Background and Objective: Incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) varies globally from 2% to 14%. These cases in India are also increasing and emerging as a major public health problem. The prevalence of GDM among urban population of India has been reported as 16% and 17.8%, respectively. We conducted this study at three different regions of North India to estimate the prevalence of GDM. Materials and Methods: This pilot prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at three centres of North India with a base at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, New Delhi, over a period of 10 months (December 2015–October 2016). Pregnant females attending gynaecology clinic at these centres were screened and enrolled as per the study inclusion criteria, after taking informed consent. Medical records were reviewed for recent haemoglobin levels, fasting blood sugar levels and other clinical parameters. Results: A total of 230 participants were enrolled in this study with 65 from Muzaffarpur, 65 from Bhilai and remaining 100 from Delhi, which include a mixed population. The overall prevalence of GDM was observed as 10%, with a regional prevalence of 10.77% at Bhilai, lower prevalence at Muzaffarpur (3.07%) and 14% in Delhi with a mixed population. A significant difference (P < 0.01) was observed in the mean age and body mass index of participants at Bhilai, Muzaffarpur and Delhi. Conclusion: Although there was a variable sample size at these three centres, we could conclude from this pilot study that there is a high prevalence of GDM at Bhilai district while very low prevalence at Muzaffarpur and Bihar. Large-scale studies are required to be done to estimate the prevalence in these regions, which would ultimately create awareness among clinicians to screen all females for GDM.


Survivin, a pivotal antiapoptotic protein is expressed in tumors whereas its expression in normal tissues is extremely low. It is believed that transcription of the survivin gene is driven mainly by the transcription factor Sp1. We have identified 11 potential consensus sites for GLI trancription factors in the survivin promoter, albeit non of them has been a full consensus. Interestingly, the distal part of the promoter (-1765 to -941, ending at +39) containing 4 GLI sites showed about 2-fold higher activity than the proximal promoter (-941 to +39). The survivin promoter-reporter has been found to be upregulated mainly by plasmids encoding GLI2 and deltaN-GLI2, a more active GLI2 truncated mutant. Its activity was even higher than the Sp1 activity. The promoter-reporter plasmid is also inhibited by the GLI1/2 inhibitor GANT61. Moreover, by analyzing 40 human tumor cell lines of various origin, we have found that the endogenous survivin protein level substantially decreases after the incubation with GANT61 in most cell lines. Real-time PCR for the survivin mRNA in GANT61-sensitive cell lines showed a decrease by up to about 50 per cent. These data suggest that survivin may be a novel important target regulated by the Hedgehog/GLI signaling pathway, which has been reported previously to be deregulated in the majority of tumor types. The work was supported by the grant NT/14005 from IGA, Ministry of Health, Czech Republic. Citation Format: Kateřina Vlckova, Lubica Ondrusova, Jiri Reda, Jiri Vachtenheim, Petra Zakova. Survivin is a novel target of the Hedgehog/GLI signaling pathway in human tumor cell lines. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2135. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2135


The influence of the choleretic drug methylumbilliferone on bile formation in the isolated perfused rat liver is characterized. The compound induces rapidly an elevation of bile flow, bile acid secretion and soium excretion. The increased production of bile is of canalicular origin. The choleretic effect was defined as "bile acid like" choleresis due to excretion of the drug into the bile. It is discussed that the excretion of methylumbilliferone can influence the transport of bile in form of a positive cooperation on transport mechanism.


Antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) technology in elaboration of drugs for lipid metabolism correction is discussed. The main ASO types and modes of its action on the target mRNA are analyzed. Advantages and disadvantages of different ASO are considered in the context of requirements for their therapeutic applications. Methods of ASO chemical modification; advantages and disadvantages of different ways of ASO delivery into the cells; developments state of ASO-drugs for therapy of lipid metabolism disturbances; data from clinical trials of these drugs are described.


This paper describes the causes of, and remedies for, the existence of ``shaft currents'' or ``bearing currents'' which sometimes flow across the rubbing surfaces of the bearings of electric machinery, thereby gradually damaging the shaft and bearings. Up to the present time the only cause of shaft currents that has attracted any particular attention has been the use of sectionalized stators, and the published discussions have been chiefly confined to synchronous alternators. Fleischman1 and others have shown that sectionalizing causes shaft currents for the reason that the extra reluctance of the joints causes an unequal division of the flux between the clockwise and counter-clockwise paths in the yoke, thus giving a resultant flux linking the shaft. Applying the same method of reasoning used in the case of sectionalizing to the general case of any machine with segmental punchings, the following facts are shown: 1. A principal cause of shaft currents in revolving electric machines is the use of poles and segments in certain ratios. 2. The frequency of the shaft current due to joints in the stator yoke is an odd mnultiple of the frequency of the stator flux, the frequency of the shaft currents due to rotor joints is an odd multiple of the rotor frequency, and these frequency multiples are determined by the ratios of poles to segments. 3. Machines with 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, etc., poles are especially likely to have shaft currents, and machines with 6, 10, 14, 22, etc., poles are relatively immune. 4.


Honeybee brood food, larval jelly (LJ) contains antimicrobial peptide defensin1 that is able to inhibit in vitro growth of the pathogen causing American foulbrood (AFB). This fact suggests that LJ defensin1 could participate in defense of colonies against AFB. We assume that the potential defense function of defensin1 in vivo might depend on its amount in LJs. Therefore, we investigated the expression of defensin1 in colonies. The expression was examined on protein and mRNA levels in colonies of several Apis mellifera carnica lines collected in 3 apiaries (1 infected with AFB) with the aim to identify factors influencing the expression. Levels of defensin1 were determined in royal and worker jellies by a developed immunoblot procedure employing antibodies generated against the recombinant peptide. Defensin1 mRNA levels in nurse heads were explored by dot blot hybridization using transcript of two MRJP genes for normalization. Analyzed LJs contained various amounts of defensin1 (0.159–0.524 μg/mg jelly). Higher variations in defensin1 levels were observed among LJ samples collected from different colonies than among those collected within single colony. Colonies producing LJs with elevated defensin1 levels occurred among various honeybee lines. Levels of defensin1 mRNA varied in heads of nurses and the variations correlated with defensin1 peptide levels in LJs only in some colonies. Obtained data demonstrate that defensin1 is constitutively expressed into LJs in colonies and indicate that its levels in jellies are determined by genetic factors regulating transcription and/or translation/posttranslation processes in nurses. AFB infection, larval age and type of LJ do not seem to affect the levels of the peptide in LJs. Findings made in this work suggest that it should be possible to breed novel honeybee lines expressing higher amounts of defensin1 into LJs.


Psychometric methods were used to evaluate the relative sharpness of a number of photographic reproductions in which sharpness was the only significant variable. Since sharpness is an observer's subjective impression of an aspect of picture definition, the methods for deriving sharpness values involve introspective processes and methods of quantifying these subjective impressions. Although no physical measurements of any aspect of the stimulus are involved in deriving sharpness values by the psychometric method, repeated evaluations showed that the scale values obtained are a reliable indication of the sharpness attribute of a photographic reproduction. Three methods of quantifying the judgment data were used, and the sharpness ratings obtained from all three were in good agreement with one another. Projected transparencies gave. substantially the same results as paper enlargements. Attempts to correlate the sharpness ratings with physical measurements of some aspect of the developed image were not entirely successful; neither resolving power nor simple density relationships across an abrupt boundary between light and dark areas resulted in satisfactory correlations with sharpness ratings.


Neuropathic opioid refractory phantom limb pain (PLP) following amputation can be a life long debilitating chronic pain syndrome capable of completely destroying a patient's life. The pain, its associated depression and sleep deprivation can make many patients suicidal. Ever changing and relentless, it is notoriously unresponsive to traditional cocktails of strong opioids, adjuvant pain medications, antidepressants, local anaesthetics, nerve stimulators, hypnotics and psychotropics. Drug effects are seldom more effective than placebo. We describe a successful sustained rescue of a difficult 2-year-long PLP case with sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone using the drug's potent multimodal mechanisms of action: potent long-acting mu agonist/antagonist, kapa receptor antagonist, delta receptor antagonist and novel opioid receptor-like 1 (OR-L1) agonist effects. Traditional escalating pure mu-opioid receptor agonists and adjuvant neuropathic pain cocktails often have disappointing efficacy in the treatment of resistant PLP. We suggest introducing buprenorphine/naloxone as an early effective opioid choice in PLP management.


The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Heart Association launched a multi-faceted national partnership in 2018, Know Diabetes by Heart™, to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths, heart attacks and strokes in people living with type 2 diabetes. To support this initiative, the ADA's Diabetes INSIDE® (DI) program formed a mid-Atlantic quality improvement (QI) collaborative of five academic medical centers and a health information exchange (HIE) with partners from primary care, endocrinology, cardiology, nephrology, nursing, pharmacy, health IT, diabetes education, population health and industry. The collaborative's goal is to accelerate clinical adoption of recent CVD findings using population health analytics, care system redesign, shared learning, provider and patient training, education, and community resources. DI works with each partner to identify, design and monitor quantifiable QI programs to address care quality gaps. The collaborative shared their initial findings and goals at a November 2019 meeting. Three systems identified opportunities to improve low use of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists in eligible patients (∼12%) or departmental prescribing gaps between primary care and cardiology vs. endocrinology (SGLT2 5% vs. 11%; GLP-1 7.5% vs. 24.6%). Other gaps included coordinating care teams and communication between inpatient and outpatient settings both within and across overlapping health systems, a gap the HIE aims to address. Other systems are implementing DM screening in cardiology clinics or training cardiologists to assume a larger role in managing patients with DM and CVD. A system with a large racial/ethnic minority population is qualitatively evaluating the social, cultural, economic, and literacy factors that facilitate or inhibit optimal care. This regional collaborative across overlapping health systems offers increased opportunity to accelerate improvement of DM and CVD care for all patients and may serve as a model for other regions. Disclosure R.E. Furman: None. F. Hill-Briggs: None. A. Iwamaye: None. C. Knight: None. T. Kouvatsos: None. Y. Lev: None. I. Lorincz: None. W.M. Marella: None. D.J. Rubin: None. M.H. Schutta: Employee; Spouse/Partner; Merck & Co., Inc. D.A. Swavely: None. L. Ward: None. E.C. Furman: None. G. Liptak: Employee; Spouse/Partner; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Funding Know Diabetes By Heart™; Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company Diabetes Alliance; Novo Nordisk; Sanofi; AstraZeneca; Bayer


Based on the second-order moments, this paper derives an analytical expression of the M2 factor of four-petal Gaussian beam. The results show that the M2 factor is only determined by the beam order n. The corresponding numerical calculations are also given. As the beam order increases, the augment of M2 factor is disciplinary. As the expression of M2 factor is expressed in series form and becomes more complicated, a new concise formula of M2 factor is also presented by using curve fitting of numerical calculations. When 3 ≤ n ≤ 200, the maximum error rate of fitting formula will not exceed 2.6% and the average error rate is 0.28%. This research is helpful to the applications of four-petal Gaussian beam.


