OBJECTIVES
Bleeding on gentle probing (BOP) is the key parameter to the diagnosis of mucositis, while changes in crestal bone levels, along with clinical signs of inflammation, are required for the diagnosis of peri-implantitis. This systematic review and meta-analysis focused on the evaluation of BOP as a predictive measure for peri-implantitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An electronic search was performed through Medline and EMBASE databases, followed by a hand search through previous reviews and reference lists. Screening, study selection, data extraction and evaluation of publication bias were conducted by two independent examiners. Clinical studies reporting on the prevalence of peri-implantitis, BOP and/or suppuration (SUP) after more than 1 year of functional loading were selected. Meta-analyses were conducted to combine the proportions of peri-implantitis among BOP- and/or SUP-positive subjects and implants across studies. Subgroups were created and compared to investigate potential sources of heterogeneity.

RESULTS
Thirty-one studies were selected for analysis. Inconsistent definitions of peri-implantitis were reported across the studies. Twenty-nine studies reported data on implant-level and twenty publications reported on subject-level. The combined proportion of peri-implantitis was 24.1% (95% CI 19.3-29.7) in BOP-positive implants and 33.8% (95% CI 26.7-41.6) for BOP-positive cases. However, the degree of variability among studies was high; the prediction intervals were 10.3-69.3 and 6.9-57.8, respectively. Evidence of asymmetry or publication bias could not be statistically detected. Short observation periods were significantly associated with lower proportions of peri-implantitis among BOP-positive implants.

CONCLUSIONS
For BOP-positive implants, there was a 24.1% chance to be diagnosed with peri-implantitis; while for BOP-positive patients, there was a 33.8% probability to be diagnosed with peri-implantitis. This probability varied across study populations. Clinicians should be aware of the considerable false-positive rate of BOP to diagnose peri-implantitis.


Summary Technical evolution led to high level machinery in poultry processing lines from transport via slaughter and dressing up to cutting premises. However, the whole line got vulnerable in particular to those zoonotic agents, which are able to multiply. In times of increasing public concern on human health as well as animal welfare and observing a strengthening of corresponding legislation, these items are clearly a major challenge and need attention from the producer's side at all stages involved. Biosecurity at farm level must be performed consequently, and its single elements separately considered for applicability and/or improvement. Focussing on the abattoir is too narrow a task, but abattoir hygiene must also improve. Too little information is available on the quantitative aspect of the presence of salmonellae and Campylobacter. In order to master that, an integrated approach is needed. Existing options so far should be explored more intently. In case of failing, other options must be considered. The organisation of control – surveillance by authorities and/ or internal control – remains open.


OBJECTIVE
To establish a model for predicting peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) in North Indian healthy population. Study subjects. Eight hundred and ninety-seven healthy, non-smoker individuals (681 males and 216 females) in the age group of 10-60 years.

METHODS
The study was carried out at a health exhibition organised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, at King George's Medical University, Lucknow. Only healthy, non-smoker individuals were enrolled for the study. Age was noted in completed years and weight in kg and height in cm were taken without shoes. PEFR was measured by Mini Wrights peak flow meter in standing position after prior instructions and demonstration of technique to each individual. The test was performed three times on each subject and best of the three attempts was selected for data computation. The statistical solftware SPSS was used to fit the model and perform residual analysis.

RESULTS
The highest reading for males was recorded in the age group of 20 to 24 years and for females in the age group of 25 to 29 years. Using age, height and weight, we established a regression model for predicting PEFR values for males and females separately in the age group 19-60 years. In the age group 10-18 years, the model for predicting PEFR was same for both the sexes. PEFR values were found to be more in males as compared to females. The predictive power of the model as described by explained variation was found to be 80 and 82 percent for males and females, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Prediction model for north Indian subjects was drafted for age range 10-60 years. While separate models were required for males and females because of sex related differences in the age group 19-60 years, a common model sufficed for age group 10-18 years.


The origin and characteristics of near-microcoulomb multi-MeV electrons accelerated by short pulse lasers interacting with near-critical density plasma in self-formed channels are studied using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. According to the analysis on interaction phenomena and electron dynamics, the dominant mechanism turns out to be direct laser acceleration, which ensures the outstanding energy coupling. Additionally, self-channeling is found to be a decisive factor for the acceleration performance, as electrons obtain ultra-high energy through betatron resonance inside the channels. In our findings, by using a relativistic short laser pulse and near-critical plasma, a large amount of energetic electrons can be generated, presenting a promising and accessible route to ultraintense, high-spatial-resolution radiation pulses.


In the face of dramatic recent changes in the norms of sovereign debt restructuring - the substitution of collective action clauses for unanimous action requirements in bond contracts - academics and policymakers alike have raised questions about the underlying dynamics of the drafting and adoption of sovereign debt contracts. How, over less than a year, could the market of sovereign debt issues under New York law have completely abandoned the longstanding constraint of unanimous consent to restructuring, and replaced it with the far more forgiving standard of majority action? I attempt a preliminary response, grounded in the microeconomics of network effects and an analysis of "coordination games," an inadequately explored corner of game theory. Neither network effects nor coordination games has been treated in the sovereign debt literature to date, but collectively, they favor what I term a "cueing theory" of the recent transition in sovereign debt contracts. A cueing perspective, in turn, has important implications for the further development of sovereign debt practice and convention, and suggests that the conventional dichotomy of mandate versus contract in the efficient transformation of such practice and convention may overlook public entities' true role in such development.


A review of the Magelonidae from three surveys carried out in Hong Kong waters revealed the presence of three species: Magelona crenulifrons Gallardo, 1968 , Magelona cornuta Wesenberg-Lund, 1949 , and Magelona cf. cincta. Type materials of M. crenulifrons and M. cornuta were examined and redescriptions undertaken. Magelona cornuta was shown to possess a crenulate anterior margin, and the nature of the thoracic neuropodial lamellae was found to differ from the original description. Comparison with M. crenulifrons revealed these two species to be very morphologically similar, differing however, in several features that require close examination, including the dentition of the abdominal hooks. The presence of a species matching the description of Magelona cincta led to a redescription of the type specimen. Whilst the Hong Kong material shared many similarities with the holotype, several differences were noted. However, due to size variation between the material, the species cannot be currently described as new and is treated separately herein. Material collected from the Gulf of Oman was subsequently studied and revealed the presence of M. crenulifrons off Iran and Qatar, however, M. cornuta which was originally described from Iranian waters, was not present. Additional information has been added to species descriptions and the relationship between Indo-West Pacific species discussed.


By operating for more than one decade now, the GRACE satellite provides valuable information on the total water storage (TWS) for hydrological and hydro-meteorological applications. The increasing interest in use of the GRACE-based TWS requires an in-depth assessment of the reliability of the outputs and also its uncertainties. Through years of development, different post-processing methods have been suggested for TWS estimation. However, since GRACE offers an unique way to provide high spatial and temporal scale TWS, there is no global ground truth data available to fully validate the results. In this contribution, we re-assess a number of commonly used post-processing methods using a simulated GRACE-type gravity field time-series based on realistic orbits and instrument error assumptions as well as background error assumptions out of the updated ESA Earth System Model. Three non-isotropic filter methods from Kusche (2007) and a combined filter from DDK1 and DDK3 based on the ground tracks are tested. Rescaling factors estimated from five different hydrological models and the ensemble median are applied to the post-processed simulated GRACE-type TWS estimates to correct the bias and leakage. Time variant rescaling factors as monthly scaling factors and scaling factors for seasonal and long-term variations separately are investigated as well. Since TWS anomalies out of the post-processed simulation results can be readily compared to the time-variable Earth System Model initially used as "truth" during the forward simulation step, we are able to thoroughly check the plausibility of our error estimation assessment (Zhang et al., 2016) and will subsequently recommend a processing strategy that shall also be applied for planned GRACE and GRACE-FO Level-3 products for terrestrial applications provided by GFZ.


We present an approximation, which allows reduction of computational resources needed to explicitly incorporate electrostatic polarization into molecular simulations utilizing empirical force fields. The proposed method is employed to compute three‐body energies of molecular complexes with dipolar electrostatic probes, gas‐phase dimerization energies, and pure liquid properties for five systems that are important in biophysical and organic simulations—water, methanol, methylamine, methanethiol, and acetamide. In all the cases, the three‐body energies agreed with high level ab initio data within 0.07 kcal/mol, dimerization energies—within 0.43 kcal/mol (except for the special case of the CH3SH), and computed heats of vaporization and densities differed from the experimental results by less than 2%. Moreover, because the presented method allows a significant reduction in computational cost, we were able to carry out the liquid‐state calculations with Monte Carlo technique. Comparison with the full‐scale point dipole method showed that the computational time was reduced by 3.5 to more than 20 times, depending on the system in hand and on the desired level of the full‐scale model accuracy, while the difference in energetic results between the full‐scale and the presented approximate model was not great in the most cases. Comparison with the nonpolarizable OPLS‐AA force field for all the substances involved and with the polarizable POL3 and q90 models for water and methanol, respectively, demonstrates that the presented technique allows reduction of computational cost with no sacrifice of accuracy. We hope that the proposed method will be of benefit to research employing molecular modeling technique in the biophysical and physical organic chemistry areas. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 24: 267–276, 2003


Site‐specific DNA inversion by the Hin recombinase requires the formation of a multicomponent nucleo‐protein structure called an invertasome. In this structure, the two recombination sites bound by Hin are assembled together at the Fis‐bound recombinational enhancer with the requisite looping of the intervening DNA segments. We have analyzed the role of the HU protein in invertasome assembly when the enhancer is located at variable positions close to one of the recombination sites. In the absence of HU in vitro and in hupA hupB mutant cells in vivo, invertasome assembly is very inefficient when there is < 104 bp of DNA between the enhancer and recombination site. Invertasome assembly in the presence of HU in vitro or in vivo displayed a periodicity beginning with 60 bp of intervening DNA that reflected its helical repeat. The average helical repeat for this DNA region was calculated by autocorrelation and Fourier transformation to be 11.2 bp per turn for supercoiled DNA both in the presence of HU in vitro and in hup+ cells in vivo. HU is the only protein in Escherichia coli that can promote invertasome formation with short DNA lengths between the enhancer and recombination sites. However, the presence of certain polyamines and a protein activity present in HeLa nuclear extracts can efficiently substitute for HU in invertasome assembly. These data support a model in which HU binds non‐specifically to the DNA between the enhancer and recombination site to facilitate DNA looping.


