue to carry out routines without conflicting with government regulations. This can be a solution for individuals to get out of their comfort zone and make peace with themselves and the situation so that this Pandemic can be resolved properly.


A case of thymic hyperplasia in juvenile myasthenia gravis presenting as interval thymic enlargement on serial CT scans is described. The CT scans correlated with clinical worsening.


A dissertation presented on the characterization and optimization of avalanche photodiodes fabricated by standard CMOS process (CMOS-APD) for high-speed photoreceivers, beginning with the theory and principle related to photodetector and avalanche photodiodes, followed by characterization,optimization, and wavelength dependence of CMOS-APD, and finally link up with the transimpedance amplifier. nMOS-type and pMOS-type silicon avalanche photodiodes were fabricated by standard 0.18 μm CMOS process, and the currentvoltage characteristic and the frequency response of the CMOS-APDs with and without the guard ring structure were measured. CMOS-APDs have features of high avalanche gain below 10 V, wide bandwidth over 5 GHz, and easy integration with electronic circuits. In CMOS-APDs, guard ring structure is introduced for high-speed operation with the role of elimination the slow photo generated carriers in a deep layer and a substrate. The bandwidth of the CMOS-APD is enhanced with the guard ring structure at a sacrifice of the responsivity. Based on comparison of nMOS-type and pMOS-type APDs, the nMOS-type APD is more suitable for high-speed operation. The bandwidth is enhanced with decreasing the spacing of
interdigital electrodes due to decreased carrier transit time and with decreasing the detection area and the PAD size for RF probing due to decreased device capacitance. Thus, an nMOS-type APD with the electrode spacing of 0.84 μm, the detection area of 10 x 10 μm², the PAD size for RF probing of 30 x 30 μm² along with the guard ring structure was fabricated. As a results, the maximum bandwidth
of 8.4 GHz at the avalanche gain of about 10 and the gain-bandwidth product of 280 GHz were achieved. Furthermore, the wavelength dependence of the responsivity and the bandwidth of the CMOS-APDs with and without the guard
ring structure also revealed. At a wavelength of 520 nm or less, there is no difference in the responsivity and the frequency response because all the illuminated light is absorbed in the p+-layer and the Nwell due to strong light
absorption of Si. On the other hand, a part of the incident light is absorbed in the Psubstrate and the photo-generated carriers in the P-substrate are eliminated by the guard ring structure for the wavelength longer than 520 nm, and then bandwidth was remarkably enhanced at the sacrifice of the responsivity. In addition, to achieve high-speed photoreceivers, two types of TIA which are common-source
and regulated-cascode TIAs were simulated by utilizing the output of the CMOSAPDs.The figure of merits of gain-bandwidth product was used to find the ideal results of the transimpedance gain and bandwidth performance due to trade-offs between both of them. The common-source TIA produced the transimpedance gain of 22.17 dBΩ, the bandwidth of 21.21 GHz and the gain-bandwidth product of 470.23 THz × dBΩ. Besides that, the simulated results of the regulated-cascade TIA configuration demonstrate 79.45 dBΩ transimpedance gain, 10.64 GHz bandwidth, and 845.35 THz × dBΩ gain-bandwidth product. Both of these TIA results meet the target of this research and further encouraging this successful CMOS-APDs to realize high-speed photoreceivers.


Following systematic exploration, extensive deposits of phosphate rock were discovered near Duchess in northwestern Queensland, Australia. The phosphorite occurs in the lower Middle Cambrian Beetle Creek Formation, within an embayment of the Burke River Outlier, an appendage of the Georgina Basin. Siliceous and calcareous facies are developed within the phosphorite member and the lithological variations were controlled by basement structures active during sedimentation. Similar lithological variations were reflected in overlying and underlying formations. The majority of the phosphorite is pelletal. Sedimentation was essentially non-clastic and was dominated by carbonaceous black chert, fetid limestone and phosphorite. Petrographic and chemical similarities of the phosphorites with other major deposits of the world are described. Phosphorite deposition occurred in a shallow marine environment with restricted access to open sea. The form and composition of the phosphorite are considered to reflect the paleosalinity and redox potential of the depositional environment.


