BACKGROUND
Adolescent smoking is a significant public health concern in the UK and across Europe. This study examines smoking behaviours, methods of accessing cigarettes and use of non-commercial (fake, foreign and single) cigarettes across a sample of schoolchildren. Relationships with alcohol consumption, deprivation, personal income and extra-curricular activities are also explored.

METHODS
A cross-sectional survey of 9833 15- and 16-year-old schoolchildren in the North West of England.

RESULTS
Cigarettes were most commonly accessed from off-licences and newsagents, but pupils also reported non-commercial access through friends, family and street sellers/neighbours. A high percentage of smokers had bought foreign (57%), fake (28%) and single (54%) cigarettes. Frequent binge drinking, not participating in extra-curricular activities, receiving greater personal income, and having parents that smoked were significantly associated with being a regular and heavier smoker. Frequent binge drinking was also significantly associated with buying foreign/fake or single cigarettes. A higher percentage of those living in deprived areas were current smokers, although deprivation was not an independent predictor of cigarette use.

CONCLUSION
Strategies that restrict commercial access to cigarettes among adolescents may increase their reliance on social methods of access, and use of fake, foreign and single cigarettes. Interventions to reduce adolescent smoking must recognize the critical role of parents and communities in discouraging smoking and preventing social access to cigarettes in children. A joint approach to prevention is required that targets children at risk of smoking, heavy alcohol use and associated health-damaging behaviours.


The availability of time is a deciding factor for participation of adults in continuing vocational education and training (CVET). In view of the importance of time for participation, the present study investigates the impact of employer offered leave of work on employees' participation behavior in CVET. Leave of work provides a specific timeframe for CVET by enabling the use of working time as learning time. The rationale of the intention-behavior relation as theorized by the theory of planned behavior provides the theoretical framework for the study. The theory allows the integration of individual and contextual factors (e.g., the work environment) in explaining individual behavior and the underpinning decision-making process. The theory conceptualizes time as an element of behavioral control that is required to act on an intention. Behavioral control is theorized to moderate the intention-behavior relation. Two modes of behavioral control are distinguished. We use employer offered leave of work as a proxy for actual behavioral control and the degree of perceived behavioral control regarding the availability of temporal resources to participate in CVET to investigate the theorized moderating role of behavior control on the intention-behavior relation. To test the hypotheses, two waves of panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) are used. Aiming at causal inferences, hybrid logit models are employed. We find that a participation intention is a significant predictor of CVET participation. However, the results provide no evidence regarding the theorized moderating role of actual behavioral control in terms of an employer offered leave of work on the intention-behavior relation. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that the degree of perceived behavioral control regarding the availability of temporal resources to participate in CVET does neither moderate the intention-behavior relation nor is a proxy for actual behavioral control. Finally, we discuss possible future developments of the theory of planned behavior by integrating action-theoretical assumptions from the value-expectancy theory.


I briefly review some scenarios for the role of the Planck length in quantum gravity. In particular, I examine the differences between the schemes in which quantum gravity is expected to introduce a maximum acceleration and the schemes in which the Planck length sets the minimum value of wavelengths (maximum value of momentum). I also comment on some pictures for the structure of spacetime at the Planck scale, such as spacetime discretization and spacetime noncommutativity. I stress that some of these proposals can have significant implications in astrophysics and cosmology.


We examined (1) the depression levels of university students, and whether or not depression levels of university students differ significantly according to their gender, (2) if university students' problem-solving skills, submissiveness levels, social support from family, friends, and society, ages, and cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) predict their depression level; and (3) if predictive values of these variables change according to gender. The research was carried out with 293 university students. It was found that perceived problem solving, social support from friends, and submissiveness predicted depression in university students.


Background: While the neighborhood community literature well documents a link between participation in supportive and effective community groups or activities and empowerment, there is as yet little empirical evidence of this relationship in the context of community mental health programs. Aim: The primary purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between sense of community belonging and empowerment among members of mental health clubhouses. Methods: A secondary analysis using a hierarchical regression model was conducted on cross-sectional structured interview data collected through a self-report questionnaire from 102 clubhouse members from six clubhouses in the United States and Finland. Results: The results indicated that members' sense of clubhouse community belonging positively contributes to their empowerment. Conclusion: Fostering sense of community belonging appears to be a valid approach to catalyze empowerment. Study limitations and future research agendas were discussed.


Since G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) belong to a very large superfamily of evolutionarily related receptors (>800 members in the human) and due to the rapid progress on their structural biology, they are ideal candidates for polypharmacology studies. Broad screening and bioinformatics/chemoinformatics have been applied to understanding off-target effects of GPCR ligands. It is now feasible to approach the question of GPCR polypharmacology using molecular modeling and the available X-ray GPCR structures. As an example, large and sterically constrained adenosine derivatives (potent adenosine receptor ligands with low conformational freedom and multiple extended substituents) were screened in binding at diverse receptors. Unanticipated off-target interactions, including at biogenic amine receptors, were then modeled using a structure-based approach to provide a consistent understanding of recognition. A conserved Asp in TM3 changed its role from counterion for biogenic amines to characteristic Hbonding to adenosine. The same systematic approach could potentially be applied to many GPCRs or other receptors using other sets of congeneric ligands.


The presence of problems in the territorial management of land indicates that the system of state and municipal management does not meet the modern requirements of sustainable (balanced) development. The explanation is simple - if the planning of the development of territories of settlements takes place on the basis of approved urban planning documentation (master plans), then the territory of land tenure and land use outside their borders is notfully covered by development of land management documentation. In this regard, the importance of the development and implementation of land management regulations at the practical level as an important land-use planning tool is substantiated. Essential and meaningful signs of the concepts of "urban planning regulations", "land management regulations" for conducting researchesare found. The National Standard defines the concept of urban planning regulations, such as the use of land plots, established within the respective territorial zones and defines the types of preferential and related use of land, the limits of permitted construction, reconstruction of construction objects and is used in the design, construction and subsequent operation of Objects. The draft law of Ukraine "On zoning of land" proposed the definition of land management regulations as approved in accordance with the established procedure text materials, that determine the parameters of the permitted use of land (land use regime) and acceptable changes in these parameters. However, this draft law is not harmonized during the 10-year period at the state level, therefore the proposed terms and definitions do not fully comply with modern requirements. Therefore, it is proposed to supplement them with other terms and definitions. Based on the research carried out, the author's definition of land management regulations should be understood as the procedure for land use, which is established within the respective territorial zones, with the definition of the legal regime of the territory of land use, which specifies the boundaries of the land plot, restrictions on the land use and the types and parameters of permitted land use, types of predominant and concomitant use of land plots, which indicate prohibited activities and responsibilities in relation to taking certain actions. It's established that land management regulations should become an integral part of the land management project on land zoning. For this purpose, a methodological approach to the formation of the legal regime of land use in land zoning according to their categories is proposed. The given division of land by types and subtypes of land use will allow to properly form territorial restrictions on land use with subsequent differentiation to land plots. A combination of urban planning and land management regulations will contribute to the achievement of sustainable (balanced) land use. Key words : land use planning, urban planning regulations, land management regulations, land categories, land zoning, types of land use


Christianity has been accused of being misogynistic, pro-slavery, and anti-science, and some say it is finally beginning its long decline. This book provides an entirely different side to the stories about this faith.
 Why did Christianity become the largest religion in the world? Is it because it was misogynistic, pro-slavery, anti-science, and set on condemning those who didn't join it? This book investigates many of the misconceptions about Christianity and argues that there are good reasons this faith has become the world's largest.
 The book includes chapters on various misconceptions related to the history of Christianity, such as the beliefs that Jesus was a meek and mild carpenter, the Roman emperor Constantine was insincere in his Christian faith, medieval Europe was devoutly Christian, and Christianity was anti-science. Each chapter explores how the historical misconception developed and spread, and offers what we now believe to be the historical truth contradicting the fiction. Excerpts from primary source documents provide evidence for the historical misconceptions and truths and help readers to respond critically to claims about Christian history.


Intense interest in the characteristics of a methane source on Mars has been spurred by recent observations of a plume structure. The current NASA Mars Science Laboratory and future landers and orbiters will be tasked with understanding the sources of methane. The Canadian Space Agency's Mars Methane Analogue Mission, involving a simulated Mars micro‐rover field campaign, was recently able to detect and measure the isotopic composition of methane seeping from boreholes in a serpentine mine in Québec. We aim to determine spatial limits for detecting such a point source above the terrestrial background concentration of methane using gradient transport models. We estimate the source strength to be on the order of 5.3 ×−10 kg s−1and find that this produces detectable enhancements at distances less than 11.6 m from the source if there is no wind. These same models are applied to the Mars surface environment to determine whether an instrument on a rover would be capable of detecting a methane point source when not directly downwind of it. The estimated source strengths on Mars are much greater than at Jeffrey Mine and we find that these would be detectable at distances less than 30 m from the plume axis, which lies along the direction of advective transport. Much of the work done on modelling the Martian atmosphere uses large‐scale general circulation models and this work examines the behaviour of methane plumes at very local scales.


Two-dimensional infrared thermography (IRT) is widely used in various domains and can be extended to more applications if the spatial information of the temperature distribution is provided to form three-dimensional (3-D) thermography. A 3-D infrared (IR) imaging system based on structured light is designed to acquire the 3-D surface temperature distribution. The projector, color camera, and IR camera must be geometrically calibrated. However, few studies have been conducted on this topic, and conventional calibration techniques cannot be directly applied to such calibration because the IR camera is sensitive only to thermal information and cannot capture visible calibration patterns. Hence, three calibration patterns are designed, and corresponding calibration methods are proposed to calibrate this system effectively and accurately. Experimental results show that this system has high spatial accuracy and can effectively obtain the temperature distribution of a 3-D surface.


