Aims The response of the myocardium to an ischaemic insult is regulated by two highly homologous protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes, δ and εPKC. Here, we determined the spatial and temporal relationships between these two isozymes in the context of ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) and ischaemic preconditioning (IPC) to better understand their roles in cardioprotection. Methods and results Using an ex vivo rat model of myocardial infarction, we found that short bouts of ischaemia and reperfusion prior to the prolonged ischaemic event (IPC) diminished δPKC translocation by 3.8-fold and increased εPKC accumulation at mitochondria by 16-fold during reperfusion. In addition, total cellular levels of δPKC decreased by 60 ± 2.7% in response to IPC, whereas the levels of εPKC did not significantly change. Prolonged ischaemia induced a 48 ± 11% decline in the ATP-dependent proteasomal activity and increased the accumulation of misfolded proteins during reperfusion by 192 ± 32%; both of these events were completely prevented by IPC. Pharmacological inhibition of the proteasome or selective inhibition of εPKC during IPC restored δPKC levels at the mitochondria while decreasing εPKC levels, resulting in a loss of IPC-induced protection from I/R. Importantly, increased myocardial injury was the result, in part, of restoring a δPKC-mediated I/R pro-apoptotic phenotype by decreasing pro-survival signalling and increasing cytochrome c release into the cytosol. Conclusion Taken together, our findings indicate that IPC prevents I/R injury at reperfusion by protecting ATP-dependent 26S proteasomal function. This decreases the accumulation of the pro-apoptotic kinase, δPKC, at cardiac mitochondria, resulting in the accumulation of the pro-survival kinase, εPKC.


vi Artificial intelligence continues to be one of the most vibrant, challenging, and forward-looking areas of computer science. These proceedings collect the papers accepted for presentation at the Twenty-first International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-09) held in Pasadena, California, USA from July 11–17, 2009. This collection represents some of the most exciting research taking place in AI today, continuing the tradition of excellence established by IJCAI at its inception 40 years ago in 1969. The theme of this year's conference is "the interdisciplinary reach of artificial intelligence." Apart from its forward-looking nature, AI has always been outward-looking, and this theme allows us to explore the broad impact of AI on science, engineering, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities through invited talks, workshops, tutorials, and other events dedicated to this theme. Many of the papers in this volume are explicitly interdisciplinary, and still more contribute to or draw from other intellectual disciplines indirectly. The papers presented herein were selected for presentation in IJCAI's technical program through a highly competitive peer review process. Each submitted paper was reviewed by three members of the program committee, and supervised by a senior program committee member and area chair. Authors were given the opportunity to provide feedback on preliminary reviews (for example, to correct any misunderstandings), and senior program committee members directed the discussion of the papers by the reviewers (in some cases, recruiting auxiliary reviewers with special expertise, or engaging the area chair in the discussion as well). On the basis of all reviews, author feedback and discussion, senior program committee members made accept or reject recommendations to the area chairs. The area chairs then met face-to-face to make final decisions. In the end, we received 1,291 submissions, and accepted 331 papers (a 25.6 percent acceptance rate). All papers will be presented orally during IJCAI's technical program. While the reviewing process is intensive, it ensures that IJCAI adheres to the highest standards of quality. The overall quality of submissions was very high, and we hope you agree that the accepted papers appearing in these proceedings make significant contributions to the state-of-the-art, and reflect some of the most outstanding work in the field. Of note are two papers that were selected as IJCAI-09 Distinguished Papers: Learning Conditional Preference Networks with Queries Frédéric Koriche and Bruno Zanuttini


In the Northern Apennines, the Aveto succession, belonging to the Subligurian domain, sedimented during the Early Oligocene. This time represents a main step in the Alps-Apennines evolution characterized by several geodynamic events such as the Voltri Group exhumation or the development of the Calk-alcaline volcanism The Aveto succession represents a complex depositional system outcropping in the Northern Apennines located, in the palinspastic reconstructions, between the Mesoalpine belt and the Tuscan Domain. The occurrence of andesitic debris in the Aveto succession can be considered a fondamental tool to understand the geodynamic processes that occurred in the Alps-Apennines linkage area. The Aveto succession is characterized by an almost 500m thick turbiditic sequence (the so-called Aveto Formation) characterized by andesitic-bearing coarse grained arenites and conglomerates. The age of this succession has been determined using Nannofossils assemblage that indicates the biozone MNP23 (Early Oligocene). An age of 32ma (Early Oligocene) has been also provided by radiometric datings on the andesitic clasts. Up to now the basement and the top of the Aveto succession have never been recognized because of pervasive deformations related to the the thrusting of the Liguride units onto the Subligurian and Tuscan ones. New biostratigraphic and field data, derived from the new 1:50.000 italian mapping project, have evidenced, the presence of a new stratigraphic unit at the top of Aveto succession cropping out in the Trebbia Valley. This unit is characterized by a sudden change in the sedimentary facies with development of choesive debris flow characterized by the occurence of ophiolitic fragments.The ophiolitic debris is made up of serpentinized peridotites, basalts, radiolarites and limestones of Late Cretaceous-Paleocene age. According to theirs age, petrographic features and absence of metamorphism, these clast can be related to a typical Liguride succession that characterize the tectonic units above the Aveto unit (e.g. Vico, Ottone, Gottero and Antola units). Nannofossils data indicate an Early Oligocene age (MNP23) for the marls associate with the debris flow deposits. The ophiolitic fragments recognized in the debris flow deposits at the top of the Aveto succession indicate that the sedimentation in the Aveto-Subligurian basin has been stopped by the emplacement of the Liguride Units during the Early Oligocene (MNP23). This type of tectono-sedimentary evolution is typical of the chain-foredeep system of the Northern Apennines, where the foredeep sedimentation was interrupted by the emplacement of tectonic units derived from the orogenic belt. Differently from the previuos reconstructions, where the Macigno Formation.(Late Oligocene -Early Miocene) was regarded as first and oldest foredeep deposit, the collected data indicate that the Aveto-Subligurian basin can be regarded as a true Apennine foredeep of Early Oligocene age.


We introduce the slow frequency hopping (SFH) technique to the multicarrier (MC) code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems for overlay situations. Using lower chip rate, which results in a narrower spectrum for each carrier and hopping the signal in frequency, the MC direct sequence (DS)/SFH system achieves better performance than the MC DS CDMA system in most cases, especially when the bandwidth of the narrowband interference (NBI) is narrower than one subchannel. It also exhibits a stable performance against the variations of the NBI location and bandwidth. When there is no NBI, the two systems perform approximately the same. The evaluation is performed over a frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel, with both Gaussian approximation and Monte Carlo simulation.


Abstract The Lanzo Massif in the Western Alps consists of three bodies (North, Central and South) of mantle peridotites that were exhumed from the subcontinental mantle lithosphere to the sea floor during lithosphere extension related to the formation of the Jurassic Ligurian Tethys oceanic basin. The North Lanzo protoliths were located at shallower lithospheric levels than the South Lanzo protoliths. During exhumation, early MORB-type fractional melts from the asthenosphere infiltrated and modified the South Lanzo protoliths. Later on, aggregate MORB melts passed through the South Lanzo peridotites, migrating within replacive peridotite channels, and impregnated the North Lanzo peridotites. Ongoing lithosphere extension and stretching caused break-up of the continental crust and sea-floor exposure of the Lanzo peridotites. The North Lanzo peridotites, deriving from shallower lithospheric levels, were exhumed and exposed at more external ocean–continent transition (OCT) zones of the basin, whereas the South Lanzo peridotites, deriving from deeper lithospheric levels, were exhumed and exposed at more internal oceanic (MIO) settings of the basin. Field, petrographical–structural and petrological–geochemical studies on the Lanzo mantle peridotites provide mantle constraints regarding the geodynamic evolution of the Europe–Adria extensional system during the rifting and opening of the Ligurian Tethys basin.


The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect of privatization on the performance of firms by using a panel data set of 38 companies that were privatized in Europe. We compare the profit, profitability, total product, operating efficiency, net income, employment, leverage and risk of these SOEs before and after their privatization. The legal environment, regulation, goals of privatization and competition characterize each sector, which is why we split the total sample into sectors. Our results indicate that the performance of companies in the utility industry is significantly better after privatization; however, we cannot assert this for the other sectors.


RATIONALE
Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) in cystic fibrosis (CF) is increasingly recognized. Although allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) leads to deterioration of pulmonary function, the effect of A. fumigatus colonization in the absence of ABPA remains unclear.

OBJECTIVES
To address this, we examined individuals with CF with A. fumigatus who were ABPA negative to identify the effects of itraconazole therapy on Aspergillus-induced lung inflammation.

METHODS
The effect of A. fumigatus on nuclear vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression was investigated using qRT-PCR and Western blotting. IL-5 and IL-13 levels were quantified by ELISA. The effect of itraconazole was assessed by a combination of high-resolution computed tomography, lung function test, and microbiological analysis.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
We demonstrate that A. fumigatus down-regulates VDR in macrophages and airway epithelial cells and that the fungal metabolite gliotoxin (Gt) is the main causative agent. Gt overcame the positive effect of 1,25-OH vitamin D(3) on VDR expression in vitro, resulting in increased IL-5 and IL-13 production. In vivo, A. fumigatus positivity was associated with increased Gt in CF bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and increased bronchoalveolar lavage fluid levels of IL-5 and IL-13. After airway eradication of A. fumigatus with itraconazole, we observed decreased Gt, IL-5 and IL-13, improved respiratory symptoms, and diminished high-resolution computed tomography mosaic pattern consistent with sustained pulmonary function.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides a rationale for the therapeutic effect of itraconazole and implied that the therapeutic potential of vitamin D supplementation in preventing ABPA is only feasible with concurrent elimination of A. fumigatus to permit VDR expression and its positive functional consequences.