Through analysing the penalty to Football from China Football Association in 2004, this paper expatiates on the source of power of China Football Association and argues whether it has the right of penalty and the right of depriving interviews from the media from perspective of law.


Abstract : A spherical acrylic pressure hull of NEMO design has been designed for an operational depth of 8,000 feet. The design meets the requirements of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 'Safety Standard for Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy.' The performance of the spherical acrylic hull has been experimentally evaluated by pressure testing 13 scale-model acrylic spheres under short-term, long-term, and cyclic conditions. The test results have shown that the NEMO-type acrylic spherical hull with t/Di = 0.2 thickness withstands > 1,000 pressure cycles of 4 hour's duration to design depths of 8,000 feet at ambient temperatures less than or equal 75 deg F. The acrylic hull withstood without catastrophic failure a 150-percent overpressurization (20,000 feet depth) of 150 hour's duration. Acrylic plastic, External pressure housing, Ocean engineering.


Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infection caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). A chronic infection, which develops in most infected subjects, may lead to liver cirrhosis with ensuing liver dysfunction and liver cancer. The current standard therapy in chronic hepatitis C is a combination of pegylated interferon-α (peg-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) for 24-48 weeks. Eradication of HCV (i.e. sustained virological response, SVR) is achieved in 50-80% of patients, albeit with significant side-effects. Further understanding of host factors that determine the effectiveness of treatment may provide diagnostic tools to distinguish patients who will be cured from those in whom treatment is likely to be futile. The aim of this thesis was to identify biomarkers to predict outcome of combination therapy in chronic HCV infection. The biomarkers studied included IP-10, soluble CD26 (sCD26), and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in proximity of genes encoding cytokines of the IFN-λ family. Interferon-γ-inducible protein 10 kDa (IP-10 or CXCL10) is a chemokine that attracts mononuclear blood cells to sites of infection. IP-10 is produced by several cell types, including hepatocytes, and blood levels of IP-10 at onset of therapy are reportedly elevated in patients infected with HCV of genotypes 1 or 4 who do not achieve SVR. In the studies included in this thesis, it was observed that IP-10 in plasma is mirrored by intrahepatic IP-10 mRNA expression, and strongly predicts the reduction of HCV RNA in blood already during the first days of peg-IFN/RBV therapy for all HCV genotypes. Additionally, it was observed that a combined assessment of systemic IP-10 and IL28B-related SNPs further enhances the prediction of early viral decline and the final treatment outcome among HCV genotype 1-infected patients. Serum dipeptidyl peptidase IV, also known as CD26, cleaves a dipeptide from the N-terminal region of IP-10, generating a truncated, competitive antagonist form of IP-10. Recent reports demonstrated that serum IP-10 in HCV patients is dominated by truncated IP-10. In this setting, the specific sCD26 activity was found to predict the effectiveness of peg-IFN/RBV therapy in chronic hepatitis C, and enhance the value of established outcome predictors.


Redosis evoked in different tissues by methylene-blue or menadione (oxidants), resulted in an increase in heart frequency, while oxidosis evoked by thiamine or cysteine (reductants) diminished the frequency. In isolated organ tissues where compensatory redox feed back overshoots are rarely to develop, owing to the low redox buffer capacity and lack of the influence of nervous and humoral factors, the heart frequency decreased in response to direct oxidosis induced by the application of oxidants, and increased following reductant application; this suggested an environmental type redox regulatory influence of the agents rather than specific action of the agents. This environmental type effect can result from direct action on isolated organs, or from direct and indirect actions in vivo. An increased redox-state potential resulted in decreased heart frequency and inversely. In a pathological situation provoked by complete strangulation of aortae, a significant oxidosis developed in parallel with a decrease in heart frequency. On increasing the redox buffer capacity by application of methylene-blue (oxidant), or thiamine (reductant) both the redox and the resulting heart frequency changes could readily be counteracted. When cigarette smoke was pumped through an intratracheal tube, a significant redosis developed in the heart ventricle in parallel with an increased heart frequency. These data show that regardless of the origin of redox-state potential changes in tissues, a shift to oxidosis decreases and a shift to redosis increases the heart frequency.


Background: Medically unexplained physical symptoms or somatization accounts for about half of the OPD visits in primary care setup. These are unclear symptoms and cannot be explained by medical or neurologic conditions. They are associated with significant stigma and over burden utilization of medical services, and results in frustration both for clinician and for the patient. The study is aimed to determine the prevalence of somatization and its association with anxiety and depression among women at Nahaqi - Charsadda and also to find out the medically unexplained symptoms among women at Nahaqi. Study Design: Comparative cross sectional study. Setting: Village Nahaqi at Nahaqi Emergency Satellite Hospital (NESH) Charsadda – KPK, Pakistan. Period: September 2016 to March, 2017. Methodology: 100 females were included in this study after informed consent. American Psychiatric Association, Level 1 Cross-cutting Symptom Measure and Level 2 – Somatic Symptoms Adult Measure containing 23 and 15 questions respectively were used. Data were collected through interviews; entered and analyzed in SPSS. The study was conducted from September 2016 to March 2017. Results: 100 out of 120 women in the age range of 15 to 65 years, mean age 37.09 ± 12.08 years responded with response rate of 83.3%. Majority were illiterate (79 %), married (81 %) women. 86 % women reported unexplained body aches and pains. The prevalence of anxiety and depression among women at Nahaqi was 50 and 57 % respectively and all items were highly significant (P < 0.000) with somatic score categories (Minimal, Low, Medium, High). The prevalence of medically unexplained symptoms was found out to be 84 %, which includes all high and medium score cases. 59 women had 5 or more mild to moderate somatic complaints, while 49 reported 5 or more severe complaints. The most frequent complaints were aches and pains (headache, backache and musculo-skeletal aches and pains) followed by lack of energy, general asthenia. Conclusion: Nearly every second women was noted to have unexplained aches and pains, which shows that somatization is a frequent complaint in primary health settings. Majority cases were milder, however, patients showing severe impairment or more complaints they need particular attention. Although MUS result in extra stress on health services utilization in women visiting a rural health facility – Nahaqi; those with serious impairment shall be referred for psychiatric evaluation. A comprehensive medical, psycho-social model that involves community shall be formulated to address this issue.


In the first part of this essay we argued that a Marxist policy of trade unionism cannot defend free circulation as a state policy for itself; nor racism, xenophobia or the closure of national borders. It has to defend free movement of workers from the point of view of international solidarity, carried out in concrete struggles. Higher paid workers and richer countries, if they want to save themselves from social dumping, must, together with the poorest workers, promote common forms of struggle to prevent competition between them. In this second final part we want to present what we think it should be a true path for the internationalist labour movement. We are not making a case out of overthrowing capitalist state or even surpassing commodity form in social relations, but we are just presenting actually existent social struggles on present times that lead to another direction. Let us observe how a simple example of current working-class movement can explain that making history is more then words. 'In the begining was action', as Rosa Luxemburg said.


Unsupervised person re-identification (ReID) aims at learning discriminative identity features for person retrieval without any annotations. Recent advances accomplish this task by leveraging clustering-based pseudo labels, but these pseudo labels are inevitably noisy which deteriorate model performance. In this paper, we propose a Neighbour Consistency guided Pseudo Label Refinement (NCPLR) framework, which can be regarded as a transductive form of label propagation under the assumption that the prediction of each example should be similar to its nearest neighbours'. Specifically, the refined label for each training instance can be obtained by the original clustering result and a weighted ensemble of its neighbours' predictions, with weights determined according to their similarities in the feature space. In addition, we consider the clustering-based unsupervised person ReID as a label-noise learning problem. Then, we proposed an explicit neighbour consistency regularization to reduce model susceptibility to over-fitting while improving the training stability. The NCPLR method is simple yet effective, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing clustering-based unsupervised algorithms. Extensive experimental results on five ReID datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and showing superior performance to state-of-the-art methods by a large margin.


Background : Antimicrobial prophylaxis in surgical practice is a concept that has been in practice for over 3 decades. The aim is to prevent surgical site infection (SSI), a menace acknowledged as the most common nosocomial infection in surgical patients. Over the years, several international guidelines have been published in the literature to guide the practice. Yet some surgeons still practice outside these guidelines especially in orthopedics and trauma surgical practice. This has led to emergence of resistant strains of bacteria and increased cost of healthcare. The only option left to check this problem therefore lies in the proper use of available antibiotics. The objective of this study was to review the current literature on the guidelines and practice of antibiotic prophylaxis in orthopedics and trauma surgery. Materials and Methods : A review of the literature on this subject was done on Medline, EBSCOhost database, and recent articles from relevant journals and texts. The database was searched using the keywords; antibiotic prophylaxis; orthopedic and trauma surgery. Results: There are several guidelines and protocols that were established from evidence based information. However, compliance to these guidelines amongst surgeons and health institutions is suboptimal for various reasons. This is associated with increased morbidity and cost of treatment. Conclusion : There is a need to be guided by evidence based guidelines in our antimicrobial prophylaxis practice; as surgery is both a science and an art.