In this paper, Lyapunov's method for determining the stability of non-linear systems under dynamic states is presented. The paper highlights a practical application of the method to investigate the stability of crude oil/natural gas separation process. Mathematical state models for the separation process, used in the application, are developed and presented in the paper. From the results obtained, some guidelines are recommended for a safe and efficient practice of separation of oil + water from oil + water + gas mixture in a crude oil process separator without getting into process instability. The recommended guidelines will be found useful in the oil and gas industry for safe and efficient oil and gas production business.


The purpose of this study was to determine which of four tests, the Acuity Cards, the Dot Visual Acuity test, the Broken Wheel test, or the American Optical (AO) pictures, might be most useful for clinical assessment of visual acuity in 2- and 3-year-olds. Data related to clinical utility including success rates, required test times, reliability, and acuity norms were collected. High success rates and short test times support use of the Acuity Cards for 2-year-olds. For testing 3-year-olds a measure of recognition acuity, the Broken Wheel test, may be most useful


We report a method for measuring diffusion coefficient D of liquids by using an aplanatic and asymmetric cylinder lens with a liquid core, which is designed as both a diffusion pool and the main imaging element. The precision is better than 10−4 RIU in measuring refractive index. The D values of ethylene glycol (EG) in water are measured for various EG concentrations at 25°C, and Dinf = 1.043 × 10−5 cm2/s under the condition of infinite dilution is obtained. The method is characterized by observing the diffusion process directly, faster measurement and obtaining the D value under the condition of infinite dilution.


We present a quantitative method for the nondestructive detection of concealed contraband based on terahertz transmission spectroscopy. Without knowing the prior information of barrier materials, the amount of concealed contraband can be extracted by approximating the terahertz absorbance spectrum of the barrier material with a low-order polynomial and then fitting the measured absorbance spectrum of the inspected object with the polynomial and the known standard spectrum of this kind of contraband. We verify the validity of this method using a sample of explosive 1,3,5-trinitro-s-triazine (RDX) covered with several different barrier materials which are commonly encountered in actual inspection, and good agreement between the calculated and actual value of the amount of RDX is obtained for the experiments performed under both nitrogen and air atmospheres. This indicates that the presented method can achieve quantitative detection of hidden contraband, which is important for security inspection applications.


Although the labor inspection had disclosed considerable exposure to carbon disulfide (CS&inf2;) in a Belgian viscose rayon factory, the company medical officer had not diagnosed any case of polyneuropathy in association with CS&inf2; exposure, although this finding had been extensively reported in the literature. Personal monitoring of CS&inf2; exposure was performed in 17 jobs. Because the working conditions in the factory had not changed since 1932, a CS&inf2; cumulative exposure index (CS&inf2; index) could be calculated for each individual. Examination of the exposed subjects (n = 111) included a self-administered questionnaire, a clinical neurologic examination, and electroneuromyography. Seventy-four workers from other plants, not exposed to CS&inf2; or to any other neurotoxic agent, served as referents. The average CS&inf2; exposures of the study group ranged from 4 to 112 mg/m(3). The data were analyzed with multiple regression methods, adjusting the effect of exposure for a number of possible confounders. Significant associations were found between the cumulative CS&inf2; index and symptoms consistent with polyneuropathy in the legs and with abnormal recruitment pattern and decrease of motor conduction velocities of the peroneal nerves. Exposures to CS&inf2; at levels below the present threshold limit value (31 mg/m(3)) were associated with significant decreases of motor conduction velocity.


ABSTRACT In 5-day-old immunocompetent Sprague-Dawley rats infected with either 102 or 105Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts, transient infection resulted 120 days later in increased cardiovascular depressor response to jejunal distension and jejunal myeloperoxidase activity (P < 0.05). Nitazoxanide treatment normalized jejunal sensitivity (P < 0.001) but not myeloperoxidase levels (P > 0.05). Data warrant further evaluation of the role of early cryptosporidiosis in the development of chronic inflammatory gut conditions.