This study aimed to examine changes in enterprise management under the COVID-19 pandemic and develop a universal mechanism for managing digital transformation. Its methodological basis was represented by a terminological analysis of the concepts of automation, digitalization, and digital transformation. Their close consideration enabled forming a conceptual scheme of business digitalization. In sum, the study process unveiled that full-fledged and fruitful digital transformation can be achieved through restructuring a companys business process management system. By comparing the outcomes of using digital platform-based business models, the most promising one was selected to be used in the COVID-19 affected environment. Its practical application was studied in Azerbaijan, Russia, and Switzerland using the Network Readiness Index. The analysis made it possible to form business development strategies for each country reviewed and develop a universal mechanism of digital transformation management on enterprises by means of optimization and modeling. The obtained findings suggest that in pandemic settings, digital enterprise management is concentrated on survival, self-learning, and cooperation without intermediaries through innovation and transformation of business processes. The created strategies can be used to adopt digital technologies and attract investment. Further research can be directed at detailing the proposed mechanism. IEEE


The IoT is the cornerstone of many innovating processes such as those behind Smart Cities and Smart Industries. As more and more wireless IoT devices are deployed, a newer, more congestion-resilient communication infrastructure is required to absorb the traffic from the 50 billion IoT nodes expected by the year 2020. Although 5G is said to be a key technology for the future IoT, it is not a silver bullet. Therefore, providing nodes with different Radio Access Technologies (RAT) would allow them to reap the various benefits offered by each RAT. However, the process of determining which technology should be used at any given time should not be based on uninformed intuition, but on mathematically educated choices. By making use of the mathematical framework of Reinforcement Learning, we have allowed IoT nodes to learn from previous real world data in order to derive optimal RAT-selection policies. These policies, which are implemented as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), maximize a predefined reward closely related to classic throughput, while maintaining power consumption and operational costs below a certain limit. To allow hardware-constrained IoT nodes to use these ANNs, we have proposed the application of a quantization technique that reduces computation and memory requirements and have validated it by its implementation in a real IoT device. Finally, to evaluate the proposal, we have simulated a network of 1000 devices deployed in the city of Chicago. The obtained results are compared to those achieved with other intuitive policies to further highlight the benefits of our proposal.


St. Maximus the Confessor has long been seen within the Byzantine tradition as both its greatest theologian and its most important philosopher, and his significance is now becoming increasingly recognized in the West. Maximus was a Byzantine aristocrat, once serving as head of the Imperial Chancellery under the Emperor Heraclius in Constantinople. In 614, he entered the monastery at Chrysopolis, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, where he became its abbot. Persian incursions into Anatolia and the great siege of Constantinople caused him to flee the area in 626, first to Crete and Cyprus, and finally to Byzantine North Africa in 630, where he did some of his most important writing. It was here that he was drawn into the Monothelite Controversy, theological successor to the Monophysite Controversy that had earlier split the unity of the church with its claim that Christ had only one nature. Conceding the Chalcedonian teaching that affirmed two natures, both divine and human, the Monothelites maintained rather that Christ had only one will, a divine will but not a human will, a view that was favored by the Emperor and by the Patriarch of Constantinople as a sensible compromise, and who both sought to restore the unity lost in the Monophysite Controversy. Maximus strongly opposed the Monthelite view, which still seemed to compromise the humanity of Christ, and entered into a famous debate at Carthage with the former Byzantine Patriarch, Pyrrhus, in 645. Maximus prevailed in the debate, convincing even Pyrrhus, and went to Rome in 647, where he served as advisor to the Lateran Council of 649, which affirmed Chalcedon against the Monothelites. For this, he was arrested by the Emperor, Constans II, and brought to Constantinople in 653 for a series of interrogations and trials. For his refusal to recant, he was tortured, hence his designation as "confessor." According to tradition, the appendages by means of which he had defied the emperor, his tongue and his right hand, were both severed from his body. After this mutilation, he was sent into exile in the Caucasus Mountains, probably in Georgia, but he died soon thereafter, most likely from his injuries.

Keywords:

maximus the confessor (580–662);
byzantine tradition, greatest theologian;
monothelite controversy;
theological wisdom, of late antiquity;
mystagogy, reflections on liturgical symbolism


Proton transport plays an important role in many biological and technological processes. Numerous experiments and mo-lecular dynamics simulations have proved the increase of proton mobility in confined nanostructures. In this work, we studied the proton transport across flow-through silica nanochannel membrane (SNM) with vertically aligned channels, uniform diameter (∼2.3 nm), high porosity (16.7%) and ultrasmall thickness (88 nm). Taking into account both the mutual interaction between nanochannels and the contribution of surface conductance, a new theoretical model of ion conduct-ance for SNM was derived by modifying the conductance model reported previously with a correction factor. The correc-tion factor was estimated by closest matching the experimental conductance of SNM in KCl and NaCl solutions with the theoretical one calculated by the model. Then the measured conductance of SNM in HCl solutions was found to be at least four times higher than the calculated value by the model. Given the total conductance across SNM is dominated by the access conductance instead of channel conductance, the difference between experimental and theoretical conduct-ance values implies either that the theoretical model does not capture the real physics of access conductance or that the two dimensional nanoconfinement effect exists at the nanochannel entrances. The latter effect likely arises from mutual interaction of neighboring nanochannel entrances.


Unlike liquid-rich hydrocarbons in marine shale systems in North America, the Triassic Yanchang oil is preserved in tight sandstone reservoirs deposited in a lacustrine setting. The tight reservoir covers an area of 30,000 km2 (11,600 mi2) and is characterized by ultralow permeability (∼0.001–1.00 md [∼0.001 × 10−3–1.00 × 10−3 μm2]), a low subsurface pressure coefficient (0.6–0.8), and low single-well yield (several tons [10–40 bbl] to >10 tons [>70 bbl] per day). The reservoir also features a high content of quartz, feldspar, and carbonate (averaging 70%–80%) and low crude oil density of 0.84 g/cm3 (36.5° API) with an oil saturation of approximately 60%–80%. For the first time, this study employs the assessment of petroleum in-place resources based on the genesis and statistics predicting method (GSPM) and estimated ultimate recovery method for the tight oil in the Ordos Basin. The advantage of GSPM over previously reported methodologies is the suitable combination of genetic and statistical methods to estimate proximally sourced tight oil. The results show that the total in-place resource potential of the investigated tight oil is approximately 42.26 × 108 t (∼295.82 × 108 bbl), with an average abundance of 15 × 104 t/km2 (99 × 104 bbl/mi2). The recoverable resources for the 50% probability of the Chang 7 tight oil accumulation is 3.11 × 108 t (21.77 × 108 bbl) in the Ordos Basin. The top two grades of the Chang 7 tight oil core area cover the total area of three layers comprising 12,745 km2 (4921 mi2), with 22.51 × 108 t (157.57 × 108 bbl) of in situ resources. Furthermore, the four most promising zones have been identified.


In this paper the influence of the temperature cycle time history profile on the fatigue life of ball grid array (BGA) solder joints is studied. Temperature time history in a Pentium processor laptop computer was measured for a three-month period by means of thermocouples placed inside the computer. In addition, Pentium BGA packages were subjected to industry standard temperature cycles and also to in-situ measured temperature cycle profiles. Inelastic strain accumulation in each solder joint during thermal cycling was measured by high sensitivity Moire interferometry technique. Results indicate that fatigue life of the solder joint is not independent of the temperature cycle profile used. Industry standard temperature cycle profile leads to conservative fatigue life observations by underestimating the actual number of cycles to failure.


The aim of the study was to analyze the results of treatment with biportal endoscopic decompression of patients with spinal stenosis. The treatment results of 62 patients who underwent surgery (for discectomy) (for decompression) in the period from March 2018 to June 2019 were analyzed. All 62 patients were operated by biportal endoscopy at the spine surgery clinic of the State Institution "Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine". Pain intensity was assessed using a visual analogue pain scale (VAS), patient satisfaction and quality of life was assessed using a modified MacNab scale and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), respectively, 1 week, 3 months and 6 months after surgery. Perioperative data were also evaluated (duration of surgery and length of stay in the hospital, blood loss and complications). X-ray results were evaluated using pre- and postoperative MRI (6-8 weeks after surgery). According to the results of studies in the postoperative period, a positive trend was observed. So, the indicator of back pain according to VAS after surgery decreased to 0,9±1,4 points, and the indicator of pain in the leg according to VAS on average in the postoperative phase was 1,28±1,1 points, respectively. Assessing perioperative data, in the group of patients the level of blood loss was 34,8±16,2, and the length of stay in the hospital was 2,9±1,3 days. Among the complications, 4 cases of point wound of the dural membrane and 1 case of linear wound of the dural membrane, more than 1 cm long with the contents of the dural sac entering the epidural space, which required conversion to an open operation with suturing the defect, were noted. Biportal endoscopic spinal surgery is an effective method of treating lumbar spinal stenosis, which has several advantages over open surgery (less tissue trauma, less blood loss, high patient satisfaction with the treatment result). UBE has an advantage over microscopic technique in terms of achieving complete decompression in an enlarged arthroscopic field without restricting the movement of the instrument due to the use of an independent portal, and continuous irrigation with saline during surgery is a great advantage to prevent infection.


The lag phase between application of gibberellic acid to barley aleurone layers and the beginning of amylase synthesis is at a minimum at 30 °C. This temperature is also the optimum for enzyme synthesis. Incubation temperature has little effect on the background activity found in the absence of gibberellic acid, or on the concentration of enzyme retained in the tissue in the presence of hormone. When aleurone layers spend only 2 h of the lag period at 30 °C, and the remainder of the incubation at 25 or 15 °C, the lag period is considerably reduced. Short-term incubation at 30 °C is most effective in reducing the lag period at 25 °C when given for the first 2 h after gibberellic-acid addition. Under these conditions ('tempera ture stepdown incubation') the lag period is reduced to that with the whole incubation at 30 °C. The temperature stepdown incubation has a sharp pH optimum of 5-00-5-05 and its effectiveness is increased by the presence of iron in the medium. There are thus two rate limiting reactions during the lag period, the first highly temperature sensitive, the second relatively temperature insensitive.


