Rivers link terrestrial and marine ecosystems, not only transporting numerous substances downstream but also shaping landscapes and fostering aquatic ecosystems through physical interactions and biogeochemical processes with numerous agents. On the other hand, hydraulic facilities, such as reservoirs, hydropower plants, and banks are deployed to utilize water resources for sustaining human society. In the river network systems, rainstorms, as episodic/periodic strong triggers, can induce mass wasting from hillslopes, accelerating nutrient transport, which causes sequential effects. In recent decades, global warming has been accelerating water cycling via thermodynamics, and thus, the frequency and intensity of extreme rainstorms are increasing in intensity. In the West Pacific, typhoons (alias tropical cyclones in Asia) characterized by strong wind and torrential rainfall are evidenced to be getting stronger. The intensified typhoons inevitably stimulate the response of river systems through sediment and nutrient transport and threaten the safe operation of the hydraulic facilities and even coastal communities through storm surge flooding. These strong impacts on river systems should be comprehensively explored. This issue aims to improve the understanding of typhoon effects in river systems. Inter- and cross-disciplinary studies on different watershed scales, linking ecosystem services and watershed management, are particularly addressed.


The crystal structure of the title 1,10-disubstituted ferrocene derivative was determined by X-ray diffraction using a single crystal. This compound exhibits a nematic phase only. The X-ray structure analysis revealed that the two substituents lie in the same direction ('U' shape) and the flexible spacer adopts a gauche conformation. These conformations are strongly related to the formation of a rod-like shape, which favors liquid crystalline behavior. In the crystal structure, C—H , – and T-stacking interactions were observed. It is considered that these interactions play a major role in stabilizing the molecular packing arrangement and the mesomorphism.


This work presents a new MEMS device which uses deterministic lateral displacement for the continuous separation of leukocytes (white blood cells) and erythrocytes (red blood cells). By running blood cells in laminar flow through an array of columnar obstacles, deterministic lateral displacement asserts that the path a cell follows is determined by its size. The system consists of PDMS channels with posts on glass slides. An effective separation region of 7 mm by 1.8 mm is achieved on a 1 cm by 1 cm chip. A 420 /spl mu/m lateral separation was achieved for 5 /spl mu/m and 10 /spl mu/m beads. The critical particle size for separation was found experimentally to be 8 /spl mu/m, concluded from our results using 5 /spl mu/m, 7 /spl mu/m, 8 /spl mu/m and 10 /spl mu/m polystyrene beads. Diluted whole blood and blood fraction of concentrated leukocytes were also tested with the devices in agreement with blood count results. Problem of blood cell stiction to device surfaces was investigated.


OBJECTIVES
This work investigates the validity of estimating effective dose for cone beam CT (CBCT) exposures from the weighted CT dose index (CTDIW) and irradiated length.

METHODS
Measurements were made within cylindrical poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) phantoms measuring 14 cm and 28 cm in length and 32 cm in diameter for the 200° DynaCT acquisition on the Siemens Artis zee fluoroscopy unit (Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany). An interpolated average dose was calculated to account for the partial rotation. Organ and effective doses were estimated by modelling projections in the Monte Carlo software programme PCXMC (STUK, Helsinki, Finland).

RESULTS
The CTDIW was found to closely approximate the interpolated average dose if the positions of the measured doses reflected the X-ray beam rotation. The average dose was found to increase by 8% when the phantom length was increased from 14 to 28 cm. Using the interpolated average dose and the irradiated length for effective dose calculations gave similar values to PCXMC when a double-length (28-cm) CT dose index phantom was irradiated. Simplifying the estimation of effective dose with PCXMC by modelling just 4 projections around the abdomen gave effective doses that were only 7% different to those given when 41 projections were modelled. Calculated doses to key organs within the beam varied by as much as 27%.

CONCLUSION
Estimating effective dose from the CTDIW and the irradiated length is sufficiently accurate for CBCT if the chamber positions are considered carefully. A conversion factor can be used only if a single CT dose index phantom is available. The estimation of organ doses requires a large number of modelled projections in PCXMC.


BACKGROUND: Neck pain (NP) is common among high performance aircrew, yet evidence remains insufficient to guide examination, treatment, and prevention. The purpose of this randomized pilot study was to collect baseline data for neck function for F-15E aircrew and determine efficacy and feasibility of two separate exercise protocols in measuring short-term outcomes of subjective and objective neck function in order to inform future study design. METHODS: Randomized to either progressive (PRO) or general (GEN) exercise groups were 41 F-15E aircrew. Data collection occurred at baseline, 3 wk, and 3 mo. RESULTS: At baseline, 39% of the subjects reported current NP, 79.5% reported a history of NP attributed to flying, 12.8% reported being removed from flying duties due to NP, and 10% reported receiving medical care for NP. PRO and GEN group randomization showed similar baseline assessment data. Blinding was successful and exercise logs showed 31.6% compliance with prescribed exercise regimens. There were small but statistically significant increases in neck range of motion in both groups over the course of the study. Aircrew with current NP had significantly higher F-15E flight hours. DISCUSSION: This study supports the high prevalence of NP in aircrew, yet low frequency of seeking care for NP. Future studies to assess NP prevention and treatment in aircrew require an integrated approach that includes operational exercise policy and long-term data collection in flying units with dedicated resources for assessment and analysis. Lee MS, Briggs R, Scheirer V, Kearby G, Young BA. Exercise effects on neck function among F-15E aircrew. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(10):815824.


Pet cat bites are common—the
most typical patient being a child, and the most typical locality hands and face.
The normal flora of a pet cat's mouth houses very potent pathogens. Therapeutic
measures include wound cleansing, prophylaxis against tetanus and possibly
rabies. Antibiotic prophylaxis should be administered in the cases of all but
the mildest superficial wounds especially if the wound is in the hand or face.
We present a review on the medical care of cat bite wounds and a typical case of a patient who developed
rapid symptoms and signs of infection after a pet cat bite and nearly required
hospitalization. The clinical picture was consistent with a Pasteurella
infection.


This study was designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant potentials of leaf extracts of Zea mays (maize) and Sorghum bicolor (sorghum) with a view of utilizing them as herbal tea on the management and treatment of oxidant and inflammatory disorders. The powdered plant materials: (Z. mays, (30 g), S. bicolor (30 g), mixture (15 g of Z. mays + 15 g of S. bicolor) were soaked separately in 80% (v/v) ethanol, in sealed containers at room temperature (25 ± 1°C) for seven days with frequent stirring. The suspensions were filtered using double-layered cotton material. The filtrate was evaporated at 40°C under reduced pressure in Rotary Evaporator (BuchiRotavapor RII coupled to a Butchi Vacuum Pump V-700). The extracts were screened for the presence of phytochemicals and the antioxidant constituents of the extracts were also quantified. The antioxidant properties of the extracts were investigated using two different mechanisms: the scavenging of DPPH radical and iron reduction Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). The anti-inflammatory properties of the extracts were assessed using three models: inhibition of heat-induced haemolysis, inhibition of albumin denaturation and the membrane stabilizing potentials of the extracts. The results revealed that the ethanolic extracts of Z. mays, S. bicolor and the mixture of both contained appreciable quantities of antioxidant constituents. The ethanolic extract of S. bicolor contain the highest quantities of phytoconstituents: phenolics, flavonoids, Vitamin C and E. The ethanolic extract of Z. mays, S. bicolor and the mixture scavenged DPPH radical maximally at 42, 38 and 36% respectively and the reducing power concentrations of Z. mays, S. bicolor and the mixture were 289.94 ± 18.1 μg/ml, 253.071 ±18.91 μg/ml, and 286.81 ± 20.49 μg/ml respectively. The results of the membrane stabilizing activities revealed the order of stability as Z. mays >S. bicolor > mixture. The percentage inhibition of heat-induced heamolytic activities of Z. mays, S. bicolor and the mixture was 21.0, 19.7, and 82.2%, respectively. The order of inhibition of albumin denaturation of the extract was Mixture >S. bicolor > Z. mays. The ethanolic extract of Z. mays showed the highest antioxidant potential while that of the mixture demonstrated the highest anti-inflammatory potentials. Z. mays, S. bicolor and the mixture elicited potent and appreciable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potentials.


An algorithm is proposed which transfers the quantum information of a wave function (analogue signal) into a register of qubits (digital signal) such that n qubits describe the amplitudes and phases of 2 n points of a sufficiently smooth wave function. We assume that the continuous degree of freedom couples to one or more qubits of a quantum register via a Jaynes Cummings Hamiltonian and that we have universal quantum computation capabilities on the register as well as the possibility to perform bang-bang control on the qubits. The transfer of information is mainly based on the application of the quantum phase-estimation algorithm in both direc-tions. Here, the running time increases exponentially with the number of qubits. We pose it as an open question which interactions would allow polynomial running time. One example would be interactions which enable squeezing operations.


Malware code has forensic value, as evident from recent studies drawing relationships between creators of Duqu and Stuxnet through similarity of their code. We present FuncTracker, a system developed on top of Palantir, to discover, visualize, and explore relationships between malware code, with the intent of drawing connections over very large corpi of malware – millions of binaries consiting of terrabytes of data. To address such scale we forego the classic data-mining methods requiring pairwise comparison of feature vectors, and instead represent a malware as a set of hashes over carefully selected features. To ensure that a hash match implies a strong match we represent individual functions using hashes of semantic features, in lieu of syntact features commonly used in the literature. A graph representing a collection of malware is formed by function hashes representing nodes, making it possible to explore the collection using classic graph operations supported by Palantir. By annotating the nodes with additional information, such as the location and time where the malware was discovered, one can use the relationship within malware to make connections between otherwise unrelated clues.