This study examined the influence of child-care support by elderly persons on mothers' child care-related stress in Japan. A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2007 by using an anonymous questionnaire. This study focused on the "child-care salon" (hereafter referred to as "salon") as a type of parenting support activity by elderly persons in the community. For the analysis, 119 salon participants and a control group of 107 mothers who had not participated in a salon were recruited. As a result of a multiple regression analysis, participation or non-participation in the salon had no influence on the 'threat of loss of personal identity' stress, which was similar to a sense of social isolation because of child care. However, as a result of investigating the influence of the participation frequency on stress score for participants alone, mothers with less participation had a higher stress score than mothers with greater participation. That suggested the importance of intervention for a decrease of social isolation in mothers, especially in the initial stage of salon participation.


A patient with features of congenital βlipoprotein deficiency and intestinal lymphangiectasia is reported. The patient's illness was characterized by chronic diarrhea, mild steatorrhea, mild intestinal protein loss, and severe proximal muscle weakness. Plasma βlipoprotein levels were markedly decreased, and total cholesterol ranged from 84 to 98 mg/100 cc. An abdominal lymph node was infiltrated with lipophages. Intestinal biopsy showed clubshaped villi filled with PAS-negative macrophages and dilated lacteals. Electron microscopy showed lipid retention within intestinal absorptive cells, chylomicron retention, and numerous lipophages throughout the lamina propria. It is postulated that lipophage infiltration of abdominal lymph nodes resulted in the lymphangiectasia and protein-losing enteropathy. The malabsorption is presumably secondary to both lymphangiectasia and βlipoprotein deficiency.


Myogenesis, or the formation of muscle tissue, is an extremely complicated process, is essential for the proper functioning of the body. Depending on the type of muscle, they play different important functions. In vertebrata skeletal (striated) muscles allow skeletal movement (locomotion) and maintaining posture. They are built of long, cylindrical cells (myofibres) with numerous nuclei. Each myofibre is composed of many alternately oriented fibrils, resulting in a conspicuous banding. These striated muscles contract quickly and fatigue rapidly. Their development and regeneration are controlled by many genetic factors and some of the most important ones are myogenic regulating factors (MRF), including MyoD (or Myod1), myogenin, Myf5 and MRF-4. These proteins regulate the activity of many genes involved in development and regeneration of muscle tissue. They act in a complementary manner and numerous studies show they are expressed to varying degrees. The synthesis of non-functional or abnormal MRFs may lead to serious consequences and even death due to abnormal development of muscle tissue. MRF-regulated inhibition of myoblasts in their growth cycle is a crucial step in muscle formation.


The temperature dependence of the yield stress of body-centered cubic plutonium is predicted from data existing for other metals with the same structure. At strain rates around 105 s−1 kink pair formation controls the deformation of b.c.c. plutonium.


Objective:To explore a novel approach, associated balancing surgical treatments of the first and second branchial arch syndrome and to supply an array of practical, efficacious, and relatively shorter course of treatments for clinics. Methods:For microtia with severe ipsilateral facial dysplasia with the first and second branchial arch syndrome, auricular reconstruction using traditional methods by autologous cartilage framework and filling of the malar region and the mandible with an autologous rib for the ipsilateral zygomatic arch and the mandibular bone were begun to correct ear and jaw deformities. The second stage is turning over the auricular flap and skin graft with autologous fat transplantation to reshape facial contours. Results:Six patients were followed up for 3 to 9 months postoperatively. All of them showed satisfactory surgical results with no adverse effects. The shape of the reconstructed auricle and the affected hemifacial region improved greatly. Good stereopsis with symmetry was observed on the whole. The implanted rib and the cartilage frameworks were not deformed, absorbed, or exposed. Transplanted fat particles were observed with no infection, scleroma, subcutaneous mass, cyst, or other complications. Conclusions:This method is well designed and easy to perform. The satisfactory effects and few known complications make it one of the most effective treatments of the first and second branchial arch syndrome.


Semiconductor crystals have generally shown facet-dependent electrical, photocatalytic, and optical properties. These phenomena have been proposed to result from the presence of a surface layer with bond-level deviations. To provide experimental evidence of this structural feature, synchrotron X-ray sources are used to obtain X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of polyhedral cuprous oxide crystals. Cu2 O rhombic dodecahedra display two distinct cell constants from peak splitting. Peak disappearance during slow Cu2 O reduction to Cu with ammonia borane differentiates bulk and surface layer lattices. Cubes and octahedra also show two peak components, while diffraction peaks of cuboctahedra are comprised of three components. Temperature-varying lattice changes in the bulk and surface regions also show shape dependence. From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, slight plane spacing deviations in surface and inner crystal regions are measured. Image processing provides visualization of the surface layer with depths of about 1.5-4 nm giving dashed lattice points instead of dots from atomic position deviations. Close TEM examination reveals considerable variation in lattice spot size and shape for different particle morphologies, explaining why facet-dependent properties are emerged. Raman spectrum reflects the large bulk and surface lattice difference in rhombic dodecahedra. Surface lattice difference can change the particle bandgap.


The traditional wisdom for achieving transparency is to minimize disordered scattering within and on the surface of materials, so as to avoid translucency. However, the lack of disordered scattering also deprives the possibility of achieving a matte surface, resulting in the specular reflection and glare on transparent materials as a severe light pollution issue. In this work, we propose a solution utilizing optical metasurfaces1-2 to overcome this long-existing dilemma. Our approach leverages an asymmetric background in metasurface design to achieve highly asymmetric diffusion of white light, maximizing diffusion in reflection while minimizing it in transmission across the entire visible spectrum. Using industrial lithography, we have created macroscale transparent matte surfaces with both strong matte appearance and clear transparency, defying the conventional belief that these two optical features are incompatible. These surfaces provide a remarkable phenomenon of switching between transparent or matte appearances via the brightness contrast between the front and rear ambient lights. They also support a unique application in transparent displays and augmented reality, offering perfectly preserved clarity, wide viewing angles, full color, and one-sided displays capabilities. Our findings usher in a new era of optical materials where the desirable properties of both transparent and matte appearances can be seamlessly merged.


Isoamyl acetate synthesis employing aqueous Candida antarctica lipase B (CaLB) solution was performed in a two-phase solvent system comprising hydrophilic ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylpyridinium dicyanamide and n-heptane. An X-junction glass microfluidic chip was used to obtain uniform microdroplets of n-heptane within a continuous phase of ionic liquid with dissolved enzyme and reactants, namely, isoamyl alcohol and acetic anhydride. A developed flow pattern resulted in a very large specific interfacial area for the reaction with amphiphilic CaLB and simultaneous extraction of isoamyl acetate in n-heptane. Biotransformation was performed within a continuously operated microfluidic system consisting of an X-junction chip and a silanized tube of a submillimeter diameter, which was further integrated with a microseparator based on a hydrophobic membrane. Efficient separation of n-heptane with product from ionic liquid phase containing enzyme and remaining substrates and products was achieved, enabling reuse of CaLB together with ionic liquid phase. More than 80% of productivity was preserved in each of the eight consecutive biotransformations within the integrated microfluidic system with reused lipase B in the ionic liquid phase. Subsequent ionic liquid regeneration accomplished by vacuum distillation enabled efficient reuse of this solvent in esterification with fresh enzyme.


A reduced supply voltage must be accompanied by a reduced threshold voltage, which makes this approach to power saving susceptible to process variation in transistor parameters, as well as resulting in increased subthreshold leakage. The paper propose a new adaptive body biasing scheme, based on a lookup table for independent control of multiple functional blocks on a chip, which controls leakage and also compensates for process variation at the block level. An adaptive body bias is applied to blocks in active mode and a large reverse body bias is applied to blocks in standby mode. This is achieved by a central body bias controller, which has a low overhead in terms of area, delay, and power consumption. The problem of optimizing the required set of bias voltages is formulated and solved. A design methodology for semicustom design using standard-cell elements is developed and verified with benchmark circuits


Among critical stakeholders of software projects developed in public institutions are software developers and project managers affiliated to sub-contractor companies, who are working onsite at the public institutions. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of working onsite in public software projects for software developers and managers with respect to selected factors. The research is designed as an exploratory and qualitative study. The study participants were 10 software developers, one technical team leader and four project managers, all having long experiences in working on public software projects on client premises. Semi-structured interview technique is employed as the data collection method and " analysis" was applied on the obtained participant responses. Following this analysis, "key " approach was used to identify the issues to be further considered. It has been determined that the productivity of software developers working onsite at public institutions is low due to intense requests, shortened time to fulfill these requests, and long duration of authorization processes. Moreover, a finding of the study is that the quality of the developed projects and the motivation of the developers are considered to be low for the same aforementioned reasons. Among the foremost causes for these results are the fact that employees work under two different hierarchical structures one in the public institution and one in the software company, more than one managers assign work and there is an authority confusion between organizational units and people in the public institutions.


With the fast propulsion of the informatization, a large base of semi-structured XBRL data and structured financial data have been accumulated in various business activities, including production, commercial management, transaction, government supervising and administrating, which is ever-increasing with a relatively large-scale. These huge amounts of business data surely will be distributed on the cloud in the future. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to solve this common challenging problem of how to share the huge number of structured financial data and semi-structured XBRL data. Combining the related cloud computing technology with the XBRL technology, a technical architecture and implementation of semi-structured XBRL data and structured data exchange system based on Hadoop cluster is proposed in this study. The technical architecture has certain engineering value and theoretic significance in the area of big data processing and sharing.


