This paper argues that the main determinant of differences in tax revenue collection across countries are differences in political regimes and institutions. The evidence based on the 8 members States of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) over the period 90-2017, clearly supports that tax collection leads to better economic institutions and more democratic political system. Thus, handle the problem of tax collection will entail a reform of these institutions and a democratization of the political regimes. Institutions, political regimes, and democracy significantly increase tax collection while autocracy reduces it. The findings turn out to be robust accounting for the potential endogeneity of various institutions and aid intensity through 2SLS estimates.


|In this paper, a novel (cid:13)exible antenna for the new ISM band is proposed. A multi-objective optimization based on DDEA-SE is performed to optimize the antenna bandwidth and gain. The proposed optimized antenna has a 4 dB maximum realized gain and 50% maximum radiation efficiency on the ISM band. A fractal structure is used in this design to achieve a multi-band antenna. The bandwidth of this antenna covers several 5G bands. This multi-band antenna is fabricated on a cotton substrate. This antenna has a small dimension which makes it suitable for 5G applications. The bending tests are performed, and both simulation and measurement results show the good performance of the proposed antenna.


In July, 2003, the Western Australian Premier rejected on environmental grounds a proposed resort and marina complex at Mauds Landing, 3kms north of the popular tourist destination. The site for this proposed development was in the middle of a stretch of coastline reaching from Carnarvon in the south to Exmouth in the north [referred to here as the 'Coral Coast region'] which is fringed by the renowned Ningaloo Reef.
The purpose of the current project, funded by the CRC for Sustainable Tourism, has been to investigate the political processes which resulted in the emergence of vocal and widespread public opposition to the proposal to develop a resort/marina complex for Mauds Landing, and culminated in the Western Australian government's decision to reject the proposed development. Given that this type of opposition appears to be strengthening and involves the relatively new concept of tourists against tourism development, an important component of this research was a series of interviews with visitors to the Coral Coast region in July 2003, a time coinciding with the rejection of the resort proposal.


Accurate and reliable state estimation is the core stone for flexible operation and control of active smart grids. Through the current expansion of integrating DG units in low voltage networks, the network operation is becoming more complex than before. However, real-time monitoring and control through state estimation is a routine task for the transmission system operators (TSO's) due to the availability of measurement data. The distribution system operators (DSO's) are trying to extend their monitoring and control for medium and low voltage network in order to enable smart grid applications. With the current rollout of smart meters, which are considered as a key component of future smart grids, there would be enough metering data in the distribution networks (voltage, current, active and reactive power consumption and generation) available at every customer connection point. This paper aims to develop a method to solve the problem of meter placement for low voltage system state estimation through deciding which measurement data from the installed smart meters should be considered in the state estimation algorithms in order to improve on the uncertainty of the estimated voltage and its phase angle at every node in the network. (4 pages)


SUMMARY Filamentous inclusions (= nucleolonemata) in the nucleoli of chick embryo fibroblasts and their behaviour during the cellular cycle are described. Their number is about the same as that of the macrochromosomes. They originate in anaphase as thin threads along the chromosomes. During the reconstitution of the daughter nuclei they aggregate within two nucleoli. They disintegrate with the prophase of the next mitosis.


In this paper, the author argues that the development of the so-called smart city term and practices on its use in planning inner cities is intimately bound up with required current urban transformations. In particular, with the notion of urban governance, which encompasses economic transformations, big data, social innovation and urban living labs, as some timely key ingredients that should be addressed in contemporary cities (Urban Transformations ESRC portfolio, 2016). By contrast, it is noteworthy that although smart cities are already building around us, they differ considerably from the simplistic' one-size-fits-all smart-city-in-the-box mainstream approach (Townsend et al., 2011) that has been hegemonic so far. It mostly goes back to basic notions of deconstructing the governance interactions that actively requires a holistic approach considering urban transformation trends occurring in our cities in a different manner. Based on previously published Journal of Urban Technology paper entitled Unplugging: Deconstructing the Smart City, in the author's view (shared by many scholars so far) such reimagining and repositioning need to occur across smart city technologies by avoiding just pragmatic approaches that wrongly are assumed as non-ideological and commonsensical. Hence, the paper is structured in five sections. First, the concept of the smart city as both buzzword and a fetish term will be presented. Second, the author shows how smart city policy agendas should be unpacked and plugged in again in a wider and inclusive perspective by suggesting the Unplugging framework, which consists of 10-transitions. In this section, the author depicts his own 10-dimension framework published as Unplugging: Deconstructing the Smart City. Third, based on on-going EU funded smart city project's interventions, the author underlines the importance of integrating urban transformations research findings as a strategy that would enable more emancipatory and empowering visions of smart cities beyond simplistic market ambitions of companies or the control desires of states (Kitchin 2015: 30). Finally, five final remarks are presented as the future research agenda of (un)plugging smart cities with urban transformations: urban governance interdependencies, data to decide, metropolitan and regional scaling-up, city-to-city learning and comparing smartness (benchmarking, dashboards and rankings).


Abstract Entrepreneurship understood as a manifestation of economic activity is an issue widely discussed in literature, especially in the field of economics. Today, a large part of society is involved in establishing and running a business, hence the shaping of entrepreneurial behaviors gains importance among all age groups, especially young people. The main objective of the conducted research was to examine the interest in starting their own business by students and to verify whether the direction of their studies or role in the group affects the students' willingness to start a business and whether a family member runs a business influences this interest and moreover, whether capital and the idea are the two main criteria conditioning the decision.. The conclusions were based on a study, i.e. (mainly) the cross-analysis of data collected as part of a survey conducted among students of the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów.


Solitary bone metastasis in endometrial cancer is very rare. We report a young 29-year-old nulliparous female of endometrial cancer who developed solitary humerus metastasis after 8 months of primary treatment of surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She was treated with local radiotherapy and combination chemotherapy and bisphosphonates. At 6 months follow-up the patient is doing well and is asymptomatic. Even though rare, keeping a high index of suspicion and sincere evaluation in patients on follow-up presenting with bone pains can detect early recurrences. Timely start of multimodality treatment helps relieve symptoms and improves quality of life.


We investigate the electrical current and flow (number of parallel paths) between two sets of n sources and n sinks in complex networks. We derive analytical formulas for the average current and flow as a function of n. We show that for small n, increasing n improves the total transport in the network, while for large n bottlenecks begin to form. For the case of flow, this leads to an optimal n* above which the transport is less efficient. For current, the typical decrease in the length of the connecting paths for large n compensates for the effect of the bottlenecks. We also derive an expression for the average flow as a function of n under the common limitation that transport takes place between specific pairs of sources and sinks.


Over the past four years, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence grant supported Delaware State University (DSU) to increase student success and foster faculty development in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. One component of this grant has provided students, particularly early sequence (freshman and sophomores), the opportunity to participate in a lab internship program. This program has provided students with access to vital research experience and removed some of the barriers for student opportunities, particularly for minority and first-generation students, in STEM fields.  The internship program is rooted in principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion and is a cost-effective model for increasing experiential opportunities for STEM students.  This paper will share the logistics and inclusive parameters of the program, survey data from student and faculty mentors, as well as highlight the benefits of incorporating an early experiential learning opportunity for students in STEM fields.  The paper demonstrates the steps to create a low-cost lab program and how future internships experiences can be designed with diversity, equity, and inclusion as core principles.


INTRODUCTION
Acromegaly is a rare disease which results from growth hormone (GH) excess. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiomyopathy and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) are frequent complications.

AIM OF THE STUDY
Identify a useful system to obtain a reliable remote monitoring of glucose and the most important vital parameters in the acromegalic subjects.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Sixteen acromegalic patients (from 30 to 73 years old) were enrolled. We provided an health monitor devices to the patients for continuous acquisition of physiological signals including twelve-lead electrocardiography (EKG) and nocturnal SpO2. At the same time, we applied on the same patients the blinded continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS).

RESULTS
The lowest saturation peaks at night (<80%) were achieved in patients with a known diagnosis of OSAS. A positive correlation was demonstrated between the lowest oxygen saturation values and the CGM peaks (pV <0,0001) and between the average values of oxygen saturation and CGM (pV<0,0003). Patients with a previous diagnosis of OSAS, obtained by polysomnography, showed on the multiparametric monitor recordings superimposable to their known condition. Instead we noticed a discordance in the two EKG recording: the wireless mode showed an irregular rhythm in 5/16 patients, which was not confirmed by the recording mode with cables.

CONCLUSION
The health monitor device associated with CGM may be a new useful and versatile tool for fragile patients who can self-manage remote monitoring, and for physicians who can obtain real-time information for the clinical and therapeutic management of patients. It is also a useful tool for the follow-up of patients with OSAS.Moreover, once the interference of the OSAS is excluded, the CGM allows us to obtain a more reliable and accurate diagnosis of DM.


In this Letter, we describe a new approach for the direct bonding of the epitaxial GaAs film on a Si substrate, namely, a thick GaAs/Si film grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is transplanted onto another Si substrate on which a thin GaAs film has been grown, by heating for 1 h at 700°C. A reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurement from such a transplanted film indicates its single-crystalline nature. The double-crystal X-ray diffraction shows a full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of 481 arcsec in the case of the as-transplanted sample and decreases to 254 arcsec when followed by thermal cycle annealing (TCA) repeated five times. Compared to the non transplanted film, the transplanted film exhibits very good photoluminescence properties with very weak deep-level emission.