The synthesis of aleuritic acid from shellac is associated with generation of huge quantity of waste whose disposal leads to clogging of the sewage system and contaminates the water bodies into which the drain leads. The shellac waste, which was collected from the factory site and betel-nut fiber has been used to form a sustainable, eco-efficient and economical composite. Mechanical properties of the composites were measured. The morphology of the composite was studied with the help of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).


This adequacy of HD is judged by formulas like Urea Reduction Ratio (URR) and Kt/V. Adequate hemodialysis is vital for restoration of body homeostasis towards normal and to avoid potential complications. The aim of the current study was to determine the frequency of adequate hemodialysis at hemodialysis center at Nishtar Hospital Multan. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of adequate hemodialysis at hemodialysis unit Nishtar Hospital Multan. Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Setting: Department of Medicine, Medical Unit-IV, Nishtar Hospital, Multan. Duration: Six months from 18/01/2018 to 17/07/2018. Material and Methods: This study involved 174 patients undergoing hemodialysis at least 3 sessions in a week for the previous 6 months at hemodialysis center Nishtar Hospital Multan. A formal written consent was taken from every patient. Patient's demographic details along with duration of disease, calculated Kt/V and adequacy of hemodialysis (Kt/V≥1.2) were recorded in the attached proforma. Data obtained during study were analyzed by using SPSS version 24. Mean and standard deviation were estimated for numerical variables; age, duration of disease, Kt/V values. Frequency and percentage were calculated for categorical variable i-e gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, adequate hemodialysis. Stratification was done for parameters like age, gender, diabetes, hypertension and duration of disease. After stratification was done t-test ws applied and value ≤.05 was considered as significant. Results: The age range of our study population was 40-70 years having a mean of 54.24±8.39 years. It included 113 (64.9%) male and 61 (35.1%) female suffers of ESRD. 75 (43.1%) patients were diabetic while 116 (66.7%) patients were hypertensive. The time lapse from diagnosis to dialysis ranged from 6-18 months with a mean of 12.11±3.55 months. The Kt/V value ranged from .80 to 1.90 with a mean of 1.45±.27. Taking a cut-off value of Kt/V≥1.2 for adequate hemodialysis, the frequency of adequate hemodialysis was found to be 85.1% (n=148). Conclusion: The frequency of adequate hemodialysis was found to be 85.1% among ESRD patients undergoing hemodialysis at least 3 times a week for the past 6 months at hemodialysis center Nishtar Hospital Multan. It indicates that Dialysis centre in Nishtar hospital is working effectively.


Background: The Atlantic Forest biome is a top hotspot for conservation priorities, but the variations in fern species composition and the factors driving these are still poorly known. The vegetation gradient found in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, constitutes an interesting environmental model for examining such patterns. Aims: We analysed the variation in fern species composition across a vegetation gradient in the southern Atlantic Forest and the variables that might influence it. Methods: We applied cluster analysis (TWINSPAN and WPGMA), ordination (DCA), regression (OLS and GWR) and variance partitioning to species occurrence, environmental and spatial data in 40 sample units (50 × 50 km2), using metadata. Results: Bioclimatic variables, mainly those related to humidity (water being an essential medium for fern reproduction), and geographic distance were related to variation in fern species composition. Dispersal constraints, probably related to neutral processes, could be evoked to explain the significance of the geographic distance. Overall, a great deal of uncertainty remained with regard to the determinants of floristic composition. Conclusions: Our study emphasises, for the first time in the Atlantic Forest, a significant role of environmental determinism and dispersal constraints on the variation of fern species composition.


Space research, and, consequently, space weather forecasting are immature disciplines. Scientific knowledge is accumulated frequently, which changes our understanding or how solar eruptions occur, and of how they impact targets near or on the Earth, or targets throughout the heliosphere. Along with continuous progress in understanding, space research and forecasting models are advancing rapidly in capability, often providing substantially increases in space weather value over time scales of less than a year. Furthermore, the majority of space environment information available today is, particularly in the solar and heliospheric domains, derived from research missions. An optimal forecasting environment needs to be flexible enough to benefit from this rapid development, and flexible enough to adapt to evolving data sources, many of which may also stem from non-US entities. This presentation will analyze the experiences obtained by developing and operating both a forecasting service for NASA, and an experimental forecasting system for Geomagnetically Induced Currents.


Shortly before the middle of the 19th century, leaders in medicine evidenced increasing concern over the low standards of medical education and practice in the United States. During meetings of the New York State Medical Society1in 1844 and 1845, several resolutions dealing with medical education and licensure were introduced. Lively discussions followed; it was obvious that something should be done, but it was equally apparent that it would be impractical for one state alone to try to raise standards. It was subsequently suggested that this obstacle to improving standards might be obviated at a national medical convention, where the delegates from medical societies, medical colleges, and institutions of the several states might be persuaded to act in cooperation on this important matter. Therefore, the following resolution was introduced: Whereas, it is believed that a National Convention would be conducive to the elevation of the standard of medical education


The theme of this summer's Teen Missionaries International (TMI) program is "Shake the World for Jesus," a phrase based on Ezekiel 38:20: ". . . All the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence." To reinforce this message of the global fear of god, teen missionaries will make a 500 gallon milkshake, mixed by an electric motorboat motor, and accompanied by a 1/4 mile long taco. Giant versions of fast foods may seem a far cry from the strictly biblical fare of manna, loaves, fishes, and Christ's blood and body, but they are emblematic of the attitudes held by many contemporary American Christian fundamentalists concerning religion, consumerism, and nationalism. The feast represents a kind of excess that is particular to the United States consumption ethic where for both fundamentalists and secular shoppers bigger is unequivocally better. The larger than life feast is meant to provide spiritual and physical sustenance for the white teens readying themselves in a Merritt Island, Florida training camp for worldwide missions of salvation. The oversized taco and shake are sacred because every aspect of fundamentalist life is sacred to those involved in it. Unlike mere "Sunday Christians," Fundamentalists serve God incessantly: being on time to class, playing ball with your son, and picking up your husband's dirty socks can all serve Jesus. Likewise, everyday cultural products such as Christian music and magazines can both trigger conversion and help to maintain a converted state. For example, wearing a pendant inscribed with "True Love Waits" and displaying psychedelic "Virtuous Reality" posters help maintain chastity among Christian youth. Fundamentalist youth products mirror secular styles and genres, thereby producing a normalized image of fundamentalist culture. The reassuring message directed at fundamentalist youth is that their religion does not marginalize them from the cultural mainstream. Although there is no doubt that religious youth products constitute a lucrative market (the contemporary Christian music industry takes in about $750 million a year), it is difficult to prove for whom the message of this industry is most potent. Christian youth products may appeal to worried parents even more than they appeal to their pubescent children. Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs organization that produces and distributes Christian goods such as pro-chastity products, has reacted to trends in mainstream media by advocating specific reading strategies for Christians. Rather than merely attacking secular culture indiscriminately, Focus on the Family's former "youth culture specialist" Bob DeMoss advocates the acquisition of Christian "close-reading" skills. In his 1992 Learn to Discern book and home video, and "Generation at Risk" multi-media traveling show (1992-1994), DeMoss teaches the principles of Christian critical viewership. Sounding much like an introductory film studies textbook, DeMoss argues: when we watch a film, we voluntarily give our eyes to the producer of what we're watching. We only see what he or she desires us to see. His values, priorities, and point of view take center stage . . . What we don't see can be as important - or more important - as what we do see.(1) In contrast to the harsh self-denial of old-fashioned fundamentalism, Focus promotes what is apparently a kinder, gentler activism - one which depends upon enhancing the critical reading skills of an individual and his or her family unit. Nonetheless, while arguing for a close-reading approach to media that is new to fundamentalism, Focus nonetheless maintains a belief in absolute truths. The fundamentalist approach to the Bible is a literal one: interpretation is not permitted. Applying this biblical strategy to popular film and music, through Christian close-reading both adults and children can discover the true anti-Christian messages nefariously hidden in popular culture. Through the fostering of Christian close-reading, Focus strives to forge a collective Christian youth identity around opposition to secular AIDS education, feminism, and the rights of lesbians and gays. …


Flood is a major disaster that happens around the world. It has caused the loss of many precious lives and destruction of large amounts of property. The possibility of flood can be determined depends on many factors that consist of rainfall, water flow rate and water level. This project aims to design a water level prediction system which is used to analyze the Kelantan River water level based on Sokor River, Galas River and Lebir River flow rate and rainfall of at Ldg. Kuala Nal and Ldg. Kenneth. The system utilizes neural networks in predicting the water level for 5 hours ahead. This system has 5 inputs and 1 output prediction. This prediction system focusses on comparing the conventional method and the Neural Network Autoregressive with Exogenous Input (NNARX) system in determining the possibility of flood. The result shows that the NNARX can predict the water level of Kelantan River much more better compared to conventional method. The performance of the system is based on the value of the means square error (MSE). The MSE of the conventional method is 0.2550 meanwhile for NNARX is 1.342 × 10−4


This paper examines the changing relationship between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and national governments. ICANN was born out of a self-contradictory attempt to "privatize" domain name governance; its relationship with national governments has been fraught ever since. Notwithstanding that national governments, over the past five years, have been increasingly well-organized and involved in ICANN processes, ICANN's relationship with them today is incoherent, ill-functioning, and unstable. The paper tries to explain why. It roots the problem in an institutional structure carried over from ICANN's formation, when it was thought that (non-U.S.) world governments should play a role only at the final stages of the privatized regulatory process.