The relevance of the study is conditioned by the increase of culture-forming role of university education and the increasing society demands to the professional culture of the university teacher.  The purpose of the paper is to identify psychological and pedagogical conditions of development of university teacher's professional culture. The leading approach to the study is the axiological approach allowing us to consider the professional culture of the teacher as a set of scientific and pedagogical values that lead to ways of subject-subject interaction, aimed at self-improvement and increase of efficiency of scientific and pedagogical activity. The study involves 600 teachers who have identified the function of professional culture of the university teacher. The main results of the study are to identify the psychological and pedagogical conditions of development of professional culture of the university teacher (self-diagnosis and self-analysis of scientific and educational activities, the development of reflexive abilities, scientific and pedagogical cooperation with colleagues). The significance of the results obtained is that the implementation of psycho-pedagogical conditions provides the development of teachers' abilities for pedagogical thinking, facilitation, reflection, generates skills of teaching improvisation, goal-setting in teaching activities.


[Arg(8)]-vasopressin (Avp), a nonapeptide hormone, is known to regulate blood pressure, water balance, and a variety of behaviors such as anxiety, aggression, and bonding. Although some evidence that Avp modifies ethanol consumption and some of the effects of ethanol on behavior have been reported, the role of Avp in alcohol consumption and preference is poorly understood. The Avp1a receptor (Avpr1a) is ubiquitously expressed in the central nervous system. To determine the role of Avp signaling on the behavioral effects of alcohol, we examined voluntary ethanol consumption in mice with targeted disruptions of the Avpr1a knockout (Avpr1a KO) gene. Avpr1a KO mice displayed both increased ethanol consumption and preference compared with wild-type (WT) mice. Enhanced ethanol consumption was dramatically and reversibly reduced by treatment with N-methyl-D-aspartic acid antagonists. Basal glutamate release was elevated around the striatum in Avpr1a KO mice. Elevation of extracellular glutamate was also produced in WT mice by local application of an Avpr1a antagonist though a dialysis probe, and this elevation was quickly reversed by stopping the perfusion. These results suggest that Avp can inhibit the release of glutamate from the presynaptic terminal via the Avp1a receptor and that elevation of glutamate levels owing to loss of the inhibitory effect via Avp-Avpr1a signaling may play an important role in the preference for ethanol.


We introduce new discretizations of the action for static quarks. They achieve an exponential improvement (compared to the Eichten-Hill regularization) on the signal to noise ratio in static–light correlation functions. This is explicitly checked in a quenched simulation and it is understood quantitatively in terms of the self energy of a static quark and the lattice heavy quark potential at zero distance. We perform a set of scaling tests in the Schrödinger functional and find scaling violations in the O(a) improved theory to be rather small – for one observable significantly smaller than with the Eichten-Hill regularization. In addition we compute the improvement coefficients of the static light axial current up to O(g4 0) corrections and the corresponding renormalization constants non-perturbatively. The regularization dependent part of the renormalization of the b-quark mass in static approximation is also determined.


ABSTRACT Cytomegalovirus (CMV) entry into fibroblasts differs from entry into epithelial cells. CMV also spreads cell to cell and can induce syncytia. To gain insights into these processes, 27 antibodies targeting epitopes in CMV virion glycoprotein complexes, including glycoprotein B (gB), gH/gL, and the pentamer, were evaluated for their effects on viral entry and spread. No antibodies inhibited CMV spread in fibroblasts, including those with potent neutralizing activity against fibroblast entry, while all antibodies that neutralized epithelial cell entry also inhibited spread in epithelial cells and a correlation existed between the potencies of these two activities. This suggests that exposure of virions to the cell culture medium is obligatory during spread in epithelial cells but not in fibroblasts. In fibroblasts, the formation of syncytiumlike structures was impaired not only by antibodies to gB or gH/gL but also by antibodies to the pentamer, suggesting a potential role for the pentamer in promoting fibroblast fusion. Four antibodies reacted with linear epitopes near the N terminus of gH, exhibited strain specificity, and neutralized both epithelial cell and fibroblast entry. Five other antibodies recognized conformational epitopes in gH/gL and neutralized both fibroblast and epithelial cell entry. That these antibodies were strain specific for neutralizing fibroblast but not epithelial cell entry suggests that polymorphisms external to certain gH/gL epitopes may influence antibody neutralization during fibroblast but not epithelial cell entry. These findings may have implications for elucidating the mechanisms of CMV entry, spread, and antibody evasion and may assist in determining which antibodies may be most efficacious following active immunization or passive administration. IMPORTANCE Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a significant cause of birth defects among newborns infected in utero and morbidity and mortality in transplant and AIDS patients. Monoclonal antibodies and vaccines targeting humoral responses are under development for prophylactic or therapeutic use. The findings reported here (i) confirm that cell-to-cell spread of CMV is sensitive to antibody inhibition in epithelial cells but not fibroblasts, (ii) demonstrate that antibodies can restrict the formation in vitro of syncytiumlike structures that resemble syncytial cytomegalic cells that are associated with CMV disease in vivo, and (iii) reveal that neutralization of CMV by antibodies to certain epitopes in gH or gH/gL is both strain and cell type dependent and can be governed by polymorphisms in sequences external to the epitopes. These findings serve to elucidate the mechanisms of CMV entry, spread, and antibody evasion and may have important implications for the development of CMV vaccines and immunotherapeutics.


We extend a recently proposed Quantum Field Theory (QFT) approach to the Lifshitz formula, originally implemented for a real scalar field, to the case of a fluctuating vacuum Electromagnetic (EM) field, coupled to two flat, parallel mirrors. The general result is presented in terms of the invariants of the vacuum polarization tensors due to the media on each mirror. We consider mirrors that have small widths, with the zero-width limit as a particular case. We apply the latter to models involving graphene sheets, obtaining results which are consistent with previous ones.


Introduction: Candida albicans is the most common etiologic agent of fungal vaginitis. These yeasts produce secreted aspartyl proteinases encoded by a family of 10 genes (SAP1-10). Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the presence of genes SAP1-7 in vulvovaginal C. albicans. Materials and method: The study included 26 C. albicans vaginal isolates. Detection of aspartyl proteases genes (SAP1-7) was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The most frequent gene in C. albicans isolated from colonization was SAP6 (93.33%), and from infection, SAP7 (100%). We observed a statistical difference (p = 0.049) in SAP1 gene frequency between isolates from vulvovaginal colonization and infection. Conclusion: High frequency of SAP genes was observed in vulvovaginal C. albicans. The results suggest SAP1 participation in vulvovaginal candidiasis infection.


Abstract Authorship in a scientific publication is an indicator of significant intellectual contribution in scientific work. Regardless of the discipline, it is important for research-related personnel to receive credit and take responsibility for their publications. There are currently several systems of listing authorship that arise from many factors such as research complexity, pressure to obtain funding, hierarchical structure, and promotion. Some of these may unfortunately lead to authorship abuse. Raising awareness and understanding of authorship guidelines can help prevent abuses and disputes. National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) is a national research agency of Thailand with about 2 000 research staff members. The research emphasis of the agency is mainly technology development for application in broad areas, ranging from engineering to medicine, including forensic science. We conducted a survey to identify the level of awareness of NSTDA research staff and their authorship practices. A questionnaire was designed based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines and used to survey 15% of randomly selected NSTDA research staff. Nearly 90% of them responded to the interview. Among the respondents, 60% were not sure about authorship criteria. When presented with the ICMJE criteria, more than 90% agreed with the criteria except for the third one, approval of the final manuscript before submission, 33% of respondents thought that authors are only responsible for their particular contribution. However, nearly 80% agreed that every author is responsible for the integrity of the whole manuscript. These results offered an important foundation for forming a strategy to raise awareness about authorship in NSTDA. Following survey analysis, we organized several seminars and developed learning materials and an authorship guideline to increase the level of awareness of authorship for researchers.


To estimate the long-term effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission on cereal yield in Sudan, we employed an autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) bound test for cointegration analysis. The ARDL results reveal evidence of cointegration between the dependent variable (cereals yield) and two independent variables (CO2 emission) and agricultural GDP. The estimation results of the error correction model indicate that change in CO2 has a positive and significant impact on the cereal yield in the long and short terms, as 1% increase in CO2 leads to a cereal yield increase by 3% in the short term and by 0.7% in the long term. This result adds two important findings to the existing literature: First, the positive impact of CO2 on cereal yield in Sudan supports previous research findings in other countries of warm and arid climates. Second, the effect of CO2 on cereal yield differs from short to long term, as our finding indicates that CO2 has a greater positive effect in the short term compared to that in the long term, implying that the effect of CO2 on cereal yields is not linear, as commonly perceived, but it decreases as time duration extends to longer periods. This may be due to the CO2 effect on global warming that emanates from cumulative CO2 concentration, which leaves a disproportionate impact on crops over time.


