Concurrent developments in anticancer nanotechnological treatments have been observed as the burden of cancer increases every year. The 21st century has seen a transformation in the study of medicine thanks to the advancement in the field of material science and nanomedicine. Improved drug delivery systems with proven efficacy and fewer side effects have been made possible. Nanoformulations with varied functions are being created using lipids, polymers, and inorganic and peptide-based nanomedicines. Therefore, thorough knowledge of these intelligent nanomedicines is crucial for developing very promising drug delivery systems. Polymeric micelles are often simple to make and have high solubilization characteristics; as a result, they seem to be a promising alternative to other nanosystems. Even though recent studies have provided an overview of polymeric micelles, here we included a discussion on the "intelligent" drug delivery from these systems. We also summarized the state-of-the-art and the most recent developments of polymeric micellar systems with respect to cancer treatments. Additionally, we gave significant attention to the clinical translation potential of polymeric micellar systems in the treatment of various cancers.


The term 'global economic crisis' is a misleading label for the period through which we are currently living, argues Nicola Phillips. The current crisis has significant global repercussions, but its effects are not being felt equally around the world – particularly in so-called emerging markets.


INTRODUCTION:
 The use of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs) has increased significantly in the last years due to their advantages compared to the other types of central catheters: easier and protocolized insertion by specialized nurse-led teams; cost-effectiveness; ease of management, ... However, an increase in the incidence of Catheter Related Thrombosis (CRT) has been observed with this type of device, especially in cancer patients and in the critical care setting. The main objective of this study is to determine the incidence of PICC related deep venous thrombosis in oncologic and onco-hematologic patients at the Donostia University Hospital, in Spain. The secondary outcome is the identification of possible risk factors associated with this event.
 METHODS:
 Using the database created and handled by the nurse-led Intravenous Therapy Team (ITT) in our center, in which all inserted PICCs are prospectively and consecutively included since 2011, a retrospective analysis was conducted on oncology and hemato-oncology-derived adult patients (over 18 years old) with a PICC inserted between May 15th 2018 and December 15th 2019. In the total population, several characteristics of the patient, of the PICC and of the thrombotic event were descriptively analyzed, and a bivariant analysis of four potential risk factors was carried out using Pearson's Chi-squared test. Patient and CRT treatment-associated risk factors were more exhaustively analyzed in the subgroup of patients with CRT. The missing data were obtained from the electronic clinical history records.
 RESULTS:
 The final study sample consisted of 1024 PICCs (n=1024), 19,10% (n=313) derived from the Hematology department and 43,62% (n=715) from the Oncology department (tables 1 and 2). The global incidence of CRT was 4,9% (n=50): 5.8% in hematologic patients and 4.5% in patients derived from Oncology. In the bivariant analysis no significant association was found between the selected potential risk factors (department of origin, PICC lumen number, PICC material and the catheter-to-vessel ratio) and CRT (table 3). In terms of the treatment administered to patients presenting CRT, in 80% of the cases (n=40) a Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH) at therapeutic dose was initiated; in 10% (n=5) LMWH at a lower dose, and in 2 patients treatment could not be initiated because of thrombopenia. Finally, the PICC was withdrawn in only 8 patients after the diagnosis of the thrombotic event.
 CONCLUSIONS:
 The majority of the studies on PICC associated venous thrombosis in cancer patients are small, observational, retrospective, and without comparison groups. Here we present a work with an important sample size, a homogeneous population and with a prospective data collection. The CRT incidence has been similar to that described in the literature and significant association has not been found between the included potential risk factors and CRT. In conclusion, this study reflects the need of more trials on this subject, in particular to identify CRT risk factors in order to design effective prevention strategies.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


PURPOSE
To develop and evaluate the new continuous curvilinear lenticulerrhexis (CCL) technique for small incision lenticule extraction.

METHODS
Thirty-one eyes of 20 patients with myopia were included in the study. The CCL technique for lenticule extraction was developed and used in 16 eyes of 10 patients (CCL group). The traditional technique of lenticule extraction was used in 15 eyes of 10 patients (traditional group). Uncorrected and corrected distance visual acuity, manifest refraction, lenticule quality, the duration of the extraction procedure, microdistorsions in Bowman's layer under optical coherence tomography (Optovue OCT; Optovue, Inc., Fremont, CA), and adverse events were evaluated at 1 day and 1 month postoperatively.

RESULTS
At the first postoperative month, all eyes in both groups had an uncorrected distance visual acuity of 1.0 or better. The safety indices were 1.12 and 1.09 for the CCL and traditional groups, respectively. The efficacy indices were 1.06 and 1.09 for the CCL and traditional groups, respectively. All lenticules in the CCL group had intact, round margins, whereas one lenticule in the traditional group had a microdefect margin. There was no statistically significant difference in duration of lenticule extraction or microdistorsions in Bowman's layer. No eyes in the CCL group developed diffuse lamellar keratitis, as compared to one eye in the traditional group.

CONCLUSIONS
The CCL technique exhibited excellent safety and efficacy for myopia correction, suggesting CCL is a promising technique that merits further development and study.


The spatial scales of whistler‐mode waves, determined by their generation process, propagation, and damping, are important for assessing the scaling and efficiency of wave‐particle interactions affecting the dynamics of the radiation belts. We use multi‐point wave measurements by two Van Allen Probes in 2013–2019 covering all MLTs at L = 2–6 to investigate the spatial extent of active regions of chorus and hiss waves, their wave amplitude distribution in the source/generation region, and the scales of chorus wave packets, employing a time‐domain correlation technique to the spacecraft approaches closer than 1,000 km, which happened every 70 days in 2012–2018 and every 35 days in 2018–2019. The correlation of chorus wave power dynamics using is found to remain significant up to inter‐spacecraft separations of 400–750 km transverse to the background magnetic field direction, consistent with previous estimates of the chorus wave packet extent. Our results further suggest that the chorus source region can be slightly asymmetrical, more elongated in either the azimuthal or radial direction, which could also explain the aforementioned two different scales. An analysis of average chorus and hiss wave amplitudes at separate locations similarly shows the reveals different radial and azimuthal extents of the corresponding wave active regions, complementing previous results based on THEMIS spacecraft statistics mainly at larger L > 6. Both the chorus source region scale and the chorus active region size appear smaller inside the outer radiation belt (at L < 6) than at higher L‐shells.


Chromosomal abnormalities are a leading cause of early embryonic arrest Identification of genetic abnormalities incompatible with embryonic development significantly contributes to the understanding of early embryonic arrest causes and to the development of prevention strategies. Here we describe a case of hypertriploid abortus with 70, XXY,+16 karyotype. This chromosomal abnormality led to the early embryonic arrest at 4 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy. The clinical report emphasizes the necessity for the cytogenetic analysis of abortion material in the patients who underwent a reproductive failure.


Axial piston pumps release separate amounts of fluids into downstream piping. Each piston compartments creates a pressure rise and fall in the system piping, these pressure changes form a sine waves. This sine wave signifies the instantaneous flow rate of a single chambered and the mean flow rate of this pump is the average discharge per revolution. As increasing the number of pistons of an axial piston pump, that's means generating additional sinusoidal waves offset by time. As a result, the pressure fluctuations are reduced and decreasing amplitude of flow and pressure ripple. Hypothetically an unlimited number of pistons will completely remove release pulsation. Number of pistons varies by the type of pump construction. Commonly deal with piston pumps between one and eleven pistons, but in the industry where axial piston pump are designed a certain amount of confusion exists on the part of most designers regarding the trade-offs between designing a pump with an odd number of pistons and designing a pump with an even number of pistons. This proposal explores the flow and torque ripple which resulting from an axial piston pumps showing that the similarity between shafts torques and flow pulsations (ripple). explaining the relationship between the number of pistons and discharge flow-torque ripple by using graphical and numerical methods and finally establishing a numerical formulae relate between number of pistons and flow- torque pulsation factor and comparing the results of formulae of this present proposal with another previous work.


Abstract Starches from various botanical origins were plasticized in a twin screw extruder with different glycerol contents (from 23 to 32%, total wet basis) in order to prepare pellets of amorphous thermoplastic starches (TPS) that can further be processed for manufacturing purposes. The viscous behaviour of these starches was studied with a capillary pre-shearing rheometer, which achieved an homogeneous molten phase under controlled thermomechanical conditions. After performing Bagley corrections and Rabinowitsch analysis, it was found that all samples exhibited a non-Newtonian shear-thinning behaviour, which could be modeled in the range 1 to 103 s−1 either by a simple power law or by a Herschel-Bulkley relationship. For the consistency index, the influence of temperature and plasticizer content was accounted for by Arrhenius-like laws, applying time-temperature and time-plasticizer superposition. For the same plasticizer content and temperature, comparison of starches from different botanical origins showed that shear viscosity values usually increased with the starch amylose content. This trend was partly confirmed for the elongational behaviour, estimated by the Cogswell's analysis of entrance effects. These results can be interpreted by the greater ability of linear molecules of amylose to entangle, compared to the more compact amylopectin molecules.