Occupational asthma may account for a significant proportion of adult-onset asthma, but incidence estimates from surveillance of physician reports and workers' compensation data (0.9 to 15/100,000) are lower than expected from community-based cross-sectional studies of asthma patients. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 79,204 health maintenance organization members between the ages of 15 and 55 at risk for asthma. Computerized files, medical records, and telephone interviews were used to identify and characterize asthma cases. Evidence for asthma attributable to occupational exposure was determined from work-related symptoms and workplace exposure. The annual incidence of clinically significant, new-onset asthma was 1.3/1,000, and increased to 3.7/1,000 when cases with reactivation of previously quiescent asthma were included. Criteria for onset of clinically significant asthma attributable to occupational exposure were met by 21% (95% CI 12-32%) of cases giving an incidence of 71/100,000 (95% CI 43-111). Physicians documented asking about work-related symptoms in 15% of charts, and recorded suggestive symptoms in three cases, but did not obtain occupational medicine consultation, diagnose occupational asthma, report to the state surveillance program, or bill workers' compensation for any of them. These data suggest that the incidence of asthma attributable to occupational exposures is significantly higher than previously reported, and accounts for a sizable proportion of adult-onset asthma.


By the effect of the optimization of bus scheduling, bring forward evaluation index model to evaluate optimization results,the corresponding algorithm of the model is given. This evaluation index is included transport capacity match,average transfer time,effective time-use law.analytic hierarchy process to integrate indicators into a comprehensive evaluation index,is used and built the evaluation index model about the optimization of bus scheduling.the use of indicators model line scheduling algorithm to optimize the evaluation made a simple algorithm.The three indicators in this model belong to quantitative techmical indicators,overcome the line network optimization index can not evaluate the program for dynamic scheduling its easy to evaluate program of bus scheduling,with strong practicality.


The energy distribution of thermally stimulated exoelectrons around 150° C from MgO(001) surfaces after bombardment at room temperature with electrons at incident energies (E p) between 75 eV and 3 keV has been measured in ultrahigh vacuum using the retarding potential difference method. The differential distribution usually shows a single peak. Depending on E p and conditions of ambient gas adsorption, the retarding voltage which presents peak shifts from about 3 to 16 V and the width from about 3 to 10 eV. The charge distribution in surface regions with such width is discussed using the charge density distribution function proposed by Kortov et al..


Key Points Ubc9 interacts with and SUMOylates the immune adaptor SLP-76 in T cells. Synergy of SLP-76–Ubc9 on IL-2 transcription is SLP-76 SUMOylation dependent. SLP-76 SUMOylation is required for Ubc9-NFAT complex assembly for IL-2 transcription. Visual Abstract Although the immune adaptor SH2 domain containing leukocyte phosphoprotein of 76 kDa (SLP-76) integrates and propagates the TCR signaling, the regulation of SLP-76 during the TCR signaling is incompletely studied. In this article, we report that SLP-76 interacts with the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) E2 conjugase Ubc9 and is a substrate for Ubc9-mediated SUMOylation in human and mouse T cells. TCR stimulation promotes SLP-76–Ubc9 binding, accompanied by an increase in SLP-76 SUMOylation. Ubc9 binds to the extreme C terminus of SLP-76 spanning residues 516–533 and SUMOylates SLP-76 at two conserved residues K266 and K284. In addition, SLP-76 and Ubc9 synergizes to augment the TCR-mediated IL-2 transcription by NFAT in a manner dependent of SUMOylation of SLP-76. Moreover, although not affecting the TCR proximal signaling events, the Ubc9-mediated SUMOylation of SLP-76 is required for TCR-induced assembly of Ubc9-NFAT complex for IL-2 transcription. Together, these results suggest that Ubc9 modulates the function of SLP-76 in T cell activation both by direct interaction and by SUMOylation of SLP-76 and that the Ubc9–SLP-76 module acts as a novel regulatory complex in the control of T cell activation.


The damping reduction factor (DRF) is used in earthquake engineering in order to estimate the seismic response of buildings with high damping ratio from the one which has damping ratio equal to 5%. Many expressions were given to this factor as a function of different parameters in literature. The concern of these formulations is to find a simple and a reliable formulation, which presents a challenge. This is the major reason to look for a new simple method to estimate the DRF values with a good approximation. The primary objective of this work is to develop a new method to estimate the DRF using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). This method is developed for the seismic Eurocode 8 (EC8). In a first step, seeking for sets of ground motions records that gives as average the best approximation of the target spectra of EC 8. Afterward, those records are used to estimates the exact response spectra and the DRF values in function of damping ratio ξ and period (T) through a time History Analysis. In a second step, those results are used as neural networks database to predict the DRF in function of ξ and T. The proposed approach is original and the associated results are interesting and promising.


OBJECTIVE
To provide an updated review of research since 2005 on factors associated with unprotected sex among women in the United States.

DATA SOURCES
PubMed, CINAHL, and PsychINFO were searched from January 2006 through April 2011 using the terms unsafe sex, sexual risk taking, contraception, contraception behavior, birth control, condoms, and condom utilization.

STUDY SELECTION
Inclusion criteria included studies written in English on adult women in the United States age ≥ 18. Forty-five publications met inclusion criteria.

DATA EXTRACTION
All factors associated with engagement in unprotected sex are presented.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Unprotected sex has been associated with increasing age, being married, establishment of trust, recent experience of intimate partner violence, contraceptive side effects, infrequent sexual intercourse, and decreased arousal and pleasure due to contraceptive use. Religion, depression, history of abortion, number of children, having children, and number of pregnancies have not been associated with unprotected sex in recent studies. Several other variables have been studied with mixed results, possibly due to differences in research methods and sample characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS
More research is needed to elucidate the impact of cultural factors, relationship factors, attitude to pregnancy and motherhood, and reproductive coercion on prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Nurses can lead research on these topics and implement evidence-based practice based on study findings.


The present paper deals with the interplay between healthy and faulty sensor functioning in a multisensor scheme based on a switching control strategy. Fault tolerance guarantees have been recently obtained in this framework based upon the characterisation of invariant sets for state estimations in healthy and faulty functioning. A source of conservativeness of this approach is related to the issue of sensor recovery. A common working hypothesis has been to assume that once a sensor switches to faulty functioning it can no longer be used by the control mechanism even if at an ulterior moment it switches back to healthy functioning. In the current paper, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for the acknowledgement of sensor recovery and we propose and compare different techniques for the reintegration of sensors in the closed-loop decision-making mechanism.


Cholescintigraphy provides a sensitive means of diagnosing biliary leaks in the posttraumatic or postsurgical patient. After cholecystectomy, leaks are usually demonstrated in the gallbladder fossa or secondary to istrogenic disruption of the common bile duct. The authors present a case of postcholecystectomy bile leak presumably secondary to rupture of an istrogenically obstructed biliary system, with a relatively distal leak occurring at the junction of the left hepatic and common hepatic ducts (as well as another more proximal leak). Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiogram provides exact anatomic correlation


It was investigated whether N,N-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride (metformin) lowers blood glucose levels by stimulating glucose uptake of skeletal muscle using the isolated perfused rat hindquarter. Osborne-Mendel rats were subjected to a special feeding regimen (food intake only 2 h daily) and were treated orally by metformin (125 mg/kg body weight twice daily) or placebo, respectively. The hypoglycemic effect of metformin could be demonstrated. Thereafter, control rats were perfused in the absence, and metformin-treated rats in the presence of added metformin (0.67 microgram/ml perfusate). Neither the basal nor the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake of skeletal muscle was increased by metformin. Lactate and alanine release, O2 uptake as well as the tissue metabolite levels of glucose, lactate, pyruvate, ATP and creatine-P remained unaffected. On the other hand, metformin caused a significant decline of lactate oxidation as well as an elevated glycogen content of skeletal muscle. It is proposed that the inhibition of lactate oxidation may under certain conditions be instrumental in the development of lactic acidosis associated with biguanide therapy.


Reducing acquisition time is a major challenge for single-photon based imaging. This paper presents a new approach for adaptive scene sampling allowing for faster acquisition when compared to classical uniform sampling or random sampling strategies. The approach is applied to the laser detection and ranging (Lidar) three-dimensional (3D) imaging where sampling is optimized regarding the depth image. Based on data statistics, the approach starts by achieving a robust estimation of the depth image. The latter is used to generate a map of regions of interest that informs next samples positions and their acquisition times. The process is repeated until a stopping criterion is met. A particular interest is given to fast processing to allow real-world application of the proposed approach. Results on real data show the benefits of this strategy that can reduce acquisition times by a factor of 8 compared to uniform sampling in some scenarios.


Summary: Protoplasts of a strain of Pythium (prl 2142) could be obtained by incubating the mycelium with a combination of helicase and cellulase in the presence of an osmotic stabilizer. This process was inhibited when organic compounds were used as osmotic stabilizers but stimulated by pretreatment of the mycelium with a detergent. The most effective detergent was Triton X100. Regeneration of protoplasts could be demonstrated in liquid or in solid media, but less than 30% of the protoplasts were able to grow into new mycelium. In contrast to protoplast formation, regeneration was inhibited by the inorganic salts used as osmotic stabilizer. The results suggest that the hyphal wall of Pythium is covered with a protective layer of lipid material.