Introduction Pleural mesothelioma with metastasis to the subcutaneous tissue of the abdominal wall at first diagnosis and without penetration into the peritoneum is an extremely rare clinical presentation. Pleural mesothelioma is a malignant neoplasm of mesodermal origin and arises from multipotential mesothelial or subserosal cells of the pleura, pericardium and peritoneum. Aims and objectives This is the first clinical documentation of pleura mesothelioma simultaneously metastasized to the subcutaneous tissue of the abdominal wall. Methods Patients with pleura mesothelioma have low survival rate. A 55- year- old man was referred to our center due to increasing dyspnea and a painful periumbilical mass in the anterior abdominal wall. CT- scan revealed both advanced mesothelioma of the pleura and a tumor mass confined to the subcutaneous fatty tissue without penetration through the peritoneum. Video assisted-thoracoscopy confirmed the diagnosis of epithelioid pleuramesothelioma, which was also confirmed by a biopsy of the periumbilical mass. Systemic chemotherapy with cisplatin and pemetrexed was initiated. Results Under the ongoing systemic chemotherapy, the evaluation revealed partial remission of pleura mesothelioma and its subcutaneous manifestation of the abdominal wall. During the follow- up evaluations, we could observe improved clinical conditioning of our patient. Conclusion Mesothelioma is a aggressive malignant manifestation with resistence toward many therapies. This is the first ever cllinical documentation of a patient with pleura mesothelioma and simultaneous subcutaneous manifestation of abdominal wall.


X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been used to study Ge x As 4 0 - x S 6 0 glasses and films at the K edges of As, Ge and S. The spectra obtained for glasses with different compositions as well as those for glasses and films are compared. The spectra of films before and after illumination or thermal treatments are compared in order to study the effect of annealing and/or illumination upon the disorder. The results are discussed in terms of the degree of chemical and structural disorders of the amorphous matrices.


With the aim of inhibiting charge accumulation and accelerating charge dissipation on the surface of oilimpregnated paper, a novel method to modify the surface property of the insulating paper applied in converter transformers is presented in this paper. The papers used in the experiment were sputtered with ZnO for different sputtering time of 0, 7.5, 15 and 30 min. The properties of the charge dissipation and trap distribution of the sputtered paper under different voltages were studied further by means of surface potential decay (SPD). The carrier mobility were also investigated. Obtained results showed that the sputtering with ZnO had an obvious influence on the charge characteristics of the insulating paper. The treatment was shown to reduce the initial potential and cause acceleration in the charge decay process.


ABSTRACT Establishing political legitimacy is a concern of all political regimes and leads to a range of legitimating techniques to suit particular circumstances and regime objectives. For Bhutan, the challenge has been how to legitimate a new democratic political order that did not result from citizen or elite pressure, the normal causes of democratic transition. This article addresses how legitimacy has been secured in Bhutan, a nation of "reluctant democrats". It uses a methodology derived from an amalgam of longue durée and critical junctures to analyse the country's unique process of democratisation, as some of the building blocks of contemporary democratic legitimation have old origins. By dividing Bhutanese history into four distinct periods and identifying four critical junctures, this article provides a full understanding of the nature and process of contemporary democratic legitimation. We pay special attention to the role of the monarchy in facilitating and securing acceptance of the new political order and in guaranteeing the monarchy's future as a central pillar of that order. An important lesson of this article is the need to take a historical perspective when considering contemporary legitimacy as history reveals the building blocks on which today's democratic regime legitimacy has been built and accepted.


The industrial pelagic fishery of pacific sardine and anchovy from northern Chile was analysed through a bioeconomic approach including statistical data from the fishery (catch and effort between 1980 and 1991) and economic data (costs, revenues, investment and employment between 1988 and 1995) using a Gordon-Schaefer model. The economic data allowed us to conclude that costs from the fleet, fishmeal industry and canning industry decreased during the studied period. The financial investment occurred in two different periods. During the first period, investment increased between 1988 and 1991, and during the second period, between 1991 and 1995, investment decreased, which might be explained by a drop in fishmeal yield, catches and money exchange rate. The biological and economic reference points determined by the Gordon-Schaefer model showed that the fleet has harvested above both the effort in maximum economic yield (E MEY ) and effort in open access ( E OA ), while catches have exceeded the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). These results are discussed in terms of the theoretical model's limitations to explain the functioning of the pelagic fishery fleet under backward-forward integration. It is hypothesized that more complex bioeconomic models would be subjected to identical limitation, because they would inadequately represent the integrated economic rationality of the industrial fishery. Some future worklines on the same topic are proposed.


Abstract : This study analyzes the impact of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capabilities on intelligence gathering missions for a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) commander in 2015. The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) is developing requirements for an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) UAV that supports rapid planning and decision making for multiple concurrent operations and facilitates maneuver and precision engagement. The acquisition of a 2008 Pioneer replacement also is underway at Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM). However, the importance of various capabilities for this replacement UAV presently lacks quantitative analysis. Through modeling, agent-based simulation, and data mining, this study explores the validity of current requirements and provides insights into the importance of various UAV characteristics, such as airspeed, endurance, sweep width, and sensor capability. Each year, the Navy/Marine Corps conducts Fleet Battle Experiment Sea Viking in Southern California. The primary objective is Command and Control and ISR development. This study looks at UAV operations in the Sea Viking scenario provided by MCWL in the MANA agent-based modeling environment utilizing robust design, Latin hypercubes, data farming techniques, the Maui High Performance Computing Center, and the JMP Statistical Discovery Software package. The Sea Viking Experiment, the Marine Corps' largest annual experiment, provides a credible scenario for model development. The advantages of tactical routing, a 7 hour (or greater) on-station time, a minimum 4,500 meter sweep width, and a probability of classification of at least 0.4 are verified for the Sea Viking scenario. This analysis indicates that a UAV in this scenario does not need to travel in excess of 200 knots. The results have design consequences for MCWL's Sea Viking 20XX and provide key parameters for physics-based simulations such as COMBAT XXI. A 15-item bibliography is included. (26 figures, 26 refs7


With interest, I read the article by Abd Elrahim.1 The author described the morphometry of renal arteries according to the findings of computed tomography angiography. Retrospectively, he reviewed the data of 50 selected kidney donors to study the impact of age and gender on renal vasculature. He reported a significant difference in the length between the right and left renal arteries. Also, significant differences were described in the length and width of renal arteries between males and females. Moreover, aging was found to be associated with a significant reduction in the diameters of renal arteries. No doubt that the normal renovascular morphometry is significantly important for studying of the renovascular disorders and renal surgical interventions including kidney transplantation. Computed tomography is a reliable and powerful imaging tool for evaluation of renal vessels.2 Dedicated researches to this field are warranted and should be encouraged. The study is warranted as a trial to reproduce the understanding of the morphometry of renal arteries in the context of complex renovascular disorders. The hypothesis was interesting and the rationale was valuable. This study is expected to provide a significant promotion to the decision-making in the clinical practice of renovascular interventions. However, the article should be professionally criticized to clarify and maximize the benefits. Many aspects could be addressed including the confusing writing mishaps, incomplete description of the participants of the study, and missing discussion of the implications of the reported results at the settings of the donors themselves, kidney transplantation process, and the other medical and surgical renovascular interventions. Firstly, an inconvenient writing may affect the merit of the work. In the section of Results, the measurement unit (mm) was used by mistake instead of (cm) leading to a wrong reporting of the length of renal arteries. Also, the author reported that "aging was considered one of the most significant risk factor for many RA abnormalities. It was associated with vascular compliance and elevated vascular rigidity" and "aging is established to cause vascular compliance and increased vascular rigidity" in the sections of Introduction and Discussion, respectively. According to what I can understand, these sentences referred to that "vascular compliance" should be a vascular abnormality. However, vascular compliance is a natural physiological vascular characteristic.3,4 So, it should be considered that aging reduces (other than causes) vascular compliance due to the increased vascular rigidity. Secondly, the author described in the section of Methods that the participants were evaluated specifically for this study. However, he also reported that those participants were kidney donors. It is not clear whether the participants were potential donors who were excluded from kidney donation. Otherwise, they should be real donors and their kidneys had been transplanted into certain kidney recipients. So, many queries may evolve, while the reader is going through this section: Were these participants deceased or living kidney donors? What was the method of selection to be included in the study? Were the data extracted from a kidney transplantation registry? In regards to the age and gender categories, what were the values of their renal functions? Did they reflect any relevant variations? How could an oral consent be taken retrospectively from those donors to participate in this study? Thirdly, kidney transplantation is a prominent field in which the anatomy of renal arteries is very important. In the literature, studying of the multiplicity of renal arteries has attracted the attention more than studying of their dimensions.5 However, I believe that the effects of age and gender on vascular dimensions including the length and diameter are important and should be investigated also. I hoped that if the reported results in this article could be studied in regards to the donors themselves and their corresponding kidney recipients. Also, the addition of the study to the literature could be augmented, if there was a correlation between the current results of the morphometric variations of renal arteries and the volumetric parameters of their corresponding kidneys.


A simple monomeric tungstate, TBA(2)[WO(4)] (I, TBA = tetra-n-butylammonium), could act as an efficient homogeneous catalyst for chemical fixation of CO(2) with 2-aminobenzonitriles to quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-diones. Various kinds of structurally diverse 2-aminobenzonitriles could be converted into the corresponding quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-diones in high yields at atmospheric pressure of CO(2). Reactions of inactive 2-amino-4-chlorobenzonitrile and 2-amino-5-nitrobenzonitrile at 2 MPa of CO(2) also selectively proceeded. The present system was applicable to a g-scale reaction of 2-amino-5-fluorobenzonitrile (10 mmol scale) with CO(2) and 1.69 g of analytically pure quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione could be isolated. In this case, the turnover number reached up to 938 and the value was the highest among those reported for base-mediated systems so far. NMR spectroscopies showed formation of the corresponding carbamic acid through the simultaneous activation of both 2-aminobenzonitirile and CO(2) by I. Kinetic and computational studies revealed that I plays an important role in conversion of the carbamic acid into the product.