While antimony has been reported to migrate from PET bottles into contents, reports on bottled water and soft drinks usage and PET bottle reuse patterns are currently unavailable in the literature. Bottle use conditions and patterns are important determinants of antimony migration. In this work a survey assessing the pattern of bottle use and reuse in Britain and Nigeria was undertaken. The survey findings influenced the design of laboratory experiments that assessed the migration of antimony from PET bottles into water and soft drinks. Typical storage durations for bottled contents between purchase and opening for use were 7 days or less. However storage of up to one year was reported. Bottle reuse was high and similar for the two countries with reuse durations being higher in Nigeria. The antimony concentration in 32 PET bottle materials from Britain and Nigeria were similar and ranged between 177 and 310 mg kg(-1). For 47 freshly purchased British bottled contents antimony concentration ranged between 0.03 and 6.61 μg L(-1) with only one sample exceeding the EU acceptable limit. Concentrations of Cd, Ge, Zn, Al, Be, Ti, Co and Pb were also measured. At realistic temperatures of 40 and 60 °C antimony concentration in deionised water in bottles remained below the EU acceptable limit even after 48 h exposure. The limit was exceeded for most exposures at 80 °C. Concentration of antimony in some bottled contents exceeded the EU limit after 11 months of storage at room temperature. Bottle aging and increase in bottle volume were associated with decreased migration of antimony from bottles.


One of the main causes of vibration that produce by a car is engine and transmission. Leaf spring mounting bracket are used to hold the leaf spring firmly with chassis. From last so many years Automobile industry continuously growing with different idea & technology for change in existing parts of vehicles. The most effective way of increasing automobiles mileage while decreasing emission is to reduce vehicle weight. Existing bracket has scope of mass optimization in current design .finite element analysis of bracket will be done using hyper mesh and ansys. Optistruct software will be used for topology optimization. Experimental stress of bracket will be done using strain gauge and applying corresponding loading through UTM. Validation for strain vector from FEA, Experimental results& Fatigue life Analysis


Background

Suicide risk is associated with depression. Affective temperaments may play a role in this risk. We explored the relationship between affective temperaments and suicide and identified some traits that can predict suicide risk in depression.
Methods

We analyzed the results of Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Auto-questionnaire (TEMPS-A) in 284 participants recruited from a psychiatric clinic and the community in Beijing and compared the subscale scores (cyclothymic, dysthymic, anxious, irritable and hyperthymic) among major depressive disorder (MDD) versus the general population as well as depressive patients with versus without suicide risk, using student's test, Chi-square test, rank sum test, multivariable regression modeling and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
Results

The incidence of suicidal risk in depressive subjects was 47.62% (80/168). Being unmarried (P<0.001), unemployment (P=0.007) and temperaments of dysthymic, cyclothymic, anxious, and irritable scores (all P<0.05) were significantly more prevalent in depressive patients than in the general population. A young age (P<0.001), female sex (P=0.037), being unmarried (P=0.001), more severe depression (P<0.001), and dysthymic, anxious and cyclothymic temperament (all P<0.05) were significantly more prevalent in depressive disorder patients with suicide risk than in those without suicide risk. The logistic regression analysis showed that younger age (OR=0.937, 95% CI 0.905~0.970), female sex (OR=2.606, 95% CI 1.142~5.948), more severe depression (OR=1.145, 95% CI 1.063~1.234), cyclothymic temperament (OR=1.275, 95% CI 1.102~1.475) and dysthymic temperament (OR=1.265, 95% CI 1.037~1.542) were all independently associated with high suicidal risk in first-episode major depressive patients (P<0.05). By ROC analysis, the area under the compound factor (age, sex, HAMD score without the 3rd item, cyclothymic and dysthymic temperament) was 0.853 (95% CI 0.790~0.903).
Conclusion

The suicide rate in first-episode neuroleptic-naïve major depressive disorder (MDD) subjects was higher than we thought. Temperament traits differ between the general population and those with major depressive disorder. Major depressive disorder subjects with much more severe depressive symptoms and cyclothymic or dysthymic temperament were at high risk of suicide. Compound factors (age, sex, HAMD score without the 3rd item, cyclothymic and dysthymic temperament score) could be predictors of suicide risk in the clinic.


In recent times, computational studies have emerged as a viable alternative for complementing the efforts of experienced radiologists in disease diagnosis. Computed tomography (CT) studies are a common way of predicting the lung nodule malignancy for the early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in patients. Early detection of the type of nodule is the key to determining the appropriate treatment, thus increasing patient survival. Feature extraction is an important stage in classifying benign and malignant nodules in chest CT scans. However, determining the type of nodule in CT scans is a challeging task in medical imaging, since CT images cannot be evaluated as an average or generic image. Hence, this study is based on the application of machine learning techniques, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transfer learning, for the feature extraction and identification of tomograms with pulmonary nodules on a public, Lung TIME dataset. Pretrained CNNs architectures (VGG, ResNet, MobileNet, Xception, NASNet and DenseNet) and a proposed CNN architecture were used, thereby obtaining a minimum training accuracy in pretrained architectures of 70.11% and minimum test accuracy of 33.91%. In contrast, in the proposed CNN, 95.25% and 94.21% respectively were obtained. These results show that the transfer learning is not always feasible in medical applications and architectures focused on the problem to be solved are usually most effective.


INTRODUCTION
Functional-traumatic lesions of the vocal fold include mucous stranding, "nodular" lesions, polyps, cysts, contact hyperplasia and haematoma of the vocal fold. An acute voice overuse may result in bleeding (haematoma) within the vocal fold. This may be in the form of petechial bleeding, or a genuine haematoma develops within the tissues of the vocal fold. Haematoma may also arise as a consequence of prolonged cough, forceful vomiting, lifting of a heavy weight, various effortful activities, etc. Haematoma is usually located close to the vocal fold free edge and therefore disturbs the glottic closure during phonation. The treatment is adapted to the size and localization of haematoma, as well as to the time elapsed from onset of the lesion. Phonosurgery can be used in therapy, as well as corticosteroid treatment.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A series of 102 vocal fold haematomas has been treated by phonosurgery (39) and conservative therapy (63). Phonosurgical interventions were performed by an indirect approach, by use of microstroboscopy (28 patients) and videostroboscopy (11 causes). Conservative treatment consisted of corticosteroid therapy.

RESULTS
During a 10-year period 1550 phonosurgical operations were performed for benign lesions of the vocal fold, including 39 haematomas (2.5%). It was established that recovery of vibration pattern was significantly faster in the surgery group in comparison to the group of patients treated conservatively. All surgical patients were operated within the first several days after the onset of symptoms.

DISCUSSION
In case of a vocal fold haematoma, it is very important to establish the diagnosis as soon as possible in order to start with the therapy early enough. Within the first several days after the onset (the best within 24-48 hours) a phonosurgical treatment is indicated, preferably by the use of indirect videostroboscopy. If the treatment is started later we use corticoids. However, the results are inferior as compared to surgery. We did not perform direct microlaryngoscopy in these cases, for a lack of function monitoring and possible local trauma to the tissues. In the majority of cases the voice therapy is required as well.


A five-year Clean Air Action Plan was implemented in 2013 to reduce air pollutant emissions and improve ambient air quality in Beijing. Assessments of this Action Plan is an essential part of the decision-making process to review the efficacy of the Plan and to develop new policies. Both statistical and chemical transport modelling were applied to assess the efficacy of this Action Plan. However, inherent uncertainties 25 in these methods mean that new and independent methods are required to support the assessment process. Here, we improved a novel machine learning-based random forest technique to quantify the effectiveness of Beijing's Acton Plan by decoupling the impact of meteorology on ambient air quality. Our results demonstrate that meteorological conditions have an important impact on the year to year variations in ambient air quality. Further analysis show that the favorable meteorological conditions in winter 2017 30 contributed to a lower PM2.5 mass concentration (58 μg m) than predicted from the random forest model (61 μg m), which is higher than the target of the Plan (2017 annual PM2.5 < 60 μg m). However, over the whole period (2013 to 2017), impact of meteorological conditions on the trend of ambient air quality are small. It is the primary emission control, because of the Action Plan, that has led to the significant reduction in PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2 and CO from 2013 to 2017, which are approximately 34%, 24%, 17%, 68%, and 35 33% after meteorological correction. The marked decrease in PM2.5 and SO2 is largely attributable to a reduction in coal combustion. Our results indicate that the Action Plan is highly effective in reducing the primary pollution emissions and improving air quality in Beijing. The Action Plan offers a successful example for developing air quality policies in other regions of China and other developing countries. 40


In 1994 Butov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 304 (1994)] reported large, extremely low-frequency fluctuations in the luminescence intensity from indirect excitons in a coupled quantum well. We have reproduced these fluctuations in a similar structure. Our observations indicate, however, that the fluctuations are spectral fluctuations rather than intensity fluctuations. We have eliminated several possible causes for the fluctuations and propose a possible cause.


Camurati-Engelmann disease (CED) is a rare autosomal dominant type of bone dysplasia. This review is based on the unpublished and detailed clinical, radiological, and molecular findings in 14 CED families, comprising 41 patients, combined with data from 10 other previously reported CED families. For all 100 cases, molecular evidence for CED was available, as a mutation was detected in TGFB1, the gene encoding transforming growth factor (TGF) β1. Pain in the extremities was the most common clinical symptom, present in 68% of the patients. A waddling gait (48%), easy fatigability (44%), and muscle weakness (39%) were other important features. Radiological symptoms were not fully penetrant, with 94% of the patients showing the typical long bone involvement. A large percentage of the patients also showed involvement of the skull (54%) and pelvis (63%). The review provides an overview of possible treatments, diagnostic guidelines, and considerations for prenatal testing. The detailed description of such a large set of CED patients will be of value in establishing the correct diagnosis, genetic counselling, and treatment.