Book-review of Ernesto Screpanti's Libertarian Communism: Marx, Engels and the Political Economy of Freedom. In this book, Ernesto Screpanti questions the nature and status of freedom within both Marx's thought and possible forms of communist organisation. By way of an argument which contends that communism should be understood as a theory of freedom, he extracts a deliberately individualistic version of communism from Marx's work, and proceeds to develop this into a series of recommendations for practical-organisational forms. These forms, and the notion of freedom that they arise from, are, however, closely related to Screpanti's adoption of an economic approach that consists of the quantification of freedom. This prompts a number of political and theoretical problems.


The theory of the photodissociation of diatomic molecules to open-shell atoms is applied to the near-threshold dissociation of CH+. Close-coupled calculations for the photodissociation cross-section and various anisotropy parameters exhibit a wealth of structure in conformity with our previous theoretical predictions that non-adiabatic interactions between molecular states, approaching the same atomic term limit, lead to the emergence of resonance features in the spectra. Some of these features are associated with Feshbach and shape resonances on states that carry no oscillator strength in zeroth order. The particular quantities evaluated are the total photodissociation cross-sections for the production of individual C+(2P3/2,1/2) states from selected initial CH+ levels and the fragment angular distribution, orientation and alignment. Certain resonances are more pronounced in the anisotropy parameters than in the total cross-section, indicating further that their measurement would aid in the experimental assignment of resonances in photodissociation. The calculations provide a qualitative understanding of the complexity of the available experimental data for the photodissociation of CH+.


This study was carried out on three soybean farms located in the Liverpool Plains Shire in New South Wales, Australia. The soybean farms were different in terms of pesticide type used. One of the soy crops was sprayed with broad spectrum synthetic pesticides (synthetic pyrethroids), one site of soy crop was sprayed with natural pyrethrum - an organically certified pesticide, and one of the soy crops was not treated with any pesticides. Arthropod samples were collected on three occasions at every site except in the third site of soy crops which was not treated with any pesticides. Samplings were done using sweep nets and beat sheets. There were no significant differences of community structure change between farms treated with different pesticide regimes (F2,5= 4.2599, P(perm)= 0.188), and no significant differences in arthropod species richness. The abundance of arthropods was significantly different for site treated with biopesticide and site treated with synthetic pyrethroids (G6 = 284.36, P <0.0001), non-sprayed site and site treated with synthetic pyrethroids (G6 = 2110, P < 0.0001), and non-sprayed site to site treated with biopesticide (G6 = 2027, P < 0.0001). The use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture has been found to suppress pests and beneficial arthropods, while the use of biopesticides or without pesticide, to some extent, may let beneficials thrive in the system and also may suppress pest arthropods. Key words: arthropods, soy-bean, pesticides, organic farming, conventional farming


A fabrication process for high precision passive fiber chip coupling is presented. The difficulties of structuring highly nonplanar surfaces were solved by using an electrophoretic photoresist and introducing additional structures to prevent wide holes. The method involves only a single lithographic step for structuring the polymer waveguide and fiber aligning structures in Si and thereby minimizing the horizontal displacement. The loss due to fiber displacement is about 0.7 dB per front face.


Summary form only given. The cavities of laser oscillators can be formed by holographic gratings induced in a nonlinear active medium by generating optical beams themselves. The possibility of realizing a laser with a ring cavity formed by the gain grating in the laser crystal was discussed recently. A simple scheme of the self-starting ring laser can be realized using the refractive-index grating that accompanies the grating of population in the Nd:YAG laser crystal. In this report we present the results of our experimental and theoretical investigation of the self-starting double-phase conjugate laser with the ring cavity formed by the resonantly induced refractive-index grating.


Using a multisource dataset consisting of information from organizational survey and public database of nursing homes in a Midwestern state in the United States, the present study empirically investigates the relationships between employee-organization value congruence, organizational delegation of decision-making and monitoring in the workplace. The results show that value congruence between employees and the organization complements delegation of decision-making, substitutes for monitoring, and further improves organizational performance, especially which of the relational dimension. These findings suggest that value congruence can serve as a source of intrinsic motivation for employee effort and mitigate agency problems in the workplace. Copyright © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


Acute coronary occlusion following successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) remains a significant problem and is responsible for a significant percentage of PTCA-related morbidity and mortality. The reported incidence varies from 2.1 % to 12.2%. The time of occurrence in most cases is within three hours of angioplasty. Intimal tears and intracoronary thrombus are important angiographic predisposing factors. Redilation appears to be an effective means of managing this complication in most patients.


This article describes methods of explanation developed from the properties of constraintbased methods of selection. We define a knowledge-based structure in the field of games. We follow by defining many methods of selection. We show the portabilit y of these methods by giving examples of their applications in the field of games. The methods of explanation linked to these methods of selection are then defined and ill ustrated by game systems. The interest of the different methods is discussed. We will t ry to show the pros and cons of the explanations using the methods of selection.


Monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) is a mitochondrial enzyme, which catalyzes oxidative deamination of neurotransmitters or dietary amines and produces H2O2. Recent work indicates that MAO A is overexpressed in prostate cancer. Inhibiting its activity suppresses tumorigenesis and metastasis. In this study, we showed that Hodgkin lymphoma (HL)-derived L1236 cells express high MAO A activity, while other human lymphoma cell lines examined, including both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, do not express MAO A. We also analyzed MAO A expression by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded classical Hodgkin (n=88), nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin (n=8) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, n=54; follicular, n=33; Burkitt lymphoma, n= 19; mantle cell lymphoma, n= 13). We found that 60% of the classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) cases demonstrated at least some MAO A expression by the neoplastic Reed-Sternberg cells and 30% of the tumors show strong/uniform expression. In contrast, no MAO A activity was seen in normal lymphoid tissue, nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma or non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The MAO inhibitor clorgyline inhibited MAO A activity (IC50 of 8.3×10-9 M) and was cytotoxic (IC50 of 30 μM) to L1236 cells. In addition, clorgyline reduced the cell proliferation, colony formation, and invasion of L1236 cells in vitro . Taken together, we have shown for the first time that MAO A is expressed selectively in Reed-Sternberg cells of cHL. Our results suggest that MAO A may be a biomarker for classical Hodgkin lymphoma Reed-Sternberg cells and may provide biological insights as well as a potential therapeutic target.

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Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


A fluorographic procedure was optimized which utilized acetic acid as the solvent for 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO). This procedure was then compared with existing fluorographic procedures which utilize PPO in dimethyl sulphoxide or sodium salicylate in water, and a commercially available fluorographic solution. En3Hance (New England Nuclear Corp.). A comparison of the four methods revealed that all of the procedures resulted in essentially the same efficiency of radioactivity detection. The acetic acid/PPO procedure was found to have several technical advantages. There is no need to pre-fix proteins in gels, and either agarose or acrylamide gels can be used. The acetic acid/PPO procedure was found to be a simple, sensitive and efficient alternative fluorographic method.


SYNOPSIS This paper outlines the principles involved in the regeneration of activated carbon for renewed use in the recovery of precious metals or the purification of water. While chemical methods are effective in restoring the activity of spent activated carbon containing only single or defined adsorbates, thermal methods have to be used when the spent carbon is loaded with a heterogeneous mixture of adsorbates such as those normally present in industrial process streams or effluents. The steps involved in thermal regeneration are described, together with the operating conditions that can be controlled to give the required degree of ectivation. Finally, an account is given of the structural changes that occur in a new or spent activated carbon during thermal treatment.


Purpose: In this study, the effect of the eyebrow semi-permanent makeup procedure was verified by paying attention to the side effects of anti-cancer and the psychological and social burden caused by hair loss that may occur in female breast cancer patients. To this end, the difference in perception of eyebrow semi-permanent makeup, appearance recognition, and self-efficacy before and after eyebrow semi-permanent makeup was analyzed to identify relevance and influence. Through empirical analysis, we expect that our quality of life improvement and protective aesthetic contributions will be repaid. The purpose of this study is to contribute to beauty protection and adaptation to the lives of patients and to obtain useful data for the market expansion of semi-permanent makeup in the industrial aspect.
Method: This study was conducted on female breast cancer patients suffering from hair loss as a side effect of chemotherapy, and 64 questionnaires were collected for verification of research questions. For empirical statistical analysis, SPSS 25.0 program was used, and frequency analysis and descriptive statistical analysis were used. To identify the difference in effectiveness, t-test and ANOVA were analyzed for the pre- and post-differences. In the statistical analysis, statistical significance was judged based on the significance level of 0.05.
Results: First, when comparing before and after eyebrow semi-permanent makeup, it was found that appearance awareness and self-efficacy improved significantly from the starting point of eyebrow semi-permanent makeup. Second, as a result of an independent sample t-test analysis to confirm the average difference in major variables according to the location of the current hospital, the difference in appearance perception according to the classification of the metropolitan area and non-metropolitan area was found to be significant. Third, the difference in appearance recognition according to the current health status was significant, and the improvement score was found to be higher in the group with better health.
Conclusion: The eyebrow semi-permanent makeup procedure is increasing everyone's appearance awareness and self-efficacy, and giving positive effects. This study contributed to expanding the beneficiaries of beauty services not only to the general public but also to female breast cancer patients. Through empirical analysis, it was verified that the eyebrow semi-permanent makeup procedure affects the perception of appearance and the increase in self-efficacy in female breast cancer patients. In the future, based on this study, the eyebrow semi-permanent makeup procedure of female breast cancer patients can be used as useful data in the industrial and policy aspects of beauty service, and it can be expected to have a positive effect on the expansion of the domestic beauty industry and the semi-permanent makeup market.


