Recent evidence suggests that organization of the extracellular matrix (ECM) into aligned fibrils or fibril-like ECM topographies promotes rapid migration in fibroblasts. However, the mechanisms of cell migration that are altered by these changes in micro-environmental topography remain unknown. Here, using 1D fibrillar migration as a model system for oriented fibrillar 3D matrices, we find that fibroblast leading-edge dynamics are enhanced by 1D fibrillar micropatterns and demonstrate a dependence on the spatial positioning of cell adhesions. Although 1D, 2D and 3D matrix adhesions have similar assembly kinetics, both 1D and 3D adhesions are stabilized for prolonged periods, whereas both paxillin and vinculin show slower turnover rates in 1D adhesions. Moreover, actin in 1D adhesions undergoes slower retrograde flow than the actin that is present in 2D lamellipodia. These data suggest an increase in mechanical coupling between adhesions and protrusive machinery. Experimental reduction of contractility resulted in the loss of 1D adhesion structure and stability, with scattered small and unstable adhesions, and an uncoupling of adhesion protein-integrin stability. Genetic ablation of myosin IIA (MIIA) or myosin IIB (MIIB) isoforms revealed that MIIA is required for efficient migration in restricted environments as well as adhesion maturation, whereas MIIB helps to stabilize adhesions beneath the cell body. These data suggest that restricted cell environments, such as 1D patterns, require cellular contraction through MIIA to enhance adhesion stability and coupling to integrins behind the leading edge. This increase in mechanical coupling allows for greater leading-edge protrusion and rapid cell migration.


The sensitivity of flexural vibration for an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever with a crack has been studied. An explicit expression for the sensitivity of vibration modes of the cracked cantilever has been obtained using the relationship between the resonant frequency and contact stiffness of the cantilever and sample. Results show that the sensitivities of the three modes of the cracked cantilever are higher than those of the cantilever without crack when the contact stiffness is low. When the contact stiffness is high, however, the situation is reverse. Therefore, a cracked AFM cantilever can be used for imaging soft samples such as biological molecules and polymers. In addition, the crack near the free end of cantilever that leads to a higher sensitivity. This is useful for the design of a highly sensitive cantilever.


It is at the risk of being trite to observe that health is very much an interdisciplinary enterprise and nowhere moreso than in health care planning. It is however one thing to call an enterprise interdisciplinary and quite another to achieve it. In the present volume the authors have attempted to construct a paradigm that will facilitate and promote communication between the actors who usually comprise the health care planning team.
One of the dangers of writing a book by committee is that the result will be to literature what the Duckbilled Platypus is to the animal kingdom. Happily the present volume turns out to be a surprisingly smooth, well integrated, and non-repetitious little volume for a team of 27 authors from 15 countries. The principal editors, sponsored by the International Epidemiological Association and the World Health Organization, have done a yeoman, successful, and altogether useful job in selecting, editing, and puting together this handbook from what must have been a mountain of material.


In this study, water hyacinth, sweet sorghum bagasse and amaranth stems were used in a pig manure matrix to produce biogas with a high methane content. The anaerobic digestion was monitored over a period of 40 days, after which the biogas production significantly decreased. Samples were taken of the gas and the leachate every 5 days to monitor the production of gas and to evaluate the formation of volatile fatty acids in the leachate. The pH of the leachate was monitored using a pH meter and the cell growth in the leachate was monitored using ultraviolet spectrometry. The biogas composition was determined using gas chromatography and the volatile fatty acids in the leachate was quantified using HPLC. It was found that the addition of lignocellulose to a pig manure matrix resulted in a significant increase in the methane content and a decrease in the carbon dioxide content of the biogas. The leachate contained high amounts of volatile fatty acids such as acetic acid, lactic acid, succinic acids and butyric acid. The research showed that co-digestion in an anaerobic digester can be used to manipulate the composition of both the produced biogas and the leachate obtained after digestion.


Magnesium diboride (MgB2) thin films are a potential alternative to low-temperature superconductors (LTS) due to a higher critical temperature (Tc) of approximately 39 K. The reactive evaporation deposition technique also affords relatively simple growth of MgB2 films on flexible substrates compared to high-temperature superconductors (HTS). We have designed and fabricated a cable architecture consisting of MgB2 traces on flexible yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) compatible with commercially available connectors or direct wirebonds. Key performance metrics such as critical current density (Jc) and Tc are measured and compared. We discuss thermal conductivity and passivation schemes for these cables.


When the rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ) is 20–25 years old, the latex yield is not economically worthwhile. The rubber tree will be cut down. The rubber wood cut down is processed into dried rubber wood and will be used in downstream industries. The remaining are roots of trees and wood or branches that are not utilized, including rubber waste from wood processing plants and wood production plants, including wood slabs, sawdust, wood (flawed) and shavings. These parts of rubber trees can be used as biomass fuel. The study of timber that provides quality wood for biomass fuel is therefore necessary. Traditional rubber wood quality analysis (conventional method) is complicated, takes time and high cost. Therefore, this research aimed to develop a quality analysis of the biomass rubber with visible–near infrared (Vis-NIR) technique in order to create new alternative testing. In this study, Vis-NIR spectroscopy was employed to determine hemicellulose, cellulose, nitrogen (N), carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and moisture contents in rubber wood as biomass for energy utilization. The 120 rubber samples from 10 varieties were selected from three parts of trunk, limb and root with each aged twenty years. All samples were ground and measured using the reflectance mode in the Vis-NIR region of 680–2,500 nm. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) models for the quantitative determination of hemicellulose, cellulose, N, C, H and moisture contents in rubber wood samples were built. PLSR models were developed from the region of Vis-NIR spectra and the analyzed contents were determined by the reference method. The calibration models yielded acceptable statistical results for quantitative analysis of N with the coefficients of determination (R 2 ) of 0.847, moisture with R 2 of 0.839, hemicellulose with R 2 of 0.835, H with R 2 of 0.747, C with R 2 of 0.664 and cellulose with R 2 of 0.596. The results showed that the entire wavelength region of 680–2,500 nm provides more reliable PLS models (N, C, cellulose, and moisture) than those of models using a shorter wavelength region of 680–1,246 nm (hemicellulose and H). For rapid biomass testing, the PLS models created by the suitable data obtained from a flexible wavelength range selection of Vis-NIR spectrometer illustrated high feasibility for screening rubber wood properties.


Background: Risk factors and outcomes of revision arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair of the shoulder are currently not well defined. Hypothesis: Athletes who require revision arthroscopic posterior unidirectional capsulolabral repair will have poorer outcomes and return to play when compared with those undergoing primary procedures, with risk factors including younger age, injury size, bone loss, and anchor number. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A total of 297 shoulders that underwent arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair at minimum 2-year follow-up were reviewed. In addition to surgical data, the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons scoring system with subjective stability, range of motion, strength, and pain scores as well as return to sport were compared pre- and postoperatively between those who did and did not require revision surgery. Magnetic resonance arthrogram measurements of glenoid labral, chondral, and bone version and labral and bone width were also compared. Results: Nineteen shoulders required revision surgery (6.4%) at 8.9-year follow-up. Significant risk factors included female sex (P = .001), dominant shoulder (P = .005), and concomitant rotator cuff injury (P = .029). Patients with ≤3 anchors were more likely to require revision (odds ratio = 3.48). Smaller glenoid bone width was a risk factor for requiring future revision surgery (P < .001), but glenoid labral, chondral, and bone version and labral width were not risk factors. All patients had significant improvements in American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, pain, range of motion, and strength scores after the original surgery; however, those who required revision surgery had less improvement (P < .05). Stability improved significantly for nonrevisions (P < .001) but did not for revisions (P = .662). In the nonrevision group, 64.3% returned to sport at the same level, which was significantly higher than the 15.4% of the revision group (P = .004). Overall, 78.6% of the nonrevision group and 61.6% of the revision group returned to sport at some level (P = .280). Conclusion: Athletes underwent revision arthroscopic posterior capsulolabral repair at an incidence of 6.4%. Revision patients had significantly poorer outcome scores and return to play when compared with those who did not undergo revision surgery with risk factors being dominant shoulder surgery, female sex, concomitant rotator cuff injury, the use of 3 or fewer anchors, and smaller glenoid bone width. These data are essential for patient selection, optimal treatment techniques, and patient education as posterior shoulder instability failure requiring revision has not previously been evaluated.


Background: The objective of the present in vitro study was to evaluate the ability of a novel self-assembling peptide matrix gel with calcium phosphate in effectively occluding dentine tubules compared to selected desensitizing toothpastes. Methods: Mid-coronal dentine discs with a thickness of 1 mm were sectioned from caries-free human molars. The discs were etched with 6% citric acid for 2 minutes, halved and subjected to a 2-minute brushing with a novel gel (SAPM) and three selected desensitizing toothpastes ([SRP], [SRR] and [CSP]). The ability of the desensitizing gel and toothpastes to occlude the dentine tubules was assessed and compared before and after brushing using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on both etched and fractured dentine surfaces. The SEM observations were supplemented by hydraulic conductance measurements using a modified Pashley model before and after tooth brushing (n=5). Results: The results demonstrated that there was a reduction in both the number and the diameter of the open dentine tubules, which was evident for all the treated dentine discs. The particles that occluded the open dentine tubules, however had different morphologies and distribution. The self-assembling peptide matrix gel (SAPM) demonstrated the greater reduction in the number of open tubules compared to the other desensitizing toothpastes. Reductions in the hydraulic conductance measurements were observed for all tested materials (mean [SD, %]: SAPM 55.1 [12.5], SRP 64.9 [18.5], SRR 39.1 [17.1] and CSP 27.6 [6.8]). No statistically differences were observed between the SAPM and SRP, SRR toothpastes (paired t-Test; ≤0.05) although a significant difference was noted between the SAPM and the CSP toothpastes. There was an overall trend for reduction for the SAPM compared to the SRR toothpaste. Conclusion: The results would suggest that a novel self-assembling peptide matrix gel (SAPM) was effective in blocking the dentine tubules and may therefore have the potential to be an effective desensitizing product for the treatment of Dentine Hypersensitivity.