Glial cells are activated in neuropathy and play a key role in hyperalgesia and allodynia. This study was performed to determine whether minocycline could attenuate heat hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia, and how glial cell activation and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) were regulated by minocycline in a model of chronic constriction of sciatic nerve (CCl). When minocycline (50 mg/kg, oral) was daily administered from 1 day before to 9 days after ligation, heat hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia were attenuated. Furthermore, when minocycline treatment was initiated 1 or 3 days after ligation, attenuation of the hypersensitive behavior was still robust. However, the effect of attenuation was less when minocycline was started from day 5. In order to elucidate the mechanism of pain attenuation by minocycline, we examined the changes of glia and NF-kappaB, and found that attenuated hyperalgesia and allodynia by minocycline was accompanied by reduced microglial activation. Furthermore, the number of NF-kappaB immunoreactive cells increased after CCI treatment and this increase was attenuated by minocycline. We also observed translocation of NF-kappaB into the nuclei of activated glial cells. These results suggest that minocycline inhibits activation of glial cells and NF-kappaB, thereby attenuating the development of behavioral hypersensitivity to stimuli.


We examined infant sleeping arrangements and cultural values of Japanese mothers in 2008 and 2009. Based on Greenfield's theory of social change and human development, we predicted that social change in Japan over the last decades (higher economic and education level, urbanization, complex technology, more women in the work force) would lead to a decline in mother-infant co-sleeping, compared with published findings concerning Japanese sleeping arrangements in the 1960s and 1980s. We also predicted that the practice of having babies sleep in their own beds and/or own rooms would be supported by ethnotheories stressing infant independence and other values adaptive in an urban, technologically sophisticated, relatively wealthy, and highly educated populace. Fifty-one Japanese mothers' comments posted on Internet parenting forums were analyzed. Contrary to our hypothesis, co-sleeping was as frequent among Japanese mothers in 2008-2009 as it had been in the 1960s and 1980s. However, analysis of the values of co-sleeping mothers revealed frequent discrepancies between values and practices. In contrast, the minority of mothers whose babies slept alone in a separate room all expressed consonant values. Our qualitative analysis indicates that it is not always easy for Japanese mothers to construct values for child rearing and gender roles that integrate traditional infant care practices with current sociodemographic conditions.


The optimal process conditions for the preparation of activated carbon from bean husk were investigated in this study. Four chemical activating agents; potassium hydroxide (KOH), sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ), zinc chloride (ZnCl 2 ), and ortho-phosphoric acid (H 3 PO 4 ) were used to activate the carbon. The influence of these agents on the surface area and porosity of activated carbon was determined. The Iodine numbers of 894.65, 1027.69, 1218.24 and 1256.31mg/g were found for the KOH, H 2 SO 4 ,ZnCl 2 and H 3 PO 4 activated carbons respectively. This indicates that the one prepared using ortho- phosphoric acid (H 3 PO 4 ) produced the best activated carbon. The influence of activation temperature was studied between 500 o C and 900 o C. The effect of activation temperature shows an optimum temperature of 700 o C at the time of 30mins. Further studies revealed that the best impregnation ratio of carbon to ortho-phosphoric acid was 10:5as it gave a maximum iodine number of 1288.926.The results of the characterization show that the values of apparent density, ash content, moisture content and pH of the activated carbon fall within the range recommended by ASTM. This activated carbon is suitable for the treatment of effluent water and gases. Keywords : Bean husk; Activated carbon; optimum temperature; impregnation ratio; Activating agent.


This paper presents a method of improving the service availability by distributing the traffic of voice/data calls over the multi-layer cells in a mobile communication network. The traffic model is described and the call handling performance is analyzed. In our method, a fast moving call is moved to and serviced in the upper layer cell. A call is also moved upward when an overflow occurs. But unlike other methods, the call that is moved upward in the overflow case is the one which has the longest sojourn time in the cell. Moreover, when the call that was moved upward due to overflow condition stays longer than a certain period of time in the upper layer cell, the system moves the call back to the lower layer in order to save the more expensive resources of the upper layer cell. Call handling performance of this method evaluated from M/M/C/K models shows clear improvement with respect to call blocking probability and forced termination probability.


The goal of anomalous sound detection is to unsupervisedly train a system to distinguish normal from anomalous sounds that substantially differ from the normal sounds used for training. In this paper, a system based on Look, Listen, and Learn embeddings, which participated in task 2 "Unsupervised Detection of Anomalous Sounds for Machine Condition Monitoring" of the DCASE challenge 2020, is presented. The experimental results show that the presented system significantly outperforms the baseline system of the challenge both in detecting outliers and in recognizing the correct machine type or exact machine id. Moreover, it is shown that an ensemble consisting of the presented system and the baseline system performs even better than both of its components.


The emergence of online games has fundamentally changed security requirements for computer games, which previously were largely concerned with copy protection. We examine how new security requirements impact the design of online games by using online bridge, a simple client-server game, as our case study. We argue that security is emerging as an inherent design issue for online games, after graphics and artificial intelligence, which have become important issues of the design of most games for decades. The most important new security concern in online game design is fairness enforcement, and most security mechanisms all contribute to a single objective, namely, making the play fair for each user.


INTRODUCTION
This study aimed to investigate the differences in ureterorenal stone appearance after gouty arthropathy between Taiwanese aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients.

METHODS
Between 2007 and 2015, patients with first diagnoses of ureterorenal stones after diagnosis of gouty arthropathy at Puli Christian Hospital were enrolled in this study. Characteristics, underlying diseases and laboratory data for aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients were recorded. All categorical variables were analysed by χ2 test and continuous variables were compared by t-test.

RESULTS
A total of 201 patients (66 aboriginal and 135 non-aboriginal) were enrolled in the study. Serum uric acid levels did not differ significantly between aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups. There was a significant difference in the time until ureterorenal stone appearance after gouty arthropathy between aboriginal and non-aboriginal patients (38.0 v 29.3 months, p=0.015). Among males, aboriginal patients exhibited gouty arthropathy at a younger age than non-aboriginal patients (46.0 v 50.2 years, p=0.035). Furthermore, male aboriginal patients exhibited a higher rate of alcoholic hepatitis (26.7% v 12.2%, p=0.046).

CONCLUSION
Among males, aboriginal Taiwanese patients exhibited gouty arthropathy at younger ages than did non-aboriginal Taiwanese because of a higher rate of alcoholic hepatitis. The longer time until stone appearance after gouty arthropathy was attributed to alcoholic diuresis. Decreasing alcohol consumption may postpone or halt the development of gouty arthropathy.


Material can be seen as the fuel needed to execute the project from inception to completion. Material installed provides good indicators of progress achieved onsite vis-a-vis project schedule performance. It correlates well with the role of the schedule performance index (SPI) of the earned value method (EVM). Material is recognized to have a significant impact on achieved progress for physical completion of project activities. This paper presents a study on the development of material status index (MSI) in support of the EVM. Unlike the SPI, the newly developed index account for the criticality of project activities. This is carried out considering the total float of each activity, percent float (i.e. the ratio of float to activity duration) and the total float of the path on which the activity is located. MSI, can independently and jointly with SPI provide root causes behind problems encountered during project execution. In turn MSI can reveal material related factors behind the performance detected by joint interpretation of the two indices. MSI serves to provide added value in alerting management to take corrective actions. While SPI and MSI may have different values, they can jointly augment and enrich the captured project status based on EVM. To demonstrate the capabilities of the developed MSI method, it is implemented on a case study. The case encompasses the construction schedule of a hydro power station constructed in northern Quebec. Different scenarios are adapted from the real case to demonstrate a set of practical aspects of the developed index. The results generated from the analysis of the case study illustrate the useful features of MSI beyond those of the traditional SPI on two fronts; causation and the considerations of criticalities of actives.


An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on growth and immunological parameters of broiler chickens. Three hundred sixty, 1-d-old male broiler chicks were fed 1 of 4 diets containing grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins for 56 d. The diets included (1) control; (2) low level of contaminated grains (5.9 mg/kg deoxynivalenol (DON), 19.1 mg/kg fusaric acid (FA), 0.4 mg/kg zearalenone, and 0.3 mg/kg 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol; (3) high level of contaminated grains (9.5 mg/kg DON, 21.4 mg/kg FA, 0.7 mg/kg zearalenone, and 0.5 mg/kg 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol); and (4) high level of contaminated grains + 0.2% polymeric glucomannan mycotoxin adsorbent (GM polymer). Body weight gains and feed consumption of chickens fed contaminated grains decreased linearly with the inclusion of contaminated grains during the grower phase (d 21 to 42). Efficiency of feed utilization, however, was not affected by diet. Production parameters were not significantly affected by the supplementation of GM polymer to the contaminated grains. Peripheral blood monocytes decreased linearly in birds fed contaminated grains. The feeding of contaminated diets linearly reduced the B-cell count at the end of the experiment, whereas the T-cell count on d 28 responded quadratically to the contaminated diets. The feeding of contaminated diets did not significantly alter serum or bile immunoglobulin concentrations, contact hypersensitivity to dinitrochlorobenzene, or antibody response to SRBC. Supplementation with GM polymer in the contaminated diet nonspecifically increased white blood cell count and lymphocyte count, while preventing mycotoxin-induced decreases in B-cell counts. It was concluded that broiler chickens are susceptible during extended feeding of grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins.


In modern business conditions, partnership is becoming a new vector for addressing knowledge-intensive production tasks in Russian industrial enterprises. Partnerships enables enterprises to adjust to changes in the external environment more effectively. The article aims at describing the methodological approach that would allow to formulate the principles of competitive immunity management of an industrial enterprise. Such principles should be based on establishing partnerships with other enterprises and on expanding the possibilities to increase the enterprise's adaptability by combining its resources with those of partner enterprises. It is proposed to address this task by creating a coordination board comprising representatives of partner enterprises to manage interactions between the companies. Thus, the proposed mechanism for managing an industrial enterprise's competitive immunity ensures partnership development and enhances this enterprise's adaptability and overall performance.