Introduction: For medically fit patients with AML, intensive chemotherapy (IC) is used to induce complete remission (CR). Following CR, some patients may be considered for curative-intent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. For others, the aim of treatment is to prevent relapse, which usually occurs within 1 year from CR. Post CR, treatment may include consolidation therapy, consisting of chemotherapy given soon after CR is achieved. In addition, maintenance therapy with intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous (SC) injection of AZA has shown evidence of statistically significant improvement in unadjusted time to relapse, though not in unadjusted overall survival (OS), vs placebo (PBO) in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (Wei. 2019). In the QUAZAR AML-001 trial, maintenance with CC-486, an oral hypomethylating agent, resulted in significant improvements in unadjusted time to relapse and OS vs PBO (Wei et al. 2019). No head-to-head trials have compared CC-486 with AZA.
 Objective: To assess the relative efficacy of CC-486 compared with AZA.
 Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify RCTs assessing AML maintenance therapy with AZA, for comparison with CC-486. Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) compared endpoints of CC-486 and AZA. Hazard ratios (HR), 95% credible intervals (CrI), and surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) values were calculated. The impact of differences in potential treatment-effect-modifying characteristics between populations in the NMA was explored using anchored matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC). The NMA was repeated using CC-486 vs PBO efficacy from the MAIC, to satisfy the assumption of clinical similarity necessary in NMA (Hoaglin et al. 2011).
 Results: Four RCTs evaluating OS outcomes that could be compared were identified: QUAZAR AML-001 (CC-486) (Wei et al. 2019), HOVON 97 AML (SC AZA) (Huls et al. 2019), UK NCRI AML16 (SC AZA) (Burnett et al. 2015), and QoLESS-AZA-MLE (SC and IV AZA, included in sensitivity analysis) (Oliva et al. 2019). Other efficacy and safety endpoints were not analyzed owing to lack of comparable data among the 4 identified RCTs.
 Results of the NMA indicated CC-486 was associated with statistically significant improvement in OS vs SC AZA (HR 0.744; CrI 0.557, 0.998); SC AZA was not statistically different from PBO (HR 0.926; CrI 0.771, 1.120). SUCRA values associated CC-486 with the best OS (98.8%). In a sensitivity analysis, CC-486 was associated with statistically significant improvement in OS vs SC or IV AZA (HR 0.741; CrI 0.556, 0.992).
 In the MAIC, a structured process was used to evaluate the need for adjustment due to differences in trial populations in the NMA. Populations for each trial were compared (Table). Per methodological guidance (Phillippo et al. 2016), the MAIC sought to adjust characteristics with evidence of (a) treatment-effect-modifying status on the scale of parameters entering the NMA and (b) substantial imbalance across populations. Using the QUAZAR individual patient data, univariate analyses were conducted to determine prognostic and effect-modifying status of variables (Table). For each SC AZA trial, a multivariate Cox model was estimated, including all significant prognostic variables reported, and effect modifiers that remained significant when controlling for prognostic variables and improved model fit. Among variables reported for UK NCRI, no effect modifiers enhanced the multivariate model; for HOVON, treatment interactions with age > 81 years (the oldest age in HOVON) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) did. MAIC was therefore conducted by re-weighting QUAZAR patients to match means/shares of the HOVON patients, adjusting for mean age, % aged > 81 years, % poor cytogenetic risk, and mean ANC. Effective sample size was 411 (−13% vs N = 472 in QUAZAR). Frequency-weighted, unadjusted (including only a treatment covariate) Cox regression was conducted. After adjusting for effect-modifying differences, the OS improvement of CC-486 vs PBO observed in QUAZAR was maintained in the HOVON population. Incorporating the adjusted HR from the MAIC in the NMA, CC-486 continued to be associated with statistically significant improvement in OS vs SC AZA (HR 0.753; CrI 0.563, 0.998).
 Conclusion: Maintenance CC-486 appears to significantly improve OS compared with SC AZA for patients with AML who have achieved CR after IC, based on a systematic analysis of RCT outcomes.

 Tabah: Bristol Myers Squibb: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Huggar:Bristol Myers Squibb: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Karyopharm Therapeutics: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; FibroGen: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Wang:Medicus Economics: Current Employment; Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding. Johnson:Medicus Economics: Current Employment; BMS: Research Funding. Copher:Bristol Myers Squibb: Current Employment. O'Connell:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Other biopharmaceutical manufacturers: Consultancy; Medicus Economics, LLC: Current Employment. Leblanc:AbbVie, Agios, Amgen, AstraZeneca, CareVive, BMS/Celgene, Daiichi-Sankyo, Flatiron, Helsinn, Heron, Otsuka, Medtronic, Pfizer, Seattle Genetics, Welvie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; American Cancer Society, BMS, Duke University, NINR/NIH, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; UpToDate: Patents & Royalties: Royalties; Agios, AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb/Celgene: Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Research Funding.


Affinity of ibuprofen to cellular immune reactions was evaluated in the light of its basic pharmacological indices. Ibuprofen was observed to modulate some immunological phenomena with marked predominance of immunosuppressive component. It has been shown that at least to some extent, mechanism of its effect consists in an interference in T-suppressor cell activity.


Genitopatellar syndrome is a newly described disorder characterized by absent/hypoplastic patellae, lower extremity contractures, urogenital anomalies, dysmorphic features, skeletal anomalies, and agenesis of the corpus callosum. More recently, cardiac anomalies and ectodermal dysplasia have been suggested as additional features of this syndrome. We report on two additional patients with genitopatellar syndrome and expand the spectrum of anomalies to include radio‐ulnar synostosis. Since there exists significant overlap in the skeletal phenotype between genitopatellar syndrome and both the nail‐patella and short patella syndromes, mutation screening of their causative genes, LMX1B and TBX4, was performed. Although there still does not appear to be an identifiable molecular etiology in genitopatellar syndrome, mutations in these two candidate genes have been excluded in our patients. Since both LMX1B and TBX4 are involved in a common molecular pathway, it is likely that the causative gene of genitopatellar syndrome functions within the same developmental process. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper reports on an ongoing project that is concerned with the interpretation and processing of emotion in communication, particularly anger, within an interactional dynamics perspective (Holtgraves, 1990). In a previous publication (Strambi & Mrowa 2007), we presented an analytical model and some preliminary analyses of 'processing' strategies for managing the communication of anger among friends across three cultural groups: Anglo-Australian, French and Italian. In this paper, we are presenting further elaborations on this model, and analyses from a non-verbal perspective of how smiling and teasing function in the construction and negotiation of anger scenarios among French and Anglo-Australian groups.


Consensus is an important measure for the success of any business process modeling effort. Although intensively studied in the general literature on group processes, consensus has hardly been considered in business process modeling and never seriously measured. The author defines consensus as the level of agreement of group members' views on the process and introduce business process similarity as a proxy. The author validates the measure by comparing it to an existing self-reported measure of consensus. The author then uses this measure to inform and guide the process of modeling.


The relationship between social skills and social anxiety has been addressed conceptually but studied little empirically. Scarcer still are the studies on the relationship between social skills and personality styles/disorders. This paper uses a sample of mostly university students to find possible relationships between social skills, on the one hand, and social anxiety and personality styles/disorders, on the other. The correlations of the total scores for the instruments of social skills and social anxiety were moderate-to-high and negative; that is, the lower the social skill, the greater the social anxiety, and vice versa. This same level of correlation was also obtained by analyzing the specific dimensions of each construct, which shows that there are shared aspects between social skills and social anxiety. Furthermore, the relationship between social skills and personality  Correspondencia: Vicente E. Caballo, Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Cartuja, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada (España).E-mail: email@example.com 402 CABALLO, SALAZAR, IRURTIA, OLIVARES Y OLIVARES disorders varies depending on the specific personality style/disorder. Most correlations are negative, except for histrionic, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, and antisocial styles/disorders. These results provide support for a significant part of the interpersonal characteristics of each personality disorder.


Over the past few years, eXtended Reality (XR) has attracted increasing interest thanks to its extensive industrial and commercial applications, and its popularity is expected to rise exponentially over the next decade. However, the stringent Quality of Service (QoS) constraints imposed by XR's interactive nature require Network Slicing (NS) solutions to support its use over wireless connections: in this context, quasi-Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding is a promising solution, as it can increase the predictability of the stream, making the network resource allocation easier. However, traffic characterization of XR streams is still a largely unexplored subject, particularly with this encoding. In this work, we characterize XR streams from more than 4 hours of traces captured in a real setup, analyzing their temporal correlation and proposing two prediction models for future frame size. Our results show that even the state-of-the-art H.264 CBR mode can have significant frame size fluctuations, which can impact the NS optimization. Our proposed prediction models can be applied to different traces, and even to different contents, achieving very similar performance. We also show the trade-off between network resource efficiency and XR QoS in a simple NS use case.


End-to-end text spotting has attached great attention recently due to its benefits on global optimization and high maintainability for real applications. However, the input scale has always been a tough trade-off since recognizing a small text instance usually requires enlarging the whole image, which brings high computational costs. In this paper, to address this problem, we propose a novel cost-efficient Dynamic Low-resolution Distillation (DLD) text spotting framework, which aims to infer images in different small but recognizable resolutions and achieve a better balance between accuracy and efficiency. Concretely, we adopt a resolution selector to dynamically decide the input resolutions for different images, which is constraint by both inference accuracy and computational cost. Another sequential knowledge distillation strategy is conducted on the text recognition branch, making the low-res input obtains comparable performance to a high-res image. The proposed method can be optimized end-to-end and adopted in any current text spotting framework to improve the practicability. Extensive experiments on several text spotting benchmarks show that the proposed method vastly improves the usability of low-res models. The code is available at https://github.com/hikopensource/DAVAR-Lab-OCR/.