We develop a model that allows us to understand the cyclicality of part and full-time employment. In the model, labor market frictions generate a surplus between workers and firms, who jointly decide whether their employment relationship is best suited for part or full-time work based on match quality shocks and the broader economic environment. Lower acyclical costs cause the surplus of part-time matches to vary less with the business cycle than the surplus of full-time matches. As a consequence, the model is able to generate procyclical full-time employment and countercyclical part-time employment as observed in the data. We also show that ignoring part-time employment understates the impact on employment and inequality of a recession and that subsidizing part-time work is far more effective than increasing unemployment insurance at preventing a labor market downturn. we show ratio


The greatest threat factor to the continued existence of businesses is the inability to adapt to an ever-changing world. In an environment where changes cannot be controlled, but businesses still have to keep up with them, the human and talent factors are of particular importance. For small, medium and large-scale enterprises, these two factors in question represent important elements – or perhaps even the most important criteria – of competition. The ability of businesses to sustain their operations by ensuring uninterrupted profit margins in the market depends directly on their ability to manage elements of competition. At this point, when businesses are effectively managed, talent management and employer brand are the most current managerial approaches capable of defeating competitors. Talent management and employer brand contact each other through a chain interaction, supporting one another in the process. Employer brand is a concept whose main capital is human beings. and which invests in humans as much as it invests in products and services. This concept focuses its energy and attention on branding, while also enabling companies to attract and retain employees who can best represent the brand. Becoming a strong employer brand also means becoming a preferred choice for talents, as well as being in demand, drawing attention and generating interest. However, such a situation also requires effective talent management. Drawing talented candidates to the business, while increasing the loyalty of existing talents, requires marketing, human resources and communication activities that are all compatible with each other. In this context, the purpose of the study is to investigate the basic functions of the employer brand, which aims to attract existing and potential talents, and of talent management, which aims to include and enhance talents that are compatible with the business objectives, and to identify the possible relationships between the two. This subject was investigated theoretically within the scope of the present study, and emphasis was placed on the critical importance of effectively managing employer brand in order to manage talent as well.


Abstract During UV irradiation of nitrobenzene and some derivatives in benzene solution biphenyls are formed as in the case of the corresponding iodobenzenes. Using fluorobenzene as a solvent, isomeric fluorobiphenyls (o, m, p) will be found as reaction products having a definite distribution (o >m > p), which is characteristic for substitution by radicals. Therefore, we conclude that the CN-bond is split homolytically. Besides the biphenyls, other important reaction products of the aromatic nitro compounds - phenols and nitrophenols - are identified


To the Editor. —The Medical News & Perspectives articles 1 addressed some controversial but important issues regarding drug use and legalization. It is important to note that the first major efforts to legalize drugs appeared in the early 1970s initiated by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Members of NORML later formed other drug-culture organizations such as the Drug Policy Foundation with the intent of diffusing attention on legalization and broadening legalization efforts. The Drug Policy Foundation remains one of the most outspoken legalization proponents, and its leadership is frequently quoted in the press, including the recent JAMA articles. The drug culture has asserted that thousands of chemotherapy patients, glaucoma sufferers, and those with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome would benefit from access to smoked marijuana as medicine. The toxic effects of smoked marijuana far outweigh the alleged benefits. Mostly anecdotal reports are used to support the


BACKGROUND
Standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is ineffective in treating traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) following hemorrhagic shock despite fluid resuscitation. CPR adjuncts, including abdominal compressions and external counter pressure, have shown some success in laboratory settings. The Abdominal Aortic and Junctional Tourniquet (AAJT) is a device that occludes both venous and arterial blood at the level of the aortic bifurcation and likely increases thoracic pressure when applied to the abdomen. We developed a swine model of controlled hemorrhage to induce a state of TCA to test the ability of the AAJT to improve the efficacy of CPR.

METHODS
Twelve splenectomized, Yorkshire, male swine (70-90 kg) were randomized into two groups: presence or absence of AAJT placement. Controlled hemorrhage was performed at a rate of 2 mL/kg/min until systolic blood pressure reached below 10 mm Hg (defined as cardiac arrest). Following 3 minutes of arrest, the animals underwent CPR using a mechanical compression device along with either the presence or absence of the AAJT. Concurrently, 5 units of whole blood (2,500 mL) were delivered through the jugular vein at 500 mL/min. Efficacy of CPR was assessed by analyzing rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival. Blood pressure, carotid blood flow, and other hemodynamic values were also compared.

FINDINGS
No significant differences between groups were observed before treatments. The controlled hemorrhage resulted in an average loss of 2,654 ± 323 g of blood over 18.2 ± 3.9 minutes. All animals that had a ROSC survived to the end of the 1-hour observation period. Animals with AAJT survived 83% (5/6) compared to 17% (1/6) of animals without AAJT. Finally, blood pressure, carotid flow, mean pulmonary artery pressure, and end tidal carbon dioxide were all significantly different between groups at the end of the first 10-minute compression period.

DISCUSSION/IMPACT/RECOMMENDATIONS
These results suggest that the AAJT could allow for increased CPR efficacy in cases of TCA when used in conjunction with rapid, massive blood transfusions.


BACKGROUND
Functional magnetic resonance imaging is a noninvasive method of assessing language dominance in a pediatric population.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the pattern of receptive language lateralization in healthy children.

DESIGN
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess an auditory language task in 11 children (7 girls, 4 boys; mean age, 8.5 years). Participants alternately rested and listened to descriptors of nouns presented auditorily, naming the object described silently. Asymmetry indices ([(left - right)/(left + right)]) were calculated for a priori-determined regions of interest.

RESULTS
The results showed strong activation bilaterally, with greater activation on the left in the superior and middle temporal gyri. Other areas of activation included the cuneus, the left inferior temporal gyrus, the prefrontal area, and the left fusiform and lingual gyri. Regions of interest analysis of individual scans showed additional activation in the left frontal lobe. Asymmetry indices showed strong left lateralization of the inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and the Wernicke region.

CONCLUSIONS
Hemispheric lateralization was clearly demonstrated in 8 children. As in adults, left hemisphere lateralization of receptive language is present at age 8 years.


Introduction: Disorders of vitreoretinal interface represent a rare complication of intravitreal dexamethasone implant injection. Our report describes a new mechanism resulting in cystic roof collapse and emphasizes the importance of a strict optical coherence tomography evaluation during therapy with dexamethasone injection in order to prevent this rare complication. Purpose: To describe the rupture of the cystic roof following treatment with sustained-release dexamethasone implant intravitreal injection (Ozurdex; Allergan, Irvine) for macular edema. Case report: A 71-year-old woman with a known history of macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion in her right eye presented to our ophthalmology department complaining of vision loss after she underwent the fourth dexamethasone injection. Diffuse retinal hemorrhages and a reddish foveal lesion with hyperpigmented borders were observed on dilated fundus examination. On the other hand, spectral domain optical coherence tomography (Spectralis HRA + OCT, Heidelberg Engineering, Germany) revealed the roof dismantlement of a previously documented cyst, giving rise to a lamellar macular hole, with a stable epiretinal membrane in close proximity. On a 12-month follow-up, no anatomical or functional changes were observed. Conclusion: This report depicts a new mechanism leading to macular hole as a complication of numerous intravitreal dexamethasone injections, resulting in cystic roof collapse. Although we acknowledge the rarity of this complication, our case emphasizes the role of constant spectral domain optical coherence tomography evaluation of the vitreoretinal interface, even in long-standing macular edema without marked signs of vitreous traction.


Photonic crystals, which are artificial periodic structures in which dielectric particles are arranged with a periodicity of the order of the optical wavelength, have received great attention as they are expected to play an important role in optoelectronic applications. It has been proven, both theoretically and experimentally, that photonic crystals possess the attractive property of bandgap effect, allowing propagation of light in one frequency range while stopping propagation in another range. We use the method of moments (MoM) to analyze 3D finite photonic crystals for a new application, namely the focusing effect. The number of dielectric particles forming the photonic crystal is of the order of several thousands and the total number of unknowns is of the order of hundred thousands. For this large-scale electromagnetic simulation, we recourse to a low-cost Beowulf parallel computing system.