This paper deals with some of the difficulties involved in correctly linking the mechanical and thermodynamic descriptions of situations where there are bodies in motion and changes in temperature and/or heat exchanges. It proposes and discusses a definition of internal energy and shows that the total work of the non-conservative forces, such as frictional forces, always equals zero. The energy balances of two bodies in motion in the presence of sliding friction are analysed in this way; the calculation of the work of frictional forces is discussed, taking into account the mesoscopic level.


This groundbreaking new source of international scope defines the essay as nonfictional prose texts of between one and 50 pages in length. The more than 500 entries by 275 contributors include entries on nationalities, various categories of essays such as generic (such as sermons, aphorisms), individual major works, notable writers, and periodicals that created a market for essays, and particularly famous or significant essays. The preface details the historical development of the essay, and the alphabetically arranged entries usually include biographical sketch, nationality, era, selected writings list, additional readings, and anthologies


1. Most animals do not grow at their maximal rate. This might appear puzzling because the early attainment of a large body size incurs several selective benefits, such as reduced risk of predation and earlier reproductive output. Several hypotheses have been suggested to explain this paradox. Among them, the cost due to high levels of oxidative stress, as the consequence of sustained metabolic activity during growth, has been put forward. 2. In this study, we wished to assess this cost in captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In order to manipulate access to food and consequently early growth, hatchlings were randomly assigned to reduced or enlarged broods. Even though nestlings raised in enlarged broods were smaller when 20-days-old compared to nestlings raised in reduced broods, they grew faster during the following 20-day period. 3. When 60-days-old, we measured the resistance of red blood cells against a free radical attack and correlated these values to nestling growth rate. In agreement with the prediction, we found that red blood cell resistance to free radicals was negatively correlated with growth rate, nestlings that grew faster being those with the weakest capacity to resist a free radical attack. These results support the hypothesis that oxidative damage might constrain growth rate. Furthermore, the fact that the relationship was only established during the period of accelerated growth after the initial delay also suggests that compensatory growth can negatively affect the individual resistance to oxidative damage.


This book is designed as a general introduction to human genetics for students with diverse interests and also for the general reader familiar with basic biology, chemistry and elementary algebra. A readable introduction sets the stage with a survey of the rules of inheritance, the construction of pedigrees, cell division and chromosome behaviour and the development of sex differences. This is followed by sections directed to different major aspects. The cytogenetic section covers the commoner aberrations and their mode of origin. There is an up-to-date account of X-inactivation and a summary of the frequency of aberrations in different populations. Gene transmission covers segregation, a useful summary of probability rules, recombination and linkage, including molecular and cell hybridization methods of gene localization. For lod scores the reader is referred to more advanced accounts. There follows a discussion of gene structure and function, DNA and its replication, protein synthesis, recombinant enzymes and their applications. Inborn errors of metabolism, blood groups and the immune system complete this section. The last major section is devoted to the topic which the average student finds more difficult, namely population and quantitative genetics. Here the authors present the basic concepts but do not deal with the interpretation of correlation between relatives in terms of the underlying model, but refer the reader to more specialized literature. The book is rounded off with a discussion of the implications of genetics for the management of fertilization, now and in the future, and the kind of problems it poses.


Intravenous daratumumab is approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. In part 1 of the PAVO study, a mix-and-deliver subcutaneous formulation of daratumumab with recombinant human hyaluronidase PH20 (rHuPH20) was well tolerated, with low rates of infusion-related reactions and an efficacy similar to that of intravenous daratumumab. Part 2 of PAVO evaluated a concentrated, pre-mixed co-formulation of daratumumab and rHuPH20 (DARA SC). Patients who had received two or more prior lines of therapy, including a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory drug, were given daratumumab (1,800 mg) and rHuPH20 (30,000 U) in 15 mL subcutaneously over 3 to 5 minutes as per the approved intravenous monotherapy dosing schedule. Primary endpoints were daratumumab trough concentration at the end of weekly dosing (just prior to the day 1 dose of cycle 3) and safety. Twenty-five patients were enrolled in PAVO part 2. DARA SC achieved daratumumab trough concentrations similar to or greater than those achieved with intravenous daratumumab 16 mg/kg. The adverse event profile of DARA SC was consistent with that of intravenous daratumumab, with no new safety concerns and a lower infusion-related reaction rate. At a median follow-up of 14.2 months, the overall response rate was 52%, the median duration of response was 15.7 months, and the median progression-free survival was 12.0 months. DARA SC 1,800 mg was well tolerated in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, with a low infusion-related reaction rate and reduced administration time. Daratumumab serum concentrations following DARA SC were consistent with those following intravenous dosing, and deep and durable responses were observed. Based on these results, ongoing studies are investigating DARA SC in the treatment of multiple myeloma and other conditions. (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02519452).


This article focuses attention on the institutional context of cross-sector collaboration and its effects on partnership management. Drawing on fieldwork and 54 interviews from 2011 to 2013, we investigate an innovative public–nonprofit partnership within a local unit of the National Park Service. The collaboration demonstrates the power and potential of public–nonprofit partnerships while revealing tensions that cross-sector activities can provoke in an organizational field. We focus on two ongoing processes of institutional change in the nonprofit sector that shape these dynamics: (a) managerialism and (b) empowered agency. We illustrate these processes and suggest that they alter the context for partnerships in national parks, particularly with respect to capacity and control. We conclude by offering several propositions about institutional change and the broader implications of a shifting context for public–nonprofit partnerships.


Evidence exists to state that the main sleep states, slow wave (SWS) and rapid eye
movement (REM) periods perform two complementary roles for post-novelty
memory consolidation: respectively neuronal reverberation for short-term recall
(PLoS Bio., 2:0126, 2004); and synaptic plasticity for long-term storage (Learn.
Mem. 6: 500, 1999). Moreover, memory traces gradually migrate from
hippocampus (HP) to primary somatosensory cortex (SI) through consecutive
waves of neuronal reverberation during SWS (Frontiers Neurosci., 1:43, 2007).
Our goal is to test this hypothesis by assessing the importance of sleep
reverberatory phenomena in memory consolidation. Adult male Long Evans rats (n
= 3) received implants of electrode array (32 microwires) in SI for multi-site
single-unit and local field potential (LFP) recordings; and a bilateral cannula in HP
for local neuronal inhibition through muscimol micro-injection (0.5 μl; 1 mg/ml;
0.25 μl/min). Novel tactile stimulation was provided by a 20 minutes exposure to
four objects at the end of the first third of a 12 hours recording session. Muscimol

was injected after animals reached a criterion of 30 minutes of SWS in the post-
exposure period, as assessed by an online state map algorithm (Frontiers

Neurosci., 1:43, 2007). Memory consolidation was assessed by comparing
exploration times of animals re-exposed to two familiar plus two new objects over
several post-novelty days. Firing rates strongly increased during object exploration
and remained elevated afterwards during waking. SI single-unit activity during
SWS showed even greater Post/Pre differences in firing rates, displaying periodic
waves of reverberation yet to be understood. Muscimol application in the
hippocampus completely abolished cortical reverberation a few minutes after
micro-injection. Hippocampal deactivation by muscimol induced an electrographic
rhythm characterized by greater power in the delta band as revealed by LFP
recordings. This rhythm was distinctly separated from the SWS spectral cluster in the state map. Importantly, the time spent in exploration of the new objects was not
significantly different from the time spent exploring familiar objects, indicating
impairment in the learning of object identities. The results suggest that inhibition
of HP neuronal activity 1) impaired SI neuronal reverberation during SWS
(possibly by altering slow wave stereotypical brain rhythm) and 2) led to
decreased memory consolidation for familiar objects.


This paper tries to find out if China's political system is becoming more specialized and institutionalized in the reform era by examining the structure of the legislative committees. After examining changes made to the composition of the NPC committees, the paper concludes that the policy of rejuvenation has actually made it hard for the seniority system to take root. The average time served by members of the legislative committees is on the decline, adding additional challenge to the stability of the institution. Although size of the committees has been enlarged and daily operations have been regularized, the autonomy of the legislative committees is obviously still fragile. While the party's presence might not be as predominant as before, 80% of the committee members are still CCP party members. In general the level of education among committee members is pretty high, but professionalism remains a distant goal. The same old rule of proportional representation under which different segments of the population is proportionally represented is still in place, sapping the efforts of professionalization. Overall, it is found that specialization and institutionalization are still restricted. In the foreseeable future, it is not unimaginable that more professionalization might accrue but it is long way off towards the goal of being a full-fledged legislature of which autonomy is an essential part.


This paper presents the modular extension of a BiCMOS technology. Three different modules, namely RF-MEMS switch, through-silicon-via (TSV) and microfluidics, are added to IHP's BiCMOS technologies. The first extension module of RF-MEMS switch adds a high-performance mechanical switch, providing unique features such as low-loss switching or high-Q tuning at mm-wave frequencies. The TSV module, which adds deep vias through the substrate (silicon), provides low-ohmic vias through the front side to back side of the silicon wafer. Using this module, the back side of the silicon chip can be used as the RF-ground. Furthermore, such vias through the substrate enables the 3D integrated packages. The last extension module, microfluidics, adds the micro-channels inside the BiCMOS chip. Such micro-channels are very promising for bio-sensing applications for THz detection. The brief technological information of each module and some design examples are also provided in this paper.


Bombardment of La139 targets with 80to lO-Mev 0 16 ions has resulted in the identification of a new alpha adtivity decaying with a half-life of 4.3±0 . 2 min and an alpha-particle energy of 3.99±0.03 Mev. Subsequent experiments have established that the activity is due to an isomeric state of Tb It is proposed that the isomerism is due to the filling of an h 1112 proton state for the spherical Tb isotopes.