Patagonia is one of the few areas in the Southern Hemisphere to have been directly influenced by Quaternary glaciers. In this study, we evaluate the influence that Quaternary glacial ice had on the genetic diversity of two congeneric fish species, the diadromous Galaxias maculatus and the nondiadromous Galaxias platei, using multilocus estimates of effective population size through time. Mid‐Quaternary glaciations had far‐reaching consequences for both species. Galaxias maculatus and G. platei each experienced severe genetic bottlenecks during the period when Patagonia ice sheet advance reached its maximum positions c. 1.1–0.6 Ma. Concordant drops in effective size during this time suggest that range sizes were under similar constraints. It is therefore unlikely that coastal (brackish/marine) environments served as a significant refuge for G. maculatus during glacial periods. An earlier onset of population declines for G. platei suggests that this species was vulnerable to modest glacial advances. Declines in effective sizes were continuous for both species and lasted into the late‐Pleistocene. However, G. maculatus exhibited a strong population recovery during the late‐Quaternary (c. 400 000 bp). Unusually long and warm interglacials associated with the late‐Quaternary may have helped to facilitate a strong population rebound in this primarily coastal species.


In December 2019, the world watched in disbelief as a viral epidemic, originating in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, took on frightening proportions. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the disease caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) to be a public health emergency of international importance, the highest level of alert of the Organization, as provided in the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2016). On March 11, 2020, the epidemic was declared a pandemic by the WHO. Despite the rapid distribution of the new virus, many countries were reluctant or slow to comply strictly with the prophylactic methods suggested by those who had already experienced the whole situation of threat to the health of their populations.


Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease that appeared in China in December 2019. Several patients with severe COVID-19 infection can develop a coagulopathy according to the ISTH-criteria for disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC). We conducted a meta-analysis of all available studies on COVID-19 to explore the impact of coagulopathy on severe illness and mortality. An electronic search was performed within PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus electronic databases. The primary endpoint was the difference of D-dimer values between Non-Severe vs Severe disease and Survivors vs Non-Survivors. The primary analysis showed that mean d-dimer is significantly higher in COVID-19 patients with severe disease than in those without (SMD -2.15 [-2.73 to -1.56], I2 98%, P <0.0001). Additional analysis of platelet count showed lower levels of mean PLT in Severe patients than those observed in the Non-Severe patients (SMD 0.77 [0.32 to 1.22], I2 96%, P <0.001). Interestingly, longer mean PT was found in Severe group (SMD -1.34 [-2.06 to -0.62], I2 98%, P <0.0002) compared to Non-Severe group. In conclusion, the results of the present meta-analysis, the largest and most comprehensive to date, demonstrate that Severe COVID-19 infection is associated with higher D-dimer values, lower platelet count and prolonged PT.


Biosorption is fast becoming an attractive method for heavy metal contaminated wastewater treatment. This paper investigates the uptake capacity and removal of lead (II) by Pleurotus ostreatus biomass under the influence of biomass concentration, initial pH of heavy metal containing solution, contact time and initial Pb(II) concentration as to ascertain the usability of the biomass as biosorbent for heavy metal removal. Optimum biosorbent concentration were found to be at 0.5g biosorbent, with removal percentage of 88% and uptake capacity of 4.3 ± 0.1 mg/g under contact time of 60 min. Possible pH range of application for this biosorbent is from pH of 4 to 6 as the biosorbent showed high uptake capacity of lead (II). Uptake capacity of Pb(II) by the biomass was found to be linearly increasing within the range of 10ppm – 100ppm of initial heavy metal concentration. Thus, Pleurotus ostreatus biomass has potential as an alternative, environmentally sound method for treatment of heavy metal contaminated effluent.


This paper is focused on the structural behavior of the single shear bolted connections with thin-walled ferritic stainless steel. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ultimate behaviors, such as ultimate strength and fracture mode of the single shear bolted connections of thin-walled ferritic stainless steel (low cost steel) rather than austenitic stainless steel (high cost steel). Bolt arrangement and end distance parallel to the direction of applied load are considered as main variables of the test specimens for bolted connections. Specimens have a constant dimension of edge distance perpendicular to the loading direction, bolt diameter, pitch, and gauge. A monotonic tensile test for specimens has been carried out and some bolted connections with long end distance showed curling (out of plane deformation) occurrence which led to strength reduction. The ultimate behaviors such as fracture mode, ultimate strength are compared with those predicted by current design codes. Further, conditions of curling occurrence and the strength reduction due to curling are investigated and modified strength equations are suggested considering the curling effect.


It is just over forty years since the start of the excavations of the Ascott-under-Wychwood long barrow (1965-69) under the direction of Don Benson. The excavations belonged to the latter part of a great period of barrow digging in southern Britain, which was ending just as, by striking contrast, intensified investigation and fieldwork at causewayed enclosures were beginning. Although a long gap has passed since the excavations took place, they have nonetheless produced a rich and important set of results, and the analysis has been enhanced by more recent techniques. The site now joins Burn Ground and Hazleton North as one of only three Cotswold long barrows or cairns to have been more or less fully excavated. The barrow had been built in two main stages, in a series of bays defined by lines of stakes and stone, and filled mainly with earth and turf, with some stone; it was enclosed or faced by stone walling, the outermost being of very fine quality. The barrow contained two opposed pairs of stone cists, each with a short passage from the long sides of the monument. The cists and passages contained the remains of some 21 people (of all ages and both sexes), probably deposited in a variety of forms from fleshed inhumations to incomplete secondary remains and cremations. The barrow was built in the 38th century cal BC and was probably one of the earliest such constructions in the region. It was probably in use for only three to five generations, lasting into the 37th century cal BC. Occupation features from the early fourth millennium cal BC included small pits, hearths and two small timber post structures, and there were finds of pottery, flint, axe fragments, stone querns and animal bone. People used cattle, sheep and pigs, and there is a range of wild species, especially in the midden. The authors of this report not only document the finds and research, but also address wider questions of how the early Neolithic inhabitants viewed their society through the barrow, and how the development of the site reflected memory and interaction with a changing world.


Australias retirement income system obligates employers to pay a percentage of salary (currently 9.5%) on behalf of each employee directly into a superannuation fund which cannot be accessed (except in extraordinary circumstances) prior to the national minimum retirement age. The system has received strong praise for its high participation rates (driven by compulsion) and for ensuring retirees have resources from which they can support their own post-retirement lifestyle. However, recent discourse, particularly in the context of increasing life expectancy, has highlighted the potential inadequate level of savings provision under the superannuation systems current regulatory settings. In this paper we build a stochastic model of superannuation, the SUPA (Simulation of Uncertainty for Pension Analysis) model, and use this to simulate the evolution of superannuation fund balances across time. The lifetime of a superannuation account encompasses a growth phase followed by a withdrawal phase with the aspiration being that balances are positive throughout both phases. The model we develop consists of four elements: (i) a stochastic projection of investment returns; (ii) a stochastic projection of income levels (upon which contributions to the fund are based); (iii) a projection of levels of withdrawal in retirement; and (iv) a stochastic projection of increasing longevity. These four elements are described in detail within the paper. Combining these elements together the overall SUPA model, which extends previous models utilised in actuarial science, can inform the current superannuation debate. In particular, it can be used to forecast likely outcomes (i.e. whether individuals will have sufficient funds in retirement), under the current superannuation structures. It can also be used to statistically model the potential impacts of any changes to the superannuation system, i.e. changing retirement ages or contribution rates.


During the 1970's unionization among professional employees in Canada has increased and this trend has been evident among university faculty members. The case study of unionization of faculty at "Eastview University" shows that the literature of voluntary associations and consideration of the historical, political and economic environment of unionization is relevant to the study of unionization in Canada. The literature of labour relations has emphasized economic considerations and been dominated by practitioners. The case study shows that the university's faculty association was an expressive type of voluntary association. Changes in the university's environment led to increased pressures on faculty members and they experienced a sense of powerlessness. The faculty association became a faculty union, an instrumental association. Both faculty association and faculty union performed functions common to voluntary associations, conferring status and integrating the group. Economic factors were not the major factors for unionization at Eastview and the socio-psychological factors of insecurity and lack of full status as professionals were more influential. Further consideration of socio-psychological factors, following the model given in the article, will lead to fuller understanding of unionization and the role of professionals in bureaucracies.


This study was executed to evaluate how the process parameters, namely rotational speed, feed rate, plunge depth and dwell time, affect the mechanical performances of friction stir spot welded (FSSWed) AA6082-T6 sheets. The mechanical performances of the joints were evaluated using tensile shear tests and correlations between process parameters and joint performances were established. The optimum welding parameters for tensile shear load (7.89 kN) were obtained as tool rotational speed of 1000 rpm, feed rate of 50 mm/min, plunge depth of 5 mm and dwell time of 7 s. The experimental results showed that tensile shear load increased almost linearly with increasing plunge depth and dwell time, and the tensile shear load decreased almost linearly with increasing rotational speed and feed rate. The most effective parameter was found as dwell time. The tensile shear load of the FSSWed joints increased roughly 44% when the dwell time increased from 2 s to 7 s. KeywordsFriction Stir Spot Welding, Aa6082-T6, Tensile Shear Load, Mechanical Properties.


CONTEXT
Weight loss and malnutrition are disorders observed in colorectal cancer patients.

OBJECTIVES
We sought to evaluate the immediate preoperative nutritional status of patients with colorectal cancer.