This paper presents an improved circuit prototype for a buck chopper type single phase PFC-AC/DC converter, which has smaller reactor size and lighter weight, and minimize DC output voltage ripple factor characteristic with two specific loop feedback control strategy. In addition, this active PFC-AC/DC converter can be suppressed the current harmonics in utility AC grid line sensorless specific feedback control scheme. The novel circuit configuration treated here is more suitable for a variety of industrial power supplies as well as telecommunication and information equipment power supplies, where the lightning protection is particularly considered to be more effective for 48V-10A output specification design. In this paper, the operating principle of proposed AC-DC converter circuit using power MOSFETs is described and its two related loop control implementations are demonstrated along with its simulation and experimental evaluations. The extended PFC-AC/DC converter topologies operated on the bass of the working are demonstrated, which include the proposed control scheme.


40Ar/39Ar ages of coexisting biotite and hornblende from Proterozoic Y gneisses of the Berkshire and Green Mountain massifs, as well as 40Ar/39Ar and K-Ar mineral and whole-rock ages from Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, suggest that the thermal peak for the dominant metamorphic recrystallization in western New England occurred 465 ± 5 m.y. ago (Taconian). Although textural data indicate a complex metamorphic-tectonic history for Paleozoic rocks, no evidence in rocks at least as high as kyanite grade dictates an Acadian age for the Barrovian metamorphism. Available 40Ar/39Ar and K-Ar data suggest that the low-grade metamorphism and cleavage formation in Taconic allochthons and the higher-grade metamorphism and emplacement of the Berkshire massif allochthon are Taconian.

40Ar/39Ar age data from a poorly defined terrane beginning near the east margin of the Green Mountain massif and extending along the eastern one-third of the Berkshire massif as far south as Otis, Massachusetts, suggest that the area has been retrograded during a metamorphism that peaked at least 376 ± 5 m.y. ago (Acadian).

Available age and petrologic data from western New England indicate the presence of at least three separate metamorphic-structural domains of Taconian age: (1) a small area of relict high-pressure and low-temperature metamorphism in northern Vermont (T-1 domain), (2) a broad area in Vermont and eastern New York of normal Barrovian metamorphism from chlorite to garnet grade and characterized by a gentle metamorphic gradient (T-2 domain), and (3) a rather narrow belt of steep-gradient, Barrovian series metamorphic rocks extending from near the Cortlandt Complex northeastward through Dutchess County, New York, to the Berkshire massif in western Massachusetts (T-3 domain). Areas of maximum metamorphic intensity within the T-3 domain coincide with areas of maximum crustal thickening resulting from imbricate thrusting (Berkshire massif) or from recumbent folding (Manhattan Prong) of remobilized North American continental crust in the later stages of the Taconic orogeny.


In this paper, we propose a new guidance law for target observability enhancement, which can control both terminal impact angle and acceleration. The proposed guidance law is simple form, combined conventional time-to-go polynomial guidance and a additional bias term which consists of relative position and proportional gain. The guidance law provides oscillatory flight trajectory and it maintains the conventional time-to-go polynomial guidance performance. To investigate the characteristics of the guidance law, we derive the closed-form solution, and various simulations are performed for proving the validity of the proposed guidance.


Determinants of the Death Penalty seeks to explain the phenomenon of capital punishment - without recourse to value judgements - by identifying those characteristics common to countries that use the death penalty and those that mark countries which do not. This global study uses statistical analysis to relate the popularity of the death penalty to physical, cultural, social, economical, institutional, actor oriented and historical factors. Separate studies are conducted for democracies and non-democracies and within four regional contexts. The book also contains an in-depth investigation into determinants of the death penalty in the USA.


For decades technological and economic progress under the capitalist model has placed social norms and the natural environment under great pressure, imposing a particularly heavy burden on the poor and underprivileged. Recognising the role of corporations in these developments, the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been hailed as the metaphorical beacon of light to tackle the dark side of capitalism. Despite high expectations, corporate integration of socially responsible norms and practices has been slow and partial, limited to a small number of corporate leaders. Many commentators have voiced the need for harder forms of law to enforce CSR norms, but there has been little political interest to answer this call. The traditional academic response to the sluggish embrace of CSR has been to simply re-emphasise the need for hard law as a prerequisite to accelerate change, but this approach has had little success. This thesis expands the debate and discusses why the emergence of hard law to tackle pressing social and environmental issues has remained hidden within the hopeful mind of a vocal civil society and the writings of academics. By examining the broader context within which CSR has developed, this paper identifies neoliberalism, the dominant free-market oriented socio-political theory of our time, as an overlooked factor undermining the success of CSR. Free markets, as conceptualised by neoliberalism, have resulted in a close-minded discussion of regulatory options and an overemphasis on the business case of CSR. This has precluded the legal inclusion of strict social and environmental standards in corporate activities and dimmed the potential of corporate social responsibility.


Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a class of modelfre e learning control methods that can solve Markov Decision Process (MDP) problems. However, one difficulty for the application of RL control is its slow convergence, especially in MDPs with continuous state space. In this paper, a modified structure of RL is proposed to accelerate reinforcement learning control. This approach combines supervision technique with the standard Q� learning algorithm of reinforcement learning. The a priori information is provided to the RL learning agent by a direct integration of a human operator commands (a.k.a. human advices) or by an optimal LQcontroller, indicating preferred actions in some particular situations. It is shown that the convergence speed of the supervised RL agent is greatly improved compared to the conventional QLearning algorithm. Simulation work and results on the cartpole balanc ing problem and learning navigation tasks in unknown grid world with obstacles are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.


This paper summarizes the research described in a PhD thesis (Pujolă, 2000) which presents a description of how learners use the help facilities of a web-based multimedia CALL program, called ImPRESSions, designed to foster second language learners' reading and listening skills and language learning strategies. The study investigates the variation of strategy use in a CALL environment: Twenty two Spanish adult students of English worked with the program in four sessions and their computer movements were digital-video screen recorded. Together with direct observation and retrospective questions a detailed picture of learners' deployment of strategies was drawn. As the emphasis was on the process rather than the product, the description and analysis of the data focus on the observation of the language learning strategies learners deployed when using the help facilities provided: Dictionary, Cultural Notes, Transcript, Subtitles and Play Controls, Feedback and an Experts module specifically designed to provide the language learner training component of the program. The qualitative analysis of the data indicates that many variables have an influence on the amount and quality of the use of the help provided by the program, from the learners' individual differences to the fact that the CALL environment may prompt learners to behave or work in a different way from a more conventional type of learning. The results of the study provide information for future CALL material design and the type of research offers new possibilities for CALL research methods.


A system for spatially resolved magnetorelaxometry in spatially expanded objects (e.g. for in vivo investigations) in a disturbed environment is presented. The system is based on an LTS SQUID gradiometer with a field gradient sensitivity of 30 fT cm-1 Hz-1/2 and an intrinsic balance of some 10-5. A Helmholtz coil of 80 cm diameter allows the magnetization of the samples with fields up to 7 mT. A nonmagnetic x-y stage (driven by step motors) covers a scanning area of 40 cm × 25 cm. We present spatially resolved measurements of the Neel relaxation of samples (dried ferrofluid) and compare them with model calculations. The data acquisition and monitoring as well as the filtering and fitting procedure are discussed.


Introduction A major barrier to improving childhood cancer survival is the perception that paediatric oncology services are too costly for low-income and middle-income country (LMIC) health systems. We conducted a systematic review to synthesise existing evidence on the costs and cost-effectiveness of treating childhood cancers in LMICs. Methods We searched multiple databases from their inception to March 2019. All studies reporting costs or cost-effectiveness of treating any childhood cancer in an LMIC were included. We appraised included articles using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) checklist. Where possible, we extracted or calculated the cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted using reported survival and country-specific life expectancy. Cost/DALY averted was compared with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as per WHO-Choosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective guidelines to determine cost-effectiveness. Results Of 2802 studies identified, 30 met inclusion criteria. Studies represented 22 countries and nine different malignancies. The most commonly studied cancers were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (n=10), Burkitt lymphoma (n=4) and Wilms tumour (n=3). The median CHEERS checklist score was 18 of 24. Many studies omitted key cost inputs. Notably, only 11 studies included healthcare worker salaries. Cost/DALY averted was extracted or calculated for 12 studies and ranged from US$22 to US$4475, although the lower-end costs were primarily from studies that omitted key cost components. In all 12, cost/DALY averted through treatment was substantially less than country per capita GDP, and therefore considered very cost-effective. Conclusion Many included studies did not account for key cost inputs, thus underestimating true treatment costs. Costs/DALY averted were nonetheless substantially lower than per capita GDP, suggesting that even if all relevant inputs are included, LMIC childhood cancer treatment is consistently very cost-effective. While additional rigorous economic evaluations are required, our results can inform the development of LMIC national childhood cancer strategies.


A comparative study on diversity and population status of avifauna in Uttara urban area of Dhaka city with their breeding records was done in 12-months period from August 2004 to July 2005. A total of 27 species of birds were recorded from two urban sites (Sectors 7 and 9). Species diversity was significantly more in Sector 7 than that recorded in Sector 9. Regarding the relative abundance, the highest number of species of birds (44%) was very common in Sector 7. In contrast, the number of rare species (33.33%) was significantly high in Sector 9. Corvus splendens, C. macrorynchus , Passer domesticus and Sturnus contra were most dominant species in both study sites. On the taxonomic view point of avifauna, 14 (51.85%) species were passerines and 13 (48.15%) were non passerines. Six species of breeding birds were recorded, and all of them constructed nests in Sector 7 and only 2 species constructed nests in Sector 9. These data suggest that Sector 7 is more suitable habitat than the other. Preferences for nesting sites were significantly higher on the indigenous trees in both study sites, meaning that vegetation is important factor affecting the abundance of urban avifauna. Key words: Avifauna, diversity, population ecology, urban area, conservation. DOI: 10.3126/eco.v16i0.3464 ECOPRINT 16: 1-7, 2009


Background
Increased platelet activity plays a significant role in the development of arterial thrombosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Natural antioxidants including anthocyanin (AC) have gained considerable interest due to their hypothesized antithrombotic potential.