Stories about a young man raping and sexually harassing a hundred women and minor girls flooded Egyptian social media since the beginning of July 2020. 100 narratives reporting this man's verbal and physical abuse of his victims were posted on an Instagram account called @assaultpolice. The story of this person who was dubbed, the 'Sex Predator', trended on Twitter and Instagram, and was then picked up by many Egyptian talk shows. The focus of social media and TV channels on the events of this story motivated the Egyptian National Council for Women (NCW) to interfere and stand by the victims by reporting the case to the Prosecution Council. This created a controversy in such a conservative society as Egypt which has always tended to blame the victim of any kind of sexual abuse. This paper uses a corpus-assisted Discourse Historical approach to analyse these narratives and explore how they construct the sexual aggressor and the victims.


Sudden stress often triggers diverse, temporally structured gene expression responses in microbes, but it is largely unknown how variable in time such responses are and if genes respond in the same temporal order in every single cell. Here, we quantified timing variability of individual promoters responding to sublethal antibiotic stress using fluorescent reporters, microfluidics, and time‐lapse microscopy. We identified lower and upper bounds that put definite constraints on timing variability, which varies strongly among promoters and conditions. Timing variability can be interpreted using results from statistical kinetics, which enable us to estimate the number of rate‐limiting molecular steps underlying different responses. We found that just a few critical steps control some responses while others rely on dozens of steps. To probe connections between different stress responses, we then tracked the temporal order and response time correlations of promoter pairs in individual cells. Our results support that, when bacteria are exposed to the antibiotic nitrofurantoin, the ensuing oxidative stress and SOS responses are part of the same causal chain of molecular events. In contrast, under trimethoprim, the acid stress response and the SOS response are part of different chains of events running in parallel. Our approach reveals fundamental constraints on gene expression timing and provides new insights into the molecular events that underlie the timing of stress responses.


An acoustical measurement very near a structure can be a cheap alternative to other contactless vibration measurement techniques such as laser vibrometry. However, measurements of the acoustical pressure suffer greatly from ambient noise, making these measurements unsuitable for many industrial applications. De Bree and Druyvesteyn suggested that a measurement of the acoustical particle velocity does not have this drawback and provided theory and qualitative measurement results [1]. We present quantitative measurement results of the relative noise contribution in pressure and particle velocity measurements. The ratio of these quantities receives special attention. The model used in previous research is a lumped model, in which some important aspects are neglected. We present results of a numerical model of the vibrating structure and the air. The numerical model and the measurements indicate the same trends but the lumped model does not describe the trends well. Nevertheless, this study also suggests that the sensitivity to background noise is generally considerably greater in pressure measurement than in a particle velocity measurement.


This paper presents the application of inverse optimal control approach to an unmanned quadrotor air vehicle system. Here, the inverse optimal controller is designed to solve the reference tracking problem relying on the use of control Lyapunov function. In the establishment of the control law, the affine-in-input discrete-time nonlinear system model is taken into consideration. A stabilizing feedback control law is constructed such that control Lyapunov function is known a priori. After stability examination and determination of a meaningful cost functional, respective cost functional is optimized. Then, a matrix that minimizes a tracking error function is searched using PSO algorithm. The designed controller has been applied to a nonlinear model of a quadrotor. It is shown that the proposed controller guarantees a fast convergence and makes the quadrotor stabilize itself very fast and follow aggressive trajectories accurately under certain circumstances.


We tested the validity of tracking seismic events as representations of chronostratigraphic surfaces at the subseismic, high-frequency-cycle level. A high-resolution geocellular model was generated from approximately 400 m of mixed clastic-carbonate sequences in the San Andres and Grayburg Formations in the Permian Basin, with 0.3–0.6 m layering and minimal upscaling. Realistic stratigraphic framework, facies, and velocity volumes were created by geostatistically mapping data from outcrop and subsurface sources while honoring state-of-the-art principles of stratigraphic and sedimentary analyses. Using the synthetic seismic data of different frequencies, the potential and pitfalls of using autotracked seismic horizons in building high-resolution reservoir models were tested. At the reservoir (meter) scale, the seismic reflections from flatter and thicker sediments with less facies and velocity heterogeneities tend to follow geologic-time surfaces; on the contrary, reflections from where thin sediments dip against flat strata with more facies and velocity heterogeneities tend to follow lithostratigraphy. For the latter seismic-guided reservoir modeling is not very precise, even with data as high as 140 Hz frequency. Therefore, for seismic-assisted reservoir prediction and modeling, the interpretation of seismic events is useful, but well calibration is critical.


Objective: During the early postnatal brain developmental stages, excitatory synapses mediated by AMPA
receptors are weak or silent. Activity-dependent insertion of AMPA receptors into synapses depends on the activation
of protein kinase A. In this work, we investigated the effect of Guanosine 5'-[βthiol] diphosphate (GDPsS) on excitatory
and inhibitory synaptic currents in CA1 pyramidal cells at postnatal days 9-12.
Methods: Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from identified hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells were used. GDPβS
Was applied through the recording electrode.
Results: GDPβS induces an increase in excitatory synaptic current amplitude, but not in the inhibitory synaptic
current amplitude. An analysis of the change in excitatory synaptic current amplitude in the presence of GDPβS revealed
a progressive increase, which is blocked by the protein kinase A inhibitor Rp-3',5'-cyclic monophosphothioatetriethylamine
(Rp-cAMP), suggesting that GDPβS inhibits G-protein with a tonic negative control on a protein kinase A
activating pathway. In addition, GDPβS has no effect on paired-pulse facilitation, suggesting that the glutamate release
machinery is not affected. Moreover, as GDPβS was applied to postsynaptic neurons, the increase in excitatory
postsynaptic current amplitude is related to changes at the postsynaptic side.
Conclusion: Those results suggest that in developing hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells, the tonic inhibition of a
protein kinase A activating pathway by a G-protein prevents the activation of excitatory synapses


This work combines two distinct research efforts, the coefficient design and the adder-number reduction, of fixed-point FIR filters into an automatic design flow. Given the normalized peak-ripple-magnitude (NPRM) specifications, the canonic-signed-digit (CSD) filter coefficients are calculated by the partial mixed-integer-linear-programming (PMILP) algorithm. Then a signed common subexpression sharing (SCSS) algorithm is used to reduce the number of adders required to implement the FIR filter. Finally a VHDL code that describes the FIR filter hardware with SCSS is generated.


Aim: To determine the pattern and prevalence of malaria in children attending the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Study Design: Retrospective review. Place and Duration of Study: University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, 2006-2011. Methodology: Demographic information and results of laboratory investigations of 27088 patients were retrieved from the laboratory register of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology. Results: The results showed that 70.84% of the patients had malaria and 29.16% did not have malaria. Of the 19190 patients that had malaria, 10768 (56.11%) were male, 8422 (43.89%) were female. The occurrence of malaria between both sexes was significantly different ( = 14.60; p =0.0001). Among the patients, malaria was significantly higher ( = 27.86; p < 0.0001) in patients < 5 years (75.56), followed by patients between 5 – 10 years (17.03%) and patients between 10 – 16 years (7.32%). Severe malaria was found in 654 (3.41%) of the patients, which consisted of 380 Original Research Article Awopeju and Yaguo-Ide; JAMMR, 24(1): 1-7, 2017; Article no.JAMMR.33952 2 (58.10%) male and 274 (41.90%) female patients. Severe malaria was also significantly higher ( = 111.47; p < 0.0001) in patients under 5 years (70.80%). The occurrence of malaria ranged from 69.15% to 73.93% between May and August (period of heavy rain). A decline in malaria prevalence from 72.38% to 59.17% was observed from 2008 to 2011. Conclusion: The study showed a significant prevalence of severe malaria among children <5 years. It is recommended that the intermittent preventive treatment should be intensified among children in malaria endemic area to reduce prevalence and improve the quality of life of the children.


A simple Hamiltonian model which accounts for the main features of the role of the solvent in activated bimolecular exchange reactions is discussed. The properties of the potential energy along the reaction coordinate of the solute enter in an essential way and explain the different roles of the solvent near the barrier and at the foothills of the potential and the corresponding separation of time scales. The activation energy necessary to surmount the barrier is provided by a localized, vibrationally nonadiabatic, energy exchange between the solvent and solute. Caging with and without recrossing of the barrier is discussed. The predictions of the model are compared with exact trajectory results for the given Hamiltonian and with full molecular dynamics simulations. The influence of the physical parameters such as masses, barrier height strength of solvent–solute coupling, etc., is well accounted for by the model and is summarized by two dimensionless coupling parameters. In particular, the efficiency of ...


This paper is based on a bigger study undertaken in 2017. It focuses on the ramifications of bullying in Lesotho schools. A qualitative research design was adopted to probe for in-depth information about consequences of bullying in schools. The methodology employed was the case study approach in two high schools in the Roma Valley. The population of the study was all teachers and students in the two high schools in Roma valley, while the sample comprised six teachers and eight students, who were purposively selected.The study found out that bullying has negative consequences to all parties; perpetrators, victims and bystanders. The finding of the study revealed that bullying contributes to depression and low self-esteem, which can lead to poor school performance and suicidal tendencies amongst the victims and bystanders. The study therefore recommends that Lesotho government should come up with a policy to eliminate bullying in schools and establish programmes directed at teaching learners attitudes, knowledge and skills which they can use to circumvent bullying.


Two-dimensional (2D) noble-metal dichalcogenides have emerged as a new platform for the realization of versatile flat optics with a considerable degree of miniaturization. However, light field manipulation at the atomic scale is widely considered unattainable since the vanishing thickness and intrinsic losses of 2D materials completely suppress both resonances and phase accumulation effects. Empowered by conventionally perceived adverse effects of intrinsic losses, we show that the structured PtSe2 films integrated with a uniform substrate can regulate nontrivial singular phase and realize atomic-thick meta-optics in the presence of topological darkness. We experimentally demonstrate a series of atomic-thick binary meta-optics that allows angle-robust and high unit-thickness diffraction efficiency of 0.96%/nm in visible frequencies, given its thickness of merely 4.3 nm. Our results unlock the potential of a new class of 2D flat optics for light field manipulation at an atomic thickness.