The processor architecture families are under power, thermal, and area constraints and considers allowing optimization of chip throughput for a specific device technology by an appropriate model for performance, memory sub-systems and interconnects for various technology architectures. The system level design framework provides the best possible design trade-off for different technology and choice of processor architectures. The aim of Bio-Inspired engineering is to reverse engineer the human brain using VLSI as well as analog electronics circuits. This research manuscript depicts the demonstration of brain-inspired computing architecture based on Leaky-Integrate-and-File (LIF) neuron model for neuromorphic computing system is implemented on the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The reconfigurable and event driven parameters are considered to design a field-programmable neuromorphic computing system. The register transfer logic (RTL) results of implementation and hardware synthesis are presented as a proof of concept. The neuron model is explored in Xilinx-ISE software with utilizing Verilog code, considering digital implementation, aiming at high-speed low-cost large-scale systems.


'Optimal cutpoints' for binary classification tasks are often established by testing which cutpoint yields the best discrimination, for example the Youden index, in a specific sample. This results in 'optimal' cutpoints that are highly variable and systematically overestimate the out-of-sample performance. To address these concerns, the cutpointr package offers robust methods for estimating optimal cutpoints and the out-of-sample performance. The robust methods include bootstrapping and smoothing based on kernel estimation, generalized additive models, smoothing splines, and local regression. These methods can be applied to a wide range of binary-classification and cost-based metrics. cutpointr also provides mechanisms to utilize user-defined metrics and estimation methods. The package has capabilities for parallelization of the bootstrapping, including reproducible random number generation. Furthermore, it is pipe-friendly, for example for compatibility with functions from tidyverse. Various functions for plotting receiver operating characteristic curves, precision recall graphs, bootstrap results and other representations of the data are included. The package contains example data from a study on psychological characteristics and suicide attempts suitable for applying binary classification algorithms.


Classically (M1) and alternatively activated (M2) macrophages play distinct roles in various physiological and disease processes. M1 responses can cause inflammatory disease and tissue damage while M2 macrophages can limit inflammation and promote tissue repair. Therefore, understanding key players driving M1 or M2 phenotype may provide novel targets for therapeutic intervention. MicroRNA are small RNAs that bind to messenger RNA and post-transcriptionally modify gene expression and miR-155 has been associated with inflammatory phenotype. miR-155 was up-regulated more than 100-fold in M1, but not M2 macrophages, and inflammatory genes and proteins that define the M1 phenotype (e.g., iNOS, IL-1b, TNF-a) were reduced up to 72% in miR-155 knockout mouse macrophages. In contrast, miR-155 deficiency did not affect expression of genes associated with M2 macrophages (e.g., Arginase-1). Comparative transcriptional profiling of macrophages derived from wild-type and miR-155 knockout mice revealed that approximately half of the wild-type M1 signature was dependent on miR-155. Among miR-155-dependent M1 inflammatory effectors we found IL-6, iNOS, IL-1b, TNF-a and IL-12 as well as the recently described M1 marker CD38. miR-155 targets Bat5, Mafb, c-Maf, Bach1, Ptprj and Il6ra were increased in miR-155 KO M1 macrophages. Importantly, treatment with a miR-155 oligonucleotide inhibitor suppressed iNOS and TNF-a gene expressions in wild-type M1 macrophages, lending support to the idea that miR-155 targeting may be beneficial in inflammatory disease. Overall, these data indicate that miR-155 plays an essential role in the differentiation and effector potential of inflammatory M1 macrophages.


Abstract Liquid condensates collected during drying of lumber, sawdust or wood powder are usually discarded. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential utilization of such condensates from oak, beech and walnut, focusing on those obtained in a 7.8 MHz vacuum dryer. The condensate was replaced with the deionized water (5%) in the production of urea-formaldehyde (UF) and melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resins in the reactor. The technical properties of the resins and chemical properties of the liquid condensates were determined. Particleboards (PB) and middle density fiberboards (MDF) were produced from the control and modified resins. The technical properties of both modified resins were between the limit values of commercial UF and MUF resins used in the wood-based panel industry. The formaldehyde (F) emission from PB and MDF decreased significantly by incorporation of the condensates into the UF and MUF resins.


In the summer of 1838, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, then the Smith Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard, opened his public lectures on "Literature and Literary Life" by stating that he would be considering "Authors as Artists." Asking that his auditors "Think not that thus I degrade the Poet's high vocation into a base handicraft," Longfellow explained: It was with no sarcastic meaning that the Icelanders of old called the Poet a Rhyme-Smith. He is God's workman; and amid the smoke and sparks about him, on his sound anvil forges the broad shield of Truth and weapons of her warfare. Longfellow offered an analogy between poet and smith which hinged on conscious effort and on the service provided by the tangible products of that labor. Poems were "forged" objects, artifacts consciously produced by "God's workman." Two years later, in autumn 1840, Longfellow composed "The Village Blacksmith"; the poem concluded: Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought; Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought. By 1840, Longfellow no longer explicitly identified the poet's labor with the active work of the blacksmith. Having witnessed or imagined a blacksmith at work, Longfellow organized his impressions into "The Village Blacksmith," which presented a particular interpretation of those perceptions – the moral of the poem – for the instruction of its readers. The analogy between the poet and smith turned only on the lesson that the fact of each man's labor could provide to others. The poet was no longer a Rhyme-Smith; instead, he was an instructor who created abstract moral imperatives rather than tangible products.


Meteorological droughts in the Vietnam Mekong delta (VMD) are directly influenced by Sea surface temperature (SST) trends in Pacific Ocean (PO) and Indian Ocean (IO). This paper analyzes the characteristics of meteorological droughts based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI); focus on the correlation between Sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) in PO and IO and SPI to analyze the relationship between SST in PO and IO with meteorological droughts trends The results show that: the occurrence of meteorological droughts is rather high, homogenous in regional scale, and mostly occur in rainy season. SST trends in PO and in IO are too factors causing meteorological droughts in VMD. Meteorological droughts in May, June, July and November influenced by SST in PO rather than SST in IO; while, in August, September, October, they are on the contrary. Considering in long term effect, however, the influence of SST in PO on meteorological droughts is larger. The results of the study can be used to build up the regression equation for forecasting meteorological drought in VMD.


Follicular development and the endometrial thickness were determined sonographically in 19 outpatients with different causes of sterility, treated during natural or stimulated cycles. The estimates of the endometrial thickness, assessed by ultrasound in the mid-luteal phase, and the levels of 17 beta-oestradiol and progesterone in the same patients sampled on the day of sonography were compared. Five patients became pregnant (group 1) and showed good progesterone values. Eight patients who were not pregnant showed progesterone values above 15 ng/ml in the mid-luteal phase (group 2). The progesterone values of group 3 were below 15 ng/ml by definition. The mean endometrial thickness in group 1 (means = 11.3 mm) and group 2 (means = 11.8 mm) were significantly higher than that of group 3 (means = 8.3 mm). The sonographic measurement of the mid-luteal endometrium thickness serves as an additional criterion for the evaluation of the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle.


Executive Summary The CIT Instructional Technology Showcase was held on April 28, 2005 in the Bryan Center at Duke University. This event featured 16 presentations by 29 faculty and staff discussing projects in different subject areas and using a variety of technologies. The program included talks by faculty, staff, and students, and a keynote address by nationally known speaker Kenneth C. Green, Director of the Campus Computing Project, the largest continuing study of the role of information technology in American colleges and universities. The event also included poster presentations by 40 presenters. The CIT's goals were to provide recognition for faculty whose projects the CIT has funded, enhance the CIT's presence on campus, motivate new faculty to get involved with instructional technology and inform the Duke community about services offered by the CIT. The intended audience for the event was Duke faculty, technology staff and graduate student instructors. Through the CIT Showcase, the CIT hoped to reach a wide variety of people with different levels of experience in instructional technology. Results from the Showcase survey indicate the Showcase was successful in addressing these goals.


Th e taxonomy of the Nearctic species in the genus Catocala is reviewed, and a revised check list presented. A total of 101 species is recognized, with a synonymy comprising 357 names. Th e status of 61 available names is assessed, with designation and illustration of 41 lectotypes and 5 neotypes. Taxonomic changes include 23 new synonymies, 3 revised synonymies, 8 new statuses and 1 revised status. Two subspecies are elevated to species rank (Catocala carissima Hulst, 1884 and Catocala luctuosa Hulst, 1884), 15 subspecies are synonymized, and another 15 species are either downgraded to subspecies or synonymized.