METHODS
This is a cross-sectional clinical study conducted at a single center. Sixty-six consecutive patients in preoperative for elective surgical treatment were studied. The clinical history, socio-demographic data and nutritional status of the patients were evaluated using Subjective Global Assessment and objective (anthropometry) methods. The primary outcome measures were nutritional status classification as nourished or malnourished and the relationship between nutritional status and socio-demographic and clinical features.

RESULTS
Most of patients exhibited left colon tumors and disease stage II. According to the Subjective Global Assessment, 36.4% of patients were malnourished. Malnutrition ranged from 7.6% to 53% depending on the evaluation method used, with poor correlation to Subjective Global Assessment. The prevalence of malnutrition was significantly greater in females and non-married patients and in those with two or more symptoms of colorectal cancer.

CONCLUSIONS
More than a third of patients in the immediate preoperative period for colorectal cancer exhibited malnutrition. Therefore, routine nutritional assessment is highly advisable so that appropriate measures may be taken to minimize the potential postoperative complications.


In medieval and early modern Italy, women were excluded from political citizenship, but they were able to participate in various forms of belonging to a particular place. Geographical mobility affected the legal status of individuals, not only because of the various ways of distinguishing between citizens and foreigners, but also because the provisions of municipal law might differ from one place to another, especially regarding women's status and rights, for example regarding property and inheritance. This essay illustrates the principal issues relating to women's citizenship, and examines the reactions of both women and men to the multitude and variety of local statutory laws.


Recently, flapping robots are noticed by many researchers, and the realization of flight motion like insects, birds and so on has many challenges. The purpose of this work is to develop flapping robots using a new type of piezoelectric material, that is, piezoelectric fiber composites. By using the composites, actuating as well as energy harvesting and sensing fibers can be embedded into the wing as part of the structure, which makes the robot flap while remaining compact and light. This paper describes the performance enhancement of the flapping robots capable of flapping and feathering motions using piezoelectric fiber composites. A unique mechanism with different stiffness for up-stroke and down-stroke and a new drive control using saturated sine wave are proposed in this paper. By introducing the mechanism and drive control, the performance about lift and thrust force has been improved remarkably.


Purine nucleotide degradation during ethanol catabolism, inhibition of renal excretion of urate by lactic acid, and high purine content of certain kinds of beverage are responsible for the elevation of serum uric acid level following alcohol drinking. It is well documented that rapid consumption of ATP produces uric acid via purine nucleotide degradation. Since individuals with ALDH2*1 can catalyze ethanol readily, they consume large amount of ATP, and thus produce more hypoxanthine than those with ALDH2*2. Thus, daily drinker and heavy drinker tend to readily induce hyperuricemia after alcohol ingestion. A high purine content in beer may contribute to the increasing frequency of hyperuricemia. Restriction of any kind of alcohol beverages, especially beer, is necessary in the medical control of patients with gout or hyperuricemia.


Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, as a freeform biomedical manufacturing approach, has been increasingly adopted for the fabrication of constructs analogous to living tissues. Generally, materials printed during 3D bioprinting are referred as bioinks, which may include living cells, extracellular matrix materials, cell media, and/or other additives. For 3D bioprinting to be an enabling tissue engineering approach, the bioink printability is a critical requirement as tissue constructs must be able to be printed and reproduce the complex micro-architecture of native tissues in vitro in sufficient resolution. The bioink printability is generally characterized in terms of the controllable formation of well-defined droplets/jets/filaments and/or the morphology and shape fidelity of deposited building blocks. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the studies of bioink printability during representative 3D bioprinting processes, including inkjet printing, laser printing, and micro-extrusion, with a focus on the understanding of the underlying physics during the formation of bioink-based features. A detailed discussion is conducted based on the typical time scales and dimensionless quantities for printability evaluation during bioprinting. For inkjet printing, the Z (the inverse of the Ohnesorge number), Weber, and capillary numbers have been employed for the construction of phase diagrams during the printing of Newtonian fluids, while the Weissenberg and Deborah numbers have been utilized during the printing of non-Newtonian bioinks. During laser printing of Newtonian solutions, the jettability can be characterized using the inverse of the Ohnesorge number, while Ohnesorge, elasto-capillary, and Weber numbers have been utilized to construct phase diagrams for typical non-Newtonian bioinks. For micro-extrusion, seven filament types have been identified including three types of well-defined filaments and four types of irregular filaments. During micro-extrusion, the Oldroyd number has been used to characterize the dimensions of the yielded areas of Herschel-Bulkley fluids. Non-ideal jetting behaviors are common during the droplet-based inkjet and laser printing processes due to the local nonuniformity and nonhomogeneity of cell-laden bioinks.


We present a simple design technique for extended irregular repeat-accumulate (eIRA) codes for flat Rayleigh fading channels, using simple channels as surrogates in the design. We show that eIRA codes designed for the burst-erasure channel (BuEC) or the burst-erasure channel with AWGN (BuEC-G) achieve essentially the same performance over Rayleigh fading channels as codes designed for the fading channel. Thus, to design good codes for Rayleigh fading channels, instead of implementing the complex design procedures targeted, specifically for this channel, we propose the simple approach of designing codes over surrogate channels, the BuEC or the BuEC-G. We also show that eIRA codes designed for the BuEC enjoy the advantage of efficient encodability and a lower error-rate floor. Finally, we demonstrate that it is the distribution of the number of faded bits per codeword which determines the difference between correlated and uncorrelated fading channel performance. Perfect channel state information is assumed in this paper.


Human CD19 antigen is a 95 kilodalton type I transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily (Wang, Wei, & Liu, 2012). The role of CD19, both in health and disease, is well studied, and the therapeutic efficacy and safety of CD19 modulation have been well defined over several decades (Scheuermann & Racila, 1995). In normal human tissue, expression of CD19 is limited to the various stages of B-cell development and differentiation (except plasma cells) and its expression is maintained on the majority of B-cell malignancies, including B-cell leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphomas of B-cell origin. CD19 has rapid internalization kinetics and it is not shed into the circulation (Blanc et al., 2011; Gerber et al., 2009). All these features make CD19 an attractive target for the development of an ADC to treat B-cell malignancies.

ADCT-402 is an ADC composed of a humanized antibody directed against human CD19, stochastically conjugated via a valine-alanine cleavable, maleimide linker to a PBD dimer cytotoxin. PBD dimers are highly efficient anticancer drugs that covalently bind in the minor groove of DNA and form cytotoxic DNA interstrand cross-links. The average drug to antibody ratio of ADCT-402 is 2.3 ± 0.3, as shown by hydrophobic interaction chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC.

In vitro , ADCT-402 demonstrated potent cytotoxicity in a panel of human-derived cell lines of differing levels of CD19, while its potency was strongly reduced in CD19-negative cell lines.

In vivo , ADCT-402 demonstrated dose-dependent anti-tumor activity in a subcutaneously implanted human Burkitt's lymphoma-derived Ramos xenograft model, where a single dose at 0.33 mg/kg induced significantly delayed tumor growth compared to the vehicle-treated mice and at 0.66 mg/kg and 1 mg/kg gave 4/10 and 10/10 tumor-free survivors, respectively. In the same model, ADCT-402 showed remarkably superior anti-tumor activity compared to both maytansinoid- and auristatin-based CD19-targeting ADCs, when they were tested at the same dose and schedule (1 mg/kg, single dose). Moreover, ADCT-402 mediated an impressive increase in survival compared to both vehicle-treated and isotype control ADC-treated mice in the disseminated Ramos xenograft model when tested as a single dose at 0.33 mg/kg or 1 mg/kg. For example, a single dose of ADCT-402 at 1 mg/kg resulted in 10/10 survivors at day 91, while there were 0/10 survivors at day 19 in the group of animals treated with either the vehicle control or with a single dose of the non-binding, control ADC at 1 mg/kg.

In rat, a single dose of ADCT-402 at 2 mg/kg was well tolerated with no adverse signs or hematologic effects.

Altogether, these data show the potent and specific anti-tumor activity of ADCT-402 against CD19-expressing B-cell malignancies, both in vitro and in vivo , and warrant further development of this ADC into the clinic.

Disclosures Zammarchi: ADC Therapeutics: Employment. Williams: Spirogen/Medimmune: Employment. Adams: Spirogen/Medimmune: Employment, Equity Ownership. Havenith: ADC Therapeutics: Employment. Chivers: ADC Therapeutics: Employment. D'Hooge: Spirogen/Medimmune: Employment, Equity Ownership. Howard: ADCT Spirogen/Medimmune: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Hartley: ADCT Spirogen/Medimmune: Employment, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. van Berkel: ADC Therapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties.


Abstract Milk and plasma leptin levels have been studied in dairy asses machine milked according to two different routines: 20 pregnant, pluriparous asses, were divided into two groups subjected, every 28 d for 150 d, to two consecutive milkings carried out at different intervals, i.e. 20 vs. 4 hours interval, respectively for group A and group B. During the study, the declining total milk obtained by machine milking was unaffected by the different milking strategies; body condition score of asses as well did not vary between the groups. Different milking intervals did not significantly influence skimmed milk leptin content neither plasma leptin level. Moreover, we did not find significant variation in plasma leptin neither correlation with BCS, indicating that in donkey pregnancy inhibits the cross talk between hypothalamus and adipose tissue.