Cyclotriazadisulfonamide (CADA) inhibits the co‐translational translocation of human CD4 (huCD4) into the endoplasmic reticulum lumen in a signal peptide (SP)‐dependent way. We propose that CADA binds the nascent huCD4 SP in a folded conformation within the translocon resembling a normally transitory state during translocation. Here, we used alanine scanning on the huCD4 SP to identify the signature for full susceptibility to CADA. In accordance with our previous work, we demonstrate that residues in the vicinity of the hydrophobic h‐region are critical for sensitivity to CADA. In particular, exchanging Gln‐15, Val‐17 or Pro‐20 in the huCD4 SP for Ala resulted in a resistant phenotype. Together with positively charged residues at the N‐terminal portion of the mature protein, these residues mediate full susceptibility to the co‐translational translocation inhibitory activity of CADA towards huCD4. In addition, sensitivity to CADA is inversely related to hydrophobicity in the huCD4 SP. In vitro translocation experiments confirmed that the general hydrophobicity of the h‐domain and positive charges in the mature protein are key elements that affect both the translocation efficiency of huCD4 and the sensitivity towards CADA. Besides these two general SP parameters that determine the functionality of the signal sequence, unique amino acid pairs (L14/Q15 and L19/P20) in the SP hydrophobic core add specificity to the sensitivity signature for a co‐translational translocation inhibitor.


Particulate catalysts with streamline shapes have important impacts on fluid-related reactions, and they need to be properly characterized. However, utilization of streamline-shaped catalysts for heterogeneous catalysis has remained an unexplored area due to the lack of easy-to-use techniques to produce such shaped catalysts, especially at the small length scale of the submicron to micron regime. Herein, we report our recent development of a class of prototype nanocatalysts with streamline shapes. In this research, the kinetic control is adapted to obtain streamline-shaped supports, followed by functionalizing such supports with catalytically active metal nanoclusters (e.g., Au, Pd, Pt, and Ag or their combinations) in a stepwise manner. Advantages related to the streamline morphology of catalysts have been demonstrated with a number of solid-solution systems such as alcohol oxidation, olefin hydrogenation, and Suzuki-Miyaura coupling. We believe these findings will promote new research on the design and synthesis of functional materials with additional fluid-advanced features.


The challenge of free software is not that of a new competitor who, under the same rules, produces software faster, cheaper and of a better quality. Free software differs from 'traditional' software in more fundamental aspects, starting with philosophical reasons and motivations, continuing with new economic and market rules and ending up with a different way of producing software. Software Engineering cannot ignore this phenomenon, and the last five years or so has seen ever more research into all these issues. This article takes a look at the most significant studies in this field and the results they are producing, with a view to providing the reader with a vision of the state of the art and the future prospects of what we have come to call free Software Engineering.


A new type of contact-less wafer manipulator, featuring "direct electrostatic levitation and propulsion of silicon wafer" (DELP-SW), has been successfully developed. The novel aspect of this manipulator is that a silicon wafer can be directly levitated and driven via electrostatic forces. In this paper, a brief review of basic principles is presented. This is followed by a description of the structure of a prototype DELP-SW mechanism, including electrode design, position feedback control method, driving principle and the operational procedure. Experimental results which demonstrate completely contact-less transportation of an 8-inch silicon wafer are also presented.


Frequency analysis using the DFT, the DHT, the DCT or the DST is an obvious choice for the entire image and signal processing domain. A chip has been designed to obtain a unified architecture for the DFT/DHT/DCT/DST called DXT. For the low-power budget of many signal processing requirements, e.g. biomedical signal processing, a parallel and pipelined architecture is adopted for the unified design. The parallelism environment provides a real-time and low-power application of biomedical and other signal processing requirements, whereas the pipelined structure ensures high throughput of the design. The DXT architecture uses a CORDIC unit as the basic processing element. The UMC library (europractice) of 0.25 micron CMOS technology has been used to obtain a DXT chip of transform length '7' for the synchronous design. The total dynamic power was found to be 204.89 mW, with an operating frequency of 160 MHz and an operating voltage of 2.5 V.


Implant-associated infection is a serious problem in orthopaedic surgery. Ideal bone filling materials should not only possess excellent biocompatibility, but also have good anti-infection property and osteoinductivity. Herein, magnetic mesoporous carbonated hydroxyapatite microspheres (MHMs) have been fabricated according to the following stages: (i) preparation of CaCO3/Fe3O4 microspheres; and (ii) hydrothermal transformation of magnetic calcium carbonate microspheres into MHMs. MHMs possess well-defined 3D nanostructures constructed by nanoplates as building blocks. The mesopores and macropores exist in and among the nanoplates, respectively. The porous structure makes the MHMs possess a great drug loading efficiency of 73-82%. Gentamicin-loaded MHMs display a sustained drug release property, and the controlled release of gentamicin can prevent biofilm formation against S. epidermidis. Moreover, the MHMs possess a magnetic property with a saturation magnetization strength of 3.98 emu g-1 because Fe3O4 nanoparticles are dispersed in the microspheres. The in vitro cell tests indicate that the magnetic nanoparticles in the MHMs not only promote the cell adhesion and proliferation of human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs), but also stimulate the osteogenic differentiation. MHMs exhibit excellent biocompatibility, osteoinductivity, drug delivery property and bactericidal property, so they have great application potential for the treatment of complicated bone defects.