In this study of solid-liquid flow, rice and cassava starch particles were used as the dispersed media and water was used as the carrier fluid. Experiments were carried out on slurries with solid concentrations of 5%, 10% and 15% w/w which flowed in a 13mm ID and 3 m long tube -in - tube heat exchanger. Steam was used as the heating medium. Calculated convective film to particle heat transfer coefficient (hfp) values ranged from 11 to 32 kW m -2 K -1 for cassava and rice particles with uncertainty of ± 2 kW m -2 K -1 . A decrease in heat transfer coefficient values was found as a result of short residence time at the higher flow rates. To investigate the solid-liquid two-phase flow Eulerian multiphase model was adopted in simple axisymmetric geometry. Velocity profiles of the liquid and solid phases with different particle fractions were estimated from the simulated results. The respective velocities of both phases were higher in the upper part of the tube than in the lower portion because of settling caused by gravity. The slip velocity of particles was estimated from the simulations and it ranged from 6.68 cm/s to 9.80 cm/s for the cassava particles and 13.83 cm/s to 19.38 cm/s for the rice particles. The rice grains always lagged the liquid phase where as the cassava starch globules moved faster than the carrier liquid in the central region and very close to the wall. The particle volume concentration profile was also investigated and it was observed that a high particle concentration formed a core around tube centreline.


Nanomedicines make use of the new physical properties that materials acquire when miniaturized. With suitable tinkering, the particles can be made ready recipients for an array of molecules including: therapeutic drugs, targeting molecules for cell-specific delivery, surfactants for manipulating the shape of the particle and keeping it in solution, and imaging molecules that track the location of particles in patients.


Monitoring international trends in drug production and supply has been a key function of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); it regularly provides between-country comparative data in the World Drug Report and the Global Illicit Drug Trends Report. These data, typically on drug detections and drug-related arrests, are combined with intelligence and assessment reports to provide important insights into the production, transportation and use of illicit drugs across the globe. In particular, the data serve as a timely reminder of the significant transnational dimension of illicit drug markets and the corresponding need for ongoing international cooperation in supply reduction efforts. In addition, efforts to monitor international drug use trends provide a useful opportunity for better understanding the context and environment in which drug law enforcement and prevention policy is developed and implemented, especially where these policies and ideas are shared on the global stage. Drug courts are a prime example of a shared prevention policy. The idea was conceived in Dade County, Miami (US) in response to growing concern about local drug-related crime. Since then, drug courts have proliferated both throughout the US and internationally—including in Australia, where drug courts or similar drug diversion options exist in every state and territory (Wundersitz 2007). This transference of programs and policies from one country to another requires careful consideration of contextual differences likely to impact on their effectiveness—and is true for policies in the criminal justice sector. Knowing to what extent drug use varies between countries is integral to the success of the policy transference process—ensuring that local responses meet local needs. The Australian Institute of Criminology's (AIC) Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program offers a unique opportunity to generate data for comparing the use of specific types of drug among criminal justice populations in different countries. DUMA is Australia's largest, ongoing collection of self-report and urinalysis data from alleged offenders who have been detained by the police. It was first established in 1999 under the Australian National Illicit Drug Strategy and operated in three jurisdictions (NSW, QLD and WA). DUMA is part of a global research network known as the International Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (I-ADAM) program, which has comprised a range of countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Australia (Makkai 1999). Key components of Australia's DUMA program, including both the original survey and urinalysis methodologies, were modelled on the US Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program which, although suspended from 2004 to 2006 (inclusive), has since restarted—renamed ADAM II—with funding from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Apart from some methodological differences, the DUMA and ADAM II programs have the same essential design. Both programs survey police detainees (referred to as arrestees in the US) about their lifelong and recent use of illegal and legal drugs, and both conduct voluntary urinalysis to objectively measure very recent drug use; it is in this context that comparative analysis can be undertaken. Unlike drug-related arrest and seizure data, which are likely to be influenced by policing activities and local law enforcement priorities, rates of drug use among police detainees are likely to provide a relatively comparable measure of differences in the extent of illegal drug use among those coming into contact with the criminal justice system.


The production of superoxide anion (O2-) by phagocytic cells plays an important role in host defenses and inflammatory processes. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) primes neutrophils for increased O2- release stimulated by various agonists. This study examines if myeloid differentiated HL-60 cells also serve as a model for IFN-gamma-induced priming, and examines mechanism by which this priming occurs. IFN-gamma enhanced HL-60 cell superoxide production in response to F-Met-Leu-Phe (FMLP) in a concentration-dependent manner. Following a 4-h exposure, an increase in O2- production was seen with IFN-gamma at 0.1 U/ml, with optimal priming at 100 U/ml. The time course of priming by 100 U/ml IFN-gamma showed that at least a 1-h exposure was required, and a maximal effect was seen at 24 h. Priming after a 4-h exposure to 100 U/ml IFN-gamma was completely inhibited by 1 micrograms/ml cycloheximide. HL-60 cells cultivated with 100 U/ml IFN-gamma produced increased O2- when exposed to 25 mM NaF (containing AIF4) or 10 nM phorbol myristate acetate, agonists that trigger the respiratory burst independent of receptor stimulation. These results indicate that IFN-gamma primes the HL-60 cell respiratory burst in a concentration and time-dependent manner similar to its effect on neutrophils. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that IFN-gamma primes HL-60 cells, in part, by stimulating synthesis of proteins that participate in NADPH oxidase activation distal to the FMLP receptor.


Pain monitoring is often inadequate in the ambulant field to assure therapy results. Today NSAID take the centre in acute pain and inflammation control in dental interventions. Compared to conventional non-selective NSAID modern selective Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (COX-2) provide the potential for improved compatibility and simplified medication with heightened effectiveness in acute postoperative toothaches. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of selective COX-2 inhibitors with NSAID after operative wisdom tooth extraction in 30 ambulant patients. The pain curve under mefenamine acid showed a significant increase during the first 48 hours after extraction. With rofecoxib a continuous pain decrease with the lowest stand 48 hours after intervention was registered. One week after extraction the patient's satisfaction was in favour of rofecoxib, which showed a clearly prolonged analgetic effect over 24 hours. Additionally rofecoxib as a COX-2 selective inhibitor doesn't bear the risk for severe non-anticipatable gastrointestinal side effects or prolonged bleeding after surgical intervention.


In arterial thrombosis chronic use of acetylsalicylic acid is frequently prescribed. Venous thromboembolism is most often treated with short courses of heparin, followed by oral anticoagulants. All antithrombotic drugs cause hemorrhagic diathesis. Therefore, consultation with the prescribing authority is necessary before proceeding to invasive procedures.


Explanation faithfulness of model predictions in natural language processing is typically evaluated on held-out data from the same temporal distribution as the training data (i.e. synchronous settings). While model performance often deteriorates due to temporal variation (i.e. temporal concept drift), it is currently unknown how explanation faithfulness is impacted when the time span of the target data is different from the data used to train the model (i.e. asynchronous settings). For this purpose, we examine the impact of temporal variation on model explanations extracted by eight feature attribution methods and three select-then-predict models across six text classification tasks. Our experiments show that (i)faithfulness is not consistent under temporal variations across feature attribution methods (e.g. it decreases or increases depending on the method), with an attention-based method demonstrating the most robust faithfulness scores across datasets; and (ii) select-then-predict models are mostly robust in asynchronous settings with only small degradation in predictive performance. Finally, feature attribution methods show conflicting behavior when used in FRESH (i.e. a select-and-predict model) and for measuring sufficiency/comprehensiveness (i.e. as post-hoc methods), suggesting that we need more robust metrics to evaluate post-hoc explanation faithfulness.


Cardiovascular responses to stressful stimuli have been implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the effects of social stressors on short-term changes in blood pressure and heart rate (i.e., cardiovascular reactivity [CVR]) are not well understood. The independent effects of an incentive to exert interpersonal influence and the expression of socially controlling behavior on CVR were examined in 96 undergraduates. For men, both the incentive to exert influence and the enactment of a controlling interpersonal style produced larger increases in systolic blood pressure. By contrast, although the incentive to be influential increased women's CVR, the enactment of a cooperative role produced the largest increases in blood pressure among women. The effects of social dominance on CVR, sex differences in CVR, and interpersonal approaches to the study of these psychophysiological mechanisms are discussed.


A skier's motion was analyzed by a simple model consist of point mass m and a single rod connected to a single ski plate. We studied the conditions for the stable ski turn as functions of the linear velocity and the radius of the turn. The solutions for the stable ski turn in our model do not require any extra skier's movement to complete a stable circular turn. The solution may then give the skier the most comfortable skiing method without any active movement to control the ski. The generalized force supporting the point mass from the ski plate was calculated. We obtained the force from the ground (rebound force) without any geometrical structure of the ski plate. Adding an active movement to the direction of the ski plate, the conditions for the stable ski turn were also analyzed. Our result gives some insight for the skier who wants to develop technique.


C.J. Smith, J.B. Field, A.J. Jakeman and R.A.Letcher. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, firstname.lastname@example.com, The Australian National University, School of Resources, Environment and Society The Australian National University, c Integrated Catchment Assessment and Management Centre; The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Abstract: Gully erosion is a significant problem in many areas of Australia and other parts of the world. Erosion from gullies can transfer considerable quantities of sediment and associated pollutants, reducing the water quality of streams and water storages of many catchments. This study has used the Ben Chifley Dam Catchment on the Central Tablelands of NSW as a case study to identify catchment scale factors influencing gully erosion and to predict areas at risk of gully erosion. Available spatial data including a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), soil landscape, geological and landuse maps as well as a digitised map of the gullies in the catchment were used to analyse gully presence and density. This analysis indicated that specific soil, geological, elevation and landuse classes were highly significant in the prediction of areas with a high risk of gully erosion. The analysis allowed areas of the catchment at high risk of gully erosion to be identified. These high risk erosion areas should be targeted for preventative management schemes to reduce gully erosion in the catchment and improve water quality outcomes. This work will be used to refine modelling work being undertaken in the catchment. Further development may allow the targeting of gully erosion prevention to be adapted to catchments beyond the Ben Chifley Dam Catchment.