Primary Study Objective
Our study aimed to examine the in vitro effect of AC compounds on platelet activation and aggregation.

Methods
Fasting blood samples were collected from healthy volunteers (n = 13). A full blood examination was done to exclude any abnormal specimen. Flow cytometer assessed platelet activity by recording platelet surface markers expression of P-selectin (CD62P) and PAC-1. Platelet aggregation studies were performed by stimulating platelets using three different agonists adenosine diphosphate (ADP), collagen and arachidonic acid (AA).

Setting
The study was done in the school of Medical Sciences, Griffith University.

Participants
Thirteen healthy adult participants were involved for blood collection.

Intervention
AC was prepared using hemicellulose capsules sourced from Bilberries and Black Currants.

Results
Anthocyanin (50 mg/L) significantly inhibited AA-induced platelet aggregation. Expression of P-selectin was significantly suppressed by 50 mg/L AC as measured by flow cytometer.

Conclusions
AC attenuates platelet function by suppressing P-selectin expression and influencing Thromboxane A2 pathway (AA stimulation). These results provide further evidence for the effect of AC and the possible mechanism by which AC reduces platelet aggregation and activation. This study supports future human intervention trials to show that AC may act as a complement to other antiplatelet agents in reducing the risk of thrombosis.


This research paper aims to recreate the interdisciplinary sphere from the ecclesiastic, communitarian social psychology and social science perspectives, directed towards missionary transformation in the paradigmatic change of religious life. The investigation is presented as source of analysis of this phenomenon from its theoreticepistemological and methodological contribution to developing the scientific and empirical dimensions of this research. The study is composed of four fundamental moments which are in permanent feedback: a) a critical reflection about the current situation and reality of religious life; b) understanding and constructing new ways of acting in this reality and its challenges; c) a new consideration of the holistic understanding of religious life through multidimensional and interdisciplinary dialogue; d) strategies and transforming actions that emerge from communitarian reflection and construction. In scientific models we can plot the history of social commitment, scientific transformation and the transformation of faith-science-and-life. The Catholic Church, through religious communities, has been and continues to be a living and shared presence, leaving psycho-social footprints. Given this reality, analysed in this paper, the need to point towards a new paradigm becomes evident, to be meaningful in the transformation of holistic missionary formation, as well as looking for the common sense of mission. It is also necessary to think about how to have an impact on society in such a way that it lives its own transformation.


In tins paper, the new three-parameter chirp atoms with the scale, the rotation and the radial-shift, is proposed and the searching strategy of die best chirp atoms in die matching pursuit is presented. This strategy first estimates linear chirp-rate of the chirp atom by applying die fractional Fourier transform to the signal to be analyzed and then shifts radially the signal along estimated orientation to regulate the time-frequency center, so that the best chirp atoms are obtained. Thanking to estimating and grasping the most time-frequency structure in advance, the searching strategy not only reduced the size of the chirp dictionary and economized the time of searching the best atoms, but also avoided the inherent greed decomposition of the original MP and provided die most time-frequency information existing in the signal.


Estimation of the behavior of long dynamic systems with limited sensing remains an open question. In this paper, we consider the rotational motion of a deep drilling system and compare three algorithms to estimate the friction factors along the drillstring and thus provide an estimate of bottomhole rotational velocity. These friction terms characterize the interaction between the drill pipe and the wellbore walls (Coulomb source terms) within the curving wellbore. This information is essential to design the next generation of stick-slip mitigation controllers, to develop real-time wellbore monitoring tools, and to enable effective toolface control for directional drilling. We propose two model-based algorithms (an adaptive observer and a recursive dynamics framework) and a machine learning-based algorithm to estimate friction parameters, all of them presenting advantages and drawbacks. The performances of the two model-based estimators are finally compared with the data-driven neural network.


The subject of the article is a study of the formation, development and implementation of Fintech technologies in the context of ideologies of sustainable development and innovation DeFi (Decentralized Finance) [6], caused by the intensification of large-scale digital economy and global digitalization of all spheres of production and services. blockchain and prospects for the spread of the Internet of Things (IoT) in combination with artificial intelligence (AI). Results of work. Features of chronology and joint course of epochs of industrial evolution together with stages of development of the financial technologies based on a combination and integration of so-called, drivers of "Fintech for sustainable development" (FT4SD) are designated and characterized. The toolbox of FT4SD is shown to be a triad of blockchain, AI and IoT, which together provide a synergistic effect of "decentralized finance", creating a virtually unlimited investment resource for technological innovation in the digital economy within the processes of sustainable development. Conclusions. Despite the difficult economic and epidemiological situation in the world in general and in Ukraine in particular, it has been shown that the ideology of "decentralized finance" has had and will have a positive result.


Among fertile, nonpregnant, Danish women, 33% have absent or reduced iron stores; 22% have serum ferritin values above 70 micrograms/l, i.e., iron reserves of more than 530 mg, corresponding to the net iron losses during a normal pregnancy. During pregnancy, the demands for absorbed iron increase from 0.8 to 7.5 mg/day. Controlled studies show that iron-treated pregnant women have higher serum ferritin levels, i.e., larger iron stores, and higher haemoglobin levels than placebo-treated women. A supplement of 66 mg ferrous iron daily from the beginning of the 2nd trimester prevents iron deficiency anaemia. In Denmark, general iron prophylaxis with 60-70 mg ferrous iron daily from 20 weeks of gestation is recommended by the health authorities.


Previous studies have demonstrated a great uncertainty in evaluating one's own voluntary actions when visual feedback is suspended. We now compare these limitations in younger and older adults during active or passive limb movements. Participants put their dominant hand on a robot arm and performed movements actively or the relaxed limb was moved passively. Either a distorted visual feedback or no visual feedback at all was provided during the movement. Perception of limb movements was attenuated through visual feedback. This effect was more pronounced in older adults. However, no difference between active and passive movements was found. The results provide evidence for the limited awareness of body effects, even in the absence of voluntary actions.


To improve sensitivity of optical receivers, a
special integration concept is chosen that includes a pinphotodiode, high-electron mobility transistors (HEMT) and
heterostructure bipolar transistors (HBT) on a single
substrate. This work focuses on the optimization of the
amplifier design to achieve lowest input noise currents of a
transimpedance amplifier, and thus highest receiver
sensitivity. The respective advantages of the components
used are investigated with respect to the noise behaviour.
Different circuits have been simulated and an amplifier
design is presented that best fits the requirements for high
optical sensitivity.


The aim of this work was to evaluate the occurrence of Staphylococcus spp. on the overall prevalence of mastitis in cows and sheep farms in eastern Slovakia, and determine incidence of enterotoxigenicity and other characteristics of bacterial isolates. Were tested presence of genes encoding production of enterotoxins (sea, seb, sec, sed, see) and the production individual types of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEA, SEB, SEC, SED, SEE) in milk samples of cows and sheep. In a two-year experiment of testing 2916 individual samples of cow's and sheep's milk were recorded bacteria Staphylococcus spp. 18.41% (537). Using PCR methods was confirmed the presence of the gene (seg) encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) in 5.21% (28 cases). By using the Ridascreen® Set, (B), (C), (D), (E) was recorded in vitro production of SE in 4.28% (23 cases). Four species isolated from samples of cow's milk produced the following types of SE: S. aureus SEC (4) and SEE (1), S. haemolyticus SEA, S. chromogenes SEC (2) and SED (1), S. simulans SEA (1). The staphylococci isolated from samples of sheep's milk produce SE: S. aureus SEA, SEB (1) and (2) SEC (3), S. intermedius, S. chromogenes SEC-SEC (3), S. xylosus SED (1). A common feature of the enterotoxigenic bacteria was the creation of a biofilm. Formation of hyaluronidase and lysins α, β and δ have been confirmed as positive for S. aureus and S. intermedius. Creation of lysine α has been confirmed for strains of S. chromogenes. The production of hyaluronidase in CPS was significant on significant level α = 0.001. Formation of hemolysines only on significant level α = 0.01. Other following properties were non significant. In spite legislatively obligatory pasteurization of milk before further processing, a relatively high percentage of enterotoxigenic strains of staphylococci isolated from the milk of sheep and cows can pose a significant risk especially in the marketing of milk and milk products directly from the farm as organic products.


BACKGROUND
The question of maintaining blood screening based on both Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection antibodies (Ab) and Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) has been raised in several countries. The French blood donor surveillance database was used to address this issue.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In France, HCV-NAT was implemented in mini pools (MP) in 2001 and in individual testing (ID) in 2010. HCV-positive donations are further investigated including detection of RNA with an alternative polymerase chain reaction assay: Amplicor HCV v2.0 (Roche; LOD95 50 IU/mL) from 2001 to 2006 and CobasTaqMan (CTM) HCV 2.0 assay (Roche; LOD95 9.3 IU/mL) since 2007.