Functionalized gold nanostars (AuStrs) are remarkable candidates for drug delivery, photothermal therapy and imaging due to their large surface area to volume ratio and plasmonic properties. In this study, we address the challenge of achieving therapeutically controlled dosing using these high aspect ratio nanoparticle vectors by tailoring the nanostar loading area and protein conformation. We synthesized a library of different Au nanostars with varied geometries for potential biomedical applications. The Au nanostars were subsequently coated with different amounts of transferrin (Tf) and a novel depletion method was devised to measure the amount of Tf bound to the surface of the nanostructures. This methodology allowed us to show that coating thickness could be controllably varied and moulded onto the nanoparticle's high index features, whilst simultaneously preserving the key properties of the particle. The orientation of the Tf was measured on nanostars and spheres using transmission electron microscopy by negatively staining the Tf. The Tf was conformal on the nanostars, and protein packing efficiency increased on the AuStrs by 14-fold due to a geometry-induced protein reorientation at the nanoparticle surface. Interestingly, the reorientation of the transferrin observed at the AuStrs spikes did not occur at the AuStrs tips thus highlighting surface energy effects associated with surface curvature.


Ephedra species of plants have both beneficial and adverse effects primarily associated with the presence of ephedrine alkaloids. Few reports have appeared that examine the direct actions of ephedrine alkaloids on human subtypes of adrenergic receptors (ARs). In the present study, ephedrine alkaloids were evaluated for their binding affinities on human alpha(1A)-, alpha(1B)-, alpha(1D)-, alpha(2A)-, alpha(2B)-, and alpha(2C)-AR subtypes expressed in HEK and Chinese hamster ovary cells. Cell-based reporter gene assays were used to establish functional activity of ephedrine alkaloids at alpha(1A)-, alpha(2A)-, and alpha(2C)-ARs. The data showed that ephedrine alkaloids did not activate alpha(1)- and alpha(2)-ARs and that they antagonized the agonist-mediated effects of phenylephrine and medetomidine on alpha(1)- and alpha(2)-ARs, respectively. As in the binding studies, 1R,2R- and 1R,2S-ephedrine showed greater functional antagonist activity than the 1S,2R- and 1S,2S-isomers. The rank order of affinity for the isomers was 1R,2R > 1R,2S > 1S,2R > 1S,2S. The rank order of potencies of alkaloids containing a 1R,2S-configuration was norephedrine > or = ephedrine >> N-methylephedrine. These studies have demonstrated that orientation of the beta-hydroxyl group on the ethylamino side chain and the state of N-methyl substitution are important for alpha-AR binding and functional activity of the ephedrine alkaloids. In conclusion, the ephedrine isomers and analogs studied did not exhibit any direct agonist activity and were found to possess moderate antagonist activities on cloned human alpha-ARs. The blockade of presynaptic alpha(2A)- and alpha(2C)-ARs may have a pharmacological role in the direct actions of Ephedra alkaloids.


Abstract 2647

New data concerning the important role of microenvironment on lymphoma growth are emerging, and in recent years surrogate biomarkers have been identified as prognostic factors for survival in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Unlike follicular (FL), diffuse B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), there is still no specific internationally accepted risk stratification scoring system for peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL), and the International Prognostic Index (IPI) or the Prognostic Index for T-cell lymphomas (PIT) model are been used to identify higher risk cases of PTCL. Here we retrospectively analyzed the relevance of the well recognized prognostic parameters for T-NHL in 172 patients with different types of PTCL. In 94 cases in whom peripheral blood monocyte count (PBMC) at diagnosis was available, we evaluated whether monocytosis (PBMC >800/mm3) could be used as a simple prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) and outcome in PTCL.

For the entire group with a median follow-up of 19 months (range 1–168 months), the 5-years OS was 42%, and the median OS 48 months. Monocytosis was present in 23% of the evaluable cases and patients with high PBMC (>800/mm3) at diagnosis had a worse OS (median 12 months) compared to those with PBMC 800/mm3, stratified by histopathological subtype, was 2.81. In particular 3-years OS of patients with PBMC >800/mm3 with anaplastic large cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, and peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified was 50%, 25%, and 12%, respectively compared to 86%, 65%, and 50% for those patients with PBMC 60y, advanced stage, bone marrow involvement, ECOG PS >1, LDH>UNL, PBMC >800/mm3, hemoglobin <12 gr/dL, albumin <3.5 gr/L were associated with inferior OS. In multivariate analysis, monocytosis alone retained a negative prognostic value even when adjusted for PIT and stratified by histolopathological subtype (HR 2.41, p=0.015).

In this study, as in others on B-NHL and HL, monocytosis had an independent negative impact on survival in patients with T-NHL. This data, which provide convincing support for the use of monocytosis as a simple prognostic parameter, now need to be further validated in a larger cohort of patients with T-NHL.

![Figure 1:][2]

Figure 1:
Overall survival (OS) of 94 patients with PTCL according to peripheral blood monocyte count (PBMC): monocytosis (PBMC >800/mm3) has a negative impact on OS (p=0.003)

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: #F1
 [2]: pending:yes


Background Foreign body insertion in the urethra and bladder are relatively rare. These patients usually insert foreign body in urethra for eroticism, inquisitiveness, or as a consequence of disinhibited or disturbed behavior. Case presentation Herein, we report a case of 41-year-old man presented with weak stream and suprapubic pain. Due to incontinence, he instilled superglue into his urethra. On perineal examination, a foreign body was palpable in the penile urethra. A 10 cm dried superglue block got out with incision at glance. Conclusion Urethral foreign bodies are mostly found on physical examination and clinical history. Although imaging modalities are commonly used for FBs detection, the necessity of imaging modalities are still a controversy.


We study a model in which retired single people optimally choose consumption, medical spending and saving while facing uncertainty about their health, lifespan and medical needs. This uncertainty is partially offset by insurance provided by the government and private institutions. We first show how well the model matches important features of the data and we analyze the degree of insurance provided by current programs. We then analyze the effects of some reforms, meant to capture changes in Medicaid and Medicare, on savings and medical expenditures.


Despite a high primary school enrollment in India, the overall learning levels have been low, and the dropout level in secondary school and beyond has been high. One reason for low learning levels and high drop-out rates is the student's lack of motivation to learn in the classroom. We suggest that curiosity may be a useful tool to improve student motivation. We look at some important variables that have been found to affect curiosity in the classroom: self-determination needs, information relevance, coherence, concreteness, ease of comprehension, fantasy, belief about interest malleability, and information gap. Finally, we suggest ways to incorporate them in the classroom to improve student motivation.


In this thesis the use of microwave remote sensing to estimate soil water content is investigated. A general framework is described which is applicable to both passive and active microwave remote sensing of soil water content. The various steps necessary to estimate areal soil water content are discussed through literature review, laboratory experimental results and results of extensive field experimental work. Even with the large amount of field data being available, no experiment provided all the necessary data to illustrate the framework completely for both passive and active techniques.The framework developed is intended to be independent of the models used. In this way insight is gained in the dominating factors and problems associated with the use of remote sensing and not with specific models. Throughout the thesis both passive and active techniques are used and compared.The passive techniques, mainly L-band and C-band, show better results that are more easily obtained at the cost of a relatively low spatial resolution. The standard error in the remotely sensed soil moisture estimates (< 5%) even in the presence of low to moderate vegetation cover is often lower than that of the ground truth measurements. The launch of a space-borne L-band radiometer will make this technique useful for mesoscale and global scale hydrological and meteorological modeling.The active techniques are severely tampered by vegetation and surface roughness effects making soil water content estimation more cumbersome. Despite these drawbacks this technique is complimentary to the passive technique because of the higher attainable spatial resolutions and the possible use of longer wave lengths (P-band). The latter enables estimation of soil water content under vegetation cover and over larger depths, about 30 cm for P-band, compared to for example about 5-10 cm depth for L-band. The standard error of soil moisture estimates in absence of vegetation is in general around 5%.In this thesis the effects of vegetation have been excluded in the analysis. To operationalise remotely sensed soil moisture estimation it will be necessary to develop methods that can estimate soil water content when vegetation is present. Especially for active and space-borne passive techniques.Direct comparison between a passive L-band radiometer and an active C-band radar showed consistent results over stationary heterogeneous areas, i.e. low vegetation cover and relatively homogeneous surface roughness characteristics.The estimation of soil water content needs to be done from the perspective of the objective. This means that in the case of hydrological and meteorological modeling assimilation of direct remotely sensed measurements such as brightness temperatures or backscattering coefficients can yield better results, e.g. better forecast, than incorporation of the remotely sensed soil water content . This depends strongly on the land surface parameterization and in particular the definition of soil water content in the models used.


: The efficacy of endonasal calcitrin was studied against that of intramuscular. The drug was given endonasally in a dose of 3 units twice a day during 1--1.5 months. The effect on the calcium-regulating system (total calcium, calcitonin, parathyroid hormone), external respiration, its analgetic action were similar to such of the intramuscular mode. Endonasal calcitrin is recommended for outpatient use.


The People's Republic of China is a leading experimenter in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This paper explores the current background, deployment, features, potential impacts, challenges and legal concerns of China's CBDC, the electronic yuan, or E-CNY. This paper explains the potential significance of what is known and not known about E-CNY with a particular focus on how E-CNY might fit into existing legal and economic systems, both within China and internationally. Section 1 discusses the development of E-CNY, including known technical features, institutional framework, and E-CNY's intended role in China's domestic monetary system. Section 2 explores China's motivations for developing and deploying E-CNY most of which are focused on domestic concerns, though there are important international dynamics as well. Section 3 outlines a number of potential impacts of E-CNY, including domestic impacts on online payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay and commercial banks as well as impacts on international settlements and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Section 4 addresses key challenges and concerns around E-CNY, particularly as it pertains to information access and sharing, privacy protections, due process rights, and various technical issues. The last section examines E-CNY in the context of additional legal paradigms, including taxation, antitrust, anti-money laundering, and fraud prevention.