THE HOWARD V. AND EDNA H. HONG Kierkegaard Library, located on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, houses the largest collection of works by and about Soren Kierkegaard outside of Denmark. The collection consists of approximately 11,000 volumes, which include multiple editions and translations of Kierkegaard's works, extensive secondary literature on Kierkegaard, and numerous works by related thinkers who influenced or were influenced by Kierkegaard. The core holdings of the library were donated to St. Olaf in 1976 by Howard and Edna Hong, who arc known to Kierkegaard scholars around the world for their English translations of Kierkegaard's writings. Over a remarkable period of thirty-three years, the Hongs edited and translated the seven-volume Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers (Indiana) and the twenty-six-volume Kierkegaard's Writings (Princeton). (1) Both Hongs are alumni of St. Olaf College. Howard Hong served on the faculty at St. Olaf for forty years before retiring in 1978. Edna Hong, in addition to the Kierkegaard translations, published religious works, poetry, historical fiction, and children's stories. The Hongs' gift of their personal library was motivated, as was their translation work, by a desire to make Kierkegaard more accessible to readers. Thanks to the Hongs and to others who shared their vision, Kierkegaard has been a central figure at St. Olaf for decades. The Hong Kierkegaard Library originated as the working collection of two scholar-translators, but over time it evolved into a special collection library dedicated to acquiring, preserving, and providing access to materials about Kierkegaard. Along the way, the library became something more than a collection of books and manuscripts. As the Hongs intended, it became a study and publication center and a gathering place for Kierkegaard researchers. Today, Kierkegaard scholars from around the world travel to St. Olaf to attend conferences and to use the library's collections. Reflecting upon the value of the library as a research collection and as a place for scholars to meet and exchange ideas, Kierkegaard scholar Bruce Kirmmse noted: "Both [the collection and library programs] are absolutely invaluable, and they really put St. Olaf on the world map" (as quoted in Hequet 43). This article provides a brief history of the Hong Kierkegaard Library, describes its collections, and examines the programs that have transformed the library into a global research center. LIBRARY HISTORY: KIERKEGAARD AND ST. OLAF COLLEGE According to the Howard Hongs, the origins of the Kierkegaard Library can be traced back to a day in 1938 when he skipped lunch in order to browse the shelves of a Copenhagen antikvariat [antiquarian bookstore]. Hong, who had been hired the previous year to teach English and philosophy at St. Olaf, had been awarded a Fulbright grant to study Kierkegaard in Denmark. On this day, he spotted a book by Kierkegaard and purchased it. Before long, Hong was skipping lunch regularly and using the money he saved to buy more books about Kierkegaard for his collection (Hequet 43). Over the years, Hong would return to Copenhagen numerous times as he pursued his research interest in Kierkegaard. The Hongs' first translation of Kierkegaard was simply an exercise in learning Danish. Not satisfied with the progress they were making with their Danish language tutor, the Hongs pedaled off on their bicycles to Copenhagen's Kongelige Bibliotek [Royal Library] where they sat down with Kierkegaard's texts and a Danish-English dictionary and simply "plunged in" (as quoted in Elbrond-Bek 83). Later, they came to view their translation projects as a way of introducing Kierkegaard to a wider, English-speaking audience. Howard Hong's research with Kierkegaard's journals and papers had convinced him that Kierke-gaard scholarship was developing without exposure to key texts. Even more important, the Hongs believed that Kierkegaard's philosophical anthropology--his understanding of what it means to be, or to become, a human being--needed to be communicated to modern readers (Cynthia Lund Interview 10 May 2006). …


We present the first measurement of dijet angular distributions in ppbar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The measurement is based on a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 0.7fb-1 collected with the D0 detector. Dijet angular distributions have been measured over a range of dijet masses, from 0.25TeV to above 1.1TeV. The data are in good agreement with the predictions of perturbative QCD and are used to constrain new physics models including quark compositeness, large extra dimensions, and TeV-1 scale extra dimensions. For all models we set the most stringent direct limits to date.


Abstract. For the purpose of biometric person identification, iris recognition uses the unique characteristics of the patterns of the iris; that is, the eye region between the pupil and the sclera. When obtaining an iris image, the iris's image is frequently rotated because of the user's head roll toward the left or right shoulder. As the rotation of the iris image leads to circular shifting of the iris features, the accuracy of iris recognition is degraded. To solve this problem, conventional iris recognition methods use shifting of the iris feature codes to perform the matching. However, this increases the computational complexity and level of false acceptance error. To solve these problems, we propose a novel iris recognition method based on multi-unit iris images. Our method is novel in the following five ways compared with previous methods. First, to detect both eyes, we use Adaboost and a rapid eye detector (RED) based on the iris shape feature and integral imaging. Both eyes are detected using RED in the approximate candidate region that consists of the binocular region, which is determined by the Adaboost detector. Second, we classify the detected eyes into the left and right eyes, because the iris patterns in the left and right eyes in the same person are different, and they are therefore considered as different classes. We can improve the accuracy of iris recognition using this pre-classification of the left and right eyes. Third, by measuring the angle of head roll using the two center positions of the left and right pupils, detected by two circular edge detectors, we obtain the information of the iris rotation angle. Fourth, in order to reduce the error and processing time of iris recognition, adaptive bit-shifting based on the measured iris rotation angle is used in feature matching. Fifth, the recognition accuracy is enhanced by the score fusion of the left and right irises. Experimental results on the iris open database of low-resolution images showed that the averaged equal error rate of iris recognition using the proposed method was 4.3006%, which is lower than that of other methods.


The importance of market's location in the patronage and development cannot be over emphasised. This necessitates public perception in order to achieve balanced development that is convenience and comfortable to the marketers. This study examined the perception of public on relocation of wazobia market in Ogbomoso North Local Government area and the problems encountered in the new market. The study employed secondary and primary sources of data. A total number of 274 questionnaires were administered using random sampling technique to collect information for the study. The data were analysed with the aid of descriptive, correlation and regression techniques. The findings revealed that, educational status of the public have a great influence on the income level of the public which determine their perception on the relocation of the market. The income level has the potential to be explained by the educational status of the public. Besides, new market lacks some basic infrastructural facilities such as electricity, portable water and standard parking spaces. The authors are of the opinion that Ogbomoso North Local Government should be of assistance in making provision for necessary infrastructural facilities to ensure market's environment that is comfortable for the marketers regardless of their educational and income level.


We report the temporal and spectral analysis of three thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U 1608−52, observed by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) during and just after the outburst observed from the source in 2020. In two of the X-ray bursts, we detect secondary peaks 30 and 18 s after the initial peaks. The secondary peaks show a fast rise exponential decay-like shape resembling a thermonuclear X-ray burst. Time-resolved X-ray spectral analysis reveals that the peak flux, blackbody temperature, and apparent emitting radius values of the initial peaks are in agreement with X-ray bursts previously observed from 4U 1608−52, while the same values for the secondary peaks tend toward the lower end of the distribution of bursts observed from this source. The third X-ray burst, which happened during much lower accretion rates, did not show any evidence for a deviation from an exponential decay and was significantly brighter than the previous bursts. We present the properties of the secondary peaks and discuss the events within the framework of short recurrence time bursts or bursts with secondary peaks. We find that the current observations do not fit in standard scenarios and challenge our understanding of flame spreading.


Background and objective: The second legislative chamber has played different roles and functions since its formation in ancient Rome and Greece. The philosophy behind the presence of this chamber (either in Federal systems or unitary systems) was a matter of controversy between its proponents and critics. There are more than 78 countries with two legislative chambers in the world. Protecting constitutional law and human rights are two notable functions of the second chambers. Research method: This paper used the descriptive–analytical method. The methods used by some second chambers are discussed as an example. Results (findings): how a second chamber can be considered as the scout of constitutional law and protector of human rights with regard to their normative behavior depends on the structure of the constitutional law. The role of the second chamber in protecting constitutional law is manifested in several forms: coinciding the bills and laws with constitutional law, amending and revising the constitutional law, vetoing or suspending bill a general appointments. Second chambers have several solutions including establishing the human rights committee with various duties. Therefore, these two criteria seem to be useful in order to measure the extent of democracy. Conclusion: A powerful second chambers are needed to make decisions, have the authority to amend the laws, and to have effect on the politics to realize human rights and protection of Constitutional law. It can also act as a human rights watch with regard to the nature of the norms of human rights.


Postnikova Elena - Lecturer, Department of International Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Candidate of Juridical Sciences. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com article contains a detailed analysis of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on services in the internal market 2006/123. The sources analyzed include documents of various EU agencies and publications of foreign legal scholars. The study discusses the main amendments to the original Directive draft; the freedom to provide services and determines the scope of the Directive covering about 40% of the entire employment sector and gross product in the EU. A particular attention is drawn to the article 16 of the Directive providing a modern interpretation of a number of fundamental concepts (public order, state security, hurdle). This directive codifies the respect of EU member-states to the right of suppliers to provide services in a state other than the state of origin. The principle of the state of origin has been commented on in detail. It is fixed in the Directive implicitly and reduces the scope of law in the state receiving a service. The authors notice inaccuracies and ambiguities, in particular in art. 14 and 15 of the Directive. The Directive prohibits hindering to render services but codifies grounds which can limit the freedom of services by national acts. The authors conclude that it is impossible to assess the efficiency of the Directive. On the one hand, it aims to facilitate the procedure of rendering services. Its other purposes are freedom of registration for providers of services and increasing the quality of services. It is characterized as a part of measures to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market of services in the member - states. On the other hand, it remains unclear if the provisions in the Directive are efficient as it does not provide for sanctions against violators. The Directive may be described as a document of compromising and even imbalanced nature. It does not make up any uniform legal mechanism to regulate services. Hence, the Directive is criticized in the EU.


the disciples' experience was unique because they had an encounter with the one they had lost which was – in this age – quite unlike anything which other bereaved people might have. in an interesting but tantalisingly brief preface to this edition, harvey says that he now finds the book's 'Christian exclusivism unconvincing, its high-toned certainties jarring'. But he rightly says that it is far more than just a pastoral book, and makes an important theological contribution to understanding the relationship of bereavement and resurrection. these two books have much in common. At first sight, Wesley's seems to be the odd one out of the three, not just because it comes from a different period, but because it is aimed at defending a theological position. the edition has a helpful introduction which sets it in historical context. Wesley needed to distance himself from specific individuals within his own movement who believed that spiritual perfection meant they would not experience physical death. But he did not wish to abandon his view that perfection should be the Christian's goal. however, Wesley is clear that this perfection is of love not knowledge. so 'the mind may be deeply distressed . . . while the heart cleaves to God by perfect love'. We are not set free from suffering, nor from mistakes, nor from the responsibility to try to do good. hence there is a link to the two modern books. What Wesley wants of his 'perfect' is do as Ward suggests, 'to face experience warm, with a hopeful, indeed expectant attitude . . . as though heaven is always just down the road'.