RESULTS
From 2001 to 2018, 3,058/48.8 million donations were confirmed HCV positive: 64.4% were Ab+/NAT+, 35.1% Ab+/NAT- and 0.5% Ab-/NAT+. From 2001 to 2018, the NAT yield decreased from 0.65 per million donations to 0, and NAT+ donations dropped from 77% to 46% of the total of HCV donations. 2,491/3,058 were further tested for HCV-RNA: 1,032 (816 NAT+, 216 NAT-) with Amplicor and 1,459 (897 NAT+, 562 NAT-) with CTM. Four (3 MP and 1 ID-NAT, 0.5%) of the 778 NAT negative donations had low viral loads.

DISCUSSION
The decline in HCV-NAT yield cases raises the question of the relevance of NAT. Conversely, the increase in Ab+/NAT- donors, suggesting a growing number of resolve infections, argue for Ab discontinuation. In our experience, at least 0.5% of Ab+/NAT- donations had low RNA level when retested. Although the risk of viral transmission by such donations is probably low, the uncertainty associated with their infectivity goes against the removal of Ab in blood screening in our country.


Four concentrations of Ascobein foliar fertilizer were used for treated mulberry leaves. Treated leaves used for fed silkworm, Bombyx mori L. larvae during first, first and second, young instar, first to fourth instar and during whole instars. Data were collected for economic traits of whole larval duration (LD), fifth larval instar duration (FD), larval mortality (MP), cocooning percentage (CP), pupation ratio (PR), number of cocoon per liter (C/L), double cocoon percentage (DCP), cocoon crop by number (Crop/No) and weight (Crop/W). Also data of cocoon weight (CW), shell weight (CSW), pupae weight (PW), cocoon shell ratio (CSR), silk productivity (SP) for males and females. Results reveal that, A4 concentration is the best concentration, treatment G5 is better treatment. The treatment G5 with concentration A4 is the best. It is recommended that, using Ascobein fertilizer for traditional rearing, rearers used mulberry leaves from hug trees that doesn't provided by fertilizers and manure, as well as in case of insufficient of shortage of fertilizers. Also, it is safe to sprinkle Ascobein on mulberry plant and collected the leaves for feeding larvae. So, one of the best alternative solutions is using Ascobein foliar fertilizer in cases of traditional rearing and shortage in fertilizers.


Background Osteoporosis is an ageing-associated diseases requiring better therapeutic modality. Eupatilin is a major flavonoid from Artemisia. Objectives We aimed to evaluate the effects of eupatilin on RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation and its mechanism of action. Results Upon stimulation prior to nuclear factor κB (RANK)-ligand (RANKL) treatment or poststimulation of bone marrow macrophages (BMCs) in the presence of RANKL with eupatilin complete blockade of RANK-dependent osteoclastogenesis was accomplished. This blockade was accompanied by inhibition of rapid phosphorylation of Akt, GSK3b, ERK and IkB as well as downregulation of c-Fos and NFATc1 at protein levels, suggesting that transcriptional suppression is a key acting mechanism on the anti-osteoclastogenesis. Transient reporter assays or gain of function assays confirmed that eupatilin was, indeed, a potent transcriptional inhibitor in osteoclasts (OC). Surprisingly, when multinucleated osteoclasts (MNCs) were cultured on bone scaffolds in the presence of eupatilin bone resorption activity was also completely blocked by dismantling actin ring, suggesting that another major acting site of eupatilin is cytoskeletal rearrangement. The eupatilin-treated MNCs revealed a shrunk cytoplasm and accumulation of multi-nuclei, eventually becoming fibroblast-like cells. No apoptosis occurred. Inhibition of phosphorylation of cofilin by eupatilin suggests that actin may play an important role in the catastrophic morphological change of MNCs. Human OC were similarly responded to eupatilin. When eupatilin was administered to LPS-induced osteoporotic mice after manifestation of osteoporosis, it was capable of preventing bone loss. The ovariectomized (OVX) mice remarkably exhibited bone protection effects. Conclusions Taken together, eupatilin is an effective versatile therapeutic intervention for osteoporosis as dual blockaders; 1) transcriptional suppression of c-Fos and NFATc1 of differentiating OC and 2) inhibition of actin rearrangement of pathogenic MNCs. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Visual pattern recognition from images often involves dimensionality reduction as a key step to discover a lower dimensional image data representation and obtain a more manageable problem. Contrary to what is commonly practiced today in various recognition applications where dimensionality reduction and classification are independently treated, we propose a novel dimensionality reduction method appropriately combined with a classification algorithm. The proposed method called maximum margin projection pursuit, aims to identify a low dimensional projection subspace, where samples form classes that are better discriminated, i.e., are separated with maximum margin. The proposed method is an iterative alternate optimization algorithm that computes the maximum margin projections exploiting the separating hyperplanes obtained from training a support vector machine classifier in the identified low dimensional space. Experimental results on both artificial data, as well as, on popular databases for facial expression, face and object recognition verified the superiority of the proposed method against various state-of-the-art dimensionality reduction algorithms.


Passing clouds and wind gusts can create unacceptable rapid voltage/power variations in power networks. Simulation results using a real Australian distribution feeder with real load demand and PV output profile show that with a high penetration of PV the voltage variations can increase beyond the allowable limit given by the standards. Similarly, wind gusts can create wind power output variations. This paper addresses the rapid voltage/power variations caused by solar or wind power outputs and presents a control strategy using the energy buffer in energy storage for their impact mitigation. By controlling the discharging/charging operation of the energy storage based on the available energy buffer in the storage unit, not only the rate of power output variations can be maintained at the desired level, but also the voltage variations can be controlled within acceptable limits. An experimental setup, consisting of a PV emulator, inverter, and grid simulator, demonstrates the potential threat of unacceptable voltage variations. The proposed mitigation strategy using energy buffer in the storage for smoothing the power outputs of solar/wind is tested and validated through simulation. Simulation results show that with the proposed control, the fast variations of the voltage/power variations instigated by solar/wind can be maintained within the acceptable limits.


This paper describes a new approach to laboratory exercises which are conducted within the course on Very High Frequency Technique. The course is addressed to the 2nd year students of the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics (ETI), Gdansk University of Technology (GUT), Gdansk, Poland. The laboratory part of the course is 15 h long and comprises of short Introduction and 5 (3 hour long) exercises.


This study highlights the intensity of print serials utilized at Babcock University library from 2008 to 2012. The study only takes account of print serials subscribed to and made available at the serials department of the library. The result of the study revealed that serials recorded the highest level of use in 2008, the lowest utilization occurred in 2012. Serials in social sciences, medical science and religion as well as magazines/newsletters, were the most utilized. There were also indications from the findings that print serials have continued to support learning, teaching and research. Therefore, the researchers concluded that subscription to print serials should be on-going. Librarians should also endeavor to create more awareness and encourage patrons' use of print serials.


This thesis examines the ecclesiology, or doctrine of the church, of John Nelson
Darby (1800-1882), who was one of the leading and most prominent members of the
Plymouth Brethren in the nineteenth century.
The thesis systematically outlines the structure of Darby's thought on the subject of
ecclesiology. It explains how Darby defined the church and understood its nature.
His ecclesiology is shown to be foundational to the system of Dispensationalist
theology in that the church is seen in occupying a period of time unforeseen in
biblical prophecy. Darby's ecclesiology is also shown to be an ecclesiology of crisis
in that he believed that the church had fallen into such a state of ruin that no bodies
existed that could truly be described as churches.
The thesis considers Darby's solution to the ruin or failure of the church found in
'meeting in the name of the Lord.' It examines how Darby's view of how the church
should meet successfully synthesized the conflicting concepts of unity and separation.
It suggests that other writers have not always recognized how Darby distinguished
between separation from individuals and separation from institutions. Nevertheless
while arguing that Darby's ecclesiology achieved a stable synthesis between unity and
separation, it presents a number of practical problems with Darby's ecclesiology.
Attention is given to Darby's teaching on discipline, ministry, church government and
sacraments.
The thesis considers his ecclesiology within a number of contexts. First, its place
within the development of ecclesiology in theological history and in relation
specifically to modem ecclesiologies. Second, in his life and involvement with the
Brethren movement. Third, his role in the development of American fundamentalism,
a major proportion of which has adopted significant aspects of his theology,
particularly Dispensationalism, a form of millennial theology that makes a strong
distinction between the church and the nation of Israel within salvation history. This
thesis argues that while some American fundamentalists adopted Darby's
dispensational views, they found very different practical applications for them in their
ecclesiastical activity. A number of reasons are considered as to why they did not
adopt Darby's ecclesiology in its entirety. Fourthly, the thesis considers the place of
Darby's ecclesiology in relation to other ecclesiastical movements in nineteenth
century Britain. It argues that Darby's ecclesiology shared similar themes to three
ecclesiastical movements,


Existing sediment data collected by local, state, and federal agencies from the stream beds and spring pools of the Austin area were compared to human-exposure and environmental toxicity criteria in order to identify the source and location of potential threats to human and ecosystem health. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) parameters were found to be in excess of sediment quality guidelines more frequently, and also were more spatially widespread than any other parameter type assessed. The majority (96%) of parameters evaluated for human health toxicity were below Protective Concentration Limits (PCLs), although data for PAHs, metals, and pesticides were found in Austin-area sediments at levels indicating potential ecosystem toxicity. Applicability of the PCL levels to Austin-area streams is questionable, since a complete exposure pathway may not exist, thus making the use of the PCL criteria an extremely conservative measure of potential adverse human health effects from stream sediments.