This study focuses on the effectiveness of the federal Employment Equity Act (EEA). We assess the EEA with regard to female employees using quantitative data from employer reports published under the provisions of the EEA and the Canadian Census. Data in this study cover the period 1997 to 2004. Women constitute the largest of the designated groups, so the effectiveness of the law could have major implications for the welfare of a significant proportion of the Canadian workforce. The most significant finding is that employment equity has increased over time, but at a diminishing rate. In fact, there may be something of a downturn in employment equity for women in the industries covered by the EEA. It is clear from our analysis that women employees in the companies covered by the EEA continue to be under-represented, especially in large companies. Monitoring and enforcement of employment equity in these firms by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) needs to be undertaken and is essential, since it cannot be taken for granted that larger firms do well in employment equity, overall. Our results and analysis indicate that smaller firms had higher employment equity than larger firms. It may also be necessary for the CHRC to examine the particular occupational groups within larger companies where employment equity is either low or non-existent relative to the Census. The continuing underlying pattern of sex segregation has changed to only a limited extent. For instance, employment opportunities for women continue to be problematic (that is, senior managers, skilled crafts and trades workers) and will require continued and perhaps intensified efforts to resolve. There are large discrepancies between employment equity in primary (i.e., full-time, permanent jobs) and secondary (i.e., temporary and part-time jobs), with employment equity being much lower in the primary sector. Human Resources and Social Development Canada need to have active labour market policies to correct this imbalance.


Precise gravity measurements indicate that earth fissures or tension cracks caused by ground-water withdrawal within a 10-km 2 area southeast of Casa Grande, Arizona, are associated with relief on the buried interface between the alluvial aquifer and underlying bedrock. All of the fissure zones; which have a cumulative length of >8.7 km, occur above either ridges or steps in the bedrock surface. Intersecting fissure zones overlie intersecting bedrock features, and the angle of intersection of the zones accurately reflects the angle between the bedrock features. These relations suggest that the fissures are forming in response to localized differential compaction caused by localized variations of aquifer-system thickness. Topographic profiles across fissures on undisturbed desert floor confirm differential compaction proportional to the variations in aquifer thickness. The occurrence of the fissures at points of maximum convex-upward curvature in profiles of both the topographic and buried bedrock surfaces indicates that the fissures result from tensile strains caused by bending of the strata above the buried bedrock features in response to the differential compaction. Tensile strains at failure are estimated to range from ∼ 0.02% to 0.2% on the basis of modeling of the bending process.


The Multidimensional Multiple-choice Knapsack Problem (MMKP) is an important NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem with many applications. We propose a new iterative pseudo-gap enumeration approach to solving MMKPs. The core of our algorithm is a family of additional cuts derived from the reduced costs constraint of the nonbasic variables by reference to a pseudo-gap . We then introduce a strategy to enumerate the pseudo-gap values. Joint with CPLEX, we evaluate our approach on two sets of benchmark instances and compare our results with the best solutions reported by other heuristics in the literature. It discovers 10 new better lower bounds on 37 well-known benchmark instances with a time limit of 1 hour for each instance. We further give direct comparison between our algorithm and one state-of-the-art "reduce and solve" approach on the same machine with the same CPLEX, experimental results show that our algorithm is very competitive, outperforming "reduce and solve" on 18 cases out of 37.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficiency of initiation with endothelin receptor antagonists, ambrisentan or bosentan, followed by sequential combination with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors and prostanoids in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, from the Spanish National Health System perspective.

METHODS
A Markov model was developed based on the four New York Heart Association functional classes. A panel of three experts reached a consensus on patient management based on clinical practice. Patients revised their treatment every 12 weeks, based on their health status and previous medication records. Pharmacological treatment costs and costs associated with very frequent adverse events (AE) were considered in a horizon of 60 weeks. Outcomes were measured in qualityadjusted life years (QALY). A probabilistic sensitivity analysis was performed.

RESULTS
No clinically relevant differences in QALY per-patient and year were found for initiation with ambrisentan and bosentan: 0.6853 and 0.6902, respectively. Initiation with ambrisentan resulted in lower pharmacological treatment and AE management costs: ?35,550 and ?117 versus ?40,224 and ?171. In the sensitivity analysis, initiation with ambrisentan resulted in a negative significant cost difference: ?-4,982; CI95%[?- 8,014; ?-2,500]; while no significant differences in QALY were found: -0.0044; CI95%[-0.0189; 0.0101].

CONCLUSIONS
Initiation with ambrisentan followed by sequential combination with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors and prostanoids yields comparable outcomes at lower costs than initiation with bosentan.


Nondestructive Photon Detection The click of a photon detector is the usual method for detecting a photon and can be sufficiently sensitive to detect even a single photon. Such a detection process is, however, destructive—the photon is annihilated. Reiserer et al. (p. 1349, published online 14 November) describe an experimental system capable of detecting a single photon without destroying it. An atom in a cavity can be used for the nondestructive detection of optical photons. All optical detectors to date annihilate photons upon detection, thus excluding repeated measurements. Here, we demonstrate a robust photon detection scheme that does not rely on absorption. Instead, an incoming photon is reflected from an optical resonator containing a single atom prepared in a superposition of two states. The reflection toggles the superposition phase, which is then measured to trace the photon. Characterizing the device with faint laser pulses, a single-photon detection efficiency of 74% and a survival probability of 66% are achieved. The efficiency can be further increased by observing the photon repeatedly. The large single-photon nonlinearity of the experiment should enable the development of photonic quantum gates and the preparation of exotic quantum states of light.


Cardiac wet and dry weight, adrenal weights, blood pressure and food consumption were measured in control male rats, rats fed 0.2% dried thyroid powder in the food, rats fed metyrapone (an inhibitor of adrenocortical 11-hydroxylase, Metopirone CIBA, 50 mg/rat per day) and both metyparone + dried thyroid. Metyparone markedly inhibited thyroid-induced cardiomegaly as well as the increase in adrenal weight. Myocardial dry weight and blood pressure differences between the various groups were not significant. The results supply further evidence of the existence of a relationship between the adrenal cortex and thyroid-induced cardiomegaly. Metyrapone also completely inhibited the post-thyroid drop in body weight.


Exposure to natural rubber latex (NRL) can result in sensitivity to NRL protein with resulting allergic reactions. Low-cost, portable, simple, sensitive analytical tools for NRL protein measurements are needed for rapid and accurate assessments of allergenic risks at the point-of-care (POC) instead of using traditional methods that require large and expensive instruments, long-time analysis, and complex sample preparation steps. Here, an electrochemical paper-based analytical device (ePAD) is presented by combining sample preparation and electrochemical detection within a single device to offer a one-step NRL analysis. The lack of antibodies and/or enzymes against NRL makes POC analysis difficult. In this work, detection is based on electrochemical measurement of the remaining Cu after in situ protein complexation instead of more complex biological assays for the first time. Graphene screen-printed electrodes modified with 1,10-phenanthroline and Nafion were used in the ePAD to improve Cu signal 18-fold relative to unmodified carbon screen-printed electrodes. The optimum parameters including 1,10-phenanthroline concentration, reaction time between Cu and protein, and the starting Cu concentration were 5% w/v, 1 min, and 600 μg mL-1, respectively. In addition to short analysis time (4 min), the system selectivity indicated no other interfering species affecting protein detection. The proposed ePAD achieved an LOD of 3.0 mg dL-1 and a linear range of 10.0-200.0 mg dL-1. Finally, the proposed sensors were applied for NRL protein detection and the results were not significantly different from the traditional Lowry method at 95% confidence.


All buildings require Repair and Maintenance (R&M) in their life cycle period. However, if R&M activities are not carried out properly, deterioration will occur, service life of buildings will be reduced, and maintenance costs will increase. Hence, selecting the appropriate R&M methods is pivotal, especially for developing countries, such as Iran, which are featured by highly constrained resources. The present study aims to identify and prioritize the main criteria for selecting the suitable R&M methods for Commercial Buildings (CBs), which is considered as a profound challenge for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry. A total of 20 senior experts in the AEC/FM industry and CBs in Iran were invited to participate in a Delphi survey to solicit their perceptions and opinions on the selection criteria. The total number of individual criteria identified is 16, which are further divided into five categories: human resources, flexibility and technical capability, risks, cost of maintenance, together with facilities and technology. Then, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique was applied to prioritize the identified criteria. Among the 5 main selection criteria, the cost of maintenance is the most important criterion for selecting appropriate R&M methods for CBs whereas the criterion of human resources (HR) was recognized as the least important.


Genomic sequences of Helicobacter pylori strains 26695, J99, HPAGI and G27 have revealed an abundance of restriction and modification genes. hp0050, which encodes an N6 adenine DNA methyltransferase, was cloned, overexpressed and purified to near homogeneity. It recognizes the sequence 5′‐GRRG‐3′ (where R is A or G) and, most intriguingly, methylates both adenines when R is A (5′‐GAAG‐3′). Kinetic analysis suggests a nonprocessive (repeated‐hit) mechanism of methylation in which HP0050 methyltransferase methylates one adenine at a time in the sequence 5′‐GAAG‐3′. This is the first report of an N6 adenine DNA methyltransferase that methylates two adjacent residues on the same strand. Interestingly, HP0050 homologs from two clinical strains of H. pylori (PG227 and 128) methylate only 5′‐GAGG‐3′ compared with 5′‐GRRG‐3′ in strain 26695. HP0050 methyltransferase is highly conserved as it is present in more than 90% of H. pylori strains. Inactivation of hp0050 in strain PG227 resulted in poor growth, suggesting its role in the biology of H. pylori. Collectively, these findings provide impetus for exploring the role(s) of this conserved DNA methyltransferase in the cellular processes of H. pylori.