Objective: The aim of this study was to determine how strongly the performance of navigation tasks is affected by changing electronic map interfaces and by individual differences in spatial ability. Background: Electronic map interfaces have two common configurations, north up and track up. Research suggests that north-up maps benefit some navigational tasks and track-up maps benefit others. However, little research has investigated how map configuration affects the important navigation task of judging cardinal direction or how individual differences in spatial ability interact with map configuration in affecting navigation performance. Method: In an aerial reconnaissance task, 16 participants completed route-following, cardinal direction, and map reconstruction tasks. Participants also completed three spatial ability tests. Results: The track-up map led to better performance on the cardinal direction and route-following tasks. The north-up map led to better performance on the map reconstruction task. Effects of map configuration showed small to medium effect sizes. Spatial ability correlated positively with performance of each navigation task, showing medium to large effect sizes. For some tasks, a helpful map interface compensated for low ability. For other tasks, ability facilitated the performance of the helpful interface; optimal performance required a helpful interface and high ability. Conclusion: Achieving high performance at particular navigation subtasks requires two things: using the map configuration that optimizes subtask performance and having high spatial ability. Application: Some aspects of navigation performance can be improved primarily by using the optimal map configuration; other aspects require using the optimal configuration and having better spatial ability.


In the studies carried out by us, IC50 value of water was determined by using mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial cell lines in in vitro cultures and positive and negative effect doses on the cells were determined. Depending on the results obtained, the effects on the whole organism, if necessary, can be examined in vivo on subjects. For this purpose, young wistar rats are divided into experimental groups (experimental and control) and their water needs are met with water samples obtained from the study area for 3 to 6 months. Blood and urine samples were taken from the subjects in each group at certain time points and the changes were recorded by analyzing the routine biochemistry and hemogram. In addition, the subjects in the sampling are sacrificed at monthly intervals and general examination of endogenous tissues are performed and liver, kidney and heart tissue samples are taken for histological and chemical analyzes. Some of the tissue samples are homogenized using a microwave and changes in elemental content are determined by ICP_OES. The other part is fixed in 10% formaldehyde and then 5 µm thin sections are examined histopathologically according to freeze sectioning method. These studies showed that although the known methods used in water analysis are very valuable, the water quality study carried out by cytotoxic analysis method provides reliability in terms of observing the direct effects of water quality on living tissue. In the present study, in vitro cytotoxicity studies for water samples taken from İncesu Basin are given as examples because of their striking results. Based on the obtained results, it is suggested that in vitro cytotoxicity tests should be added to routine water quality analyzes.


The incubation of herpes simplex virus (HSV) immune murine splenocytes with HSV antigens induced suppressor cells which inhibited HSV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) induction. The cell mediating the suppression was identified as a Thy 1+ Lyt 2+ I-J+ cell. The induction of this suppressor cell required the participation of at least three leukocyte populations. That is, depleting the cultures of either Lyt 1+ or Lyt 2+ splenocytes resulted in a failure to induce suppressor cell activity. Likewise the removal of macrophage-like antigen-presenting cells (APC), in particular I-A- I-J+ APC, abolished suppressor-cell induction. Though the Lyt 2+ I-J+ cells had to be provided by HSV-immune mice, both the APC and the Lyt 1+ cells could be provided by HSV-naive mice. Though the induction of the suppressor cell was virus specific, its action was nonspecific as evidenced by the suppression of influenza-specific CTL induction. The implication of our results for the understanding and manipulation of herpesvirus disease is briefly discussed.