In this paper, we develop and evaluate a parallel algorithm for GESPP on a cluster of Silicon Graphics workstations using PVM as a parallel programming environment. The proposed algorithm reduces the computation time to O(n/sup 3/ / p) and the communication time to O(n) including scaling, searching for the pivot element, row interchanging, and pivot row and multipliers column broadcasting. The numerical experiments show that the proposed parallel algorithm offers a high speedup and efficiency for the test problems.


The F concentrations of precipitate dust, agricultural products, and fingernail and hair at the surrounding Al factory were investigated. The F content of dust ranged from 15400 to 42500 micrograms/g dry weight, 190,000 to 380,000 micrograms/g Al. Rice grain contained about 3.4 times more F than that in the control area, but some kinds of agricultural products, egg plants (S. melongena L.), mulberry plants (M. japonica Bailey non Sieb.), and soy beans (G. max (L.) Merrill) were almost equal to that of controls. Also, the high F concentration in the hair and nails of some workers was affected by available F contents in the emission from the factory as well as food and water surrounding the aluminum factory compared with those of control area.


Allylated biphenol neolignans contain a variety of chemopreventive entities that have been used as anti-tumor drug leads. Herein, 37 allylated biphenols were evaluated for anti-proliferative activity by the MTT assay and inhibitory effect on the migration and tube formation of HUVECs featuring anti-angiogenic properties. 3-(2-Methylbut-3-en-2-yl)-3′,5′-bis(trifluoromethyl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-ol (5c) exerted an inhibitory effect on HUVECs compared to honokiol (IC50 = 47.0 vs. 52.6 μM) and showed significant blocking effects on the proliferation of C26, Hela, K562, A549, and HepG2 (IC50 = 15.0, 25.0, 21.2, 29.5, and 13.0 μM, respectively), superior to those of honokiol (IC50 = 65.1, 62.0, 42.0, 75.0, and 55.4 μM, respectively). Importantly, compound 5c inhibited the migration and capillary-like tube formation of HUVECs in vitro.


Smoking causes unalterable physiological abnormalities in the pulmonary system. This is emerging as a serious threat worldwide. Unlike spirometry, tidal breathing does not require subjects to undergo forceful breathing maneuvers and is progressing as a new direction towards pulmonary health assessment. The aim of the paper is to evaluate whether tidal breathing signatures can indicate deteriorating adult lung condition in an otherwise healthy person. If successful, such a system can be used as a pre-screening tool for all people before some of them need to undergo a thorough clinical checkup. This work presents a novel systematic approach to identify compromised pulmonary systems in smokers from acquired tidal breathing patterns. Tidal breathing patterns are acquired during restful breathing of adult participants. Thereafter, physiological attributes are extracted from the acquired tidal breathing signals. Finally, a unique classification approach of locally weighted learning with ridge regression (LWL-ridge) is implemented, which handles the subjective variations in tidal breathing data without performing feature normalization. The LWL-ridge classifier recognized compromised pulmonary systems in smokers with an average classification accuracy of 86.17% along with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 92%. The implemented approach outperformed other variants of LWL as well as other standard classifiers and generated comparable results when applied on an external cohort. This end-to-end automated system is suitable for pre-screening people routinely for early detection of lung ailments as a preventive measure in an infrastructure-agnostic way.


Secure and reliable management of identities has become one of the greatest challenges facing cloud computing today, mainly due to the huge number of new cloud-based applications generated by this model, which means more user accounts, passwords, and personal information to provision, monitor, and secure. Currently, identity federation is the most useful solution to overcome the aforementioned issues and simplify the user experience by allowing efficient authentication mechanisms and use of identity information from data distributed across multiple domains. However, this approach creates considerable complexity in managing trust relationships for both the cloud service providers and their clients. Poor management of trust in federated identity management systems brings with it many security, privacy and interoperability issues, which contributes to the reluctance of organizations to move their critical identity data to the cloud. In this paper, we aim to address these issues by introducing a novel trust and identity management model based on the Blockchain for cloud identity management with security and privacy improvements


In this paper, we propose the tester apparatus for 48 channel GM Tube sensor. The proposed apparatus can test up to 48 channel GM tube simultaneously to detect the defect and analyze the sensor characteristic. 300-1000V variable high voltage generation circuit is utilized for the apparatus suitable for the sensor characteristic. Thus, the proposed system is useful for various GM Tube sensor characteristic analysis. Multiple sensor testing environment is established for the early detection of the defect and the analysis to reduce the costs for manufacturing and rework. Developed 48 channel GM Tube sensor test is evaluated with certified testing equipment and shows excellent performance with respect to the uncertainty of the sensor test results.


According to the epidemiological study conducted in Croatia, 15% of the population suffer from migraine, 20.6% from tension-type headache and 2.4% from chronic headache. Although migraine is a frequent primary headache and poses a major problem to both the affected individuals and the society, it is considered that migraine is underdiagnosed. The study revealed half of patients with headache and even 36.3% of respondents with migraine to have never visited a doctor. Migraine and tension-type headache are not satisfactorily treated; in the study, one-quarter of the respondents were fully satisfied with the treatment of their headaches, approximately half were partially satisfied, one-fifth were mostly unsatisfied, and 10% were completely unsatisfied. It should be noted that specific therapy for migraine attacks, i.e. triptans, are available on the market and can be administered for moderate and severe headache attacks. Triptans are prescribed rarely, not only in Croatia but also in the world, although studies have shown that the use of triptans increases productivity at work and improves the quality of life in migraineurs. Prophylaxis may significantly improve the quality of life; the Croatian epidemiological study showed only 14% of respondents with migraine to have ever used prophylactic therapy. Considering that migraine is an 'expensive disorder', appropriate treatment of patients with migraine will decrease the costs that include visits to general practitioners, emergency departments and cost of hospitalization. Even indirect costs will decrease as well, including the costs caused by absenteeism from work and costs caused by reduced efficiency at work. It is necessary to educate the population about migraine and therapeutic options. Lack of time, unrecognized patients and insufficient knowledge about current treatment of migraine and other primary headaches are probably the reasons why patients do not receive appropriate therapy. Continuous campaigns, which should include lectures and workshops for physicians and inclusion of media for better spread of information about primary headaches among the population should be encouraged.


The study of conducting polymeric membranes is decisive in some areas, as in fuel cells and electrodialysis. This work aims the study of membranes using conventional and conductive polymers blends. Two types of polyurethane were used as conventional polymers, commercial thermoplastic polyurethane and polyurethane synthesized from castor oil and 4-4-dicyclohexylmethane isocyanate. Two kinds of conducting polymers were used, polyaniline doped with organic acid and a self doped polyaniline. The polymers and the membranes were characterized by electrical conductivity, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The synthesis of the membranes produced was proper, featuring a complete reaction, analyzed by FTIR. The membranes also showed good mechanical properties and thermal stability (≈ 220 °C). Among the membranes studied, the polyaniline doped with p-toluenesulphonic acid obtained higher thermal and viscoelastic properties. Thus they can be used in separation techniques using membranes.


The foremost factor necessary for plant growers cultivating large acreages of Stevia rebaudiana (Bert) Bertoni is the production of qualitative bedding plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of osmotic-priming on the uniformity of seed germination. First, we evaluated the percentage of normal seedlings from two seed samples harvested in 2011 and 2012. The seeds harvested in 2012 produced 71.4% normal seedlings and thus they were used in the next experiments. The seeds were subjected to osmotic stress using five concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) at -0.2, -0.4, -0.6, -0.8, and -1.0 MPa in contrast with distilled water. Based on these first results, only -0.8 and -1.0 MPa were evaluated in the third experiment. The seeds were immersed in both concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) for imbibing at 20oC for four, five, six, and seven days. Thereafter, we evaluated the time to the first normal seedling (Ti), time to the last normal seedling (Tf), percentage normal seedlings at the initial time (Pi) and percentage of normal seedlings at the end of every treatment (Pf). Osmotic priming increased the percentage of normal seedlings of the Stevia rebaudiana and reduced the time to the first and last germination events.


In recent years, the frequency of influenza epidemics around the world has posed a great threat to the lives of people, especially those in developing countries. However, it is unclear which organs are the targets of influenza A viruses (IAVs) and what histopathology is caused by IAVs. In this study, BALB/c female mice were infected with H1N1 by nasal inoculation for 5 days. After euthanasia, the brain, heart, lungs, thymus, liver, spleen, hilar lymph nodes, pancreas, kidneys, and adrenal glands were collected. Among these organs, only the lungs, thymus, spleen, and hilar lymph nodes showed lesions. Lung histopathology was characterized by widening of the septum, lymphocyte infiltration, alveolar effusion, and alveolar hyaline membrane formation. The thymus and spleen exhibited atrophy due to the apoptosis of numerous lymphocytes. Although the hilar lymph nodes were enlarged, lymphocyte apoptosis still occurred. The nucleocapsid protein (NP) of IAVs was present not only in the lungs but also in the thymus, spleen, and hilar lymph nodes. In peripheral blood, CD19+B lymphocyte levels clearly decreased whileCD3+CD8+T and CD3+CD4+T lymphocyte levels temporarily decreased but subsequently increased. These results demonstrate that H1N1 in the lungs could reach lymphoid organs, induce the depletion of B and T lymphocytes in peripheral blood and lymphoid organs, and suppress adaptive immunity.