This article presents the main findings of a study on the advantages of robotics for live line maintenance on high and very high voltage lines in France. The study includes two sections. The first part consists of determining what line and substation maintenance work can be done by remote controlled operation or by robots and how much it would cost. The objective of the second section is to determine whether the use of robot technology can help reduce the size of lines and substations, making it possible to integrate them better into the environment.<<ETX>>


A case of NMS was reported. NMS is an uncommon but potentially lethal complication of treatment with neuroleptics. The diagnosis of NMS should seriously be considered in any individual receiving neuroleptic medications who develops unexplained fever associated with muscle rigidity. The discontinuation of neuroleptics and the use of general supportive measures are crucial. On the basis of more rapid clinical response, either bromocriptine or dantrolene could be added to traditional supportive care.


Loss of hearing is a national health problem with significant physical and psychological repercussions. Although there is no cure for certain forms of hearing loss, many patients can be helped, especially when the problem is recognized early. The authors discuss the important role of primary care physicians in early identification, management, and counseling of hearing-impaired patients.


Iron is one of the most crucial elements in the human body. In recent years, a kind of programmed, non-apoptotic cell death closely related to iron metabolism-called ferroptosis- has aroused much interest among many scientists. Ferroptosis also interacts with other pathways involved in cell death including iron abnormality, the cystine/glutamate antiporter and lipid peroxidation. Together these pathological pathways exert great impacts on intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), a lethal cerebrovascular disease with a high incidence rate and mortality rate. Furthermore, the ferroptosis also affects different brain cells (neurons and neuroglial cells) and different organelles (mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum). Clinical treatments for ferroptosis in ICH have been closely investigated recently. This perspective provides a comprehensive summary of ferroptosis mechanisms after ICH and its interaction with other cell death patterns. Understanding the role of ferroptosis in ICH will open new windows for the future treatments and preventions for ICH and other intracerebral diseases.


Should a redistributive government optimally subsidize education to provoke a reduction in the skill premium through general equilibrium effects on wages? To answer this question, this paper studies optimal linear and non-linear redistributive income taxes and education subsidies in two-type models with endogenous human capital formation, endogenous labor supply, and endogenous wage rates. Under optimal linear policies, education should not be subsidized so as to reduce the skill premium. Linear income taxes are distributionally equivalent to (negative) linear education subsidies, but linear taxes do not distort investment in human capital, whether general equilibrium effects are present or not. If skilled labor supply is more elastic than unskilled labor supply, optimal redistributive linear income taxes are lowered as the distributional gains of linear taxes are offset by a rise in the skill premium. Moreover, the optimal linear income tax may even become negative if general equilibrium effects are sufficiently strong. Under non-linear taxation, governments can directly steer the skill premium by exploiting non-linearities in the policy schedules. At the top, the optimal marginal income tax rate is negative, and the optimal marginal education subsidy is positive. At the bottom, the optimal marginal income tax rate is positive, and education is optimally taxed at the margin. Hence, optimal non-linear tax and education policies compress wage differentials, which contributes to redistribution. Simulations show that the top rate and marginal education subsidies are close to zero for a wide range of plausible parameters. Only when high-ability and low-ability workers are rather poor substitutes in production, marginal education subsidies on the high type and marginal education taxes on the low type substantially differ from zero. JEL Code: H2, H5, I2, J2.


We prepared a stable lyophilized hemoglobin control from human erythrocytes by removing stroma with calcium and Ficoll. Addition of polyhydroxy compounds enhanced reconstitution and stability. The lyophilized product was stable during one year of use in a service laboratory. Accelerated aging studies demonstrated the potential of up to two years of stability, with methemoglobin increasing at a projected rate of approximately 6% per year. Reconstituted, the control gave reproducible values for at least five days when refrigerated.


Reports to U.S. poison control centers of possible nicotine toxicity tripled from 2012 to 2013.1,2 Although nicotine toxicity is not a new phenomenon, the emergence of electronic cigarettes ("e-cigarettes") has spawned a market for highly concentrated liquid nicotine. This phenomenon has resulted in unprecedented access to potentially toxic doses of nicotine and other harmful compounds in the home. We report a case of a child who was poisoned by e-cigarette refill liquid ("e-liquid").


Sixty cross combinations consisting of 15 intervarietal indica, 15 intervarietal japonica and 15 crosses each of inter-subspecific and three-way crosses were generated through different mating patterns in kharif 2008 and evaluated for hybrid sterility under two different agroecologies of Kashmir during kharif 2009. The estimates of pollen and spikelet sterility were very high in indica /japonica crosses followed by indica/indica andjaponica/japonica crosses. The magnitude of pollen and spikelet sterilities were observed high in L1 × T1followed by L4 × T3, L1 × T3, L5 × T3, L3 × T3 and so on all belonging to inter-subspecific group. The mean estimates of pollen and spikelet sterilities of different crossing blocks were very high when compared to their corresponding parental mean. Only inter-subspecific cross L1 × T2 yielded pollen and spikelet sterilities of less than 50% and another three crosses revealed a range between 50 and 70% for these traits. Five crosses were grouped as highly sterile by depicting sterility estimates greater than 70%. The mean estimates of pollen sterility and spikelet sterility for inter-subspecific crosses got reduced to the level of 30.80 and 25.75% respectively through three-way crosses by deploying wide compatibility cultivar (WCV) (Dular) as bridging parent. The estimated mean percentage overcome was 36.62% for pollen sterility and 63.92% for spikelet sterility. Such kind of modest attempt has widened the genetic variability by combining the genetic background across the two sub species and tailors the new genotypes. This in turn has paved way for the concept of ideotype breeding for unique cold temperate agroecologies.

 Key words: Hybrid sterility, inter-subspecific crosses, intra-subspecific crosses, rice, wide compatibility cultivar (WCV).


Antiferromagnetic skyrmions are considered to be promising information carriers due to their attractive properties. Therefore, the pinning phenomenon of antiferromagnetic skyrmions is of great significance. With the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, we simulate the nonstationary dynamic behaviors of skyrmions driven by currents in a chiral antiferromagnetic thin film with quenched disorder. Based on the dynamic scaling forms, the critical current and static and dynamic critical exponents of the depinning phase transition are accurately determined. A theoretical analysis using Thiele's approach is presented in comparison with the numerical simulation. Unlike the ferromagnetic skyrmions, the critical current of the antiferromagnetic skyrmions is very sensitive to a small nonadiabatic coefficient. This is important for manipulating antiferromagnetic skyrmions and designing novel information processing devices.


Douglas-fir has life history traits that greatly enhance resistance to injury from fire, thereby increasing post-fire survival rates. Tools for predicting the probability of tree mortality following fire are important components of both pre-fire planning and post-fire management efforts. Using data from mixed-severity wildfire in Montana and Wyoming, Hood and Bentz (2007) developed models for predicting the probability of Douglas-fir mortality and Douglas-fir bark beetle attack based on fire injury and stand characteristics. This guide is based on information in Hood and Bentz (2007) and is intended for use in development of post-fire management and prescribed burn plans. Included are descriptions of both models and variables that significantly influence post-fire Douglas-fir mortality and bark beetle attack. A supplemental field guide provides photographs of a range of levels for each fire-related injury and descriptions for measuring each characteristic in the field. Also provided are discussions on how to interpret Douglas-fir mortality and bark beetle attack models for use in management decision-making regarding wild and prescribed fires in the Northern Rocky Mountains.


This chapter provides a review of recent advances in understanding the importance of alternative pre‐messenger RNA splicing in stem cell biology. The majority of transcribed pre‐mRNAs undergo RNA splicing where introns are excised and exons are juxtaposed to form mature messenger RNA sequences. This regulated, selective removal of whole or portions of exons by alternative splicing provides avenues for control of RNA abundance and proteome diversity. We discuss several examples of key alternative splicing events in stem cell biology and provide an overview of recently developed microarray and sequencing technologies that enable systematic and genome‐wide assessment of the extent of alternative splicing during stem cell differentiation.


A floristic and structural survey of the tree community in different environments (slope, Arboreal Caatinga and ecotone to savannah) were carried out in Cavernas do Peruacu National Park, North of Minas Gerais. We aimed to test the following hypotheses: 1 - There is floristic differentiation among the environments; 2 - All environments have the same structural characteristics. Venn Diagrams were used to compare both the shared and unshared species among the environments. Tree distribution by diameter classes for each environment was made by means of frequency histograms. An Indicator Species Analysis and usual phytossociological parameters were used. A total of 305 species were found, distributed in 173 genera and 48 families, of which 166 were found in the slope, 204 in the Arboreal Caatinga and 155 in the ecotone. 54 species were exclusive to the slope, 65 to the Arboreal Caatinga and 35 to the ecotone and only 69 species were common to all three environments. 1391 individuals were sampled, yielding an estimated density of 1340.62, 1765 and 1280 individuals.ha-1 respectively for the slope, Arboreal Caatinga and ecotone. The basal area reached 47.64, 30.05 and 23.29 m2.ha-1, respectively for the slope, Arboreal Caatinga and ecotone. The Shannon diversity index and Pielou's evenness were, respectively, 3.49 and 0.80 for the slope, 3.74 and 0.84 for the Arboreal Caatinga and 3.61 and 0.85 for the ecotone. The Arboreal Caatinga and the slope presented a gradual decrease in frequency towards the higher diameter classes whereas the ecotone tended to follow a normal distribution.