As healthcare organizations use approaches such as structural empowerment theory and nurse residency programs to engage new graduate nurses in becoming productive members of the organizational culture, bullying and incivility experienced by these nurses can undermine organizations' efforts. Chapter 3 introduces the Reporting of Uncivil Conduct Chain of Command to provide support and direction to nurses that are experiencing bullying by perpetrators in the workplace. Unresolved and persistent uncivil conduct can result in health and mental health problems for affected nurses. Hence, in order to protect nurses' overall health and safety, it is necessary for organizations to adopt zero tolerance for bullying and incivility. Additionally, nurses may benefit from screening programs that can identify risks for self-harm secondary to stress and depression that could be caused by incivility in the workplace.


Defibrillation threshold (DFT) testing has been an integral part of implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (ICD) implantation to confirm appropriate sensing of ventricular fibrillation and to establish an adequate safety margin for defibrillation. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding benefits of routine DFT testing. Therefore, we performed a meta‐analysis to assess its mortality benefit. We searched MEDLINE for studies comparing mortality outcomes in ICD recipients who underwent DFT testing to those who did not. For the second analysis, studies comparing outcomes in patients with high‐ vs low‐energy DFT were included. Odds ratio and standard errors were calculated, and inverse variance method in a random‐effect model was used to combine effect sizes. Fifteen studies with 10,975 subjects comparing outcomes in patients who underwent routine DFT testing during ICD implantation and those who did not were included. There was no difference in the group that did not undergo DFT testing with regards to all‐cause mortality (OR 0.935; CI 0.725‐1.207; P = 0.606), cardiac mortality (OR 0.709; CI 0.385‐1.307; P = 0.271), noncardiac mortality (OR 0.921; CI 0.701‐1.210; P = 0.554), and arrhythmic mortality (OR 1.152; CI 0.831‐1.596; P = 0.396). Percentage of successful appropriate first shocks among the two groups showed no difference. Five studies with 2278 subjects were included in the second analysis comparing patients with low DFT vs high DFT. Patients with high DFT had no significant increase in all‐cause mortality compared to patients with low DFT (OR 0.527; CI 0.034‐8.107; P = 0.646). Patients requiring higher DFT had no increased all‐cause mortality compared to patients with lower DFT. Routine DFT testing during ICD implantation does not confer any significant benefit.


The tracking performances of adaptive filters are, analyzed in a real context of digital transmission where the time variations of the channel's "impulse response" are modeled by a general L-order Markovian process and where the input data to be transmitted belongs to a finite alphabet. In this paper two approaches are developed to analyse the Least Mean Square algorithm (LMS), for large step size and correlated inputs. However, it is the tailored approach for the finite alphabet inputs that leads to the exact analysis of tracking performances. In this case, the analysis is made without any constraints or unrealistic hypothesis.


The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt around the world. In the United States, the severity and speed of the spread of the virus led to the fastest recession in US market history, going from a historical peak to the recession's (current) low point in less than a month. A vast majority of the public were caught off-guard by this, but a key few knew of the severity of the virus well before the masses. In particular, the US Senate was informed of the severity of COVID-19 in a private briefing on January 24th, 2020. Less than two months later, the SEC issued a warning to four senators on placing trades with nonpublic information, as it is essentially insider trading and a violation of the STOCK Act. Three of the four senators in-question were cleared of any wrongdoing after an astonishingly brief probe by the SEC.

Fortunately, the public has access to stock transactions of US Senators thanks to the United States Senate Financial Disclosures database. Using this data via Quiver Quantitative, Novatero Investments carried out three analyses on US Senator stock transactions looking for signs of insider trading centered around the private COVID-19 briefing: alterations in transactional volume, significant changes in strategy relative to the US market, and a market timing advantage relative to two baselines. Based on the results from these analyses, there are suggestions that three senators took advantage of the information obtained in that January briefing to alter their investment strategy: Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, and David Perdue. Interestingly, each senator enacted their informational advantage in a different way, making it difficult to detect some of them with a topline glance. While there are strong suggestions of insider trading within these results, the data provided can only go so far in terms of solid evidence, and we hope to see a deeper analysis and investigation by those who have access to a more-complete picture of these transactions.


While antiretroviral therapies can successfully suppress HIV replication, there remains evidence of persistent immune activation, which is correlated with increased risks of all-cause mortality. Patients with elevated biomarkers of coagulation/inflammation such as IL-6, sCD14 and D-dimer (a fibrin bioproduct) are at an increased risk to develop non-AIDS defining illnesses such as cardiovascular disease. The interaction between the coagulation system and the immune system is critical for host defense; however, in HIV infection, the mechanisms underlying the ongoing activation of these pathways remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that interaction between platelets and T cells may play a role. We found that platelets from healthy controls and HIV infected patients bind to CD4 and CD8 T cells, preferentially to those with memory phenotypes. HIV infected patients showed a higher proportion of activated platelet (CD42b+CD62P+)-T cell conjugates and significantly correlated to the D-dimer levels. In vitro thrombin stimulation of PBMCs enhanced formation of platelet-T cell conjugates mediated in part by CD62P released by platelets. These data suggest that platelets can promote trafficking of T cells into injured tissues by upregulation of CD62P leading to enhanced rolling of leukocytes along vascular endothelium. In HIV infected patients, recruitment of T cells by this mechanism may promote a state of inflammation/coagulation and contribute to the pathology of the disease.


Child educational development is associated with major psychological, social, economic and health milestones throughout the life course. Understanding the early origins of educational inequalities and their reproduction across generations is therefore crucial. Recent genomic studies provide novel insights in this regard, uncovering "genetic nurture" effects, whereby parental genotypes influence offspring's educational development via environmental pathways rather than genetic transmission. These findings have yet to be systematically appraised. We conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify genetic nurture effects on educational outcomes and investigate key moderators. Twelve studies comprising 38,654 distinct parent(s)-offspring pairs or trios from eight cohorts were included, from which we derived 22 estimates of genetic nurture effects. Multilevel random effects models showed that the effect of genetic nurture on offspring's educational outcomes (βgenetic nurture = 0.08, 95% CI [0.07, 0.09]) was about half the size of direct genetic effects (βdirect genetic = 0.17, 95% CI [0.13, 0.20]). Maternal and paternal genetic nurture effects were similar in magnitude, suggesting comparable roles of mothers and fathers in determining their children's educational outcomes. Genetic nurture effects were largely explained by parental educational level and family socioeconomic status, suggesting that genetically influenced environments play an important role in shaping child educational outcomes. Even after accounting for genetic transmission, we provide evidence that environmentally mediated parental genetic influences contribute to the intergenerational transmission of educational outcomes. Further exploring these downstream environmental pathways may inform educational policies aiming to break the intergenerational cycle of educational underachievement and foster social mobility. Public Significance Statement This meta-analysis demonstrates that parents' genetics influence their children's educational outcomes through the rearing environments that parents provide. This "genetic nurture" effect is largely explained by family socioeconomic status and parental education level, is similar for mothers and fathers (suggesting that both parents equally shape their children's educational outcomes) and is about half the size of direct genetic effects on children's educational outcomes. Interventions targeting such environmental pathways could help to break the intergenerational cycle of educational underachievement and foster social mobility.


Antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, is a common pathogen found in hospital settings and has become nosocomial due to its high infection-causing tendency amongst ICU patients. The present study explores the cyanocompoundswhich were capable to inhibit the Penicillin Binding Protein of A. baumannii through molecular docking, ADMET, and molecular dynamicssimulation strategy. A database having structural and origin details was generated for 85 bioactive compounds in MS Excel. The 3-D structures weredownloaded from the PubChem database and minimized. The receptor protein was minimized and validated for structure correctness. The database was screened against the penicillin-binding protein of A. baumannii through PyRx software. The top 5 compounds including the control molecule werefurther redocked to the receptor molecule through Autodock Vina software. The molecule pose having the highest affinity was further subjected to 100ns MD- simulation and simultaneously the in-vitro activity of the methanol extract and hexane extract was checked through agar well diffusion assay.Docking studies indicate Tolyporphine K to be a lead molecule which was further assessed through Molecular dynamics and MM/PBSA. The in-silicoresults suggested that the protein-ligand complex was found to be stable over the 100 ns trajectory with a binding free energy of -8.56 Kcalmol-1. Theligand did not induce any major structural conformation in the protein moiety and was largely stabilized by hydrophobic interactions. The bioactivityscore and ADME properties of the compounds were also calculated. The in-vitro agar well diffusion assay showed a moderate zone of inhibition of12.33mm. The results indicate that the compound Tolyporphin- K could be a potential inhibitor of penicillin-binding protein in A. baumannii. Yet furtherwork needs to be done to have a more concrete basis for the pathway of inhibition.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.


Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal hematopoietic stem‐cell malignancy characterized by the presence of the chimeric BCR‐ABL oncoprotein with deregulated tyrosine‐kinase (TK) activity. Although conventional T cells are acknowledged as important players in the control of CML, a possible modification of invariant NKT (iNKT) cells, known for their antitumoral activity, has not been established as yet. Here, we showed that the expression of perforin, CD95L, and promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger, a transcription factor required for maintenance of iNKT cell functions, was reduced or suppressed in CML patients at diagnosis, as compared with healthy individuals. The proliferation rate of blood iNKT cells in response to their cognate ligand was likewise diminished. These functional deficiencies were corrected in patients having achieved complete cytogenetic remission following TK inhibitor or IFN‐α therapy. iNKT cells from CML patients in the chronic phase did not display increased TK activity, which argued against a direct autonomous action of BCR‐ABL. Instead, we found that their anergic status originated from both intrinsic and APC‐dependent dysfunctions. Our data demonstrate that chronic phase CML is associated with functional deficiencies of iNKT cells that are restored upon remission. These results suggest a possible contribution to disease control by TK inhibitor therapies.