Nowadays, more-and-more cyber-security training is emerging as an essential process for the lifelong personnel education in organizations, especially for those which operate critical infrastructures. This is due to security breaches on popular services that become publicly known and raise people's security awareness. Except from large organizations, small-to-medium enterprises and individuals need to keep their knowledge on the related topics up-to-date as a means to protect their business operation or to obtain professional skills. Therefore, the potential target-group may range from simple users, who require basic knowledge on the current threat landscape and how to operate the related defense mechanisms, to security experts, who require hands-on experience in responding to security incidents. This high diversity makes training and certification quite a challenging task. This study combines pedagogical practices and cyber-security modelling in an attempt to support dynamically adaptive training procedures. The training programme is initially tailored to the trainee's needs, promoting the continuous adaptation to his/her performance afterwards. As the trainee accomplishes the basic evaluation tasks, the assessment starts involving more advanced features that demand a higher level of understanding. The overall method is integrated in a modern cyber-ranges platform, and a pilot training programme for smart shipping employees is presented.


For a long time, therapeutic dolls have been provided to elderly patients with dementia as a non-drug therapy in several western countries. These dolls are made to resemble newborn babies. Touching the dolls and singing lullabies remind the elderly of taking care of their babies. These actions are effective in decreasing anxiety and reducing aggression, particularly, in the elderly with dementia. These dolls also help them to adapt to new places such as nursing facilities. This work proposes the installation of advanced systems in therapeutic dolls to aid the medical treatment of dementia patients by stabilizing their physical and mental health.


: Gastro-intestinal surgery has undergone a revolution in the recent years by the introduction of laparoscopic techniques. The concept of "keyhole surgery" created an immediate disparity between the potential of the new technique and training of surgeons to perform it. Now modern surgical methods are aimed at giving cure along with minimal invasive techniques with patient in mind, safety never being compromised. Cholelithiasis, which continues to be one of the most common digestive disorders encountered, was traditionally being dealt by conventional or open cholecystectomy. With the introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the surgical community witnessed a revolution in basic ideology and the importance of minimal access surgery has suddenly impacted. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has become so safe and easy that it can be performed with much ease and safety because of better magnification. Although LC has shown clear benefits in terms of shortened hospital stay, less morbidity, mortality, a quicker return to work and with cosmetic advantage, many questions regarding this procedure remain unanswered, particularly relative to the gold standard procedure of open cholecystectomy.


Aims Good communication between medical teams and parents is integral to all aspects of paediatric practice. Not only is good communication emphasised in the General Medical Council's 'Good Medical Practice' guidelines but it is also part of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health curriculum; however training is usually delivered locally and can be variable. The aim of this project was to analyse what healthcare providers and users understand by effective communication and consider the difficulties achieving good communication and ways paediatric doctors can improve these skills. Method Semi structured interviews were conducted with 5 junior doctors, 2 nurses and 5 parents of inpatients at a tertiary paediatric hospital. We explored what was understood by effective communication and how it is achieved. Challenges to good communication were identified with discussion of possible improvements. Common themes were analysed from the interviews. Results Doctors identified effective communication as imparting information to parents concisely and free of medical jargon. Parents concurred, however their priority was that they were listened to. Nurses felt they often bridged a communication gap between parents and doctors. Challenges facing doctors were time pressures, inexperience and continuity of information relayed. Parents complained they got mixed messages from team members. Although communication skills are well taught at undergraduate level, many doctors felt there was inadequate postgraduate training focussing on paediatrics. In response to this a communication workshop was developed and delivered to junior doctors at the beginning of their rotation in general paediatrics. The workshop used real life scenarios for participants to translate the theory of effective communication into practice giving them a chance to implement the ideas discussed. This was well received by participants and feedback was positive. Conclusion The term effective communication is interpreted differently by junior doctors, nurses and parents. Communication is a continuous process and more emphasis and training should be given to junior doctors focussing on the paediatric environment. Doctors would benefit from regular 'on the job' workshops to practise these skills.


A panorama viewer applet for interactive viewing of high-latitude panoramic images has been developed. The basic functionality of ordinary VR-viewers has been implemented together with manual and optional automatic brightness adjustment. Fast and accurate rendering is achieved by using lookup tables for linearization and dynamic range compression. A highly compressed image format suitable for internet applications is used, which typically requires 25% more space than JPEG-compressed low dynamic range images.


A background study was performed as the first part of an examination of intact stability standards to be applied to United-States-flag, dynamically supported craft. The background study consisted of a bibliographic search, document review, preparation of separate bibliographies for four selected classes of dynamically supported craft, and an annotation and critique of the most significant documents. Few dynamic stability related accidents were found to have occurred among dynamically supported craft to date, but the few that have occurred have provided supporting material for the study. Key documents were reviewed and annotated giving details of model-test programs, stability criteria, full-scale-test series, and analytical studies. It is believed that sufficient material has been found to support the next part of the study, which is to classify the craft according to their susceptibility to the development of similar stability standards.


Ferromagnetic materials exhibit intrinsic `easy' and `hard' directions of the magnetization. This magnetic anisotropy is, from both a technological and fundamental viewpoint one of the most important properties of magnetic materials. The magnetic anisotropy in metallic magnetic multilayers forms the subject of this review article. As individual layers in a multilayer stack become thinner, the role of interfaces and surfaces may dominate that of the bulk: this is the case in many magnetic multilayers, where a perpendicular interface contribution to the magnetic anisotropy is capable of rotating the easy magnetization direction from in the film plane to perpendicular to the film plane. In this review, we show that the (in-plane) volume and (perpendicular) interface contribution to the magnetic anisotropy have been separated into terms related to mechanical stresses, crystallographic structure and the planar shape of the films. In addition, the effect of roughness, often inherent to the deposition techniques used, has been addressed theoretically. Several techniques to prepare multilayers and to characterize their growth as well as methods to determine the magnetic anisotropy are discussed. A comprehensive survey of experimental studies on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in metallic multilayers containing Fe, Co or Ni is presented and commented on. Two major subjects of this review are the extrinsic effects of strain, roughness and interdiffusion and the intrinsic effect of the crystallographic orientation on the magnetic anisotropy. Both effects are investigated with the help of some dedicated experimental studies. The results of the orientational dependence studies are compared with ab initio calculations. Finally, the perpendicular surface anisotropy and the in-plane step anisotropy are discussed.


Background:This study is to analyze the occurrence and clinical characteristics of cancer pain in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who referral to palliative care treatment, as well as correlation between pain performance and clinical characteristics, laboratory indicators, and previous treatment.Methods :Advanced NSCLC patients referred to the Palliative Care Unit (PCU) from January of 2016 to December of 2018 were included in our study. The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) was used to evaluate cancer pain (CP). Results: Of 54 (56.7%) patients reported with pain, there were 23 patients (42.6%) who suffered from severe pain (score >=7) at the admission. There was a significant difference in the frequency of pain between patients with and without bone metastasis (p= 0.006), between patients with more than two sites and non-more than two sites metastasis (p=0.032). Patients received epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI) had lower pain prevalence (p=0.033). Patients with bone metastases (p=0.005), with more than two metastases (p=0.022) and those with higer C-reactive protein (CRP) index (p= 0.012) had higher mean scores of pain, with significant differences. Conclusions:Our study showed the general characteristics, pain performance and related factors of advanced NSCLC patients who referral to palliative care service. This study confirmed that these patents' clinical manifestations of pain were correlated with bone metastasis, metastasis with more than two sites, elevated CRP, and the EGFR-TKI usage. Whether there is a certain potential connection between these factors deserves further study.


This article discusses the problem of double voter lists in Pekanbaru. General Elections Commission (KPU) Pekanbaru set 3.62 Million Final Voter List (DPT), and Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) found 1,956 double DPT. The problem of double DPT is seen from the aspect of updating data from the KPU Pekanbaru in the process of determining the number of DPT through stages of matching and research (coklit). This study uses descriptive qualitative methods with informants determined by researchers. The informant for this research is KPU Pekanbaru. The data obtained have been analyzed with an ethical and emic approach to reveal that the double DPT was caused by the coklit process, which was not optimally conducted by Pekanbaru's KPU. The coklit process was hampered because voters were not at their place, so the KPU only relied on data from the neighbourhood (RT).


This paper provides an introduction to environmental tort law and practice in China, and briefly reviews China's 2009 Tort Law and its chapter on environmental torts. This paper, one of several, was prepared for U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency officials participating in a set of roundtables and discussions on environmental law enforcement in China with senior officials from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Guangzhou Maritime Court, and environmental law scholars.


This Special Issue, "Cardiovascular Disease, Atherosclerosis and Familial Hypercholesterolemia: From Molecular Mechanisms Causing Pathogenicity to New Therapeutic Approaches", contributes to advancing our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that drive cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis and familial hypercholesterolemia and the development of state-of-the-art research in the field [...].


We propose a new approach to adaptive system identification when the system model is sparse. The approach applies ℓ1 relaxation, common in compressive sensing, to improve the performance of LMS-type adaptive methods. This results in two new algorithms, the zero-attracting LMS (ZA-LMS) and the reweighted zero-attracting LMS (RZA-LMS). The ZA-LMS is derived via combining a ℓ1 norm penalty on the coefficients into the quadratic LMS cost function, which generates a zero attractor in the LMS iteration. The zero attractor promotes sparsity in taps during the filtering process, and therefore accelerates convergence when identifying sparse systems. We prove that the ZA-LMS can achieve lower mean square error than the standard LMS. To further improve the filtering performance, the RZA-LMS is developed using a reweighted zero attractor. The performance of the RZA-LMS is superior to that of the ZA-LMS numerically. Experiments demonstrate the advantages of the proposed filters in both convergence rate and steady-state behavior under sparsity assumptions on the true coefficient vector. The RZA-LMS is also shown to be robust when the number of non-zero taps increases.