Synopsis : The fluid flow induced by electro-magnetic stirrer at the mold and the negative segregation caused by the fluid flow were investigated. The surface velocity of molten steel was obtained from the analysis of movie film taken by a high speed camera, and the flow velocity below the meniscus was estimated as compared with the fluid flow of low melting temperature metal. The experiment was carried out for low, middle and high carbon steels (0.13%C•`0.64%C). From the experimental result, it has been found that the degree of the negative segregation increases with the increase of flow velocity and with the decrease of carbon content of steel. The maximum depth in the mushy zone washed by bulk liquid and the width of the mushy zone are calculated, and the reason of the increase of the degree of negative segregation with the decrease of carbon content of steel is considered.


Quick network address translation (NAT) is proposed to improve the network performance of the NAT system on the commodity server by three ways. First, the quick NAT search algorithm is designed to use the Hash search instead of the sequential search to reduce latency when looking up the NAT rule table. Second, to leverage the power of the multi-core central processing unit (CPU) and the multi-queue network interface card, Quick NAT enables multiple CPU cores to process in parallel. The localized connection tracking table and the compare-and-swap based lock-free NAT Hash tables are designed to eliminate the lock overhead. Third, Quick NAT uses the polling and zero-copy delivery to reduce the cost of interrupt and packet copies. The evaluation results show that Quick NAT obtains high scalability and line-rate throughput on the commodity server.


There are an estimated 200 million users of an illicit drug in the world today. In addition, an estimated 40 million people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and an estimated 180 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Both the use of an illicit drug and the co-occurrence of infections are associated with a multitude of medical and health consequences including hormonal and metabolic disorders. Thus, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hosted a workshop on hormonal and metabolic disorders of HIV among substance abusers. A number of clinicians and scientists participated and discussed a wide range of issues concerning hormones, nutrition and metabolic complications in HIV and substance abuse. Their observations and the recommendations they made for future research are presented in these proceedings. The readers are encouraged to contact the NIH staff (JK, FV) for technical guidance and programmatic priorities on the subject and directly contact the individual authors for collaborations.


Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are responsible for propagating signals derived from visual stimuli in the eye to the brain, along their axons within the optic nerve to the superior colliculus, lateral geniculate nucleus and visual cortex of the brain. Damage to the optic nerve either through trauma, such as head injury, or degenerative disease, such as glaucoma causes irreversible loss of function through degeneration of non-regenerating RGC axons and death of irreplaceable RGCs, ultimately leading to blindness (Berry et al., 2008). The degeneration of RGCs and their axons is due to the loss of the necessary source of retrogradely transported neurotrophic factors (NTFs) being hindered by axonal injury. NTFs are survival factors for neurons and play a pivotal part in axon regeneration. Stem cells particularly mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to possess a natural intrinsic capacity for paracrine support, releasing multiple signalling molecules including NTFs. By transplanting MSCs into the vitreous, they are positioned adjacent to the injured retina to provide paracrine-mediated therapy for the retinal neuronal cells (Johnson et al., 2010a; Mead et al., 2013). Additionally, MSCs may be pre-differentiated into supportive glial-like cells, such as Schwann cells, which could further increase their potential for paracrine support of injured neurons (Martens et al., 2013). Thus, MSCs have received considerable attention as a new cellular therapy for both traumatic and degenerative eye disease, acting as an alternative source of NTFs, protecting injured RGCs and promoting regeneration of their axons (Figure 1).


This paper summarizes and analyzes library literature of the 1980s and 1990s about the library situation in Botswana. A prominent issue discovered in those writings in that of the appropriate model for library development: should it be the U.S./European pattern or an indigenous one? One solution suggested is to follow Western models for research libraries, while developing new models for public libraries. In fact, certain Western practice is being followed and written about, for example time and workflow studies are being carried out, and authority control in the University of Botswana is achieved through the use of CD–MARC. Other writings discuss the library education program at the University of Botswana, library cooperation, and the need to collect development literature.


Time course of population mortality in Siberia in 1985-1999, mean life span of men and women, major mortality causes in the neonatal and capable age are presented. Population health loss resultant from mortality, morbidity, and disability is evaluated.


Data visualization is by far the most commonly used mechanism to explore data, especially by novice data analysts and data scientists. And yet, current visual analytics tools are rather limited in their ability to guide data scientists to interesting or desired visualizations: the process of visual data exploration remains cumbersome and time-consuming. We propose zenvisage, a platform for effortlessly visualizing interesting patterns, trends, or insights from large datasets. We describe zenvisage's general purpose visual query language, ZQL ("zee-quel") for specifying the desired visual trend, pattern, or insight - ZQL draws from use-cases in a variety of domains, including biology, mechanical engineering, climate science, and commerce. We formalize the expressiveness of ZQL via a visual exploration algebra, and demonstrate that ZQL is at least as expressive as that algebra. While analysts are free to use ZQL directly, we also expose ZQL via a visual specification interface that we describe in this paper. We then describe our architecture and optimizations, preliminary experiments in supporting and optimizing for ZQL queries in our initial zenvisage prototype, and a user study to evaluate whether data scientists are able to effectively use zenvisage for real applications.


In this study, the results of a phytosociological research carried out in the halophytic communities of the Sultansazligi marsh are given (Inner Anatolia-Kayseri). The halophytic vegetation, which is under the influence of a semi-arid, very cold Mediterranean climate, was analyzed according to the Braun-Blanquet's approach. The communities which are defined for the first time are named according to the rules of "International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature". Associations and their higher units are as follows: Class: Salicornietea Order: Halostachyetalia 1. Association: Halocnemetum strobilacei Alliance: Lepidio caespitosi-Limonion iconici 2. Association: Lepidio caespitosi-Limonietum iconici Order: Juncetalia maritimi Alliance: Inulo aucheranae-Elymion salsi 3. Association: Inulo aucheranae-Elymetum salsi 4. Association: Tamaricetum parviflorae-tetrandrae ass. nov.


1. Some aspects of the physiology of sound production in the Brazilian cicada Fidicana rana Walker have been investigated. 2. Three types of natural song are described. Singing can also be induced by electrical stimulation of the head. 3. The tymbal muscles are neurogenically activated and contract alternately. 4. The directional properties of the sound field produced by clicking of the tymbal are described, and the physical properties of the system necessary to produce this directionality are discussed. 5. Removal of the abdomen does not decrease the sound intensity during song produced by electrical stimulation, hence it is concluded that the abdominal air sac does not act as a resonant chamber. 6. The means whereby the sound intensity is varied are discussed. 7. A brief account is given of the occurrence of the different types of song in the natural habitat.


Background: Microelectrode recording (MER) for target refinement is widely used in deep brain stimulator insertion for Parkinson disease. Signals may be influenced by anesthetics when patients receive general anesthesia (GA). This study determined the inhibitory concentration (IC) of propofol on MER signals when it was coadministered with dexmedetomidine. Methods: Patients were anesthetized with dexmedetomidine (0.5 μg·kg−1 loading, followed by infusion at 0.4 μg·kg−1h−1) and propofol through target-controlled infusion for GA with tracheal intubation. The surgeon conducted the online scoring of the background signals, spiking frequency, amplitude, and pattern of single-unit activities by using a 0–10 verbal numerical rating scale (NRS; 0, maximal suppression; 10, minimal suppression), and responses were grouped into suppression (NRS ≤ 6) and nonsuppression (NRS > 6). The median inhibitory concentration (IC50) of propofol (as target effect-site concentrations: Ceprop) was determined using modified Dixon's up-and-down method. Probit regression analysis was further used to obtain the dose–response relationship, and IC05 and IC95 were calculated. Results: Twenty-three adult patients participated in this study. Under the concomitant infusion of dexmedetomidine, the predicted IC50 value (95% CI) of Ceprop for neuronal suppression during MER was 1.29 (1.24–1.34) μg·mL−1 as calculated using modified Dixon's up-and-down method. Using probit analysis, the estimated IC05, IC50, and IC95 values (95% CIs) were 1.17 (0.87–1.23), 1.28 (1.21–1.34), and 1.40 (1.33–1.85) μg·mL−1, respectively. Conclusion: Our data provided reference values of propofol for dosage adjustment to avoid interference on MER under GA when anesthetics have to be continuously infused during recording.


Rapid electrode tip degradation and inconsistent joint strength are two major problems associated with resistance spot welding of aluminum alloys. A new approach of lubricating the contact between electrode and aluminum sheet to influence and perhaps extend the electrode life was examined. Different metalworking lubricants were placed between the electrode and aluminum sheet to produce different surface conditions. Keeping all weld conditions constant, electrode life experiments were conducted for both lubricated and unlubricated conditions. Joint shear strength values were periodically measured as hundreds of welds were made until either explosion/sticking occurred or a drop in the shear strength indicated the end of the effective electrode tip life. For the same welding conditions and failure criteria, one "good"lubricant was found to extend the electrode life to almost double that of the unlubricated surface (as received). A second set of experiments was performed to examine the action of the good lubricant. These experiments involved a variety of smaller studies including scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, hardness measurements, and electrical resistance measurements. The results of this second set of experiments suggested that the good lubricant thinned the surface oxide layer, thus reducing the heat generation at the electrode-worksheet interface. This lower heat generation reduced alloying and pitting rate, thus increasing electrode tip life. Future work on improving the good lubricant was contemplated.