Background The Sundarbans in India is a rural, forested region where children are exposed to a high risk of drowning due to its waterlogged geography. Current data collection systems capture few drowning deaths in this region. Methods A community-based survey was conducted in the Sundarbans to determine the drowning mortality rate for children aged 1 to 4 years and 5 to 9 years. A community knowledge approach was used. Meetings were held with community residents and key informants to identify drowning deaths in the population. Identified deaths were verified by the child's household through a structured survey, inquiring on the circumstances around the drowning death. Results The drowning mortality rate for children aged 1 to 4 years was 243.8 per 100 000 children and for 5 to 9 years was 38.8 per 100 000 children. 58.0% of deaths were among children aged 1 to 2 years. No differences in rates between boys and girls were found. Most children drowned in ponds within 50 metres of their homes. Children were usually unaccompanied with their primary caretaker engaged in household work. A minority of children were treated by formal health providers. Conclusions Drowning is a major cause of death among children in the Sundarbans, particularly those aged 1 to 4 years. Interventions keeping children in safe spaces away from water are urgently required. The results illustrate how routine data collection systems grossly underestimate drowning deaths, emphasising the importance of community-based surveys in capturing these deaths in rural low- and middle-income country contexts. The community knowledge approach provides a low-resource, validated methodology for this purpose.


R1-20, a novel mAb reacting with a cell surface Ag on normal human lymphocytes and leukemic cell lines, was shown to induce homotypic cell aggregation in leukemic cell lines. This phenomenon was specific to mAb R1-20 because antibodies recognizing CD2, CD7, CD28, and HLA-ABC failed to exhibit homotypic cell aggregation. Induction of aggregation by mAb R1-20 occurred at 37 degrees C, but not at 4 degrees C and required cytoskeletal integrity. Sodium azide, a metabolic inhibitor, had no effect on the aggregation. Distinct from lymphocyte function-associated Ag-1/intercellular adhesion molecule-1 interaction in which divalent cations are essential elements, R1-20-mediated aggregation was not abolished with EDTA treatment. The R1-20 Ag was determined as a molecule of M(r) 100 to 110 kDa in immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting methods, under both reducing and nonreducing conditions. The molecular composition is quite different from that of any known integrin molecule. The R1-20 Ag was expressed on resting and activated T Lymphocytes as well as on normal B lymphocytes. Monocytes and granulocytes had no detectable R1-20 Ag. Among the leukemia-derived cell lines we used, mAb R1-20 reacted with 18 of 32 T cell lines, 2 of 20 B cell lines, 2 of 3 non-T-non-B cell lines, 2 of 7 myelomonocytic cell lines, and 2 of 3 nonlymphoid-nonmyeloid cell lines. All EBV-transformed B cell lines examined (10 cell lines) were R1-20+. The spectrum of reactivity among the cell lines tested was different from that of known antiadhesion antibodies tested. All these findings indicate that the Ag recognized by mAb R1-20 may represent a new type of cell adhesion molecule.


Congenital adrenal hyperplasia congenital disease the cause of which is a genetic defect in the enzymes involved in the synthesis of corticosteroids, and transport proteins leading to hyperandrogenism and is accompanied by abnormalities of internal and external genitalia of girls (virilization). It occurs with a frequency according to the different sources from 1: 5000 to 1: 67000. The article is devoted to the clinical case of reconstructive surgery on the genitals of the girl with impaired formation of sex, namely with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.


An adaptive multi-scale conjugate gradient method for distributed parameter estimations (or inverse problems) of wave equation is presented. The identification of the coefficients of wave equations in two dimensions is considered. First, the conjugate gradient method for optimization is adopted to solve the inverse problems. Second,the idea of multi-scale inversion and the necessary conditions that the optimal solution should be the fixed point of multi-scale inversion method isconsidered. An adaptive multi-scale inversion method for the inverse problem is developed in conjunction with the conjugate gradient method. Finally, some numerical results are shown to indicate the robustness and effectiveness of our method.


This paper explores the relation of the delusion of omnipotence to masochism and suggests that this fantasy constitutes a major component of the resistance so prominent in work with masochistic patients. The connections among masochism, omnipotence, negative therapeutic reaction, and clinging to pain are discussed. The classical view has been that the failure of infantile omnipotence forces the child to turn to reality. Our experience with masochistic patients suggests that it is the real failure to achieve competent interactions with others that forces the child to turn to omnipotent solutions. The distinction is made between fantasies that enhance the real capacities of the self and those aimed at denying and transforming the pain and inadequacy of the mother–child relationship. The epigenetic transformations of omnipotent fantasies through all levels of development are described. The patient's need to protect the omnipotent fantasy is discussed in relation to resistance at each phase of analysis.


Background Over the last decade neonatal transport services (TS) have developed significantly as networks have been established. The responsibility of the TS is to transfer sick neonates for specialist care usually to level III units for medical or surgical treatment.1 Medical and nursing expertise in network units varies, with staff on neonatal tertiary intensive care units managing neonatal deaths more frequently. This study aims to review deaths across a single network particularly considering cases that were referred for transfer. Methods A retrospective review of neonatal deaths and the infants referred to the TS between January 2011 and December 2012. Data was collected from the network SEND and TS databases. Results Over 2 years there were approximately 150,000 live births in the network, with 1445 (1%) infants referred as an emergency for neonatal TS. There were 219 deaths with an overall mortality rate of 1.46 deaths per 1000 live births. The gestational age of babies who died was median 28 (range 23–41) weeks and birth weight 900 (400–3500) gram. Of these 219 babies 107 (49%) were referred for neonatal transfer. Of the referrals, 73 (68%) transfers were completed with 14 (19%) of these babies dying within 24 h, 13 (18%) dying between 24 – 48 h and 46 (63%) dying more than 48 h after transfer. Of the 34 cases that were not transferred 15 (44%) died before the TS was despatched, 18 (53%) were deemed too sick to transfer by the TS after arrival in the referring unit and 1 (3%) transfer was declined by the parents. Conclusion The study demonstrates that careful communication between TS and local consultants has avoided the unnecessary transfer of a small number of neonates in whom it was felt that death was inevitable. A small but significant number of transferred infants die within 24 h of transfer. It could be argued that these babies should not have been moved. However the reasons for transfer may be more complicated: with parents wanting everything possible done or local clinicians wanting to work with specialist centres in managing all aspects of care including a neonatal death. Reference BAPM criteria (2001) for emergency transfer.


Two networked embedded systems for existent power equipment are designed in this paper to achieve the goal of remote control and monitoring. Since the basic requirement of industrial control and monitoring systems is the response time; therefore, time constraint is the first consideration in designing networked embedded systems. Telnet and Web server are the commonly used Internet functions for embedded systems. The embedded Web server based system is definitely the better choice for power equipment control and monitoring. However, due to the response time constraint, memory capacity and processing power of embedded systems, a Telnet based system is also presented in this paper. Since RS232 is the most popular communication media for existent power equipment; the developed embedded system is deigned to communicate with the existent power equipment by RS232. After the data retrieved from the power equipment, the designed system can transmit those data to remote control center via the Internet. The experimental platform shown in this paper is a Samsung S3C4510-based embedded system. The embedded system features uCLinux operating system; therefore, the design and implementation of these proposed networked systems could be more effective. Experimental results show that the designed networked embedded systems can be integrated into power equipment effectively.


The experiment was conducted at the lath house in the nursery of Bakrajo Technical Institute campus, Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Bakrajo, Sulaimani city, Iraq, during 2021-2022, in order to study the effect of the date of taking cuttings (October 15th, November 15th, and December 15th) and IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) concentration (0, 2000, 4000 and 6000 mg. L-1) on rooting, some vegetative and root growth characteristics of red tip photinia, Photinia x fraseri. A two-factor experiment was carried out according to a complete randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The results showed that the cuttings taken on November 15th were significantly superior in most of the studied parameters; rooting percentage (10.0%), shoot length (7.00 cm), number of shoots per plant (1.0), number of leaves per plant (5.0), average leaf area (21.07 cm2), shoot fresh weight (1.32 g), shoot dry weight (0.39 g), shoot diameter (1.95 mm), longest root (7.33 cm), average root number per plant (1.67), root fresh weight (0.55 g) and root dry weight (0.20 g). While, IBA at 6000 mg. L-1 caused significant differences in most of the previously mentioned parameters, giving the values 43.33%, 25.67, 1.67, 15.33, 77.28, 13.61, 5.39, 4.31, 27.33, 6.33, 2.48, and 0.71 respectively. Additionally, the interaction between the three cutting times; (October, November and December) and four concentrations of IBA; (0, 2000, 4000, 6000 mg. L-1), the interaction of concentration 6000 mg. L-1 of IBA and the date November 15th showed significant superiority in all studied parameters.


Purpose: Subconjunctival fibrosis is one of the main causes of failure of glaucoma filtration surgery. It can result in absence of a filtration bleb, a small scarred bleb, or a cystic bleb. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), mitomycin C (MMC), and topical steroids have been used to suppress subconjunctival fibrosis.
Method: A study was done analyzing the number of postoperative subconjunctival 5-FU injections for trabeculectomy on pseudophakic eyes prior to and following the change to a BAK-free regimen. The cohort consisted of 16 consecutive cases undergoing primary trabeculectomy without intraoperative MMC or 5-FU. The trabeculectomy surgery included a groove sclerectomy procedure. Group A were 8 eyes of patients who had the author's standard Chlorsig, Maxidex, and Prednefrin Forte eye drops tds. Group B were 8 eyes who had Chlorsig-dexamethasone and Optive-dexamethasone tds eye drops postoperatively.
Results: Group B (BAK-free) patients required fewer postoperative 5-FU subconjunctival injections (average: 2.9, range: 1-5 injections) compared to Group A (BAK) patients (average: 7.3, range: 4-18 injections). This difference was statistically significant (P = 0.02, unpaired t-test). All patients had functioning blebs and did not require glaucoma medications to maintain target intraocular pressure. The Group B (BAK-free) patients had more diffuse blebs than the Group A (BAK) patients.
Conclusion: The results demonstrated that when BAK was eliminated from postoperative eye drops in trabeculectomy, the number of postoperative 5-FU injections was reduced.