Although the molecular requirements for CD8 T cell responses have been well characterized, subunit vaccine formulations struggle to generate robust CD8 T cell immunity. One possible basis for this may be the relationship of dendritic cell (DC) subset topography to micro-anatomically dictated antigen dispersal and subsequent down-stream innate and adaptive cellular engagement. To address this issue directly in situ we utilized advanced quantitative imaging approaches (histo-cytometry) and found that protein immunization led to non-linear concentration gradients across draining lymph nodes. This graded distribution in turn affected which DC subset had access to high vs. low concentrations of antigen. Because DC subsets are specialized in MHC-I vs. MHC-II antigen processing and presentation, the result of this intersection of antigen dispersal and cell positioning was the predominant residence of MHC-I presenting DC in regions with lower antigen bioavailability. Modulating the antigen dose directly influenced the fraction of MHC-I presenting DC with access to sufficient antigen to activate T cells, allowing for direct control over the clonal diversity and magnitude of the response. These findings indicate that tissue microanatomy related to DC subset distribution and antigen dissemination within the lymph node is a critical regulator of CD8 T cell immunity.
 This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NIAID.


Mylone® and tridipam are two solid chemicals that decompose to produce methylisothiocyanate (MIT), a highly effective wood fumigant. In this study, two techniques—a rapid, test-tube method and a small-scale, wood-block assay—were used to determine the effect of the pH of various chemical buffers on the decomposition of Mylone® and tridipam in Douglas-fir heartwood samples colonized by Poria carbonica. Both chemicals were sensitive to pH, and higher levels of MIT were produced as the pH of the buffers increased. In general, fungal survival was not affected I week after chemical treatment. Complete control of P. carbonica , however, resulted after 4 weeks of exposure to 50 mg Mylone®/block or 150 mg tridipam/block, when each chemical was combined with a pH-12 buffer. These results suggest that regulating fumigant treatments according to the degree of fungal attack can substantially improve the precision of decay control in wood maintenance programs.


Open-source software has made a breakthrough in the traditional intellectual property theory from the aspects of Copyright, patent right, and trademark right, and it has created a new property rights form in the form of license. Taking blockchain as an example, this paper analyzes bitcoin and Ethereum and their open-source licensing strategies. At the same time, it explores the problems encountered in the property rights of open-source blockchain and three possible solutions to this dilemma: The industry-standard licensing plan, blockchain open-source licensing scheme, and open patent scheme. This research will be significant for expanding and enriching the theoretical and practical analysis of blockchain open source in the field of intellectual property.


Constructing networks has become an indispensable approach in understanding how different taxa interact. However, methodologies vary widely among studies, potentially limiting our ability to meaningfully compare results. In particular, how network architecture is influenced by the extent to which nodes are resolved to either taxa or taxonomic units is poorly understood. To address this, here we collate nine datasets of ecological interactions, from both observations and DNA metabarcoding, and construct networks under a range of commonly-used node resolutions. We demonstrate that small changes in node resolution can cause wide variation in almost all key metric values, including robustness and nestedness. Moreover, relative values of metrics such as robustness were seen to fluctuate continuously with node resolution, thereby potentially confounding comparisons of networks, as well as interpretations concerning their constituent ecological interactions. These findings highlight the need for care when comparing networks, especially where these differ with respect to node resolution. Statement of authorship DRHB, SJR and ELC conceived of the project, DRHB facilitated fieldwork in Malaysia, DRHB, HFMO and ELC undertook field collections, DRHB, SCLC and HFMO analysed the data, and DRHB wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. Data Accessibility Statement All data used in this analysis will be archived in Dryad and made available by DOI. Specific analysis scripts are available on GitHub with links given in the manuscript.


The purpose of this study was to identify empirically the roles of assistive technology service providers in the United States. Via factor analysis, the following six job roles were identified: (a) Device Selection and Maintenance Activities, (b) Environmental Modification Activities, (c) Dissemination of Information on Assistive Technology Activities, (d) Evaluation of Suitability of Assistive Device Activities, (e) Administration Activities, and (f) Product Development Activities. The identified roles can provide a potential guide for the development of education or training curricula for assistive technology service providers. Those job role categories can be considered to be required areas of knowledge in a curriculum for assistive technology specialists. The identified roles can also be utilized to help define the profession of assistive technology. That definition could help guide the development of eligibility criterion and examination content for a credentialing programme for qualified assistive technology service providers in the future. A clear description of the job of assistive technology service providers can help administrators create needed positions within service delivery organizations such as state department of rehabilitation services and a rehabilitation hospital. The results could be valuable to the administrators responsible for setting job role criteria for assistive technology service providers. Such criteria are necessary for making effective hiring and employee evaluation decisions. In addition, the results can provide other professionals who utilize assistive technology services with an accurate picture of the services available from assistive technology service providers. When professionals on a rehabilitation team know what to expect of each other, clients are better served. Thus a better understanding of the roles of assistive technology service providers can contribute to better utilization of their services by a multidisciplinary team. This would in turn increase the chances of assistive technology services being offered to clients. Replication of the present study is encouraged to verify the obtained results. A future study should also focus on examining the roles of assistive technology service providers by directly observing their daily work activities. The task inventory used in the present study (ATTI) might be utilized to help guide such observations.


Modern wind turbine controllers use wind speed information to improve power production and reduce loads on the turbine components. The turbine top wind speed measurement is unfortunately imprecise and not a good representative of the rotor effective wind speed. Consequently, many different model-based algorithms have been proposed that are able to estimate the wind speed using common turbine measurements. In this paper, we present a concise yet comprehensive analysis and comparison of these techniques, reviewing their advantages and drawbacks. We implement these techniques and compare the results on both aero-servo-elastic turbine simulations and real turbine field experiments in different wind scenarios.


We demonstrate a prototype of a rapid 3D scanner that can capture both the geometry and reflectance properties of an object under 30 seconds. The scanner utilizes custom made LED panels to provide continuous illumination on an object sitting on a rotatable base. Six cameras will be used for capturing images from various viewpoints under different illuminations. The images are then used for creating reflectance maps and later reconstructing the 3D geometry, albedo and specular maps. The resulting geometry and the maps are also of high resolution. The resulting model and maps can be used for photo-realistic interactive rendering of the object through our webbased viewer. The main advantages of our scanner design compared to state of the arts [Weinmann and Klein 2015] will be the improved speed and reduced artifacts due to moving parts.


Objective: To understand the personal dose level of nuclear medical workers in a hospital, and to provide basis for health management of nuclear medicine occupational population. Methods: From January 2014 to December 2018, 147 radiation workers in a hospital were selected as the monitoring objects, and the individual dose monitoring data were analyzed. The correlation between individual dose and clinical workload was analyzed. Results: The average annual personal dose of 147 staff members was below the national dose limit. Compared with the radiation department, the average annual personal dose of nuclear medical staff was higher, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) . There was a positive correlation between the annual average personal dose and the corresponding injection workload (Rs=0.69, P<0.05) . Conclusion: The occupational exposure risk of nuclear medical technicians and nurses is high, and reasonable protective measures should be taken to reduce the radiation exposure dose. Conclusion The occupational exposure risk of nuclear medical technicians and nurses is high, and reasonable protective measures should be taken to reduce the radiation exposure dose.


Although the concept 'organisation-stakeholder relationship (OSR)' is not new and has beenresearched extensively in the literature, few attempts have been made to critically analyseexisting viewpoints and propose a unified conceptual framework. The main research problem ofthis paper is to address this lack of a commonly accepted conceptual framework for organisationalstakeholder relationships. This is done through a critical analysis of the different perspectivesand existing conceptual frameworks, using a qualitative method whereby strategic stakeholderidentification, OSR development, and OSR maintenance are integrated to propose a conceptualframework, subsequently termed SISOSR, for building organisation-stakeholder partnerships(OSPs) with strategic stakeholders. This article is structured as follows: Firstly, the key conceptsare defined; secondly, the building blocks of the framework are presented based on soundtheoretical constructs; and. thirdly, the SISOSR framework is graphically presented and discussedto elaborate on the proposed process of OSR building, followed by concluding arguments.


This study examines the influence of executive women in business using a sample of firms included in the Fortune 500. Our analysis looks at the movement of female executives on or off corporate management to determine whether an increase of female representation at the highest levels of corporate management signals an increased commitment of a firm to a higher representation of females on their boards of directors. Our sample includes a group of 73 corporations for which we longitudinally examined the data for women at the director and executive manager levels for the period from 1999 through 2003. Our data indicate that, while the number of firms having multiple female directors increased over this period, the increase was even more pronounced for women at the executive management level. Our data also indicate that, while the number of executive level managers was relatively stable (increased) between 1999 and 2001 (2001 and 2003), the number of women at this level increased by 25.5 (27.1) percent.


In a comparative study the issue is raised about the relationship between the construction of the saviour-image in Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. The historical links between these traditions are highlighted and then the article proceeds to argue that when compared, the projections of the images of Jesus and Buddha, Jesus and Zoroaster and Jesus and Krishna exhibit a high degree of similarity. In the process questions are asked about the nature of religion and the value of comparative study.