Tusionite, Mn (super 2+) Sn (super 4+) (BO 3 ) 2 , has been found at two new localities: Thomas Mountain, Riverside County, California, and Recice, Moravia, Czech Republic. At both localities, tusionite occurs in granitic pegmatites of the elbaite subtype, together with tourmaline, hambergite, danburite, hellandite and boromuscovite. Tusionite occurs as small tabular crystals in miarolitic cavities, and as thin flakes and rosettes in massive pegmatite; in the latter occurrence, it is commonly replaced by fine-grained cassiterite. The crystal structure, a 4.781(1), c 15.381(7) Aa, V 304.5(2) Aa 3 , R3, Z = 3, has been refined to an R index of 2.4% for 204 observed reflections measured with MoKalpha X-radiation. Tusionite is isostructural with dolomite, CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 . Electroneutrality constraints show Sn to be tetravalent and Mn to be divalent, and the observed mean bond-lengths are in accord with this: "Sn-O" = 2.055, "Mn-O" = 2.224 Aa. The variation in "M-O" as a function of cation radius is significantly nonlinear for the calcite-type structures, the values for M = Zn, Fe (super 2+) , Mn (super 2+) being approximately 0.01 Aa less than predicted by linear interpolation between magnesite and calcite. For the dolomite-type structures, variations in "A-O" (A representing Ca, Mn) and "B-O" (B representing Mg, Fe (super 2+) , Mn) as a function of cation radius are linear, but the two octahedra show very different behavior. The "B-O" distance shows a response similar to that of the calcite-type structures, except that it is approximately 0.025 Aa shorter for a given cation-radius; the "A-O" distance is approximately 0.025 Aa longer than the corresponding distance in calcite, but decreases in size with decreasing cation-radius more rapidly than in the calcite-type structures.


Background: Nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) is a feasible method that allows the observation and follow-up of the microvascular changes that mark the course of Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). In previous studies, we demonstrated that the NEMO score, namely the cumulative Number of microhaEMOrrhages and microthromboses, is a good indicator of the steady state level and over time changes of disease activity (DA) in SSc (1-3). Objectives: To verify whether a high NEMO score, and then a high level of active microvascular derangement in the fingers may be predictive of the subsequent development of ischemic digital ulcers (IDUs). Methods: The NEMO score was assessed at baseline (T0) in 98 patients affected by SSc, according to the ACR-EULAR criteria. Out of them, 90 were females, 48 had the limited form and 50 the diffuse cutaneous variant of SSc. ACA and anti-Scl-70 antibodies were positive in 42 and 50 patients, respectively. The NVC pattern was early, active and late in 16, 42 and 40 patients, respectively. Afterwards, patients were closely followed up for 3 years, and the appearance of new IDUs was recorded in any time of the follow up. The T0-NEMO score values of patients who developed IDUs were compared to those of patients who did not. A receiver operating curve (ROC) was constructed, and the area under the curve (AUC) calculated, by plotting the sensitivity and 1-specificity of the different NEMO score values in predicting the development of IDUs. Results: During the follow up, 38 out of 98 patients developed one or more DUs. The NEMO score at T0 was significantly higher in those who developed IDUs with respect to those who did not [median 14.5 (CI 11.0-21.5), and 4.5 (CI 4.0-6.0), respectively, p Conclusion: NEMO score is not only a valid tool to assess the level of DA in the course of SSc, but this NVC parameter could also be used as a good predictor of the future development of IDUs in patients with this disease. References: [1]Sambataro et al. Arthritis Res Ther 2014;16:462-69 [2]Andracco et al. Arthritis Res Ther 2017;19:133-41 [3]Pignataro et al. Arthritis Res Ther. 2019;21(1):258 Disclosure of Interests: Nicoletta Del Papa: None declared, Francesca Pignataro: None declared, Wanda Maglione: None declared, Antonina Minniti: None declared, Domenico Sambataro: None declared, Gianluca Sambataro: None declared, Gabriele Valentini Grant/research support from: BMS, MSD, NOVARTIS, LILLY, PFIZER, ABBVIE, CELGENE, Claudio Vitali: None declared, Roberto Caporali Consultant of: AbbVie; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Lilly; Merck Sharp & Dohme; Celgene; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Pfizer; UCB, Speakers bureau: Abbvie; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Celgene; Lilly; Gilead Sciences, Inc; MSD; Pfizer; Roche; UCB


Objective: To report a case of femoral artery thrombosis and its medical management in a young dog.

Case summary: A 13-week-old, female Boxer puppy presented with hind limb paralysis after an abdominal crush injury. A left femoral artery thrombus was identified on ultrasound. No spinal trauma was visualized in imaging studies. Clinical management of arterial thrombosis in a 13-week-old puppy with streptokinase and dalteparin therapy is described.

New or unique information provided: This paper describes an unusual presentation of arterial thrombosis. The medical management with streptokinase and dalteparin is also out of the ordinary. Images that document the development of compensatory circulation around the thrombosed vessel are included. Additionally, this paper also documents the altered development that occurred in this immature dog after the thrombotic event.


Hyphenated-HPLC techniques combine the separation power of HPLC with the structural and bioactivity information provided by NMR, ESI/MS, and an on-line antioxidant screening system. The major advantages over the traditional off-line techniques are rapidity and efficiency. In this study, we used hyphenated HPLC techniques including on- line HPLC-ABTS, LC-NMR, and LC-MS todirectly identify the major antioxidants of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) seeds. The results demonstrated that the major antioxidant compounds from on-line HPLC-ABTS analysis were identified as 8'-hydroxyarcgenin-4'-O-β-D-glucoside, N-(p-coumaroyl) serotonin, and N-feruloylserotonin. Among them, N-feruloylserotonin accounted for almost 50% of the ABTS radical scavenging activity of the total extract. The results demonstrate that HPLC hyphenated techniques can be used to rapidly screen and structurally identify antioxidants from crude plant extracts.


X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry has proven to be a core, non-destructive, analytical technique in cultural heritage studies mainly because of its non-invasive character and ability to rapidly reveal the elemental composition of the analyzed artifacts. Being able to penetrate deeper into matter than the visible light, X-rays allow further analysis that may eventually lead to the extraction of information that pertains to the substrate(s) of an artifact. The recently developed scanning macroscopic X-ray fluorescence method (MA-XRF) allows for the extraction of elemental distribution images. The present work aimed at comparing two different analysis methods for interpreting the large number of XRF spectra collected in the framework of MA-XRF analysis. The measured spectra were analyzed in two ways: a merely spectroscopic approach and an exploratory data analysis approach. The potentialities of the applied methods are showcased on a notable 18th-century Greek religious panel painting. The spectroscopic approach separately analyses each one of the measured spectra and leads to the construction of single-element spatial distribution images (element maps). The statistical data analysis approach leads to the grouping of all spectra into distinct clusters with common features, while afterward dimensionality reduction algorithms help reduce thousands of channels of XRF spectra in an easily perceived dataset of two-dimensional images. The two analytical approaches allow extracting detailed information about the pigments used and paint layer stratigraphy (i.e., painting technique) as well as restoration interventions/state of preservation.


The potential of the soluble forms of the adhesion molecules ICAM-1 (sICAM-1), CD44std (sCD44std) and E-cadherin (sE-cadherin) was tested for the diagnosis of benign and malignant cystic epithelial tumours of the ovary. Concentrations of sICAM-1, sCD44 std and sE-cadherin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the serum and cyst fluid obtained from 23 patients with luteal cysts, 29 with cystadenomas, nine with dermoid cysts, five with borderline tumours and 11 with carcinomas. Serum concentrations of sICAM-1, but not of sCD44std and sE-cadherin, were constantly elevated compared with normal controls. Cyst fluid concentrations of sICAM-1, sCD44std and sE-cadherin were elevated in borderline and malignant tumours compared with cystadenomas (P = 0.034, 0.006 and 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, our results suggest that serum concentrations of adhesion molecules have no diagnostic value in ovarian tumours, whereas cyst fluid concentrations may facilitate distinction between benign lesions and borderline or malignant tumours.


The field of autonomous vehicle navigation and localization is a highly active researchtopic. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the feasibility to use outdoor visual navigation in a semi-structured environment. The goal is to develop a visual navigation system for an autonomous golf ball collection vehicle operating on driving ranges.The image feature extractors SIFT and PCA-SIFT was evaluated on an image databaseconsisting of images acquired from 19 outdoor locations over a period of several weeks toallow different environmental conditions. The results from these tests show that SIFT-typefeature extractors are able to find and match image features with high accuracy. The results also show that this can be improved further by a combination of a lower nearest neighbour threshold and an outlier rejection method to allow more matches and a higher ratio of correct matches. Outliers were found and rejected by fitting the data to a homography model with the RANSAC robust estimator algorithm. A simulator was developed to evaluate the suggested system with respect to pixel noise from illumination changes, weather and feature position accuracy as well as the distance to features, path shapes and the visual servoing target image (milestone) interval. The system was evaluated on a total of 3 paths, 40 test combinations and 137km driven. The results show that with the relatively simple visual servoing navigation system it is possible to use mono-vision as a sole sensor and navigate semi-structured outdoor environments such as driving ranges.


Recent self-supervised methods for image representation learning are based on maximizing the agreement between embedding vectors from different views of the same image. A trivial solution is obtained when the encoder outputs constant vectors. This collapse problem is often avoided through implicit biases in the learning architecture, that often lack a clear justification or interpretation. In this paper, we introduce VICReg (Variance-Invariance-Covariance Regularization), a method that explicitly avoids the collapse problem with a simple regularization term on the variance of the embeddings along each dimension individually. VICReg combines the variance term with a decorrelation mechanism based on redundancy reduction and covariance regularization, and achieves results on par with the state of the art on several downstream tasks. In addition, we show that incorporating our new variance term into other methods helps stabilize the training and leads to performance improvements.


The measurement of surface water flow (runoff) by the use of lCL7106 Digital converter is a new concept of runoff measurement in the developing countries. It is a very efficient, low power analog to digital (A/D) converter. The necessary active devices used for the development of the digital recording system include decoders, display driver, reference resistor, a clock, sensor, liquid crystal display (LCD) and lCL7106. The lCL7106 is designed to interface with a liquid crystal display (LCD), which includes a back plane drive. A runoff collector of area 1m2 and depth 30 cm was constructed, and a discharge pipe, 2.5 cm diameter and 60 cm length conveys the runoff into a storage tank, 30 cm× 30 cm× 30 cm in dimension. Both the runoff collector and the storage tank were made of metal sheet (gauge 12). This equipment was designed to measure the amount of runoff that flow into the runoff storage tank through the discharge pipe, such that the resistor sensed runoff according to the level of water in the tank. The sensor divides the reference voltage Vr in ratio to the value of resistance (R). This varying voltage is now converted to digital readout by A/D converter with respect to liquid crystal display (LCD). The device was calibrated using the measuring cylinder and a high correlation coefficient was obtained between the records of the digital sensor and the water depth measured with the use of measuring cylinder (R2 =0.89). The relationship between the sensor value and the water depth was of the form y=2504.2 x -17693. This research development is useful in weather forecasting, flood and hydrological analysis in natural science studies.


Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are potential candidates for various applica- tions in the fields of immunotherapy. Their multilineage differentiation capability and immune modulatory features allow their prospective application for the management of different immunological circumstances. However, the local microenvironment, in addi tion to the source of the MSCs can control diverse biological features of the cells. Indeed, throughout their therapeutic application, MSCs may interact with their microenviron ment through their expressed toll-like-receptors (TLRs), producing immune modulating reactions. Stimulation of MSCs before or within the potential treatment procedures with distinct TLR ligands may assist as an effective step controlling the biological function of the MSCs as needed in different therapeutic stages of the disease.


We have examined the structure of the nuclear envelope of oocytes of Xenopus laevis by electronmicroscopy of metal-shadowed specimens. Material was prepared by either freeze-drying ora rapid protocol using air-drying after dehydration in ethanol followed by amyl acetate. These methods emphasized different aspects of the structure and enabled an integrated view of the arrangement of nuclear pore complexes, nuclear lamina and pore-connecting fibrils to be assembled. In specimens prepared by either air drying or freeze-drying, the lamina meshwork beneath the nuclear face of the envelope was well preserved, but the fine structure of the nuclearpores was superior in freeze-dried preparations. Both methods also showed pore-connecting fibrils that were clearly not components of the lamina. By using stereo pairs, we established criteria for recognizing the cytoplasmic and nucleoplasmic faces of shadowed nuclear envelopes. These views also enabled us to identify the levels atwhich different fibrous components were attached to the pores. In particular, we were able to visualize the nuclear lamina fibres and poreconnecting fibrils simultaneously and show that they attach to the pore complexes at different levels. We supplemented this work by using arange of treatments to disrupt the nuclear envelopes lightly and gained several insights into this structure as a result. Sometimes pore complexes and their connecting fibrils were stripped from the envelope. This enabled a clearer view of these connections to be obtained without the lamina present. Moreover, in some conditions, the nuclearpore complexes and fibrous lamina began to disintegrate, there by showing some of the morphological components from which they were assembled.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) persists into adulthood in an increasingly recognized number of individuals with childhood onset. The symptoms of adult ADHD are similar to the restlessness, distractibility, and impulsivity central to childhood ADHD, but expression of symptoms changes as the individual matures. A childhood history of ADHD is requisite for a diagnosis of adult ADHD, although full DSM-IV criteria for the childhood disorder need not be met as long as significant symptoms and impairment occurred. Three case reports described here illustrate the migration of symptoms and the use of retrospective reporting and rating scales to determine a diagnosis of adult ADHD. These reports also stress the high probability of comorbid disorders and family aggregation of ADHD, as well as the likelihood that the adult with ADHD has developed coping mechanisms to compensate for his or her impairment.


This paper deals with the quantitative interpretation of time-average holograms of vibrating objects. It is shown that the images obtained during reconstruction of such holograms are modulated by a system of fringes described by the square of the zero-order Bessel function of the first kind. A procedure for quantitative interpretation of these fringes is described and illustrated with examples. The experimental results, obtained directly from the time-average holograms, show good agreement with the exact solution of the differential equation of motion based on the beam theory and with the mode shapes determined by the finite element modeling of the vibrating beam.


Plastics are a serious problem in the environment today. They cause a number of difficulties for organisms in the water which often mistake them for food and suffocate, or they become entangled in them and drown. Plastics are highly versatile and hard wearing, they survive longer than their use requires and often end up in the environment. One of the largest forms of plastic pollution is plastic bags. Many plastics bags have been deemed 'degradable' and have been given a time frame in which they will break down, but this does not suggest the type of environments in which they break down. In order to asses this, six marine environments have been set up including mud, sand, saltwater, freshwater, buried in mud and saltwater in darkness to simulate deeper water. Three samples of plastic will be the focus of the project, a claimed degradable bag from Tesco, a non-degradable bag from Sainsbury's and a bio-degradable bag. They were all placed into the different environments and systematically tested for degradation every three months. The project ran for nine months. The samples were tested for degradation using several techniques. There were 'before and after' photographic records. The dry weight before and after was also taken. The samples capability to withstand load was tested using tensile strength testing and the chemical make up of the bonds contained within was found using a process called photo-acoustics. The result of the investigation showed that the Tesco, and Sainsbury's bags were practically identical chemically, they were both polyethylene based, and behaved similarly. The Bio-bag seemed to be starch based. The investigation found that all samples had succumbed to degradation in one form or another. The polyethylene samples deprived of light degraded very slowly and it was concluded that UV light was the trigger for causing degradation in these samples. The best environment for this was the freshwater simulation. Mud and sand caused least degradation. The Bio-bag degraded efficiently in all environments, but favoured environments with a more anoxic nature, such as being buried in mud. Here, there was a complete breakdown of the structure. The sample degraded even in the absence of light shown in the deep water simulation, where there was positive degradation. The conclusion of the investigation showed that polyethylene based plastics breakdown very poorly within the environment. Also that both samples degraded, but that the 'non-degradable sample' simply takes longer. The Bio-bag was very efficient at breaking down, but became very structurally weak after a very short period of time and is therefore not an adequate replacement for the polyethylene samples, further evidence that bio-degradable samples could be manipulated to eventually replace plastic as we know it.


The design of custom analog integrated circuits is a contributing factor in high development cost and increased production time, driving the need for more automation. In automating particular avenues of analog design, it is then crucial to assess the efficacy with which the algorithm is able to solve the desired problem. To do this, one must consider four metrics that are especially pertinent in this area: robustness, accuracy, level of automation, and computation time. In this work, we present a framework that bridges the gap between schematic and layout generation by encapsulating the design intuition needed to create layout through identification of critical sub-circuit structures through the use of Graphical Convolutional Neural Networks (GCNNs) along with an unsupervised graph clustering technique. This framework is the first tool, to our knowledge, to entirely automate this clustering process. We compare our algorithm to prior work utilizing the four figures of merit, and our results show over 90% accuracy across six different analog circuits, ranging in size and complexity, while taking just under 1 second to complete.


High brightness electron bunches will be guided in the future Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) by several hundred magnets. The SwissFEL machine imposes very strict requirements not only at the field quality but also at the mechanical and magnetic alignments of these magnets. To ensure that the magnet specifications are met, and to develop reliable procedures for aligning magnets in the SwissFEL and correcting their field errors during machine operations, the PSI magnet test system was upgraded. The upgraded system is a high precision measurement setup based on Hall probe, rotating coil, vibrating wire and moving wire techniques. It is fully automated and integrated in the PSI controls. The paper describes the main controls components of the new magnet test setup and their performance.


Abstract. Cirrus cloud absorption optical depths retrieved at 12.05 μm are compared to extinction optical depths retrieved at 0.532 μm from perfectly co-located observations of single-layered semi-transparent cirrus over ocean made by the Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) and the Cloud and Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) flying on board the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) satellite. IIR infrared absorption optical depths are compared to CALIOP visible extinction optical depths when the latter can be directly derived from the measured apparent two-way transmittance through the cloud. An evaluation of the CALIOP multiple scattering factor is inferred from these comparisons after assessing and correcting biases in IIR and CALIOP optical depths reported in version 3 data products. In particular, the blackbody radiance taken in the IIR version 3 algorithm is evaluated, and IIR retrievals are corrected accordingly. Numerical simulations and IIR retrievals of ice crystal sizes suggest that the ratios of CALIOP extinction and IIR absorption optical depths should remain roughly constant with respect to temperature. Instead, these ratios are found to increase quasi-linearly by about 40 % as the temperature at the layer centroid altitude decreases from 240 to 200 K. It is discussed that this behavior can be explained by variations of the multiple scattering factor ηT applied to correct the measured apparent two-way transmittance for contribution of forward-scattering. While the CALIOP version 3 retrievals hold ηT fixed at 0.6, this study shows that ηT varies with temperature (and hence cloud particle size) from ηT = 0.8 at 200 K to ηT = 0.5 at 240 K for single-layered semi-transparent cirrus clouds with optical depth larger than 0.3. The revised parameterization of ηT introduces a concomitant temperature dependence in the simultaneously derived CALIOP lidar ratios that is consistent with observed changes in CALIOP depolarization ratios and particle habits derived from IIR measurements.


Rectangular Mesh is the most commonly used topology in the field of Network-on-Chip (NoC) due to its high regularity, symmetry and scalability. In this paper, we examine Honeycomb topology as another candidate for NoC architectures. Based on the simulations of Mesh and Honeycomb routers and network, we compare these two topologies in terms of power consumption, area cost and communication delay. Results show that Honeycomb topology outperforms Mesh by at least 25.9%, 54.2% and 30.0% in these three aspects.


The Aсanthamoeba keratitis is a rare, but very dangerous disease of cornea; its development is connected with contact lens wearing, and corneal microtraumas with contamination of particles of the soil or water. The disease has no pronounced distinguishing clinical signs therefore it is difficult to distinguish them from herpetic or fungal keratitis. Nevertheless, it can be suspected on the basis of anamnestic data (use of contact lenses, corneal injury with contamination by the soil or water), uneven strong pain syndrome, ring-shaped infiltration of cornea, absence of effect of traditional therapy. Isolation of Acanthamoeba by bioculture method, morphological research of corneal bioptat (by light and luminescent microscopy), gene diagnostics, in – vivo confocal microscopy of the cornea can give additional help in the diagnosis. Also perspective diagnostic methods of Acanthamoeba keratitis are given. Nevertheless, so far there is no conventional technique of diagnosis of this disease.