An effective myoglobin-Nafion film is prepared by introducing gold nanoparticles in through a simple procedure by ion-exchange combined with electrochemical reduction. Gold nanoparticles are highly dispersed in myoglobin-Nafion film with an average size of 2.3 +/- 0.2 nm. The electrochemical behavior of myoglobin entrapped in the film has been carefully investigated with cyclic voltammetry. The results show that the introduction of gold nanoparticles into myoglobin-Nafion film makes the direct electron transfer of myoglobin efficient. A pair of well-defined redox peaks for myoglobin heme Fe(II)/Fe(III) is observed with a formal potential of -0.150 V in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). The electrochemical parameters of myoglobin in the composite film are further calculated with the results of the electron-transfer rate constant (k(s)) as 0.93 s(-1) and the charge transfer coefficient (alpha) as 0.69. The experimental results also demonstrate that the immobilized myoglobin retains its electrocatalytic activity for the reduction of hydrogen peroxide and the catalytic reduction peak of myoglobin appear in a linear relationship with H2O2 concentration in the range of 10.0-235.0 microM with correlation coefficient of 0.9970. Thus fabricated Au/Mb/Nafion electrode should give a new approach for developing redox protein or enzyme-based biosensors.


Deep submicron elevated source/drain (S/D) MOSFET's with epi facets, without facets, and with a second sidewall spacer covering the facets were studied using two-dimensional (2-D) process and device simulations. A slight degradation of drain-induced-barrier-lowering /spl Delta/V/sub t/ (DIBL) has been projected due to the locally deeper junction beneath the epi facets. The locally deeper junction also shortens the S/D extension length if the spacer thickness is kept the same. The shorter extension in turn leads to a smaller parasitic resistance and therefore a higher device drive current. Gate-to-drain capacitance of the elevated S/D MOSFET is decreased as a result of faceting because of the reduced overlap area.


In light of the rise of malicious attacks on the Internet, and the various networks and applications attached to it, new approaches towards modeling predatory activity in networks could be useful. Past research has simulated networks assuming that all vertices are homogenously susceptible to attack or infection. Often times in real world networks only subsets of vertices are susceptible to attack or infection in a heterogeneous population of vertices. One approach to examining a heterogeneous network susceptible to attack is modeling a network as a predator prey landscape. If each type of vulnerable device is considered a heterogeneous species what level of species diversification is needed to keep a malicious attack from a causing a catastrophic failure to the entire network. This paper explores the predator prey analogy for the Internet and presents findings on how different levels of species diversification effects network resilience. The paper will also discuss the connection between diversification, competition, anti-trust, and national security.


This article addresses the problem of eyewitness identification errors that can lead to false convictions of the innocent and false acquittals of the guilty. At the heart of our analysis based on signal detection theory is the separation of diagnostic accuracy—the ability to discriminate between those who are guilty versus those who are innocent—from the consideration of the relative costs associated with different kinds of errors. Application of this theory suggests that current recommendations for reforms have conflated diagnostic accuracy with the evaluation of costs in such a way as to reduce the accuracy of identification evidence and the accuracy of adjudicative outcomes. Our framework points to a revision in recommended procedures and a framework for policy analysis.


This is the first in a two-part series of an experimental film cooling study conducted on the tip of a turbine blade with a blade rotation speed of 1200 RPM. In this part of the study, the coolant is injected from the blade tip and pressure side (PS) holes, and the effect of the blowing ratio on the heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness of the blade tip is investigated. The blade has a tip clearance of 1.7% of the blade span and consists of a cut back squealer rim, two cylindrical tip holes and six shaped pressure side holes. The stator-rotor-stator test section is housed in a closed loop wind tunnel that allows for the performance of transient heat transfer tests. Measurements of the heat transfer coefficient and film cooling effectiveness are done on the blade tip using liquid crystal thermography. These measurements are reported for the no coolant case and for blowing ratios of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. The heat transfer results for the no coolant injection show a region of high heat transfer on the blade tip near the blade leading edge region as the incident flow impinges on that region. This region of high heat transfer extends and stretches on the tip as more coolant is introduced through the tip holes at higher blowing ratios. The cooling results show that increasing the blowing ratio increases the film cooling effectiveness. The tip film cooling profile is such that the tip coolant is pushed towards the blade suction side thereby providing better coverage in that region. The shift in coolant flow profile towards the blade suction side as opposed to the pressure side in stationary studies can primarily be attributed to the effects of the blade relative motion.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Many real-world ubiquitous applications, such as parking recommendations and air pollution monitoring, benefit significantly from accurate long-term spatio-temporal forecasting (LSTF). LSTF makes use of long-term dependency structure between the spatial and temporal domains, as well as the contextual information. Recent studies have revealed the potential of multi-graph neural networks (MGNNs) to improve prediction performance. However, existing MGNN methods do not work well when applied to LSTF due to several issues: the low level of generality, insufficient use of contextual information, and the imbalanced graph fusion approach. To address these issues, we construct new graph models to represent the contextual information of each node and exploit the long-term spatio-temporal data dependency structure. To aggregate the information across multiple graphs, we propose a new dynamic multi-graph fusion module to characterize the correlations of nodes within a graph and the nodes across graphs via the spatial attention and graph attention mechanisms. Furthermore, we introduce a trainable weight tensor to indicate the importance of each node in different graphs. Extensive experiments on two large-scale datasets demonstrate that our proposed approaches significantly improve the performance of existing graph neural network models in LSTF prediction tasks.


The controversy over whether a major fraction of evolutionary allele substitutions and protein polymorphisms in natural populations is due to random drift of neutral mutations remains unresolved; but the discussion has led to extensions of population genetic theory, particularly in stochastic models. The work of Maruyama in seeking quantities that are not strongly dependent on assumptions about population structure is particularly discussed. Under some circumstances, and perhaps quite generally, the probability of eventual fixation of a mutant gene, the total number of heterozygotes in which the gene is involved before its fixation or less, and the total number of heterozygotes during the time the gene has a specified frequency in the entire population have this desirable property. Whether there are many mutants that are so nearly neutral as to be unaffected by selective forces or not, it is clear that there are many loci at which selection is very weak and some of the evolutionary consequences of this are discussed briefly.


Limited information about exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in primary schools in Vietnam is available. In this study, we aimed to characterize indoor VOCs in four primary schools situated in Ho Chi Minh City, a metropolis in the south of Vietnam and assess health risks linked to the students' exposure to VOCs. Indoor and outdoor air samples were collected in the schools and analyzed for volatile composition using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Different classes of VOCs, including aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes, aldehydes, esters, cyclic terpenes, and chlorinated hydrocarbons, were identified and quantified in classrooms of the schools. The results showed that the concentrations of the VOCs differed significantly among the schools and between ground-floor and first floor classrooms. In addition, VOC profiles differed considerably between air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned classrooms. Limonene, a compound associated with fragrance products, was the most abundant VOC, with the median (range) concentration of 26.12 (10.29, 50.08) μg/m3. The concentrations of the compounds examined in the study were in general found to be higher indoors compared with outdoors, signifying indoor emission sources. Potential harmful effects are expected as a result of exposure to benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene and tetrachloroethylene in the investigated schools. Further research is needed to fully assess the health risks to students, teachers, and staff in these educational environments.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of temozolomide (TMZ) versus semustine (Me-CCNU) in the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) or anaplastic astrocytoma (AA).

METHODS
A total of 151 patients with recurrent GBM or AA were enrolled into this randomized, multicentre and open-label study. And 144 patients (intent-to-treat (ITT) population) were assigned randomly into 2 groups. TMZ was given orally at 200 or 150 mg×m(-2)d(-1) (prior chemotherapy) for 5 days, repeated every 28 days. Me-CCNU was given orally at 150 mg×m(-2)×d(-1) once, repeated every 28 days. The treatment periods were within 2 - 6 months and the follow-up period was 6 months. Gadopentetate dimeglumine-magnetic resonance imaging (GD-MRI) or contrast-enhanced computed tomography was performed at 2, 3 and 6 months after treatment to evaluate the image-based progression. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival rates at the end of follow-up period and adverse events rates were evaluated.

RESULTS
PFS at 6 months was 78.87% in TMZ group and 55.88% in Me-CCNU group (P < 0.05). Overall survival rates at the end of follow-up period were 96.89% in TMZ group and 97.30% in Me-CCNU group (P > 0.05). The objective response rate of TMZ and Me-CCNU groups were complete response (CR) (19.44% vs 6.38%), partial response (PR) (26.39% vs 14.89%), stable disease (SD) (26.39% vs 34.03%) and progressive disease (PD) (27.78% vs 44.68%, P < 0.01). Adverse events rates of TMZ and Me-CCNU were 29.11% and 45.15% respectively (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The efficacy of TMZ for patients with recurrent GBM or AA is better than that of Me-CCNU. And TMZ has an acceptable safety profile and its adverse events are mostly mild.