The process of sustainable economic growth is the main condition for the continuity of local economic development. Economic needs will continue to increase along with increasing population growth and so we need an increase in income every year. This can be achieved by increasing aggregate output (goods and services) or PD RB every year. This increase was due to the contribution of the economic sector having shifted although it was relatively insignificant. Sectors that were originally dominant sectors experienced a shift and had an impact on other sectors. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze sector to basic and non-sector basis, changes and shifts between sectors and between sectors in the economic causality area of Medan city. By using secondary data sourced from the field in figures for the years 2003 - 2012, the data analysis method used in this study is to use Location Quotient (LQ), Shift-Share analysis and Granger Causality. The estimation results using Location Quotient (LQ) show that the communication sector, financial institutions and banks, electricity, construction and trade, hotels and restaurants and the service sector are the economic base sectors in Medan. From the analysis of the shift-share increase that occurred at the aggregate level of economic output for 2003 - 2012 and amounted to 83.15 percent due to the effect of economic growth at the provincial level, the overall economic sector of Medan still has a lot of competitiveness or local independence in trade, communication, banking, industrial, building/construction and service sectors.


In this article, we present a general frame for a system of au tomatic modeling and recognition of 3D polyhedral objects. Such a system has many applications for robotics: e.g., recog nition, localization, and grasping. Here we focus on one main aspect of the system: when many images of one 3D object are taken from different unknown viewpoints, how to recognize those that represent the same aspect of the object? Briefly, is it possible to determine automatically if two images are similar or not? The two stages detailed in the article are the matching of two images and the clustering of a set of images. Matching consists of finding the common features of two images while no information is known about the image contents, the motion, or the calibration of the camera. Clustering consists of regrouping into sets the images representing a same aspect of the modeled objects. For both stages, experimental results on real images are shown.


In this chapter we examine the applications of proven experimental methods for the measurment of transport fluids to systems or conditions not extensively investigated at the time of the previous text. Interest in these new systems is driven more by industrial need than intrinsic scientific interest although the latter is not negligible. Molten metals and alloys feature in Sections 6.2 and 6.5 in the context of quite different methods, while molten silicon is treated in Section 6.4. On the other hand molten inorganic salts are discussed in Sections 6.3 and 6.4. Molten organic salts, also known as ionic liquids, are discussed in detail in Section 6.5.


BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a major health concern in developing countries while the risk of bleeding episodes has been reported to be in 2- fold in patients with renal failure. The aim of this study was to assess coagulation parameters in CKD patients.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty patients with CKD and 50, apparently healthy subjects were recruited and studied for prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and fibrinogen level using standard techniques.
RESULTS: The study showed significantly higher mean values for PT and
 APTT in CKD patients compared to the control groups (P˂0.05). Age and
 stages of CKD showed no significant effects on PT, APTT and fibrinogen
 level (P˃0.05). Gender showed no significant influence on PT and APTT
 values (P˃0.05) but revealed significant impact on fibrinogen level (P˂0.05).
CONCLUSION: Changes in coagulation parameters in CKD patients are associated with prolonged PT and APTT while gender, age and stages of CKD had little or no influences on PT, APTT and fibrinogen level. These findings will serve as guide to the physicians in the management and monitoring of CKD patients.


The multifunctional diversity in agroecosystems must be studied from systemic and comprehensive approaches of non-parametric analysis. This article provides a new beta diversity index and biomathematical equations that quantify the agroecological multifunctional entropy of biodiversity. Ten agroecosystems were studied in: Boaco, Carazo, Chinandega, Estelí and Matagalpa. Agroecosystem approaches were conventional versus agroecological. The organisms captured were at 25 points per agroecosystem, for a total of 225 points. The macrofauna surface was identified over 3.1416 m2, in the center a soil monolith of 0.01875 m3 was explored. The data of the analysis required three visions: the first vision is abundance and functional richness forming the Gangia index by inductive method. The second vision is applying antiderivatives together with the Cartesian plane. The third vision is obtaining a global score. In the agroecosystems, 44 families of macrofauna were observed, 32 of them exerted negative functionality: Scarabaeidae, Chrysomelidae, Elateridae, Formicidae and Gryllidae. The families with positive functionality were 12: Lumbricidae, Sthaphylinidae, Rhynotermitidae and Theridiidae. The most important negative function was phytophagous. The positive functions in order of taxonomic richness were: detritivores, predators, omnivores and soil engineers. With the antiderivatives by taxonomic family, polygonal areas were created. The Boaco´s agroecosystems obtained the largest polygonal area with 735 384.5027 u2. The Gangia index of beta diversity was always higher where a greatest number of taxonomic families prevailed exerting positive functions. The Boaco´s agroecosystems obtained the highest value of the Gangia index of beta diversity with 13.72 points.