ASTRONOMYWASHINGTON, D.C.-- Images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal pronounced warps in a dramatic disk of dust circling Beta Pictoris, a young star 63 light-years away. Researchers who unveiled the images here at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society last week said the bulges may betray the existence of at least one planet. But others suggested that gravitational nudges from a passing star or a large dim companion might account for the distortions.


Microfluidic devices for glucose detection have been constructed and developed by integration of glucose oxidase covalently immobilised single-walled carbon nanotube arrays into a poly (dimethylsiloxane)-based microfluidic channel. This microfluidic device was tested for electrochemical glucose detection, and the results showed that the glucose can be detected with a linear response up to a concentration of 5times10-3 mol L-1. Because of the small amounts of fluids and enzyme used in microchannels, this approach offers a number of technical advantages, such as portability, shorter analysis time and lower consumption of expensive analytes.


Two experiments were conducted to determine the influence of dietary vitamin E on the response of young male turkeys to Escherichia coli infection. A complete factorial arrangement of two concentrations of supplemental dietary vitamin E (12 or 300 IU/kg as dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate) and infection or no infection of turkeys with E. coli was used in both experiments. In Experiment 1, each dietary treatment was fed to four pens of turkeys from 1 to 28 d of age. At 28 d, turkeys in two pens per dietary treatment received an injection of 3.0 x 10(7) E. coli cells into the left and right thoracic air sacs. All turkeys were necropsied 7 d after E. coli injection and the incidence and severity of lesions in air sacs, lungs, pericardium, and liver were determined. The same dietary vitamin E treatments were used in Experiment 2. Each diet was fed to eight pens of turkeys from 1 to 47 d of age. At 47 d, turkeys in four pens per dietary treatment received an injection of 3.0 x 10(7) cells of the same E. coli used in Experiment 1 into the left and right thoracic air sacs. All turkeys were necropsied as in Experiment 1 at 54 d of age. Weight gain and efficiency of feed utilization were impaired markedly by E. coli infection during the 7 d after injection. Livability also was decreased by E. coli infection in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. Adverse effects of E. coli on performance and livability were not affected by dietary vitamin E concentration. Lesions observed in turkeys that received E. coli injection ranged from mild to severe, with the most severe lesions observed in air sacs. Lung lesions were observed frequently but were less severe than in air sacs. Dietary concentration of vitamin E had no effect on incidence or severity of lesions in air sacs or lungs. Overall, the results of these experiments show that adding 300 IU of vitamin E/kg of diet did not alleviate the adverse effects of E. coli infection in young turkeys.


Employability skills as non technical skills are important for effective and successful individual participation in the workplace. The main aims of the research were to identify important employability skills needed by graduates of Public Health Study Program Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (PHSP UAD) and to assess the achievement of the employability skills development that has been carried out by PHSP UAD. This study used a mixed method research with convergent design. Quantitative research was conducted with survey to graduates. Qualitative research was conducted with structured interviews to employers. Both data were analyzed separately and interpreted concurrently. Graduates and employers of PHSP UAD in broad outline were in line on the important employability skills needed in the workplace and the assessment of the achievement. Several employability skills consistently were considered important. The achievement of employability skills that were related to public health knowledge and its application was high, meanwhile the achievement of several important employability skills which are needed in the work place in the 21 st were low. Employability skills needed for graduates of PHSP UAD were formulated. Curriculum revision is recommended to integrate employability skills into core activities to promote the development of employability skills of PHSP UAD graduates.


The world's only satellite organization providing mobile communications on a commercial basis is the International Maritime Satellite Organization (Inmarsat). This paper reviews the origins of the organization and the needs of the shipping and offshore industry that led to its formation. The current system and its operations are described. The success achieved so far by Inmarsat in providing the satellite capacity for telephone, telex, facsimile and data communications to the maritime community makes it apparent that the system could also be used to provide capacity to the aeronautical community. Also, studies are now being made on future configurations of the system in which it may be possible to integrate a polar-orbiting satellite system, such as Sarsat-Cospas. Inmarsat is proceeding with the procurement of a new series of satellites that would come into operation from 1988. This paper reviews the enhanced capabilities that these new satellites will provide in the context of the requirements for mobile communications via satellite in the next decade.


Plants develop branches profusely when grown solitarily, while less so when grown in a dense stand. Such changes in architecture are associated with changes in dry mass allocation and nitrogen use. Here, we studied what traits in plant growth and nitrogen use were influenced by different light climates in the stand. Annual plants (Xanthium canadense) were grown solitarily or in a dense stand. Dry mass growth was analyzed as the product of the net assimilation rate (NAR) and leaf area (LA). Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) was analyzed as the product of nitrogen productivity (NP) and the mean residence time (MRT) of nitrogen. These growth variables were further factorized into their components. Solitary plants maintained a high NAR, whereas plants in the dense stand decreased the NAR due to mutual shading. Plants in the dense stand developed a larger LA with a higher specific leaf area than solitary plants. Solitary plants had higher NUE due to higher NP. A temporal increase in NUE was attributed to the increase in MRT of nitrogen. Light climate was different between solitary and dense-stand plants, but they took up a comparable amount of nitrogen and used it differently in response to the given light climate. NUE was thus demonstrated to be a useful tool for analyzing the mechanism leading to different N use in plant growth.


The hemodynamic effects of a single oral dose of 20 mg of nifedipine were studied in 21 stable patients after an acute myocardial infarction before withdrawal of Swan-Ganz and intra-arterial catheters. The drug appears safe, and no significant untoward effects were noted. Significant hemodynamic changes were present between 15 and 120 minutes after ingestion with a peak at 60 minutes. Mean arterial pressure decreased from 81+/-2.7 (SEM) to 71+/-2.3 mm Hg (P<0.001), and systemic vascular resistances decreased from 1438+/-88 to 1144+/-63 dynes/sec/cm5 (P<0.001). Cardiac index increased from 2.7+/-0.1 to 3.1+/-0.1 L/min/sq m (P<0.01) and heart rate from 79 +/- 3 to 82 +/- 4 (P<0.01). The pressure-rate product decreased from 10.3 X 10(3) to 9.5 X 10(3) (P<0.05), and pulmonary wedge pressure was unchanged from 12 mm Hg. The hemodynamic changes were similar whether patients were receiving propranolol or not. The afterload reducing effect was potentially most beneficial in the subgroup of patients with depressed left ventricular function where cardiac index increased by 20 percent.


This paper reports some results obtained by the authors within the Work Package 4 (WP4) of the ESPRIT project 26951-Network Oriented Application Harmonisation (NOAH). The main goal of the NOAH Project is to define concepts, models and tools as elements of an open platform for distributed automation systems as independent as possible of the available technologies. One of the points addressed in the NOAH Project is how to provide a common view of the system in such a way that any application, independent of its features, can be described by focusing on all the system composing elements including issues related to functional and physical distribution. The Data Base Repository (DBR) specification is the solution proposed to address this issue. It defines a common and general information model which provides a unified perspective for several activities including installation, configuration, maintenance and technical management, as well as a unified approach to the problem of describing complex distributed systems. In this work we deal with the specification of basic main operations to be carried out on the Database Repository. In particular, in the paper a description of data distribution in the NOAH model is given, and the Manager/Agent model, that is the basic interaction mode devised for data management, is introduced. Then data consistency issues in the NOAH DBR are outlined.


The purpose of the study was to develop a comprehensive program of physical rehabilitation to improve the course of shoulder-scapular periarthritis in patients with the help of therapeutic massage with elements of manual therapy. Materials and methods. The paper presents the results of studying the effect of physical therapy in shoulder-scapular periarthritis. The main group included 37 patients aged 50–75 years with shoulder-scapular periarthritis who underwent a complex rehabilitation program proposed by us, including massage. The control group consisted of 33 patients in the same age category who were prescribed a standard rehabilitation program by a physical therapy doctor. Results and discussion. The term humeroscapular periarthritis was first proposed in 1872. This is how the syndrome was characterized, including stiffness and the presence of chronic pain in the area of the shoulder joint that occurs after an injury. The prevalence of humeroscapular periarthritis among the adult population is 4–7%, with age it increases (from 3–4% at the age of 40–44 years to 15–20% at the age of 60–70 years). An important condition for a faster and more effective treatment of humeroscapular periarthritis is massage. Its main task is to prevent the development of limited mobility of the joints and coarse scar tissue, prevent muscle atrophy and restore the functional affiliation of the upper limbs. As a result of the treatment, significant improvement was noted in 26 patients, improvement – in 9 patients, insignificant effect was noted in 2 patients. So, before the operation, pain syndrome according to visual analogue scale was on average 6.4 ± 0.39, in the early postoperative period – 5.1 ± 0.19, in the late recovery period – 1.7 ± 0.14. The effectiveness of complex treatment when affecting the affected limb was 3.4 points in dynamics before and after the massage course. Thus, the comparative characteristics of the two examined groups of patients according to functional results, even according to an incomplete list of clinical and biomechanical indicators of statics and dynamics, showed the effectiveness of conducting a comprehensive program of rehabilitation measures. Taking into account the high prevalence of diseases of the musculoskeletal system, we consider it advisable to use manual therapy methods more widely in patients with shoulder-scapular periarthritis. Conclusion. After a course of massage with elements of manual therapy, the majority of patients noted positive dynamics, elimination of pain syndrome, restoration of the function of the affected limb


In this paper, we propose a novel class of Nash problems for cognitive radio (CR) networks, modeled as Gaussian frequency-selective interference channels, wherein each secondary user (SU) competes against the others to maximize his own opportunistic throughput by choosing jointly the sensing duration, the detection thresholds, and the vector power allocation. The proposed general formulation allows us to accommodate several (transmit) power and (deterministic/probabilistic) interference constraints, such as constraints on the maximum individual and/or aggregate (probabilistic) interference tolerable at the primary receivers. To keep the optimization as decentralized as possible, global (coupling) interference constraints are imposed by penalizing each SU with a set of time-varying prices based upon his contribution to the total interference; the prices are thus additional variable to optimize. The resulting players' optimization problems are nonconvex; moreover, there are possibly price clearing conditions associated with the global constraints to be satisfied by the solution. All this makes the analysis of the proposed games a challenging task; none of classical results in the game theory literature can be successfully applied. The main contribution of this paper is to develop a novel optimization-based theory for studying the proposed nonconvex games; we provide a comprehensive analysis of the existence and uniqueness of a standard Nash equilibrium, devise alternative best-response based algorithms, and establish their convergence. Some of the proposed algorithms are totally distributed and asynchronous, whereas some others require limited signaling among the SUs (in the form of consensus algorithms) in favor of better performance; overall, they are thus applicable to a variety of CR scenarios, either cooperative or noncooperative, which allows the SUs to explore the existing tradeoff between signaling and performance.