State estimation methods allow the vehicle position and velocity to be reconstructed by combining information from sensors and vehicle model. From a security point of view, position and velocity have to be known with a high level of confidence in order, for example, to avoid vehicle collision. In this paper, a confidence interval observer is developed to enclose positioning variables with some confidence degree (or integrity level). For this purpose, the algorithm is divided in two parts. First, a predictor, based on the vehicle dynamics, is derived to estimate bounds on state variables with lower bounded integrity. Then, at each measurement time, confidence intervals from the sensors are combined with union and intersection operations to satisfy the integrity level. The shortest non-empty intervals are chosen among the safe intervals. Finally, to quantify the reliability of estimation, a security measure is defined by the probability of having one faulty estimation in some period of time and is related to the integrity level objective. This method is illustrated with simulation tests based on an autonomous underwater vehicle described by a nonlinear model.


One strategy for reducing US dependence on petroleum is to develop new combustion technologies for burning the fuel-lean mixtures of hydrogen or hydrogen-rich syngas fuels obtained from the gasification of coal and biomass. Fuel-flexible combustion systems based on lean premixed combustion have the potential for dramatically reducing pollutant emissions in transportation systems, heat and stationary power generation. However, lean premixed flames are highly susceptible to fluid-dynamical combustion instabilities making robust and reliable systems difficult to design. Low swirl burners are emerging as an important technology for meeting design requirements in terms of both reliability and emissions for next generation combustion devices. In this paper, we present simulations of a lean, premixed hydrogen flame stabilized on a laboratory-scale low swirl burner. The simulations use detailed chemistry and transport without incorporating explicit models for turbulence or turbulence/chemistry interaction. Here we discuss the overall structure of the flame and compare with experimental data. We also use the simulation data to elucidate the characteristics of the turbulent flame interaction and how this impacts the analysis of experimental measurements.


This study explored a series of HIP processes, solution heat treatments and aging treatments, in which various amounts of tantalum carbide (TaC) powder are added for sintering cobalt-based composite materials. Experimental results showed that the highest transverse rupture strength (TRS) of 1812.4MPa was obtained by the 10mass% TaC added to cobalt-based alloys, which was sintered at 1270°C, and followed by HIP processes, solution heat treatments, and aging treatments for 12 h. The hardness increased to 80.1 HRA. In addition, the added amounts of TaC powder and aging times played important roles in improving the mechanical properties of the cobalt-based alloys. By microstructural observations, it was found that both M6C and M23C6 carbides precipitated in the matrix of the 0% TaC specimens after various aging treatments. However, the more refined and uniform precipitations of M6C, M23C6 and MC carbides were precipitated in the matrix of the TaC powders added to cobalt-based alloys after 12 h of aging treatment at 850°C. This result was effective in improving the mechanical properties of the cobalt-based alloys. Conversely, 15 h of aging treatment at 850°C generated an over-aging phenomenon, which resulted in a decrease in TRS value. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2014066]


Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and artificial neural networks were used for the quantitative prediction of four active constituents in rhubarb: anthraquinones, anthraquinone glucosides, stilbene glucosides, Tannins and related compounds. The near infrared spectra of the samples were acquired in 1100-2500 nm from powdered rhubarb samples. Four calibration models using radial basis function neural networks (RBFNN) were set up to correlate the spectra with the values determined by HPLC. RMSECVs of the models for the constituents studied were 2.572, 0.442, 2.794 and 9.438, respectively. RMSEPs for the were 4.598, 8.657, 0.4586, and 5.106, respectively. The method is fast, and satisfactory results were obtained. The proposed method can be used for determining the active constituents in Chinese herbal medicine.


The direct-semidirect model is used to investigate the sensitivity of polarized neutron capture to the final-state j value (j = l ± ½) for a given l. It is shown that predictions of the model together with data from polarization measurements can be useful as a tool both in assigning j-values to final states and in obtaining information about giant multipole resonances.


Intercultural festum folkloricum as a construct and socio-cultural metacommentary Th is paper, based on the results of a fi eld research, presents an intercultural folklore festival, along with the world of cultural heritage and folkloristic traditions, as a dynamic and self-updating sociocultural construct, that despite the strong institutionalization, mythologizing and hegemony still has a large potential for emancipation. Th is event is not entirely artifi cially created by widely understood experts, activists and leaders of folkloristic movement, according to presumed needs and preferences of festival audiences, but it is also an immanent reality, constantly being created by all participants. It is a metacommentary of contemporary folk actuality, constructed and negotiated in the course of interactions, activities and meaningful social practices which have highly performative character.


Ever since Ma Rainey's Black Bottom appeared on one of New York's Broadway stages in 1984, August Wilson's focus on the history, destiny and identity of African American people during the course of the 20th century through his celebrated 10-play cycle has continued to fascinate and draw the attention of numerous critics all over the world. A good number of these critics focus on the playwright's depiction of alienation, confusion and despair among African Americans since emancipation. Some among them also identify Wilson's call for African Americans to locate their destiny and identity in African history with its rich blend of ancestor worship and African spirituality if they are to overcome these challenges. In this article, I carry forward the latter focus and give it a new twist and an innovative thrust. I harness a comparative approach in order to juxtapose traditional film theory with the dramatic form as I argue that August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone can be read against Joseph Campbell's narrative of the Hero's Journey. In this comparative approach, my principal argument is that in Joe Turner's Come and Gone Wilson posits a redemptive apotheosis that is located in African spirituality for members of the black race. Just as in Campbell's narrative of the Hero's Journey, Wilson's redemptive apotheosis is rooted in presenting a mysterious or inscrutable hero/character who travels on a journey that will lead to positive self-discovery not just for himself but also for the generality of Wilson's African American characters. I argue that although Joseph Campbell's narrative of the Hero's Journey is normally associated with film analysis, it is also available as a broad framework with which to analyse Wilson's play in a fascinating and innovative way. This will further enhance our general understanding of the play.


In this article, we examine fugitivity and fugitive literacies as they are enacted by transfronterizx youth—young people who cross and experience life on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States. Through a community-based literacy project located on the border between El Paso, Texas, USA, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, this article focuses on storytelling and multimodal creation, what we refer to as multimodal cuentos. Findings illustrate the ways in which Chicanx/Latinx transfronterizx youth exhibit, build, and sustain their ways of resisting white, Western, hegemonic definitions of literacy through communication and creativity. We theorize the notion of fugitivity on the border and share potential implications for language and literacy education for Chicanx/Latinx border crossers.


The time-dependent wind-driven ocean circulation is investigated for both a rectangular and a North Atlantic‐ shaped basin. Multiple steady states in a 2‰-layer shallow-water model and their dependence on various parameters and other model properties were studied in Part I for the rectangular basin. As the wind stress on the rectangular basin is increased, each steady-state branch is destabilized by a Hopf bifurcation. The periodic solutions that arise off the subpolar branch have a robust subannual periodicity of 4‐5 months. For the subtropical branch, the period varies between sub- and interannual, depending on the inverse Froude number F2 defined with respect to the lower active layer's thickness H2 .A sF2 is lowered, the perturbed-symmetric branch is destabilized baroclinically, before the perturbed pitchfork bifurcation examined in detail in Part I occurs. T ransition to aperiodic behavior arises at first by a homoclinic explosion off the isolated branch that exists only for sufficiently high wind stress. Subsequent global and local bifurcations all involve the subpolar branch, which alone exists in the limit of vanishing wind stress. Purely subpolar solutions vary on an interannual scale, whereas combined subpolar and subtropical solutions exhibit complex transitions affected by a second, subpolar homoclinic orbit. In the latter case, the timescale of the variability is interdecadal. The role of the global bifurcations in the interdecadal variability is investigated. Numerical simulations were carried out for the North Atlantic with earth topography5 minute (ETOPO-5) coastline geometry in the presence of realistic, as well as idealized, wind stress forcing. The simulations exhibit a realistic Gulf Stream at 20-km resolution and with realistic wind stress. The variability at 12-km resolution exhibits spectral peaks at 6 months, 16 months, and 6‐7 years. The subannual mode is strongest in the subtropical gyre; the interannual modes are both strongest in the subpolar gyre.