The tonic contractions which are extremely resistant to removal of the external Ca were investigated in the rat vas deferens and myometrium. Both the noradrenaline response in the vas deferens and the oxytocin response in the myometrium could be repeatedly produced without appreciable diminution in Ca-free solution for more than 24 hrs. On the other hand, the tissue Ca content decreased exponentially after Ca-removal with a half time of 130-180 min. When Ca was readmitted, no indication of the early transient contraction was observed in the subsequent response in Ca-free solution, but the response was reduced compared with the response before Ca readmission. Verapamil suppressed the response in the presence of Ca, while it had very weak inhibitory effect even at 10 microM. Calmodulin antagonists of phenothiazine derivatives had a strong inhibitory effect on Ca-induced contractions, whereas they had very weak effects on the receptor-mediated contraction in Ca-free solution. Another calmodulin antagonist, W-7 suppressed both Ca-induced contraction and the contractions independent of external Ca. HA-1004, a vasodilator which has a structure similar to W-7, reduced the receptor-mediated contraction in Ca-free solution without much effect on Ca-induced contractions. These results may suggest that the receptor-mediated contractions resistant to Ca-removal are caused by some process without a contribution of the Ca-calmodulin system.


In the simulation of a typical ultrasonic traveling wave motor, usually at least four topics have to be considered: modeling the stator, the piezoceramic ring bonded to the stator, the rotor and the contact problem between stator and rotor. Although from experimental observations it is well known that rotor flexibility strongly affects the motor behavior, this has so far not been taken into account in modeling these motors. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of rotor flexibility in an electromechanical model of an ultrasonic traveling wave motor. A motor of the plate type with one piezoceramic ring is modeled. The simulation is based on the approach suggested by Hagood, where we however incorporate rotor flexibility. The geometrical and material parameters for the model are taken from data of an industrial prototype motor. The coefficient of friction between the contact layer of the rotor and the stator is obtained from the stall torque, and the damping of the disk spring is adjusted to measured torque-speed characteristics of the motor. The steady state dynamical behavior of the model is simulated in the frequency domain. Such an analysis can be carried out much faster than the numerical integration of the equations of motion in the time domain, as originally done by Hagood. It turns out that the measured torque-speed characteristic can not be fitted if rotor flexibility is ignored, while good results are obtained if the flexibility of the rotor is included in the model.


Neural Architecture Search (NAS) is a laborious process. Prior work on automated NAS targets mainly on improving accuracy, but lacks consideration of computational resource use. We propose the Resource-Efficient Neural Architect (RENA), an efficient resource-constrained NAS using reinforcement learning with network embedding. RENA uses a policy network to process the network embeddings to generate new configurations. We demonstrate RENA on image recognition and keyword spotting (KWS) problems. RENA can find novel architectures that achieve high performance even with tight resource constraints. For CIFAR10, it achieves 2.95% test error when compute intensity is greater than 100 FLOPs/byte, and 3.87% test error when model size is less than 3M parameters. For Google Speech Commands Dataset, RENA achieves the state-of-the-art accuracy without resource constraints, and it outperforms the optimized architectures with tight resource constraints.


We introduce a new class of abruptly autofocusing circular Pearcey Gaussian beams (AAFCPGBs) which tend to be abruptly autofocusing circular Pearcey beams with a small distribution factor, or Gaussian beams with a larger distribution factor. The nonparaxial propagation of the AAFCPGBs is investigated by numerical calculation. The radiation force of the AAFCPGBs exerted on a Rayleigh particle is analyzed in detail.


The effects of bromocriptine induced hypoprolactinemia on the testicular function were studied in adult rats. Bromocriptine treatment (1500 micrograms/day for 24 days) reduced serum and pituitary Prolactin levels, indicating a decrease in prolactin secretion and synthesis. No change in reproductive organ weights was seen in treated animals. Hypoprolactinemia had no effect on plasma testosterone or androstenedione levels and testicular androstenedione content, but decreased significantly testicular testosterone content. These findings indicated that experimental hypoprolactinemia induced a decrease in testicular testosterone content without affecting androgens levels.


In Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania and Mexico, Prakash Kashwan contributes to urgent debates surrounding forest and land rights by looking at how competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice have been balanced in three country-specific case studies drawn from India, Tanzania and Mexico. This is a powerful portrayal of the complexities of governance and the pursuit of justice when it comes to land displacement and environmental conservation, writes Indrani Sigamany.


Abstract This article argues that social work has two distinct and very different projects that are so conflated that they are indistinguishable from one another; the social justice project and the professional project. The social justice project seeks to transform the conditions that permit the existence of preventable human suffering. The professional project positions social work as a profession in a system of professions in competition with one another for jurisdictional turf. The effect of this conflation is that social justice discourses are rendered instrumental vehicles of the professional project. After laying out this thesis, this article discusses ways to reverse this relationship so that professionalization can be made to serve the ends of social justice.


Objective To evaluate the role of corticosteroids in restoring hearing in patients undergoing conservative management of acoustic neuromas. Study Design Prospective cohort. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients Seven patients with acute hearing loss secondary to an acoustic neuroma. Intervention Oral prednisone (1 mg/kg for 1 to 2 weeks) within a week of onset of hearing loss. Main Outcome Measures Audiometric assessment at the time of presentation and after corticosteroid therapy. Results All seven patients had pure tone reception threshold improvements ranging from 10 to 50 dB in at least two frequencies or more. Speech discrimination thresholds improved after therapy in all seven patients, with gains of 4 to 38% points. Conclusions Patients with acoustic neuromas who are being treated with a "watchful waiting" approach should receive corticosteroid treatment at the first signs of hearing deterioration. An evaluation to rule out a retrocochlear lesion is mandated in patients with sudden hearing loss, regardless of whether the hearing loss responds to corticosteroid treatment. Older data documenting the efficacy of corticosteroids in the treatment of sudden hearing loss may need to be reevaluated, given that many of these studies were conducted before MRI was available.


2-Substituted quinolines were synthesized, and their deproto-metallation using the bases prepared by mixing LiTMP with either ZnCl2·TMEDA (1/3 equiv.) or CuCl (1/2 equiv.) was studied. With phenyl and 2-naphthyl substituents, the reaction occurred at the 8 position of the quinoline ring, affording the corresponding iodo derivatives or 2-chlorophenyl ketones using the lithium–zinc or the lithium–copper combination, respectively. With a 4-anisyl substituent, a dideprotonation at the 8 and 3′ position was noted using the lithium–zinc base. With 3-pyridyl, 2-furyl and 2-thienyl substituents, the reaction took place on the substituent, at a position adjacent to its heteroatom. 2-Chlorophenyl-2-phenyl-8-quinolyl ketone could be cyclized under palladium catalysis. The experimental results were analyzed with the help of the CH acidities of the substrates, determined in THF solution using the DFT B3LYP method.


This descriptive study used grounded theory methodology to illuminate how the concept of quality of life influences the practice of community psychiatric nurses caring for individuals with serious mental illnesses. In-depth interviews captured the practice wisdom of expert nurses. Data were verified through focus groups, member checks and peer debriefing. The constant comparative method was used to categorize data and identify key themes and concepts. Informants regarded the concept of quality of life as central to nursing practice. They cited examples of how it serves as a goal and philosophy of care, a basis for forming relationships, and a lens through which the nursing role becomes clearer. Quality of life is acknowledged to be a subjective concept. It is assessed in light of the individual's hopes, dreams and values, and within the context of his or her whole life. A quality of life focus is supported by the philosophies of holism and empowerment. Nurses promote quality of life through symptom management, educating and advocating for clients. Minimizing barriers to quality of life and helping the individual to have a broader vision of what his or her life could be, are also central to the psychiatric nursing role.


A Viterbi decoder system comprises a convolutional encoder and Viterbi decoder. In general, the code words generated from the input series of convolutional encoder arrive at the decoder through a noisy channel; however, the channel noise can cause corruption of code words. The Viterbi decoder extracts the original input message from the corrupted data using the Viterbi algorithm based on the maximum likelihood principle. A Viterbi decoder mainly comprises four essential units: a branch metrics unit, add-compare-select unit, path metrics unit, and survivor-path memory unit. Related complex calculations are repeated in these units at each clock cycle. In this study, a power- and area-efficient Viterbi decoder architecture that also reduces the computational complexity is proposed. Initially, a hard-decision Viterbi decoder system architecture design for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) realization was fulfilled without any further improvement to compare the performance of fundamental and improved designs with respect to power consumption. The initial design constitutes an essential base for the improved power- and area-efficient Viterbi decoder architecture. The improvements were made to achieve the less complex and power-efficient architectural system design. The performance of the proposed architecture was tested by a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) platform, and the results have been reported. The architectural design is described using the Verilog hardware description language for comparing the related tests and performance of FPGA platform.


BACKGROUND
Quality of life and psychological well-being are readily hampered by depression. The changes that students face during college life impact their psychological health and well-being, including the emergence of mental health problems like depression Aim: To determine the relationship between depressive symptoms, sociodemographic parameters and psychological well-being in undergraduate university students.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Five hundred eighty university students of both sexes, from the Metropolitan and IX Regions of Chile answered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-IA) and the Ryff's psychological well-being scale.

RESULTS
Twenty eight percent of respondents had clinically significant depressive symptoms, and these were more frequent in women. There was an inverse and statistically significant relationship between psychological well-being and depressive symptoms. This fact was especially marked in dimensions of autonomy, positive relationships with others and purpose in life.

CONCLUSIONS
There is a high frequency of depressive symptoms among these students. We discuss whether psychological well-being and depressive symptomatology represent two extremes within a continuum or they are two independent dimensions that can account for differential causal mechanisms linked to mental health and illness.