Arnold Sommerfeld was one of the most distinguished representatives of the transition period between classical and modern theoretical physics. The work of his youth was still firmly anchored in the conceptions of the nineteenth century; but when in the first decennium of the century the flood of new discoveries, experimental and theoretical, broke the dams of tradition, he became a leader of the new movement, and in combining the two ways of thinking he exerted a powerful influence on the younger generation. This combination of a classical mind, to whom clarity of conception and mathematical rigour are essential, with the adventurous spirit of a pioneer, are the roots of his scientific success, while his exceptional gift of communicating his ideas by . spoken and written word made him a great teacher. I was not a pupil of Sommerfeld, but met him for the first time in later life. Yet from this moment our friendship was firmly established. The picture of his personality which I carry with me and shall try to describe in these pages is drawn on this background of personal contact. I have further at my disposal a charming autobiographic sketch, which he wrote in 1919 for the Academy of Vienna, with an appendix probably added in 1950, and several obituary articles, of which those written by Heisenberg and von Laue are the most remarkable.1 Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, on 5 December 1868. His father, Dr Franz Sommerfeld, was a medical practitioner devoted to science and a passionate collector of natural objects like minerals, amber, shells, beetles, etc. Königsberg—now a Russian town with another name—was the capital and coronation city of the Prussian kings and had developed a specific atmosphere of erudition and culture. It was Immanuel Kant's place of birth and permanent home.


Objective: To assess the association between daytime sleepiness and hypertension among patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Methods: A total of 1 958 patients from Sleep Medicine Center of West China Hospital between January 2015 and January 2016 were included in the study. All subjects underwent one night polysomnography (PSG) and Epworth sleep scale (ESS) was estimated. The patients were divided into non-OSAHS group[apnea-hypopnea index (AHI)<5/h]and OSAHS group (AHI≥5/h) based on PSG, and then OSAHS group was further divided into those with and without daytime sleepiness groups according to ESS score (the cut point of ESS was 14). The association between blood pressure and risk of suffering from hypertension among patients with different degree of daytime sleepiness was explored by binary logistic regression. Results: There were 1 580 men and 378 women among the included patients, the mean age was (44.3±11.6) years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) was (26.4±3.8) kg/m2. Among these patients, there were 267 non-OSAHS and 1 691 OSAHS patients (1 275 without daytime sleepiness and 416 with daytime sleepiness). The prevalence of hypertension was higher among OSAHS patients (53.9%vs 28.8%) than non-OSAHS group, and OSAHS patients had higher systolic blood pressure (SBP)[(126.3±0.4) vs (116.3±4.9) mmHg], diastolic blood pressure (DBP)[(82.4±0.3) vs (78.1±3.7) mmHg]and mean arterial pressure (MAP)[(97.0±0.3) vs (90.9±3.9) mmHg]than non-OSAHS group. And OSAHS with daytime sleepiness also had elevated DBP[(84.5±0.6) vs (81.7±0.3) mmHg]and MAP[(98.8±0.6) vs (96.5±0.3) mmHg]than those without sleepiness (all P<0.05). After controlling for age, sex, BMI, smoking, drinking, AHI and related sleep parameters, OSAHS combined with daytime sleepiness increased the odds of hypertension by 23% (OR=1.23, 95% CI: 1.01-1.65) compared to OSAHS without daytime sleepiness. Conclusion: The daytime sleepiness is an independent risk factor of hypertension in OSAHS patients.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to identify those factors in the non-pregnant state that distinguished women who developed pre-eclampsia from those who had normotensive pregnancies.

DESIGN AND SETTING
This was a retrospective analysis of anthropometry, blood pressure, biochemical and haematological variables in 62 women with pre-eclampsia and 84 normotensive pregnant women who took part in studies of the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia. Pregnant volunteers were seen, after admission to hospital or in the outpatient clinic, and followed-up at 6 weeks and 6 months post-partum in the outpatient clinic or their home. Participants Proteinuric pre-eclampsia was defined as blood pressure > or = 140/90 mmHg with proteinuria of at least 300 mg/24 h after 20 weeks gestation, in women with no history of hypertension and whose blood pressure returned to normal levels by 6 months post-partum. Normotensive pregnancy was defined as blood pressure < 130/90 mmHg without proteinuria.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome measures were blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol and markers of severity of pre-eclampsia.

RESULTS
Regardless of parity, women with pre-eclampsia had elevated BMI before, during and after pregnancy compared with women who had normotensive pregnancies. Triglycerides were significantly elevated in women who had pre-eclampsia both before and after delivery, while total and LDL cholesterol were elevated significantly at both visits after delivery. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which by definition were elevated antepartum in women with pre-eclampsia, remained higher at post-partum visits compared with women who had normotensive pregnancies. Women with pre-eclampsia reported a greatly increased frequency of both maternal hypertension and pre-eclampsia. Markers of severity of pre-eclampsia, which normalized by 6 months postpartum, included plasma creatinine, uric acid, albumin, endothelin 1 and urinary protein, 2,3, dinor-6-keto-PGF1alpha, blood platelet and neutrophil counts.

CONCLUSION
The relative elevation of blood pressure, BMI and lipids in the non-pregnant state are features of the metabolic syndrome and may be important sensitizing factors contributing to the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. A familial predisposition to pre-eclampsia may operate partly through these mechanisms.


Nonoperative management of 20 cases of liver injury in 1969-1984 and 13 of splenic injury in 1977-1984, all due to blunt abdominal trauma, is retrospectively reviewed. The total of blunt hepatic injuries treated in the same period was 63 and that of blunt splenic injuries 52. There were no major differences in etiology, age, sex distribution or need for blood transfusion between the liver and splenic trauma cases. After initial resuscitation and diagnostic work-up with angiography, computed tomography, ultrasonography and/or scintiscan, circulatorily stable patients were selected for nonoperative treatment. These patients showed evidence of mild trauma with few associated major injuries, few complications and no mortality. Following initial bedrest and observation, they were gradually mobilized and could leave the hospital after about 2 weeks.


Abstract Advances in our understanding of the lymphatic system and the pathogenesis of lymphedema have resulted in the development of effective surgical treatments. Vascularized lymph node transfer (VLNT) involves the microvascular transplantation of functional lymph nodes into an extremity to restore physiological lymphatic function. It is most commonly performed by transferring combined deep inferior epigastric artery perforator and superficial inguinal lymph node flaps for postmastectomy breast reconstruction. For patients who do not require or are unable to undergo free abdominal breast reconstruction or have lymphedema affecting the lower extremity, several other VLNT options are available. These include flaps harvested from within the axillary, inguinal, or cervical lymph node basins, and lymph node flaps from within the abdominal cavity. This article reviews the lymph node flap options and techniques available for VLNT for lymphedema.


The life of plastic gears is shortened when they are used at a high temperature because they become less strong and vary in the way they mesh with each other, causing them to be worn away at their root in an abnormal way. It is necessary for lengthening the life of plastic gears to take care not to generate heat in them and to keep them from rising in temperature due to radiating heat quickly. The present report deals with various methods designed for lengthening the life of plastic gears having form and dimensions adapted to given operating conditions and makes inquiries about whether the use of these methods can lengthen the life of plastic gears to a greater extent than expected at the time of designing.


IEEE 802.15 working group established a new study group, body area network (SG-BAN), to develop short range wireless communication technology in and around human body recently. Wearable healthcare is an important category of potential applications of BAN. This paper introduces the IEEE SG-BAN and investigates the performance of 802.15.4b and 802.15.4a for wearable healthcare applications in the heterogeneous networks environment. The object is better understanding of healthcare requirement of BAN and how and where BAN works to be started. In addition to the scalability issue, we found asymmetric clear channel assessment (CCA) abilities among different types of wireless technology. The asymmetric CCA has significant impact on system performance.


Reproductive technologies have been playing a role in zoos for more than two decades. However, the value of these techniques has largely been misunderstood. There has been an over-emphasis on hyperbole and the 'quick-fix' (the attempted use of assisted-breeding techniques to produce offspring rapidly) and too little prominence on the prerequisite need to understand fundamental reproductive processes. The real value of these technologies is in delving into species-specific mechanisms that regulate reproductive success. Thus, the priority should always be using the technologies as tools to generate new knowledge that can then have applied benefits to management, ex situ or in situ. Models of using this strategy to develop successful assisted-breeding programmes are discussed, as well as the importance of integrating science between researchers and animal managers.


BACKGROUND
Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) is the first cause of death in Western Countries. Several risk factors contribute to generate atherosclerosis and the preventive therapeutic approaches, in particular statin therapy, reduce the mortality. However, the residual risk in statin treated patients remains significant, despite reaching the low density lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C) goals.

METHODS
we reviewed the literature published in PUB-MED to discuss the role of residual dyslipidemia in particular high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TGs) and lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], genetic factors, suboptimal implementation of lifestyle therapy, mood disorders associated to low compliance to application of evidence-based therapies or related to ASCVD.

RESULTS
we summarized the current knowledge on the topic, evidencing its contradictory aspects.

CONCLUSION
HDL-C is an important biomarker for predicting cardiovascular risk, but the classical HDL hypothesis is no longer correct and it is now being replaced by the HDL function hypothesis, thought more studies are needed to validate it. The connection between cardiovascular risk and levels of TGs is not so definite. APOE genotype and Lp(a) levels are two genetics factors associated to CV risk. Healthy lifestyle with particular dietetic factors, connected to psychological aspects, are very important for the optimal control of the global risk.