Objective: To analyze the associated factors of intraoperative hemodynamic instability (HI) in patients with incidental pheochromocytomas. Methods: The data of 104 patients with a pathological diagnosis of pheochromocytoma at Chinese PLA General Hospital between January 2011 and December 2016 was retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into hemodynamic stability (HS) group (n=56) and HI group (n=48) according to hemodynamic characteristics. The clinical features, biochemical test, preoperative and intraoperative hemodynamics were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the associated factors of HI. Results: The age [(44.7±12.7) years vs (52.1±12.8) years], tumor diameter [(47.9±16.3) mm vs (57.9±21.6) mm], preoperative blood pressure [(121.3±11.5) mmHg vs (127.2±13.3) mmHg] in HS group were less than those in HI group (all P<0.05). The proportion of age ≥ 50 years (28.6% vs 64.6%), tumor diameter ≥ 45 mm (48.2% vs 68.8%) and hematocrit < 0.38 (25.0% vs 51.3%) in HS group were less than that in HI group (all P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that age ≥ 50 years (OR=7.940, 95% CI: 2.480-25.417, P<0.001), tumor diameter ≥ 45 mm (OR=5.042, 95% CI: 1.482-17.156, P=0.010), blood pressure ≥ 130/80 mmHg (OR=3.127, 95% CI: 1.034-9.463, P=0.044) and hematocrit < 0.38 (OR=6.273, 95% CI: 1.893-20.788, P=0.003) were independent associated factors of HI. The proportion of HI ( χ(2)=9.033, P=0.003) and intensive care unit (ICU) admission ( χ(2)=16.641, P<0.001) increased along with increasing associated factors. Conclusion: Adequate preoperative medical preparation and volume expansion for appropriate blood pressure are important for elder patients with large tumor to prevent HI in patients with incidental pheochromocytomas.


Growing theoretical and experimental research on action and language processing and on number learning and space representation clearly demonstrates the role of embodiment in cognition. These studies have important implications for the design of communication and linguistic capabilities in cognitive systems and robots, and have led to the new interdisciplinary approach of Cognitive Developmental Robotics. In the European FP7 project "ITALK" (www.italkproject.org) and the Marie Curie ITN "RobotDoC" (www.robotdoc.org) we follow this integrated view of action and language to develop cognitive capabilities in the humanoid robot iCub. During the talk we will present ongoing results from iCub experiments on embodiment biases in early word acquisition studies, word order cues for lexical development and number and space interaction effects. The talk will also introduce the simulation software of the iCub robot, an open source software tool to perform cognitive modeling experiments in simulation http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/soc/staff/angelo International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing AVSP2013


Visual understanding goes well beyond the study of images or videos on the web. To achieve complex tasks in volatile situations, the human can deeply understand the environment, quickly perceive events happening around, and continuously track objects' state changes, which are still challenging for current AI systems. To equip AI system with the ability to understand dynamic ENVironments, we build a video Question Answering dataset named Env-QA. Env-QA contains 23K egocentric videos, where each video is composed of a series of events about exploring and interacting in the environment. It also provides 85K questions to evaluate the ability of understanding the composition, layout, and state changes of the environment presented by the events in videos. Moreover, we propose a video QA model, Temporal Segmentation and Event Attention network (TSEA), which introduces event-level video representation and corresponding attention mechanisms to better extract environment information and answer questions. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework and show the formidable challenges of Env-QA in terms of long-term state tracking, multi-event temporal reasoning and event counting, etc.


Severe dental fluorosis is endemic in some rural areas of Brazil. This paper describes the psychosocial consequences of this condition and how it has affected the self-esteem of adolescents and young people in a rural area in Brazil. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were carried out with 23 adolescents and young people affected by severe dental fluorosis and 14 of their teachers. The study revealed the affected individuals were embarrassed to smile at strangers due to a presumed association between fluorosis and a lack of dental hygiene. Further findings include conflicts between affected and non-affected students at school, problems in pursuing a romantic relationship and uncertainties regarding a professional future. Disbelief and scepticism were observed regarding the ethical position that science can offer a solution to the problems stemming from the disease. Lesions from severe dental fluorosis appear to be a stigmatizing factor and have contributed toward suffering and self-exclusion among an entire generation of adolescents and young people.


The survey study on "Customer buying behavior towards branded Casual Shoes" has been conducted to observe the preferences of customers. This system of education is highly appreciated as it provides with the opportunity to acquaint with the outside world. The practical work helps to view the real business world closely, which in turn widely influence the conception and perception of knowing their perception regarding branded casual shoes. This project takes a look in various kinds of merchandising activities, market share of different shoes and various sales promotion schemes, which are followed in the shoe industry. The three major players (i.e.). Reebok, Nike and Adidas dominate the sports and casual shoe in India.


A new model for predicting sorption isotherms of type II and III based on the Polanyi theory is proposed. This model allows the prediction of the sorption isotherms at different temperatures from one experimental isotherm. The theoretical predictions of isotherms and isosteric heat were validated successfully using data from literature for twenty one foods. This method allows total experimental time and operation costs to be reduced.


Inspiration Poems (Gan Xing Shi)are a group of unique and influential poems in Zhuzi's works which touch upon the ontology, orthodox ideas of Neo-Confucianism, and criticize the education system and civil service examination system at that time as well, and express the exclusion of Buddhism and Taoism. So its contents are comprehensive and intensive. It has a great influence from Song to Qing Dynasty in China, and had spread to ancient Japan and Korea since early time. Chinese literati not only use Inspiration Poems as the object of calligraphy, but also inscribe them on stones. However, the main existence of Inspiration Poems in East Asian Community is in annotation, imitation and commentary. Inspiration Poems were more popular in Korea than in China and Japan in pre-modern period, which related to the domination of Zhuzi's thoughts in ancient Korea. In Chosun Dynasty, literati liked to handwrite Inspiration Poems as a gift to friends, use the words from the poems to name their study room, and discuss the implication of the poems in seminar. Two compositive annotated editions of Inspiration Poems came out in Chosun Dynasty. Although the two books integrated many Chinese commentaries, the editors of these books expressed their own ideas and comments between lines. As for the case of Inspiration Poems, we can see that literati in East Asian community share some same opinions, and also have different opinions in their reception of Inspiration Poems, which shows distinct aspects of studies on Zhuzi. Finally, it is noticeable that we should put East Asian literary texts of pre-modern era in the context of Sinographic cultural sphere then we can draw fruitful meaning from them.


V band photometry of three RS CVn stars, II Peg, IM Peg and UX Ari, is carried out to study the physical properties of these variables. We verified the significant and regular optical photometric variability to be present in all three stars. The strong photometric variability and emission of Hα and Ca II H & K using high resolution optical spectroscopy with the Hanle Echelle Spectrograph (HESP), which operates in conjunction with the Himalayan Chandra Telescope, verify the strong chromospheric activity which is present in RS CVn stars. The photometric studies of II Peg, UX Ari and IM Peg were subjected to light curve analysis for spot parameters using a two-starspot model.


The nitrogenase complex in the heterocysts of the filamentous freshwater cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 fixes atmospheric nitrogen to allow diazotrophic growth. The heterocyst cell envelope protects the nitrogenase from oxygen and consists of a polysaccharide and a glycolipid layer that are formed by a complex process involving the recruitment of different proteins. Here we studied the function of the putative nucleoside-diphosphate-sugar epimerase HgdA, which along with HgdB and HgdC is essential for deposition of the glycolipid layer and growth without a combined nitrogen source. Using site-directed mutagenesis and single homologous recombination approach, we performed a thoroughly functional characterization of HgdA and confirmed that the glycolipid layer of the hgdA mutant heterocyst is aberrant as shown by transmission electron microscopy and chemical analysis. The hgdA gene was expressed during late stages of the heterocyst differentiation. GFP-tagged HgdA protein localized inside the heterocysts. The purified HgdA protein had UDP-galactose 4-epimerase activity in vitro. This enzyme could be responsible for synthesis of heterocyst-specific glycolipid precursors, which could be transported over the cell wall by the ABC transporter components HgdB/HgdC. Importance The phototrophic multicellular bacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 is an important model organism for investigations of critical processes such as photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, and cell differentiation in prokaryotes. The cyanobacterium utilizes specific cells, called heterocysts, to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Heterocyst function requires a specific cell envelope. We focused on unstudied aspects of heterocyst envelope formation and revealed the role of the UDP-galactose 4-epimerase HgdA in this process.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

We have previously shown that hyperactive MAPK (hMAPK) signaling in breast cancer results in repression of estrogen receptor (ER) expression and regulates genes thought to contribute to the aggressive phenotypes displayed by ER- breast cancers. An hMAPK gene expression signature previously described by our lab is strongly represented in many ER- breast cancers, and has been shown to be present in a subset of ER+ tumors which have low levels of ER mRNA. In investigating the mechanisms underlying this hMAPK mediated repression of ER, we found that ER mRNA was rapidly destabilized by hMAPK suggesting that microRNAs might play an important role in the hMAPK downregulation of ER and contribution to breast cancer aggression. Using a breast cancer cell-line model of hMAPK signaling, we identified a broad signature of 128 microRNAs that complements our previous gene expression signature. We analyzed microRNA expression data from two independent breast tumor datasets in which we were able to also characterize tumors according to representation of the hMAPK mRNA signature, and were able to further truncate our hMAPK microRNA signature into a more compact and biologically relevant signature. We show that this hMAPK microRNA signature associates strongly with ER-negative status and increased tumor grade and importantly, is significantly associated with increased recurrence and reduced overal survival, and at 5 year timepoints serves as a better prognostic indicator for recurrence or survival than ER status. Several microRNAs that we identified as upregulated in the hMAPK microRNA signature have been experimentally validated to target the 3′UTR of ER and contribute to the destabilization of the ER transcript, including miR-221/222 and miR-22. We further investigated the role that the microRNAs within this hMAPK microRNA signature occupy in facilitating down-regulation of ER and progression toward more aggressive breast cancer. Use of a reporter construct containing elements of the 3′UTR of the estrogen receptor with binding sites for several of these microRNAs suggested that hMAPK signaling utilizes microRNA regulatory pathways to contribute to the downregulation of ER. Using our cell line model of hMAPK signaling in breast cancer we employed a variety of techniques, including microRNA mimics, antagomirs, and pathway modeling to interrogate potential mechanisms by which these hMAPK microRNAs act to deregulate ER and other important genes and pathways involved in breast cancer. In summary, we demonstrate that, in addition to established mechanisms hMAPK signaling in breast cancer contributes to ER-negativity and tumor aggressiveness by deregulation of microRNAs and their associated pathways. These data support the importance of hMAPK microRNAs as important players in breast cancer pathogenesis, and suggest that microRNAs or microRNA pathways may offer a unique therapeutic window for breast cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3171. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3171