We show that for every n-point metric space M and positive integer k, there exists a spanning tree T with unweighted diameter O(k) and weight w(T)=O(k⋅n1/k)⋅w(MST(M)), and a spanning tree T′ with weight w(T′)=O(k)⋅w(MST(M)) and unweighted diameter O(k⋅n1/k). These trees also achieve an optimal maximum degree. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these trees can be constructed efficiently.We prove that these tradeoffs between unweighted diameter and weight are tight up to constant factors in the entire range of parameters. Moreover, our lower bounds apply to a basic one-dimensional Euclidean space.Our lower bounds for the particular case of unweighted diameter O(log n) are of independent interest, settling a long-standing open problem in Computational Geometry. In STOC'95 Arya et al. devised a construction of Euclidean Spanners with unweighted diameter O(log n) and weight O(log n)⋅w(MST(M)). In SODA'05 Agarwal et al. showed that this result is tight up to a factor of O(log log n). We close this gap and show that the result of Arya et al. is tight up to constant factors.Finally, our upper bounds imply improved approximation algorithms for the minimumh-hop spanning tree and bounded diameter minimum spanning tree problems for metric spaces.


Background:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-factorial, chronic autoimmune disorder, characterized by dysfunction of T and B lymphocytes. It affects various vital organ systems, and 70% to 90% of SLE patients are females. Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the common complications in patients with SLE and influences overall outcome of these patients. About two-thirds of patients with SLE have renal disease at some stage which is a leading cause of mortality in these patient.Iron is critical in nearly  all cell functions  and  the ability of a cell, tissue  and  organism to procure this metal  is obligatory  for survival. Iron is necessary for normal immune function, and relative iron deficiency is associated with mild immunosuppression. Concentrations of this metal in excess of those required for function can present both an oxidative stress and elevate risks for infection. As a result, the human has evolved to have a complex mechanism of regulating iron and limiting its availability.Ferritin levels correlate with disease activity in patients   with SLE and developing of lupus nephritis. Objective: To correlate between Iron profile and SLE activity and developing lupus nephritis. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 75 adult persons: 25 Patients with SLE with proteinuria, patients with SLE without proteinuria, 25person have no SLE (control group).These person were Admitted at internal medicine department and outpatient clinic of Al-Hussein university hospital, Cairo, Egypt. SLE patients were diagnosed according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, Lupus Activity assessment by C3&C4, Lupus nephritis assessment using Albumin /creatinine ratio. Iron profile was measured and included: serum iron, serum TIBC, transferrin saturation and Serum ferritin levels were tested by ELISA. Results: There were no significant statistical difference between groups as regard age or sex however, There were significant difference between groups as regard S.iron, S. ferritin, TIBC and TSAT,   Between group analysis results showed significantly lower s.iron and TSAT level of SLE patients with and without proteinuria in comparison with control group. While S. ferritin is significantly high in SLE patients with proteinuria in comparison with SLE patients without proteinuria and control group. And this data go with activity markers of SLE. Conclusions: 1) Hyperferritinemia  is  a useful marker in assessment of disease activity and severity of Albuminuria in  SLE patients complicated by lupus nephritis, treatment of hyperferritinemia can result in decreased Albuminuria and delayed  renal damage. 2)  Iron homoeostasis is important in normal immune function and Iron disturbance can result in mild immunosuppression.


The graphical display of data gained by long-term ambulatory intragastric pH monitoring requires different methods to present (1) the circadian time course of each individual, (2) data from all individuals belonging to the same group, and (3) data from two or more groups in a summary plot. Data reduction is normally required in all three cases; for this purpose, it is advisable to use median values from consecutive time periods, e.g. of 10-20 min each. All data from a total group of comparable individuals may be displayed using a pseudo-3D-graph allowing for easy recognition of interindividual variability. Summary curves from all data of one group may be gained by calculating medians from time-equivalent pH values and plotted together in one graph. The study design should take into consideration that intraindividual reproducibility of intragastric pH metry is excellent, while large variations may occur between individuals. Therefore, repeated measurements in the same individual under the different conditions to be tested are highly recommended. If two measurements are performed in each individual, the data are statistically evaluated using Wilcoxon paired rank test; Friedman rank test and subsequent multiple comparison according to Wilcoxon-Wilcox are proposed in the case of more than two groups. Alternatively, multiple single tests may be used; this procedure, however, requires appropriate correction of the alpha-error which is best done using the exact versions of the test.


This paper presents a proof of concept for Ar- tificial Neural Network training using Grammatical Swarm. Grammatical Swarm is a variant of Grammatical Evolution. The synaptic weight coefficients of a multilayer feed-forward neural network are evolved using Grammatical Swarm. The synaptic weight coefficients are derived from predefined Backus- Naur Form grammar for real value generation in a specified range. The proposed method is applied to solve XOR problem and compared with the multilayer feed-forward neural net- work training using Particle Swarm Optimizer, Comprehensive Learning Particle Swarm Optimizer, Differential Evolution and Trigonometric Differential Evolution. The experimental results shows that Grammatical Swarm is able to train the Artificial Neural Network. Index Terms—Artificial neural network, Grammatical evolu- tion, Grammatical swarm, Particle swarm optimizer, Compre- hensive learning particle swarm optimizer , Differential evolution, Trigonometric differential evolution, XOR problem


BACKGROUND
Improvement in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with better health behavior such as better medication adherence and greater use of nutrition and weight loss programs. However, it is not known if reducing PTSD severity is associated with smoking cessation, a poor health behavior common in patients with PTSD.

METHODS
Veterans Health Affairs (VHA) medical record data (2008 to 2015) were used to identify patients with PTSD diagnosed in specialty care. Clinically meaningful PTSD improvement, was defined as ≥20 point PTSD Checklist (PCL) decrease from the first PCL ≥ 50 and the last available PCL within 12 months and at least 8 weeks later. The association between clinically meaningful PTSD improvement and smoking cessation within 2-years after baseline among 449 smokers was estimated in Cox proportional hazard models. Entropy balancing controlled for confounding.

RESULTS
On average, patients were 39.4 (SD=12.9) years of age, 86.6% were male and 71.5% were white. We observed clinically meaningful PTSD improvement in 19.8% of participants. Overall, 19.4% quit smoking in year 1 and 16.6% in year 2. More patients with vs. without clinically meaningful PTSD improvement stopped smoking (n=36, cumulative incidence=40.5% vs. 111, cumulative incidence=30.8%; respectively). After controlling for confounding, patients with vs. without clinically meaningful PTSD improvement were more likely to stop smoking within 2-years (HR=1.57; 95%CI:1.04-2.36).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with clinically meaningful PTSD improvement were significantly more likely to stop smoking. Further research should determine if targeted interventions are needed or whether improvement in PTSD symptoms is sufficient to enable smoking cessation.

IMPLICATIONS
Patients with PTSD are more likely to develop chronic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Poor health behaviors, including smoking, partly explain the risk for chronic disease in this patient population. Our results demonstrate that clinically meaningful PTSD improvement is followed by greater likelihood of smoking cessation. Thus, PTSD treatment may enable healthier behaviors and reduce risk for smoking related disease.


Energy drinks have emerged as a regular intake commodity amongst athletes and college students. Marketing campaigns on energy drinks target these groups as their main customers because of their frequent consumption of them. While many may not have an idea that energy drinks have many health implications on them, research reveals that over consumption of energy drinks results in various health effects, such as cardio-respiratory effects, amongst others. This is because these products rely on energy providing ingredients that in many times are scientifically formulated to boost energy. Consequently, energy drinks may contain high quantities of sugar, caffeine, vitamin B, and other powerful energy compounds, which threaten the health of users.


Of 171 patients evaluated prospectively and consecutively for cerebral ischemia, 26 (15%) developed symptoms while hospitalized. Cerebral ischemia complicated operative procedures in 12 patients, unsuccessful cardioversion in one and coronary angiography in another. Twelve patients had apparent cerebral embolism and 14 patients had cerebral thrombosis as a mechanism of their symptoms. Hospitalized patients who suffered cerebral ischemia had one or more of the following: risk factors for stroke including cardiac source of embolus, previous stroke, diagnostic or therapeutic procedures for vascular disease, or chronic hypertension complicated by acute hypotension.


Department of Anesthesiology, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100026, People's Republic of China Aim: Sevoflurane is a halogen inhaled anesthetic, and we aimed to probe the effect of sevoflurane on proliferation and invasion of human ovarian cancer (OC) and its mechanism. Methods: OC cell lines were divided into 4 groups including control, sevoflurane low concentration (1.7%), medium concentration (3.4%) and high concentration (5.1%) groups. Flow cytometry and MTT assay were, respectively, employed to detect the cell apoptosis and proliferation. Transwell assay was applied to measure the cell migration and invasion viability. The gene and protein expressions were assessed using qRT-PCR and Western blot. The expressions of MAPK signaling pathway-related proteins were evaluated by Western blot. The p38 and JNK inhibitors were, respectively, added into the high concentration group to analyze the relationship between sevoflurane and modulatingmitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in OC. Nude mice models were constructed to explore the effect of sevoflurane on OC tumor growth in vivo. Results: Sevoflurane inhibited OC proliferation in vitro and in vivo. It could also promote OC cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Sevoflurane suppressed the OC cell migration and invasion, and these effects were positively correlated with the dose of sevoflurane. Moreover, sevoflurane treatment inhibited the expressions of PCNA, Twist, cleavedcaspase-3/caspase-3, MMP-2 and MMP-9. In addition, sevoflurane repressed the phosphorylation of JNK and p38 MAPK. When the MAPK pathway was interdicted, the cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion activity were recovered after sevoflurane treatment. Conclusion: Sevoflurane affected cell biological activities in OC by regulating JNK and p38 MAPK signaling pathway.