A 60-year-old woman was referred for 64-slice multidetector computed tomography because of the incidental findings of abnormality on a chest radiograph. Her computed tomography showed an absent right lung and a rudimentary main bronchus ending in a blind pouch; this established the diagnosis of pulmonary aplasia. We report here on a rare case of incidentally found right pulmonary aplasia, and we include a brief review of the relevant literature.


Polympropylene (PP) is extensively used in many industrial areas such as the automobile, household goods, packaging and electronic appliance properties applications due to its good performance and processing properties as well as low cost. Diatomite is a siliceous sedimentary rock. It has a unique combination of physical and chemical properties such as high porosity, high permeability, small particle size, large surface area and low thermal conductivity. For this purpose, in this study, the preparation of composite materials with good properties from a mixture of polypropylene and diatomite was considered. The surface of diatomite particles was treated by benzyltrimethylammonium chloride (BTMAC) and the diatomite filled polypropylene (PP) composites with a weight percentage range of the filler from 0 to 30% were prepared by means of melt blending in a designed single-screw extruder. The characterizations of the composite films synthesized by the laboratory type extruder were performed with FTIR, TGA, and SEM devices. Tensile strength tests were also performed for the mechanical properties of the synthesized films. Index Terms — Characterization, Composite, Diatomite, Modification, Polymer, Extruder


In this research, the coating behavior of Mg and Fe desulfurization powder fabricated by low energy and conventional planetary mill equipment was investigated as a function of milling time, which produces uniform Fe coated powders due to milling energy. Since high energy ball milling results in breaking the Fe coated Mg powders into coarse particles, low energy ball milling was considered appropriate for this study, and can be implemented in desulfurization industry widely. XRD and FE-SEM analyses were carried out to investigate the microstructure and distribution of the coating material. The thickness of the Fe coating layer reaches a maximum of 14 at 20 milling hours. The BCC structures of Fe particles are deformed due to the slip system of Fe coated Mg particles.


A 14-year-old girl stated that she has vulvar pruritus, pain, and bleeding and underwent a complete gynecological evaluation during which a suspicious 2-cm achromic lesion on her vulva was observed. Initially, it was suspected to be a pyogenic granuloma, in relation to the patient's age. A biopsy was taken, and a histopathological diagnosis of amelanotic mucosal melanoma was made. Pyogenic granuloma is a reactive hyperproliferation vascular response to trauma or other stimuli. It predominantly occurs in the second decade of life in young females, in relation to the vascular effects of female hormones. Primary mucosal melanoma is a rare and aggressive neoplasm, characterized by a higher aggressiveness and a worse prognosis than her cutaneous counterpart. The female genital tract is the second most common site of onset of mucosal melanoma; it represents the 3% of melanomas diagnosed in women.


This second edition (formerly titled, Matthew: A Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art) has not been drastically altered in any way. Essentially, it includes 19 pages of constructive scholarly dialogue where Gundry affords himself the opportunity to respond to some of the more influential reviews that appeared in response to his first edition; an appendix which contains a dialogue between Gundry and D.O. Via on 'Hypocrisy in Matthew'; and 225 fresh endnotes which pursue further issues within the text and reflect upon the changes in Matthaean studies since the first edition in 1982. The commentary itself is a compelling argument for the enduring nature of redactional analysis. SAH


The evolution of modal split of freight transport is causing the heterogenization of traffic flows on motorways, so the aim of the paper is to explore the effects of changing structure of traffic flows on Slovenian motorways on road safety and to assess this effect in a financial way. We have calculated crash costs of accidents that were caused by trucks as well as the crash costs of the accidents involving trucks. In addition, we created two safety perfor-mance functions for prediction of the number of traffic accidents on Slovenian motor-ways. The number and the share of accidents involving trucks on Slovenian motorways is increasing as well as the amount of traffic work done by the trucks is, so it is possible to expect increasing crash costs of such accidents on Slovenian motorways. DOI: 10.15458/85451.22


A series of novel 5-arylidene-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-ones were investigated as inhibitors of the lymphocyte-expressed pore-forming protein perforin. Structure–activity relationships were explored through variation of an isoindolinone or 3,4-dihydroisoquinolinone subunit on a fixed 2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one/thiophene core. The ability of the resulting compounds to inhibit the lytic activity of both isolated perforin protein and perforin delivered in situ by natural killer cells was determined. A number of compounds showed excellent activity at concentrations that were nontoxic to the killer cells, and several were a significant improvement on previous classes of inhibitors, being substantially more potent and soluble. Representative examples showed rapid and reversible binding to immobilized mouse perforin at low concentrations (≤2.5 μM) by surface plasmon resonance and prevented formation of perforin pores in target cells despite effective target cell engagement, as determined by calcium influx studies. Mouse PK studies of two analogues showed T1/2 values of 1.1–1.2 h (dose of 5 mg/kg iv) and MTDs of 60–80 mg/kg (ip).


Using the systemic, structural and contrastive linguistic theories as base of analysis, the paper identifies and explicates eighteen English-translated Yoruba proverbs associated with women and brings out their inadequacies with regard to gender prejudice against the female race. Out of the eighteen, fourteen are found to be gender-biased while only four of them are gender-neutral and can apply to both sexes. From the foregoing, it suggests the second versions of these proverbs that cater for the gender not represented in the first set. Thus, the paper is able to prove that the same set of proverbs can be used as reprimand for both the female and male sexes and not only one of them as they were originally. KeywordsYoruba proverbs, gender, prejudice, Nigeria.


Coronary angiography falls short in accurately delineating anatomy of epicardial vessels as it provides only a two-dimensional visualization of the lumen. 1 Moreover, angiographic lesion assessment is impeded in cases of diffuse disease of reference vessels, lesion foreshortening and eccentricity as well as overlap of several arterial branches. Conversely, intravascular ultrasound - a sound wave based technology - provides superior spatial resolution of 80-150 μm and extends diagnostic information enabling more precise assessment of lumen and vessel wall dimensions including atheroma burden and vessel remodeling.


Fungal endophytes are ubiquitous fungi that inhabit healthy plant tissues without causing disease. Endophytes have been found in every plant species examined to date and may be important, but often overlooked, components of fungal biodiversity. In two sites in a lowland, moist tropical forest of central Panama, we quantified endophyte colonization patterns, richness, host preference, and spatial variation in healthy leaves of two co-occurring, understory tree species [Heisteria concinna (Olacaceae) and Ouratea lucens (Ochnaceae)]. From 83 leaves, all of which were colonized by endophytes, we isolated 418 endophyte morphospecies (estimated 347 genetically distinct taxa), most of which were represented by only a single isolate (59%). Among morphospecies encountered in more than one leaf (nonsingletons), we found evidence of host preference and spatial heterogeneity using both morphospecies frequencies and presence/absence records. Based on these data, we postulate that tropical endophytes themselves may be hyperdiverse and suggest that extrapolative estimates that exclude them will markedly underestimate fungal species diversity.


Abstract Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder that affects the ability of the human body to properly utilize and regulate glucose. It is pervasive world-wide yet tenuous and costly to manage. Diabetes Mellitus is also difficult to model because it is nonlinear, dynamic and laden with mostly patient specific uncertainties. A neuro-fuzzy model for the prediction of blood glucose level in Type 1 diabetic patients using coupled insulin and meal effects is developed. This study establishes that the necessary and sufficient conditions to predict blood glucose level in a Type 1 diabetes mellitus patient are: knowledge of the patient's insulin effects and meal effects under diverse metabolic scenarios and the transparent coupling of the insulin and meal effects. The neuro-fuzzy models were trained with data collected from a single Type 1 diabetic patient covering a period of two months. Clarke's Error Grid Analysis (CEGA) of the model shows that 87.5% of the predictions fall into region A, while the remaining 12.5% of the predictions fall into region B within a four (4) hour prediction window. The model reveals significant variation in insulin and glucose responses as the Body Mass Index (BMI) of the patient changes.


Sujová A., Michal J. (2017): Analysis of performance of the forestry sector in the Czech and Slovak Republics. J. For. Sci., 63: 293–299. The forestry sector provides several social and economic benefits to the whole economy. It is based on the sustainable management of renewable natural resources and production of raw wood. It is therefore able of sustainable growth. The interest of the European Union is to build economy based on renewable natural resources, resulting in the need to pay increased attention to the development and support of the forestry. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the performance of forestry sector in the Czech and Slovak Republics for a period of five years. System of indicators measuring sectorial performance was set up to reach the goal. Obtained results in indicators have shown that the profitability and value added rate of Slovak and Czech forestry are at a high level and the performance is affected by high investment efficiency.