Two locations of leads fusion factories in Baghdad (Altaji and Jiflic) have been selected as a high polluted area with leads; due to melting leads plates extracted from the old batteries vehicles. Samples of blood and urine have been taken from about 30 workers of each of the aforementioned locations. These samples has been divided into two different category, the first category is of age 8-18 years and the second category of age 20-60 years, taking into consideration the time they have spent working at these locations. Blood and urine samples was also collected from about 30 male pioneer donors of age range18-60 living in different parts of Baghdad and far away from the polluted factories locations that considered as control group. The results show high level of lead in the blood of the first category age 55.23 g/dl in comparison with the second category age 56.53 g/dl, whilst in urine tests the second category shows 564.83 g/L which surmount on the first category 551.8 g/L. Blood and urine samples of control group reflecting the leads pollution status to the environment of Iraq which requires taking some precaution procedures in this regard.


Pseudorandom signals are periodic signals with many of the properties of random signals. They are deterministic, however, and so they can be used for repeated experiments. Their uses and their autocorrelation properties are discussed and then their power spectral density is considered. It is not flat. For a system with a large amount of noise, frequency response of the system can become lost in noise unless it is possible to average large numbers of blocks of data. This has resulted in an increasing interest in the design of signals with prescribed power spectral densities, in particular, in signals with a larger amount of power at a comparatively small number of frequencies. Two approaches to the design of such multifrequency signals are presented. >


BACKGROUND
In Peru, the incidence of primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (PFSGS) has considerably increased in the last decade and at the present; it is the first cause of primary glomerulonephritis in adults. Because of its prevalence and high probability to progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), we searched for factors with prognostic value for renal survival and proteinuria remission.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Historical cohort of 44 patients. We studied clinical and histological characteristics at the time of renal biopsy and clinical condition and renal function at the end of follow-up. PRINCIPAL OUTCOMES: renal impairment (increase >or=50% of basal creatinine levels and/or ESRD), proteinuria remission (partial 0.3-3.49 g/day and complete < 0.3g/day). Kaplan-Meier's curves and Cox's Multivariate Regression were used.

RESULTS
The 59% of patients were men. The 54.5% had renal failure, 53.5% nephrotic syndrome and 43.2% hypertension or high blood pressure (HBP) at renal biopsy. The frequency of histological variants was: not otherwise specified (NOS) 75%, cellular 13.6%, tip 6.8% and perihilar 4.5%. The 56.8% received steroids for 4.3 +/- 4.5 months and 32% of these patients were corticodependent. After a mean follow-up of 21.6 +/- 27.8 months, the renal function decreased in 18.2% of patients. The 37.8% and 32.4% of patients reached partial and complete proteinuria remission respectively. Treatment with steroids, antihypertensive therapy and IgM and C3 glomerular deposits were associated with a high renal survival. The treatment with steroids was the only factor that forecasted a high renal survival (hazard ratio or HR: 0.07, 0.01-0.9) and proteinuria remission (HR: 0.2, 0.04-0.9). In general, high blood pressure (HR: 6.2, 1.1-35.2), renal failure (HR: 2.9, 1.1-7.6), cellular variant and interstitial fibrosis (HR: 5.2, 1.02-26.7) were prognostic factors for not achieving proteinuria remission.

CONCLUSIONS
In primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, treatment with steroids forecasted a high renal survival and proteinuria remission. Renal failure and interstitial fibrosis were prognostic factors for not achieving proteinuria remission.


This work examines particular attributes of the purgatorial phenomena from pre-Christian history of the Indo-European world to the Early Modern Period of England. An attempt has been made to identify and concentrate attention upon examples which provide the most significant and penetrating look into this evolution. For example, a portion of this paper attempts to determine just how widespread purgatorial customs were throughout England and the various types of community that supported these beliefs pre and post Reformation. By comparing life before and after the reigns of Henry and Edward a conclusion is reached that reveals the Protestant Reformation in England stripped the laity of a fundamental instrument they needed to support their religiosity and custom. This becomes evident in further years as some of those same customs and rituals that had been considered anathema by Protestants, slowly crept back into the liturgy of the new religion. Strong evidence of this is provided, with a strong emphasis placed upon late seventeenth and early eighteenth century death eulogies, with a section of this paper being devoted to the phenomena of the Sin-Eater.


ABSTRACT Solvent extraction studies were carried out on the selective separation of radio-cesium from actual high level waste (HLW) using calix [4]-bis-2,3-naphtho-crown-6 (CNC) in nitrobenzene - toluene mixture. The separation studies were carried out in two stages. In the first stage, a 100 times diluted HLW was used and the purity was ascertained by gamma ray spectrometry using a HPGe detector. Quantitative separation of radio-cesium (monitored by Cs-137 gamma peak at 661 keV) was observed with almost no contamination from any of the other fission products present. In the second stage, actual HLW was used for the Cs separation study. Four stages of extraction and two stages of stripping using distilled water gave >99% recovery. About 10 mCi Cs was recovered by this method. Reusability of the solvent was also carried out and though there was no loss in selectivity, slight decrease in the extraction efficiency was observed after the reagent was allowed to be in contact with the HLW for 10 d.


Abstract Part of teaching the descriptive phenomenological psychological method is to assist students in grasping their previously unrecognized assumptions regarding the meaning of "science." This paper is intended to address a variety of assumptions that are encountered when introducing students to the descriptive phenomenological psychological method pioneered by Giorgi. These assumptions are: 1) That the meaning of "science" is exhausted by empirical science, and therefore qualitative research, even if termed "human science," is more akin to literature or art than methodical, scientific inquiry; 2) That as a primarily aesthetic, poetic enterprise human scientific psychology need not attempt to achieve a degree of rigor and epistemological clarity analogous (while not equivalent) to that pursued by natural scientists; 3) That "objectivity" is a concept belonging to natural science, and therefore human science ought not to strive for objectivity because this would require "objectivizing" the human being; 4) That qualitative research must always adopt an "interpretive" approach, description being seen as merely a mode of interpretation. These assumptions are responded to from a perspective drawing primarily upon Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, but also upon Eagleton's analysis of aestheticism.


Abstract We present a 31 gestational weeks' premature baby whose fetal echocardiogram showed ectopia cordis, single ventricle and severe pulmonary stenosis. At 31 gestational weeks, an emergency caesarean section was performed, and his birth weight was 1756 g, SpO2 was 80% on 100% O2. Epicardial echocardiogram showed double inlet right ventricle, severe valvular pulmonary stenosis and no ductus arteriosus. The risk of surgery was very high, so we decided to perform balloon valvuloplasty by direct puncture of the heart. We punctured the apex of the ventricle using a 16-gauge needle under echo guidance, advanced the guidewire to the pulmonary artery and performed balloon valvuloplasty. Soon after the procedure, the cyanosis improved dramatically. This is the first report of a transcatheter procedure performed by direct puncture of the heart for ectopia cordis with complex congenital heart disease.


We live in a Big Data era in which data are generated every minute at astonishing rates:
internet cookies, social networks, all kind of sensors, climate measurements, smartphone GPS
systems, etc.
While in the last years the value has moved from possessing the data to knowing how to interpret
them, now, with all these amounts of data being generated every minute, the value
reside in the ability of interpreting them in real time. This can give a competitive advantage to
those able to achieve it, providing them the ability of taking advantage of real time opportunities.
Visual analytics, a science combining the strengths of machines with those of humans,
can be the solution to that.
This work gives a review of existing literature about visualizations of real time Big Data by
discussing the main parameters that must be taken into consideration, examining some approaches
to perform effective and efficiently and identifying guidelines to evaluate how good
a visualization tool is.
Results have shown that, although this science is still in a non-mature phase and little is written
about this concrete case, the implementation of existing strategies – some of them are
even obtained from a more generic case –, can be of great help for successfully visualizing real
time Big Data.


Although recent advances in deep learning accelerated an improvement in a weakly supervised object localization (WSOL) task, there are still challenges to identify the entire body of an object, rather than only discriminative parts. In this paper, we propose a novel residual fine-grained attention (RFGA) module that autonomously excites the less activated regions of an object by utilizing information distributed over channels and locations within feature maps in combination with a residual operation. To be specific, we devise a series of mechanisms of triple-view attention representation, attention expansion, and feature calibration. Unlike other attention-based WSOL methods that learn a coarse attention map, having the same values across elements in feature maps, our proposed RFGA learns fine-grained values in an attention map by assigning different attention values for each of the elements. We validated the superiority of our proposed RFGA module by comparing it with the recent methods in the literature over three datasets. Further, we analyzed the effect of each mechanism in our RFGA and visualized attention maps to get insights.