ABSTRACT The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates, and it has created a pressing global need for effective antiviral therapies against it. COVID-19 disease pathogenesis is characterized by an initial virus-mediated phase, followed by inappropriate hyperactivation of the immune system leading to organ damage. Targeting of the SARS-CoV-2 viral receptors is being explored as a therapeutic option for these patients. In this paper, we summarize several potential receptors associated with the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 and discuss their association with the immune-mediated inflammatory response. The potential for the development of resistance towards antiviral drugs is also presented. An algorithm-based platform to improve the efficacy of and overcome resistance to viral receptor blockers through the introduction of personalized variability is described. This method is designed to ensure sustained antiviral effectiveness when using SARS-CoV-2 receptor blockers.


The copolymers of 10% acrylic acid (AAc) and 90% acryl amide (AAm) were synthesized by free radical polymerization with 5% ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a crosslinker. The basic physical feature such as density, fixed charge density, average molecular weight, equilibrium water contentment and crosslink density were studied. In this investigation, the equilibrium and kinetic experiments were performed under three different ionic strengths, the equilibrium behavior of the hydrogels was characterized by varying the designed stimulus and by measuring the weight of hydrogel disc using a high accuracy balance. The ionic strength of the solution was adjusted with NaCl and the buffer solution was phosphoric acid. Potentiometric titration was performed to investigate the quantity of dissociated H+. Last, diffusion coefficients of aqueous sodium chloride in water swollen cross-linked poly (AAc-co-AAm) membranes were studied. A self-planned cell was used for the measurement of NaCl diffusion coefficients.


BACKGROUND
Depression is an important mental health problem. The Chilean Ministry of Health has considered depression in women as one of the health priorities for the country.

AIM
To assess the prevalence of depressive and somatic symptoms and their risk factors in climacteric women.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A special questionnaire was applied to 171 women (45 to 55 years of age), coming from a community organization (PRODEMU) and a private health institution (ISAPRE Banmedica). Risk factors for depression were determined using multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS
The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 43%. Women with primary education had an odds ratio for depression of 2.49, compared with women with high school or university education. Other risk factor for depression was the lack of a renumerated job (Odds ratio 1.9). The risk factors for somatic symptoms were the presence of depressive symptoms (OR 3.2), lack of secondary or university education (OR 2.4), low income (OR 1.9) and having a current partner (OR 3.6).

CONCLUSIONS
There is a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in the studied population of climacteric women. Lack of education and of a renumerated job are important risk factors for the presence of such symptoms. Women with a low level of education and with depressive symptoms have also a high risk of presenting somatic symptoms.


We examined the effect of priming with attachment security on positive affect among 54 dependent individuals with depression and 51 self-critical individuals with depression. Participants received attachment security priming after they had completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire and the Self-Rating Depression Scale. Results showed that dependent individuals experienced greater positive affect after priming, whereas there was no significant change in positive affect among self-critical individuals. These findings indicate that the 2 types of depression have distinct development and change paths as regards positive affect, as well as different impact factors. Future researchers could further explore the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral differences between individuals with the 2 types of depression, to help improve clinical interventions.


With this study, the Authors, have demonstrated that atropine has an inhibiting action on the hypophysis response and that such inhibition is correlated to the length of time between the i.m. injection of anticholinergic and the intravenous administration of TRH. Such results make believe that in human, as in the animal the cholinergic system plays a role, maybe important, in the prolactin release.


OF DISSERTATION A DIET ENRICHED IN STEARIC ACID PROTECTS AGAINST THE PROGRESSION OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN LEPTIN RECEPTOR DEFICIENT MICE (DB/DB) Dietary saturated fat intake contributes to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as shown in numerous animal and human studies. However, the hypothesis that stearic acid, a saturated fat, has beneficial effects on these conditions has not been adequately tested. Leptin receptor deficient mice (db/db) and wild-type mice were fed either chow or a high fat diet enriched in either stearic acid or oleic acid for ten weeks. The progression of diabetes was evaluated with blood glucose, insulin, and metabolic parameter measurements. At the conclusion of the study, pancreatic islet organization was examined, and blood, liver and feces were assayed for fatty acid content. The stearic acid enriched diet prevented increases in blood glucose levels independently of weight loss in db/db mice compared to an oleic acid or chow diet. Diabetic mice fed stearic acid maintained insulin responsiveness and pancreatic islet organization compared to the db/db mice fed chow and oleic diets. The islet organization of the stearic acid fed mice did not change over the course of the study and was similar to that of wild-type mice fed the same diet. Conversely, diabetic mice fed oleic acid and chow diets had decreased insulin responsiveness and disorganized islets. Stearic acid fed db/db mice had high fecal fat content and caloric intake calculations indicated low absorption of this fat. Switching to stearic acid after prolonged hyperglycemia had a rescue effect on blood glucose levels. After feeding diabetic and wild-type mice standard chow diets for 6, 8, and 10 weeks to establish hyperglycemia, mice switched to a high fat diet enriched in stearic acid, but not one enriched in oleic acid diet, had significant reductions in blood glucose levels. The ability of a stearic acid enriched high fat diet to slow the progression of diabetes and reverse hyperglycemia in db/db mice argues that risks and benefits of fats in the diet depend on the chemical structure, rather than the chemical class, of fats ingested. The beneficial effect of stearic acid appears to be associated with a decreased absorption of dietary fat.


Automated recommendations have become a common feature of modern online services and mobile apps. In many practical applications, the means provided for users to interact with recommender systems (e.g., to state explicit preferences or to provide feedback on the recommendations) are, however, very limited. In order to improve such systems and consequently user satisfaction, much research work has been done over the years to build richer and more intelligent user interfaces for recommender systems. In this tutorial, we provide a comprehensive overview of existing approaches to user interaction aspects of recommender systems, with a special focus on explanation interfaces. We also provide examples of real-world systems that implement advanced interaction mechanisms and discuss open challenges in the field.


This study aims to discuss democracy education practice on electing members of the Village Consultative Body in the Regency of Bangkalan –Indonesia. Through this study, the authors intend to describe models by which used in electing members of the Village Consultative Body (BPD) within the Regency of Bangkalan –Indonesia as well as to explore democracy values derived from the model chosen by related villages to be employed for society's education on democracy. This study is carried out by way of qualitative research methodology –by observing the ongoing election process of members of the Village Consultative Body in the Regency of Bangkalan in 2019; the authors were on the spot during the event. Furthermore, the study reveals that the Government of  Bangkalan Regency drafts regulations by exercising the Regent's stipulation ,i.e., giving options to approximately 256 villages in Bangkalan in which, respective model or option is applicable in selecting the nominees to fill in the posts of members of  Village Consultative Body in the Regency of Bangkalan  The nomination procedure is held through a direct voting among village society or consensus by consultative assembly. Later, the result shows that the society who elect candidates for filling in the posts of BPD members agreed to use consensus as a model, and it is exercised in a specific consensus forum. Therefore, such model is considered suitable with the fourth of fundamental concept of Pancasila (five basic principles of establishing the state). The core issue regarding the fourth principle of Pancasila is the practice of democracy so that a consensus is also a reflection of democracy values and it can be used as a role model in educating people about democracy.


These dazzling and utterly satisfying stories explore varieties and degrees of love - filial, platonic, sexual, parental and imagined - in the lives of apparently ordinary folk. In fact, Munro's characters pulse with idiosyncratic life. Under the polished surface of these unsentimental dispatches from the small-town and rural front lies a strong undertow of violence and sexuality, repressed until something snaps, with extraordinary force in some of the stories, sadly and strangely in others.


The Global Environment Facility (GEF) supported High Forest Biodiversity Conservation Project intended to increase the ecological security of globally significant biological resources, especially within threatened tropical moist forest ecosystems. The project aimed to establish effective systems for the protection of 30 Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs) in all tropical forest biomes in Ghana in four regions within the high forest zone - namely, Ashanti, Eastern, Central, and Western regions. The project focused on communities living at the periphery of these GSBAs.


ABSTRACT We compared the measurement of human papillomavirus (HPV)-specific serum antibody levels with the virus-like-particle multiplex immunoassay (VLP-MIA), competitive Luminex immunoassay (cLIA), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) L1-based MIA. Using a large panel of serum samples, these assays showed mutually good correlations for both naturally induced and vaccine-derived HPV-specific antibody levels. However, an adaptation of the GST L1-based MIA resulted in an improved correlation with both cLIA and VLP-MIA.