The study evaluated the effects of garlic, probiotics, and in combination on levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and growth performance in new-born Holstein calves. Thirty-two Holstein calves were randomly allocated to treatments at four days old and were maintained on them until they were 42 days old. The treatments consisted of control (C), garlic powder at 5 g/calf/day (GA), probiotics at 4 g/calf/day (PB), and the combination of garlic and probiotics (GP). Bodyweight, body length and heart girth measurements were taken to determine growth and blood was drawn to determine glucose and IgG. Faecal score and body temperature were recorded daily. Calves in GA and GP had higher IgG levels than calves in C and PB (28.0 g/L and 27.5 g/L versus 23.5 g/L and 25.5 g/L, respectively). Calves in GP and PB groups had lower faecal scores than C and GA (2.1 and 2.1 versus 2.3 and 2.2, respectively). Supplementation of GA, PB, and in combination did not affect feed intake and growth performance negatively, but improved serum IgG levels. Higher serum IgG in GP may indicate an improved intake and utilisation of nutrients that are responsible for immunity modulation and regulation. Probiotics and their combinations with garlic have the potential to reduce the incidence of diarrhoea when fed to young calves.
 Keywords: dairy neonates, direct-fed microbes, natural herb


Objectives:This study aimed to identify women perception and experience regarding family planning(FP) methods
 Methodology:Descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study,was conducted at Omer Sawi teaching hospital,from august to September 2019.Sample of 320 women, were selected randomly after their agreement.Data were collected through interview questionnaire and analyzed using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS)and descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used.With accepted P.< 0.05.for the correlation significant.
Results:Age group between 21-25 years represent (53.1%),most common education levels were secondary school 56%.Majority of women had 2-5 children.Half of the women born their children with space of less that one year.Perception of women about FP was (58.5%).Although 224(70%) had past experience of FP used,however over one third  80 (35.7%)stopped it because of different reasons,mainly the side effect.Currently, 45% of the participant used FP,mainly hormonal methods 204(63.74%).Significant correlation between perception of women about FP and their educational level(Correlation coefficient 0.768. P = 0.000) was found.
Conclusion:Women perception and experience of FP was inadequate and women focused on hormonal methods use.Significant correlation between perception of women about FP and their educational level was found .
Recommendations:Empowerment of women concerning family planning should be intensified to insure its sustainability over the time.
Keywords: Family planning,Perception, Experience,Women,Reproductive age


In order to understand the reasons for the decline of the re-refining industry, a study was made of the economics, structure and competitive aspects of the business. As a part of this analysis, interviews were conducted with 13 re-refining companies throughout the U.S. One aspect reviewed was waste oil collection. It was found that the degree to which re-refiners are able to secure adequate volumes of feedstock depends on the relative market prices of virgin lubricating oil and fuels. Higher fuel prices prices in relation to those for lubricating oil direct waste oils to the fuel market. Conversely, higher lubricating oil prices in relation to fuel enable re-refiners to compete successfully for scarce supplies of used oils. Another aspect reviewed was the re-refining process itself, which is primarily by acid-clay treatment. Based on interviews with the 13 re-refiners during the summer of 1973, average cost figures for each step in the re-refining of waste oils were obtained. Excluding taxes and administrative costs, the average total production cost for the firms interviewed was 17.5 cents per gallon. Depending on the product specifications, a variety of additives are blended with the re-refined base stock. Blending costs for high performance, top quality lubricating oils are as large as the total cost of re-refining. In reviewing the marketing of re-refined oils, two main marketing paths were found: final users such as industrial and commercial establishments who purchase high quality re-refined oils blended with additives, and independent jobbers who do their own packaging and distribution and purchase the unblended, re-refined oils in bulk. Sales to final users were found to be highly profitable, but those to independent jobbers, which account for the larger part of the total production sold, showed low rates of return. It was found that the failure of the re-refining industry to monitor the quality of its products and a Federal Trade Commission ruling which requires that re-refined oils sold in interstate commerce be labelled to indicate that they were produced from previously used oils have contributed to the public's lack of confidence in the quality of recycled lubricating aoils. As a result, consumers purchase re-refined oils based on their low price, making volume the key to success in this market. An examination was also made of specifications for lubricating oils, since uncertainty as to the quality of re-refined oils is the principal barrier to increased recycling of used lubricants. A closed-cycle experiment was described for resolving the question of the quality of re-refined oil and it was suggested that federal procurement and labelling policies be revised to reflect the quality of re-refined oils.


A new formalism is introduced for discussing propagation of electromagnetic waves in space- and time-varying media. The approach taken here is to supplement the velocity-independent solution by a correction factor. This factor involves a four-dimensional line integral and is therefore a WKB type solution. The formalism is relativistically exact to the first order in vIe. Special cases are dis cussed, demonstrating how time-harmonic velocity fields modulate the propagating electromagnetic fields. Scattering problems involving time-varying surfaces have been considered in the past. The scatterers were situated in free space (vacuum), or if material media were involved, the mechanical interaction of the moving surfaces with the medium was usually ignored. The new theory presented here facilitates the analysis of electromagnetic scattering problems in the presence of combined sur face and medium motion. Consequently, mass continuity at the moving surfaces can be preserved. This makes the modeling of such problems much more realistic. Simplified canonical problems in volving interaction of electromagnetic and mechanical waves are discussed to highlight the effects resulting from the new boundary considerations. Surprisingly, for bounded surfaces the time varying medium effects vanish in the far field. This means that previous results which simply ig nored the medium motion are still valid as good approximations.


The dissolution of the USSR resulted in massive depopulation of the republics and unprecedented migration flows, including national minorities. Citizens of a once indivisible country were suddenly divided into "those of our kind" (natives) and "outsiders" (national minorities/ immigrants). The latter were often not guaranteed citizenship and were denied basic rights. Many national minorities became forced migrants and refugees, leaving neighbouring states because of discrimination or fearing violence. This article focuses primarily on the interconnection of minority and migration issues, two topics which are often discussed separately. It investigates the interrelation between migration and the minority regimes adopted by Armenia and Belarus, and the extent to which certain policies and rights for national minorities can be meaningfully extended to new migrant minorities. It also asks what lessons can be learnt from the treatment of national minorities as far as future migration legislation is concerned.

Policy Implications

Migrants' participation policy is always based on implicit political models of participation that should always be made explicit and examined before implementation.
There is always a plurality of political preferences, for different models of participation in the migrant population, that should be explored and accommodated.
The number of associations in existence should not be used as an indicator of a strong civil society as much as it is at present.


In the present study, the sperm number of wild caught Astacus leptodactylus was counted in the beginning of reproduction season. In addition, the reproductive system, testes, and vasa deferentia were weighed, and gonado-somatic index and testicular index were calculated. Twenty-five adult males of A. leptodactylus were used for the study. Significant linear regressions were found between body length (and weight) and sperm count, reproductive system weight, testes weight and vasa deferentia weight ( P < 0 . 05 ). The mean sperm number of vas deferens for the size range of 41-56 mm carapace length crayfish was 5.72 ± 4.54 × 109 sperm/distal vas deferens (DVD) section. Sperm number ranged from 4 × 108 to 8.5 × 109 sperm/DVD section. The results revealed that an increase in body weight causes an increase in sperm number. For example, mean sperm number was 3.87 ± 2.87 × 109 for the weight range of 15-24 g crayfish, 5.01 ± 2.62 × 109 for the weight range of 25-35 g crayfish and 7.37 ± 2.87 × 109 for the weight range of 36-42 g crayfish. In conclusion, this study provides some data on the male reproduction characters and needs to be improved with details about the reproductive performance of males (i.e., sperm number and quality) in order to reach a maximum reproductive efficiency in captivity.


Atomistic simulations are an important tool in materials modeling. Interatomic potentials (IPs) are at the heart of such molecular models, and the accuracy of a model's predictions depends strongly on the choice of IP. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is an emerging tool for assessing the reliability of atomistic simulations. The Open Knowledgebase of Interatomic Models (OpenKIM) is a cyberinfrastructure project whose goal is to collect and standardize the study of IPs to enable transparent, reproducible research. Part of the OpenKIM framework is the Python package, KIM-based Learning-Integrated Fitting Framework (KLIFF), that provides tools for fitting parameters in an IP to data. This paper introduces a UQ toolbox extension to KLIFF. We focus on two sources of uncertainty: variations in parameters and inadequacy of the functional form of the IP. Our implementation uses parallel-tempered Markov chain Monte Carlo (PTMCMC), adjusting the sampling temperature to estimate the uncertainty due to the functional form of the IP. We demonstrate on a Stillinger–Weber potential that makes predictions for the atomic energies and forces for silicon in a diamond configuration. Finally, we highlight some potential subtleties in applying and using these tools with recommendations for practitioners and IP developers.


Granulocyte colony-stimulating factors such as filgrastim (Neupogen®, Amgen, Inc.) and pegfilgrastim (Neulasta®, Amgen, Inc.) are frequently used in clinical practice for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and its potentially life-threatening complications. Due to its unique neutrophil-mediated clearance, pegfilgrastim can be administered once per chemotherapy cycle. Clinical trials have shown that a single, fixed subcutaneous dose of pegfilgrastim 6 mg is comparable in safety and efficacy to daily injections of filgrastim for decreasing the incidence of infection following myelosuppressive chemotherapy in patients with cancer. Postregistrational trials have been conducted to evaluate the use of pegfilgrastim with emerging dose-dense regimens, in myeloid cancers and for mobilisation and engraftment of autologous stem cells. Ongoing clinical trials continue to explore further potential uses for pegfilgrastim.


While there is an increasing agreement that ICT applications have positive effects on the performance of marketing functions, the extent of these effects are difficult to measure and are assessed differently by different stake holders of organisations. This study aim was to find out the effects of ICT applications on the performance of crops processing industries using Universal Leaf Tanzania as a case study. A total of175 employees were randomly sampled and 15 active customers were select. Data was collected using questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and observations. A t-test to find out how does service managers and employees assess the effects of ICT application on marketing the performance. Regression analysis employed to find out how significant is ICT on the marketing mix performance. It was found that there is a mismatch of understanding of the effects of ICT on the performance of marketing function elements between service managers and employees. Applications of ICT do not have an impact on the performance of marketing function elements. Satisfaction differs from those of customers implying the two parties have different perception on the performance of marketing fun