Venlafaxine pharmacotherapy in meperidine addiction and chronic pain comorbidity: a case report Meperidine (pethidine) is a sythetic opioid substance with high addiction potential with medical use. Cases of meperidine abuse and addiction developed after iatrogenic meperidine use have been presented in the literature. Venlafaxine and other SNRIs were shown in clinical trials to alleviate pain and depressive symptoms. In this report, we present a case of iatrogenic meperidin addiction that started after the use of the drug for chronic pain treatment. The treatment for addiction was completed in Research, Treatment and Training Center for Alcohol and Substance Dependence (AMATEM) along with the succesfull treatment of chronic pain and depression with venlafaxine pharmacotherapy.


Regional projections of future climate with associated uncertainty estimates are increasingly being demanded. Generally, such scenarios rely on a finite number of model projections and are accompanied by considerable uncertainties which cannot be fully quantified. Consequently, probabilistic climate projections are conditioned on several subjective assumptions which can be treated in a Bayesian framework. In this study, a recently developed Bayesian multi‐model combination algorithm is applied to regional climate model simulations from the ENSEMBLES project to generate probabilistic projections for Switzerland. The seasonal temperature and precipitation scenarios are calculated relative to 1980–2009 for three 30‐year scenario periods (centred at 2035, 2060, and 2085), three regions, and the A1B emission scenario. Projections for two further emission scenarios are obtained by pattern scaling. Key to the Bayesian algorithm is the determination of prior distributions about climatic parameters. It is shown that the prior choice of model projection uncertainty ultimately determines the uncertainty in the climate change signal. Here, we assume that model uncertainty is fully sampled by the climate models available. We have extended the algorithm such that internal decadal variability is also included in all scenario calculations. The A1B scenarios show a significant rise in temperature increasing from 0.9–1.4 °C by 2035 (depending upon region and season), to 2.0–2.9 °C by 2060, and to 2.7–4.1 °C by 2085. Mean precipitation changes are subject to large uncertainties with median changes close to zero. Significant signals are seen towards the end of the century with a summer drying of 18–24% depending on region, and a likely increase of winter precipitation in Switzerland south of the Alps. The A2 scenario implies a warming of 3.2–4.8 °C, and a summer drying of 21–28% by 2085, while in case of the mitigation scenario RCP3PD, climate change could be stabilized to 1.2–1.8 °C of warming and 8–10% of drying. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society


This paper presents a new method of minimum volume class for hyperspectral unmixing, termed minimum volume simplex analysis (MVSA). The underlying mixing model is linear; i.e., the mixed hyperspectral vectors are modeled by a linear mixture of the end-member signatures weighted by the correspondent abundance fractions. MVSA approaches hyperspectral unmixing by fitting a minimum volume simplex to the hyperspectral data, constraining the abundance fractions to belong to the probability simplex. The resulting optimization problem is solved by implementing a sequence of quadratically constrained subproblems. In a final step, the hard constraint on the abundance fractions is replaced with a hinge type loss function to account for outliers and noise. We illustrate the state-of-the-art performance of the MVSA algorithm in unmixing simulated data sets. We are mainly concerned with the realistic scenario in which the pure pixel assumption (i.e., there exists at least one pure pixel per end member) is not fulfilled. In these conditions, the MVSA yields much better performance than the pure pixel based algorithms.


This project's objective was to generate experimental data to evaluate the impact of metals doped B20 on diesel particle filter (DPF) ash loading and performance compared to that of conventional petrodiesel. The effect of metals doped B20 vs. conventional diesel on a DPF was quantified in a laboratory controlled accelerated ash loading study. The ash loading was conducted on two DPFs – one using ULSD fuel and the other on B20 containing metals dopants equivalent to 4 ppm B100 total metals. Engine oil consumption and B20 metals levels were accelerated by a factor of 5, with DPFs loaded to 30 g/L of ash. Details of the ash loading experiment and on-engine DPF performance evaluations are presented in the companion paper (Part I). The DPFs were cleaned, and ash samples were taken from the cleaned material. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were conducted on the ash samples. Core samples were taken from the cleaned DPF and were subjected to scanning electron microscope energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and XRF analysis. A comparison of the data from the two DPFs is presented. The XRD and XPS analysis showed that the compounds present in the ash from the two DPFs were nearly identical, though differing in concentrations. CaSO4 was the biggest component of the ash from both DPFs. The metals doped B20 fuel resulted in ash with similar characteristics to that deposited by the lube oil and did not appear to have any deleterious physical effects on the DPF substrate (did not penetrate the substrate).


Present study was aimed to investigate fumigant toxicity of essential oils extracted from Lippia citrodora Kunth., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Mentha piperita L. and Juniperus Sabina L. against adults of cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus (Col.: Bruchidae). Essential oils were extracted from aerial parts of plants via hydrodistillation. Adults (1-7 days old) of insects were exposed to a series of concentrations of essential oils for 24 h and then the numbers of dead and alive insects were counted. Results showed that essential oil of M. piperita (LC50 7.86 µl/L air) was significantly more toxic than L. citrodora (LC50 187.51 µl/L air), J. Sabina (LC50 134.35 µl/L air) and R. officinalis (LC50 46.81 µl/L air). Results of this investigation suggested that essential oils of these plants could be used as safe fumigants for controlling of C. maculatus in small scales.


The thalamus is a subcortical gray matter structure that plays a key role in relaying sensory and motor signals within the brain. Its nuclei can atrophy or otherwise be affected by neurological disease and injuries including mild traumatic brain injury. Segmenting both the thalamus and its nuclei is challenging because of the relatively low contrast within and around the thalamus in conventional magnetic resonance (MR) images. This paper explores imaging features to determine key tissue signatures that naturally cluster, from which we can parcellate thalamic nuclei. Tissue contrasts include T1-weighted and T2-weighted images, MR diffusion measurements including FA, mean diffusivity, Knutsson coefficients that represent fiber orientation, and synthetic multi-TI images derived from FGATIR and T1-weighted images. After registration of these contrasts and isolation of the thalamus, we use the uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) method for dimensionality reduction to produce a low-dimensional representation of the data within the thalamus. Manual labeling of the thalamus provides labels for our UMAP embedding from which k nearest neighbors can be used to label new unseen voxels in that same UMAP embedding. N-fold cross-validation of the method reveals comparable performance to state-of-the-art methods for thalamic parcellation.


A primary goal of ecosystem-based fishery management is to reduce non-target stock impacts, such as incidental harvest, during targeted fisheries. Quantifying incidental harvest has generally incorporated fishery-dependent catch data, yet such data may be biased by gear non-retention, observation difficulties, and non-random harvest patterns that collectively lead to an impartial understanding of non-target stock capture. To account for such issues and explicitly recognize the combined influence of ecological and harvest factors contributing to incidental capture within targeted fisheries, we demonstrate a probabilistic modelling framework that incorporates: (i) background rates of target and non-target stock co-occurrence as the primary ecological basis for incidental harvest; (ii) the probability of harvesting at localities exhibiting co-occurrences; (iii) the probability of selecting for non-target species with fishery gear; and, (iv) as a function of harvest effort, the overall probability of incidental capture for any non-target stock contained in the species pool available for harvest. To illustrate application of the framework, simulation models were based on fishery-independent data from a freshwater fishery in Ontario, Canada. Harvest simulations of empirical stock data indicated that greatest species-specific capture values were over 4000 times more likely than for species with lowest values, indicating highly variable capture probabilities because of the combined influence of stock heterogeneity and harvest dynamics. Estimated bycatch–effort relationships will allow forecasting incidental harvest on the basis of effort to evaluate future shifts in fishing activity against specific ecosystem-based fishery management objectives, such as reducing the overall probability of bycatch while maintaining target landings.


Dimensional arguments lead to say that N excitons in a sample of volume V behave as bosons for λNax3/V 1, ax being the exciton radius and λ a dimensionless factor. The Mott criterion, which is based on the disappearance of all exciton bound states because of screening, gives λ 1. Since excitons feel each other through both Coulomb interaction and Pauli exclusion between their electrons and holes, criteria based on the underlying fermionic character of the exciton should be even more relevant. Two significant quantities are the boson departure 1 − [B,B†] and boson number B†B, where B† is the exciton creation operator. Their expectation values in the N-exciton state are close to their boson values for λ ~ 100 and λ ~ 50, respectively. By contrast, the expectation value of BN(B†)N in the vacuum state is close to N! for 25N2ax3/V 1 only. This surprising N2-dependence comes from the intrinsic N-body character of Pauli exclusion. Consequences of these new criteria on the Bose condensation of excitons are discussed.


We aim to investigate the drivers and barriers of eco-innovations in Calabria and the role of intermediaries to enhance in the organizations the concept of sustainable development. We analyse three case studies of environmentally sustainable companies. Our analysis shows that several critical issues need to be addressed by national and regional policies to remove relevant barriers to these investments. The interwied companies identified these difficulties mainly in the problems to access credits and get funds alongside to the excess of complicate beaurocracy. On the other side, the attention for the environmental issues and the opportunity to promote products and services with a lower environmental impact on the market, in order to obtain a competitive advantage and possibly increase the turnover and customer portfolio, represents the most pushing factor for the adoption of radical eco-innovations. Nevertheless, intermediaries play an important role as these companies have in common that they had the possibility to benefit from the expertises and competences of a provider of services.


A simple technique is described for the acquisition of coronal computed tomographic images of the wrist without positioning or immobilizing devices. The technique was used in four cases in which the radiographs were equivocal, to assess healing after scaphoid bone fracture or grafting. The greater resolution of the images provided more definitive information about healing.


Software-induced delays have a significant impact on real-time control system performance. While in extreme cases, jitter caused by execution time variations or start-time delays may compromise stability, such effects are often ignored in model-based approaches and simulations. We address this issue and discuss a Simulink block with a fundamentally new semantics that is used to encapsulate control functions as software tasks. It is particularly suited to model and observe software delays in complex control functions within software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations. For this purpose, the controller source code is associated with platform-specific execution time information, which we assume to be available. We detail a synchronization mechanism between Simulink and such time-annotated task blocks implementing the control laws. It allows us to perform SIL simulations where controllers execute for a finite amount of simulation time and span multiple simulation steps at which they may interact with other controllers or the plant.