Background The interleukin-17 (IL-17) cytokine family plays a key role in the pathogenesis of psoriatic diseases of skin and joint. Brodalumab is a fully human anti–IL-17 receptor monoclonal antibody that blocks the activity of IL-17A, IL-17F, and IL-17A/F. Objectives To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of brodalumab in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in an open-label extension (OLE) of a phase 2 study. Methods In a phase 2 study (NCT01516957), adults (18–75 years) with active PsA were randomized to brodalumab (140 or 280 mg) or placebo at weeks 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. At week 12, patients could enter an OLE and receive brodalumab 280 mg every 2 weeks (Q2W); a protocol amendment in November 2013 resulted in dosage reduction to 210 mg Q2W for all patients. Outcome measures based on observed data through week 108 included percentages of patients with 20% and 50% improvement in American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR20 and ACR50) and changes in ACR components and Psoriasis Symptom Inventory (PSI) score. Safety was assessed by adverse events (AEs). Results At baseline, patients were 64% female, 94% white, with mean age and weight of 52 years and 91 kg, respectively. Mean PsA duration was 9 years, 92% were rheumatoid factor negative, and mean PSI score was 12.7. Of 168 patients randomized at baseline, 156 (52 placebo, 53 brodalumab 140 mg, and 51 brodalumab 280 mg) entered the OLE and 109 (70%) remained at week 108. Through week 108, 149 (96%) patients reported an AE and 23 (15%) reported a serious AE (SAE). The most frequent SAEs (n=2 each) were coronary artery disease, cholelithiasis, and cellulitis; the most frequent AEs (≥10% of all patients) were nasopharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infection, psoriatic arthropathy, urinary tract infection, arthralgia, diarrhea, sinusitis, and bronchitis. Exposure-adjusted AE rate (per 100 patient-years) for all patients was 526; exposure-adjusted SAE rate was 14. There were no deaths, 1 laboratory report of neutropenia, 1 case of suicidal ideation, and 11 cases of oral candidiasis. At week 12 of the study (double-blind phase), percentages of patients with ACR20 and ACR50 (non-responder imputation [NRI] analysis) were significantly greater in each brodalumab group than placebo: ACR20 37% (140 mg) and 39% (280 mg) vs 18% (placebo); ACR50 14% and 14% vs 4%. Through week 108 of the OLE, we continued to observe meaningful clinical benefit in ACR20 and ACR50 (Figure 1, as observed). Continued clinical benefit was also demonstrated by NRI analysis. Responses for other outcome measures were also sustained from week 12 to 108 in patients remaining in the OLE. Figure 1 Conclusions Treatment with brodalumab resulted in an acceptable safety profile and meaningful clinical benefit that was maintained through week 108 in patients with PsA in this ongoing OLE. Acknowledgements Jessica Ma (Amgen Inc) provided medical writing support. Disclosure of Interest P. Mease Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Amgen Inc, Biogen Idec, BMS, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, and Vertex, Consultant for: AbbVie, Amgen Inc, Biogen Idec, BMS, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, and Vertex, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Amgen Inc, Biogen Idec, BMS, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, and Vertex, M. Genovese Grant/research support from: Amgen Inc, M. Greenwald Grant/research support from: Amgen Inc, C. Ritchlin Grant/research support from: Amgen Inc, A. Beaulieu Grant/research support from: Amgen Inc, A. Deodhar Grant/research support from: Amgen Inc, R. Newmark Shareholder of: Amgen Inc, Employee of: Amgen Inc, J. Feng Shareholder of: Amgen Inc, Employee of: Amgen Inc, N. Erondu Shareholder of: Amgen Inc, Employee of: Amgen Inc, A. Nirula Shareholder of: Amgen Inc, Employee of: Amgen Inc


>> Fuel cells are suitable for a power plant of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it is not only environmentally friendly and quiet but also more efficient than an internal combustion engine. A fuel cell hybrid UAV has better performance in endurance than a fuel cell only or battery only UAV. One of the key purposes of making fuel cell hybrid UAVs is having long endurance and now maximum 26 hours of flight is possible. Because optimal design and control methods for fuel cell hybrid UAVs are absolutely needed for their long endurance we have to check the methods. The aircraft made by using application-integrated design method has less BOP mass and better performances. The optimal design and control methods are generally based on computer simulations or Hardware-In-The-Loop simulations by using dynamic models for their design and control. The Hardware-In-The-Loop simulation (HILS) is to use a hardware device like a fuel cell stack as well as a simulation program and it allows for making optimally designed applications. This paper introduce efficient methods of design, control and evaluation for the fuel cell hybrid UAVs.


Abstract.
 Understanding how habitat disturbances such as forest fire affect local extinction and probability of colonization—the processes that determine site occupancy—is critical for developing forest management appropriate to conserving the California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis), a subspecies of management concern. We used 11 years of breeding-season survey data from 41 California Spotted Owl sites burned in six forest fires and 145 sites in unburned areas throughout the Sierra Nevada, California, to compare probabilities of local extinction and colonization at burned and unburned sites while accounting for annual and site-specific variation in detectability. We found no significant effects of fire on these probabilities, suggesting that fire, even fire that burns on average 32% of suitable habitat at high severity within a California Spotted Owl site, does not threaten the persistence of the subspecies on the landscape. We used simulations to examine how different allocations of survey effort over 3 years affect estimability and bias of parameters and power to detect differences in colonization and local extinction between groups of sites. Simulations suggest that to determine whether and how habitat disturbance affects California Spotted Owl occupancy within 3 years, managers should strive to annually survey ≥200 affected and ≥200 unaffected historical owl sites throughout the Sierra Nevada 5 times per year. Given the low probability of detection in one year, we recommend more than one year of surveys be used to determine site occupancy before management that could be detrimental to the Spotted Owl is undertaken in potentially occupied habitat.


Abstract Seaport efficiency and productivity are the critical factors for handling of goods in the international supply chains and plays an important role in trade exchange with other countries. It is important to evaluate efficiency and productivity of seaports to reflect their status and reveal their position in competitive environment. The main purpose of this article is to use Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Productivity Index to measure the technical efficiency and total factor productivity of container ports. DEA analysis enables one to assess how efficiently a seaports uses the available inputs to generate a set of outputs relative to other units in the data set. This article presents the use CCR and BCC DEA model, to determine overall technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of container ports. The analysis gives a possibility to create a efficiency ranking of seaports. The study also applies the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), which was used to analyze changes in seaports productivity. The study indicated that technological progress had a greater impact on the change in productivity of container ports than changes in technical efficiency.


This study was based on the tradition of the Sumba people touching their noses when meeting, commonly called Padeki Korru, carried out against people of the same sex or the opposite sex and has been carried out from generation to generation. The purpose of this study is to find out the views of Islamic law regarding the adat tradition of Padeki Korru. This study used a qualitative approach, with 12 sources of the population of West Sumba who were Muslims, non-Muslims, and Muallaf. This research shows that the Padeki Korru Tradition is a forbidden tradition, because it is out of the sharia provisions in the prohibition of touching non-mahrams. When viewed from the point of being a form of religious tolerance and avoiding gossip that is feared will lead to conflict, the researcher directs this to the second level of emergency, namely only in a state of urgency is allowed to practice traditions


For project control during construction, evaluating the performance of contractors is usually established through progress measurement that compares the actual performance to the planned performance. Corrective actions and/or performance penalties are then established as relative measures that judge the actual performance based on current project plans without considering the performance of other similar projects or the lowest performance that projects could reach while still being successful. To establish a generalized benchmark measure and a non-project-specific project control tool, the concept of minimum performance bounds is explained in relation to their development for highway pavement projects. The bounds were developed using constrained-parameters polynomial regression and cluster analysis for a sample of 497 highway pavement projects in Washington State. Minimum bounds for small, medium and large projects were fairly distinguishable signifying the project size effect on the location and shape of performance bounds. Bounds were also developed for projects classified by asphalt quantities, contract values, project duration and project length, being the common criteria used by highway agencies. Owners would use the minimum performance bounds as control tools when requesting corrective actions, establishing incentives, imposing performance penalties, initiating a default clause for substandard performance, and/or in pre-qualifying contractors for new projects.


Two types of load uncertainties for planning studies, namely long term related to economic development and short-term related to time/weather factors, can be identified. In this paper the attempt is made first to establish a probabilistic model of short-term load uncertainties caused by time/weather factors. Then the algorithm able to cope with noisy function, such as planning criteria depending on stochastic loads, is suggested. The algorithm is based on simple GA with built in Monte-Carlo simulation block. The paper also contains the investigation of convergence properties of stochastic GA for different levels of noise. It is shown that it is possible to obtain the optimal compromise number of trials.


Background and aim Lead, mercury and cadmium are widely exposed environmental pollutants throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate the level of exposure to lead(Pb), mercury(Hg) and cadmium(Cd) during intrauterine life. Methods We included 123 mother-infant pairs between December 2006 and January 2007. Umbilical cord blood collected immediately after delivery while breast milk and newborn hair samples collected between 3–10th postpartum days. All the specimens analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Results Cord blood samples Pb was present in 99.2%(the mean 1.66±1.6µg/dl) while Hg in only 1.7% and Cd in 19.8%(ranged 0–6.71µg/L). Cord blood Pb was higher than ≥2µg/dl in 29% of the samples. Pb, Hg and Cd were detectable in all the newborn hair samples. Among breast milk samples 83.2% had detectable lead levels(mean 14.5±12.1µg/L). Presence of Hg and Cd in breast milk samples were 53.3% and 9% respectively. Cord blood lead levels were significantly higher when maternal age >35 years. Breast milk Cd levels were significantly higher in women who were residing close to the major city waste site. Cord blood Cd levels were significantly higher in women consuming more than two fish weekly. Maternal exposure to environmental tobacco smoking(ETS) resulted increased newborn hair Pb and Cd levels. Conclusion Intrauterine heavy metal exposure is an important concern for pediatricians. Most samples had detectable levels for Pb, Hg, Cd indicating long term maternal exposure and considerable number exceeds the present accepted safety levels at cord and breast milk samples. Preventing ETS, limiting fish consumption and improved living conditions for pregnant women may decrease exposure levels.


In the seminal paper on optimal execution of portfolio transactions, Almgren and Chriss (2001) define the optimal trading strategy to liquidate a fixed volume of a single security under price uncertainty. Yet there exist situations, such as in the power market, in which the volume to be traded can only be estimated and becomes more accurate when approaching a specified delivery time. During the course of execution, a trader should then constantly adapt their trading strategy to meet their fluctuating volume target. In this paper, we develop a model that accounts for volume uncertainty and we show that a risk-averse trader has benefit in delaying their trades. More precisely, we argue that the optimal strategy is a trade-off between early and late trades in order to balance risk associated with both price and volume. By incorporating a risk term related to the volume to trade, the static optimal strategies suggested by our model avoid the explosion in the algorithmic complexity usually associated with dynamic programming solutions, all the while yielding competitive performance.