Epidemiological studies on the effects of air pollution in Mexico often use the environmental concentrations of monitors closest to the home as exposure proxies, yet this approach disregards the space gradients of pollutants and assumes that individuals have no intra-city mobility. Our aim was to develop high-resolution spatial and temporal models for predicting long-term exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 in a population of ~ 16 500 participants from the Mexican Teachers' Cohort study. We geocoded the home and work addresses of participants. Using information from secondary sources on geographic and meteorological variables as well as other pollutants, we fitted two generalized additive models to predict monthly PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations in the 2004–2019 period. The models were evaluated through 10-fold cross validation. Both showed high predictive accuracy with out-of-sample data and no overfitting (CV RMSE = 0.102 for PM2.5 and CV RMSE = 4.497 for NO2). Participants were exposed to a monthly average of 24.38 (6.78) µg/m3 of PM2.5 and 28.21 (8.00) ppb of NO2 during the study period. These models offer a solid alternative for estimating PM2.5 and NO2 exposure with high spatio-temporal resolution for epidemiological studies in the Valle de México region.


This case illustrates intravenous radiographic contrast material as an unusual and little known etiology of seizure. A brief review of the literature is provided in which the incidence of contrast induced seizures and the potential risk factors for their development are discussed.


This article provides an overview of how to read and review a journal article for a range of purposes. Articles are read for a variety of reasons, such as to support the review of a specific subject area, for a research study or academic research. Reading articles on a regular basis will not only improve your academic reading skills but also will begin to develop your skills in critical analysis of journal articles and their application to practice. A breakdown is provided of different aspects of an article with some suggested questions to ask in order to ensure that you get the most from the article. Several types of journal article are outlined, including case studies, literature reviews and research articles. Also highlighted are some of the pitfalls when reading articles and suggestions for ways to develop confidence in critical reading and share expertise and experience to inform clinical practice.


In this article, the urban efficiency factors of 285 Chinese prefecture-level cities in the period from 2003 to 2012 are analyzed by using the spatial econometric model. The result shows that the development of urban efficiency between the cities positively correlates with space. And we conclude that the Industrial Structure, Openness and the Infrastructure can promote the development of such urban efficiency. The Urban Agglomeration Scale, Government Control, Fixed Asset Investment and other factors can inhibit the development of urban efficiency to a certain degree. Therefore, we come to a conclusion that, in the new urbanization construction process, the cities need to achieve cross-regional coordination from the perspective of urban agglomerations and metropolitan development. The efficiency of the city together with the scientific and rational flow of the factors should also be improved.


Minimal intervention prosthodontics can be considered a treatment option for a country's overall dental health care plan. Prosthodontics can cover a range of increasingly aggressive treatment interventions depending on the severity and progression of the disease. The 'shortened dental arch' concept is a minimal treatment intervention approach that has been advocated for a wide range of partially edentulous patients. This concept favors limited prosthodontic intervention to achieve patient-perceived acceptable function levels in the presence of multiple missing teeth. The implementation of minimal interventions should be balanced by considering risk-to-benefit ratios, as well as the consequences of nonintervention or low-level prosthodontic interventions. The 'nonintervention' approach and low-level prosthodontic interventions have inherent consequences and well-documented risks; professional ethics dictate that a practitioner present these risks as well as the known benefits of all treatment options. Developing countries are under significant pressure to effectively utilize limited resources, increase skilled human resources, provide advanced levels of care to very large numbers of patients and plan for the future dental health care of their society. Many developing countries are prime candidates for inadvertent abuse and misappropriation of prosthodontic materials, treatment modalities and human resources in trying to provide cost-effective prosthodontic care. A developing country can learn from the mistakes that developed countries have made in the past and use the evidence from these experiences to plan for a better future state of dental health for their society.


We have previously showed that the advection-diffusion equation in steady hill-slope seepage problems can be reduced to the solution of the Helmholtz equation in two dimensions. Initially, solutions were found using an analytic series method (or the method of particular solutions). However, the accuracy of these solutions is limited by ill-conditioning in the set of basis functions as the number of basis functions increases. Here we show that these problems are overcome by choosing a different set of basis functions and modifying the method of particular solutions as suggested by Betcke and Trefethen. The different methods are tested on a number of simple domains. In most cases spectral convergence is obtained for the eigenvalue.


Background: Down syndrome (DS) is characterised by a series of immune dysregulations, of which interferon hyperreactivity is a key one as it is responsible for surging antiviral responses and probable initiation of an amplified cytokine storm. This biological condition is attributed to immune regulators encoded in chromosome 21. Moreover, DS is characterised by the coexistence of cardiovascular and respiratory anomalies as well as obesity, which constitutes a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 respiratory disease (COVID-19).Case presentation: Of the total number of children 55 admitted to paediatric wards in Bergamo in the period between February to May 2020 for COVID-19 infection, we present 2 children with DS and confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis that had a severe course. In addition, both cases had one or more comorbidities, being cardiovascular anomalies, obesity, and/or OSA.Conclusions: Our observations indicate the need to consider children with DS a population at a risk of severe COVID-19.


Introduction: Melatonin is a neurohormone involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms, with potent antioxidant activity. It has a wide functional repertoire, with effects almost on all tissues and organs. It is mainly used as a dietary supplement for sleep regulation and re-synchronization of disrupted circadian rhythms. Melatonin has very low toxicity, but some pharmacokinetic issues, such as limited oral bioavailability and short half-life, limit its tissue availability. Areas covered: Patents and patent applications from 2012 to September 2014 in which melatonin or synthetic analogues are claimed for the prevention or treatment of pathological conditions. Expert opinion: Melatonin is considered a valuable substance that can be safely administered for the prevention and treatment of many diverse diseases. A major trend in 2012 – 2014 patents is the co-administration of melatonin with other drugs to increase the efficacy of the treatment and reduce side-effects. Two different actions have been combined in hybrid ligands (e.g., melatonin-tamoxifen and melatonin-tacrine derivatives). Further experimental evidence is needed to support the usefulness of these approaches. The number of new melatonin analogues has shown a marked decrease in the past 3 years, with claimed applications mainly as hypnotic or antioxidant agents.


OBJECTIVE
We undertook this study to describe two cases of intestinal gistoma histologically and immunochemically proven.

CLINICAL CASES
The study took place at a third level health care hospital in Mexico. Case 1. We report the case of a 39-year-old female with 4 years evolution of lower abdominal pain and with a 16-cm tumoral mass. The patient reported a 28-kg weight loss during the previous 6 weeks. Ultrasound revealed a left adnexal mass (12 x 17 x 15 cm) and CA125 tumor marker value of 4 ng/ml. Laparotomy identified a 15-cm intestinal mass with metastasis to mesentery, diaphragm and bladder. Palliative resection was performed of the small bowel, intestinal mass and termino-terminal anastomosis. The patient was referred to the Medical Oncology Department for adjuvant treatment. Case 2. We report the case of a 37-year-old female with digestive hemorrhage (hematoquezy) during a period of 3 years who needed a blood transfusion on several occasions. The most recent transfusion was 2 days prior to her hospitalization. Physical examination did not reveal any abnormalities; hemoglobin was 8.3 g/dl, platelets 135,000/dl and white blood cells 8.8/dl. Patient had a normal panendoscopy and colonoscopy. Abdominopelvic ultrasound revealed polycystic ovaries, technetium-99 nuclear scan revealed the presence and persistence of Meckel diverticulum. Laparotomy showed intestinal mass of 5 x 5 cm, 70 cm from Treitz angle. We used a wide intestinal resection, proximal and distal from the mass and termino-terminal anastomosis. Histochemical study was CD34 positive. The patient was asymptomatic 3 months postoperatively.

CONCLUSION
Gistomas are tumors of the gastrointestinal tract that are difficult to diagnosis because they are located in the submucosa. Treatment for primary tumor is surgical. Treatment for recurrent or metastatic GIST is imatinib or, if the patient is allergic to imatinib, another new tyrosine kinase inhibitor such as subitinib may be used. Definitive diagnosis is made by immunohistochemistry against CD117, and CD34, in the same manner as our cases.


It has long been noted that the relatively expansive Targumim of the Five Scrolls share a number of 'significant affinities'. These similarities, the expansive nature and structure, the admonition to study Torah and continue to perform good deeds, and the expectation of the coming Messianic era, suggest that they are part of a larger agenda to remind their audiences of God's guiding hand in Israel's history and to promote piety. Possibly receiving their final form in the same period and in the same contexts, it seems that the festal use of the biblical texts led to their rather unique formation.


Intubation is a method to release and defend the respiratory track that can cause a stimulus to the sympathetic nerves in evoking cardiovascular response. Lidocaine is a local anesthesia that can be used to cardiac arrhythmias if it is given intravenously. The purpose of this study is to know the effect of given lidocaine 1,5 mg/Kg BB intravenous to the blood pressure on endotrachea intubation action at Central Surgical Installation at RSUD Dr. Iskak Tulungagung.
The research of this study is pre-post test design with control group design. The population is all of male and female patients that undergo surgery or planned surgery with general anesthesia and endotrachea intubation at Central Surgical Installation at RSUD Dr. Iskak Tulungagung. The sample of this study is 32 respondents which are taken by using purposive sampling. Meanwhile, the independent variable is lidocaine and the dependent variable is blood pressure. The data collection uses blood pressure observation sheet before and after intubation without using lidocaine. The data analysis of this study uses the t-two independent α <0.05 statistical test.
The result of this study shows that based on 32 respondents, the blood pressure before and after intubation of the intervention group and control group after carried out the t-two independent statistical test indicates that the systole pressure and diastole p value = 0.000 <0.05. It means that there is effect of given lidocaine 1,5 mg/Kg BB before intravenous intubation to the blood pressure.
Based on the result of this study, lidocaine before intubation action can be affect to the blood pressure which is caused analgesic effect of the lidocaine itself.