Tactics in blood transfusion have evolved considerably during the last ten years. Awareness of infectious risks and economic considerations have lead legislators to draw the guidelines for a safer transfusion. Their aim is to promote a better transfusion in smaller quantities at a lower risk. The goal of perioperative blood replacement is to maintain hemoglobin, blood volume and coagulation factors at an adequate level. This can be carried out by either homologous or autologous transfusion. Fresh frozen plasma transfusion is only required in severe bleeding where coagulation factors are depleted. The plasma substitutes must be used according to their intrinsic properties and their cost. The choice of an autologous technique depends on the type of surgical procedure, the expected blood loss and the economic resources available. Autologous blood transfusion may be optimized by the association of various techniques. This transfusion strategy must be elaborated by all the medical protagonists implicated in transfusion procedures.


The construction of a New Socialist Countryside (NSC) is among the highlights in the People's Republic of China's (PRC) 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010). The NSC aims to accelerate the development and modernization of the agricultural and rural economy in order to close the widening rural–urban income gap. In an effort to better understand the priorities of and binding constraints to the PRC's rural development, and to aid the development of the NSC, two surveys were undertaken by the Asian Development Bank in six rural areas—Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shaanxi, and Shangdong. The 2007 survey collected village and household information on the first year of the NSC program, and the 2010 survey captured the possible changes after a few years of the program's implementation. A special feature of these surveys is that they allow for comparison of villagers' and village cadres' views on the priorities of the PRC's rural development. This paper summarizes the findings emerging from these surveys, particularly with respect to the challenges and priority areas of the PRC's rural development in 2007 and 2010. Among the key findings are (i) income growth remains the highest priority in the PRC's rural development agenda; and (ii) lack of capital and lack of necessary job skills are the most binding constraints for growth in agricultural income and nonagricultural income, respectively.


Olfaction is an ancient sensory modality which is heavily involved in viscerally-important tasks like finding food and identifying mates. Olfactory processing involves interpreting stimuli from a non-continuous odor space, and translating them into an organized pattern of neuronal activity in the olfactory bulb. Additionally, olfactory processing is rapidly modulated by behavioral states and vice versa. This implies strong bidirectional neuromodulation between the olfactory bulb and other brain regions that include the cortex, hippocampus, and basal forebrain. Intriguingly, the olfactory bulb is one of the only brain regions where adult-born neurons are integrated into existing networks throughout life. The ongoing integration of adult-born neurons is known to be important for olfactory processing, odor discrimination, and odor learning. Furthermore, the survival and integration of the adult-born neurons is regulated by neuromodulatory signaling, sensory experience, and olfactory learning. Studies making use of new genetic markers to label and manipulate immature adult-born neurons reveal an increase in their population response to odors as they mature. Importantly, this reflects a period of developmental plasticity where adult-born neurons are especially sensitive to sensory experience and olfactory learning. In this review, we discuss the contribution of adult neurogenesis to olfactory bulb plasticity and information processing, with a focus on the developmental plasticity of adult born neurons, and how it is influenced by sensory experience and olfactory learning. Ultimately, recent studies raise important questions about behavioral-state-dependent effects on adult-born neurons, and the consequences of neuromodulation on the developmental plasticity of newborn neurons in the olfactory bulb.


Developmental changes in the levels of carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine), its derivative anserine (β-alanyl-1-methyl-L-histidine), and their constituents including β-alanine, L-histidine and 1-methylhistidine in the pectoralis muscle were investigated. Comparisons were made between broiler and layer type chickens at various embryonic stages (E14 and E18) and hatch (P0). Carnosine and anserine levels increased toward hatch and carnosine levels were higher in broilers than in layers. The β-alanine level was highest at E18 in both types of embryos. L-Histidine and 1-methylhistidine levels were comparable during embryogenesis, but 1-methylhistidine greatly increased at P0. No significant differences in dipeptide constituents were found between broilers and layers. In conclusion, concentration of carnosine was higher in broilers than in layers.


A description is given of a system for the distribution of copyright information on magnetic tape. The source, contents, and format of the machine-readable record are discussed. Design objectives were not only to install a system for copyright distribution, but also to develop a set of programs that can be used to implement other text-oriented distribution systems. The author comments on some lessons learned during the system design and development process.<<ETX>>


$\newcommand{\ball}{\mathbb{B}}\newcommand{\dsQ}{\mathcal{Q}}\newcommand{\dsS}{\mathcal{S}}$In this work we study a fair variant of the near neighbor problem. Namely, given a set of $n$ points $P$ and a parameter $r$, the goal is to preprocess the points, such that given a query point $q$, any point in the $r$-neighborhood of the query, i.e., $\ball(q,r)$, have the same probability of being reported as the near neighbor.
We show that LSH based algorithms can be made fair, without a significant loss in efficiency. Specifically, we show an algorithm that reports a point in the $r$-neighborhood of a query $q$ with almost uniform probability. The query time is proportional to $O\bigl( \mathrm{dns}(q.r) \dsQ(n,c) \bigr)$, and its space is $O(\dsS(n,c))$, where $\dsQ(n,c)$ and $\dsS(n,c)$ are the query time and space of an LSH algorithm for $c$-approximate near neighbor, and $\mathrm{dns}(q,r)$ is a function of the local density around $q$.
Our approach works more generally for sampling uniformly from a sub-collection of sets of a given collection and can be used in a few other applications. Finally, we run experiments to show performance of our approach on real data.


In order to exploit the unique electronic properties of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) in novel quantum effect devices, the lateral dimensions of these structures have to be reduced to the order of tens of nanometres, which is the range of the de Broglie wavelength of electrons inside these materials. Moreover, millions of QDs should be packed in an orderly fashion in dense arrays to achieve the necessary active volume. So far, the most promising quantum structures have been fabricated using techniques based on direct crystal growth. This process has become very important due to its potential for creating damage-free and coherent nanocrystals. New scanning microscopy probes, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy, are actually the most important analytical tools for checking the properties of these nanostructures. In the present paper we will review some of the results recently obtained on the Ge/Si system thanks to these techniques. Ge/Si is really appealing for future applications, in view of the integration of nanostructures with the present microelectronic technologies, but it is also at the origin of many general studies regarding atomic diffusion, intermixing, and island shape stabilization. The origin of the islands, their size and shape evolution, and the intermixing at the interface will be analysed starting from SPM data. The ordering of QDs on naturally or artificially nanostructured surfaces is one of the most recent objectives in Ge/Si research. For example, terraces created from the step bunching process on the Si(111) surface could be a way of controlling the spacing of the islands. Other possibilities are now opened by the increasing precision of electron-beam lithography and by new focused-ion-beam machines. These aspects, along with problems and drawbacks of self-assembling technology, will also be discussed.


In this research, the well-known microblogging site, Twitter, was used for a sentiment analysis investigation. We propose an ensemble learning approach based on the meta-level features of seven existing lexicon resources for automated polarity sentiment classification. The ensemble employs four base learners (a Two-Class Support Vector Machine, a Two-Class Bayes Point Machine, a Two-Class Logistic Regression and a Two-Class Decision Forest) for the classification task. Three different labelled Twitter datasets were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach to sentiment analysis. Our experiment shows that, based on a combination of existing lexicon resources, the ensemble learners minimize the error rate by avoiding poor selection from stand-alone classifiers.


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the connectedness of Islamic Stock Markets in five regional financial systems, namely, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe (EU), GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and APAC (Asia-Pacific Countries), and across different asset classes (i.e. bonds, gold and crude oil).

Design/methodology/approach
This methodology is inspired by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) and Barunlik and Krehlik (2017) for performing dynamic variance decomposition network and for studying time–frequency dynamics of connectedness at different frequencies.

Findings
Results show that the nature of connectedness over the past decade is time–frequency dynamics. The decomposition of the total volatility spillovers is mostly dominated by the long-run component. Furthermore, dominant regions are the largest contributors of spillover index, with the lowest contribution in the system coming from the GCC market. Results also reveal a slightly higher volatility spillover index of Islamic than conventional equity indexes. Finally, the system that encompasses commodities and Islamic finance instruments, generates the much lower volatility spillover.

Originality/value
The findings have significant implications for portfolio managers who are interested in being able to predict asset returns, as well as for policymakers who are concerned with market stability.