Following the Supreme Court's decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, states can legalize sports gambling for the first time in more than 25 years. The advent of legalized gambling has sports leagues clamoring for compensation from states that authorize wagers on the particular leagues' games. Legal sports gambling promises to be one of the largest growth industries in the United States for years to come. Americans spent upwards of $150 billion gambling illegally in 2017. The opportunity to convert some of that money to legal markets has state legislators salivating, gambling operators lining up, and sports leagues abandoning policy positions they have maintained for the better part of the last century. Derivative industries are also popping up, including companies that traffic in public information (e.g., scores) through partnerships with major sports organizations. There has be a collective push of the false narrative that sports leagues own the information generated by sporting events and that the leagues should be compensated when sportsbooks use this information. On this basis, the sports leagues seek compensation from state legislatures voting to legalize sports betting. Acceptance of the position pushed by the sports leagues could generate a windfall of upwards of $2 billion for the leagues, while preventing that same $2 billion from funding state programs. This Article examines the legal foundations of the sports leagues' quest for mandated fees and the monetization of information in the public domain by the integrity monitoring industry. It concludes that the quest for compensation by the sports leagues is baseless rent-seeking.


One of the most promising features of the time reversal symmetry protected two and three dimensional topological band insulators lies in the fact that their surface spectrum closely mimics the spectrum of massless Dirac fermions leading to a spin-momentum locked surface state. Hence, probing this property of topological insulators in a electrical transport set up is desirable. In this article we will review the possibility of probing the spin-momentum locked nature of the surface state spectrum via spin polarized tunneling probes. We will introduce a multi-terminal avatar of TMR measurement which could lead to a direct measurement of the spin momentum locking angle and the related spin texture of the surface state spectrum.


The aim of this article is to explain the influence of sectors of high polluting potential and with a history of environmental infractions in corporate environmental evidence. To this end, the Financial Statements and Sustainability Reports for the period 2017 to 2019 of the publicly held companies listed in the Brazil Broad-Based Index (IBrA) were examined. From the content analysis of 225 Sustainability Reports published by 78 companies and based on the conceptual structure of Rover et al. (2012), it was possible to identify that most of the environmental information disclosed in the reports refers to information on environmental policy, impacts of products and processes on the environment and environmental financial information. On average, 68.2% of the companies released a Sustainability Report in the period, of which 92% adopted some international methodology in its preparation. The mean level of environmental evidence was 29.03% in 2017; 30.26% in 2018 and 30.41% in 2019 and the basic materials and oil, gas and biofuel sectors showed higher mean levels of environmental evidence. The regression model with panel data with random effects showed that the variables size, sector and history of infractions positively influenced environmental evidence at a significance level of 1% and that the variables indebtedness, profitability, audit and board size did not have significant influence. The two research hypotheses were not refuted, indicating that companies in sectors with high polluting potential (H1) and with a history of environmental violations (H2) have higher levels of environmental disclosure. These findings are consistent with the Legitimacy Theory and the Voluntary Disclosure Theory.


Most robot leg designs are either based on biomimetics of humans' or animals' leg morphologies or on being mechanically optimized for specific task(s). In the first approach, differences between the actuation of the mechanical leg and the original biological structure usually result in inefficiencies and control malfunction, and legs in the second group are often limited to good performance for a single task and would fail when used for others. In this paper, we present a constructive framework for robot leg design, which tries to take advantage of the positive factors of both aforementioned approaches. For this purpose, we first, through selection of a template whose biological relevance for a wide range of tasks has been proven, establish a foundation on which mechanical design can be built. Then, we present a general theorem for designing a mechanism based on a template in order to maximize efficiency. In the final step and once the mechanism is designed, we address the problem of selecting the actuators and formulate it as a constrained optimization problem. In a case study with experimental walking data, we show how the mechanism design theorem and the formulated optimization problem can be used together to improve the walking energy efficiency by more than 50%. The proposed three-step approach is not limited to any template and should provide a more structured procedure for leg design, result in optimal energy economy, and maintain important bioinspired factors vital for control and versatility of legged robots.


Introduction: Septicemia is one of the common complications after chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is also an important cause of treatment related mortality and treatment failure. A multicenter study CCCG-ALL-2015 was conducted in China and factors associated with septicemia and mortality were studied.
 Methods: Patients participated in CCCG-ALL-2015 study from January 2015 to December 2017 were included in this study. Patients with documented septicemia were identified from the Database of Central Data Center. Additional data were then collected from participation centers, including associated co-morbidity, blood counts before septicemia and infection preventive measures.
 Results: A total of 4080 patients were recruited from 18 centers. There were 527 patients with septicemia identified (12.9%). The Intermediate risk (IR)/ High risk (HR) group(n=1930) had significantly higher incidence of septicemia as compared with Low risk (LR) group (n=2150), 17.15% vs 9.12% (p<0.001). Among the IR/HR group, children with Philadelphia (Ph) positive ALL (n=166) had similar incidence of septicemia as compared with Ph negative group (n=1764), 20.5% vs 16.8% (p =0.14). Induction phase was the period with most septicemia episodes occurred, 66.3% in LR and 56.1% in IR/HR groups. There was another peak of septicemia in IR/HR group during the re-induction phase (18%) and early maintenance phase at week 35-54 (9.3%). Gram positive bacteria accounted for 54.2%, Gram negative bacteria 44.5% and fungus 1.4% of positive cultures. The top 10 isolates were Coagulase negative staphylococcus (20.1%), staphylococcal epidermidis (14.6%), E. Coli (11.5%, 29/68 were ESBL), klebsiella pneumonia (8%, 7/47 were ESBL), pseudomonas aeruginosa (7%, 2/41 were ESBL), staphylococcus aureus (5.6%, 8/33 were MRSA), streptococcal mitis (3.2%), streptococcal pneumonia (3%), salmonella (2%) and Enterobacter cloacae (1.7%). Multi-drug resistant organisms were detected in 20.5% of all organisms. The mortality rate after septicemia was 3.2%. Multiple logistic regression identified female gender, comorbid complications and fungal infection as risk factors associated with mortality. Gram negative septicemia was also associated with higher mortality, 4.9% vs 1.9% (P<0.05%). There was marked variation in the incidence of septicemia among the 18 centers, from 4.8% to 29.1%. Centers allowed additional beds opened in the ward due to full occupancy had higher incidence of septicemia, 16.3% (342/2101) vs 11% (218/1979), p <0.001. Centers with the practice of using modular High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter units in the wards for patients with severe neutropenia had lower incidence of septicemia, 8.3% (118/1430) vs 16.7% (442/2650), p<0.001. Prophylactic use of G-CSF at time of neutropenia (neutrophils < 0.5x109/L) was also associated with lower incidence of septicemia, 10.1% (165/1626) vs 16.1% (442/2650). Similarly prophylactic intravenous immunoglobulin and antibiotics was also associated with lower incidence of septicemia, 8.9% (78/877) vs 15% (481/3203) and 7.8% (70/970) vs 18.7% (490/3110) respectively.
 Conclusion: Overall the incidence and pattern of septicemia in this multicenter study in China was similar to reports of western countries. The septicemia related mortality rate was low. However there was marked variation in the incidence of septicemia among the centers, further studies are required to validate factors such as infection preventive measures which might influence the septicemia incidence.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Sexual size dimorphism in Tengmalm's owls Aegolius funereus outside the breeding season was investigated by trapping owls on migration during autumn. Owls were accurately sexed using PCR-based molecular techniques. Females were 4% heavier than males, but were c. 30% lighter than during the breeding season, when they carry large fat deposits and can be twice as heavy as males. Thus sexual mass dimorphism outside the breeding season was substantially lower than reported previously for the breeding season in this species. Females also had 2.5% longer wings and tail than males, but there was no difference in wingloading, indicating that flight proficiency was similar between the sexes. Though the degree of sexual size dimorphism is small, large female size might be an adaptation for accumulating larger fat reserves, while smaller male size allows more efficient flight and hunting. This study highlights the importance of investigating sexual size dimorphism in owls outside the breeding season to avoid overestimation of female body mass.


Background: Obesity is one of the most important public health; it seems that inflammation is a pathogenic pathway between obesity and its associated comorbidities. The aim of the study was to evaluate the status of serum inflammatory markers in a group of obese patients hospitalized for bariatric surgery.Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective study on 64 obese patients successively hospitalised in our Surgical Unit between November 2014 and November 2016. All patients received a full evaluation including medical and personal history, complete clinical examination, and anthropometric measurements as well as general and special biological tests. The inflammatory status of each patient was evaluated by serum values of fibrinogen, CRP, Leptin and NLR and PLR scores. Insulin resistance was assesed by the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index. We noted the presence of metabolic syndrome and its components and also the presence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.Results: 62.5% of patients had ≤45 years and the number of male patients was significantly lower (23.4%) than the number of females. The mean value of BMI was 45.06 ± 6.67 SD and the mean value of waist circumference was 133.39 cm ± 17.47 SD. The mean values of serum inflammatory markers (fibrinogen, CRP and leptin) were abnormally elevated. There was a directly proportional relationship between the increasing of waist circumference and serum fibrinogen (p=0.04) and CRP (p=0.003) variation. Elevated fibrinogen values corelated with MS, DM II and OSA. Increased leptin values corelated with BMI, HOMA IR and OSA.Conclusion: Elevated serum values of fibrinogen and CRP correlate especially with abdominal obesity, quantified by waist circumference, while increased pathological values of serum leptin correlates also with BMI. Of all inflammatory markers assesed in the study, elevated fibrinogen appear to be most sensitively related to the presence of MS, OSA and DM II.