Significance Most forms of life on Earth cannot exist without photosynthesis. Our food and atmosphere depend on it. To obtain high photosynthetic yields, light energy must be efficiently coupled to the fixation of CO2 into organic molecules. Suboptimal environmental conditions can severely impact the conversion of light energy to biomass and lead to reactive oxygen production, which in turn can cause cellular damage and loss of productivity. Hence, plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria have evolved a network of alternative outlets to sustain the flow of photosynthetically derived electrons. Our work is focused on the nature and integration of these outlets, which will inform a rational engineering of crop plants and algae to optimize photosynthesis and meet the increased global demand for food. Environmental stresses dramatically impact the balance between the production of photosynthetically derived energetic electrons and Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle (CBBC) activity; an imbalance promotes accumulation of reactive oxygen species and causes cell damage. Hence, photosynthetic organisms have developed several strategies to route electrons toward alternative outlets that allow for storage or harmless dissipation of their energy. In this work, we explore the activities of three essential outlets associated with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii photosynthetic electron transport: (i) reduction of O2 to H2O through flavodiiron proteins (FLVs) and (ii) plastid terminal oxidases (PTOX) and (iii) the synthesis of starch. Real-time measurements of O2 exchange have demonstrated that FLVs immediately engage during dark-to-light transitions, allowing electron transport when the CBBC is not fully activated. Under these conditions, we quantified maximal FLV activity and its overall capacity to direct photosynthetic electrons toward O2 reduction. However, when starch synthesis is compromised, a greater proportion of the electrons is directed toward O2 reduction through both the FLVs and PTOX, suggesting an important role for starch synthesis in priming/regulating CBBC and electron transport. Moreover, partitioning energized electrons between sustainable (starch; energetic electrons are recaptured) and nonsustainable (H2O; energetic electrons are not recaptured) outlets is part of the energy management strategy of photosynthetic organisms that allows them to cope with the fluctuating conditions encountered in nature. Finally, unmasking the repertoire and control of such energetic reactions offers new directions for rational redesign and optimization of photosynthesis to satisfy global demands for food and other resources.


Despite the fact that it is the prevalent view that insulin resistance is the main genetic factor predisposing to development of type 2 diabetes, review of several lines of evidence in the literature indicates a lack of overwhelming support for this concept. In fact, the literature better supports the case of impaired insulin secretion being the initial and main genetic factor predisposing to type 2 diabetes, especially 1) the studies in people at high risk to subsequently develop type 2 diabetes (discordant monozygotic twins and women with previous gestational diabetes), 2) the studies demonstrating compete alleviation of insulin resistance with weight loss, and 3) the studies finding that people with type 2 diabetes or IGT can have impaired insulin secretion and no insulin resistance compared with well matched NGT subjects. The fact that insulin resistance may be largely an acquired problem in no way lessens its importance in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Life style changes (exercise, weight reduction) and pharmacological agents (e.g., biguanides and thiazolidendiones) that reduce insulin resistance or increase insulin sensitivity clearly have major beneficial effects (122, 144-146, 153-155).


Combining academics and athletics is challenging but important for the psychological and psychosocial development of those involved. However, little is known about how experiences in academics spill over and relate to athletics. Drawing on the enrichment mechanisms proposed by the Work-Home Resources model, we posit that study crafting behaviours are positively related to volatile personal resources, which, in turn, are related to higher athletic achievement. Via structural equation modelling, we examine a path model among 243 student-athletes, incorporating study crafting behaviours and personal resources (i.e., positive a ff ect and study engagement), and self- and coach-rated athletic achievement measured two weeks later. Results show that optimising the academic environment by crafting challenging study demands relates positively to positive a ff ect and study engagement. In turn, positive a ff ect related positively to self-rated athletic achievement, whereas – unexpectedly – study engagement related negatively to coach-rated athletic achievement. Optimising the academic environment through cognitive crafting and crafting social study resources did not relate to athletic outcomes. We discuss how these fi ndings o ff er new insights into the interplay between academics and athletics. Hypothesis 3: Study crafting is indirectly related to athletic training performance, via (a) positive a ff ect and (b) study engagement.


Global public goods, differently from what it might be thought, are quite common in the real world. This work suggests that both the governments' struggle against Mafia and the prevention of immigration can be regarded as global public goods. We assume a federation of jurisdictions with two tiers of Government: the central and the local. Regional utility directly represents the preferences of citizens, since the local governments aim at individualistic utility maximization; central government uses the redistribution of resources among the members of the federation to maximize the social welfare which is given, as usual, by the sum of regional utilities. The Central Government aims at welfare maximization. To get its goal it has to find out the efficient way to fund and provide public goods taking into account not only their particular characteristics but also the fact that, in many circumstances, their production faces increasing cost, which may depend both on the quantity of good produced and on the type (high or low cost) of the producer (which, in this framework, coincides with the jurisdiction). Thus the first issue addressed by the paper concerns the choice between central and local provision. Furthermore, as far as the informational structure is concerned, the centre lacks information concerning the type of each region. Thus, the central government's key informational problem concerns the regional costs and quantities with regard both to the public and the private good. Indeed we assume that the centre can observe the expenditure levels but neither the costs nor the outputs associated with those expenditure levels.


Human populations are increasingly exposed to various carcinogens such as chemicals, radiation, and viruses in the environment. Chemopreventive drugs of plant origin are a promising strategy for cancer control because they are generally nontoxic or less toxic than synthetic che-mopreventive agents, and can be effective at different stages of carcinogenesis. The present investigation was undertaken to explore the antitumor activity of topical treatment with aloe vera (Aloe vera) gel, oral treatment with aloe vera extract, and topical and oral treatment with both gel and extract in stage-2 skin carcinogenesis in Swiss albino mice induced by 7,12-dim ethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) and promoted croton (Croton tiglium) oil. The animals were randomly divided into 4 groups and treated as follows: Group I, DMBA + croton oil only (controls); Group II, DMBA + croton oil + topical aloe vera gel; Group III, DMBA + croton oil + oral aloe vera extract; Group I V, DMBA + croton oil + topical aloe vera gel + oral aloe vera extract. Results showed that body weight was significantly increased from 78.6% in the control group (Group I) to 92.5%, 87.5%, and 90.0% in Groups II, III, and I V, respectively. A 100% incidence of tumor development was noted in Group I, which was decreased to 50%, 60%, and 40% in Groups II, III, and I V, respectively. Also in Groups II, III, and IV, the cumulative number of papillomas was reduced significantly from 36 to 12, 15, and 11; tumor yield from 3.6 to 1.2, 1.5, and 1.1; and tumor burden from 3.6 to 2.4, 2.50, and 2.75, respectively, after treatment with aloe vera. Conversely, the average latent period increased significantly from 4.9 (Group I) to 5.23, 5.0, and 6.01 weeks in Groups II, III, and I V, respectively. We conclude that aloe vera protects mice against DMBA/croton oil-induced skin papillomagenesis, likely due to the chemopreventive activity of high concentrations of antioxidants such as vitamins A, C, and E; glutathione peroxidase; several isozymes of superoxide dismutase; the minerals selenium and zinc; and polysaccharides in aloe vera.


The spudcan foundation has been widely used in offshore engineering for jack-up rigs. However, "punch through" failure often occurs where a stronger soil layer overlays a softer soil layer. In this study, spudcan penetration into double layered soils is investigated numerically. The soil profile is set up as a stronger soil layer overlaying a softer soil layer, with the soil strength ratio (bottom soil strength / top soil strength) varied from 0.1 to 1.0 (1 means uniform soil). The bearing behaviour is discussed and the bearing capacity factors are given for various cases involving different layer thicknesses and different strength ratios of the two clay layers. The development of the plastic zones and the effect of soil self-weight on the bearing capacity are also discussed. From this study, it is found that, when a spudcan is distant from the soil layer boundary, the spudcan can be analysed with single soil layer data. However, when a spudcan becomes closer to the soil boundary layer, the influence of the lower soft soil layer is significant, and the bearing capacity of the spudcan decreases. The critical distance is an indication of the occurrence of "punch through" failure. The critical distance between the spudcan and the layer boundary is larger for a rough spudcan than the one for a smooth one, and the critical distance decreases with increasing soil strength ratio. The depth of cavity formed during initial spudcan penetration depends on the top layer soil strength, soil strength ratio and unit soil self-weight, and the cavity affects the spudcan bearing behaviour as well.


The rapid increase of wireless LAN (WLAN) deployments in enterprises and public places will likely cause frequent geographical coverage overlap among different domains. This work presents a radio resource broker (RRB) architecture that ensures fair allocation of radio resources across domains. The RRB keeps track of each provider's resource usage, and enforces fair resource allocation across providers by limiting the number of available channels or introducing network-initiated load balancing. We derive an empirical workload model based on measurements from a university-campus environment, and then use it to evaluate our approach with simulated dynamic radio resource usage. The simulation results demonstrate that channel compensation and load balancing are effective for redistributing radio resources fairly over a long time span, and that load balancing also performs well over a short span.