The present study aimed to identify the communities with Brassica tournefortii Gouan in Al-Jouf areas in northern Saudi Arabia, to determine the ecological amplitude of this species and soil factors controlling its distribution. The plant communities dominated by B. tournefortii were investigated in fifteen localities through 15 plots. In each plot the present species were recorded. Data were treated by multivariate analyses. Soils of each community were analyzed using eleven physico-chemical parameters. Analysis of variance and correlation coefficient were performed based on R software package. Three vegetation types have been recognized by the applications of Past program classification. 83 species have been observed. Canonical correspondence analysis demonstrated that soil parameters contributed significantly to the distribution of species. B. tournefortii dominated the communities in newly reclaimed lands, where it survived in sandy habitats. It is characterized by high competition with both cultivated plants and associated weeds. This paper represents a study of the diversity of B. tournefortii communities in Arabia Saudi. KeYwords: brAssicA tournefortii; plAnt AssoCiAtions; eColoGiCAl GrAdient; speCies riChness; soil ChArACteristiCs 88 Nagmouchi S., alSubeie m. / Ann. Bot. (Roma), 2020, 10: 87–96 al., 2009) and Australia (Chauhan et al., 2006), where it has been reported that it could reduce yield (AOF, 2015). It is considered a weedy species in agricultural fields in parts of its native range (Ahmed et al., 2015; El-Saied et al., 2015), but it has also traditional dietary uses and economic value in regions where it is cultivated (Singh et al., 2015; Guarrera & Savo, 2016). It has been shown that allelopathy offers great potential to increase agricultural production, decrease the harmful effects of modern agricultural practices, and maintain soil productivity and a pollution-free environment for future generations (Abd El-Gawad, 2014). Winkler et al. (2018) showed that linking life-history strategies, functional traits, and responses to environmental variation can assist in producing a mechanical based predictive framework for ecologists to understand the behavior of invasive species in space and time (Huxman et al., 2013). B. tournefortii has been managed by prevention (Trader et al., 2006) and by physical and chemical control (Rice, 1992), but by little to no biological control (Sanders & Minnich, 2000). Bangle et al. (2008) noted that it displays patterns of boom-or-bust years typical of annual plant populations, demonstrating the potential existence of a substantial seed bank. When a substantial seed bank exists, seeds may cycle through different stages of dormancy, depending on environmental conditions. B. tournefortii produces numerous seeds which buried in the soil and stay viable for several years (Abd ElGawad, 2014). According to Al-Hassan (2006), 458 species were present in the northern sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in communities similar to those here described. In north Wadi Arar area, Osman et al. (2014) recorded 196 species. Gomaa (2012) observed a total of 71 species belonging to 22 families and 61 genera in Al-Jouf provenance. These results were conforming to those by Pielou (1975) and Magurran (1988), where the taxonomic diversity is higher in an area in which the species were divided between many genera. The available vegetation data about northern region do not represent an appreciable contribution to the flora of Saudi Arabia with regard to other parts of the country (Al-Turki & Al-Qlayan, 2003). Knowledge on the ecology of this weed would help in implementing effective weed control programs and help in designing suitable weed management programs (Mahajan et al., 2018). The aim of this study was to identify the main weed communities in Al-Jouf in northern Saudi Arabia and to characterize the associated flora and species diversity, analysing vegetation and habitat conditions. MaterIals and Methods


By cloning T cells, mutations at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase locus were quantified in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 12 patients with connective tissue diseases receiving long-term cyclophosphamide. Frequency of mutation was higher than in control subjects and was related to the duration of therapy; therefore, some cells with mutations are long-lived, and these cells accumulate in the peripheral circulation. Mutation frequency was also independently related to age. The results indicate that even low doses of cyclophosphamide are mutagenic and may explain, in part, why these patients are at risk of drug-induced malignancy.


Classical morphological filters suffer from well performing in a noisy environment, and intrinsic image structures are not taken into account. The authors propose here an alternative to overcome such weaknesses, by properly using robust shock filters and inhomogeneity. Thus, they obtain multiscale morphological operators by using image edge functions as local weights in inhomogeneous Hamiltonians in classical multiscale dilations/erosions formulated with partial differential equations (PDEs). They provide the equivalent sup-inf-based formulations, and derive sharpening/enhancement methods. In addition, they establish the PDE associated with the asymptotical iterations of the proposed robust and adaptive filters. The good behaviours of the proposed sup-inf and PDE-based methods are illustrated on synthetic, greyscale, and colour images; results are analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.


Dyslexia has been causally linked to both phonological deficits (Snowling, 2000) and difficulties in allocating attention (Valdois, Bosse, & Tainturier, 2004; Vidyasagar, 1999; Whitney & Cornelissen, 2005), both of which are utilised during parafoveal processing (Schotter, Angele, & Rayner, 2012). Whilst dyslexic readers have been found to display disruption in oculomotor control relative to skilled readers (Kirkby, Webster, Blythe, & Liversedge, 2008), there is a lack of research examining dyslexic parafoveal processing during reading. The experiments presented throughout this thesis examined whether parafoveal processing is less efficient for dyslexic readers compared to non-dyslexic readers (Jones, Ashby, & Branigan, 2013), and, explored the nature of dyslexic eye movement behaviour by including both a chronological- age and a reading-age matched control group. In three silent sentence-reading experiments, eye movements were recorded from dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers. Using the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), parafoveal previews were either manipulated orthographically or phonologically. The results of these experiments indicated that readers with dyslexia gain parafoveal preview benefit during reading. Dyslexic children and adults demonstrated orthographic parafoveal preview benefits and encoded letter identity independently of letter position. Dyslexic readers did, however, show a specific dyslexic deficit in which they required a greater dependence on letter position information for lexical activation. When examining phonological preview benefits, neither dyslexic nor non-dyslexic readers showed a significant benefit for phonological pre-processing. All three experiments provided evidence that dyslexic readers demonstrated differential eye movement patterns to non-dyslexic readers. Dyslexic readers required additional fixations, longer gaze durations and total reading times even when compared to non-dyslexic readers matched on reading age. Taken together, the results indicate that dyslexic eye movement behaviour is not purely indicative of their reduced reading skill and is due to a specific dyslexic reading deficit. These findings are consistent with both phonological and attention deficit theories of dyslexia and indicate that dyslexic readers rely upon a serial sublexical grapheme–phoneme conversion method of reading (Hawelka, Gagl, & Wimmer, 2010).


Peri-implantitis is a common complication following dental implant placement, which may lead to bone loss and fixation failure. With the conventional fixture, it is difficult to perfectly clear-up the infection. To solve this, we have designed a separable fixture of which the top part is replaceable. This study aimed to compare the structural and biomechanical stability of the separable and conventional fixture. A single surgical model corresponding to the first molar in a virtual mandible model and conventional/separable implants were reproduced to compare the biomechanical characteristics of the implants using finite element analysis (FEA). The loading condition was 200N preload in the first step, and 100N (Axial), 100N (15°), and 30N (45°) in the second step. The stress distribution on the cortical bone in the separable implant was lower than the conventional implant. In particular, the Peak von Mises Stress (PVMS) values of the separable implant under lateral load was found to be about twice as low as that of the conventional implant. In this study, we suggest that the separable implant has an equivalent biomechanical stability compared to the conventional implant, is easy to retrieve in the case of peri-implantitis, and has an excellent initial stability after the surgery when used in stage 2.


Abstract Academics and practitioners have developed different constructs to quantify corporate governance quality. Despite the limitations of the existing measures, they are still being commonly used. The literature finds that the relationship between performance and corporate governance quality can be positive, non-existing or even negative. To resolve this puzzle, we introduce a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach to construct an alternative corporate governance quality synthesising companies' practices and mechanisms through an exhaustive pair comparison procedures based on outranking relationships analysis. Our approach compares the aggregate quality with a well-known corporate governance index, ASSET4 ESG in Thomson Reuters Datastream, using data for the US firms. Using this MCDA approach based on PROMETHEE methods and econometric analysis, we obtain consistently a negative and strong link between firm performance and corporate governance quality. The findings are of particular interest to both scholars and decision makers including providers of corporate governance indices and rating agencies.


An exact but simple general relativistic model for the gravitational field of active galactic nuclei is constructed, based on the superposition in Weyl coordinates of a black hole, a Chazy-Curzon disk and two rods, which represent matter jets. The influence of the rods on the matter properties of the disk and on its stability is examined. We find that in general they contribute to destabilize the disk. Also the oscillation frequencies for perturbed circular geodesics on the disk are computed, and some geodesic orbits for the superposed metric are numerically calculated.


Two types of amperometric trienzyme ATP biosensors were developed based on new combinations of enzymes and electrodes by using the coimmobilizations of p-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase (HBH), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), and hexokinase (HEX) on a Clark-type oxygen electrode and on a screen-printed electrode. The principles of the determinations are as follows: HEX transfers the phosphate group from ATP to glucose to form glucose-6-phosphate. G6PDH catalyzes the specific dehydrogenation of glucose-6-phosphate by consuming NADP+. The product, NADPH initiates the irreversible hydroxylation of p-hydroxybenzoate by HBH to consume dissolved oxygen which results in a detectable signal on a Clark-type electrode and generate 3, 4-dihydroxybenzoate which results in a detectable signal on a screen-printed electrode. Both sensors show high-performance characteristics with broad detection ranges, short measuring times and good specificities.


Stroke causes disability with high morbidity and mortality in the world, causes a variety of disabilities and symptoms including disturbances in motor function, sensory, and cognitive. Sensory disability in post stroke patient can be categorized into two group; the one is stimulated by peripheral mechanism which we often called post stroke pain, and another one is stimulated by central mechanism which we called central post stroke pain (CPSP). Pain after stroke is usually underdiagnosed and poorly understood. In 1906, CPSP was called the thalamus pain syndrome by Dejerine and Roussy, but then it is known that CPSP can also developed in extra-thalamic stroke lesion. The prevalence of CPSP is approximately 1-12% in all around the world. CPSP occurs in one-third of overall post-stroke pain cases. In most cases, the onset of CPSP is within 1 month and then the incidence decreases with time. The most common manifestations are allodynia and dysesthesia. The pathophysiology itself remains clearly unknown in detail. Various theories such as central sensitization, disinhibition of medial thalamus, and central imbalance theory thought to be contribute in CPSP pathophysiology. This complexity make CPSP very difficult to manage. Some pharmacotherapies and non-pharmacotherapies have been studied to relieve pain in order to improve the quality life of CPSP sufferers. The aim of this article is to discuss the general view of central post stroke pain to increase the understanding and awareness of health giver in order to give sooner and better management for patient that can affect prognosis of the patient.


Vertebral fusion has a definite preventive influence over deformity of the spine following injury to the epiphyseal plate or vertebral body.

There is a definite tendency toward lordosis after fusion of the spine in growing animals. This is due to the fact that there is some inhibition in longitudinal expansion with compensatory growth anteriorly toward the place of least resistance.