Phosphorus is usually the limiting nutrient for eutrophication in inland receiving waters; therefore, phosphorus concentrations must be controlled. In the present study, a series of jar test was conducted to evaluate the optimum pH, dosage and performance parameters for coagulants alum and calcium chloride. Phosphorus removal by alum was found to be highly pH dependent with an optimum pH of 5.7-6. At this pH an alum dosage of 80 mg/l removed 83 % of the total phosphorus. Better removal was achieved when the solution was buffered at pH = 6. Phosphorus removal was not affected by varying the slow mixing period; this is due to the fact that the reaction is relatively fast.The dosage of calcium chloride and pH of solution play an important role in phosphorus removal. The removal efficiency increases with increasing pH, and the optimum dosage of CaCl2 was 60 mg/l. Alum demonstrated much better results in phosphorus removal than CaCl2.


To understand how exercise affects the contractile function of dystrophic muscle, we examined the effect of long-term voluntary exercise on mdx mice and related these effects to our findings in sedentary aging mice. Although the mdx mouse is the genetic homolog for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, it does not demonstrate the same progression in limb muscle dysfunction as Duchenne muscular dystrophy as it ages. We postulated that the sedentary lifestyle of this animal plays an important role in its minimal phenotypic expression. To examine the effect of exercise, eight C57BL/10 (C57) and eight mdx mice were allowed to run ad libitum for one year. Forty sedentary mdx mice and 40 sedentary C57 from one month to 18 months of age were used as controls. Contractile characteristics of the extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscles and morphometric characteristics of the mice were examined. The mdx mice ran approximately 45% fewer kilometers per day than C57 mice. Long-term voluntary running had beneficial training effects on both the old mdx mice and their C57 controls. The exercise ameliorated the age-associated loss in tension production that was observed in the soleus of sedentary mdx and sedentary C57 mice. There was a 9% reduction in the fatigability of the extensor digitorum longus muscle of the old mdx mice after the exercise. Despite these improvements, the old mdx mice exhibited significant functional deficits compared with their C57 controls. Our hypothesis, that long-term voluntary exercise would have a beneficial training effect on control mice and a deleterious effect on mdx mice as they aged, was not supported by this study. This study shows that dystrophin-less muscles from sedentary mice display significant signs of muscle damage, yet can respond beneficially to low-level voluntary running in a manner similar to that of the C57 control.


It is shown that tri-iodothyronine injected intravenously into thyroidectomized rats induces an early and transient activation of rat liver RNA polymerase II which could be demonstrated to occur 40-80 min after hormonal treatment. There was a simultaneous increase in the concentration of acidic proteins bound to chromatin.


Adiposity and alcohol consumption are reported to be associated with a higher level of serum uric acid (SUA), but whether their effect differs on SUA percentile distribution is still unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate how alcohol intake and body fat percentage (%BF) integrated with body mass index (BMI) influence the distribution of SUA in Chinese adults. Data from the China National Health Survey (CNHS) which included adults from 10 provinces of China were used (n = 31,746, aged 20–80 years, 40% male). %BF and BMI were integrated into eight expanded body composition groups to understand how excess body adiposity affects the distribution of SUA in the populational level. Self-report alcohol intake information was collected by face-to-face questionnaire interview. Quantile regression (QR) was used to analyze the data. We found that adiposity and alcohol consumption were associated with SUA, especially at the upper percentile in both sexes. In obese men, the QR coefficients at the 75th and 95th percentiles were 74.0 (63.1–84.9) and 80.9 (52.5–109.3) μmol/L, respectively. The highest quartile of %BF in men had a 92.6 (79.3–105.9) μmol/L higher SUA levels at its 95th percentile than the 5th quartile (p < 0.001). Compared with normal or underweight with the lowest %BF group (NWBF1), the obesity-highest %BF group (OBBF4) had the strongest positive effect on SUA, especially at the higher percentile of SUA. In BMI-defined normal or underweight participants, a higher quartile of %BF had greater effect size in all SUA percentiles. In men, current alcohol drinking had the strongest effect at the 95th percentile of SUA (QR coefficient: 31.8, with 95% CI: 22.6–41.0) comparing with 14.5, 95% CI of 8.4 to 20.6 in the 5th SUA percentile. High risk of alcohol consumption had a greater effect on SUA, especially in the higher SUA percentile. The observation of stronger association at the higher percentile of SUA suggests that decreasing body adiposity and alcohol intake at the populational level may shift the upper tails of the SUA distributions to lower values, thereby reducing the incidence of hyperuricemia.


Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive immunohistochemical phenotype found in approximately 15% of women with invasive breast cancer. Although TNBC is sensitive to cytotoxic chemotherapy, it is associated with poorer outcomes. Moreover, patients with TNBC are not candidates for hormonal or human epidermal growth factor 2-targeted therapies, thus underscoring the need for new treatments for TNBC. Agents targeting aberrant DNA repair, including platinum and PARP-1 inhibitors, are under evaluation in TNBC based on its overlap with BRCA1-related breast cancer. Several other cytotoxic (e.g., ixabepilone) and targeted agents (e.g., bevacizumab, cetuximab, everolimus and dasatinib) are also being investigated clinically. Results from early clinical trials suggest the potential for improving the outcomes of patients with TNBC in the future.


A review of the algorithms for pursuing the PV configuration methods within non-uniform conditions is implemented in this study. As has been exposed, there are many methods of distinguishing and PV alignment techniques that strive for mitigating the effect of mismatch conditions (which include the rapid and unbalance changing of the weather conditions like the radiation and temperature) on the PV system. Nonetheless, in this research they are grouped as Series Parallel (SP) interconnection, Total Cross Tied (TCT) interconnection, and finally Bridge Linked (BL) interconnection technique. In contrast to the BL and SP, in the TCT there is a substantial reduction in mismatch losses that occur due to partial shading, beside to it has greater reliability comparable with others interconnections. Furthermore, the focus of this research is also to review modeling the PV arrays under mismatch conditions. A way to decrease the mismatch effect on the PV modules discussed in this study. Also, the challenges might face these reconfiguration methods and PV modeling has been illustrated and presented. Finally, this study can be considered as a valuable indication for those who are interested in PV modeling and reconfiguration.


A community-based study of tuberculosis in Santa Clara County, California was conducted in order to identify community-specific determinants of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. From January 1984 through December 1986, 517 verified cases of tuberculosis were reported from the county. Drug susceptibility test results to isoniazid, streptomycin, ethambutol, and rifampin were available for 256 of the 517 cases. The frequency of resistance of M. tuberculosis isolates to one or more drugs was 27% for all cases and 25% for those who had had no previous antituberculosis treatment. Isolates from Asian immigrants had the highest frequencies of resistance (33 to 45%), and the Southeast Asian immigrants had a drug-resistant tuberculosis case rate greater than 30/100,000 population per year. In patients who had cavitary lung disease and who had a previous history of tuberculosis, drug-resistant tuberculosis was 3.5 times as likely to occur than in persons who had neither of these characteristics (p less than 0.001). For such patients, the positive predictive value of isolating resistant M. tuberculosis approached 90%. We believe these community-based findings will guide clinical and public health interventions specifically appropriate for the community.


PURPOSE
This paper reviews traditional approaches for the management of heart failure, as well as the emerging approach of using an aldosterone inhibitor.

SUMMARY
In addition to prevention, the goals of heart failure therapy are to relieve symptoms, improve quality of life, slow progression of heart failure through both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies, minimize or prevent acute exacerbations, reduce hospitalizations, improve survival, favorably influence neurohormones, and reduce costs. Symptoms are alleviated with diuretics and digoxin; if digoxin is used, the target therapeutic range appears to be 0.4-0.8 ng/mL. Large, well-controlled clinical trials have documented the effectiveness of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and beta-adrenergic blocking agents in reducing the mortality and morbidity in patients with heart failure ranging from post myocardial infarction left ventricular dysfunction to severe heart failure. Recent large studies have documented the effectiveness of aldosterone receptor antagonists in improving mortality and morbidity in patients with heart failure. There was a 30% reduction in mortality in patients with NYHA class III-IV heart failure when spironolactone compared with placebo was added to a regimen consisting of digoxin, furosemide, and an ACE inhibitor. A later study in which a gamma-blocker was also included in the regimen showed that patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction with symptoms of mild heart failure following myocardial infarction taking eplerenone had a 15% relative reduction in all-cause mortality and a 21% reduction in sudden cardiac death compared with placebo. The incidence of gynecomastia was 9% and 0.5% for spironolactone and eplerenone, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The data support adding aldosterone receptor antagonists alongside ACE inhibitors and beta-adrenergic blocking agents as ways to reduce mortality and morbidity in the treatment algorithm for heart failure. More research is needed to determine the usefulness of aldosterone receptor antagonists across the entire spectrum of heart failure.


The well-known relationship between group velocity and phase velocity, 1/u = d/dω (ω/c), is adapted to the practical situation of discrete observations over a finite frequency range. The transformation of one quantity into the other is achieved in two steps: a low-order polynomial accounts for the dominant trends; the derivative/integral of the residual is evaluated by Fourier analysis. For observations of both group velocity and phase velocity, the requirement that they be mutually consistent can reduce observational errors. The method is also applicable to observations of eigenfrequency and group velocity as functions of normal-mode angular order.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the prognostic factors and efficacy of myasthenia gravis (MG) in crisis on plasmapheresis and detect the reasons for ineffective plasmapheresis.

METHODS
The investigators analyzed a total of 69 MG patients in crisis on plasmapheresis by case control study. Gender, age at onset of myasthenic symptoms, duration between the onset of crisis and plasmapheresis, pre-therapeutic use of glucocorticoids, pulmonary infections, other complications, nutritional status, history of thymectomy in 48 hours before crisis, thymic pathology, combined intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and total sessions of plasmapheresis were measured retrospectively.