By using histochemical methods, the binding pattern of various lectins in the epithelium of normal human appendix vermiformis was assessed. In addition to plant and invertebrate sugar receptors with nominal monosaccharide specificity for alpha-L-Fuc (UEA-I), alpha-D-Man and alpha-D-Gluc (Con A), alpha-D-GalNAc (DBA), D-GalNAc (SBA, HPA) beta-D-Gal (RCA-I) and D-Gal (VAA), a mammalian beta-galactoside-specific lectin (MW, 14 kDa) was included in the applied panel. The apical surface of enterocytes presented binding sites for RCA-I on all cells, binding sites of UEA-I, DBA, SBA, HPA and VAA heterogeneously and no binding sites of Con A and 14 kDa. Binding sites of DBA, SBA, HPA, VAA and RCA-I within enterocytes were located primarily focally in a supranuclear position, whereas Con A and 14 kDa bound to the cytoplasm both in apical and basal cell parts. In the follicle-associated epithelium more enterocytes expressed SBA- and VAA-binding sites than in the crypt epithelium. No differences between the lectin-binding pattern of M-cells and enterocytes were found in the follicle-associated epithelium. Intraepithelial macrophages were heterogeneously positive for the full panel of applied lectins. In contrast, intraepithelial lymphatic cells expressed binding sites only for RCA-I and less prominently for Con A, VAA and 14 kDa. Goblet cell mucus contained lectin-binding sites in a heterogeneous manner: binding sites for Con A were not detected in goblet cells for DBA, SBA, VAA and 14 kDa in less than 20%, for UEA-I in 20-40%, for HPA in 40-60% and for RCA-I in 60-100% of the goblet cells. Secreted mucus differed in its lectin-binding capacity from intracellular goblet cell mucus selectively by an increase of UEA-I, SBA- and RCA-I-binding sites and a lack of 14 kDa-binding sites. Comparative study of lectin binding to goblet cell mucin in another region of the large intestine, namely the rectosigmoid, demonstrated that DBA, SBA and 14 kDa bound mainly to the distal colon, while UEA-I and VAA labelling was selectively found in appendiceal goblet cell mucin. Comparing the lectin-binding pattern in normal appendix epithelium and in appendicitis, the percentage of goblet cells expressing DBA- and SBA-binding sites in mucus globules was found to be about 4 times higher in appendicitis than in normal appendix.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


The presentation, treatment, and outcome of 28 patients with aspergilloma and cavitary tuberculosis (14) and sarcoidosis (14) were compared. Patients with tuberculosis had localized disease (12 of 14, 86 percent), whereas patients with sarcoidosis had diffuse disease (1 of 14, 7 percent localized). Results indicated that patients with either sarcoid or tuberculosis who developed an aspergilloma had a poor prognosis over the next decade. Patients with sarcoid appeared to have a worse short-term prognosis; surgical resection in the tuberculosis patients may have contributed to their better short-term survival.


Reduction of Zr(IV) metallocenium cations with sodium amalgam (NaHg) produces EPR signals assignable to Zr(III) metallocene complexes. The chloro-bridged heterodinuclear ansa-zirconocenium cation [(SBI)Zr(μ-Cl)2AlMe2](+) (SBI = rac-dimethylsilylbis(1-indenyl)), present in toluene solution as its B(C6F5)4(-) salt, thus gives rise to an EPR signal assignable to the complex (SBI)Zr(III)(μ-Cl)2AlMe2, while (SBI)Zr(III)-Me and (SBI)Zr(III)(μ-H)2Al(i)Bu2 are formed by reduction of [(SBI)Zr(μ-Me)2AlMe2](+) B(C6F5)4(-) and [(SBI)Zr(μ-H)3(Al(i)Bu2)2](+) B(C6F5)4(-), respectively. These products can also be accessed, along with (SBI)Zr(III)-(i)Bu and [(SBI)Zr(III)](+) AlR4(-), when (SBI)ZrMe2 is allowed to react with HAl(i)Bu2, eliminating isobutane en route to the Zr(III) complex. Further studies concern interconversion reactions between these and other (SBI)Zr(III) complexes and reaction mechanisms involved in their formation.


Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is reported to result in both respiratory and non-respiratory severe health outcomes, but quantitative assessment of the risk - while adjusting for underlying risk driven by comorbidities - is not yet established. Methods: A retrospective observational study using electronic health records of 9,344,021 individuals across the U.S. with at-least 1 year of clinical history and followed up throughout 2020. Results: 131,329 individuals were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection by January 6, 2021 in three distinct surges. While the age and number of preexisting conditions had decreased throughout the pandemic, the characteristics of those who experienced severe health events did not. During the second surge, between June 7 and November 18, 2020, 425,988 individuals in the base cohort were admitted to emergency rooms or hospitals. Among them, 15,486 were detected with SAR-CoV-2 within few days of admission. Significant adjusted odds ratios were observed between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the following severe health events: respiratory (4.38, 95% confidence interval 4.16-4.62), bacterial pneumonia (3.25, 2.76-3.83), sepsis (1.71, 1.53-1.91), renal (1.69, 1.57-1.83), hematologic/immune (1.32, 1.20-1.45), and neurological (1.23, 1.09-1.38). Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection among hospitalized patients is associated with non-negligible increased risk of severe events including multiple non-respiratory ones. These associations, which complement recent studies, are persistent even after accounting for sources of selection and confounding bias, increasing the confidence they are not spurious.


ABSTRACT Ninety-nine Ordovician oil shale localities have been found on Southampton Island, extending from Duke of York Bay south to Sixteen Mile Brook and east to the East and Junction Bay areas, a distance of about 200 mi (322 km). The shales tend to occur in a linear belt near the Ordovician/Silurian contact. In almost all cases the shales occur as minor constituents of carbonate rubble. Outcrops and/or drilling indicate that the shale is interbedded with carbonates over a 50 ft (15 m) interval in high Richmondian strata at or near the top of the Churchill River Group. Analyses up to 35 gallons of oil per ton have been determined, with analyses averaging about 13 gallons per ton. Oil shales have also been reported from a slightly lower horizon, between the Churchill River and Bad Cache Rapids Groups -- approximately Edenian and/or Maysvillian. Analysis and areal extent of these are not known.


Objective To study the effects of risperidone on serum homocysteine,lipoprotein a and thyroid hormone in patients with initial episodic schizophrenia.Methods Fifty patients with initial episodic schizophrenia treated with a 8-week course of risperidone were subjected to measurement of serum homocysteine,lipoprotein a and thyroid hormone prior to and following the treatment.Results Treatment of risperidone resulted in a marked reduction in FT3 [(3.30±0.60) ng/L vs (3.10±0.60) ng/L] and T4[(9.23± 2.25) mg/L vs (8.54± 1.71) mg/L,(both P<0.05)].The changes in FT4,T3,TSH,homocysteine and lipoproteina from baseline were unremarkable (all P>0.05).Conclusion Long-term administration of antipsvchotic drugs necessitates monitoring of thyroid hormones.


This paper describes the design of the ac auxiliary power distribution system of a large multi-unit thermal power station located near Cairo, Egypt. The design features unitized auxiliary systems, shared start-up sources, and a combustion turbine-generator capable of feeding into each unit's electrical auxiliary system. The combustion turbine -generator is utilized both for black start of the station and to supply peaking power when required by the utility system. The auxiliary system configuration and the interrelationship of the design between units provide flexibility for operations and sufficient redundancy to ensure reliable sources of power for plant auxiliaries.


The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of red beet extract addition to melon marshmallow product towards the antioxidant activities, physical characteristic and sensory properties. The method that used in this study were folin ciocalteu methods for total phenol test, DPPH (1,1-diphenil, -2 picrylhydrazyl) method that used for the antioxidant activity test, penetrometer methods was used for hardness test, and hedonic scale for the sensory test. The result of this study showed that 15% addition of red beet extract was the best treatment towards antioxidant activities which has 83,42% inhibitions, IC 50 value of 145,27 µg/mL. Furthermore, the treatment of 15% red beet extract addition also showed physical characteristic value (hardness) of 79,78 mm/g/s which is the closest value to commercial marshmallow. The treatment which has the best result of sensory properties was 10% red beet extract addition, that is 3,34 (neutral). Keywords : Antioxidant, Red Beet, Melon, Marshmallow


This paper presents the design and analysis of Neuro-Fuzzy controller based on Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) architecture for Load frequency control of interconnected areas, to regulate the frequency deviation and power deviations. Any mismatch between generation and demand causes the system frequency to deviate from its nominal value. Thus high frequency deviation may lead to system collapse. This necessitates a very fast and accurate controller to maintain the nominal system frequency. This newly developed control strategy combines the advantage of neural networks and fuzzy inference system and has simple structure that is easy to implement. So, In order to keep system performance near its optimum, it is desirable to track the operating conditions and use updated parameters near its optimum. This ANFIS replaces the original conventional proportional Integral (PI) controller and a fuzzy logic (FL) controller were also utilizes the same area criteria error input. The advantage of this controller is that it can handle the nonlinearities at the same time it is faster than other conventional controllers. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed ANFIS based Neuro-Fuzzy controller damps out the frequency deviation and attains the steady state value with less settling time and reduces the overshoot of the different frequency deviations and also reduces the interchanged tie power.


The 18th WHO Global Tuberculosis Annual Report indicates that there were an estimated 8.6 million incident cases of tuberculosis (TB) in 2012, which included 2.9 million women and 530,000 children. TB caused 1.3 million deaths including 320,000 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people; three-quarters of deaths occurred in Africa and Southeast Asia. With one-third of the world's population latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), active TB disease is primarily associated with a break down in immune surveillance. This explains the strong link between active TB disease and other communicable diseases (CDs) or noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that exert a toll on the immune system. Comorbid NCD risk factors include diabetes, smoking, malnutrition, and chronic lung disease, all of which have increased relentlessly over the past decade in developing countries. The huge overlap between killer infections such as TB, HIV, malaria, and severe viral infections with NCDs, results in a "double burden of disease" in developing countries. The current focus on vertical disease programs fails to recognize comorbidities or to encourage joint management approaches. This review highlights major disease overlaps and discusses the rationale for better integration of tuberculosis care with services for NCDs and other infectious diseases to enhance the overall efficiency of the public health responses.