The lordosis may exert a corrective influence over an existing kyphosis. In tuberculosis of the spine there may be a lessening of the deformity after the fusion operation.

This corrective influence should be borne in mind in the treatment of vertebral epiphysitis (kyphosis dorsalis juvenilis).

The preventive influence of fusion over scoliosis is also possibly of clinical value. In paralytic scoliosis the problem is quite complex, because of the multiplicity of forces and the difficulty in knowing the exact site and amount of fusion.


Abstract Herbicide applications prior to turf renovation often fail to provide complete control of perennial warm-season turfgrass species like seashore paspalum. Surface applications of dazomet at 506 kg/ha provided > 90% POST control of 'SeaDwarf' seashore paspalum turf in 2008. Although applications of glyphosate at 5.6 kg/ha or fluazifop-P-butyl at 0.42 kg/ha induced significant injury, these treatments provided < 40% POST control of SeaDwarf seashore paspalum turf 10 wk after initial treatment (WAIT) in 2008. A similar response was noted following applications of glyphosate plus fluazifop-P-butyl at rates of 5.6 kg/ha and 0.42 kg/ha, respectively. POST control following applications of glyphosate at 5.6 kg/ha plus fluazifop-P-butyl at 0.42 kg/ha, prior to applying dazomet at 506 kg/ha, was not different from that which was observed following applications of dazomet alone at 506 kg/ha. These data suggest that granular applications of dazomet alone, at 506 kg/ha, can be used to provide effective control of SeaDwarf seashore paspalum prior to renovation. Nomenclature: Dazomet; fluazifop-P-butyl; glyphosate; seashore paspalum, Paspalum vaginatum Swartz. 'SeaDwarf' PASVA.


Perceptual decision making is prone to errors, especially near threshold. Physiological, behavioural and modeling studies suggest this is due to the intrinsic or 'internal' noise in neural systems, which derives from a mixture of bottom-up and top-down sources. We show here that internal noise can form the basis of perceptual decision making when the external signal lacks the required information for the decision. We recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in listeners attempting to discriminate between identical tones. Since the acoustic signal was constant, bottom-up and top-down influences were under experimental control. We found that early cortical responses to the identical stimuli varied in global field power and topography according to the perceptual decision made, and activity preceding stimulus presentation could predict both later activity and behavioural decision. Our results suggest that activity variations induced by internal noise of both sensory and cognitive origin are sufficient to drive discrimination judgments.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of eco-nutrition on postoperative patients with colorectal diseases.

METHODS
32 patients undergoing the colorectal operation were randomized into the eco-nutrition enteral nutrition (EEN) group and the normal enteral nutrition (NEN) group. A series parameters, including gastrointestinal symptom, diarrhea and diarrhea score, intestinal flora ratio, inflammatory status markers, immune function markers et al. , were measured before and after the operation.

RESULTS
(1) Compared with the NEN group, the EEN group had less days with getting flatulence and abdominal pain (P<0. 05). At 6th day the EEN group had a less occurrence of flatulence and abdominal pain (P<0. 05). 0 The EEN group had less occurrences of diarrhea at the 6th day (P<0. 05). In the EEN group, the total occurrences and days of diarrhea were lower than those in the NEN group (P<0. 05), and the mean diarrhea scores were also lower at 6th day (P <0. 05). ( Intestinal flora ratios were higher in the EEN group at 6th day (P<0. 05).

CONCLUSION
The econutrition application to postoperative patients with colorectal diseases is beneficial in alleviating gastrointestinal symptom and diarrhea, and correcting intestine flora disturbance.


Immediately following the June 2007 release of Pat Anderson and Rex Wild's Little Children Are Sacred report into child abuse and neglect in Northern Territory Indigenous communities, the Howard Government declared a 'national emergency' in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. This announcement subsequently brought about the most radical legislative and policy shifts seen in the past 30 years in Indigenous affairs. Among the many changes was the introduction of an income management regime for residents living in Northern Territory communities that were deemed 'prescribed' - or controlled - by the Federal Government. While the Rudd Government achieved power at the November 2007 election, bringing about some fundamental changes to the initial Northern Territory Emergency Response laws, the most enduring part of the legislation is the progression of welfare reform for Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. This paper examines those welfare changes and the potential outcomes of legislation targeted at one section of Australian society, in one jurisdiction. The paper also examines the Queensland Government's recently passed Cape York trial legislation, which, for a four year trial period, similarly targets perceived social dysfunction in four Cape York communities. Principally, both the Cape York welfare reform trial and the Northern Territory intervention assume a link between social dysfunction, child neglect and substance misuse on the one hand and 'passive' welfare on the other. Both reforms aim to make welfare conditional upon responsible behaviour which includes ensuring that children are enrolled for, and attending school. The welfare reforms also target substance misuse by limiting income available for expenditure on alcohol. Further, both reforms aim to restructure labour market activity in remote communities by changing the rules for the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, Work for the Dole and other labour market programs.


In this article we address the problem of the recovery of a realistic textured model of an image sequence without any prior knowledge either about the parameters of the cameras, or about their motion. Firstly, using various computer vision tools, we establish correspondences between the image pairs and estimate the fundamental matrix. Secondly, using epipolar geometry constraints, we can obtain the rectified image pairs by a novel rectification method, where the epipolar lines coincide with the image scan-line. Furthermore, we can make dense stereo matching original image pairs rapidly and simply. Thirdly, in self-calibration, the prior knowledge of orthogonal wall planes and the orthogonal and parallel lines are formulated as constraints on the absolute quadric. Finally, the 3D Euclidean model can be built through self-calibration, matching Delaunay triangulation. In producing a 2-D mesh for VRML, an algorithm for the depth adaptive mesh is proposed to give a more detailed description of the reconstructed 3-D surface of a building. A large number of experimental results show that this method increases the speed and accuracy of the reconstructed 3D model and the obtained 3D models are more realistic.


Base on the improvement of compound FF16, compatibility of Rhodiola crenulata, Cordyceps militaris, and Rheum palmatum, on both insulin resistance and obesity, its effects on type 2 diabetes (T2DM ) was investigated here. The results showed that the levels of fasting and no-fasting blood glucose were controlled in the spontaneous type 2 diabetes KKAy mice; the impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)was improved by decreasing significantly the values of the glucose peaks and the area under the blood glucose-time curve (AUC ) after glucose-loading in glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in both high-fat-diet-induced pre-diabetes IRF mice and KKAy mice, respectively. The pancreatic histopathological analysis showed that the increased islet amount, the enlarged islet area, and the lipid accumulation in the pancreas were reversed by FF16 treatment in both IRF mice and KKAy mice. In the palmitate-induced RINm5f cell model, FF16 could effectively reduce the apoptosis and enhance the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, respectively. In conclusion, FF16 could improve the T2DM by protecting the pancreatic beta-cells.


Canine tracheal smooth muscle strips were loaded with the bioluminescent Ca2+ indicator aequorin, mounted in a tissue bath, and attached to an electromagnetic lever to investigate the effect of changes in muscle length and load on cytosolic free Ca2+. The intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) was inversely correlated with muscle length and active force developed during isometric contractions elicited by electrical field stimulation. In addition, quick release to either constant length or constant load at any time point during an active contraction resulted in an increase in [Ca2+]i. These observations are consistent with the possibility that the binding of Ca2+ to contractile or regulatory proteins is decreased when muscle length or active force development is decreased, resulting in the release of bound Ca2+ into the cytoplasm. However, the possibility that changes in muscle length or load affect other mechanisms that regulate [Ca2+]i cannot be excluded.


The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family is a series of important cancer therapeutic targets involved in cancer biology. These genes play an important role in tumor biological characteristics including angiogenesis, cell survival, invasion and glucose metabolism. In recent years, progress has been achieved on the cellular and molecular biological characteristics of EGFR and its role in cancer development based on the study of tumor specimens and experimental animal model. EGFR (HER1/ErbB) is overexpressed in over sixty percent of triple-negative breast cancers and occurs in pancreatic, bladder, lung and head-and-neck cancers. Up to now, EGFR inhibitors have been applied in various types of cancer, such as lung cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and head and neck cancers etc., in which the combination of EGFR inhibitors plus chemotherapeutic agents is now seen as the standard of cure for advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer. For these reasons, EGFR inhibitors and their therapeutic effect for pancreatic cancer is becoming the focus in laboratory and clinical research. In this paper, research progress of the development of epidermal growth factor receptor targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer is introduced.


This work aims to set up a framework for assimilation of trace gas species into a Martian Global Circulation Model (MGCM). The launch of the ISRO Mars Orbiter and NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission will add to our knowledge of trace gases and atmospheric chemistry. In addition, the Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) launches in 2016 and will obtain observations of trace gas species using the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) instrument amongst others. These missions will lead to a wealth of trace gas observations to compare to an MGCM.

To make optimal use of information, observations and an MGCM are combined by the process of data assimilation. The outcome of this process is a dynamical global reconstruction of the observations (See Figure 1). Using this methodology, observations of short-lived (and long-lived) species can be supplemented by knowledge of the transport and atmospheric chemistry from an MGCM. The satellites currently orbiting Mars (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, and Mars Express), combined with the future planned satellite missions, create a great opportunity for the development of a data assimilation technique for trace gases on Mars.


The article discusses some aspects of participation of Kazan Province merchants in trading in Orenburg and Troitsk customs lines at the end of 18 th-first half of the 19 th century. The author makes an attempt to determine the role and importance of the Tatar national factor in trade exchange in the Kazakh steppe, to identify the quantitative characteristics of traders, clerks and employees, product range, to show the features of mechanisms for trade. The article traces the connection of the barter trade in the steppe with the leading trade fairs of the country in Nizhny Novgorod and Irbit.