Previous studies have found that specific sources of perceived social support may play different roles in health risk behaviour and sexual risk behaviour as well. The aim of this study is to explore the associations between three types of perceived social support from family, friends and others and sexual risk behaviour among young adults in Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. An online questionnaire concerning health behaviour,perceived social support and sexual behaviour was distributed to first year university students from Slovakia (N=807,75% females, mean age 20.8), Lithuania (N=928, 70% females, mean age 20,0), and Hungary (N=819, 66% females, mean age 21,4). Binary logistic regression was performed in SPSS 16. Young adults from all countries reported the same pattern of associations between social support and sexual risk behaviour. Higher levels of support from family and others was associated with lower rates of sexual risk behaviour. Students with a higher level of support from friends were more likely to report multiple partners, sex under the influence of alcohol and inconsistent condom use. Young adults are sensitive regarding the source of social support as their behaviour differs depending on the source. The identification of students with their peers and friends in addition to perceived social norms may explain this.


Software has to be tested from functional and performance viewpoints in order to create products, which fulfill customer demands. The need for testing has led to the development of a plethora of testing tools. Performance measurement of SW latencies on local and distributed SW platforms hasn't yet been completely solved, which is the research problem of this paper. In particular, GPS-based time synchronization and performance of the proof-of-concept has been concentrated on. The approach is to instrument the SW implementation under study, and to collect measurement data with the presented tool. The results indicate a resolution of 590 ns, which can be achieved with high performance reference clocks. CPU processing can be kept lower than 5% even with a high event transmission rate. In addition, the presented GPS synchronization method can be used for other purposes such as data packet time-stamping in network monitoring solutions.


Recently more attentions are growing every day towards the valorisation of industrial by-product especially those generated through agriculture and food industries, as the demands of bio-based resources for the necessary transition from fossil hydrocarbon sources to natural based products are increasing. This paper focuses on the potential effect of chemical treatments and modification as well as fibers loading on the thermal, mechanical, and rheological behaviour of reinforced Polypropylene (PP). During this work, fibers were prepared using alkali and bleaching treatments and then characterized using different analysis such SEM, X-ray, FT-IR and TGA/DTG. The composite materials were elaborated using twin-screw extrusion followed by injection molding by mixing PP with 5 to 10 Wt.% of raw bagasse cane (RBC), alkali bagasse cane (ABC) and bleached cellulose microfibers (BCM) as well as cellulose microfibers with Styrene-(ethylene-butene)-styrene three-block co-polymer grafted with maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA) as coupling agent. The result achieved from this study shows that the use of different type of fibers led to significant decrease in thermal degradation of PP. The mechanical results show a significant improvement in Yung's modulus, tensile strength and hardness of the reinforced PP compared to neat PP. However, a remarkable decrease was obtained in elongation at break and toughness for all reinforced composites compared to neat PP. Besides, higher and low torsion modulus was obtained for PP reinforced with BCM and SEBS-g-MA-BCM, respectively.Statement of Novelty: This study aims to valorise bagasse sugar cane by-product as a lignocellulosic source for the isolation of cellulose fibers. Innovative composite materials were prepared based on polypropylene.


Extraction of aromatic substances obtained during oxidation of lignin with ionic liquids (ILs)-based molecular oxygen was investigated. It was found that virtually no aromatic substances could be directly extracted with organic solvent until water had been added to the system. The amount of extracted substances increased sharply with an increase in the molar ratio of water to ILs. The distribution constants of aromatic monomers between ILs/water and extracting solvent was obtained by Nernst partition function analysis. The constants fitted well to a second order exponential function model (ExpDec2), which indicated that the activity coefficients of reaction products between ILs and extracting solvent could be tuned by water addition. Among the seven organic solvents tested, ethyl acetate was the most effective, on account of its suitable polarity, while temperature more prominently affected extraction efficiency than time.


Interpreting how the machine learning models make decisions is a new method to explore meaningful rules. However, it still lacks an understanding of the applicability of different model explainers in biological study. To address this question, we made a comprehensive evaluation on various explainers, and analyzed their performance and biological preference by quantifying the contribution of individual gene in the models trained to predict tissue type from transcriptome. Additionally, we also proposed a series of optimization strategies to improve the performance of different explainers. Interestingly, all explainers can be classified into three groups based on their outputs on different neural network architectures. With explainers from the group II, we found that the top contributing genes in different tissues exhibit tissue-specific manifestation and are potential biomarkers for cancer research. In summary, this work provides a novel insight and general guidance for exploring biological mechanisms by interpreting machine learning models.


The design of interfaces has become an essential dimension of companies' digital strategies, aiming at enhancing user experiences through User Experience goals, alternatively named UX. From user tests to front-end development, UX now affects all areas of digital production. This book presents relevant and recent studies conducted in various fields, from Marketing to Information Systems over Human Resource Management to Strategic Management. Its objective is to provide up-to-date results in relation to UX concerns, which exist in both e-learning and e-commerce. It is composed of 20 chapters and contains the most recent findings in research, as well as case studies and relevant works conducted by experts in User Experience, from the field of e-learning to e-commerce. 40 authors from Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom present their case studies, practical experiences, and studies on User Experience and its impact on universities and businesses.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of targeted silencing of forkhead box C1 (FOXC1) gene with small interfering RNA (siRNA) on the proliferation and in vitro migration of human non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) A549 and NCIH460 cells, and to explore the molecular mechanism.

METHODS
These cells were divided into FOXC1 siRNA groups and negative control groups.

RESULTS
Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) showed that compared with normal cells and paracancerous tissues, FOXC1 mRNA expressions in NSCLC cells and tissues were significantly higher (P<0.05). qRT-PCR and Western blot showed that FOXC1 siRNA effectively silenced FOXC1 gene expression in NSCLC cells. EdU labeling assay revealed that the proliferative capacity significantly decreased compared with that of normal control group after FOXC1 silencing (P<0.05). Significantly fewer cells in the transfected group migrated than those in negative control group did. After FOXC1 silencing, NSCLC cells were arrested in the G0/G1 phase, which were significantly different from those in negative control group (P<0.05). Compared with negative control group, the expression of cyclin D1 decreased and that of E-cadherin increased. Meanwhile, vimentin and MMP-2 expressions significantly reduced (P<0.05). FOXC1 siRNA effectively silenced FOXC1 gene expressions in NSCLC cells, inhibited their proliferation and invasion, and arrested them in the G0/G1 phase, suggesting that FOXC1 affected proliferation probably by regulating the expression of cell cycle-related protein cyclin D1.

CONCLUSION
Silencing FOXC1 may evidently inhibit the migration of these cells by reversing the EMT process through suppressing cadherin, being associated with the expressions of extracellular MMPs.


via a parody of the Nativity. And in his assertion that the shepherds end the play, having been "involved ... in the full story of [Christ's] life" (p. 84), Mack has provided a stunning insight into the quality of their experience, an insight with which I agree but which I doubt that Mack fully understands. The problem with his interpretation is that, for the sake of thematic values, the play's theatrical and dramatic values have been misrepresented. Mack's definition of drama is the key to the problem. In defining a "fully dramatic situation" as "different persons with different voices . . . speaking from different levels of awareness" (p. 79) he is describing not drama but abstract states of being. The bone and gristle of drama and theater are conflict and action—the dramatist and the actor both work to reveal character and theme on stage through successive scenes that compel specifically concrete and physical expression. It would be ludicrous to tell my actors that the shepherds must enter onto the stage and remain "static," "passive," and "undramatic" till they run through their lines to Mak's entrance; that they must, after Mak's exit, revert back to their former selves, as if "nothing . . . has changed much" (p. 82) and wait in that state until something else external happens to alter their condition; that while Mak is at work they are to experience the rumpling of their lives by the one person around capable of decisive action; and finally, that even Mak lacks "clear motivation or practical direction" (p. 81). Such a view of the play suggests that only part of it is dramatic and that Mak is its principal character. But this is not so! The Second Shepherds' Play is the shepherds' play. They are the only characters who can and do generate and sustain the drama from opening line to closing curtain. They leave the wings and enter the set to escape the tribulations of the world and to find comfort and solace in the company of "Trew men" (1. 52) — thus the movement from complaint to song. This action, based on the mistaken belief that they can make a sanctuary for themselves, precipitates their easy deception at the hands of Mak, an essentially weak character whose danger lies not in his generation of power but in his perversion of it. The sustaining power of the drama lies in the goodwill of the shepherds' search for innocence and joy, which finds perfect fulfillment in the incarnation of Christ. We have here a play of the testing, the tempering, the chastening of the shepherds, an ordeal that prepares them in the wilderness, in an apocalyptical time, for the coming of God into the world. They are the apprentice shepherds to the Good Shepherd, and within their limits they "prevent" the coming of Christ by themselves becoming Christlike. This then gives the power and the beauty to those last scenes of the play, for the shepherds, by being suffering servants themselves, have gained privileged insight into the nature and quality of Christ's mission. Next to the drama of their trial and redemption Mak's infatuation with power and forbidden knowledge is silly indeed. This is the sense that 1 believe Mack may have hoped for in suggesting that the shepherds have been "involved ... in the full story of [Christ's] life."


Al7075 is used in automobile industries because of its lower weight to strength ratio. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMCs) are the competent material in the industrial world due to its excellent mechanical properties. Powder metallurgy processing is the one of the most effective methods for manufacturing the composites with high volume of reinforcement. The present study is dealt with the hybrid composites (Al7075+SiC+Fly ash) through powder metallurgy technique. This hybrid composite having with various weight percentages of SiC& Fly ash particles morphology can be seen with the help of micro structural examine. The mechanical properties such as Hardness, Impact strength, micro structure were studied and reported with the increase in weight percentage of SiC & Fly ash in the Aluminium metal Matrix. Aluminium hybrid composites are a new generation of metal matrix composites that have the potential of satisfying the recent demands of advanced engineering applications. The major techniques for fabricating these materials are briefly discussed and research areas for further improvement on Aluminium hybrid composites are suggested.