RESULTS
Univariate analysis showed that pulmonary infections (P = 0.000, OR = 29.250), history of thymectomy in 48 hours before crisis (P = 0.046, OR = 0.267), combined intravenous immunoglobulin (P = 0.003, OR = 0.136) and total sessions of plasmapheresis (P = 0.022, OR = 0.498) were all influencing factors of plasmapheresis. However the analysis of multivariate logistic regression revealed that pulmonary infections (P = 0.000, OR = 23.600) was an independent risk factor and combined intravenous immunoglobulin (P = 0.047, OR = 0.192) was an independent protection factor of plasmapheresis.

CONCLUSION
Plasmapheresis is ineffective in MG crisis with pulmonary infections. Control of pulmonary infections and combined intravenous immunoglobulin can improve the response to plasmapheresis in patients with MG crisis.


This study investigate the laser surface hardening in tool steel, avoiding the high reflectivity of the metal to the CO2 radiation by covering the surface sample with black carbon. Hardening process using graphite was effective in many works in the word, although, the particles size of graphite powder was in the range of some micrometers. In order to reduce the particle size, the carbon black was used in the laser thermal treatment of 4340 steel. The microhardness change to 850HV, compared to the substrate of 250HV and the friction coefficient ranged 0.2 and 0.3, because of the covered surface by carbon black. These thin coating of carbon black reduced the wear rate near to a hundred in comparison to the surface without carbon coating.


The extent of racemization of the amino acids leucine and valine, and degree of isoleucine epimerization, in molluscan fossils of Late Quaternary age from southern Australia may be described using an apparent parabolic kinetic model. Linear regression of the extent of racemization (epimerization) against the square root of fossil age indicates a high level of correlation for each amino acid (i.e. r ≥ 0.98) for samples up to about 225 ka old. Results from this study indicate that the apparent parabolic kinetics previously reported for planktonic foraminifera also apply to marine molluscs. The kinetic model evaluated, avoids some of the uncertainties inherent in previously developed racemization kinetic models, offers the opportunity for numeric dating and improved age resolution, and represents a useful approach for describing a complex and difficult to define kinetic pathway.


This paper presents a few new competitive approaches to particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in terms of the global and local best values (GLbest-PSO) and the standard PSO along with three set of variants namely, inertia weight (IW), acceleration co-efficient (AC) and mutation operators in this paper. Standard PSO is designed with time varying inertia weight (TVIW) and either time varying AC (TVAC) or fixed AC (FAC) while GLbest-PSO comprises of global-average local best IW (GaLbestIW) with either global-local best AC (GLbestAC) or FAC. The performances of these two algorithms are improved considerably in solving an optimal control problem, by introducing the concept of mutation variants between particles in each generation. The presence of mutation operator sharpens the convergence and tunes to the best solution. In order to compare and verify the validity and effectiveness of the new approaches for PSO, several statistical analyses are carried out. The results clearly demonstrate the improved performances of the proposed PSOs over the standard PSOs.


Tetanus toxin (TT), a potent neurotoxin which blocks neurotransmitter release in neuronal systems, also inhibits Ca2(+)-induced catecholamine release from digitonin-permeabilized chromaffin cells. In searching for intracellular targets for the toxin we studied the binding of affinity-purified TT to bovine adrenal chromaffin granules. TT bound in a neuraminidase-sensitive fashion to intact granules and to isolated granule membranes, as assayed biochemically and visualized by electron microscopic techniques. The binding characteristics of the toxin to chromaffin granule membranes are very similar to the binding of TT to brain synaptosomal membranes. We suggest that the TT binding site is a glycoconjugate of the G1b type which is localized on the cytoplasmic face of the granule membrane and might be involved in exocytotic membrane fusion.


This research investigated the effectiveness of using differentiated instruction (DI) on grade 11 senior high school students' reading comprehension throughout the academic year 2021–2022. It aims to identify the reading comprehension levels of the control and experimental groups in the pre-test, and post-test gained results, determine whether there is a significant difference in the reading comprehension levels gained from the control and experimental groups, and pinpoint the benefits and drawbacks of using this strategy. A quasi-experimental was used as a method to carry out the investigation. 142 senior high school students in Grade 11 from UPT SMA Negeri 3 Takalar served as the respondents. The results from the pre-test and post-test, an observation in the classroom, the survey, and the researcher's notes are used as the data sources. The basic method of understanding, synthesizing, interpreting, and re-analyzing was used to describe the qualitative data in order to decide common topics. Strengths and disadvantages of DI were identified based on observations made in the class, the survey, and the reflection. Statistical analysis showed a substantial difference between pre-test results and post-test results despite the observed and experienced difficulties.


Grid computing allows sharing and coordinated use of diverse resources in dynamic distributed virtual organizations. The objective is to best scheduling of tasks which attain maximum resource utilization, minimum response time and a well-balanced load across all the resources involved in a grid. Faulttolerant scheduling is an imperative step for large-scale computational Grid systems which uses primarybackup approach as the methodology for fault tolerance. For independent tasks, the backup overloading is using for reducing the cost. The heterogeneous nature of the resources and their deferring security policies are complicated and complex in the grid environment. The main challenges it faces are integration, interoperability of security framework and the trust relationship between participants. The proposed method considers the trust relationship between the participants. It offers a fuzzy-logic-based self-adaptive job replication scheduling (FSARS) algorithm. FSARS uses the security demand of the task and Trust level of the resources as the main parameters. An empirical membership functions are using for transformation of security conditions in to the fuzzy set. The proposed approach gives a robust performance against resource failures and increased scheduling success rate.


Garbage collection can really drain a Java system. Understanding the different GC algorithms your JVM might use is the first step toward improving system efficiency. This article summarizes current technologies of GC techniques implemented in most available Java platforms and discusses future trends in this discipline.


We explore the stability of extremely low-mass stars (M < 0.25 M⊙) across a wide range of composition, effective temperature, and luminosity. We identify the instability boundaries associated with radial oscillations. These are a strong function of both composition and radial order (0 ≤ n ≤ 13). The classical blue edge shifts to higher effective temperature and luminosity with decreasing hydrogen abundance. Higher-order modes are more easily excited, and small islands of instability develop. Short-period oscillations have been discovered in the low-mass pre-white dwarf component of the eclipsing binary J0247–25. If its envelope is depleted in hydrogen, J0247–25B is unstable to intermediate-order p modes. Driving is by the classical κ mechanism operating in the second helium ionization zone. The observed periods, temperature and luminosity of J0247–25B require an envelope hydrogen abundance 0.2 ≤ X ≤ 0.3.


The dependence of the lattice parameter of diamond upon the isotopic mass has been studied by path-integral Monte Carlo simulations in the isothermal-isobaric ensemble. This computational method provides us with a quantitative and nonperturbative procedure for analysing such anharmonic effects. Atomic nuclei were treated as quantum particles interacting via a Tersoff-type potential. At 300 K, the difference Δa between the lattice parameter of isotopically pure crystals of 12C and 13C is found to be 6.1×10-4 Å, in good agreement with experimental results. This difference decreases under an applied external pressure, and for 4000 kbar we obtain Δa = 2.4×10-4 Å.


The term "latent" as here employed designates the râle elicited only by the aid of cough. Any originality is disclaimed in the use of the word latent to designate this type of râle, since Willison 1 and others have previously referred to râles elicited by cough as latent signs. In the majority of patients in the early stage of the disease, and in some instances of advanced disease, it is, to the exclusion of all others, the only râle heard. In both the early and the advanced types of lesion, it seems probable that râles of very feeble intensity are produced during forced respiration, which remain inaudible, latent or concealed until cough is employed. This theory receives support in those instances in which indistinct sounds suggesting râles on deep breathing are replaced by demonstrable râles after cough. Special contributions devoted to the diagnosis of incipient pulmonary tuberculosis have specifically indicated


The plasma levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), E-selectin (sE-selectin), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), might reflect endothelial activation and injury and would therefore be useful markers of disease activity in vasculitis. To investigate this we measured the levels of sICAM-1, sE-selectin, and sVCAM-1 by two-site ELISAs in the plasma of patients with (a) active vasculitis (n = 16), (b) vasculitis in remission (n = 15), (c) chronic renal failure (CRF) (n = 10), and (d) normal healthy controls (n = 10). Plasma sICAM-1 levels were significantly higher in patients with active vasculitis, 323 ng/ml (193-607) compared with patients with inactive vasculitis, 199 ng/ml (131-297); P = 0.0006 and healthy controls, 188 ng/ml (138-259); P = 0.0002. Plasma sE-selectin levels were also significantly higher in the patients with active vasculitis, 45 ng/ml (15-65) compared with patients with inactive vasculitis, 25 ng/ml (15-55); P = 0.027 but not when compared with healthy controls, 35 ng/ml (20-55); P = 0.16. There was no difference in plasma sVCAM-1 levels between patients with active vasculitis, OD 0.56 (0.45-0.85) and inactive disease, OD 0.58 (0.47-0.79) (P = 0.12) or with healthy controls OD 0.49 (0.42-0.68) (P = 0.48). There were no significant differences between the plasma levels of any of the soluble adhesion molecules between patients with active vasculitis and patients with chronic failure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In order to study HF sky-wave propagation, an HF backscatter radar has been constructed by the French National Telecommunications Research Center (CNET) at Losquet Island near Lannion (Brittany). It has been operational since the beginning of 1990. this radar is used for evaluation of radiowave propagation and geophysical research. The authors present recent results in the following areas: real time monitoring of ionospheric propagation, angle of arrival determination, and spectrum analysis of backscattered signals. First the Losquet Island facilities are briefly described and results are then presented. The potential of the instrument for geophysical studies is then discussed.